Notes Aristophanes’ Birds
Daniel B Levine. April 28, 2021.
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS CLST 1003/1003H
WHAT IS “UTOPIA”?
Definition in OED (Oxford English Dictionary): “An imagined or hypothetical place, system, or state of existence in which everything is perfect, esp. in respect of social structure, laws, and politics.”
Etymology (word origin): T. More De optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (1516), the source translated in quot. < ancient Greek οὐ not) + τόπος place + classical Latin suffix -ia.
Album Cover: Lightning Seeds, 1990.
How is Cloudcuckooland like a utopia?
Makemedo and Goodhope want to escape from Athens to a perfect place.
WHAT DO THEY WANT TO AVOID in Athens that they will not encounter in Cloudcuckooland? WHAT DO THEY WANT TO KEEP OUT? WHAT DO THEY DO TO MAKE THE PERFECT PLACE?
Etching by Henry Gillard Glindoni.
Courts. MAKEMEDO says that they want to be “as free as birds” (33), and to avoid the courts (38ff): “Your average Athenian wastes a lifetime sitting in court chirping on and on…” When Hoopoe asks, “You’re not jurors, are you? (μῶν ἡλιαστά;)” GOOGHOPE answers, “No, not at all, in fact you might call us juryphobes” (ἀπηλιαστά110ff). HOOPOE: I didn’t think they had that species in that particular region. GOODHOPE: Oh, there’s a few, out in the country. They’re very rare.”
Escape from debts. When HOOPOE asks why the Athenian duo wants to get together with him, MAKEMEDO replies (116), “Because once you were a human, just like us, because you were plagued with debts, just like us, because you hated paying them, just like us…” (κἀργύριον ὠφείλησας ὥσπερ νὼ ποτέ, κοὐκ ἀποδιδοὺς ἔχαιρες ὥσπερ νὼ ποτέ.)
“A land free of hustle and bustle” (43): apragmosyne = freedom from business affairs. The Athenians were known for favoring of polypragmosyne = being over-involved in business affairs.
“Peace and Tranquility.” MAKEMEDO (119): “We thought that you might be able to help us. That in all your flying about, you may have come across a nice soft and wooly city where two tired men can snuggle up and live in peace and tranquility (Meineck).” (εἴ τινα πόλιν φράσειας ἡμῖν εὔερον ὥσπερ σισύραν ἐγκατακλινῆναι μαλθακήν. “We beg you to direct us to some cozy town, in which one can repose as if on thick coverlets.”
Escape From Court Summonses. GOODHOPE (147): “Good gods, no! Nowhere near the sea. I don’t want an Athenian battleship like the Salaminia turning up one morning, carrying a cargo of court summonses.”
Food and Sex. Hoopoe asks what kind of city they want to live in, and MAKEMEDO replies that he wants to live in a place where he gets invited to a wedding feasts (131), and GOODHOPE replies that he wants to live somewhere where a parent offers his son for him to have sex with (138).
And of course when inaugurating the new city, they deny entry to troublemakers and self-seekers, like the Priest (860ff), the Poet (903), the Prophet (959), Meton the Astronomer (992), the Inspector (1022), and the Lawyer (1035).
Athenian Black Figure Oenochoe. Gela Painter. ca. 550-500 BCE. Beazley 330555. Theatrical chorus of birds with man playing pipes.
And after the city is christened and completed, they treat outsiders with disrespect and violence to keep them out. They rudely deny entry to the goddess Iris (1193ff. “Are you a boat or a bitch?”), who brings an unwanted message from Zeus, and then they deny wings (which are sort of like an official kind of entry visa) to unwanted immigrants (from Athens) who threaten to bring trouble to the newly-minted utopia: the Youth (1336) called “Parricide” (Πατραλοίας) in the text, the annoying poet Cinesias (1373), and the Informer (Sycophant 1410).
And what do they have in Cloudcuckooland that they had had when still in Athens?
“Laurium Owls”(1107ff, coined money) that they will share with the Athenian audience if they give the play first prize. Laurium was the place in Attica where the silver mines were. This is appropriate, since these silver coins bear the image of Athena’s owl, which is a bird (see also line 301).
Giant Defensive Walls (1125ff): “And what a whopper of a wall it is! Stupendous, enormous, gigantic!” Remember, in preparation for the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians had built walls not only around their city, but also around their port of Piraeus, and had connected them with “Long Walls,” so the whole area was fortified.
The wish-fulfillment approaches its peak when MAKEMEDO accepts the golden crown of public opinion from his adoring populace in honor of his wisdom (1274 στεφάνῳ σε χρυσῷ τῷδε σοφίας οὕνεκα στεφανοῦσι καὶ τιμῶσιν οἱ πάντες λεῴ.) This is a utopia indeed.
But wait, it gets better! At the advice of Prometheus, MAKEMEDO negotiates with Poseidon, Heracles, and the Triballian god (“Jerkoffalot”) to get the scepter of Zeus (1600 τὸ σκῆπτρον ἡμῖν τοῖσιν ὄρνισιν πάλιν τὸν Δί᾽ ἀποδοῦναι) and to marry the Divine Princess (1635 τὴν δὲ Βασίλειαν τὴν κόρην γυναῖκ᾽ ἐμοὶ ἐκδοτέον ἐστίν). Thus, the utopia is complete: Peisthetairus has left the troubles of Athens, and kept out the troublemakers. He has gotten plenty of honor, abundant food, and a divinely beautiful wife. He has gainbed power over the universe.
This play paints a picture of a truly perfect utopia for our protagonists. Cloudcuckooland is an ideal place, that by definition is Not any Place at All.
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