CYNEGETICA, I. 32-53 



ART. Be silent about deadly passion and leave 

 alone the girdles " of love : I abhor what men call 

 the toys of the Daughter of the Sea.* 



opp. We have heard, O blessed Lady, that thou 

 art uninitiate in marriage.* 



ART. Sing the battles of wild beasts and hunting 

 men ; sing of the breeds of hounds and the varied 

 tribes of horses ; the quick-witted counsels, the deeds 

 of skilful tracking ; tell me the hates of wild beasts, 

 sing their friendships and their bridal chambers of 

 tearless love upon the hills, and the births which 

 among wild beasts need no mid^^ifery. 



Such were the counsels of the daughter of mighty 

 Zeus. I hear, I sing : may my song hit the mark ! <* 

 But do thou, Mho rulest from the East unto the 

 Ocean,* •with serene joy on thine immortal brows, 

 vouchsafe thy right hand gracious and prosperous to 

 land and cities and to songs of the happy chase. 



Triple ^ sorts of hunting hath God bestowed on 

 men — in air and on earth and on the sea delightful. 

 But not equal is the venture : for how can these be 

 equal — to draw the wTithing fish from the" deeps or 

 hale the winged birds from the air and to contend 

 >vith deadly wild beasts on the hills ? Yet not for 

 the fisherman either and truly not ^ for the fowler 



' ue. the West. 



f Cf. Walton's Piscator, Venator, Auceps ; Greek Anthol, 

 vi. 11-16, 179-187. More elaborate division, Plato, Soph, 

 219 E. See Introd. p. xxxviii. 



' ovK eris normally means " not for nothing," haud friistra, 

 e.g. Aristoph. PL 404, 1166. But the old Lexica (Hesych., 

 etc. ) confuse this cros with eroj = genuine and irilxnos = vain 

 (the schol. on our passage has eros- ean fxaraiosj and, what- 

 ever the punctuation and syntax intended, the sense seems 

 to be as we have given it. 



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