# The Birds — Character guide

> Key figures in The Birds by Aristophanes.

- [Pisthetaerus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/pisthetaerus.md): Pisthetaerus arrives in the wilderness with his friend Euelpides, fleeing Athens' lawsuits and debts in search of a softer place to live. Where Euelpides hesitates, Pisthetaerus improvises: he spots the air itself as an 
- [Euelpides](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/euelpides.md): Euelpides leaves Athens beside his friend, carrying a crow for guidance and a long list of what he refuses to tolerate in a new home. He is the play's straight man and its worrywart: he drops his jay in fright, banters w
- [Epops](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/epops.md): Epops opens his forest to two lost mortals and admits, with some embarrassment, that he was once a man—Tereus, no less, whom Sophocles had already made a spectacle of. He lives between species and between griefs, still c
- [Zeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/zeus.md): Zeus never walks the stage early, but his rule hangs over every joke: the birds' blockade intercepts the smoke of men's offerings, cutting the gods off from their dinners and their dignity. He is the absent landlord whos
- [Heracles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/heracles.md): Heracles arrives as one of the gods' ambassadors, but he is less a diplomat than a stomach with a club: loud, hungry, and easily distracted by the smell of roasting birds. His presence turns the high-stakes standoff betw
- [Prometheus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/prometheus.md): Prometheus comes to Cloudcuckooland muffled under a cloak, terrified of Zeus catching him in yet another act of unauthorized generosity to mortals. He has been the friend of humankind since he stole fire, and he remains 
- [Iris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/iris.md): Messenger goddess who is intercepted and threatened by the birds.
- [Triballian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/triballian.md): Barbarian god envoy, speaks gibberish, part of the divine delegation.
- [Posidon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/posidon.md): Sea god, one of the divine envoys sent to negotiate with the birds.
- [Basileia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/basileia.md): Personification of sovereignty, given to Pisthetaerus as a bride.
- [Trochilus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/trochilus.md): A bird who serves as a herald or attendant in the bird kingdom.
- [Procne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/procne.md): The nightingale, wife of Epops, appears as a bird in the chorus.
- [Philomela](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/philomela.md): Sister of Procne, transformed into a bird; referenced in the bird chorus.
- [Meton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/meton.md): Astronomer/geometer who tries to survey Cloudcuckooland and is expelled.
- [Cinesias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/cinesias.md): Dithyrambic poet who visits the birds seeking inspiration and is mocked.
- [Prophet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/prophet.md): Soothsayer who tries to sell oracles to Pisthetaerus and is dismissed.
- [Muse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/muse.md): Goddess of poetry, invoked in the chorus's songs.
- [Hymen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/hymen.md): God of marriage, invoked in the wedding song at the end.
- [Callias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/callias.md): Wealthy Athenian, referenced in a joke about lineage.
- [The Birds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters/birds.md): Once scattered across the skies as tribes with their own customs, the birds are persuaded to gather as a single people and build a city in the clouds. Their eagerness for a glorious new order is shadowed by old grievance

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_birds_se/characters