THE DOG OF ULYSSES 



And now Eumaeus led 

 The king along — His garments to a thread 

 All bare and burned ; and he himself hard bore 

 Upon his staff at all parts like a poor 

 And sad old beggar. . . . 



In the yard there lay 

 A dog called Argus which before his way 

 Assumed for Ilion Ulysses bred. . . . 

 But, the king gone, and now past its parts 

 Lay all abjectly on the stable's store. 

 Yet by this dog, no sooner seen but known 

 Was wise Ulysses, as he entered there 

 Up went the old dog's ears — as he came near 

 Qiiick rose the dog and fawned and wagged its stern 

 Crouched close its ears and died for every joy. 

 Ulysses saw it nor had power to abstain 

 From shedding tears .... 

 " He was a passing wise and well nosed hound." — 



Homer's Odyssey. 



HIS particular story, dramatic in its very 

 simplicity, is merely given as a type of the 

 many which are to be found in all litera- 

 ture save that of the Semitic race. 



There, the prevailing human note is 

 sounded unmistakably in the question : " Is 

 thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ? " 



It is a comically pathetic contrast to the remark in 



