t h e c l a s s i c s p a g e s l e t t e r s |
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Dear L The story is that he trained a number of birds to say "Psapho is a god" (he was an African and they were presumably parrots) - when he released them, the local Africans were so impressed that they honoured P as a god! The tale is told by Aelianus [Aelian] (the only mention of him I think), a writer of the 2nd/3rd centuries AD, and presumably comes from his Varia Historia, although I don't have the actual reference, I'm afraid. There is a translation in the Loeb series - otherwise texts of Aelian are hard to find! Best wishes Andrew |