And as when in the pride of his strength a lion mountain-reared
Hath snatched from the pasturing kine a heifer, the best of the herd,
And, gripping her neck with his strong teeth, bone from bone hath he snapped,
And he rendeth her inwards and gorgeth her blood by his red tongue lapped,
And around him gather the dogs and the shepherd-folk, and still
Cry long and loud from afar, howbeit they have no will
To face him in fight, for that pale dismay doth the hearts of them fill.[[156]]
We seem, in reading these lines—and there are many more like them—to be confronted with a vivified Assyrian or Lycian bas-relief. In the antique sculptures of the valley of the Xanthus, above all, the incident of the slaying of an ox by a lion is of such constant recurrence[[157]] as almost to suggest, in confirmation of a conjecture by Mr. Gladstone,[[158]] a similarity of origin between them and the corresponding passages of the Iliad. The lion, indeed, occupies throughout the epic a position which can now with difficulty be conceived as having been assigned to him on the strength of European experience alone. Still, it must not be forgotten that the facts of the matter have radically changed within the last three thousand years.
[156]. Way’s Iliad, xvii. 61-67.
[157]. Fellows’ Travels in Asia Minor, p. 348, ed. 1852.