Hi folks! This week we’re starting with the Athenian comedy Birds, by Aristophanes. The first half has all the setup: the place, the characters, and the problem. What is Aristophanes interested in showing us in this part of the play? Why do you think is everything so elaborate and fantastic (in a literal sense) in Birds, more so than in any of his other works? What out of the place, characters, and conversations stands out to you the most?

What stood out to me most was when the two main characters decide to leave Athens and live among the birds. That moment felt both funny and meaningful because it shows how frustrated people were in their own society. Aristophanes uses humor to express real concerns about corruption, endless political debates, and the selfishness that had taken over Athenian life.

I think Aristophanes was trying to make people reflect on their city and recognize how ambition and greed had distorted its values. The idea of building a perfect city in the sky felt like both a fantasy and a warning–it showed how humans dream of change but often repeat the same problems.

To me, this play reveals that Athenians were self-aware enough to laugh at their flaws. I’d like to learn more about how audiences reacted to this kind of social criticism through comedy.

One detail that stood out to me while reading The Birds was how the characters escape from the corruption and chaos of Athens to build a new city in the sky. That idea of leaving behind the flaws of human society to start something “pure” feels both funny and critical. I think Aristophanes was using humor and exaggeration to show how ridiculous human ambition and politics could be—especially the Athenian tendency to argue, over-plan, and think they could outsmart everyone else.

To me, this play reflects the tension of its time: Athens was powerful and proud, but also dealing with arrogance and instability during the Peloponnesian War. The “city in the clouds” becomes a mirror of human flaws rather than a real escape from them. I’d like to learn more about how audiences back then received this play—did they see it as pure comedy, or as a critique of their own society?

In the first part of The Birds, Aristophanes satirizes Athenian society by depicting two citizens, Peisthetaerus and Euelpides, fleeing the city in search of a simpler, more peaceful life among the birds. Through their complaints and their plan to establish a new city in the sky, Aristophanes criticizes Athens as a place filled with corruption, greed, and constant arguing, where clever speech matters more than genuine wisdom. The fantasized idea of escaping to “Cloudcuckooland” reflects both the Athenians’ dissatisfaction with their own society and their tendency toward unrealistic ambitions. Ultimately, the play’s opening suggests that while people may dream of leaving their troubles behind, they inevitably carry the same flaws and follies with them wherever they go.

What jumped out at me was Peisthetaerus gathering the birds to build a Utopian city in the sky. I think the author was trying to communicate that although people have dreams of what a perfect society looks like, humans are inevitably flawed and will carry those flaws with them perpetuating a cycle they are trying to escape. I think this document shares the lack of confidence of the Athenian people on their democracy during the Peloponnesian War desiring to escape their reality. I wonder if the Athenian people enjoyed the author's satire of the situation or were they offended or maybe even discouraged by their inability to escape it?

The first part of Aristophanes's, Birds portrays Athens as an oppressive and corrupt city that leaves its

citizens disillusioned and seeking escape. The opening scene establishes this critique through the dialogue

of two main characters, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, who are desperately searching for a better place to live

away from their homeland. The two Athenians are fed up with the failings of democracy and the political

chaos. Corruption and greed is shown as being run by politicians and special interests who serve

the protagonist. The opening sequence sets up this theme by showing how ordinary citizens

like Pisthetaerus and Euelpides feel oppressed by those in power.

What stood out to me most in the first part of Birds is the way Aristophanes uses fantasy to reflect how people in Athens were feeling about their city. Peisthetaerus and Euelpides are just two regular Athenians who are so fed up with the endless lawsuits, debates, and politics that they literally want to escape to the sky and build a new city with the birds. I think Aristophanes uses this wild, imaginative setup to exaggerate how chaotic and overcomplicated Athens had become.

Everything feels so elaborate and fantastic because it lets him push those ideas to the extreme in a way that’s funny but also meaningful. By creating this dreamlike world full of talking birds and impossible plans, Aristophanes can safely criticize real Athenian society—its pride, corruption, and obsession with control—without directly attacking it. The conversations between the humans and the birds especially stood out to me because they blend comedy with truth, showing how desperate people were for something simpler and freer than Athens itself.

The most interesting part of the story occurred when Trusty presented to the birds his theory that they used to dominate the world before Zeus and the gods took over. Trusty declares to the birds that they used to be kings who ruled over all things including Zeus himself. The statement brings humor to the scene while demonstrating how people become victims of deceptive statements that present false historical accounts. Through this scene Aristophanes demonstrates how people strongly desire to believe in grand narratives because these stories help them experience a sense of dominance. Through this scene Aristophanes demonstrates that humans constantly seek control even when they claim to desire peace. Trusty declares his desire to leave Athens' chaotic environment, but he immediately starts constructing an aerial city to establish dominance over all inhabitants. Through his statement "Build a city and live in it, by Dionysus" Aristophanes reveals that people cannot help but create new systems which they previously attempted to escape. Through its narrative the play reveals that Athens displayed excessive pride while experiencing intense political conflicts. Through his use of comedic elements and imaginary scenarios Aristophanes encouraged viewers to understand the absurd nature of their desire for dominance. I am curious about what happened during the Athenian audience's reaction to the performance. The audience responded with laughter because they recognized the truth in his words or they failed to understand his actual reference to their own behavior.

One striking element becomes the transformation of the Hoopoe from human majesty into a bird that symbolizes both loss of power and identity. Thus, this change becomes a sarcastic commentary on the fleetingness of power and the absurdity of human posturing. Aristophanes uses the play as a critique of political instability and corruption in Athenian society. Through the characters' actions of forming a new city and their engagement with the birds, the playwright brings a theme of political power, idealism, and the absurdity of trying to shun existing sociopolitical problems without discerning their root cause. This play depicts Athenian socio-political contours, calibrated to the year 414 BCE, wherein disillusionment surrounded the events after the failed Sicilian Expedition. The citizens wanted to escape while the political figures were turned into birds, mocking the people's frustration with leadership and their quest for change. Further investigation into Aristophanes's anthropomorphism of deities and the interactions between these deities and humans in The Birds, in comparison with other portrayals found in Greek literature, would be an exciting undertaking. Besides, an investigation into the context surrounding the Sicilian Expedition and its effects on Athenian society would contextualize these themes at a deeper level.

In this section of The Acharnians, what stood out most was how Dikaiopolis negotiates his own personal peace treaty, separating himself from the ongoing war while the city remains engaged in conflict. The chorus of old men from Acharnae, rural charcoal?burners affected by the war, also stood out—their complaints about losing vineyards and having their land ravaged make the effects of war concrete and immediate. Aristophanes seems to be using comedy and satire to critique the Peloponnesian War, showing that it is politically questionable and socially harmful. The play emphasizes that peace and the well-being of ordinary citizens, especially rural farmers, are more important than the ambitions of the city or its leaders. The text reflects Athens in the late fifth century BCE as a powerful city-state whose ordinary citizens suffered from the consequences of war. It shows that political processes were often disconnected from everyday life and that satire was an accepted way to comment on public affairs. This reading also raises questions about the rural economy of Athens, the role of figures like Cleon, and how contemporary audiences responded to such satirical plays. I am also interested in how this work compares to Aristophanes’ other plays, like Peace and Lysistrata, in its critique of war.

What “The Birds” tells us about Athens is that many found this place to be tiresome and frustrating, which is why the characters end up fleeing. A stand out detail that jumped out to me is how quickly the problems of human society invade the supposedly utopian Cloudcuckooland. Right after the city was built, the parade of annoying and self-serving human characters begin. Aristophanes seems to be satirizing contemporary Athenian society and politics. By having his character build a “perfect” city, he is able to highlight the imperfections of Athens. The question I would like to bring up is, does Cloudcukooland ultimately succeed asa utopia, or does it succumb to the same flaws as Athens in the second half of the play?

In the first part of Birds, Aristophanes helps the audience to grasp the ‘nature’ of Athenian life. He highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the social, political, and philosophical tensions that exist between human ambition and utopian idealism (as was discussed in this week’s class lecture.) Aristophanes uses different ‘types’ of birds to critique Athenian imperialism and the human desire for power and perfection. For example, between lines 30-55, Euelpides addresses the audience stating, “He spends all his time as an outsider, trying to find a way in; whereas we—respectable citizens, born of the purest Athenian stock, and acting under no compulsion whatever—are clearing out.” Euelpides further notes the response of the Athenian to the imperialistic rule in Athens, “Which is why you see us on the march…looking for a land without lawsuits, where we can settle down and live in peace.” Therefore, the ‘escape’ to construct and live in a ‘city among the clouds.’ It raises an intriguing question: ‘What is the Athenian ‘model’ for a successful future?’