HALIEUTICA, V. 411-428 



rays of the sun its scales are burnt about it and it 

 carries but withered limbs back to the sea and the 

 dark wave receives it no more for all its eagerness 

 but carries and rolls it aloft while it yearns for the 

 bottom of the sea. And fishermen espying it very 

 easily and gladly overcome it. 



The hunting of Dolphins " is immoral * and that 

 man can no more draw nigh the gods as a welcome 

 sacrificer nor touch their altars with clean hands 

 but pollutes those who share the same roof with him, 

 whoso willingly devises destruction for Dolphins. 

 For equally with human slaughter the gods abhor 

 the deathly doom of the monarchs of the deep « ; for 

 Uke thoughts with men have the attendants of the 

 god of the booming sea : wherefore also they 

 practise love of their offspring "^ and are very friendly 

 one to another. Behold now what manner of happy 

 hunting the Dolphins kindly to men array against 

 the fishes in the island of Euboea * amid the Aegean 

 waves. For when the fishers hasten to the toil of 



iiTo Tov \f'6(pov Kaprf^apn'vrai. So Ael. i. 18 6t(u> Si d\tei>j ^ 

 Tpwarj rbv -raiia aiV-^j rp rptaivrj ^ ry aKtSi /SdXj; — i] jxkv d»cis 

 TCI SiV(j) TfTprjTai, Kal ifrjirraL axo^voi fxaKpa avry, oi 5e 6yK0i 

 fiaSvPTes l;to»'rai tov Bijpoi — Kai ea>s fiff d\7uj«' Irt poifitfi 6 

 5e\0is 6 Tpavfiarias fjLerdXijXfy, X"'^? ^ drjpaTrji tt,v (TXOivov, . . . 

 orav Si aiffdjjTai Kafjiovra Kai tojs Trapetfifvov (k tov Tpavfiaroi, 

 ijffi'XV '■op' ai'Trji' iyei. tj^v vaOv xai ^x" ''~^'' Siypav, 



* Cf. infra +11 n. vYTVpi like Latin diu^, a poetical 

 synonym for king or emperor. 



•* Ael. 1. 18 5f\0is 5^ &pa drj\vs ^tXoreici'oraTos is to, fffxaTO. 

 ^i^uv ((ttL Cf. V. 6, X. 8 ; Phil. 86 : Plin. ix. 21 gestant 

 fetus infantia infirmos. Quin et adultos diu comitantur 

 magna erga partum caritate. 



* Oppian's storv is paraphrased by Ael. ii. 8. A similar 

 story is told by Plin. ix. 29 ff. who also refers to a similar 

 practice " in lasio sinu " (in Caria). The fish captured is in 

 Pliny the Grey Mullet (mugil). 



493 



