Artemidorus

“ I say nothing of the physical fortitude with which he bears the extremes both of summer and winter, or of the way in which he never shrinks from work, never indulges himself in the pleasures of eating and drinking, and keeps constant restraint over his appetites and desires. In another man these would appear great virtues, but in Artemidorus they appear mere trifles compared with his other noble qualities, which obtained for him the distinction of being chosen by Caius Musonius as his son-in-law amid a crowd of disciples belonging to all ranks of society. ”

“ Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobana, life is prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the body is exempt from weakness. Among the Calingæ, a nation also of India, the women marry at five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year. In other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails, and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have ears so large as to cover the whole body. ”

“ Aristophanes of Byzantium, son of Apelles the painter, who lived in the reigns of Ptolemy II. and Ptolemy III., and had the supreme management of the Alexandrian library, wrote a number of works, as Άττικαί Λέξεις, Λακωνικαί Γλῶσσαι which, from the titles, should be dictionaries, but a fragment of his Λέξεις printed by Boissonade, in his edition of Herodian (London, 1869, 8vo, pp. 181–189) , is not alphabetical. Artemidorus, a pupil of Aristophanes, wrote a dictionary of technical terms used in cookery. ”

“ But to return from this slight digression;--Artemidorus has been already mentioned as a geographer subsequent to Agatharcides, who copied Agatharcides, and from whom Diodorus Siculus and Strabo in their turns copied. There were two ancient writers of this name born at Ephesus; the one to whom we have alluded, is supposed to have lived in the reign of Ptolemy Lathyrus, A.C. 169; by others he is brought down to A.C. 104. Little is known respecting him ”

“ Artemidorus of Ephesus, whose “Geographumena” (c. 100 B.C.) are based upon his own travels and a study of itineraries, and above all, Strabo, who has already been referred to. Among historians who looked upon geography as an important aid in their work are numbered Polybius (c. 210–120 B.C.) , Diodorus Siculus (c. 30 B.C.) and Agathachidus of Cnidus (c. 120 B.C.) to whom we are indebted for a valuable account of the Erythrean Sea and the adjoining parts of Arabia and Ethiopia. ”

“ They are of a red colour. The crocuttas755 is, according to this author, the mixed progeny of a wolf and a dog. What Metrodorus the Scepsian relates, in his book “on Custom,” is like fable, and is to be disregarded.
Artemidorus mentions serpents also of thirty cubits in length, which can master elephants and bulls: in this he does not exaggerate.756 But the Indian and African serpents are of a more fabulous size, and are said to have grass growing on their backs.
17. The mode of life among the Troglodytæ is nomadic. Each tribe is governed by tyrants. ”

“ The appearances of Artemis, as distinct from Apollo, need not detain us long; she is sometimes found in mythological scenes, but frequently as a single figure, of which there are some fine examples. [296] A winged goddess grasping the neck or paws of an animal or bird with either hand frequently occurs on early vases, and is usually interpreted as Artemis in her character of πότνια θηρῶν or mistress of the brute creation, sometimes called the Asiatic or Persian Artemis. ”

“ This I have demonstrated by keeping colorless artemiæ for a while in water tinged by red monads, or simply by carmine, and so giving them a red color.
But, though the artemia has nothing to do with the coloration of water, it is, nevertheless, a subject of wonder and study for the physiologist. Like several other animals belonging to the great sub-kingdom Articulata (psyche, bee, silk-worm moth) , our crustaceans possess the singular privilege of reproducing themselves without being subjected to the general law of sexual union. ”

“ Armoured Edentates Suborder Dasypoda. Armadillos
Armadillos are still an important and characteristic element of the Neotropical fauna, ranging from Texas to Patagonia and showing a considerable variety of structure and appearance. Existing species are all of small or moderate size, and the one which is by far the largest (Priodontes gigas) may somewhat exceed three feet in length, exclusive of the tail, and the smallest (Chlamydophorus truncatus) is hardly more than five inches long. ”

“ Athenodorus, however, would not hurry himself, and wrote on deliberately. Then he laid down his stylus and looked round. The ghost was again beckoning to him, so he took up the lamp and motioned the figure to go before him. With a slow step, as of one who carries a heavy weight on his feet, the old man walked through the house as far as the courtyard, where he vanished quite suddenly; nor could the philosopher discover the smallest trace of him, though he searched every corner carefully by the aid of his lamp. ”

“ Hind-foot short and rounded, with five very short toes, and short, broad, flat obtuse nails. The giant armadillo is by far the largest existing member of the family, measuring rather more than 3 ft. from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, the tail being about 20 in. long. It inhabits the forest of Surinam and Brazil. The powerful claws of its fore-feet enable it to dig with great facility; and its food consists chiefly of termites and other insects, although it is said to attack and uproot newly-made graves for the purpose of devouring the flesh of the bodies contained in them. ”

“ When it rolls itself up it is like a hard stone and can laugh within its coat of mail at the enemies which roll it about but cannot get in.
The armadillo is an American animal, and is found in our country in the state of Texas. It goes south from there through Mexico and on to South America, where it is found everywhere. It lives in large numbers in the woods and on the great grass plains. In its food and habits it is much like the hedgehog, and like it burrows in the ground. To do this it has very strong claws, and these it can use to defend itself when it takes a fancy to fight. ”

“ Much of their food is procured beneath the surface of the earth. They possess carnivorous tastes, and feed upon dead cattle, insects, snails, snakes, as well as upon roots. The giant armadillo, [Pg 149] according to one writer, digs up dead bodies in the burial grounds.”
“When hunting these animals,” says Waterton, “the first point is to ascertain if the inhabitant of the burrow is at home, which is discovered by pushing a stick into each hole, and watching for the egress of mosquitos. If any come out, the armadillo is in his hole. ”

“ They are well protected with a hard, strong shell which covers their backs, and when in danger they can move very quickly on their short, strong legs, or can bury themselves underground until the danger that threatens them is past. Night is the best time to catch them, and dogs are used in the pursuit. The armadillo is found all over South America, and in the lone caves of Brazil the fossil remains of gigantic ancestors of this creature as large as the rhino of Africa have frequently been discovered. ”

“ She may stand for the invisible creation no doubt, but she would never have commerce with it. No fairy hath seen her at any time; no sovereignty such as we are now discussing would be applicable to her dominion. That of Artemis, or that of Pan, is more comparable. Artemis is certainly ruler of the spirits of the air and water, of the hills and shores of the sea, and to some extent her power overlaps that of Pan who is potent in nearly all land solitudes. ”

“ Among several thousand artemiæ studied by me, I have not found a single well-defined male individual. The distinguished Genevan naturalist, Carl Vogt, said, the other day, that he had had the like experience. Hence we may conclude that the artemia of our salt-marshes perpetuates its kind by means of virgin females, whose eggs, although deprived of seminal impregnation, are developed in an incubatory sac situated at the base of the maternal abdomen. These produce young artemiæ, which have to undergo amazing metamorphoses before they arrive at a complete resemblance to their parent. ”

“ This creature, who seemed to him so beautiful, so fearless, and so redundant of animated life that she appeared a very incarnation of Artemis, was happy as she now was, innocent as the wild doe of her own oak-glades, and bold enough to defend her innocence were it menaced. ”

“ Several species of armadilloes possess the power of clueing themselves up, à la hedgehog, and thus presenting an impenetrable front to the attacks of an enemy; while others want this power, but, in its stead, can flatten their bodies along the ground, in such a way that neither dog nor jaguar can set tooth upon anything softer than their scales, and these are as impenetrable as if they were plates of steel. ”

“ The size of the Megatherium exceeds that of the existing Edentata, to which it is most nearly allied, in a greater degree than any other fossil animal exceeds its nearest living congeners. With the head and shoulders of a Sloth, it combined in its legs and feet, an admixture of the characters of the Ant-eater, the Armadillo, and the Chlamyphorus; it probably also still further resembled the Armadillo and Chlamyphorus, in being cased with a bony coat of armour. ”

“ Its reticulated structure is in many instances so analogous to that of the eyes of some crustaceous animals, and also of some species of insects, that there can be but little doubt that these tubercular projections, were true organs of vision.
Some of the genera which belong to this remarkable race of fossil animals, possessed the power of rolling or coiling themselves up into a kind of ball, like certain species of insects, or like the armadillo; and they are always found embedded in the rocks in this attitude. ”

“ The third and last existing family of the Xenarthra is that of the armadillos, or Dasypodidae, in which there are at least seven pairs of teeth in each jaw, while the tongue is normal, the tail generally long, and the body covered with an armour of bony plates overlain by horny scales. All the species are terrestrial, and insectivorous or more or less omnivorous. ”

“ This genus is similar to Artamides, but its members are smaller and the bill is decidedly more slender. The plumage is unbarred in the adult and the male has the chin, throat, forehead, and face masked in black, or else the whole plumage is black. The young have the under parts barred. ”

“ The Artemis to whom a fawn in a maiden's dress is sacrificed does not haunt the memory of Euripides; his Artemis is fair and honourable, pure and maidenly, a goddess wandering in lonely places unbeholden of man. ”

“ All this being granted by me beforehand (though possibly that might not be guessed from my critic) , our author will explain Artemis’s human sacrifice of a girl in a fawn-skin—bloodshed, bear and all—with no aid from Kamilarois, Cahrocs, and Samoans.
Mr. Max Müller’s Explanation
Greek races traced to Zeus—usually disguised, for amorous purposes, as a brute. The Arcadians had an eponymous heroic ancestor, ‘Areas;’ they also worshipped Artemis. Artemis, as a virgin, could not become a mother of Areas by Zeus, or by anybody. Callisto was also Artemis. Callisto was the mother of Areas. ”

“ The armadillo swims well in time of need, but does not go into the water by choice. He is very seldom seen abroad during the day; and when surprised, he is sure to be near the mouth of his hole. Every part of the armadillo is well protected by his shell, except his ears. In life this shell is very limber, so that the animal is enabled to go at full stretch or roll himself up into a ball, as occasion may require. ”

“ Artemis was so beautiful that men were afraid to look at her. It was said that if any man should look full at her he would lose his mind.
So when she came to those whom she did not wish to hurt, she covered herself with clouds.
For a time the good giant Orion helped Artemis in her hunting, for he too was a great hunter. Artemis [177] loved him as well as she loved any one, but she was very cold and did not care much for anybody. ”

“ If the arguments in favour of such a connexion are valid, it is to the old mammal fauna of Ethiopia that we must probably look for the progenitors of the Santa Cruz fauna of Patagonia. Very noteworthy is the alleged occurrence of remains of primitive armadillos in the Oligocene beds of southern Europe in association with those of pangolins and aard-varks; since, if these fossils be rightly determined, there at once arises the probability of Africa having been the original home of the entire Edentate order. ”

“ Even in modern armadillos the enamel-organ is formed in the embryo, though it does not perform its functions. The skull of †Metacheiromys had something of the armadillo-shape, but was not especially characteristic. The vertebræ of the neck were all separate, and those of the dorsal and lumbar regions did not have the complex articulations common to all known edentates, [617] fossil and Recent; the sacrum had on each side but one point of contact with the hip-bones, and the sternal ribs were not ossified. The shoulder-blade, hip-bones and humerus were all armadillo-like. ”

“ But no animal as large as Tyrannosaurus could leap or spring upon another, and its slow stride quickening into a swift resistless rush, might well end in unavoidable impalement upon the great horns of Triceratops, futile weapons against a small and active enemy, but designed no doubt to meet just such attacks as these. ”