octopus. 143 



Genus I. OCTO'PUS*, Lamarck. PL VII. f. 1. 

 Arm-suckers arranged in two rows. 



The famous UoXvttov? or Polypus of classical writers ; 

 its suckers (kotv\t]86v6<;) are even mentioned in the 

 Odyssey. According to ancient moralists it typified a 

 flatterer, an avaricious man, a miser, the devil, a lecher, 

 a bad woman, a cheat, and an obstinate person. Nume- 

 rous proverbs, epigrams, and epithets were illustrated by 

 its well-known ways and habits ; and it was represented 

 in coins of Syracuse and Tarentum. Swan, in his 

 ' Speculum Mundi'' (1643), says, "Polypus is a fish 

 with many feet and a round head unto them ; it is a 

 great enemy to the Lobster : and (as iElian and other 

 authors write) they can often change their colour, and 

 by that project devour e other fishes. Their use and 

 custome is to lie lurking closely by the sides and roots 

 of rocks changing themselves into the colour of the 

 same thing unto which they cleave : insomuch that they 

 seem as a parcel of the rock : whither when the foolish 

 fish swim, they fall into danger : for whilst they dread 

 nothing, these Polypodes suddenly prey upon them and 

 devoure them. And indeed this is the constancie of 

 unfeared treacherie, which is often found in many men, 

 who will be anything for their own ends, and nothing 

 without them : sparing none for their own purposes nor 

 loving any but to effect them. Their heads indeed may 

 well be near their feet : for they prize the trash we 

 trample on farre above the joyes of heaven ; else would 

 they never work their fond purposes by deceitful means, 

 and damage others to help themselves.^ 



The genus Polypus of Schneider; but Leach seems to 



* Having eight feet. 



