DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0294
272
THE AGJtlMl OJ! WILD-GOAT.
[CHAL'.
okes and the other thirty-five. They are always larger
than the common goat. In the winter-time they may
be tracked by the sportsman in the snow. It is com-
mon for men to perish in the chase of them. They are
of a reddish colour, (kokkwo.,) and never black or party-
coloured like the goat: the number of prominences on
each horn indicates the years of the animal's age.11
The great activity of the wild-goat is alluded to
by the epithet t£a\os20 bestowed on it in Homer; and
the length of the horns, which I obtained at Samaria,
is very nearly that assigned in the well-known descrip-
tion of the bow of Pandarus21.
Before four o'clock I set out on my return to Haghia
Rumeli. Again and again do I "cast a longing, linger-
ing look behind," as each step which I retrace, towards
the narrow glen, makes me lose sight of the lofty cypress-
clad mountains of Samaria.
I mark the sable woods
That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow:
With what religious awe the solemn scene
Commands our steps!
As if the form of Minos should forsake
Th' Elysian seats, and down the embowering glade
Move to the pausing eye!
On leaving these grand and most beautiful of Nature's
works, it is not without a feeling of regret that I have
20 On which see Hesychius, v. "tguA-os. Eustathius, on II. iv.
p. 342. Visconti, Museo Pio-Clementiho, Tom. m. p. 54. Heyne, on
Horn. 11. iv. 106.
21 Homeh, IL iv. 105.
'AvtIk' eov\a to^uv cu£ooi>, i^u\.vu (uyos
tiypiov, tw pa ttot' huto's, utto GTepvuiu TVXi\<ras,
ir£iy>ijs eicfiatvoVTlt occcypevos ev TrpoooKrjcxL,
fiepMIKet TTjody crri/tfov, o o' utttios e/XTrt'fre Trcrpyj.
'toii xep(c iK KctpttXtjs e KKaio e nao ui p a ir'eAvKei,
where Heyne observes, (Tom. iv. p. 573.) " (rrammaticus apud Venetum
A. xvi. palmos aestimat ovo ijpinrv -tr^^wv. Voluit puto dicere itod&v.
duobns pedibn.s cum dimidko. Scilicet pes (i-raccorum censetur VI. paimis,
pdlmus auteni quatuor digitis. (Falmus est Sutpov, TrffXtuo-Tif, doxpi'i—) Tan;
magna esse caprarum agrestium cornua olim dubitatmn est."
THE AGJtlMl OJ! WILD-GOAT.
[CHAL'.
okes and the other thirty-five. They are always larger
than the common goat. In the winter-time they may
be tracked by the sportsman in the snow. It is com-
mon for men to perish in the chase of them. They are
of a reddish colour, (kokkwo.,) and never black or party-
coloured like the goat: the number of prominences on
each horn indicates the years of the animal's age.11
The great activity of the wild-goat is alluded to
by the epithet t£a\os20 bestowed on it in Homer; and
the length of the horns, which I obtained at Samaria,
is very nearly that assigned in the well-known descrip-
tion of the bow of Pandarus21.
Before four o'clock I set out on my return to Haghia
Rumeli. Again and again do I "cast a longing, linger-
ing look behind," as each step which I retrace, towards
the narrow glen, makes me lose sight of the lofty cypress-
clad mountains of Samaria.
I mark the sable woods
That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow:
With what religious awe the solemn scene
Commands our steps!
As if the form of Minos should forsake
Th' Elysian seats, and down the embowering glade
Move to the pausing eye!
On leaving these grand and most beautiful of Nature's
works, it is not without a feeling of regret that I have
20 On which see Hesychius, v. "tguA-os. Eustathius, on II. iv.
p. 342. Visconti, Museo Pio-Clementiho, Tom. m. p. 54. Heyne, on
Horn. 11. iv. 106.
21 Homeh, IL iv. 105.
'AvtIk' eov\a to^uv cu£ooi>, i^u\.vu (uyos
tiypiov, tw pa ttot' huto's, utto GTepvuiu TVXi\<ras,
ir£iy>ijs eicfiatvoVTlt occcypevos ev TrpoooKrjcxL,
fiepMIKet TTjody crri/tfov, o o' utttios e/XTrt'fre Trcrpyj.
'toii xep(c iK KctpttXtjs e KKaio e nao ui p a ir'eAvKei,
where Heyne observes, (Tom. iv. p. 573.) " (rrammaticus apud Venetum
A. xvi. palmos aestimat ovo ijpinrv -tr^^wv. Voluit puto dicere itod&v.
duobns pedibn.s cum dimidko. Scilicet pes (i-raccorum censetur VI. paimis,
pdlmus auteni quatuor digitis. (Falmus est Sutpov, TrffXtuo-Tif, doxpi'i—) Tan;
magna esse caprarum agrestium cornua olim dubitatmn est."