19
Just see what a question you have asked there! Even Tiresias paid dearly for answering it!Zeus had said that Hera’s sex enjoyed more pleasure than his own. Hera denied it; Tiresias was called in as umpire and held with Zeus, whereupon Hera struck him blind (Metam. l. c.).
19
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.Medea 251.
19
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.
19
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.
20
But what man or woman did you become after Aspasia?
20
The Cynic Crates.
20
Twin brethren! what ups and downs! First a courtesan, then a philosopher!
20
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.
20
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.
20
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.
