150 ARISTOPHANES,

“Ye children of man! whose life is a span,
Protracted with sorrow from day to day,
Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous,
Sickly, calamitous creatures of clay!
Attend to the words of the Sovereign Birds,
Immortal, illustrious, lords of the air,
'. Who survey from on high, with a merciful eye,
Your struggle of misery, labour, and care.
All lessons of primary, daily concern
You have learnt from the Birds and continue to learn.
When the crane flies away to the Libyan sands,
The farmer bethinks him of sowing his lands,
And the seaman his rudder unships, for no more ©
Can he venture to sail, till the winter is o’er;
Then the spring is at hand, when the hawk reappears,
And the shepherd who sees him gets ready his shears;
When the swallow comes back, then your cloak you may sell,
A light, summer vest will do perfectly well;
For all matters of moment it clearly appears
The Birds are your oracles, prophets, and seers;
We give counsel and aid when a marriage is made,
A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade;
An ox or an ass that may happen to pass;
A voice in the street or a slave that you meet;
A name or a word that by chance you have heard,
If you think it an omen you call it a bird.t
If youll make us your gods, at all seasons you'll find
We are equally helpful and equally kind;
We sha’n’t hurry off, sitting scornful and proud,
In the fashion of Zeus, on the top of a cloud.
We shall ever be near you to help and to bless;

1 The word for “bird” signifies “omen” also, The flight of birds
was, both with the Greeks and Romans, a common method of divining
the future.