Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. j 



dogfldn helmet of OdyfTeus is adorned with teeth of 

 a wild boar. Two warriors fall upon the foe like 

 two wild boars ftoutly charging the hounds. The 

 following pidures are fo lifelike that it is hard to 

 conceive that Homer had not witnefled them. 

 " As when a boar upon the mountains, trufting in 

 his ftrength, abides the mighty on-coming rum of 

 men in a lonely place, and the briftles rife erect 

 upon his back while his eyes mine with flame ; but 

 he gnafhes his teeth, eagerly defirous to avenge 

 himfelf on dogs and men, fo did Idomeneus," etc. 

 And again : " They rufhed forwards like hounds 

 which fpring upon a boar, after he has been 

 wounded, in front of youthful hunters." 1 Another 

 vivid picture reprefents a lion and a boar fighting 

 for a rill of water on the mountain-tops, and the 

 lion fubduing the panting boar. 



The word " elephant " is only ufed by Homer 

 for a distinctively eaftern product, ivory. Bulls 

 were found in a wild ftate on the Greek moun- 

 tains, as until recent centuries in our own land. 

 Their hides were ufed for fleeping on. An allufion 

 occurs to an active hunter cutting down a wild 

 bull by a ftroke behind the head with a fharp axe. 

 Scamander is faid to roar like a bull. When 

 Penelope unlocks the doors of her treafury, as they 

 roll back they roar like a bull feeding in a 

 meadow. Oxen were, of courfe, domefticated 

 from very early days. Laomedon caufed Apollo 

 to feed " his heavy-footed, crumpled-horned oxen 

 in the lawns of many-valed wooded Ida." 2 Oxen 

 1 "Iliad," xiii. 471 ; xvii. 725. 2 Ibid. y xxi. 448. 



