HALIEUTICA, I. 701-728 



brings her children to the water and shows them all 

 the works of the deep. 



Ye gods, not alone then among men are cliildren 

 very dear, sweeter than light or life, but in birds also 

 and in savage beasts and in carrion fishes there is 

 inbred, mysterious and self-taught, a keen passion 

 for their young, and for their children they are not 

 un^^^lling but heartily eager to die and to endure all 

 manner of woeful ill. Ere now on the hills a hunter 

 has seen a roaring Lion bestriding his young, fight- 

 ing in defence of his offspring ; " the thick hurtling 

 stones he heeds not nor recks of the hunter's spear 

 but all undaunted keeps heart and spirit, though 

 hit and torn by all manner of wounds ; nor ^vill he 

 shrink from the combat till he die, but even half- 

 dead he stands over his children to defend them, 

 and not so much does he mind death as that he 

 should not see his children in the hands of the 

 hunters, penned in the rude * \\ild-beast den. And 

 ere now a shepherd, approaching the kennel where 

 a bitch nursed her new-born whelps," even if he were 

 acquainted with her before, has drawn back in terror 

 at her yelping WTath ; so fiercely she guards her 

 young and has no regard for any but is fearful of 

 approach for all. How, too, around calves when they 

 are dragged away do their grie\"ing mothers make 

 lament, not unlike the mourning of women, causing 

 the very herdsmen to share their pain. Yea and a 

 man hears at mom the shrill plaint for her children 

 of Gier ** or many-noted Nightingale, or in the spring 



* Schol. avTOKfirjra' , . . avTO<f)\rq fj to <nrri\aiov Xe-yet tou 

 X^ovTos. C/. ai'TOKTiT AvTpa Aesfh, P. V. 303. 



* Horn. Od. XX. 14 lij de kvwv d^iaXjcrt xepl aKv\6.K€<TaL ^i^Cxra 

 j ivSp dyvoirjffaff' iiXdfi fiefiovev re fj-axfcOai. 



' C. iii. 116n. 



275 



