A 1' 1' K N Dl \ . 



181 



And here at the head of rude pedestrian sportsmen we find the human 

 inventor of the science of the chase, that legendary personage, the 

 Gorgon-killing Perseus ^ — " Gorgonis anguicomai Perseus supe- Ovid. Metam. 

 rator" — (for I would not deprive Latona's hunting-twins, Apollo 

 and Diana, nor the worshipful race of Centaurs, <pvXa Qripofnyii, " Xen. de Venat. 

 of their priority of claim, and patent of precedency, in the apotheosis *^ '• 



of the chase,) who, when he had performed this redoubted act of ^ \ j", 5 

 courage, as we are told by the poet of Anazarbus : 



voiSuv Kpaivvoiffiv ieipSixevos irTepvyerrffi Oppian. Cyneg. 



Kot ■nrwKaSf koI 6uas iKa^vro, Koi ytvos alywv L. 11. 10. 



aypordpaiv, SdpKovs re doohs, opvywv re yeve6\a, 

 •^y avTw;' i\a(l)(i)i' (ttiktuv alnetva KdpTjva. 



As men in general, however, did not possess the speed of Perseus 



nionly applied to the shoulder or arm of animals than man : but the sense of the 



passage requires the interpretation I have put upon it, and is farther illustrated by the 



" unguibus et pugnis" of Horace, and "merat vires " of Ovid : Hor. Sat. L. i. 



S. III. vs. 101. 



Turn genus humanum solis errabat in agris ; Ovid. Art. Am. 



Hisque mera; vires, et rude corpus ei'at. *-" "* 



Politian elegantly exemplifies the Faliscian's meaning in his Silva, entitled Nutricia ; 



Sed longum tamen obscuris iramersa tenebris Carmina V. 



Gens rudis, atque inculta virum, sine more, sine ulla illustr. roet. 



' ^ ' . p. 159. 



Lege propagabant sevum, passimque fenno 



Degebant homines ritu, visque insita cordi 



Mole obsessa gravi, nondum ullos prompserat usus, 



Nil animo, duris agitabant cuncta lacertis. 



1. For Perseus's title to this post of honour Oppian is my only voucher; but his 

 words are decisive : 



iv fiepSwetrffi Sf irpuros 6 FopySvos aiiXfv' a/ifpffas, Cyneg. L. 11. 



Zrtvhs xpv<^^ioio irdiS K\vTbs fvparo Uepffevs. ^s. 8. 



2. Will the reader admit the explanation of the Policraticus as to the fabulous con- 

 nexion of these hybrids with the chase : " nempe qui his studiis aut desidiis insistunt, J. Sarisberi- 

 semiferi sunt, et abjecta potiore humanitatis parte, ratione raorum prodigiis conforman- ensis de N. C. 



-,,..■ -rr ,, ■■ ■ , . .r> L. I. C. IV. 



tur r and again, " Venatores omnes adhuc institutionem redolent Centaurorum. 

 Raro invenitur quisquam eorum modestus aut gravis," &c. 



