HALIEUTICA, II. 557-588 



Tunny and are clothed in feeble flesh, but in their 

 ravenous mouth bristles sharp a dense array of teeth ; 

 wherefore also they have great courage and do not 

 cower before the mighty lord of fishes. For when 

 they see one that has wandered away alone from the 

 rest of the herd of Dolphins, then from this quarter 

 and from that, as a great army at command, they 

 gather in a body together and set forth to battle 

 dauntlessly, hke shielded warriors against the tower 

 of the foe. And the bearded Dolphin, when the 

 crowd meets him, at first recks not of them but rushes 

 among them, seizing and rending now one and now 

 another, finding a banquet after his heart. But when 

 the ranks of war surround him on every side and 

 encircle him with their great and dense array, then 

 trouble at length enters his heart and he knows that 

 sheer destruction is upon him, hemmed about as he is, 

 alone among countless foes ; and the toil of battle 

 appears. For furiously they fall in a body about the 

 limbs of the Dolphin and fix in him the might of their 

 teeth ; everywhere they bite him and cling to him 

 relentlessly, many clutching his head, others his grey 

 jaws, while yet others cleave to his very fins ; many 

 in his flanks fix their deadly teeth, others seize the 

 end of his tail, others his belly beneath, others feed 

 upon his back above, others hang from his mane, 

 others from his neck. And, full of manifold distress, 

 he rushes over the sea and his frenzied heart within 

 him is racked with agony and his spirit is afire with 

 pain. Every way he leaps and turns, rushing blindly 

 in the spasms of agony. Like a diver, now he runs 

 over the deep waves like a whirlwind, now he plunges 

 to the nether deeps ; and often he springs up and 



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