Did you know Aristophanes was probably the first dramatist to mention roosters in literature?
While roosters and chickens had probably been imported into Greece for at least a century or longer judging from paintings on amphoras and other ceramics like this one from Corinth they were still seen as being some what exotic and when Aristophanes talks about the Median Bird its chickens and roosters he's referring too! His listing of actual Persian names makes me wonder if the Persians were offering visiting embassies roosters as gifts?
The roosters would have much smaller yet more colorful being closer genetically to the ancestral Indian jungle fowl.
More on birds in Greek art and Aristophanes play next time!
THE HOOPOE !!!
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