I am not unaware that you will think that my examples are rather a hodge-podge; but it is not easy to find naturally clever animals doing anything which illustrates merely one of their virtues. Their probity, rather, is revealed in their love of offspring and their cleverness in their nobility; then, too, their craftiness and intelligence is inseparable from their ardour and courage. Those, nevertheless, who are intent on classifying and defining each separate occasion will find that dogs give the impression of a mind that is at once civil and superior when they turn away from those who sit on the ground - which is presumably referred to in the lines Homer, Odyssey , xiv. 30 f.; cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 146; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 24; Aristotle, Rhetoric , ii. 3. 6 (1380 a 24). The dogs barked and rushed up, but wise Odysseus Cunningly crouched; the staff slipped from his hand; for dogs cease attacking those who have thrown themselves down and taken on an attitude that resembles humility. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 48, of the lion. They relate further that the champion of the Indian dogs, one greatly admired by Alexander, There are nearly as many emendations of this phrase as there have been scholars interested in Plutarch’s text. Van Herwerden’s version, as having the liveliest sense, has been preferred. It is by no means certain, however, though supported by Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 1; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149; cf. also Pollux, v. 43-44 and the parallels cited by Bethe ad loc. See also Aelian, iv. 19 and Diodorus, xvii. 94. when a stag was let loose and a boar and a bear, lay quiet and still and disregarded them; but when a lion appeared, it sprang up at once to prepare for the fray, showing clearly that it chose to match itself with the lion Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149 f., adds the elephant as a worthy match. and scorned all the others. Hounds that hunt hares, if they themselves kill them, enjoy pulling them to pieces So break up ; Xenophon, Cynegetica , vii. 9. and eagerly lap up the blood; but if, as frequently happens, a hare in desperation exhausts all its breath in a final sprint and expires, the hounds, when they come upon it dead, will not touch it at all, but stand there wagging their tails, as much as to say that they do not strive for food, but for victory and the honour of winning. There are many examples of cunning, but I shall dismiss foxes and wolves Cf. Pindar, Pythians , ii. 84; Oppian, Cynegetica , iii. 266. and the tricks of crane and daw (for they are obvious), and shall take for my witness Thales, Omitted in Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. , not without reason. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 42. the most ancient of the Wise Men, See the Septem Sapientium Convivium ( Mor. 146 b ff.). not the least of whose claims to admiration, they say, was his getting the better of a mule by a trick. For one of the mules that were used to carry salt, on entering a river, accidentally stumbled and, since the salt melted away, it was free of its burden when it got up. It recognized the cause of this and bore it in mind. The result was that every time it crossed the river, it would deliberately lower itself and wet the bags, crouching and bending first to one side, then to the other. When Thales heard of this, he gave orders to fill the bags with wool and sponges instead of salt and to drive the mule laden in this manner. So when it played its customary trick and soaked its burden with water, it came to know that its cunning was unprofitable and thereafter was so attentive and cautious in crossing the river that the water never touched the slightest portion of its burden even by accident. Partridges Cf. 992 b infra ; Mor. 494 e and the references there; add Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 103; Philo, 35 (p. 117) (probably referring to partridges, though the Latin version reads palumbae ); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 39; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 16; xi. 38; Aristotle, Historia Animal. 613 b 31. exhibit another piece of cunning, combined with affection for their young. They teach their fledglings, who are not yet able to fly, to lie on their backs when they are pursued and to keep above them as a screen some piece of turf or rubbish. The mothers meanwhile lure the hunters in another direction and divert attention to themselves, fluttering along at their feet and rising only briefly until, by making it seem that they are on the point of being captured, they draw them far away from their young. When hares Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xiii. 11; vi. 47. return for repose, they put to sleep their leverets in quite different places, often as much as a hundred feet apart, so that, if man or dog comes near, they shall not all be simultaneously in danger. The hares themselves run to and fro and leave tracks in many places, but last of all with a great leap they leave their traces far behind, and so to bed. The she-bear, just prior to the state called hibernation, Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 126 f.; Mair on Oppian, Cyn. iii. 173 (L.C.L.). before she becomes quite torpid and heavy and finds it difficult to move, cleans out her Iair and, when about to enter, approaches it as lightly and inconspicuously as possible, treading on tiptoe, then turns around and backs into the den. These precautions seem to have been successful (though Cf. the implications of Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 128), since Aristotle ( Historia Animal. viii. 17, 600 b 6 f.) says that either no one (or very few) has ever caught a pregnant bear. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 95 and Amm. Marc. xxii. 15. 22, of the hippopotamus entering a field backwards. Hinds are inclined to bear their young beside a public road where carnivorous animals do not come Aristotle ( Historia Animal. ix. 5, 611 a 17) notes that highways were shunned by wild animals because they feared men. Cf. also Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 35 and Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 207 (L.C.L.). ; and stags, when they observe that they have grown heavy by reason of their fat and surplus flesh, vanish and preserve themselves by hiding when they do not trust to their heels. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 113; [Aristotle], De Mir. Ausc. 5; Historia Animal. 611 a 23. The way in which hedgehogs defend and guard themselves has occasioned the proverb See Shorey on Plato, Republic , 423 e (L.C.L.); Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci , i, p. 147, Zenobius, v. 68; attributed by Zenobius to Archilochus (Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica , i, p. 241, frag. 103; Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus , ii, p. 174, frag. 118) and to Homer. Zenobius also quotes five lines from Ion, of which the last two are Plutarch’s next quotation. : The fox knows many tricks, but the hedgehog one big one; for when the fox approaches, as Ion Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 739; frag. 38, verses 4 f. (see the preceding note). says, it, Curling its spiny body in a coil, Lies still, impregnable to touch or bite. But the provision that the hedgehog makes for its young is even more ingenious. When autumn comes, it creeps under the vines and with its paws shakes down to the ground grapes from the bunches and, having rolled about in them, gets up with them attached to its quills. Once when I was a child I saw one, like a creeping or walking bunch of grapes! The mss. add an unnecessary explanation: so covered with fruit was it as it walked. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 10; Anth. Pal. vi. 169. Then it goes down into its hole and delivers the load to its young for them to enjoy and draw rations from. Their lair has two openings, one facing the south, the other the north; when they perceive that the wind will change, like good skippers who shift sail, they block up the entrance which lies to the wind and open the other. Cf. 979 a infra ; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 b 4 ff.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Cf. viii. 138, of squirrels. On animals who predict the weather see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 361-364. And a man in Cyzicus Aristotle ( loc. cit. ) says Byzantium (and see infra , 979 b). observing this acquired a reputation for being able to predict unaided which way the wind would blow. Elephants, as Juba Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii, p. 474; Jacoby, Frag. der griech. Hist. iii, pp. 146 f., frag. 51 a, 53; Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 24; Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 15; vi. 61; and see the criticism in 977 d-e infra . On the mutual assistance of elephants see Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 16. declares, exhibit a social capacity joined with intelligence. Hunters dig pits for them, covering them with slender twigs and light rubbish; when, accordingly, any elephant of a number travelling together falls in, the others bring wood and stones and throw them in to fili up the excavation so that their comrade can easily get out. He also relates that, without any instruction, elephants pray to the gods, purifying themselves in the sea Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 1 f.; Dio Cassius, xxxix. 38. 5. and, when the sun The moon in Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 10, but the sun in vii. 44; of tigers in Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 28. rises, worshipping it by raising their trunks, as if they were hands of supplication. For this reason they are the animal most loved of the gods, as Ptolemy Philopator Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 44: Ptolemy IV ( c. 244-205 b.c.), who reigned 221-205. The decisive defeat of Antiochus III was at Raphia in 217. For the gods loving elephants see Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 2; al. has testified; for when he had vanquished Antiochus and wished to honour the gods in a really striking way, among many other offerings to commemorate his victory in battle, he sacrificed four elephants. Thereafter, since he had dreams by night in which the deity angrily threatened him because of that strange sacrifice, he employed many rites of appeasement and set up as a votive offering four bronze elephants to match those he had slaughtered. Social usages are to be found no less among lions. For young lions take along with them to the hunt the old and slow; when the latter are tired out, they rest and wait, while the young lions hunt on. When they have taken anything, they summon the others by a roaring like the bleat of a calf; the old ones hear it at once and come to partake in common of the prey. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 1. The loves of some animals are wild and furious, while others have a refinement which is not far from human and an intercourse conducted with much grace. Such was the elephant which at Alexandria played the rival to Aristophanes Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38 ( Cf. vii. 43); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 13. the grammarian. They were, in fact, in love with the same flower-girl; nor was the elephant’s love the less manifest: as he passed by the market, he always brought her fruit and stood beside her for a long time and would insert his trunk, like a hand, Cf. Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 524 for additional authorities. within her garments and gently caress her fair breasts. The serpent that fell in love with an Aetolian woman Told somewhat differently, and of a Jewish woman, in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 17. used to visit her at night and slip under some part of her body next the skin and coil about her without doing her any harm at all, either intentional or accidental; but always at daybreak it was decent enough to glide away. And this it did constantly until the kinsmen of the woman removed her to a house at some distance. The serpent did not come to her for three or four nights; but all the time, we may suppose, it was going about in search of her and missing its goal. At last, when it had somehow found her with difficulty, it embraced her, not with that former gentleness it had used, but rather more roughly, its coils binding her hands to her body, and with the end of its tail it lashed the calves of her legs, displaying a light and tender anger that had in it more indulgence than punishment. As for the goose in Aegium that loved a boy and the ram that set his heart on Glauce Also a goose in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 51. Both stories are in Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 29 ( cf. i. 6; viii. 11); for Glauce see also Gow’s note on Theocritus, iv. 31. the harp-player, since these are famous tales and I rather imagine you have had enough of such to spoil your appetite for more, More in Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 37; al. I omit them. As for starlings Cf. Gellius, Noctes Atticae , xiii. 21. 25; Alciphron, Epp. iii. 30. 1; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. i. 7; vi. 36; al. and crows and parrots which learn to talk and afford their teachers so malleable and imitative a vocal current to train and discipline, they seem to me to be champions and advocates of the other animals in their ability to learn, instructing us in some measure that they too are endowed both with rational utterance For the λόγος προφορικός see, e.g., Mor . 777 b-c. and with articulate voice; for which reason it is quite ridiculous to admit a comparison of them with creatures who have not enough voice even to howl or groan. Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 9 (535 b 14 ff.). And what music, what grace do we not find in the natural, untaught warbling of birds ! To this the most eloquent and musical of our poets bear witness e.g. , Bacchylides, iii. 97; Anth. Pal. vii. 414. when they compare their sweetest songs and poems to the singing of swans and nightingales. Now since there is more reason in teaching than in learning, we must yield assent to Aristotle Historia Animal. iv. 19 (535 b 17); cf. ix. 1 (608 a 18); Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 40. when he says that animals do teach: a nightingale, in fact, has been observed instructing her young how to sing. A further proof that supports him is the fact that birds which have been taken young from the nest and bred apart from their mothers sing the worse for it Cf. 992 b-c infra . ; for the birds that are bred with their mothers are taught and learn, not for pay or glory, but for the joy of rivalling each other in song and because they cherish the beautiful in their utterance rather than the useful. On this subject I have a story to tell you which I heard myself from many Greeks and Romans who were eye-witnesses. A certain barber at Rome had his shop directly opposite the precinct which they call the Market of the Greeks. Graecostadium (see Platner and Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Rome, s.v. ) or Forum Graecorum . He bred up a wonderful prodigy of a jay Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia , iii. 2 (p. 191. 8, ed. Nauck); Gow on Theocritus, v. 136; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13 (615 b 19 f.). See also the talking birds in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 118-134. with a huge range of tones and expressions, which could reproduce the phrases of human speech and the cries of beasts and the sound of instruments - under no compulsion, but making it a rule and a point of honour to let nothing go unrepeated or unimitated. Now it happened that a certain rich man was buried from that quarter to the blast of many trumpets and, as is customary, there was a halt in front of the barber-shop while the trumpeters, who were applauded and encored, played for a long time. From that day on the jay was speechless and mute, not letting out even a peep to request the necessities of life; so those who habitually passed the place and had formerly wondered at her voice, were now even more astonished at her silence. Some suspected that she had been poisoned by rival bird-trainers, but most conjectured that the trumpets had blasted her hearing and that her voice had been simultaneously extinguished. Now neither of these guesses was correct: it was self-discipline, it would seem, and her talent for mimicry that had sought an inner retreat as she refitted and prepared her voice like a musical instrument. For suddenly her mimicry returned and there blazed forth none of those old familiar imitations, but only the music of the trumpets, This is also the accomplishment of a homonymous bird in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 19. reproduced with its exact sequences and every change of pitch and rhythm and tone. I conclude, as I said before, See 973 a supra . that self-instruction implies more reason in animals than does readiness to learn from others. Still, I believe that I should not pass over one example at least of a dog’s learning, Cf. the bears that acted a farce in Script. Hist. Aug., Vita Car. xix. 2. of which I myself was a spectator at Rome. The dog appeared in a pantomime with a dramatic plot and many characters and conformed in its acting at all points with the acts and reactions required by the text. In particular, they experimented on it with a drug that was really soporific, but supposed in the story to be deadly. The dog took the bread that was supposedly drugged, swallowed it, and a little later appeared to shiver and stagger and nod until it finally sprawled out and lay there like a corpse, letting itself be dragged and hauled about, as the plot of the play prescribed. But when it recognized from the words and action that the time had come, at first it began to stir slightly, as though recovering from a profound sleep, and lifted its head and looked about. Then to the amazement of the spectators it got up and proceeded to the right person and fawned on him with joy and pleasure so that everyone, and even Caesar himself (for the aged Vespasian Vespasian became emperor in a.d. 69 when he was 60 years old and died ten years later, so that this incident can be dated only within the decade. was present in the Theatre of Marcellus), was much moved.