It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, considering the nearness of Palestine to the Caucasus and Elburz Mountains, that the Tiger is not once mentioned in the Bible. It was, however, well known to the Greeks and Romans, and, like the Lion, was a regular performer at the amphitheatre. The district called Hyrcania, a tract of land lying to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, seems to have been the most noted spot for Tigers. In the “Æneid,” Dido, in her magnificent declamation against the perfidy of Æneas, is made to say—
“Nec tibi Diva parens, genius nec Dardanus auctor,
Perfide, sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens
Caucasus, Hyrcanæque admôrunt ubera tigres.”
“(Perfidious monster! boast thy birth no more;
No hero got thee, and no goddess bore:
No! thou wert brought by Scythian rocks to day,
By Tigers nurs’d and savages of prey.)”
and Shakspere uses the same expression:—
“The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast.”