Ὕαινα

Notes

1. Similar entry, according to Adler, in the Ambrosian Lexicon, and cf. also Hesychius upsilon2: 'a four-footed creature, and a fish'. (For both of these senses see LSJ s.v. The present entry, evidently, confines itself to the first.
   Hyenas are mentioned by Herodotus (4.192, web address 1) in his list of the fauna of Libya; and the ancient world generally exhibited more interest in the hyena than this entry might suggest. With the exception of Aristotle (Historia animalium 579b 15-30, De generatione animalium 757a 2-13) most writers believed that the hyena changes sex, from male to female and back again, at intervals of six months or a year: Aesop 242 & 243 Perry (p.416); Aelian On the nature of animals 1.25, ps.-Clement Recognitiones 8.25, Oppian, Cynegeticus 3.288-92, Ovid Metamorphoses 15.408-10, Photius Bibliotheca 244.379a18, Pliny Natural History 8.44, Tertullian, de Pallio 3.2. In fact, adult male and female hyenas are indistinguishable visually, short of dissection.