INDUSTRY: WEAVERS, GLOVERS, SOCK-MAKERS, CORDWAINERS, TANNERS, HATTERS,
DYERS OF PURPLE, ETC., FISHERMEN.
In spinning and weaving the ancients evidently rivalled us, though
without the aid of machinery. As far, indeed, as the former process is
concerned, no machinery can rival the human hand, which, from its slight
oily exudation[1283] is enabled to communicate superior strength and
evenness to the finest threads. Thus in Hindustân muslins were formerly
produced, which, laid on the grass and wetted by dew, became
invisible.[1284] And there is no reason for doubting that the produce of
ancient Greek looms rivalled those of Dakka. The fabrics of Cos[1285]
and Tarentum appear, in fact, from the testimony of the ancients, to
have floated like a snowy mist around the female form, disclosing its
whole contour like a gauze veil.[1286] In flowered and variegated
tissues,[1287] too, they attained extraordinary excellence. The finest
and most brilliant shot stuffs imitating the breast of the dove,
flowered cloth of gold, and the weaving of gold wire itself, were known
to the ancients. Silk, before that of China[1288] was common in the
west, they obtained from the beard of a sea shell; and lawn and cambric
and open work, like Brussels or Valenciennes lace, were familiar to
them.
-----
Footnote 1283:
The whole of the manufacture in India is by hand-spinning,
consequently there is a greater tension, from the moisture which the
hand gives them, than can be had from anything in the shape of
machinery; a fine yarn can be produced by hand-spinning “from a short
staple, which frame-spinning will not touch at all.” Report from the
Lords, July 8, 1830, p. 316.
Footnote 1284:
Tavernier relates, “that the ambassador of Shah Sefi, on his return
from India, presented his master with a cocoa-nut, set with jewels,
containing a muslin turban, sixty covits, or thirty English yards, in
length, so exquisitely fine, that it could scarcely be felt by the
touch.” The Hindoos, vol. i. p. 188.
Footnote 1285:
Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. i. 498.
Footnote 1286:
Athen. xii. 23. Aristoph. Lysist. 48. Poll. vii. 76.
Footnote 1287:
To these an allusion is made in the following passage of Plato: ὥσπερ
ἱμάτιον ποικίλον πᾶσιν ἄνθεσι πεποικιλμένον, οὕτω καὶ αὔτη πᾶσιν ἤθεσι
πεποικιλμένη καλλίστη ἂν φαίνοιτο. De Repub. viii. t. vi. p. 401. Cf.
Poll. iii. 34. Winkelmann, i. 500. Athen. ii. 30.
Footnote 1288:
Paus. vi. 266, sqq. Aristoph. Hist. Animal. v. 19, p. 138. Plin. Nat.
Hist. ix. 26, seq. Gibbon, t. vii. p. 90, seq. Dapper, p. 266.
-----
Being ignorant of who was the inventor of the art of weaving, they
attributed the honour to Athena, who imparted a knowledge of it to
Arachnè,[1289] a virgin of Mæonia, afterwards changed into a spider. But
spiders were not long the only weavers among the Hellenes, who speedily
invented the upright and horizontal looms, which, in after times at
least, were constructed from the wood of the andrachnè.[1290]
-----
Footnote 1289:
Goguet, i. 266. Plut. Nic. § 9.
Footnote 1290:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 7. The stem of the bastard-saffron (κνῆκος)
was used as a spindle by the women of remote antiquity. vi. 14. 3.
-----
Among the finest and most elegant fabrics of Greece were those
manufactured in the Achæan city of Patræ,[1291] where the women being
twice as numerous as the men, would alone appear to have worked in the
factories, from which the greater number of the inhabitants, doubtless,
derived their livelihood. The flax, from which the fine linen and
head-nets[1292] of this town were made, was not grown in the
neighbourhood, but in the plains of Elis,[1293] where alone, in Greece,
the plant attained the highest degree of perfection, not yielding in
fineness to the best produced in India, while it was possessed of
superior whiteness.[1294] The fine cloths manufactured from it sold for
their weight in gold.[1295] Another species of very fine flax was
cultivated in the island of Amorgos,[1296] where were likewise
manufactured linens of the most beautiful texture, frequently dyed
purple, on which account the word Amorgis[1297] has sometimes been
supposed to denote a purple stuff, though the fabrics of the island were
as often white as of any other colour. In imitation of the Egyptians,
they wove a sort of fine napkins, which were evidently used in the same
manner as our pocket-handkerchiefs.[1298]
-----
Footnote 1291:
Pausan. vii. 21. 14. Cf. Dutens, Origine des Découvertes, p. 285.
Herod. ii. 105.
Footnote 1292:
Foës. Œconom. Hippoc. v. κεκρύφαλος. p. 202. These head-nets were
purple among the Spartans. Athen. xv. 28. The Grecian ladies, it would
appear, sometimes wore upon their heads cauls of fine skin, probably
semi-transparent, which obtained the name of πομφόλυγες. Mœris, p.
206. Bekk. In a former part of this work, I have supposed this word,
where it occurs in Pollux, to signify beads, because water-bubbles,
which transparent beads resemble, were so called. Etym. Mag. 682. 10.
Suid. v. πομφόλ. t. ii. p. 565. d. Martial alludes to the cauls
above-mentioned in the following verses:
Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos,
Et mutat Latias spumâ Batavâ comas.
Epigram. viii. 23. 19.
Footnote 1293:
Not as Mr. Bœckh supposes in Achaia, this name signifying Greece in
general. It grew, observes Pliny, _circa Elim in Achaia_. Nat. Hist.
xix. 4. Bœckh. i. 142.
Footnote 1294:
Paus. vi. 26. 6. v. 5. 2. vii. 21. 14. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, i. 498.
Sixteen matrons wove the peplos of Hera in Elis. Meurs. Gr. Fer. iii.
130, sqq.
Footnote 1295:
Quaternis denariis scripula ejus permutata quondam, ut auri reperio.
Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 4.
Footnote 1296:
Suid. v. Ἀμοργὶς. Aristoph. Lysist. 150, et Schol. This was the rate
at which silk was afterwards sold, as we learn from an anecdote of
Aurelian. “Vestem holosericam neque ipse in vestiario suo habuit,
neque alteri utendam dedit. Et quum ab eo uxor sua peteret, ut unico
pallio blatteo serico uteretur, ille respondit, _absit ut auro fila
pensentur_: libra enim auri tunc libra serici fuit.” Vopisc. Vit.
Aurelian, cap. xlv.
Footnote 1297:
See Dapper, Description des Iles de l’Archipel. p. 184.
Footnote 1298:
For which the old man substitutes a fox’s tail. Aristoph. Eq. 906, et
Schol.
-----
Even from hemp, very superior cloths were produced[1299] in antiquity,
especially amongst the Thracians, in whose country this plant was found
both in a cultivated and a wild state. It differed very little from
flax, except in its superior height and thickness; and the fabrics
manufactured from it were not to be distinguished from linen, save by
the most experienced judges. From hair, too, they both wove and plaited
a variety of garments, among which would seem to have been a sort of
mantle for ladies.[1300] Sacks, too, were manufactured from the same
materials, together with socks, whips, and fishing-lines. The Egyptians,
we may observe by the way, wove fine cloths and sails, and made ropes,
from the fibre of the papyrus plant,[1301] as the Indians did from a
sort of grass or fine rush.[1302]
-----
Footnote 1299:
Poll. vii. 73. Herod. iv. 74.
Footnote 1300:
Hemst. ad Poll. x. 32. Cf. ii. 24.
Footnote 1301:
Herod. vii. 12.
Footnote 1302:
Id. iii. 98. Comm. on Poll. vii. 76.
-----
In the island of Cos existed, from a very early age, the art of rearing
silkworms and weaving silk. As these insects, however, fed on the leaves
of the pine, the ash, and the oak, the white mulberry not having been
yet introduced into Greece, the silk they produced was very different in
quality from that of China. The art of unwinding the cocoons and
spinning the threads was invented by Pamphila, daughter of Plates,[1303]
who thus became the benefactress of her country, whose fabrics were
universally admired for their delicacy, fineness, and transparency,
since they allowed the whole form and colour of the body to be
distinguished through them, like the gauze chemises worn by the Turkish
ladies in the recesses of the harem.[1304] Another kind of silk was
manufactured by the ancients from the floss-like beard of the pinna
marina, or silk-worm of the sea,[1305] found on the coasts of Asia
Minor, Sicily, and the Balearic isles. This kind of silk was evidently,
at one period, held in the highest estimation, since we find the
emperors of Rome bestowing robes of it as a mark of their imperial
favour on the satraps of Armenia. In modern times, however, this branch
of industry has been almost totally neglected, though very warm and
beautiful winter gloves and stockings are still manufactured from it at
Tarento. A pair of these gloves was considered of sufficient importance
to be presented as a gift to Pope Benedict the Fourteenth.[1306]
-----
Footnote 1303:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 19. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 26.
Footnote 1304:
Lady Montague’s Works, t. ii. p. 191.
Footnote 1305:
Shaw, Travels in Barbary. Winkelmann, i. 499.
Footnote 1306:
Winkelmann, Hist. de l’Art. i. 499. Æschyl. Agamem. 855.
-----
But not for lightness and fineness only were the silks and other
delicate fabrics of the ancients valued. They were variegated[1307] with
stripes, lozenges, the figures of birds and other animals, sprigs,
flowers,[1308] and stars,[1309] inwoven into their texture, and of the
most brilliant and beautiful colours.
-----
Footnote 1307:
Plut. Aristid. § 16. Winkelmann, Hist. de l’Art, i. 492. Herod. vii.
67.
Footnote 1308:
Plat. de Repub. t. vi. p. 401.
Footnote 1309:
Athen. xiii. 45. xii. 50. Cf. Winkelmann, i. 499. Gitone, Il Costume
Antico e Moderno di tutti i Popoli, t. i. p. 94. Tav. 15.
-----
Occasionally, moreover, when the ground of the whole tissue was white, a
border of fanciful scrolls, leaves, and flowers, intermingling their
several tints, extended round the whole robe or mantle, which was
sometimes also bedropped with asterisks of gold. Their flowered silks,
and cloths of various colours, were worn, not only by ladies in their
dresses, but occasionally, also, by vain young men, who thus exposed
themselves to the derision of the multitude. Bed-curtains, too, and the
hangings of apartments[1310] were of variegated stuffs. In the
manufacturing of tapestry[1311] and drapery for the statues and temples
of the gods, the greatest possible magnificence and beauty were
displayed. Whole years were devoted to the production of a single piece,
which exhibited views of landscapes and cities, together with figures of
gods, and heroes, and groups of warriors, sometimes arranged in
religious processions, at other times engaged in battle, where the
scene, the combatants, their armour, their weapons, and the flowing gore
were represented by various colours to the life.[1312] In the
manufacture of carpets, the Greeks displayed great taste and elegance,
whether we regard the figures of animals, trees, or flowers, with which
they were inwrought, or their pile, softness, and texture.[1313] Many
times when they had not been flowered by the hand of the weaver, they
were adorned by the ladies themselves with sprigs, and leaves, and
figures, in embroidery; sometimes of various bright colours, at others
with threads of gold.[1314] Even napkins in Egypt were embroidered with
golden flowers,[1315] as both these and all kinds of handkerchiefs still
are throughout the East. In Greece, the fine soft vests which
warriors[1316] wore beneath their shirts of mail were usually figured
with rich embroidery by the females of their family.
-----
Footnote 1310:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 172. Athen. xv. 42.
Footnote 1311:
Hom. Il. γ. 125, sqq.
Footnote 1312:
Cf. Hom. Il. ζ. 289. 295.
Footnote 1313:
See Book III. chap. ii.
Footnote 1314:
One of the most extraordinary productions of the Grecian loom seems to
have been that magnificent chlamys which was weaving for king
Demetrius at the period of his overthrow. It had been, we are told, a
long time in hand, and represented in one vast picture both the face
of the earth, and heaven with all its constellations. But it was never
completed, none of the succeeding sovereigns of Macedon possessing the
gorgeous taste of the son of Antigonos. Plut. Demet. § 41. Next
perhaps to this in curious workmanship may be reckoned that rich
mantle fifteen cubits in length, which the Sybarite Alcisthenes
exhibited on Mount Lacinium during the festival of Hera, which was
frequented by all the people of Italy. Dionysios, the elder, obtaining
possession of this garment, sold it to the Carthaginians for a hundred
and twenty talents. It was of a rich sea purple colour, and surrounded
on all sides by a border containing the figures of animals, the upper
row consisting of those of Susiana, the lower of those of Persia
Proper. In the middle appeared an assembly of the gods—Zeus, Hera,
Themis, Athena, Apollo, and Aphroditè. At either end stood a figure of
Alcisthenes himself with a representation, probably symbolical of the
city of Sybaris. All these figures were the produce of the loom, and
not of the needle. Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. t. xvi. p. 199, seq.
Athen. xii. 58.
Footnote 1315:
Poll. iv. 116. Athen. ix. 79. v. 28. Herod. ii. 122. Lucian. Amor. §
36, sqq.
Footnote 1316:
Cf. Herod. vii. 61. ix. 76. 109.
-----
It appears to be generally supposed,[1317] that silver threads were not
employed until a very recent period, either in weaving or
embroidery;[1318] we find mention, however, in Philo Judæus,[1319] of
purple coverlets inwrought with silver and gold. But at length the love
of show and magnificence rose to so high a pitch, that robes were woven
entirely of threads of gold.[1320] Ribbons also were manufactured of the
same materials, and several fragments of these fabrics have more than
once been discovered in cinerary urns at Rome, though the greediness of
the finder has almost invariably led to their being melted down.[1321]
At a later period stuffs were woven partly of silk or woollen and partly
of gold.[1322]
-----
Footnote 1317:
By Beckmann, for example, History of Inventions, ii. 217, and
Salmasius, ad Vopisc. p. 394, and ad Tertull. de Pallio, p. 208.
Footnote 1318:
Cf. Lucian. Amor. § 38, sqq.
Footnote 1319:
Ed. Mangey, ii. 478.
Footnote 1320:
Winkelmann, i. 503. Huet, Hist. of Comm. p. 33. Cf. Athen. xii. 5,
sqq.
Footnote 1321:
Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, i. 503.
Footnote 1322:
Id. i. 504.
-----
Of gloves[1323] the Greeks made little use, though they must have
observed very early, that they were worn by the Persians, and probably
by other nations of Asia.[1324] Nay even among their own rustics they
would appear to have been in fashion as far back as the heroic
ages.[1325] The principal customers, therefore, of the Hellenic glovers
were the hedgers and ditchers, woodmen, and actors; for on the stage it
was frequently necessary to appear in gloves,[1326] either in order to
disguise the colour or augment the size of the hands, or, as in the case
of the Furies, to give them the appearance of being furnished with
talons like those of the hippogriff.[1327]
-----
Footnote 1323:
Cf. Poll. ii. 152.
Footnote 1324:
Xenoph. Cyrop. viii. 8.
Footnote 1325:
Odyss. ω. 229. Paccichelli, de Chirothecis, in p. 238.
Footnote 1326:
Luc. Jup. Tragœd. § 41.
Footnote 1327:
See an example, Mus. Chiaramont, tav. 16. Museo Real Borbonico, tav.
32. 50.
-----
Stockings properly so called, were perhaps little known to the Greeks,
though we find mention made of certain socks woven from the cotonaceous
filaments of a species of river truffle,[1328] which must have resembled
them very closely both in form and texture. Besides, we see in works of
art representations of this kind of sock reaching nearly to the knees,
and somewhat loose, which may probably therefore have been woven. But
the common sock, like the hat, was of felt,[1329] and usually
white,[1330] fitting close to the foot and leg, and chiefly worn by
women, with shoes or sandals,[1331] and sometimes in lieu of them,[1332]
though in some cases it occupied the same place in the costume of the
Greeks as it does in modern times.
-----
Footnote 1328:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 13. 8.
Footnote 1329:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 13. Athen. ii. 67. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 10.
Poll. i. 148. ii. 196. Some persons wore in winter a lambskin covering
for the legs and feet. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 720.
Footnote 1330:
Lucian. Rhet. Præcept. § 15.
Footnote 1331:
Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 417. Acharn. 299.
Footnote 1332:
Constant, v. πῖλοι. Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. p. 185.
-----
The Hellenic cordwainers[1333] appear in every age to have carried on
a thriving trade, since all the world, with the exception of a few
philosophers, went well shod. Their workshops seem to have been neatly
furnished. The shoes already made, whether plain or gilded,[1334] used
to be ranged on shelves fixed up against the wall with fanciful
brackets, while their lasts, pastepots, pincers, awls,[1335] and other
implements, were kept in armories, sometimes furnished with double
folding-doors, four or five deep shelves, and extremely elegant in
form. Their cutting-boards[1336] were made from the wood of the wild
pear-tree which being of a close hard grain kept their knives
constantly in edge. Among the Israelites we find mention made of shoes
of badger-skins.[1337]
-----
Footnote 1333:
Poll. vii. 80-96. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 299. Eq. 321. 709. Vesp.
103. Athen. iii. 56. On the Cretan Cothurn. Poll. vii. 193. v. 18.
Bœttig. Les Furies, p. 35. There was an expensive sort of Ionian shoe
called βαυκίδες. Etym. Mag. 192. 17. Κρηπίδες. Hieron. Mag. Miscell.
iii. 3. A pair of these slippers appears to have been a day’s work,
and cost in Lucian’s time seven oboloi. Somn. seu Gal. § 22. Herodotus
speaks of purple buskins, vii. 76. The women of Thessaly wore wooden
shoes. Athen. xiii. 55.
Footnote 1334:
Luc. adv. Indoct. § 6.
Footnote 1335:
Poll. ii. 195. x. 141. Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 35. p. 187.
Footnote 1336:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 5. 1.
Footnote 1337:
Ezekiel, xvi. 10.
-----
Of the various processes resorted to for tanning, dressing, and dyeing
leather,[1338] whether to be worked up into clothing, armour, shoes, or
parchment, too little by far is known. We are merely informed that, in
removing the hair from hides and skins, they made use of the berries of
the white briony;[1339] that, in preparing them for receiving any dye or
colour, the seeds of the sumach[1340] were employed; and that the bark
of the fir-tree and the wood of the alder,[1341] reduced to chips,
entered into various preparations for dressing and dyeing.[1342]
Fawn-skins among the Thracians were prepared probably with the hair
on,[1343] for a sort of buskins,[1344] and the skins of sheep,[1345] and
dogs,[1346] beavers,[1347] otters, and badgers, tanned in a variety of
ways, sometimes with and sometimes without the hair, were appropriated
to the manufacture of various articles of dress. Leather, moreover, was
dyed of every bright colour,[1348] purple, scarlet, and crimson, and
occasionally gilded or flowered with gold,[1349] for sandals, thongs,
and other purposes.
-----
Footnote 1338:
Schol. Aristoph. Av. 259.
Footnote 1339:
Dioscor. iv. 184.
Footnote 1340:
Ῥόος. Dioscor. i. 147.
Footnote 1341:
Theoph. Hist. Plant, iii. 9. 1. 14. 3.
Footnote 1342:
The low oak, which produces the large acorn used in tanning, is now
found in abundance in the Troad. Chandler i. 25.
Footnote 1343:
Herod. vii. 75.
Footnote 1344:
Sandals of leather with the hair on are still occasionally observed
among the sailors of Greece. Chandler. ii. p. 12.
Footnote 1345:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 398.
Footnote 1346:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 269.
Footnote 1347:
Dioscor. ii. 26.
Footnote 1348:
As early as the age of Moses we find mention of rams’-skins dyed red.
Exod. xxv. 5.
Footnote 1349:
Poll. vii. 87.
-----
The manufacture of hats and caps,[1350] though a less important branch
of industry than among the northern nations of modern times, afforded
nevertheless employment to a pretty numerous class of persons. At Athens
it was not fashionable in fine weather to wear a hat at all, chiefly,
perhaps, because the practice was supposed to hasten the approach of
grey hairs;[1351] but in those seasons of the year when sudden showers
were looked for, cautious persons seldom went abroad without their
broad-brim, which being furnished with a long skin thong was suffered to
fall back and hang over the shoulders. If they happened to be caught by
the rain when not thus provided, they threw, like Strepsiades in the
Clouds, a corner of their mantle over the head. These hats were of
various shapes,[1352] and manufactured of very different materials;
sometimes square or lozenge-formed, like our college-caps: sometimes
round with broad leaf[1353] and low basinet crown; sometimes peaked atop
with rim curling all round like the bell of the Egyptian lotos. There
was another modification of the hat,[1354] fashioned like a
limpet-shell, and without a brim, chiefly worn by fishermen and poor
operatives, and sometimes also by travellers.[1355]
-----
Footnote 1350:
Poll. vii. 171. The President Goguet, however, imagines the Greeks had
no hats. v. 440. Nightcaps. Sch. Vesp. 10. Arist. Cf. Antich. di
Ercol. t. viii. p. 47. Gitone, Il Cost. Ant. e Mod. di tut. i Pop. t.
i. p. 102. pl. 16.
Footnote 1351:
Aristot. de Gen. Animal. v. 1. p. 355.
Footnote 1352:
Dion Chrysost. ii. 67.
Footnote 1353:
Poll. x. 164. Athen. i. 12.
Footnote 1354:
Poll. vii. 124. x. 127, 138. Solerius, de Pileo. c. viii. p. 167.
Footnote 1355:
Solerius, de Pileo. c. viii. p. 167.
-----
The cynic, Menippos, however, when making his round through Thebes, in
the costume of a Fury, wore a broad-brimmed Arcadian hat, on which were
represented the twelve signs of the zodiac.[1356] Among the Macedonians,
who in all things affected magnificence, the hats of the courtiers and
nobles were purple,[1357] like the tiara of the Persians,[1358] which,
however, was furnished with side-flaps, resembling a peacock’s wings.
The most common material was felt, though they were likewise made of
leather. Caps were ordinarily manufactured of dog, or sheep, or lamb
skin.[1359]
-----
Footnote 1356:
Bœttiger. Furies, p. 29, sqq.
Footnote 1357:
Plut. Eumenes. § 8.
Footnote 1358:
Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 63. Cf. Poll. iv. 154.
Footnote 1359:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 269. Poll. iv. 139.
-----
But if in some of these branches of the useful arts the Greeks
approached, and, perhaps, equalled, the moderns, in another they
probably excelled them; I mean in dyeing,[1360] more particularly, that
deep crimson, or purple, of which Greek and Roman authors so often speak
with an admiration bordering on rapture. Winkelmann[1361] is not far
wrong in supposing there were two kinds of purple, the one containing a
tinge of violet, or sea-blue, produced at Tarentum,[1362] the other
resembling our lake, known in antiquity as Tyrian dye. On the origin of
this colour the ancients had many legends (for they loved to build a
mythos on what they could not explain), from among which we shall select
the most poetical. The Tyrian Heracles loved, they say, a nymph, who
dwelt somewhere about the sea-coast, and her name, it is added, was
Tyros. In visiting this young lady, Heracles, according to the custom of
the heroic age, was accompanied by his dog, as we find Telemachos, in
the Odyssey. This same dog, not having love to support him, grew hungry
by the way, and espying a purple fish upon a rock, with its head
protruding from the shell, he seized, and devoured it. On Heracles
reaching the residence of the nymph, she observed the muzzle of the
animal dyed of a bright purple, and, in the style of a froward beauty,
declared she would never again see her lover until he brought her a
dress of that colour. Now this hero, as all the world knows, or may
learn from the comic poets, was always more remarkable for courage and
gluttony than for invention. Love, however, on the present occasion,
sharpened his wits. He discovered the fish, turned dyer, and, having
produced such an article as the lady required, had the honour of being
esteemed the inventor of the Tyrian purple.[1363]
-----
Footnote 1360:
Cf. Plat. Tim. t. vii. 95. De Rep. t. vi. p. 183, seq. Don J. P.
Canáls y Martí, sob. la Purp. de los Antiguos. Gibbon, however,
considered the ancient purple very inferior to our own: “By the
discovery of cochineal, &c., we far surpass the colours of antiquity.
Their royal purple had a strong smell, and a dark cast, as deep as
bull’s blood—obscuritas rubens (says Cassiodorus, Var. i. 2,) nigredo
sanguinea. The president, Goguet, will _amuse_ and _satisfy_ the
reader.” Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vii. 90. _Note._ Goguet
will, no doubt, amuse and instruct, but I very much question whether
he will satisfy, the reader. When Goguet and Gibbon wrote, the subject
was much less understood than it is at present.
Footnote 1361:
Hist. de l’Art. iv. 5. 500, sqq.
Footnote 1362:
Horat. Epist. ii. 1. 207.
Footnote 1363:
Poll. i. 45. sqq. Palæphat. Fragm. ap. Gal. Opuscul. Mytholog. &c. p.
62. Goguet, Origine des Loix. iii. 196. Fab. Column. de Purp. i. 22.
-----
The writer to whom we are indebted for this fable, which he related for
the amusement of Commodus, has preserved a valuable account of the
purple fishery as carried on by the Phœnicians. They fastened, he
observes,[1364] a number of small bell-formed baskets, at regular
distances, to a long, stout, and tough cable, capable of resisting the
action of the sea. These baskets, like the eel-traps of modern times,
were surrounded at the mouth with a circle of slender twigs[1365]
projecting inward, and almost meeting at the centre, resembling the
bottom of a claret bottle, but with an opening through which the fish
could easily force its way in, though the twigs closing with a spring
behind it prevented its egress. To entice the prey, there was a bait in
the basket, which, according to some, was a cockle, according to others,
a frog, upon a hook,[1366] so that assurance was made doubly sure. All
things thus prepared, the fisherman conveyed the apparatus to a rocky
part of the shore, where they let it down, having previously fastened to
it a strong cord with a piece of cork at the end, that they might be
able to discover and pull it up. Leaving their traps there all night and
all the ensuing day, they generally took up the basket full. Then,
pounding both shell and flesh together, to prepare it for dyeing they
cleansed away all impurities with water, and boiled the whole in a
cauldron. The blood, being of an oily nature, melted on coming in
contact with the heat and acquired its rich colour. Not always did it
assume the same tint, but was sometimes yellow, sometimes a deep violet,
and, occasionally, some other shade. Into this whatever was dipped
immediately took the tincture of it. Nor did it all fade in the sun;
but, on the contrary, rejoiced in the rays of light, as it were, its
brightness imparting additional brilliance, and heightening the bloom
and splendour of its tints.[1367]
-----
Footnote 1364:
Cf. Pausan. x. 37. 3.
Footnote 1365:
Cf. Poll. i. 97. Plat. Sophist. t. iv. p. 134. Æl. Var. Hist. xiii.
43.
Footnote 1366:
Athen. iii. 33.
Footnote 1367:
Poll. i. 47, sqq.
-----
Wherever, and by whomsoever, discovered, the purple was known in the
time of Moses, who introduced it into the costume of the high priest,
and among the ornaments of the tabernacle.[1368] Homer,[1369] too,
speaks of purple among the colours worn by his heroes, for example, a
large purple pelisse. Iris is denominated “purple;” we have mention,
also, of a “purple cloak, of a purple ball wherewith to play;” “purple
coverings,” of great beauty, for beds, or seats; “purple carpets;”
“purple threads,” where the “sea-purple” is distinctly spoken of.[1370]
Again, in another part of the Odyssey, we find it said, that women wove
the “purple cloaks.”[1371] The President Goguet has entered into many
useful investigations respecting the manner in which the Tyrian dye was
used; but at the outset confounds the _conchyliatæ vestes_ with the
purple garments, though Pliny, on whom he chiefly relies, constantly
distinguishes them. The dye was obtained from several kinds of
shell-fish[1372] found in the Mediterranean, the best on the island on
which New Tyre was built.[1373] Aristotle, who of all the ancients has
best described the purple fish, observes, that there were several
species, of which some were of considerable size, such as those caught
near Sigeion and Lecton; while those found on the coast of Caria and in
the Euripos were small. Generally, he says, such as inhabited bays or
arms of the sea were large and rough, and contained a liquid of blackish
hue, though sometimes it was reddish, and small in quantity. Some of
these were a mina, or about seventeen ounces, in weight. Those caught
close along shores, or about headlands were usually of small size, but
the dye they yielded was of a ruddier tinge. In general, too, it was
thought that those found on northern coasts produced a darker, those on
southern coasts a ruddier dye.[1374] Purple fisheries were carried on on
the coast of Africa, near the island of Menninx, and on the shores of
Getulia.[1375] So, likewise, in Europe,[1376] on the coast of
Laconia,[1377] whose purple was greatly celebrated; in the Euripos, as
we have seen above;[1378] and in the terrible southern bend of Eubœa,
beneath the cliffs of Mount Caphareus.[1379] An inferior kind of purple
was obtained from the buccinum,[1380] but the genuine dye was produced
by the _calchè_ alone. The colour was contained in a white vein about
the neck, the remainder of the fish being of no value. To secure, this,
however, it was necessary to take the fish alive, for at its death the
colour fled. Having been carefully collected, and left to macerate in
salt[1381] during three days, it was mixed with a certain quantity of
water. The whole was then boiled for ten days in leaden boilers over a
slow fire.[1382] After this the wool well washed, cleansed and properly
prepared, was dipped into it. Here it was allowed to soak during five
hours. It was then taken out, dried, carded, and thrown back, where it
was suffered to remain till it imbibed the whole of the dye.[1383] To
this double-dyed purple the poets often allude. Thus Horace:
Te bis Afro
Murice tinctæ
Vestiunt Lanæ.[1384]
-----
Footnote 1368:
Exod. xxv. 4, sqq.
Footnote 1369:
Il. ζ. 219. θ. 221. ρ. 547. Odyss. δ. 115. 154. τ. 225. 242. θ. 373.
δ. 298. ι. ω. 645. 796. ι. 200. Odyss. υ. 151. Cf. Pind. Pyth. iv.
203. 6.
Footnote 1370:
Odyss. ξ. 53. 306.
Footnote 1371:
Id. ν. 108.
Footnote 1372:
See a representation of the purple fish on a red jasper in Gori, Mus.
Florent. ii. pl. 21. fig. 4.
Footnote 1373:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60.
Footnote 1374:
Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 15. p. 128, seq. Vitruv. vii. 13.
Footnote 1375:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60.
Footnote 1376:
There was another purple fishery of considerable note carried on in
the Corinthian gulf by the citizens of Bulis, a city of Phocis.
Pausan. x. 37. 2. 3. Steph. de Urbib. p. 238. On the modern state of
Bulis see Chandler, ii. p. 288.
Footnote 1377:
Pausan. iii. 21. 6.
Footnote 1378:
Pausan. iii. 21. 6.
Footnote 1379:
Dion Chrysost. Orat. vii.
Footnote 1380:
This fish is now abundant on the shores of Naples, where it is
commonly eaten. Fab. Column. de Purp. iv. 1.
Footnote 1381:
The proportion of salt was 20 oz. to 1 cwt. of the purple matter.
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 62.
Footnote 1382:
The animal matter mingled with it being constantly skimmed off. Plin.
Nat. Hist. ix. 62.
Footnote 1383:
Plin. ix. 62. Gog. iii. 20.
Footnote 1384:
Carm. ii. 16. 35, sqq. On this the ancient scholiast quoted by
Bentley, says, “Bis tinctæ, dibaphæ vestes preciocissimæ.” Cf. Pompon.
Mel. iii. 10. 35, p. 301. Gronov.
-----
And again where the Phœnician operation is spoken of:
Muricibus Tyriis iteratæ vellera lanæ
Cui properabantur?[1385]
-----
Footnote 1385:
Epod. xii. 21, seq.
-----
Elsewhere in enumerating the things, wherein the vulgar pride
themselves, he once more enumerates purple garments—
Gemmas, marmor, ebur, Tyrrhena sigilla, tabellas,
Argentum, vestes Gætulo murice tinctas,
Sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere.[1386]
-----
Footnote 1386:
Epist. ii. 2. 180, seq.
-----
It was seldom or never considered sufficient to rely upon one species of
fish. Usually several kinds were mingled together;[1387] and to the
mixture were added many other ingredients, as nitre, urine, water, salt,
and the fucus—a kind of moss—by some writers supposed to be our
argol,[1388] found in abundance on the rocky shores of Crete.[1389] The
tint produced by this mixture resembled the colour of the
amethyst.[1390] For, under the word purple, the ancients included three
distinct colours,—the first a deep violet with a black or dusky tinge,
designed by Homer, when he speaks of the “purple wave,” or of “purple
death.” This was the amethystine shade spoken of as so magnificent by
Pliny; produced by the calchæ and buccina alone. The second which
resembled deep scarlet or crimson, which is the colour of a ripe
pomegranate, was the purple of Tyre and Tarentum. The third was the deep
blue of the Mediterranean sea, when it begins to be ruffled by the
winds; a variety produced by the buccinum alone, and always understood
by the word conchyliata.[1391] Near the Isthmus of Darien, a sea-snail
has been discovered, which some have supposed to be the murex of the
ancients. In dimensions it is about equal to the bee. Being of extremely
rare occurrence, the Indian fishermen preserve it, when found, in a
vessel of water until they have collected a sufficient quantity for
dyeing a piece of stuff. They then, like the ancient Tyrians, pound it
shell and all with a smooth stone or something which serves them for a
mortar, which as the shell is extremely thin and frail is a task of
little labour, and immediately dip the cotton yarn or stuff in the
liquor thus obtained. The colour resulting from this operation is the
richest purple that can be conceived, which instead of fading by being
passed through water grows more lustrous and brilliant the more it is
washed. Stuffs dyed in this manner are, as may be supposed, exceedingly
costly, and on account of their beauty much coveted by the richest of
the Indian women.[1392]
-----
Footnote 1387:
The buccinum, for example, to give the ruddy hue. Fab. Column. de
Purp. i. 19. Johan. Daniel. Annot. p. 33. Plin. ix. 37.
Footnote 1388:
Beckmann, i. 59, sqq.
Footnote 1389:
Goguet, iii. 20.
Footnote 1390:
Fab. Column. de Purpura, c. i. § 8.
Footnote 1391:
Dalecamp. ad Plin, ix. 62. t. iii. p. 770. Cf. Winkel. iv. 1. § 14.
Footnote 1392:
Valm. de Bomare. v. Murex, p. 169.
-----
The fucus above-mentioned, found on the shores of Crete, was sometimes
employed separately in dyeing fillets, garments, and wool, and the
colour thus produced was still more brilliant than that of the purple
fish, though no means of fixing it could be discovered.[1393] The purple
of Hermione, however, preserved its lustre and freshness for centuries.
Alexander, for example, found in the royal palace of Susa vast
quantities of purple garments dyed at Hermione, which, though they had
been laid up nearly two hundred years, exhibited all their pristine
bloom and beauty; because, observes the historian, the wool had been
previously combed with white oil, and the colour fixed with honey.[1394]
Even in Plutarch’s own time garments of equal age were to be seen, the
purple of which had preserved its brilliance and splendour undiminished.
Nay, a small pot of the dye was discovered at Pompeii which though
covered atop with a thick tawny film had preserved all the deep tone and
richness attributed to the Tyrian purple by the ancients.
-----
Footnote 1393:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 5. Another method of dyeing purple
prevailed in a district of Asia Minor, where the quality of the
springs would appear to have fixed the colour: “The waters of
Hierapolis were surprisingly attempered for tinging wool with a colour
from roots, rivalling the more costly purples; and were a principal
source of the riches of the place.” Chandler, i. p. 270. The learned
traveller, who is exceedingly sparing of his authorities, doubtless
based his relation on the following passage in Strabo: Ἔστι δὲ καὶ
πρὸς, βαφὴν ἐρίων θαυμαστῶς σύμμετρον τὸ κατὰ τὴν Ἱεράπολιν ὕδωρ, ὥστε
τὰ ἐκ τῶν ῥιζῶν βαπτόμενα ἐνάμιλλα εἶναι τοῖς ἐκ τῆς κόκκου καὶ ταῖς
ἁλουργέσιν. l. xiii. c. iv. t. iii. p. 158.
-----
In dyeing scarlet, the ancients made use of kermes[1395] or cochineal,
found in several parts of Greece, but imported likewise from various
other countries. It was sometimes employed in giving the ground to
purple stuffs.[1396] Garments of this colour would appear to have been
extremely rare among the Orientals, since the admiration excited in
Darius by the scarlet cloak of Syloson, whom he saw walking in the great
square of Memphis, can be accounted for only by supposing that he had
never beheld the like before;[1397] otherwise he would not have been so
captivated by its magnificent colour as to press its wearer to sell it
to him in the street. Syloson presented him the cloak as a gift; but
afterwards, when Darius was king of Persia, he took care to proceed to
court and make the circumstance known, upon which the generous prince
overwhelmed him with his favours. This kind of dye appears to have been
known in Greece from the remotest antiquity, since Simonides supposes
that even the signal sail given by Ægeus to Theseus in his expedition to
Crete was of a scarlet colour.[1398] Sardis was celebrated for its
scarlet,[1399] whence the proverb,—to be dyed with the tincture of
Sardis,—for, to be beaten black and blue. The ancients, however,
generally mistook the insect for the fruit of the holm-oak, upon whose
leaves it feeds; a circumstance which may be regarded as very
extraordinary, when it is remembered that both the insect and the tree
were daily under their eyes.
-----
Footnote 1394:
Plut. Vit. Alex. § 36.
Footnote 1395:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 9. Cf. Fab. Column. de Purp. i. 13. Don
Juan Pablo Canáls Y Martí, Memorias sobra la Purpura de los Antiguos.
c. v. Phile, De Animal. Proprietat. c. xliii. p. 172, sqq. appears to
describe, though in an indistinct and imperfect manner, the cochineal
insect among the productions of India.
Footnote 1396:
Beckmann, ii. 171.
Footnote 1397:
Herod. iii. 139.
Footnote 1398:
Plut. Thes. § 17. In later times we find Alcibiades, on his return to
Athens, hoisting purple sails in the Admiral’s galley. Plut. Alcib. §
32.
Footnote 1399:
Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 1140. ad Acharn. 118. Cf. Plin. xxiv. 4.
-----
The wool of sheep is said by the Greek poets to have been dyed red on
their backs by eating the madder plant.[1400] The wool of brown sheep
was spun, woven, and worn of its natural colour, as it is still by the
rustics of several European countries. Dyes of every other colour were
likewise known to the ancients; as bright flame and saffron-colour,
pink, green, and russet grey;[1401] deep and sky-blue, produced by
woad;[1402] and red by madder.[1403] The Phrygian dyers made use of a
kind of mineral[1404] obtained from Cappadocia; and wool was sometimes
dyed with a decoction of beans.[1405] Among the Egyptians, linens,
muslins, and all kinds of cloths were painted with flowers and figures,
in a great variety of colours;[1406] which was the case, also, among the
Massagetæ, who impressed on their fine woollen cloths a multitude of
patterns, which preserved their brilliance unfading to the last.[1407]
-----
Footnote 1400:
Virg. Eclog. iv. 45. Beckmann, History of Inventions, iii. 256—_note_.
Footnote 1401:
Poll. vii. 13.
Footnote 1402:
Ισάτις ἥμερος. Dioscor. ii. 215. Cf. Aristoph. Cimon. 332. Nub. 71.
Dioscor. iii. 160.
Footnote 1403:
Beckmann, History of Inventions, t. iii. p. 255.
Footnote 1404:
Dioscor. v. 141.
Footnote 1405:
Id. ii. 127.
Footnote 1406:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 42.
Footnote 1407:
Herod. i. 203.
-----
As many kinds of woollens are wholly spoiled by common washing,[1408]
they were regularly, when soiled, carried by the Greeks to the
fullers,[1409] whose mill and trade are supposed to have been invented
by Nycias of Megara.[1410] These artisans made use of numerous earths
and other substances in their operations; such as gypsum,[1411] the
Cimolian earth and the Chian, the Lemnian, the Sardian, the Umbrian, the
Samian, the Tymphæan, and the Chalastræan.[1412] Wool, previous to being
spun, was cleansed by soap-wort.[1413] In washing clothes they commonly
made use of a lye prepared with lime or wood ashes.[1414] Sponges were
blanched in the following manner:[1415] over such as were extremely soft
they sprinkled a quantity of salt-fish, collected from the rocks, after
which they were carefully washed, and laid in the summer sun with their
hollow part uppermost. They were rendered still whiter by being
saturated with salt froth or sea-water, and exposed during a succession
of calm summer nights to the moon’s rays.
-----
Footnote 1408:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Charact. p. 241.
Footnote 1409:
Herod. iv. 14. i. 92.
Footnote 1410:
Plin. vii. 57. Goguet. iv. 6.
Footnote 1411:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 67.
Footnote 1412:
Constant. v. χαλαστραῖον. Theoph. de Lapid. § 64. Plat. Rep. t. vi.
184. Poll. vii. 39. x. 135.
Footnote 1413:
Στρουθίον. Dioscor. ii. 193. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 10. 3. Plin.
Nat. Hist. xix. 18.
Footnote 1414:
See Mitchell on the Acharnes. 7. Gog. Origine des Loix, i. 279.
Footnote 1415:
Dioscor. v. 138.
-----
The extent and importance of the Grecian fisheries[1416] may be inferred
from the prodigious quantities of fish eaten in every part of Greece;
for although they knew nothing in antiquity of those long fasts during
which the members of the Greek church in modern times, ceasing to prey
upon the dumb inhabitants of terra firma, let loose their voracity
against those of the sea, they were no less partial to this kind of food
than their descendants,[1417] as will have been seen from a preceding
portion of this work. Fisheries were accordingly established on nearly
every part of the coast of Hellas, as well as of those islands and
distant colonies of which she became mistress.
-----
Footnote 1416:
In the heads of certain fish, jewels are said to have been sometimes
found. Athen. iii. 70.
Footnote 1417:
Strabo relates an excellent anecdote in illustration of this passion
of his countrymen. Speaking of the city of Iasos, situated in an
island of the same name on the coast of Caria, whose inhabitants drew
their chief subsistence from their maritime pursuits, and were
abundantly supplied with fish, he adds,—that once upon a time a
celebrated musician was performing in public before the inhabitants of
this city: suddenly the bell which announced the opening of the
fish-market was heard to sound. Away, in an instant, scampered the
Iasians, eager to secure their favourite dainty, all except a single
individual, who appeared to enjoy the performance of the citharador.
Flattered by this mark of his taste or politeness, the musician
approached the man, and said, “I am greatly obliged by the attention
you have shown me, and have to congratulate you on your love of the
art; for all the rest, as soon as they heard the bell ring, ran
away.”—“What then! has the bell rung?” inquired the apparent listener,
who happened to be deaf. “Yes,” answered the musician. “Then good luck
be with you!” cried the man, and rising hastily from his seat, he
rushed after his townsmen. Strab. xiv. 2. t. iii. p. 203, seq.
-----
Thus a celebrated lamprey[1418] fishery existed on the Faro of Messina,
an eel-fishery at Syracuse,[1419] another for taking the purple fish, on
the eastern coast of Eubœa, a second on the shores of Laconia, a third
at Sigæum in Asia Minor, and a fourth in the neighbourhood of Tyre and
Sidon.[1420] Whales and dolphins were caught in the Mediterranean, and
in the Black Sea; thunnies in the same sea, on the Bosporos, in the sea
of Marmora, in the Hellespont, in the Adriatic, and in nearly all the
eastern parts of the Mediterranean. Many kinds of smaller fish afforded
employment to numerous bodies of men in the gulfs and bays of Attica and
the Peloponnesos; and flourishing sponge-fisheries were carried on along
the coast of Crete, and in several other parts of the Archipelago.[1421]
-----
Footnote 1418:
The observations made by Spallanzani on the eel and lamprey fisheries
of Stromboli, may, with equal propriety perhaps, be applied to those
which are found along the roots of Ætna: “The fish here,” he says,
“are very plentiful and large, especially the sea-eels and murænas;
and, during my short stay in this island, I saw a greater quantity
taken than during the whole time of my continuance in all the Eolian
isles. They are, likewise, of an excellent taste. This abundance, I am
inclined to attribute to the volcano, which has continued incessantly
burning from time immemorial; and which, extending to an immense
depth, must necessarily communicate a part of its heat to the
submarine base of the mountain, and to the waters that surround it, in
the gentle warmth of which the fish find a more agreeable place of
resort, and perhaps propagate in greater numbers than elsewhere.”
Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 125.
Footnote 1419:
Plut. Timol. § 20. In catching this fish it was customary to disturb
the waters. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 862. In the polypus fisheries,
besides the difficulty of detaching the animal from its place, there
was supposed to be another, arising from the power it possesses of
assuming, like the chameleon, the colour of the surrounding rocks.
Lucian. Dial. Deor. Marin. iv. § 3.
Footnote 1420:
This fish served for food as well as a dye. Luc. Cynic. § 11. The
cuttle-fish also was eaten as now. Catapl. § 7.
Footnote 1421:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 5. Poll. i. 97.
-----
In seas frequented by sharks, sponge-fishers necessarily incurred much
risk. They therefore carefully observed every circumstance denoting the
absence of danger, as for example, the appearance of the anthias,[1422]
which is supposed never to be seen in the neighbourhood of any voracious
sea-monster; for which reason it obtained from the Greeks the name of
the Sacred Fish.
-----
Footnote 1422:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. ix. 37. p. 279. 20. Bekk.
-----
The divers engaged in this trade made use, moreover, of many
contrivances to diminish the toil and hazard of their dangerous calling.
Sometimes they poured oil[1423] upon the waves, which rendered them at
once more tranquil and translucent and enabled them the better to carry
on their operations at the bottom of the sea. They made likewise the
first step towards the invention of the diving-bell, by descending with
a large vessel turned upside down upon their heads, taking care that its
edges sank into the water at the same instant, by which means they
carried along with them a quantity of air, and were enabled to continue
a considerable space of time beneath the surface.[1424] A diver and his
daughter are said to have performed good service for their country
during the Median war; for, descending into the sea during a tempest,
they loosened the anchors of many Persian vessels, and thus set them
adrift to perish by the weather; in remembrance of which services, a
statue was erected to both father and daughter at Delphi.[1425]
-----
Footnote 1423:
Dutens, Origine des Découvertes, 145.
Footnote 1424:
Aristot. Problem. xxxii. 5.
Footnote 1425:
Paus. x. 19. 2. Athen. vii. 48. Anthol. Græc. ad Palat. Cod. ed. ix.
296. Cf. Herod. viii. 8. Quint. Curt. iv. 3.
-----
The business of fishing was pursued in much the same manner as in modern
times. Great numbers of smacks,[1426] of all dimensions, crowded the
narrow seas between the islands and the main, making sometimes pretty
long voyages, and taking passengers to augment their gains.[1427] These,
moreover, formed the principal nurseries for the Grecian navies,[1428]
particularly those of Athens, which consequently were manned, in the
better ages of the republic, by the hardiest and most expert seamen in
the ancient world. They employed in their operations both the harpoon
and various kinds of large nets;[1429] and the ease and rapidity with
which they filled their vessels may be inferred from the accounts given
in modern times of the vast shoals of fish of all species and dimensions
which in spring time collect in the eastern extremity of the
Mediterranean, and pour in such multitudes into the narrow stream of the
Dardanelles and the Bosporos,[1430] that, with one sweep of a net, the
fishermen are enabled to fill whole skiffs, while they may be taken by
the hand from the shores, killed like birds with stones, caught with
unbaited hooks, or by the women in common baskets, let down by ropes
from the windows of such houses in Constantinople[1431] as happen to
stand on the beach. Elsewhere the fishermen made use of stop-nets in
rivers or along the sea-coasts where the water for some way out was
shallow. Various kinds of baskets,[1432] also, they had recourse to,
together with the rod and line. Even that barbarous method, still in
many parts of Europe put in practice by the vulgar, of poisoning the
waters, was known to the Greeks, who, for this purpose, cast into
streams or ponds the pounded leaves of the Euphorbia Platyphylla.[1433]
-----
Footnote 1426:
Dion Chrysost. i. 220. Cf. Aristoph. Nub. 878. Ran. 139. Eq. 1220.
Acharn. 367.
Footnote 1427:
Dion Chrysost. i. 220.
Footnote 1428:
See a comparison between the hardy occupations of the citizen and the
hunter in Oppian. Halieut. i. 12. Cyneget. i. 49. The same poet in the
third book of his Halieutics, (35, sqq.) describes the principal
qualities of a fisherman, bodily and mental, such as strength,
watchfulness, love of the sea, all which must have admirably fitted
him for distinguishing himself in his country’s navy.
Footnote 1429:
Plut. De Solert. Anim. § 24. Poll. i. 97. Anglers’ lines were
sometimes made of τέρμινθος, a plant resembling flax. Id. i. 233.
Salmas. ad Solon. p. 911. a. Etymol. Mag. 753, 10. Fishing-hooks.
Goguet, i. 166. Nets were sunk by leaden weights. Poll. i. 97. Cf.
Philost. Icon. i. 13. p. 783. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 14. p. 102.
Footnote 1430:
See in Oppian a long and highly picturesque passage describing the
allurements by which the Black Sea drew into itself those innumerable
shoals of fish which in the text I have described flocking towards it.
Halieut. i. 598, sqq. Cf. Strab. vii. 6. t. ii. p. 112.
Footnote 1431:
Gyllius, De Topograph. Constant. p. 6.
Footnote 1432:
Poll. i. 97.
Footnote 1433:
Dioscor. iv. 165. Plat. De Repub. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Concon. 404.
See the whole process of poisoning described by Oppian, Halieut. iv.
647, seq.
-----
On the land-locked seas, also, and lakes, and rivers, they pursued that
striking and romantic species of fishery[1434] carried on at
night,[1435] in which a flaming torch held at the boats’ bows allures
the fish to the surface, where by their bright eyes and glittering
scales shining through the transparent water, they directed the aim of
the fisherman’s trident.[1436] A small fleet of this kind of boats
dispersed over a smooth sea under the lea of woody headlands or rocky
shores, each with its bright red light, gliding noiselessly[1437] hither
and thither, discloses a scene of singular beauty to the imagination. In
the paintings of Herculaneum,[1438] we find a landscape representing a
group of fishermen immediately before day, when the dusky shadows are
beginning to be dispersed by the first straggling rays of light which
barely enable us to distinguish the boats, the nets, the rods, the
fishermen themselves, and the picturesque shore on which they are at
work.
-----
Footnote 1434:
Cf. Herod. i. 62.
Footnote 1435:
Chandler supplies us with a picture of this kind of fishing as carried
on in modern Greece: “We embarked with a rougher sea than was
pleasing, and rowed out in the dark towards the island, intending to
fish. We joined our two seines, and the boats parted, moving each a
different way, a man letting the net gently down into the water. We
met again in the centre, when some embers which had been hidden, were
blown up and exposed on an iron grate, the flame was fed with cedar
dipped in oil, which blazing in the wind, brightened over the deep;
the red coals hissing as they fell, and were extinguished. At the same
time we began to clatter with wooden hammers on the sides and seats of
the wherries, to dash with a pole, and to throw stones, disturbing and
driving the fish, and darting a trident or spear if any appeared at
the top, dazzled by the light; sprinkling oil to render the surface
tranquil and pellucid. The men drew up the net with caution, fearing
the fins of some poisonous fish, particularly the scorpion, which is
killed with a blow on the head while entangled, when the danger
ceases. The boats meeting again, they untie the seines, and throwing
the fiery brands into the sea, proceed in the dark to some other
place. This is the common method of fishing in these seas.” Travels in
Greece and Asia Minor, ii. p. 198, seq.
Footnote 1436:
Quint. Smyrn. Posthomeric, vii. 569, sqq.
Footnote 1437:
Cf. Oppian. Halieut. iii. 429.
Footnote 1438:
Antich. di Ercol. t. xii. p. 273.
-----
One of the most profitable of the Greek fisheries was that of the
thunny, which commenced about the rising of the Pleiades and terminated
shortly after the setting of Arcturus.[1439] As this animal always moves
about in troops, and swims near the surface of the water, which it
visibly disturbs in its progress, at the same time blowing sportively,
and uttering a loud noise, the fishermen, on the shores frequented by
it, constantly stationed a number of watchmen along the beach, some
perched aloft on the summits of cliffs, others on detached rocks, rising
out of the waves, or in trees, or on the top of masts set up at certain
distances along the coast, that they might give notice of the approach
of the thunnies.[1440] As soon as the signal was given the fishermen
pushed out with their barks, making a wide circuit, so as to take the
fish in flank. Then letting down their long nets furnished with leaden
weights to sink them, and with cords[1441] wherewith to draw them up,
they formed themselves into a semicircle, which rapidly narrowing round
the shoal drove them towards the land, by which means the greatest
number were either taken in the nets, or speared by tridents.[1442]
Respecting one of these fishing stations, on the coast of Cypros, a very
romantic anecdote is related.[1443] The inhabitants we are told, having
sculptured a marble lion, which they adorned with emerald eyes, set it
up on the tomb of a prince of the country named Hermias,[1444] upon an
eminence overlooking the sea. The splendour of the emerald, penetrating
through the waves, scared away the thunnies, which in truth are
remarkable for their timidity, so that the fishermen of that part of the
island must unquestionably have been ruined had they not discovered the
property of their lion’s optics, and substituted in lieu of the emerald,
eyes less terrible to the pusillanimous herds of Thetis. A circumstance
almost equally extraordinary is related of the strait by which the
stream of the Bosporos disgorges itself into the Propontis. Here they
say a rock of marvellous whiteness is discovered on the Asiatic side
through the waves in the neighbourhood of Chalcedon, which by its
brightness scares away the thunnies, both in their way to and from the
Black Sea. The ancient naturalists remark, that the thunny in this part
of its migrations observes steadily one course, keeping generally on the
Asiatic side in the ascent to the Pontus, where, excepting the seal and
the dolphin, nothing destructive to fish is found, and, after making the
circuit of its shores, returning to the Ægæan close along the coast of
Europe.
-----
Footnote 1439:
Plin. ix. 20. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 313. 361. 862. Philost. Icon.
i. 13, p. 783.
Footnote 1440:
Suid. v. θυννοσκόπος. t. i. p. 1336, seq. Aristoph. Eq. 313. Aristot.
Hist. Animal. iv. 10. They who act as sentinels in the catching of the
sword-fish, take their station on a platform in the fishing boat
itself. “In the middle (of the bark) is fixed an upright pole,
seventeen feet high, with ladders to go up it, and a kind of round
platform at the top, for one of the crew, who acts as sentinel, to
stand on. This platform is called _fariere_.” Spallanzani, Travels in
the Two Sicilies, iv. 336.
Footnote 1441:
Poll. i. 97.
Footnote 1442:
Similar methods still prevail in the Mediterranean. “We had,” says
Chandler, “frequent opportunities (while at Genoa) of seeing the
method of fishing within the mole. Several seines are united and
extended so far as to form a large semicircle, but much curved at the
two extremities. The men then retire to some distance, and begin
clattering with sticks or hammers on the sides of their boats; the
noise making the fish rise. One stationed on the yard-arm of a ship,
takes notice which way they swim, and gives directions, until they are
within the net, when they are driven towards the ends, and are soon
entangled; or, trying from despair to leap over, fall on a wing, which
is fastened to long reeds, and kept floating horizontally on the
surface. The reward of much toil was, now and then a few mullet. The
thynnus, or thunny fish, was anciently and is now taken nearly in this
manner, but in shoals which endanger and often break the nets.”
Travels, &c., i. p. 6, seq.
Footnote 1443:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 17.
Footnote 1444:
Cf. Winkelm. ii. 93.
-----
This proceeding they account for by supposing that, of its two dull
eyes, the right sees best, and that, in obedience to the guidance of
this peeper, it makes the circuit of the sea in the manner stated. A
better reason may be, that its peculiar food[1445] is most plentiful on
the Asiatic coast in spring, and on the European in autumn, if, after
all, we are to regard the fact itself as well established.[1446] In this
traject, however, it seems in reality, for some cause or another, to
shun the vicinity of the City of the Blind, which constituted, perhaps,
one of the principal causes of its inferiority to Byzantium.
Nevertheless, a very delicate species of pelamys,[1447] caught there,
was known in the commerce of the ancient world, and transported to all
parts of Greece.
-----
Footnote 1445:
Observations made on the habits of the swordfish may be thought to
give some colour to this relation of the ancient naturalists: “The
swordfish, we are told, is taken by the Messinese sailors in two ways;
that is, with the lance, and the palimadara, a kind of net with very
close meshes. This fishery begins about the middle of April, and
continues till the middle of September. From the middle of April to
the end of June it is carried on upon the coast of Calabria; and from
the end of June to the middle of September on that of Sicily. The
reason of this is, that, by the account of all the fishermen, the
swordfish, from April till June, entering by Faro, coasts the shore of
Calabria, without approaching that of Sicily; and passes the contrary
way from the end of July to the middle of September. We know not
whether it takes this contrary route for the sake of food, or from any
other cause; or whether it be the same fish that passes and repasses;
it is only certain that it does not coast the shore of Sicily but when
it goes to spawn.” Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 331.
-----
We have remarked above, that the taking of the thunny commenced in
spring, when it appears to have been in excellent condition, and very
highly prized. During winter, whatever may have been its quality, it was
not to be caught, since it retired to the depths of the Ægæan, beyond
the reach of nets or tridents. In the heat of summer it was rendered
lean and flabby by the persecution of a kind of worm, which, insinuating
itself beneath the fins,[1448] harassed it incessantly. But, towards
autumn, being delivered by nature from this pest, it again became plump,
and was esteemed excellent eating. The growth of this fish is extremely
rapid, more especially in the Black Sea, where, amid the vast quantities
of mud and slime brought down by the numerous rivers, it finds in great
abundance the food most congenial to its taste.[1449] The thunny,
properly so called, is at present[1450] scarce along the coast of
Mingrelia, where, by the ancients, it is said to have abounded, which
renders it not improbable, that they included under this name more than
one species of sturgeon, a fish still found in great numbers in those
parts of the Black Sea.
-----
Footnote 1446:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 20.
Footnote 1447:
Oppian, who tells a wonderful story about the thunny devouring its
spawn, immediately adds, that the roes which escaped, concealed among
the reeds and rushes, became pelamydes:
Τὰ δ᾽ ἐν δονάκεσσι καὶ ἐν σχοίνοισι μένοντα
Πηλαμύδων ἀγέλας ὥρη τέκεν
Halieut. iv. 510, seq.
Footnote 1448:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. viii. 13. p. 231. 30.
Footnote 1449:
Oppian. Halieut. i. 600, sqq.
Footnote 1450:
Voyages au Nord, vii. 187.
-----
The method of taking the pelamys[1451] has been graphically described by
an ancient writer. A well-appointed and swift bark, putting to sea with
her rowers, dashed out as rapidly as possible into deep water, upon
which one of the crew, stationed at the stern, let down the tackle. This
consisted of two strong ropes, one on either side, to which were
attached a number of small cords, each with a hook at the end, baited
with the Laconian purple fish, and garnished with a feather of the
sea-mew, which, glancing hither and thither in the currents of the sea,
assisted in attracting the eye of the pelamydes. The boat then traced
various lines upon the surface of the deep, now skimming in this
direction, now in that, until it was followed by a shoal of fish, which,
coming up with it, voraciously gorged the baits until not a single hook
was left without its prey. Upon this the rowers desisted from their
toil, and, pulling up the ropes, generally found their boat laden with
the take.[1452]
-----
Footnote 1451:
Pallas supposes this fish to be the Mugil Cephalus, or mullet, from
the eggs of which Botargo is prepared. Travels in Southern Russia, iv.
241.
Footnote 1452:
Ælian. de Nat. Animal. xv. 11.
-----
The manner in which the thunny is taken on the coast of Chili may,
perhaps, be worth mentioning for the sake of comparison. As soon as the
Indians discover a shoal of these fish near the shore they put to sea on
large sealskin floats inflated, like bladders, with air, carrying with
them a sharp-pronged trident, fastened to a tough and very long rope.
They then approach and pierce the fish, which, immediately upon being
struck, darts out to sea with prodigious celerity, the Indian,
meanwhile, rapidly uncoiling his rope till the strength of the thunny is
spent through loss of blood, after which he draws back his prey, and,
raising it upon his float, returns to the shore rejoicing.[1453]
-----
Footnote 1453:
Ovalle, i. 17. Baumgarten, i. 4. Aristot. Hist. Anim. iv. p, 109.
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 20, seq.
-----
It is probable that, in this manner of fishing, the Indian draws near
the thunny while asleep,[1454] as we find to have been often the
practice among the Greek fishermen, who when they went forth at night,
at which time the thunny is exceedingly drowsy, were attracted towards
their prey by the white belly of the fish sleeping quietly on the
surface of the water. Many other kinds of fish also appear to have been
taken while asleep, notwithstanding that in general their slumbers are
brief. Thus flat-fish, nestling in the sand or mud, were discovered
through the transparent water, and pierced with the trident. So likewise
the sea-dog, the gilthead, and the mullet, were taken by day, with the
trident, while asleep; otherwise it has been thought they could scarcely
be touched by this instrument. The skate and other fishes of the
Selachian tribe were sometimes found to sleep so soundly, that they
could be taken by the hand.[1455]
-----
Footnote 1454:
According to Oppian, however, most species of fish, like the Olympian
Zeus, refuse to submit to the chains of sleep, and keep their
intellectual faculties perpetually on the stretch. But the Scaros, he
allows, is occasionally caught napping. Halieut. ii. 656.
Footnote 1455:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. iv. 10. p. 109.
-----
On the shores of the Chelidonian isles there was a celebrated anthias
fishery which was carried on in a peculiar manner. The fishermen putting
to sea in their bark, and clad in garments of a sober colour, sailed
backward and forward daily in the same place and at the same hour. By
this means, the anthias, which in great numbers frequents that part of
the sea, became accustomed to the sight of the vessel, and by degrees
approached it, one of the shoal generally preceding the rest. To him the
fishermen threw out something of which the anthias is fond, and
continued to do so until the fish became so tame that they would eat
food from his hand. A hook was then introduced into the bait, and as the
fish crowded around the bark in prodigious multitudes, they were caught
rapidly, and handed to a second person, who threw them into the bottom
of the boat upon heaps of soft rags, lest by their bounding and
struggling they should make a noise and frighten away their companions.
The shadow of the boat assisted in concealing this manœuvre from the
fish. It was considered necessary to spare the anthias which first
approached, since, being probably a kind of leader, his disappearance
instantly put all the rest to flight.[1456] Sometimes it is said
multitudes of these fish were collected round the boat by the striking
of two bits of wood together in the manner of castanets.[1457] The
Milesians[1458] possessed close to their city a very lucrative fishery
chiefly of the sea-dog,[1459] which there attained a larger size than
anywhere else. This is supposed to have been owing to an extensive
lagoon of fresh water, having however with the sea a channel of
communication through which these fish found their way in, where they
grew tame and fat, and were taken in great numbers.[1460]
-----
Footnote 1456:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 85.
Footnote 1457:
Oppian. Halieut. iii. 205, sqq.
Footnote 1458:
Athen. vii. 86, seq.
Footnote 1459:
Remarkable for its voracity. Lucian. Dial. Mort. viii. The sea-dog was
classed by Linnæus among the amphibia; but Spallanzani and M.
Vicq-d-Azyr, restored it, upon more accurate observation, to its place
among the fishes. Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 379.
Footnote 1460:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 361.
-----
At a point on the gulf of Smyrna, a productive fishery is at present
carried on in a very ingenious manner. The shore being low and level, a
continuous sweep of reed-fences is stretched along, so as to enclose a
considerable space of water, and furnished at intervals with gates,
which are raised occasionally for letting in the shoals. The avenues are
then closed, and the fish taken with facility. On the coast of China a
similar fishery is found, lines of mats being substituted for
reeds.[1461]
-----
Footnote 1461:
Chandler, i. 85. Cf. 151. Osbeck, Voyage to China, i. 199.
-----
There was a small, but apparently productive, fishery in the canton of
Marathon.[1462] The right of fishing in the salt stream of the Rheitæ
was secured by law to the priests of Eleusis,[1463] whose city was
famous for the scombros as well as for soles or turbots.[1464]
-----
Footnote 1462:
Paus. i. 32. 7. Meurs. Rel. Att. c. viii. p. 32. Chandler. ii. 184.
Footnote 1463:
Paus. i. 38. 1. ii. 24. 6. Chandler, ii. 210.
Footnote 1464:
Athen. vii. 24.
-----