Book III

But now that we have sung the tribes of horned wild beasts, Bulls and Stags and splendid Broad-horns and Gazelles, of the Oryx and beautiful Iorcus and others whose heads are armed above, come now, O goddess, let us tell of the saw-toothed company of flesh-eating beasts and the tusked races.

First of all to the Lion let us dedicate the glorious lay. The Curetes were the nurses of the infant Zeus, the mighty son of Cronus, what time Rhea concealed his birth and carried away the newly-born child from Cronus, his sire implacable, and placed him in the vales of Crete. And when the son of Uranus beheld the lusty young child he transformed the first glorious guardians of Zeus and in vengeance made the Curetes wild beasts. And since by the devising of the god Cronus they exchanged their human shape and put upon them the form of Lions, thenceforth by the boon of Zeus they greatly lord it over the wild beasts which dwell upon the hills, and under the yoke they draw the terrible swift car of Rhea who lightens the pangs of birth.

Various are the tribes of them and each species has its own form. Those which by the waters of a noisy river, even beside the broad stream of the Tigris, are bred by Armenia, mother of archers, and by the land of the Parthians, rich in tilth and pasture, are yellow-haired and not so valiant. They have a stouter neck and a large head, bright eyes and high and bushy brows, ample and lowering over the nose. From neck and jaws springs on either side luxuriant hair.

Those again which the bountiful land of the Erembi rears — the land which the tribes of mortal men call Fortunate — these also have shaggy neck and breast, and flashes of fire lighten from their eyes, and they are handsome above all; but of these the infinite earth hath but a scanty breed.

But a great throng of mighty Lions roar in the goodly land of thirsty Libya — no longer shaggy these but a thin sheen runs over them. Terrible are they of face and neck, and on all their limbs they bear a blackish hue stained with dark blue. The strength in their limbs is limitless, and the Libyan Lions greatly lord it over the lordly Lions.

From the Ethiopians once on a time there came to the land of Libya, a great marvel to behold, a well-maned Lion, black of hue, broad of head above, hairy of foot, bright of eye, reddening only on the yellow mouth. I have seen, not merely heard of, that terrible beast, when it was transported to be a spectacle for royal eyes.

The tribes of Lions do not need food every day but one day they devote to feeding, the next in turn to labour. Neither doth the Lion take his sleep by the inmost bounds of a rock, but he sleeps in the open, revolving a courageous soul, and wheresoever sovran night overtakes him at evening, there he sleeps.

This also have I heard from the keepers of Lions, to wit that under his right paw the tawny Lion has a power of swift benumbing, wherewith he utterly benumbs the knees of wild beasts.

Five times doth the Lioness loose her zone in birth, and idle truly is the report that she bears but one. Five she bears the first time, but next she travails with four cubs; then next in order from her third labour spring three; from her fourth spring twin young; and last from her womb of noble progeny the mother brings forth the glorious Lion King.

Next the deadly Leopards are a double race. The one sort are larger to look on and stouter as to their broad backs, while the other sort are smaller but no whit inferior in valiance. The daedal forms of both are alike, apart only from the tail, where a perversity is seen: the lesser Leopards have the larger, the large the lesser tail. The thighs are well knit, the body is long, the eye bright: the shining pupils show grey-green beneath their brows, grey-green at once and red within, flaming as if on fire; but in the mouth beneath the teeth are pale and venomous. The hide is variegated and on a bright ground is dark with close-set black spots. Very swift it is in running and valiant in a straight charge. Seeing it thou wouldst say that it sped through the air. Notwithstanding minstrels celebrate this race of beasts as having been aforetime the nurses of Bacchus, giver of the grape; wherefore even now they greatly exult in wine and receive in their mouths the great gift of Dionysus. What matter it was that changed glorious women from the race of mortals into this wild race of Leopards I shall hereafter sing.

Another swift race, moreover, of twofold nature thou mayst see, the notable Lynxes. Of these the one sort are small to look on and attack the little Hares; the other sort are larger and easily leap upon the Stags of goodly horns and the swift Oryx. Both are clothed in altogether similar form. Alike are the delightful flashes that lighten from their eyes beneath their brows; both have bright face, small head, and curving ear; only their colour is dissimilar to look on. The smaller Lynxes are covered with a ruddy hide, while the colour of the larger is saffron and like sulphur. Beyond others these tribes love their dear offspring, the keen-eyed Lynxes and the fiery-eyed Lions and the deadly Leopards and the windswift Tigers. When in the thickets fearless hunters secretly steal away their suckling cubs, and they returning afterward behold their empty house and home made desolate, they shrilly wail their loud lament and far they send abroad their doleful dirge; even as, when their fatherland is sacked with the spear and burnt with raging fire, women fall upon their children's necks and loudly weep. Such constraining love of child and new-born babe hath God instilled into the heart: not alone in men who devise all things by their wits but even in creeping things and fish and the ravenous wild beasts themselves and the high-ranging flocks of birds: so much is nature mightier than all beside. What care doth the Dolphin amid the waves take evermore of its children, and the bright-eyed Glaucus and the Seal of evil smell! And how among the fowls of air do they cherish unfailing love for their own children — the Giers and the deep-noted Doves and the tribes of the Eagle and the long-lived Crow! And the domestic mother Hen, companion of the homes of men, fluttering about her new-hatched chicks, how, when she sees a Hawk swooping down over the roof, doth she straightway utter a piercing scream and spring up with shrill cry and lift her arching neck high into the air and speedily ruffle all her plumage and droop her wings to the ground, while the poor chickens cheeping cower together beneath the bulwark of her wings; and speedily she routs and drives away the shameless bird, defending her dear children, still infants whom she feeds, unfledged and newly delivered from the bondage of the chambers of birth. So also among wild beasts roaring Lionesses and swift Leopards and Tigers of striped back stand forward to defend their children and fight with hunters and for their young ones are prepared to die, joining issue with the spearmen face to face; and in the battle for their offspring they shudder not at the advancing crowd of javelin-throwers, not at the gleaming bronze and flashing iron, nor at the swift cast of shaft and shower of stones, but they are eager either to die first or save their children.

Wild Bears, a deadly race of crafty wits, are clothed in a close and rugged coat of hair and a form unkindly with unsmiling eyes. Sawtoothed, deadly, and long is their mouth; nose dark, eye keen, ankle swift, body nimble, head broad, hands like the hands of men, feet like men's feet; terrible their roar, cunning their wits, fierce their heart; and they are much given to venery and that not orderly. For evermore by day and night the females lust for mating and themselves pursue the males, seldom intermitting the pleasures of union and conceiving young when already pregnant. For it is not the custom for wild beasts when they are with young to mate and fulfil the work of desire, apart only from the Lynxes and the weakling Hares. But the she Bear in her desire for mating, and abhorring to have her bed widowed, endures to devise for her children thus: ere the season of birth, ere the appointed day arrives, she puts pressure on her womb and does violence to the goddesses of birth: so great her lechery, so great her haste for love. She brings forth her children half formed and not articulate, shapeless flesh, and unjointed and mysterious to behold. At one and the same time she attends to mating and to the rearing of her young and when she has but newly given birth she couches with the male. And she licks with her tongue her dear offspring, even as cattle lick one another in turn with their tongues and take delight in each other; and one of the fair-horned kine rejoices in the other and they do not part till they have put from them sweet desire, and they gladden the heart of their attendant herdsman. So doth the she Bear shape her children by licking; while they whine and mumble incontinently.

Moreover the Bear beyond all others dreads the onset of winter, shaggy of hair though she be. And when the snow besprinkles everything, what time the stormy West Wind sheds it thickly all about, she hides in a cave where there is shelter adequate and spacious, and for lack of food she licks her feet and paws even as if she were milking them and beguiles the craving of the belly. Even such a device have the coiling Poulpes devised in the depths of the wide-wayed sea amid the waves; who dreading the chilly menace of mid-winter hide in the shelving rocks and devour their own tentacles; but when spring blooms, moist and fertile, new arms speedily grow for them again and once again with fair array of suckers they sail the long path of the sea.

Next in order let us tell of the Wild Ass, well-ankled, swift as air, fleet-footed like the wind, strong-hoofed, broad to behold, silvery of colour, long-eared, most swift to run. About the middle of his back is set a black stripe, surrounded on either side by snowy bands. He eats hay and the grass-growing earth feeds him abundantly; but he himself is good food for mighty wild beasts. The tribes of the wind-footed Wild Asses are altogether prone to jealousy and they glory in many wives and plume themselves thereon. The females follow wheresoever the husband leads: they haste to the pasture when he wills to bid them, and, when he bids, to the river springs, the wild beasts' wine, and anon to their bosky homes when evening brings sleep. A fierce and shameless frenzy stirs jealousy in all the males against their own young sons. For when the female is in the travail of Eileithyia, the male sits hard by and watches for his own offspring. And when the infant foal falls at the feet of his mother, if it is a female, the father is fond of his child and licks it on either side with his tongue and caresses his dear offspring; but if he sees that it is a male, then, then the frenzied beast stirs his heart with deadly jealousy about the mother and he leaps forth, eager to rend with his jaws the privy parts of his child, lest afterward a new brood should grow up; while the mother, though but newly delivered and weak from the travail of birth, succours her poor child in the quarrel. As when in grievous war cruel warriors slay a child before the eyes of his mother and hale herself while she clings to her son yet writhing in his blood and wails with loud and lamentable cry and tears her tender cheek and is drenched below with the hot blood and warm milk of her breasts; even so the she Wild Ass is just as if she were piteously lamenting and sorrowfully wailing over her son. Thou wouldst say that all unhappy, bestriding her child, she was speaking honeyed words and uttering this prayer. "O husband, husband, wherefore is thy face hardened and thine eyes red that before were bright? It is not Medusa's brow who turned men to stone that thou beholdest near; not the venomous offspring of Dragoness implacable; not the lawless whelp of mountain-roaming Lioness. The child whom I, unhappy mother, bare, the child for whom we prayed to the gods, even thine own child, wilt thou with thine own jaws mutilate? Stay, dear, mar him not! Ah! why hast thou marred him? What a deed thou hast done! Thou hast turned the child to nothingness and has made all his body blind. Wretched and unhappy I in my untimely motherhood, and altogether wretched thou, my child, in thy most sinful father. Wretched I, thrice miserable, who have travailed in vain, and wretched thou, marred not by the claws of Lions, but by the cruel lion jaws of thy sire." Thus one would say the unhappy mother speaks over her infant son, while the unheeding father with bloody jaws makes mirthless banquet of his child. O father Zeus, how fierce a heart hath Jealousy! Him hast thou made, O lord, mightier than nature to behold and hast given him the bitter force of fire, and in his right hand hast vouchsafed to him to wear a sword of adamant. He preserves not, when he comes, dear children to their loving parents, he knows nor comrade nor kin nor cousin, when he intervenes grievous and unspeakable. He also in former times arrayed against their own children heroes themselves and noble heroines — Theseus, son of Aegeus, and Athamas, son of Aeolus, and Attic Procne and Thracian Philomela and Colchian Medea and glorious Themisto. But notwithstanding, after the race of afflicted mortals, to wild beasts also he served up a banquet of Thyestes.

In the precipitous bounds of the Ethiopians there is a great tribe of Wild Horses, armed with two venomous tusks. Their feet, however, have not a single hoof, but double like that of Deer. The mane of the neck covers the middle of the back even to the end of the tail. Never does that dread overweening tribe endure the servitude of man, but even if the dark-skinned Indians by crafty ambush take the Wild Horse in their well-twisted toils, he will not readily taste future with his lips nor drink, but badly bears the yoke of slavery.

Mark also two dread saw-toothed tribes, the sheep-slaying Wolf and again the weak-sighted Hyena; the first a destroyer of flocks of Sheep and herds of Goats, the other the foe of Dogs and mighty Hounds; the one, through the unescapable impulse of hunger, the crafty harrier by night of Lamb and Kid, the other a night-farer and night-wanderer, since for it there is light by night but darkness by day. The forms of these two bloody beasts are unlike. The Wolf thou wouldst behold like to the larger shepherd Dogs, with bushy tail behind. The Hyena has the midst of the back arched and it is shaggy all about and the dread body is marked on either side with close-set dark stripes. It is narrow and long of back and tail. The hide of both beasts the minstrels celebrate as terrible. If thou wert to cut off a piece of hide of the Hyena and wear it on thy feet, thou wouldst wear a great terror of mighty Dogs, and Dogs bark not at thee wearing those shoes, even if they barked before. And if thou shouldst flay a Wolf and from his hide make a sounding tabor, like the tabor of Dindymus which destroys increase, it alone of all sounds its deep note and it alone makes a din, while all the tabors that had a goodly sound before are silent and hush their noise. Sheep even when dead shudder at a dead Wolf. This marvel also I have heard about the spotted Hyenas, to wit that male and female change year by year, and one is now a weak-eyed bridegroom all eager to mate and anon appears as a lady bride, a bearer of children, and a goodly mother.

But five in number are the grey-haired breeds of Wolves, and herdsmen, whose bitter foes the wolf-tribes are, have remarked their different forms. First there is that which they call the bold Archer. Tawny is all his body, and his rounded limbs and head and swift limbs are larger far. The belly is light-coloured with grey spots. Terribly he howls and very high he leaps, ever shaking his head and glaring with fiery eyes.

Another again is superior in size and long of limb, swiftest in speed among all Wolves that are; him men name the Hawk and the Harrier. With much din he fares forth in the early morning to seek his prey at the first glimmering of dawn; for he easily becomes anhungered. Silvery gleams his colour on ribs and tail. He dwells on the high hills; but when in the winter season the chilly snow pours from the clouds and covers the hills, then doth the deadly beast draw nigh even to the city, having clothed himself with utter shamelessness for the sake of food; and stealthily he approaches and very quietly till he comes upon his prey, which speedily he seizes in his sharp claws.

And there is one which beyond the snow-clad heights of Taurus inhabits the Cilician hills and cliffs of Amanus, beautiful of aspect, most excellent among beasts, which they call the Golden Wolf, brilliant with abundant hair: no Wolf but a tall beast more excellent than a Wolf, armed with mouth of bronze, infinite in might. Many a time he pierces amain the enduring bronze, many a time he pierces stone or the iron spear. He knows the Dog-star Sirius and dreads his rising; straightway he creeps into some cleft of the wide earth or into a lightless cave, until the sun and the baleful Dog-star abate their heat.

Again there are two redoubtable Wolves, a deadly race, small of neck, very broad of back, but less of size in shaggy thighs and feet and face and small of eye. Of these one is brilliant with silvery back and white belly, and is dark only on the extremities of his feet. This grey-haired Wolf some men have named the Kite. But the other is dark of hue, smaller than the former yet not wanting in strength. He is a great hunter and makes Hares his prey, leaping upon them while all the hair upon his limbs bristles erect.

Often Wolves mate with the fierce Leopards, and from the union springs the mighty tribe of Jackals. They wear two colours mingled together, the mother's colour on the hide, the father's on the face.

Next let us sing the Tiger of glorious form, than which cunning nature has vouchsafed naught more pleasant for the eyes to behold amid the great company of wild beasts. As much doth the Tiger excel among wild beasts as the Peacock doth for beauty among the fowls of air. Every way like a lioness of the hills wouldst thou behold it, apart only from the hide, which is variegated, with darkling stripes and brilliant sheen. Like are the eyes that lighten with fiery flash beneath the brows; like the body, strong and fleshy; like the long and bushy tail; like the face about the mouth; like the frowning brows above; like the gleaming teeth. Swifter is it than all wild beasts that are; for it runs with speed like its sire, the West Wind himself. Yet the West Wind is not its sire; who would believe that wild beasts mated with an airy bridegroom? For that also is an empty tale, that all this tribe is female and mates not with a male; for often mightst thou see its handsome spouse of many colours, but not easily couldst thou capture him; for he leaves his young and flees amain when he descries the hunters; but the female follows her cubs and in the anguish of her heart — to the great joy of the hunters — comes straight to the nets.

Eminent among warlike wild beasts is the Boar. He loves a lair in the farthest depths of the crags and greatly he loathes the noisy din of wild beasts. Unceasingly he roams in pursuit of the female and is greatly excited by the frenzy of desire. On his neck the hair bristles erect, like the crest of a great-plumed helmet. He drops foam upon the ground and gnashes the white edge of his teeth, panting hotly; and there is much more rage about his mating than modesty. If the female abide his advances, she quenches all his rage and lulls to rest his passion. But if she refuses intercourse and flee, straightway stirred by the hot and fiery goad of desire he either overcomes her and mates with her by force or he attacks her with his jaws and lays her dead in the dust. There is a tale touching the Wild Boar that his white tusk has within it a secret devouring fiery force. A manifest proof of this for men is well founded. For when a great thronging crowd of hunters with their Dogs lay the beast low upon the ground, overcoming him with long spear on spear, then if one take a thin hair from the neck and approach it to the tusk of the still gasping beast, straightway the hair takes fire and curls up. And on either side of the Dogs themselves, where the fierce tusks of the Swine's jaws have touched them, marks of burning are traced upon the hide.

Than the Porcupines there is nothing in the shady wood more terrible to behold nor aught more deadly. Their size is like that of the bloody Wolves; short, small, and strong is their body, but their hide bristles all about with rough and shaggy quills, such as those with which the cunning tribes of Hedgehogs are armed. But when far mightier beasts pursue him, then he uses this device. He erects his sharp quills and backward hurls straight the dire shaft that bristles on his flying back, and both flees amain and fights as he seeks to escape. Many a time he slays a saw-toothed Dog; even so, one would say, shoots a man well skilled in archery. Therefore when the hunters espy him, they do not slip the Dogs but devise a trick, which I shall tell when I sing of the slaying of wild beasts.

The Ichneumon is small, but as well worthy to be sung as large beasts by reason of the cunning and great valiance which it hides in a feeble body. For indeed by its craft it slays two tribes — the reptile Serpents and the terrible Crocodiles, those creatures of the Nile, a deadly race. When one of the dread beasts sleeps, opening his lips with triple row and his wide gape and his fence unspeakable of flashing teeth, then the Ichneumon weaves a subtle device. With eyes askance he watches the huge beast until he is fit in his heart that it is deep asleep. Then, having rolled himself in sand and mud he swiftly springs and flies with daring heart through the gate of death and passes through wide throat. Then the wretched Crocodile wakes from his heavy sleep and carrying in his belly such an evil unlooked for, everywhere he roams in helpless rage, now going to the farthest reaches of the river, now rolling shoreward in the sand, gasping wildly and tossing in his agony. But the Ichneumon heeds not but enjoys his sweet repast; and mostly by the liver he sits to banquet; then late and last he leaps forth and leaves the empty body of the beast. O Ichneumon, marvellous and mighty, cunning in counsel, how great daring thy heart holds! What a task thou dost undertake, advancing thy body to the very jaws of death.

The venomous Asp the Ichneumon overcomes by this device. He lies in wait for the beast, hiding all his body in the sands, save only the tail and the fiery eyes; for the tail is long and snakelike with curling headlike tufts, black to the view, like the scales of serpents. When he seeks the dusky puffing viper, he arches his tail in front of her and challenges the deadly beast. The Asp over against him lifts up her head hard by and expands her breast and bares her stubborn teeth and fights vainly with her deadly jaws. But then the warlike Ichneumon lingers not in the sands, but leaps and seizes her terrible throat and rends her with his jaws as she twists this way and that and straightway lays her dead — vainly spitting forth bitter deadly venom of her passionate wrath.

Furthermore, most cunning among all the beasts of the field is the Fox. Warlike of heart and wise she dwells in remotest lair, with seven-gated openings to her house and tunneled earths far from one another, lest hunters set an ambush about her doors and lead her captive with snares. Terrible is she to fight with her teeth against stronger wild beasts and hunting Dogs. And when chilly winter comes and she lacks food, and the vines show bare of grapes, then she weaves a deadly device for hunting, to capture by craft birds and the young of Hares.

Tell also, I pray thee, O clear-voiced Muse of diverse tones, of those tribes of wild beasts which are of hybrid nature and mingled of two stocks, even the Pard of spotted back joined and united with the Camel. O Father Zeus, how many things hast thou devised, how many forms hast thou created for us, how many hast thou given to men, how many to the finny creatures of the sea! Even as thou hast devised this very varied form of the Camel, clothing with the hide of the shameless Pard a race splendid and lovely and gentle to men. Long is its neck, its body spotted, the ears small, bare the head above, long the legs, the soles of the feet broad; the limbs are unequal and the legs are not altogether alike, but the fore-legs are greater while the hind-legs are much smaller and look as if they were squatting on their haunches. From the middle of the head two horns rise straight up — not horny horns, but feeble projections on the head which alongside the ears rise up between the temples. The tender mouth is sufficiently large, like that of a Stag and within are set on either side thin milk-white teeth. A bright gleam lightens from the eyes. The tail, again, is short, like that of the swift Gazelles, with dark hair at the hinder end.

Yea and another double breed have I beheld with mine eyes, a mighty marvel, Camel united with Sparrow; which, though it is numbered with the lightsome birds and is winged, notwithstanding my lays shall celebrate, since the varied range of our hunting admits it. For the lime that is the enemy of birds does not prevail over it, nor the reeds that tread an airy path, but Horses and swift Hounds and unseen snares. Its size is huge, so that it can carry on its broad back a young boy. The legs are long, like to those of the sluggish Camels, and are arrayed as it were with close-set hard scales up to the double thigh. Small is the head that it rears on high but long the hairy dusky neck. They have abundant feathers; yet they do not sail aloft on the high paths of air, but notwithstanding, as they run swiftly with their feet, they have a speed equal to the birds themselves. Nor do they mate like birds by mounting but, like the Bactrian tribe, rear to rear. It lays a huge egg, of size to hold so great a bird, armed about with stony shell.

Let us sing of Hares, rich harvest of the hunt. The body is small and hairy, the ears are very long, small the head above, small the feet, the limbs unequal. The colour with which they are clothed varies; some are dark and dusky, which inhabit the black-soiled tilth; others are reddish-yellow, which live in red-coloured plains. Brightly flash their goodly orbs, their eyes armed with sleeplessness; for never do they slumber and admit sleep upon their eyelids, being afraid of the violence of wild beasts and the nimble wit of men, but they are wakeful in the night and indulge their desire. Unceasingly they yearn to mate and while the females are still pregnant they do not reject the lustful advances of the male, not even when they carry in the womb the swift arrow of fruitfulness. For this tribe, among all that the infinite earth breeds, is the most prolific. The one embryo comes forth from the mother's womb full-formed, while she carries one within her still hairless, and nourishes another half-formed, and has in her womb yet another — a formless foetus to look on. In succession she brings them forth and the shameless female never forgets her lust but fulfils all her desire and not even in the throes of birth does she refuse her mate.