The Fly (11-12)

According to the ancients she has had two namesakes, a very pretty and accomplished poetess and a famous Athenian courtesan. It was the latter whom the comic poet meant when he said, “Yon fly him to the heart did bite.”[*] From this you see that comic wit has not disdained the name of fly nor barred it from the boards, and that parents have not been ashamed to give it to their daughters. As for tragedy, it, too, mentions the fly with great praise; for example, in these words:

'Tis strange that while the fly with hardy strength

Encounters man to sate itself with gore,

Stout men-at-arms should fear the foeman’s lance!

unknown (Nauck, Tag. Graec. Fragm., adesp. I could also say a great deal about Muia, the Pytha gorean, if her story were not known to everyone. [*]

There are very large flies, too, which most people call camp-flies, though some call them dog-flies. They have a very harsh buzz and.a very rapid flight. They are extremely long-lived, and endure the whole winter without food, usually hiding in the roof. Another surprising thing in

them is that they are bisexual, like the child of Hermes and Aphrodite, who had two natures and double beauty. Though I still have a great deal to say, I will stop talking, for fear you may think that, as the saying goes, I am making an elephant out of a fly. [*]