Scaife ATLAS

The Fly, an Appreciation (11-12)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg006.perseus-eng4:11-12

Refs	`{'start': {'reference': '11', 'human_reference': 'Section 11'}, 'end': {'reference': '12', 'human_reference': 'Section 12'}}`
Ancestors	`[]`
Children	`[]`

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In ancient times there was a woman of her name, a poetess wise and beautiful, and another a famous Attic courtesan, of whom the comic poet wrote: As deep as to his heart fair Myia bit him.

The comic Muse, we see, disdained not the name, nor refused it the hospitality of the boards; and parents took no shame to give it to their daughters. Tragedy goes further and speaks of the fly in high terms of praise, as witness the following:

Foul shame the little fly, with might courageous,

Should leap upon men’s limbs, athirst for blood,

But men-at-arms shrink from the foeman’s steel!

v.3.p.265

I might add many details about Pythagoras’s daughter Myia, were not her story too well known.

There are also flies of very large size, called generally soldierflies, or dog-flies; these have a hoarse buzz, a very rapid flight, and quite long lives; they last the winter through without food, mostly in sheltered nooks below the roof; the most remarkable ’ fact about these is that they are hermaphrodites.

But I must break off; not that my subject is exhausted; only that to exhaust such a subject is too like breaking a butterfly on the wheel.

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