[Next production] Aristophanes - The Birds

[Robin Whittleton]

Another play, hopefully a good deal quicker this time. Gutenberg has a transcription at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013 and there’s a matching scan at https://archive.org/details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9. I can’t find the specific translator so that’s being set to Horace Liveright, Inc.

This is a pretty old transcription so I’m having to reinstate emphasis italics, diacritics, and all the Greek they’ve just omitted. But either way, it’s only a single scene with 22k words total and doesn’t have a huge amount of music to hold me up like the last one. Cover will be one of the oil paintings where the artist has tried to cram in as many birds as possible, will find that later.

Repo: https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-birds_horace-liveright-inc

-Robin

[Robin Whittleton]

Found a Paul de Vos painting of birds for the cover. Uploaded to the artworks DB at https://standardebooks.org/artworks/paul-de-vos/concert-of-birds. (Love the bat sneaking in and pretending to be a bird in this.)

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[Alex Cabal]

OK, Lukas will manage with Emma reviewing.

On 8/2/26 10:48 AM, Robin Whittleton wrote:
> Another play, hopefully a good deal quicker this time. Gutenberg has a

> transcription at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013> and there’s a matching scan at https://
> archive.org/details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9 <https://archive.org/
> details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9>. I can’t find the specific translator

> so that’s being set to Horace Liveright, Inc.
>
> This is a pretty old transcription so I’m having to reinstate emphasis
> italics, diacritics, and all the Greek they’ve just omitted. But either
> way, it’s only a single scene with 22k words total and doesn’t have a
> huge amount of music to hold me up like the last one. Cover will be one
> of the oil paintings where the artist has tried to cram in as many birds
> as possible, will find that later.
>
> Repo: https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-birds_horace-

> liveright-inc <https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-
> birds_horace-liveright-inc>

>
> -Robin
>
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[Alex Cabal]

I've approved it!

On 8/2/26 3:19 PM, Robin Whittleton wrote:
> Found a Paul de Vos painting of birds for the cover. Uploaded to the
> artworks DB at https://standardebooks.org/artworks/paul-de-vos/concert-

> of-birds <https://standardebooks.org/artworks/paul-de-vos/concert-of-
> birds>. (Love the bat sneaking in and pretending to be a bird in this.)

>
> Screenshot 2026-08-02 at 22.18.38 Large.jpeg
>
>> On 2 Aug 2026, at 17:48, Robin Whittleton <ro...@reala.net> wrote:
>>
>> Another play, hopefully a good deal quicker this time. Gutenberg has a

>> transcription at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013 <https://
>> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013> and there’s a matching scan at https://
>> archive.org/details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9 <https://archive.org/

>> details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9>. I can’t find the specific

>> translator so that’s being set to Horace Liveright, Inc.
>>
>> This is a pretty old transcription so I’m having to reinstate emphasis
>> italics, diacritics, and all the Greek they’ve just omitted. But
>> either way, it’s only a single scene with 22k words total and doesn’t
>> have a huge amount of music to hold me up like the last one. Cover
>> will be one of the oil paintings where the artist has tried to cram in
>> as many birds as possible, will find that later.
>>

>> Repo: https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-
>> birds_horace-liveright-inc <https://github.com/robinwhittleton/

>> aristophanes_the-birds_horace-liveright-inc>

>>
>> -Robin
>>
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>> B013-ECF59EA0B730%40reala.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
>

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[David]

Just a thought on the translator. My poking around suggests this translator's identity has never been discovered. However, I don't think "Horace Liveright Inc" is the best option. It was originally published through subscription by the Athenian Society (London) in 1912:

• Vol 1: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Aristophanes_The_Eleven_Comedies/9vpxAAAAIAAJ
• Vol 2: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Aristophanes_The_Eleven_Comedies/BVxGAQAAMAAJ

However, when the Tudor Company reprinted it (2-vols-in-1; undated edition), they note its origins and the unknown translator:

https://archive.org/details/aristophaneselev0001vari_n0q0/page/n10/mode/1up

Would it be preferable, under these circumstances, to assign the "translator" to "The Athenian Society"?

D.

(p.s. I have a little personal interest in this play, as I worked briefly with Nan Dunbar whose monumental 1995 edition was just then reaching completion. :))

[Alex Cabal]

Good find David. Robin can you do some more research here and suggest an
alternative? Then I'll update the project, but you don't have to rename
the repo.

On 8/3/26 4:50 AM, David wrote:
> Just a thought on the translator. My poking around suggests this
> translator's identity has never been discovered. However, I don't think
> "Horace Liveright Inc" is the best option. It was originally published
> through subscription by the Athenian Society (London) in 1912:
>

> * Vol 1: https://www.google.com/books/edition/
> Aristophanes_The_Eleven_Comedies/9vpxAAAAIAAJ
> * Vol 2: https://www.google.com/books/edition/
> Aristophanes_The_Eleven_Comedies/BVxGAQAAMAAJ

>
> However, when the Tudor Company reprinted it (2-vols-in-1; undated
> edition), they note its origins and the unknown translator:
>
> https://archive.org/details/aristophaneselev0001vari_n0q0/page/n10/mode/1up
>
> Would it be preferable, under these circumstances, to assign the
> "translator" to "The Athenian Society"?
>
> D.
> (p.s. I have a little personal interest in this play, as I worked

> briefly with Nan Dunbar whose monumental 1995 edition <https://
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Dunbar#Edition_of_Aristophanes'_Birds> was

> just then reaching completion. :))
> On Sunday, 2 August 2026 at 16:48:58 UTC+1 robin wrote:
>
> Another play, hopefully a good deal quicker this time. Gutenberg has

> a transcription at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3013> and there’s a matching scan at
> https://archive.org/details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9 <https://
> archive.org/details/aristophanes0000unse_v3n9>. I can’t find the

> specific translator so that’s being set to Horace Liveright, Inc.
>
> This is a pretty old transcription so I’m having to reinstate
> emphasis italics, diacritics, and all the Greek they’ve just
> omitted. But either way, it’s only a single scene with 22k words
> total and doesn’t have a huge amount of music to hold me up like the
> last one. Cover will be one of the oil paintings where the artist
> has tried to cram in as many birds as possible, will find that later.
>

> Repo: https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-
> birds_horace-liveright-inc <https://github.com/robinwhittleton/
> aristophanes_the-birds_horace-liveright-inc>
>
> -Robin
>
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[Robin Whittleton]

Great catch! I’d be happy with changing this to The Athenian Society, given the note listed. I’ll also amend the original publication date to 1912 and change the source scans to those provided.

There is a note at the top of https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aristophanes:_The_Eleven_Comedies that says that “Although the translations were published anonymously, they are presumed to be the work of Oscar Wilde, who was a Greek scholar and member of the Society.” I also found a few other sources for this claim, though nothing definitive. It’s an interesting theory, but not enough to definitively attribute the translation to him. An interesting longdesc note though, for sure.

-Robin

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[Robin Whittleton]

OK, this is ready for review Emma. I’ve left it at the original GitHub URL but the SE url should now reflect The Athenian Society. https://github.com/robinwhittleton/aristophanes_the-birds_horace-liveright-inc . Not much to mention I don’t think, it was a pretty simple production.

-Robin

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[Emma Sweeney]

Great cover! I filed a few issues in the repository.

Emma