To play the Cercops

Explanation

the proverb is transferred from animals fawning with their tails. But better, from the Cercopes, whom they relate to have lived in Lydia, exceedingly deceitful and unpleasant; on which account they were even turned to stone; and for troubling Heracles when he was with Omphale, they were punished. Xenagoras says they were transformed into apes.