Aristophanes was clearly anxious about the role of the sophists and
the "new" education in Athens. After the perceived failure of
Clouds in 423 and its subsequent, unperformed revision,
Aristophanes, this book argues, returned in 414 with Birds, a
continuation and deepening of his critique found in Clouds.
Peisetaerus or "persuader of his comrades," the protagonist of
Birds, though an old man, is clearly a student of Socrates'
phrontisterion. Unlike Socrates, however, he is political and
ambitious and he understands the whole of human nature, both
rational and irrational. Peisetaerus employs the various
deconstructive techniques of Socrates and his allies (which is
summed up on the comic sage in the image of "father-beating") to
overturn not just human society, but, with the help of his new
allies, the divine and musical birds, the cosmos. After his new
gods and bird city, Cloudcuckooland, are actually established,
however, the hero re-introduces the "old" ways - justice,
moderation, and obedience to law - but now under his personal
authority, and thereby becomes "the highest of the gods." Thus, the
author postulates, in 414 Aristophanes has come to acknowledge the
potency of the apparent civic-minded turn (or element) of the
sophists, while aware of the self-aggrandizing nature of their
ambition. Peisetaerus, unlike Socrates, is successful: he is
establishing a just polis and cosmos and, therefore, must be
victorious. But the consequence or cost of this success is
illustrated through the Bird Chorus. After the polis is founded,
the birds never again sing of their musical reciprocity with the
Muses, the source of melodies for men. The birds are now political
and the policemen of human beings. The sophist-run cosmos has lost
its music. The new Zeus is an ugly bird-mutant. The gods and all
nomoi have lost their beauty, honor, and reverential nature. Birds,
in its finale, hilariously, but boldly illuminates the inherent
tension between philosophy (reason) and poetry (divinely-inspired
tradition).
General
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