The Birds is the longest surviving comedy by Aristophanes, rich in imaginative inspirations and stylistic virtues, and one of the most spectacular. Peis(th)eteros, who embodies the dynamism, ingenuity, and ambition of the Athenians in the most characteristic way, persuades the birds to build a large fortified city in the sky, between the gods and humans.

The gods, having no way to communicate with the earth, are forced to negotiate, and Peis(e)taireos demands and receives, in exchange for peace, the dominion of Zeus. He marries Basilia, the divine housekeeper who guards the thunderbolts, thus becoming the ruler of the universe.

The interpretive edition (original text, translation, interpretive comments) of The Birds by Fanis Kakridis, first published in 1974, is now a classic work and ranks among the top philological editions of the comedy internationally. In the 45 years that have passed, F. Kakridis, incorporating the entirety of modern philological research, enriched his interpretive material and integrated it into the revised edition of the University Press of Crete, paralleling points of commentary and translation, while also adding two significant chapters, the Epilogues and the Parallels, which in one way or another illuminate or complement the interpretation of the comedy.

Particularly noteworthy is F. Kakridis' translation proposal, which combines the vigorous language of modern Greek with respect for the original, serving as a model for the translation of the ancient text.

[...] At the turn from 415 to 414, when Aristophanes completes The Birds, one of the two generals of the Sicilian expedition, Alcibiades, accused of the mockery of the Eleusinian mysteries, has defected to Sparta, the operations in Sicily drag on, and their outcome, after the intervention of the Lacedaemonians, is uncertain; the trials of the Hermokopidai are pending, for the most part, the army and the fleet are fighting far away, and more and more the oligarchs find opportunities to intensify their propaganda.

Truly, Athenian affairs were hanging by a razor's edge, and destruction was not long in coming. In this tumultuous, extremely fluid, and ominous situation, what could the Comic Chorus suggest and teach to the city, and what could the poet promote in order to improve the people in the cities? We do not doubt that Aristophanes would have found much to 'teach' if he had decided to speak during those difficult moments; and then we would marvel at his discernment, boldness, and poetic creativity.

However, as things stand now, we find that in this specific case, consciously or not, the Comic was led to something different. Setting aside immediate issues, he wanted, at the difficult hour, to draw the Athenians into a fantastic escape, to amuse them, to escape from the city, to roam in the countryside, to build with the birds a utopia, to experience like in a dream a fairytale that resembles and does not resemble reality. Lies and truths are the fairytales, says the popular saying, which it is right to acknowledge as a good description if not an apt interpretation of The Birds.