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.” Unknown (Kock, adesp. 475). 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.
 Very little of her story is known to us. She is said to
have been daughter of Pythagoras and wife of Milo, the
athlete of Croton. 

 

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.


 

 Except through Lucian, nothing is known of this philosopher. Some have sought to identify him with one Albinus,
about whom we have scarcely any information, and others
have thought him a child of Lucian’s fancy. But it is quite possible that he really existed, and led, as Lucian says, a
life of retirement.