The Culture of Animals in Antiquity by Sian Lewis Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Author:Sian Lewis,Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

5. An invasion of hares on Astypalaia

Hegesander of Delphi fr. 42 (= Athen. Deipnosophistai 400d)

Hegesander of Delphi says in his Memoranda that during the reign of Antigonus Gonatas, such a multitude of hares bred on Astypalaea that the inhabitants were forced to consult the Delphic oracle for advice. The Pythia advised them to rear dogs to hunt the hares; and in a single year more than six thousand were caught. Astypalaea became so overrun because a man from Anaphe had introduced two hares to the island; this was an act of revenge because sometime previously one of the Astypalaeans had introduced two partridges to Anaphe, and the partridges bred in such great numbers there that the inhabitants were in danger of having to abandon their homes. Originally there were no hares on Astypalaea, only partridges.

COMMENT: Hegesander’s story (preserved by Athenaios) is one of a number of tales about animals overrunning human communities: Aelian speaks of invasions of insects (NA XI.28) and rodents (XVII.17; see also MOUSE nos 6 and 7); the tale of the rashly introduced hare, however, seems to have been one of the oldest. ‘The man from Carpathos who introduced the hare to his own island’ was proverbial, and Aristotle explains it as referring to someone who hopes to benefit by an action, but in fact finds it harmful (Rhet. 1413a 15–17). The proverb appears in a fragment of Archilochus (227) from the seventh century, showing that the idea of hares multiplying uncontrollably in a landscape free from predators was familiar to all. Island communities could be particularly fragile (see GOAT no. 14) and Xenophon comments (above) that on an island hares are safe from foxes and eagles as well as human hunters. As Bodson (1978) notes, Astypalaea lies not far from Carpathos in the Dodecanese.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.