The Birds
Author
Aristophanes, Dudley Fitts
Publisher
Lion & Unicorn Press
Date Published
1971
The Birds was produced at the feast of the great Dionysia of 414 BC, and although it is certainly the most fanciful and one of the most lyrical of Aristophanes’ plays, it won only the second prize. Composed during those tense months after the sailing of the Sicilian Expedition, when the disheartening war must have seemed endless in prospect and even victory a sick delusion, it is never the less not a war play.