Red-Figure Pelike with Actor Dressed as Bird

In the spring of 414 BC, the Athenian dramatist Aristophanes produced The Birds at the festival of Dionysos in Athens. The comedy described the attempt of two Athenians, discouraged by the ravages of the protracted Peloponnesian War, to enlist the help of Tereus, a mythical king of Athens who had been turned into a hoopoe, in order to start a fresh city in the sky, Cloudcuckooland. A chorus of birds participates in this enterprise, giving the protagonists feathers and wings.

The startling image on one side of this pelike (a vessel for storing oil or wine) represents an actor wearing a bird costume: all-over tights and shorts, both patterned with dots and circles (reminiscent of representations of animal skins), and soft but high boots (kothornoi). The shorts are equipped with a tail and a phallus, two more of which are attached to the boots like spurs. The mask takes the form of a rooster's head with comb and wattle. The reverse shows a bearded man, wearing a flowing chiton and a fillet in his hair, who provides musical accompaniment with double flutes.