Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/168

 As the bold bird her helpless young attends, From danger guards them, and from want defends; In search of prey she wings the spacious air, And with untasted food supplies her care, —

again using [Greek: ornis] in the feminine gender. But Menander in his first edition of the Heiress, uses the word plainly in the sense in which it is used at the present day; saying—

A cock had loudly crow'd—"Will no one now," He cried out, "drive this poultry ([Greek: tas ornithas]) from our doors?"

And again, he writes—

She scarcely could the poultry ([Greek: tas orneis]) drive away.

But Cratinus, in his Nemesis, has used the form [Greek: ornithion], saying—

And all the other birds ([Greek: ornithia]).

And they use not only the form [Greek: ornin], but also that of [Greek: ornitha], in the masculine gender. The same Cratinus says in the same play—

A scarlet winged bird ([Greek: ornitha phoinikopteron]).

And again, he says—

You, then, must now become a large bird ([Greek: ornitha megan]).

And Sophocles, in his Antenoridæ, says—

A bird ([Greek: ornitha]), and a crier, and a servant.

And Æschylus, in his Cabiri, says—

I make you not a bird ([Greek: ornitha]) of this my journey.

And Xenophon, in the second book of his Cyropædia, says—"Going in pursuit of birds ([Greek: tous ornithas]) in the severest winter." And Menander, in his Twin Sisters, says—

I came laden with birds ([Greek: orneis]).

And immediately afterwards he has

He sends off birds ([Greek: ornithas apostellei]).

And that they often used [Greek: orneis] as the plural form we have the evidence of Menander to prove to us: and also Alcman says somewhere or other—

The damsels all with unaccomplish'd ends Departed; just as frighten'd birds ([Greek: orneis]) who see A hostile kite which hovers o'er their heads.

And Eupolis, in his Peoples, says—

Is it not hard that I should have such sons, When every bird ([Greek: orneis]) has offspring like its sire?

16. But, on the other hand, the ancients sometimes also