BOOK VIII.

1. Polybius the Megalopolitan, speaking of the great happiness which

exists in Lusitania (and that is a district of Iberia, which the Romans

now call Spania), O most excellent Timocrates, in the thirty-fourth

book of his Histories, says that in that country, on account of the

excellent temperature of the air, both animals and men are exceedingly

prolific; and the fruits, too, in that country never degenerate. "For

there are roses there, and white violets, and asparagus, and other

flowers and fruits like them, which last nine months in the year; and

as for sea-fish, both in abundance, and in excellence, and in beauty,

it is very superior to that produced in our seas. And a siclus (this is

equal to a medimnus) of barley costs only a drachma; and one of wheat

costs nine Alexandrian obols; and a measure of wine costs a drachma;

and a moderate-sized kid costs an obol, and so does a hare. And of

lambs, the price is three or four obols; and a fat pig, weighing a

hundred minæ, costs five drachmæ; and a sheep costs two. And a talent

weight of figs costs three obols; and a calf costs five drachmæ; and a

draught-ox ten. And the meat of wild animals is scarcely ever valued

at any price at all; but people throw that in to purchasers into

the bargain, or as a present." But to us, whenever we sup with our

excellent friend Laurentius, he makes Rome another Lusitania,—filling

us with every sort of good thing every day, receiving us in a most

princely manner with the greatest liberality, while we bring nothing

from home as our contribution, except our arguments.

2. Now, as a long discussion had taken place about fish, it was plain

that Cynulcus was annoyed at it; and so the excellent Democritus,

anticipating him, said—But, O you men fish, as Archippus says, you

have omitted (for I too must throw in a little contribution of my

own) those which are called fossil fishes, which are produced at

Heraclea, and near Tium, in Pontus, which is a colony of the Milesians,

though Theophrastus gives us an account of them. And this very same

philosopher has also told us about those that are congealed in ice the

whole winter, so that they have no feeling whatever, and make not the

slightest motion, until they are put into the saucepans and boiled. And

these fish have this especial peculiarity, which also belongs in some

degree to the fish which are called fossil fish in Paphlagonia. For it

is said that ditches are dug in those places to an exceeding depth,

where no overflow of rivers ever reaches, nor of any other waters

whatever; and yet in those ditches there are found living fishes.

3. But Mnaseas of Patra, in his Periplus, says that the fish in the

river Clitor are not dumb; though Aristotle has stated in writing that

the only fishes which have any voice are the scarus and the river-hog.

And Philostephanus, who was a Cyrenæan by birth, and a friend of

Callimachus, in his treatise on Extraordinary Rivers, says that in the

river Aroanius, which flows through Pheneum, there are fish which sing

like thrushes, and that they are called the poiciliæ. And Nymphodorus

the Syracusan, in his Voyages, says that there are pike in the river

Helorus, and large eels, so tame that they take bread out of the hands

of any who bring it to them. And I myself, and very likely many of you

too, have seen cestres tamed to the hand in the fountain of Arethusa,

near Chalcis; and eels, having silver and golden earrings, taking food

from any one who offered it to them, and entrails from the victims, and

fresh cheese. And Semus says, in the sixth book of his Delias—"They say

that a boy once dipped a ewer into the well, and brought water to some

Athenians who were sacrificing at Delos, to wash their hands with; and

he brought up, as it happened, some fish in the ewer along with the

water: and that on this the soothsayers of the Delians told them that

they should become the lords of the sea."

[Sidenote: AQUATIC ANIMALS.]

4. And Polybius, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that

behind Pyrene, as far as the river Narbo, the whole country is a plain,

through which the rivers Illiberis and Rhoscynus proceed, flowing

through cities of the same name as themselves, which are inhabited by

some of the Celtæ; and in this plain he says that the above-mentioned

fossil fish are also found. And he says that the soil of that plain

is light, and that a great quantity of the herb agrostis grows in it;

and that beneath it, as the soil is sandy for a depth of two or three

cubits, the water flows, which wanders away from these rivers; and so

the fish, too, leaving the rivers, and proceeding underground, in the

course of these erratic underflowings, in quest of food (for they are

exceedingly fond of the root of the agrostis), have caused the whole

plain to be full of subterranean fish, which people catch when they dig

up the plain. "And among the Indians," says Theophrastus, "there are

fish which go forth out of the rivers over the land, and then, leaping

back, return again to the water, just like frogs; being in appearance

very like the fish which are called maxini."

5. But I am not ignorant of what Clearchus, the Peripatetic

philosopher, has said about what he calls the exocoetus fish, or

fish which comes out of the water to sleep, which he mentions in his

work entitled A Treatise on Aquatic Animals. For he has said, (and I

think that I recollect his exact words, which are as follows,) "The

exocoetus fish, which some people call Adonis, has derived its name

from constantly taking his rest out of the water. He is rather of a red

colour, and from his gills down to his tail he has on each side of his

body one white stripe reaching the whole length of his body. And he

is round, but not being broad, he is equal in size to the cestrinisci

which are found near the shore; and they are as near as may be about

eight fingers in length. Altogether he is very like the fish called the

sea-goat, except that the latter has a black place under his stomach,

which they call the beard of the goat. And the exocoetus is one of

the fish which keeps near to the rocks, and spends his life in rocky

places. When it is calm weather he springs up with the waves and lies

on the rocks for a considerable time, sleeping on the dry land, and

turning himself so as to bask in the sun: and then, when he has had

sufficient rest, he rolls towards the water again, until the wave,

taking him again, bears him with the reflux back into the sea. And

when he is awake on the dry land then he is on his guard against those

birds which are called pareudistæ, such as the halcyon, the sandpiper,

and the helorius, which is a bird like the rail. For these birds in

calm weather feed on the dry land, and often attack the exocoetus; but

when he sees them at a distance he flies, leaping and panting, until he

dives beneath the water."

6. Moreover, Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus

the Cyrenæan, whom I have previously mentioned. "There are some fish

which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound. Such are those

which are found near Cleitor, in Arcadia, in the river called Ladon.

For they have a voice, and utter a very audible sound." And Nicolaus,

of Damascus, in the hundred and fourth book of his History, says—"In

the country around Apamea, in Phrygia, at the time of the Mithridatic

wars, there were some earthquakes, after which there appeared in that

district some lakes which previously had no existence, and rivers, and

other springs which had been opened by the earthquake. Many also which

had previously existed disappeared. And such a quantity of additional

water, which was brackish and of a sea-green colour, burst up in that

district, though it is at a very great distance from the sea, that

all the neighbouring country was filled with oysters and fish, and

all other productions of the sea." I know also that it has very often

rained fishes. At all events, Phænias, in the second book of his

Eresian Magistrates, says that in the Chersonesus it once rained fish

uninterruptedly for three days; and Phylarchus, in his fourth book,

says that people had often seen it raining fish, and often also raining

wheat, and that the same thing has happened with respect to frogs. At

all events, Heraclides Lembus, in the twenty-first book of his History,

says—"In Pæonia and Dardania it has, they say, before now rained frogs;

and so great has been the number of these frogs that the houses and

the roads have been full of them; and at first, for some days, the

inhabitants, endeavouring to kill them, and shutting up their houses,

endured the pest; but when they did no good, but found that all their

vessels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up

and roasted with everything they ate, and when besides all this, they

could not make use of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for

the heaps of frogs that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the

smell of those that died, they fled the country."

[Sidenote: FISH.]

7. I am aware, too, that Posidonius the Stoic makes this statement

about the abundance of the fish:—"When Tryphon of Apamea, who seized

upon the kingdom of Syria, was attacked by Sarpedon, the general

of Demetrius, near the city of Ptolemais, and when Sarpedon, being

defeated, retired into the inland parts of the country with his own

troops, but the army of Tryphon, having been victorious in the battle,

were marching along the shore, on a sudden, a wave of the sea, rising

to a great height, came over the land, and overwhelmed them all, and

destroyed them beneath the waters, and the retreating wave also left

an immense heap of fish with the corpses. And Sarpedon and his army

hearing of what had happened, came up, and were delighted at the sight

of the corpses of their enemies, and carried away an enormous quantity

of fish, and made a sacrifice to Neptune who puts armies to flight,

near the suburbs of the city."

8. Nor will I pass over in silence the men who prophesy from fish in

Lycia, concerning whom Polycharmus speaks, in the second book of his

Affairs of Lycia; writing in this manner:—"For when they have come

to the sea, at a place where there is on the shore a grove sacred to

Apollo, and where there is an eddy on the sand, the persons who are

consulting the oracle come, bringing with them two wooden spits, having

each of them ten pieces of roast meat on them. And the priest sits

down by the side of the grove in silence; but he who is consulting

the oracle throws the spits into the eddy, and looks on to see what

happens. And after he has put the spits in, then the eddy becomes full

of salt water, and there comes up such an enormous quantity of fish of

such a description that he is amazed at the sight, and is even, as it

were, alarmed at the magnitude of it. And when the prophet enumerates

the different species of fish, the person who is consulting the oracle

in this manner receives the prophecy from the priest respecting the

matters about which he has prayed for information. And there appear in

the eddy orphi, and sea-grayling, and sometimes some sorts of whales,

such as the phalæna, or pristis, and a great many other fish which are

rarely seen, and strange to the sight."

And Artemidorus, in the tenth book of his Geography, says that—"It is

said by the natives that a fountain springs up in that place of sweet

water, to which it is owing that these eddies exist there; and that

very large fish are produced in that eddying place. And those who are

sacrificing throw to these fish the first-fruits of what they offer,

piercing them through with wooden spits, being pieces of meat, roasted

and boiled, and cakes of barley and loaves. And both the harbour and

the place is called Dinus."[9]

9. I know, too, that Phylarchus has spoken, somewhere or other, about

large fish, and about fresh figs which were sent with them; saying that

Patroclus, the general of Ptolemy, sent such a present to Antigonus

the king, by way of a riddle, as the Scythians sent an enigmatical

present to Darius, when he was invading their country. For they sent

(as Herodotus relates) a bird, and an arrow, and a frog. But Patroclus

(as Phylarchus tells us, in the third book of his Histories) sent

the before-mentioned fishes and figs; and the king, at the time that

they arrived, happened to be drinking with his friends, and when

all the party were perplexed at the meaning of the gifts, Antigonus

laughed, and said to his friends that he knew what was the meaning of

the present; "for," says he, "Patroclus means that we must either be

masters of the sea, or else be content to eat figs."

10. Nor am I unaware that all fishes are called by one generic name,

camasenes, by Empedocles the natural philosopher, when he says—

How could the mighty trees and sea-born camasenes . . .

And the poet, too, who wrote the Cyprian poems (whether he was a

Cyprian or a man of the name of Stasinus, or whatever else his name may

have been), represents Nemesis as pursued by Jupiter, and metamorphosed

into a fish, in the following lines:—

And after them she brought forth Helen third,

A marvel to all mortal men to see;

Her then the fair-hair'd Nemesis did bear,

Compell'd by Jove, the sovereign of the gods.

She indeed fled, nor sought to share the love

Of that great father, son of Saturn, Jove;

For too great awe did overpower her mind:

So Nemesis did flee o'er distant lands,

And o'er the black and barren waves o' the sea;

[Sidenote: FISH.]

But Jove pursued her (and with eagerness

His soul desired her). In vain she took

The form of some large fish who bounds along,

Borne on the vast high-crested roaring wave;

Sometimes she fled along the ocean, where

The earth's most distant boundaries extend;

Sometimes she fled along the fertile land;

And took all shapes of every animal

Which the land bears, to flee from amorous Jove.

11. I know, also, what is related about the fish called apopyris,

which is found in the lake Bolbe; concerning which Hegesander, in his

Commentaries, speaks thus:—"Around Apollonia of Chalcis two rivers

flow, the Ammites and the Olynthiacus, and they both fall into the lake

Bolbe. And on the river Olynthiacus there is a monument of Olynthus,

the son of Hercules and Bolbe. And in the months Anthesterion and

Elaphebolion, the natives say that Bolbe sends Apopyris to Olynthus;

and that about this time a most enormous number of fish ascend out

of the lake into the river Olynthiacus: and this is a shallow river,

scarcely deep enough to wet a man's ankles; but for all that there does

not the less come a great number of fish, so that all the people of the

district get enough cured fish for their use for the year. And it is

a wonderful fact that they never pass above the monument of Olynthus.

They say, in explanation of this, that the people of Apollonia did

formerly, in the month Elaphebolion, celebrate sacrifices to the dead,

but that they do so now in the month Anthesterion; and that on this

account this ascent is made by the fish in those months alone in which

the natives are accustomed to pay honour to their national heroes."

12. And this is the state of the case, O men fish; for you, having

collected together every kind of thing, have thrown us out to be food

for fishes, instead of giving them as food for us,—making such long

speeches as not even Ichthys, the philosopher of Megara, nor Ichthyon

(and this also is a proper name), who is mentioned by Teleclides in his

Amphictyons, would make to us. And, on your account, I will give this

advice to the servant, as it is said in the Ant-Men of Pherecrates:—

Mind that you never, O Deucalion,

(Even if I bid you,) set a fish before me.

For in Delos, as we are told by Semus the Delian, in the second book

of the Delias, when they sacrifice to Brizo,—and she is a deity who

prophesies to people asleep (for the ancients used βριόζω as synonymous

with καθεύδω, to sleep, saying—

Then sleeping (ἀποβρίξαντες) there we waited for the dawn)—

so, when the Delian women sacrifice to this deity, they bring her, as

their offering, boats full of all kinds of good things, except fish;

because they address prayers to her on every subject, and especially

for the safety of their vessels.

13. But, my friends, though I admire Chrysippus, the leader of the

sect of the Stoics, on many accounts, I also praise him especially for

having always classed Archestratus, that man who is so famous for his

treatise on Cookery, with Philænis, to whom that indelicate composition

about Amatory Pleasures is attributed; which, however, Æschrion, the

iambic poet of Samos, says was written by Polycrates the sophist, and

attributed to Philænis for the sake of calumniating her, when she was a

most respectable woman. And the iambics, in which this is stated, run

as follows:—

I am Philænis, famous among men;

And here I lie, o'erwhelm'd by long old age.

Do not, O foolish sailor, pass this cape

Laughing and scorning and reproaching me.

For now I swear by Jove, and by the gods

Who reign below, I never lustful was,

I never made myself a sport to man.

But one Polycrates, of Attic race,

A trashy chatterer, and a false accuser,

Wrote what he wrote; I know not what it was.

Therefore that admirable Chrysippus, in the fifth book of his treatise

on Honour and Pleasure, says—"The books, too, of Philænis, and the

Gastronomy of Archestratus, and all the drugs calculated to provoke

appetite or sensual desires, and also all the servants who are skilled

in such motions and such figures, and whose occupation it is to attend

to these things." And again he says—"That they learn such things,

and get hold of the books written on such subjects by Philænis and

Archestratus, and by those who have written similar works." And in his

seventh book he says—"Just as it would not be advisable to study the

writings of Philænis or the Gastronomy of Archestratus, as tending to

make a person live better."

[Sidenote: RECOMMENDATIONS TO PRESENT ENJOYMENT.]

14. But you, who are constantly making mention of this Archestratus,

have made this entertainment full of intemperance; for what of all

the things which could unduly excite men has this fine epic poet

omitted?—he, the only imitator of the life of Sardanapalus the son

of Anacyndaraxes, who, Aristotle says, is made more obscure still by

adding the name of his father; on whose tomb, Chrysippus says, the

following inscription was engraved:—

Knowing that you are mortal, feed your soul

On banquets and delights; for in the grave

There's no enjoyment left. I now am dust

Who once was king of mighty Nineveh;

The things which I did eat, the joys of love,

The insolent thoughts with which my wealth did fill me,

Are all I now have left; for all my power

And all my happiness is gone for ever.

This is the only prudent rule of life,

I never shall forget it, let who will

Hoard boundless treasures of uncounted gold.

And the great poet has said of the Phæacians—

To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight,

The feast or bath by day, and love by night.

And another person, not unlike Sardanapalus in disposition, gives this

advice and these rules to those who are deficient in wisdom:—

I to all mortals now give this advice:

Live for the day with pleasure; he who dies

Is nought; an empty shade beneath the earth:

Man lives but a short space, and therefore should,

While life remains, enjoy himself.

And Amphis the comic poet, in his Ialemus, says—

The man who knows that he is but a mortal,

And yet seeks not enjoyment while alive,

Leaving all other cares, is but a fool

In mine and all wise men's opinion,

And most unhappy in his destiny.

And, in his play entitled the Gynæcocracy, he says nearly the same—

Drink and play, our mortal life

On earth can but a brief space last;

Death alone will last for ever.

When once our too brief term is past.

And a man of the name of Bacchides, who lived on the same principles as

Sardanapalus, after he was dead had the following inscription placed on

his tomb:—

Eat, drink, indulge thy soul with all delights,

This stone is all that now remains for Bacchides.

15. Alexis, in his Tutor of Intemperate Men—(as Sotion the Alexandrian

says, in his Commentary on the Silli of Timon; for I myself have never

met with the play, though I have read more than eight hundred plays of

what is called the Middle Comedy, and have made extracts from them, but

still I have never fallen in with the Tutor of Intemperate Men, nor do

I recollect having seen any mention of it in any regular list of such

plays; for Callimachus has not inserted it in his catalogue nor has

Aristophanes, nor even those scholars at Pergamus, who have handed down

to us lists of plays,)—however, Sotion says that in that play a slave,

named Xanthias, was represented as exhorting all his fellow-slaves to a

life of luxury, and saying—

Why do you talk such stuff, why run about

To the Lyceum and the Academy,

To the Odeum's gates, hunting in vain

For all the sophists' nonsense? there's no good in it;

Let us drink, drink, I say. O Sicon, Sicon!

Let us amuse ourselves; while time allows us

To gratify our souls.—Enjoy yourself,

My good friend Manes! nothing is worth more

To you than your own stomach. That's your father;

That only is your mother;—as for virtues,

And embassies, and military commands,

They are but noisy boasts, vain empty dreams.

Fate at its destined hour will come to chill you;

Take all that you can get to eat and drink;

Pericles, Codrus, Cimon, are but dust.

16. But it would be better, says Chrysippus, if the lines inscribed on

the tomb of Sardanapalus were altered thus—

Knowing that thou art mortal, feed thy soul

On wise discourse. There is no good in eating.

For I am now no good, who once did eat

All that I could, and sought all kinds of pleasure.

Now what I thought and learnt and heard of wisdom

Is all I now have left; my luxuries

And all my joys have long deserted me.

And Timon says, very beautifully,—

Of all bad things the chief is appetite.

17. But Clearchus, in his essay on Proverbs, says that Terpsion was

the tutor of Archestratus, who was also the first person who wrote a

book on Gastronomy; and he says that he gave precepts to his pupils as

to what they ought to abstain from; and that Terpsion once extemporised

the following line about a turtle:—

[Sidenote: FISH.]

Eat now a turtle, or else leave it alone;

which, however, others read—

Eat now a turtle's flesh, or leave it alone.

18. But whence is it, O you wisest of men, that Dorion, who wrote a

list of fish, has been mentioned as if he were the writer of some

valuable history?—a fellow who, I know, has been named a musician and a

fish-devourer, but certainly not a historian. Accordingly Machon, the

comic poet, speaks of him as a musician, saying—

Dorion the musician once did come

To Mylon, all in vain; for he could find

No resting-place which he could hire at all;

So on some sacred ground he sat him down,

Which was by chance before the city gates,

And there he saw the keeper of the temple

Prepare a sacrifice.—"I pray thee, tell me,

In chaste Minerva's name, and all the gods',

What deity is it that owns this temple?"

The keeper thus replied: "This is, O stranger,

Of Jupiter-Neptune the sacred shrine."

"How then," said Dorion, "could any man

Expect to find a lodging in a place

Which in one temple crowds a pair of gods?"

And Lynceus the Samian, the pupil of Theophrastus, and the brother of

Duris, who wrote the Histories, and made himself tyrant of his country,

writes thus in his Apophthegms— "When a man once said to Dorion the

flute-player, that the ray was a good fish, he said—'Yes, about as good

as if a man were to eat a boiled cloak.' And once, when some one else

praised the entrails of tunny-fish, he said—'You are quite right, but

then a man must eat them as I eat them;' and when the man asked him how

that was, he said—'How? why willingly.' And he said that crawfish had

three good qualities,—exercise, good food, and contemplation. And once,

at Cyprus, when he was supping with Nicocreon, he praised a goblet that

there was there; and Nicocreon said—'Whatever there is here that you

fancy, the artist will make you another like it.' 'Let him make that,'

he replied, 'for you; but do you give me this one.'" And this was a

clever speech of the flute-player; for there is an old saying that—

'Tis not that God denies a flutist sense,

But when he comes to blow it flies away.

19. And Hegesander, in his Commentaries, says this of him—"Dorion,

the great fish-eater, once, when his slave had neglected to buy fish,

scourged him, and ordered him to tell him the names of the best fish;

and when the boy had counted up the orphus, and the sea-grayling, and

the conger, and others of this sort, he said—'I desired you to tell me

the names of fishes, and not of gods.'" The same Dorion, ridiculing the

description of a tempest in the Nautilus of Timotheus, said that he had

seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan. And Aristodemus,

in the second book of his Memorials of Laughable Circumstances and

Sayings, says—"Dorion the musician was club-footed; and once, in some

entertainment, he lost the slipper of his lame foot; on which he said,

'I will not wish anything more to the thief than that the slipper may

fit him.'" But that this Dorion was notorious for his epicurism in

fish, is plain from what Mnesimachus the comic poet says in his drama

called Philip—

No, but all night Dorion the dish-piper

Does stay indoors with us.

20. I know, too, the sportive sayings which Lasus of Hermione has

uttered about fishes; which Chamæleon of Heraclea has recorded in

writing, in his book on this very Lasus, where he says—"They say that

Lasus called raw fish ὀπτὸς (which means roasted or visible); and when

many people wondered why he did so, he thus began to prove what he

had said; arguing thus: 'As whatever a person can hear (ἀκοῦσαι) is

properly called ἀκουστὸν, and as whatever a person can understand by

his intellect (νοῆσαι) is properly called νοητὸν, so whatever any one

can see (ὄπτεσθαι) is clearly ὀπτόν; as therefore it was possible to

see the fish, he evidently was ὀπτός.' And once, in a joke, he stole

a fish from a fisherman, and having taken it, he gave it to one of

the bystanders; and when the fisherman put him to his oath, he swore

that he had not got it himself, and that he had not seen any one else

take it; because, in fact, he himself had taken it, but some one else

had got it. And then he prompted the other man, on the other hand, to

swear that he had not taken it himself, and that he was not acquainted

with any one else who had it; for, in fact, Lasus had taken it, and he

himself had it." And Epicharmus jests in the same way; as, in his Logus

and Logina,—

[Sidenote: FISH.]

_A._ Jupiter 'tis who did invite me, giving

A feast (γ̓ ἔρανον) to Pelops.

_B._ 'Tis a sorry food,

That crane (γέρανος), to my mind.

_A._ But I did not say

A crane (γέρανον), but a feast (ἔρανόν γε), as you might well

have heard.

21. And Alexis, in his Demetrius, ridicules, in his comic manner, a man

of the name of Phayllus, as very fond of fish, in these lines:—

First of all, whether the wind blew north or south,

As long as it blew hard, it was not possible

For anybody to get fish to eat.

But now, besides that pair of stormy winds,

We've a third tempest risen in Phayllus;

For when this last storm bursts upon the market,

He buys up all the fish at all the stalls,

And bears it off; so that we are reduced

To squabble for the vegetables remaining.

And Antiphanes, in his Female Fisher, enumerating some people as

exceedingly fond of fish, says—

Give me some cuttle-fish first. O Hercules!

They've dirtied every place with ink; here, take them

And throw them back again into the sea,

To wash them clean: or else they'll say, O Dorion,

That you have caught some rotten cuttle-fish:

And put this crawfish back beside the sprats.

He's a fine fish, by Jove. O mighty Jove,

O you Callimedon, who now will eat you?

No one who's not prepared to pay his share.

I've giv'n you your place here on the right,

You mullets, food of great Callisthenes;

Who eats his patrimony in one dish;

Next comes the mighty conger from Sinope,

With his stout spines; the first who comes shall have him;

For Misgolas has no great love for such.

But here's a citharus, and if he sees him

He never will keep off his hands from him;

For he, indeed, does secretly adhere

As close as wax to all the harp-players (κιθαρῳδοῖς).

I ought to send this best of fish, this tench,

Still all alive, and leaping in his dish,

To the fair Pythionica, he's so fine:

But still she will not taste him, as her heart

Is wholly set on cured fish.—Here I place

These thin anchovies and this dainty turtle

Apart for Theano, to counterbalance her.

22. And it is a very clever way in which Antiphanes thus jested upon

Misgolas, as devoting all his attention to beautiful harp-players and

lyre-players; for Æschines the orator, in his speech against Timarchus,

says this of him—"Misgolas, the son of Naucrates, of Colyttus, O men

of Athens, is a man in other respects brave and virtuous, and no one

can find any fault with him in any particular; but he is known to be

exceedingly devoted to this kind of business, and always to have about

him some harp-players, and people who sing to the music of the harp.

And I say this, not by way of disparaging him, but in order that you

may be aware what sort of person he is." And Timocles, in his Sappho,

says—

Misgolas is not seen to enter in,

Excited as he is by blooming youth.

And Alexis, in his Agonis, or the Little Horse, says—

O mother, do not threaten me, I pray,

With Misgolas, for I am not a harp-player.

23. But Antiphanes says that Pythionica is fond of cured fish, since

she had for lovers the sons of Chærephilus, the seller of salt-fish; as

Timocles says, in his Icarians,—

When that stout Anytus to Pythionica

Does come, to eat with her; for she invites him,

As people say, whenever she does get

Two noble tunnies from Chærephilus;

So fond is she of all things that are large.

And again he says—

And Pythionica will receive you gladly,

And very likely will devour the gifts

Which you have lately here received from us,

For she's insatiable. Still do you

Bid her give you a basket of cured fish;

For she has plenty; and she has indeed

A couple of saperdæ; ugly fish,

Ill salted, and broad nosed.

And before this she had a lover whose name was Cobius.

24. But with respect to Callimedon, the son of Carabus, Timocles, in

his Busybody, tells us that he was fond of fish, and also that he

squinted:—

Then up came Carabus Callimedon,

And looking on me, as it seem'd to me,

He kept on speaking to some other man.

And I, as it was likely, understanding

No word of what they said, did only nod.

But all the girls do keep on looking at him,

While they pretend to turn their eyes away.

[Sidenote: FISH.]

And Alexis, in his Crateua, or the Apothecary, says—

_A._ I am now, these last four days, taking care of

These κόραι for Callimedon.

_B._ Had he then

Any κόραι (damsels) for daughters?

_A._ I mean κόραι,

The pupils of the eyes; which e'en Melampus,

Who could alone appease the raging Proetides,

Would e'er be able to keep looking straight.

And he ridicules him in a similar manner in the play entitled The Men

running together. But he also jests on him for his epicurism as to

fish, in the Phædo, or Phædria, where he says—

_A._ You shall be ædile if the gods approve,

That you may stop Callimedon descending

Like any storm all day upon the fish.

_B._ You speak of work for tyrants, not for ædiles;

For the man's brave, and useful to the city.

And the very same iambics are repeated in the play entitled Into the

Well; but, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, he says—

If I love any strangers more than you,

I'll willingly be turn'd into an eel,

That Carabus Callimedon may buy me.

And in his Crateua he says—

And Carabus Callimedon with Orpheus.

And Antiphanes says, in his Gorgythus,—

'Twould harder be to make me change my mind

Than to induce Callimedon to pass

The head of a sea-grayling.

And Eubulus, in his Persons saved, says—

Others prostrating them before the gods,

Are found with Carabus, who alone of men

Can eat whole salt-fish out of boiling dishes

So wholly as to leave no single mouthful.

And Theophilus, in his Physician, ridiculing his coldness of

expression, says—"And the slave put before the young man himself with

great eagerness a little eel: his father had a fine cuttle-fish before

him. 'Father,' says he, 'what do you think of your crawfish?' 'It is

cold,' says he; 'take it away,—I don't want to eat any orators.'"[10]

And when Philemon says, in his Canvasser,—

Agyrrius, when a crawfish was before him,

On seeing him exclaim'd, Hail, dear papa!

Still what did he do? He ate his dear papa!

And Herodicus the Cratetian, commenting on this in his Miscellaneous

Commentaries, says that Agyrrius was the name of the son of Callimedon.

25. The following people, too, have all been great epicures about

fish. Antagoras the poet would not allow his slave to touch his fish

with oil, but made him wash it; as Hegesander tells us. And when in

the army, he was once boiling a dish of congers, and had his clothes

girt round him, Antigonus the king, who was standing by, said, "Tell

me, Antagoras, do you think that Homer, who celebrated the exploits

of Agamemnon, ever boiled congers?" And it is said that he answered,

not without wit, "And do you think that Agamemnon, who performed those

exploits, ever busied himself about inquiring who was cooking congers

in his army?" And once, when Antagoras was cooking a bird of some kind,

he said that he would not go to the bath, because he was afraid that

the slaves might come and suck up the gravy. And when Philocydes said

that his mother would take care of that, "Shall I," said he, "entrust

the gravy of game to my mother?" And Androcydes of Cyzicus, the

painter, being very fond of fish, as Polemo relates, carried his luxury

to such a pitch that he even painted with great care the fish which are

around Scylla.

26. But concerning Philoxenus of Cythera, the dithyrambic poet, Machon

the comic poet writes thus:—

They say Philoxenus, the ancient poet

Of dithyrambics, was so wonderfully

Attach'd to fish, that once at Syracuse

He bought a polypus two cubits long,

Then dress'd it, and then ate it up himself,

All but the head—and afterwards fell sick,

Seized with a sharp attack of indigestion.

Then when some doctor came to him to see him,

Who saw that he was greatly out of order;

"If," said the doctor, "you have any business

Not well arranged, do not delay to settle it,

For you will die before six hours are over."

Philoxenus replied, "All my affairs,

O doctor, are well ended and arranged,

Long, long ago. By favour of the gods,

I leave my dithyrambics all full-grown,

And crown'd with many a prize of victory;

[Sidenote: HYPERIDES.]

And I commit them to the guardianship

Of my dear foster-sisters, the Nine Muses,

And join to them both Bacchus and fair Venus.

This is my will. But now, since Charon gives

No time, but, as in the Niobe of Timotheus,

Keeps crying out, 'Now cross;' and deadly fate

Calls me away, who can't be disobey'd,

That I may go below with all my goods,

Bring me the relics of that polypus."

And in another part he says—

Philoxenus of Cythera, as men say,

Wished that he had a throat three cubits long;

"That I might drink," said he, "as long as possible,

And that my food may all at once delight me."

And Diogenes the Cynic, having eaten a polypus raw, died of a swelling

in the belly. But concerning Philoxenus, Sopater the parodist also

speaks, saying—

For, between two rich courses of fine fish,

He pleased himself by looking down the centre

Of Ætna's crater.

27. And Hyperides the orator was an epicure in fish; as Timocles the

comic writer tells us, in his Delos, where he enumerates all the people

who had taken bribes from Harpalus: and he writes thus—

_A._ Demosthenes has half-a-hundred talents.

_B._ A lucky man, if no one shares with him.

_A._ And Moerocles has got a mighty sum.

_B._ He was a fool who gave them; lucky he

Who got them.

_A._ Demon and Callisthenes

Have also got large sums.

_B._ Well, they were poor,

So that we well may pardon them for taking them.

_A._ And that great orator Hyperides.

_B._ Why, he will all our fishmongers enrich;

An epicure! Gulls are mere Syrians,

Compared to him.

And in the Icarians, the same poet says—

Then cross Hyperides, that fishy river,

Which with a gentle sound, bubbling with boasts

Of prudent speeches, with mild repetitions

* * * * *

And hired, bedews the plain of him who gave it.

And Philetærus, in his Æsculapius, says that Hyperides, besides being

a glutton, was also a gambler. As also Axionicus, in his Lover of

Euripides, says that Callias the orator was; and his words are—"A

man of the name of Glaucus came to this place, bringing from Pontus a

kind of shark, a fish of extraordinary magnitude,—a great dainty for

epicures in fish, and, in fact, for all men who are devoted to the

pleasures of the table. And he brought it on his shoulders, and said,

'Whom shall I instruct how to dress it, and how shall it be dressed?

Will you have it soaked in a sauce of green herbs, or shall I baste its

body with basting of warm brine, and then dress it on a fierce fire?

And a man named Moschio, a great flute-player, cried out that he should

like to eat it boiled in warm pickle-juice. And this was meant as a

reproof for you, O Calaides! for you are very fond of figs and cured

fish; and yet you will not taste a most exquisite fish which you have

served up to you in pickle." Reproaching him with the figs as if he

were a sycophant; and perhaps concealing under the mention of the cured

fish, some intimation of his having been implicated in discreditable

conduct. And Hermippus says, in the third book of his treatise on the

Pupils of Isocrates, that Hyperides was in the habit of taking a walk,

the first thing in the morning, in the fish-market.

28. And Timæus of Tauromenium says that Aristotle the philosopher was a

great epicure in respect of fish. Matron the sophist, also, was a great

fish-eater: and Antiphanes, in his Harp-player, intimates this; for

that play begins thus—

He tells no lie . . . .

A man dug out his eye, as Matron does

The eyes of fish when he comes near to them.

And Anaxilas says, in his Morose Man,—

Matron has carried off and eaten up

A cestris' head; and I am quite undone.

It being the very extravagance of gluttony to carry a thing off while

eating it, and such a thing too as the head of a cestris; unless,

perhaps, you may suppose, that those who are skilful in such things are

aware of there being some particular good qualities in the head of a

cestris; and if so, it belonged to Archestratus's gluttony to explain

that to us.

29. But Antiphanes, in his Rich Man, gives us a catalogue of epicures,

in the following lines:—

Euthymus too was there, with sandals on,

A ring upon his finger, well perfumed,

Silently pondering on I know not what.

[Sidenote: EPICURES.]

Phœnicides too, and my friend Taureas,

Such great inveterate epicures that they

Would swallow all the remnants in the market;

They at this sight seem'd almost like to die.

And bore the scarcity with small good-humour;

But gather'd crowds and made this speech to them:—

"What an intolerable thing it is

That any of you men should claim the sea,

And spend much money in marine pursuits,

While not one fin of fish comes to this market!

What is the use of all our governors

Who sway the islands? We must make a law

That there should be copious importation

Of every kind of fish. But Matron now

Has carried off the fishermen; and then

There's Diogeiton, who, by Jove, has brought

The hucksters over to keep back for him

All the best fish; and he's not popular

For doing this, for there is mighty waste

In marriage-feasts and youthful luxury."

But Euphron, in his Muses, says,—

But when at some fine banquet of young men

Phœnicides perceived a smoking dish

Full of the sons of Nereus, he held back

His hands, with rage excited. Thus he spoke:—

"Who boasts himself a clever parasite

At eating at the public cost? who thinks

To filch the dainty dishes from the middle?

Where's Corydus, or Phyromachus, or Nillus?

Let them come here, they shall get nought of this."

30. But Melanthus the tragic poet was a person of the same sort; and

he also wrote elegies. But Leucon, in his Men of the same Tribe, cuts

his jokes upon him in the fashion of the comic writers, on account of

his gluttony; and so does Aristophanes in the Peace, and Pherecrates in

his Petale. But Archippus, in his play called The Fishes, having put

him in chains as an epicure, gives him up to the fishes, to be eaten

by them in retaliation. And, indeed, even Aristippus, the pupil of

Socrates, was a great epicure,—a man who was once reproached by Plato

for his gluttony, as Sotion and Hegesander relate. And the Delphian

writes thus:—"Aristippus, when Plato reproached him for having bought

a number of fish, said that he had bought them for two obols; and when

Plato said, 'I myself would have bought them at that price,' 'You see,

then,' said he, 'O Plato! that it is not I who am an epicure, but you

who are a miser.'" And Antiphanes, in his Female Flute-player, or the

Female Twins, laughing at a man named Phœnicides for his gluttony,

says—

Menelaus warr'd for ten whole years against

The Trojan nation for one lovely woman.

Phœnicides, too, attacks Taureas

For one fine eel.

31. But Demosthenes the orator reproaches Pherecrates, because,

with the gold which he received for his treason, he bought himself

courtesans and fish, and charges him with debauchery and gluttony. But

Diocles the epicure, as Hegesander says, when a man once asked him

which of the two fish was the best, the conger or the pike, said—"The

one when it is boiled, and the other when it is roasted." And Leonteus

the Argive also was an epicure: he was a tragedian, and a pupil of

Athenion, and a slave of Juba, king of Mauritania; as Amarantus

relates, in his treatise on the Stage, saying that Juba wrote this

epigram on him, because he had acted the character of Hypsipyle very

badly:—

If you should wish to see the genius

Of that devoted artichoke-devourer

Leonteus the tragedian, don't regard

The sorrow-stricken heart of Hypsipyle.

I once was dear to Bacchus, and his taste

Is ne'er perverted by base bribes t'approve

Untuneful sounds. But now the pots and pans,

And well-fill'd dishes have destroyed my voice,

While I've been anxious to indulge my stomach.

32. And Hegesander tells us that Phoryscus, the fish-eater, once, when

he was not able to take exactly as much fish as he wished, but when a

greater part of it was following his hand, as he was helping himself,

said,—

But what resists is utterly destroy'd,

and so ate up the whole fish. And Bion, when some one had been

beforehand with him, and had already taken the upper part of the fish,

having turned it round himself, and eating abundantly of it, said,

after he had done,—

But Ino finish'd all the rest o' the business.

[Sidenote: EPICURES.]

And Theocritus the Chian, when the wife of Diocles the epicure died,

and when the widowed husband, while making a funeral feast for her,

kept on eating delicacies and crying all the time, said—"Stop crying,

you wretched man; for you will not remedy your grief by eating all

that fish." And when the same Diocles had also eaten up his land

through gluttony, and was one day, while bolting down some hot fish,

complaining that his palate (οὐρανὸς) was burnt, Theocritus, who was

present, said to him—"Then it only remains for you to drink up the

sea, and then you will have got rid of the three greatest things in

the world,—earth, and sea, and heaven (οὐρανός)." And Clearchus, in

his Lives, describing some person who was fond of fish, says—"Technon,

one of the old flute-players, when Charmus the flute-player died, (and

he, too, was very fond of fish,) sacrificed to the dead man a large

dish of every sort of fish on his tomb." Alexis the poet, also, was

a great epicure in fish, as Lynceus the Samian tells us; and being

once ridiculed by some chattering fellows on account of his epicurism,

when they asked him what he liked most to eat, Alexis said, "Roasted

chatterers."

33. Hermippus mentions also Nothippus the tragic poet, in his Tales,

thus—

But if such a race of men

Were to wage a present war

With those who now exist on earth,

And if a roast ray led them on,

Or a fine side of well-fed pork,

The rest might safely stay at home,

And trust Nothippus by himself,

For he alone would swallow up

The whole Peloponnesus:—

and that the man meant here was the poet, Teleclides shows plainly, in

his Hesiods.

Myniscus, the tragic actor, is ridiculed by Plato, the comic writer, in

his Syrphax, as an epicure in respect of fish; where he says—

_A._ Here is an Anagyrasian orphus for you,

Which e'en my friend Myniscus the Chalcidean

Could hardly finish.

_B._ Much obliged to you.

And for a similar reason, Callias, in his Pedetæ, and Lysippus, in his

Bacchæ, ridicule Lampon the soothsayer. But Cratinus, in his Female

Runaways, speaking of him, says—"Lampon, whom nothing which men said

of him could keep away from any banquet of his friends;" and adds, "But

now again he is belching away; for he devours everything which he can

see, and he would fight even for a mullet."

34. And Hedylus, in his Epigrams, giving a list of epicures in fish,

mentions a man named Phædo, in these lines:—

But Phædo, that great harpist, praises phyces,

And sausages, he's such an epicure.

And he mentions Agisoto, in these lines:—

The fish is boil'd, now firmly bar the doors,

Lest Agis, Proteus of the dishes, enter;

For he'll be fire, water,—what he likes;

But bar the door . . . . . .

For he, transform'd, like Jupiter, to gold

Will hasten to this rich Acrisian dish.

He also speaks of a woman named Clio, on a similar account, saying—

Clio's an epicure. Let's shut our eyes.

I beg you, Clio, by yourself to feed.

This conger costs a drachma; leave a pledge,

A band, an earring, or some ornament.

But we cannot endure the sight of you;

You're our Medusa; and we're turn'd to stone,

Not by the Gorgon, but by that whole conger.

35. And Aristodemus, in his Catalogue of Laughable Sayings, says that

Euphranor the epicure, having heard that another epicure in fish

was dead from having eaten a hot slice of fish, cried out, "What a

sacrilegious death!" And Cindon the fish-eater, and Demylus (and he

also was an epicure in fish), when a sea-grayling was set before them,

and nothing else, the former took one eye of the fish, and then Demylus

seized hold of Cindon's eye, crying, "Let his eye go, and I will let

your's go." And once at a feast, when a fine dish of fish was served

up, Demylus, not being able to contrive any way by which he might get

the whole of it to himself, spat upon it. And Zeno the Cittiæan, the

founder of the Stoic school, when he had lived a long time with a great

epicure in fish, (as Antigonus the Carystian tells us, in his life of

Zeno,) once, when a very large fish was by chance served up to them,

and when no other food was provided, took the whole fish from the

platter, pretending to be about to eat it all himself; and, when the

other looked at him, said—"What do you think, then, that those who

live with you must suffer every day, if you cannot endure my being a

glutton for a single day?" And Ister says that Choerilus the poet used

to receive four minæ every day from Archelaus, and that he spent them

all on fish, of which he was so exceedingly fond.

[Sidenote: EPICURES.]

I am aware, also, that there have been boys who were great fish-eaters,

who are mentioned by Clearchus, in his book on Sands; which says

that Psammitichus, king of Egypt, bred up some boys to eat nothing

but fish, when he was anxious to discover the source of the Nile;

and that he accustomed others to endure a great degree of thirst,

who were to be employed in exploring the sands in Libya; of whom,

however, very few escaped in safety. I know, too, that the oxen around

Mosynus, in Thrace, eat fish, which are given to them in their cribs.

And Phœnicides, having set fish before men who had brought their

contribution for a banquet, said that the sea was common, but that the

fish in it belonged to those who bought them.

36. And, my friends, the noun ὀψοφάγος (an eater of fish), and the

verb ὀψοφάγω (to eat fish), are both used. Aristophanes, in his second

edition of the Clouds, says—

Not to eat fish (ὀψοφάγειν) nor to giggle.

And Cephisodorus, in his Pig, says—

Not a fish-eater (οψοφαγος) nor a chatterer.

Machon, in his Letter, says—

I am a fish-eater (ὀψοφάγος), and this is now

The whole foundation of the art we practise.

And he who wishes not to spoil the dishes

Served up to others, should be pleased himself.

For he who rightly cares for his own eating

Will not be a bad cook. And if you keep

Your organs, sense and taste, in proper order,

You will not err. But often taste your dishes

While you are boiling them. Do they want salt?

Add some;—is any other seasoning needed?

Add it, and taste again—till you've arrived

At harmony of flavour; like a man

Who tunes a lyre till it rightly sounds.

And then, when everything is well in tune,

Bring in a troop of willing damsels fair,

Equal in number to the banqueters.

In addition to these epicures in fish, my friends, I am aware also that

Apollo is honoured among the Eleans, under the title of Fish-eater:

and Polemo mentions this name of his in his letter to Attalus. I am

aware, also, that in Pisa there is a picture consecrated in the temple

of Diana Alpheosa (and it is the work of Cleanthes the Corinthian), in

which Neptune is represented as bringing a tunny to Jupiter in labour;

as Demetrius tells us, in the eighth book of his Trojan Array.

37. These, then, are the things, said Democritus, which I myself

have brought in the way of my contribution, not going to eat fish

myself, for the sake of my excellent friend Ulpian; who, on account

of the national customs of the Syrians, has deprived us of our fish,

continually bringing forward one thing after another. And Antipater of

Tarsus, the Stoic philosopher, in the fourth book of his treatise on

Superstition, tells us that it is said by some people that Gatis, the

queen of the Syrians, was so exceedingly fond of fish, that she issued

a proclamation that no one should eat fish without Gatis being invited

(ἄτερ γάτιδος); and that the common people, out of ignorance, thought

her name was Atergatis, and abstained wholly from fish. And Mnaseus,

in the second book of his History of Asia, speaks thus—"But I think

that Atergatis was a very bad queen, and that she ruled the people

with great harshness, so that she even forbad them by law to eat fish,

and ordered them to bring all the fish to her, because she was so fond

of that food; and, on account of this order of hers, a custom still

prevails, when the Syrians pray to the goddess, to offer her golden or

silver fish; and for the priests every day to place on the table before

the god real fish also, carefully dressed, both boiled and roasted,

which the priests of the goddess eat themselves." And a little further

on, he says again—"But Atergatis (as Xanthus the Lydian says), being

taken prisoner by Mopsus, king of Lydia, was drowned with her son in

the lake near Ascalon, because of her insolence, and was eaten up by

fishes."

38. And you, perhaps, my friends, have willingly passed by (as if it

were some sacred fish) the fish mentioned by Ephippus the comic poet,

which he says was dressed for Geryon, in his play called Geryon. The

lines are these:—

_A._ When the natives of the land

Catch a fish which is not common,

But fine, as large as the whole isle

Of Crete, he furnishes a dish

Able to hold a hundred such;

And orders all who live around,

Sindi, and Lycians, and Paphians,

Cranai, and Mygdoniotæ,

To cut down wood, because the king

Is boiling this enormous fish.

So then they bring a load of wood,

Enough to go all round the city,

[Sidenote: EPICURES.]

And light the fire. Then they bring

A lake of water to make brine,

And for eight months a hundred carts

Are hard at work to carry salt.

And around the dish's edge

Five five-oar'd boats keep always rowing;

And bid the slaves take care the fire

Burns not the Lycian magistrates.

_B._ Cease to blow this cold air on us,

King of Macedon, extinguish

The Celts, and do not burn them more.

But I am not ignorant that Ephippus has said the very same thing in

his play called the Peltast; in which the following lines also are

subjoined to those which I have just quoted:—

Talking all this nonsense, he

Raises the wonder of the youths

With whom he feasts, though knowing not

The simplest sums and plainest figures;

But drags his cloak along the ground

With a most lordly, pompous air.

But, with reference to whom it is that Ephippus said this, it is now

proper for you to inquire, my good friend Ulpian, and then to tell us;

and in this inquiry—

If you find aught hard and inexplicable,

Repeat it over, understand it clearly,—

For I have much more leisure than I like;

as Prometheus says in Æschylus.

39. And on this Cynulcus exclaimed:—And what great subject of

inquiry,—I do not say great fish,—can this fellow admit into his

mind?—a man who is always picking out the spines of hepseti and

atherinæ, and even of worse fish than these, if there be any such,

passing over all finer fish.

For, as Eubulus says, in the Ixion,—

As if a man at a luxurious feast,

When cheese cakes are before him, chooses nought

But anise, parsley, and such silly fare,

And ill-dress'd cardamums . . . .

so, too, this Pot-friend, Ulpian,—to use a word of my

fellow-Megalopolitan, Cercidas,—appears to me to eat nothing that a

man ought to eat, but to watch those who are eating, to see if they

have passed over any spine or any callous or gristly morsel of the

meat set before them; never once considering what the admirable and

brilliant Æschylus has said, who called his tragedies, "Relics of

the noble banquets of Homer." But Æschylus was one of the greatest

of philosophers,—a man who, being once defeated undeservedly, as

Theophrastus or Chamæleon (whichever was really the author of the

book), in his treatise on Pleasure, has related, said that he committed

his tragedies to time, well knowing that, he should hereafter receive

the honour due to him.

40. But whence could Ulpian know what Stratonicus the harp-player said

about Propis the Rhodian harp-player? For Clearchus, in his book on

Proverbs, says that Stratonicus, when he had seen Propis, who was a man

of great size, but a very inferior artist, with a mind much less than

his body, said to some one who asked him what sort of player he was,

οὐδεὶς κακὸς μέγας ἰχθῖς;

speaking enigmatically, and saying, first of all, that he is οὐδεὶς,

no one, or good-for-nothing; secondly, that he is κακὸς, bad; and, in

addition to this, that he is μέγας, great; and, lastly, ἰχθὺς, a fish,

as having no voice. But Theophrastus, in his book on The Laughable,

says that this was a proverb originating with Stratonicus, but applied

to Simmychas the actor; for that he uttered the proverb, dividing the

words distinctly—

μέγας οὐδεὶς σαπρὸς ἰχθῦς.

And Aristotle, in his Constitution of the Naxians, speaks thus of this

proverb—"Of the rich men among the Naxians, the greater part lived

in the city, but the remainder lived scattered about in the villages.

Accordingly, in one of these villages, the name of which was Lestadæ,

Telestagoras lived, a man of great riches and of very high reputation,

and greatly honoured by the people in other respects, and also with

daily presents which they used to send him. And whenever people from

the city, going down to the market, wanted to drive a hard bargain for

anything they wished to purchase, the sellers would say that they would

rather give it to Telestagoras than sell it for such a price as was

offered. So some young men, buying a large fish, when the fisherman

made this speech, being annoyed at hearing this so often, having

already drunk a good deal, went to his house to sup; and Telestagoras

received them in a very friendly and hospitable manner, but the young

men insulted him, and his two marriageable daughters. At which the

Naxians were very indignant, and took up arms and attacked the young

men; and there was a great sedition, Lygdamis being the leader of the

Naxians, who, having got the chief command in this sedition, became the

tyrant of his country."

[Sidenote: STRATONICUS.]

41. And I do not think it unseasonable myself, since I have mentioned

the harp-player Stratonicus, to say something also concerning his

readiness in repartee. For when he was teaching people to play the

harp, and as he had in his school nine statues of the nine Muses, and

one of Apollo, and had also two pupils, when some one asked him how

many pupils he had, he said, "Gods and all, twelve." And once when he

had travelled to Mylassa, and saw there a great number of temples, but

very few citizens, standing in the middle of the forum, he cried out—

᾿ακούετε ναοί.[11]

And Macho has recorded some memorials of him in these lines:—

Once Stratonicus travell'd down to Pella,

And having heard from many men before

That the baths of that city were accustom'd

To give the bathers spleen; and finding, too,

That many of the youths did exercise

Before the fire, who preserved their colour

And vigour of their body unimpair'd;

He said that those who told him so were wrong.

But finding afterwards, when he left the bath,

A man whose spleen was twice his belly's size,—

"This man," said he, "appears to me here now

To sit and keep the garments of the men

Who go to bathe, and all their spleens beside,

That all the people may have room enough."

A miserable singer once did give

A feast to Stratonicus and his friends,

And, while the cup was freely going round,

Exhibited his art to all the company.

And as the feast was rich and liberal,

Poor Stratonicus, wearied with the song,

And having no one near him he could speak to,

Knock'd down his cup, and asked for a larger.

And when he'd drunk full many a draught, he made

A last libation to the glorious sun,

And then composed himself to sleep, and left

The rest to fortune. Presently more guests

Came, as good luck would have it, to the singer,

To feast with him; still Stratonicus slept,

Heavy with wine; and when they ask'd him why

A man so much accustom'd to drink wine

Had been so soon o'ercome by drink this day,

"This treacherous, cursed singing man," said he,

"Treated me like a bullock in a stall;

For first he fed me up, and then he kill'd me."

Once Stratonicus to Abdera went,

To see some games which there were celebrated;

And seeing every separate citizen

Having a private crier to himself,

And each of them proclaiming a new moon

Whene'er he pleased, so that the criers were

Quite out of all proportion to the citizens,

He walk'd about on tiptoes through the city,

Looking intently on the ground beneath.

And when some stranger ask'd him what had happen'd

To his feet, to make him look so gravely at them:—

He said, "I'm very well all over, friend,

And can run faster to an entertainment

Than any parasite; but I'm in fear

Lest I should tread by hazard on some κῆρυξ,[12]

And pierce my foot with its spikes and lame myself."

Once, when a wretched flute-player was preparing

To play the flute at a sacred festival,

"Let us have only sounds of omen good,"

Said Stratonicus; "let us pour libations

And pray devoutly to the mighty gods."

There was a harper, and his name was Cleon,

But he was nicknamed Ox; he sang most vilely

Without th' accompaniment of the lyre.

When Stratonicus heard him, then he said,

"I've often heard of asses at the lyre,

But now I see an ox in the same case."

The harper Stratonicus once had sail'd

To Pontus, to see king Berisades.

And when he'd staid in Pontus long enough,

He thought he would return again to Greece.

But when the king refused to let him go,

They say that Stratonicus said to him—

"Why, do you mean to stay here long yourself?"

The harper Stratonicus once was staying

Some time at Corinth; when an aged woman

One day stood looking at him a long time,

And would not take her eyes off: then said he,

"Tell me, I pray you, in God's name, good mother,

What is't you wish, and why you look thus on me?"

"I marvell'd," said she, "how 'twas your mother

Held you nine months, without her belly bursting,

While this town can't endure you one whole day."

Fair Biothea, Nicotheon's wife,

Once at a party with a handmaid fair

Made some strange noise; and after that, by chance,

She trod upon a Sicyonian almond.

Then Stratonicus said, "The noise is different."

But when night came, for this heedless word,

He wash'd out his free-speaking in the sea.

[Sidenote: STRATONICUS.]

Once, when at Ephesus, as rumour goes,

A stupid harper was exhibiting

One of his pupils to a band of friends;

Stratonicus, who by chance was present, said,

"He cannot make himself a harp-player,

And yet he tries to teach the art to others."

42. And Clearchus, in the second book of his treatise on Friendship,

says,—"Stratonicus the harp-player, whenever he wished to go to sleep,

used to order a slave to bring him something to drink; 'not,' says

he, 'because I am thirsty now, but that I may not be presently.'" And

once, at Byzantium, when a harp-player had played his prelude well,

but had made a blunder of the rest of the performance, he got up and

made proclamation, "That whoever would point out the harp-player who

had played the prelude should receive a thousand drachmæ." And when

he was once asked by some one who were the wickedest people, he said,

"That in Pamphylia, the people of Phaselis were the worst; but that

the Sidetæ were the worst in the whole world." And when he was asked

again, according to the account given by Hegesander, which were the

greatest barbarians, the Bœotians or the Thessalians, he said, "The

Eleans." And once he erected a trophy in his school, and put this

inscription on it—"Over the bad harp-players." And once, being asked

by some one which was the safer kind of vessel, the long one or the

round one,—"Those," quoth he, "are the safest which are in dock." And

once he made a display of his art at Rhodes, and no one applauded; on

which he left the theatre, and when he had got into the air he said,

"When you fail to give what costs you nothing, how can I expect any

solid pay from you?" "Let the Eleans," said he, "celebrate gymnastic

contests, and let the Corinthians establish choral, and the Athenians

theatrical exhibitions; and if any one of them does anything wrong, let

the Lacedæmonians be scourged,"—jesting upon the public scourgings

exhibited in that city, as Charicles relates, in the first book of his

treatise on the City Contests. And when Ptolemy the king was talking

with him in an ambitious kind of way about harp-playing, "The sceptre,"

said he, "O king, is one thing, and the plectrum another;" as Capito

the epic poet says in the fourth book of his Commentaries addressed to

Philopappus. And once being invited to hear a flute-player, after he

had heard him, he said—

The father granted half his prayer,

The other half denied.

And when some one asked him which half he granted, he said, "He granted

to him to play very badly, and denied him the ability to sing well."

And once, when a beam fell down and slew some wicked man, "O Men," said

he, "I think (δοκῶ) there are gods; and if not, there are

beams (δόκοι)."

43. Also, after the before-mentioned witticisms of Stratonicus, he put

down besides a list of these things following.

Stratonicus said once to the father of Chrysogonus, when he was saying

that he had everything at home in great abundance, for that he himself

had undertaken the works, and that of his sons, one could teach[13]

and another play the flute; "You still," said Stratonicus, "want one

thing." And when the other asked him what that was, "You want," said

he, "a theatre in your house." And when some one asked him why he kept

travelling over the whole of Greece, and did not remain in one city, he

said—"That he had received from the Muses all the Greeks as his wages,

from whom he was to levy a tax to atone for their ignorance." And he

said that Phaon did not play harmony,[14] but Cadmus. And when Phaon

pretended to great skill on the flute, and said that he had a chorus

at Megara, "You are joking," said he; "for you do not possess anything

there, but you are possessed yourself." And he said—"That he marvelled

above all things at the mother of Satyrus the Sophist, because she had

borne for nine months a man whom no city in all Greece could bear for

nine days." And once, hearing that he had arrived in Ilium at the time

of the Ilian games, "There are," said he, "always troubles in Ilium."

And when Minnacus was disputing with him about music, he said—"That

he was not attending to what he said, because he had got in above his

ankles." At another time he said of a bad physician—"That he made those

who were attended by him go to the shades below the very day they came

to him." And having met one of his acquaintances, when he saw his

sandals carefully sponged, he pitied him as being badly off, pretending

to think that he would never have had his sandals so well sponged if

he had not sponged them himself. And as it was a very mixed race of

people who lived at Teichius, a town in the Milesian territory, when

he saw that all the tombs about were those of foreigners, "Let us

begone, O boy," said he; "for all the strangers, as it seems, die here,

and none of the citizens." And when Zethus the harper was giving a

lecture upon music, he said that he was the only person who was utterly

unfit to discuss the subject of music, inasmuch as he had chosen the

most unmusical of all names, and called himself Zethus[15] instead of

Amphion. And once, when he was teaching some Macedonian to play on the

harp, being angry that he did nothing as he ought, he said, "Go to

Macedonia."

[Sidenote: STRATONICUS.]

44. And when he saw the shrine of some hero splendidly adorned, close

to a cold and worthless bathing-house, when he came out, having had

a very bad bath, "I do not wonder," said he, "that many tablets are

dedicated here; for every one of the bathers naturally offers one, as

having been saved from drowning." And at another time he said—"In Ænus

there are eight months of cold and four of winter." At another time

he said, "that the people of Pontus had come out of a great sea"—as

though he had said (great) trouble. And he called the Rhodians White

Cyrenæans, and the city he called the City of Suitors; and Heraclea he

called the Man-Corinth; and Byzantium he called the Arm-pit of Greece;

and the Leucadians were Stale Corinthians; and the Ambraciotes he

called Membraciotes. And when he had gone out of the gates of Heraclea,

and was looking round him, when some one asked him what he was looking

at, he said that "he was ashamed of being seen, as if he were coming

out of a brothel." And once, seeing two men bound in the stocks, he

said—"This is suited to the disposition of a very insignificant city,

not to be able to fill such a place as this." And once he said to a man

who professed to be a musician, but who had been a gardener before, and

who was disputing with him about harmony,—

Let each man sing the art in which he's skill'd.

And once at Maronea, when he was drinking with some people, he

said,—"That he could tell in what part of the city he was, if men led

him through it blindfold;" and then when they did so lead him, and

asked him where he was, "Near the eating-house," said he, because all

Maronea seemed a mere eating-house. And once, when he was sitting

next to Telephanes, and he was beginning to blow the flute, he said,

"Higher, like men who belch." And when the bathing-man in Cardia

brought him some bad earth and salt water to cleanse himself with, he

said that he was being besieged both by land and sea.

45. And when he had conquered his competitors at Sicyon, he set up a

trophy in the temple of Æsculapius, and wrote upon it, "Stratonicus,

conqueror of those who played badly on the harp." And when some one had

sung, he asked what tune he had been singing; and when he said that it

was an air of Carcinus,[16] "More like that," said he, "than the air

of a man." He also said, on another occasion, that there was no spring

at Maronea, only heat. And once at Phaselis, when the bathing-man

was wrangling with his boy about the money, (for the law was that

foreigners should pay more for bathing than natives,) "Oh, you wretched

boy!" said he, "you have almost made me a citizen of Phaselis, to save

a halfpenny." And once, when a person was praising him in hopes to get

something by it, he said, "that he himself was a greater beggar." And

once, when he was teaching in a small town, he said, "This is not a

city (πόλις), but hardly one (πόλις)." And once, when he was at Pella,

he came to a well, and asked whether it was fit to drink; and when

those who were drawing water from it said, "At all events we drink

it;" "Then," said he, "I am sure it is not fit to drink:" for the men

happened to be very sallow-looking. And when he had heard the poem of

Timotheus, on the subject of Semele in Labour, he said, "But if she had

brought forth an artisan, and not a god, what sounds would she have

uttered!"

And when Polyidas was giving himself airs, because his pupil Philotas

had beaten Timotheus, he said, "That he wondered at his being so

ignorant as not to know that he makes decrees, and Timotheus laws."

And he said to Areus the harp-player, who was annoying him, "Play to

the crows."[17] And once he was at Sicyon, when a leather-dresser was

abusing him, and he said to the leather-dresser (νακοδέψης), "O you

κακόδαιμον νακόδαιμον." And Stratonicus himself, beholding the Rhodians

dissolved in luxury, and drinking only warm drinks, said, "that there

were white Cyrenæans." And he called Rhodes itself the City of the

Suitors,[18] thinking that they were in no respect different from the

Cyrenæans in debauchery, but only in complexion; and also because of

the devotion to pleasure of the inhabitants, he compared Rhodes itself

to the city of the Suitors.

[Sidenote: ARISTOTLE.]

46. And Stratonicus was, in all these elaborate witticisms, an imitator

of Simonides the poet, as Ephorus tells us in the second book of his

treatise on Inventions; who says that Philoxenus of Cythera was also a

great studier of the same pursuit. And Phænias the Peripatetic, in the

second book of his treatise on Poets, says—"Stratonicus the Athenian

appears to have been the first person who introduced the system of

playing chords into the simple harp-playing; and he was the first man

who ever took pupils in music, and who ever composed tables of music.

And he was also a man of no small brilliancy as a wit." He says also

that he was eventually put to death by Nicocles, the King of the

Cyprians, on account of the freedom of his witticisms, being compelled

to drink poison, because he had turned the sons of the king into

ridicule.

47. But I marvel at Aristotle, whom these wise men, my excellent

Democritus, are so incessantly speaking of and praising, (and whose

writings you also esteem highly, as you do those of the other

philosophers and orators,) on account of his great accuracy: and I

should like to know when he learnt, or from what Proteus or Nereus

who came up from the depths he found out, what fish do, or how they

go to sleep, or how they live: for all these things he has told us in

his writings, so as to be, in the words of the comic poets, "a wonder

to fools;" for he says that the ceryx, and indeed that the whole

race of shell-fish, are propagated without copulation; and that the

purple-fish and the ceryx are longlived. For how could he know that

the purple-fish lives six years? and how could he know that the viper

takes a long time to propagate his species? or that of all its tribe

the longest at that work is the pigeon, the next the œnas, and the

quickest is the turtle-dove? And whence did he learn that the horse

lives five-and-thirty years, but the mare more than forty? saying, too,

that some have lived even seventy-five years. And he also states that

from the copulation of lice there are born nits; and that from a worm,

after its change, there is produced a caterpillar, from which comes

the humble-bee, and from that the larva of the silk-worm. And he also

says that bees live to six years of age, and that some live even seven

years; and he says that neither bee nor wasp have ever been seen in the

act of copulation, on which account no one can ever tell whether they

are male or female. And from what did he learn that men are inferior

to bees? for these latter always preserve an equal condition of life,

being subject to no changes, but employing themselves without ceasing

in the collection of honey, and doing that without having been taught

by any one to do so: but men are inferior to bees, and as full of fancy

as bees are of honey: how, then, has Aristotle observed all these

things? And in his treatise on Long Life, he says that a fly has been

seen which had lived six or seven years. But what proof is there of

this?

48. And where did he ever see ivy growing out of a stag's head? And

again, owls and night-jars, he says, cannot see by day; on which

account they hunt for their food by night, and they do this not during

the whole night, but at the beginning of evening. And he says, too,

that there are several different kinds of eyes, for some are blue, and

some are black, and some are hazel. He says, too, that the eyes of men

are of different characters, and that the differences of disposition

may be judged of from the eyes; for that those men who have goats'

eyes, are exceedingly sharp-sighted, and have the best dispositions.

And of others, he says that some men have projecting eyes, and some

have eyes deeply set, and some keep a mean between the two: and those

whose eyes are deeply set, he says, have the sharpest sight, and

those whose eyes project, must have the worst dispositions; and those

who are moderate in these respects, are people, says he, of moderate

dispositions. There are also some people whose eyes are always winking,

and some who never wink at all, and some who do so in a moderate

degree: and those who are always winking are shameless[19] people, and

those who never wink at all are unstable and fickle, and those who wink

in a moderate degree have the best disposition.

[Sidenote: ARISTOTLE'S NATURAL HISTORY.]

He says also that man is the only animal which has its heart on the

left side; and that all other animals have it in the middle of the

body. And he says that males have more teeth than females; and he

affirms that this has been noticed in the case of the sheep, and of the

pig, and of the goat. And he says also that there is no fish which has

testicles, and there is no fish which has a breast, and no bird either;

but that the only fish which has no gall is the dolphin. There are,

however, some, says he, which have no gall in their liver, but they

have it near their bowels; as the sturgeon, the synagris, the lamprey,

the sword-fish, and the sea-swallow. But the amia has its gall spread

over the whole of its entrails: and the hawk and the kite have theirs

spread both over their liver and their entrails; but the ægocephalus

has his gall both in his liver and in his stomach: and the pigeon, and

the quail, and the swallow have theirs, some in their entrails, and

some in their stomach.

49. Moreover, he says that all the molluscous fish, and the shell-fish,

and the cartilaginous fish, and all insects, spend a long time in

copulation; but that the dolphin and some other fish copulate lying

alongside the female. And he says that the dolphins are very slow,

but fish in general very quick. Again he says that the lion has very

solid bones, and that if they are struck, fire comes from them as from

flint stones. And that the dolphin has bones, but no spine; but that

cartilaginous fish have both gristle and spine. And of animals he says

that some are terrestrial and some aquatic; and that some even live in

the fire; and that there are some, which he calls ephemera, which live

only one day: and that there are some which are amphibious, such as the

river-horse, and the crocodile, and the otter. And that all animals in

general have two forefeet, but that the crab has four; and that all the

animals which have blood are either without feet at all, or are bipeds,

or quadrupeds; and that all the animals which have more than four feet

are destitute of blood: on which account every animal which moves,

moves by what he calls four tokens,—man by two hands and two feet, a

bird by two feet and two wings, an eel and a conger by two fins and

two joints. Moreover, some animals have hands, as a man has, and some

appear to have hands, as a monkey does; for there is no brute beast

which can really give and take, and it is for those things that hands

are given to men as instruments. Again, some animals have limbs, as a

man, an ox, an ass; and some have no limbs, as a serpent, an oyster,

the pulmo marinus. There are also many animals which are not always

visible, such as those which hide in holes; and those which do not hide

in holes are still not always visible, as swallows and cranes.

50. And though I could repeat to you now a great deal of nonsense

which the medicine-seller talked, I forbear to do so, although I know

that Epicurus, that most truthful of men, said of him in his letter

about Institutions, that he devoted himself to a military life after

having squandered his patrimony in gluttony; and that, turning out an

indifferent soldier, he then took to selling medicines. Then, when the

school of Plato was opened, he says, he changed again, and applied

himself to philosophical discussions, and as he was not a man destitute

of ability, by little and little he became a speculative philosopher.

I know, too, that Epicurus is the only person who ever said this of

him; for neither did Eubulides nor Cephisodorus venture to say anything

of the kind against the Stagirite, and that, too, though they did

write books against him. But in that same letter Epicurus says, that

Protagoras also, who became a philosopher from having been a porter and

a wood-carrier, was first promoted to be an amanuensis of Democritus;

who, wondering at the admirable way in which he used to put the wood

together, took him under his eye in consequence of this beginning; and

then he began to teach the rudiments of learning in some village, and

after that he proceeded on to the study of philosophy. And I now, O

fellow feasters, after all this conversation, feel a great desire for

something to eat. And when some one said that the cooks were already

preparing something, and taking care that the dishes should not be

served up cold, on account of the excessive length to which the "feast

of words" had been carried, for that no one could eat cold dishes,

Cynulcus said,—But I, like the Milcon of Alexis, the comic poet, can

eat them even if they are not served up warm—

For Plato teaches us that what is good,

Is everywhere on all occasions good;

Can you deny this? and that what is sweet

Is always sweet, here, there, and ev'rywhere.

[Sidenote: FISH.]

And it was not without some cleverness that Sphærus, who was a

fellow-pupil with Chrysippus in the school of Cleanthes, when he had

been sent for to Alexandria by king Ptolemy; when on one occasion birds

made of wax were served up at a banquet, and he was putting out his

hand to take some, but was stopped by the king, who told him that he

was assenting to a sham; very appropriately answered,—"That he did

not agree that they were birds at all, but only that it was probable

that they might be birds; and that an opinion which could be confirmed

by the perception, is superior to that which is merely probable; for

that the one cannot be incorrect, but that what is probable may turn

out contrary to what was expected." And so it could not be a bad thing

if some waxen dishes were brought round to us too, according to our

perceptive opinions, so that we might be beguiled at least by the sight

of them, and so escape talking on for ever.

51. And when they were now on the point of sitting down to eat again,

Daphnus bade them stop, quoting this iambic out of the Mammacythus or

Auri of Metagenes—

As when we're feasting anywhere,

Then we all talk and argue faster.

And indeed, said he, I say that the discussion about fish is still

defective in some points, since the sons of Æsculapius (such as

Philotimus I mean, in his essay on Food, and Mnesitheus the Athenian,

and Diphilus the Siphnian) have said a good deal about fishes, of which

we have as yet taken no notice. For Diphilus, in his work entitled A

Treatise on Food fit for People in Health and Invalids, says,—"Of

sea-fish, those which keep to the rocks are easily digested, and juicy,

and purgative, and light, but not very nutritious; but those which keep

in the deep water are much less digestible, very nutritious, but apt

to disagree with one. Now, of the fish which keep to the rocks, the

phycen and the phycis are very tender little fish, and very digestible;

but the perch, which is like them, varies a little as to the places in

which it is found. And the tench resembles the perch; but the smaller

tench and the white ones are tender, juicy, and digestible; but the

green ones (and they are also called caulinæ) are dry, and devoid of

juice. The channæ also have tender meat, but still they are harder than

the perch. Then there is the scarus, which has tender flesh, not very

firm, sweet, light, digestible, not apt to disagree with one, and good

for the stomach. But the fresh ones are less popular than the others,

because they hunt the sea-hares and feed on them, owing to which their

entrails are apt to produce cholera morbus. And the fish which is

called ceris is tender, good for the bowels, and good for the stomach;

but its juice has fattening and purgative qualities. The orphus, which

some write ὀρφὸς, and some ὀρφὼς, is very full of a pleasant juice,

glutinous, indigestible, very nutritious, diuretic. But the parts near

his head are glutinous and digestible; but the more fleshy parts are

indigestible and heavy, and the part towards the tail is the tenderest

part; and he is a fish apt to generate phlegm, and indigestible. The

sphyrænæ are more nutritious than the congers; and the eel caught

in lakes is not so nice as the sea-eel, but it is more nutritious.

The chrysophrys is very like the melanurus; and the sea-scorpions,

which are found in the deep sea, and are of a tawny colour, are more

nutritious than those which are found in marshes, or than the large

ones which are taken on the shores.

52. "But the sparus is harsh-tasted, tender, with no unpleasant smell,

good for the stomach, diuretic, and not indigestible; but when he is

fried he is indigestible. The mullet is good for the stomach, very

astringent, of very firm flesh, not very digestible, apt to bind the

bowels, especially when it is broiled; but when it is fried in a

frying-pan, then it is heavy and indigestible; and, as a general rule,

the whole tribe of mullets has the property of causing secretions of

blood. The synodon and the charax are of the same kind, but the charax

is the better of the two. The phagrus is found both in the river

and in the sea; but that which is found in the sea is the best. The

capriscus is called also the mussel; but it has a strong smell, and

very hard meat, and it is more indigestible than the citharus; but its

skin is very pleasant to the taste. The needle-fish, or belone, and

it is also called the ablennes, is indigestible and moist, but good

for the bowels. The thrissa, and those of the same kind, such as the

chalcis and the eretimis, are very digestible. The cestreus is found

in the sea, and in rivers, and in lakes. And this fish, says he, is

also called the oxyrhynchus; but the one which is taken in the Nile is

called the coracinus. And the black kind is smaller than the white, and

when boiled it is not so good as when it is roasted; for when roasted

it is good for the stomach and good for the bowels. The salpe is

hard-fleshed, and unpleasant to the taste, but the best are those which

are caught at Alexandria, and those which are taken in the autumn. For

it is white, full of moisture, and free from any unpleasant smell. The

gryllus is like the eel in appearance, but it is not nice to the taste.

The sea-hawk is harder than the sea-cuckoo, but in other respects they

are much alike. The uranoscopus, and also the fish called agnus, which

is also called the callionymus, are heavy fish. The boax, when boiled,

is very digestible, giving out a very wholesome juice, and is good for

the stomach; and that which is broiled on the coals is sweeter and more

tender. The bacchus is full of abundant and agreeable and wholesome

juice, and is very nutritious. The sea-goat is not very agreeable as

to its juice, not very digestible, and has a disagreeable smell. The

sea-sparrow and the buglossus are both nutritious and palatable, and

the turbot is like them. The sea-grayling, the cephalus, the cestreus,

the myxinus, and the colon are all much alike as to their eatable

properties; but the cestreus is inferior to the cephalus, the myxinus

is worse, and the colon is the least good of all.

[Sidenote: FISH.]

53. "The thynnis and the thynnus are both heavy and nutritious; but

the fish which is called the Acarnanian is sweet, very exciting, very

nutritious, and easily secreted. The anchovy is heavy and indigestible,

and the white kind is called the cobitis; and the hepsetus, a little

fish, is of the same genus.

"Of cartilaginous fish, the sea-cow is fleshy, but the shark is

superior to that,—that kind, I mean, which is called the asterias.

But the alopecias, or sea-fox, is in taste very like the land animal,

from which circumstance, indeed, it has its name. The ray is a very

delicate fish to the taste; but the stellated ray is tenderer still,

and full of excellent juice; but the smooth ray is less wholesome for

the stomach, and has an unpleasant smell. But the torpedo, which is

hard of digestion, is in the parts below the head very tender, and good

for the stomach, and, moreover, very digestible, but its other parts

are not so; and the small ones are the best, especially when they are

plain boiled. The rhinè, which is one of the cartilaginous class, is

very digestible and light; but those of the largest size are the most

nutritious; and, as a general rule, all the cartilaginous fish are

apt to create flatulence, and are fleshy, and difficult of digestion,

and if they are eaten in any quantity, they are bad for the eyes. The

cuttle-fish, when boiled, is tender, palatable, and digestible, and

also good for the stomach; but the juice which comes from it has the

property of making the blood thin, and is apt to cause secretions

by hæmorrhoids. The squid is more digestible, and is nutritious,

especially the small-sized one; but when boiled they are harder, and

not palatable. The polypus promotes amativeness, but it is hard and

indigestible; and those of the largest size are the most nutritious,

and when they are much boiled, they have a tendency to fill the stomach

with liquid, and they bind the bowels. And Alexis, in his Pamphila,

points out the useful properties of the polypus, speaking as follows,—

But if you are in love, O Cteson,

What is more useful than these fish I bring?

Ceryces, cockles, (onions too, are here,)

The mighty polypus, and good-sized turbot.

"The pelamys also is very nutritious and heavy, it is also diuretic,

and very indigestible; but when cured like the callubium, it is quite

as good for the stomach, and it has a tendency to make the blood

thin; and the large kind is called the synodontis. The sea-swallow,

or chelidonias, is also something like the pelamys, but harder; and

the chelidon is like the polypus, and emits juice which purifies the

complexion, and stirs up the blood. The orcynus is a fish who delights

in the mud; and the larger kind is like the chelidonias in hardness,

but the lower part of its abdomen and its collar-bone are palatable and

tender; but those which are called costæ, when cured and salted, are a

middling fish. The xanthias has rather a strong smell, and is tenderer

than the orcynus." These are the statements of Diphilus.

[Sidenote: FISH.]

54. But Mnesitheus the Athenian, in his treatise on Eatables,

says,—"The larger breed of fishes are called by some sectile, and by

others sea-fish; as, for instance, the chrysophrys, the sea-grayling,

and the phagrus. And these are all difficult of digestion, but when

they are digested they supply a great deal of nourishment. And the

whole class of scaly fish, such as the thynni, the scombri, the

tunnies, the congers, and all of those kinds, are also gregarious.

But those which are not seen by themselves, nor in large shoals, are

the most digestible, such as the congers, and the carchariæ, and fish

of that kind. But the gregarious kinds of fish of that sort are very

pleasant to the palate, for they are fat; but they are heavy, and

difficult of digestion, on which account they are very good for curing;

and, indeed, these kinds make the best cured fish of all; they are also

very good roasted, for by that process their fatty parts are got rid

of. But those kinds which are skinned before they are dressed, as a

general rule, are those fish which have a rough outside to their skin,

not of scales, but such as rays and rhinæ have. And all these kinds

are easily divided into small pieces, but they have not a sweet smell.

And they supply the body with plenty of moist nourishment, and of all

boiled fish they have the greatest effect on the bowels; but when they

are roasted they are not so good. And the whole class of molluscous

fish, such as polypi and cuttle-fish, and others like them, are very

indigestible, on which account they are very serviceable in exciting

the amatory passions. They are also calculated to cause flatulence; and

the time of indulgence in amatory pleasures requires a flatulent habit

of body. All these fish are better when boiled. For their juices are

injurious, and you may see what juices they emit when they are washed;

and the boiling extracts all these juices from their flesh. For as the

heat which is applied in boiling is a gradual one, and conjoined with

moisture, there is, as it were, a sort of washing of them. But when

they are roasted, that dries up the moisture, and moreover, as their

flesh is hard by nature, it is natural that it should be made more so

in this way.

55. "But anchovies of all kinds, and membrades, and trichides, and

all the other little fish which we eat backbones and all, make the

digestion flatulent, and give a good deal of moist nutriment. And

so, as the digestion is unequal, the flesh being digested with great

rapidity, and the bones dissolving slowly, for the anchovies are very

bony of themselves, the digestion of the one part hinders the digestion

of the other, and so flatulence arises from the digestion, and moisture

comes from the quantity of nourishment. They are better when they are

boiled, but still they have very unequal effects on the bowels. The

fish which keep close to the rocks, such as tench, and scorpions,

and sea-sparrows, and others of the same kind, supply a dry kind of

nourishment to our bodies, but they are light and nutritious, and

are easily digested, and leave nothing behind them, and are not apt

to cause flatulence. And every kind of fish is more digestible when

dressed simply, and especially those which keep near the rocks have a

better flavour when dressed plainly. And the species which is called

soft-fleshed is like them, namely, the sea-thrush, the sea-blackbird,

and others which resemble them. And these contain more moisture than

the others, and with respect to refreshing the strength of those who

eat them, they have more efficacy. And if any one wishes to produce an

effect upon his bowels, he should eat them boiled; but if he is in good

health, then he will find them nutritious roasted. And as diuretic food

they are equally useful cooked either way.

56. "But the places of the sea where rivers and lakes fall into it,

and also those where there are large bays and gulfs of the sea, are

those where all the fish are more juicy, and more full of fat. They are

also more palatable when caught in those places, but less nutritious

and less digestible. And on the shore where it is exposed to the open

sea, and where it is unprotected, then the fishes found there are for

the most part hard and thin, beaten by the continued action of the

waves. But where the sea is deep close in shore and less exposed to

violent winds, especially if there are any cities near, then there is

the greatest number of fish, and they are equally excellent in respect

of pleasantness of flavour and ease of digestion, and also in the

nourishment which they afford to the body. But of sea fish those are

the most indigestible and the heaviest which migrate at certain seasons

from the sea to the lakes and rivers; such as the cestreus; and as a

general rule that is the character of every fish which can live in

both salt and fresh water. But of those which live wholly in rivers

and lakes, the river fish are the best; for the water of lakes is more

apt to putrefy. And, again, of river fish those are the best which are

found in the most rapid rivers; and especially the trout; for those are

never found except where the river is rapid and cold, and they are far

superior to all other river fish in their digestible properties."

57. This now, my friends, is my contribution, and I have brought you

the wholesomest food with which it was in my power to provide you. For,

as you may read in the Parasite of Antiphanes,—

[Sidenote: FISH.]

For I have never taken any great trouble

In buying fish; * *

* * * * *

* * So that others from rich banquets coming

Should blame the gluttonous surfeits of their friends.

And, indeed, I myself am not so violently fond of fish as the man in

the Butalion of the same poet. (And that play is an amended edition of

one of the Countryman's characters.) And he says—

_A._ And I to-day will give a feast to all of you;

And take you money now, and buy the supper.

_B._ Yes; for unless I've money I should hardly

Know how to buy discreetly. But i' the first place,

Tell me what food, what dishes you prefer.

_A._ All kinds of food.

_B._ But tell me separately.

First now, should you approve of any fish?

_A._ A fishmonger came once into the country

With a good basketfull of sprats and triglides,

And, by Jove, greatly he pleased all of us.

_B._ Well, tell me then, should you now like some fish?

_A._ Indeed I should, if they were very little.

For all large fish I always fancy cannibals.

_B._ What can you mean, my friend?

_A._ Why, cannibals;—

How can a man eat fish which eat up men?

_B._ 'Tis plain enough that it is Helen's food

This fellow means, just sprats and triglides.

And in his Countryman he also calls sprats and triglides the food of

Hecate. And Ephippus too, disparaging small fish, in his Philyra,

speaks as follows—

_A._ My father, would you like to go to market

And buy some fish for me?

_B._ What shall I buy?

_A._ Some grown up fish, my father, no small babies.

_B._ Do not you yet know all the worth of money?

58. And in the same poet, in his Spit-bearers, there is a very witty

young man who disparages everything connected with the purchase of

fish. And he speaks thus—

_A._ But while you buy, don't disregard economy,

For anything will do.

_B._ Just tell me how.

_A._ Don't be expensive, though not mean or stingy;

Whatever you may buy will be enough;

Some squids and cuttle-fish; and should there be

Some lobsters in the market, let's have one—

Some eels will look nice too upon the table—

Especially if from the Theban lake:

Then let us have a cock, a tender pigeon,

A partridge, and a few such other things;

And if a hare should offer, then secure it.

_B._ Why how precise you are in your directions!

_A._ I'd need be, you are so extravagant;

And we are certain to have meat enough.

_B._ Has anybody sent you any present?

_A._ No, but my wife has sacrificed the calf

Which from Corone came, and we to-morrow

Shall surely sup on it.

And in Mnesimachus, the Morose Man, in the play of the same name, being

a great miser, says to the extravagant young man in the play—

_A._ I do entreat you, do not lecture me

So very fiercely; do not say so much

About the money; recollect I'm your uncle;

Be moderate, I beg.

_B._ How can I be

More moderate than I am?

_A._ At least be briefer,

And don't deceive me; use diminutives;

For fish say fishlings; if you want aught more,

Speak of your bits of dishes; and at least

I shall be ruin'd with a better grace.

59. But since, as fortune would have it so, in the before-quoted

lines,—my excellent Ulpian, or you too, O you sons of grammarians,

just tell me what was Ephippus's meaning in what I have just repeated,

when he said—

The calf

Which from Corone[20] came, and we to-morrow

Shall surely sup on it.

For I think there is here an allusion to some historical fact, and I

should like to understand it. And Plutarch said,—There is a Rhodian

tale, which, however, I can hardly repeat at the moment, because it

is a very long time since I have fallen in with the book in which it

occurs. But I know that Phoenix the Colophonian, the Iambic poet,

making mention of some men as collecting money for the Jackdaw, speaks

as follows—

[Sidenote: THE SWALLOW.]

My friends, I pray you give a handful now

Of barley to the jackdaw, Phoebus' daughter;

Or else a plate of wheat; or else a loaf,

A halfpenny, or whatsoe'er you please;

Give, my good friends, whatever you can spare

To the poor jackdaw; e'en a grain of salt;

For willingly she feeds on anything;

And he who salt bestows to-day, to-morrow

May give some honey. Open, boy, the door;

Plutus has heard, and straight a serving maid

Brings out some figs. Gods, let that maiden be

For ever free from harm, and may she find

A wealthy husband of distinguish'd name:

And may she show unto her aged father

A lusty boy, and on her mother's lap

Place a fair girl, her daughter, to bring up

A happy helpmate for some lucky cousin.

But I, where'er my feet conduct my eyes,

Sing with alternate melody at the gates

Of him who gives, and him who rude denies.

At present I'll leave off, and say no more.

And at the end of this set of iambics he says—

But you, my friends, who have good store at home,

Give something. Give, O king; give you too, housewife.

It is the law that all should give their hand

When the crow begs. And you who know this law,

Give what you please, and it shall be sufficient.

And those people who went about collecting for the jackdaw (κορώνη)

were called Coronistæ, as Pamphilus of Alexandria tells us, in his

treatise on Names. And the songs which are sung by them are called

coronismata, as Agnocles the Rhodian tells us, in his Coronistæ.

60. There is also another collection made among the Rhodians, the

making of which is called χελιδονίζειν; and it is mentioned

by Theognis, in the second book of his treatise on the Sacrifices in

Rhodes, where he writes thus—"There is a species of collecting which

the Rhodians call χελιδονίζειν, which takes place in the

month Boedromion. And it derives its name of χελιδονίζειν

because the people are accustomed to utter the following song:—

The swallow, the swallow (χελιδών) is come,

Bringing good seasons and a joyful time.

Her belly is white, her back is black.

Bring, oh bring, a cake of figs

Out of your luxurious house,

Bring a cup of wine,

And a dish of cheese,

And a bag of wheat.

Those the good swallow will not despise,

Nor a cake of eggs.

Shall we now go, or shall we get something?

Give something, and we'll go; if you give nothing

We will not cease to pester you; we'll force the door

And carry it away, or th' upper lintel,

Or e'en your wife who sits within the house.

She is but little, we shall find her light.

If you give something, let it be worth having.

Open, then, open the door to the swallow,

For we are not old men, but only boys.

And Cleobulus the Lindian was the first man who introduced the custom

of this collection, at a time when there was a great want in Lindus of

a collection of money.

[Sidenote: EPHESUS.]

61. But, since we have mentioned the Rhodian histories, I myself am

now going to tell you something about fish, from the account given of

the beautiful Rhodes, which that delightful writer Lynceus says is

full of excellent fish. Ergias the Rhodian, then, in his Account of

his own Country, having first made mention of the Phoenicians, who

inhabited the island, says—"That Phalanthus, and his friends, having a

very strong city in Ialysus, called Achaia, and being very economical

of their provisions, held out for a long time against Iphiclus, who

besieged them. For they had also a prophecy given them by some oracle,

that they should keep the place till crows became white, and till

fish were seen in their goblets. They therefore, expecting that these

things would never happen, prosecuted the war with less vigour. But

Iphiclus, having heard from some one of the oracles of the Phoenicians,

and having waylaid a highly-trusted adherent of Phalanthus, whose

name was Larcas, as he was going for water, and having entered into a

covenant with him, caught some fish at the spring, and putting them

into the ewer, gave them to Larcas, and bade him carry the water back,

and pour it into the goblet from which he was used to pour out wine

for Phalanthus: and he did so. And Iphiclus also caught some crows,

and smeared them over with gypsum, and let them fly again. But when

Phalanthus saw the crows, he went to his goblet; and when he saw the

fish there, he considered that the place no longer belonged to him and

his party, and so he sent a herald to Iphiclus, demanding permission

to retire, with all his troops, under the protection of a treaty.

And when Iphiclus agreed to this, Phalanthus devised the following

contrivance. Having slain some victims, and taken out the entrails, he

endeavoured to put in some silver and gold, and so to carry it away.

But when Iphiclus perceived this, he prevented it. And when Phalanthus

alleged against him the oath which he had taken, when he swore to allow

them to take away whatever they had in their bellies, he met them with

a counter device, giving them vessels to go away in, but taking away

the rudders, and the oars, and the sails, saying that he had sworn to

give them boats, and nothing further. And as the Phoenicians were in

great perplexity, they buried a great deal of their riches underground,

marking the places where they buried it, that at some future time

they might come and take it up again; but they left a great deal for

Iphiclus. And so, when the Phoenicians had left the place in this

manner, the Greeks became masters of it." And Polyzelus has given the

same account, in his History of Rhodian Affairs; and says—"That the

only people who knew the secret about the fishes and the crows were

Phaces and his daughter Dorcia; and she, being beloved by Iphiclus, and

having come to an agreement to marry him through the intervention of

her nurse, persuaded the man who brought the water to bring the fish

and put them into the goblet; and she herself whitewashed the crows,

and let them go."

62. And Creophylus, in his Annals of the Ephesians, says—"Those who

colonized Ephesus, being much perplexed for want of a place where they

could settle, sent at last to the oracle, and asked where they should

build themselves a city; and he told them to build a city in that place

which a fish should show them, and to which a wild boar should guide

them. Accordingly, it is said that some fishermen were breakfasting

at the spot where the fountain called Hypelæus now is, and where the

harbour is which is called the sacred harbour; and that one of the

fish leaped up with a burning cinder sticking to him, and fell on some

of the refuse; and that by this means a thicket was set on fire, in

which there happened to be a wild boar; and he, being disturbed by

the fire, ran for some distance up the mountain which is called the

Rough Mountain, and at last was transfixed by javelins, and fell where

the temple of Minerva now stands. And the Ephesians, having crossed

over from the island, occupied that for twenty-one years, and in the

twenty-second year they founded Trachea and the towns around Coressus,

and erected a temple to Diana in the market-place, and one to the

Pythian Apollo overlooking the harbour."

63. Now after this long conversation, all of a sudden there was heard

all over the city the music of flutes and the noise of cymbals, and

also a great crash of drums, with singing at the same time. And it

happened to be the time of a festival which used formerly to be called

the Parilia, but which is now called the Romana, in honour of the

temple built to the Fortune of the City, by that most excellent and

accomplished sovereign Hadrian. And all the inhabitants of Rome (and

all the foreigners sojourning in the city) every year keep that day as

a remarkable one. Accordingly, Ulpian said,—My friends, what is this?—

Is it a supper or a marriage feast?

For certainly there is no picnic held now.

And when some one replied that every one in the city was dancing (using

the verb βαλλίζω) in honour of the goddess,—My fine fellow, said

Ulpian, laughing, what Greek in the world ever called this dancing

βαλλισμός̣ You should have said κωμάζουσιν or χορεύουσιν, or, at all

events, some word in common use; but you have bought us a name out of

the Subura,

And spoilt the wine by pouring in this water.'

And Myrtilus said—But I will prove to you, my dear Epitimæus,[21] that

the word is a genuine Greek word; for you, who want to stop every one's

mouth, have not succeeded in convicting any one of ignorance, but have

proved yourself to be emptier than a snake's cast-off skin. Epicharmus,

my most excellent gentlemen, in his Theori, speaks of the βαλλισμὸς,

and Italy is no great way from Sicily. Accordingly, in that play, the

public ambassadors, surveying the offerings at Pytho, and mentioning

each one separately, speak as follows:—

Here there are brazen caldrons, brazen goblets,

And spits. And then to see the men with spits

And flutes, too, dancing (βαλλίζοντες), what a sight it was!

And Sophron, in his play which is entitled Nymphoponus, says—

Then he did take it, and proceeded onwards;

The rest did follow dancing (ἐβάλλιζον).

And again he says—

Dancing (βαλλίζοντες) they filled the entrance room with dung.

[Sidenote: NAMES OF FEASTS.]

And Alexis, in his Curis, says—

And now I see a multitude of men

Hastening to a feast, as if a goodly company

Were here invited. May it be my luck

To keep out of your way, my revellers,

After your dancing (βαλλισμὸς) and your feasting both

Have gone off well and are quite finish'd.

For I should never bear my robe off safely,

Unless my wings had grown.

I know, too, that the word is found in other places, and when I

recollect the exact passage, I will bring it forward.

64. But we have a right to ask of you, who have quoted to us these

lines out of Homer,

But say, you joyful troop so gaily drest,

Is this a bridal or a friendly feast?—

in what respect the different sorts of feasts, which he calls εἰλαπίνη

and ἔρανος, differ from one another? But, since you are silent, I will

tell you; for, as the poet of Syracuse says,—

I by myself am equal to the task

Which formerly it took two men to answer.

The ancients used to call sacrifices, and the more splendid kind of

preparations, εἰλάπιναι; and those who partook of them they used to

call εἰλαπινασταί. But those feasts they called ἔρανοι, the materials

for which were contributed by all who joined in them; and this name was

derived from all the guests being friendly together (ἀπὸ τοῦ συνερᾷν)

and contributing. And this same ἔρανος is also called θίασος, and those

who partake of it are called ἐρανισταὶ and συνθιαῶται. The crowd, also,

which follows Bacchus in his festivals is called θίασος, as Euripides

says—

I see three thiasi of women coming.

And they gave them the name θίασος from the word θεός;— and, indeed,

the Lacedæmonian form of the word θεὸς is σιός. And the word εἰλαπίνη

is derived from the preparation and expense gone to for such purposes;

for being destructive and extravagant is called λαφύττειν καὶ λαπάζειν,

from which words the poets have used the word ἀλαπάζω for to destroy,

And the plunder which is carried off after the sacking of a city they

call λάφυρα. And accordingly Æschylus and Eripides have given to the

more luxurious banquets the name of εἰλάπιναι, from the verb λαπάζω.

There is also a verb, λάπτω, which means to digest one's food, and to

become relaxed (λαγαρὸς) by becoming empty. And from this word λαγαρὸς

we get the word λαγὼν (the flank), and also λάγανον (a thin, broad

cake); and from the word λαπάττω we get λαπάρα (the loins). And the

verb λαφύττω means, with great freedom and abundance to evacuate and

erupt oneself. And the word δαπανάω (to spend) is derived from δάπτω;

and δάπτω is akin to δαψιλής; on which account we find the verbs δάπτω

and δαρδάπτω applied to those who eat in a voracious and savage manner.

Homer says—

Him the fierce dogs and hungry vultures tore (κατέδαψαν).

But the word εὐωχία (a luxurious feast) is derived not from ὀχὴ, which

means nutriment, but from everything going on well (ἀπὸ τοῦ εὖ ἔχειν)

in such a banquet, in which those who assemble honour the deity,

and give themselves up to mirth and relaxation; and from this

relaxation (ἀπὸ τοῦ μεθιέναι) they call wine μέθυ, and the god who gave

them wine they call Methymnaeus, and Lyæus, and Evius, and Icius; just

as also they call a man who is not sullen-looking and morose ἱλαρός; on

which account, too, they pray the deity to be propitious (ἵλεως),

uttering the ejaculation ἰὴ, ἰή. And from this again they call the place

where they do this ἱερόν. And that they meant very nearly the same thing

by ἵλεως and ἱλαρός is plain from the language used by Ephippus, in his

play entitled Traffic; for he is speaking of a courtesan, and he says—

Then too, when any one is out of humour,

When he comes in she flatters him discreetly,

And kisses him, not pressing his mouth hard

Like some fierce enemy; but just billing towards him

Like some fond sparrow; then she sings and comforts him,

And makes him cheerful (ἱλαρὸς) and dispels all clouds

From off his face, and renders him propitious (ἵλεως).

65. But the ancients, who represented the gods under the form of men,

arranged all their festivals on a similar principle; for, seeing that

it is not possible to divert men from an eagerness for pleasure, but

that it is useful and expedient to accustom them to enjoy themselves

with moderation and in an orderly manner, they set apart certain times,

and, sacrificing first to the gods, they in this way permitted them

relaxation and enjoyment, in order that every one, thinking that the

gods had come among them, and were present at the first-fruits and

libations, might enjoy himself with order and decency. Accordingly

Homer says—

[Sidenote: FEASTS.]

There, too, was Pallas to partake the feast:

and Neptune, too, is represented thus—

The monarch of the main, a heavenly guest,

In Ethiopia graced the genial feast,

There on the world's extremest verge, revered

With hecatombs and prayer in pomp preferr'd,

Distant he lay:[22]—

and of Jupiter he says—

The sire of gods and all the ethereal train

On the warm limits of the furthest main

Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace

The feast of Ethiopia's blameless race.[23]

And if a man of more mature age, and devoted to wise and virtuous

pursuits, is present, they are ashamed to say or do anything

indecorous; as also Epicharmus says, somewhere or other:—

But when their aged superiors are present,

Young men should silent be.

Therefore, considering that the gods were near to them, they celebrated

their festivals in an orderly and temperate manner; on which account

it was not the fashion of the ancients to lie at their meals, but, as

Homer says,—

Feasting they sate;

nor were they accustomed to drink to the extent of drunkenness—

But when they'd eaten thus, and drank their fill,

Each to his room retired, not dreaming ill.

66. But the men of modern times, pretending to be sacrificing to the

gods, and inviting their friends and nearest kinsmen to the sacrifice,

vent imprecations on their children, and abuse their wives, and treat

their slaves with indignity, and threaten the multitude, almost

verifying the line of Homer:—

But now with speed let's take a short repast,

And well refresh'd to bloody conflict haste.

Nor do they ever give a thought to what has been said by the poet

who wrote the poem entitled Chiron, whether it is Pherecrates, or

Nicomachus, the teacher of rhythm, or whatever else his name may have

been:—

When you have ask'd a friend to come to supper,

Do not be angry when you see him come;

That is the part of an unworthy man;

But give yourself to happy thoughts of joy,

And study to amuse your friend and guest.

But now men utterly forget all these rules, and they recollect only

the lines which follow them, which are all written in imitation of the

Great Eoæ which are attributed to Hesiod, and which are also meant as a

parody on his great work, Works and Days:—

When any of us does celebrate

A sacrifice, and bids his friends to th' feast,

Still, if he come, we're vex'd and look askance,

And wish him to depart without delay.

And he his want of welcome soon perceives

And reassumes his shoes; when some one rises

Of the surrounding revellers, and says,

"Here, my friend, do not go; why won't you drink?

Take off your shoes." And then the host again

Is angry with the guest who calls him back,

And quotes some scraps of poetry against him,—

"Remember, always speed the parting guest,

And when a man is sleeping let him rest."

Do not we in this manner oft behave

When feasting those we choose to call our friends?

And, moreover, we add this:—

Let not a numerous party vex your mind,

For more are pleased, and the cost's near the same.

67. And when we are sacrificing to the gods, we spend as little as

possible upon our sacrifices, and give them the most ordinary presents;

as the admirable Menander tells us, in his Drunkenness:—

We don't do other things as we perform

Our duties to the gods. We sacrifice

One sheep scarce worth ten or a dozen drachmæ;

But for our flute-women, our perfumes rich,

Our harpers, Thasian and Mendæan wine,

Eels, cheese, and honey to regale ourselves,

We do not a whole talent think too much.

'Tis very well to spend a dozen drachmæ

When we are sacrificing to the gods,

But if you much curtail that slight expense,

Are you not thus dishonouring the gods?

I, if I were a god, would ne'er allow

A scanty loin of beef to load my altars,

Unless an eel were also sacrificed,

So that Callimedon might die of rage.

[Sidenote: THE DOLE-BASKET.]

68. And the ancients call some feasts ἐπιδόσιμα, that is to

say, given into the bargain,—the same which the Alexandrians call

ἐξ ἐπιδομάτων. Alexis, at all events, in his Woman at the

Well, says—

_A._ And now the master here has sent a slave

To bring to me a jar of his own wine.

_B._ I understand; this is ἐπιδόσιμος,

A gift into the bargain, as a makeweight;

I praise the wise old woman.

And Crobylus, in his Supposititious Son, says—

_A._ Laches, I come to you; proceed.

_B._ Which way?

_A._ How can you ask? Why, to my mistress, who

Has a feast ἐπιδόσιμος prepared;

And in her honour only yesterday

You made the guests drink down twelve glasses each.

The ancients, also, were acquainted with the banquets which are now

called dole-basket banquets; and Pherecrates mentions them in his

Forgetful Man, or the Sea, saying—

Having prepared a small dole-basket supper

He went away to Ophela.

And this clearly points to the dole-basket supper, when a man prepares

a supper for himself, and then puts it in a basket, and goes off to sup

with some one. And Lysias has used the word σύνδειπνον for a

banquet, in his speech against Micinus, on his trial for murder; for

he says that he had been invited to a σύνδειπνον: and Plato

says—"Those who had made a σύνδειπνον:" and Aristophanes, in

his Gerytades, says—

Praising great Æschylus in his σύνδειπνα,

on which account some people wish to write the title of Sophocles's

play in the neuter gender, σύνδειπνον. Some people also use the

expression συναγώγιμα δεῖπνα, picnic feasts; as Alexis does, in his Man

fond of Beauty, or the Nymphs, where he says—

Come, sit you down, and call those damsels in;

We've got a picnic here, but well I know

That your's is but a skin-flint disposition.

And Ephippus says, in his Geryones,—

They also celebrate a picnic feast.

They also use the verb συνάγω for to drink with on another, and the

noun συναγώγιον for a drinking party. Menander, in his Angry Woman,

says—

And for this reason now they drink (συνάγουσι) alone:

and presently afterwards he says—

And so they ended the entertainment (συναγώγιον).

And probably the συναγώγιον is the same as that which was also called

τὸ ἀπὸ συμβολων δεῖπνον. But what the συμβολαὶ, or contributions, are,

we learn from Alexis, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, where he

says—

_A._ I'll come and bring my contributions now.

_B._ How, contributions?

_A._ The Chalcidians

Call fringes, alabaster, scent boxes,

And other things of that kind, contributions.

But the Argives, as Hegesander tells us in his Commentaries, (the

following are his exact words)—"The Argives call the contributions

towards an entertainment which are brought by the revellers, χῶν;

and each man's share they call αἶσα."

69. And now, since this book also has come to a not unsuitable end,

my good friend Timocrates, let us stop our discussion at this point,

lest any one should think that we were formerly fishes ourselves, as

Empedocles says that he was; for that great natural philosopher says—

For I myself have been a boy, a girl,

A bush, a bird, and fish which roams the sea.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 9: From δίνη, an eddy.]

[Footnote 10: There is a punning allusion here to κάραβος, a

crawfish, and to Callimedon's nickname, Carabus.]

[Footnote 11: This was a parody on the first words of the crier's usual

proclamation,—Ἀκούετε λαοὶ,—Hear, O people. Ναοὶ means temples.]

[Footnote 12: Κῆρυξ means, not only a crier, but also a prickly

instrument of torture.]

[Footnote 13: There is meant here to be a pun on διδάσκω, which

means "to teach," and also "to exhibit a play."]

[Footnote 14: There is an allusion here to Harmonia the wife of Cadmus.]

[Footnote 15: Zethus was the name of the brother of Amphion.]

[Footnote 16: καρκῖνος is also Greek for a crab.]

[Footnote 17: Ψάλλ᾽ ἐς κόρακας, parodying the common execration, Βάλλ᾽

ἐς κόρακας.]

[Footnote 18: Alluding to the intemperance of the suitors of Penelope,

as described in the Odyssey.]

[Footnote 19: Schweigh, referring to the passage here alluded to,

(Hist. An. i. 10,) proposes to transpose these characteristics, so as

to attribute shamelessness to those who do not wink, and fickleness to

those who do.]

[Footnote 20: Corone is not a woman's name, as some have fancied;

the allusion is to the custom of some beggars, who, pretending to

be ashamed to beg for themselves, carried about a talking jackdaw

(κορώνη), and professed to be begging only for the use of the bird.]

[Footnote 21: From ἐπιτιμάω, to rebuke.]

[Footnote 22: Hom. Odyss. i. 22.]

[Footnote 23: Hom. Iliad, i. 424.]