CYNEGETICA, III. 63-84 



Next the deadly Leopards " are a double race. The 

 one sort are larger to look on and stouter as to their 

 broad backs, while the other sort are smaller but no 

 whit inferior in vahance. The daedal forms of both 

 are ahke, apart only from the tail, where a perversity 

 is seen : the lesser Leopards have the larger, the 

 large the lesser tail. The thighs are well knit, the 

 body is long, the eye bright : the shining pupils 

 show grey-green beneath their brows, grey-green 

 at once and red within, flaming as if on fire ; but in 

 the mouth beneath the teeth are pale and venomous. 

 The hide is variegated and on a bright ground is 

 dark with close-set black spots. Very swift it is in 

 running and valiant in a straight charge. Seeing 

 it thou wouldst say that it sped through the air. 

 Notwithstanding minstrels celebrate this race of 

 beasts as having been aforetime the nurses of 

 Bacchus, giver of the grape ; wherefore even now 

 they greatly exult in ^nne and receive in their 

 mouths the great gift of Dionysus. WTiat matter it 

 was that changed glorious women from the race of 

 mortals into this wild race of Leopards I shall here- 

 after sing. 



Another swift race, moreover, of twofold nature 



as conversely the later Greek writers render the Latin 

 panthera by iripSa\i^ (Plut. Cic. xxxvi. coll. Cic. Ad /am. 

 ii. 11). When irdpSaXts and Trdvdrjp are distinguished (Xen. 

 C. 2. 1; Athen, -201 c; Ael. vii. 4T ; Poll. v. 88), then, 

 according to Wiegniann, irdpSaXi^ = Felis pardiis L. and Cuv. 

 (F. leopardtm Temminck), while Trdi>dr]p = F. uiicia. Of the 

 two Panthers or Leopards in our present passage the larger, 

 according to Wiegmann, is F. pardus L. and Cuv. (F. 

 Jeopardus Temm.), the varia (Plin. viii. 63) and pardus of 

 the Romans, while the smaller is F. pardus Temm., cf. A. 

 and W, ii. p. -294. See C. ii. 57-2 u. 



119 



