[166] Compare its use four times (in the Iliad only) as applied to birds of prey and to dogs; also figuratively to Achilles as “savage.”
[167] Later on it is true we do find the Roman “burgher” becoming also an amateur angler, and gentlefolk, including ladies and children, taking freely to the sport. Piscator is generally used in reference to those who were fishermen by trade, whereas venator and auceps may be likewise applied to mere lovers of hunting and fowling (H. Blümner, Die römischen Privataltertümer, Munich, 1911).
[168] A gorge, almost identical with the Neolithic gorge, is used at the present day for catching ducks on the Untersee of Holland. See Introduction.
[169] Il., 24. 81, and Od., 12. 253.
[170] See Merry and Riddell on Od., XII. 251. Döderlein (Il., XXIV. 80), following the Scholiast, also gives this same explanation.
[171] T. K. Arnold, Iliad (1852), 20. 80. According to Dugas-Montbel, as quoted here, “To this little tube of horn they attached also a piece of lead to sink the bait, and the horn, being the colour of the sea, had also the advantage of deceiving the fish.”
[172] Plutarch, De Sol. Anim. 24.
[173] The Field, of January 2nd, 1904.
[174] Apollonius Sophista, Lexicon Homericum, (ed. Bekker, Berlin 1833), p. 52, was evidently aware of interpretation (1), and also, from his words ἔνιοι δὲ τὴν τρίχα κέρας, of (4). Cf. Plutarch de Sol. an. 24.
[175] “The remarks of the Scholiast here (Od., XII. 251) citing as authority Aristarchus perhaps illustrate fishing tackle as later known. The Homeric tackle was far simpler, a staff shod with a native horn” (Hayman).