Note 357 — CANES VENATICI. Class I.

Statues and pictures of κύνες φρουροδόμοι were sometimes exhibited on the entrance doors, or walls of vestibules—of which kind were the dogs wrought of gold and silver by Vulcan for Alcinous, Δῶμα φυλασσέμεναι μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο—and the Canis Catenarius of Petronius Arbiter—“ad sinistram intrantibus non longè ab ostiarii cellâ, canis ingens catenâ vinctus in pariete erat pictus, superque quadratâ literâ scriptum, CAVE CAVE CANEM.”—Even Mercury himself was sometimes there exhibited—upon the principle, I suppose, of setting a thief to catch a thief.