"Cloudcuckooland could be identified with the Sicilian Expedition as an over-ambitious scheme, Athenians could then be identified with the birds, and their enemies with the Olympian gods. The 20th century has also come up with allegorical interpretations—for example, Pisthetaerus has been interpreted as a metaphor for Alcibiades. Cloudcuckooland has been understood by some scholars as a comic representation of an ideal polis and it has also been understood as a cautionary example of a polis gone wrong; according to yet another view, however, the play is nothing more than escapist entertainment. The friendship between Pisthetaerus and Euelpides is realistically portrayed"
"The Birds (play) The Birds (Greek: ""Ornithes"") is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs. Unlike the author's other early plays, it includes no direct mention of the Peloponnesian War and there are few references to Athenian politics, and yet it was staged not long after the commencement of the Sicilian Expedition, an ambitious military campaign that greatly increased"
"Comedy, a corruption in the text or a unique dramatic effect that the author intended. Variations in this play are found in the following conventions: The Birds (play) The Birds (Greek: ""Ornithes"") is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs. Unlike the author's other early plays, it includes no direct mention of the Peloponnesian War and there are few"
"idea—the birds, he says, should stop flying about like idiots and instead should build themselves a great city in the sky, since this would not only allow them to lord it over men, it would also enable them to blockade the Olympian gods in the same way that the Athenians had recently starved the island of Melos into submission. The Hoopoe likes the idea and he agrees to help implement it, provided of course that the two Athenians can first convince all the other birds. He calls to his wife, the Nightingale, and bids her to begin her celestial music."
"things that seemingly only make sense to themselves, but also exhibit cleverness at times in ways no one else would think of. Cockaigne, the land of plenty in medieval myth, can be referred to as the modern day cloud cuckoo land. It was an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures were always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life did not exist. Aristophanes, a Greek playwright, wrote and directed a drama ""The Birds"", first performed in 414 BC, in which Pisthetaerus, a middle-aged Athenian persuades the world's birds to create"
"comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play ""The Birds"", in which an Athenian man builds a city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus's authority. Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"" and Apuleius's ""The Golden Ass"" are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on the modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early"
"to live among the carefree birds. When the Hoopoe sighs that the birds have no real kingdom to call their own, Good Hope observes that the sky is their domain. The Hoopoe demurs, remarking that the air belongs to all creatures. Loyal Friend has a sudden brainstorm. He proclaims that the birds should build a great city in the clouds, fortified against men below and the gods above. Good Hope is skeptical, but the Hoopoe embraces the scheme wholeheartedly and summons the birds to his side, announcing that two men have arrived with a plan that will benefit the birds."
"The Clouds The Clouds ( ""Nephelai"") is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423BC and was not as well received as the author had hoped, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised between 420 and 417BC and was thereafter circulated in manuscript form. No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious in"
"of a ""pillar of cloud"" by day and a ""pillar of fire"" by night. In the ancient Greek comedy ""The Clouds"", written by Aristophanes and first performed at the City Dionysia in 423 BC, the philosopher Socrates declares that the Clouds are the only true deities and tells the main character Strepsiades not to worship any deities other than the Clouds, but to pay homage to them alone. In the play, the Clouds change shape to reveal the true nature of whoever is looking at them, turning into centaurs at the sight of a long-haired politician, wolves at the sight"
"you are slave: and thus you will no longer be a slave"". This idea, repeated by the Stoics and the Epicurians, was not so much an opposition to slavery as a trivialization of it. The Greeks could not comprehend an absence of slaves. Slaves exist even in the ""Cloudcuckooland"" of Aristophanes' ""The Birds"" as well as in the ideal cities of Plato's ""Laws"" or ""Republic"". The utopian cities of Phaleas of Chalcedon and Hippodamus of Miletus are based on the equal distribution of property, but public slaves are used respectively as craftsmen and land workers. The ""reversed cities"" placed women"
"service in honour of birds as the new gods. During this service, he is pestered by a variety of unwelcome visitors including a young versifier out to hire himself to the new city as its official poet, an oracle-monger with prophecies for sale, a famous geometer, Meton, offering a set of town-plans, an imperial inspector from Athens with an eye for a quick profit, and a statute-seller trying to peddle a set of laws originally written for a remote, barely-heard-of town called Olophyx. Pisthetaerus chases off all these intruders and then retires indoors to finish the religious service. The birds"
"forehead, granting his desire. The air is filled with the voices of the scent of flowers, and Good Hope succumbs to their enchantment, sinking unconscious to the ground. Daybreak illuminates the citadel in the sky built by the birds. Led by the Hoopoe and Loyal Friend, the birds vaunt their lofty achievement and their imminent dominion over all living things. A wedding procession makes it way through the crowd, led by the Wren, who proudly heralds the arrival of the first newlyweds to enter the great city. Everyone joins the nuptial celebration, which culminates in a ceremonial dance led by"
"upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyx's chanting. Phanes – the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge – was the child or father of Nyx. Nyx is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes' ""The Birds"", which may be Orphic in inspiration. Here she is also the mother of Eros. The theme of Nyx's cave or mansion, beyond the ocean (as in Hesiod) or somewhere at the edge of the cosmos (as in later Orphism) may be echoed in the philosophical poem of Parmenides. The classical scholar Walter Burkert"
"of perfection and of devoted love. Some birds are invited, but others excluded. It goes on to state that the love of the birds created a perfect unity which transcended all logic and material fact. It concludes with a prayer for the dead lovers. It was first published in 1601 as a supplement to a long poem by Robert Chester, entitled ""Love's Martyr"". The full title of Chester's book explains the content: Chester prefaced his poem with a short dedication addressed to the Phoenix and Turtledove. The Phoenix is envisaged as female and the dove as male: Chester's main poem"
"Golgonooza the spiritual Four-fold London eternal In immense labours & sorrows, ever building, ever falling, Thro Albions four Forests which overspread all the Earth, From London Stone to Blackheath east: to Hounslow west: To Finchley north: to Norwood south: and the weights Of Enitharmons Loom play lulling cadences on the winds of Albion From Caithness in the north, to Lizard-point & Dover in the south Golgonooza Golgonooza is a mythical city in the work of William Blake. Golgonooza is a ""City of Imagination"" built by Los, ""the spiritual Four-fold London"", a vision of London and also linked to Jerusalem and"
"where the majority of the story takes place, was built by the gods and sits above the earth, floating in the sky. In Sky (the city), there is the Salon, a white-walled building where the Consortium (world council) meets to pretend that they aren't all just obeying the Arameri. The most populous and powerful race, ruled by the Arameri, who indirectly rule the Senmite races by ""advising"" the Nobles Consortium, (world council), and the Order of Intempas (Intempas priests). Though they possess many armies and are a powerful nation in their own right, the reason the Amn people rose to"
"sky, where he hears the angels glorifying God, ""whereat I wondered and exclaimed, 'Praised be God! Extolled be the perfection of God!'"" But no sooner are the words out than there comes fire from heaven which all but consumes the bird-men. The bird-people are angry with Sinbad and set him down on a mountain-top, where he meets two youths who are the servants of God and who give him a golden staff; returning to the city, Sinbad learns from his wife that the bird-men are devils, although she and her father are not of their number. And so, at his"
"birds and Marija Gimbutas claim to trace Athena's origins as an Old European bird and snake goddess. On the other hand, Cynthia Berger theorizes about the appeal of some characteristics of owls —such as their ability to see in the dark— to be used as symbol of wisdom while others, such as William Geoffrey Arnott, propose a simple association between founding myths of Athens and the significant number of little owls in the region (a fact noted since antiquity by Aristophanes in ""The Birds"" and ""Lysistrata""). In any case, the city of Athens seems to have adopted the owl as"
"against the Rutulians. He states that when he found Diomedes, he was laying the foundations of his new city, Argyrippa. Diomedes eventually speaks and states that, as punishment for his involvement at Troy, he never reached his fatherland of Argos and that he never saw his beloved wife again.The hero also states that birds pursue him and his soldiers, birds which used to be his companions and cry out everywhere they land, including the sea cliffs. Ovid, on the other hand, writes that Venulus came to the home of exiled Diomedes in vain, but he was erecting walls with the"
"named after the nine Muses. These girls, believing that their skills were a great match to the Muses, afterwards entered into a contest with the Muses. Being conquered, they were transformed into birds called Colymbas, Iyngx, Cenchris, Cissa, Chloris, Acalanthis, Nessa, Pipo, and Dracontis. In the account of Pausanias, Pierus has emigrated from Thrace into Boeotia and established the worship of the Muses at Thespiae. Pierus of Emathia In Greek mythology, Pierus (), was the king of Emathia in Macedonia. He was the eponym of Pieria and Mt. Pierus. Pierus was credited to be the first to write in the"
"written by the playwright Aristophanes. These are a treasure trove of comic presentation. He poked fun at everyone and every institution. In ""The Birds"", he ridicules Athenian democracy. In ""The Clouds"", he attacks the philosopher Socrates. In ""Lysistrata"", he denounces war. Aristophanes has been praised highly for his dramatic skill and artistry. John Lemprière's ""Bibliotheca Classica"" describes him as, quite simply, ""the greatest comic dramatist in world literature: by his side Molière seems dull and Shakespeare clownish."" Of all Aristophanes's plays, however, the one that has received the most lasting recognition is ""The Frogs"", which simultaneously satirizes and immortalizes the"
"sky. But Nemesis, as if wedded to the tribe of birds, when her months were ended, bore an egg. Mercurius (Mercury) Hermes took it away and carried it to Sparta and threw it in Leda's lap. From it sprang Helen, who excelled all other girls in beauty. One source of the myth says that Nemesis was the mother of the Telchines, whom others say were children of Pontus and Gaea or Thalassa. The four famous Telkhines (Telchines), Aktaios (Actaeus), Megalesios (Megalesius), Ormenos (Ormenus) and Lykos (Lycus), whom Bakkhylides (Bacchylides) calls the children of Nemesis and Tartaros.[N.B. Tartaros is the spirit"
"found a city wherever the cow should lie down. This took place when the cow came to the hill of Atë, and in that spot Ilus built the city which he called Ilium. Then Ilus prayed to Zeus that a sign might be shown to him and at once, he saw the Palladium fallen from heaven and lying before his tent. This wooden statue was three cubits high, its feet joined together; in its right hand it held a spear aloft, and in the other hand a distaff and spindle. But Ilus was immediately blinded, since the Palladium was not"
"and Alexander Pope, with varied metaphorical meanings. Its literary use dates back at least to 414 BC, when the play The Birds by Aristophanes was first performed. In it, the character Meton of Athens mentions squaring the circle, possibly to indicate the paradoxical nature of his utopian city. Dante's ""Paradise"" canto XXXIII lines 133–135 contain the verses: <poem style=""margin-left: 2em""> As the geometer his mind applies To square the circle, nor for all his wit Finds the right formula, howe'er he tries</poem> For Dante, squaring the circle represents a task beyond human comprehension, which he compares to his own inability"
"and have reached the ocean, and now have established a city called, White Gryphon. The city is named based on its shape, a large gryphon preparing for flight over the ocean, and the white gryphon, Skandranon. The city has established a council to govern all aspects of the city life. The council members consist of Skandranon, Amberdrake, Cinnabar, Judeth, and Snowstar. The Cataclysm has led to mage storms that causes magic to be unstable, meaning that many that had the mage ability have lost their powers, or are seriously weakened. Amberdrake as one of the council members brings up a"
"an enchanted landscape. There she encounters the first man, the prior creation of Prometheus, and warmly responds to his embrace. At the end the couple quit their marriage couch and survey their surroundings “As sovereigns of the world, kings of the universe”. One other musical work with much the same theme was Aumale de Corsenville's one-act verse melodrama ""Pandore"", which had an overture and incidental music by Franz Ignaz Beck. There Prometheus, having already stolen fire from heaven, creates a perfect female, “artless in nature, of limpid innocence”, for which he anticipates divine vengeance. However, his patron Minerva descends to"
"has skyrocketed due to a quasi-religious belief in human reproduction as the highest possible good. Most of the action occurs in a massive three-kilometer-high city tower called ""Urban Monad 116"". War, starvation, crime and birth control have been eliminated. Life is now totally fulfilled and sustained within Urban Monads (Urbmons), mammoth thousand-floor skyscrapers arranged in ""constellations"", where the shadow of one building does not fall upon another. An Urbmon is divided into 25 self-contained ""cities"" of 40 floors each, in ascending order of status, with administrators occupying the highest level. Each building can hold approximately 800,000 people, with excess population"
"on the Aventine; Romulus sets his up on the Palatine. Each sees a number of auspicious birds (""aves"") that signify divine approval but Remus sees fewer than Romulus. Romulus goes on to found the city of Rome at the site of his successful augury. An earlier variant, found in Ennius and some later sources, has Romulus perform his augury on one of the Aventine Hills. Remus performs his elsewhere, perhaps on the southeastern height, the lesser of the Aventine's two hills, which has been tentatively identified with Ennius' ""Mons Murcus"". Skutsch (1961) regards Ennius' variant as the most likely, with"
"The Frogs The Frogs ( """", ""Frogs""; Latin: ""Ranae"", often abbreviated ""Ran."" or ""Ra."") is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the in Athens, in 405 BC, and received first place. ""The Frogs"" tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades (the underworld) to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. (Euripides had died the year before, in 406 BC.) He brings along his slave Xanthias, who is smarter and braver than Dionysus. As the play opens, Xanthias"
"Pergamea Pergamea is a fictional settlement in the ""Aeneid"", the epic poem written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. Pergamea is the name of the city that Aeneas and his crew began to found on the island of Crete. In Delos, Apollo had delivered them an oracle telling them that they would found a new city in their homeland. Aeneas and his men had misinterpreted this to mean Crete, but the oracle had meant Italy. When they began to build the city, they were struck down with disease. Apollo appeared to Aeneas in a dream and told him that"
"a high place full of stars, shining and splendid"". His future is foretold by his grandfather, and great stress is placed upon the loyal duty of the Roman soldier, who will as a reward after death ""inhabit... that circle that shines forth among the stars which you have learned from the Greeks to call the Milky Way"". Nevertheless, Scipio Aemilianus sees that Rome is an insignificant part of the earth, which is itself dwarfed by the stars. Then, Scipio Aemilianus sees that the universe is made up of nine celestial spheres. The earth is the inner most, whereas the highest"
"they were at the wrong place and that they should push on to Italy. Pergamea Pergamea is a fictional settlement in the ""Aeneid"", the epic poem written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. Pergamea is the name of the city that Aeneas and his crew began to found on the island of Crete. In Delos, Apollo had delivered them an oracle telling them that they would found a new city in their homeland. Aeneas and his men had misinterpreted this to mean Crete, but the oracle had meant Italy. When they began to build the city, they were struck"
"tangled, preventing him from descending until the next morning, and he awoke to find that he was floating over a strange land. When he landed, the people thought he was a great wizard because of his ability to fly. He did not disabuse them of this notion, and with his new power over them, he had them build a city with a palace in the center of Oz. He also ordered them to wear green glasses so it would appear to be made entirely of emeralds. However, in the later Oz books the city is depicted as actually being made"