Deipnosophistae
Athenaeus of Naucratis
Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.
There is also the sciæna. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
But Numenius calls this fish the Sciadeus, saying—
- Aeoliæ were there, and plotes too,
- And cynoglossi and sciathides.
There is also the syagris; and this fish is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, and also in his Earth and Sea.
- Use then this bait, and you perhaps may catch,
- If such your wish, a mighty synodon,
- Or the quick leaping hippurus, or the phagrus
- Proud with his high-raised crest, or in a shoal
- Of trusty comrades, the fresh sciadeus.
Then there is the sphuræna, or hammer-fish; and these fish, Icesius says, are more nutritious than the congers, but very unpleasant and unpalatable to the taste; and, as to their juicy qualities, they are tolerable. But Dorion says—
The sphuræna, which they call the cestra.And Epicharmus, in his Muses, having named the cestra, does not after that mention the sphuræna, thinking them the same fish—
And Sophron, in his Male Farces, says—
- The chalcides, the sea-dog, and the cestra,
- And perch with variegated back.
The cestræ, which cat the botis.But Speusippus, in the second book of his treatise on Things which resemble one another, puts down the cestra, the needle-fish, and the sea-lizard as very nearly like one another. And the Attic writers in general call the sphuræna the cestra, and do not so often use the name of sphuræna. Accordingly, Strattis, in his Macedonians, when some Athenian asks the question, as being ignorant of the name, and saying,
The other replies,
- But what is the sphuræna?
And Antiphanes, in his Euthydicus, says—
- You, O Athenians, do call it the cestra.
And Nicophon, in his Pandora, says—
- A. The sphuræna is a common fish.
- B. You should say cestra, in strict Attic Greek.
- The cestra and the pike.
- The cestra and the variegated perch.
The cuttle-fish is often mentioned. Aristophanes says, in his Danaides,—
And the penultima of this word has the acute accent like that in the word αἰτία, as Philemon tells us; like these words, παιδία, ταινία, οἰκία. But Aristotle says that the cuttle-fish has eight feet, of which the two lowest are the largest; and that it has two proboscises, and between them it has its eyes and mouth placed. And it has two teeth, one above and one below; and what is called a shell on its back. And the ink is contained in what is called the mutis, which answers to the liver; and it lies near its mouth, being something like a bladder. Its belly is wide and smooth, like the paunch of an ox. And the little cuttle-fish feed on small fish, extending their proboscises like fishermen's lines, and catching their prey with them. It is said, too, that when a storm comes, they seize hold of the rocks with their proboscises, as if they were anchors, and so fix themselves firm. And when the cuttle-fish is pursued, it discharges its ink, and is hidden in it, making it appear as if it were flying forwards. And it is also said, that when the female is struck by a harpoon, the male fish come to its assistance, dragging it on; but if the male fish be taken, the female fish flees away. But the cuttlefish does not live more than a year, as neither does the polypus. But, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, Aristotle says—
- And when I have the cuttle-fish and polypus.
The cuttle-fish and the squids swim together, being united together at the mouths, and also touching one another with their feelers, so as to join in that manner; and they also join proboscis to proboscis. But of all the molluscous fish, the cuttle-fish is the earliest in the spring to bring forth its young; and they do not bring forth at every season. But they go with young fifteen days; and when they lay their eggs, the male follows the female, and breathes upon the eggs and makes them firm. And they move in pairs; and the male is more variegated than the female, and blacker on the back.
And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
- The polypus, likewise the cuttle-fish,
- And the swift-moving squid.
And we must also take notice of this, with reference to Speu-
the ink of the cuttle-fish.But the word ὑπόσφαγμα is, properly speaking, equivalent to ὑπότριμμα, a dish compounded of various ingredients, as Erasistratus tells us, in his Cookery Book. And he writes as follows—
But ὑπόσφαγμα is made with roast meat and blood stirred up and compounded with cheese, and salt, and cummin, and assafœtida; but the meat may also be boiled.And Glaucus the Locrian, in his Cookery Book, writes as follows—
ʽὑπόσφαγμα is blood boiled, and assafœtida, and boiled lees of wine; or sometimes honey and vinegar, and milk and cheese, and sweet-smelling herbs are shred and mixed together in it.And Archestratus, that man of the most varied learning, says—
And Aristophanes, in his Thesmophoriazuss, says—
- The cuttle-fish of Abdera and the middle of Maronea.
And in the Danaides he says—
- Has any fish or cuttle-fish been bought?
Theopompus, in his Aphrodite, says—
- Osmulia, mœnidea, and cuttle-fish.
But concerning the boiling of the small polypus, Alexis, in his Wicked Woman, introduces a cook speaking as follows—
- . . . But eat, my friend,
- This cuttle-fish, and this small polypus.
- Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought
- For one small drachma. And when I 've cut off
- Their feelers and their fins, I then shall boil them.
- And cutting up the main part of their meat
- Into small dice, and rubbing in some salt,
- After the guests already are sat down,
- I then shall put them in the frying-pan,
- And serve up hot towards the end of supper.
The next fish is the mullet; and τρίγλη is like κίχλη, ending in η. For the feminine nouns which end in λα require another λ before the λα;; as σκύλλα, τελέσιλλα. But all the words which have γ united to λ end in η; as τρώγλη, αἴγλη, ζεύγλη. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that the mullet brings forth three times in the year; and states that the fishermen have adopted this opinion from the spawn being seen three times a-year in certain localities. And perhaps it is from the word τρὶς (three times) that it has its name; just as the fish called ἀμία has its name
But Sophron, in his Male Farces, speaks of a fish which he calls τρίγολη, saying,
- He brought the hump-back'd mullet too,
- And the ungrateful bæones.
And in another place he says—
- The trigola which cuts the navel string.
And in his play called Pædica he says—
- The trigola which loves calm weather.
But, in his Affairs of Women, he says—
- . . . trigola . . . .
But Diocles, in his books addressed to Plistarchus, says that the mullet is a fish of hard flesh; and Speusippus says that the sea-cuckoo, the sea-swallow, and the mullet are all alike; on which account Tryphon says, in his treatise on Animals, that some people think that the trigola is the sea-cuckoo, from its likeness to it, and from the dryness of its hindquarters; which Sophron indicates, when he says—
- The bearded mullet (τρίγλη).
- The fat mullets and the hinder parts of the trigola.
But Plato, in his Phaon, says—
But the mullet is attributed to Hecate as her fish, on account of the common derivation of their names; for Hecate is called τριοδῖτις, as presiding over places where three roads met, and τρίγληνος, as having three eyes; and also they provide her a banquet on the thirtieth day of each month (ταῖς τριακάσι).
- The mullet is not wholesome for the nerves,
- For it is sacred to the chaste Diana,
- And all excitement hates.
bearded,because those which have beards are better flavoured than those which have not. And there is a place at Athens called τρίγλα, and there there is a shrine to ʽἑκάτη τριγανθίνη; on which account Chariclides, in his Chain, says—
- O mistress Hecate, Trioditis,
- With three forms (τρίμορφε) and three faces (τριπρόσωπε),
- Propitiated with mullets (τρίγλαις).
And if the mullet, while alive, be choked with wine, and then a man drinks the wine, he will no longer be able to indulge in the pleasures of Venus, as Terpsicles tells us in his book on Amatory Pleasures. And if a woman drinks this same wine, she never becomes pregnant. Birds, too, are affected in the same manner. But Archestratus, that very learned man, after he has praised the Milesian mullet which are found at Teichius, proceeds to say—
- If you at Thasos are, then buy a mullet;
- You ne'er will get a worse, unless indeed
- You go to Tius; but even those are fair:
- But at Erythræ they are caught in shore
- And are most excellent.
But Nausicrates, the comic poet, praises the mullets from Aexona, in his Captains of Ships, saying—
- And do not eat a red-flesh'd mullet hard,
- Brought from Aexona; nor of any turtle,
- Or mighty melanurus from those seas.
- Those yellow fleshed fish, which the high wave
- That beats Aexona brings towards the shore,
- The best of fish; with which we venerate
- The light-bestowing daughter of great Jove;
- When sailors offer gifts of feasts to heaven.
- B. You mean the mullet.
There is, too, the tænia; and this is mentioned by Epicharmus:—
And Mithæcus, in his Cookery Book, says—
- The most belovèd tænia, which are thin,
- But highly flavour'd, and need little fire.
Having taken out the entrails of the tænia, and cut off its head, and washed it, and having cut it into slices, sprinkle over it cheese and oil.But this fish is found in the greatest number and in the finest condition off Canopus, which is near Alexandria; and also off Seleucia, which is close to Antioch. But when Eupolis, in his Prospaltii, says—
he then means by the word ταινία, not the fish, but those pieces of woven work and girdles with which women bind their waists.
- His mother was a Thracian woman,
- A seller of tænie;
Another fish is the trachurus, or rough-tail. Diodes mentions this as a dry fish. And Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, says—
- The aconia and the wagtail too,
- And the . . . trachurus.
There is also the taulopias. Concerning this fish, A chestratus says—
- When it is summer buy a good-sized head
- Of fresh taulopias, just when Phaethon
- Is driving his last course. Dress it with speed.
- Serve it up hot, and some good seasoning with it,
- Then take its entrails, spit and roast them too.
There is also the τευθὶς, [which is a kind of cuttle-fish, different from the σηπίο.] Aristotle says that this also is a
There is also the teuthus; and the only difference between the teuthus and the teuthis is in size: and the teuthus is of the size of three spans; and it is of a reddish colour. And of its two teeth, the lower one is the smallest, and the upper one is the largest; and both of them are black, and like a hawk's beak. And when it is slit open, it has a paunch like a pig's paunch. Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that both the teuthus and the sepia are short-lived fish. And Archestratus, who travelled and sailed over the whole earth, for the sake of gratifying his greedy appetite, says,—
And Alexis, in his Eretrian, introduces a cook speaking in this way—
- The best of all the teuthides are those
- Caught near Pierian Dium, near the stream
- Of Baphyras. And in Ambracia's port
- You will see mighty shoals of this same fish.
There is also a sort of cake or confectionary called τευθὶς, which is mentioned by Iatrocles, in his book on the Art of making Bread, as Pamphilus quotes.
- Teuthides, thornbacks, rays, and fat
- Anchovies, lumps of meat, and paunches too.
- I took the teuthides, cut off their fins,
- Adding a little fat; I then did sprinkle
- Some thin shred herbs o'er all for seasoning.
Then there is the sea-pig. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
And he also calls them not only ὑαινίδες, but also ὕες in the following lines—
- There were hyænides, buglossi,
- There was the harp-fish too in numbers.
- There were too chalcides and sea-pigs (ὕες),
- And sea-hawks, and the fat sea-dog.
And Dionysius, in his Cookery Book, also speaks of the hyæna or plaice. And Archestratus, that prince of cooks and epicures says,—
- The cantharis, hyæna, and the mullet.
And perhaps it is the sea-pig which Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, calls the psamathis, or sand-fish, when he says—
- At Aenus or at Potus buy the sea-pig,
- Which some men call the digger of the sand,
- Then boil his head, adding no seasoning,
- But only water, stirring it full often,
- And add some pounded hyssop; if you want
- Anything more, pour on some pungent vinegar;
- Steep it in that, then eat it with such haste
- As if your object were to choke yourself.
- But roast its neck, and all its other parts.
- Sometimes the fierce carcharias, and sometimes
- The psamathis, delighting in the surf.
Then there is the hyces. Callimachus, in his epigrams, calls the hyces the sacred fish, in these lines—
And Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, says—
- And he does deem the sacred hyces god.
And Timæus, in the thirteenth book of his Histories, speaking of the town in Sicily, (I mean the town of Hyccara,) says that this town derived its name from the circumstance of the first man who arrived at the place finding abundance of the fish called hyces, and those too in a breeding condition; and they, taking this for an omen, called the place Hyccarus. But Zenodotus says that the Cyrenæans call the hyces the erythrinus. But Hermippus of Smyrna, in his essay on Hipponax, when he speaks of the hyces, means the iulis; and says that it is very hard to catch; on which account Philetas says—
- The spar, or the gregarious hyces;
- Or phagrus, ever wand'ring near the rocks.
- Nor was the hyces the last fish who fled.
There is also the phagrus. Speusippus, in the second book of his Things resembling one another, says that the phagrus, the erythrinus, and the hepatus, are very much
And Metagenes also mentions them in his Thurio-Persæ. And Ameipsias says in his Connus—
- Aones, and the phagri, and the pikes.
And Icesius says—
- A food for orphi and selachia,
- And for the greedy phagri.
The phagrus, and the chromis, and the anthias, and the acharnanes, and the orphi, and the synodons, and the synagrides, are all very nearly akin to one another; for they are sweet and astringent, and nutritious, but in the same proportion they are hard of digestion. And those of them which are fleshy, and which are caught nearer land, are the most nutritious, and those also which have the least fat.But Archestratus says—
Strattis also mentions the phagrus in his Lemnomeda—
- 'Tis when the dogstar rises in the sky
- That you should eat the phagrus; specially
- If you in Delos or Eretria are,
- Or other favouring harbours of the sea;
- But, if you can, purchase his head alone,
- And tail; and bring no more within your doors.
And in his Philoctetes he says—
- Eating a number of large phagri.
There is also a kind of stone called the phagrus. For the whetstone is called so among the Cretans, as Simmias testifies.
- Then, going to the market, they will buy
- A great abundance of large phagri, and
- Slices of tender round Copaic eel.
There is also the channa. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, says—
- The channa, with large mouth, and then the cod,
- With deep and spacious belly.
Dorion also mentions him in his treatise on Fishes. But Aristotle, in his book on Animals, calls the channa a fish
- The channas and the eel, and pitinus,
- Who only roams by night.
There is the chromis; this also is spoken of by Epicharmus, who says—
And Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, says—
- There is the sword-fish and the chromias,
- Who, in the spring, as Ananius says,
- Is of all fish the daintiest.
And Archestratus says—
- The hyces, or the beautiful callicthys,
- Or else the chromis, and sometimes the orphus.
- You may catch noble chromises in Pella,
- And they are fat when it is midsummer;
- And in Ambracia likewise they abound.
There is also the chrysophrys. Archippus says in his Fishes—
And Icesius says that these fish are the best of all fish in sweetness, and also in delicacy of flavour in other respects. They are also most nutritious. They produce their young, as Aristotle says, in a manner similar to the cestres, wherever there are flowing rivers. Epicharmus mentions them in his Muses; and Dorion also, in his book on Fishes. And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, says—
- The chrysophrys, sacred to Cytherean Venus.
But the wise Archestratus, in his Suggestions, says—
- I spent a hundred drachmas upon fish,
- And only got eight pike, and twelve chrysophryes.
- Pass not the chrysophrys from Ephesus
- Unheeded by; which the Ephesians call
- The ioniscus. Take him eagerly,
- The produce of the venerable Selinus;
- Wash him, and roast him whole, and serve him up,
- Though he be ten full cubits long.
There is a fish, too, called the chalcis; and others which resemble it, namely, the thrissa, the trichis, and the eritimus. Icesius says, the fish called the chalcis, ad the sea-goat, and the needle-fish, and the thrissa, are like chaff destitute alike of fat and of juice. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
But Dorion calls it the chalcidice. And Numenius says,—
- The chalcides, the sea-pig too,
- The sea-hawk, and the fat sea-dog.
- But you would thus harpoon, in the same way,
- That chalcis and the little tiny sprat.
But the thrissa is mentioned by Aristotle in his book on Animals and Fishes, in these words—
The following are stationary fish: the thrissa, the encrasicholus, the membras anchovy, the coracinus, the erythrinus, and the trichis.And Eupolis mentions the trichis in his Flatterers;—
And Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—
- He was a stingy man, who once in his life
- Before the war did buy some trichides;
- But in the Samian war, a ha'p'orth of meat.
But Dorion, in his treatise on Fishes, speaks also of the river Thrissa; and calls the trichis trichias. Nicochares, in his Lemnian Women, says—
- If trichides were to be a penny a hundred.
(But there was a kind of tunny which they used to call premnas. Plato, in his Europa, has these lines—
- The trichias, and the premas tunny too,
- Placed in enormous quantities for supper.
And Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, calls it a trichias also, but in the book which is entitled ζωϊκὸν, he calls it trichis. And it is said that this fish is delighted with dancing and singing, and that when it hears music it leaps up out of the sea.
- He once, when fishing, saw one of such size
- A man could scarcely carry it, in a shoal
- Of premnades, and then he let it go,
- Because it was a boax.)
Dorion also mentions the eritimi, saying, that they are much the same as the chalcides, and that they are very nice in forced meat. And Epænetus, in his book upon Fishes, says—
The sea-weasel; the smaris, which some call the dog'sbed; the chalcides, which they also call sardini; the eritimi, the sea-hawk, and the sea-swallow.And Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, calls them sardines. And Callimachus, in his Names used by different Nations, writes thus—
The encrasicholus, the eritimus, are names used by the Chalcedonians; the trichidia, the chalcis, the ictar, theAnd in another part, giving a list of the names of fishes, he says—v.2.p.519atherina.
The ozæna, the osmylnion, are names used by the Thurians; the iopes, the eritimi, are names used by the Athenians.And Nicander mentions the iopes in his Bœotian,—
And Aristophanes, in his Ships of Burden, says—
- But as when round a shoal of newly born
- lopes, phagri, or fierce scopes roam,
- Or the large orphus.
For they used to steep in pickle all the fish which were proper to be dressed on the coals. And they called pickle, Thasian brine; as also the same poet says in his Wasps,—
- O wretched fish, the first of trichides
- To be immersed in pickle.
- For before that it twice drank in the brine.
There is also a fish called the thratta. And since we have brought the discussion to this point, and have also discussed the thrissa; let us now examine what the thratta are, which are mentioned by Archippus, in his play called the Fishes. For in that play, in the treaty between the Fishes and the Athenians, he introduces the following sentences—
Now in these lines, perhaps a man may ask what sort of thrattæ among the fishes are meant here, which the fish agree to give up to the men. And since I have got some private things written out on this subject, I will now recite to you that portion of them which bears most on the subject.
- And it is agreed on further
- That both the high contracting parties
- Shall restore all they now do hold
- Of each other's property.
- We shall give up thus the Thrattæ,
- And the flute-playing Atherina,
- And Thyrsus's daughter Sepia,
- And the mullet, and Euclides,
- Who was archon t'other day,
- And the coraciontes too,
- Who from Anagyrus come;
- And the offspring of the tench,
- Who swims round sacred Salamis;
- And the frog who's seated near,
- From the marshes of Oreum.
The thratta, then, is really a genuine sea-fish; and Mnesimachus, in his Horse-breeder, mentions it; and Mnesimachus is a poet of the middle comedy. And he speaks thus—
But Dorotheus of Ascalon, in the hundred and eighth book of his collection of Words, writes this name θέττα, either because he fell in with a copy of the drama with an incorrect text, or because, as he himself was unused to the word, he altered it so before he published it. But the name thetta does absolutely never occur in any Attic writer whatever. But that they were used to call a sea-fish by the name of thratta, that Anaxandrides establishes, speaking in this manner in his play called Lycurgus,—
- The mullet, and the lebias, and the sparus,
- The bright æolias, and the thratta too,
- The sea-swallow, the cars, and the cuttlefish.
And Antiphanes says in his Etrurian—
- And sporting with the little coracini,
- With little perches, and the little thrattæ.
- A. He is of the Halæa borough. This is all
- That now is left me, to be abused unjustly.
- B. Why so?
- A. He will (you'll see) bestow on me
- Some thratta. or sea-sparrow, or some lamprey,
- Or some enormous other marine evil.
We come now to the sea-sparrow. Diodes enumerates this fish among the drier kinds. But Speusippus, in the second book of his Things resembling one another, says that the sea-sparrow and the buglossus and the tænia are very much alike. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, writes—
And in the same manner the greater number of the small fish have young once a year; such as those which are called chyti, which are surrounded by a net, namely, the chromis, the sea-sparrow, the tunny, the pelamys, the cestreus, the chalcis, and others of the same sort.And in his treatise on Animals he says—
These fish are cartilaginous, the sea-cow, the turtle, the torpedo, the ray, the sea-frog, the buglossa, the sea-sparrow, the mussel.But Dorion, in his book on Fishes, says—
But of flat fish there is the buglossus, the sea-sparrow, the escharus, which they also call the coris.The buglossi are mentioned also by Epicharmus in his Hebe's Wedding—
And Lynceus the Samian, in his Letters, says that the finest sea-sparrows are procured near Eleusis, in Attica. And Archestratus says—
- Hyænides, buglossi, and a citharus.
But the Romans call the sea-sparrow rhombus; which, how- ever, is a Greek name. And Nausicrates, in his Sea Captains, having first mentioned the sea-grayling, proceeds in this manner—
- Remember then to get a fine sea-sparrow,
- And a rough-skinn'd buglossus, near the port
- Of sacred Chalcis
- A. Those yellow-fleshed fish, which the high wave
- That beats Aexona brings towards the shore,
- The best of fish; with which we venerate
- The light-bestowing daughter of great Jove;
- When sailors offer gifts of feasts to heaven.
- B. You mean the muller, with its milky colour,
- Which the Sicilian multitude calls rhombus.
So now, having given you, O Timocrates, the whole of the conversation which took place among the Deipnosophists on the subject of fish, we may conclude our book here; and unless you want some other kind of food, we will end by setting before you what Eubulus has said in his Lacedæmonians, or Leda;—
Being sated, therefore, with all this, let us now take due care of our bodies, in order to be able to feed comfortably on what is coming next.
- Besides all this you now shall have
- A slice of tunny, a slice of pork,
- Some paunch of kid, some liver of goat,
- Some ram, the entrails of an ox,
- A lamb's head, and a kid's intestines;
- The belly of a hare, a pudding,
- Some tripe, black-puddings, and a sausage.