Antelope
ANTELOPE
ANTELOPE . In ancient times various species of antelope of the group Hippotraginae existed in Ere? Israel and surrounding countries. They have completely disappeared from Israel and are found only in the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa. Sundry species of antelope have been identified with some of the seven clean animals, cloven-hooved ruminants, enumerated in Deuteronomy 14:5. Apparently the dishon is the antelope, since the Septuagint renders it ????????, i.e., pygargos, which means "having a white rump," the reference being to the Addax nasomaculatos (a large antelope with hollow horns, with black spots on its neck and head, but otherwise white). Some also identify the zemer (AV "chamois") with a species of antelope, the Oryx leucoryx, but others say that it refers to a species of wild sheep. The re'em mentioned in Psalms 92:11 as having long horns has also been identified with the Oryx. It was this animal, depicted in profile, which gave rise to the legend of the unicorn. In other passages, however, the re'em seems to be the wild ox (see *Wild Bull).
bibliography:
S. Bodenheimer, Ha-?ai be-Ar?ot ha-Mikra, 1 (1950), 79; J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 9, 13, 18; Lewysohn, Zool, 114, 149.
[Jehuda Feliks]