OPTYH. 



1^5 



OPTYH {continual). 

 Ar. Av. 1299 and Schol. Cf. Plut. ii. 34 D. See also Meursius, De 

 Ludis Graecorum, in Gronov. Thes. Ant. Gr. vii. p. 979. 



Immunity from poison. — Arist. De Plant. 5, 820 b vocrKvafios Kai 

 eXXefiopos dvBponrois p.ev StjXrjTrjpiot, Tpotpr) de toIs oprv^i. Cf. Plin. x. 33 



(23), Geopon. xiv. 24, Galen. De Ther. ad Pison. i. 4, De Alim. Fac. 

 ii. 6, De Temper, iii. 4, Basil. Hexaem. v. p. 59 (ed. Paris), Eustath. 

 Hexaem. p. 9, Ambros. Hexaem. iii. 9, &c, Lucret. iv. 641. For similar 

 oriental reff., see Bochart, ii. 97, 98. 



Legend of Delos.— Phanodem. ap. Athen. ix. 392 d cos Kareldev 'Epuou'x- 

 Bcov ArjXov rt)v vrjcrov Tr)v u7ro tcov dpxaicov KaKovfxevrjv 'Oprvyiav nap o tus 

 dyeXas tcov facov tovtqov cpepopevas i< tov neXdyovs l£dveiv els Tr)v vrjcrov t)ia 

 to evoppov elvai ... Cf. Serv. ad Aen. iii. 73. On the metamorphosis 

 of Artemis, Leto, and Asteria into Quails, see Apollod. i. 4, 1, Schol. 

 Apoll. Rhod. i. 308, Hygin. Fab. 53, Tatian, Adv. Graec. c.xvi, &c. In 

 yet another version it is Zeus himself who appears as a Quail : Argum. 

 Pyth. Pindari, ed. Bockh, ii. p. 297. 



Legend of Hercules.— Eudox. ap. Athen. ix. 392 d 01 Qoivucts Ovovcri 

 too 'HpatfXei oprvyas 81a to tov 'Hpa/cXea tov Aorcptas Kai Aios nopfvopevov 

 tls Ai3vr)v dvmpedrjvai p.ev vnb Tvcptovos, 'loXdov 8' avT(S TTpocreveyKavros 

 opTvya Ka\ irpocrayayovTOS dcr(ppavdevTa dvafiiaivai : cf. Arist. Probl. XXX. I. 

 Eustath. in Od. xi. 60, p. 1702. PrOV. opru£ ecrwcrev 'UpaKXrj tov Kaprepov, 

 Zenob. v. 56 ; Diog. vii. 10 ; Apostol. xiii. 1 ; Eutecnius in Cram. Anecd. 

 Paris., i. p. 31 ; Paroemiogr. Gr. i. p. 143. In this passage various 

 commentators read opvya for oprvya, the Gazelle being sacred to 

 Typhon ; cf. Jablonski, Panth. 197, Dupuis, Orig. de tous les Cultes, 

 ii. 350, Creuzer, Symb. ii. 100, Boch., I.e.; but the emendation is not 

 justified, cf. Stark, op. infra cit. The Quail's brain was a specific for 

 epilepsy, the morbus comitialis or herculeus, Galen, Parat. Facil. iii. 

 155, Plin. x. (23) 33. Vartzkd, the Quail, is said to be a solar emblem 

 among the Hindoos : it is as the emblem of the returning Sun, that it 

 figures in the legend of Delos, the birthplace of Phoebus, and in that of 

 Hercules, the slayer of Typhon. 



The principal allusions to the Island of Ortygia are collated and 

 discussed by Hermann, De Apoll. et Diana, Opusc. vii. p. 310 (1839). 

 See also, for a still more elaborate investigation, Stark, Die Wachtel, 

 Sterneninsel und der Oelbaum im Bereiche phoinikischer und griechi- 

 scher Mythen, Ber. K. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss., 1856, pp. 32-120. It 

 seems clear to me that in the superstitions regarding the Quail, and in 

 the sacred reputation of Ortygia, the main point is with reference to 

 the Solar Tropic ; cf. Od. XV. 403 vt)o-6s tis Svpirj KetcXrjcriceTai, et ivov 

 dicovtis, I 'OpTvyirjs KaOvnepOev, 061 Tponal rjeXtoio. The Quail derived its 

 sanctity, and perhaps its name, from the circumstance that it returned 

 with the returning Sun, and Ortygia was some spot where the rpo7ra! 



