Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 27 



Now it is remarkable that there are two dogs of 

 hell in the Vedic mythology, as yet unnamed. 

 They guarded the road to Yama, the king of 

 the departed. This fecond Greek dog, generally 

 known as Orthros, is the exacl copy of the Vedic 

 Vritha, and Vritha (like Orthros) is connected 

 with the dawn. 1 



It is character i flic of the mild-tempered Tele- 



machus, 



" Centred in the fphere 

 Of common duties, decent not to fail 

 In offices of tendernefs, and pay 

 Meet adoration to the houfehold gods," 



that Homer reprefents him, and him alone, in the 

 "Odyfley "as being followed wherever he walks by 

 his dogs. 2 Of Odyfleus himfelf the poet ufes a 

 ftriking ufage ; " His heart within him barked " 

 as he glared at the proud mifdoings of the fuitors ; 

 " as a bitch walking round her tender pups barks 

 if me knows not the man who approaches, and 

 is minded to fight, fo did he growl inwardly when 

 he beheld their evil works." 3 Befides Argus, moft 

 claffical readers will remember the dog which barks 

 at the end of Virgil's incantation fcene, and fhows 

 that the fpells have worked upon the forgetful 

 lover, " Hylax in limine latrat." A poem by 

 Gratius Falifcus in the Auguftan age enumerates 

 fome twenty different forts of dogs, but the 

 Britim, Spartan, and Moloflian dogs were the 

 types bed known to the ancients. Dogs were 



1 See Max Miiller's "Seleded Effays " (Longmans, 1881), 

 vol. i., p. 497. 



2 "Odyfley," xvi. 61, and xx. 145. 3 "Odyfley," xx. 13. 



