The sources of Birds
Where Birds names another work or author, the harvest records the passage that does it and the chapter that passage stands in. 14 citations across 1 chapter, drawn from 13 named sources; 5 of those sources stand in the library.
10 authority 2 refuted 2 extended Of the 14 citations in Birds, 2 argue against their source.
the sources most drawn on
5 of 5 sources-
Homer 2 citations · 3 passages
Pisthetaerus explicitly names Homer as the source of a comparison used to support his argument that winged gods are unremarkable.
First of all, Victory flies with golden wings, Eros is undoubtedly winged too, and Iris is compared by Homer to a timorous dove.
birds · grounds the citation in this passage ¶ -
Aeschylus 1 citation
Pisthetaerus explicitly names Aeschylus as the source of the quoted line, invoking him as a poetic authority to explain their new wings.
We ourselves asked for this transformation, and, as Aeschylus has it, These are no borrowed feathers, but truly our own.
birds · Only citation of the line, given as an apt authority for their transformation. ¶ -
Odyssey Homer 1 extended 1 citation
The chorus's anecdote explicitly frames Pisander's necromantic rite as a comic imitation of Odysseus's underworld ritual, extending the epic model into contemporary satire.
He offered a little victim, a camel, slit his throat and, following the example of Odysseus, stepped one pace backwards.
birds · site of the citation of the Odysseus/Odyssey model ¶ -
Pindar 1 citation
The Poet cites Pindar by name and urges his verses be committed to memory, treating Pindar as a source of poetic legitimacy.
but engrave these verses of Pindar's on your mind.
birds · Only citation of Pindar, invoked as a poetic authority to be remembered. ¶ -
Sophocles 1 refuted 1 citation
Epops explicitly names Sophocles and rejects his tragic portrayal of Tereus as an 'outrage,' a refutation of the poet's depiction.
This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies.
birds · grounds the citation in this passage ¶
named once
8 sourcesEach stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.
- birds 8 sources
- Aesop's fables · Ancient law of the storks on filial support · Counter-oracle dictated to Pisthetaerus · Decree of Teleas · Decree on weights, measures, and decrees of the Olophyxians · Dithyrambs and parthenia worthy of Simonides · Oracle concerning Nephelococcygia · law of inheritance attributed to Solon
the marks
- authority
- relied on as a source of legitimacy
- neutral
- identified or reported
- refuted
- argued against
- extended
- developed or continued
- endorsed
- agreed with
- roman
- the cited text is in the library and opens in the reader
- italic
- named by this text, not held by the library — the corpus's wanted list
- ¶
- the passage in this text that does the citing
- 7
- beside a chapter, the passages anchored there. A single citation can quote more than one passage, which is why a row carries two figures: the citations the harvest recorded, and the passages its chapters add up to.
Every count on this page is a link to the passages behind it. A name without a link is recorded but not yet paged. How the harvest reads.