Aelian, Characteristics of Animals

ToposText · Aelian · 800 sections

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§ 10.13 The variety of colour and of shape in the fauna of Arabia might well put anyone skilled in painting a la to the test, not only in the case of powerful and noble animals but even of the more insignificant, the locusts and the snakes; for the markings on them look like gold. The fish, which enjoy an even more richly wrought colouring, are an astonishing sight. And the oysters in the Red Sea are not without the same glamour, for they are encircled with rings of fiery hue, and to look at them you would say that with the blending of their colours they were copying the rainbow, Nature having painted parallel stripes upon them. And the pearl, so celebrated among fools and admired by women, is also a nursling of the Red Sea, and they tell a marvellous story of how it is produced when lightning flashes upon the open shells. So then these shells which are the mothers of the aforesaid pearls are sought for when the weather is fine and the sea smooth. And the seekers collect them and extract this object which delights the hearts of the luxurious. One may find a small pearl even in the largest shell and a large one in a small shell; and this one contains none, and that not more than one, and many contain a number. Some assert that as many as twenty have been attached to a single shellfish. Now the shell is the flesh, and these pearls cling to it like a thorn. But if one were to open the shell prematurely, that is before the birth-process is complete, one would find the flesh indeed, but it will not contain the object of one's quest. The pearl, it seems, is like a stone produced by petrifaction, and it is not its nature to contain or to admit even a drop of moisture. In the opinion of those who trade in pearls and those who buy them pearls that are pure white and large are the most beautiful and the most highly esteemed, and I can avow that many of those who make a livelihood by them have become wealthy. And I am also well aware that when these stones have been extracted and the shellfish have been released after giving up the aforesaid coveted object as ransom for their lives, they have gradually produced another one. If however the animal that fosters the pearl dies before the pearl is extracted, as is sometimes reported, both pearl and flesh rot away and perish. It has a naturally smooth and well-rounded contour, but if a man should want by artificial means to make round and smooth some stone not naturally so, the pearl confounds his design, for it declines to yield and develops roughnesses, thereby denouncing the plot that has been laid to secure its beauty.
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§ 10.14 The Egyptians appear to regard the Hawk as sacred to Apollo, calling the god' Horus' in their own language, and they regard the birds with wonder and are right in saying that they belong to the aforesaid god. For Hawks are the only birds that can face with ease and without pain the rays of the sun and are not the least dazzled; and while they fly at an immense height the divine fire does not trouble them at all. Moreover observers say that the Hawk flies upside down, like a man swimming on his back, and in this way, you see, it looks at the sky and the all-surveying sun with complete freedom and without flinching. It is the bitter enemy of snakes and venomous creatures. At any rate no snake, no scorpion, nor indeed any other product of noxious matter would escape its notice. Fruits and seeds it will not touch; it delights to feed on flesh and drinks blood, and on these it feeds its young; it is also passionate in lechery. If the bone from its tibia is put beside gold it attracts and draws it to itself by some inexplicable fascination, persuading it to follow even as, they say, the stone of Heraclea somehow bewitches iron. The Egyptians assert that the Hawk's life extends to as much as five hundred years, and they do not convince me: I merely report what I have heard. Homer, they say, seems to hint that the Hawk is beloved of the child of Zeus and Leto (i.e. Apollo ) when he says'And down the hills of Ida he went, like unto a swift hawk, the slayer of doves.'
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§ 10.15 The Scarab is a creature of which there is no set female, but it pours its semen into the heap which it rolls up. After doing this and keeping the heap warm for eight-and-twenty days, on the following day it brings forth its young. Among the Egyptians the fighting class wore a Scarab engraved on their finger-rings, their ruler intimating thereby that those who fight for their country must at all costs and in every way be men, because the Scarab has in it nothing of the feminine element.
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§ 10.16 The Pig in sheer gluttony does not spare even its own young; moreover if it comes across a man's Egypt body it does not refrain from eating it. That is why the Egyptians detest the animal as polluted and omnivorous. And sober men are accustomed to prefer those animals which are of a gentler nature and have some sense of restraint and reverence. At any rate the Egyptians actually worship Storks, because they tend and respect their parents in old age; and these same Egyptians pay honour to vulpansers and hoopoes, because the former are fond of their offspring, and the latter show reverence to their parents. And I learn that Manetho the Egyptian, a man who attained the very summit of knowledge, says that one who has tasted of sow's milk becomes covered with leprosy and scaly eruptions. And all the peoples of Asia loathe these diseases. And the Egyptians are convinced that the Sow is an abomination to the sun and the moon. Accordingly when they hold the festival of the moon they sacrifice Pigs to her once a year, but at no other seasons are they willing to sacrifice them either to her or to any other god. But the Athenians sacrifice Sows at the Mysteries and very properly, for they ruin the crops and frequently by trampling upon the new ears of corn break some before they are ripe and uproot others. But Eudoxus asserts that the Egyptians refrain from sacrificing Sows, because when the corn has been sown they drive in herds of them, and they tread and press the seed into the soil when moist so that it may remain fertile and not be consumed by the birds.
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§ 10.17 Elephants when withdrawn from the country to which they are accustomed, though tamed at first by captivity and hunger and after that by food and a varied diet, nevertheless do not erase from their memory the spell of the country that fostered them. At any rate the majority die of grief, and some have actually lost their sight through the floods of tears past measuring which they have shed. And they are brought on board ships by means of a bridge on either side of which boughs fresh and in full leaf have been fixed, together with other greenery that extends the whole length in order to deceive the beasts. For if the Elephants see these things they imagine that they are still walking on firm ground, and this verdure does not allow the sea to be visible. But the water close to the shore from which they must sail is shallow and not deep, and the cargo-vessels are some distance out. That is why there is need of the bridge and the device of a ruse contrived with the boughs and greenery aforesaid.
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§ 10.18 I have heard that the Ram during the six months of winter lies down upon its left side, and sleeps so whenever sleep overtakes and constrains it. But after the spring equinox it rests in the reverse position and lies upon its right side. So at each equinox the Ram changes its way of lying down.
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§ 10.19 The inhabitants of Syene regard the Phagrus as sacred, and those who dwell in Elephantine, as it is called, the Maeotes. (This also is a species of fish.) And the reverence which both peoples pay to either kind has its origin in this: when the Nile is about to rise and overflow, these fish come swimming in advance, as though heralding the coming water, and gladden the anxious hearts of the Egyptians with fair hopes, being the first to realise the advent of the flood and foretelling it by some marvellous natural faculty. Moreover the aforesaid peoples are accustomed to add, concerning their respect for the fish, that they never eat one another.
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§ 10.20 It seems that there are other Shellfish besides in the Red Sea, whose shells are not smooth but have certain grooves and hollows in them. These shells have sharp lips, and when they close they fit into one another, as they make the points interlock, so that it seems as if the teeth of two saws came together. And so if they catch any fisherman swimming and bite any part of him they cut it off, even though there be a bone within the bitten part; more than that, if they bite at a joint, they cut it off at once; nor is that to be wondered at, for their bite is exceedingly sharp.
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§ 10.21 In Egypt there are some, like the people of Ombos, who venerate Crocodiles, and just as we regard the Olympian gods with awe, so do they these animals. And when, as often happens, their children are carried off by them, the people are overjoyed, while the mothers of the unfortunates are glad and go about in pride at having, I suppose, borne food and a meal for a god. But the people of Apollonopolis, a district of Tentyra, net the Crocodiles, hang them up on persea-trees (these are indigenous), flog them severely, mangling them with all the blows in the world, while the creatures whimper and shed tears; finally they cut them up and eat them. The Crocodile, it seems, is pregnant for sixty days, and produces sixty eggs which it broods for as many days: it has that number of vertebrae in its spine, and they say that sixty sinews girdle its body, and it bears young ones the same number of times, and it lives for sixty years (I am reporting what the people of Egypt say and believe); one may reckon the teeth of this creature as sixty in number; during sixty days of every year it remains quiet in its lair and abstains from food. The Crocodiles are accustomed to the people of Ombos, and those that are kept in the lakes made by the aforesaid people are obedient to their summons. And the people bring them the heads of the animals which they sacrifice — they themselves will never touch that part — and throw them in, and the Crocodiles come leaping round them. The inhabitants of Apollonopolis, on the contrary, detest the Crocodile, for they say that this was the shape assumed by Typho. Others however say that this is not the reason, but that a Crocodile carried off the daughter of King Psammyntus, a supremely good and righteous man, and therefore in memory of that disaster even posterity abhors the whole race of Crocodiles.
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§ 10.22 The Vaccaei (they are a western people) insult the corpses of such as die from disease as having died a cowardly and effeminate death, and dispose of them by burning; whereas those who laid down their lives in war they regard as noble, heroic, and full of valour, and them they cast to the Vultures, believing this bird to be sacred. And when Romulus on the Palatine Hill, divining by the flight of twelve Vultures, had received a favourable augury, following the number of the birds he decreed that the rulers of Rome should be preceded by a number of rods equal to that of the birds seen on that occasion. And the Egyptians believe that the Vulture is sacred to Hera, and deck the head of Isis with Vultures' feathers, and on the roofs of the entrances to their temples they carve the wings of Vultures in relief. I have earlier on said much concerning this bird, but not to the same effect.
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§ 10.23 At Coptos in Egypt the natives pay homage to Isis in a variety of rituals but especially in the service and ministry rendered by women who are mourning either a husband or a son or a brother. And at Coptos there are scorpions of immense size, possessing very sharp stings, and most dangerous in their attack (for when they strike they kill instantly), and the Egyptians contrive innumerable devices for self-protection. But although the women in mourning at the temple of the goddess sleep on the floor, go about with bare feet, and all but tread on the aforesaid scorpions, yet they remain unharmed. And these same people of Coptos worship and deify the female gazelle, though they sacrifice the male. They say that the females are the pets of Isis.
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§ 10.24 The Crocodile (I may say that I have learned these facts in addition to what has already been Oroooalle recounted of this animal) is naturally timid, of an evil disposition, and thoroughly villainous. It is alert to seize and plan against its victims, but it dreads all noises and is afraid even of loud shouts of men and has a violent fear of those who boldly attack it. Now the people of Egypt called Tentyrites know the best way to master the beast: the most effective way of wounding it is to strike it in the eyes or the armpits and even in the belly. Its back however, and its tail are impenetrable, for it is fortified and, so to say, armed with scaly plates which resemble hard earthenware or shells. Now the aforesaid people are so assiduous in pursuit of these creatures that the river in their district is left in profound peace by the Crocodiles. So there they make bold to swim and sport in their swimming. Whereas among the people of Ombos or Coptos or Arsinoe it is not easy even to wash one's feet nor at Coptos can one draw water in security; why, one cannot even walk along the river banks freely and off one's guard. But the people of Tentyra worship Hawks. For that reason those who live in Coptos, wishing to annoy the Tentyrites as enemies of the Crocodiles, often crucify Hawks. The Crocodile the people of Coptos liken to water, that is why they worship it; whereas the Tentyrites liken the Hawk to fire, hence their adoration. And they adduce as evidence... maintaining that fire and water cannot mingle. Such are the marvellous tales told by the Egyptians.
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§ 10.25 After traversing the Egyptian oasis one is confronted for seven whole days with utter desert. Beyond this live the human Dog -faces along the road that leads to Ethiopia. It seems that these creatures live by hunting gazelles and antelopes; further, they are black in appearance, and they have the head and teeth of a dog. And since they resemble this animal, it is very natural that I should mention them here. They are however not endowed with speech, but utter a shrill squeal. Beneath their chin hangs down a beard; we may compare it with the beards of dragons, and strong and very sharp nails give an edge to their hands. Their whole body is covered with hair — another respect in which they resemble dogs. They are very swift of foot and know the regions that are inaccessible: that is why they appear so hard to capture.
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§ 10.26 The neck of a Wolf is short and compressed; the animal is thus incapable of turning but always looks straight ahead. And if it wants to look back at any time, it turns its whole body. It has the sharpest sight of any animal, and indeed it can even see at night when there is no moon. Hence the name Lycophos ( wolf's-light, i.e. gloaming) is applied to that season of the night in which the Wolf alone has light with which Nature provides him. And I think that Homer gives the name'twilight of the night,' to the time during which Wolves can see to move about. And they say that the Wolf is beloved of the Sun; and there are those who assert that the year is called Lycabas in honour of this animal. It is said also that Apollo takes pleasure in the Wolf, and the reason which is commonly reported has reached me too. It is this: they say that the god was born after Leto had changed herself into a she- wolf. That is why Homer speaks of'the wolf -born lord of the bow'. That is why, as I learn, at Delphi a bronze Wolf is set up, in allusion to the birth-pangs of Leto. Others however deny this, maintaining that it was because a Wolf gave information that offerings had been stolen from the temple and had been buried by the sacrilegious thieves. For it made its way into the temple and with its mouth pulled one of the priests by his sacred robe and drew him to the spot in which the offerings had been hidden, and then proceeded to dig the spot with its forepaws.
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§ 10.27 There is a district in Egypt called Chusae (it is reckoned as belonging to the province of Hermopolis, and though small in extent it possesses charm) and there they worship Aphrodite under the title of Urania (heavenly). They also pay homage to a cow, and this, they say, is the reason: they believe that cows are related to this goddess, because the cow feels a strong incitement to love and is more passionate than the bull. At any rate at the sound of his bellow the cow becomes excited and inflamed with a burning desire to couple. And those who are expert in these matters maintain that a cow hears a bull as much as thirty stades a away when it is bellowing as a signal to love and mate. And in Egypt sculptors and painters represent Isis herself with the horns of a cow.
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§ 10.28 The people of Busiris and of Abydos in Egypt and of Lycopolis dislike the blare of a trumpet on the ground that it resembles the braying of an Ass. And those who attend to the cult of Serapis also hate the Ass. Now Ochus the Persian knowing this slew Apis and deified the Ass from a wish to pain the Egyptians to the utmost. And so he too paid a penalty, which all applauded, to the Sacred Bull, no less than Cambyses who was the first that dared commit this sacrilege. And the same ministers of the aforesaid Zeus (i.e. Serapis ) detest the antelope as well, and for this reason: the Egyptians maintain that it voids its excrement after turning its back towards the rising sun. And the followers of Pythagoras also say this touching the Ass, that it alone among animals was not born in tune, and that this accounts for its being completely deaf to the sound of the lyre. Some moreover say that it was beloved of Typho. And in addition to the foregoing charges they would blame the Ass for this also: fertility in all kinds is respected, but this animal is by nature opposed to it. At any rate it is not easy to recall any account of a she- ass giving birth to twins.
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§ 10.29 Here is another peculiarity of the Ibis which I have learnt from Egyptian narratives. When it buries its neck and head beneath its breast-feathers, it imitates the shape of the heart. Of its special hostility to creatures injurious to man and to crops I think I have already spoken earlier on. The birds couple with their mouth and beget offspring in that way. And the Egyptians say, though I for one am not easily persuaded, yet they say that those who see to the embalming of animals and who are experts at it, agree that the entrails of the Ibis measure ninety-six cubits. I have heard further that its stride when walking measures a cubit. And when the moon is in eclipse it closes its eyes until the goddess shines out again. It is said to be beloved of Hermes the father of speech because its appearance resembles the nature of speech: thus, the black wing-feathers might be compared to speech suppressed and turned inwards, the white to speech brought out, now audible, the servant and the messenger of what is within, so to say. Now I have already mentioned that the bird lives to a very great age. And Apion states that it is immortal and adduces the priests of Hermopolis as witnesses to prove it. Yet even he considers that this is very far from the truth, and to me it would seem to be an absolute falsehood. The Ibis is a very hot-blooded creature, at any rate it is an exceedingly voracious and foul feeder if it really does eat snakes and scorpions. And yet some things it digests without difficulty, while others it easily expels in its excrement. And very rarely would one see a sick Ibis, yet it thrusts its beak down in every place, caring nothing for any filth and treading upon it in the hope of tracking down something even there. And yet when it turns to rest it first of all washes itself and purges. It makes its nest in the top of date-palms in order to escape the cats, for this animal cannot easily clamber and crawl up a date-palm as it is constantly impeded and thrown off by the protuberances on the stem.
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§ 10.30 It occurs to me now to mention the following additional facts relating to Baboons. If a Baboon finds some edible object with a shell on it (I mean almonds, acorns, nuts) it strips the shell off and cleans it out, after first breaking it most intelligently, and it knows that the contents are good to eat but that the outside is to be thrown away. And it will drink wine, and if boiled or cooked meat is served to it, it will eat its fill; and it likes well-seasoned food, but food boiled without any care it dislikes. If it wears clothes, it is careful of them; and it does everything else that I have described above. If you put it while still tiny to a woman's breast, it will suck the milk like a baby.
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§ 10.31 They say that the asp to which the Egyptians have given the name Thermuthis is sacred, and the people of the country worship it, and bind it, as though it was a royal headdress, about the statues of Isis. And they deny that it was born to destroy or injure man, but when they maintain that it does not touch virtuous people but kills evildoers they are romancing. If however this is so, then Justice would value this asp beyond all things, for taking vengeance on her behalf and for its piercing sight. Others add that Isis sends it against the worst transgressors. And the Egyptians assert that the Thermuthis alone among asps is immortal, and they reckon sixteen different species and varieties. And in their temples, as they say, they build dens and burrows like shrines in every corner and make homes for the Thermuthes, and at intervals they provide them with calves' fat to eat.
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§ 10.32 Those who know about birds say that the bird Acanthusa derives its name from the acanthus which provides it with food. And its voice is wonderfully harmonious and tuneful. And Aristotle says that if one pours the blood of the Acanthus and of the Aegithus, as it is called, into the same vessel and wants to mix them, the two kinds will not mix and unite into a single compound. They say that the Acanthus is sacred to the gods who escort and conduct men on a journey.
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§ 10.33 I have stated earlier on that the Turtle-dove is continent and does not, from a desire for some strange and alien bed, consort with any other mate than the one it originally joined. And I learn from those who enquire minutely into such matters that white Turtle-doves are often to be seen. These, they say, are sacred to Aphrodite and Demeter, while the other kind is sacred to the Fates and the Erinyes.
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§ 10.34 Even white Swallows have been seen at times, according to Alexander of Myndus. A Swallow made its nest in the tent of Alexander the son of Pyrrhus and then indicated that, whatever the somewhat discreditable expedition on which he was setting out, it would be ineffectual. And (a Swallow) which made its nest (in the tent) of Antiochus c hinted obscurely at the future in store for him. For he went up against the Medes and never returned to Syria but threw himself over a precipice. He too therefore embarked on no prosperous affair. And when Dionysius first left his citadel, the Swallows which had their nests there withdrew at the same time and foretold his return. The Swallow is held sacred to the Gods of the Household and to Aphrodite, for she also is one of them.
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§ 10.35 When Partridges are sitting on their eggs they screen them with branches and other thick leafage in order to keep out the dews and showers and every kind of damp. For if their eggs get soaked, unless the mother bird is quickly on the spot to warm them again, they become sterile. Partridges lay as many as fifteen eggs at a sitting. Theophrastus says somewhere that a double heart is to be seen in the Partridges of Paphlagonia. Other sources tells us that the Partridge is the darling of the daughter of Zeus and Leto.
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§ 10.36 I have indeed spoken earlier on about Swans, but I shall now relate what I did not mention then. Aristotle says that a flock of Swans was once seen in the Libyan Sea, and that a melody was heard proceeding from them as from a choir singing in unison; and very sweet it was, although mournful and calculated to move the hearers to pity. And some of the birds, he says, when the music was ended were seen to have died. It seems that the Swan is devoted to springs and pools and meres and to all spots where waters meet and abound. At any rate that is where those learned in these things say that the bird meditates its music.
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§ 10.37 If an Owl accompanies and stays beside a man who has set out on some business, they say it is no good omen. Witness the case of Pyrrhus of Epirus who set out for Argos by night: this bird met him as he was on horseback and bearing his lance erect. Whereupon it perched upon the lance and would not leave him: it was no safe lancer-guard that the bird I named afforded him. At any rate Pyrrhus reached Argos and met the most inglorious death in the world. That is why I think that Homer knowing full well that the Owl was nowhere a favourable omen, says that Athena sent a heron from the rivers to the comrades of Diomedes when they went off to spy upon the Trojans' camp — a heron, not an owl, even though it appears to be her favourite. And that the country about Troy is moist and well-watered Homer can bear witness in the lines that precede the Battle at the Wall.
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§ 10.38 (i). The Octopus is the terror of the Crayfish. At any rate if they chance to be caught in one and the same net, the Crayfish dies on the spot. (ii) There is a river at Thurii called the Lusias, of which the water is of the purest and is absolutely transparent in its flow, and yet it produces fish of a deep black hue.
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§ 10.39 They say that there is a leopard called the Ampelus, like the plant (i.e. grape-vine), and that its nature is peculiar compared with other leopards; and I have heard that it has no tail. If it is seen by women it afflicts them with an unexpected ailment.
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§ 10.40 In Scythia there are Asses with horns, and these horns hold water from the river of Arcadia known as the Styx; all other vessels the water cuts through, even though they be made of iron. Now one of these horns, they say, was brought by Sopater α to Alexander of Macedon, and I learn that he in his admiration set up the horn as a votive offering to the Pythian god at Delphi, with this inscription beneath it:'In thine honour, O God of Healing, Alexander of Macedon set up this horn from a Scythian ass, a marvellous piece, which was not subdued by the untainted stream of the Lusean Styx but withstood the strength of its water.' It was Demeter who caused this water to well up in the neighbourhood of Pheneus, and the reason for it I have stated elsewhere/
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§ 10.41 Augeas of Eleusis gave Eupolis, the writer of comedies, a hound of fine appearance, a Molossian, which Eupolis named after the donor. Now Augeas the hound, pampered in its feeding and influenced by long association with its master, came to love him. On one occasion a young fellow-slave of the name of Ephialtes stole some plays of Eupolis, and the theft did not pass unnoticed, for the hound saw him, fell upon him, and, biting him mercilessly, killed him. Some time afterwards Eupolis ended his days in Aegina and was buried there, and the hound, howling and lamenting after the manner of dogs, let himself pine away through grief and starvation and, disgusted with life, died soon after on the grave of the master that had fed it. And in memory of the sad event the place is named Hound's Dirge.
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§ 10.42 They say that there is a species of deadly Ant, and that it goes by the name of Laertes. The name has also been applied to certain kinds of Wasp. This is what Telephus the grammarian from Pergamum in Mysia says.
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§ 10.43 All through the hottest summer the Nile in flood gives the fields of Egypt the appearance of a calm stretch of open sea, and over what was till then ploughland there the Egyptians fish and sail in boats manufactured against that season and against this visitation by the river. Later the river retreats and returns to within its naturally proper limits, while the fish bereft of their sire and abandoned by the flood-water are left behind, nurtured in the thick slime to provide a meal for the farmers. This then, though the expression is somewhat violent, is the Egyptian fish-harvest.
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§ 10.44 There are, it seems, many species of Cicada, and those who are skilled in these matters enumerate them and report their names. Thus, the Ashen one is so called from its colour; whence the Membrax got its name I do not know; and Chirper, it appears, is the name for a Cicada; and I have heard tell of the Long-tail and the Shriller and the Prickly one. Well, these are all the kinds of Cicada of which I remember having heard the names, but if anyone has got to know more than those that I have mentioned, he must tell them.
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§ 10.45 Here are further facts relating to Dogs which I have heard. Puppies are born blind, and when they emerge from their dam's womb they cannot see. For the first fortnight they are afflicted in this way, that is for as many nights as the moon does not appear, but after that the Dog has the sharpest sight of any animal. And it is held in honour by the Egyptians, for they have named a district after it, and they assert that the reason for this is twofold: first, when Isis was seeking everywhere for Osiris,6 Dogs led the way and tried both to help her to trace his son and also to keep off the wild beasts. And the second reason is this, that at the same time that the Dog-star rises (the story goes that it was the dog of Orion ), the Nile also in a sense rises, coming up to water the land of Egypt, and pours over the ploughlands. And so the Egyptians pay honour to the Dog for bringing and summoning this fertilising water.
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§ 10.46 There is a fish that goes by the name of Oxyrhynchus and it appears to derive its name from its face and from the shape of it. The Nile breeds the aforesaid fish; and after it too a district is named, where, I believe, this same fish is held in veneration. Should the inhabitants catch a fish on a hook they will never eat it for fear lest the aforesaid fish, which they regard as sacred and to be worshipped, may have chanced to impale itself on the hook. And whenever fish are netted, they search the nets in case this famous fish has fallen in without their noticing it. And they would rather catch nothing at all than have the largest catch which included this fish. And the people who live round about maintain that it was born from the wounds of Osiris. They identify Osiris with the Nile.
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§ 10.47 The Ichneumon is both male and female in the same individual, partaking of both sexes, and Nature has enabled each single same animal both to procreate and to give birth. Those that are worsted in a fight are degraded into the less honoured class, for the victors, mount the vanquished and inseminate them. And the latter carry with them as prize of their defeat endurance of birth-pangs and motherhood for fatherhood. The Ichneumon is most hateful to man's deadliest enemies, the asp and the crocodile: I have earlier on described how they war with each other. Ichneumons are said to be sacred to Leto and the Goddesses of Birth, and the people of Heracleopolis worship them, so they say.
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§ 10.48 To Lycaon King of Emathia was born a son of the name of Macedon, after whom the country has thenceforward been called, no longer preserving its ancient name. Now his son was a vigorous youth of remarkable beauty and his name was Pindus. Other sons he had besides, but they were foolish in spirit and not robust of body, and so in course of time growing jealous of the valour and the general good fortune of their brother, they slew him; but it was to their own undoing, and they paid the penalty as was right. For Pindus realising that his brothers were plotting against him, left his father's kingdom and lived in the country. And besides being vigorous in other respects he was also a great hunter. And on one occasion he was pursuing some fawns, and they fled as fast as their legs could carry them, while he rode at full speed in pursuit, leaving his fellow huntsmen far behind. But the fawns entered a hollow and very deep ravine, escaped out of their pursuer's sight, and disappeared. Accordingly Pindus leapt from his horse and fastened it by the rein to one of the trees hard by and was just about to investigate the ravine and to search for the fawns, when he heard a voice which said'Touch not the fawns!' And so after looking all round and seeing nothing, he was in fear of the voice, thinking that it proceeded from some mightier agency. And then he departed taking his horse with him. But on the following day he came unaccompanied, but remembering the voice that had fallen on his ears and being afraid, he did not enter the ravine. And while he was taking council with himself and was perplexed as to who it was that the day before had checked his pursuit of the quarry, and while he was looking about, as was natural, for shepherds on the hills or other hunters, he beheld a monstrous serpent trailing most of its body behind but with the neck, which was small compared with the rest of the body, held aloft. (Neck and head together exceeded in size that of a full-grown man.) The sight filled him with terror. Pindus however did not take to flight, but pulled himself together and by his adroitness tricked the serpent, for he brought forward the birds which he happened to have caught and offered them as friendly gifts and as a ransom for his own life. And the serpent mollified presumably and bewitched, as you might say, by the gifts, departed. This pleased the youth and thereafter, being a good man, he used to bring payment for the saving of his life to the serpent, giving freely the first fruits of the chase, whether beast or bird from the hills. And this bestowal of gifts had the most fruitful results for Pindus, and his fortune began to prosper and grew every day more impressive, for whether it was beasts of the forest or whether it was birds, with all of them his hunting was successful. Accordingly he enjoyed abundance; moreover his fame spread abroad, of how he fearlessly attacked and captured wild beasts. His figure was tall and such as to cause astonishment by reason of the bulk of his body and of his splendid condition also. And it was clear that his beauty inflamed and kindled the hearts of all women with desire for him: all who were widowed would throng his doors like people crazed, while those who were married to husbands and whom custom confined indoors were enslaved by the fame of Pindus's beauty and would rather have been his wife than become goddesses. As to the men, most of them admired and loved him; only his brothers hated him. And once when he was hunting by himself they lay in wait for him, and the hunting-ground was near a river, and the three set upon him as he had none to help him and smote him with their swords. Whereupon he cried aloud. His cry was heard by his companion the serpent. (This creature is keen of hearing and has very sharp eyes.) And so it emerged from its lair and coiling round the miscreants killed them by choking them to death. But the snake continued to mount guard until the youth's relations, who were anxious for him, arrived and found him lying dead. But though they made lamentation for him they did not dare to attend to the dead body for fear of its guardian. The serpent however realising by some mysterious instinct that it was keeping them away, departed at a very leisurely pace, leaving Pindus to receive the last kind service from his kin. And so he was buried with great pomp, and the river which was close by the scene of murder was called Pindus after the dead man and the tomb over him. It is then a characteristic of animals to render thanks to their benefactors, as I have stated earlier on, and especially on this occasion.
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§ 10.49 Particularly in Clarus do the inhabitants and all Greeks pay honour to the son of Zeus and Leto. And so the land there is untrodden by poisonous creatures and is also highly obnoxious to them. The god wills it so, and the creatures in any case dread him, since the god can not only save life but is also the begetter of Asclepius, man's saviour and champion against diseases. Moreover Nicander also bears witness to what I say, and his words are:'No viper, nor harmful spiders, nor deep-wounding scorpion dwell in the groves of Clarus, for Apollo veiled its deep grotto with ash-trees and purged its grassy floor of noxious creatures'.
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§ 10.50 I have heard it said that in Eryx, where of course the famous temple of Aphrodite is (the pigeons there and their peculiarities I mentioned earlier on), there is a store of gold, an immense store of silver, necklaces, and finger-rings of great price; and that dread of the goddess renders them safe from robbers and untouched; and that men in ancient times always regarded the aforesaid goddess and her treasures with veneration and awe. But I learn that Hamilcar the Carthaginian6 looted these objects, melted down the silver and gold, and then distributed an infamous largesse to his troops. And for these deeds he suffered the most painful and grievous torments and was punished with crucifixion, while all his accomplices and partners in that unholy sacrilege died violent and terrible deaths. And his native land which till then was so prosperous and which was reputed enviable above most lands, after these sacred objects had been imported, was reduced to slavery.0 But impressive though these facts are they have no bearing on my present object, but what is relevant to this discourse shall now be told. On every day throughout the whole year the people of Eryx and strangers too sacrifice to the goddess. And the largest of the altars is in the open air, and upon it many sacrifices are offered, and all day long and into the night the fire is kept burning. The dawn begins to brighten, and still the altar shows no trace of embers, no ashes, no fragments of half-burnt logs, but is covered with dew and fresh grass which comes up again every night. And the sacrificial victims from every herd come up and stand beside the altar of their own accord; it is the goddess in the first place that leads them on, and in the second place it is the ability to pay, and the wish, on the part of the sacrificer. At any rate should you desire to sacrifice a sheep, lo and behold, there is a sheep standing at the altar, and you must begin the ceremonial washing. But if you are a man of substance and wish to sacrifice one cow or even more than one, then the herdsman will not mulct you by charging too much, nor will you disappoint him,6 for the goddess sees that the sale-prices are just, and if you pay fairly you will win her favour. If however you want to buy at a cheaper rate than is proper, you will pay down your money in vain — the animal departs and you are unable to sacrifice. So much then for this peculiarity of animals at Eryx in addition to those which I have mentioned earlier on.
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§ 11.1 BOOK XI The race of the Hyperboreans and the honours there paid to Apollo are sung of by poets and are celebrated by historians, among whom is Hecataeus, not of Miletus but of Abdera. The many other matters of importance which he narrates I think there is no need for me to bring in now, and in fact I shall postpone the full recital to some other occasion, when it will be pleasanter for me and more convenient for my hearers. The only facts which this narrative invites me to relate are as follows. This god has as priests the sons of Boreas and Chione, three in number, brothers by birth, and six cubits in height. So when at the customary time they perform the established ritual of the aforesaid god there swoop down from what are called the Rhipaean mountains swans in clouds, past numbering, and after they have circled round the temple as though they were purifying it by their flight, they descend into the precinct of the temple, an area of immense size and of surpassing beauty. Now whenever the singers sing their hymns to the god and the harpers accompany the chorus with their harmonious music, thereupon the Swans also with one accord join in the chant and never once do they sing a discordant note or out of tune, but as though they had been given the key by the conductor they chant in unison with the natives who are skilled in the sacred melodies. Then when the hymn is finished the aforesaid winged choristers, so to call them, after their customary service in honour of the god and after singing and celebrating his praises all through the day, depart.
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§ 11.2 The people of Epirus and all strangers sojourning there, beside any other sacrifice to Apollo, on one day in the year hold their chief festival in his honour with solemnity and great pomp. There is a grove dedicated to the god, and round about it a precinct, and in the enclosure are Serpents, and these self-same Serpents are the pets of the god. Now the priestess, who is a virgin, enters unaccompanied, bringing food for the Serpents. And the people of Epirus maintain that the Serpents are sprung from the Python at Delphi. If, as the priestess approaches, they look graciously upon her and take the food with eagerness, it is agreed that they are indicating a year of prosperity and of freedom from sickness. If however they scare her and refuse the pleasant food she offers, then the Serpents are foretelling the reverse of the above, and that is what the people of Epirus expect.
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§ 11.3 At Etna in Sicily honour is paid to a temple of Dog Hephaestus, and there are a precinct, sacred trees, and a fire that is never extinguished, never sleeps. And about the temple and the grove there are sacred Hounds which greet and fawn upon such as pass into the temple and the grove with honest hearts in seemly fashion as is their duty, as though the animals had a kindness for them and presumably recognised them. If however a man has his hands stained with crime, they bite and tear him, whereas those who only come from the bed of debauchery they simply chase away.
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§ 11.4 The people of Hermione worship Demeter and sacrifice to her in splendid and impressive style; and they call her festival the'Festival of the Earth.' At any rate I have heard that the largest cattle allow themselves to be led from the herd by the priestess to the altar of Demeter and be sacrificed. And Aristocles bears witness to my statement when he says somewhere' Demeter, goddess of abundance, thou dost manifest thyself both to the people of Sicily and to the sons of Erechtheus, but this among the dwellers in Hermione is judged a mighty feat: the bull of surpassing size from a herd, which not even ten men can master, this bull an aged woman, coming by herself, leads by the ear alone to this altar, and he follows as a child after its mother. Thine, even thine, Demeter, is the power. Show us thy favour and grant that every farm in Hermione may thrive exceedingly.'
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§ 11.5 In the country of the Daunii there is a temple to Athena of Ilium which is celebrated. And they say that the Hounds that are kept there fawn upon any Greeks that arrive but bark at foreigners.
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§ 11.6 And in Arcadian territory there is a shrine of Pan; Aule is the name of the place. Now any animals that take refuge there the god respects as suppliants and protects in complete safety. For wolves in pursuit are afraid to enter it and are checked at the mere sight of the place of refuge. So there is private property for these animals too to enable them to survive.
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§ 11.7 On Curias when the Deer (of which there are a great number and many hunters keen in pursuit of them) take refuge in the temple of Apollo there (the precinct is of very wide extent), the hounds bay at them but do not dare to approach. But the Deer in a body graze undeterred and without fear and by some mysterious instinct trust to the god for their safety.
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§ 11.8 I have mentioned somewhere earlier on how on the occasion of the national assembly at Olympia the flies absent themselves of their own free will and, so to speak, depart along with the women to the opposite bank of the Alpheus. On Leucas there is a high promontory on which a temple of Apollo has been built, and worshippers style him Apollo of Actium. Now when the festival is about to be held there in which they make the Leap in honour of the god, men sacrifice an ox to the flies, and when the latter have sated themselves with the blood they disappear. Yes, but they are bribed to depart, whereas the flies at Pisa need no bribe. So the latter are superior because they do what is required out of reverence for the god and not for a reward.
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§ 11.9 Icarus is an island and lies in the Red Sea. Now there is a temple of Artemis there and quantities of wild goats and plump gazelles and hares also. If a man ask leave of the goddess to take them and then starts to hunt whatever is allowed, he does not fail in his object but succeeds and is glad of her gift. But should he fail to ask, he takes nothing and is punished in a way that others describe.
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§ 11.10 And now, when I have mentioned the swans, from the Rhipaean mountains in the country of the Hyperboreans on account of their daily and assiduous service of the son of Zeus and Leto, shall I refrain from telling of the special characteristics of the sacred Bull which the Egyptians deify? How then could I avoid being censured by history and by Nature, who made and gave this gift also to man? But (no one shall accuse me of negligence on this point?), and I will describe also, as is reasonable, this system of religion. Among the Egyptians Apis is believed to be the god whose presence is most manifest. He is born of a cow on which a flash of light from heaven has fallen and caused his engendering. The Greeks call him Epaphus and trace his descent from his mother the Argive Io, daughter of Inachus. The Egyptians however reject the story as false, and appeal to time as their witness, for they maintain that Epaphus was born late down the ages, whereas the first Apis visited mankind many, many thousands of years earlier. Herodotus and Aristagoras adduce evidence and tokens of this; but the Egyptians do not acknowledge them, for they assert that there are nine-and-twenty marks clearly to be seen on this sacred bull. But what these marks are, and how they are distributed over the body of the animal, and in what fashion the bull is, as it were, adorned with them, you may learn from another source. And the Egyptians are able to explain which of the stars each mark symbolises. And they say further that the marks indicate when the Nile will rise and the shape of the universe. But you will also see a mark (so the Egyptians assert) which suggests that darkness is older than light. And another mark explains the shape of the crescent moon to him who understands; there are besides, other mysterious signs of different import which to the eyes of the profane and those uninstructed in divine history are hard to interpret. And whenever the report gets abroad which tells the Egyptians that the god has been born, some of the sacred scribes to whom there has been handed down from father to son the science whereby they verify these marks, come to the spot where the calf has been born to the heifer beloved of god, and in accordance with the immemorial precepts of Hermes erect a house where the calf will live at any rate for the time being; it faces the rising sun and is quite large enough to take in the nurses of the calf, for it is essential that the calf should be at the udder for four months. And when it has been weaned, then at the rising of the new moon the sacred scribes and priests go out to meet it and moreover year by year make ready a sacred vessel for this god and transport him on board to Memphis, where he finds abodes after his heart and delightful spots to linger in and places where he may amuse himself, where he may run and roll in the dust and exercise himself, and the homes of beautiful cows, and a well and a spring that yield water for drinking, for his ministers and priests say that it is not good for him always to drink of the Nile. Moreover he is said to grow fat on this sweet water which helps to build up a mass of flesh. As for the processions which they hold and the sacred offices which they perform when the Egyptians celebrate the revelation of the new god, the dances which they execute, the feasts and the assemblies which they organise, and how every town and village is filled with joy — all this would make a long story. But the man in whose herd this divine animal was born is counted fortunate and is so, and the Egyptians regard him with admiration. Apis, it seems, is in effect a good prophet: he to be sure never sets girls or elderly women on tripods, never fills them with some sanctified draught, but a man prays to this god, and children without, who are playing and dancing to the music of pipes, become inspired and proclaim in time with the music the actual response of the god, so that what they say is more true than what occurred by the Sagras. The Egyptians liken Apis to Horus whom they believe to be the prime cause of the fertility of their crops and of every good season. That is how they come to reason about his varied colouring, seeing in it a hidden symbolical reference to the variety of the crops. And there is a story of the priests not known to all, that Menis the King of Egypt, thinking of some living animal that he might worship, elected a bull, believing it to be the finest of all animals, and at any rate following Homer in his judgment on these matters, so they say. For Homer too in his Iliad says'Even as a bull standeth out far foremost in the herd, for he is conspicuous amid the pasturing kine. But the facts which Egyptian writers on zoology distort into legends about this animal are not to my taste.
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§ 11.11'Nay, but change the theme', as the phrase might go, and sing not of the Horse a nor yet of the ambush within, but of the bull Mnevis. And he, say the Egyptians, is sacred to the Sun, whereas Apis, they say, is dedicated to the Moon. And according to the Egyptians he also bears a special mark to show that he is no counterfeit, no bastard, but beloved of the aforesaid god. On these topics another shall speak, but what I wish to tell is the Egyptians' account of the test and the proof to which they put this bull to see whether he is of superior birth or not. Bocchoris the King of Egypt acquired — I do not know how — a false reputation and a fictitious renown and appeared to be just in his judgments and to have his heart set on righteousness. But by nature, it seems, he was the reverse. Most of his actions I pass over at present, but this is how, from a desire to cause pain to the people of Egypt, he treated Mnevis. He set a wild bull against him. So Mnevis began to bellow and the newcomer bellowed in answer. And then the stranger rushed forward in anger intending to fall upon the bull beloved of the god, but tripped and falling against the stem of a persea-tree, broke his horn, whereupon Mnevis wounded him in the flank and killed him. Bocchoris was put to shame and the Egyptians loathed him. But if anyone considers it highly undignified to drop from natural history into legend, he is a fool. For I am stating what the practice is with these bulls, and what then occurred, and what I hear Egyptians say... a lie to them is an abomination.
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§ 11.12 The Dolphins' love of music and their eager pursuit of song have been noised abroad and spread to many quarters, and others have told of their friendliness to man, and we ourselves have discoursed upon it earlier on,6 I think. But here I shall do well to speak of their intelligence. At any rate whenever a Dolphin is enclosed in a net he keeps quiet to begin with and does not think of escaping, but feasts upon the fish that have been caught with him and, as though invited to a banquet, takes his fill of them. But as soon as he realises, while being drawn along, that he is nearing the shore, he thereupon bites through the net, escapes, and is free. If however he is caught, the more kindly fishermen pass a rush through his nostrils and let him go; and the Dolphin, as though he were ashamed of the evidence of his capture, never comes near a drag-net again. And Aristotle says that whenever one is caught and made fast and is in the fish-box, Dolphins swim round the boat in numbers and leap so high and withe like suppliants, until the fishermen feel a touch of sympathy and take pity on the prisoner and yield to the entreating creatures and release the captive to them.
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§ 11.13 They say that the five hounds, Sannus, Podargus, Lampas, Alcimus, and Theon, kept by Daphnis the neatherd of Syracuse who suffered his well-known punishment at the hands of the Nymph, at the sight of their master's misfortune chose to die after he died, having previously bewailed him deeply and shed tears in abundance.
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§ 11.14 I have earlier on spoken of the differences and the varieties in the character of Elephants, and I shall now tell what a good memory too this animal has, how it can remember orders and not belie the expectation and the hope of those who entrust it with whatever it may be. For instance when Antigonus was besieging Megara a female elephant of the name of Nicaea was being kept along with one of the war-elephants. Now to this animal the wife of the keeper entrusted a baby which she happened to have borne a month before, speaking the Indian language, which Elephants understand. And the Elephant grew fond of the child and used to look after it, and liked to have it lying near, and would glance at it when it whimpered; and when it slept the Elephant would scare away the flies, holding in her trunk a spray from the reeds which were thrown beside her as her fodder. And if the child was not there she would actually put her own food aside. And so the mother was obliged to give the child its fill of milk and then place it beside its guardian, otherwise Nicaea gave unmistakable signs of being annoyed and angered and even of threatening mischief. And often, if the baby started to cry, she rocked the cradle in which it lay, comforting it as nurses are in the habit of doing by the swaying — and this, my fellow-men, was an Elephant.
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§ 11.15 I know that I have spoken appropriately of the very violent jealousy on the part of different animals, viz the coot, the dog, and in the third place the stork. But now I intend to speak of the anger of an Elephant over an outraged marriage. Having detected the wife of its trainer and keeper in the very act of adultery, it drove one tusk through the woman and one through her lover and killed them both and left them lying amid the dishonoured coverings on the desecrated bed, so that when the trainer came he might note their sin and recognise his avenger. This happened in India, but the deed travelled from there, to these shores, and I learn that in the reign of Titus, that good and noble man, the same thing occurred in Rome, but they add that the Elephant there killed both the offenders and covered them with a cloak which on the arrival of its keeper it threw off and revealed the two lying side by side, while the tusk with which it had pierced them was seen to be stained with blood.
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§ 11.16 It seems that one peculiarity of snakes is their faculty of divination. At any rate in the town of Lavinium, which is in Latium — it is so named after Lavinia the daughter of Latinus at the time when he fought as an ally of Aeneas against the people called Rutulians and overcame them. And Aeneas of Troy, son of Anchises, founded the aforesaid town; and it might be, in a manner of speaking, the grandmother of Rome, because it was from Rome that Ascanius, the son of Aeneas and Creusa the Trojan, set out to found Alba, and Rome was a colony of Alba. — Well, there is a sacred grove in Lavinium of wide area and thickly planted, and near by is a shrine to Hera of Argolis. And in the grove there is a vast and deep cavern, and it is the lair of a Serpent. And on certain fixed days holy maidens enter the grove bearing a barley-cake in their hands and with their eyes bandaged. And divine inspiration leads them straight to the Serpent's resting-place, and they move forward without stumbling and at a gentle pace just as if they saw with their eyes unveiled. And if they are virgins, the Serpent accepts the food as sacred and as fit for a creature beloved of god. Otherwise the food remains untasted, because the Serpent already knows and has divined their impurity. And ants crumble the cake of the deflowered maid into small pieces so that they can be carried easily, and transport them without the grove, cleansing the spot. And the inhabitants get to know what has occurred and the maidens who came in are examined, and the one who has shamed her virginity is punished in accordance with the law. This is the way in which I would demonstrate the faculty of divination in serpents.
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§ 11.17 Now Homer says'but gods are hard to endure when seen clear to view. And so even a serpent which is honoured by the most sacred rites has in it something of the divine, and to look upon it is not profitable. And what I mean is this. In Metelis, a town of Egypt, there is a sacred Serpent in a tower, and it receives honours and has ministers and servants, and before it are set a table and a bowl. So every day they pour barley into this bowl and soak it in honey and milk and then depart, returning on the following day to find the bowl empty. Now the eldest servant felt a keen desire to set eyes upon the Serpent, and coming by himself performed the usual duties and withdrew. And the Serpent mounted on the table and feasted. And this busybody in opening the doors (he had closed them as was the custom) made a loud noise. The Serpent was indignant and retired, while the man who had seen the creature whom he wished to see, to his own undoing, went out of his mind, told what he had witnessed, and confessed his impious deed, became dumb, and shortly afterwards fell down dead.
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§ 11.18 Here are further peculiarities of animals. The Peacock in order to escape the influence of the evil eye seeks out a root of flax as a kind of natural amulet and carries it about packed under one wing. And it is said that if a horse suffers from a retention of urine, and a maiden strikes him across the face with the girdle she is wearing, he immediately stales copiously and is relieved of his pain. And when a mare shows an altogether frenzied desire to go a-horsing it is easy to arrest her, according to Aristotle, if one clips the mane on her neck. For she feels shame and is no longer skittish and drops her wantonness and her constant frisking and is downcast at her disgrace. And Sophocles, you remember, in his drama of Tyro hints at this. Tyro is represented as speaking, and this is what she says:'But it is my lot to grieve for my hair, even as a filly which seized by neatherds in the stables has had the yellow harvest reaped from her neck with ruthless hand; and haled to the meadow to drink of the stream, beholds the mirrored image of her reflexion with the hair cropped beneath the shears to her dishonour. Alas! even a pitiless heart would pity her, cowering in her shame, to see how wild are her grief and her tears for her lost hair.'
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§ 11.19 When a house is on the verge of ruin the mice in it, and the martens also, forestall its collapse and emigrate. This, you know, is what they say happened at Helice, for when the people of Helice treated so impiously the Ionians who had come to them, and murdered them at their altar, then it was (in the words of Homer ) that'the gods showed forth wonders among them.' For five days before Helice disappeared all the mice and martens and snakes and centipedes and beetles and every other creature of that kind in the town left in a body by the road that leads to Cerynea. And the people of Helice seeing this happening were filled with amazement, but were unable to guess the reason. But after the aforesaid creatures had departed, an earthquake occurred in the night; the town collapsed; an immense wave poured over it, and Helice disappeared, while ten Lacedaemonian vessels which happened to be at anchor close by were destroyed together with the city I speak of. Justice at the same time uses animals as her ministers to punish impious men. Witness the case of Pantacles the Lacedaemonian who, after preventing some of the artists of Dionysus who were on their way to Cythera from passing through Sparta, later, when seated upon the Ephor's throne, was torn to pieces by dogs.
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§ 11.20 Adranus is a town in Sicily, according to Nymphodorus, and in this town there is a temple to Adranus, a local divinity. And they say that he is there in very presence. And all that Nymphodorus tells of him besides, and how he shows himself and how kindly and favourable he is to his suppliants, we shall learn some other time. But now I shall give the following facts. There are sacred Hounds and they are his servants and ministers; they surpass Molossians in beauty and in size as well, and there are not less than a thousand of them. Now in the daytime they welcome and fawn upon visitors to the shrine and the grove, whether they be strangers or natives. But at night they act as escorts and leaders, and with great kindness conduct those who are already drunk and staggering along the road, guiding each one to his own house, while those who indulge in tipsy frolics they punish as they deserve, for they leap upon them and rip their clothes to pieces and chasten them to that extent. But those who are bent on highway robbery they tear most savagely.
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§ 11.21 There is, it seems, a marine snail which is born in the Red Sea and of great beauty and very large. Its shell is purple and its spiral has been decorated and made gay by Nature. You would say you were looking at a garland subtly woven of flowers of varied hue, green and golden and vermilion, the colours alternating at equal intervals.
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§ 11.22 Nature, they say, has caused the Dolphin to be in perpetual motion, and for the Dolphin motion ends with the end of life. At any rate when in need of sleep it rises and floats up to the surface so that its whole body is visible, and then goes to sleep. Even the Dolphin is not unsleeping or devoid of a share of the god of sleep. At all events when it does sleep it sinks into the depths until it touches the bottom, and when it reaches it, it wakes on the impact with the floor of the sea and rises again. And again when overcome by sleep and subdued by the god, down it sinks, and again when roused by the impact as before, up it floats: and it does this time after time, being half-way between repose and activity, and yet never once does it lapse into complete immobility.
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§ 11.23 In the Red Sea there occurs a flat-fish shaped like the sole, so they say. Its scales are not very rough to the touch; its colour is golden, and from head-tip to tail it is marked with black lines. One might describe them as tense strings, which is the reason why the fish itself is called the'Harper.' Its mouth is compressed and is a deep black and is enclosed in a saffron-coloured ring; its head is variegated, gleaming like gold and with black lines. It has fins like gold, but its tail is black except at the tip, and that is the purest white. And other kinds of Harper are said to occur: some are purple all over, with golden lines at intervals. They have rings the colour of gilliflowers on their head: one descends from below the eyes down to the gills, another extends from behind the eyes half-way down the head, and another encircles the neck like a necklace.
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§ 11.24 The Leopard-fish is native to the Red Sea, according to those who have seen it, and in its colour and circular markings resembles the leopard of the mountains. The Oxyrhynchus, which occurs there, has an elongated mouth, eyes like gold, and white eyelids. There are pale markings on its back, but the fins on either side are black, while the dorsal fins are white. Its tail is oblong in shape and its colour is green, and a streak of gold bisects it.
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§ 11.25 Ptolemy the Second, also called Philadelphus, was presented with a young Elephant, and it was brought up where the Greek language was used, and understood those who spoke it. Up to the time of this particular animal it was believed that Elephants only understood the language spoken by the Indians.
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§ 11.26 It seems that among brute beasts also Nature has put the male above the female. At any rate the male Dragon has the crest and the beard; and the Cock too has the comb and the wattles; and the Stag has the horns, the Lion the mane, the male Cicada the voice.
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§ 11.27 The war between the Achaeans and Trojans was caused, they say, by Helen the daughter of Zeus; the war of the Persians against the Greeks was caused by Atossa the wife of Darius who had conceived a desire to obtain Athenian women for her service; and the long war in Greece was due to the proclamation directed against the people of Megara. The people of Magnesia and of Ephesus were roused to war by a locust; the people of Chaonia and of Moesia by a dove; and the people of Thebes in Egypt are said to have made war against the Romans because of a dog.
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§ 11.28 There is a story that Pythochares the piper repelled an attack of wolves by playing a loud and noble strain on his pipe. And a swarm of flies drove out the people of Megara, wasps the people of Phaselis, and centipedes the people of Rhoeteum.
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§ 11.29 They say that the Sheep of Pontus have no gall-bladder, whereas those on the isle of Naxos have two.
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§ 11.30 The Bee -eater appears to be more dutiful than the stork, for this reason: it does not wait for its eat parents to grow old before it starts to feed them, but does so directly it grows its quill-feathers.
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§ 11.31 Here is another characteristic of animals and a good one. The gods take thought for them, neither looking down upon them nor reckoning them of small account. For although destitute of reasoning power, at any rate they possess understanding and knowledge proportionate to their needs. And I will explain how they are beloved of the gods, not by many examples taken from a multitude but by a sufficient number. A cavalry officer of the name of Lenaeus owned a horse of fine appearance, very fleet of foot and of dauntless spirit; in displays it was good at running the course it had been taught; in war itself it was capable of endurance; and was quite excellent both in pursuit, when occasion arose, and in retreat, where necessity called for it. And in consequence of all this the horse was a valued possession, and the owner was accounted most fortunate by his fellow cavalrymen. Now the horse, with the excellent qualities I have described, in consequence of a blow which it received in its right eye was incapacitated for seeing. Accordingly Lenaeus seeing all his hopes anchored upon the condition of his noble horse (the cavalry shield covered the left eye which alone could see), went to the temple of Serapis bringing a patient of a most unusual kind, — his horse, and, as though he were pleading for a brother or a son, implored the god for the horse's sake to have compassion on his suppliant, especially as it had done no wrong. For men, he said, may bring misfortune upon themselves either by some impious act or some blasphemous speech.'But what sacrilege,' he exclaimed,'or what murder has a horse committed, and how and by what means has it blasphemed?' And he called the god to witness that he himself had never wronged any man, and for this reason he implored the god to relieve his comrade-in-arms and friend of its blindness. And the god, although so mighty, did not neglect or scorn to heal the dumb beast, and therefore took pity both on the sick animal and on the man who besought him on its behalf, and prescribed a cure, not by fomenting the eye but by warming it with vapour baths at midday in the temple precinct. So this was done and the eye of the horse was restored. And Lenaeus sacrificed thank-offerings and donations for its recovery, while the horse pranced and snorted and seemed larger and more beautiful and was full of joy, and speeding to the altar moved so proudly, and as it rolled in front of the steps was seen to be giving thanks with all its might to the god who had healed it.
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§ 11.32 A husbandman was digging a trench in a vineyard in order to plant some fine, choice cutting, when he brought down his mattock upon a sacred Asp that had its lair below the soil and was far from hostile to man, and without knowing it cut the snake in half. And as he was breaking up the soil he caught sight of the tail involved in the sand, while the severed portion from the belly upwards to the neck was still crawling and covered with gore from the cut. He was horror-struck, went out of his mind, and passed into a state of real madness of the most acute description. By day he lost control of himself and of his reason; moreover at night he was in a state of frenzy, and would leap out of bed saying that the Asp was pursuing him, and as though he was on the point of being bitten would utter the most horrifying cries and shout for help. He would even say that he saw the form of the snake which he had slain, angrily threatening him; at times he avowed that he had been bitten, and it was evident from his groans that he was in pain. So when his affliction had lasted for some time, his relations took him as a suppliant to the temple of Serapis and implored the god to remove and abolish the phantom of the aforesaid Asp. Well, the god took pity on the man and cured him. But I have described how the Asp had not to wait for its revenge, and a very sufficient revenge too.
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§ 11.33 The King of Egypt was presented with a Peacock from India, the largest and most magnificent a of its kind. He was unwilling to keep it along with the common flock as a household pet or for eating, but attached it to the temple of Zeus Protector of the City, judging the aforesaid bird to be an offering worthy of the god. This bird a dissolute youth of considerable wealth longed to capture and to make a meal of, for he habitually indulged his appetite on any and every pretext, and in his extravagant gluttony and depravity he regarded variety of food and what had been acquired by dangerous means and what had been purchased at the cost of immense trouble as an accession to his pleasure. Accordingly he offered one of the attendants on the god a substantial bribe to commit sacrilege, and promised him a further sum besides. And the man elated by a vain hope went to the spot where he knew the bird lodged and tried to lay hands on it and bring it to his rich patron. But the bird he did not see: what he did see was a huge asp reared up in anger against him. At first he was afraid and made off, but when the dissolute man insisted and urged him on, the attendant went to get the Peacock. But the bird sprang up out of reach and raising itself lightly through the air on its wings, settled not upon one of the sacred trees nor upon any other lofty and high spot but upon the centre of the temple, and surveyed them with an unflinching eye as though to show that it was too clever for their designs and that it was not to be caught. Accordingly since the attendant had accomplished nothing, the dissolute man demanded the money, which he had already given, back again; but the other refused, saying that he had carried out his orders but was unable to steal what belonged to the gods. As was natural, a quarrel arose over the affair and presently there was shouting, and many people heard the noise. Next, the chief priest arrived and enquired what was the reason of this wrangling in the temple, and the men began to accuse one another. And the rich man, outraged by threats, blasphemy, and abuse, took his departure, and after swallowing the bone of another bird was in pain and died in agonies, while the wicked attendant was punished by the governor of the city for sacrilege. As for the bird, it was not seen either alive or dead, but the story goes that after living for a hundred years it disappeared.
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§ 11.34 The following story too is like the above and concurs with it. One Cissus by name, a devoted servant of Serapis, was the victim of a plot on the part of a woman whom he had once loved and later married: he ate some eggs of a snake, which caused him pain; he was in a grievous state and in danger of death. But he prayed to the god, who bade him buy a live Moray and thrust his hand into the creature's tank. Cissus obeyed and thrust in his hand. And the Moray fastened on and clung to him, but when it was pulled off it pulled away the sickness from the young man at the same time. It was because this Moray was a minister of the god's healing power that the tale reached my hearing.
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§ 11.35 And this same god in the days of Nero cured Chrysermus who was vomiting blood and already beginning to waste away, by means of a draught of bull's blood. And I mention these facts because animals are so dearly beloved by the gods that their lives are saved by them, and when the gods desire, they save others. It was this god ( Serapis ) who when Basilis the Cretan fell into a wasting disease, rid him of this terrible complaint by causing him to eat the flesh of an ass. And the result was in accordance with the name of the beast, for the god said that this treatment and remedy would be of assistance to him. On these topics enough has been said.
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§ 11.36 Here are further peculiarities of animals. Mares are believed to be most suitable for drawing chariots. And I learn that trainers assert that horses delight in being washed and anointed. And Semonides in his iambics says that horses were even rubbed with perfume. And the Persians, since the battle which Cyrus fought in Lydia, keep camels together with their horses, and attempt by so doing to rid horses of the fear which camels inspire in them.
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§ 11.37 Fishes that have no scales are called'cartilaginous': for example, the moray, the conger-eel, the torpedo, the sting-ray, the horned-ray, the dogfish; cetaceans the dolphin, the whale, the seal; these are the only aquatic creatures that are viviparous.'Cephalopod mollusca' is the name given to those that have no bones: for example, the octopus, the cuttlefish, the squid, the sea-anemone; these have no blood and no intestines.'Crustacea,' lobsters, prawns, crabs of all kinds; these slough their'old age.''Testacea,' oysters, purple shellfish, whelks, trumpet-shells, sea-urchins, crayfish.'Saw-toothed' animals are the wolf, the dog, the lion, the leopard; these, you know, are carnivorous. Incisor-teeth in both jaws are found in man, horses, and asses, and these creatures have fat. Animals whose upper and lower teeth meet evenly are the ox, the sheep, the goat. Animals with projecting teeth, the wild boar, the blind- rat; the elephant, I maintain, has horns, not teeth. Insects, the wasp, the bee; these are even said to have no lungs.'Amphibians,' the hippopotamus, the otter, the beaver, the crocodile. Scaley creatures, the lizard, the salamander, the tortoise, the crocodile, the snake; and these also, with the exception of the tortoise and the crocodile, slough their'old age.' Animals with uncloven hoofs, the horse, the ass; cloven-hoofed animals, the ox, the stag, the goat, the sheep, the pig. Creatures with toes, men and dogs. Web-footed and flat-nailed creatures, the swan, the goose. Creatures with crooked talons, hawks and eagles. I have mentioned elsewhere the distinguishing marks of other animals.
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§ 11.38 It seems that the Egyptian Goose also is devoted to its offspring and behaves as partridges do. For it also rolls on the ground in front of its young and affords its pursuer the hope of catching it; meantime the chicks make their escape. And when they are some distance away, the parent also takes wing and is off.
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§ 11.39 The Egyptians say that the hawk while alive and active is beloved of the gods, and when it has departed this life and shed its body and become a disembodied spirit, it prophesies and sends dreams. And the Egyptians say that a hawk with three legs once appeared among them, and believers accept the statement as sound.
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§ 11.40 The partridges of Paphlagonia have two hearts, according to Theophrastus. And Theopompus says that hares in Bisaltia have each of them a double liver. And Apion says — unless he is romancing — that the stags in certain districts have four kidneys. And the same writer states that in the time of Atothis son of Menis there appeared a crane with two heads, and that there was prosperity in Egypt; and in the reign of another king there appeared a bird with four heads, and the Nile overflowed as never before and the fruits were abundant and the crops flourished marvellously. Nicocreon of Cyprus possessed a Deer with four horns; this he gave as an offering at Delphi and wrote beneath it:'It was thy doing, O son of Leto, mighty archer, that Nicocreon captured this four-horned deer.' Moreover there were even Sheep with four horns and with three horns in the sanctuary of Zeus Polieus. And I myself have seen a sacred Ox with five feet which was an offering to this god in the great city of Alexandria, in the far-famed grove of the god, where the persea-trees close-planted afforded the loveliest shade and coolness. And there was a Calf with the colour of wax, and it had a foot attached to its shoulder which was superfluous for walking although it was perfectly formed. True, these phenomena appear far from conformity to nature, but I have reported what I myself have seen and heard.
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§ 12.1 BOOK XII There is a bay at Myra in Lycia and it has a spring and there is a temple of Apollo there, and the priest of this god scatters the flesh of calves that have been sacrificed to the god, and Sea-perch come swimming up in shoals and eat the flesh, as though they were guests invited to the feast. And the sacrificers are delighted, for they believe that this feasting of the fishes is a good omen for them, and they say that the god is propitious because the fish gorged themselves upon the flesh. If however the fish cast the food ashore with their tails as though they despised it and regarded it as tainted, this is believed to signify the wrath of the god. And the fish recognise the priest's voice, and if they obey his summons they gladden those on whose behalf they have been summoned; in the opposite event they cause them grief.
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§ 12.2 In the ancient Bambyce (it is now called Hierapolis since Seleucus gave it this name) there are sacred fish which swim in companies and have leaders; these are the first to eat of the food which is thrown in to them. More than all other fish they maintain friendly relations with one another and are always at peace, either because the goddess inspires them with unanimity, or because being satisfied with the food that is thrown in to them, they therefore abstain from eating one another and know nothing of it.
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§ 12.3 The Egyptians assert (though they are far from convincing me), they assert, I say, that in the day of the far-famed Bocchoris a lamb was born with eight feet and two tails, and that it spoke. The; say also that this lamb had two heads and four horns. It is right to forgive Homer who bestow speech upon Xanthus the horse, for Homer is a poet. And Alcman could not be censured for imitating Homer in such matters, for the first venture of Homer is a plea sufficient to justify forgiveness. But how can one pay any regard to Egyptians who exaggerate like this? However fabulous though they be, I have related the peculiarities of this lamb.'
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§ 12.4 Here is another fact touching hawks that I remember to have heard. Before the Nile inundates Egypt and comes up over the ploughlands, hawks shed their old feathers just as the branches of tree shed their withered leaves, and grow new and beautiful plumage as trees do foliage. It seems that there are in fact several species of hawks, and Aristophanes appears to hint as much. At any rate he says,'But we have despatched three thousand hawks, mounted archers. And each one move forward with talons crooked — kestrel, buzzard vultures night-hawk, eagle. They are allotted separately to many gods. The partridge-catcher, they say, and the ocypterus are servants of Apollo; the lammergeier and the shearwater they assign to Athena; the dove-killer is said to be the darling of Hermes, the wide-wing, of Hera, and the buzzard, as it is called, of Artemis. To the Mother of the Gods (they assign) the merminus, and to one god one bird, to another another. There are in fact a great many kinds of Hawks.
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§ 12.5 The Egyptians incur the derision at any rate of most people for worshipping and deifying, various kinds of animals. But the inhabitants of Thebes although Greeks, worship a marten, so I hear and allege that it was the nurse of Heracles, or if it was not the nurse, yet when Alcmena was in labour and unable to bring her child to birth, the marten ran by her and loosed the bonds of her womb, so that Heracles was delivered and at one began to crawl. And those who live in Hamaxitus in the Troad worship a Mouse, and that is why according to them, they give the name of Sminthian to Apollo whom they worship, for the Aeolians and the people of the Troad still call a mouse sminthus just as Aeschylus too in his Sisyphus write;'Nay, but what sminthus of the fields is so monstrous?' And in the temple of Smintheus tame Mice are kept and fed at the public expense, and beneath the altar white Mice have their nests, and by the tripod of Apollo there stands a Mouse. And I have also head the following mythical tale about this cult. Mice came in tens of thousands and cut off before they ripened the crops of the Aeolians and Trojans rendering the harvest barren for the sowers. Accordingly the god at Delphi said when they enquired of him, that they must sacrifice to Apollo Smintheus they obeyed and freed themselves from the conspiracy of mice, and their wheat attained the normal harvest. And they add the following story. Some Cretans who owing to a disaster that befell then were sent out to found a colony, besought the Pythian Apollo to tell them of some good place where it would be advantageous to found a city. There issued from the oracle this answer: in the place where the earth-born made war upon them there they should settle and raise a city. So they came to this place Hamaxitus and pitched their camp in order to rest; but a countless swarm of Mice crept stealthily upon them, gnawed through their shield-straps and ate through their bow strings. So they guessed that these were the'earth-born' referred to, and, besides, having now no means of getting weapons of defence, they settled in this spot and built a temple to Apollo Smintheus. Well, this mention of Mice has led us to touch upon a matter of theology; however we are none the worse for having listened even to such tales as this.
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§ 12.6 It seems that dolphins are mindful even of their dead and by no means abandon their fellows when they have departed this life. At any rate they get underneath their dead companion and then carry him along to the shore, confident that men will bury him, and Aristotle bears witness to this. And another company of Dolphins follow them by way of doing honour to, or even actually fighting to protect, the dead body, for fear lest some other great fish should rush up, seize it, and then devour it. All just men who appreciate music bury dead Dolphins out of respect for their love of music;. But those to whom, as they say, the Muses and the Graces are alien care nothing for Dolphins. And so, beloved Dolphins, you must pardon the savage nature of man, since even the people of Athens cast out the excellent Phocion unburied. And even Olympias lay unburied, although she was the mother of the son of Zeus, as she herself boasted and as he asserted. And the Egyptians after killing the Roman Pompey, surnamed'the Great,' who had achieved so much, who had had such distinguished victories and had celebrated three triumphs, who had saved the life of his murderer's father and had re-established him on the throne of Egypt, left him cast out, a headless corpse, by the sea, just as men often leave you. For this all-devouring creature man does not even spare you, but goes so far as to pickle you, and is unconscious that his action is hateful to the Muses, the daughters of Zeus.
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§ 12.7 In Egypt they worship Lions, and there is a city called after them. It is worth recording the peculiarities of the Lions there. They have temples and very many spaces in which to roam; the flesh of oxen is supplied to them daily and it lies, stripped of bones and sinews, scattered here and there, and the Lions eat to the accompaniment of song in the Egyptian language. And the theme of the song is'Do not bewitch any of the beholders'; this singing appears, as you might say, to be a substitute for amulets. Many of the Lions are deified in Egypt, and there are chambers face to face consecrated to their use. The windows of some open to the east, others to the west, making life more pleasant for them. And to preserve their health they have places for exercise, and wrestling-grounds near by, and their adversary is a well-nourished calf. And if, after practising his skill against the calf, the Lion brings it down (this takes time for he is lazy and unused to hunting), he eats his fill and goes back to his own stall. The Lion is a very fiery animal, and this is why the Egyptians connect him with Hephaestus, but, they say, he dislikes and shuns the fire from without because of the great fire within himself. And since he is of a very fiery nature, they say the Lion is the house of the Sun, and when the sun is, at its hottest and at the height of summer, they say it is approaching the Lion. Moreover the inhabitants of the great city of Heliopolis keep these Lions in the entrance to the temples of the god as sharing (so the Egyptians say) to some extent the lot of the gods. And further, they appear in dreams to those whom the god regards with favour and utter prophecies, and those who have committed perjury they punish not after some delay but immediately, for the god inspires them with a righteous indignation. And Empedocles maintains that if his lot translates a man into an animal, then it is best for him to transmigrate into a lion; if into a plant, then into a sweet-bay. Empedocles' words are'Among wild beasts they become lions that couch upon the mountains and sleep on the earth, and among trees with fair foliage sweet-bay-trees.' But if we are (as we ought) to take into consideration the wisdom of the Egyptians who refer such manifestations to natural causes, they assign the foreparts of this animal to fire, and the hinder parts to water. Again, Egyptian artificers in their sculptures and the vainglorious legends of Thebes attempt to represent the Sphinx, with her two-fold nature, as of two-fold shape, making her awe-inspiring by fusing the body of a maiden with that of a lion. And Euripides suggests this when he says'And drawing her tail in beneath her lion's feet she sat down.' And moreover they say that the Lion of Nemea fell from the moon. At any rate Epimenides also has these words:'For I am sprung from the fair-tressed Moon, who in a fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding of Queen Hera.' Let us however relegate these matters to the region of myth; but the peculiarities of Lions have been sufficiently dealt with both earlier on and in the present chapter.
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§ 12.8 The Wax-moth is a creature that delights in the brilliance of fire and flies to lamps burning brightly, but falls into them owing to its momentum and is burned to death. And Aeschylus the Tragic poet mentions it in these words:'I greatly dread the foolish fate of the wax-moth.'
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§ 12.9 The Wagtail is a winged creature weak in its hinder parts, and that is why (they say) it is incapable of building a nest of its own accord or for itself, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. Hence in the proverbs of country folk poor men are called'wagtails.' The bird moves its tail-feathers, like the ceryl in the passage of Archilochus, And Aristophanes also mentions this bird in his Amphiaraus thus:'Give the old man's loins a thorough shaking, as the Wagtail does, and work a powerful spell.' And in his Geras: Rhythmic wagtail-gait of a belly-arching fellow.' And Autocrates in his Tympanistae:'As sweet maidens, daughters of Lydia, sport and lightly leap and clap their hands in the temple of Artemis the Fair at Ephesus, now sinking down upon their haunches and again springing up, like the hopping wagtail.'
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§ 12.10 (i). When Mice die a natural death and not through any design upon them, their limbs dissolve and little by little they depart this life. That, you see, is the origin of the saying'Like a mouse's death,' and Menander mentions it in his Thais. And men commonly say'More talkative than a turtle-dove,' because the turtle-dove not only never stops uttering through its mouth, but they do say that it utters a great deal through its hinder parts also. And the same writer mentions this proverb in his Necklace. And Demetrius in his play Sicelia mentions that turtle-doves chatter through their rump as well. (ii) They say that Mice are exceedingly salacious and they cite Cratinus as a witness, when he says in his Drapetides (Runaway slave-girls):'Look you, from a clear sky will I blast with lightning the debauchery of that mouse Xenophon. And they say that the female mouse is even more madly amorous. And again from the Chorus of Epicrates they cite these words:'The accursed go-between fooled me completely, swearing by the Maiden, by Artemis, by Persephone, that the wench was a heifer, virgin, an untamed filly — and all the time she was an absolute mousehole.' By calling her an'absolute mousehole' he meant to say that she was beyond measure lecherous. And Philemon says:'A white mouse, when someone tries to — but I am ashamed to say the word, the confounded woman at once lets out such a yell, that it is after impossible to avoid attracting attention.'
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§ 12.11 The Egyptians also worship a black bull which they call Onuphis. And the name of the place where it is reared let the Egyptian narratives tell us for it is a hard name. Its hair grows the opposite way to that on other bulls; that is another of its peculiarities. It is larger, it seems, than all other bulls, even than those of Chaonia which the inhabitants of Thesprotia and Epirus call'fatted, tracing their descent from the oxen of Geryones. This Onuphis is fed upon lucerne.
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§ 12.12 It seems that the Dolphin is swifter and can leap higher than all other fish, in fact than all land animals also. At any rate it leaps even over a vessel as Aristotle says; and he attempts to assign a cause for this, which is as follows. It holds its breath as divers do when under water. For, you know, divers straining the breath in their bodies, let it go like a bowstring, and with it their bodies like an arrow; and, says Aristotle, the breath compressed inside them thrusts and shoots them upwards.
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§ 12.13 The Physa is an Egyptian fish that fills one with astonishment, for it knows, they say, when the Moon is waning and when it is waxing. Moreover its liver grows or dwindles as that goddess does: at one time it is well-nourished, at another it is more shrunken..
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§ 12.14 The Catfish is found in the Maeander and the Lycus, the rivers of Asia Minor, and in the Strymon in Europe, and resembles the European sheat-fish. It is of all fishes the most devoted to its offspring. At any rate the female after parturition ceases to pay attention to her children, like a woman who has newly given birth, whereas the male takes charge of the young things, stays by them, and wards off every attempt upon them. And he is quite capable, according to Aristotle, of swallowing a fish-hook.
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§ 12.15 The Frog abhors and greatly dreads the water- snake. Accordingly, in return it tries to terrify and scare the water- snake by its loud croaking. The malice of the Crocodile in its pursuit of men and other animals {is shown by the following example). When it knows the path by which men come down to a river either to draw water or to water a horse or a camel or even to embark on a vessel, it floods the track with a quantity of water by night and filling its mouth, pours the contents on the path again and again, meaning to make it slippery and to render the capture easier for itself. For when (men or animals) slip they do not retain their hold on the gang-plank but fall off, whereupon the Crocodile, leaping up, seizes and makes a meal of them. I have still to mention a few facts touching Crocodiles. This animal is not well-disposed to every species of Egyptian plover (and there are many species, with names harsh and repulsive to the ear, and so I omit them); it is only the Clapperbill, as it is called, that it treats as companion and friend, for this bird is able to pick off the leeches without coming to harm.
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§ 12.16 Democritus states that the Pig and the Dog bring forth many at a birth, and he assigns the cause to the fact that they have many wombs and many «j places for the reception of semen. Now the seed does not fill them all at a single ejaculation, but these animals copulate twice or three times in order that the continuance of the act may fill the receptacles of the seed. Mules however, he says, do not give birth, for they have not got wombs like other animals but of a different formation and quite incapable of receiving seed; for the mule is not the product: of nature but a surreptitious contrivance of the ingenuity and, so to say, adulterous daring of man. And I fancy, said Democritus, that a mare became pregnant from being by chance violated by an ass, and that men were its pupils in this deed of violence, and presently accustomed themselves to the use of the offspring. And it is especially the asses of Libya which, being very big, mount mares that have no manes, having been clipped. For those who know about the coupling of horses say that a mare ill possession of the glory of her mane would never tolerate such a mate.
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§ 12.17 Democritus says that the foetus is dropped more easily in southern countries than in northern; and this is natural because the south wind makes the on bodies of pregnant females relax and expand. So as the shelter has been loosened and is no longer close-fitting, the embryo grows warm and the heat causes it to slip this way and that and to drop out with greater ease. If however there is a frost and the north wind is blowing, the embryo is congealed and is not easily moved, and is not rocked as it were by a wave, but as though it were in a waveless calm, remains firm and taut and endures until the time ordained by nature for its birth. And so in cold, according to the philosopher of Abdera, the foetus remains in its place, but in warmth it is generally ejected. For when the heat is excessive, he says that the veins and sex-organs are bound to expand.
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§ 12.18 And the same writer says that the reason why Deer grow horns is as follows. He agrees that their stomach is extremely hot, and that the veins throughout their entire body are extremely fine, while the bone containing the brain is extremely thin, like a membrane, and loose in texture, and the veins that rise from it to the crown of the head are extremely thick. The food at all events, or at any rate the most productive part of it, is distributed through the body at great speed: the fatty portion of it, he says, envelops their body on the outside, while the solid portion mounts through the veins to the brain. And this is how horns, being moistened with plentiful juices, come to sprout. The continuous flow therefore extrudes the earlier horns. And the moisture which rises and emerges from the body solidifies, the air congealing and hardening it into horns, while that which is still enclosed in the body is soft. The one portion is rendered solid by the external cold; the other remains soft owing to the internal heat. Accordingly the added growth of the new horn extrudes the older as alien, because what is within chafes and tries to push it upwards, swelling and throbbing as though it were in haste to be born and to emerge, for the juice, you see, bursting out and mounting upwards from below cannot remain stationary, but it too solidifies and is impelled against the parts above it. And the older horns are in most cases forced out by the strength of that which is within, although in some cases the animal, forced ahead by its own momentum, has broken off horns that have got entangled in branches and hinder it from running swiftly. These then drop off, but the new horns which are ready to peep out are pushed forward by nature.
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§ 12.19 Castrated Oxen, says Democritus, grow curved, thin, and long horns; whereas those of uncastrated Oxen are thick at the base, straight, and of shorter length; And he says that these have; a much wider forehead than the others, for as there are many veins in that part, the bones axe in consequence broader. And the growth of the horns being thicker makes that part of the animal broader, whereas castrated. Oxen in which the circumference! at the base of the horns is but small, have a narrower forehead, says he.
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§ 12.20 But hornless Bulls, not possessing the'honey-combed' part of the forehead (so Democritus styles it; his meaning would be'porous'), since the entire' bone is solid and does not permit the conflux of the; body's juices, are unprotected and destitute of the means of self-defence. And since the veins in this bone are somewhat under-nourished, they grow thinner and feebler. The neck too is of necessity drier in hornless Bulls, for the veins in it also are thinner. And that is why the veins are not so strong. But all the Arabian cows that have finely developed horns, have them (he says) because the copious influx of animal juices promotes the splendid growth of the horns. But even Arabian cows are hornless when they have the frontal bone that receives the moist secretions too solid and unreceptive of the animal juices. In a word, this influx is the cause of growth in horns, and the flow is introduced where the veins are most numerous, thickest, and as full of moisture as they can hold.
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§ 12.21 A love of man is another characteristic of animals. At any rate an Eagle fostered a baby, a And I want to tell the whole story so that I may have evidence of my proposition. When Seuechorus was king of Babylon the Chaldeans foretold that the son born of his daughter would wrest the kingdom from his grandfather. This made him afraid and (if I may be allowed the small jest) he played Acrisius to his daughter: he put the strictest of watches upon her. For all that, since fate was cleverer than the king of Babylon, the girl became a mother, being pregnant by some obscure man. So the guards from fear of the King hurled the infant from the citadel, for that was where the girl was imprisoned. Now an Eagle which saw with its piercing eye the child while still falling, before it was dashed to the earth, flew beneath it, flung its back under it, and conveyed it to some garden and set it down with the utmost care. But when the keeper of the place saw the pretty baby he fell in love with it and nursed it; and it was called Gilgamos and became king of Babylon. If anyone regards this as a legend, I, after testing it to the best of my ability, concur in the verdict. I have heard however that Achaemenes the Persian, from whom the Persian aristocracy are descended, was nursed by an Eagle.
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§ 12.22 In Crete there is a temple to Roccaean Artemis, as she is called. The dogs there go raving mad. So when they are afflicted with this disease they hurl themselves head foremost from the promontory into the sea.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Alwyn Faber Scholfield (1884-1969). Composed ca. 234 CE. Licence: Copyright Harvard University (Greek text CC license). Source.