Socrates sane apud eundem Aristophanem[1], Strepsiadem reprehendere [188] videtur, quod ἀλεκτρυόνα in utroque sexu proferat, itaque iubet, eum faeminam ἀλεκτρύαιναν vocare ficto vocabulo, et poëtico, ut a λέων fit λέαινα, marem vero ἀλέκτορα. Videtur autem, inquit Scholiastes, vulgaris haec consuetudo tum fuisse, faeminam quoque ἀλεκτρυόνα nominandi, ut patet ex hisce Aristophanis verbis[2]:

Γύναι τί τὸ ψόφημα ἐστί; Ἡ ἀλεκτρυών
Τὴν κύλικα καταβέβληκεν. Οἰμωξουσάγε.

Et in Platonis D<a>edalo[3]: ἐνίοτε πολλαί τῶν ἀλεκτρυόνων ὑπηνέμια βίᾳ τίκτουσι ὠά πολλάκις. Ὁ δὲ παῖς ἔνδον τὰς ἀλεκτρυόνας σοβεῖ. Attici quidem etiam Gallinas sic vocabant{,}<.> Et Theopompus: Vocant vero Gallinam etiam ἀλεκτρύαιναν. Haec Scholiastes: sed locus quo<d>[4] ad authorum citationes non recte distinctus emendari potest ex Athenaeo[5], apud quem ita legitur. Cratinus, inquit, ἀλεκτρυόνα in faeminino genere dixit. Item Strattis Αἱ δ’ἀλεκτρυόνες ἅπασαι καὶ τὰ {κορίδια}[6] <χοιρίδια> τέθνηκεν. Et Anaxandrides Rhodius {Comicns}<Comicus> Ὀχευομένας τὰς ἀλεκτρυόνας θεοροῦσιν ἄσμενοι. Et Theopompus[7] Ἄχθομαι δ’ἀπολωλεκώς ἀλεκτρυόνα τίκτουσαν ᾿ῳά πάγκαλα. Et Aristophanes[8] ᾿ῼόν μέγιστον τέτοκεν, ὡς ἀλεκτρυών.

In Aristophanes it seems that Socrates is quite scolding Strepsiades because he says alektryóna for both sexes, and so he bids to call the female alektrýainan by a newly coined and poetic word, likewise léaina – lioness - is coming from léøn - lion, but the male is aléktora. The scholiast says that on the other hand it seems that then there was this common practice to call also the female alektryóna, as is evident from these words of Aristophanes:

Gýnai tí tò psóphëma estí? Hë alektryøn
Tën kýlika katabéblëken. Oimøxouságe.

O woman what’s this noise? It’s the hen
That knocked down a cup. She wailed.

And in Daedalos of comedy writer Plato: enìote pollài tøn alektryónøn hypënémia bíai tíktousi øá pollákis. O dè paîs éndon tàs alektryónas sobeî. - Sometimes many hens lay wind-eggs – sterile - against their will. The boy drives the hens inside. In fact the Attic inhabitants called in this way also the hens. And the comic writer Theopompus says: But they call the hen also alektrýainan. This is what the scholiasts says. But the passage, not too much accurate regarding the quotation of various authors, can be emended on the basis of Athenaeus, where we read as follows. He says: Cratinus used alektryóna in the feminine gender. Likewise Strattis Ai d’alektryónes hápasai, kài tà choirídia téthnëken - All hens and little sows are died. And the comic poet Anaxandrides of Rhodes Ocheuoménas tàs alektryónas theoroûsin ásmenoi - Delighted, they gaze at hens being mounted. And the comic writer Theopompus: Àchthomai d’apolølekøs alektryóna tíktousan øiá pánkala - I feel sorry to have lost the hen which was laying very fine eggs. And Aristophanes: Øión mégiston tétoken, høs alektryøn - She has laid a very large egg, like a hen.

Thomas {magister} <Magister>[9] quoque annotat, vocem ἀλεκτρυών significare marem, et faeminam, et Hesychius[10] veteres ἀλεκτρυόνας Gallinas vocare scribit. Gallus etiam dicitur ἀλέκτωρ, a quo fit, ἀλεκτορίς, Gallina, quam posteriorem vocem Varinus, et Thomas Magister poëticam esse dicunt: ἀλέκτωρ vero vocabulum esse ἀδόκιμον. Verum cum Aristoteles[11] ἀλεκτορίδα etiam nominet, ac Galenus[12] ἀλεκτρυόνος καὶ ἀλεκτορίδος αἷμα dicat: itaque ego vocem ἀλεκτρύαινα prorsus ἀδόκιμον, ἀλέκτωρ vero poëticam {tantum}[13] contra illos esse dixerim; qui cum ἀλεκτορίς poëticum faciant, poëtae nullius testimonium adducunt, et ego quoque nullum ex poëtis hac voce usum memini, ἀλέκτορα vero in prosa nemo dixit, sed poëtae aliquot, Aristophanes, Theocritus, Cratinus, aliique[14].

Also Thomas Magister annotates that the word alektryøn means the male and the female, and Hesychius writes that the ancients called alektryónas the hens. The rooster is also called aléktør, whence alektorís, the hen, is formed, and the latter word Thomas Magister and Varinus say is poetic: but aléktør is a derogatory word. But being that also Aristotle uses the word alektorída and that Galen says alektryónos kaì alektorídos haîma - blood of cock and hen: then, in opposition to them – Varinus and Magister, I would say that the word alektrýaina is quite adókimon, derogatory, while aléktør is poetic: they, when setting out alektorís as poetic, adduce the testimony of no poet, and I also don’t remember any poet who used this word, and really no one said aléktora in prose, but some poets, Aristophanes, Theocritus, Cratinus and others.

Ἀλεκτορίς vero Athenaeo non Gallina est, sed Gallus. Usus, inquit, nostro tempore obtinuit, ut Gallinae Ὄρνιθες, et Ὀρνίθια dicantur, Galli vero ἀλεκτρυόνες, et ἀλεκτορίδες. Apud Varinum ἀλεκτρίς pro Gallina legitur, sed forte impressoris culpa pro ἀλεκτορίς, ut videtur. Reperitur et ἀλεκτόριος pro ἀλεκτόρειος. Ἀλέκτωρ vero Gallus dicitur, quod nos, ut apud Athenaeum[15] est, ἐκ τοῦ λέκτρου, id est e cubili excitet. Ille, ut videtur, intelligit esse ex alpha privativo, et λέκτρον, quod nos ἄλεκτρος faciat. Eustathius vult esse ex alpha privativo, et verbo λέγω, id est cubo; ut videlicet sit λέκτωρ, deinde praefixo alpha privativo ἀλέκτωρ: unde ἀλεκτορίσκος. Caeterum etiamsi ἀλέκτωρ ex α privativo, et λέγω deducamus, ἀλεκτρυών, quod idem est, quod ἀλέκτωρ[16], Gallus nempe, et interdum etiam Gallina, ut mox ex Aristophane diximus, et Athenaeo, ex α privativo, et λέκτρον potius fieri dicendum est. Hanc vocem nempe ἀλεκτρυών Homeri saeculum, teste Varino non agnovit. Utebantur nimirum antiquitus, ut diximus paulo ante, tantum voce ὄρνις de Gallo in genere masculino, de Gallina in faeminino. Cum vero ἀλεκτρυών nomen viri est, cuius Homerus[17] meminit, servat o magnum in genitivo, secundum Varinum, secundum vero Eustathium mutat[18].

In Athenaeus alektorís is not the hen but the cock. He says: In our times the custom obtained that the hens are called órnithes – birds - and orníthia -birdies, the cocks on the contrary alektryónes and alektorídes. In Varinus alektrís is read for hen, but perhaps, as it seems, in place of alektorís owing to the printer. There is also found alektórios instead of alektóreios - gallinaceous. Really, the cock is called aléktør because, as we find in Athenaeus, ek toû léktrou, that is, it brings out of the bed. He, as it seems, is thinking that it comes from an alpha privative and léktron - nuptial bed, being that it makes us álektros - without marriage. Eustathius of Thessalonica wants that it is coming from an alpha privative and the verb légø - to fall to lie, i.e. I lie; that is like it were léktør and then, with an alpha privative placed before, aléktør: whence alektorískos - cockerel. On the other hand, although we derive aléktør from privative alpha and légø, alektryøn, which is the same as aléktør, and precisely the cock and sometimes also the hen, as we have just told from Aristophanes and Athenaeus, we must say that they come rather from an alpha privative and léktron. Homer’s age, according to Varinus, did not know this word, i.e. alektryøn. In ancient time, as I said a short while ago, they just used only the word órnis in the masculine gender for rooster and in the feminine gender for hen. But when alektryøn is the name of a man, mentioned by Homer, according to Varinus it keeps the letter omega in the genitive, on the contrary according to Eustathius is changing it - into omicron.

Βοσκάς ὀρταλίς Nicandro[19] gallina est domestica, sive altilis. Βρητὸς apud Hesychium, et Varinum gallus anniculus. Ἠϊκανός[20] gallinaceus, ut iidem interpretantur. Ἱππαλεκτρυών dicitur magnus gallus apud Aristophanem[21]. Κέρκνος iisdem Hesychio, et Varino scilicet, vel Accipiter est, vel Gallinaceus, sed Accipiter potius meo iudici<o>, isque Circus: uti etiam Κῆρυξ, quae vox Suidae pariter, et Varino Accipitris genus est, et Gallinaceus. Κίκιῤῥος Gallinaceus, Hesychius, et Varinus. Κικκὸς oxytonum, Gallinaceus, paroxytonum vero parva cicada[22], et Κίκκα paroxytonum, Gallina, Iidem. Videtur autem vox per onomatopoeiam facta. Κοκκοβόας ὄρνις[23] de Gallinaceo accipiendum videtur apud Sophoclem[24], ut vult Eustathius[25], nimirum quoque a voce, de qua verbum κοκκύζειν Graeci usurpant: videtur itaque epitheton esse.

Boskás ortalís - fatted young hen - in Nicander is a domestic hen, or a battery hen. Brëtòs in Hesychius and Varinus is a year-old rooster. Ëïkanós is the cock, as the same authors undesrstand. In Aristophanes a large rooster is called hippalektryøn - horsecock, fabulous animal. For the same authors, i.e. Hesychius and Varinus, kérknos is either the hawk or the cock, but rather the hawk in my judgment, and precisely the circus: as also kêryx - the herald, a word that, alike in both Suidas and Varinus is a kind of hawk and the cock. Kíkirros – cock - for Hesychius and Varinus is the cock. Kikkós oxytonum is the cock, paroxytonum on the contrary is a small cicada, and kíkka paroxytonum is the hen, for the same authors. And it seems and onomatopoeic words. It seems that in Sophocles kokkobóas órnis must be taken as referring to the rooster, like Eustathius thinks, without doubt also from the song, from which the Greeks take the verb kokkýzein - to go boo, or to crow a cock-a-doodle-doo: therefore it seems to be an epithet.

Κόρκορα ὄρνις, Pergaeis Hesychius, et Varinus. Κορυθών ἀλεκτρυών, αἱ νεανίδες{.}<,> Iidem. Forte autem sic nominatus fuerit Gallus, quod κόρυθα[26] id est, cristam gerat: et eadem ratione fortassis etiam κορυνθεύς apud eosdem, sed quae vox eis etiam cophinum et calathum significat. Κόσκικοι, οἱ κατοικίδιοι Ὄρνιθες{.}<,> Iidem. Apparet autem priorem vocem a κικκός formari. Κοττοὶ, Gallinacei a crista capitis sic dicti apud eosdem in Προκόττα, quod est, κεφαλῆς τρίχωμα. Κόττος, ὄρνις, sed equum quoque aliqui sic vocabant{.)}<,> Iidem. Et rursus Κοττοβολεῖν τὸ παρατηρεῖν τινὰ ὄρνιν. Κοττυλοιοί κατοικίδιοι ὄρνεις: sed Varinus legit κοττυλιοί per iota in penultima. Hesychius vocem κόττος alibi in dictione κόττη generaliter pro qualibet ave accipi scribit, proprie vero esse Gallinaceum. Κοτίκας Gallus{.}<,> Iidem. Κροκίας apud Plutarchum[27] Gallus est, quem Hermanubidi immolari solere tradit. Κύμβαι ὄρνιθες. Iidem. Videntur autem aves simpliciter intelligendae, quoniam cymbateutae etiam Varino sunt aucupes.

Kórkora is a bird for the inhabitants of Perge, according to Hesychius and Varinus. Korythøn alektryøn, ai neanídes – the rooster standing up, the young girls - the same authors. But perhaps the rooster was so named because it bears the kórytha, i.e. the comb: and probably for the same reason is also called koryntheús by the same authors, but for them this word also means big basket and hamper. Kóskikoi, hoi katoikídioi órnithes - Kóskikoi, the domestic birds, the same authors. But it seems that the first word is made from kikkós - the cock. In the same source the roosters are called kottoì because of the comb they have on head, when they are dealing with prokótta, which is kephalës tríchøma - head hair. Kóttos órnis, – kóttos, a bird -, but somebody called in this way also the horse, the same authors. And again Kottoboleîn, to paratëreîn tinà órnin - Kottoboleîn, to observe a bird. Kottyloioí katoikídioi órneis - Kottyloioí domestic birds: but Varinus reads kottyliοí with an iota in the penultimate syllable. Hesychius writes that the word kóttos - the fish Cottus gobio-elsewhere in the form kóttë, is generally interpreted for whatever bird, but that properly it is the cock. Kotíkas is a cock, the same authors. In Plutarch krokías - saffron colored - is a rooster, and he tells it is custom to sacrifice it to Hermanubis. Kýmbai órnithes - birds cymba. The same authors. But it seems that they must be simply meant as birds, since also in Varinus cymbateutae are bird catchers.