Note 153 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Ἔπαισα τὴν κεφαλήν. Blane supposes Arrian to strike the greyhound’s head as a chastisement for having killed the hare: but this interpretation is too absurd to be admitted. Many are the examples of the custom of striking the head with the hand, in indication of sudden grief and vexation. Priam is fearfully apprehensive of Hector’s death, and strikes his head with sorrow:
Iliad. xxii.
————κεφαλήν δ’ ὅγε κόψατο χερσὶν ὕψοσ’ ἀνασχόμενος.
Psammetichus expresses his grief in the same way over the rich Egyptian monarch, reduced to mendicancy in his old age, Herodot. Thalia.ἐπλήξατο τὴν κεφαλὴν—and Plutarch tells us that Solon began παίειν τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τ’ ἄλλα ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν, ἃ συμβαίνει τοῖς περιπαθοῦσι, as soon as he heard of the death of his son.