Both the Greeks and Romans made much of the Dog, and among the latter, Greyhounds, Hounds, House Dogs, and Lap Dogs existed. Some of them are preserved in sculpture. The Greeks had a Dog closely resembling our Newfoundland, as is made certain from a piece of sculpture, “said to have been the favourite Dog of Alcibiades, and to have been the production of Myron, one of the most skilful artists of ancient times.” Dogs “were sacrificed at certain periods by the Greeks and Romans to almost all their deities, and particularly to Mars, Pluto, and Pan, to Minerva, Proserpine, and Lucina, and also to the moon, because the Dog by his barking disturbed all charms and spells, and frightened away all spectres and apparitions. The Greeks immolated many Dogs in honour of Hecate, because by their baying the phantoms of the lower world were disturbed. A great number of Dogs were also destroyed in Samothrace in honour of the same goddess. Dogs were periodically sacrificed in February, and also in April and in May; also to the goddess Rubigo, who presided over the corn, and the Bona Dea, whose mysterious rites were performed on Mount Aventine. The Dog Cerberus was supposed to be watching at the feet of Pluto, and a Dog and a youth were periodically sacrificed to that deity. The night when the capital had nearly been destroyed was annually celebrated by the cruel scourging of a Dog in the principal public places, even to the death of the animal.”[95] Homer, like the modern English, frequently uses the word “Dog” as an epithet of contempt--“thou Dog in forehead;” but the Dog was man’s companion everywhere amongst those old Greeks. When the “God of the silver bow” strikes beasts and men with pestilence, it is said-- “Mules first and Dogs he struck, but at themselves, Dispatching soon his bitter arrows keen, Smote them.” Yet, mixed with these friendly Dogs there were evidently Pariah Dogs; cowards are threatened thus:-- “The Vulture’s maw Shall have his carcase, and the Dogs his bones.” Two nobler breeds are also indicated, viz., Shepherd Dogs and Hounds:-- “As Dogs that careful watch the fold by night, Hearing some wild beast in the woods, which Hounds And hunters with tumultuous clamour drive Down from the mountain-top, all sleep forego.” Homer also makes indubitable reference to another breed, viz., the Boarhound:-- “As when Dogs and swains In prime of manhood, from all quarters rush Around a Boar, he from his thicket bolts, The bright tusk whetting in his crooked jaws; They press him on all sides, and from beneath Loud gnashings hear, yet firm, his threats defy.”