"How the Chicken Conquered the World"

Snippet from the Smithsonian magazine, June 2012. By Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler.


"The chickens that saved Western civilization were discovered according to legend, by the side of a road in Greece in the first decade of the fifth century B.C.

"The Athenian general Themistocles, on his way to confront the invading Persian troops, stopped to watch two cocks fighting and summoned his troops, saying ....."

Quite a lot, actually! Those fighting cocks gave his men a heroic example!

"But history records that the Greeks, thus heartened, went on to repel the invaders, preserving the civilization that today honors those same creatures by breading, frying and dipping them into one's choice of sauce.


"The descendants of those roosters might well think -- if they were capable of such profound thought -- that their ancient forebears have a lot to answer for ..." 


Good point! :)