Χρυσοϋν γένος (fr. 317)

505

The meter suggests a special moment in the play and/or direct address of the
audience; perhaps a list of the earth’s various inhabitants when the world was
new, i. e. in the Golden Age? Kassel-Austin compare the even more diverse
S. fr. Ill γερανοί, χελώναι, γλαύκες, ίκτΐνοι, λαγοί (“cranes, tortoises/turtles,
owls, kites, hares”, i. e. birds, reptiles and mammals). Storey offers the shot-
in-the-dark suggestion that this might be part of “an animal-human theme”.
άρκτους Bears (Keller 1887. 106-28; Keller 1909-1913 1.175-81; Kitchell
2014. 12-14) are included repeatedly in catalogues of terrible wild creatures
in early epic poetry (Od. 11.611; hAphr. 71; hDion. 46; hHerm. 223), but were
apparently found in Greece in the historical period only in the northern
mountains; see Millis 2015 on Anaxandr. fr. 68 (mention of a bear-skin).
έλάφους For deer of all types, see Keller 1887. 73-101; Keller 1909-1913
1.277-9; Kitchell 2014. 44-6.
ελέφαντας Ivory was a common luxury material in the Mycenean world
(in the Linear B tablets at e. g. PY 249 in the form e-re-pa; see in general
Poursat 1977; Krzyszkowska 1988) and is mentioned repeatedly in early epic
(e.g. II. 4.141; Od. 4.73; 8.404; [Hes.] Sc. 141; cf. in later periods Ale. fr. 350.1;
Anacr. PMG388.il; Pi. N. 7.78; Ar. Av. 219; Pl. Com. fr. 230.1; Theopomp. Com.
fr. 26; D. 27.10, etc.). In the classical period it seems to have been imported
into Greece from Ethiopia via Egypt (Hdt. 3.97.3, 114) or Libya (Hermipp. fr.
63.15). Elephants themselves—mentioned also in comedy at Antiph. fr. 82.4
(their enormous appetite)—are first referred to at Hdt. 4.191.4 in a catalogue
of Libyan fauna; Ctesias discussed them as well (FGrH 688 F 45b). Herds were
apparently widespead in Syria into the early 1st millennium BCE, whence most
of the Mycenean supply of ivory, but were eventually hunted into extinction
there; see Miller 1986 and in general Keller 1909-1913 1.372-83; Scullard 1974,
esp. 32-63; Kitchell 2014. 64-7. έλέφας is a loan-word of uncertain origin
(probably Semitic); see Masson 1967. 80-3; West 1992b.
ϋστριχας For porcupines, see in general Keller 1909-1913 1.207-9;
Kitchell 2014. 153-4. Aristotle twice notes that the creature hibernates like a
bear (HA 579d29-30, 600a27-8) and passes on the old story about its ability to
hurl its spines (HA 623a33). The ϋστριξ lent its name to a barbed whip used to
torture slaves at Ar. Pax 746; Ra. 619.
χελώνας The word is used (like German Schildkrote) for both tortoises
and turtles (e.g. fr. 150 with n.; Crates Com. fr. 32.2 πόντιας χελώνη, “sea-
cheldne”; Arist. HA 540a29-30 χελώνη και ή θαλαττία και ή χερσαία, “both the
marine and the terrestrial cheldne”). For the animal itself, see in general Keller
1909-1913 11.247-59; Dumoulin 1994; Kitchell 2014. 186-8. There appears to be
no evidence that the Greeks ate sea-turtles, although it is difficult to believe
that the idea never occurred to anyone (cf. Davidson 2002. 219-20).