CHAPTER II. 



GREEK AND ROMAN DOGS. 



" Certes, the longer we live, the more things we obferve and 

 marke ftill in thefe dogges." PLINY, Nat. Hift., viii. 40 

 (Holland). 



I 



j HE Greeks and Romans were acquainted 



with the virtues of the dog, and valued 

 it for its ufe in hunting and the care 

 it took of the flocks or of the houfe, 

 but ufually regarded it, much as did the ancient 

 Hebrews, as a type of mamelefs and audacious 

 evil. So Helen, in the depths of her felf-abafe- 

 ment, applies the comparifon to her own life in the 

 " Iliad," and Hecuba, according to the myth, was 

 changed into a dog. Wealthy men and kings had 

 lapdogs, indeed, but took none of that pleafure in 

 the affection and faithfulnefs of a fagacious animal 

 which caufes the dog to be fo highly prized in 

 modern life. 1 In augury dogs were unlucky, bafe 

 animals (obsccen<e canes "Georg.," i. 470), and 



1 See a noble pafTage on the difference between claflical 

 and Chriftian appreciation of Nature in Rufkin's "Modern 

 Painters," vol. ii., p. 1 7. 



