A wild animal [of that name].
*(/uaina: qhri/on.
Similar entry, according to Adler, in the
Ambrosian Lexicon, and cf. also
Hesychius upsilon2: 'a four-footed creature, and a fish'. (For both of these senses see LSJ s.v. The present entry, evidently, confines itself to the first.
Hyenas are mentioned by
Herodotus (4.192, web address 1) in his list of the fauna of Libya; and the ancient world generally exhibited more interest in the hyena than this entry might suggest. With the exception of
Aristotle (
Historia animalium 579b 15-30,
De generatione animalium 757a 2-13) most writers believed that the hyena changes sex, from male to female and back again, at intervals of six months or a year: Aesop 242 & 243 Perry (p.416);
Aelian On the nature of animals 1.25, ps.-
Clement Recognitiones 8.25,
Oppian,
Cynegeticus 3.288-92, Ovid
Metamorphoses 15.408-10,
Photius Bibliotheca 244.379a18,
Pliny Natural History 8.44, Tertullian,
de Pallio 3.2. In fact, adult male and female hyenas are indistinguishable visually, short of dissection.
Kruuk, Hans. 1972. The Spotted Hyena. Chicago
No. of records found: 1
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