EUELPIDES And how about my eyes?
PISTHETAERUS Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.
EUELPIDES Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great general, even greater than Nicias,(1) where stratagem is concerned.
f(1) Nicias, the famous Athenian general.—The siege of Melos in 417 B.C., or two years previous to the production of 'The Birds,' had especially done him great credit. He was joint commander of the Sicilian expedition.
CHORUS Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay. Tear, pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.
EPOPS Oh, most cruel of all animals, why tear these two men to pieces, why kill them? What have they done to you? They belong to the same tribe, to the same family as my wife.(1)
f(1) Procne, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens.
CHORUS Are wolves to be spared? Are they not our most mortal foes? So let us punish them.
EPOPS If they are your foes by nature, they are your friends in heart, and they come here to give you useful advice.
CHORUS Advice or a useful word from their lips, from them, the enemies of my forebears!