Fighting cock

(500-450 B.C.)

The ancient Greeks referred to the cockerel as the ‘Persian alarm’. It was a valuable, exotic  animal to them. Even Socrates’ last words make reference to this: ‘Critio, we still owe Aesclepius a cockerel. Please don’t forget to repay that debt’. Mythoglogy has the beautiful story of the war god Ares, who asks the Young Elctryon (Greek for cockerel) to stand guard while he committed adultery with Aphrodite. Alectryon fell asleep and the couple were caught by Helios. Als punishment, Ares changed the boy into a cockerel, an animal which never forgets to announce dawn.