Muscae Encomium

The fly is not the smallest of winged creatures, at least in comparison with gnats and midges and things still tinier. On the contrary, she is as much larger than they as she is smaller than the bee. She is not provided with feathers like the birds, [*](Lit. “like the rest (of the ὄρνεα),” which is illogical. Perhaps ἀετοῖς should be written.) so as to have some for plumage all over her body, and others to fly with, but like grasshoppers, locusts and bees, she has membranous wings, as much thinner’ than theirs as Indian stuffs are more delicate and softer than Greek. Moreover, they have the colours of a peacock in them, if you look at her sharply when she spreads them and flies in the sun.

She does not fly like bats with a steady, oar-like movement of the wings, or like grasshoppers with a spring, or as wasps do, with a whizzing rush, but easily directs her course to any quarter of the air she will. She has also this characteristic, that her flight is not silent but musical : the sound is not shrill like that of gnats and midges, nor deep-toned like that of bees, nor fierce and

As for her body, the head is very delicately attached to the neck and so is easily moved, not fixed like the head of a grasshopper. The eyes are prominent, and have much the quality of horn, The breast is solid, and the legs grow right out of the waist, which is not at all pinched* up, as in wasps. As in them, the abdomen is armoured and resembles a corselet in having flat zones and scales. She differs, however, from the wasp and the bee, in that her weapon is not the hinder-part, but the mouth, or rather the proboscis ; for, like the elephant, she has a trunk with which she forages, seizing things and holding them tenaciously, since it is like a tentacle at the end. A tooth protrudes from it with which the fly inflicts bites in order to drink the blood, for although she drinks milk, she likes blood also. The bite causes no great pain. Though she has six feet, she walks with only four and uses the two in fwont for all the purposes of hands. You can see her standing on four legs, holding up something to eat in her hands just as we human beings do.

The fly is not born in the form which I have described, but as a maggot from the dead bodies of men or animals. Then, little by little, she puts out legs, grows her wings, changes from a creeping to a flying thing, is impregnated and becomes mother to a little maggot which is to-morrow’s fly. Living

I can also mention her great intelligence in escaping her designing foe, the spider. She watches for him lurking in ambush, and is wary of him, turning aside from his attack, so as not to be captured by being ensnared and falling into the toils of the creature. Of her courage and bravery it is not for me to speak, but for Homer, the most mighty-mouthed of the poets ; for when he , seeks to praise the foremost of the heroes, [*]((Iliad 17, 570, Menelaus), into whose heart Athena "puts the boldness of the fly.”) he does not compare his bravery to a lion’s or a leopard’s or a wild boar’s, but to the fearlessness of the fly and the daring and insistency of her attack. He does not say that she is reckless, but fearless : [*](The distinction (unknown to Homer) is between thrasos and tharsos.) that even if she is kept away she does not desist but is eager to bite. So outspoken is he in his praise and fondness for the fly that he mentions her net merely once or twice but often; in consequence, references to her enhance the beauty of his poems. Now he describes her swarming flight after milk ;[*](the many hordes of clustering fliesThat dart about the sheepfolds in the spring,When pails are wet with milk.Iliad 2, 469They swarmed about the body like the fliesThat in the fold buzz round the milky pails.Iliad 16, 641) now, when

So strong is the fly that when she bites she wounds the skin of the ox and the horse as well as that of man. She even torments the elephant by entering his wrinkles and lancing him with her proboscis as far as its length allows. In mating, love, and marriage they are very free and easy. The male is not on and off again in a moment, like the cock; he covers the female a long time. She carries her spouse, and they take wing together, mating uninterruptedly in the air, as everyone knows. A fly with her head cut off keeps alive a long time with the rest of her body, and still retains the breath of life.

You may be sure I propose to mention the most important point in the nature of the fly. It is, I think, the only point that Plato overlooks in his discussion of the soul and its immortality. When ashes are sprinkled on a dead fly, she revives and has a second birth and a new life from the beginning. This should absolutely convince everyone that the fly’s soul is immortal like ours, since after leaving the body it comes back again, recognises and reanimates it, and makes the fly take wing. It also confirms the story that the soul of Hermotimus of Clazomenae would often leave him and go away

Knowing not labour and living at large, the. fly enjoys the fruits of the toil of others, and finds a bounteous table set everywhere. Goats give milk for her, bees work for flies and for men quite as much as for themselves, and cooks sweeten food for her. She takes precedence even of kings in eating, and walks about on their tables sharing their feasts and all their enjoyment.

She does not make a nest or habitation in any one place, but taking up a roving, Scythian life on the wing, finds bed and board wherever night chances to overtake her. But in the dark, as I have said, she does nothing: she has no desire for stealthy actions and no thought of disgraceful deeds which would discredit her if they were done by daylight.

The story goes that long ago there was a human being called Muia, a girl who was very pretty, but talkative, noisy, and fond of singing. She became a ‘rival of Selene by falling in love with Endymion, and as she was for ever waking the boy out of his sleep by chattering and singing and paying him visits, he became vexed at her, and Selene in anger turned her into the fly we know. [*](The story explains the word μυῖα, “fly,” as having been originally the name of a girl.) So, in remembrance of Endymion, she begrudges all sleepers their repose, especially those of tender years; and even her biting and bloodthirstiness is not a sign of savagery, but of love and friendship. She gets what

According to the ancients she has had two namesakes, a very pretty and accomplished poetess and a famous Athenian courtesan. It was the latter whom the comic poet meant when he said, “Yon fly him to the heart did bite.”[*](Unknown (Kock, adesp. 475).) From this you see that comic wit has not disdained the name of fly nor barred it from the boards, and that parents have not been ashamed to give it to their daughters. As for tragedy, it, too, mentions the fly with great praise; for example, in these words:

1. 'Tis strange that while the fly with hardy strength
2. Encounters man to sate itself with gore,
3. Stout men-at-arms should fear the foeman’s lance!

There are very large flies, too, which most people call camp-flies, though some call them dog-flies. They have a very harsh buzz and.a very rapid flight. They are extremely long-lived, and endure the whole winter without food, usually hiding in the roof. Another surprising thing in