CYNEGETICA, I. 228-253 



the ordinance of nature and taken a human voice " 

 and a tongue Uke that of man. Bucephalas,'' the 

 horse of the warrior king of Macedon, fought against 

 armed men. A horse there was which ran with hght 

 feet over the corn-ears <^ and brake them not ; another 

 ran over the sea and wetted not his coronet."^ A horse 

 carried above the clouds him that slew the Chimaera ' ; 

 and the neighing ^ of a horse through the craft of 

 liis charioteer made one king of the Asian Persians. 

 Above others, again, horses honour nature, and it is 

 utterly unheard of that they should indulge unlawful 

 passion, but thev remain unstained of pollution and 

 cherish chaste desire. I have heard'' how of old a 

 prince of great possessions had in his fields a fair 

 herd of horses. All these a disease of horses utterly 

 destroyed, leaving but two — only a mare and a foal 

 yet at its mother's foot. But when it grew up, the 

 wicked man essayed to mate the foal \nth its dam. 

 And when he saw a union forsworn of both, imme- 

 diately he with dreadful design wove a subtle de\ice, 

 hoping to call back his breed of horses. First in his 

 craft he covered both \\"ith alien hides, and then he 

 anointed all their bodies \sith sweet-smelhng oil and 

 fragrant ; for he hoped to destroy the tell-tale scent, 

 mares of Erichthonius) aX 5' ore fuv cr/ct/m^ei/ iiri ^eiSwpoy 

 dpovpaf, SiKpov er' drdepiKuv Kapvbv deop oiiSi icoTcicXwj" dXX' art 

 5t) ffKLpT'^ev ex' fvpia vCira da.\a.aar)i, dicpov eri prjyfuyos aXos 

 Tro\ioio die<TKOv. 



•* The portion of the pastern immediately above the hoof. 



« A monster (Hom. //. vi. 179 ; Lucr. v. 90o) slain by 

 Bellerophon (tetrico domitore Chimaerae, Ov. Tr. ii. 397) 

 with the aid of his winged horse Pegasus ; Pind. O. xiii. 84, 

 /. vi. 44. 



' Darius, s. of Hystaspes, became king of Persia by the 

 craft of his groom Oebares : Herod, iii. 84. 



» The story is told A. 631 a 1-7 : Ael. iv. 7 ; Antig. 54 ; 

 Varr. ii. 7. 9; Plin. viii. 156 ; Hierovl. Hipp. p. 173. 



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