2
And in Homer Il., xvii. 134-136. the lion - Whom hunters meet leading his young within A wood; he glares with valour and draws down His eye-lids till they hide his eyes - does he look like a beast that has any notion of making terms with the hunters for his children’s lives? For, in general, the love of animals for their children makes the timid bold, the lazy energetic, the voracious sparing; like the bird in Homer Il., ix. 324; cf.Moralia, 80 a. which brings to her nestlings Whatever morsels she can catch, though she Fares ill herself, for she feeds her young at the cost of her own hunger, and, though she has laid hold of food for her belly, she withholds it and presses it tightly with her beak, lest she gulp it down unawares; or As a bitch bestrides her tender pups, and barks At one she does not know, and longs to fight,Homer, Od., xx. 14-15; cf.De Vita et Poesi Homeri, 86 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 375). acquiring, as it were, a second courage in her fear for her young.
