104 THE INSECT WORLD. 
ing, 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 pretended 
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 eat 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, unpro- 
longed, having very large and prominent oce//i, or simple eyes, 
three in number, arranged in a triangle on the top of the fore- 
head, and short antenne. The immature anterior and posterior 
wings have the shape of a sheath, or case, enveloping the body when 
the insect is at rest; these are transparent and destitute of colour, 
or sometimes adorned with bright and varied hues. The legs 
are not in the least suited for jumping. The female is provided 
with an auger with which she makes holes in the bark of trees 
in which to lay her eggs. The male (Fig. 78) is provided with 
an organ, not of song, but of stridulation or screeching, which 
is very rudimentary in the female. We will stop a moment to 
