Here we think it not out of place to introduce the account of the silk-worm by Georgius Pisida, who flourished about A. D. 640, although he lived at Constantinople after the breeding of silk-worms had been introduced there. According to him the silk-worm pines or moulders almost to nothing in its tomb, and then returns to its former shape. The verses are however deserving of attention for their elegance, and for the repetition of Basil’s idea, which Ambrose has left out, of the analogy between the restoration of the silk-worm and the resurrection of man.
Ποῖος δὲ καὶ σκωλήκα Σηρικὸν νόμος
Πείθει τὰ λαμπρόκλωστα νήματα πλέκειν,
Ἃ, τῇ βαφῇ χρωσθέντα τῆς ἁλουργίδος,
Χαυνοῖ τὸν ὄγκον τῶν κρατούντων ἐμφρόνως;
Μνήμη γὰρ αὐτοὺς εὐλαβῶς ὑποτρέχει,
Ὅτι πρὸ αὐτῶν τῆς στολῆς ἡ λαμπρότης
Σκώληκος ἦν ἔνδυμα καὶ φθαρτὴ σκέπη,
Ὃς, τῇ καθ’ ἡμᾶς μαρτυρῶν ἀναστάσει,
Θνῆσκει μὲν ἔνδον τῶν ἑαυτοῦ νημάτων,