[190] He gives as illustrations a child born with the head of a ram or of an ox; a calf born with a child’s head, or a lamb with the head of an ox. See further ib IV, 65 seq.
[191] De Generatione IV, 63. See above p. 44. He argues against the possibility of such hybrid creatures (IV, 55), on the ground of the varying length of pregnancy in the case of women, ewes, bitches, and cows.
[192] I, 6, de Prodigiis quae evenere Externis § 1. See also Herodotus, VII 57 who represents the source of Valerius Maximus.
[193] Book I, 8 de Miraculis quae contigere Externis § 12.
[194] VII, 57.
[195] Varia Historia I 29. Aelian says that the story was told by ‘the children in Cos’—evidently a rationalistic supplement to the tale, dating from a time when it was no longer considered possible to take such stories seriously. The story had become, as we would say, ‘an old wives’ tale’.
[196] See above p. 24 sq. and Jastrow, Religion II 875 sq.
[197] Herodotus I § 84.
[198] Herodotus I § 85; Cicero, De Divinatione I 53. The latter preserves the tradition in its correct form Croesi filium cum infans esset locutum. The omen consists in the fact that the infant speaks as in the cases reported by Julius Obsequens (see above 52). In Herodotus the story is perverted through the rationalistic touch that the son of Croesus was dumb for many years (cf. also §§ 34 and 39) but suddenly acquired the power of speech. The story loses its point by this modification. The correct form of the story is also given by Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon 65. The ‘speaking’ infant of which Wuelker, Prodigienwesen bei den Römern 20 gives six instances, was always regarded as an ill omen, prognosticating some national misfortune.
[199] See above p. 39.