Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

Apples are an universal fruit. Mnesitheus the Athe- nian, in his treatise on Eatables, calls them Delphian apples; but Diphilus says, that

those apples which are green and which are not yet ripe, are full of bad juice, and are bad for the stomach; but are apt to rise to the surface, and also to engender bile; and they give rise to diseases, and produce sensations of shuddering. But of ripe apples, he says, that the sweet ones are those with most juice, and that they are the most easily secreted, because they have no great inflammatory qualities. But that sharp apples have a more disagreeable and mischievous juice, and are more astringent. And that those which have less sweetness are still pleasant to the palate when eaten; and, on account of their having some strengthening qualities, are better for the stomach. And moreover, that of this fruit those which are in season in the summer have a juice inferior to the others; but those which are ripe in the autumn have the better juice. And that those which are called ὀρβίκλατα, have a good deal of sweetness combined with their invigorating properties, and are very good for the stomach. But those which are called σητάνια, and also those which are called πλατώνια, are full of good juice, and are easily secreted, but are not good for the stomach. But those which are called Mordianian are very excellent, being produced in Apollonia, which is called Mordius; and they are like those which are called ὀρβίκλατα, But the Cydonian apples, or quinces, some of which are called στρούθια, are, as a general rule, better for the stomach than any other kind of apple, most especially when they are full ripe.

But Glaucides asserts that the best of all fruits which grow upon trees are the Cydonian apples, and those which are called phaulia, and strouthia. And Philotimus, in his third

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book, and also in his tenth book of his treatise on Food, says— "Of apples, those which come in season in spring are by far more indigestible than pears, whether they are both unripe, or whether they are both ripe. But they have the properties of juicy fruits; the sharp apples, and those which are not yet ripe, resembling those pears which have a harsher taste and which are in a certain degree sour; and they diffuse over the body a juice which is said to be corrosive. And, as a general rule, apples are not so digestible as pears; on which account those who are less addicted to eating them are less troubled with indigestions, and those who are most fond of them are the most liable to such inconvenience. But, as I said before, a corrosive juice is engendered by them, as is stated by Praxagoras, and as is shown by the fact that those things which are not digested will have the juice thicker. (And I have already said that, as a general rule, apples are less digestible than pears.) And the harsh and sour apples are in the habit of engendering thicker juices.

But of those apples which are in season in the winter, the Cydonian give out the more bitter juices, and those called strouthian give out juice more sparingly; though what they do give out is not so harsh tasted, and is more digestible." But Nicander of Thyatira says, that the Cydonian apples themselves are called στρούθεια; but he says this out of ignorance. For Glaucides asserts plainly enough that the best of all fruits which grow on trees are the Cydonian apples and those called phaulian and strouthian.

Stesichorus also mentions the Cydonian apples, in his Helena, speaking thus:

  1. Before the king's most honour'd throne,
  2. I threw Cydonian apples down;
  3. And leaves of myrrh, and crowns of roses,
  4. And violets in purple posies.
Alcman mentions them too. And Cantharus does so like- wise, in the Tereus; where he says—
  1. Likening her bosom to Cydonian apples.
And Philemon, in his Clown, calls Cydonian apples strouthia. And Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his Histories, says that apples by their sweet fragrance can blunt the efficacy of even deadly poisons. At all events, he says, that some Phariacan poison having been cast into a chest still smelling from
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having had some of these apples stored away in it, lost all its effect, and preserved none of its former power, but was mixed and given to some people who were plotted against, but that they escaped all harm. And that afterwards it was ascertained, by an investigation and examination of the man who had sold the poison; and that he felt sure that it arose from the fact of the apples having been put away in the chest.

Hermon, in his Cretan Dialects, says that Cydonian apples are called κοδύμαλα. But Polemo, in the fifth book of the treatise against Timæus, says that some people affirm that the κοδύμαλον is a kind of flower. But Alcman asserts that it is the same as the στρούθιον apple, when he says,

less than a κοδύμαλον.
And Apollodorus and Sosibius understand the Cydonian apple by κοδύμαλον. But that the Cydonian apple differs from the στρούθιον, Theophrastus has asserted clearly enough in the second book of his History. Moreover, there are excellent apples grown at Sidus, (that is, a village in the Corinthian territory,) as Euphorion or Archytas says, in the poem called
The Crane:
  1. Like a beautiful apple which is grown on the clayey banks
  2. Of the little Sidus, refulgent with purple colour.
And Nicander mentions them in his Transformed, in this manner:—
  1. And immediately, from the gardens of Sidoeis or Pleistus
  2. He cut green apples, and imitated the appearance of Cadmus.
And that Sidus is a village of the Corinthian territory, Rhianus assures us, in the first book of the Heraclea; and Apollodorus the Athenian confirms it, in the fifth book On the Catalogue of the Ships. But Antigonus the Carystian says, in his Antipater—

  1. More dear to me was he than downy apples
  2. Of purple hue, in lofty Corinth growing.

And Teleclides mentions the Phaulian apples, in his Amphictyons, in these terms:—

  1. O men, in some things neat, but yet in others
  2. More fallen than phaulian apples!
And Theopompus also speaks of them, in the Theseus. But Androtion, in his Book of the Farm, says, that some apple-trees are called φαύλιαι, and others στρούθιαι;
for,
says he,
the apple does not fall from the footstalk of the strouthian apple-tree.
And that others are called spring-trees, or Lace-
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dæmonian, or Siduntian, or woolly. But I, my friends, admire above all others the apples which are sold at Rome, which are called the Mattianian; and which are said to be brought from a certain village situated on the Alps near Aquileia. And the apples which grow at Gangra, a city of Paphlagonia, are not much inferior to them. But that Bacchus was the discoverer of the apple we have the testimony of Theocritus the Syracusan, who writes thus:—
  1. Guarding the apples in the bosom of Bacchus;
  2. And having on his head a poplar garland,
  3. The silv'ry tree, sacred to Theban Hercules.
But Neoptolemus the Parian testifies himself, in his Dionysias, that the apple was discovered by Bacchus, as were all other fruits which grow on trees.

There is a fruit called epimelis; which is, says Pamphilus, a description of pear. But Timachides asserts, in the fourth book of The Banquet, that it is an apple, the same as that called the apple of the Hesperides. And Pamphilus asserts that at Lacedæmon they are set before the gods; and that they have a sweet smell, but are not very good to eat; and are called the apples of the Hesperides. At all events, Aristocrates, in the fourth book of his Affairs of Lacedæmon, says,

And besides that apples, and those which are called Hesperides.

Walnuts are next to be mentioned.—Theophrastus, in the second book of his History of Plants, speaking of those whose fruit is not visible, says this among other things:—

Since the beginning of all the greater fruits is visible, as of the almond, the nut, the date, and other fruits of the same kind; except the walnut, in which that is not at all the case; and with the exception also of the pomegranate and of the female pear.
But Diphilus of Siphnos, in his book about What should be eaten by People when Sick and by People in Health," says—
The fruit called the Persian apple or peach, and by some the Persian cuckoo-apple, is moderately juicy, but is more nutritious than apples.
But Philotimus, in the second and third books of his treatise on Food, says that the Persian nut or walnut is more oily and like millet, and that being a looser fruit, when it is pressed it yields a great quantity of oil. But Aristophanes the grammarian, in his Lacedæmonian Dialects, says that the Lacedæmonians call the cuckoo-apples Persian bitter apples; and that some people call them ἄδρυα.

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The Citron was next mentioned.—And with respect to this fruit there was a great discussion among the Deipnosophists, as to whether there is any mention made of it by the ancients. For Myrtilus said, proposing, as it were, to send us who made the inquiry to feed among the wild goats, that Hegesander the Delphian, in his Memorials, does make mention of this fruit; but that he did not recollect the exact words: and Plutarch, contradicting him, said,—But I indeed contend, that Hegesander never mentions the citron at all, for I read through the whole of his Memorials for the express purpose of seeing whether he did or no; since some other of our companions also asserted positively that he did, trusting to some scholastic commentaries of a man whom he considered respectable enough. So that it is time for you, my good friend Myrtilus, to seek for some other witness. But Aemilianus said, that Jobas the king of the Mauritanians, a man of the most extensive learning, in his History of Libya, does mention the citron, saying that it is called among the Libyans the Hesperian apple, and that they were citrons which Hercules carried into Greece, and which obtained the name of golden apples on account of their colour and appearance. But the fruit which is called the apples of the Hesperides, is said to have been produced by Terra, on the occasion of the marriage of Jupiter and Juno, according to the statement of Asclepiades, in the sixtieth book of his History of the Affairs of Egypt. On this, Democritus, looking towards the speakers, said,—If, indeed, Jobas asserts any of these things, let him take pleasure in his Libyan books, and in the nonsense of Hanno. But I repeat the assertion, that the name citron does not occur in the old authors. But the fruit which is described by Theophrastus the Eresian, in his Histories of Plants, is described in such a manner as to compel me to believe that he intended the citron by what he said.

For that philosopher says, in the fourth book of his History of Plants—

The Median territory, and like wise the Persian, has many other productions, and also the Perian or Median apple. Now, that tree has a leaf very like and almost exactly the same as that of the bay-tree, the arbutus, or the nut: and it has thorns like the prickly-pear, or blackthorn, smooth but very sharp and strong. And the fruit is not good to eat, but is very fragrant, and so too are
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the leaves of the tree. And if any one puts one of the fruits among his clothes, it keeps them from the moth. And it is useful when any one has taken poison injurious to life; for when given in wine it produces a strong effect on the bowels, and draws out the poison. It is serviceable also in the way of making the breath sweet; for if any one boils the inner part of the fruit in broth or in anything else, and then presses it in his mouth and swallows it, it makes his breath smell sweet. And the seed is taken out and is sown in spring in square beds, being very carefully cultivated; and then it is watered every fourth or fifth day; and when it has grown up it is again transplanted the next spring into a place where the ground is soft, and well-watered, and not very thin. And it bears fruit every year; some of which are fit to be gathered, and some are in flower, and some are becoming ripe at the same time. And those of the flowers which have a stem like a distaff projecting out of the centre are sure to produce good seed; but those which have no such stem are unproductive.
And in the first book of the same treatise he says the same thing about the distaff, and about the flowers which are productive. And I am induced by these things, my mates, and by what Theophrastus says of the colour and smell and leaves of the fruit, to believe that the fruit meant by him is the citron; and let no one of you marvel if he says that it is not good to eat; since until the time of our grandfathers no one was used to eat it, but they put it away as a treasure in their chests along with their clothes.

But that this plant really did come from that upper country into Greece, one may find asserted in the works of the Comic poets, who, speaking of its size, appear to point out the citron plainly enough. Antiphanes says, in his Bœotian—

  1. A. 'Tis silly to say a word about roast meat
  2. To men who're ne'er content. But now, my girl,
  3. Just take these apples.
  4. B. They are fine to look at.
  5. A. Indeed they are, and good too, O ye gods!
  6. For this seed has arrived not long ago
  7. In Athens, coming from the mighty king.
  8. B. I thought it came from the Hesperides;
  9. For there they say the golden apples grow.
  10. A. They have but three.
  11. B. That which is very beautiful
  12. Is rare in every place, and so is dear.
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And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, quotes these selfsame Iambics of Antiphanes, and then proceeds in his own words:—
  1. B. I thought, I swear by Dian, that they came
  2. From out the garden of the Hesperides,
  3. For they, they say, do keep the golden apples.
  4. A. They have but three.
  5. B. That which is very beautiful
  6. Is rare in every place, and so is dear.
  7. A. I'll sell you these now for a single penny,
  8. And even that I'll put down in the bill.
  9. B. Are they not pomegranates? how fine they are!
  10. A. Fine! yes—they say that Venus did herself
  11. Plant this the parent tree in Cyprus, where it stands.
  12. Take it, my dear Berbeias.
  13. B. Thank you kindly.
  14. A. Take also these three; they are all I had.
And if any one is able to contradict this, and to show that these descriptions are not meant to apply to the fruit which we now call the citron, let him bring forward some clearer testimonies.

However, Phænias the Eresian compels us to entertain the idea that, perhaps, the name may be meant for cedron, as from the cedar-tree. For, in the fifth book of his treatise on Plants, he says that the cedar has thorns around its leaves; and that the same is the case with the citron is visible to everybody. But that the citron when eaten before any kind of food, whether dry or moist, is an antidote to all injurious effects, I am quite certain, having had that fact fully proved to me by my fellow-citizen, who was entrusted with the government of Egypt. He had condemned some men to be given to wild beasts, as having been convicted of being malefactors, and such men he said were only fit to be given to beasts. And as they were going into the theatre appropriated to the punishment of robbers, a woman who was selling fruit by the wayside gave them out of pity some of the citron which she herself was eating, and they took it and ate it, and after a little while, being exposed to some enormous and savage beasts, and bitten by asps, they suffered no injury. At which the governor was mightily astonished. And at last, examining the soldier who had charge of them, whether they had eaten or drunk anything, when he learnt of him that some citron had been given to them without any evil design; on the next day he ordered some citron to be given o some of them again, and others to have none given to them And

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those who eat the citron, though they were bitten, received no injury, but the others died immediately on being bitten. And this result being proved by repeated experiments, it was found that citron was an antidote to all sorts of pernicious poison. But if any one boils a whole citron with its seed in Attic honey, it is dissolved in the honey, and he who takes two or three mouthfuls of it early in the morning will never experience any evil effects from poison.

Now if any one disbelieves this, let him learn from Theopompus the Chian, a man of the strictest truth and who expended a great deal of money on the most accurate investigation of matters to be spoken of in his History. For he says, in the thirty-eighth book of his History, while giving an account of Clearchus, the tyrant of the Heracleans who were in Pontus, that he seized violently upon a number of people and gave a great many of them hemlock to drink.—

And as,
says he,
they all knew that he was in the habit of compelling them to pledge him in this liquor, they never left their homes without first eating rue: for people who have eaten this beforehand take no harm from drinking aconite,— a poison which, they say, has its name from growing in a place called Aconæ, which is not far from Heraclea.
When Democritus had said this they all marvelled at the efficacy of citron, and most of them ate it, as if they had had nothing to eat or drink before. But Pamphilus, in his Dialects, says that the Romans call it not κίτριον, but κίτρον.

And after the viands which have been mentioned there were then brought unto us separately some large dishes of oysters, and other shell-fish, nearly all of which have been thought by Epicharmus worthy of being celebrated in his play of the Marriage of Hebe, in these words:—

  1. Come, now, bring all kinds of shell-fish;
  2. Lepades, aspedi, crabyzi, strabeli, cecibali,
  3. Tethunachia, balani, porphyryæ, and oysters with closed shells,
  4. Which are very difficult to open, but very easy to eat;
  5. And mussels, and anaritæ, and ceryces, and sciphydria,
  6. Which are very sweet to eat, but very prickly to touch;
  7. And also the oblong solens. And bring too the black
  8. Cockle, which keeps the cockle-hunter on the stretch.
  9. Then too there are other cockles, and sand-eels,
  10. And periwinkles, unproductive fish,
  11. Which men entitle banishers of men,
  12. But which we gods call white and beautiful.

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And in the Muses it is written—

  1. There is the cockle, which we call the tells;
  2. Believe me, that is most delicious meat.
Perhaps he means that fish which is called the tellina, and which the Romans call the mitlus,—a fish which Aristophanes the grammarian names in his treatise on the Broken Scytale, and says that the lepas is a fish like that which is called the tellina. But Callias of Mitylene, in his discussion of the Limpet in Alcæus, says that there is an ode in Alcæus of which the beginning is—
  1. O child of the rock, and of the hoary sea;
and at the end of it there is the line—
  1. Of all limpets the sea-limpet most relaxes the mind.
But Aristophanes writes the line with the word tortoise instead of limpet. And he says that Dicearchus made a great blunder when he interpreted the line of limpets; and that the children when they get them in their mouths sing and play with them, just as idle boys among us do with the fish which we call tellina. And so, too, Sopater, the compiler of Comicalities, says in his drama which is entitled the Eubulotheombrotus:—
  1. But stop, for suddenly a certain sound
  2. Of the melodious tellina strikes my ears.
And in another place Epicharmus, in his Pyrrha and Prometheus, says—
  1. Just look now at this tellina, and behold
  2. This periwinkle and this splendid limpet.
And in Sophron cockles are called melœnides.
  1. For now melænides will come to us,
  2. Sent from a narrow harbour.
And in the play which is called
The Clown and the Fisherman,
they are called the cherambe. And Archilochus also mentions the cherambe: and Ibycus mentions the periwinkle. And the periwinkle is called both ἀναρίτης and ἀνάρτας. And the shell being something like that of a cockle, it sticks to the rocks, just as limpets do. But Herodas, in his Coadjutrixes, says—
  1. Sticking to the rocks as a periwinkle.
And Aeschylus, in his Persæ, says—
  1. Who has plunder'd the islands producing the periwinkle?
  2. And Homer makes mention of the oyster.

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Diodes the Carystian, in his treatise on the Whole- somes, says that the best of all shell-fish, as aperient and diuretic food, are mussels, oysters, scallops, and cockles. And Archippus says, in his poem called

Fishes,
  1. With limpets and sea-urchins and escharæ,
  2. And with periwinkles and cockles.
And Diocles says that the strongest of all shell-fish are cockles, purple-fish, and ceryces. But concerning ceryces Archippus says this—
  1. The ceryx, ocean's nursling, child of purple.
But Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that ceryces, purple-fish, strabeli, and cockles, are all very nearly alike. And Sophocles makes mention of the shellfish called strabeli in his Camici, in these words:—
  1. Come now, my son, and look if we may find
  2. Some of the nice strabelus, ocean's child.
And again Speusippus enumerates separately in regular order the cockle, the periwinkle, the mussel, the pinna, the solens; and in another place he speaks of oysters and limpets. And Araros says, in his Campylion—
  1. These now are most undoubted delicacies,
  2. Cockles and solens; and the crooked locusts
  3. Spring forth in haste like dolphins.
And Sophron says, in his Mimi—
  1. A. What are these long cockles, O my friend,
  2. Which you do think so much of?
  3. B. Solens, to be sure.
  4. This too is the sweet-flesh'd cockle, dainty food,
  5. The dish much loved by widows.
And Cratinus also speaks of the pinna in his Archilochi—
  1. She indeed like pinnas and sea oysters.
And Philyllius, or Eunicus, or Aristophanes, in the Cities, says—
  1. A little polypus, or a small cuttle-fish,
  2. A crab, a crawfish, oysters, cockles,
  3. Limpets and solens, mussels and pinnas;
  4. Periwinkles too, from Mitylene take;
  5. Let us have two sprats, and mullet, ling,
  6. And conger-eel, and perch, and black fish.
But Agiastos, and Dercylus, in his Argolici, call the strabeli ἀστράβηλοι; speaking of them as suitable to play upon like a trumpet.

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But you may find cockles spoken of both in the masculine and feminine gender. Aristophanes says, in his Babylonians—

  1. They all gaped on each other, and were like
  2. To cockles (κόγχαι) roasted on the coals.
And Teleclides, in his Hesiodi, says,
Open a cocle (κόγχη);
and Sophron, in his Actresses, says—
  1. And then the cockles (κόγχαι) as at one comma d
  2. All yawned on us, and each display'd its flesh.
But Aeschylus uses the word κόγχος in the masculine gender, in his Glaucus Pontius, and says—
  1. Cockles (κόγχοι) muscles, oysters.
And Aristonymus, in his Theseus, says—
  1. There was a cockle (κόγχος) and other fish too drawn from the sea
  2. At the same time, and by the same net.
And Phrynichus uses the word in the same way in his Satyrs. But Icesius, the Erasistratean, says that some cockles are rough, and some royal; and that the rough have a disagreeable juice, and afford but little nourishment, and are easily digested; and that people who are hunting for the purple-fish use them as bait: but of the smooth ones those are best which are the largest, in exact proportion to their size. And Hegesander, in his Memorials, says that the rough cockles are called by the Macedonians coryci, but by the Athenians crii.

Now Icesius says that limpets are more digestible than those shell-fish which have been already mentioned; but that oysters are not so nutritious as limpets, and are filling, but nevertheless are more digestible.

But of mussels, the Ephesian ones, and those which resemble them, are, as to their juicy qualities, superior to the periwinkles, but inferior to the cockles; but they have more effect as diuretics than as aperients. But some of them are like squills, with a very disagreeable juice, and with put any flavour; but there is a kind which is smaller than they are, and which are rough outside, which are more diuretic, and full of a more pleasant juice than the kind which resembles squills: but they are less nutritious, by reason of their sizes, and also because their nature is inferior. But the necks of

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the ceryces are exceedingly good for the stomach, and are not so nutritious as mussels and cockles and periwinkles; but for people who have a weak stomach, and who do not easily expel the food into the cavity of the bowels, they are useful, inasmuch as they do not easily turn on the stomach. For those things which are confessedly digestible are, on the contrary, very unwholesome for people of such a constitution, being very easily inclined to turn on the stomach, because they are tender and easily dissolved. On which account the bags containing their entrails are not suited to vigorous stomachs, but they are very good for those whose bowels are in a weak state. But what are more nutritious than the others, and far nicer in taste, are the entrails of the purple-fish; though they certainly are somewhat like the squill. For indeed all shellfish are of the same character; but the purple-fish and the solen have this peculiar characteristic, that if they are boiled they yield a thick juice. But the necks of the purple-fish, when boiled by themselves, are exceedingly good for bringing the stomach into a good condition. And Posidippus speaks of them in his Locrians in these terms:—

  1. It is time now to eat eels and crabs,
  2. Cockles, and fresh sea-urchins, and fish sounds,
  3. And pinnas, and the necks of fish, and mussels.

Balani, if they are of the larger sort, are easily digested, and are good for the stomach. But otaria (and they are produced in the island called Pharos, which is close to Alexandria) are more nutritious than any of the before-mentioned fish, but they are not easily secreted. But Antigonus the Carystian, in his book upon Language, says that this kind of oyster is called by the Aeolians the Ear of Venus. Pholades are very nutritious, but they have a disagreeable smell; but common oysters are very like all these sorts of shell-fish, and are more nutritious. There are also some kinds which are called wild oysters; and they are very nutritious, but they have not a good smell, and moreover they have a very indifferent flavour. But Aristotle, in his treatise about Animals, says, "Oysters are of all the following kinds: there are the pinna, the mussel, the oyster, the cteis, the solen, the cockle, the limpet, the small oyster, the balanus. And of migratory fish there are the purple-fish, the sweet purple-fish, the sea-urchin, the strobelus. Now the cteis has a rough shell, marked in streaks;

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but the oyster has no streaks, and a smooth shell. The pinna has a smooth mouth; but the large oyster has a vide mouth, and is bivalve, and has a smooth shell. But the limpet is univalve, and has a smooth shell; and the mussel has a united shell. The solen and balanus are univalve, and have a smooth shell; and the cockle is a mixture of both kinds. Epænetus also says, in his Cookery Book, that the interior part of the pinna is called mecon. But in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, Aristotle says,
The purple-fish are born about spring, and the ceryces at the end of the winter. And altogether,
says he,
all shell-fish appear in the spring to have what are called eggs; and in the autumn, too, except those kinds of sea-urchins which are good to eat. And these fish indeed have eggs in the greatest number at those seasons, but they are never without them; and they have them in the greatest numbers at the time of full moon, and in the warm weather, with the exception of those fish which are found in the Euripus of the Pyrrhæans; for they are best in the winter, and they are small, but full of eggs. And nearly all the cockle tribe appear to breed in like manner at about the same season.

And continuing the subject, the philosopher says again,

The purple-fish therefore being all collected together in the spring at the same place, make what is called melicera. And that is something like honeycomb, but not indeed so elegant, but it is as if a great number of the husks of white vetches were fastened together; and there is no open passage in any of them: nor are the purple-fish born of this melicera, but they, and nearly all other shell-fish, are produced Of mud and putrefaction; and this is, as it were, a kind of purification both for them and for the purple-fish, for they too make this melicera. And when they begin to make it, they emit a sort of sticky mass, from which those things grow which resemble husks. All these are eventually separated, and they drop blood on the ground. And in the place where hey do so, there are myriads of little purple-fish born, adhering to one another in the ground, and the old purple-fish are caught while carrying them. And if they are caught before they have produced their young, they sometimes produce them in the very pots in which they are caught when collected together in them, and the young look like a bunch of grapes.
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And there are many different kinds of purple-fish; and some of them are of large size, like those which are found near Segeum and near Lesteum; and some are small, like those which are found in the Euripus, and around Caria. And those in the gulfs are large and rough, and most of them are of a black colour, but some of them are rather red; and some of the large ones even weigh a mina. But those which are found on the shore and around the coasts are of no great size, but are of a red colour: and again, those in the waters exposed to the north wind are black, and those in the waters exposed to the south wind are generally red.

But Apollodorus the Athenian, in his Commentaries on Sophron, having first quoted the saying,

More greedy than a purple-fish,
says that it is a proverb, and that some say that it applies to the dye of purple; for that whatever that dye touches it attracts to itself, and that it imbues everything which is placed near it with the brilliancy of its colour: but others say that it applies to the animal.
And they are caught,
says Aristotle, "in the spring; but they are not caught during the dog-days, for then they do not feed, but conceal themselves and bury themselves in holes; and they have a mark like a flower on them between the belly and the throat. The fish called the ceryx has a covering of nearly the same sort as all the other animals of the snail kind from its earliest birth; and they feed by putting out what we call their shell from under this covering. And the purple-fish has a tongue of the size of a finger or larger, by which it feeds; and it pierces even shell-fish, and can pierce its own shell. But the purple-fish is very long-lived; and so is the ceryx: they live about six years, and their growth is known by the rings in their shell. But cockles, and cheme-cockles, and solens, and periwinkles, are born in sandy places.

But the pinnæ spring from the bottom of the sea. And they have with them a fish called the pinnophylax, or guard of the pinna, which some call καρίδιος, and others καρκίνιος; and if they lose him, they are soon destroyed. But Pamphilus the Alexandrian, in his treatise on Names, says that he is born at the same time with the pinna. But Chrysippus the Solensian, in the fifth book of his treatise on the Beautiful and Pleasure, says,

The pinna and the guard of the pinna assist one another, not being able to remain apart.
v.1.p.149
Now the pinna is a kind of oyster, but the guard of the pinna is a small crab: and the pinna having opened its shell, remains quiet, watching the fish who are coming towards it; but the guard of the pinna, standing by when anything comes near, bites the pinna, so as to give it a sort of sign; and the pinna being bitten, closes its shell, and in this manner the two share together what is caught inside the pinna's shell. But some say that the guard is born at the same time as the pinna, and that they originate in one seed.
And again, Aristotle says,
All the fish of the oyster kind are generated in the mud,—oysters in slimy mud, cockles in sandy mud, and so on; but the small oyster and the balanus, and other fish which come near the surface, such as limpets and periwinkles, are born in the fissures of the rocks. And some fish which have not shells are born in the same way as those which have shells,—as the sea-nettle, the sponge, and others, —in the crevices of the rocks.

Now, of the sea-nettle there are two kinds, For some live in hollows, and are never separated from the rocks; but some live on smooth and level ground, and do separate themselves from what they are attached to, and move their quarters. But Eupolis, in the Autolycus, calls the κνίδη, or sea-nettle, ἀκαλήφη. And Aristophanes, in his Phœnissæ, says—

  1. Know that pot-herbs first were given,
  2. And then the rough sea-nettles (ἀκάληφαι);
and in his Wasps he uses the same word. And Pherecrates, in his Deserters, says—
  1. I'd rather wear a crown of sea-nettles (ἀκάληφαι).
And Diphilus the Siphnian, a physician, says,
But the sea-nettle (ἀκαλήφη) is good for the bowels, diuretic, and a strengthener of the stomach, but it makes those who collect them itch violently, unless they anoint their hands beforehand. And it is really injurious to those who hunt for it; by whom it has been called ακαλήφη, by a slight alteration of its original name. And perhaps that is the reason why the plant the nettle has had the same name given to it. For it was named by euphemism on the principle of antiphrasis,— for it is not gentle and ἁπαλὴ τῇ ἀφῇ, tender to the touch, but very rough and disagreeable.
Philippides also mentions
v.1.p.150
the sea-nettle (calling it ἀκαλήφη) in his Amphiaraus, speaking as follows:—
  1. He put before me oysters and sea-nettles and limpets.
And it is jested upon in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes—-
  1. But, you most valiant of the oyster race,
  2. Offspring of that rough dam, the sea-nettle;
for the τῆθος and the ὄστρεον are the same. And the word τῆθος is here confused in a comic manner with τήθη, a grandmother, and with μητὴρ, a mother.