58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-<i S. IX. Jan. 28. '60. 



epic canon. The inscription on tlie tomb of Sar- 

 danapalus, in which he is called the king of the 

 pi-eat city of Ninus, appears from Cic. Tus. v. 35., 

 Fin. ii. 32., to be the production of the Samian 

 Choerilus. (See Anthol. App. 27. ed. Jacobs; 

 Naeke's Choerilus, pp. 196. sqq.) 'Hcr/oSos for 

 XotniAos was probably an ancient corruption, and 

 'HpoSoros, the reading of one MS., was a conjectu- 

 ral emendation of some copyist who perceived 

 that Hesiod could not have mentioned the siege 

 of Ninus. It may be observed that in the passage 

 of a Scholiast cited by Naeke (ib. p. 112.) the 

 name of Choerilus has been corrupted into Hero- 

 dotus. Concerning the importance of the eagle in 

 divination, alluded to by the author cited in this 

 passage, whoever he may have been, see Iliad, 

 xxiv. 310. ; Xen. Anab. vi. 1. 23. ; and Spanheiui's 

 noteatf Callim. Jov. 69. 



It has been already remarked that Hesiod could 

 not have alluded to the siege of Ninus by Cyaxa- 

 res. The time of Cyaxares is fixed within certain 

 limits, and to a date long posterior to that of 

 Hesiod, by his being contemporary with the total 

 eclipse of the sun which separated the Lydian 

 and Median armies (Herod, i. 74.), which by no 

 astronomer' is placed earlier than 625 n.c., and 

 which has been fixed by Airy at 585 B.C. (See 

 Dr. Smith's Diet, of Am. Biog., art. Cyaxares ; 

 rierschel's Outlines of Astronomy, ed. 5. p. 683.) 

 It may be added that the extant remains of He- 

 siod contain no mention of Ninu -•, or Babylon, or 

 the Assyrians, or the Medes, or the Persians ; or 

 of any eponymous god or hero connected with 

 these cities and nations. Perses and Perseis in 

 the Theogony (v. 356. 377. 409. 957.), and Perses, 

 the name of the poet's brother in the " Weeks and 

 Days," arc devoid of all reference to Persia. A 

 fragment of Hesiod is indeed preserved, in which 

 he speaks of Arabus, the mythical progenitor of 

 the Arabians, as the son of Mercury by Thronie 

 the daughter of King Belus (Fragm. 29. ed. Marck- 

 scheffel; compare Fragm. 32.). The early my- 

 thology of the Greeks, however, connected Belus 

 with Africa rather than with Asia. Thus zEscliy- 

 lus, in his play of the Supplices, describes Belus, 

 the son of Libya, as the father of iEgyptus and 

 Danaus (v. 314-20.). According to Apollod. i. 

 4., Agenor and Belus were the sons of Neptune 

 and Libya : Agenor became king of Phoenicia, 

 and Belus king of Egypt. The early logographer, 

 Pherecydes, likewise establishes an affinity between 

 Agenor, Belus, iEgyptus, and Danaus, though by 

 different links (Fragm. 40., ed. C Muller). Hence 

 it may be inferred that when Hesiod connects 

 Arabus with Belus, he conceives Belus as the re- 

 presentative of Egypt, and not of Assyria. He- 

 rodotus, however, transfers Belus to Asia: he 

 places this name in the series of the Heraclide 

 kings of Lydia (i. 7.) ; he mentions also the Tim- 

 ple of Jupiter Belus at Babylon, and states that 



one of the gates of this city yvas called the Belian 

 gate (i. 181., iii. 158.). Bel, or Baal, was the 

 name of the Jupiter, or principal god, both of the 

 Assyrians and of the Phoenicians : see Winer, 

 Bibl. It. IF. in these names. Hence Virgil makes 

 Belus the father of Dido, and the first of the Ty- 

 rian kings (^En., i. 622. 729.). Alexander of 

 Ephesus, a writer contemporary yvith Cicero, spoke 

 of Belus as the founder of towns in the island of 

 Cyprus (Steph. Byz. in Actios, Meineke, Altai. 

 Alex., p. 375.). The idea of Ninus, as the founder 

 of the Assyrian empire, seems to have come to the 

 Greeks from Ctesias : see Diod., ii. 1 . ; Ctesise 

 Fragm., p. 389., ed. Baehr ; Strab., xvi. 1. § 2. 

 His name does not occur in the early poets or 

 mythographers : Herodotus makes him a mythical 

 king of Lydia (i. 7). Phoenix of Colophon, the 

 choliambic poet, who lived about 309 n.c, treats 

 him as the primitive king of Assyria, and con- 

 founds the inscription on his tomb with that of 

 Sardanapalus (Athen. xii. p. 530 e. ; Paus., i. 9. 8.; 

 Naeke, Choerilus, p. 226.). 



It should be observed that in the Latin version 

 of Avicenna's Arabic translation of the History of 

 Animals, the passage is thus rendered : " Honae- 

 rus, quem Arabes Antyopos vocant, dicens in 

 captura Ilion vulturem potu suo et morte pree- 

 signasse urbis excidium." (See Schneider, ad loc.). 

 It is clear that Homer cannot be alluded to; but 

 the substitution of Ilion for Ninus might lead to 

 a different emendation. The change of THNNl- 

 NOT into THNIMOT, would not be considerable ; 

 and we might assume that. Stesichorus is the poet 

 intended, who may have introduced this incident 

 in his 'JA.IOU ir/pcris. But the proper names, both 

 of men and animals, have undergone much cor- 

 ruption in this Arabic version (see Jourdain, lle- 

 eherehes stir V Age el VOrigine des Traductions 

 Latiues d'Aristote (Paris, 1 843), p. 336—342. And 

 I may add, upon the authority of competent Arabic 

 scholars, that there is no word in Arabic which at 

 all resembles Antyopos. No reliance can, there- 

 fore, be placed on the proper names in this Latino- 

 Arabic version, and the substitution of Choerilus 

 seems to be the most probable solution of thie 

 difficulty. 



In estimating the authority of Aristotle's state- 

 ments in his History of Animals, we must consider 

 not only the careful, sceptical, and scientific cha- 

 racter of his mind, but also the means of obtaining 

 accurate information which were at his disposi- 

 tion. Pliny states that Alexander the Great, 

 beimr animated with a desire of knowing the na- 

 tures of animals, employed Aristotle for the pur- 

 pose, and placed at his command several thousand 

 men, in Asia and Greece, who were occupied in 

 hurting, fowling, and fishing, and those who had 

 charge of parks, herds of animals, hives, fishponds, 

 and aviaries, in order that his knowledge might 

 extend to all countries. It was (Pliny adds) by 



