18–19
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.
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.Tiresias struck a pair of mating serpents with his staff, and turned into a woman; seven years later he once more saw them and struck them, becoming a man again (Ovid, Melam. 3, 316 ff.). Poseidon turned Caenis into a man at her own request after he had wronged her (Metam. 12, 189 ff.).
MICYLLUS
How about it? Which life did you find the pleasanter, when you were a man or when Pericles dallied with you?
5
COCK
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.).
