Bird Signs and Trash Birds in Euripides' Ion

summary: Euripides' Ion features several prominent images of birds at its moments of crisis and misunderstanding. Giraud, Zeitlin, and McPhee have connected these birds to the play's central themes of prophecy and pollution. In this paper, I propose a dual paradigm for interpreting the play's birds, drawing on both ancient and modern bird discourse: People tend to view birds in one of two ways, either as meaningful signs or as meaningless trash/vermin, and this tendency leads them to make errors of interpretation. By applying this lens to the play's bird imagery, I show that the poet exhibits a pessimistic attitude about both signs and the gods.