I just finished reading The Birds (414 BC) by Aristophanes, translated by Alan Sommerstein. I have read many of the surviving Greek tragedies, but this comedy is the first play by Aristophanes I’ve read.

It is a fantastical, absurd work. I was surprised at just how different it is from the dramas written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. It did not transport me the way the other Greek plays do, but I did appreciate elements of its humor, as well as enjoyed learning more about some of the various persons, places, and myths alluded to in the text. I found that the bawdy language, and really the tone in general, pulled me out of the story, and I wonder if this play, especially the humor, is more effective live on stage.

The beginnings of the play reminded me slightly of the absurdist notes in Nikolai Gogol’s writing and I have to imagine Aristophanes has had a large impact on the development of various literary traditions.

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Peisetaerus: Do you know this, that if you got your deserts you’d have had the strongest claim of any rainbow to be seized and put to death?

Iris: But I’m immortal!

Peisetaerus: No matter, you’d still have been put to death.