Hunting Lore #3: Xenophon's Cynegeticus

The oldest extant treatise on hunting is Xenophon's prose Cynegeticus. It begins with a pronouncement about the origins of the art, and a catalogue of Greek heroes, which serves to link the practice of hunting with (Greek) virtue and manliness as such (1.1-17):

Game and hounds are the invention of gods, of Apollo and Artemis. They bestowed it on Cheiron and honoured him therewith for his righteousness. And he, receiving it, rejoiced in the gift, and used it. And he had for pupils in venery and in other noble pursuits—Cephalus, Asclepius, Meilanion, Nestor, Amphiaraus, Peleus, Telamon, Meleager, Theseus, Hippolytus, Palamedes, Odysseus, Menestheus, Diomedes, Castor, Polydeuces, Machaon, Podaleirius, Antilochus, Aeneas, Achilles, of whom each in his time was honoured by gods. Let no man marvel that the more part of these, even though they pleased gods, died none the less; for that was nature's work; but the praise of them grew mightily;—nor yet that not all of these flourished at one time. For Cheiron's lifetime sufficed for all. For Zeus and Cheiron were brethren, sons of one sire, but the mother of the one was Rhea, of the other the nymph Nais: and so, though he was born before these, he died after them, for he taught Achilles. 

Through the heed they paid to hounds and hunting and the rest of their scholarship they excelled greatly and were admired for their virtue: 

Cephalus was carried away by a goddess [Eos, the Dawn].

Asclepius won yet greater preferment—to raise the dead, to heal the sick; and for these things he has everlasting fame as a god among men.

Meilanion was so peerless in love of toil that, though the princeliest of that age were his rival suitors for the greatest Lady of the time, only he won Atalanta.

Nestor's virtue is an old familiar tale to Greek ears; so there is no need for me to tell of it.

Amphiaraus when he fought against Thebes, gained great praise and won from the gods the honour of immortality. 

Peleus stirred a desire even in the gods to give him [the nymph] Thetis and to hymn their marriage in Cheiron's home.

Telamon waxed so mighty that he wedded from the greatest city the maiden of his choice, Periboea, daughter of Alcathus: and when the first of the Greeks, Heracles son of Zeus, distributed the prizes of valour after taking Troy [in an earlier Trojan War than that of the Iliad], to him he gave Hesione.

As for Meleager, the honours that he won are manifest; and it was not by his own fault that he came to sorrow when his father in old age forgot the goddess [=Artemis].

Theseus single-handed slew the enemies of all Greece; and because he enlarged greatly the borders of his country he is admired to this day.

Hippolytus was honoured by Artemis and held converse with her; and for his prudence and holiness he was counted happy when he died. 

Palamedes far outstripped the men of his generation in wisdom while he lived; and being unjustly slain he won from the gods such vengeance as fell to the lot of no other mortal. But his end was not compassed by those whom some imagine, else could not the one of them have been well-nigh the best, and the other the peer of the good; but bad men did the deed.

Menestheus through the heed he paid to hunting, so far surpassed others in love of toil that the first of the Greeks confessed themselves his inferiors in feats of war, all save Nestor; and he, it is said, outdid not, but rivalled him.

Odysseus and Diomedes were brilliant in every single deed, and in short, to them was due the capture of Troy. 

Castor and Polydeuces [the Dioscuri], through the renown that they won by displaying in Greece the arts they learned of Cheiron, are immortal.

Machaon and Podaleirius [the sons of Asclepius], schooled in all the selfsame arts, proved in crafts and reasonings and wars good men.

Antilochus, by giving his life for his father [Nestor], won such glory that he alone was proclaimed among the Greeks as “the Devoted Son.”

Aeneas saved the gods of his father's and his mother's family, and withal his father himself; wherefore he bore away fame for his piety, so that to him alone among all the vanquished at Troy even the enemy granted not to be despoiled.

Achilles, nursed in this schooling, bequeathed to posterity memorials so great and glorious that no man wearies of telling and hearing of him.

These, whom the good love even to this day and the evil envy, were made so perfect through the care they learned of Cheiron that, when troubles fell upon any state or any king in Greece, they were composed through their influence; or if all Greece was at strife or at war with all the Barbarian powers, these brought victory to the Greeks, so that they made Greece invincible.

(The translation I cite is E. C. Marchant's, as given by the Perseus Project.)

This is not the place to explain each of these ultra-short biographies in detail, but suffice it to say that many of them are almost comically one-sided, leaving out anything remotely negative. But I would not necessarily suggest that a comic tone is intended: Xenophon's point, as the rest of the text shows, really is to praise aristocratic Greek virtue and prowess.

Although the gods do not otherwise come up much, only once in passing (15.13f):

The [hare] is so prolific that at the same time she is rearing one litter, she produces another and she is pregnant. The scent of the little leverets is stronger than that of the big ones; for while their limbs are still soft they drag the whole body on the ground. Sportsmen, however, leave the very young ones to the goddess [=Artemis]. Yearlings go very fast in the first run, but then flag, being agile, but weak.

And another time as an ordinary part of the chase (6.11-14):

Let the huntsman go out to the hunting ground in a simple light dress and shoes, carrying a cudgel in his hand, and let the net-keeper follow. Let them keep silence while approaching the ground, so that, in case the hare is near, she may not move off on hearing voices. Having tied the hounds separately to the trees so that they can easily be slipped, let him set up the purse-nets and hayes in the manner described. After this let the net-keeper keep guard, and let the huntsman take the hounds and go to the place in the hunting ground where the hare may be lurking; and after registering a vow to Apollo and Artemis the Huntress [gr. Agrotera] to give them a share of the spoil, let him loose one hound, the cleverest at following a track, at sunrise in winter, before dawn in summer, and some time between at other seasons. As soon as the hound picks up a line from the network of tracks that leads straight ahead, let him slip another. If the track goes on, let him set the others going one by one at short intervals, and follow without pressing them, accosting each by name, but not often, that they may not get excited too soon.

Still, the closing part of the work idealizes the huntsman as uniquely virtuous and pious, and almost assimilates the hunter to the gods (13.15-18):

In fine, the politician whose objects are selfish practises for victory over friends, the huntsman for victory over common foes. This practice makes the one a better, the other a far worse fighter against all other enemies. The one takes prudence with him for companion in the chase, the other base rashness. The one can despise malice and avarice, the other cannot. The language of the one is gracious, of the other ugly. As for religion [gr. ta theia, 'the divine things'], nothing checks impiety in the one, the other is conspicuous for his piety. In fact, an ancient story has it that the gods delight in this business, both as followers and spectators of the chase. Therefore, reflecting on these things, the young who do what I exhort them to do will put themselves in the way of being dear to the gods and pious men, conscious that one or other of the gods is watching their deeds. These will be good to parents, good to the whole city, to every one of their friends and fellow-citizens. For all men who have loved hunting have been good: and not men only, but those women also to whom the goddess has given this blessing, Atalanta and Procris and others like them.