The horns of the Ægagrus are often nearly three feet and a half in length; they are naturally bent, and when united, as Homer describes, they would form a bow of the dimensions stated by him.
The Ægagrus, or wild goat, is found, though but rarely, in the mountains of Western Europe. One was killed while I was in the Pyrenees, and the horns, which I saw, were two feet and a half in length. This animal is very common in the East: in Persia it is named Paseng. Burckhardt informs us that the Arabs of Syria give it the name of Bidin (Beden), and that the wild goats are found in their countries in herds of forty and fifty. Their flesh is much esteemed, and the horns are collected and sent to Jerusalem to be made into handles for knives and poniards. Burckhardt[1] saw a pair of the horns of these animals which were three feet and a half in length. We may suppose that the Ips of Homer must be both known and feared by the warriors of that country.
But the word Ips is not found thus applied in the Greek authors who follow Homer; and it is employed in Strabo, Theophrastus, and the writings of the learned agriculturists whom we shall presently quote, to denote an insect or a worm injurious to the vine, consequently a larva which preys upon plants and not upon horn.
We, however, again find the word Ips with the same signification as when employed by Homer in a remarkable passage of St. John Chrysostom, which I shall translate thus : "The same deleterious effects as are produced by copper upon the body, by rust upon iron, by moths in wool, worms in wood, and Ipes in horn, vice produces in the soul[2]."
But I repeat that in the most learned Greek authors, and those of the highest authority, Ips is an insect which preys upon the vine.
We read in Strabo:
"The Erythræans give to Hercules the name of Ipoctonus, that is, destroyer of the Ipes, insects thus named which prey upon the vine[3]."
Theophrastus[4], after describing how worms are produced in corn, adds that the Ipes are engendered by the south wind; and in another place he says, "There are, however, places where the vines are not in-
- ↑ Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, 1822, p. 405; Fischer, Synopsis Animalium, p. 483; Cuvier, Règne Animal (2eme edit.) t. i. p. 275.
- ↑ Sanctus Joannes Chrysost. App. vol. iv. p. 669, E. St. John Chrysostom employs the word Scolex for the worm which preys upon wood. Scolex signifies the earth-worm, the true worm ; in fact, in the grammarians of the lower ages, according to the same authorities Scolex also means the worm infesting the ox, an intestinal worm, or the larva of an insect altogether different to the former. The Scolex of St. John Chrysostom, or the worm preying upon wood, can only be the larva of an insect, and in fact Aristotle employs the word with this meaning when he says that every insect proceeds from a Scolex.
- ↑ Strabo (edit. Almenoven) folio, book xiii.p. 613: in the French translation, vol. iv. p. 213.
- ↑ Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, book. iii. chap. 22; or 23 of Schneider's edit. vol. ii. p. 299. Scaliger translates the word Ips by Convolvulus, for which we shall see the reason elsewhere.
