The Dream, or the Cock (16-20)

COCK

How my soul originally left Apollo, flew down to earth and entered into a human body and what sin it was condemned to expiate in that way would make a long story; besides, it is impious either for me to tell or for you to hear such things. But when I became Euphorbus. . .

MICYLLUS

But I,—who was I formerly, wondrous creature? First tell me whether I too was ever transformed like you. Cock Yes, certainly.

MICYLLUS

Then what was I? ‘Tell me if you can, for I want to know.

COCK

You were an Indian ant, one of the gold-digging kind.[*]

MICYLLUS

Confound the luck! to think that I did not dare to lay in even a small supply of gold-dust before coming from that life to this! But what shall I be next, tell me? You probably know. If it is anything good, [ll climb up this minute and hang myself from the peg that you are standing on.

COCK

You can’t by any possibility find that out. But when I became Euphorbus—for I am going back to that subject—I fought at Troy and was killed by Menelaus, and some time afterwards I entered into Pythagoras. In the meanwhile I stood about and waited without a house till Mnesarchus should build me one.

MICYLLUS

Without food and drink, my friend?

COCK

Yes, certainly; for they turned out to be unnecessary, except for the body.

MICYLLUS

Well, then, tell me the story of Troy first. Was it all as Homer says?

COCK

Why, where did he get his information, Micyllus? When all that was going on, he was a camel in

Bactria. Tl tell you thus much, though: nothing was out of the common then, and Ajax was not as tall and Helen herself not as fair as people think. As I saw her, she had a white complexion and a long neck, to be sure, so that you might know she was the daughter of a swan; but as for the rest of it, she was decidedly old, about the saine age as Hecuba; for Theseus eloped with her in the first place and kept her at Aphidnae, and Theseus lived in the time of Heracles, who took Troy the first time it was taken, in the time of our fathers,—our then fathers, Imean. Panthous told me all this, and said that when he was quite small he had seen Heracles.

MICYLLUS

But how about Achilles? Was he as Homer describes him, supreme in everything, or is this only a fable too?

COCK

I did not come into contact with him at all, Micyllus, and I can’t tell you as accurately about the Greek side. How could I, being one of the enemy? His comrade Patroclus, however, I killed without difficulty, running him through with my spear.[*]

MICYLLUS

And then Menelaus killed you with much greater ease! But enough of this, and now tell me the story of Pythagoras.

COCK

In brief, Micyllus, I was a sophist, for I must tell the truth, I suppose. However, I was not uneducated or unacquainted with the noblest sciences. I

even went to: Egypt to study with the prophets, penetrated into their sanctuaries and learned the books of Horus and Isis by heart, and then I sailed away to Italy and worked upon the Greeks in that quarter of the world to such an extent that they thought me a god.

MICYLLUS

So I have heard, and I have also heard that you were thought to have come to life again after dying, and that you once showed them that your thigh was of gold. But, look here, tell me how it occurred to you to make a law against eating either meat or beans?

COCK

Do not press that question, Micyllus.

MICYLLUS

Why, cock? Cock Because I am ashamed to tell you the truth of it.

MICYLLUS

But you oughtn’t to hesitate to tell a housemate and a friend—for I cannot call myself your master any longer.

COCK

It was nothing sensible or wise, but I perceived that if I made laws that were ordinary and just like those of the run of legislators I should not induce men to wonder at me, whereas the more I departed from precedent, the more of a figure I should cut, I thought, in their eyes. Therefore I preferred to introduce innovations, keeping the reason for them secret so that one man might guess one thing

and one another, and all be perplexed, as they are in the case of oracles that are obscure. Look here, you are laughing at me, now.

MICYLLUS

Not so much at you as at the people of Croton and Metapontum and Tarentum and all the rest who followed you dumbly and worshipped the footprints that you left in walking.

MICYLLUS

But after you put off the part of Pythagoras what other did you assume?

COCK

Aspasia, the courtesan from Miletus.

MICYLLUS

Whew, what a yarn! So Pythagoras became a woman on top of everything else, and there was once atime when you laid eggs, most distinguished of cocks; when you lived with Pericles in the capacity of Aspasia and had children by him and carded wool and spun yarn and made the most of your sex in courtesan style?

COCK

Yes, I did all that, and I am not the only one: both Tiresias and Caeneus the son of Elatus preecded me, so that all your jokes at my expense will be at their expense too.[*]

MICYLLUS

How about it? Which life did you find the pleasanter, when you were a man or when Pericles dallied with you?

COCK

Just see what a question you have asked there! Even Tiresias paid dearly for answering it![*]

MICYLLUS

Whether you tell me or not, Euripides has settled the business well enough, for he says that he would sooner stand in line of battle thrice over than bear a single child.[*]

COCK

I'll remind you of that before long, Micyllus, when you are in child-bed; for you too will be a woman again and again in your long cycle of existences.

MICYLLUS

Hang you, cock, do you think everybody hails from Miletus or Samos? They say that while you were Pythagoras and young and handsome you often played Aspasia to the tyrant.

MICYLLUS

But what man or woman did you become after Aspasia?

COCK

The Cynic Crates.

MICYLLUS

Twin brethren! what ups and downs! First a courtesan, then a philosopher!

COCK

Then a king, then a poor man, and soon a satrap; then a horse, a jackdaw, a frog, and a thousand things besides; it would take too long to enumerate them all. But of late I have often been a cock, for I liked that sort of life; and after belonging to many men,

both rich and poor, at length I am now living with you, laughing at you every day for bewailing and lamenting over your poverty and for admiring the rich through ignorance of the troubles that are theirs. Indeed, if you knew the cares they have, you would laugh at yourself for thinking at_ first that wealth was a source of extraordinary happiness.

MICYLLUS

Well then, Pythagoras—but tell me what you like best to be called, so that I may not muddle up our conversation by calling you different names.

COCK

It will make no difference whether you call me Euphorbus or Pythagoras, Aspasia or Crates; I am all of them. But you had better call me what you now see me to be, a cock, so as not to slight a bird that, although held in low esteem, has in itself so many souls.