Homer (Il. v. 487) seems to allude to the same contrivance, and to apply the term ἀχῖδες to the rope which encircled the entrance of the bag, with the others attached to it.
We find in Brunck’s Analecta (ii. 10. No. xx.) the phrase ἀγκύλα δίκτυα applied to hunting-nets. It was probably meant to designate the ἄρκυς, which might be called ἀγκύλα, i. e. angular, because they were made like bags ending in a point. The term νεφέλη, which occurs in Aristophanes (Aves, 195), and denoted some contrivance for catching birds, is said by the Scholiast on the passage to have meant a kind of hunting-net. But this explanation is evidently good for nothing.
[698] Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 409. Pliny mentions these epidromi, or running ropes: H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.
In this treatise Xenophon distinguishes the nets used in hunting by three different appellations; ἄρκυς, ἐνόδιον, and δίκτυον. Oppian also distinguishes the δίκτυον used in hunting from the ἄρκυς[699]. The ἄρκυς or cassis, i. e. “the purse-or tunnel-net,” was by much the most complicated in its formation. The ἐνόδιον, or “road-net,” was comparatively small: it was placed across any road, or path, to prevent the animals from pursuing that path: it must have been used to stop the narrow openings between bushes. The δίκτυον was a large net, simply intended to inclose the ground: it therefore resembled in some measure the sean used in fishing. The term, thus specially applied, may be translated a hay, or a hallier[700]. These three kinds of nets appear to be mentioned together by Nemesianus under the names of retia (i. e. δίκτυα), casses (i. e. ἄρκυς), and plagæ (i. e. ἐνόδια.):
Necnon et casses idem venatibus aptos,
Atque plagas, longoque meantia retia tractu
Addiscunt raris semper contexere nodis,
Et servare modum maculis, linoque tenaci.
Cyneg. 299-302.
[699] Ibid. iv. 381.