294 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIII. 



So great was the authority of Aristotle, that ^liax, 

 who "SMTOtc two centuries later aucl borrowed many of 

 liis facts from the works of his predecessor, perpetuates 

 tliis error ; and, after describing the exjDloits of the 

 trained elephants exhibited at Eome, adds the expression 

 of his smprise, that an animal without joints (ava^Qpoi/) 

 should yet be able to dance. ^ The fiction was too agree- 

 able to be readily abandoned by the poets of the Lower 

 Empire and the romancers of the middle ages ; and 

 Phile, a contemporary of Petrarch and Da:n'TE, who, in 

 the early part of the fourteenth centmy, addressed his 

 didactic poem on the elephant to the Emperor Andi'oni- 

 cus n., untaught by the exposition of Aristotle, still 

 clmig to the old delusion, 



" UoSeg Si tovt(^ Qavjxa km aa^ig r'tpac, 

 Ovc, ov KaQairip rdXXa tu>v ^wwv y^vtj, 

 'EluiOi Kivslv t'l dvdpOpujv KkaapuTOiv' 

 Kai yap ffri€apo1g ffvvrtO'evrsg dcTTtoic, 

 Kai rrj TrXa^ap^ twv ffi<jvr)ujv KaraaTaati, 

 Kai rrj TTpoQ apOpa rwp (TKiXiov UTroiCjOifff/, 

 'Nvv elg Tovovg ayovai^ %'vv tig viptaiic. 

 Tag 7ravroda~ag iK^pofidg rov 9)]piov, 



Spaxvr'ipovg oprag ^k ruv oina^iiov 

 'Ava/xipiXeKTiog olca rovg tpLTrpoaQiovg' 

 TovTOig (\e(pag iv-aOilg axnrip arvXoig 

 'Op6o(Trdcr]i' dKafnrrog virvdjmov p,'ivti" 



T. lOG, &C. 



SoLiNUS introduced the same fable into liis Polyhistor ; 

 and DicuiL, the Irish commentator of the ninth century, 

 who had an opportunity of seeing the elephant which 

 Haroun Ali'aschid sent as a present to Charlemagne ^ in 

 the year 802, corrects the error, and attributes its 

 perpetuation to the circumstance that the joints in the 



words " leaning against some toatt or 

 tree,'^ which are not to be found in 

 the original. 



^ " 'Lwov li dvapOpov cvviivai Kai 

 pvQiiov Kai fieXovg, Kai (pvXdTTttv axijfia 



(^vatuyg Iwpa ravra clfia Kai i'ci6rt]Q 

 Ka(f iKnaroi' iicTrXtjKriKtjJ^ — ^LIAX, 

 De Kat. Anim., lib. ii. cap. xi. 



2'Egixhard, Vita Karoli, c. xvi. 

 and Annalcs Francorum, a.d. 810. 



