Page 80 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 8 0

Arrian points out that Xenophon could not have known these swift dogs because he did
not know these peoples either. This applies precisely to the Galatians or Celts, because
Xenophon lived in the 4th century BC, but the Galatians only appeared in the Greek area
shortly before the turn of the 3rd century BC.

But there are other possible indications that these fast hounds were known in Asia Minor
and in what is now Syria. Thus the Pseudo-Oppian (also Oppian of Apamea, Syria, around

200 AD) writes the following short description in his poem “Kynegetika”:

“ ... But the best races by far of all
remain the purebred ones that all hunters

consider to be outstanding. There are countless breeds,
whose shape and appearance shall be approximately such:
long, with strong body, sufficiently small head,
beautiful look from dark shining eyes

and elongated mouth with sharp teeth. Tiny shall
about it, the ears should be made of delicate skin,
the neck long and the chest strong underneath
and broad, the forelegs shorter than the hindlegs,

the lower legs straight, slender and long,
wide the shoulder blades, the chest transverse,
the hips fleshy and not fat, on the rump
firm and stretched out a long tail.

This is how they are supposed to be for long runs,
be equipped with gazelles, deer and wind-quick hares” [59].

This description of the Pseudo-Oppian also points very clearly to a type of sighthound of
which there are said to be “innumerable races”. The long tail and the game to be hunted

by it are characteristic of the sighthound type.

But the “purebred” dogs are not dogs bred in lines, close to inbreeding. They are dogs of
the same type with salient characteristics. Thus, a sighthound would not have been bred
to an Olde English Bulldogge for “improvement”, but sighthound type to sighthound type
and bulldog type to bulldog type.