4 
ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN FIELD SPORTS. 
[Nature and Art, June 1, 1866. 
Named from its form a dolphin ; plumb’d with this 
The bait shoots headlong through the blue abyss. 
The bright decoy a living creature seems, 
As now on this side, now on that, it gleams.” 
In order to prevent the fish from biting off the 
hook, a tubular piece of horn sometimes covered 
the line for the space of a few inches from its junc- 
tion with the hook : as gimp was unknown to the 
early followers of the gentle art, this was a wise 
and effectual precaution. To this Homer clearly 
alludes when, speaking of Iris plunging into the 
dark sea, he says — “ She sank to the bottom like a 
leaden weight, which, placed down upon the wild- 
bull’s horn, sinks quickly, bearing destruction to 
the raw -devouring fishes.” * 
It is difficult -to understand why this passage 
should have caused perplexity to some commentators 
and translators. Thus, it has been supposed that 
the piece of horn spoken of was not fixed to the 
fishing-line, but to the side of the boat, and that the 
line was run down this horn to prevent wear by 
friction : the traveller Clarke says that modern Greek 
fishermen adopt this plan. But a passage in the 
“ Odyssey” (xii. 251 — 254), which I will not here 
cite, is clearly opposed to such an explanation, for 
it there appears that “ the horn was let down into 
the sea,” i. e., of course, the whole fishing-line — 
the part being, by a common figure, put for the 
whole. Lord Derby, in his recent translation, 
adopts the very singular notion that the piece of 
lead (fiokvfioaivrj) was “ incased in the wild-bull’s 
horn.” But neither can the Greek allow of such 
an interpretation, nor can any reason be assigned 
for inclosing the leaden weight in horn. Suidas tells 
us that the fishermen “ prepared a tube of horn, 
which they placed upon the fishing-line to prevent 
the fish biting off the hook.” (See also “ Dammii 
Lex,” s. v. KEpac.) The relative positions of the 
hook, horn, and lead, there can be little doubt, were 
in the order in which we have enumerated them. 
We cannot doubt but that the ancient Greek and 
Homan fishermen were keenly alive to the pleasures 
of a bite. As salmon were not known in the rivers 
of Greece and Italy, the ancients were of course 
strangers to the “ thrill of joy, fear, and surprise 
induced by the first tug of a salmon,” which some 
devoted disciples of fly-fishing have maintained to 
be “ the most exquisite sensation of which this 
mortal frame is susceptible.”! But still the long 
pull and the strong pull of a mighty conger- eel were 
no doubt thoroughly appreciated by the Greek and 
Homan angler. Oppian has well described the 
* *H fie poXvpo aivy inkXr], ig fivoobv opovatv, 
"Hrs tear’ aypavXoio j3oog icipag, ep.[3e(5avla 
”U|0%£rai clyi?) (Try aw in’ iyOvoi Kijpo rpipovtra' 
(II. xxiv. 80 — 82.) 
f See Mr. Russell’s excellent book on The Salmon. 
Edmonston and Douglas. 1864. 
excitement of having a lively fish at the end of the 
line : — 
“ A bite, hurrah ! the lengthening’ line extends, 
Above the tugging fish the arch’d reed bends ; 
He struggles hard, and noble sport will yield 
My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field. 
See how he swims up, down, and now athwart 
The rapid stream — now pausing as in thought ; 
And now you force him from the azure deep 
He mounts, he bends, and with resilient leap 
Bounds into air ! there see the dangler twirl, 
Convulsive start, hang, curl, again uncurl, 
Caper once more like young Terpischore 
In giddy gyres, above the sounding sea, 
Till near’d, you seize the prize with steady wrist, 
And grasp at last the bright funambulist.”* 
Traps or weels, made of wicker-work or rushes, 
appear to have been in frequent use ; these, were 
called cyrti ( Kvproi ) and labyrinthi (Xafivpivdoi), but 
the former term was in more general use. The 
cyrtus was open and narrow at one end, and closed 
and wide at the other. The bait was placed at the 
bottom of the trap, which was then cast into the 
water. From the description that Oppian ( Halieut . 
iii. 341 — 356) has given of the cyrtus , it would 
appear that the narrow end was provided with a 
door, which was made to close when the weel was 
full of fish. The labyrinthus, as the name imports, 
was constructed so as to entangle the fish in its 
mazes. The Homan nassa was probably identical 
in form with the Greek Kvprog. (Elian thought this 
kind of sport hardly becoming a gentleman. “ Fish- 
ing with the cyrtus ,” he says, “ is a very deceitful 
mode of taking fish, dreadfully treacherous, and, in 
my opinion, not at all the proper thing for a 
gentleman.” The last-named Greek writer says there 
are four kinds of fishing, namely, with nets, with 
the pole (-net), with weels, and with hooks. Fishing 
with nets, he says, is very lucrative, and reminds a 
person of the capture of a number of prisoners of 
war after an army has been defeated. He says that 
a variety of articles are required for this mode of 
fishing, such as ropes made of the spartos plant,! 
white and black lines, cork, lead, pitch, thongs, 
horn, a six-oared boat, a windlass, and other things 
the names of which are very difficult to make out. 
Fishing with the pole (iwmoaig, Sicucdvrwaig) is re- 
commended as a manly exercise, and requires a 
strong fisherman. It is not easy to see what this 
method of fishing was : the requisites for it, we are 
told, are “a strong pole made of olive, cords or 
ropes of the spartos (whether netted or not we are 
not informed), torches of resinous pine-wood, a 
small boat, eager oarsmen, and strong hands.” 
Fishing with hooks, (Elian says, is the wisest kind 
of fishing, and most suited to a gentleman. In 
this art you require horse-hair (white, black, red, 
or grey), straight hog-bristles, brass, lead, lines of 
spartos, feathers (especially white, black, or varie- 
gated). Some fishermen use red and purple wool, 
also corks and pieces of wood (like the modern 
* Prose Halieutics, p. 3. 
f The spartos is a grass. (Stipa tenacissima, Lin.) abundant 
in Spain, where it is called esparto ; it is much used in the 
manufacture of ropes, cords, nets, mats, baskets, &c., and 
even recently of paper. 
