Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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ultimately achieved a signal victory over its more aristo-
cratic synonym before the lines between the Romance languages
were clearly drawn.
The rivalry between grus and corvus may perhaps be
roughly paralled in English by alligator-wrench and croc-
odile-wrench. The latter expression, perhaps a provincialism,
is sometimes used colloquially, though recognized by
no standard dictionary. Alligator-shears and crocodileshears
are however regarded as identical by The Century
Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
The transfer of the term yepavoi is, of course, due to a
fancied resemblance between the long neck of the bird and
the projecting arm of the machine. The Greek writers
make frequent comment on the neck of the crane, some-
times in complimentary terms, sometimes disparagingly.
Homer expresses his admiration in a graceful hexameter
yepdviuv f) kvkvcov SovXixoSeipmv .^^^
j(r]v&v ^
Aristotle in more prosaic fashion speaks of the long necks,
T0V9 rpaxn^ov? fiaKpoik^^^ of the cranes, and in other pas-
sages shows that it was proverbial for an epicure to wish for
a gullet like a crane's : iju^aro rt? oyjtocjxir/o'i wv tov (f)dptjyya
avToi fjLaKporepov yepdvov yeveadai.^^''
SUCULA, A Little Pig; transf., A Windlass, used in
THE Scorpion and Catapult,^®* as Well
AS IN Other Devices.
PORCULUS, A Little Pig; transf., A Clutching
Device used with the Sucula.
Festus attributes the transfer in the meaning of sucula to
the figure of a breeding sow, surrounded by her litter:
Sucula est machinae genus teretis materiae, et foratae, ac
crassae, quam, ut uber scrofae, porculi circumstant sic, ver-
santesque ductario fune volvunt.^'®
^n. ii, 460.
Arist. De Acoust. 800 b.
"'Arist. Nic. Eth. 11 18 a. Cf. Athen. iv, I3i„e: yipavoi tovtovI tov
XdiTKOvTos SMTecva/Uvri SiA, tov irpaxTov Kal t&v ir'S.evpuv SiaK6\j/€iev ri lUruirov.
"''Vitr. X, 12, I.
"° Fest. p. 301 Miill.
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