Aristophanes in Birds [writes]: "[Teleas will say the following:] 'a man[-bird], unstable, fluttering, inconsistent, never ever staying in the same place'." He is slandering Teleas as a wanderer. Meaning if you ask about unstable people. Teleas was a man inclined to jesting and changeable in his ways; for he used to be slandered for debauchery and cowardice and gluttony and absenteeism and wickedness. And Plato in Rabble says [this] about Teleas: "he thinks one set of things but utters another with his tongue."[1] Or [sc. the phrase arises] because a teleas [is] a bird. This Teleas, Aristophanes is saying, will speak about fluttering birds.