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Why do the Latins revere the woodpecker and
all strictly abstain1 from it?
[p. 37]
Is it because, as they tell the tale, Picus,2 transformed by his wife's magic drugs, became a woodpecker and in that form gives oracles and prophecies
to those who consult him?
Or is this wholly incredible and monstrous, and is
that other tale3 more credible which relates that
when Romulus and Remus were exposed, not only
did a she-wolf suckle them, but also a certain woodpecker carne continually to visit them and bring them
scraps of food? For generally, even to this day, in
foot-hills and thickly wooded places where the woodpecker is found, there also is found the wolf, as
Nigidius records.
Or is it rather because they regard this bird as
sacred to Mars, even as other birds to other gods?
For it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak
so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them
until it has reached the inmost part of the tree.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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