Book 4
Imperial Oppian of Apamea Greek- So many are the forms of beasts, and so many through the shadowy wood are the bridal loves and companionships, and the hatreds and chilling battles and the pastoral couches. But now let us sing the boundless craft of toil-enduring men, both their strong might and their prudent counsel, and the heart fenced with shifting wiles and many-counselled tricks; for indeed against the wild tribes it fights, to which the god gave strength and goodly courage and wits not much less than the hunters' own. Many are the ways of the famous, all-sufficing hunt, fitted to the beasts and the tribes and the ravines, countless; who could hold them all in one mind, to tell them in due measure with sweet-sounding songs? Who could see them all? Who could behold so much, being mortal? Only the gods see all things easily. But I shall tell those things I saw with my own eyes, walking through the thickets after the splendid-gifted hunt, and all I learned from men whose care it is, the varied mysteries of every lovely art, longing to sing all these for the son of Severus, of Zeus; and you, holy goddess, all-ruler of the hunt, graciously tell them to the swift royal ear, so that, having learned beforehand all the secrets of your works, he may slay beasts, blessed alike in hand and in song. Of beasts some are prudent, of shifting counsel, but small in body; others, on the contrary, are strong, but feeble of counsel in their breasts; others again at once are cowardly in heart and weak in their limbs, but swift of foot; and to these the god gave all, crafty counsel, strong body, swift knees. And each knows the famous gifts of its own nature, where it is feeble and where it is bloody. The deer is not bold with horns, but the bull with horns; the oryx is not strong in the jaws, but lions in the jaws; the rhinoceros trusts not in its feet, but the feet are the weapons of hares; the deadly leopard knows the deadly venom of its paws, and the dread sheep knows the great strength of its stony forehead, and the boar knows the overweening might of its tusks. Now all the forethoughts and traps that there are for the bloody hunters, single-handed among the crags, we shall tell, the hunts assigned to each beast apart; but all that are common have got a common song. Common are the methods of hunting with nets and common the foot-snares; common too it is for men to pursue all swift-footed breeds with horses and with hounds; and at other times again to drive straight with horses alone, without hounds, with those horses that feed about the Mauretanian land, or among the Libyans; which are not by the strength of hands choked with the curb-chains of a forced bridle, but obey the withies, wherever a man leads. Therefore the horsemen who ride those horses both leave their dear hounds behind, and confident drive with horses under the sun's beam and without helpers. Common it is to hurl the javelin and to shoot facing the braver beasts, which fight mightily against men. And one must set the gear of the hunt against the net, and flee the breath of the wind and watch the wind. And as men who ride in seafaring boats, sitting at the sterns, handling the steering-gear of ships, scan the air, and, obeying the bright south winds, spread the sail-winged gear of their ships; so too on dry land I bid the hunting men scan on either side the winds that blow, that they may set their nets and drive the beasts everywhere having met the breezes; for to all beasts the keenest are the scentings of their noses; and if they perceive either the smell of the stakes or of the spread net, they turn back the other way, and wheeling about they flee right in the face of the men, and make the toil of the hunt vain. Therefore let my beast-slayers watch the rushing winds, and set their stakes and the net-line over against the wind's blast; and let them drive the beasts behind toward the south, when a clear-skied Boreas rises; and toward the north, when a dewy Notus blows; and when Eurus is set, let them run with the western breezes; and when Zephyr is stirred, let them drive swiftly toward Eurus. But first cast into your heart the surpassing hunt of lions, and the brave hearts of men. First, coming, they have marked out the place where, about the caves, the loud-roaring, fair-maned lion dwells, a great terror to the cattle and the herdsmen themselves; and afterward they have marked out the beast's huge path worn by its tracks, where many a time the river-crossing one goes straight to drink its sweet draught. There they dug a deep trench round about, wide and of great compass; and in the middle of the ditch they built a great pillar, upright, high-crowned; and from it they hung up high, having drawn it aloft, a new-suckling lamb from its lately-delivered mother; and outside the trench they wreathed all round a wall, fencing it with thick-set stones, so that, drawing near, the lion might not see the treacherous chasm; and the lamb, hung high beneath its dam, bleats; and the cry strikes the hungry heart of the lion; searching, it rushes straight, rejoicing in its heart, hurrying after the track of the bleating, and this way and that peering with fiery eyes; and soon it comes near the snare, and circles about, and strong hunger stirs it. At once it leaped over the wall, trusting to its belly, and the wide chasm received it, ringed round, nor did it perceive that it had come to the bottom of an unlooked-for pit; everywhere it wheels about, ever leaping back, like a swift prize-winning horse about the turning-post, choked by the hands and the bridle of the charioteer. And the hunters, beholding from the far-seen lookout, rushed up, and binding it with well-cut thongs they let down the well-twisted, fashioned cage, hiding there too the roasted bait of food; but the lion, watching to escape from the trench at once, leaps in there, exulting; but no return is ready for it; so it is about the loose, much-thirsting land of the Libyans. But by the banks of fair-flowing Euphrates they make ready great-hearted, grey-eyed horses for the contest against beasts; for the grey-eyed are swiftest to run and shameless to fight by force, and they alone endure to face the roaring of lions; the others tremble and avert their eyes, fearing their lord's fiery, fire-bright corner of the eye, as I said before in the songs about horses. The footmen stretched out the encircling fence of net, building the meshes on thick-set stakes; and the wing on either side leaned forward as far as the horn of the new-born moon inclines. Three hunters again lie in wait by the nets, one in the middle, two at the topmost clusters, as far as, when the man in the middle calls to both, the topmost wing-tips of the pair on either side may hear. The others stood in the manner of bloody war, holding dry, fire-bright torches all about; and each of the men himself holds a shield in his left hand, in the clatter of the shield a great terror to the bloody beasts; and in his right he bears fire kindled from pine-wood; for above all the fair-maned lion fears the might of fire, nor does it endure to look on it with unblinking eyes. And they, when they behold the brave heart of the lions, all together the horsemen rush on, and on either side the footmen follow, clattering, and the shout reaches the sky. But the beasts do not wait, and wheeling about they go, gnashing their spirit between their teeth, unwilling to defend themselves. And as by night the wily fishermen guide the fish toward the net, bearing on swift boats blazing torches; and the fish, seeing them, tremble, and do not wait for the wheeling gleam; so too the lordly beasts shut their eyes. And then, fearing the din of men and the flame of torches, of their own accord they draw near the plaited flanks of the nets. There is a third manner of hunting among the Ethiopians, unwearying, a great marvel; and brave men, the Ethiopians, trusting in their manhood, four of them perform it. They make plaited shields of well-twisted withies, strong and rounded at the sides, and over them they stretch dry ox-hides upon the bossed shields, to be a defence against strong claws and bloody jaws; and they themselves clothe their whole bodies in the wool of sheep, girt above with thick-set belts; and helmets hide their heads; only you would behold their lips and noses and their gleaming eyes. And they go against the beast all together, with sweet-sounding whips fanning the air with frequent strokes; but it, leaping forth from its cave, restless, roars, spreading its murderous chasm against the men, glaring from its grey eyes a blazing fire, seething in spirit, like the lightnings of Zeus. Not such is the stream of the Ganges before the sun, crossing over the Indian plain, past the Maryandian people, when it bellows a huge roar, when from the cliffs leaping forth it covers the dark body of the shore; which, broad though it is and swollen by twenty other rivers, arches up, armoured with its fierce water; such a din the boundless thicket and the ravines make with their deadly roarings, and the whole air resounds. And at once it sprang, eager to glut itself on flesh, quite like a wintry storm; but they stand fast, unshaken, against the fiery threat that rushes upon them. But it, with its claws and its baleful jaws, irresistible, ravages whatever it seizes, leaping upon it. But another of the men, leaping in behind, calls it off, clattering and crying piercingly aloud. And at once the great-hearted, fair-maned lion, turning, springs up, leaving the one it had seized in its mouth; and again another sidelong rouses the well-bearded dark beast; and others from other sides press upon it in turn, trusting in their hides and shields and belts, which neither the strong teeth of its jaws cut, nor the points of its iron claws pierce. But it wastes its toil in vain, raging without aim, leaving one and seizing another and at once dragging it from the ground, then again rushing irresistibly straight at another. And as when in war a strong warrior man the enemy ring of furious battle encircles, but he, breathing the might of Ares, this way and that darts, brandishing in his hand a bloody spear, and at last the warlike band of men subdues him, all pressing on together; and he sinks to the ground, struck by thick-flung, far-whirring points; so it too, giving up its unaccomplished toils, late at last gave to the men all the prizes of the battle; and it lets fall bloody foam in a stream; and like one ashamed it presses its eye to the ground. And as a man crowned with many wild-olive wreaths in the contests of boxing, by a strong adversary face to face overcome by thick-falling wounds, stands at first bathed in streaming blood, like one drunk and reeling, his head leaning aslant; and then upon the ground, knees bent, he is stretched out; so it stretched its fainting limbs upon the sand. And they then are far more busy, and at once above all pressing on bind it with strong bonds, as it avoids nothing, but lies very quiet and still. O greatly daring, how much they ventured, how much they did, lifting that dread monster like a tame ram! I have heard that with trenches and like wiles they have hunted shameless jackals too, and have deceived the breeds of leopards, but with far smaller trenches; and they cut a horn-beam not of stone but of oak; nor did they hang aloft the offspring of a goat, but of a dog; and from it they bound its manhood with thin thongs; and it, swiftly, hard-pressed with pains, howls with bayings and cries out to the leopards; and the leopard is much delighted, and rushes straight through the thicket. And as when fishermen set the snare of a weel, plaiting it of Salaminian broom, and in its sides they put an octopus or a mullet, burning it in the fire; and the smell reaches the flat rocks, and toward the weel it leads the fish, deserting of their own accord, nor are they able to slip out again, but meet their dread destruction; so the leopard, hearing the dog from afar, ran and leaped, thinking it no trick, and, obeying its belly, drew near the depths of the pit. The leopards too the gifts of Dionysus subdued, the bloody hunters treacherously pouring out the treacherous draught, they nothing avoiding the wrath of holy Dionysus. Leopards are now a race of beasts, but of old they were not grim beasts, but grey-eyed women, wine-drinkers, branch-bearers, keepers of the triennial feast, flower-crowned, nurses of frenzied, dance-rousing Bacchus. For the infant Bacchus Ino, daughter of Agenor, reared, offering her first-flowing breast to the son of Zeus; and together with her Autonoe and Agave reared him too; but not in the cruel halls of Athamas, but on the mountain which then by surname they called the Thigh. For greatly fearing the mighty wife of Zeus, and trembling at the tyrant Pentheus, son of Echion, in a chest of pine-wood they laid the divine offspring, and wrapped it in fawnskins and crowned it with clusters in a cave, and danced the mystic dance about the child; and they beat drums and clashed cymbals in their hands, veils for the wailings of the infant; and first they showed the secret rites about the hidden ark; and with them the Aonian women secretly took up the rites; and out of the mountain for their faithful companions they made ready the gathering, going straight beyond the Boeotian land; for already, already the land that was untamed before was to be planted under toil-loosing Dionysus. The holy band, lifting the unspeakable chest, crowned, set it upon the back of an ass; and they came to the shores of the Euripus, where they found an old man with his children, a sea-wanderer; and all about they besought the fishermen to cross the depths with their boats; and he, in reverence, received the holy women. And now green bindweed bloomed on the benches, and the seasonable vine and the ivy covered the stern; and the fishermen would have plunged over the sea, cowering in divine terror, but before that the ship grounded on land; and toward Euboea the women and to the place of Aristaeus they brought the god, carrying him down, who dwelt on the highest mountain, in a cave at Caryae, and taught men countless things of the country life; he first established the fold of sheep, he first pressed the fruits of the rich wild olive, and first curdled milk with rennet, and into the hives he lifted from the oak and shut up the gentle bees. He then reared Dionysus, newly born, in his cave, the child of Ino, receiving him from the chest, and brought him up with the Dryads and the bee-keeping Nymphs and the Euboean maidens and the Aonian women. And now, growing up, he played among the other children; cutting a fennel-stalk, he struck the hard rocks, and they spurted forth for the god sweet wine from their wounds. At other times he tore lambs apart with their very skins and cut them limb from limb and threw the corpses on the ground, and again with his hands he deftly put the joints together, and at once they lived and fed on the green pasture. And now he had a care for revel-bands, and over all the earth the gifts of Thyonean Dionysus were spread. Everywhere he went about showing his excellence to mortals; and late at last he came to Thebes, and to the fire-born one all the Cadmean women came; but the raging Pentheus bound the unbound hands of Dionysus, and threatened to tear the god with his own murderous hands, not reverencing the white hair of Tyrian Cadmus, nor Agave rolling before his feet; but he shouted to his ill-fated comrades to drag him, to drag and to shut him up, and he drove off the band of women. Now the guards, sons of Pentheus, thought to lead Bromius in iron bonds, and the other Cadmeans too; but no bonds held the god; and the hearts of the revellers were frozen, and they all flung to the ground the garlands from their temples and the wands from their hands; and the cheeks of all the Bacchae streamed with tears; and at once they cried aloud: "Hail, blessed one, O Dionysus, kindle your father's flaming light, and shake the earth, and grant swift vengeance on the cruel tyrant; set Pentheus among the crags, fire-begotten, as a bull, Pentheus the ill-named as a bull, and us as beasts, flesh-devouring, armed with deadly claws, that we may, O Dionysus, carve him through the mouth." So they spoke, praying; and the Nysian soon heard their prayer. The bloody eye showed Pentheus as a bull, and he raised up his neck, and the horn rose from his forehead; and for them he set the grey-glancing eye of a beast, and armed their jaws, and inscribed upon their backs a hide as on fawns, and made them savage tribes. And they, by the counsels of the god having changed their fair flesh, leopards, devoured Pentheus among the crags. Such things let us sing, such let us believe in our hearts; but all the deeds of women in the glens of Cithaeron, or those defiled ones, the mothers estranged from Dionysus, the singers tell of impiously and falsely. And a certain beast-slayer, with other comrades, contrived a trap thus for the unmixed-wine-loving leopards. Having found a spring in the thirsty land of Libya, which, very small in a most waterless region, unforeseen and unseen drips up dark water, nor flows far with gurglings, but very strangely bubbles and stands still and sinks into the sands; thither the wild race of leopards goes at dawn to drink; and the hunters, setting out swiftly in the dark, bring twenty jars of delicious wine, which in the eleventh year some man, careful in his vineyard-tending, had pressed; and they mixed the sweet wine with the water, and leaving the purple spring, they bed down not far off, having covered their strong bodies beforehand either with goatskins or with the very nets; for shelter they cannot find, neither of stones nor of fair-leaved trees; for all the land is stretched out crumbling and treeless. And the leopards, smitten by the scorching sun, both thirst and their dear breath have summoned; and they draw near the Bacchic spring and greedily, gaping wide, lap up Dionysus, and upon one another all first they frisk, like dancers in a chorus, then their bodies grow heavy, and their faces to the holy ground they slowly nod down; and afterward upon all of them a heavy stupor, forcing them, casts them to the ground, one here, one there. And as when at feasts, having drawn from the mixing-bowls, youths still children, with the down just on their cheeks, sing sweetly, challenging after the meal one another from either side with cups passed in turn, and late at last they cease; and the might of wine, weighing down upon their minds and their eyes, flung them one upon another; so those beasts, poured all over one another, fell, without toil, beneath the strong hunters. For bears they perform a famous, surpassing hunt, all who dwell by the Tigris and bow-famed Armenia. A great throng go into the long-shadowing depths of the thickets, skilled, with self-loosing, keen-scented hounds, to seek the much-wandering tracks of the deadly beasts. But when the hounds behold the signs of the paws, they follow and guide along the trails together, setting their long noses close to the ground; and if behind them they should behold any fresher track, hurrying they leap at once, exulting, forgetting the former; and when they come to the end of the well-wandering trail and the all-dappled lair of the beast, at once one leaps from the hand of the hunter, baying most piteously, rejoicing greatly in its heart. And as when a maiden in the milky season of spring with unsandalled feet wanders all over the mountains, seeking flowers; and to her, though she is very far off, beforehand the sweet breath has revealed a violet; and her light heart is much gladdened and smiles, and she reaps it insatiate, and binding up her hair she goes to the house of her field-dwelling parents, singing; so the bold heart of the hound was gladdened; and the hunter, forcing it back with his belts, eager though it was, exulting, went back to the throng of his comrades. And to them he told of the thicket, and where, lying in wait, he himself and his fellow-toiler had left the bitter beast. And they, hurrying, set up strong stakes and spread the meshes and cast about the nets; and on the two horns, on either side, they leaned two men at the net's edge, beneath shafts of ashwood. And from the very horns and the young gate-keepers on the left they stretch a well-twisted cord, long, of linen, a little above the ground, as far as to reach the whirling navel of a man; and from it hang all-shining, intricate many-coloured flowers of ribbons, terrors to beasts, and from it are suspended countless gleaming feathers, the fair wing-feathers of birds of the air, of vultures and grey swans and long-necked storks. And on the right they set ambushes beneath the clefts, or swiftly covered their dwellings with green leaves, a little apart from one another, and they hid four men in each, casting branches all about their bodies. But when in due order everything is ready, the trumpet sounds a huge blast, and the beast, springing from the thicket, barks sharply and glares sharply; and the men rush on all together, and on either side they go against the beast, pressing it in close array. But it, leaving the tumult and the men, rushes straight on, where it sees a wide bare plain; and from there in order, behind its back, the rising band of men clamour and clatter, hurrying toward the brow of the cord and the many-coloured terror; but the wretched beast is borne along, hemmed in on both sides, utterly bewildered; it fears all together, the ambush, the din, the trumpet, the shout, the frightening cord; for in the sounding wind the ribbons above flutter through the air, moving, and the feathers whistle shrilly. Therefore, peering about, it creeps straight toward the net, and falls into the linen ambush; and those near at hand, at the net's edge, leap up, and hastening from above they stretch the broom-bound encircling line; and one upon another they pile the net; for then the bears rage greatly both with their jaws and their grievous paws; and often from the very net they have fled the hunting men and slipped past the meshes and made the hunt vanish. But then some strong man bound the right paw of the bear, and bereft it of all its rush, and bound it skilfully, and stretched the beast to the timbers, and again shut it up in a chamber of oak and pine, its body trained in close-wound coils. And one must, up the steep crag and the rock, chase the swift-footed tribes of hares as they run ahead, but down the slope drive them with wise forethoughts; for at once, beholding the hounds and the men, they make straight for the hill; since they well know that their forelegs are the shorter. Therefore the hills are easy for hares, easy for hares, hard for horsemen. Yes, and one must avoid the much-trodden trail of the path and the beaten way, and drive them over the ploughlands; for they are lighter on a smooth path and nimble of foot and leap easily; but on tilled ground both in summer their feet grow heavy, and in the winter season they carry a deadly crust up to their ankles. If ever you take a gazelle, beware lest after a long extended and lengthy course, near the end of the toil, it should halt a little and shed the matter from its flanks; for gazelles, above all in the middle of their courses, swell their bladder, weighed down in the flanks by necessary waters, and crouch upon the haunch; but if they let out a little from their loud-resounding throats, far better and swifter they flee, with lightened knees and lighter inwards. But the fox is taken neither by ambushes nor by nooses nor by nets; for it is clever to perceive with its wits, and clever again to gnaw the rope and loose the knots, and by close-set wiles to slip away from death. But the hounds lifted it, all together; yet not even they, strong though they were, subdued it without bloodshed.