ORIGIN OF THE DOG. 9 



Herodotus Lib. ii. c. 66, mentions the regard the Egyptians 

 had for their household dogs. 



From Homers I Iliad, the oldest of Greek literature, com- 

 posed nearly some thousand years B. C., we find the raw-flesh 

 eating wolf (\VKOS o/Ao<ayoi Lib. xvi. 156) described, their 

 ravenous nature is mentioned in Lib. iv. 471. and Lib. xi. 72. 

 and their grey colour Lib. x. 334, and the radical meaning of 

 the Greek name XVKOS seems a devastator or ravager. 



We see also how completely domesticated the dog was at 

 that early date, for Homer mentions hunting lions and boars 

 with dogs. " The}- all trembled as dogs around a lion," Lib. 

 v. 476, and again " As when a boar or lion looking fiercely 

 round conscious of his strength, turns upon the dogs and 

 huntsmen," Lib. xii. 41. also books iii. 26. viii. 338. xi. 292. 

 and xi. 548. He mentions hunting dogs or boarhounds Lib. 

 xi. 325. The swift dogs of Troy Lib. i. 50. and Lib. xi. 817. 

 and shepherd dogs Lib. x. 183. Homer also uses the word 

 dog as a term of reproach to females lacking modesty and 

 virtue, applying it to Helen Lib. 6. 344. and makes use of the 

 term dog contemptuously as a term of reproach to denote 

 effrontery in men. 



/Eschylus in his Agamemnon 870 compares Clytemnestra 

 to the watch dog of the house, which John Scandrete Harford 

 D.C.L. of Blaize Castle has beautifully translated into the 

 following : 



" His wife he'll find the guardian of his house, 

 Faithful, as when he left her, to her vows/' 

 To him devoted, to his foes a foe. 



See if iv. p. 195. 



Among other early evidences of the domesticity of the dog, 

 perhaps the most striking is the mythical Cerberus, older than 



B 



