Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 203 



perfon firft, that man was ftruck dumb. So Plato 

 makes Socrates fay, when angrily accofted by the 

 fophift Thrafymachus : "I was difmayed and 

 feared as I looked at him ; and I verily believe, 

 unlefs I had feen him firft, that I mould have been 

 ftruck dumb." 1 So u to fee a wolf," "wolfs 

 wings " (like " pigeon's milk "), and " the wolf 

 marrying the lamb," with others of the fame kind, 

 became ufual Greek proverbs. Dean Trench 

 juftly ftigmatizes " one muft howl with the wolves" 

 as being the moft daftardly of all proverbs. This, 

 however, is not due to Greek imagination. 



The Egyptians fpecially aflbciated the wolf with 

 the world of darknefs. It is reprefented on the 

 painted walls of their catacombs and temples, and 

 was probably connected by the priefts with fome 

 efoteric doctrine of the tranfmigration of fouls. 

 Wolf mummies are found at Ofioot, the ancient 

 Lycopolis. 



At Rome, the wolf, fuitably to the national 

 character, was held in high honour. This took its 

 rife from the fhe-wolf which had fuckled Romulus 

 and Remus. Lupa, as Livy terms her, was the 

 wife of Fauftulus, the royal herdfman ; but me was 



1 "De Rep.," 336 d. Cnf. Virgil, 



" Maerin lupi videre priores." 



("Eel.," ix. 54, and Theoc. xiv. 22.) "The ground or oc- 

 cafional original hereof was probably the amazement and 

 fudden filence the unexpected appearance of wolves do often 

 put upon travellers. But thus could not the mouths of worthy 

 martyrs be lilenced, who being expofed not only unto the eyes, 

 but the mercilefs teeth of wolves, gave loud expreflions of 

 their faith, and their holy clamours were heard as high as 

 heaven." (Sir T. Browne, " Vulgar Errors," iii. 8.) 



