19–20
Cock
You will be a woman yourself, Mikyllos, over and over in the great lapse of time.
Mikyllos
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?
Mikyllos
Ye gods, that's a change - from a courtesan to a philosopher!
Cock
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.
Mikyllos
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-
5
Cock
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.
