Note 49 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.

Diana having been particularly worshipped in Crete, on the authority of Ovid’s

Ovid. Fast. L. iii.

we expect to find the inhabitants addicted to hunting; and such was their character according to Ælian: De Naturâ Animal. L. iii. c. ii.Κύων Κρῆσσα κούφη, καὶ ἁλτικὴ, καὶ ὀρειβασίαις σύντροφος· καὶ μέντοι καὶ αὐτοὶ Κρῆτες τοιούτους αὑτοὺς παραδεικνῦσιν, καὶ ἄδει ἡ φήμη. But it is worthy of notice that although Arrian attributes to Xenophon a description of the hunting practices alone of the Cretans and Carians, there is no mention, in the Cynegeticus of the latter, of these ardent sportsmen or their hounds, save that in his chapter on boar-hunting he orders Indians, Cretans, Locrians, and Spartans to be taken to the field, as a fit pack to contend with such ferocious game, Xenophon. de Venat. c. x.μὴ τὰς ἐπιτυχούσας (picked dogs) ἵνα ἕτοιμοι ὦσι πολεμεῖν τῷ θηρίῳ.

Arrian’s meaning therefore must be that Xenophon’s description, such as it is, (in hare-hunting confined to the Castorian and Foxite hounds,) is applicable to the Carian and Cretan sporting alone, and can have no reference whatever to the peculiar practices of the Celtic coursers. However, I do not believe the difference between the Ejusdem c. iii.Spartan and Cretan or Carian hounds to have been very marked, and Xenophon, possibly, may have included the two latter with the former in his general classification of καστόριαι and ἀλωπεκίδες.