Of all the pugnacious dogs of the classic file, the most renowned were
those bred on the continent of Epirus, and denominated, from one of
its principal districts, Molossian: of which Aristotle records two
varieties, the one for ordinary hunting, the other for guarding flocks,
houses, and property. The fabled origin of the breed is consistent with
its high repute in the kennels of antiquity. For, on the authority of
Nicander, we are told by Julius Pollux, that the Epirote was descended
from the brazen dog, which Vulcan wrought for Jupiter, and animated
with all the functions of canine life—
καὶ ψυχὴν ἐνθεὶς δῶρον ἔδωκε Διΐ.
Of this Molossian prototype the fortunate proprietors were,
successively, Europa, Minos, Procris, and Cephalus; and, somehow or
other, as he passed from kennel to kennel, amidst heroines and heroes,
or whilst in the temporary keeping of Diana, (who seemingly bestowed
him on Procris,) he was metamorphosed into a wolf-greyhound, under the
name and character of the Ovidian Lælaps. See Class +iii.+ Vertragus.
The prowess of the Canes Molossi rendered them most useful auxiliaries
in the field of battle;[352] and they were equally prized in the
contests of the circus and amphitheatre. Their war praises are sung by
the classic muse of Darcius, in a style worthy the purest age of Roman
literature, nor are their other merits forgotten by this accomplished
poet:
[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Diversâ veniunt præstantes dote Molossi
Diversi ingeniis, non omnibus omnia præstat
Natura, at vario ludit discrimine morum, &c.
But our citations must be made from writers of an earlier date, and
the character of these dogs derived from coeval, or at least original,
sources. The attachment and fidelity of Epirotes to their masters
formed a remarkable feature of their tribe—so much so, that Statius
tells us the soldiers of Molossia wept over their faithful canine
companions, slain in war:
[Sidenote: In Epiced. Pileti Ursi.]
gemit inter bella peremptum
Parthus equum, fidosque canes flevêre Molossi;
—a manifestation of kindly and affectionate feeling, of which their
congeners of an earlier date, on the authority of Tryphiodorus, were
totally unworthy:
[Sidenote: Tryphiodori Ἰλίου Ἅλωσ. vs. 608.]
οἱ δ’ ὑλάοντες
ἀγρία κοπτομένοισιν ἐπ’ ἀνδράσιν ὠδύροντο
νηλέες, οὐδ’ ἀλέγιζον ἑοὺς ἐρύοντες ἄνακτας.
In the capacity of dogs of war, they do not fall under my plan; nor
indeed as οἰκουροὶ, nor as fighters in the Venatio of the amphitheatre,
do they strictly come within this arrangement. On these points of their
character the reader will find illustrative anecdotes in Julius Pollux,
Pliny, and Solinus.
[Sidenote: De Nat. Anim. L. +iii.+ c. +ii.+]
As dogs of the chase, their strength, size, and undaunted courage,
enabled them to contend with the most terrific wild animals;[353] and
we are assured that the lion himself has been mastered by the dog
of Epirus—the tiger, pard, panther, and boar, have yielded to him.
The epithets applied to the Canis Molossus all indicate his fire and
resolution. Ælian calls him θυμικώτατος; Virgil, “acremque Molossum,”
(Georg. +iii.+); and Seneca uses the same epithet, “teneant acres
lora Molossos,” (Hippolyt. Act +i.+) But there is much difference of
opinion whether he was an _open_ or _close_ hound, when employed in the
field.[354] To the latter conclusion I am induced to accede from the
following passage of Statius,
[Sidenote: Achill. L. +ii.+]
_muto_ legit arva Molosso
Venator, videat donec sub frondibus hostem.
[Sidenote: Venationis Aprugnæ Leges. L. +i.+]
On the trail of his game I believe him to have been a mute limier or
limehound, (whence Savary’s term _echemythus_,) and never to have
opened until the quarry had started from its lair—being even at that
time less noisy in his bark than the purely sagacious breeds. His
silence or _closeness_ is clearly indicated by Gratius, where he orders
the yelping Etolian dam to be crossed with a Molossian sire,
[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 196.]
vanæ tantum Calydonia linguæ
Exibit vitium patre emendata Molosso.
Will not the praises of Lydia, of Martial’s well-known epitaph, place
her among the savage inmates of a Molossian kennel?
[Sidenote: Martial. Epigr. L. +xi.+ Epigr. 70.]
Amphitheatrales inter nutrita magistros
Venatrix sylvis aspera, blanda domi:
Lydia dicebar domino fidissima dextra,
Qui non Erigones mallet habere canem,
Nec qui Dictæâ Cephalum de gente secutus
Luciferæ pariter venit ad astra Deæ.
Non me longa dies, nec inutilis abstulit ætas,
Qualia Dulichio fata fuêre cani:
Fulmineo spumantis apri sum dente perempta,
Quantus erat Calydon, aut, Erymanthe, tuus.
Nec queror infernas quamvis citò rapta sub umbras,
Non potui fato nobiliore mori.
—her education and her quarry will, at least, assign her to the
muster-roll of our first class.
But of the Canis Molossus Venaticus, enough;—matchless as he was
for stoutness, before Britain was discovered and its race of Canes
_bellicosi_ brought into competition with those of Epirus, he at last
was compelled to yield the palm of ferocious hardihood to the British
bull-dog, and to succumb to his superior prowess:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 179.]
At magnum cum venit opus, promendaque virtus,
Et vocat extremo præceps discrimine Mavors,
Non tunc egregios tantum admirere Molossos.
[Sidenote: Luciani Fugitivi.]
[Sidenote: De Naturâ Deor. L. +ii.+ 63.]
[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +viii.+ c. 12.]
The second variety of the Epirote noticed by Aristotle, though out
of the pale of this epitome, is worth recording from its classical
associations, and because it possesses in an eminent degree the canine
qualities lauded by Lucian, τὸ φυλακτικὸν, τὸ οἰκουρικὸν, καὶ τὸ
φιλοδέσποτον—the “tam fida custodia, tamque amans dominorum adulatio,
tantumque odium in externos” of Cicero. To this I give the name of
Canis Molossus Villaticus, and include under the title the οἰκουρὸς,
οἰκοφύλαξ, πυλαωρὸς, τραπεζεὺς, ostiarius, pastoralis, pecuarius, &c.;
names derived from the different uses to which the dog was applied. Let
the Villæ Custos of Columella be our type:—“amplissimi corporis, vasti
latratûs canorique, ut prius auditu maleficum, deinde etiam aspectu
terreat, et tamen nonnunquam, ne visus quidem, horribili fremitu suo
fuget insidiantem,[355] &c.”—Here we place the sharp-toothed watch-dog
of Hesiod’s agricultural injunctions;
[Sidenote: Opera et Dies. vs. 602.]
(καὶ κύνα καρχαρόδοντα κομεῖν· μὴ φείδεο σίτου·
μή ποτέ σ’ ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνὴρ ἀπὸ χρήματ’ ἕληται,)
[Sidenote: Metamorph. L. +viii.+ p. 553.]
—here, the “canes rabidos et immanes, et quibusvis lupis et ursis
sæviores, quos ad tutelæ præsidia curiosè coloni fuerant alumnati,” of
Apuleius;—here, the pastoral dogs of Varro (Geopon. L. +xix.+ c. +i.+)
Fronto (Geopon. L. +xix.+ c. +ii.+) and Varro (De Re R. L. +ii.+ c.
+ix.+);[356]—and here too those, in general, of the poet of Syracuse,
the canine guards of flocks and herds, so prettily alluded to, in the
instance of Lampurus, by the goat-herd boy of the eighth Idyllium,
[Sidenote: Theocrit. Idyll. +viii.+ 63.]
φείδευ τᾶν ἐρίφων, φείδευ, λύκε, τῶν τοκάδων μευ,
μηδ’ ἀδίκει μ’, ὅτι μικκὸς ἐὼν πολλαῖσιν ὁμαρτέω.
ὦ Λάμπουρε κύων, οὕτω βαθὺς ὕπνος ἔχει τύ;
οὐ χρὴ κοιμᾶσθαι βαθέως σὺν παιδὶ νέμοντα...
and the milk-fattened ban-dog of Claudian,
[Sidenote: Claudian. in Eutropium. L. +i.+]
sic pastor obesum
Lacte canem ferroque ligat, pascitque revinctum,
Dum validus servare gregem, vigilique rapaces
Latratu terrere lupos, &c.
The notices in Homer of these dogs are numerous; (see Iliad. κʹ. 183.
μ′. 302. ρʹ. 109.) and their watchfulness, as nightly centinels, is
sung in classic hexameters by the poet of Venusium:
[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Uberior tamen est illis, et fortior inde
Laudis causa venit, molli quod tempora somno
Pauca terunt, seu flammigero det lumina curru
Phœbus, seu niveas agitat Latonia bigas,
Somnifero obliquum volvens jubar axe per orbem.
Sed vigili domino curâ, raroque cadente
Lumine prospiciunt, et herilia murmure circum
Claustra fremunt, ne sint nocturno pervia furi,
Neve lupo, tutâque greges statione quiescant.
[Sidenote: Pitisci Lexicon Antiquit.]
Pitiscus tells us, on the authority of Eustathius, that it was
customary with the ancients to have porter-dogs[357]—“moris erat
atriensibus fores servari à canibus,”—such were the πυλαώροι and
τραπεζῆες of Homer, the attendants at the door of Telemachus, κύνες
πόδας ἀργοὶ, (Odyss. υʹ. 144.)—the house-dogs of Patroclus, nine in
number—of whom two were slain, and offered on his funeral pile, (Iliad.
ψʹ. 173.) and the κύνες ὠμησταὶ of Priam—whose anticipated reckless
laceration of his dead body—πολίον τε κάρη, πολιόν τε γένειον—by the
πυλαώροι, is pleaded by the aged king to deter his ill-fated son from
contending with Achilles. (Iliad. χʹ. 69.)—Such too were the gemini
custodes of Evander, which followed their rustic king to the dormitory
of his Trojan guest. (Æneid. L. +viii.+ 461.)[358]
As an attribute of the porter-dogs, speed was utterly unnecessary,
though given to those of Telemachus, above cited: and that they
generally possessed it not is implied, I think, in the question of
Ulysses to Eumæus, as to the character of the “unhoused, neglected”
Argus;
[Sidenote: Odyss. L. +xvii.+ 307.]
οὐ σάφα οἶδα
εἰ δὴ καὶ ταχὺς ἔσκε θέειν ἐπὶ εἴδεϊ τῷδε,
ἢ αὕτως οἷοί τε τραπεζῆες κύνες ἀνδρῶν
γίγνοντ’, ἀγλαΐης δ’ ἕνεκεν κομέουσιν ἄνακτες.
Ulysses Aldrovandus, Spelman, and Ducange, have left us the many titles
of the watch-dogs of the classic and middle ages, in their respective
works. See Aldrovand. de Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +ii.+ Canis Epitheta;
and the Glossaria of Spelman and Ducange. The title οἰκοφύλαξ, derived
from the office of the animal,
[Sidenote: Aristoph. Vespæ.]
ὅτι σοῦ προμάχεται καὶ φυλάττει τὴν θύραν,
occurs in a pretty epigram of the Locrian poetess on the picture of a
Grecian lady; but is there probably applied to a domestic pet,
[Sidenote: Nossis Locrissa. Apud Poetas Græcos Minores.]
σαίνοι κέν σ’ ἐσιδοῖσα καὶ οἱκοφύλαξ σκυλάκαινα
δέσποιναν μελάθρων οἰομένα ποθορῆν.
[Sidenote: Satir. L. +ii.+ S. +vi.+ vs. 114.]
To the “hylax in limine” of Virgil (Ecl. +viii.+)—the “vigilum canum
tristes excubiæ” of Horace (L. +iii.+ Od. 16.)—I need not refer;
nor indeed to the Catenarius of Seneca (de Irâ, L. +iii.+), nor the
δέσμιος of Artemidorus (Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. +xi.+) To say that
all these passages afford instances of Molossian Canes _custodes_,
would be going too far. They merely exemplify the use to which trusty,
vigilant individuals of the pugnacious canine race were applied, and
the functions they performed, in the rural and domestic economy of
Greek and Roman households. Horace, however, particularly specifies
Epirotes in the capacity of house-dogs—“domus alta Molossis Personuit
canibus”—as if they were the usual _custodes_ of patrician houses. For
much of the point of his pretty fable rests on the sumptuousness of the
town-house, wherein dwelt the city-mouse, joint-tenant with a biped
lord, “in locuplete domo,” the appointed place of rendezvous for the
rustic friend.
To the same tribe, for want of a more appropriate one, (unless the
reader would place them on a Libyan or Egyptian file,) I assign the
“exquisitior custodia” of Massinissa, the canine guardians in whose
protection he deemed himself more safe than in that of his fellow-men;
[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]
Hos Maurusiacus sibi Massinissa paravit
Custodes, hominum fidei diffisus, et isto
Non sibi conducto sua sceptra satellite cinxit.
[Sidenote: L. +ix.+ c. 13.]
“Parum fidei in pectoribus hominum reponens,” says Valerius Maximus,
“salutem suam custodiâ canum vallavit.”[359]
[Sidenote: De Quad. Digit. Vivip. L. +iii.+ c. +viii.+]
[Sidenote: Hist. Animal.]
But we are going beyond our prescribed bounds, and must return to our
text-book, the Cynegeticon of the Faliscian; who next introduces to
notice the Canes _bellicosi_ of the British isles, a parent stock of
native growth. We have no information of any source from whence these
could have been imported into Britain, and, as Strabo states that they
were exported from thence into Gaul, it is inferred that they were
_indigenæ_. Whether the _Canis bellicosus Anglicus_ of Aldrovandus, or
the _Canis Mastivus, omnium maximus, animosus et pugnax_ of Ray, be
alluded to in the following lines of Gratius, is doubtful. Possibly
the poet may include _both_ breeds, as the animal combats of the Roman
amphitheatre were supplied by the Procurator Cynegii with the finest
specimens of our war-dogs, without reference to minute distinctions;
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 174.]
Quid freta si Morinûm, dubio refluentia ponto,
Veneris, atque ipsos libeat penetrare Britannos?
O quanta est merces, et quantum impendia supra!
Si non ad speciem, mentiturosque decores
Protinùs; (hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis.)
At magnum cum venit opus, promendaque virtus,
Et vocat extremo præceps certamine Mavors,
Non tunc egregios tantùm admirere Molossos!
Their hardihood in seizing the bull is celebrated by Claudian in the
well-known verse,
[Sidenote: De Laudibus Stilic. L. +iii.+]
Magnaque taurorum fracturæ colla Britannæ.
In the early authentic record of the Canes Venatici of Britain by the
royal sportsman, Edmund de Langley, three sub-varieties of our Canis
_bellicosus_ are enrolled, in addition to the mastiff:
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xvi.+ fol. 67.]
“Alaunt is a maner and natre of houndes and the good Alauntz ben the
which men clepyn Alauntz gentil. Other there byn that men clepyn
Alauntz ventreres. Other byn Alauntz of the bocherie.[360]
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xvi.+ fol. 67^b.]
“Thei that ben gentile shuld be made and shape as a greyhounde evyñ of
alle thinges sauf of the heved, the whiche shuld be greet and short,”
&c. “Commonly Alauntz byn stordy of here owyn nature and have not so
good witte as many other houndes have. For if a man prik an hors the
Alaunt wil gladly renne and bite the hors. Also thei renne at oxen and
at sheep at swyne and to alle othere beestis or to men or to othere
houndes for men hav seyn Alauntz sle her maystir, and in alle maner
wise Alauntz byn inly fell and evel undirstondyng and more foolish and
more sturdy than eny other maner of houndes,” &c.
[Sidenote: fol. 68.]
“That other nature of Alauntz is clepid ventreres, almost thei bene
shapon as a greyhounde of ful shap, thei hav grete hedes and greet
lippes and greet eeris. And with such men helpeth hem at the baityng
of a boole and atte huntynge of a wilde boor. Thei holde fast of here
nature but thei byn hevy and foule and ben slayn with wilde boor or
with the bulle and it is nat ful grete losse,” &c.
[Sidenote: fol. 68^b.]
“The Alauntz of the bocherie is soch as ye may alle day see in good
tounes that byn called greet bochers houndis,” &c.—“Thei byn good for
the baytyng of the bulle and huntyng of the wilde boore whedir it be
w^t. greihoundis at the tryste or w^t. rennyng houndis at abbay with
inne the coverte,” &c.
The first and second of the above sub-varieties appear to have had
some commixture of Celtic blood in their veins—indeed the name of
_Ventreres_ receives a ready solution in the Latin term _Ventraha_,
by which the greyhound is designated, according to Barthius,
in an ancient MS. of Gratius, where the more usual reading is
_Vertraha_—(Veltracha.)
Viewing the “canes gravioribus aptæ morsibus” of Britain to contain
only two principal indigenous sub-varieties, the bull-dog may be
adduced as an animal of the most ferociously brutal aspect, and most
invincible courage in the creation.[361] The mastiff surpasses his
congener as much in size, as he is inferior to him in ferocity.[362]
See Caius de Canibus Britannicis.
[Sidenote: Blount’s Ancient Tenures.]
To these truculent dogs, εὐφυεῖς πρὸς κυνηγεσίας, according to Strabo
(L. +iv.+), as well as resolute in war, our rude ancestors were
beholden for the destruction or expulsion of beasts of prey from these
islands. The wolf and the wild boar yielded to their prowess;[363] and
they are thence sometimes called Canes _luporarii_ in ancient tenures.
Having mentioned the _bellicosi_ of Molossia and Britain in verses
already cited, Gratius compares others to them in the sequel;
[Sidenote: Cyneg. vs. 182.]
Comparat his versuta suas Athamania fraudes,[364]
Acyrusque,[365] Pheræque,[366] et clandestinus Acarnan.
Sicut Acarnanes subierunt prælia furto,
Sic canis illa suos taciturna supervenit hostes.
[Sidenote: J. Vlitii Venatio Novantiqua.]
[Sidenote: Wase’s Illustrations of Gratius.]
These were perhaps very cunning and savage varieties of the dog of
Laconia, and classed in consequence by the poet with the family of
_pugnaces_; though more properly belonging to that of _nare sagaces_.
The words of Gratius are of doubtful signification, and the passage
may be corrupt. He either means, as the British dogs excel in courage,
so do the Athamanian in cunning—which is his usual antithetical mode
of stating opposite qualities—or else, as the British dogs surpass
the Molossian in stoutness, so they equal the Athamanian, Thessalian,
and Epirote in subtlety. This interpretation accords with the known
properties of the British bull-dog. It is singular that dogs of two
districts, Acarnania and Etolia, adjoining each other, and only
separated by the river Achelous, should have been of such opposite
qualities—the former so _mute_, the latter, in the sportsman’s phrase,
so _open_.