IO2 THE INSECT WORLD. 



relates that one day two cythera players, Eunomos and Aristo, con- 

 tending on this sonorous instrument, one of the strings of the former's 

 cythera having broken, a Cicada settled on it, and sang so well in 

 place of the broken cord, that Eunomos gained the victory, thanks 

 to this unexpected assistant. Anacreon composed an ode in honour 

 of the Cicada. " Happy Cicada, that on the highest branches of the 

 trees, having drank a little dew, singest like a queen ! Thy realm is- 

 all thou seest in the fields, all which grows in the forests. Thou art 

 beloved by the labourer ; no one harms thee ; the mortals respect 

 thee as the sweet harbinger of summer. Thou art cherished by the 

 muses, cherished by Phoebus himself, who has given thee thy har- 

 monious song. Old age does not oppress thee. O good little 

 animal, sprung from the bosom of the earth, loving song, free from 

 suffering, that hast neither blood nor flesh, what is there prevents 

 thee from being a god ?" 



It was in virtue of the false ideas of the Greeks on natural history 

 in general, and on the Cicada in particular, that this little animal 

 symbolised, among the Athenians, nobility of race. They imagined 

 that the Cicada was formed at the expense of the earth, and in its 

 bosom, on which account those who pretended to an ancient and 

 high origin, wore in their hair a golden Cicada. The Locrians had 

 on their coins the image of a Cicada. This is the origin which fable 

 assigns to the custom : 



The bank of the river upon which Locris was built was covered 

 with screeching legions of Cicadas ; whereas they were never heard 

 (so says the legend) on the opposite bank, on which stood the town 

 Rhegium. In explanation of this circumstance, they pretend that 

 Hercules, wishing one day to sleep on this bank, was so tormented 

 by the "sweet eloquence" of the Cicadas, that, furious at their 

 concert, he asked of the gods that they should never sing there for 

 evermore, and his prayer was immediately granted ! This is why 

 the Locrians adopted the Cicada as the arms of their city. 



The Greeks did not only delight, as poets and musicians, in the 

 song of the Cicada ; they were not content with addressing to it 

 poems, with adoring it, and striking medals bearing its image ; 

 obedient to their grosser appetites, they ate it. They thus satisfied 

 at the same time both the mind, the spirit, and the body. 



The Cicadas are easily to be recognised by their heavy, very 

 robust, and rather thick-set bodies, by their broad head, unprolonged, 

 having very large and prominent ocelli, or simple eyes, three in 

 number, arranged in a triangle on the top of the forehead, and short 

 antennae. The immature anterior and posterior wings have the 



