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266 266 ARISTOPHANES

For Delphi, for Ammon, Dodona,^ in fine, 70

For every oracular temple and shrine. The Birds are a substitute equal and fair, For on us you depend, and to us you repair For counsel and aid, when a marriage is made, A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade : 75

Unlucky or lucky, whatever has struck ye. An ox or an ass, that may happen to pass, A voice in the street, or a slave that you meet, A name or a word by chance overheard. If you deem it an omen, you call it a Bird ; ^ so

And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow, That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo.

Then take us as gods, and you '11 soon find the

odds, ^ We '11 serve for all uses, as Prophets and Muses ; We '11 give ye fine weather, we '11 live here together ; ss We '11 not keep away, scornful and proud, a-top of a

cloud, (In Jupiter's way) ; but attend every day, To prosper and bless, all you possess. And all your affairs, for yourselves and your heirs. And as long as you live, we shall give 90

You wealth and health, and pleasure and treasure, In ample measure ; And never bilk you of pigeon's milk, Or potable gold ; you shall live to grow old,

1 Ammon was an oracle of Zeus in Libya. For Dodona, see the Prometheus of Aeschylus, page 115, line 769.

2 The Greek word for bird came to be used for ometi, since omens ■were so frequently taken from the flight of birds. See the Prometheus of Aeschylus, p. 108, line 557.

^ The series of short lines at the end of a Parabasis was to be re- peated with the utmost volubility and rapidity, as if in a single breath• A comic effect is sometimes produced in this way on our own stage.