The Dubious Legend of Virgil’s Pet Fly

Here in Mental Floss, we encountered a lot of “facts” that, when more examination, do not stand up. Like, did Benjamin Franklin invented a concept Summer time time? Not real. (Many ancient cultures modified their seasons hours, and Franklin thought only jokingly about making people wake up early. The modern version was suggested in 1895 by George Hudson, the insect world who wants additional daylight so that he can collect more insects.) Does he eat the sea tent through their path? Some, but not everything. (One type, A. CaliforniaThe back door is used as a file The second mouth))

Other facts were more difficult to expose because the historical record was arrogant or sarcastic: Was Aryigo Vespuccci, who is likely to call America, an intermittent merchant? (Ralph Walou Emerson He said thatBut he might be complaining. (Quote from the series of novels Francois Rabils from the novels Gargantua and Pantagruel It was confused as a guide, but Rabils was sarcastic.)

However, one of our favorite fun facts – Trojan horse infiltrated into a handful of trivial books – outperform Virgil, the Roman poet and author of the book ” AENEID.

1. From poets and pests
2. A man from many myths

From poets and pests

The story He goes that Virgil had a pet home, and when the insect died, Virgil spent 800,000 broadcasts – all his pure wealth – for a heavy funeral. Celebrities gathered the poet’s house. Professional mourners cry. Orchestra performs a lament. Virgil formulated verses to celebrate the fly memory. After service, the corpse of the error was festive in a mausoleum, and the poet was built on his property.

Virgil did not lose her: Everything was planned to remove the fingers of the government from his land. At that time (and this part is correct), Rome was acquiring private property and giving it to the old warriors in the war. According to the legend, Virgil knew that the government could not touch his property if his property contained a grave, so he quickly built a shrine, found a detailed work, and saved his house.

It is a great story – it’s also unfounded from work. None of my contemporaries Virgil mentioned the poet throwing a luxurious funeral, especially at home. The story is likely to have roots in an old poem that was (incorrectly) attributed to the poet “The Colax” (also seen as “The Gnat”). In the poem, a fly (or, depending on your translation, spider or GNAT) wakes up a man as the snake is lying in a place nearby. The man kills both the insect and the snake, but soon regrets the killing of his winged protector. It builds the insect. Watch the marble grave with this temptation:

O young Nat, the herd guard
Pay you, deserves such a thing
The duty of a festive grave
In payment against his life gift.

A man from many myths

Most scientists do not believe that Virgil wrote “The Colax”. But as Sarah B. Muscat, Assistant Researcher at the University of Pittsburg during the thirties, in Short articleVirgil was regularly the subject of this type of myth.

Shortly after his death, people in his hometown of Napoli claimed that he was the founder of the city. (It was not.) Others claimed that he was the ruler of the city. (It was not.) By the Middle Ages, Virgil was photographed as a sorcerer Or the dark therapist that can communicate with the dead. (He could not.)

“After that, there is no evidence, old or in the Middle Ages, I can find him to support the story that Virgil was flying pets and gave him a complex funeral.” “It seems completely inconsistent with the usual Vergil behavior, and it may indicate that the legend’s manufacture period has not yet been closed.”

Like our friendly fairy fly, maybe it’s time for that Realism Also dust bite.

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