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Canis

κύων).


1.

The dog; an animal domesticated among the ancients, and used for hunting, for guarding houses, and also kept as a pet. In Egypt it was even held in reverence, and at Cynopolis received divine honours in the person of the dogheaded (or jackal-headed) god Anubis (q.v.). Artemis was said to have given Procris a dog that was always sure of its prey, and from this dog tradition derived the mighty Molossian hounds and those of Sparta. The mastiff (canis Anglicus) was imported into Rome from Britain, and was carefully bred for the wild-beast fights (venationes) in the amphitheatre. Lap-dogs (catuli) were reared in Melita (Malta). House-dogs took the place of the modern domestic cat, a creature unknown to the Greeks and Romans. See Faelis.


2.

See Sirius.

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