§9.21.1εἶδον δὲ καὶ ἄλλον Τρίτωνα ἐν τοῖς Ῥωμαίων θαύμασι, μεγέθει τοῦ παρὰ Ταναγραίοις ἀποδέοντα.
I also saw another Triton among the wonders at Rome, smaller in size than the one at Tanagra.
παρέχονται δὲ ἰδέαν οἱ Τρίτωνες·
The Tritons present the following appearance.
ἔχουσιν ἐπὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ κόμην οἷα τὰ βατράχια τὰ ἐν ταῖς λίμναις χρόαν τε καὶ ὅτι τῶν τριχῶν οὐκ ἂν ἀποκρίναις μίαν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν σῶμα φολίδι λεπτῇ πέφρικέ σφισι κατὰ ἰχθὺν ῥίνην.
On their heads they have hair like that of frogs in pools, both in color and in the fact that one cannot distinguish a single hair from the others; the rest of their body is bristling with fine scales like a shark.
βράγχια δὲ ὑπὸ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἔχουσι καὶ ῥῖνα ἀνθρώπου, στόμα δὲ εὐρύτερον καὶ ὀδόντας θηρίου·
Under their ears they have gills, and a human nose, a wider mouth, and the teeth of a wild beast.
τὰ δὲ ὄμματα ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν γλαυκὰ καὶ χεῖρές εἰσιν αὐτοῖς καὶ δάκτυλοι καὶ ὄνυχες τοῖς ἐπιθέμασιν ἐμφερεῖς τῶν κόχλων·
Their eyes seem to me blue-grey, and they have hands and fingers and nails like the lids of shell-fish.
ὑπὸ δὲ τὸ στέρνον καὶ τὴν γαστέρα οὐρά σφισιν ἀντὶ ποδῶν οἵα περ τοῖς δελφῖσίν ἐστιν.
Under their chest and belly, they have a tail instead of feet, like that of dolphins.
§9.21.2εἶδον δὲ καὶ ταύρους τούς τε Αἰθιοπικούς, οὓς ἐπὶ τῷ συμβεβηκότι ὀνομάζουσι ῥινόκερως, ὅτι σφίσιν ἐπʼ ἄκρᾳ τῇ ῥινὶ ἓν ἑκάστῳ κέρας καὶ ἄλλο ὑπὲρ αὐτὸ οὐ μέγα, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν κέρατά ἐστι, καὶ τοὺς ἐκ Παιόνων—οὗτοι δὲ οἱ ἐκ Παιόνων ἔς τε τὸ ἄλλο σῶμα δασεῖς καὶ ἀμφὶ τὸ στέρνον μάλιστά εἰσι καὶ τὴν γένυν—καμήλους τε Ἰνδικὰς χρῶμα εἰκασμένας παρδάλεσιν.
I also saw bulls, both the Ethiopian ones, which they call rhinoceros from what happens to be the case, because each has one horn on the tip of its nose and another not large one above it, but on their head they have no horns at all, and those from Paeonia—these Paeonian ones are shaggy in the rest of their body and especially around their chest and jaw—and Indian camels in color like leopards.
§9.21.3ἔστι δὲ ἄλκη καλούμενον θηρίον, εἶδος μὲν ἐλάφου καὶ καμήλου μεταξύ, γίνεται δὲ ἐν τῇ Κελτῶν γῇ.
There is also a beast called alce, in appearance between a deer and a camel, and it is found in the land of the Celts.
θηρίων δὲ ὧν ἴσμεν μόνην ἀνιχνεῦσαι καὶ προϊδεῖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρώπῳ, σταλεῖσι δὲ ἐς ἄγραν ἄλλων καὶ τήνδε ἐς χεῖρά ποτε δαίμων ἄγει·
It is the only beast we know of which a man cannot track or foresee, but when people set out to hunt other things, a deity sometimes brings this too into their hands.
ὀσφρᾶται μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πολὺ ἔτι ἀπέχουσα, ὥς φασι, καταδύεται δὲ ἐς φάραγγας καὶ σπήλαια τὰ βαθύτατα.
For it scents man, they say, while still a long way off, and plunges into ravines and the deepest caves.
οἱ θηρεύοντες οὖν, ὁπότε ἐπὶ βραχύτατον, σταδίων τὴν πεδιάδα χιλίων ἢ καὶ ὄρος περιλαβόντες, τὸν κύκλον μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως διαλύσουσιν, ἐπισυνιόντες δὲ ἀεὶ τὰ ἐντὸς γινόμενα τοῦ κύκλου πάντα αἱροῦσι τά τε ἄλλα καὶ τὰς ἄλκας· εἰ δὲ μὴ τύχοι ταύτῃ φωλεύουσα, ἑτέρα γε ἄλκην ἑλεῖν ἐστιν οὐδεμία μηχανή.
So the hunters, when they have surrounded a plain of at most a thousand stades, or even a mountain, by no means break their circle, but by closing in they capture everything that is inside the circle, both other things and the alces; but if it does not happen to be nesting there, there is no other way to catch an alce.
§9.21.4θηρίον δὲ τὸ ἐν τῷ Κτησίου λόγῳ τῷ ἐς Ἰνδοὺς—μαρτιχόρα ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰνδῶν, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἑλλήνων φησὶν ἀνδροφάγον λελέχθαι—εἶναι πείθομαι τὸν τίγριν· ὀδόντας δὲ αὐτὸ τριστοίχους καθʼ ἑκατέραν τὴν γένυν καὶ κέντρα ἐπὶ ἄκρας ἔχειν τῆς οὐρᾶς, τούτοις δὲ τοῖς κέντροις ἐγγύθεν ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ ἀποπέμπειν ἐς τοὺς πορρωτέρω τοξότου ἀνδρὸς ὀιστῷ ἴσον, ταύτην οὐκ ἀληθῆ τὴν φήμην οἱ Ἰνδοὶ δέξασθαι δοκοῦσί μοι παρʼ ἀλλήλων ὑπὸ τοῦ ἄγαν ἐς τὸ θηρίον δείματος.
As for the beast in the account of Ctesias on India—which he says is called martichoras by the Indians, but "man-eater" by the Greeks—I am persuaded that it is the tiger; and as for the story that it has three rows of teeth in each jaw, and stings on the tip of its tail, with which stings it defends itself at close quarters and discharges them at those further off like an arrow from a bowman's bow, this untrue rumor has, I think, been accepted by the Indians from one another because of their excessive dread of the beast.
§9.21.5ἠπατήθησαν δὲ καὶ ἐς τὴν χρόαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὁπότε κατὰ τοῦ ἡλίου φανείη σφίσιν ὁ τίγρις τὴν αὐγήν, ἐρυθρός τʼ ἐδόκει καὶ ὁμόχρους ἢ ὑπὸ τῆς ὠκύτητος ἢ—εἰ μὴ θέοι— διὰ τὸ ἐν ταῖς ἐπιστροφαῖς συνεχές, ἄλλως τε καὶ οὐκ ἐγγύθεν γινομένης τῆς θέας.
They were also deceived as to its color, and whenever the tiger appeared to them in the light against the sun, it seemed red and of a uniform color, either owing to its speed or—even if it were not running—because of its constant turning, especially as the sight of it was not from close at hand.
δοκῶ δέ, εἰ καὶ Λιβύης τις ἢ τῆς Ἰνδῶν ἢ Ἀράβων γῆς ἐπέρχοιτο τὰ ἔσχατα ἐθέλων θηρία ὁπόσα παρʼ Ἕλλησιν ἐξευρεῖν, τὰ μὲν οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν αὐτὸν εὑρήσειν, τὰ δὲ οὐ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἔχειν φανεῖσθαί οἱ·
And I think that, even if someone were to traverse the remotest parts of Libya or of the land of the Indians or of the Arabians, wishing to find whatever beasts are discovered among the Greeks, he would not find some at all, and others would appear to him not to be in the same state.
§9.21.6οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἄνθρωπος μόνον ὁμοῦ τῷ ἀέρι καὶ τῇ γῇ διαφόροις οὖσι διάφορον κτᾶται καὶ τὸ εἶδος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τὸ αὐτὸ ἂν πάσχοι τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ θηρία αἱ ἀσπίδες τοῦτο μὲν ἔχουσιν αἱ Λίβυσσαι παρὰ τὰς Αἰγυπτίας τὴν χρόαν, τοῦτο δὲ ἐν Αἰθιοπίᾳ μελαίνας τὰς ἀσπίδας οὐ μεῖον ἢ καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἡ γῆ τρέφει.
For indeed not only does man acquire a different appearance along with the air and the land which are different, but the rest of things too would suffer this same experience, since even among beasts the Libyan asps have a color different from the Egyptian ones, and in Ethiopia the land rears black asps no less than it does black men.
οὕτω χρὴ πάντα τινὰ μήτε ἐπίδρομον τὴν γνώμην μήτε ἀπίστως ἔχειν ἐς τὰ σπανιώτερα, ἐπεί τοι καὶ ἐγὼ πτερωτοὺς ὄφεις οὐ θεασάμενος πείθομαι· πείθομαι δὲ ὅτι ἀνὴρ Φρὺξ ἤγαγεν ἐς Ἰωνίαν σκορπίον ταῖς ἀκρίσιν ὁμοιότατα πτερὰ ἔχοντα.
Thus one ought neither to have a hasty judgment in everything, nor to be unbelieving toward rarer things; for I too, though I have not seen winged serpents, believe in them; and I believe that a Phrygian man brought to Ionia a scorpion with wings very like those of locusts.