The Cock (19-20)

But when you had laid Pythagoras aside, what

Aspasia, the courtesan from Miletos.

Oh, what a tale! Pythagoras became even a woman among other people, and there was a time when you, most noble cock, were Aspasia, Perikles' mistress, and carded wool and wove the weft and sold your favors!

I am not the only man who has done all these things. Teiresias, too, before me, and Kaineus, Elatos' son, were in my case, so that any joke you make against me will also be made against them.

Tell me, which life did you find. pleasanter, when you were a man or when Perikles caressed you?

Beware of asking a question that was not agreeable even to Teiresias.

Even if you will not tell me, Euripides decided the matter adequately, saying that he would rather stand by his shield thrice than bear one child.

You will be a woman yourself, Mikyllos, over and over in the great lapse of time.

Be hanged to you for thinking every one a Milesian or a Samian.

But what shape of man or woman did you appear in after Aspasia?

The cynic Krates.

Ye gods, that's a change - from a courtesan to a philosopher!

Then I was a king, then a poor man, and a little while after a satrap, then a horse, and a jackdaw, and a frog, and a thousand other things. It would take too long to enumerate them all. Finally I have been a cock many times, for I liked the life. I have served many others, kings and poor men and rich men, and now finally I live with you, laughing daily to hear you weep and wail over your poverty and admire the rich, in your ignorance of the evils belonging to them. Certainly, if you knew the cares they have, your first laugh would be at yourself for thinking a rich man over-happy.

Well then, Pythagoras, or whatever you would prefer to be called, so that I may not disturb your recital, calling you first one thing and then another-

It makes no difference whether you call me Euphorbus or Pythagoras or Aspasia or Krates, for I am all these. But you would do best to call this present form "Cock," not to be lacking in respect to the bird because it is held a humble creature, seeing that it embraces so many souls.