DOLPHIN AND SCHOOLBOY 95 



gleanings of the industrious A. Gellius,^ that I can draw atten- 

 tion to two stories only. These illustrate the relations existing 

 between the Dolphin, and (a) the boy of Baiae as set forth by 

 Pliny (IX. 8), and (b) the boy of lasos by Oppian (V. 468), 

 Athenaeus (XIIL 85), and yElian (VL 15). 2 



In the last two occurs the pretty tale of the fish waiting 

 daily till school ended to take the beloved lad for swims and 

 larks in the sea, but without the refinement found elsewhere 

 of waiting every morning and afternoon to carry him to and 

 from school ! To the spectacle in lasian waters of their play 

 and of their races (" to bring the thorough-bred and the donkey 

 together " a la Admiral Rous, the fish must have been crushingly 

 handicapped !) : 



" Drawn by Report to see the strange Amour 

 Admiring Nations crowded to the Shore. 

 Rapt with delight, surveyed their am'rous Game 

 And owned the Sight superior to the Fame," 



But alas ! soon was " their am'rous Game " to end. 



One day the lad, tired and eager for a bathe, threw himself 

 on his comrade's back, only however to impale himself on the 

 dorsal spike and gradually bleed to death. No sooner did the 

 Dolphin perceive the water tinged with blood, than " with the 

 force of a full-sailed Rhodian ship," he drave straight for land, 

 flung himself and his burden high and dry on the strand, and 

 there, by the side of his beloved dead, abode until death came 

 unto him also. 



To testify that these twain " were lovely and pleasant in 

 their lives, and in their death they were not divided," the 

 citizens of lasos erected a monument, showing the beautiful 

 boy astride the back of the Dolphin, and issued coins bearing 

 the effigies of each, which were sought far as souvenirs by bands 

 of pilgrims attracted thither by the story. In such regard 



^ Nodes AttictB, 6. 8. 1-7. 



* For instances in classical mythology of rescues from drowning, and of 

 corpses brought ashore, see A. B. Cook, Zetis (Cambridge, 1914), i. p. 170, and 

 for similar hagiographical instances, see S. Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints 

 (London, 1873-82), passim. C. Cahier, Caractdristiqites des Saints dans I'art 

 populaire (Paris, 1867), ii. 691 ff., gives an account full of interest, which is 

 increased by his illustrations of Saints accompanied by fish. 



