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+ + + + + + + + English + Greek + Latin + German + Italian + French + Spanish + + + + Autobulus + + + Soclarus + + + Optatus + + + Aristotimus + + + Phaedimus + + + Heracleon + + + + + tagged and parsed + EpiDoc and CTS Conversion + + + + +
+ + WHETHER LAND OR SEA ANIMALS ARE CLEVERER (DE SOLLERTIA + ANIMALIUM) +
+ + INTRODUCTION +

There can be little doubt that Plutarch composed this pleasant work from + commentarii (ὑπομνήματα) derived not merely from Aristotle (mentioned + specifically in 965 d and quoted often), but also from various other + compendia, the remains of which are to be seen in Aelian's and Pliny's + natural histories and elsewhere.On the sources see Ziegler's article Plutarchos in Pauly-Wissowa, col. 738, and, + of the authorities he cites, particularly Wellmann's papers in Hermes, xxvi, xxvii, and li, and Max + Schuster, Untersuchungen zu + Plutarchs De Sollertia Animalium (Diss. Munich, 1917). There + is also an amusing work of Philo, surviving only in an Armenian version, + which is most conveniently accessible in Aucher's Latin translation in + vol. 8 of the Bibliotheca + Sacra edition (Schwickert, Leipzig, 1830): De Ratione quam habere etiam Bruta + Animalia dicebat Alexander. In the first part of this work + Alexander presents the arguments for animal intelligence, which Philo + himself attempts to refute in a somewhat summary fashion at the end. The + occasional parallels with Plutarch will be cited as Philo, with Aucher's + section and page numbers. Antigonus of Carystus, Historia Mirabilium, will be cited from O. + Keller's edition of the Naturalium + Rerum Scriptores Graeci (Teubner, 1877) and Aelian's De Natura Animalium from R. + Hercher's Teubner (not Didot) edition. In fact, if one reads + Plutarch and Aelian and Pliny side by side, one may acquire the impression + that they had before them substantially the same sources, and that these + were numerous. Whereas Pliny and Aelian appear to + adopt nearly everything their authorities may have offered (for they were + writing factual commentaries), Plutarch, as always, selects. It is possible, + in some cases, that Plutarch's mss. (which are not good and also contain + lacunae) may have been interpolated from Aelian's ; and the reverse is + likewise possible. This is a very difficult matter, but the hope may be + entertained that some main sources of Plutarch and Aelian, if not of Pliny, + and the as yet unassessed evidence of Philo, may eventually be disentangled + for substantial sections, though this is not the place to attempt such a + feat.

+

The title is not well chosen, since the victory is awarded to neither side. + The real point of the dialogue seems to be, in its second as well as its + first part, that all animals of whatever provenance are intelligent.Schuster thinks, rather, + that Plutarch's chief aim is to make clear a moral and juridical + relationship between man and beasts. The occasionally bantering + tone may serve to indicate that we have before us something of a school + exercise from Plutarch's own academy, with perhaps the first draft of the + second part composed by pupils.See Schuster, pp. 57 ff. Aristotimus and Phaedimus were + doubtless actual pupils of Plutarch. Note the carefully + established details : the contest will take place at a fixed time (960 b, + 963 b) before their fellow-pupils and a specially appointed judge (965 c-e). + More or less elaborate preparation has been made by the contestants (960 b, + 975 d).Plutarch lays + special emphasis on preparation: Mor. 80 d, 652 b. Because of the occasion the school + has been granted a holiday. +

+

In the first part (chapters 1-8), the author demonstrates through the + authoritarian voice of his own father that the Stoics, in so far as they + affirm the irrationality of animals, contradict their own tenets. The second + part proves that animals of all kinds are rational (chapters 9-36) ; the + last small section, while refusing to award first honours in the debate, + appears to contain Plutarch's exhortation to his pupils to continue the + fight against the Stoics. For an excellent summary with sympathetic comments + see E. R. Dodds, Greece and Rome, ii (1932/3), + pp. 104-105.

+

D' AgostinoV. D' + Agostino, Archivo Italiano di + Psicologia, xi (1933), pp. 21 ff., a useful summarizing + article. and others have shown that there is little originality + in Plutarch's animal psychology, while not denying our author considerable + vivacity in presentation. While it is true that whole sections, like 976 + a-d, are drawn from the identical source that Aelian (De Natura Animalium, viii. 4-6) used, yet one has + only to compare the use these authors have made of precisely the same + material to recognize the great superiority of Plutarch. The principal + sources have been disputedHirzel, Der + Dialog, ii, p. 179, n. 1. All of Hirzel's discussion is + worth reading, though there are occasional slips, as when he affirms (p. + 173, n. 2) that the story in 969 e f. goes back to Plutarch's own + experience. This is quite unlikely in view of Aelian's version of the + same story; nor has Aelian drawn from Plutarch as some, including + Wyttenbach, have thought.: Chrysippus, Theophrastus, Hagnon, + Alexander of Myndus,For + the difficulty and danger involved in identifying the sources exactly + see the lists of authorities furnished by Pliny in his first book. + Alexander of Myndus, for example, does not appear at all as a source for + books 8-11. Juba, Xenocrates have all been suggested, but there + can be little doubt (as with De Tranquillitate + See the introduction in + the Loeb edition. and many other works) that a considerable + variety of sources has been utilized. Now that Schläpfer + Plutarch und die klassischen + Dichter, Zürich, 1950, especially pp. 59-60. has + demonstrated that Plutarch had himself read and meditated upon great + sections of classical poetry, critics may perhaps be more willing to allow + our author first-hand familiarity with a wider range of prose, and works of + reference as well.

+

It is by no means impossible that the work is incomplete in our mss. ; there + are, at least, several demonstrable lacunae and it is possible that it was + considerably longer and may even have justified its title when it left + Plutarch's hands.

+

As for the date of the dialogue, the terminus post + quem is a.d. 70 (not 79, as it cannot be certainly inferred + from 974 a that Vespasian was then dead) ; it is probably a work of + Plutarch's youth, preceding in any case the Lives and the Symposiacs. It may + well date from Plutarch's anti-Stoic period which produced the De Facie, the De Communibus Notitiis, and the + other anti-Chrysippean polemics. It has much in common with the Gryllus and the fragments of De Esu Carnium and some + correspondence with the Amatorius.But allowance must be made for exaggerated and partially false premises + in Hartman, De Plutarcho, + p. 567. A modified chronological scheme of Plutarch's writings has + lately been proposed by T. Sinko (Polish Acad. Cracow, + 1947), but it is too complicated to be examined here. It may, in + fact, have been written during nearly the same period as that in which the + elder Pliny (whose preface is dated a.d. 77) was compiling his own Natural History. +

+

The citations in D'Arcy Thompson's Oxford translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium + The Loeb edition of A. + L. Peck is still awaited at this date of writing. It should be noted + that quotations from the ninth book, in particular, are liable to + peculiar suspicion and may not proceed from the great naturalist + himself. are somewhat inaccurate and inconsistent, being, as he + says, compiled at various times and at long intervals + during many years. Nevertheless the work is of great value and it + may be hoped that the notes in this edition that rely on it (and these are + many) have been adequately sifted. Also to be constantly and gratefully + consulted are Thompson's A Glossary of Greek + Fishes (Oxford, 1947) and A Glossary of + Greek Birds (2nd edition, Oxford, 1936). There will be many + references to Thompson's Aristotle ; but if the creature in question is a + bird or a fish, it is to be understood that supplementary and often + corrective material is to be found in the Glossaries. There is, further, a + tribute of admiration due to A. W. Mair's L.C.L. edition of Oppian, with its + exhaustive notes.Even + the extremely hostile review in Phil. Woch. li (1931), pp. 1569 ff., exempts the notes from + censure. Rackham (L.C.L. Pliny, vol. Ill, books viii-xi) is very + interesting on the text, but has almost completely denied himself the + privilege of citing parallel passages.

+

The debunking of many of Plutarch's stories, if such a task is necessary, + has been pleasantly done in the leisurely course of Bergen Evans' The Natural History of Nonsense (New York, 1946). + It should be added, however, that modern scientific speculation is + approaching somewhat closer to one of Plutarch's main tenets, if one may + judge from such a work as W. C. Allee's Coöperation + Among Animals (New York, 1951 : a revision of his earlier The Social Life of + + Animals) ; and on the thesis of animal + intelligence see Evans himself, p. 173, and the authorities cited there, + note 1.

+

Both the translation and the notes of this and the following essays have + benefited immeasurably from an exhaustive criticism generously given them by + Professor Alfred C. Andrews of the University of Miami, Florida. He has in + fact supplied a number of valuable notes and also the Appendix, a classified + zoological index. It must be understood, however, that any errors remaining + are to be attributed solely to the editor.Since our text was formed and our + translation and notes composed a year or more before the appearance of + the new Teubner edition, almost no new references have been added which + are not purely textual. The curious reader is referred to Hubert's + wealth of illustration to supplement our contributions. +

+

The dialogue is no. 147 in the catalogue of Lamprias. According to this + document Plutarch wrote another work (no. 135) on the same subject: Do Beasts Possess Reason? But no. 127, Περὶ ζώλων ἀλόγων ποιητικός, is probably the + same as our Gryllus, the following dialogue in + this edition.

+

Abbreviations used in citing Modern Authors

+

Brands = J. P. J. M. Brands, Grieksche + Diernamen, Purmerend, 1935.

+

Cotte = J. Cotte, Poissons et animaux + aquatiques au temps de Pline, Paris, 1945.

+

Keller = Otto Keller, Die antike + Tierwelt, Leipzig, 1909-1913.

+

Mair = A. W. Mair, Oppian, Colluthus, + Tryphiodorus, L.C.L., 1928. +

+

Saint-Denis = E. de Saint-Denis, Le + Vocabulaire des animaux marius en latin classique, Paris, 1947.

+

Schmid = Georg Schmid, Die Fische in Ovids + Halieuticon, + Philologus, Supplementband xi (1907-1910), pp. + 253-350.

+

Thompson, Aristotle = D'Arcy W. Thompson, The Works of Aristotle, vol. IV, + Historia animalium, Oxford, + 1910.

+

Thompson, Birds = D'Arcy W. Thompson, A Glossary of + Greek Birds, rev. ed., Oxford, 1936.

+

Thompson, Fishes = D'Arcy W. Thompson, A Glossary of + Greek Fishes, Oxford, 1947. +

+
+
+ + WHETHER LAND OR SEA ANIMALS ARE CLEVERER +

(The speakers in the dialogue are Autobulus,Plutarch's father; on controversial + points connected with this identification see Ziegler in Pauly-Wissowa, + s.v. + Plutarchos, 642 ff. Soclarus,A friend of the household + who appears in several of the Symposiacs + and in the Amatorius also; he is not + improbably the L. Mestrius Soclarus of Inscr. Gr. ix. 1. 61. Optatus, + Aristotimus, Phaedimus, and Heracleon.A speaker also in De Defectu Oraculorum (cf. Mor. 412 e). Of the other + speakers in this dialogue, nothing definite is known except what may be + inferred from the present work.)

+
+

+ . When Leonidas was asked + what sort of a person he considered Tyrtaeus to be, he replied, A good poet to whet the souls of young men, + + cf. Mor 235 f, where it is an anonymous saying; + but the Life of Cleomenes, ii (xxiii = + 805 d) also attributes it to Leonidas. on the ground that by + means of verses the poet inspired in young men keenness, accompanied by + ardour and ambition whereby they sacrificed themselves freely in battle. + And I am very much afraid, my friends, that the Praise of Hunting + The authorship of + this work has been endlessly disputed, but present opinion (pace Sinko, Eos, xv. pp. 113 ff. and + Hubert, Woch. f. klass. + Phil. xxviii, pp. 371 ff.) holds that it is Plutarch + himself who wrote it (Schuster, op. cit. pp. 8 ff.). + Bernardakis (vii, pp. 142-143) included this passage (959 b-d) as a + fragment of the lost work. which was read aloud to us + yesterday may so immoderately inflame our young men who like the sport + that they will come to consider all other occupations as of minor, or of + no, importance and concentrate on this. + There canot be two passions more nearly + resembling each other than hunting and philosophy (Huxley, + Hume, p. 139), and see Shorey's + note on Plato, Republic, 432 b + (L.C.L.); cf., however, Rep. 535 d, 549 a. See also Isocrates, + Areopagiticus, 43 + f.; Xenophon, Cynegetica, i. 18; xii. + 1. ff.; Cyr. viii. 1. 34-36; Pollux, + preface to book v; the proems of Grattius, Nemesianus, Arrian, + etc. As a matter of fact, I myself caught the old fever all + over again in spite of my years and longed, + like Euripides' + Cf. + Hippolytus, 218 f. It follows from the fuller quotation + in Mor. 52 c that + Plutarch's text of Euripides inverted the order of these lines as + given in our mss. of the tragedian. Phaedra, To halloo the hounds and chase the dappled + deer; so moved was I by the discourse as it brought its + solid and convincing arguments to bear. +

+

+ . Exactly so, Autobulus. That + reader yesterday seems to have roused his rhetoric from its long + disusePresumably + an autobiographical detail. to gratify the young men and + share their vernal mood.The word is found only here, but may well be right + if Plutarch is in a poetical, as well as a playful, humour. I + was particularly pleased with his introduction of gladiators and his + argument that it is as good a reason as any to applaud hunting that + after diverting to itself most of our natural or acquired pleasure in + armed combats between human beings it affords an innocent spectacle of + skill and intelligent courage pitted against witless force and violence. + It agrees with that passage of EuripidesFrag. 27 from the Aeolus (so Stobaeus); Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. pp. 370 + f.; cf. Mor. 98 e. + The text is somewhat confused.: + Slight is the strength of men ; + But through his mind's resource + He subdues the dread + Tribes of the deep and races + Bred on earth and in the air. + + +

+
+
+

+ Yet that is the very + source, my dear Soclarus, from which they say insensibility spread among + men and the sort of savagery that learned the taste of slaughter on its + hunting trips + Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. + 20. and has grown accustomed to feel no repugnance for the + wounds and gore of beasts, but. to take pleasure in their violent death. + The next step is like what happened at + AthensSee 998 b + infra and cf. Müller, Hist. Graec. Frag. i. p. 269, Ephorus, + frag. 125; it is not, however, accepted as from Ephorus by Jacoby + (cf. Sallust, Catiline, li. 28-31). We must remember, + during the following discussion, that zoology used to be the + handmaid of ethics.: the first man put to death by the Thirty + was a certain informer who was said to deserve it, and so was the second + and the third ; but after that they went on, step by step, until they + were laving hands on honest men and eventually did not spare even the + best of the citizens. Just so the first man + Cf. 993 b infra. The Age of Cronus, when beasts were unharmed, + is admirably described in Plato, Politicus, 270 c ff. to kill a + bear or a wolf won praise ; and perhaps some cow or pig was condemned as + suitable to slay because it had tasted the sacred meal placed before + it. + That is, they put grain on the altar to make + the animal volunteer, as it were, to die (Post); and the + consent of the victim was secured by pouring water on it to make it + shake its head. See Mor. 729 e and the article Opfer in RE, + xviii. 612. So from that point, as they now went on to eat + the flesh of deer and hare and antelope, men were introduced to the + consumption of sheep and, in some places, of dogs and horses. The tame goose and the dove upon the + hearth, as SophoclesNauck, Trag. + Graec. Frag. p. 314, frag. 782; Pearson, vol. III, p. + 68, frag. 866. says, were dismembered and carved for food - + not that hunger compelled men as it does weasels and cats, but for + pleasure and as an appetizer. + Cf. 991 d, 993 b, 995 c infra. Or as meat + to go with their bread; for fowl is not ordinarily an + appetizer. Thus the bruteFrom this point to the end of chapter 5 (963 f) the + greater part of the text is excerpted by Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 20-24 + (pp. 211-220, ed. Nauck). This indirect transmission, with its not + infrequent changes, omissions, and variations, gives valuable + evidence; but obvious errors on either side have not been mentioned + here. and the natural lust to kill in man were fortified and + rendered inflexible to pity, while gentleness was, for the most part, + deadened. It was in this way, on the contrary, that the + Pythagoreans, + Cf. 964 f, 993 a infra, and Mor. 86 d, 729 e. The practice is correctly stated; the alleged motive is not. + The taboo on meat stemmed from belief in the transmigration of + souls (Andrews). to inculcate humanity and + compassion, made a practice of kindness to + animals ; for habituation has a strange power to lead men onward by a + gradual familiarization of the feelings. +

+

+ Well, we have + somehow fallen unawares into a discussion not unconnected with what we + said yesterday nor yet with the argument that is presently to take place + to-day. Yesterday, as you know, we proposed the thesis that all animals + partake in one way or another of reason and understanding, and thereby + offered our young hunters a field of competition not lacking in either + instruction or pleasure : the question whether land or sea animals have + superior intelligence. This argument, it seems, we shall to-day + adjudicate if Aristotimus and Phaedimus stand by their challenges ; for + Aristotimus put himself at his comrades' disposal to advocate the land + as producer of animals with superior intelligence, while the other will + be pleader for the sea. +

+

+ . They'll stand by their word, + Autobulus ; they'll be here any minute now. Early this morning I + observed them both preparing for the fray. But, if you like, before the + contest begins, let us review the discussion of whatever topics are + germane to our conversation of yesterday, but were not then discussed, + either because no occasion offered, or, since we were in our cups, were + treated too lightly. I thought, in fact, that I caught the reverberation + of a material objection from the Stoa + Cf. von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. 49 ff., 172 + ff.; and Pohlenz, B.P.W. xxiii (1903), col. 966, on Chrysippus, frag. + 182.: just as the immortal is opposed to the mortal and the + imperishable to the perishable, and, of course, the incorporeal to the + corporeal; just so, if there is rationality, the irrational must exist + as its opposite and counterpart. This alone, + among all these pairings, must not be left incomplete and mutilated. + +

+
+
+

+ + There seems to be a + great deal more anti-Stoic polemic in the following speeches than + von Arnim has admitted into his compilation. See especially the + notes on 961 c ff. infra. + But who ever, my dear Soclarus, maintained that, while rationality + exists in the universe, there is nothing irrational ? For there is a + plentiful abundance of the irrational in all things that are not endowed + with a soul; we need no other sort of counterpart for the rational: + everything that is soulless, since it has no reason or intelligence, is + by definition in opposition to that which, together with a soul, + possesses also reason and understanding. Yet suppose someone were to + maintain that nature must not be left maimed, but that that part of + nature which, is endowed with a soul should have its irrational as well + as its rational aspect, someone else is bound to maintain that nature + endowed with a soul must have both an imaginative and an unimaginative + part, and both a sentient part and an insentient. They want nature, they + say, to have these counteractive and contraposed positives and negatives + of the same kind counterbalanced, as it were. But if it is ridiculous to + require an antithesis of sentient and insentient within the class of + living things, or an antithesis of imaginative and unimaginative, seeing + that it is the nature of every creature with a soul to be sentient and + imaginative from the hour of its birth, so he, also, is unreasonable who + demands a division of the living into a rational and an irrational part + - and that, too, when he is arguing with men who believe that nothing is + endowed with sensation which does not also partake of intelligence and + that there is no living thing which does not naturally possess both opinion and reason, just as it + has sensation and appetite. For nature, which, theyAristotle and Theophrastus + passim; cf. also Mor. 646 c, 698 b. rightly say, + does everything with some purpose and to some end, did not create the + sentient creature merely to be sentient when something happens to it. + No, for there are in the world many things friendly to it, many also + hostile ; and it could not survive for a moment if it had not learned to + give the one sort a wide berth while freely mixing with the other. It + is, to be sure, sensation that enables each creature to recognize both + kinds ; but the acts of seizing or pursuing that ensue upon the + perception of what is beneficial, as well as the eluding or fleeing of + what is destructive or painful, could by no means occur in creatures + naturally incapable of some sort of reasoning and judging, remembering + and attending. Those beings, then, which you deprive of all expectation, + memory, design, or preparation, and of all hopes, fears, desires, or + griefs - they will have no use for eyes or ears either, even though they + have them. Indeed, it would be better to be rid of all sensation and + imagination that has nothing to make use of it, rather than to know toil + and distress and pain while not possessing any means of averting + them. +

+

+ There is, in + fact, a work of Strato,Frag. 112, ed. Wehrli (Die Schule des Aristoteles, v, p. + 34). the natural philosopher, which proves that it is + impossible to have sensation at all without some action of the + intelligence. Often, it is true, while we are busy reading, the letters + may fall on our eyes, or words may fall on our ears, which escape our + attention since our minds are intent on other things ; but later the + mind recovers, shifts its course, and follows up every detail that had been neglected ; and this is + the meaning of the sayingA frequently occurring quotation, attributed to + Epicharmus in Mor. 336 + b (Kaibel, Com. Graec. + Frag. i, p. 137, frag. 249; Diels, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p. 200, frag. 12); + see also Mor. 98 c and + 975 b infra. The fullest + interpretation is that of Schottlaender, Hermes, lxii, pp. 437 f.; and see also Wehrli's note, + pp. 72 f.: + Mind has sight and Mind has hearing ; + Everything else is deaf and blind, + indicating that the impact on eyes and ears brings no + perception if the understanding is not present. For this reason also + King Cleomenes, when a recital made at a banquet was applauded and he + was asked if it did not seem excellent, replied that the others must + judge, for his mind was in the Peloponnesus. So that, if we are so + constituted that to have sensation we must have understanding, then it + must follow that all creatures which have sensation can also understand. + +

+

+ But let us grant that + sensation needs no help of intelligence to perform its own function ; + nevertheless, when the perception that has caused an animal to + distinguish between what is friendly and what is hostile is gone, what + is it that from this time on remembers the distinction, fears the + painful, and wants the beneficial ? And, if what it wants is not there, + what is there in animals that devises means of acquiring it and + providing lairs and hiding-places - both traps for prey and places of + refuge from attackers ? And yet those very authorsThe Stoics again; von Arnim, + S.V.F. iii, p. 41, + Chrysippus, frag. 173 of the Ethica. rasp our ears by repeatedly defining in + their Introductions + Or elementary treatises: titles used by + Chrysippus (von Arnim, op. cit. + ii, pp. 6 f.; iii, p. 196). + purpose as an indication + of intent to complete, + + design as an impulse + before an impulse, + preparation as an act + before an act, and memory as an apprehension of a proposition in the past + tense of which the present tense has been apprehended by + perception. + That is, by + sensation we apprehend the proposition Socrates is snub-nosed, by memory the proposition Socrates was snub-nosed. The literature + on this complicated subject has been collected and analysed in + Class. Rev. lxvi (1952), pp. 146 + f. For there is not one of these terms that does not belong + to logic; and the acts are all present in all animals as, of course, are + cognitions which, while inactive, they call notions, but when they are once put into action, concepts. And though they admit that emotions + one and all are false judgements and seeming + truths, + + Cf. von Arnim, op. cit. i, pp. 50 f; iii, pp. 92 ff.; + see also Mor. 449 + c. it is extraordinary that they obviously fail to note many + things that animals do and many of their movements that show anger or + fear or, so help me, envy or jealousy. They themselves punish dogs and + horses that make mistakes, not idly but to discipline them; they are + creating in them through pain a feeling of sorrow, which we call + repentance. +

+

+ Now pleasure + that is received through the ears is a means of enchantment, while that + which comes through the eyes is a kind of magic : they use both kinds + against animals. For deer and horses + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 44, 46; Antigonus, + Hist. Mirab. + 29. are bewitched by pipes and flutes, and crabsDolphins also are + caught by music: Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. + 137. are involuntarily lured from their holes by lotus pipes + e ; it is also reported that shad will rise to the surface and approach when there is singing and + clapping. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi, 32; Athenaeus, 328 + f, on the trichis, which is a kind of + thrissa (cf. + Athenaeus, 328 e); and see Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 244 (L.C.L.). The horned owl, + Cf. Mor. 52 b + (where the L.C.L., probably wrongly, reads the + ape); 705 a; Athenaeus, 390 f; Aelian, De Natura Animal. xv. 28; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 68; Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 + (597 b 22 ff.) and the other references of Hubert at Mor. 705 a and Gulick on + Athenaeus, 629 f. Contrast Aelian, De Natura Animal. i, 39, on doves. + Porphyry omits this sentence. again, can be caught by the + magic of movement, as he strives to twist his shoulders in delighted + rhythm to the movements of men dancing before him. +

+

+ As for those + who foolishly affirm that animals do not feel pleasure or anger or fear + or make preparations or remember, but that the bee as it were + A favourite + expression of Aristotle's; but it is the Stoics who are being + reproved here (cf. von Arnim, + S.V.F. ii, p. 240, + Chrysippus, frag. 887). This seems to be the only appearance of the + word in Plutarch, unless Pohlenz is right in conjecturing it at + Mor. 600 f, or + Rasmus at 1054 c in other Stoic quotations. remembers and the + swallow as it were prepares her nest and the + lion as it were grows angry and the deer as it were is frightened-I don't know what + they will do about those who say that beasts do not see or hear, butas it were hear and see ; that they have no + cry but as it were ; nor do they live at all + but as it were. For these last statements (or + so I believe) are no more contrary to plain evidence than those that + they have made. +

+
+
+

+ Well, Autobulus, you may + count me also as one who believes your statements ; yet on comparing the + ways of beasts with human customs and lives, with human actions and + manner of living, I find not only many other defects in animals, but + this especially : they do not explicitly aim at virtue,On animals possessing + aretê see Aelian's preface to the first book of + De Natura Animal.; + cf. also Mor. 986 f infra; + al. + for which purpose reason itself exists ; nor do they make any progress in virtue or have any bent + for it; so that I fail to see how Nature can have given them even + elementary reason, seeing that they cannot achieve its end. +

+

+ But neither does this, + Soclarus, seem absurd to those very opponents of ours ; for while they + postulate that love of one's offspringSee Mor. 495 c and the whole fragment, De Amore Prolis (493 a - + 497 e). is the very foundation of our social life and + administration of justice, and observe that animals possess such love in + a very marked degree, yet they assert and hold that animals have no part + in justice. Now mules + Cf. Aristotle, De Generatione Animal. ii, + 7 (746 b 15 ff.), ii. 8 (747 a 23 ff.); for Aristotle's criticism of + Empedocles' theory see H. Cherniss, Aristotle's Criticism of the Presocratics, p. 143, n. + 573. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 173, + mentions some cases of the fertility of mules, see also Cicero, + De Divinatione, i. + 36; ii. 49; Herodotus, iii. 151 ff. are not deficient in + organs ; they have, in fact, genitals and wombs and are able to use them + with pleasure, yet cannot attain the end of generation. Consider another + approach : is it not ridiculous to keep affirming that men like Socrates + and Plato + Cf. Cicero, De Finibus, iv. 21. are involved + in vice no less vicious than that of any slave you please, that they are + just as foolish and intemperate and unjust, and at the same time to + stigmatize the alloyed and imprecise virtue of animals as absence of + reason rather than as its imperfection or weakness ? And this, though + they acknowledge that vice is a fault of reason and that all animals are + infected with vice : many, in fact, we observe to be guilty of cowardice + and intemperance, injustice and malice. He, then, who holds that what is + not fitted by nature to receive the perfection of reason does not even + receive any reason at all is, in the first + place, no better than one who asserts that apes are not naturally ugly + or tortoises naturally slow for the reason that they are not capable of + possessing beauty or speed. In the second place, he fails to observe the + distinction which is right before his eyes : mere reason is implanted by + nature, but real and perfect reason + Cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii. + 54. is the product of care and education. And this is why + every living creature has the faculty of reasoning ; but if what they + seek is true reason and wisdom, not even man may be said to possess + it. + Cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 13. 34. For + as one capacity for seeing or flying differs from another (hawks and + cicadas do not see alike, nor do eagles and partridges fly alike), so + also not every reasoning creature has in the same way a mental dexterity + or acumen that has attained perfection. For just as there are many + examples in animals of social instincts and bravery and ingenuity in + ways and means and in domestic arrangements, so, on the other hand, + there are many examples of the opposite : injustice, cowardliness, + stupidity. + Cf. 992 d infra. And the very factor which brought about + our young men's contest to-day provides confirmation. It is on an + assumption of difference that the two sides assert, one that land + animals, the other that sea animals, are naturally more advanced toward + virtue. This is clear also if you contrast hippopotamuses + Cf. Herodotus, ii. 71; Aristotle, + Historia Animal. + ii. 7 (502 a 9-15), though the latter passage may be interpolated. + Porphyry reads contrast river-horses with + land-horses. + with storks + Cf. Aristotle, op. cit. ix. 13 (615 b 23 ff.); Aelian, + De Natura Animal. iii. 23; Philo, + 61 (p. 129).: the latter support their fathers, while the + former kill themAnd + eat them: Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 19. in order to consort with their + mothers. The same is true if you compare + doves + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 4 + (562 b 17); Aelian, De Natura + Animal. iii. 45. with partridges + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 8 + (613 b 27 ff.); Aelian, De + Natura Animal. iii. 16, and Cf. iv. 1. 16; of peacocks in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 161.; + for the partridge cock steals the eggs and destroys them since the + female will not consort with him while she is sitting, whereas male + doves assume a part in the care of the nest, taking turns at keeping the + eggs warm and being themselves the first to feed the fledglings ; and if + the female happens to be away for too long a time, the male strikes her + with his beak and drives her back to her eggs or squabs. And while + AntipaterVon + Arnim, S.V.F. iii, p. + 251, Antipater of Tarsus, frag. 47. We know from Plutarch's Aetia Physica, 38 that + Antipater wrote a book on animals. On the other hand, Dyroff (Blätter f. d. bay. Gymn. + xxiii, 1897, p. 403) argued for Antipater of Tyre; he believed, in + fact, that the present work was mainly directed against this + Antipater. Schuster, op. cit. p. 77, has shown this to + be unlikely. was reproaching asses and sheep for their + neglect of cleanliness, I don't know how he happened to overlook lynxes + and swallows + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 7 + (612 b 30 f.); Plutarch, Mor. 727 d-e; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. x. 92; Philo, 22 (p. 111).; for lynxes + dispose of their excrement by concealing and doing away with it, while + swallows teach their nestlings to turn tail and void themselves outward. + +

+

+ Why, moreover, + do we not say that one tree is less intelligent than another, as a sheep + is by comparison with a dog ; or one vegetable more cowardly than + another, as a stag is by comparison with a lion ? Is the reason not + that, just as it is impossible to call one immovable object slower than + another, or one dumb thing more mute than another, so among all the + creatures to whom Nature has not given the faculty of understanding, we + cannot say that one is more cowardly or more slothful or more + intemperate ? Whereas it, is the presence of + understanding, of one kind in one animal, of another kind in another, + and in varying degree, that has produced the observable differences. + +

+
+
+

+ Yet it is astonishing how + greatly man surpasses the animals in his capacity for learning and in + sagacity and in the requirements of justice and social life. +

+

+ There are in fact, my + friend, many animals wliich surpass all men, not only in bulk and + swiftness, but also in keen sight and sharp hearing + Cf. Alexander of Aphrodisias, + De Fato, 27; Pliny, + Nat. Hist. viii. 10; x. + 191.; but for all that man is not blind or crippled or + earless. We can run, if less swiftly than deer ; and see, if less keenly + than hawks ; nor has Nature deprived us of strength and bulk even + though, by comparison with, the elephant and the camel, we amount to + nothing in these matters.Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. + 145, reports a singular deduction from this theme; see also Seneca, + De Beneficiis, ii. + 29. 1. In the same way, then, let us not say of beasts that + they are completely lacking in intellect and understanding and do not + possess reason even though their understanding is less acute and their + intellect inferior to ours ; what we should say is that their intellect, + is feeble and turbid, like a dim and clouded eye. And if I did not + expect that our young men, learned and studious as they are, would very + shortly present us here, one with a large collection of examples drawn + from the land, the other with his from the sea, I should not have denied + myself the pleasure of giving you countless examples of the docility and + native capacity of beasts - of which fair RomeSee, for example, 968 c, e + infra. has provided us + a reservoir from which to draw in pails and buckets, as it were, from the imperial spectacles. Let + us leave this subject, therefore, fresh and untouched for them to + exercise their art upon in discourse. +

+

+ There is, + however, one small matter which I should like to discuss with you + quietly. It is my opinion that each part and faculty has its own + particular weakness or defect or ailment which appears in nothing else, + as blindness in the eye, lameness in the leg, stuttering in the tongue. + There can be no blindness in an organ which was not created to see, or + lameness in a part which was not designed for walking ; nor would you + ever describe an animal without a tongue as stuttering, or one voiceless + by nature as inarticulate. And in the same way you would not call + delirious or witless or mad anything that was not endowed by Nature with + reason or intelligence or understanding ; for it is impossible to ail + where you have no faculty of which the ailment is a deficiency or loss + or some other kind of impairment. Yet certainly you have encountered mad + dogs, and I have also known of mad horses; and there are some who say + that cattle and foxes also go mad.So too, perhaps, wolves in Theocritus, iv. + 11. But dogs will do, since no one questions the fact in + their case, which provides evidence that the creature possesses reason + and a by no means despicable intellectual faculty. What is called rabies + and madness is an ailment of that faculty when it becomes disturbed and + disordered. For we observe no derangement either of the dogs' sight or + of their hearing; yet, just as when a human being suffers from + melancholy or insanity, anyone is absurd who does not admit that it is + the organ that thinks and reasons and remembers which has been displaced + or damaged (we habitually say, in fact, of madmen that they are not themselves, + but have fallen out of their wits), just so, + whoever believes that rabid dogs have any other ailment than an + affliction of their natural organ of judgement and reason and memory so + that, when this has become infected with disorder and insanity, they no + longer recognize beloved faces and shun their natural haunts - such a + man, I say, either must be disregarding the evidence or, if he does take + note of the conclusion to which it leads, must be quarrelling with the + truth.The Stoics + again; Cf. Galen, De Hippocratis et Platonis + Placitis, v. 1 (p. 431 Kühn). +

+
+
+

+ Your inference seems quite + justified. For the StoicsVon Arnim, S.V.F. iii, p. 90. and Peripatetics strenuously + argue on the other side, to the effect that justice could not then come + into existence, but would remain completely without form or substance, + if all the beasts partake of reason. ForFrom this point to the end of + chapter 6 (964 c) the text is quoted by Porphyry, De Abstinentia, i. 4-6 + (pp. 88-89, ed. Nauck); cf. the + note on 959 f supra. either + we are necessarily unjust if we do not spare them ; or, if we do not + take them for food, life becomes impracticable or impossible ; in a + sense we shall be living the life of beasts once we give up the use of + beasts. + Cf. <title>Mor. 86 d. I + omit the numberless hosts of Nomads and Troglodytes who know no other + food but flesh. As for us who believe our lives to be civilized and + humane, it is hard to say what pursuit on land or sea, what aerial + art,That is + beasts, fish, and fowl in earth, sea, and air. what + refinement of living, is left to us if we are to learn to deal + innocently and considerately with all creatures, as we are bound to if + they possess reason and are of one stock with us. So we have no help or + cure for this dilemma which either + deprives us of life itself or of justice, unless we do preserve that + ancient limitation and law by which, according to Hesiod, + Works and Days, 277-279; Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 50; Mair on Oppian, + Hal. ii. 43. he who + distinguished the natural kinds and gave each class its special domain: + + To fish and beasts and winged birds allowed + Licence to eat each other, for no right + Exists among them; right, he gave to men + for dealing with each other. Those who know nothing of right + action toward us can receive no wrong from us either.This seems to have been + Plutarch's own attitude toward the question, at least later on in + life; see Life of Cato Maior, v. 2 + (339 a). For those who have rejected this argument have left + no path, either broad or narrow, by which justice may slip in. +

+
+
+

+ This, my friend, has been + spoken from the heart. + + Cf. Euripides, frag. 412 (Nauck, + Trag. Graec. Frag. + p. 486); quoted more completely in Mor. 63 a. We certainly must not + allow philosophers, as though they were women in difficult labour, to + put about their necks a charm for speedy delivery so that they may bring + justice to birth for us easily and without hard labour. For they + themselves do not concede to Epicurus,Usener, Epicurea, p. 351; see Bailey on Lucretius, ii. 216 ff.; + Mor. 1015 + b-c. for the sake of the highest considerations, a thing so + small and trifling as the slightest deviation of a single atom-which + would permit the stars and living creatures to slip in by chance and + would preserve from destruction the principle of free will. But, seeing + that they bid him demonstrate whatever is not obvious or take as his + starting-point something that is obvious, how are they in any position to make this statement about + animalsThat they + are irrational. a basis of their own account of justice, when + it is neither generally accepted nor otherwise demonstrated by + them?For this + difficult and corrupt passage the admirable exposition and + reconstruction of F. H. Sandbach (Class. + Quart. xxxv, p. 114) has been followed. For + justice has another way to establish itself, a way which is neither so + treacherous nor so precipitous, nor is it a route lined with the + wreckage of obvious truths. It is the road which, under the guidance of + Plato, + Laws, 782 c. my son and your + companion,Plutarch himself; cf. + Mor. 734 e. Soclarus, points out + to those who have no love of wrangling, but are willing to be led and to + learn. For certain it is that EmpedoclesDiels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p. + 366, frag. B 135; and see Aristotle, Rhetoric, i, 13. 2 (1373 b 14). and + HeraclitusDiels-Kranz, op. cit. i, p. 169, + frag. B 80; Bywater, frag. 62. accept as true the charge that + man is not altogether innocent of injustice when he treats animals as he + does; often and often do they lament and exclaim against Nature, + declaring that she is Necessity and War, that she contains nothing unmixed and + free from tarnish, that her progress is marked by many unjust + inflictions. As an instance, say. even birth itself springs from + injustice, since it is a union of mortal with immortal, and the + offspring is nourished unnaturally on members torn from the parent. + +

+

+ These + strictures, however, seem to be unpalatably strong and bitter ; for + there is an alternative, an inoffensive formula which does not, on the + one hand, deprive beasts of reason, yet does, on the other, preserve the + justice of those who make fit use of them. When the wise men of old had + introduced this, gluttony joined luxury to cancel and annul it; Pythagoras, + Cf. 959 f supra; Mor. 729 e; frag. xxxiv. 145 (vol. VII, p. 169 + Bernardakis). however, reintroduced it, teaching us how to + profit without injustice. There is no injustice, surely, in punishing + and slaying animals that are anti-social and merely injurious, while + taming those that are gentle and friendly to man and making them our + helpers in the tasks for which they are severally fitted by nature + Cf., e.g., Plato, Republic, 352 e.: Offspring of horse and ass and seed of + bulls which Aeschylus'From the Prometheus + Unbound, frag. 194 (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 65; quoted again in + Mor. 98 c. + Prometheus says that he bestowed on us To serve + us and relieve our labours; and thus we make use of dogs as + sentinels and keep herds of goats and sheep that are milked and + shorn. + There are significant undercurrents here. Of + the animals domesticated by man. Plutarch first mentions only + the horse, the ass, and the ox, nothing their employment as + servants of man, not as sources of food. Next come dogs, then + goats and sheep. The key factor is that in the early period the + cow, the sheep, and the goat were too valuable as sources of + milk and wool to be recklessly slaughtered for the sake of their + meat. The pig was the only large domestic animal useful almost + solely as a source of meat (Andrews). For living is + not abolished nor life terminated when a man has no more platters of + fish or pate de foie gras or mincemeat of beef or kids' flesh for his + banquets + Plutarch's choice of examples of table luxury + is apt. The enthusiasm of many Greek epicures for fish + scandalized conservative philosophers. Pate de foie gras ranked + high as a delicacy, more especially in the Roman period; the + mincemeat mentioned is surely the Roman isicia, dishes with finely minced beef or pork as + the usual basis, many recipes for which appear in Apicius + (Andrews). - or when he no longer, idling in the theatre or + hunting for sport, compels some beasts against their will to stand their + ground and fight, while he destroys others which have not the instinct + to fight back even in their own defence. For I think sport should be + joyful and between playmates who are merry on + both sides, not the sort of which BionBion and Xenocrates were almost + alone among the Greeks in expressing pity for animals. spoke + when he remarked that boys throw stones at frogs for fun, but the frogs + don't die for fun, but in sober earnest.See Hartman, De Plutarcho, p. 571; + [Aristotle], Eud. Eth. vii. 10. 21 + (1243 a 20). Just so, in hunting and fishing, men amuse + themselves with the suffering and death of animals, even tearing some of + them piteously from their cubs and nestlings. The fact is that it is not + those who make use of animals who do them wrong, but those who use them + harmfully and heedlessly and in cruel ways. +

+
+
+

+ Restrain yourself, Autobulus, + and turn off the flow of these accusations. + Cf. Mor. 940 f + supra. Possibly a reference to + the water-clock used in the courts. I see a good many + gentlemen approaching who are all hunters; you will hardly convert them + and you needn't hurt their feelings. +

+

+ Thanks for the warning. + Eubiotus, however, I know quite well and my cousin Ariston, and Aeacides + and Aristotimus here, the sons of Dionysius of Delphi, and Nicander, the + son of Euthydamus, all of them expert, as + Homer + Odyssey, viii. 159. expresses + it, in the chase by land - and for this reason they will be on + Aristotimus' side. So too yonder comes Phaedimus with the islanders and + coast-dwellers about him, Heracleon from Megara and the Euboean + Philostratus, Whose hearts are on deeds of the + sea. + Cf. Homer, Iliad, ii. 614; Odyssey, v. 67. + And here is my contemporary Optatus: like Diomedes, it is + Hard to tell the side on which he + ranges,Homer, Iliad, v. 85. + + for with many a trophy + from the sea, many likewise from the chase on the mountain, he has + glorified + Verses of an unknown + poet, as recognized by Hubert. the goddessArtemis; on the combined cults + see Farnell, Cults of the Greek + States, ii, pp. 425 ff. who is at once the Huntress + and Dictynna. It is evident that he is coming to join us with no + intention of attaching himself to either side. Or am I wrong, my dear + Optatus, in supposing that you will be an impartial and neutral umpire + between the young men ? +

+

+ It is just as you suppose, + Autobulus. Solon's + Life of Solon, xx. 1 (89 a-b); Mor. 550 c, 823 f; + Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, + viii. 5. A fairly well attested law, but the + name of Solon is used as the collective term for the legislative + activity of the past (Linforth, Solon + the Athenian, p. 283). The penalty was disfranchisement. + Lysias, xxxi. shows that this law was unknown in his time. + law, which used to punish those who adhered to neither side in a + factious outbreak, has long since fallen into disuse. +

+

+ Come over here, then, and + take your place beside us so that, if we need evidence, we shall not + have to disturb the tomes of Aristotle,The zoological works, such as + the Natural History and the Generation of Animals, which once + extended to fifty volumes (Pliny, Nat. + Hist. viii. 44). but may follow you as expert and + return a true verdict on the arguments. +

+

+ Well then, my young friends, + have you reached any agreement on procedure ? +

+

+ We have, Soclarus, though + it occasioned considerable controversy ; but at length, as + EuripidesNauck, + Trag. Graec. Frag. + p. 678, frag. 989; cf. + Mor. 644 d. has it, The lot, the child of chance, made + arbiter, admits into court the case of the land animals before that of + creatures from the sea. +

+

+ The time has come, then, + Aristotimus, for you to speak and us to hear. + +

+
+
+

+ The court is open for + the litigants... Here follows a long lacuna not indicated in the mss., the contents + of which cannot even be conjectured. And there are some fish + that waste their milt by pursuing the female while she is laying her + eggs.The milt + is, of course, for the fertilization of the eggs, as Aristotimus + should have learned from Aristotle (e.g., + Historia Animal. vi. 13, 567 b 3 + ff.) + +

+

+ There is + also a type of mullet called the grayfishOn this type Cf. also Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2 + (591 a 23) and in Athenaeus, vii. 307 a, where variants of the name + occur. The same name was applied to a type of + shark as well as to a type of mullet, an apt application in both + instances (Andrews). which feeds on its own + slimeSee Mair on + Oppian, Hal. ii. 643 (Cf. iii. 432 ff.). Pliny (Nat. Hist. ix. 128, 131) + tells the same story of the purplefish.; and the octopus sits + through the winter devouring himself, In + fireless home and domicile forlorn,Hesiod, Works and Days, 524; Cf. 978 f infra and the note; Mor. 1059 e; Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. + 27, xiv. 26. See also Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. + 2 (591 a 5); Mair on Oppian, Hal. + ii. 244; Lucilius, frag. 925 Warmington (L.C.L.). + so lazy or insensible or gluttonous, or guilty of all of these + charges, is he. So this also is the reason, again, why Plato + Laws, 823 d-e. in his Laws + enjoined, or rather prayed, that his young men might not be seized by a love for sea hunting. For there is no + exercise in bravery or training in skill or anything that contributes to + strength or fleetness or agility when men endure toil in contests with + bass or conger or parrot-fish ; whereas, in the chase on land, brave + animals give play to the courageous and danger-loving qualities of those + matched against them, crafty animals sharpen the wits and cunning of + their attackers, while swift ones train the strength and perseverance of + their pursuers. These are the qualities which have made hunting a noble + sport, whereas there is nothing glorious about + fishing. No, and there's not a god, my friend, who has allowed himself + to be called conger-killer, as Apollo is wolf-slayer, + For Apollo's + connexion with wolves see Aelian, De Natura Animal. x. 26; al. + or surmullet-slayer, as ArtemisOn Artemis, The Lady of Wild Beasts (Iliad, xxi. 470), see Mnemosyne, 4th series, iv (1951), pp. 230 + ff. is deer-slaying. + This accusation is + answered in 983 e-f infra. + And what is surprising in this when it's a more glorious thing for a man + to have caught a boar or a stag or, so help me, a gazelle or a hare than + to have bought one ? As for your tunnySee 980 a infra. and your mackerel and + your boriito ! They're more honourable to buy than to catch oneself. For + their lack of spirit or of any kind of resource or cunning has made the + sport dishonourable, unfashionable, and illiberal. +

+
+
+

+ In general, + then, the evidence by which the philosophers demonstrate that beasts + have their share of reason is their possession of purpose + Cf. 961 c supra. and preparation and memory and emotions + and care for their youngSee the essay De Amore Prolis, Mor. 493 a ff. passim. and gratitude for benefits and + hostility to what has hurt them ; to which may be added their ability to + find what they need and their manifestations of good qualities, such as + couragePlato, at + least, held that, philosophically speaking, no beast is brave; + Laches, 196 d; Republic, 430 b. and sociability + and continence and magnanimity. Let us ask ourselves if marine creatures + exhibit any of these traits, or perhaps some suggestion of them, that is + extremely faint and difficult to discern (the observer only coming at + long last to the opinion that it may be descried) ; whereas in the case + of terrestrial and earth-born animals it is easy to find remarkably + plain and unanswerable proofs of every one of the points I have + mentioned. + +

+

+ In the + first place, then, behold the purposeful demonstrations and preparations + of bullsSee Mair on + Oppian, Cyn. ii. 57. stirring + up dust when intent on battle, and wild boars whetting their tusks.Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 1; + Philo, 51 (p. 125); Homer, Iliad, + xiii. 474 f. Since elephants' tusks are blunted by wear when, + by digging or chopping, they fell the trees that feed them, they use + only one tusk for this purpose and keep the other always pointed and + sharp for defence. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 8; viii. 71 of the rhinoceros; Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vi. 56; Antigonus, Hist. + Mirab. 102. Lions + Cf. Mor. 520 f; + Aelian, De Natura + Animal. ix. 30. always walk with paws clenched + and claws retracted so that these may not be dulled by wear at the point + or leave a plain trail for trackers ; for it is not easy to find any + trace of a lion's claw ; on the contrary, any sign of a track that is + found is so slight and obscure that hunters lose the trail and go + astray. You have heard, I am sure, how the ichneumonSee Thompson on Aristotle, + Historia Animal. + ix. 6 (612 a 16 ff.), where, however, the animal's opponent is the + asp. (So also Aelian, De Natura + Animal. iii. 22; v. 48; vi. 38.) But cf. 980 e infra; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. viii. 25; x. 47; Nicander, Theriaca, 201. girds itself for battle as + thoroughly as any soldier putting on his armour, such a quantity of mud + does it don and plaster about its body when it plans to attack the + crocodile. Moreover, we see house-martins + Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 7 + (612 b 21 ff.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. + 92; Philo, 22 (p. 110); Yale Class. + Studies, xii. 139, on Anth. + Pal. x. 4. 6. preparing for procreation : how + well they lay the solid twigs at the bottom to serve as a foundation, + then mould the lighter bits about them ; and if they perceive that the + nest needs a lump of mud to glue it together, they skim over a pond or + lake, touching the water with only the tips of their feathers to make + them moist, yet not heavy with dampness; then + they scoop up dust and so smear over and bind together any parts that + begin to sag or loosen. As for the shape of their work, it has no angles + nor many sides, but is as smooth and circular as they can make it; such + a shape is, in fact, both stable and capacious and provides no hold on + the outside for scheming animals. + θηρία may be serpents here, or any wild beast, perhaps, such as members + of the cat family that relish a diet of birds. + +

+

+ There is + more than one reasonFor a collection of the loci + communes dealing with swallow, bee, ant, spider, etc., + see Dickerman in Trans. Am. Philol. + Assoc. xlii (1911), pp. 123 ff. for admiring + spiders'Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 39 (623 a 7 ff.); Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 21; + Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 79-84; Philo, 17 + (p. 107); Philostratus, Imagines, ii. 28. webs, the common model for + both women's looms and fowlers'Commonly taken as fishermen, but this seems unlikely here. nets ; for + there is the fineness of the thread and the evenness of the weaving, + which has no disconnected threads and nothing like a warp, but is + wrought with the even continuity of a thin membrane and a tenacity that + comes from a viscous substance inconspicuously worked in. Then too, + there is the blending of the colours that gives it an airy, misty look, + the better to let it go undetected ; and most notable of all is the art + itself, like a charioteer's or a helmsman's, with which the spinner + handles her artifice. When a possible victim is entangled, she perceives + it, and uses her wits, like a skilled handler of nets, to close the trap + suddenly and make it tight. Since this is daily under our eyes and + observation, my account is confirmed. Otherwise it would seem a mere + fiction, as I formerly regarded the tale of the Libyan crows + Cf. Anth. + Pal. ix. 272; Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 48; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 125; Avianus, fable + 27. which, when they are thirsty, throw stones into a pot to + fill it and raise the water until it is within their reach ; but later + when I saw a dog on board ship, since the + sailors were away, putting pebbles into a half empty jar of oil, I was + amazed at its knowing that lighter substances are forced upward when the + heavier settle to the bottom. +

+

+ Similar + tales are told of Cretan bees and of geese in Cilicia. + Cf. Mor. 510 a-b, which adds the detail + that the geese's flight is by night. Contrast Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii, 1, + Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 60, of + cranes. When the bees are going to round some windy + promontory, they ballast themselves with little stonesAelian, De Natura Animal. v. 13; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 24, and Ernout, ad loc.; Dio Chrysostom, xliv, 7. + Cf. 979 b infra, of the sea hedgehog; Pliny, + Nat. Hist. x. 69. so as not + to be carried out to sea ; while the geese, in fear of eagles, take a + large stone in their beaks whenever they cross Mt. Taurus, as it were + reining in and bridling their gaggling loquacity that they may pass over + in silence unobserved. It is well known, too, how cranes + Cf. 979 b infra; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 13; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 63, of geese; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 624; Lucan, v. 713 ff. + behave when they fly. Whenever there is a high wind and rough weather + they do not fly, as on fine days, in line abreast or in a + crescent-shaped curve ; but they form at once a compact triangle with + the point cleaving the gale that streams past, so that there is no break + in the formation. When they have descended to the ground, the sentinels + that stand watch at night support themselves on one foot and with the + other grasp a stone and hold it firmly + Cf. 979 d infra; Aelian, loc. + cit.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. + x. 59.; the tension of grasping this keeps them awake for a + long time ; but when they do relax, the stone escapes and quickly rouses + the culprit. + Cf. the anecdote of Alexander in + Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 5. 4; of Aristotle in Diogenes Laertius, + v. 16. So that I am not at all surprised that Heracles tucked his bow under his arm: + Embracing it with mighty arm he sleeps, + Keeping his right hand gripped about the club.Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. + p. 919, Adespoton 416. + + Nor, again, am I surprised at the man who first guessed how to + open an oysterThat + is, by dropping it in hot water. when I read of the ingenuity + of herons. For they swallow a closed mussel and endure the discomfort + until they know that it has been softened and relaxed by their internal + heat; then they disgorge it wide open and unfolded and extract the + meat. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 20; another + procedure is described in v. 35. See also Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 115, of the shoveller duck; + Philo, 31 (p. 116); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 41; al. + + +

+
+
+

+ It is + impossible to relate in full detail all the methods of production and + storage practised by ants, but it would be careless to omit them + entirely. Nature has, in fact, nowhere else so small a mirror of greater + and nobler enterprises. Just as you may see greater things reflected in + a drop of clear water, so among ants there exists the delineation of + every virtue. Love and affection are + found,Homer, + Iliad, xiv. 216. + namely their social life. You may see, too, the reflection of + courage in their persistence in hard labour. + Cf. Plato, Laches, 192 b ff.; we have here the four Platonic + virtues, with Love added. There are many seeds of temperance + and many of prudence and justice. Now Cleanthes,Von Arnim, S.V.F. i, p. 116, frag. 515; cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 50. even + though he declared that animals are not endowed with reason, says that + he witnessed the following spectacle: some ants came to a strange + anthill carrying a dead ant. Other ants then emerged from the hill and + seemed, as it were, to hold converse with the first party and then went + back again. This happened two or three times + until at last they brought up a grub to serve as the dead ant's ransom, + whereupon the first party picked up the grub, handed over the corpse, + and departed. +

+

+ A matter + obvious to everyone is the consideration ants show when they meet : + those that bear no load always give way to those who have one and let + them pass. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 25. Obvious + also is the manner in which they gnaw through and dismember things that + are difficult to carry or to convey past an obstacle, in order that they + may make easy loads for several. And Aratus + Phaenomena, 956; Cf. Vergil, Georgics, i. 379 f.; Theophrastus, De Signis, 22. + takes it to be a sign of rainy weather when they spread out their eggs + and cool them in the open: + When from their hollow nest the ants in haste + Bring up their eggs; + and some do not write eggs here, but + provisions, + Not oia, but eia: What the ants really carry + out in Aratus and Vergil is their pupas, but these are commonly + called ‘eggs’ to this day (Platt, Class. Quart. v. p. 255). The two readings in this + passage seem to show that Plutarch had at hand an edition with a + commentary; Cf. also 976 f + infra, on the interpretation + of Archilochus, and Mor. + 22 b. in the sense of stored grain which, when they notice + that it is growing mildewed and fear that it may decay and spoil, they + bring up to the surface. But what goes beyond any other conception of + their intelligence is their anticipation of the germination of wheat. + You know, of course, that wheat does not remain permanently dry and + stable, but expands and lactifies in the process of germination. In + order, then, to keep it from running to seed and losing its value as + food, and to keep it permanently edible, the ants eat out the germ from + which springs the new shoot of wheat. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 109, and Ernout ad loc. + + + +

+

+ I do not + approve of those who, to make a complete study of anthills, inspect + them, as it were, anatomically. But, be that as it may, they report that + the passage leading downward from the opening is not at all straight or + easy for any other creature to traverse; it passes through turns and + twistsThe + intricate galleries of anthills were used for purposes of literary + comparisons by the ancients: see the fragment of Pherecrates in + Mor. 1142 a and + Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae, 100 + (on Timotheüs and Agathon respectively). with branching + tunnels and connecting galleries and terminates in three hollow + cavities. One of these is their common dwelling-place, another serves as + storeroom for provisions, while in the third they deposit the + dying.Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vi. 43 divides into men's apartments, women's apartments, and + storerooms; see also Philo, 42 (p. 120), and Boulenger, Animal Mysteries, pp. 128 ff. for a + modern account. On the social life of ants (and animals) as + contrasted with that of humans see Dio Chrysostom, xl. 32, 40 f.; + xlviii. 16. + +

+
+
+

+ I don't + suppose that you will think it out of order if I introduce elephants + directly on top of ants in order that we may concurrently scrutinize the + nature of understanding in both the smallest and the largest of + creatures, for it is neither suppressed in the latter nor deficient in + the former. Let others, then, be astonished that elephants learn, or are + taught, to exhibit in the theatre all the many postures and variations + of movement that they do, + Cf. Mor. 98 + e. these being so varied and so complicated to memorize and + retain that they are not at all easy even for human artists. For my + part, I find the beast's understanding better manifested in his own + spontaneous and uninstructed feelings and movements, in a pure, as it + were, and undiluted state. +

+

+ Well, not + very long ago at Rome, + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 6, which shows that Plutarch is + drawing on literature, not personal observation; Cf. also Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 11, for the + elaborateness of the manoeuvres; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 13; Philo, 54 (p. 126); + see also 992 b infra. where + a large number of elephants were being trained + to assume dangerous stances and wheel about in complicated patterns, one + of them, who was the slowest to learn and was always being scolded and + often punished, was seen at night, alone by himself in the moonlight, + voluntarily rehearsing his lessons and practising them. +

+

+ Formerly + in Syria, HagnonOf + Tarsus, pupil of Carneades. tells us, an elephant was brought + up in its master's house and every day the keeper, when he received a + measure of barley, would filch away and appropriate half of it; but on + one occasion, when the master was present and watching, the keeper + poured out the whole measure. The elephant gave a look, raised its + trunk, and made two piles of the barley, setting aside half of it and + thus revealing as eloquently as could be the dishonesty of its keeper. + And another elephant, whose keeper used to mix stones and dirt in its + barley ration, when the keeper's meat was cooking, scooped up some ashes + and threw them into the pot. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 52. And + another in Rome, being tormented by little boys who pricked its + proboscis with their writing styluses, grabbed one of them and raised + him into the air as if to dash him to death ; but when the spectators + cried out, it gently set the child down on the ground again and passed + along, thinking it sufficient punishment for one so young to have been + frightened. +

+

+ Concerning + wild elephants who are self-governing they tell many wonderful tales, + particularly the one about the fording of riversPliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 11, gives a different account; still + different is Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 15, and cf. Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 15.: the youngest + and smallest volunteers his services to go first into the stream. The others wait on the bank and + observe the result, for if his back remains above water, those that are + larger than he will have a wide margin of safety to give them + confidence. +

+
+
+

+ At this + point in my discourse, I imagine that I shall do well not to omit the + case of the fox, since it is so similar. Now the story-booksThe authorities on + Deucalion's Flood are assembled by Frazer on Apollodorus, i. 7. 2 + (L.C.L.), and more completely in his Folk-Lore + in the Old Testament, i, pp. 146 ff. Plutarch is the + only Greek author to add the Semitic dove story, though Lucian + (De Dea Syria, 12 + ff.) was to add to the other major contaminations. tell us + that when Deucalion released a dove from the ark, as long as she + returned, it was a certain sign that the storm was still raging ; but as + soon as she flew away, it was a harbinger of fair weather. So even to + this day the Thracians, + Cf. 949 d supra and the note. whenever they propose + crossing a frozen river, make use of a fox as an indicator of the + solidity of the ice. The fox moves ahead slowly and lays her ear to the + ice ; if she perceives by the sound that the stream is running close + underneath, judging that the frozen part has no great depth, but is only + thin and insecure, she stands stock still and, if she is permitted, + returns to the shore ; but if she is reassured by the absence of noise, + she crosses over. And let us not declare that this is a nicety of + perception unaided by reason ; it is, rather, a syllogistic conclusion + developed from the evidence of perception : What + makes noise must be in motion ; what is in motion is not frozen ; + what is not frozen is liquid ; what is liquid gives way. So + logiciansSpecifically Chrysippus (Cf. von + Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. + 726 f.). Cf. Sextus Empiricus, + Outlines of Pyrrhonism, i. 69 (the + whole passage i. 62-72 is worth reading); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 59; + Philo, 45 (p. 122). assert that a dog, at a point where many + paths split off, makes use of a multiple disjunctiveFor the form of the syllogism + see Diogenes Laertius, vii. 81. argument and reasons with + himself: Either the wild beast has taken this path, or this, or this. But surely it has + not taken this, or this. Then it must have gone by the remaining + road. Perception here affords nothing but the minor premiss, + while the force of reason gives the major premisses and adds the + conclusion to the premisses. A dog, however, does not need such a + testimonial, which is both false and fraudulent ; for it is perception + itself, by means of track and spoor, + Cf. Shorey on Plato, Republic, 427 e (L.C.L., vol. I, p. 347, + note e). which indicates the way the creature + fled ; it does not bother with disjunctive and copulative propositions. + The dog's true capacity may be discerned from many other acts and + reactions and the performance of duties, which are neither to be smelled + out nor seen by the eye, but can be carried out or perceived only by the + use of intelligence and reason.For the philosophic dog see Plato, op. cit. 376 b; the scholia of + Olympiodorus add that Socrates' famous oath by + the dog was symbolic of the creature's rational nature. See + also Sinclair, Class. Rev. xlii + (1948), p. 61; the parallel passages are collected by J. E. B. + Mayor, Class. Rev. xii (1898), pp. 93 + ff. I should only make myself ridiculous if I described the + dog's self-control and obedience and sagacity on hunting parties to you + who see and handle these matters every day. +

+

+ There was + a Roman named CalvusSee Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 10. slain in the Civil Wars, but no + one was able to cut off his head until they encircled and stabbed to + death the dog who guarded his master and defended him. And King + Pyrrhus + Cf. Aelian, loc. cit.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 142. on a journey chanced upon + a dog guarding the body of a murdered man ; in answer to his questions + he was told that the dog had remained there without eating for three + days and refused to leave. Pyrrhus gave orders for the corpse to be + buried and the dog cared for and brought along + in his train. A few days later there was an inspection of the soldiers, + who marched in front of the king seated on his throne, while the dog lay + quietly by his side. But when it saw its master's murderers filing past, + it rushed at them with furious barking and, as it voiced its accusation, + turned to look at the king so that not only he, but everyone present, + became suspicious of the men. They were at once arrested and when put to + the question, with the help of some bits of external evidence as well, + they confessed the murder and were punished. +

+

+ The same + thing is said to have been done by the poet Hesiod's + Cf. 984 d infra. A different account, omitting the dog, will be + found in Mor. 162 c-f + (where see Wyttenbach's note); Cf. + also Pollux, Onomasticon, v. 42 and + Gabathüler on Anth. Pal. vii. 55 + (Hellenistische Epigramme + auf Dichter, p. 31). dog, which convicted the + sons of Ganyctor the Naupactian, by whom Hesiod had been murdered. But a + matter which carne to the attention of our fathers when they were + studying at Athens is even plainer than anything so far mentioned. A + certain fellow slipped into the temple of Asclepius,The same story in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 13, + indicates a literary source. See now E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 114 and + n. 65. took such gold and silver offerings as were not bulky, + and made his escape, thinking that he had not been detected. But the + watchdog, whose name was Capparus, when none of the sacristans responded + to its barking, pursued the escaping temple-thief. First the man threw + stones at it, but could not drive it away. When day dawned, the dog did + not approach close, but followed the man, always keeping him in sight, + and refused the food he offered. When he stopped to rest, the dog passed + the night on guard ; when he struck out again, the dog got up and kept + following, fawning on the other people it met + on the road and barking at the man and sticking to his heels. When those + who were investigating the robbery learned this from men who had + encountered the pair and were told the colour and size of the dog, they + pursued all the more vigorously and overtook the man and brought him + back from Crommyon. On the return the dog led the procession, capering + and exultant, as though it claimed for itself the credit for pursuing + and capturing the temple-thief. The people actually voted it a public + ration of food and entrusted the charge of this to the priests in + perpetuity, thereby imitating the ancient Athenian kindness to the mule. + For when Pericles was building the HecatompedonBetter known as the Parthenon; + cf. Mor. + 349 d, Life of Pericles, xiii. 7 (159 + e). on the Acropolis, stones were naturally brought by + numerous teams of draught-animals every day. Now one of the mules who + had assisted gallantly in the work, but had now been discharged because + of old age, used to go down every day to the Ceramicus and meet the + beasts which brought the stones, turning back with them and trotting + along by their side, as though to encourage and cheer them on. So the + people of Athens, admiring its enterprise, gave orders for it to be + maintained at the public expense, voting it free meals, as though to an + athlete who had succumbed to old age. + Cf. Life of + Cato Maior, v. 3 (339 a-b). Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 49, + agrees in the main with Plutarch's account; Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 24 + (577 b 34), says merely that a public decree was passed forbidding + bakers to drive the creature away from their trays. He adds that the + mule was 80 years old and is followed by Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 175. + +

+
+
+

+ + There is probably a + lacuna before this chapter. Therefore those who deny that + there is any kind of justice owed to animals + Cf. 999 b infra; 964 b supra. by us must be conceded to be right so far + as marine and deep-sea creatures + Cf. additional sources cited by + Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 43. + are concerned ; for these are completely + lacking in amiability, apathetic, and devoid of all sweetness of + disposition. And well did Homer + Iliad, xvi. 34. say The gray-green sea bore you, with + reference to a man regarded as uncivilized and unsociable, implying that + the sea produces nothing friendly or gentle. But a man who would use + such speech in regard to land animals is himself cruel and brutal. Or + perhaps you will not admit that there was a bond of justice between + Lysimachus + Mor. 821 a; the + companion and successor of Alexander (c. 360-281 b.c.). + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 143; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 25; + and ii. 40 (cf. vi. 29), of + eagles. It may be conjectured that ii. 40 was derived from an + original in which ἀετῶν was + confused with κυνῶν, as infra. and the Hyrcanian dog + which alone stood guard by his corpse and, when his body was cremated, + rushed into the flames and hurled itself upon him.Similar stories in Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vii. 40. The same is reported to have been done by the + eagle + Dog and eagle + are again confused; but the hovering is + here decisive. (Cf. also + Wilamowitz, Hermes, lxiii, p. 380.) + The dog reappears in Pollux, v. 42 (where it is King Pyrrhus), an + eagle in a similar tale in Pliny, Nat. + Hist. x. 18, while Pyrrhus is the name of a dog in + Pliny, viii. 144. which was kept by Pyrrhus, not the king, + but a certain private citizen ; when he died, it kept vigil by his body + ; at the funeral it hovered about the bier and finally folded its wings, + settled on the pyre and was consumed with its master's body, +

+

+ The + elephant of King Porus, + Life of Alexander, lx. 13 (699 b-c), + with Ziegler's references ad loc. + when he was wounded in the battle against Alexander, gently and + solicitously pulled out with its trunk many + Each one of the spears in the Life of Alexander. of the javelins + sticking in its master. Though it was in a sad state itself, it did not + give up until it perceived that the king had + lost much blood and was slipping off; then, fearing that he would fall, + it gently kneeled and afforded its master a painless glide.Other stories of + humane elephants in Aelian, De + Natura Animal. iii. 46; al. + + +

+

+ + Bucephalas + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 154; Gellius, Noctes Atticae, v. 2; and see the + parallels collected by Sternbach, Wiener Studien, xvi, pp. 17 f. The story + is omitted by Plutarch in the Life of + Alexander. + unsaddled would permit his groom to mount him ; but when he was + all decked out in his royal accoutrements and collars, he would let no + one approach except Alexander himself. If any others tried to come near, + he would charge at them loudly neighing and rear and trample any of them + who were not quick enough to rush far away and escape. +

+
+
+

+ I am not + unaware that you will think that my examples are rather a hodge-podge ; + but it is not easy to find naturally clever animals doing anything which + illustrates merely one of their virtues. Their probity, rather, is + revealed in their love of offspring and their cleverness in their + nobility ; then, too, their craftiness and intelligence is inseparable + from their ardour and courage. Those, nevertheless, who are intent on + classifying and defining each separate occasion will find that dogs give + the impression of a mind that is at once civil and superior when they + turn away from those who sit on the ground - which is presumably + referred to in the linesHomer, Odyssey, xiv. + 30 f.; cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 146; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 24; + Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 3. 6 (1380 a + 24). + + The dogs barked and rushed up, but wise Odysseus + Cunningly crouched; the staff slipped from his hand; + for dogs cease attacking those who have thrown themselves down + and taken on an attitude that resembles humility. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 48, of the lion. + + +

+

+ They + relate further that the champion of the Indian dogs, one greatly admired + by Alexander,There + are nearly as many emendations of this phrase as there have been + scholars interested in Plutarch's text. Van Herwerden's version, as + having the liveliest sense, has been preferred. It is by no means + certain, however, though supported by Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 1; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149; cf. also Pollux, v. 43-44 and the + parallels cited by Bethe ad loc. + See also Aelian, iv. 19 and Diodorus, xvii. 94. when a stag + was let loose and a boar and a bear, lay quiet and still and disregarded + them ; but when a lion appeared, it sprang up at once to prepare for the + fray, showing clearly that it chose to match itself with the lionPliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149 f., adds the + elephant as a worthy match. and scorned all the others. + +

+

+ Hounds + that hunt hares, if they themselves kill them, enjoy pulling them to + piecesSo break up; Xenophon, Cynegetica, vii. 9. and eagerly lap up the blood + ; but if, as frequently happens, a hare in desperation exhausts all its + breath in a final sprint and expires, the hounds, when they come upon it + dead, will not touch it at all, but stand there wagging their tails, as + much as to say that they do not strive for food, but for victory and the + honour of winning. +

+
+
+

+ There are + many examples of cunning, but I shall dismiss foxes and wolves + Cf. Pindar, Pythians, ii. 84; Oppian, Cynegetica, iii. 266. and the tricks of crane + and daw (for they are obvious), and shall take for my witness + Thales,Omitted + in Diels-Kranz, Frag. der + Vorsok., not without reason. Cf. Aelian, De + Natura Animal. vii. 42. the most ancient of the + Wise Men,See the + Septem Sapientium + Convivium (Mor. 146 b ff.). not the least of whose claims + to admiration, they say, was his getting the better of a mule by a + trick. For one of the mules that were used to carry salt, on entering a + river, accidentally stumbled and, since the salt melted away, it was + free of its burden when it got up. It recognized the cause of this and + bore it in mind. The result was that every + time it crossed the river, it would deliberately lower itself and wet + the bags, crouching and bending first to one side, then to the other. + When Thales heard of this, he gave orders to fill the bags with wool and + sponges instead of salt and to drive the mule laden in this manner. So + when it played its customary trick and soaked its burden with water, it + came to know that its cunning was unprofitable and thereafter was so + attentive and cautious in crossing the river that the water never + touched the slightest portion of its burden even by accident. +

+

+ + Partridges + Cf. 992 b infra; Mor. 494 e and the references there; add Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 103; Philo, 35 (p. 117) + (probably referring to partridges, though the Latin version reads + palumbae); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 39; Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + iii. 16; xi. 38; Aristotle, Historia Animal. 613 b 31. exhibit another piece + of cunning, combined with affection for their young. They teach their + fledglings, who are not yet able to fly, to lie on their backs when they + are pursued and to keep above them as a screen some piece of turf or + rubbish. The mothers meanwhile lure the hunters in another direction and + divert attention to themselves, fluttering along at their feet and + rising only briefly until, by making it seem that they are on the point + of being captured, they draw them far away from their young. +

+

+ When + hares + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xiii. 11; vi. + 47. return for repose, they put to sleep their leverets in + quite different places, often as much as a hundred feet apart, so that, + if man or dog comes near, they shall not all be simultaneously in + danger. The hares themselves run to and fro + and leave tracks in many places, but last of all with a great leap they + leave their traces far behind, and so to bed. +

+

+ The + she-bear, just prior to the state called hibernation, + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 126 f.; Mair on Oppian, + Cyn. iii. 173 (L.C.L.). + before she becomes quite torpid and heavy and finds it difficult to + move, cleans out her Iair and, when about to enter, approaches it as + lightly and inconspicuously as possible, treading on tiptoe, then turns + around and backs into the den.These precautions seem to have been successful + (though Cf. the implications of + Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 128), since + Aristotle (Historia + Animal. viii. 17, 600 b 6 f.) says that either no one (or very few) has ever + caught a pregnant bear. Cf. Pliny, + Nat. Hist. viii. 95 and Amm. Marc. + xxii. 15. 22, of the hippopotamus entering a field backwards. + +

+

+ Hinds are + inclined to bear their young beside a public road where carnivorous + animals do not comeAristotle (Historia + Animal. ix. 5, 611 a 17) notes that highways were + shunned by wild animals because they feared men. Cf. also Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 35 and Mair + on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 207 + (L.C.L.).; and stags, when they observe that they have grown + heavy by reason of their fat and surplus flesh, vanish and preserve + themselves by hiding when they do not trust to their heels. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 113; [Aristotle], De Mir. Ausc. 5; Historia Animal. 611 a + 23. + +

+

+ The way in + which hedgehogs defend and guard themselves has occasioned the + proverbSee + Shorey on Plato, Republic, 423 e + (L.C.L.); Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i, p. 147, + Zenobius, v. 68; attributed by Zenobius to Archilochus (Diehl, + Anthologia Lyrica, + i, p. 241, frag. 103; Edmonds, Elegy and + Iambus, ii, p. 174, frag. 118) and to Homer. Zenobius + also quotes five lines from Ion, of which the last two are + Plutarch's next quotation.: The fox + knows many tricks, but the hedgehog one big one; + for when the fox approaches, as IonNauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 739; + frag. 38, verses 4 f. (see the preceding note). says, it, + + Curling its spiny body in a coil, + Lies still, impregnable to touch or bite. + But the provision that the hedgehog makes for its young is even + more ingenious. When autumn comes, it creeps under the vines and with + its paws shakes down to the ground grapes from the bunches and, having + rolled about in them, gets up with them attached to its quills. Once + when I was a child I saw one, like a creeping or walking bunch of + grapes!The mss. + add an unnecessary explanation: so covered + with fruit was it as it walked. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 10; Anth. Pal. vi. 169. Then it goes + down into its hole and delivers the load to its young for them to enjoy + and draw rations from. Their lair has two openings, one facing the + south, the other the north ; when they perceive that the wind will + change, like good skippers who shift sail, they block up the entrance + which lies to the wind and open the other. + Cf. 979 a infra; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 b 4 ff.); + Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Cf. viii. 138, of squirrels. On animals + who predict the weather see Pliny, Nat. + Hist. xviii. 361-364. And a man in CyzicusAristotle (loc. cit.) says Byzantium (and see + infra, 979 b). + observing this acquired a reputation for being able to predict unaided + which way the wind would blow. +

+
+
+

+ Elephants, + as JubaMüller, + Frag. Hist. Graec. + iii, p. 474; Jacoby, Frag. der + griech. Hist. iii, pp. 146 f., frag. 51 a, 53; Cf. Pliny, Nat. + Hist. viii. 24; Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 15; vi. 61; and + see the criticism in 977 d-e infra. On the mutual assistance of elephants see + Philostratus, Vita + Apoll. ii. 16. declares, exhibit a social + capacity joined with intelligence. Hunters dig pits for them, covering + them with slender twigs and light rubbish; + when, accordingly, any elephant of a number travelling together falls + in, the others bring wood and stones and throw them in to fili up the + excavation so that their comrade can easily get out. He also relates + that, without any instruction, elephants pray to the gods, purifying + themselves in the sea + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 1 f.; Dio Cassius, xxxix. 38. + 5. and, when the sunThe moon in Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 10, but the sun in + vii. 44; of tigers in Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 28. rises, + worshipping it by raising their trunks, as if they were hands of + supplication. For this reason they are the animal most loved of the + gods, as Ptolemy PhilopatorAelian, De + Natura Animal. vii. 44: Ptolemy IV (c. + 244-205 b.c.), who reigned 221-205. The decisive defeat of Antiochus + III was at Raphia in 217. For the gods loving elephants see Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vii. 2; al. + has testified ; for when he had vanquished Antiochus and wished + to honour the gods in a really striking way, among many other offerings + to commemorate his victory in battle, he sacrificed four elephants. + Thereafter, since he had dreams by night in which the deity angrily + threatened him because of that strange sacrifice, he employed many rites + of appeasement and set up as a votive offering four bronze elephants to + match those he had slaughtered. +

+

+ Social + usages are to be found no less among lions. For young lions take along + with them to the hunt the old and slow; when the latter are tired out, + they rest and wait, while the young lions hunt on. When they have taken + anything, they summon the others by a roaring like the bleat of a calf; + the old ones hear it at once and come to partake in common of the + prey. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 1. + +

+
+
+

+ The loves + of some animals are wild and furious, while others have a refinement + which is not far from human and an intercourse + conducted with much grace. Such was the elephant which at Alexandria + played the rival to Aristophanes + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38 (Cf. vii. 43); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 13. the + grammarian. They were, in fact, in love with the same flower-girl; nor + was the elephant's love the less manifest: as he passed by the market, + he always brought her fruit and stood beside her for a long time and + would insert his trunk, like a hand, + Cf. Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 524 for additional + authorities. within her garments and gently caress her fair + breasts. +

+

+ The + serpent that fell in love with an Aetolian womanTold somewhat differently, and + of a Jewish woman, in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 17. used to visit her at + night and slip under some part of her body next the skin and coil about + her without doing her any harm at all, either intentional or accidental + ; but always at daybreak it was decent enough to glide away. And this it + did constantly until the kinsmen of the woman removed her to a house at + some distance. The serpent did not come to her for three or four nights + ; but all the time, we may suppose, it was going about in search of her + and missing its goal. At last, when it had somehow found her with + difficulty, it embraced her, not with that former gentleness it had + used, but rather more roughly, its coils binding her hands to her body, + and with the end of its tail it lashed the calves of her legs, + displaying a light and tender anger that had in it more indulgence than + punishment. +

+

+ As for the + goose in Aegium that loved a boy and the ram that set his heart on + GlauceAlso a + goose in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 51. Both + stories are in Aelian, De + Natura Animal. v. 29 (cf. i. 6; viii. 11); for Glauce see also Gow's note + on Theocritus, iv. 31. the harp-player, since these are famous tales and I rather + imagine you have had enough of such to spoil your appetite for + more,More in + Aelian, De Natura + Animal. xii. 37; al. + I omit them. +

+
+
+

+ As for + starlings + Cf. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, xiii. 21. 25; Alciphron, + Epp. iii. 30. 1; Philostratus, + Vita Apoll. i. 7; + vi. 36; al. + and crows and parrots which learn to talk and afford their + teachers so malleable and imitative a vocal current to train and + discipline, they seem to me to be champions and advocates of the other + animals in their ability to learn, instructing us in some measure that + they too are endowed both with rational utteranceFor the λόγος προφορικός see, e.g., + Mor. 777 b-c. + and with articulate voice ; for which reason it is quite ridiculous to + admit a comparison of them with creatures who have not enough voice even + to howl or groan. + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 9 + (535 b 14 ff.). And what music, what grace do we not find in + the natural, untaught warbling of birds ! To this the most eloquent and + musical of our poets bear witness + e.g., Bacchylides, iii. 97; Anth. Pal. vii. 414. when they + compare their sweetest songs and poems to the singing of swans and + nightingales. Now since there is more reason in teaching than in + learning, we must yield assent to Aristotle + Historia Animal. iv. 19 + (535 b 17); cf. ix. 1 (608 a 18); + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. + 40. when he says that animals do teach: a nightingale, in + fact, has been observed instructing her young how to sing. A further + proof that supports him is the fact that birds which have been taken + young from the nest and bred apart from their mothers sing the worse for + it + Cf. 992 b-c infra.; for the birds that are + bred with their mothers are taught and learn, not for pay or glory, but + for the joy of rivalling each other in song and because they cherish the + beautiful in their utterance rather than the useful. + +

+

+ On this + subject I have a story to tell you which I heard myself from many Greeks + and Romans who were eye-witnesses. A certain barber at Rome had his shop + directly opposite the precinct which they call the Market of the + Greeks. + Graecostadium (see + Platner and Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary + of Rome, s.v.) or Forum Graecorum. He bred up a wonderful prodigy + of a jay + Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 2 (p. + 191. 8, ed. Nauck); Gow on Theocritus, v. 136; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13 + (615 b 19 f.). See also the talking birds in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 118-134. with a huge + range of tones and expressions, which could reproduce the phrases of + human speech and the cries of beasts and the sound of instruments - + under no compulsion, but making it a rule and a point of honour to let + nothing go unrepeated or unimitated. Now it happened that a certain rich + man was buried from that quarter to the blast of many trumpets and, as + is customary, there was a halt in front of the barber-shop while the + trumpeters, who were applauded and encored, played for a long time. From + that day on the jay was speechless and mute, not letting out even a peep + to request the necessities of life ; so those who habitually passed the + place and had formerly wondered at her voice, were now even more + astonished at her silence. Some suspected that she had been poisoned by + rival bird-trainers, but most conjectured that the trumpets had blasted + her hearing and that her voice had been simultaneously extinguished. Now + neither of these guesses was correct: it was self-discipline, it would + seem, and her talent for mimicry that had sought an inner retreat as she + refitted and prepared her voice like a musical instrument. For suddenly + her mimicry returned and there blazed forth + none of those old familiar imitations, but only the music of the + trumpets,This is + also the accomplishment of a homonymous bird in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. + 19. reproduced with its exact sequences and every change of + pitch and rhythm and tone. I conclude, as I said before,See 973 a supra. that self-instruction + implies more reason in animals than does readiness to learn from others. + +

+

+ Still, I + believe that I should not pass over one example at least of a dog's + learning, + Cf. the bears that acted a farce + in Script. Hist. Aug., Vita + Car. xix. 2. of which I myself was a spectator at + Rome. The dog appeared in a pantomime with a dramatic plot and many + characters and conformed in its acting at all points with the acts and + reactions required by the text. In particular, they experimented on it + with a drug that was really soporific, but supposed in the story to be + deadly. The dog took the bread that was supposedly drugged, swallowed + it, and a little later appeared to shiver and stagger and nod until it + finally sprawled out and lay there like a corpse, letting itself be + dragged and hauled about, as the plot of the play prescribed. But when + it recognized from the words and action that the time had come, at first + it began to stir slightly, as though recovering from a profound sleep, + and lifted its head and looked about. Then to the amazement of the + spectators it got up and proceeded to the right person and fawned on him + with joy and pleasure so that everyone, and even Caesar himself (for the + aged VespasianVespasian became emperor in a.d. 69 when he was 60 years old and + died ten years later, so that this incident can be dated only within + the decade. was present in the Theatre of Marcellus), was + much moved. + +

+
+
+

+ + On this chapter see + T. Weidlich, Die Sympathie in + Altertum, p. 42. Yet perhaps it is ridiculous for + us to make a parade of animals distinguished for learning when + DemocritusDiels-Kranz, Frag. der + Vorsok. ii, p. 173, frag. 154; Cf. Bailey on Lucretius, v. 1379 (vol. iii, p. 1540 + of his edition); Aelian, De + Natura Animal. xii. 16. declares that we have + been their pupils in matters of fundamental importance : of the spider + in weaving and mending, of the swallow in homebuilding, of the + sweet-voiced swan and nightingale + Cf. 973 a supra. in our imitation of their song. + Further, of the three divisions of medicine,As given here, cure by (1) + drugs, (2) diet, (3) surgery. There are five divisions in Diogenes + Laertius, iii. 85; al. + we can discern in animals a generous portion of each ; for it is + not cure by drugs alone of wrhich they make use. After devouring a + serpent tortoises + Cf. Mor. 918 c, + 991 e; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vi. 12 and Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 + (612 a 24); of wounded partridges and storks and doves in Aelian, + op. cit. v. 46 (Aristotle, + op. cit. 612 a 32). + take a dessert of marjoram, and weaselsAristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 28). + of rue. DogsSee + Thompson on Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 6); add Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, i. 71. + purge themselves when bilious by a certain kind of grass. The snakePliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 254. Other details of + snake diet in Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vi. 4. sharpens and restores its fading + sight with fennel. When the she-bear comes forth from her lair,As in 971 d-e supra. the first thing she eats + is wild arumProbably + the Adam-and-Eve (Arum + maculatum L.), since the Italian arum (Arum italicum Mill.) was + cultivated. See Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 17 (600 b 11); ix. 6 (611 b 34); + Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 129; Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vi. 3. Oribasius (Coll. Med. iii. 24. + 5) characterizes wild arum as an aperient.; for its acridity + opens her gut which has become constricted. At other times, when she + suffers from nausea,When she has swallowed the fruit of the mandrake, according to + Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 101. + she resorts to anthills and sits, holding out her tongue all running and + juicy with sweet liquor until it is covered with ants ; these she + swallowsAristotle, Historia + Animal. viii. 4 (594 b 9); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3; Sextus + Empiricus, op. cit. i. 57. + and is alleviated. The Egyptians + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 35; vii. 45; Pliny, + Nat. Hist. viii. 97; Cicero, + De Natura Deorum, + ii. 50. declare that they have observed and imitated the + ibis' clyster-like purging of herself with brine ; and the priests make + use of water from which an ibis has drunk to purify themselves ; for if + the water is tainted or unhealthy in any way, the ibis will not approach + it. +

+

+ Then, too, + some beasts cure themselves by a short fast, like wolves + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 15; see the + hippopotamus in Amm. Marc. xx. 15. 23. and lions who, when + they are surfeited with flesh, lie still for a while, basking in the + sun. And they say a tigress, if a kid is given her, will keep fasting + for two days without eating ; on the third, she grows hungry and asks + for some other food. She will even pull her cage to pieces, but will not + touch the kid which she has now come to regard as a fellow-boarder and + room mate.Of a + leopard in Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vi. 2. This account seems to indicate a lacuna + in our text explaining why the tigress did not eat the kid in the + first place: because she had already had + enough to eat. + + +

+

+ Yet again, + they relate that elephants employ surgery : they do, in fact, bring aid + to the woundedFor an + example see the anecdote of Porus in 970 d supra, 977 b infra; + Juba, frag. 52 (Jacoby); Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 45. by easily and harmlessly drawing + out spears and javelins and arrows without any laceration of the flesh. + And Cretan goats, + Cf. 991 f infra; Philo, 38 (p. 119); Vergil, Aen. xii. 415; Thompson on Aristotle, + Historia Animal. + ix. 6 (612 a 3); Pease, Melanges Marouzeau, 1948, p. 472. when they eat + dittany,Cretan + dittany (Origanum + dictamnus L.); Pliny, Nat. + Hist. xx. 156. easily expel arrows from their + bodies and so have presented an easy lesson for women with child to take + to heart, that the herb has an abortive property + Cf. Pease, op. cit. p. 471.; for there is nothing except + dittany that the goats, when they are wounded, rush to search for. + +

+
+
+

+ These + matters, though wonderful, are less surprising than are those creatures + which have cognition of number and can count, + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 53. as do + the cattle near Susa. At that place they irrigate the royal park with + water raised in buckets by wheels, and the number of bucketfuls is + prescribed. For each cow raises one hundred bucketfuls each day, and + more you could not get from her, even if you wanted to use force. In + fact, they often try to add to the number to see ; but the cow balks and + will not continue when once she has delivered her quota, so accurately + does she compute and remember the sum, as CtesiasFrag. 53 b, ed. Gilmore (p. + 196); Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. + 1. of Cnidus has related. +

+

+ The + Libyans laugh at the Egyptians for telling a fabulous tale about the + oryx,See Mair on + Oppian, Cyn. ii. 446. that it + lets out a cryA + sneeze, according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. + ii. 107; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 8. at that very day and hour when + the star rises that they call Sothis, + Cf. Mor. 359 d, + 376 a. which we call the Dog Star or Sirius. At any rate, + when this star rises flush with the sun, practically all the goats turn + about and look toward the east; and this is the most certain sign of its + return and agrees most exactly with the tables of mathematical + calculation.They + watched for the first sight of Sirius before daybreak about June 20; + the date shifted in the Egyptian calendar. + +

+
+
+

+ But that + my discourse may add its finishing touch and terminate, let me make the move from the sacred line + See Mor. 783 b with Fowler's + note; also 1116 e; Plato, Laws, 739 a; + and Gow on Theocritus, vi. 18. The meaning is probably something + like let me play my last trump, or commit my last reserve. + and say a few words about the divine inspiration and the mantic + power of animals. It is, in fact, no small or + ignoble division of divination, but a great and very ancient one, which + takes its name from birdsOrnithoscopy or ornithomancy (Cf. Leviticus xix. 26); Latin augurium, auspicium. See also Plato, + Phaedrus, 244 d, Phaedo, 85 b.; for their quickness + of apprehension and their habit of responding to any manifestation, so + easily are they diverted, serves as an instrument for the god, who + directs their movements, their calls or cries, and their formations + which are sometimes contrary, sometimes favouring, as winds are ; so + that he uses some birds to cut short, others to speed enterprises and + inceptions to the destined end. It is for this reason that + EuripidesPerhaps + Ion, 159; Cf. also Mor. 405 d for the phrase. calls birds in + general heralds of the gods; and, in + particular, SocratesPlato, Phaedo, 85 b. says that + he considers himself a fellow-slave of the + swans. So again, among monarchs Pyrrhus + Cf. Mor. 184 d; + Life of Pyrrhus, x. 1 (388 a-b); + Life of Aristides, vi. 2 (322 a); + Aelian, De Natura + Animal. vii. 45. liked to be called an Eagle and + Antiochus + Cf. Mor. 184 a. + This Antiochus was not, strictly speaking, a king, but the younger + son of Antiochus II. a Hawk. But when we deride, or rail at, + stupid and ignorant people we call them fish. + Really, we can produce cases by the thousand of signs and portents + manifested to us by the gods through creatures of land and air, but not + one such can the advocate for aquatic creatures name.This charge is answered in 976 c + infra. No, they are all + deaf and blind + Cf. the fragment of Epicharmus + cited above in 961 a. + so far as foreseeing anything goes, and so have been cast aside + into the godless and titanic + Cf. Plato, Laws, 701 b-c (and Shorey, What + Plato Said, p. 629); 942 a supra and Cherniss' note (Class. Phil. xlvi, 1951, p. 157, n. 95); see also 996 c + c infra with the note. + region, as into a Limbo of the Unblessed, where the rational and + intelligent part of the soul has been extinguished. Having, however, + only a last remnant of sensation that is + clogged with mud and deluged with water, they seem to be at their last + gasp rather than alive. +

+
+
+

+ Raise your brows, dear + Phaedimus, and rouse yourself to defend us the sea folk, the + island-dwellers ! This bout of argument has become no child's play, but + a hard-fought contest, a debate which lacks only the actual bar and + platform.That + is, it is so realistic that one might imagine oneself in the + lawcourts or the public assembly. + +

+

+ Not so, Heracleon, but an + ambush laid with malice aforethought has been disclosed. While we are + still tipsy and soused from yesterday's bout, this gentleman, as you + see, has attacked us with premeditation, cold sober. Yet there can be no + begging off. Devotee of PindarFrag. 272, ed. Turyn (228 Schroeder, 215 Bowra); + cf. + Mor. 783 b; Leutsch and + Schneidewin, Paroemiographi + Graeci, i, p. 44; Plato, Cratylus, 421 d. though I am, I do not want to + be addressed with the quotation + To excuse oneself when combat is offered + Has consigned valour to deep obscurity; + for we have much leisurePerhaps merely a passing allusion to some such + passage as Plato, Phaedrus, 258 e + rather than, as Bernardakis thought, a quotation from an unknown + tragic poet (Nauck, Trag. + Graec. Frag. p. 869, Adesp. 138).; and it is not + our discourse that will be idle, but our dogs and horses, our nets and + seines of all kinds, for a truce is granted for to-day because of our + argument to every creature both on land and sea. Yet do not fear : I + shall use itEither + our leisure or the truce, + i.e. the holiday Plutarch has + given his pupils (see the Introduction to this essay). with + moderation, introducing no opinions of philosophers or Egyptian fables + or unattested tales of Indians or Libyans. But those facts that may be + observed everywhere and have as witnesses the + men who exploit the sea and acquire their credit from direct + observation, of these I shall present a few. Yet there is nothing to + impede illustrations drawn from land animals : the land is wide open for + investigation by the senses. The sea, on the other hand, grants us but a + few dubious glimpses. She draws a veil over the birth and growth, the + attacks and reciprocal defences, of most of her denizens. Among these + there are no few feats of intelligence and memory and community spirit + that remain unknown to us and so obstruct our argument. Then too, land + animals + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 1. by reason of their close + relationship and their cohabitation have to some extent been imbued with + human manners ; they have the advantage of their breeding and teaching + and imitation, which sweetens all their bitterness and sullenness, like + fresh water mixed with brine, while their lack of understanding and + dullness are roused to life by human contacts. Whereas the life of sea + creatures, being set apart by mighty bounds from intercourse with men + and having nothing adventitious or acquired from human usage, is + peculiar to itself, indigenous, and uncontaminated by foreign ways, not + by distinction of Nature, but of location. For their Nature is such as + to welcome and retain such instruction as reaches them. This it is that + renders many eels tractable, like those that are called sacred in + Arethusa + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 4.; and in + many places there are fish which will respond + to their own names, + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 193: Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 30. as the + story goes of Crassus'Not in the Life of + Crassus, but derived from the same source as Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + viii. 4; cf. the remarks in the + Life of Solon, vii. 4 (82 a). The + story is also recounted in Mor. 89 a, 811 a; Macrobius, Sat. iii. 15. 4; Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 5. Hortensius, too, + wept bitterly at the death of his pet moray (Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 172). moray, upon + the death of which he wept. And once when DomitiusL. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul + in 54 b.c., a bitter political opponent of Crassus and the + Triumvirate. said to him, Isn't it true + that you wept when a moray died ? he answered, Isn't it true that you buried three wives and + didn't weep ? + +

+

+ The priests' + crocodiles + Cf. Aelian, loc. cit. + not only recognize the voice of those who summon them and allow + themselves to be handled, but open their mouths to let their teeth be + cleaned by hand and wiped with towels. Recently our excellent Philinus + came back from a trip to Egypt and told us that he had seen in + Antaeopolis an old woman sleeping on a low bed beside a crocodile, which + was stretched out beside her in a perfectly decorous way. +

+

+ They have long + been telling the tale that when King PtolemyAelian, loc. cit., does not know which Ptolemy is meant; + Cf. the story of Apis and + Germanicus in Pliny, Nat. + Hist. viii. 185; Amm. Marc. xxii. 14. 8. summoned + the sacred crocodile and it would not heed him or obey in spite of his + entreaties and requests, it seemed to the priests an omen of his death, + which came about not long after ; whence it appears that the race of + water creatures is not wholly unendowed with your precious gift of + divination. + Cf. 975 b supra; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 55. Indeed, I have heard that near + Sura,Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + viii. 5; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxii. + 17. a village in Lycia between Phellus and Myra, men sit and + watch the gyrations and flights and pursuits of fish and divine from them by a professional and + rational system, as others do with birds. +

+
+
+

+ But let these + examples suffice to show that sea animals are not entirely unrelated to + us or cut off from human fellowship. Of their uncontaminated and native + intelligence their caution is strong evidence. For nothing that swims + and does not merely stick or cling to rocks is easily taken or captured + without trouble by man as are asses by wolves, bees by bee-eaters,A bird: Aristotle, + Historia Animal. + ix. 13 (615 b 25); Aelian, De Natura + Animal. v. 11; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. x. 99. cicadas by swallows, and snakes by + deer, which easily attract them.Aelian, De + Natura Animal. viii. 6; v. 48. This, in fact, is + why deer are called elaphoi, not from their swiftness, + Elaphrotes. but from their power of attracting + snakes. + Helxis opheos, a fantastic etymology. Neither + derivation is correct, elaphos being related to the + Lithuanian elnis, deer. For + the references see Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 234. So too the ram draws the wolf by + stamping and they say that very many creatures, and particularly apes, + are attracted to the panther by their pleasure in its scent.See Thompson on + Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 13); add Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 6; + v. 40. But in practically all sea-creatures any sensation is + suspect and evokes an intelligently inspired defensive reaction against + attack, so that fishing has been rendered no simple or trivial task, but + needs all manner of implements and clever and deceitful tricks to use + against the fish. +

+

+ This is + perfectly clear from ready examples: no one wants to have an angler s + rod too thick, though it needs elasticity to withstand the thrashing of + such fish as are caught; men select, rather, a slender rod so that it + may not cast a broad shadow and arouse suspicion. + Cf. Gow on Theocritus, xxi. + 10. In the next place, they do not thicken the line with many plies when they attach the + loop and do not make it rough ; for this, too, betrays the lure to the + fish. They also contrive that the hairs which form the leader shall be + as white as possible ; for in this way they are less conspicuous in the + sea because of the similarity of colour. The remark of the PoetHomer, Iliad, xxiv. 80-82.: + Like lead sheIris going to visit Thetis. sank into the great sea + depths, + Like lead infixed in hora of rustic ox + Which brings destruction to the ravenous fish - + some misunderstand this and imagine that the ancients used + ox-hair for their lines, alleging that keras + It means, of course, + horn as above in Homer, Iliad, xxiv. 81. means hair and for this reason + keirasthai means to have one's + hair cut and koura is a haircut + Or lock of hair. + and the keroplastes + + Horn-fashioner, so called from the + horn-like bunching together of the hair: see the scholia on Iliad, xxiv. 81. in + ArchilochusEdmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. + 126, frag. 57; Diehl, Anth. + Lyrica, i, p. 228, frag. 59. See the note on 967 f + supra. is one who is + fond of trimming and beautifying the hair. But this is not so : they use + horse-hair which they take from males, for mares by wetting the hair + with their urine make it weak. + Cf. Mor. 915 f - + 916 a. AristarchusNot Aristotle, as the mss. read. See Platt, Class. Quart. v. 255. declares + that there is nothing erudite or subtle in these lines ; the fact is + that a small piece of horn was attached to the line in front of the + hook, since the fish, when they are confronted by anything else, chew + the line in two. + The section of horn was put around the line. + It was therefore a tube. It was in front of the hook as one held + it in his hand and attached it to the line. It was therefore at + the hook end of the leader. Its hardness prevented the line from + being severed. Its neutral coloration prevented the fish from + being frightened off. Note that Oppian (Hal. iii. 147) comments on the use of a hook with + an abnormally long shank for the same purpose + (Andrews). They use rounded hooksA prototype of the Sobey + hook. to catch mullets and bonitos, whose mouths are + smallSee + Thompson on Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 19); Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144.; for they are wary + of a broader hook. Often, indeed, the mullet suspects even a rounded + hook and swims around it, flipping the bait with its tail and snatching + up bits it has dislodged ; or if it cannot do this, it closes its mouth + and purses it up and with the tips of its lips nibbles away at the + bait. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145; Oppian, Hal. iii. 524 ff. + +

+

+ The sea-bass + is braver than your elephant + Cf. 974 d supra.: it is not from another, but from + himself without assistance, that he extracts the barb when he is caught + by the hook ; he swings his head from side to side to widen the wound, + enduring the pain of tearing his flesh until he can throw off the + hook. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 40, of the tunny; + Ovid, Hal. 39 f. and Oppian, Hal. iii. 128 ff., of the bass. + The fox-sharkPlutarch seems here to have confused this fish with the so-called + scolopendra (of which he writes correctly in Mor. 567 b; see also Mair + on Oppian, Hal. ii. 424). Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 11); + Aelian, De Natura + Animal. ix. 12; Varia Hist. i. 5; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 145. There are fish (but + not sharks) which can disgorge their stomachs and swallow them + again. Note that hasty reading of Aristotle l.c. could easily cause this + misstatement (Andrews). does not often approach the + hook and shuns the lure ; but if he is caught, he immediately turns + himself inside out, for by reason of the elasticity and flexibility of + his body he can naturally shift and twist it about, so that when he is + inside out, the hook falls away. +

+
+
+

+ Now the + examples I have given indicate intelligence and an ingenious, subtle use + of it for opportune profit; but there are + others that display, in combination with understanding, a social sense + and mutual affection, as is the case with the barbierThe anthias of the + above passage is probably the Mediterranean barbier, Serranus anthias C.V., although + elsewhere it is sometimes obviously a much larger fish of uncertain + identity. On the identification Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 17 (570 b 19); + Glossary of Greek Fishes, s.v.; Mair, introd. to his ed. of + Oppian, pp. liii-lxi; Marx, RE, i. 2375-2377; ii. 2415; Schmid, Philologus, Suppb. xi, + 1907-1910, p. 273; Brands, Grieksche Diernamen, pp. 147 f.; Cotte, Possions et animaux aquatiques au + temps de Pline, pp. 69-73; Saint-Denis, Le Vocabulaire des animaux marins + en latin classique, pp. 5-7. Cf. also 981 e infra. and the parrot-fish. For if one + parrot-fish swallows the hook, the others present swarm upon the line + and nibble it away ; and the same fish, when any of their kind have + fallen into the net, give them their tails from outside ; when they + eagerly fix their teeth in these, the others pull on them and bring them + through in tow.On + this story cf. also Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 4; + Pliny, Nat. Hist. + xxxii. 11; Ovid, Hal. 9 ff.; Oppian, + Hal. iv. 40 ff. Note also Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + v. 22, on mice. And barbiers are even more strenuous in + rescuing their fellows : getting under the line with their backs, they + erect their sharp spines and try to saw the line through and cut if off + with the rough edge. + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 182; xxxii. 13; Ovid, Hal. 45 ff.; Oppian, Hal. iii. 321 ff. + +

+

+ Yet we know of + no land animal that has the courage to assist another in danger - not + bear or boar or lioness or panther. True it is that in the arena those + of the same kind draw close together and huddle in a circle ; yet they + have neither knowledge nor desire to help each other. Instead, each one + flees to get as far as possible from a wounded or dying fellow. That + tale of the elephants + Cf. 972 b supra; Jacoby, Frag. der griech. Hist. iii, p. 146, frag. 51 b. On the + community spirit of elephants see also Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 49; vi. 61; vii. 15; + al. + carrying brushwood to the pits and giving their fallen comrade a + ramp to mount is monstrous and far-fetched and + dictates, as it were, that we are to believe it on a king's prescription + - that is, on the writs of Juba.Juba was king of Mauretania (25 b.c. - + c. a.d. 23). Suppose it to be true : it + merely proves that many sea creatures are in no way inferior in + community spirit and intelligence to the wisest of the land animals. As + for their sociability, I shall soon make a special plea on that topic. + +

+
+
+

+ Now fishermen, + observing that most fish evade the striking of the hook by such + countermoves as wrestlers use, resorted, like the Persians, + Cf. Herodotus, vi. 31; iii. 149; + Plato, Laws 698 d; Fraenkel on Aesch. + Agam. 358. On kinds of nets see + Mair, L.C.L. Oppian, pp. xl ff. + to force and used the dragnet, since for those caught in it there could + be no escape with the help of reason or cleverness. For mullet and + rainbow-wrasse + Coris iulis Gth. Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 3 + (610 b 7); A Glossary of Greek Fishes, + p. 91; Schmid, op. cit. p. 292; + Brands, op. cit. p. 157; Cotte, + op. cit. pp. 59-60; + Saint-Denis, op. cit. p. + 52. are caught by casting-nets and round nets, as are also + the breamIn + particular, probably Pagellus + mormyrus C.V. On the identification cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 7 + (570 b 20); Glossary, p. 161; Cotte, + op. cit. pp. 105-107; + Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. + 65-66. and the sargueIn particular, probably Sargus culgaris Geoff. On the identification Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 9 (543 a 7); Glossary, pp. 227-228; Cotte, op. cit. pp. 105-107; Saint-Denis, + op. cit. pp. 99, 107-108; + Keller, Die antike + Tierwelt, ii, p. 370; Gossen-Steier, RE, Second Series, ii. + 365. and the gobyA term mostly for the black goby, Gobius niger L., the most common + Mediterranean species. On the identification Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 14 (598 a 12); + Glossary, pp. 137-139; Gossen, + RE, Second Series, + ii. 794-796. and the sea-bass. The so-called net fish, that + is surmulletThe red + or plain surmullet, Mullus + barbatus L., and the striped or common surmullet, + Mullus surmuletus L. On this + fish cf. Cotte, op. cit. pp. 98-101; Keller, op. cit. ii, pp. 364 f.; Prechac, + Revue d. Et. Lat. xiv (1936), pp. + 102-105; xvii (1939), p. 279; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 68 f.; Schmid, op. cit. pp. 310-312; Steier, RE, xvi. 496-503; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 264-268; Andrews, Class. Weekly, xlii (1949), pp. + 186-188. + and gilthead + Chrysophrys aurata C.V., called + gilthead from the golden band that runs from eye to eye. On this + fish cf. Wellmann, RE, iii. 2517-2518; + Keller, op. cit. ii, pp. 369 ff.; + RE, vii. 1578; + Schmid, op. cit. pp. 297-298; + Thompson, Glossary, pp. 292-294; + Cotte, op. cit. pp. 73-74; + Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. + 80-81. and sculpin, + Scorpaena scrofa, L. and S. porcus L. On this fish Cf. Cotte, op. + cit. pp. 111-113; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 103-104; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 9 (543 + a 7); Glossary, pp. 245 f. are + caught in seines by trawling : accordingly it was quite correct for + Homer + Iliad, v. 487; Cf. Platt, Class. + Quart. v, p. 255; Fraenkel, Aesch. Agam. ii, p. 190. to call this kind of net a catch-all. Codfish,Principally the hake and + rockling, Phycis sp. and Motella sp. Not to be confused with + γαλεός, a general term for + sharks and dogfishes. Cf. Andrews, + Journal of the Washington Academy of + Sciences, xxxix (1949), pp. 1-16. like bass, + Cf. Oppian, Hal. iii. 121 ff. have devices even against + these. For when the bass perceives that the trawl is approaching, it + forces the mud apart and hammers a hollow in the bottom. When it has + made room enough to allow the net to overrun it, it thrusts itself in + and waits until the danger is past. +

+

+ Now when the + dolphin is caught and perceives itself to be trapped in the net, it + bides its time, not at all disturbed but well pleased, for it feasts + without stint on the fish that have been gathered with no trouble to + itself. But as soon as it comes near the shore, it bites its way through + the net and makes its escape. Yet if it should not get away in time, on + the first occasion it suffers no harm : the fishermen merely sew rushes + to its crest and let it go. But if it is taken a second time, they + recognize it from the seam and punish it with a beating. This, however, + rarely occurs : most dolphins are grateful for their pardon in the first + instance and take care to do no harm in the future.On the alliance of dolphins and + fisherman see Aelian, De Natura + Animal. ii. 8; xi. 12; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 29 ff. + +

+

+ Further, among + the many examples of wariness, precaution, or + evasion, we must not pass over that of the cuttlefish + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 + (621 b 28); Athenaeus, 323 d-e; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 84; Horace, Sat. + i. 4. 100; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. i. 34; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 156.: it has the so-called mytis + Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 1 + (524 b 15); De Part. + Animal. iv. 5 (679 a 1). beside the neck + Under the mouth, says Aristotle. + full of black liquid, which they call ink. + + Tholos, mud, + turbidity. + When it is come upon, it discharges the liquid to the purpose + that the sea shall be inked out and create darkness around it while it + slips through and eludes the fisherman's gaze. In this it imitates + Homer'sFor + example, Iliad, v. 345. gods + who often in a dark cloud snatch up and + smuggle away those whom they are pleased to save. But enough of this. + +

+
+
+

+ As for + cleverness in attacking and catching prey, we may perceive subtle + examples of it in many different species. The starfish,[Aristotle], Historia Animal. v. 15 + (548 a 7 f.), an interpolated passage; nor can we be certain that it + was known to Plutarch. See also Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 181. for example, knowing + that everything with which it comes in contact dissolves and liquefies, + offers its body and is indifferent to the contact of those that overtake + or meet it. You know, of course, the property of the torpedoOr electric ray or crampfish: for the ancient references see Thompson on + Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ic. 37 (620 b 12-23); Glossary, pp. 169-172; Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 36; ix. 14; Pliny, + Nat. Hist. ix. 143; Mair, L.C.L. + Oppian, p. lxix, and on Hal. ii. 56; iii. 149; Philo, 30 (p. + 115); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 48; + Boulenger, World Natural History, pp. + 189 f.: not only does it paralyse all those who touch it, but + even through the net creates a heavy numbness in the hands of the + trawlers. And some who have experimented further with it report that if + it is washed ashore alive and you pour water on it from above, you may + perceive the numbness mounting to the hand and dulling your sense of + touch by way of the water which, so it seems, + suffers a change and is first infected. + Cf. the upward infection of the basilisk, Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 78. Having, + therefore, an innate sense of this power, it never makes a frontal + attack or endangers itself; rather, it swims in a circle around its prey + and discharges its shocks as if they were darts, thus poisoning first + the water, then through the water the creature which can neither defend + itself nor escape, being held fast as if by chains and frozen stiff. + +

+

+ The so-called + fishermanThe + fishing-frog, Lophius piscatorius + L.: Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 37 (620 b 12); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 144; Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 86; Strömberg, Gr. Fischnamen, pp. 122 + f. is known to many ; he gets his name from his actions. + Aristotle + Historia Animal. ix. 37 + (622 a 1); cf. iv. 1 (524 a 3), + iv. 6 (531 b 6); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. + 83 ff.; Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. + 122. says that the cuttlefish also makes use of this + stratagem : he lets down, like a fishing line, a tentacle from his neck + which is naturally designed to extend to a great length when it is + released, or to be drawn to him when it is pulled in. So when he espies + a little fish, he gives it the feeler to bite and then by degrees + imperceptibly draws it back toward himself until the prey attached to + the arm is within reach of his mouth. +

+

+ As for the + octopus' change of colour, + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 + (622 a 8); Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. + 233. Athenaeus, 316 f, 317 f, 513 d; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 87; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 25, 50; Aelian, Varia Hist. i. 1; and + Wellmann, Hermes, li, p. 40. + PindarFrag. 43 + Schroeder, 208 Turyn, 235 Bowra (p. 516, ed. Sandys L.C.L.); + cf. Mor. 916 c + and Turyn's references. has made it celebrated in the words + + To all the cities to which you resort + Bring a mind like the changing skin of the seabeast; + + and Theognis215-216; cf. Mor. 96 f, 916 c. There are many + textual variants, but none alters the sense. likewise : + + Be minded like the octopus' hue: + The colour of its rock will meet the view.Or + Keep a mind as multicoloured as the octopus, + + + + + + + + With the rock whereon it sits homologous + (Andrews). + + + +

+

+ The + chameleon,See + Thompson on Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ii. 11 (503 b 2); Ogle on De Part. Animal. iv. 11 (692 a 22 ff.). + See also Aelian, De Natura + Animal, iv. 33; and cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. + viii. 122 for the chameleon's exclusive diet of air; nec alio + quam aeris alimento. to be sure, is + metachromatic, but not from any design or desire to conceal itself; it + changes colour uselessly from fear, being naturally timid and cowardly. + And this is consistent with the abundance of air in it, as + TheophrastusFrag. 189 Wimmer (p. 225); Aristotle says merely, The change takes place when it is inflated by + air. + says ; for nearly the whole body of the creature is occupied by + its lungs,Which + confirms Karsch's emendation of Aristotle, Historia Animal. ii. 11 (503 b 21); for + Theophrastus and Plutarch must have had lungs and not membranes in their + text of Aristotle. which shows it to be full of air and for + this reason easily moved to change colour. But this same action on the + part of the octopus is not an emotional response, but a deliberate + change, since it uses this device to escape what it fears and to capture + what it feeds on : by this deceit it can both seize the latter, which + does not try to escape, and avoid the former, which proceeds on its way. + Now the story that it eats its own tentaclesSee 965 e supra and the note; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 87; Mor. 1059 e, 1098 e, Comm. in Hes. fr. 53 + (Bernardakis, vol. VII, p. 77). is a lie, but it is true that + it fears the moray and the conger. It is, in fact, maltreated by them; + for it cannot do them harm, since they slip from its grasp. On the other + hand, when the crawfishThe langouste as distinguished from the homard; see Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + i. 32; ix. 25; x. 38; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2 (590 b 16); + Glossary, pp. 102 ff.; Pliny, + Nat. Hist. ix. 185; Antigonus, + Hist. Mirab. + 92. has once got them in its grasp, + it wins the victory easily, for smoothness is no aid against roughness ; + yet when the octopus has once thrust its tentacles inside the crawfish, + the latter succumbs. And so Nature has created this cycleThe octopus is worsted by the + moray and the conger, which in turn are defeated by the crawfish, + which (to complete the cycle) becomes the octopus' prey. The whole + engagement is graphically portrayed in Oppian, Hal. ii. 253-418. For Nature's battle see, e.g., Pliny, Nat. + Hist. viii. 79. and succession of mutual pursuit + and flight as a field for the exercise and competitive practice of + adroitness and intelligence. +

+
+
+

+ We have, to be + sure, heard Aristotimus + Cf. 972 a supra. Valentine Rose, curiously enough, emended to + Aristotle (see Historia + Animal. ix. 6, 612 b 4) and included this passage in + Frag. 342. See further Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 226. telling us about the hedgehog's + foreknowledge of the winds ; and our friend also admired the V-shaped + flight of cranes. + Cf. 967 b supra. I can produce no hedgehog of Cyzicus or + Byzantium,Perhaps he is learnedly confuting Aristotimus (972 a supra) by drawing on Aristotle. + but instead the whole body of sea-hedgehogs, + i.e. the sea-urchin, regarded by + the ancients as a sort of marine counterpart of the hedgehog because + of the similar spines. which, when they perceive that storm + and surf are coming, ballast themselves with little stones + Cf. 967 b supra, of bees. in order that they may not be + capsized by reason of their lightness or be swept away by the swell, but + may remain fixed in position through the weight of their little rocks. + +

+

+ Again, the + cranes' change of flight against the wind + Cf. 967 b supra. is not merely the action of one species + : all fish generally have the same notion and always swim against wave + and current, taking care that a blast from the rear does not fold back + their scales and expose and roughen their bodies. For this reason they + always present the prow of their bodies to the waves, for in that way + head first they cleave the sea, which depresses their gills and, flowing smoothly over the surface, keeps down, + instead of ruffling up, the bristling skin. Now this, as I have said, is + common to all fish except the sturgeon,Probably usually the common + sturgeon, Acipenser sturio: see + Thompson, Glossary, pp. 62 f.; Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + viii. 28, speaks of it as a rare and sacred fish; see 981 d infra. Cf. Milton's Ellops drear (P.L. x. 525). which, they say, + swims with wind and tide and does not fear the harrowing of its scales + since the overlaps are not in the direction of the tail. +

+
+
+

+ The tunny + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 42; Aristotle, + Historia Animal. + viii. 13 (598 b 25 f.). is so sensitive to equinox and + solstice that it teaches even men themselves without the need of + astronomical tables ; for wherever it may be when the winter solstice + overtakes it, in that same place it stands and stays until the equinox. + As for that clever device of the crane,See 967 c supra. the grasping of the stone + by night so that if it falls, she may awake from sleep - how much + cleverer, my friend, is the artifice of the dolphin, for whom it is + illicit to stand still or to cease from motion.Reiske may have been right in + suspecting a trimeter of unknown origin in these words. For + its nature is to be ever active + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xi. 22. The dolphin + even nurses its young while in motion; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 235; and cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ii. 13 (504 b 21 ff.).: the + termination of its life and its movement is one and the same. When it + needs sleep, it rises to the surface of the sea and allows itself to + sink deeper and deeper on its back, lulled to rest by the swinging + motion of the ground swellAs it were, the cradle of the deep. until it + touches the bottom. Thus roused, it goes whizzing up, and when it + reaches the surface, again goes slack, devising for itself a kind of + rest combined with motion.But see Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 210, where it is reported + that dolphins are actually heard snoring. + And they say that tunnies do the same thing for the same reason. + +

+

+ Having just a + moment ago given you an account of the tunny's mathematical + foreknowledge of the reversal of the sun, of which Aristotle + Historia Animal. viii. + 13 (598 b 25). is a witness, I beg you to hear the tale of + their arithmetical learning. But first, I swear, I must mention their + knowledge of optics, of which AeschylusNauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 96, frag. 308; + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. + 42. seems not to have been ignorant, for these are his words + : Squinting the left eye like a tunny + fish. They seem, indeed, to have poor sight in one eye. And + it is for this reason that when they enter the Black Sea, they hug one + bank on the right, and the otherSee Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 19 ff.); + Glossary, p. 84; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 50. They follow the + opposite shore when returning, thus keeping the same eye towards the + land. when they are going out, it being very prudent and + sagacious of them always to entrust the protection of themselves to the + better eye. Now since they apparently need arithmetic to preserve their + consociation and affection for each other, they have attained such + perfection of learning that, since they take great pleasure in feeding + and schooling together, + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 2 + (610 b 1 f.); Aelian, De Natura + Animal. xv. 3, 5. they always form the school + into a cube, making it an altogether solid figure with a surface of six + equal plane sides ; then they swim on their way preserving their + formation, a square that faces both ways. + Certainly a hooerA + watcher posted on a tall mast to warn fishermen of the approach of a + shoal and to give a count. See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 10 + (537 a 19); Glossary, p. 87; Gow on + Theocritus, iii. 26; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 638. Accounts of the ancient tunny fishery + are given by Thompson, Glossary, pp. + 84-88; Pace, Atti R. Ac. + Archeologia Napoli, N.S. xii (1931/2), pp. 326 ff.; and + Rhode, Jahrb. f. class. Phil., Suppb. + xviii (1900), pp. 1-78. An account of the ancient and the modern + tunny fishery is given by Parona, R. Comitato Talasso-grafico Italiano, + Memoria, no. 68, 1919. watching for tunnies who + counts the exact number on the surface at once makes known the total + number of the shoal, since he knows that the depth is equal one to one + with the breadth and the length. +

+
+
+

+ Schooling + together has also given the bonitos their name of amia + Similarly, Athenaeus + (vii. 278 a; Cf. 324 d) quotes + Aristotle as defining amia as not + solitary, + i.e. running in schools. Actually + the term is probably foreign, perhaps of Egyptian origin (Cf. Thompson, Glossary, p. 13). and I think this is true of + year-old tunnies as well.Plutarch takes pelamys to be compound + of pelein + to be and hama + with, with references to their running in + schools. It was also anciently presumed to be a compound of + pelos + mud and myein + be shut in or enclosed, because of its + habit of hiding in the mud (Cf. + Aristotle, Historia + Animal. 599 b 18; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 47). Most scholars now regard it as a loan + from the Mediterranean substratum, although Thompson (Glossary, p. 198) suggests that it may be + of Asiatic origin, since it was used especially of the tunny in the + Black Sea. As for the other kinds which are observed to live + in shoals in mutual society, it is impossible to state their number. Let + us rather, therefore, proceed to examine those that have a special + partnership, that is, symbiosis. One of these is the pinna-guard,See Thompson, Glossary, p. 202. over which + ChrysippusVon + Arnim, S.V.F. ii, p. + 208, frag. 729 b (Athenaeus, 89 d). Cf. also fragments 729, 729 a, and 730. On the place + of the pinna in Chrysippus' theology see A. S. Pease, Harv. Theol. Rev. xxxiv (1941), p. + 177. spilled a very great deal of ink ; indeed it has a + reserved seat in every single book of his, whether ethical or + physical. + Cf. Mor. 1035 b, + 1038 b. Chrysippus has obviously not investigated the + sponge-guardA + little crab that lives in the hollow chambers of a sponge. See + Thompson, loc. cit. + ; otherwise he could hardly have left it out. Now the pinna-guard + is a crab-like creature, so they say, who lives with the pinnaOn this bivalve + shellfish see Thompson, Glossary, p. + 200; Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. + 186. and sits in front of the shell + guarding the entrance. It allows the pinna to remain wide open and agape + until one of the little fish that are their prey gets within ; then the + guard nips the flesh of the pinna and slips inside ; the shell is closed + and together they feast on the imprisoned prey. +

+

+ The sponge is + governed by a little creature not resembling a crab, but much like a + spider.Nevertheless, it is a crab, Typton + spongicola. Now the sponge + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 16; Aristotle, + Historia Animal. v. + 16 (548 a 28 ff.); Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 148; Antigonus, 83; Mair on Oppian, Hal. v. 656; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 249-250. is no + lifeless, insensitive, bloodless thing ; though it clings to the + rocks, + Cf. W. Jaeger, Nemesios con Emesa, p. + 116, n. 1. as many other animals do, it has a peculiar + movement outward and inward which needs, as it were, admonition and + supervision. In any case it is loose in texture and its pores are + relaxed because of its sloth and dullness ; but when anything edible + enters, the guard gives the signal, and it closes up and consumes the + prey. Even more, if a man approaches or touches it, informed by the + scratching of the guard, it shudders, as it were, and so closes itself + up by stiffening and contracting that it is not an easy, but a very + difficult, matter for the hunters to undercut it. +

+

+ The + purplefishSee + Aristotle, Historia + Animal. v. 15 (546 b 19 ff.) quoted in Athenaeus, 88 d - + 89 a; De Gen. Animal. + iii. 11 (761 b 32 ff.); Thompson, Glossary, pp. 209-218. lives in colonies which + build up a comb together, like bees. In this the species is said to + propagate ; they catch at edible bits of oystergreen and seaweed that + stick to shells, and furnish each other with a sort of periodic rotating + banquet, as they feed one after another in series. +

+
+
+

+ And why should + anyone be surprised at the community life of + these when the most unsociable and brutal of all creatures bred in + river, lake, or sea, the crocodile, shows himself marvellously + proficient at partnership and goodwill in his dealings with the Egyptian + plover?See + Herodotus, ii. 68; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 20); Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 287. Some + authorities such as Pliny, Nat. Hist. + viii. 90 and Oppian, Cyn. iii. 415 + ff., state that the ichneumon attacks the crocodile while its mouth + is open for the plover's operations. Cf. Boulenger, Animal + Mysteries, p. 104, for a modern factual account (see + also his World Natural History, p. + 146). The plover is a bird of the swamps and river banks and + it guards the crocodile, not supplying its own food, but as a boarder + making a meal of the crocodile's scraps. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 11; xii. 15; + [Aristotle], Mir. Ausc. + 7. Now when it perceives that, during the crocodile's sleep, + the ichneumon + Cf. 966 d supra. is planning to attack it, smearing + itself with mud like an athlete dusting himself for the fray, the bird + awakes the crocodile by crying and pecking at it. And the crocodile + becomes so gentle with it that it will open its mouth and let it in and + is pleased that the bird quietly pecks out, with its bill, bits of flesh + which are caught in the teeth and cleans them up. When it is now + satisfied and wants to close its mouth, it tilts its snout upward as an + indication of its desire and does not let it down until the plover, at + once perceiving the intention, flies out. +

+

+ The so-called + guide + The name and the + activity are appropriate to the pilot-fish (Cf. Oppian, Hal. v. 62 + ff.; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. ii. 13), but the description fits rather one of + the globe-fishes, such as Diodon + hystrix (cf. + Thompson, Glossary, p. 75). See also + Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 186; xi. 165, + who calls it the sea mouse. Actually the... + pilot is just a ‘sponger’ and accompanies the shoals... with + the sole object of picking up such crumbs as may fall from their + table. Boulenger, Animal + Mysteries, p. 105. is a small fish, in size and + shape like a goby ; but by reason of the roughness of its scales it is + said to resemble a ruffled bird. It always accompanies one of the great + whales, swimming in front of it and directing its course so that it may not go aground in shallows or be cut off + in some lagoon or strait from which exit may be difficult. The whale + follows it, as a ship obeys the helm, changing course with great + docility. And whatever else, creature or boat or stone, it embraces in + its gaping jaws is at once destroyed and goes to its ruin completely + engulfed ; but that little fish it knows and receives inside its mouth + as in a haven. While the fish sleeps within, the whale remains + motionless and lies by ; but when it comes out again, the beast + accompanies it and does not depart from it day or night; or, if it does, + it gets lost and wanders at random. Many, indeed, have been cast up on + the land and perished, being, as it were, without a pilot. + Cf. the whole passage in Oppian, + Hal. v. 70-349 on the destruction + of whales. We, in fact, were witnesses of such a mishap near + Anticyra not long ago ; and they relate that some time ago, when a whale + came aground not far from BoulisFor the unknown Bouna or Bounae of the mss. C. O. + Müller (Orchomenos², p. 482) proposed Boulis, a town to the east + of Anticyra on the Phocian Gulf. and rotted, a plague ensued. + +

+

+ Is it, then, + justifiable to compare with these associations and companionships those + friendships which AristotleFrag. 354, ed. V. Rose. says exist between + foxes and snakes because of their common hostility to the eagle ; or + those between bustards and horses + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 28 and Mair on + Oppian, Cyn. ii. 406. because + the former like to approach and pick over the dung ? As for me, I + perceive even in ants or bees no such concern for each other. It is true + that every one of them promotes the common + task, yet none of them has any interest in or regard for his fellow + individually. +

+
+
+

+ And we shall + observe this difference even more clearly when we turn our attention to + the oldest and most important of social institutions and duties, those + concerned with generation and procreation. Now in the first place those + fish that inhabit a sea that borders on lagoons or receives rivers + resort to these when they are ready to deposit then; eggs, seeking the + tranquillity and smoothness of fresh water, since calm is a good + midwife. Besides, lagoons and rivers are devoid of sea monsters,See 981 e infra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 71. so that the eggs and fry may + survive. This is the reason why the Black Sea is most favoured for + spawning by very many fish. It breeds no large sea beasts at all except + an infrequent seal and a small dolphin + Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 + (598 b 2); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 49 + f.; Aelian, De Natura + Animal. iv. 9; ix. 59; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 599; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. 47; + Thompson, Glossary, pp. 54, + 281.; besides, the influx of rivers - and those which empty + into the Black Sea are numerous and very large - creates a gentle blend + conducive to the production of offspring. The most wonderful tale is + told about the anthias,On the identity see note on 977 + c supra. which Homer + Iliad, xvi. 407. calls Sacred Fish. + See Gow on + Theocritus, frag. 3. Homer does not call the anthias + Sacred Fish, but merely alludes to a + sacred fish; and in later times several were so regarded. Yet + some think that sacred means important, just as we call the important bone + os sacrum + The last bone of the + spine. and epilepsy, an important disease, the sacred + disease. + Cf. [Hippocrates], De Morbo Sacro (L.C.L., + vol. ii, pp. 138 ff.); Herodotus, iii. 33; Plato, Timaeus, 85 a-b. Others interpret + it in the ordinary sense as meaning dedicated + or consecrated. + EratosthenesPowell, Collectanea Alexandrina, p. 60, frag. 12. + 3; Hiller, frag. 14 (p. 31). seems to refer to the + giltheadSee Mair + on Oppian, Hal. i. 169. when he + says Swift courser golden-browed, the sacred + fish. Many say that this is the sturgeon,See 979 c supra. They are wrong, for while both + the gilthead and the sturgeon were sacred fish, the description + points clearly to the gilthead. which is rare and hard to + catch, though it is often seen off the coast of Pamphylia. If any ever + do succeed in catching it, they put on wreaths themselves and wreathe + their boats ; and, as they sail past, they are welcomed and honoured + with shouts and applause. But most authorities hold that it is the + anthias that is and is called sacred, for wherever this fish appears there + are no sea monsters. Sponge-fishers + Cf. 950 c supra; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 153; Thompson, Glossary, p. 15. may dive in confidence and fish + may spawn without fear, as though they had a guarantor of their + immunity. The reason for this is a puzzle : whether the monsters avoid + the anthias as elephants do a pig + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38; viii. 28; xvi. + 36; al.. and lions a + cock, + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 31; vi. 22; viii. + 28; al. + or whether there are indications of places free from monsters, + which the fish comes to know and frequents, being an intelligent + creature with a good memory. +

+
+
+

+ Then again the + care of the young is shared by both parents : the males do not eat their + own young, but stand by the spawn to guard the eggs, as Aristotle + Historia Animal. ix. 37 + (621 a 21 ff.); cf. Herodotus, ii. + 93. relates. Some follow the female and sprinkle the eggs + gradually with milt, for otherwise the spawn + will not grow, but remains imperfect and undeveloped. In particular the + wrasseThe + phycis is almost certainly one + of the wrasses, probably in particular Crenilabrus pavo C.V. See Mair, L.C.L. Oppian, p. liii; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 276-278; Andrews, Journal of The Washington Academy of + Sciences, xxxix (1949), pp. 12-14. makes a sort + of nest of seaweed, envelops the spawn in it, and shelters it from the + waves. +

+

+ The affection + of the dogfish + Cf. Mor. 494 c; 730 + e; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 10 (565 a 22 ff., b 2 ff.); Glossary, pp. 39-42; Mair on Oppian, + Hal. i. 734. for its young + is not inferior in warmth and kindliness to that of any of the tamest + animals ; for they lay the egg, then sustain and carry the newlyhatehed + young, not without, but within themselves, as if from a second birth. + When the young grow larger, the parents let them out and teach them to + swim close by ; then again they collect them through their mouths and + allow their bodies to be used as dwelling-places, affording at once room + and board and sanctuary until the young become strong enough to shift + for themselves. + Aristotle (Historia Animal. 565 b 24) reports + that some dogfish brought forth their young by the mouth and + took them therein again. Athenaeus (vii. 294 e) says that the + dogfish took the young just hatched into its mouth and emitted + them again. Plutarch has a somewhat garbled version of this + presumed process, blended with data on the parental care of + dolphins (cf. Plin. N.H. ix. 21) (Andrews). + +

+

+ Wonderful also + is the care of the tortoise for the birth and preservation of her young. + To bear them she comes out of the sea to the shore near at hand ; but + since she is unable to incubate the eggs or to remain on dry land for + long, she deposits them on the strand and heaps over them the smoothest + and softest part of the sand. When she has buried and concealed them + securely, + Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 37; contrast the forgetful lizard (x. + 187). some say that she scratches and scribbles the place + with her feet, making it easy for her to + recognize ; others affirm that it is because she has been turned on her + back by the male that she leaves peculiar marks and impressions about + the place. But what is more remarkable than this, she waits for the + fortieth day + Cf. Aelian, Varia Hist. i. 6. (for that is the + number required to develop and hatch out the eggs) and then approaches. + And each tortoise recognizes her own treasure and opens it more joyously + and eagerly than a man does a deposit of gold. +

+
+
+

+ The accounts + given of the crocodile are similar in other respects, but the animal's + ability to estimate the right place goes beyond man's power to guess or + calculate the cause. Hence they affirm that this creature's + foreknowledge is divine and not rational. For neither to a greater or a + less distance, but just so far as the Nile will spread that season and + cover the land in flood, just so far does she go to deposit her eggs, + with such accuracy that any farmer finding the eggs may know himself and + predict to others how far the river will advance.See Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 52; + and compare B. Evans, The Natural History of + Nonsense, p. 33. And her purpose in being so + exact is to prevent either herself or her eggs getting wet when she sits + on them. When they are hatched, the one which, upon emerging, does not + immediately seize in its mouth anything that comes along, fly or midge + or worm or straw or plant, the mother tears to pieces and bites to + death + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 3; contrast Pliny, + Nat. Hist.x. 10; Antigonus, 46, of + the sea eagle; Lucan, ix. 902 ff., of the eagle. See also Julian, + Epistle 59 (383 c); 78 (418 d) + with Wright's note (L.C.L. vol. iii, p. 259, n. 2).; but + those that are bold and active she loves and tends, thus bestowing her affection by judgement, as the + wisest of men think right, not by emotion.Apparently with reference to + Theophrastus, frag. 74 (cf. + Mor. 482 b). + +

+

+ Furthermore, + seals + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 9; Oppian, Hal. i. 686 ff.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 41. too bear their + young on dry land and little by little induce their offspring to try the + sea, then quickly take them out again. This they do often at intervals + until the young are conditioned in this way to feel confidence and enjoy + life in the sea. +

+

+ Frogs in their + coupling use a call, the so-called ololygon,See Gow on Theocritus, vii. 139; + Boulenger, Animal Mysteries, pp. 67 + f. a cry of wooing and mating. When the male has thus + attracted the female, they wait for the night together, for they cannot + consort in the water and during the day they are afraid to do so on + land; but when the darkness falls, they come out and embrace with + impunity. On other occasions when their cry is shrill, it is because + they expect rain. + Cf. Mor. 912 c-d; + Aratus, Phaenomena, 946 + ff.; Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 19; + ix. 13. And this is among the surest of signs. +

+
+
+

+ But, dear + Poseidon! What an absurd and ridiculous error I have almost fallen into + : while I am spending my time on seals and frogs, I have neglected and + omitted the wisest of sea creatures, the most beloved of the gods!As it is to Thetis: + Virgil, Georgics, i. 399. For + what nightingales are to be compared with the halcyonSee Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, s.v.; Kraak, + Mnemosyne (3rd series), vii. 142; + Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 89 ff.; Aelian, + De Natura Animal. + vii. 17; Gow on Theocritus, vii. 57; and the pleasant work Halcyon found in mss. of Lucian and + Plato. for its love of sweet sound, or what swallows for its + love of offspring, or what doves for its love of its mate, or what bees + for its skill in construction ? What creature's procreation and birth pangs has the godPoseidon. so honoured ? + For Leto's parturition,For the birth of Apollo and Artemis. so they + say, only one islandDelos, the wandering island. was made firm to receive her; + but when the halcyon lays her eggs, about the time of the winter + solstice, the godPoseidon. brings the whole sea to rest, without a wave, + without a swell. And this is the reason why there is no other creature + that men love more. Thanks to her they sail the sea without a fear in + the dead of winter for seven days and seven nights.The Halcyon Days (Suidas, + s.v.); Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 8 (542 + b 6 ff.); Aelian, De Natura + Animal. i. 36; Pliny, Nat. + Hist. xviii. 231; al. + For the moment, journey by sea is safer for them than by land. + If it is proper to speak briefly of her several virtues, she is so + devoted to her mate that she keeps him company, not for a single season, + but throughout the year. Yet it is not through wantonness that she + admits him to her company, for she never consorts at all with any other + male ; it is through friendship and affection, as with any lawful wife. + When by reason of old age the male becomes too weak and sluggish to keep + up with her, she takes the burden on herself, carries him and feeds him, + never forsaking, never abandoning him ; but mounting him on her own + shoulders, she conveys him everywhere she goes and looks after him, + abiding with him until the end. + Cf. Alcman's famous lines: frag. + 26 Edmonds (Lyra + Graeca, i, p. 72, L.C.L.), frag. 94 Diehl (Anth. Lyrica, ii, p. 34); + Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. + 23; al. + + +

+

+ As for love of + her offspring and care for their preservation, as soon as she perceives + herself to be pregnant, she applies herself to building the nest, + Cf. Mor. 494 a-b; + Aristotle, Historia + Animal. ix. 13 (616 a 19 ff.); Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. + 17. not making pats of mud or cementing it on walls and roofs like the house-martin + Cf. 966 d-e supra.; nor does she use the + activity of many different members of her body, as when the bee employs + its whole frame to enter and open the wax, with all six feet pressing at + the same time to fashion the whole mass into hexagonal cells, But the + halcyon, having but one simple instrument, one piece of equipment, one + tool - her bill and nothing else, co-operating with her industry and + ingenuity - what she contrives and constructs would be hard to believe + without ocular evidence, seeing the object that she moulds - or rather + the ship that she builds. Of many possible forms, this alone cannot be + capsizedAristotle (loc. cit.), on the + contrary, seems to say (though his text is corrupt; see Thompson + ad loc.): The opening is small, just enough for a tiny + entrance, so that even if the nest is upset, the sea does not + enter. + or even wet its cargo. She collects the spines of garfish + Belone was usually a term for the + garfish and the needlefish, neither of which has spines of any size. + Thompson (Glossary, pp. 31-32) rightly + regards the meaning of belone here + as indeterminable. Cf. also Mor. 494 a, which is almost + certainly mistranslated in the L.C.L. edition. and binds and + weaves them together, some straight, others transverse, as if she were + thrusting woven threads through the warp, adding such bends and knots of + one with another that a compact, rounded unit is formed, slightly + prolate in shape, like a fisherman's weel. When it is finished, she + brings and deposits it beside the surging waves, where the sea beats + gently upon it and instructs her how to mend and strengthen whatever is + not yet good and tight, as she observes it loosened by the blows. She so + tautens and secures the joints that it is difficult even for stones or + iron to break or pierce it. The proportions and shape of the hollow + interior are as admirable as anything about + it; for it is so constructed as to admit herself only, while the + entrance remains wholly hidden and invisible to others - with the result + that not even a drop of water can get in. Now I presume that all of you + have seen this nest; as for me, since I have often seen and touched it, + it comes to my mind to chant the words Once + such a thing in Delos near Apollo's shrineHomer, Odyssey, vi. 162. That there + was some religious mystery associated with the so-called + nest is indicated by the close of Plutarch's + description. (Thompson on Aristotle, loc. cit.) + I saw, the Altar of Horn, celebrated as one of the Seven + Wonders of the World + Cf. Strabo, xiv. 2. 5. + because it needs no glue or any other binding, but is joined and + fastened together, made entirely of horns taken from the right side of + the head.Curiously + enough, the Life of Theseus, xxi. 2 (9 + e) says the left side. + Now may the godApollo. From this point on the text of the rest of + this chapter is very bad and full of lacunae. The restorations + adopted here are somewhat less than certain. be propitious to + me while I sing of the Sea SirenThis is not fulfilled and so is presumably an + indication of another lacuna toward the end of Phaedimus' speech, + the location of which we cannot even guess. - and indeed, + being both a musician and an islander, he should laugh good-naturedly at + my opponents' scoffing questions. Why should he not be called a conger-slayer or Artemis be termed a surmullet-slayer? + Cf. 966 a supra. Since he well knows that Aphrodite, + born of the sea, regards practically all sea creatures as sacred and + related to herself and relishes the slaughter + of none of them. In Leptis,Andrews suspects a confusion here and at Mor. 730 d with + Lepidotonpolis on the Nile, not far below Thebes, apparently a focal + point of a taboo on eating the bynni, allegedly due to its + consumption of the private parts of Osiris when they were thrown + into the river (cf. + Mor. 358 b). you know, the + priests of Poseidon refrain entirely from any sea food, and those + initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis hold the surmullet in + veneration, while the priestess of Hera at Argos abstains from this fish + to pay it honour. For surmullets are particularly good at killing and + eating the sea-hare, which is lethal to man. + Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 45; ix. 51; xvi. + 19; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 155; + Philostratus, Vita + Apoll. vi. 32. It is for this reason that + surmullets possess this immunity, as being friendly and life-saving + creatures. +

+
+
+

+ Furthermore, + many of the Greeks have temples and altars to Artemis DictynnaAs though Artemis of the Net; see Callimachus, + Hymn iii. 198. and Apollo + Delphinios ; and that place which the god had chosen for himself the + poetHomer, + Hymn to Apollo, iii. 393 ff. (as + restored by van Herwerden). For Delphinian Apollo see lines 495 + f. says was settled by Cretans under the guidance of a + dolphin. It was not, however, the god who changed his shape and swam in + front of the expedition, as tellers of tales relate ; instead, he sent a + dolphin to guide the men and bring them to Cirrha.The port of Delphi. They + also relate that Soteles and Dionysius, the men sent by Ptolemy + Soter + Cf. Mor. 361 f; + Tacitus, Histories, iv. 83-84. + to Sinope to bring back Serapis, were driven against their will by a + violent wind out of their course beyond Malea, with the Peloponnesus on + their right. When they were lost and discouraged, a dolphin appeared by + the prow and, as it were, invited them to + follow and led them into such parts as had safe roadsteads with but a + gentle swell until, by conducting and escorting the vessel in this + manner, it brought them to Cirrha. Whence it carne about that when they + had offered thanksgiving for their safe landing, they carne to see that + of the two statues they should take away the one of Pluto, but should + merely take an impress of that of Persephone and leave it behind.That is, in + Sinope. + +

+

+ Well might the + god be fond of the music-loving character of the dolphin, + Cf. Mor. 162 f; + Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 137. to + which PindarPage + 597, ed. Sandys (L.C.L.); frag. 125, line 69-71 ed. Bowra (O.C.T.); + frag. 222. 14-17, ed. Turyn. The quotation is found also in Mor. 704 f - 705 a. The + lines were partially recovered in Oxyrhynchus + Papyri, iii. 408 b (1903); for the critical difficulties + see Turyn's edition. likens himself, saying that he is roused + + Like a dolphin of the sea + Who on the waveless deep of ocean + Is moved by the lovely sound of flutes. + Yet it is even more likely that its affection for menPliny, Nat. Hist. x. 24. For Dionysus and the + pirate-dolphins see the seventh Homeric + Hymn and Frazer on Apollodorus, iii. 5. 3 (L.C.L., vol. + i, p. 332). renders it dear to the gods; for it is the only + creature who loves man for his own sake. + The hunting of dolphins is immoral: + Oppian, Hal. v. 416 (see the whole + passage). Of the land animals, some avoid man altogether, + others, the tamest kind, pay court for utilitarian reasons only to those + who feed them, as do dogs and horses and elephants to their familiars. + Martins take to houses to get what they need, darkness and a minimum of + security, but avoid and fear man as a + dangerous wild beast. + Cf. Mor. 728 a; but + see Aelian, De Natura + Animal. i. 52; Arrian, Anabasis, i. 25. 8. To the dolphin alone, beyond + all others, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek : + friendship for no advantage. Though it has no need at all of any man, + yet it is a genial friend to all and has helped many. The story of + ArionHerodotus, + i. 24; Mair on Oppian, Hal. v. 448. In + Mor. 161 a ff. the + story is told by an eye-witness at the banquet of the Seven Wise + Men. is familiar to everyone and widely known ; and you, my + friend, opportunely put us in mind of the tale of Hesiod, + Cf. 969 e supra. + But you failed to reach the end of the + tale.Homer, + Iliad, ix. 56. + When you told of the dog, you should not have left out the + dolphins, for the information of the dog that barked and rushed with a + snarl on the murderers would have been meaningless if the dolphins had + not taken up the corpse as it was floating on the sea near the + NemeonThe shrine + of Zeus at Oeneon in Locris. and zealously passed it from + group to group until they put it ashore at Rhium and so made it clear + that the man had been stabbed. +

+

+ MyrsilusMüller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iv, p. + 459; Jacoby, Frag. d. griech. + Hist. ii, frag. 12; cf. + Mor. 163 b-d; Athenaeus, 466 c + gives as his authority Anticleides. of Lesbos tells the tale + of Enalus the Aeolian who was in love with that daughter of Smintheus + who, in accordance with the oracle of Amphitrite, was cast into the sea + by the Penthilidae, whereupon Enalus himself leaped into the sea and was + brought out safe on Lesbos by a dolphin. +

+

+ And the + goodwill and friendship of the dolphin for the + lad of IasusAelian, + De Natura Animal. vi. 15 (cf. viii. 11), tells the story in great + detail and with several differences; Cf. also the younger Pliny's famous letter (ix. 33) + on the dolphin of Hippo and the vaguer accounts in Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 6; + Antigonus, 55; Philo, 67 (p. 132). Gulick on Athenaeus, 606 c-d + collects the authorities; see also the dolphin stories in Pliny, + Nat. Hist. ix. 25 ff. and Mair on + Oppian, Hal. v. 458; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 54 f. Iasus is a city in + Ionian Caris on the gulf of the same name. was thought by + reason of its greatness to be true love. For it used to swim and play + with him during the day, allowing itself to be touched; and when the boy + mounted upon its back, it was not reluctant, but used to carry him with + pleasure wherever he directed it to go, while all the inhabitants of + Iasus flocked to the shore each time this happened. Once a violent storm + of rain and hail occurred and the boy slipped off and was drowned. The + dolphin took the body and threw both it and itself together on the land + and would not leave until it too had died, thinking it right to share a + death for which it imagined that it shared the responsibility. And in + memory of this calamity the inhabitants of Iasus have minted their coins + with the figure of a boy riding a dolphin.The story has a happier ending + in one version found in Pliny, Nat. + Hist. ix. 27: the dolphin dies, but Alexander the Great + makes the boy head of the priesthood of Poseidon in Babylon. + +

+

+ From this the + wild tales about CoeranusAelian, De + Natura Animal. viii. 3; Athenaeus, 606 e-f cites from + Phylarchus, Book XII (Jacoby, Frag. d. griech. Hist. i, p. 340). There are many other + examples of dolphins rescuing people, such as the fragment of + Euphorion in Page, Greek Literary + Papyri, i, p. 497 (L.C.L.). gained credence. He + was a Parian by birth who, at Byzantium, bought a draught of dolphins + which had been caught in a net and were in danger of slaughter, and set + them all free. A little later he was on a sea voyage in a penteconter, + so they say, with fifty pirates aboard ; in the strait between Naxos and + Paros the ship capsized and all the others were lost, while Coeranus, + they relate, because a dolphin sped beneath him and buoyed him up, was + put ashore at Sicinus,An island south of Paros. + near a cave which is pointed out to this day and bears the name of + Coeraneum. + Cf. Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 321 (L.C.L.). It is on + this man that Archilochus is said to have written the line Out of fifty, kindly Poseidon left only + Coeranus.Edmonds, op. cit. ii, p. 164; + Diehl, Anth. + Lyrica, i, p. 243. frag. 117. + When later he died, his relatives were burning the body near + the sea when a large shoal of dolphins appeared off shore as though they + were making it plain that they had come for the funeral, and they waited + until it was completed.On the grief of dolphins see Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 25, 33. + +

+

+ That the + shield of Odysseus had a dolphin emblazoned on it, StesichorusEdmonds, Lyra Graeca, ii, p. 66, + frag. 71. also has related ; and the Zacynthians perpetuate + the reason for it, as CritheusNothing whatever is known about this author, whose + name may be given incorrectly in our mss. testifies. For when + Telemachus was a small boy, so they say, he fell into the deep inshore + water and was saved by dolphins who came to his aid and swam with him to + the beach ; and that was the reason why his father had a dolphin + engraved on his ring and emblazoned on his shield, making this requital + to the animal. +

+

+ Yet since I + began by saying that I would not tell you any tall tales and since, + without observing what I was up to, I have now, besides the dolphins, + run aground on both Odysseus and Coeranus to a point beyond belief, I + lay this penalty upon myself : to conclude here and now. +

+
+
+

+ Perhaps rather Heracleon (975 c) + or Optatus (965 d). So, gentlemen of the jury, you may now + cast your votes. + +

+

+ As for us, we have for some + time held the view of SophoclesNauck, Trag. + Graec. Frag. p. 314, frag. 783; Pearson, iii, p. 69, + frag. 867.: + It is a marvel how of rival sides + The strife of tongues welds both so close together. + For by combining what you have said against each other, you + will together put up a good fight against thoseThe Stoics, as always in this + essay. who would deprive animals of reason and + understanding.To + some critics the ending is suspicious because of its brevity and + vagueness; they regard it as added by an ancient editor who could + not find the original termination. But the sudden turn at the end + may merely indicate that the whole debate is in reality a single + argument to prove the thesis that animals do have some degree of + rationality (see also the Introduction to this dialogue). + +

+
+
+ +
+ APPENDIX: CLASSIFIED ZOOLOGICAL INDEX +

A word of caution is needed : Plutarch emphatically was no naturalist. The + zoological material is a hodge-podge of misinformation dredged up from + various zoological sources, seasoned here and there with personal + contributions, which are not necessarily correct. In the original sources, + terms for specific types of animals were probably used with considerable + precision. It is my impression that Plutarch often had only a vague idea of + the meaning of such terms. For example, he consistently uses the specific + term for a rock dove, but probably had in mind any type of domestic dove. + Similarly, dorcas was used in Greece commonly as a term for the roedeer, but + in Asia Minor for the common gazelle. In the original sources the word + probably denoted specifically one or the other, depending on where the man + lived ; but Plutarch may well have used the term vaguely for any type of + small deer, including gazelles and antelopes. Alfred C. Andrews

+ + +
+ 1. Mammals + +

+ Αἴλουρος: wild cat of Egypt (Felis ocreata Gm.) and of Europe (F. silvestris Schreb.) and domestic form + (F. domestica Briss.).

+

+ Αἴξ: domestic goat, Capra hircus L.

+

+ Ἀλώπηξ: fox, esp. Vulpes vulgaris Flem.

+

+ Ἄρκτος: bear, more esp. the European brown + bear, Ursus arctos L.

+

+ Βοῦς: domestic ox, Bos taurus L.

+

+ Γαλέη (γαλῆ): the weasel (Putorius + vulgaris Cuv.), and such similar animals as the marten + (Martes sp.) and the polecat or + foumart (Mustela putorius L.).

+

+ Δασύρους: hare (see Λαγωός).

+

+ Δελφίς: dolphin, esp. Delphinus delphis L.

+

+ Δορκάς: in Greece, usually a term for the + roedeer, Capreolus capreolus L.; in Asia + Minor, usually a term for the common gazelle, Gazella dorcas L.

+

*Ἔλαφος: in Greece, usually a term for the + red-deer, Cervus elaphus L.; in Ionia, + usually a term for the fallow-deer, C. + dama L.

+

+ ᾽Ελέφας: elephant, Elephas indicus L. and Ε. africanus Blumenb.

+

+ Ἔριφος: usually a kid (see Αἴξ); sometimes a very young lamb (see Ὄϊς).

+

+ ᾽Εχῖνος (χερσαῖος): common hedgehog, Erinaceus + europaeus L.

+

+ Ἡμίονος: mule, usually by mare and he-ass, + sometimes by stallion and she-ass; in Syria, a term for the wild ass + (Asinus onager Sm.) or the dschigetai + (A. hemionus Sm.).

+

+ Ἵππος: horse, Caballus caballus L.

+

+ Ἵππος ποτάμιος: hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius L.

+

+ Ἰχνεύμων: ichneumon, Herpestes ichneumon L.

+

+ Κάμηλος: the Bactrian camel, Camelus bactrianus L., and the Arabian camel or + dromedary, C. dromedarius L.

+

+ Κάπρος: wild boar, mostly Sus scrofa ferus Rütimeyer.

+ +

+ Κῆτος: in Plutarch usually whale, as in + 980 F. See also Κῆτος under FISHES.

+

+ Κριός: ram (see Ὀϊς).

+

+ Κύων: dog, Canis + familiaris L.

+

+ Λαγωός: hare, esp. the common European + hare (Lepus europaeus Pall.), to a lesser + degree the variable hare (L. timidus + L.).

+

+ Λέων: lion, Felis + leo L.

+

+ Λύνξ: lynx, Lynx + lynx L.; caracal, Lynx + caracal Güld.

+

+ Λύκος: wolf, Canis + lupus L.

+

+ Ὄϊς: domestic sheep, Ovis aries L.

+

+ Ὄνος: domestic ass, Asinus domesticus Sm.

+

+ Ὀρεύς: mule (see Ἡμίονος).

+

+ Ὄρυξ: chiefly the scimitar-horned oryx + (Oryx leucoryx Pall.) and the + straight-horned oryx (O. beisa + Rüppel).

+

+ Πάρδαλις: panther or leopard, Felis pardus antiquorum Smith.

+

+ Πρόβατον: sheep (see Ὄϊς).

+

+ Σύς: pig, Sus + scrofa domesticus Rütimeyer.

+

+ Ταῦρος: bull (see Βοῦς).

+

+ Τίγρις: tiger, Felis tigris L.

+

+ Φώην: seal, including the common seal + (Phoca vitulina L.) and the monk seal + (P. monachus Herm.).

+
+
+ 2. Birds + +

+ Ἀετός: eagle, esp. Aquila sp.

+

+ Ἀηδών: nightingale, chiefly Luscinia megarhyncha Brehm.

+

+ Ἀλεκτρυών: domestic cock, Gallus domesticus Briss.

+

+ Ἀλκυών: kingfisher, Alcedo ispida L.

+

+ Γέρανος: common crane, Grus grus L.

+

+ Ἐρωδιός: heron, including the common heron + (Ardea cinerea L.), the greater + European egret (Herodias alba Gray), the + lesser European egret (Garzetta garzetta + L.), and the bittern (Botaurus stellaris + L.).

+

+ Ἶβις: ibis, including the sacred white + ibis (Ibis aethiopica Ill.) and the black + ibis (Plegades falcinellus Kaup.).

+

+ Ἱεραξ: smaller hawks and falcons + generically.

+

+ Ἰκτῖνος: kite, including the common kite + (Milvus ictinus Sav.) and the black + kite (Μ. ater Gm.).

+

+ Κίττα: jay, Garrulus glandarius L.; sometimes the magpie, Pica caudata L.

+

+ Κολοιός: jackdaw, Corvus monedula L.

+ +

+ Κόραξ: raven, Corvus corax L.

+

+ Κορώνη: crow (Corvus corone L.) and hooded crow (C. + cornix L.).

+

+ Κύκνος: swan, Cygnus olor Gra. and C. + musicus Bkst.

+

+ Μέροψ: bee-eater, Merops apiaster L.

+

+ Πελαργός: stork, esp. Ciconia alba L.

+

+ Πέρδιξ: partridge, esp. the Greek + partridge, Alectoris graeca Kaup; in Italy + also the red-legged partridge, A. rufa + Kaup.

+

+ Περιστερά: rock-dove, Columba livia L.; domestic rock-dove, C. livia domestica L.

+

+ Τροχίλος: Egyptian plover, Pluvianus aegyptius Viell.; elsewhere also the + common European wren, Troglodytes + troglodytes L.

+

+ Χελιδών: swallow, including the chimney + swallow (Chelidon rustica L.) and the + house-martin (Chelidon urbica Boie).

+

+ Χήν: as a wild type, the gray or graylag + goose (Anser cinereus Meyer) and the bean + goose (Anser segetum Bonn.), often the + domestic type of the gray goose.

+

+ Ψάρ: starling, Sturnus vulgaris L.

+

+ Ψιττακός: parrot, perhaps esp. Psittacus alexandri L. and P. torquatus Gm.

+

+ Ὠτίς: bustard, Otis tarda L.

+

+ Ὦτος: a horned or eared owl, not more + specifically identifiable.

+
+ +
+ 3. REPTILES AND AMPHIBIA + +

+ Βάτραχος: frog, Rana sp. and allied genera.

+

+ Κροκόδειλος: Nile crocodile, Crocodilus niloticus Laur.

+

+ Ὄφις: serpent generically.

+

+ Χαμαιλέων: the African chameleon, Chameleo vulgaris Latr.

+

+ Χελώνη (χερσαία): tortoise, Testudo + graeca L. and Τ. marginata + Schoepff.; (θαλαττία): sea-turtle, + Thalassochelys corticata Rondel.

+
+ +
+ 4. FISHES + +

+ Ἁλιεύς: fishing-frog, Lophius piscatorius L.

+

+ Ἀλώπηξ: fox-shark, Alopecias vulpes Bp.

+

+ Ἀμία: bonito, more esp. the pelamid or + belted bonito, Sarda sarda Cuv., to a + lesser degree the bonito or striped-bellied tunny, Katsuwonus pelamis Kish.

+

+ Ἀνθίας: in 977 c probably the + Mediterranean barbier, Serranus anthias C. + V.; sometimes spoken of as a much larger fish, then of uncertain + identity.

+ +

+ Βελόνη: usually the pipefish (Syngnathus rubescens Risso and S. acus L.) and the garfish (Belone imperialis Vincig. and Strongylura acus Lacép.); in 983 C + indeterminable.

+

+ Γαλεός: generic term for sharks and + dogfishes, more esp. Scyllium canicula + Cuv., S. catulus Cuv., and Mustelus vulgaris Müll.

+

+ Γαλῆ: principally the hake and rockling, + Phycis sp. and Motella sp.

+

+ Γόγγρος: conger-eel, Conger vulgaris Cuv.

+

+ Ἔλλοψ: probably mostly the common + sturgeon, Acipenser sturio L.

+

+ Ἡγεμών: usually the pilot-fish, Naucrates ductor Cuv.; in 980 F apparently also + one of the globe-fishes, such as Diodon + hystrix L.

+

+ Θρίσσα: probably the shad, Alosa vulgaris C. V., or the sardinelle, + Sardinella aurita C. V.

+

+ Θύννος: tunny, mostly the common tunny, + Thunnus thynnus L.

+

+ Ἱερός: sacred, an epithet applied to + several fish, more especially the Ἀμθίας, + the gilthead, the sturgeon, the dolphin, and the pilotfish.

+

+ Ἰουλίς: rainbow-wrasse, Coris iulis Gth.

+

+ Κεστρεύς: the gray mullet in general, + sometimes the common gray mullet, Mugil + capito Cuv., in particular.

+

+ Κῆτος: sometimes a large sea monster (as + in 981 D), in other authors sometimes a huge fish (such as a large tunny), + but more commonly, and usually in Plutarch, a whale.

+

+ Κολίας: coly-mackerel, Pneumatophorus colias Gm.

+

+ Κωβιός: goby, chiefly the black goby, + Gobius niger L.

+

+ Λάβραξ: sea-bass, Labrax lupus Cuv.

+

+ Μορμύρος: type of sea bream, the mormyrus, + Pagellus mormyrus C. V.

+

+ Μύραινα: moray or murry, Muraena helena L.

+

+ Νάρκη: torpedo or electric ray, esp. + Torpedo marmorata Risso, less commonly + Τ. narce Nardo and Τ. hebetans Löwe.

+

+ Περαίας: a type of gray mullet (Mugil sp.).

+

+ Πηλαμύς: year-old tunny (see Θύννος).

+

+ Σαργός: sargue, esp. Sargus vulgaris Geoff.

+

+ Σκάρος: parrot-fish, Scarus cretensis C. V.

+

+ Σκορίος: sculpin, Scorpaena scrofa L. and S. porcus L.

+

+ Τρίγλα: the red or plain surmullet, + Mullus barbatus L., and the striped or + common surmullet, Μ. surmuletus L.

+ +

+ Φυκίς: a wrasse, probably specifically + Crenilabrus pavo C. V.

+

+ Χρυσωρός: gilthead, Chrysophrys aurata C. V.

+
+
+ + 5. MOLLUSCS + +

+ Κόγχη: mussels in general, including + oysters.

+

+ Λαγωός (θαλάττιος): sea-hare, Aplysia + depilans L.

+

+ Ὄστρεον: sometimes a generic term for + mussels; more commonly a specific term for the common European oyster, + Ostrea edulis L.; occasionally a term + for other species of oyster, such as O. + lamellosa Brocchi and O. + cristata Lam.

+

+ Πίννη: pinna, especially Pinna nobilis L.; but also P. rudis L., P. + rotundata L., and P. + pectinata L.

+

+ Πολύπους: octopus, Octopus vulgaris Lam.

+

+ Πορφύρα: purplefish, Murex trunculus L., Μ. + brandaris L., and Thais + haemastoma Lam.

+

+ Σηπία: cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis L.

+
+
+ 6. CRUSTACEA + +

+ Κάραβος: rock lobster, Palinurus vulgaris Latr.

+

+ Καρκίνος: crab, Decapoda brachyura + Lam.

+

+ Πάγουρος: probably the common edible crab, + Cancer pagurus L.

+

+ Πιννοτήρης: pinna-guard, Pinnoteres veterum L.

+

+ Σπογγοτήρης: sponge-guard, Typton spongicola Costa.

+
+
+ 7. INSECTS AND SPIDERS + +

+ Ἀράχνης: spider (class Arachnoidea, order + Araneida).

+

+ Μέλιττα: bee generically, but mostly + domestic honeybee, Apis mellifera L.

+

+ Μύρμηξ: ant generically (family + Formicidae).

+

+ Τέττιξ: cicada, esp. Cicada plebeia Scop, and C. orni L.

+
+
+ 8. ECHINODERMS + +

+ Ἀστήρ: starfish generically, Asterias sp.

+

+ Ἐχῖνος (θαλάττιος): sea-urchin, especially Echinus esculentus Lam. and Strongylocentrotus lividus Brdt.

+
+
+ 9. PORIFERA + +

+ Σπόγγος: sponge, chiefly Euspongia officinalis Bronn. and Hippospongia equina Schmidt.

+
+
+
+ + +