ABSTRACT
With its long list of hallmarks yet its reputation for ambiguous interpretation, The Birds deserves my close attention. It is the longest of Aristophanes’ eleven surviving comedies, in part because it blends comedy with lush lyricism more than the others. It has the most comic intruders but contrasts that hilarity with the chorus’s densely rhapsodic odes celebrating aviary splendor and other natural wonders. With twenty-four distinct birds, its chorus is the only individuated one created by Aristophanes, as well as the sole case in which the chorus members are fully animals throughout the play. Furthermore, it is his only play to be set in the countryside initially, even though in other plays he frequently expresses affection for bucolic life in contrast to the hubbub and corruption of the city. Often considered to be his greatest play, Birds nonetheless has aroused much disagreement from scholars about its intended meaning.1
