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15 PYTHAGORAS AS COCK Micyllus, the Poor Cobbler Of 15 PYTHAGORAS AS COCK Micyllus, the poor cobbler of Lucian's Gallus, has had the overwhelm­ ing desire of becoming rich since his boyhood (28). To acquire gold has become an obsession for him (6-7, with reference to Midas), and that is why he is told that he was an Indian ant in one of his previous lives (fLUP­ fL1j~ 'I\lOLxo~, 'tW\I 'to xpucr(O\l &\lopu't'tonw\I, 16: compare Herodotus 3.102). But Pythagoras, the master of transmigrations, reincarnations and &\lafL\lTjcreL~ of his previous lives, appears to Micyllus in a dream in the shape of a cock, and succeeds in curing him of his obsession (lyw cre lacrofLaL, wM(xune, 28)-first, by telling Micyllus of his own former unhappy existence as a rich and powerful king, poisoned by his own son (21-25), then by showing him (by means of magic) the wretched way of life of his rich neighbors Simon, Gnipho, and Eucrates (who in reality proves to be an &xpa'tTj~) (28-33). The question is now: Why did Lucian's Pythagoras choose the shape of a cock for his apparition and revelation? Why did he not appear as Pythagoras himself, or as the Cynic Crates (20), or else as a prophesying horse (for Pythagoras was that too: 20; 26; 27, with reference to Achilles' Xanthus in 2)? Rudolf Helm (Lucian und Menipp [Leipzig, 1906] 334), after referring to Tereus of Aristophanes' Birds and to the dialogue Jackdaw of the Cynic Diogenes (Diog. Laert. 6.80) as examples of speaking birds, left the ques­ tion unanswered. Pythagoras himself had been a jackdaw in one of his former lives (Gallus 20 and 27); nevertheless, he did not choose to appear as such to Micyllus. Otto Skutsch ("Notes on Metempsychosis," Class. Philol. 54 [1959] 115b) first pointed out the link between Pythagoras and the peacock (cf. Ennius Annals 15; Persius 6.11 pavone ex Pythagoreo and Schol. ad loc.), and Lucian's allusion to a Samian peacock (i.e., Pythagoras) converted into a Boeotian rooster (&A.ex'tpUW\I qnA6cro'Po~ ... &nt fL~\I &\l9pcil1toU Op\lL~, &nt U ~afL(ou Ta\layparo~ &\la1ti'P1j\la~, 4); then he dismissed this possi­ bility while stating: "This interpretation, however, seems entirely forced." With good reason, for Lucian certainly did not introduce the cock into his dialogue just for the sake of a pun. Jacques Bompaire, in his inspiring book Lucien tcrivain: imitation et crea­ tion (Paris, 1958) 697 n. 3, thought of the proverbial cock as prophet of evil (oiseau de malheur), while referring to Petronius' Satyrikon 74.1-4. This PYTHAGORAS AS COCK 175 is not likely either, for Micyllus respectfully calls his enlightening cock­ teacher waOtpw'tcx'tE OtAEX'tpUWV (7). The Socratic cock as a customary offering to Asclepius in gratitude for a cure (Plato Phaedo 118 a 7, 't<i> 'AaXA1j1tL<i> OtpdAOflEV OtAEX'tpuovcx; compare Herodas 4.11 ff.; Artemidorus 5.1.9; Aelian Fr. 186 Didot = 98 Teubner) is out of place here. For neither is Micyllus a patient, nor is the sage cock, a leading character in the dialogue, a simple sacrificial animal.1 Furthermore, the link between the cock and Hermes cannot explain the leading role of the cock in the dialogue either. For this link is used by Lucian to explain only two secondary achievements of the cock: (1) the ability to speak ("I am a friend of Hermes, the most talkative and elo­ quent of all the gods," 2); and (2), the magic power of the cock's feather, given to him by Hermes ("Hermes, to whom I am consecrated, gave me this privilege," 28). As for (1), Lucian himself dismisses this explanation while stating that the real reason (~ OtA1j9EO"'t€pCX CXL't(CX, 2) for the cock's ability to speak con­ sists in the fact that he was a man not long ago (01J..OO"L r~p 0 viiv O"OL OtAEX'tPUWV tpCXLVOflEVO<; ou 1tPO 1toAAoii <xv9pw1to<; ~v, says the cock in 3. Com­ pare Stith Thompson, A Motif-Index of Folk Literature, D166.1.1 'Man transformed to Cock'). As for (2), the cock's right longest tail feather having the magic power of (a), Opening every door, and (b), Making a man invisible (OtVO(rELV 'tE 0 'toLOii'to<; 1t&O"CXV 9upcxv OUVCX'tCXL XCXL op&v 't~ 1t(xv'tcx OUX OPWflEVO<; cxu'to<;, 28), neither power is due to a cock's tail exclusively, but rather belongs to the motif of magic feathers (Stith Thompson, D 1021) or hair in general. Com­ pare, e.g., D1562.2 'Hair from fox's tail opens all doors;' D1361.10 'Magic feather renders invisible;' Bl72.4 'Bird with magic bones and feathers;' D1313.10 'Magic feather indicates road;' D1323.16 'Magic feather gives clairvoyance;' D 1380.22 'Magic feather protects.' 2 Finally, one may think it only natural for a household rooster to engage in a dialogue with his master, being "a close comrade and messmate of men" (2). Perhaps so, but Lucian uses the cock's close rela­ tion to men only as an opportunity for the cock to learn the human language without difficulty, no more (2). In addition, the dog is an even closer friend of man. Pythagoras himself was a dog in one of his previous 1 Compare, e.g., Isidor Scheftelowitz, Das stellvertretende Huhnopfer (RGVV XIV.3, Giessen, 1914), 19. 2 Compare H. Biichtold-Staubli, Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, II, 1282; III, 1327.; Stith Thompson, D1400. 1. 19 'Magic feather defeats enemy. '-The examples ad­ duced by Tadeusz Zielinski, "Die Miirchenkomiidie in Athen," Jahresbericht der St. Annen­ Schule (St. Petersburg, 1885), 22 and 58 n. 18, are irrelevant, since they deal with the motifs of the woodpecker's mandrake (Springwurzd) opening every door (Bachtold-Stiiubli VIII, 140 f.), and of the siskin's stone rendering a man invisible (B.-St. IX, 888). .
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