[561] A terra-cotta relief of the type known as “Median,” _c._ 460 B.C., in _Brit. Mus. Cat. of Terra-cottas_, No. B. 372, Pl. 20, shows a fisherman holding two fishes, or a fish and a purse, and as if in the act of pulling in a net. This a very early exemplar of Greek Netting. [562] Cf. the rod of Heracles on a black-figured vase published by C. Lenormant and J. de Witte, _Élite des Monuments Céramographiques_, Vol. III., Plate 14. The Rod is 8 cm. and the Line is 6 cm. [563] _Od._, 12, 251. Cf. the same phrase in _Od._, 10, 293, for Circe’s magic wand. [564] Plutarch, _de Sol._, 24, commends those of a stallion as longest and strongest, of a gelding next, and of a mare least, because of the weakness of the hairs due to her urination. [565] Ælian, _N. H._, XII. 43. See Introduction. [566] Plutarch, _de Sol._, 24. [567] It is of great interest to note that according to Langdon (see Jewish Chapter), probably in Sumerian, and certainly in Hebrew, the word equalling hook, in its primary sense equals thorn, which strongly suggests, if it do not absolutely prove, that the ancients employed, as do even now the catchers of flat fish in Essex, and the Indians in Arizona, a thorn as their primitive hook. In Latin _hamus_ signifies hook and thorn. Cf. Ovid (_Nux._, 113-116). [568] Waldstein and Shoobridge, _Herculaneum_ (London, 1908), p. 95, “The only industry which has left much trace is fishing; hooks, cords, floats, and nets were found in much abundance.” [569] See _antea_, p. 157, and note 1. According to Petrie, _Tools and Weapons_ (London, 1917), p. 37 f.: “The European fish-hooks do not appear before the _fonderia_ age: in Greece and Roman Italy hooks are common.” G. Lafaye, in Daremberg and Saglio, _op. cit._, III. 8. _s.v._ “hamus,” gives figure 3696, a simple bronze hook, figure 3697, a small double hook in the Museum at Naples, figure 3698, a quadruple hook (four bronze barbs attached to the angles of a square plate of lead), and figure 3699, a bronze _hamus catenatus_. H. B. Walters—_Catalogue of the Bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan in British Museum_ (London, 1899), Nos. 38 and 39—describes, but does not figure, two hooks of the Mycenæan period from Rhodes, 2 inches and 27/8 inches long, which are dated about 1450 B.C. Petrie, _loc. cit._, states that the “usual pattern of the Greek-Romans is, as figured in No. 100, while 101 and 102 are the limits of size.” [570] _Op. cit._, Pl. 378. [571] Bk. II. 556. [572] Bk. III. 138-148. [573] Ovid, _Hal._, 38 f.; cf. Oppian, III. 482 ff. [574] Pliny, _N. H._, XXXII. 5; Ovid, _Hal._, 44 ff.; Plutarch, _De Sol. Anim._, 25. This trick is also characteristic of the _Armado_ of the Parana river, but its enormous strength enables it also either to jerk the paddle of the fisher away, or to capsize the boat. Cf. S. Wright, _The Romance of the World’s Fisheries_ (London, 1908), p. 208. [575] Pliny, IX. 67, taken _totidem verbis_ from Aristotle, _N. H._, II. 17, and IX. 51.