THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE. 



By A. B. Meyer.' 



The descriptive images of the lion l)y the earliest Greek author, 

 Homer,* are so realistic and true to nature (compare especially in the 

 Iliad, XI, 544 sqq.), that thej must be ascribed to direct observation,'' 

 yet this does not prove the existence of that animal in Greece in 

 historic time. Aside from other possibilities, it is uncertain whether 

 the passag-es in question originated as late as the entire Homeric epic 

 on the soil of Asia Minor (^■Eolia, Ionia), or whether they belong to 

 earlier continental (Thessalian) collections of hymns. Herodotus, 

 from about 4S4 to about 430 b. c, records, in volume vii, pages 124- 

 126, of his history, that there are many lions between the Achelous 

 River in Acarnania and the Nestus, which flows through Abdera, and 

 this he mentions in connection with the description of Xerxes's expe- 

 dition through Macedonia in 480 b. c, when lions killed some draft 

 camels. This passage is often cited. Aristotle (384-322 b. c), in 

 Hist, anim., viii, 28, gives the same range, but seems to have taken 

 it only from Herodotus.'^ 



On this G. C. Lewis'^ remarks: 



The scientific character of Aristotle's researcliea in natural history gives great 

 weight to his testimony. As he was a native of Stagira and had resided in Mace- 

 donia, he may be supposed to have had opportunities for verifying it; and we can 

 not assume that he blindly followed the account of Herodotus, although at an 

 interval of about a century he defines the range of the lion by the same two rivers. 



"Translation of A. B. Meyer's "Bis wie weit in der historischen Zeit zuriick ist 

 der L("iwe in Griechenland nachweisbar?" Reprint from Der Zoologische Garten, 

 vol. XLiv, 1903, pp. 65-73. 



^The most important passages among ancient authors who refer to the lion have 

 been brought together in an interesting manner by H. O. Lehz, in "Zoologie der 

 Alten Griechen und Romer," pp. 126-140, Gotha, 1886. Compare also O. Keller, 

 Tiere des klassischen Altertums, Innsbruck, 1887, and L. Meyer, Handbuch der 

 griechisehen Etymologic, vol. iv., p. 498 sq., Leipzig, 1902. 



^'Thus already Pictet, Les origines indo-europeennes, vol. i, p. 422, Paris, 1859, 

 and 0. Schade, Altdeutsches Worterbuch, 2d ed., vol. ii, ji. 548a, Halle, 1872-1882. 



(^According to Pausanias (second century a. n. ), vi, 5, 3, lions sometimes came 

 down as far as Mount Olympus. The famous athlete ( pancratiast) Polydamos, 

 without shield or weapon, is said to have there slain a large and powerful lion. 

 Comp. Lenz, Zoologie der Griechen und R(")mer, p. 34, note 78, 1856. 



'The Lion in Greece; Notes and Queries, second series, vol. viii, p. S2, 1S59. 



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