HARES. nominative plural in Sophocles, in his Amycus, a satyric drama; where he enumerates—
Cranes, crows, and owls, and kites, and hares ([Greek: lagoi]).
But there is also a form of the nominative plural corresponding to the accusative [Greek: lagôn], ending in [Greek: ô], as found in the Flatterers of Eupolis—
Where there are rays, and hares ([Greek: lagô]), and light-footed women.
But some people, contrary to all reason, circumflex the last syllable of this form [Greek: lagô]; but it ought to have an acute accent, since all the nouns which end in [Greek: os], even when they are changed into [Greek: ôs] by the Attic writers, still preserve the same accent as if they had undergone no alteration; as [Greek: naos, neôs]; [Greek: kalos, kalôs]. And so, too, Epicharmus used this noun, and Herodotus, and the author of the poem called the Helots. Moreover, [Greek: lagos] is the Ionic form—
Rouse the sea-hare ([Greek: lagos]) before you drink the water;
and [Greek: lagôs] the Attic one. But the Attic writers use also the form [Greek: lagos]; as Sophocles, in the line above quoted—
Cranes, crows, and owls, and hares ([Greek: lagoi]).
There is also a line in Homer, where he says—
[Greek: ê ptôka lagôon].
Now, if we have regard to the Ionic dialect, we say that [Greek: ô] is interpolated; and if we measure it by the Attic dialect, then we say the [Greek: o] is so: and the meat of the hare is called [Greek: lagôa krea].
63. But Hegesander the Delphian, in his Commentaries, says that in the reign of Antigonus Gonatas, there were such a number of hares in the island of Astypalæa, that the natives consulted the oracle on the subject. And the Pythia answered them that they ought to breed dogs, and hunt them; and so in one year there were caught more than six thousand. And all this immense number arose from a man of the island of Anaphe having put one pair of hares in the island. As also, on a previous occasion, when a certain Astypalæan had let loose a pair of partridges in the island of Anaphe, there came to be such a number of partridges in Anaphe, that the inhabitants ran a risk of being driven out of the island by them. But originally Astypalæa had no hares at all, but only partridges. And the hare is a very prolific animal, as Xenophon has told us, in his treatise on Hunting; and Herodotus
