Friday, December 27, 2024

 

Birds, Benefactors of Mankind

Aristophanes, Birds 1058-1071 (tr. Stephen Halliwell):
To me, all-seeing deity,
All-puissant god, the human race
Will sacrifice with pious prayers.
My eyes survey the whole of earth,
I keep its copious fruits quite safe
By killing teeming broods of beasts
Who feed on all that grows in soil,
Crushing the produce of plants in omnivorous jaws,
And sitting on branches devouring the fruit of the trees.
I also kill the ones which blight
All fragrant gardens with their stains.
All manner of insects which creep and which bite
Are caught in the sweep of my wings
And fall to destruction in bloodshed.

ἤδη ᾿μοὶ τῷ παντόπτᾳ
καὶ παντάρχᾳ θνητοὶ πάντες
θύσουσ᾿ εὐκταίαις εὐχαῖς.        1060
πᾶσαν μὲν γὰρ γᾶν ὀπτεύω,
σῴζω δ᾿ εὐθαλεῖς καρποὺς
κτείνων παμφύλων γένναν
θηρῶν, ἃ πᾶν τ᾿ ἐν γαίᾳ
ἐκ κάλυκος αὐξανόμενον γένυσι παμφάγοις        1065
δένδρεσί τ᾿ ἐφημένα καρπὸν ἀποβόσκεται.
κτείνω δ᾿ οἳ κήπους εὐώδεις
φθείρουσιν λύμαις ἐχθίσταις·
ἑρπετά τε καὶ δάκετα <πάνθ᾿> ὅσαπερ
ἔστιν, ὑπ᾿ ἐμᾶς πτέρυγος        1070
ἐν φοναῖς ὄλλυται.



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