THE GECKO, THE HOOPOE ... AND LICE

In his De natura animalium, IX, 19, Aelian tells us the somehow amazing results of dead bodies fallen into a vessel of wine, water or oil. The text runs as follows :

Των χατά την οίκίαν όρνις εάν ες οΐνον εμπέστ] και άποπνιγη, ουδέν λυμαίνεται ούτε τού οίνου φασίν ούτε των ένδον · εάν δε ες ύδωρ κατενεχθρ, δυσώδες άπέφηνε το ύδωρ, xai κακοσμίαν περί τον αέρα εργάζεται, γαλεώτης δέ εάν ες οίνον κατολισθών είτα άποπνιγγι, λυπεί ουδέ εν · εάν δέ ες έ'λαιον εμπέση και άποθάνΐ], δυσώδες το ελαιον άποφαίνει, και ό γευσάμενος αυτού φθειρσίν εξέζεσεν.

"If a bird of the household falls into a vessel of wine and is drowned, they say that neither the wine nor any of the inmates of the house suffers any harm ; whereas if it sinks in water, it causes the water to smell, and diffuses a foul odour in the surrounding air. But if a Gecko falls into wine and is drowned, it does no harm. If however it falls into oil and dies, it makes the oil smell nasty, and on anyone who tastes it lice at once break out." '

The fact that a dead bird, rotten in water, may cause the water to smell really badly and make it undrinkable, is easy to believe. But that it might leave a good wine unharmed is another point. A rational explanation could be that the high alcoholic strength of wine dissolves the morbific matters, but since the process of alcoholization was not well known in antiquity 2 1 suppose that the harmlesness of wine has to be ascribed to its divine and magical character, which was said to break down all evil powers 3.

It is acceptable that oil grows rancid when a gecko falls into it. The Geoponica even gives a recipe to get it right again when it is tainted by a mouse