AAEKTPYGN — AAIAETOI 27 



AAIAETOI {continued). 



meaningless and may be an interpolation; cf. the next reference.] 



ix. 34, 620 ogvoMreo-TdTOs pep eWi, Kal ra reKva dvayKafci en yjnXa ovra 

 irpos top fjXiop fiXeneip, Kal top p.rj ftovXopepop Konrei Kal aTpicpei, Kal 

 onorepov av eynrpocrBev oi 6<pdaXpol baKpvcraxnv, tovtov dnoKTeivei, top 8' 

 trepop eKTpecpa. [The same story, s. v. airos, in Ael. H. A. ii. 26, also 

 Plin. N. H. X. 3, and in Gesner, &C.] Cfl fypevayp tovs nepl tt)P OdXarrap 

 oppidas, k.t.X. Arist. De Mirab. 60, 835 «k tov frvyovs tS>p deT&p Bdrepop 

 tS)p eyyopoup dXideros yiperai mipciXXd^, &c, cf. Dion. De Av. ii. I. Men- 

 tioned also Ar. Av. 891, Eur. fr. 637 6pa> 8' in aKrals pop.dfia Kvp.aro(pd6pop 

 dXtderop : Opp. Hal. i. 425 Kparepoi & 1 dXtaieroi dp7raKTr)pes, &C. 



See also Nonn. Dion. xlii. 531, where dXideros, associated with 

 Poseidon, seizes a dove from the clutches of KipKos, <pei8opepoLS opvx^o-i 

 p-erdpaiop oppip dcipwv. Cf. Sil. Ital. Punic, iv. 105. 



A good omen to fishermen, Dion. De Avib. ii. I. 



On the fabled metamorphosis of Nisus or Pandareus see Ovid, Met. 

 viii. 146, xii. 560 ; Boios ap. Anton. Lib. c. xi ; Hygin. Fab. 98 ; Virg.(?) 

 Ciris 536, and Keller, op. c. p. 259. 



Arist. H. A. ix. 32, 619 is apparently descriptive of the Osprey, 

 Pandion Halia'etus, with which bird dXideros is commonly identified 

 by mediaeval and modern commentators ; but the description of the 

 chase after sea-birds (ix. 620) applies rather to Aquila naevia, or 

 Hal. albicilla (Sundevall). A Sea-eagle is very frequently alluded 

 to under the generic name aeros, e.g. Pind. N. v. 21 nepav ttovtoio 

 ndXXopT aleroi : Soph. Oen. fr. 423, ap. Ar. Av. 1337 yepoip.aP aleTos 

 vyjtnreTas, as ap noTaOeitjp vnep drpvyerov yXavKas in ol8p.a Xip,vas '. Theocr. 

 xiii. 24. 



An Eagle with a fish is frequent on coins, e. g. Acragas (Imhoof-Bl. 

 and K. pi. iv. 31), Sinope (ibid. v. 11, 12), and many other towns 

 especially in the Black Sea and Hellespont (Keller, op. c. p. 262). 



In all the above references, as in most passages relating to the Eagle, 

 a mystical and symbolic meaning outweighs the zoological. The poem 

 of Ciris is of great importance for the understanding of the myth. It 

 is noteworthy how many birds, or names associated with birds, occur, 

 with more or less obscure significance, in this poem ; to wit, Procne, 

 the Daulian maids, Pandion, the A user Ledae, Haliaetus or Nisus, and 

 lastly Ciris. I accept the theory that we have here to do with an 

 elaborate Sun and Moon myth. The golden or purple lock in Nisus' 

 hair (cui splendidus ostro Inter honoratos medio de vertice canos 

 Crinis inhaerebat, Ov. Met. viii. 8, cf. Ciris 122, Apollod. ii. 4. 5), 

 recalls, on the one hand, the Samson-legend (as we are expressly told 

 by Tzetzes in Lye. 648), and on the other, the crest of the solar eno^ 

 or fticus, both of which birds appear in the version of the legend given 

 by Boios. The name Nisus is akin to nesher, m'sr, an eagle (vide 



