And Ulpian, as if he had got some unexpected gain, while Myrtilus was still speaking, said:—Do we say ὁ τίγρις in the masculine gender? for I know that Philemon says this in his play called Neæra:—
A. Just as Seleucus sent the tiger (τὴν τίγριν) here,And Myrtilus said to him:—Since you interrupted us when we were making out a catalogue of women, not like the lists of Sosicrates the Phanagorite, or like the catalogue of women of Nilænetus the Samian or Abderitan (whichever was really his native country), I, digressing a little, will turn to your question, my old Phœnix. Learn, then, that Alexis, in his [p. 942] Pyraunus, has said τὸν τίγριν, using the word in the mas- culine gender; and these are his words:
Which we have seen, so we in turn ought now
To send Seleucus back a beast from here.
B. Let's send him a trigeranum;1 for that's
An animal not known much in those parts.
Come, open quick the door; I have been here,And I might quote other evidences of the fact, but I postpone them for the present, while I finish my catalogue, as far as it comprehends the beautiful women.
Though all unseen, walking some time,—a statue,
A millstone, and a seahorse, and a wall,
The tiger (ὁ τίγρις) of Seleucus.
