A I'l'HN 1)1 \. 



189 



slip-knot entrance), on attempting to pass out at the apparent opening 

 of the ap(.us, tliey became by their struggles entangled therein ^ — the 

 purse either spontaneously, or by the agency of the men placed there 

 to draw the necessary ropes, immediately closing at the mouth. 



iird KeXdSovTos ar)Te(ii 

 raiviai t' 4<pinTfp6f Str]epiat KpaSdovcrt, 

 KivvfXivai irripvyis re Ktyh'ia crvpi^ovaiv. 

 ovveKa iraTTTaivovaa kot' &pKvas avriov epirei' 

 iv 8' eneffev \iV(Oi(Ti \6xois. 



Oppian.Cyneg. 

 L. IV. 409. 



The whole management of the nets and lines was vested in the 

 watch at^rtuiv TTvXawpwv referred to, who were concealed under 

 copse-wood, for the purpose, more particularly, of attending to the 

 enlbpo/jios and 7reptSpo/xos, the ropes (smooth and knotless) which 

 governed the apKves, and passed through iron rings, along the course 

 of the biKTva, up to the watchmen's hiding-place : 



4v Se Svo) kK'^volv SoioTs iKarepfle Kepatais 

 avepas aKpoXivovs virh fxetXiveoicri irdyoiffLV. 



The length of the biKTva or retia, properly so called, would 

 astonish a modern disciple of Diana. So great was the extent of 

 ground sometimes enclosed by these toils, that Plutarch mentions, in 

 his life of Alexander, hunting-nets above twelve miles long. With 

 such it was customary to encircle vast tracts of country, and then, by 



Opplan.Cjneg. 

 L. IV. 382. 



1. The complete and helpless entanglement of the victim of the tunnel-net is 

 admirably described by Seneca, in the simile of The Agamemnon, where Cassandra 

 likens the son of Atreus, ensnared in a cassi-form vest (so happily called by jEschy- 

 lus irnixov^v apKiKTraTov) by the "seraivir" Thyestes and the adulteress queen- 

 consort, to a boar inextricably enveloped in these toils : 



At ille ut altis hispidus sylvis aper, 

 Cum casse vinctus, tentat egressus tamen, 

 Arctatque raotu vincla, et incassiim furit, 

 Cupit fluentes undique et cascos sinus 

 Disjicere, et hostem quaerit implicitus suum. 



See the definitions of Pollux in my notes to the first Chapter of Arrian's Cynege- 

 ticus— itpKuex, S'lKTva, 4v6Sia. 



Agamemnon 

 vs. 1386. 



Senecae 



Agamem. 



Act. v. 886. 



