A GLOSSARY OF GREEK BIRDS 



ITPOY00I (continued}. 



Reproduction. Arist. H. A. v. 2, 539 b oeW o-uyyiWm : De Gen. iv. 

 6, 774 b TiKTovaiv areXJ; *ai rtKpXa' TroXvroKoCo-ty, cf. fr. 273, I5 2 7 (&p. 

 Athen. 391 b) riKrei /ue'xpi OKTO>. Athen. ix. 391 e o^evrtfcoi cla-iv. Hence 

 used as an aphrodisiac, Terpsicles, ap. Athen. 1. c. The erotic symbolism 

 of the sparrow is alluded to by Festus, s.v. strutheum. 



Whatever Lesbia's 'sparrow' may have been, I am pretty sure in 

 my own mind, pace Professor Robinson Ellis, that it was not Passer 

 domesticus, the most intractable and least amiable of cage-birds 

 (experto credej cf. also Bechstein's ' Cage-birds ' ; on the point at 

 issue, see De Quincey, Selections, viii. p. 82). As to o-rpou&'oj/, or 

 passer, used (non-specifically) of a cage-bird, cf. Job xl. 24 9rai'0 Se 

 fv nireo <u<T7rep opyeeo } TJ 8rj(Tfis O.VTQV locrrrep (rrpovBiov TratSt'a) 5 cf. also 

 Boch. Hieroz. ii. 152. 



A "Weather-prophet. Theophr. Sign. vi. 3 a-rpovdos o-rrifav eadev x<-t/ze- 

 piov [ov/p-diVei]' (TTpovdbs eav XCVKOS ^ei/ia>ra p.yav (rrjfJLaivei : cf. ibid. C. 2. 



ITYM4>AAl'AEI, s. ZTujj^YjXi'Ses opa0es. Fabulous and mystical birds. 

 They were met with by the Argonauts at the Island of Dia ; they 

 shot forth their feathers like arrows, and were put to flight by the 

 beating of spears on shields, ex more Curetum, Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1054 

 and Schol, Q. Smyrn. vi. 227, Hygin. Fab. xx, Claud. Idyll, ii. They 

 were shot by Hercules in his fifth labour, in insula Martz's, Hygin. 

 Fab. xxx, or at Lake Stymphalus, Paus. viii. 22, 4; or terrified by 

 him with a brazen drum, Strab. viii. 371, 389: cf. Pisand. ap. Paus. 

 I.e., &c. They inhabited Arabia, an.d had migrated thence; they 

 were as large as cranes, and resembled the Ibis, but had stronger 

 beaks ; they pierced through iron and brass but were held by reed- 

 mats, eagres (pXdiVai, as small birds by bird-lime, Paus. 1. c. Repre- 

 sented, three in number, on the metopes of the temple of Zeus at 

 Olympia (now in the Louvre) Paus. v. 10, 9 ; cf. Expdd. de la Moree, 

 i. pi. 77, &c., &c. Also, together with female figures having birds' legs, 

 on the temple of Artemis Stymphalia at Lake Stymphalus, Paus. 1. c. 

 Also on medals, cf. Med. du Card. Alban, ii. p. 70, &c. ; on an amphora 

 in the Brit. Mus., J. de Witte, Gaz. Archeolog. 1876, pi. iii ; on coins, as 

 crested water-birds (6.0.431-370), B. M. Cat. Coins, Peloponnese, p. 199. 

 According to Dupuis (Orig. de tous les cultes, ii. p. 260, 8vo, Tan 

 iii), the Stymphalian birds are the constellations of Aquila, Cygnus 

 and Vultur or Lyra, which rise together with, that is to say are 

 paranatellons of, the sign Sagittarius (cf. Hygin., Columella, &c.). 

 Starting from the Lion (with which the labours of Hercules began) 

 the sign of the Archer is the fifth in order : it was moreover the 

 domicile of Diana, to whom belonged the temple at Stymphalus. 

 A similar explanation possibly underlies the story of the Birds of 

 Diomede. 



