History of Monsters. 137

they use various dialects; for *merops* indicates one having a diverse voice, and according to Aristotle, it also signifies a bird.

Likewise, by virtue of their character, men are rendered so venerable that they are proclaimed industrious, learned, and literate—the Greeks call them *argaleoi* and *mogeroi*, meaning hardworking and toiling. Furthermore, those shining with the extraordinary splendor of virtue are called hospitable, constant, patient, magnanimous, truthful, just, chaste, religious, modest, bashful, and *chamaiphrones* (humble-minded). For this reason, Pythagoras called man "the measure of all things."

Conversely, because man is weighed down by countless calamities, he is given no small number of epithets. The Latins designate him as vile, incautious, naked, hardworking, fragile, weak, puny, fleeting, unhappy, and full of sorrow.

In this same sense, the Greeks call men *chamaigeneis* (born of the earth), *chamai erchomenoi* (walking upon the ground), *epichthonioi* (dwelling on the earth), *anthropoi* (fleshy), *athlioi* (miserable), *dinomoroi* (unfortunate), and *kakodaimonas* (unhappy), as the word *kakodaimon* designates not only an evil spirit but also one who is unlucky and wretched. Furthermore, they are called *polymochthoi* (full of toil), *oizyroi* (calamitous), *polypletoi* (entangled in many miseries), and *kerestrepheis* (nurtured among miseries). Otherwise, they are called *brotoi*, and among Greek poets everywhere *thnetoi* (mortal), as well as *polyspereis* (scattered through various lands), *diotrepheis* (as if nourished by Jove), and *epigonoi* (late-born), although the Greeks sometimes use this for those born after others. Finally, they are called *thymoboroi* (soul-devouring), because they so often waste away from ailments of the spirit.

Sometimes, due to the loss of good physical health, they are termed apoplectic, asthmatic, cardiac, calculous, celiac, epileptic, dysenteric, feverish, dropsical, splenic, jaundiced, leprous, lethargic, melancholic, phrenetic, pleuritic, blind, stammering, lame, gouty, scrofulous, worm-infested—and they acquire infinite epithets of this kind, according to the afflictions that daily beset them.

By reason of origin, some are called noble, others ignoble; and according to blood relation, sons, grandsons, fathers, grandfathers, husbands, fathers-in-law, or step-sons, as was recorded in the section on affinities. Regarding the manner of birth, some are called Caesar (from the cut of the mother's womb), Opiter (born while the father is dead but the grandfather lives), Posthumus (born after the father's death), Agrippa (leaving the womb in an inverted order), Vopiscus (brought into the light when a twin has been lost), or Cordus (born late).

Others, bearing some mark imprinted by nature, are given various epithets: such as Plancus, Plautus, and Plotus for those with flat feet; Scaurus for prominent ankles; Varus for legs twisted forward; Valgius for legs bowed outward like a cow's; Cocles for those lacking one eye; Lucinus for those with small eyes; Petaurus for the agile; Labeo for prominent lips; Chilo for even larger lips; Achilus for those without lips; Buccone for a large, protruding mouth; Bronco for prominent teeth; Nasica for a hooked nose; Simus and Simon for a flat nose; Sylo for a prominent forehead; Galba from the color of the golden oriole; Flavius from a yellow complexion; Gibbosus for a hunchback; Obstipus for a short neck; and Nerva for strength of sinew. There is also Columella for great height, and finally names taken from various legumes, such as Piso from peas, Fabius from beans, Lentulus from lentils, and Cicero from chickpeas—not because they were excellent cultivators of such legumes, as some have claimed, but because they bore the image of these legumes imprinted on their bodies from their mother's womb.

If we turn our minds toward vices, men who contract the greatest stains of vice are sometimes called gluttonous, ravenous, wine-soaked, abstemious, idle, effeminate, incestuous, adulterous, thieves, lustful, liars, heretics, brigands, deceitful, wicked, dishonest, envious, arrogant, proud, ambitious, bold, rash, litigious, taciturn, loquacious, ungrateful, perjured, traitors, perfidious, sorcerers, mages, and flatterers.

Concerning the last of these, one person once sang: "I please the King more than his own heart, or false pledges; though he knows I speak falsehoods, he approves."

In this sense, the Greeks call men *deiloi* (fearful, cowardly, and wicked), *amatheis* (unlearned), *philokosmoi* (lovers of worldly things), *polyplegetoi* (driven by many errors), *kakotechnoi* (fraudulent), *aiolobouloi* (fickle and shifty in counsel), *keneauchees* (boasting in vain), *mataioi* (vain), and *kakothymoi* (malevolent). Therefore, it is