Part 59

Καὶ παρίστανται ἤδη ἐς δρόμον. These words commence the 32nd Chapter in all the editions which I have examined; and though Schneider suggests their adaptation to the close of the present Chapter, he does not venture to change their position. Inasmuch, however, as the division into chapters is probably arbitrary, and the words in question are more appropriate here than at the commencement of the ensuing Chapter, they are here introduced.

Κύων θήλεια μὲν ὠκυτέρα ἄῥῤενος. I have already remarked that Arrian and Xenophon invariably use the feminine gender when speaking of the dogs of the chase: and so also the Grecian poets, (as the κυσὶν ταχείαις of Euripides, and σκυλάκεσσι θοαῖς of Oppian,) and in some cases the Latin, (as the “canes montivagæ” of Lucretius, “venatica canis” of Ennius, and “multâ cane” of Horace); as if bitches were more quick-scented, “more fleet of foot, or sure of fang.” Minerva, in the Ajax Flagellifer, compares Ulysses searching for the mad Ajax, to a Spartan bitch; though the verse would have admitted the masculine instead of the feminine gender, and the former would certainly have been more appropriate to the sex of the person represented. The gender is changed by the poet in a marked way:

καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ σκηναῖς σε ναυτικαῖς ὁρῶ Αἴαντος, ἔνθα τάξιν ἐσχάτην ἔχει, πάλαι κυνηγετοῦντα, καὶ μετρούμενον ἴχνη τὰ κείνου νεοχάραχθ’, ὅπως ἴδῃς εἴτ’ ἔνδον, εἴτ’ οὐκ ἔνδον· εὖ δέ σ’ ἐκφέρει κυνὸς Λακαίνης ὥς τις εὔρινος βάσις.

This opinion, therefore, of the superiority of the bitch over the dog seems to have prevailed in the kennels of antiquity; and such, I believe, is still entertained by sportsmen. “It is an old received opinion,” observes the author of Countrey Contentments, “amongst many men of the leashe, that the greyhound bitch will ever beate the greyhound dogge, by reason of her more nimblenesse, quicknesse, and agillity; and it is sometimes seene that a perfect good bitch indeed, hath much advantage of an ordinary dogge: but if the good dogge meet with the good bitch, there is then no comparison, but the dogge will be her master, inasmuch as he exceedeth her both in lengthe and strengthe, the two maine helpes in coursing; for her nimblenesse is then no helpe, sith a good dogge in the turne will loose as little ground as any bitch whatsoever.” See also The Countrey Farme, c. +xxii.+ by Markham, ed. 1616. The earliest edition, of 1600, does not contain Markham’s additional remarks on coursing, but merely Surflet’s version of “Maison Rustique.”

Ἄῤῥην δὲ θηλείας διαπονεῖσθαι ἀμείνων. Aristotle remarks, in the Spartan tribe of dogs, that the bitches are longer-lived than the dogs, in consequence of the latter working harder than the former, διὰ τὸ πονεῖν τοὺς ἀῤῥένας μᾶλλον. “Wheresoever,” says Markham, “the course shall stand forth long, the good dogge will beat out the good bitch and make her give over.”

Αἱ θήλειαι μὲν ἀγαπητὸν, κ. τ. λ. I am not aware of any difference having been observed by coursers, in the duration of the comparative speed of the dog and bitch. It is not inability to run that disqualifies a greyhound (generally in his third year from the period of entrance) for appearance on the coursing field, but a propensity, acquired by experience, to skulk and run false:

Experience sage the lack of speed supplies, And in the gap he seeks—his victim dies.

We can rarely, if ever, say of any greyhound, after he has run two seasons, what Shallow says of Page’s fallow greyhound, who “was out-run on Cotsale:”—“He is a good dog, and a fair dog; can there be more said? he is good, and fair.” So soon does the fleetest dog begin to make up by cunning what he wants in willingness to work.

Ἄῤῥενες δὲ καὶ ἐς δέκατον διαφυλάττουσιν. Our author is here at issue with Juliana Berners, who says of the greyhound in his ninth year,

And whan he is comyn to that yere, Have hym to the tannere; For the beste hounde that ever bytche had, At nynthe yere he is full badde.

Indeed, it is incredible, however great may have been his youthful vigour, that any dog should retain his full speed till the tenth year; a period at which all the bodily powers begin to feel the gradual approach of infirmity, at which many dogs die apparently of natural decay, and all are incapacitated for strenuous exertion. “Canes Laconici,” says Pliny, “vivunt annis denis, fœminæ duodenis, cætera genera quindecim annos, aliquando viginti.” Instances of the latter protracted period are very rare. I never knew a greyhound to reach the memorable age of the Homeric Argus—

Ἄργον δ’ αὖ κατὰ μοῖρ’ ἔλαβεν μέλανος θανάτοιο, αὐτίκ’ ἰδόντ’ Ὀδυσῆα ἐεικοστῷ ἐνιαυτῷ.

Short is their span; few at the date arrive Of ancient Argus, in old Homer’s song So highly honour’d; kind, sagacious brute!

See Ælian de Nat. Animal. Buffon Hist. Natur. and Lord Bacon Hist. Vitæ et Mortis.

Μέγα μοι δοκεῖ τὸ κτῆμα ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος. Such in the annals of British coursing was Topham’s Snowball, and such Bate Dudley’s Millar!

Tu quos ad studium venandi legeris, et quos Dixeris hinc comites cursûs, cædisque ferarum, Quære mares: maribus major vis est animusque, Et melius tolerare valent certamina longa.

Καὶ οὐκ ἄνευ θεῶν τοῦ εὐμενείας, κ. τ. λ. With Schneider’s sanction, I have united the 33rd Chapter of the first and second editions of the Greek text with the 32nd of the German editor, from which chapter the former seems to have been most unnecessarily separated by Holstein, or whoever first divided the Cynegeticus into sections, affixing to each a table of contents.

In accordance with Arrian’s notion, the fabulous greyhound of the suspicious Cephalus is conceived, in the imagination of the poet, to have been bestowed on the virtuous Procris by the Goddess of the Chase, with the high character of pre-eminent speed:

quem cum sua traderet illi Cynthia, ‘currendo superabit,’ dixerat, ‘omnes.’

Ἀρτέμιδι Ἀγροτέρᾳ. This title of the sylvan goddess is variously derived by etymologists. Scheffer (Ælian. V. H. L. +ii.+ c. 25.) would have her ladyship so called from Agræ in Attica—χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, the scene of her first essay in hunting on arriving from Delos. Διαβᾶσι δὲ τὸν Εἱλισσὸν, says Pausanias, χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, καὶ ναὸς Ἀγροτέρας ἐστὶν Ἀρτέμιδος, κ. τ. λ. But Perizonius objects to Scheffer’s derivation, and also to that ἀπὸ τῆς ἄγρας, à venatione, considering Ἀγροτέρα rather to signify rustica, in agris agens. If ἄγρα, venatio, be the root of the title, to the same may probably be referred the titular epithet by which Apollo is connected with the chase, by Pausanias in Atticis, (L. +i.+ c. +xli.+) Ἀγραίος: unless the Attic Agræ would here afford a more ready solution. But the true derivation of Ἀγροτέρα is to be sought in ἀγρός. See Etymologicon Magnum.

From whatever source derived, it is sufficient for our purpose that the epithet is commonly applied to her in the character of “Dea Venatrix,” (Ovid. Met. L. +ii.+ 454.)—“Dea sylvarum,” (Ovid. Met. L. +iii.+ 163.)—“sævis inimica virgo—belluis,” (Hor. Od. +xii.+ l. +i.+ 22.)—as presiding over woods, and delighting in hunting. It is so used in the Thesmophoriazusæ of Aristophanes,

τάν τ’ ἐν ὄρεσι δρυογόνοι- σι κόραν ἀείσατ’ Ἄρ- τεμιν Ἀγροτέραν:

and in the Rape of Helen of Coluthus,

οὐδὲ κασιγνήτη Λητωϊὰς Ἀπόλλωνος Ἄρτεμις ἠτίμησε, καὶ ἀγροτέρη περ ἐοῦσα.

To coursers it must be a mighty consolation to know that, by virtue of this distinction, the goddess is ominous of good when seen by them as a night-phantom; at least so says the dream-interpreter of Ephesus, the fortune-telling Artemidorus—κυνηγοῖς μάλιστα συμφέρει διὰ τὴν Ἀγροτέραν.

The Odyssey affords the graphic outline from whence Apelles is supposed to have worked off his finished picture of the Goddess of the Chase as an active toxophilite:

Ἄρτεμις εἶσι κατ’ οὔρεος ἰοχέαιρα, ἢ κατὰ Τηΰγετον περιμήκετον, ἢ Ἐρύμανθον, τερπομένη κάπροισι καὶ ὠκείῃς ἐλάφοισι· τῇ δέ θ’ ἅμα Νύμφαι, κοῦραι Διὸς Αἰγιόχοιο, Ἀγρονόμοι παίζουσι· κ. τ. λ.

The rival copy of Virgil (Æneid. L. +i.+ 502.) will occur to the reader’s recollection; and I need not again exhibit (see c. +xxii.+ note 2.) the elaborate and highly-embellished portrait of the Carthaginian poet, (Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 86.) Effigies in marble of the Goddess of Hunting are to be seen in almost every collection; alone, with her usual symbols of venation, or accompanied by dogs of chase, or deer—or both, as in an alto-relievo at Wilton House. Temples and altars of Diana Agrotera are mentioned by Pausanias in Atticis c. +xix.+ and c. +xli.+, in eliacis +i.+ c. +xv.+, in Achaicis c. +xxvi.+