6 Gleanings from the 



arrow. It efcapes by fpeed of foot while its blood 

 is warm and its knees are firm, but when the 

 bitter fhaft fubdues it, then ravening jackals tear 

 it to pieces in a fhady grove among the hills ; but 

 the deity brings there a mighty lion, when they 

 mrink afide while he devours/' 1 The panther only 

 of the/<?//V^ is mentioned betides the lion. Paris 

 and others wear its {kin. Its fiercenefs is promi- 

 nent in a fimile when it is reprefented as ifluing 

 from thick covert to charge the hunter, in no way 

 difmayed at his prefence or at the baying of the 

 dogs, and attempting to ftrike him down. Even 

 when pierced by his fpear it ceafes not its rage 

 until overwhelmed by darts or done to death. 

 The lefs warlike tone of the " OdyfTey " is indicated 

 by the fact that there are only four fimiles in it 

 taken from the lion, whereas there are eleven in 

 the " Iliad." The vulture only appears once, war 

 never, and ftorm never. 2 



On the mighty belt of Hercules, in Hades, were 

 wrought bears, the only evidence that Homer 

 knew that animal. This is the urj'us Arftos^ once 

 an inhabitant of our own iflands, and ftill to be 

 found in certain mountainous diftricls of Europe. 

 The wild boar is much more familiar to Homer ; 

 it was facrificed to Zeus and the Sungod, and alfo 

 appears in the belt of Hercules. Proteus tranf- 

 forms himfelf into it. The Calydonian wild boar 

 roots up trees in a mythical fafhion, fuggeftive of 

 fome dim remembrance of the mammoth. 3 The 



1 "Iliad," xi. 474. 2 Gladstone ; " Juv. Mundi," p. 514. 



ix. 535. 



