OPTYE. 125 



OPTYH {continued). ' 

 Ar. Av. 1299 and Schol. Q{. Plut. ii. 34 D, See also Meursius, De 

 Ludis Graecorum, in Gronov. Thes. Ant. Gr. vii. p. 979. 



Immunity from poison.— Arist. De Plant. 5, 820 b voa-Kva/ios koi 

 eXXe/Sopo? avdpanrois fiiv BijXrjTtjpioi, Tpn(f)i] 8e ToTi oprv^i. Cf. Plin. X. 23 

 (23), Geopon. xiv. 24, Galen. De Ther. ad Pison. i. 4, De Alim. Fac. 

 ii. 6, De Temper, iii. 4, Basil. Hexaem. v. p. 59 (ed. Paris), Eustath. 

 Hexaem. p. 9, Ambros. Hexaem. iii. 9, &c., Lucret. iv. 641. For similar 

 oriental refif., see Bochart, ii. 97, 98. 



Legend cf Delos.— Phanodem. ap. Athen. ix. 392 d wy Kureldev 'Epvcri;^- 

 6<jOV AfjXov Ti)v urjaov rrjp vtto tcov ap)(a'LCL>v KoXovfievrjv 'Oprvyiav Trap" o ras 

 ayeXas rtov ^uav ToCrav cf)fpofj.fvas eK tov neXayovs i^aveiv els ti)v vrjaov Sia 

 TO fvopfiov flvai ... Cf. Serv. ad Aen. iii. y;^. On the metamorphosis 

 of Artemis, Leto, and Asteria into Quails, see Apollod. i. 4, i, Schol. 

 Apoll. Rhod. i. 308, Hygin. Fab. 53, Tatian, Adv. Graec. c. xvi, &c. In 

 yet another version it is Zeus himself who appears as a Quail : Argum. 

 Pyth. Pindari, ed. Bockh, ii. p. 297. 



Legend of Herevdes.— Eudox. ap. Athen. ix. 392 d ol ^oivik«s Qvovat 

 T(S 'HpaKXel oprvyas 8ia to tov 'HpaKXia tov ^Acrrfpias Koi Aios TTopfvopevov 

 tls Ai3vr)v avnipedrjvnt fxev vno Tvcfxovos, 'loXaov 8 avTcS npotreveyKaVTOi 

 opTvya KOI TTpocrayayovTOs u(T(f)pavdevTn dvii^iaivai : cf. Arist. Probl. XXX. I. 

 Eustath. in Od. xi. 60, p. 1702. Prov. opTv^ eaaxrev 'HpaAcX^ tov KapTtpov, 

 Zenob. v. 56 ; Diog. vii. 10 ; Apostol. xiii. I ; Eutecnius in Cram. Anecd. 

 Paris., i. p. 31 ; Paroemiogr. Gr. i. p. 143. In this passage various 

 commentators read opvya for oprvya, the Gazelle being sacred to 

 Typhon ; cf. Jablonski, Panth. 197, Dupuis, Orig. de tous les Cultes, 

 ii. 350, Creuzer, Symb. ii. 100, Boch., I.e.; but the emendation is not 

 justified, cf. Stark, op. infra cit. The Ouaii's brain was a specific for 

 epilepsy, the morbus comitialis or herculeus, Galen, Parat. Facil. iii. 

 155, Plin. X. (23) 33. Vaitika, the Quail, is said to be a solar emblem 

 among the Hindoos: it is as the emblem of the returning Sun, that it 

 figures in the legend of Delos, the birthplace of Phoebus, and in that of 

 Hercules, the slayer of Typhon. 



The principal allusions to the Island of Ortygia are collated and 

 discussed by Hermann, De Apoll. et Diana, Opusc. vii. p. 310 (1839). 

 See also, for a still more elaborate investigation, Stark, Die Wachtel, 

 Sterneninsel und der Oelbaum im Bereiche phoinikischer und griechi- 

 scher Mythen, Ber. K. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss., 1856, pp. 32-120. It 

 seems clear to me that in the superstitions regarding the Quail, and in 

 the sacred reputation of Ortygia, the main point is with reference to 

 the Solar Tropic ; cf. Od. xv. 403 vriuos tis ^vpir) KeKX/jtr/cerai, e'i nov 

 uKovfis, I OpTvyirji KadvTTfpdev, odi TpoTrai rjeXioio. The Quail derived its 

 sanctity, and perhaps its name, from the circumstance that it returned 

 with the returning Sun, and Ortygia was some spot where the rpoTrai 



