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The way in which hedgehogs defend and guard themselves has occasioned the proverbSee Shorey on Plato, Republic, 423 e (L.C.L.); Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i, p. 147, Zenobius, v. 68; attributed by Zenobius to Archilochus (Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica, i, p. 241, frag. 103; Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 174, frag. 118) and to Homer. Zenobius also quotes five lines from Ion, of which the last two are Plutarch’s next quotation.: The fox knows many tricks, but the hedgehog one big one; for when the fox approaches, as IonNauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 739; frag. 38, verses 4 f. (see the preceding note). says, it, Curling its spiny body in a coil, Lies still, impregnable to touch or bite. But the provision that the hedgehog makes for its young is even more ingenious. When autumn comes, it creeps under the vines and with its paws shakes down to the ground grapes from the bunches and, having rolled about in them, gets up with them attached to its quills. Once when I was a child I saw one, like a creeping or walking bunch of grapes!The mss. add an unnecessary explanation: so covered with fruit was it as it walked. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 10; Anth. Pal. vi. 169. Then it goes down into its hole and delivers the load to its young for them to enjoy and draw rations from. Their lair has two openings, one facing the south, the other the north; when they perceive that the wind will change, like good skippers who shift sail, they block up the entrance which lies to the wind and open the other. Cf. 979 a infra; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 b 4 ff.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 133; Cf. viii. 138, of squirrels. On animals who predict the weather see Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 361-364. And a man in CyzicusAristotle (loc. cit.) says Byzantium (and see infra, 979 b). observing this acquired a reputation for being able to predict unaided which way the wind would blow.
