De sollertia animalium

But, dear Poseidon! What an absurd and ridiculous error I have almost fallen into: while I am spending my time on seals and frogs, I have neglected and omitted the wisest of sea creatures, the most beloved of the gods For what nightingales are to be compared with the halcyon[*](See Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, s.v.; Kraak, Mnemosyne (3rd series), vii. 142; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 89 ff.; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 17; Gow on Theocritus, vii. 57; and the pleasant work Halcyon found in mss. of Lucian and Plato.) for its love of sweet sound, or what swallows for its love of offspring, or what doves for its love of its mate, or what bees for its skill in construction ? What creature’s procreation

and birth pangs has the god[*](Poseidon.) so honoured ? For Leto’s parturition,[*](For the birth of Apollo and Artemis.) so they say, only one island[*](Delos, the wandering island.) was made firm to receive her; but when the halcyon lays her eggs, about the time of the winter solstice, the god[*](Poseidon.) brings the whole sea to rest, without a wave, without a swell. And this is the reason why there is no other creature that men love more. Thanks to her they sail the sea without a fear in the dead of winter for seven days and seven nights.[*](The Halcyon Days (Suidas, s.v.); Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 8 (542 b 6 ff.); Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 36; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 231; al. ) For the moment, journey by sea is safer for them than by land. If it is proper to speak briefly of her several virtues, she is so devoted to her mate that she keeps him company, not for a single season, but throughout the year. Yet it is not through wantonness that she admits him to her company, for she never consorts at all with any other male; it is through friendship and affection, as with any lawful wife. When by reason of old age the male becomes too weak and sluggish to keep up with her, she takes the burden on herself, carries him and feeds him, never forsaking, never abandoning him; but mounting him on her own shoulders, she conveys him everywhere she goes and looks after him, abiding with him until the end.[*](Cf. Alcman’s famous lines: frag. 26 Edmonds (Lyra Graeca, i, p. 72, L.C.L.), frag. 94 Diehl (Anth. Lyrica, ii, p. 34); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 23; al. )

As for love of her offspring and care for their preservation, as soon as she perceives herself to be pregnant, she applies herself to building the nest,[*](Cf. Mor. 494 a-b; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13 (616 a 19 ff.); Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 17.) not making pats of mud or cementing it on walls and

roofs like the house-martin[*](Cf. 966 d-e supra.); nor does she use the activity of many different members of her body, as when the bee employs its whole frame to enter and open the wax, with all six feet pressing at the same time to fashion the whole mass into hexagonal cells, But the halcyon, having but one simple instrument, one piece of equipment, one tool - her bill and nothing else, co-operating with her industry and ingenuity - what she contrives and constructs would be hard to believe without ocular evidence, seeing the object that she moulds - or rather the ship that she builds. Of many possible forms, this alone cannot be capsized[*](Aristotle (loc. cit.), on the contrary, seems to say (though his text is corrupt; see Thompson ad loc.): The opening is small, just enough for a tiny entrance, so that even if the nest is upset, the sea does not enter. ) or even wet its cargo. She collects the spines of garfish[*](Belone was usually a term for the garfish and the needlefish, neither of which has spines of any size. Thompson (Glossary, pp. 31-32) rightly regards the meaning of belone here as indeterminable. Cf. also Mor. 494 a, which is almost certainly mistranslated in the L.C.L. edition.) and binds and weaves them together, some straight, others transverse, as if she were thrusting woven threads through the warp, adding such bends and knots of one with another that a compact, rounded unit is formed, slightly prolate in shape, like a fisherman’s weel. When it is finished, she brings and deposits it beside the surging waves, where the sea beats gently upon it and instructs her how to mend and strengthen whatever is not yet good and tight, as she observes it loosened by the blows. She so tautens and secures the joints that it is difficult even for stones or iron to break or pierce it. The proportions and shape of the hollow interior are as admirable as anything about it; for it is so constructed as to admit herself only, while the entrance remains wholly hidden and invisible to others - with the result that not even a drop of water can get in. Now I presume that all of you have seen this nest; as for me, since I have often seen and touched it, it comes to my mind to chant the words

Once such a thing in Delos near Apollo’s shrine[*](Homer, Odyssey, vi. 162. That there was some religious mystery associated with the so-called nest is indicated by the close of Plutarch’s description. (Thompson on Aristotle, loc. cit.))

I saw, the Altar of Horn, celebrated as one of the Seven Wonders of the World[*](Cf. Strabo, xiv. 2. 5.) because it needs no glue or any other binding, but is joined and fastened together, made entirely of horns taken from the right side of the head.[*](Curiously enough, the Life of Theseus, xxi. 2 (9 e) says the left side. ) Now may the god[*](Apollo. From this point on the text of the rest of this chapter is very bad and full of lacunae. The restorations adopted here are somewhat less than certain.) be propitious to me while I sing of the Sea Siren[*](This is not fulfilled and so is presumably an indication of another lacuna toward the end of Phaedimus’ speech, the location of which we cannot even guess.) - and indeed, being both a musician and an islander, he should laugh good-naturedly at my opponents’ scoffing questions. Why should he not be called a conger-slayer or Artemis be termed a surmullet-slayer?[*](Cf. 966 a supra.) Since he well knows that Aphrodite, born of the sea, regards practically all sea creatures as sacred and related to herself and relishes the slaughter of none of them. In Leptis,[*](Andrews suspects a confusion here and at Mor. 730 d with Lepidotonpolis on the Nile, not far below Thebes, apparently a focal point of a taboo on eating the bynni, allegedly due to its consumption of the private parts of Osiris when they were thrown into the river (cf. Mor. 358 b).) you know, the priests of Poseidon refrain entirely from any sea food, and those initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis hold the surmullet in veneration, while the priestess of Hera at Argos abstains from this fish to pay it honour. For surmullets are particularly good at killing and eating the sea-hare, which is lethal to man.[*](Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 45; ix. 51; xvi. 19; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 155; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. vi. 32.) It is for this reason that surmullets possess this immunity, as being friendly and life-saving creatures.