ARNIS
ARNIS (
Ἀρνίς), a festival held
by the Argives during the month of August, at which they used to kill any
dog which came into the agora (Conon,
Narrat.
19;
Ael. NA 12.34). The name of
Κυνοφόντις was also given to the festival
(
Athen. 3.99 e). It may have got its name of
Ἀρνίς or the “lamb
festival” because Apollo, the sun-god, was also god of flocks
(
Νόμιος, ὀπάων μήλων,
Pind. P. 9.64); and in that burning season he
is implored to spare the lambs. That the massacre of the dogs was due to
fear of their madness is probable; as was the similar killing of the dogs at
Rome in the month of August (Lyd.
de Mensibus,
3.40), which is, however, usually assigned to punishment for having failed
to give notice of the attack by the Gauls on the Capitol (
Plin. Nat. 29.57). But the Argives tell a
pretty story how that Linus, son of Apollo and Psamathe, when exposed by his
mother among the lambs, was eaten by the dogs of the sheepfold; and how that
the mother in her distraction betrayed her fault, and was put to death by
her angry father Crotopus; and in aftertimes the matrons each year bewailed
Psamathe and Linus, and added lamentations for their own dead children and
prayers for the living. For the full story, see Conon,
l.c.;
Paus. 1.43, § § 7 foll.;
Stat. Theb. 1.568 foll. The dogs
represented the dogstar, the lambs the tender youth of Linus and the
children for whom the mothers feared sunstroke (
Hesych. sub voce
ἀστροβολήτους). (See Hartung,
Relig. der Griech. iv. p. 157; Preller,
[p. 1.193]Griech, Myth. i. pp. 205, 379-80; Saglio, s. v.)
[
L.C.P]