MICYLLUS
Why, this is not a dream, is it? A cock talking to me this way? Tell me, in the name of Hermes, my good friend, what other reason you have for your ability to speak. As to my keeping still and not telling anybody, why should you have any fear, for who would believe me if I told him anything asserting that I had heard it from a cock?
Why, this is not a dream, is it? A cock talking to me this way? Tell me, in the name of Hermes, my good friend, what other reason you have for your ability to speak. As to my keeping still and not telling anybody, why should you have any fear, for who would believe me if I told him anything asserting that I had heard it from a cock?
COCK
Listen, then, to an account which will be quite incredible to you, I am very sure, Micyllus. I who now appear to you in the guise of a cock was a man not long ago.
Listen, then, to an account which will be quite incredible to you, I am very sure, Micyllus. I who now appear to you in the guise of a cock was a man not long ago.
MICYLLUS
I heard something to that effect about you cocks a good while ago. They say that a young fellow named Alectryon (Cock) became friends with Ares ind drank with the god and caroused with him and shared his amorous adventures; at all events, whenever Ares went to visit Aphrodite on poaching bent, he took Alectryon along too; and as he was especially uspicious of Helius, for fear that he would look down on them and tell Hephaestus, he always used to leave the young fellow outside at the door to warn him when Helius rose. Then, they say, Alectryon fell asleep one time and unintentionally betrayed his post, and Helius unexpectedly stole upon Aphrodite with Ares, who was sleeping peacefully because he relied on Alectryon to tell him if anyone came near. So Hephaestus found out from Helius and caught them by enclosing and trapping them in the snares that he had long before contrived for them; and Ares, on being let go in the plight in which Hephaestus let him go,
1
was angry at Alectryon and changed him into this bird, weapons and all, so that he still has the crest of his helmet on his head. And for this reason, they say, you cocks try to put yourselves right with Ares when it is no use, and when you notice that the sun is about to come up, you raise your voices far in advance and give warning of his rising.
I heard something to that effect about you cocks a good while ago. They say that a young fellow named Alectryon (Cock) became friends with Ares ind drank with the god and caroused with him and shared his amorous adventures; at all events, whenever Ares went to visit Aphrodite on poaching bent, he took Alectryon along too; and as he was especially uspicious of Helius, for fear that he would look down on them and tell Hephaestus, he always used to leave the young fellow outside at the door to warn him when Helius rose. Then, they say, Alectryon fell asleep one time and unintentionally betrayed his post, and Helius unexpectedly stole upon Aphrodite with Ares, who was sleeping peacefully because he relied on Alectryon to tell him if anyone came near. So Hephaestus found out from Helius and caught them by enclosing and trapping them in the snares that he had long before contrived for them; and Ares, on being let go in the plight in which Hephaestus let him go,
1
was angry at Alectryon and changed him into this bird, weapons and all, so that he still has the crest of his helmet on his head. And for this reason, they say, you cocks try to put yourselves right with Ares when it is no use, and when you notice that the sun is about to come up, you raise your voices far in advance and give warning of his rising.
Gallus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.