Part 11

[Sidenote: Valerii Flacci Argonaut. L. +vi.+ 107.]

Insequitur Drangæa phalanx, claustrisque profusi Caspiadæ; queîs turba canum non segnius acres Exilit ad lituos, pugnasque capessit heriles: Inde etiam par mortis honos; tumulisque recepti Inter avos, positusque virûm: nam pectora ferro Terribilesque innexa jubas ruit agmine nigro Latratuque cohors: quanto sonat horrida Ditis Janua, vel superas Hecates comitatus ad auras.

And the fame of his tribe, as spread over these countries at large, is celebrated by the chaste poet of Barga in his 5th Cynegeticon, with the same song, decies repetita, of leonine and elephantine quarry:

[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Quid! tibi si, quarum concursu exhorruit Argo, Cœruleis sparsas adeam Symplegadas undis, Cappadocumque oras, et inhospita Colchidos arva, Atque iter ad duros contendam pergere Iberos: Caspiaque Albanis quondam regnata tyrannis Littora? et extremi prætervehar ostia Sarni: O quales, quantosque canes, quàm fortia bello Pectora, quàm certâ prolem virtute valentem Inde legam? sola illa uros, sola illa leones Invadit, sola aggreditur dignata elephantos.

[Sidenote: Vulgar Errors. B. +i.+]

[Sidenote: Scaliger.]

Opportunity offers, in introducing the dog of Arcadia to the reader’s notice, of speaking of the semiferous race of lupine dogs, the demi-wolves of the ancient Cynegetica. The cross of the wolf and dog is of considerable antiquity; indeed the belief of its existence may be traced very generally through the popular works of the classic ages. Under the Spartan dog, in the second class, I shall again allude to hybrid dogs, and refer to Mr. Hunter’s paper on the subject in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. At present, it may be stated that the cross of the wolf and domestic dog is an established one, and that the breed, so obtained, has been carried forward for many generations. Aristotle, I believe, first remarked the sexual intercourse of these congeners in Cyrene; and, from the fact as stated by him, Cardan (“a great inquirer after truth, but too greedy a receiver of it,” according to Sir Thomas Brown,) inferred the gradual degeneration of wolves into the canine type. “Ut lupos et canes,” says Brodæus in Oppianum, “mutuò coire fatear, Diodori, Ovidii, (‘Deque lupo concepta Nape,’) ac complurium facit auctoritas.” As the mule is born from the horse and ass, remarks Galen, so a mixed breed may be generated from the wolf and dog. The race of old reported to have been sprung from the latter connexion was that of Arcadia, the Lycaonian; thence called, peradventure, Lycas by Simonides, and Lycisca by Virgil and Ovid—“Mista lupo canis est signatâ voce Lycisca.” That the Lycas of the canine epitaph was of lupine origin, we may conjecture from the name; but the Cean poet specifying other localities as the scenes of his hound’s exploits in life, and Pollux calling her Λυκάδα τὴν Θεττάλην, some other kennel may put forward a claim, instead of that of Arcadia, for the honour of the breed; or the name may be merely an appellative distinction, unconnected with lineage;—still the monumental elegy is deserving of citation:

[Sidenote: Simonides emendatus, ex Polluc. Onom. L. +v.+ 47.]

ἠ σεῦ καὶ φθιμένας, λεῦκ’ ὀστέα τῶδ’ ἐνι τύμβῳ ἴσκω ἔτι τρομέειν θῆρας, ἄγρωσσα Λυκάς. τὰν δ’ ἀρετὰν οἶδεν μέγα Πήλιον, ἅτ’ ἀρίδηλος Ὄσσα Κιθαιρῶνος οἰονόμοι σκοπιαί.

Gratius contrasts the docility of Lycaonian dogs, the Τεγεῆται of Oppian, with the intractability of the Indian,

[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 160.]

At contrà faciles magnique Lycaones armis.

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +i.+ 198.]

[Sidenote: Vide Pausan. in Arcad. c. +ii.+]

The breed of the northern part of Peloponnesus, having been of great note, and the son of Pelasgus (“notus feritate Lycaon”) having been converted into a wolf—the first subject, it may be, of lycanthropy—the dogs indifferently called Arcadian and Lycaonian, were probably, says C. Wase, “heirs of his own body naturally begotten.” Many Arcadian hounds are found in the Ovidian pack, among the mistaken pursuers of the unfortunate son of Aristæus—

[Sidenote: Euripidis Bacchæ.]

(ὃν ὠμοσίτοι σκύλακες, ἃς ἐθρέψατο, διεσπάσαντο κρείσσον’ ἐν κυνηγίαις,)

possessed of great speed and resolution:

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +iii.+ 209.]

Inde ruunt alii rapidâ velociùs aurâ, Pamphagus, et Dorceus, et Oribasus, Arcades omnes, Nebrophonosque valens, et trux cum Lælape Theron, Et pedibus Pterelas, et naribus utilis Agre, Hylæusque fero nuper percussus ab apro, Deque lupo concepta Nape, pecudesque secuta Pœmenis, et natis comitata Harpyia duobus, Et substricta gerens Sicyonius ilia Ladon; Et Dromas, et Canace, Sticteque, et Tigris, et Alce, Et niveis Leucon, et villis Asbolus atris, Prævalidusque Lacon, et cursu fortis Aëllo, Et Thous, et Cyprio velox cum fratre Lycisca.

The poet elsewhere bestows on the hound of Arcadia the local epithet of Mænalian, from Mount Mænalus—

[Sidenote: Artis Amator. L. +i.+]

Mænalius lepori det sua terga canis.

Is it not probable that some of the hounds of chase, bestowed by the Arcadian God on the Goddess of hunting, were culled by his goatish majesty from the kennels of the country of Lycaon, where Pan himself gratified his sporting ardour?—the brace of pie-balled—the leash of long-eared—and the spotted hound?

[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian. vs. 90.]

τὶν δ’ ὁ γενειήτης δύο μὲν κύνας ἥμισυ πηγοὺς, τρεῖς δὲ πόρ’ οὐατίους, ἕνα δ’ αἰόλον οἵ ῥα λέοντας αὐτοὺς αὖ ἐρύοντες, ὅτε δράξαιντο δεράων, εἷλκον ἔτι ζώοντας ἐπ’ αὐλίον.

The other seven which Pan contributed to Dian’s pack, being θάσσονες αὐράων, and destined for more timid quarry, are placed under the Spartan family, of which they were the fleetest members.

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. B. +iii.+]

Whether all the dogs “of Arcas kinde,” as sings Sir Arthur Golding in his “worke very pleasant and delectable,” were demi-wolves, and “gaunt as any grewnd,” I cannot take on myself to decide; but it is a fair inference, from the evidence adduced, that lupi-canine crosses predominated, in all their ferocity, in the kennels of Arcadia—not indeed to the exclusion of canine indigenæ of pure blood, but enough to give a ferine character to the general type.

The Hyrcanian, savage as he was, is reported to have increased his natural ferocity by engendering with the tiger:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 159.]

Sed non Hyrcanæ satis est vehementia genti Tanta; suis petiêre ultrò fera semina sylvis. Dat Venus accessus, et blando fœdere jungit. Tunc et mansuetis tutò ferus errat adulter In stabulis, ultròque gravis succedere tigrim Ausa canis, majore tulit de sanguine fœtum.

And to the subsequent generations of this cross Bargæus gives speed in pursuit, and courage in attack:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]

Sic itaque immanes duxêre è tigride mores Hyrcani, quibus exuti post deinde nepotes Sive ursos, sive illi apros vidêre minaces, Accurrunt celeres, et aperto marte lacessunt.

[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +xi.+]

[Sidenote: Aristot. Hist. Animal. L. +viii.+ c. 28.]

[Sidenote: Deipnosoph. L. +v.+ c. 8.]

[Sidenote: Pollucis Onomast. L. +v.+ c. +v.+ 39.]

The breed of Hyrcania, having escaped the notice of Aristotle and his copyist Pliny, is of course omitted by Solinus, (whose work entitled Polyhistor, however “mervaylous delectable” in the opinion of Sir Thomas Elyot, is a mere breviary of the twice-told tales of the too credulous Roman naturalist,) but the same fabulous union with the tiger is recorded by them as the parent stock of the Indian dog. May not the Indian and Hyrcanian, though separated by Athenæus and Pollux, have been deemed identical by the Stagirite?—To the tiger-cross of Irak, the compound epithet λεοντομιγεῖς is applied by the learned grammarian just cited, as if the “fera semina” of the first connexion were leonine. The ferocity of the breed, contrasted with the timidity of the stag, affords an argument to Lucretius against the Pythagorean doctrine of a promiscuous transmigration of souls:

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +iii.+ 748.]

Quod si immortalis foret, et mutare soleret Corpora, permistis animantes moribus essent: Effugeret canis Hyrcano de semine sæpè Cornigeri incursum cervi, &c.

By the archbishop of Thessalonica the Canes Hyrcani are mentioned amongst the ἐπίσημα κυνῶν γένη of his commentary on Homer (ad Iliad. ρʹ.) but they are not found in either of the poems; nor, indeed, do I remember in the Iliad or Odyssey any dogs distinctively marked by their geographical appellations.

The plaintive wailing of the old nurse, Carmé, over her daughter, the nymph Britomartis,

[Sidenote: H. in Dian. vs. 190.]

ἐλλοφόνον Βριτόμαρτιν, ἐΰσκοπον ἧς ποτὲ Μίνως πτοιηθεὶς ὑπ’ ἔρωτι κατέδραμεν οὔρεα Κρήτης,

in one of Virgil’s minor poems, amended by Heyne, refers very pathetically to the companionship of the Hyrcanian dog in the mountainous chase—

[Sidenote: Titus Andronicus Act +ii.+ sc. +ii.+]

to climb the highest promontory top—

though associates from a Cretan kennel would have been more in place—

[Sidenote: Ciris vs. 307.]

Nunquam ego te summo volitantem in vertice montis Hyrcanos interque canes agmenque ferarum Conspiciam, nec te redeuntem amplexa tenebo.

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +x.+ 1.]

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 374.]

The Locrian dog, much esteemed by Grecian sportsmen, is particularly employed by Xenophon in the boar-chase; but I know not to which of the territories called Locris he should be appropriated, nor whether common to all. Nor do I find in him properties sufficiently characteristic of the family of bellicosi to place him here with confidence—and yet I no where see him used in pursuit of timid fugacious quarry. Oppian (no authority for classification) introduces him between the Egyptian and Molossian—here then let him stand—βουκολίων οὖροι, Λοκροὶ χαροποί τε Μολοσσοί. The following beautiful little epitaph of Anyta is admitted, merely because its subject, the fleetest of musical hounds, bears the name of Locris—

[Sidenote: Anyta Epidauria, apud Scriptores Græcos Minores. Oxford, 1829.]

ὤλεο δήποτε καὶ σὺ πολύῤῥιζον παρὰ θάμνον, Λοκρὶ φιλοφθόγγων ὠκυτάτα σκυλάκων, τοῖον ἐλαφρίζοντι τεῷ ἐγκάτθετο κώλῳ ἴον ἀμείλικτον ποικιλόδειρος ἔχις.

for I am by no means convinced that the title is any thing more than an individual appellative (unconnected with locality) bestowed by a Grecian lady, perhaps, on a valued pet. Darcius of Venusium places the Locrian with the Arcadian, and others of the pugnacious class.

[Sidenote: Joan. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Sunt et Locrenses catuli, sunt Arcades, atque Cypria quos Salamis, quos dives Iberia pascit.

The Carthaginian poet alone has commemorated the “acres catuli” of Libya, his native country,

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 128.]

Quinetiam siccæ Libyes in finibus acres Gignuntur catuli, quorum non spreveris usum:

and from him probably, Fracastorius (a learned physician of Verona, who wrote a short poem of some merit, “de curâ canum,” eleven centuries later,) may have derived the Canes Libyci of his Alcon, recommended for the savage chase.

[Sidenote: H. Fracastorii Alcon.]

Nam rabidas si fortè feras te cura tenebit Venari, et variis caput objectare perîclis; Spartanâ de stirpe tibi, de stirpe Molossâ Quære canes, Libycos illis, acresque Britannos Pannoniosque truces, et amantes prælia Celtas Adde, nec Hyrcanos, nec Seras sperne feroces.

[Sidenote: De Venatione L. +i.+]

[Sidenote: Ælian. de Nat. Animal. L. +vi.+ c. 53.]

[Sidenote: Polyhistor. c. +xv.+]

It cannot be granted to Conrad Gesner that the Libyan of the African poet is the Metagon of Gratius; nor is the resemblance between the former and the Egyptian of Oppian sufficiently clear to justify an inference of identity. Indeed our materials for forming a judgment are far too scanty. We know no more of the “Incola arundiferi Nili” of Natalis Comes than we cull from the credulous historians of the Egyptian dog, Ælian and Solinus, relative to his fear of crocodiles. The former naturalist reports οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες καὶ ἑλεῖν, καὶ ἀνιχνεῦσαι τὰ θηρία σοφοί οἱ δὲ Αἰγύπτιοι φυγεῖν δεινότατοι, κ. τ. λ. “E Nilo nunquam nisi currentes lambitant, dum à crocodilis insidias cavent,” adds the author of the Polyhistor.

The Pannonian breed of Canes bellicosi, of high courage, were employed in actual war, as well as its mimicry the chase. Παίονες stand at the head of Oppian’s long catalogue, and, upon his principle of omnifarious commixture, are recommended to be crossed with sagacious Cretans—

[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ 395.]

ἐπιμίσγεο Παίοσι Κρῆτας.

The Veronese poet makes a twofold distinction of the dogs of Pannonia in his cynegetical effusion, entitled Alcon. In the first class, he places the Pannonii truces, as already cited, adapted for the chase of fierce prey; in the second, Pannonii agiles, for timid, innoxious quarry:

[Sidenote: H. Fracastorii Alcon.]

Si verò parvos lepores, capreasque fugaces Malueris, timidosque sequi per devia cervos, Delige Pannonios agiles, volucresque Sicambros.

The Pannonii truces are noticed by Julius Pollux, and also their consimilars of Magnesia—both evidently of the Epirote breed. The former are also mentioned by Nemesian, Cyneg. v. 126.

[Sidenote: Ælian. Var. Hist. L. +xiv.+ c. 46.]

Ælian characterizes the Magnesian war-hounds as φοβεροί τε, καὶ ἄγριοι, καὶ ἐντυχεῖν ἀμείλικτοι; and states that the horsemen of Magnesia, in the Ephesian war, were each accompanied to the field with a Canis Venaticus, the dogs collectively first assaulting the enemy, backed by the pedestrian soldiers, and lastly by the cavalry; who did not charge till the canine warriors προπηδῶντες ἐτάραττον τὴν παρεμβολήν. The Μάγνητες are merely named by the poet of Anazarbus, in his first Cynegetic, vs. 372.

Sidenote: Onomast. L. +v.+ 39.]

Of all the pugnacious dogs of the classic file, the most renowned were those bred on the continent of Epirus, and denominated, from one of its principal districts, Molossian: of which Aristotle records two varieties, the one for ordinary hunting, the other for guarding flocks, houses, and property. The fabled origin of the breed is consistent with its high repute in the kennels of antiquity. For, on the authority of Nicander, we are told by Julius Pollux, that the Epirote was descended from the brazen dog, which Vulcan wrought for Jupiter, and animated with all the functions of canine life—

καὶ ψυχὴν ἐνθεὶς δῶρον ἔδωκε Διΐ.

Of this Molossian prototype the fortunate proprietors were, successively, Europa, Minos, Procris, and Cephalus; and, somehow or other, as he passed from kennel to kennel, amidst heroines and heroes, or whilst in the temporary keeping of Diana, (who seemingly bestowed him on Procris,) he was metamorphosed into a wolf-greyhound, under the name and character of the Ovidian Lælaps. See Class +iii.+ Vertragus.

The prowess of the Canes Molossi rendered them most useful auxiliaries in the field of battle; and they were equally prized in the contests of the circus and amphitheatre. Their war praises are sung by the classic muse of Darcius, in a style worthy the purest age of Roman literature, nor are their other merits forgotten by this accomplished poet:

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Diversâ veniunt præstantes dote Molossi Diversi ingeniis, non omnibus omnia præstat Natura, at vario ludit discrimine morum, &c.

But our citations must be made from writers of an earlier date, and the character of these dogs derived from coeval, or at least original, sources. The attachment and fidelity of Epirotes to their masters formed a remarkable feature of their tribe—so much so, that Statius tells us the soldiers of Molossia wept over their faithful canine companions, slain in war:

[Sidenote: In Epiced. Pileti Ursi.]

gemit inter bella peremptum Parthus equum, fidosque canes flevêre Molossi;

—a manifestation of kindly and affectionate feeling, of which their congeners of an earlier date, on the authority of Tryphiodorus, were totally unworthy:

[Sidenote: Tryphiodori Ἰλίου Ἅλωσ. vs. 608.]

οἱ δ’ ὑλάοντες ἀγρία κοπτομένοισιν ἐπ’ ἀνδράσιν ὠδύροντο νηλέες, οὐδ’ ἀλέγιζον ἑοὺς ἐρύοντες ἄνακτας.

In the capacity of dogs of war, they do not fall under my plan; nor indeed as οἰκουροὶ, nor as fighters in the Venatio of the amphitheatre, do they strictly come within this arrangement. On these points of their character the reader will find illustrative anecdotes in Julius Pollux, Pliny, and Solinus.

[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +iii.+ c. +ii.+]

As dogs of the chase, their strength, size, and undaunted courage, enabled them to contend with the most terrific wild animals; and we are assured that the lion himself has been mastered by the dog of Epirus—the tiger, pard, panther, and boar, have yielded to him. The epithets applied to the Canis Molossus all indicate his fire and resolution. Ælian calls him θυμικώτατος; Virgil, “acremque Molossum,” (Georg. +iii.+); and Seneca uses the same epithet, “teneant acres lora Molossos,” (Hippolyt. Act +i.+) But there is much difference of opinion whether he was an open or close hound, when employed in the field. To the latter conclusion I am induced to accede from the following passage of Statius,

[Sidenote: Achill. L. +ii.+]

muto legit arva Molosso Venator, videat donec sub frondibus hostem.

[Sidenote: Venationis Aprugnæ Leges. L. +i.+]

On the trail of his game I believe him to have been a mute limier or limehound, (whence Savary’s term echemythus,) and never to have opened until the quarry had started from its lair—being even at that time less noisy in his bark than the purely sagacious breeds. His silence or closeness is clearly indicated by Gratius, where he orders the yelping Etolian dam to be crossed with a Molossian sire,

[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 196.]

vanæ tantum Calydonia linguæ Exibit vitium patre emendata Molosso.

Will not the praises of Lydia, of Martial’s well-known epitaph, place her among the savage inmates of a Molossian kennel?

[Sidenote: Martial. Epigr. L. +xi.+ Epigr. 70.]

Amphitheatrales inter nutrita magistros Venatrix sylvis aspera, blanda domi: Lydia dicebar domino fidissima dextra, Qui non Erigones mallet habere canem, Nec qui Dictæâ Cephalum de gente secutus Luciferæ pariter venit ad astra Deæ. Non me longa dies, nec inutilis abstulit ætas, Qualia Dulichio fata fuêre cani: Fulmineo spumantis apri sum dente perempta, Quantus erat Calydon, aut, Erymanthe, tuus. Nec queror infernas quamvis citò rapta sub umbras, Non potui fato nobiliore mori.

—her education and her quarry will, at least, assign her to the muster-roll of our first class.

But of the Canis Molossus Venaticus, enough;—matchless as he was for stoutness, before Britain was discovered and its race of Canes bellicosi brought into competition with those of Epirus, he at last was compelled to yield the palm of ferocious hardihood to the British bull-dog, and to succumb to his superior prowess:

[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 179.]

At magnum cum venit opus, promendaque virtus, Et vocat extremo præceps discrimine Mavors, Non tunc egregios tantum admirere Molossos.

[Sidenote: Luciani Fugitivi.]

[Sidenote: De Naturâ Deor. L. +ii.+ 63.]

[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +viii.+ c. 12.]

The second variety of the Epirote noticed by Aristotle, though out of the pale of this epitome, is worth recording from its classical associations, and because it possesses in an eminent degree the canine qualities lauded by Lucian, τὸ φυλακτικὸν, τὸ οἰκουρικὸν, καὶ τὸ φιλοδέσποτον—the “tam fida custodia, tamque amans dominorum adulatio, tantumque odium in externos” of Cicero. To this I give the name of Canis Molossus Villaticus, and include under the title the οἰκουρὸς, οἰκοφύλαξ, πυλαωρὸς, τραπεζεὺς, ostiarius, pastoralis, pecuarius, &c.; names derived from the different uses to which the dog was applied. Let the Villæ Custos of Columella be our type:—“amplissimi corporis, vasti latratûs canorique, ut prius auditu maleficum, deinde etiam aspectu terreat, et tamen nonnunquam, ne visus quidem, horribili fremitu suo fuget insidiantem, &c.”—Here we place the sharp-toothed watch-dog of Hesiod’s agricultural injunctions;

[Sidenote: Opera et Dies. vs. 602.]

(καὶ κύνα καρχαρόδοντα κομεῖν μὴ φείδεο σίτου μή ποτέ σ’ ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνὴρ ἀπὸ χρήματ’ ἕληται,)

[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +viii.+ p. 553.]

—here, the “canes rabidos et immanes, et quibusvis lupis et ursis sæviores, quos ad tutelæ præsidia curiosè coloni fuerant alumnati,” of Apuleius;—here, the pastoral dogs of Varro (Geopon. L. +xix.+ c. +i.+) Fronto (Geopon. L. +xix.+ c. +ii.+) and Varro (De Re R. L. +ii.+ c. +ix.+);—and here too those, in general, of the poet of Syracuse, the canine guards of flocks and herds, so prettily alluded to, in the instance of Lampurus, by the goat-herd boy of the eighth Idyllium,

[Sidenote: Theocrit. Idyll. +viii.+ 63.]

φείδευ τᾶν ἐρίφων, φείδευ, λύκε, τῶν τοκάδων μευ, μηδ’ ἀδίκει μ’, ὅτι μικκὸς ἐὼν πολλαῖσιν ὁμαρτέω. ὦ Λάμπουρε κύων, οὕτω βαθὺς ὕπνος ἔχει τύ; οὐ χρὴ κοιμᾶσθαι βαθέως σὺν παιδὶ νέμοντα...

and the milk-fattened ban-dog of Claudian,

[Sidenote: Claudian. in Eutropium. L. +i.+]

sic pastor obesum Lacte canem ferroque ligat, pascitque revinctum, Dum validus servare gregem, vigilique rapaces Latratu terrere lupos, &c.

The notices in Homer of these dogs are numerous; (see Iliad. κʹ. 183. μ′. 302. ρʹ. 109.) and their watchfulness, as nightly centinels, is sung in classic hexameters by the poet of Venusium:

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Uberior tamen est illis, et fortior inde Laudis causa venit, molli quod tempora somno Pauca terunt, seu flammigero det lumina curru Phœbus, seu niveas agitat Latonia bigas, Somnifero obliquum volvens jubar axe per orbem. Sed vigili domino curâ, raroque cadente Lumine prospiciunt, et herilia murmure circum Claustra fremunt, ne sint nocturno pervia furi, Neve lupo, tutâque greges statione quiescant.

[Sidenote: Pitisci Lexicon Antiquit.]

Pitiscus tells us, on the authority of Eustathius, that it was customary with the ancients to have porter-dogs—“moris erat atriensibus fores servari à canibus,”—such were the πυλαώροι and τραπεζῆες of Homer, the attendants at the door of Telemachus, κύνες πόδας ἀργοὶ, (Odyss. υʹ. 144.)—the house-dogs of Patroclus, nine in number—of whom two were slain, and offered on his funeral pile, (Iliad. ψʹ. 173.) and the κύνες ὠμησταὶ of Priam—whose anticipated reckless laceration of his dead body—πολίον τε κάρη, πολιόν τε γένειον—by the πυλαώροι, is pleaded by the aged king to deter his ill-fated son from contending with Achilles. (Iliad. χʹ. 69.)—Such too were the gemini custodes of Evander, which followed their rustic king to the dormitory of his Trojan guest. (Æneid. L. +viii.+ 461.)