[272] AENIGMATA.

RIDDLES

Poetarum nostri aevi coryphaeus Scaliger de Gallina bina haec condidit aenigmata: quorum primum tale est.

Cui lux ante diem, tenebrae sunt ante tenebras,

Sic {utrunque} <utrumque> simul sedula segnis erit.

Quaerere posterius, natone, priusve parente

Possumus, hoc quod nunc est quod et ante fuit.

Fit melior peior, generique tuoque suoque:

Sed peior melior post modo vita tibi est.

Giulio Cesare Scaligero, coryphaeus of the poets of our age, framed these two riddles about the hen, the first of them sounding as follows:

She who has the light before the day, has the darkness before the darkness,

Thus she will be at the same time both zealous and lazy.

We can wonder if the parent was born before or after,

This that now is there has been also before.

The worse becomes better, both for your and her offspring:

But at least afterwards the worse life for you is the better.

Etsi in primis Gallo istaec omnia, ac ea in primis, quae priori disticho dicuntur, competant, maluit tamen poeta id de Gallina dixisse, quod ea, non autem Gallus ad mensas lautiores saginetur. Est vero primi distichi sensus: Cum hoc animal lucem ante diem, et noctem ante noctem agnovit, non tamen ante lucem ad pastum, nec ante noctem ad quietem sese recipit; ad utrumque opus merito deses dicitur: etsi alias naturaliter sedula, quo enim noctu in tenebris sese recipiat? Cur longe ante noctem vesperi cubitum eat? Secundum ad communem eam tritamque quaestionem, quam nos etiam antea[1] obiter attigimus, alludit, nempe num Gallina prius, an ovum extiterit. Tertium mea quidem sententia ita intelligendum: Quae Gallina pinguior, et esui aptior est, ea tuo, suoque generi, hoc est, soboli nasciturae, quae tam tua est, quam eius, peior est aliis, quia scilicet Gallinam occidendo spem futurae prolis auferas: atque ita haec suae, tuaeque proli peior est, et tibi melior postea vita, quoniam scilicet tam lauto cibo nutritus vitae tuae incolumitati consulas.

Although before everything else all these things, and especially those which are said in the first couplet, are concerning the rooster, nevertheless the poet preferred to say this about the hen, since she and not the rooster is fattened for lavisher tables. In truth the meaning of the first couplet is as follows: Since this animal recognized the light before the day and the night before the night, nevertheless she is not devoting herself to the food before the light, nor to the rest before the night, she is rightly said lazy in regard to both deeds: even if for other reasons the animal is zealous for nature, for what a purpose does she take refuge at night-time in darkness? Why does she go to roost at twilight very before the night? The second couplet alludes to that common and trite question which also before we have incidentally touched, and that is, if existed first hen or egg. The third couplet in my opinion must be understood this way: That hen who is fatter and more suited to be eaten, she is worse than others for your and her offspring, that is for offspring that is to be born, which is as much yours as it is hers, since it is clear that killing the hen you are nullifying the hope of a future offspring: and so she is worse for her and your offspring, and afterwards for you the life will be better, since it is obvious that nourished by a so lavish food you can provide for the safety of your life.

aliud

Magnanimam gentem imbelli de pectore promet.

Tantum posteriora piger tibi textor habeto

Quae tamen ut sapido lucro tibi prima putabit.

Magnanimam � Galli. Posteriora � Lina. Prima � posteriora Gallinae.

Second riddle

She will draw out of an unwarlike heart a magnanimous progeny.

Lazy weaver, hold only for you the posterior parts

Which nevertheless she will judge as first fruits because of a savory profit for you.

Magnanimous = of the rooster. Posterior parts = linen. First fruits = posteriors of the hen.

EPITAPHIUM.

EPITAPH

In Gallinaceum Anytes epitaphium in epigrammati{bu}s Graecis[2].

 Οὐκ ἔτι μ’ὡς τὸ πάρος πυκιναῖς πτερύγεοσιν ἐρέοσων

Ὄρσεις δ’Εὐνῆς, ὄρθριος ἐγρόμενος.

Ἧ γὰρ σ'ὑπνώοντα σίνις λἀτρηδὸν ἐπελθὼν

Ἔκτεινεν λαιμῷ ῥίμφα καθεὶς ὄνυχα.

Epitaph by Anyte devoted to the rooster among Greek epigrams:

Ouk éti m'høs tò páros pykinaîs pterýgessin eréssøn

Órseis ex Eunês, órthrios egrómenos.

Ê gàr s'hypnøonta sínis lathrëdòn epelthøn

Ékteinen laimø_i rhimpha katheìs ønycha.

You don't awake any longer so early, you don't beat with thick wings | as before and you frighten me up from the bed: Ah! | A thief killed you, who furtively approached you when sleeping and | suddenly he flung his fingernails in your throat.

APOPHTHEGMATA.

MAXIMS

Platonem legimus hominem definivisse animal {biceps} <bipes>[3] sine plumis: Diogenem vero Cynicum irridendi gratia in academiam eius Gallinaceum deplumatum immisisse, hunc hominem Platonis esse inclamitando, quare postea Platonem πλατυόνυχον, id est latis unguibus praeditum, differentiae causa addidisse.

We read that Plato defined the human being as a biped animal without feathers: and Diogenes the Cynic to make fun of him threw in his Academy a plucked rooster, shouting that this was the man of Plato, therefore subsequently Plato in order to differentiate him - from the rooster - added platyónychon, that is, with broad nails.

Diogenes Cynicus {citharaedum} <citharoedum>, qui quoties canebat, ab auditoribus deserebatur, obvium ita salutabat; Salve Galle. Quum ille offensus salutationis novitate diceret, Quid ita? Quoniam, inquit, cantu tuo excitas omnes. Iocum captavit ex ambiguitate verbi Graeci. Ἀναγείρειν enim dicitur, et qui excitat dormientem, quod solent Galli Gallinacei male canentes, et qui sedentem excitat, ut surgat, ut ille solet.

Diogenes the Cynic thus greeted a lyre player who was abandoned by his listeners every time he was singing: Hi rooster. Therefore he, struck by the novelty of greeting manner, would have said: Why this way? Diogenes said: because with your song you wake everybody. He deduced the joke from the ambiguity of a Greek word. For anageírein is said either when someone awakes a sleeper, as are accustomed to do badly singing roosters, or when someone makes standing up a sitting person, as he – the lyre player - is accustomed to do.

C. Iulius Hel<v>io (alii apophthegma hoc Crasso ascribunt) mancipi saepius obstrepenti sibi dixit, etiam ostendam qualis sis: et Hel<v>io instanti, ut ostenderet, qualis esset, Iulius digito demonstravit Gallum in Mariano scuto Cimbrico depictum, nodis distortum, erecta lingua, buccis fluentibus, cui manceps tunc simillimus est visus. Taberna autem erat apud forum, ac scutum illud signi gratia positum[4]. Ingens omnium risus {consequutus} <consecutus> est.

Caius Julius Caesar (others ascribe this joke to Lucius Licinius Crassus) said to the entrepreneur of public work Helvius, who rather frequently troubled him by cackling, I will also let you see how you are: and with the finger Julius showed to Helvius, who was pressing him, a rooster represented on a shield that Caius Marius had attained from Cimbri, deformed by knots, with erect tongue, drooping cheeks, to which the entrepreneur in that moment very closely resembled. Nearby the Forum there was a shop and that shield was placed as sign. Big laugh arose from everybody.