Deipnosophistae

The PhagesiaFishEpicuresCooksSharksFishGlaucusEels The TunnyfishFishPike-FishThe Polypus

AND when the Banquet was now finished, the cynics, thinking that the festival of the Phagesia was being celebrated, were delighted above all things, and Cynulcus said, —While we are supping, O Ulpian, since it is on words that you are feasting us, I propose to you this question,—In what author do you find any mention of the festivals called Phagesia, and Phagesiposia? And he, hesitating, and bidding the slaves desist from carrying the dishes round, though it was now evening, said,—I do not recollect, you very wise man, so that you may tell us yourself, in order that you may sup more abundantly and more pleasantly. And he rejoined, —If you will promise to thank me when I have told you, I will tell you. And as he agreed to thank him, he continued; —Clearchus, the pupil of Aristotle, but a Solensian by birth, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures, (for I recollect his very expressions, because I took a great fancy to them,) speaks as follows:—

Phagesia—but some call the festival Phagesiposia—but this festival has ceased, as also has that of the Rhapsodists, which they celebrated about the time of the Dionysiac festival, in which every one as they passed by sang a hymn to the god by way of doing him honour.

This is what Clearchus wrote. And if you doubt it, my friend, I, who have got the book, will not mind lending it to you. And you may learn a good deal from it, and get a great many questions to ask us out of it. For he relates that Calias the Athenian composed a Grammatical Tragedy, from which Euripides in his Medea, and Sophocles in his Œdipus derived their choruses and the arrangement of their plot.

And when all the guests marvelled at the literary accomplishments of Cynulcus, Plutarch said,—In like manner there used to be celebrated in my own Alexandria a Flagon-bearing festival, which is mentioned by Eratosthenes in his treatise entitled Arsinoe. And he speaks as follows:—

When Ptolemy was instituting a festival and all kinds of

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sacrifices, and especially those which relate to Bacchus, Arsinoe asked the man who bore the branches, what day he was celebrating now, and what festival it was. And when he replied, 'It is called the Lagynophoria; and the guests lie down on beds and so eat all that they have brought with them, and every one drinks out of his own flagon which he has brought from home;' and when he had departed, she, looking towards us, said, 'It seems a very dirty kind of party; for it is quite evident that it must be an assembly of a mixed multitude, all putting down stale food and such as is altogether unseasonable and unbecoming.' But if the kind of feast had pleased her, then the queen would not have objected to preparing the very same things herself, as is done at the festival called Choes. For there every one feasts separately, and the inviter only supplies the materials for the feast.

But one of the Grammarians who were present, looking on the preparation of the feast, said,—In the next place, how shall we ever be able to eat so large a supper? Perhaps we are to go on

during the night,

as that witty writer Aristophanes says in his Aeolosicon, where however his expression is

during the whole night.

And, indeed, Homer uses the preposition διὰ in the same way, for he says—

1. He lay within the cave stretch'd o'er the sheep (διὰ μήλων);

where διὰ μήλων means

over all the sheep,

indicating the size of the giant. And Daphnus the physician answered him; Meals taken late at night, my friend, are more advantageous for everybody. For the influence of the moon is well adapted to promote the digestion of food, since the moon has putrefying properties; and digestion depends upon putrefaction. Accordingly victims slain at night are more digestible; and wood which is cut down by moonlight decays more rapidly. And also the greater proportion of fruits ripen by moonlight.

But since there were great many sorts of fish, and those very different both as to size and beauty, which had been served up and which were still being constantly served up for the guests, Myrtilus said,—Although all the different dishes which we eat, besides the regular meal, are properly called by one generic name, ὄψον, still it is very deservedly that on account of its delicious taste fish has prevailed over everything else, and has appropriated the name to itself;

because men are so exceedingly enamoured of this kind of food. Accordingly we speak of men as ὀψοφάγοι, not meaning people who eat beef (such as Hercules was, who ate beef and green figs mixed together); nor do we mean by such a term a man who is fond of figs; as was Plato the philosopher, according to the account given of him by Phanocritus in his treatise on the Glorious: and he tells us in the same book that Arcesilas was fond of grapes: but we mean by the term only those people who haunt the fish-market. And Philip of Macedon was fond of apples, and so was his son Alexander, as Dorotheus tells us in the sixth book of his history of the Life and Actions of Alexander. But Chares of Mitylene relates that Alexander, having found the finest apples which he had ever seen in the country around Babylon, filled boats with them, and had a battle of apples from the vessels, so as to present a most beautiful spectacle. And I am not ignorant that, properly speaking, whatever is prepared for being eaten by the agency of fire is called ὄψον. For indeed the word is either identical with ἐψὸν, or else perhaps it is derived from ὀπτάω, to roast.

Since then there are a great many different kinds of fish which we eat at different seasons, my most admirable Timocrates, (for, as Sophocles says—

1. A chorus too of voiceless fish rush'd on,
2. Making a noise with their quick moving tails.

The tails not fawning on their mistress, but beating against the dish. And as Achæus says in his Fates—

1. There was a mighty mass of the sea-born herd—
2. A spectacle which fill'd the wat'ry waste,
3. Breaking the silence with their rapid tails;)

I will now recapitulate to you what the Deipnosophists said about each: for each of them brought to the discussion of the subject some contribution of quotation from books; though I will not mention the names of all who took part in the conversation, they were so numerous.

Amphis says in his Leucas—

1. Whoever buys some ὄψον for his supper,
2. And, when he might get real genuine fish,
3. Contents himself with radishes, is mad.

And that you may find it easy to remember what was said, I will arrange the names in alphabetical order For as Sophocles, in his Ajax Mastigophorus, called fish ἐλλοὶ, saying—

1. He gave him to the ἐλλοὶ ἰχθύες to eat;

one of the company asked whether any one before Sophocles ever used this word; to whom Zoilus replied,—But I, who am not a person ὀψοφαγίστατος [exceedingly fond of fish], (for that is a word which Xenophon has used in his Memorabilia, where he writes,

He is ὀψοφαγίστατος and the greatest fool possible,

) am well aware that the man who wrote the poem Titanomachia [or the Battle of the Giants], whether he be Eumelus the Corinthian, or Arctinus, or whatever else his name may chance to have been, in the second book of his poem speaks thus—

1. In it did swim the gold-faced ἐλλοὶ ἰχθύες,
2. And sported in the sea's ambrosial depths.

And Sophocles was very fond of the Epic Cycle, so that he composed even entire plays in which he has followed the stories told in their fables.

Presently when the tunnies called Amiæ were put on the table, some one said,—Aristotle speaks of this fish, and says that they have gills out of sight, and that they have very sharp teeth, and that they belong to the gregarious and carnivorous class of fishes: and that they have a gall of equal extent with their whole intestines, and a spleen of corresponding proportions. It is said also that when they are hooked, they leap up towards the fisherman, and bite through the line and so escape. And Archippus mentions them in his play entitled the Fishes, where he says—

1. But when you were eating the fat amiæ.

And Epicharmus in his Sirens says—

1. A. In the morning early, at the break of day,
2. We roasted plump anchovies,
3. Cutlets of well-fed pork, and polypi;
4. And then we drank sweet wine.
5. B. Alack! alack! my silly wife detain'd me,
6. Chattering near the monument.
7. A. I'm sorry for you. Then, too, there were mullets
8. And large plump amiæ—
9. A noble pair i' the middle of the table,
10. And eke a pair of pigeons,
11. A scorpion and a lobster.

And Aristotle, inquiring into the etymology of the name, says that they were called amiæ, παρὰ τὸ ἅμα ἰέναι ταῖς παρα- πλησίαις (from their going in shoals with their companions of the same kind). But Icesius, in his treatise on the Materials of Food, says that they are full of a wholesome juice, and tender, but only of moderate excellency as far as their digestible properties go, and not very nutritious.

But Archestratus,—that writer so curious in all that relates to cookery,—in his Gastrology (for that is the title of the book as it is given by Lycophron, in his treatise on Comedy, just as the work of Cleostratus of Tenedos is called Astrology), speaks thus of the amia:—

1. But towards the end of autumn, when the Pleiad
2. Has hidden its light, then dress the amiæ
3. Whatever way you please. Why need I teach you?
4. For then you cannot spoil it, if you wish.
5. But if you should desire, Moschus my friend,
6. To know by what recipe you best may dress it;
7. Take the green leaves of fig-trees, and some marjoram,
8. But not too much; no cheese or other nonsense,
9. But merely wrap it up in the fig leaves,
10. And tie it round with a small piece of string,
11. Then bury it beneath the glowing ashes,
12. Judging by instinct of the time it takes
13. To be completely done without being burnt.
14. And if you wish to have the best o' their kind,
15. Take care to get them from Byzantium;
16. Or if they come from any sea near that
17. They'll not be bad: but if you go down lower,
18. And pass the straits into the Aegæan sea,
19. They're quite a different thing, in flavour worse
20. As well as size, and merit far less praise.

But this Archestratus was so devoted to luxury, that he travelled over every country and every sea, with great diligence, wishing, as it seems to me, to seek out very carefully whatever related to his stomach; and, as men do who write Itineraries and Books of Voyages, so he wishes to relate everything with the greatest accuracy, and to tell where every kind of eatable is to be got in the greatest perfection; for this is what he professes himself, in the preface to his admirable Book of Precepts, which he addresses to his companions, Moschus and Cleander; enjoining them, as the Pythian priestess says, to seek

1. A horse from Thessaly, a wife from Sparta,
2. And men who drink at Arethusa's fount.

And Chrysippus, a man who was a genuine philosopher, and a thorough man at all points, says that he was the teacher of Epicurus, and of all those who follow his rules, in everything which belongs to pleasure, which is the ruin of everything. For Epicurus says, without any concealment, but speaking with a loud voice, as it were,

For I am not able to distinguish what is good if you once take away the pleasure arising from sweet flavours, and if you also take away amatory pleasures.

For this wise man thinks that even the life of the intemperate man is an unimpeachable one, if he enjoys an immunity from fear, and also mirth. On which account also the comic poets, running down the Epicureans, attack them as mere servants and ministers of pleasure and intemperance.

Plato, in his Joint Deceiver, representing a father as indignant with his son's tutor, makes him say—

1. A. You've taken this my son, and ruin'd him,
2. You scoundrel; you've persuaded him to choose
3. A mode of life quite foreign to his nature
4. And disposition; taught by your example,
5. He drinks i' the morning, which he ne'er was used to do.
6. B. Do you blame me, master, that your son
7. Has learnt to live?
8. A. But do you call that living?
9. B. Wise men do call it so. And Epicurus
10. Tells us that pleasure is the only good.
11. A. Indeed; I never heard that rule before.
12. Does pleasure come then from no other source?
13. Is not a virtuous life a pleasure now?
14. Will you not grant me that?—Tell me, I pray you,
15. Did you e'er see a grave philosopher
16. Drunk, or devoted to these joys you speak of?
17. B. Yes; all of them.-All those who raise their brows,
18. Who walk about the streets for wise men seeking,
19. As if they had escaped their eyes and hid:
20. Still when a turbot once is set before them,
21. Know how to help themselves the daintiest bits.
22. They seek the head and most substantial parts,
23. As if they were an argument dissecting,
24. So that men marvel at their nicety.

And in his play entitled the Homicide, the same Plato, laughing at one of those gentle philosophers, says—

1. The man who has a chance to pay his court
2. To a fair woman, and at eve to drink
3. Two bottles full of richest Lesbian wine,
4. Must be a wise man; these are real goods.
5. These things I speak of are what Epicurus
6. Tells us are real joys; and if the world
7. All lived the happy life I live myself,
8. There would not be one wicked man on earth.

And Hegesippus, in his Philetairi, says—

1. That wisest Epicurus, when a man
2. Once ask'd him what was the most perfect good
3. Which men should constantly be seeking for,
4. Said pleasure is that good. Wisest and best
5. Of mortal men, full truly didst thou speak:
6. For there is nothing better than a dinner,
7. And every good consists in every pleasure.

But the Epicureans are not the only men who are addicted to pleasure; but those philosophers are so too who belong to what are called the Cyrenaic and the Mnesistratean sects; for these men delight to live luxuriously, as Posidonius tells us. And Speusippus did not much differ from them, though he was a pupil and a relation of Plato's. At all events, Dionysius the tyrant, in his letters to him, enumerating all the instances of his devotion to pleasure, and also of his covetousness, and reproaching him with having levied contributions on numbers of people, attacks him also on account of his love for Lasthenea, the Arcadian courtesan. And, at the end of all, he says this—

Whom do you charge with covetousness, when you yourself omit no opportunity of amassing base gain? For what is there that you have been ashamed to do? Are you not now attempting to collect contributions, after having paid yourself for Hermeas all that he owed?

And about Epicurus, Timon, in the third book of his Silli, speaks as follows:—

1. Seeking at all times to indulge his stomach,
2. Than which there's no more greedy thing on earth.

For, on account of his stomach, and of the rest of his sensual pleasures, the man was always flattering Idomeneus and Metrodorus. And Metrodorus himself, not at all disguising this admirable principle of his, says, somewhere or other,

The fact is, Timocrates, my natural philosopher, that every investigation which is guided by principles of nature, fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.

For Epicurus was the tutor of all these men; who said, shouting it out, as I may say,

The fountain and root of every good is the pleasure of the stomach: and all wise rules, and all superfluous rules, are measured alike by this standard.

And in his treatise on the Chief Good, he speaks nearly as follows:

For I am not able to understand what is good, if I leave out of consideration the pleasures which arise from delicately-flavoured food, and if I

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also leave out the pleasures which arise from amatory indulgences; and if I also omit those which arise from music, and those, too, which are derived from the contemplation of beauty and the gratification of the eyesight.

And, proceeding a little further, he says, "All that is beautiful is naturally to be honoured; and so is virtue, and everything of that sort, if it assists in producing or causing pleasure. But if it does not contribute to that end, then it may be disregarded.

And before Epicurus, Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his Antigone, had uttered these sentiments respecting pleasure—

1. For when a man contemns and ceases thus
2. To seek for pleasure, I do not esteem
3. That such an one doth live; I only deem him
4. A breathing corpse:—he may, indeed, perhaps
5. Have store of wealth within his joyless house;
6. He may keep up a kingly pomp and state;
7. But if these things be not with joy attended,
8. They are mere smoke and shadow, and contribute,
9. No, not one jot, to make life enviable.

And Philetærus says, in his Huntress,—

1. For what, I pray you, should a mortal do,
2. But seek for all appliances and means.
3. To make his life from day to day pass happily?
4. This should be all our object and our aim,
5. Reflecting on the chance of human life.
6. And never let us think about to-morrow,
7. Whether it will arrive at all or not.
8. It is a foolish trouble to lay up
9. Money which may become stale and useless.

And the same poet says, in his Œnopion,—

1. But every man who lives but sparingly,
2. Having sufficient means, I call and think
3. Of all men the most truly miserable.
4. For when you're dead, you cannot then eat eels;
5. No wedding feasts are cook'd in Pluto's realms.

And Apollodorus the Carystian, in his Stirrer-up of Law-suits, says—

1. O men, whoe'er you are, why do you now
2. Scorn pleasant living, and turn all your thoughts
3. To do each other mischief in fierce war?
4. In God's name, tell me, does some odious fate,
5. Rude and unlettered, destitute of all
6. That can be knowledge call'd, or education,
7. Ignorant of what is bad and what is good,
8. Guide all your destiny?—a fate which settles
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9. All your affairs at random by mere chance?
10. I think it must be so: for else, what deity
11. Who bears a Grecian heart, would ever choose
12. To see Greeks by each other thus despoil'd,
13. And falling dead in ghastly heaps of corpses,
14. When she might see them sportive, gay, and jesting,
15. Drinking full cups, and singing to the flute?
16. Tell me, my friend, I pray, and put to shame
17. This most unpolish'd clownish fortune.

And, presently afterwards, he says—

1. Does not a life like this deserve the name
2. Of godlike?—Think how far more pleasant all
3. Affairs would be in all the towns of Greece
4. Than now they are, if we were but to change
5. Our fashions, and our habits, and our principles
6. One little bit. Why should we not proclaim,
7. "Whoe'er is more than thirty years of age,
8. Let him come forth and drink. Let all the cavalry
9. Go to a feast at Corinth, for ten days,
10. Crown'd with chaplets, and perfumed most sweetly.
11. Let all who radishes have got to sell
12. Come in the morning here from Megara.
13. Bid all th' allies now hasten to the bath,
14. And mix in cups the rich Eubœan wine? "—
15. Sure this is real luxury and life,
16. But we are slaves to a most clownish fortune.

The poets say that that ancient hero, Tantalus, was also greatly devoted to pleasure. At all events, the author of the book called The Return of the Atridæ says

that he, when he had arrived among the gods, and had begun to live among them, had leave given him by Jupiter to ask for whatever he wished; and that he, being a man quite insatiable in the gratification of his appetites, asked that it might be granted to him to indulge them to their full extent, and to live in the same manner as the gods. And that Jupiter was indignant at this request, and, according to his promise, fulfilled his prayer; but still, that he might not enjoy what he had before him, but be everlastingly tormented, he hung a stone over his head, on account of which he should be unable to get at any of the things which he had before him.

Some of the Stoics also were addicted to this kind of pleasure At all events, Eratosthenes the Cyrenean, who was a pupil of Ariston the Chian, who was one of the sect of the Stoics, in his treatise which is entitled Ariston, represents his master as subsequently being much addicted to luxury, speaking a follows:

And before now, I have at times discovered him breaking down, as it were, the partition wall between pleasure and virtue, and appearing on the side of pleasure.

And Apollophanes (and he was an acquaintance of Ariston), in his Ariston (for he also wrote a book with that title), shows the way in which his master was addicted to pleasure. And why need we mention Dionysius of Heraclea? who openly discarded his covering of virtue, and put on a robe embroidered with flowers, and assumed the name of The altered Man; and, although he was an old man, he apostatized from the doctrines of the Stoics, and passed over to the school of Epicurus; and, in consequence, Timon said of him, not without some point and felicity—

1. When it is time to set (δύνειν), he now begins
2. To sit at table (ἡδύνεσθαι). But there is a time
3. To love, a time to wed, a time to cease.

Apollodorus the Athenian, in the third book of his treatise on a Modest and Prudent Man, which is addressed to those whom he calls Male Buffoons, having first used the expression,

more libidinous than the very Inventors themselves (ἄλφησται),

says, there are some fish called ἄλφησται, being all of a tawny colour, though they have a purple hue in some parts. And they say that they are usually caught in couples, and that one is always found following at the tail of the other; and therefore, from the fact of one following close on the tail of the other, some of the ancients call men who are intemperate and libidinous by the same name. But Aristotle, in his work on Animals, says that this fish, which he calls alphesticus, has but a single spine, and is of a tawny colour. And Numenius of Heraclea mentions it, in his treatise on Fishing, speaking as follows:—

1. The fish that lives in seaweed, the alphestes,
2. The scorpion also with its rosy meat.

And Epicharmus, in his Marriage of Hebe, says—

1. Mussels, alphetæ, and the girl-like fish,
2. The dainty coracinus.

Mithæcus also mentions it in his Culinary Art.

There is another fish called Anthias, or Callicthys; and this also is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his Marriage or Hebe:—

1. The sword-fish and the chromius too,
2. Who, as Ananius tells us,
3. Is far the best of all in spring;
4. But th' anthias in the winter.

And Ananius speaks as follows:—

1. For spring the chromius is best;
2. The anthias in winter:
3. But of all fish the daintiest
4. Is a young shrimp in fig leaves.
5. In autumn there's a dainty dish,
6. The meat of the she-goat;
7. And when they pick and press the grapes,
8. Young pigs are dainty eating.
9. Then, too, young puppies you may eat,
10. And hares, and also foxes.
11. But when the grasshopper does sing,
12. Just at the height of summer,
13. Is the best time for mutton fat;
14. Then, too, the sea-born tunny
15. Will many a savoury dish afford,
16. And beats his compeers all
17. With garlic seasoning richly drest;
18. Then, too, the fatted ox
19. Is sweet to eat both late at night,
20. And at a noon-day feast.

And I have quoted this piece of Ananius at length, thinking that it might give some suggestions to the present race of Epicures.

But Aristotle, in his treatise on the Habits of Animals, says—

They say that wherever the anthias is found, there there is no beast or fish of prey ever seen; and accordingly the collectors of sponge use him as a guide, and dive boldly wherever he is found, and call him the sacred fish.

And Dorion also mentions him in his book on Fishes, saying,

Some call the anthias by the name of callicthys, and also by that of callionymus and ellops.

And Icesius, in his treatise on Materials, says that he is called wolf by some authors, and by others callionymus: and that he is a fish of very solid meat, and full of delicious juice, and easy of digestion; but not very good for the stomach. But Aristotle says that the callicthys is a fish with serrated teeth, carnivorous and gregarious. And Epicharmus, in his Muses, enumerates the ellops among the fishes, but passes over the the callicthys or callionymus in silence as being identical with it; and of the ellops he speaks thus,—

1. And then the high-priced ellops.

And the same poet says, subsequently—

1. He was the fish of which great Jupiter
2. Once bought a pair for money, and enjoin'd
3. His slaves to give him one, and Juno t'other.

But Dorion, in his treatise on Fish, says that the anthias and the callicthys are different fish; and also that the callionymus is not the same as the ellops.

But what is the fish which is called the Sacred fish? The author of the Telchinian History, whether it was Epimenides the Cretan, or Teleclides, or any one else, says,—

What are called the sacred fish, are dolphins and pompili.

But the pompilus is a very amorous animal; as being sprung himself, at the same time with Venus, from heavenly blood. And Nicander, in the second book of his Œtaica, says—

1. The pompilus, who points the safest road
2. To anxious mariners who burn with love,
3. And without speaking warns them against danger.

And Alexander the Aetolian, in his Crica, if indeed it is a genuine poem, says—

1. Still did the pompilus direct the helm,
2. Swimming behind, and guide it down the gulf,
3. The minister of the gods, the sacred pompilus.

And Pancrates the Arcadian, in his work entitled

Works of the Sea,

having first said—

1. The pompilus, whom all sea-faring men
2. Do call the sacred fish;

proceeds to say,

that the pompilus is not held in great esteem by Neptune only, but also by those gods who occupy Samothrace. At all events that some old fisherman once threatened to punish this fish, when the golden age still flourished among men; and his name was Epopeus, and he belonged to the island of Icarus. He therefore was one day fishing with his son, and they had no luck in their fishing, and caught nothing but pompili, and so did not abstain from eating them, but he and his son ate every one of them, and not long afterwards they suffered for their impiety; for a whale attacked the ship, and ate up Epopeus in the sight of his son.

And Pancrates states, "that the pompilus is an enemy to the dolphin; and even the dolphin does not escape with impunity when he has eaten a pompilus, for he becomes unable to exert himself and tremulous when he has eaten him; and so he gets cast on shore, and is eaten himself by the gulls and cormorants; and he is sometimes, when in this state, caught by men who give themselves up to hunting such large fish. And Timachides the Rhodian mentions the pom- pili in the ninth book of his Banquet, and says—

1. The tench o' the sea, and then the pompili,
2. The holiest of fish.

And Erinna, or whoever it was who composed the poet which is attributed to her, says—

1. O pompilus, thou fish who dost bestow
2. A prosp'rous voyage on the hardy sailor,
3. Conduct (πομπεύσαις) my dear companion safely home.

And Apollonius the Rhodian or Naucratian, in his History of the foundation of Naucratis, says, "Pompilus was originally a man; and he was changed into a fish, on account of some love affair of Apollo's. For the river Imbrasus flows by the city of the Samians,—

1. And join'd to him, the fairest of the nymphs,
2. The young and noble Chesias, bore a daughter,
3. The lovely maid Ocyrhoe—her whose beauty
4. Was the kind Hours' heaven-descended gift.

They say then that Apollo fell in love with her and endeavored to ravish her; and that she having crossed over to Miletus at the time of some festival of Diana, when the endeavour was about to be made to carry her off, being afraid of such an attempt being made, and being on her guard, entreated Pompilus, who was a seafaring man and a friend of her father, to conduct her safe back again to her own country, saying this,—

1. O Pompilus, to whose wise breast are known
2. The rapid depths of the hoarse roaring sea,
3. Show that your mind doth recollect my sire,
4. Who was your friend, and save his daughter now.

And they say that he led her down to the shore, and conducted her safely across the sea: and that Apollo appeared and carried off the maiden, and sunk the ship with stones, and metamorphosed Pompilus into a fish of the same name, and that he made

1. The Pompilus an everlasting slave
2. Of ships that swiftly pass along the sea.