17–18
Cock
I never encountered him in battle, and I could not give you so exact an account of the Achaians' affairs. How could I, seeing that I was an enemy? However, I killed his comrade, Patroklos, without much trouble, piercing him with my spear.
Mikyllos
And then Menelaos killed you more easily still. But that will do on this subject. Now tell me about Pythagoras.
Cock
I was a complete sophist, Mikyllos, for it is right, I think, to tell the truth. However, I was not uneducated nor neglectful of the noblest studies, and I even journeyed to Egypt to receive instruction from the priests. I made my way into the temples and mastered the books of Oros and Isis. And then I sailed back to Italy and so wrought upon the Greeks there that they reckoned me a god.
Mikyllos
I have heard of this, and that you were deemed to have risen from the dead, and that you once showed them that your thigh was gold. But tell me this, why did it occur to you to make a law against eating either flesh or beans?
Cock
Don't ask such things, Mikyllos.
Cock
Because I am ashamed to tell you the truth about them.
5
Mikyllos
Now, there is no reason whatever for hesitating to tell a man who is your messmate and friend, for I would no longer call myself your master.
