were stewed together and offered for the dead to Bacchus and Athene.
This Feast was peculiar to Athens. --Hence Pisthetaerus thinks that
the owl will recognize they are Athenians by seeing the stew-pots,
and as he is an Athenian bird, he will not attack them.

EUELPIDES
But do you see all those hooked claws?

PISTHETAERUS
Seize the spit and pierce the foe on your side.

EUELPIDES
And how about my eyes?

PISTHETAERUS
Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.

EUELPIDES
Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great general,
even greater than Nicias,[1] where stratagem is concerned.

f[1] Nicias, the famous Athenian general. --The siege of Melos in 417
B.C., or two years previous to the production of 'The Birds,' had
especially done him great credit. He was joint commander of the Sicilian
expedition.

CHORUS
Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay. Tear,
pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.