Aristophane; Traduction nouvelle, tome second

Two disenchanted citizens abandon city life and, with the help of birds, found an imaginative aerial polis suspended between earth and sky. They enlist avian allies, exclude priests, seers and other human authorities, and establish bird-deities to control access between mortals and the gods. The new arrangement deprives the Olympian deities of offerings and forces uneasy negotiations. The work unfolds as a comedy of choral bird-songs, mythic cameos and farcical episodes that satirize civic institutions, religion and human ambition.