Note 231 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Κράτιστον ἐᾷν ὑπὸ τῇ τεκούσῃ.—Arrian here copies his predecessor almost verbatim; but in addition to theDe Venat. c. vii. τὸ γάλα ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα of the former, the latter adds καὶ αἱ περιβολαὶ φίλαι. The classic reader will remember the pathetic address of Andromache in the Troades,
Euripidis Troad. vs. 766.
ὦ νέον ὑπαγκάλισμα μητρὶ φίλτατον, ὦ χρωτὸς ἡδὺ πνεῦμα!
It is true that a foster-mother may “cherish kind—an alien offspring,” and “pleased” we may “behold her tenderness, and hospitable love,” but instances are, I believe, most rare of greyhound puppies, suckled by alien dams of mongrel blood, repaying the courser for the trouble of rearing them.Platonis Menexenus. Πᾶν γὰρ τὸ τεκὸν τροφὴν ἔχει ἐπιτηδείαν ᾧ ἂν τέκῃ: and it is in vain that we make the unnatural attempt, αἱ γὰρ θεραπεῖαι αἱ ἀλλότριαι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὔξιμοι, according to bothEncyclopéd. Méthodique. Les Chasses. p. 140. Xenophons; whereas “les jeunes chiens, nourris par leur propre mère, seroient plus forts et mieux portans que ceux qui sont nourris d’un lait étranger.” “When a bitch hath whelpes,” saysBooke of Hunting, &c. p. 22. Turberville, “let a mastiffe bitch (une matine, Fouilloux) give sucke to one halfe, and you shall find that they will never be so good as those which the damme did bring up.”
Oppian. Cyneg. iii. 107.
ἦ ῥα τόσον τέκεών τε, καὶ ἀρτιγόνοιο γενέθλης φίλτρον ἐνὶ κραδίῃ στάξεν θεός· τόσσον ῥα φύσις κρατερώτατον ἄλλων.