[239] Plinius[1] item Gallinaceos pugnaciores reddi author est, si in cibum eorum {politricum} <polytrichon>, {et} <vel> trichomanes adda{n}tur. Idem praestare aiunt adiantum[2]: quod Io. Baptista Porta ideo fieri putat, quia haec herba Galli cristam quodammodo aemuletur.

Likewise Pliny says roosters become more pugnacious if maidenhair fern either false maidenhair fern is added to their food. They say maidenhair fern achieves the same effect. Giambattista Della Porta thinks this happens because of this, because this herb somehow imitates the rooster’s comb.

Caeterum inter Gallos alii aliis praeferebantur. Laudabantur autem in primis, teste Plinio[3] Rhodii, et Tanagraei: secundo Melici (Lego Medici) et Chalcidici. Iam ex his, inquit, <quidam> ad bella tantum, et praelia assidua nascuntur, quibus etiam patrias nobilitarunt Rhodum, {ac} <aut> Tanagram. Secundus est honos habitus Melicis, ac Chalcidicis, ut plane dignae aliti tantum honoris {praebeat} <perhibeat>[4] Romana purpura. Hinc facile hunc Suidae[5] locum restituas: ἀλεκτρυόνα ἀθλητὴν ταναγραῖον, hoc est Gallinaceum athletam Tanagraeum. Deest enim copulativa coniunctio[6], quae et alibi apud eundem habetur: Ἀλεκτρυόνα καὶ ἀθλητὴν ταναγραῖον, ubi eam proverbialiter {hoc} <hic> accipi scribit: sive Gallinaceum Tanagraeum, sive athl{a}etam Tanagraeum dicas, animosum et strenuum intelligas: elegantius vero fuerit, si hominem, et athl{a}etam pugnacem, ac fortem Gallinaceum Tanagraeum cognomines: quam si athletam Tanagraeum simpliciter. Non enim athletas a Tanagra laudatos legere memini, sed Gallos tantum[7].

On the other hand among roosters some were preferred to others. For, according to Pliny, were first praised the Rhodian and Tanagran cocks; next the Melian (I read Median) and Chalcidian ones. Among these, he says, some are born only for incessant wrestling and fighting, thanks to which they also made renowned their native lands, Rhodes or Tanagra. Median and Chalcidian ones have been given the second place, so that purple-clad Romans bestow so great a honor on a bird which quite deserves it. Hence you may easily repair this passage of Suidas lexicon: alektryóna athlëtën tanagraîon, that is, The rooster athlete of Tanagra. For the copulative conjunction is missing here, which also elsewhere is mantained: Alektryóna kaí athlëtën tanagraîon - The rooster and the Tanagran athlete - where it writes that this conjunction is used in this case proverbially: both saying Tanagra's rooster and Tanagra's athlete, and you would mean brave and valiant: but it would be more elegant if you call as Tanagran rooster a man as well as a pugnacious and strong athlete than if you simply call him as Tanagran athlete. For I do not recall to have read that athletes from Tanagra were praised, but only the roosters.

Iam vero ex his, quae dicta sunt, cuivis satis liquido constare arbitror, Gallinaceos Gallos non solum pugnacissimas alites esse, et a servitio, iugoque abhorrere, sed ab antiquis, et a multis nostro aevo ob id in summo honore habitos; adeo ut olim Plato[8] illorum stoliditatem ridens, sese amicum bonum potius, quam Gallum ἄριστον, id est optimum, seu pugnacissimum malle dixerit. Contra Pallas huiusce bellicosissimi alitis imaginem, ut testatur Pausanias[9], in casside {suo} <sua> pictam tulit, et Mars sibi sacrum voluit, adeo ut utri{m}que bellorum Deo gratum fuisse videamus, atque hinc forte Aristophanes[10] aves hominibus, Persis vero in primis imperasse per iocum scripsit: ait autem.

Quod autem non Dei igitur hominibus imperarunt antiquitus,

Sed aves et regnabant: multa sunt signa horum:

Statim autem vobis primum ostendam Gallum quod regnabat

Imperabatque Persis primum omnibus, Dario, et {Megabizo[11]} <Megabazo>:

Quare vocatur {Persicus} <Persica> avis a dominatione adhuc illa.

Sed verisimilius fuerit primum Persarum regem Gallum fuisse dictum, ut in aequivocis[12] diximus.

Well, from the words I said, I think that it could unequivocally turn out to anyone that roosters are not only very pugnacious birds abhorring slavery and yoke, but that because of this by ancients and by many people of our own time they are held in the highest esteem; to such an extent that once Plato, making fun of their stupidity, said he preferred to be a good friend rather than an áriston rooster, that is excellent, or very pugnacious. On the contrary the Pallas Athena, according to Pausanias, carried the painted image of this very warlike bird in her helmet, and Mars wished it to be sacred to him, so that we may see it was dear to both gods of wars, and hence, perhaps, Aristophanes wrote in jest that the birds ruled over men, but first over the Persians: for he says:

But therefore in ancient times the gods did not rule men

but also birds did rule: there are many proofs about the latter ones:

at once, I shall point out firstly the rooster since he ruled

and as first dominated over all Persians, over Darius and Megabazus:

whence he is still called Persian bird starting from that hegemony.

But it is more likely that the first king of Persians was called Rooster, as I said under the heading Ambiguities.

Aristoteles[13] fortitudinis huius volucris causam in duras eius pennas reijcit: quasi vero non aliae darentur aves durioribus pennis, quae tamen haud aeque fortes sint. {Rases} <Rasis>, penes quem eius rei fides esto, {vinciturum} <victurum> pollicetur causam contra adversarium, si calcar Galli de crure dextro tecum feras: et Kiranides fabulosissimus scriptor cristam capitis Galli cum grano thuris, et pauco cornu cervi timorem omnem nocturnum, si gestatur, omnemque occursum malum auferre: hominemque gestantem intrepidum reddere: quasi eiusmodi arma, quibus Gallus maxime superbit, crista nempe, et calcar ad hominibus animum addendum polleant: quod cum non negaverim, minime tamen affirmaverim, nihil scilicet certi inde habens. Atque haec de Galli pugnacitate dicta sufficiant.

Aristotle attributes the cause of the strength of this bird to its hard feathers, as if there were not other birds with harder feathers which nevertheless are not equally strong. Razi, in whom we must believe in this matter, promises that you will win your case against an adversary if you carry with you the spur from the right foot of a rooster: and Kiranides, a writer with a very lively imagination, says that the comb of a rooster’s head with a grain of incense and a bit of deer horn, if carried about with one, drives away every night-time fear and every bad encounter: and makes intrepid the man who carries it, as if such arms in which the rooster takes especial pride, that is, comb and spur, are powerful to imbue humans with courage. Although I should not deny this, I should nevertheless by no means assert that it is true, since evidently thence no certainty can be drawn. And let these words we said about the pugnacity of the rooster to be enough.

SYMPATHIA. ANTIPATHIA.

SYMPATHY - ANTIPATHY

Videtur quidem occulta quaedam sympathiae, seu amicitiae vis, potentiaque subesse, quod aves cicures[14], et domesticae tam audacter equos, asinos, boves, atque id genus iumenta alia contemnant, ac si cum mansuefactis elephantis simul alantur, non modo eos non pertimescant, verum per eos etiam ipsos gradiantur, et Gallinacei eorumdem dorso insidere audeant. Cavendum tamen Gallinas alentibus, ne ad boum praes<a>epia perrepant, maxime Gallinacei. Nam hoc quod decidit immistum pabulo, teste Columella[15], necem bubus affert.

Actually, it seems there is a certain hidden force and influence of sympathy or friendship, since domesticated and domestic birds so boldly do not take into account horses, donkeys and oxen, and other beasts of burden of this kind, and if raised along with tamed elephants, they not only do not fear them but also walk among them, and gallinaceous birds dare to stand upon their backs. Nevertheless, those who raise hens should be careful to keep them, especially the roosters, from creeping into the cattle sheds. For the excrements mixed with fodder, according to Columella, bring death to oxen.

Gallinis item cum Pavonibus, Anatibus, Anseribus, et Columbis mutua intercedit benevolentia: maior vero Gallo cum Porphyrione, si Aeliano[16] credimus, qui Gallum in eodem cum Porphyrione versantem domicilio, tam insolenti miroque amore illi coniunctum fuisse ex inspectione testatur, adeo ut tandem Gallo propter epulas occiso, Porphyrio convictore suo privatus, tantum doloris animo conceperit, ut postmodum non amplius cibum ceperit, sed inedia potius sibi mortem accelerare, quam post supervivere maluerit. Sed huius quoque abstrusa videtur, ac occulta ratio, cur deficiente apibus cibo, si ad fores earum crudas Gallinarum carnes, et uvas passas posueris, inedia non sint periturae: quod in sc<h>edulis meis notatum reperio, sed ex quo authore non memini: et an verum sit, haud scio: curiosus quispiam experiri poterit.

Likewise there is a mutual affection between hens and peacocks, ducks, geese and pigeons: in fact it is greater between the rooster and the purple swamp hen - or purple gallinule, Porphyrio porphyrio porphyrio - if we believe Aelian, who affirms from his own observation that a rooster, who lived in the same house along with a purple swamp hen, was joined to it by such unusual and outstanding love that when finally the rooster was killed because of a banquet, the purple swamp hen, deprived of its companion, formed in its mind such a great grief that from that moment no longer ate and preferred to hasten its own death by starvation rather than survive any more. But there is a deep and hidden reason for this also, that is, why when food for bees is lacking, if you place raw hens’ flesh and raisins at their beehive door, they will not die of starvation: I find this written down in my slips of paper, but I do not remember from what author: and I do not know whether it is true or not: whoever is curious will be able to try out it.