- Type: Art Audio File
- Collection: European Art
- Culture/Region: Europe
- Subject Area: Visual Arts
- Grade Level: K-12, College, Adult, Families
While the Dawsons’ greyhound Grace Darling may have been a loving canine companion, her breed is admired for its skill at coursing. Coursing is a hunting technique in which sight hounds chase and capture hares, a relative of the rabbit.
The first complete description of greyhounds comes from the ancient Roman poet Ovid (3 BCE–17 CE), who described them in a mythological story called Metamorphoses. He writes of the greyhound coursing a hare:
“As when the impatient greyhound slipped from far,
Bounds o’er the glade to course the fearful hare,
She in her speed does all her safety lay.
And he with double speed pursues the prey,
O’erruns her at the sitting turns, but licks
His chops in vain; and blows upon the flix,
She escapes, and for the neighboring covert strives,
And gaining shelter, doubts if she yet lives.”