Deipnosophistae

POLYBIUS the Megalopolitan, speaking of the great happiness which exists in Lusitania (and that is a district of Iberia, which the Romans now call Spania), O most excellent. Timocrates, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that in that country, on account of the excellent temperature of the air, both animals and men are exceedingly prolific; and the fruits, too, in that country never degenerate.

For there are roses there, and white violets, and asparagus, and other flowers and fruits like them, which last nine months in the year; and as for sea-fish, both in abundance, and in excellence, and in beauty, it is very superior to that produced in our seas. And a siclus (this is equal to a medimnus) of barley costs only a drachma; and one of wheat costs nine Alexandrian obols; and a measure of wine costs a drachma; and a moderate-sized kid costs an obol, and so does a hare. And of lambs, the price is three or four obols; and a fat pig, weighing a hundred minæ, costs five drachmæ; and a sheep costs two. And a talent weight of figs costs three obols; and a calf costs five drachmæ, and a draught-ox ten. And the meat of wild animals is scarcely ever valued at any price at all but people throw that in to purchasers into the bargain, or as a present.

Now, as a long discussion had taken place about fish, it was plain that Cynulcus was annoyed at it; and so the excel- lent Democritus, anticipating him, said—But, O you men fish, as Archippus says, you have omitted (for I too must throw in a little contribution of my own) those which are called fossil fishes, which are produced at Heraclea, and near Tium, in Pontus, which is a colony of the Milesians, though Theophrastus gives us an account of them. And this very same philosopher has also told us about those that are congealed in ice the whole winter, so that they have no feeling whatever, and make not the slightest motion, until they are put into the saucepans and boiled. And these fish have this especial peculiarity, which also belongs in some degree to the fish which are called fossil fish in Paphlagonia. For it is said that ditches are dug in those places to an exceeding depth, where no overflow of rivers ever reaches, nor of any other waters whatever; and yet in those ditches there are found living fishes.

But Mnaseas of Patra, in his Periplus, says that the fish in the river Clitor are not dumb; though Aristotle has stated in writing that the only fishes which have any voice are the scarus and the river-hog. And Philostephanus, who was a Cyrenæan by birth, and a friend of Callimachus, in his treatise on Extraordinary Rivers, says that in the river Aroanius, which flows through Pheneum, there are fish which sing like thrushes, and that they are called the poiciliæ. And Nympho- dorus the Syracusan, in his Voyages, says that there are pike in the river Helorus, and large eels, so tame that they take bread out of the hands of any who bring it to them. And I myself, and very likely many of you too, have seen cestres tamed to the hand in the fountain of Arethusa, near Chalcis; and eels, having silver and golden earrings, taking food from any one who offered it to them, and entrails from the victims, and fresh cheese. And Semus says, in the sixth book of his Delias—

They say that a boy once dipped a ewer into the well, and brought water to some Athenians who were sacri- ficing at Delos, to wash their hands with; and he brought up, as it happened, some fish in the ewer along with the water: and that on this the soothsayers of the Delians told them that they should become the lords of the sea.

And Polybius, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories,

And among the Indians,

there are fish which go forth out of the rivers over the land, and then, leaping back, return again to the water, just like frogs; being in appearance very like the fish which are called maxini.

But I am not ignorant of what Clearchus, the Peripatetic philosopher, has said about what he calls the exoccetus fish, or fish which comes out of the water to sleep, which he mentions in his work entitled A Treatise on Aquatic Animals. For he has said, (and I think that I recollect his exact words, which are as follows,)

The exoccetus fish, which some people call Adonis, has derived its name from constantly taking his rest out of the water. He is rather of a red colour, and from his gills down to his tail he has on each side of his body one white stripe reaching the whole length of his body. And he is round, but not being broad, he is equal in size to the cestrinisci which are found near the shore; and they are as near as may be about eight fingers in length. Altogether he is very like the fish called the sea-goat, except that the latter has a black place under his stomach, which they call the beard of the goat. And the exocœtus is one of the fish which keeps near to the rocks, and spends his life in rocky places. When it is calm weather he springs up with the waves and lies on the rocks for a considerable time, sleeping on the dry land, and turning himself so as to bask in the sun: and then, when he has had sufficient rest, he rolls towards the water again, until the wave, taking him

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again, bears him with the reflux back into the sea. And when he is awake on the dry land then he is on his guard against those birds which are called pareudistæ, such as the halcyon, the sandpiper, and the helorius, which is a bird like the rail. For these birds in calm weather feed on the dry land, and often attack the exocœtus; but when he sees them at a distance he flies, leaping and panting, until he dives beneath the water.

Moreover, Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus the Cyrenæan, whom I have previously mentioned.

There are some fish which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound. Such are those which are found near Cleitor, in Arcadia, in the river called Ladon. For they have a voice, and utter a very audible sound.

In the country around Apamea, in Phrygia, at the time of the Mithridatic wars, there were some earthquakes, after which there appeared in that district some lakes which previously had no existence, and rivers, and other springs which had been opened by the earthquake. Many also which had previously existed disappeared. And such a quantity of additional water, which was brackish and of a seagreen colour, burst up in that district, though it is at a very great distance from the sea, that all the neighbouring country was filled with oysters and fish, and all other productions of the sea.

In Pæonia and Dardania it has, they say, before now rained frogs; and so great has been the number of these frogs that the houses and the roads have been full of them; and at first, for some days, the inhabitants, endeavouring to kill them, and shutting up their houses, endured the pest; but when they did no good, but found that all their vessels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up and roasted with everything they ate, and when besides all this, they could not make use of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for the heaps

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of frogs that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the smell of those that died, they fled the country.

I am aware, too, that Posidonius the Stoic males this statement about the abundance of the fish:—

When Tryphon of Apamea, who seized upon the kingdom of Syria, was attacked by Sarpedon, the general of Demetrius, near the city of Ptolemais, and when Sarpedon, being defeated, retired into the inland parts of the country with his own troops, but the army of Tryphon, having been victorious in the battle, were marching along the shore, on a sudden, a wave of the sea, rising to a great height, came over the land, and overwhelmed them all, and destroyed them beneath the waters, and the retreating wave also left an immense heap of fish with the corpses. And Sarpedon and his army heating of what had happened, came up, and were delighted at the sight of the corpses of their enemies, and carried away an enormous quantity of fish, and made a sacrifice to Neptune who puts armies to flight, near the suburbs of the city.

Nor will I pass over in silence the men who prophesy from fish in Lycia, concerning whom Polycharmus speaks, in the second book of his Affairs of Lycia; writing in this manner:—

For when they have come to the sea, at a place where there is on the shore a grove sacred to Apollo, and where there is an eddy on the sand, the persons who are consulting the oracle come, bringing with them two wooden spits, having each of them ten pieces of roast meat on them. And the priest sits down by the side of the grove in silence; but he who is consulting the oracle throws the spits into the eddy, and looks on to see what happens. And after he has put the spits in, then the eddy becomes full of salt water, and there comes up such an enormous quantity of fish of such a description that he is amazed at the sight, and is even, as it were, alarmed at the magnitude of it. And when the prophet enumerates the different species of fish, the person who is consulting the oracle in this manner receives the prophecy from the priest respecting the matters about which he has prayed for information. And there appear in the eddy orphi, and sea-grayling, and sometimes some sorts of whales, such as the phalkena, or pristis, and a great many other fish which are rarely seen, and strange to the sight.

And Artemidorus, in the tenth book of his Geography,

It is said by the natives that a fountain springs up in that place of sweet water, to which it is owing that these eddies exist there; and that very large fish are produced in that eddying place. And those who are sacrificing throw to these fish the firstfruits of what they offer, piercing them through with wooden spits, being pieces of meat, roasted and boiled, and cakes of barley and loaves. And both the harbour and the place is called Dinus.

I know, too, that Phylarchus has spoken, somewhere or other, about large fish, and about fresh figs which were sent with them; saying that Patroclus, the general of Ptolemy, sent such a present to Antigonus the king, by way of a riddle, as the Scythians sent an enigmatical present to Darius, when he was invading their country. For they sent (as Herodotus relates) a bird, and an arrow, and a frog. But Patroclus (as Phylarchus tells us, in the third book of his Histories) sent the before-mentioned fishes and figs; and the king, at the time that they arrived, happened to be drinking with his friends, and when all the party were perplexed at the meaning of the gifts, Antigonus laughed, and said to his friends that he knew what was the meaning of the present;

for,

Patroclus means that we must either be masters of the sea, or else be content to eat figs.

Nor am I unaware that all fishes are called by one generic name, camasenes, by Empedocles the natural philosopher, when he says—

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

1. And after them she brought forth Helen third,
2. A marvel to all mortal men to see;
3. Her then the fair-hair'd Nemesis did bear,
4. Compell'd by Jove, the sovereign of the gods.
5. She indeed fled, nor sought to share the love
6. Of that great father, son of Saturn, Jove;
7. For too great awe did overpower her mind:
8. So Nemesis did flee o'er distant lands,
9. And o'er the black and barren waves o' the sea;
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10. But Jove pursued her (and with eagerness
11. His soul desired her). In vain she took
12. The form of some large fish who bounds along,
13. Borne on the vast high-crested roaring wave;
14. Sometimes she fled along the ocean, where
15. The earth's most distant boundaries extend;
16. Sometimes she fled along the fertile land;
17. And took all shapes of every animal
18. Which the land bears, to flee from amorous Jove.

I know, also, what is related about the fish called apopyris, which is found in the lake Bolbe; concerning which Hegesander, in his Commentaries, speaks thus:—

Around Apollonia of Chalcis two rivers flow, the Ammites and the Olynthiacus, and they both fall into the lake Bolbe. And on the river Olynthiacus there is a monument of Olynthus, the son of Hercules and Bolbe. And in the months Anthesterion and Elaphebolion, the natives say that Bolbe sends Apopyris to Olynthus; and that about this time a most enormous number of fish ascend out of the lake into the river Olynthiacus: and this is a shallow river, scarcely deep enough to wet a man's ankles; but for all that there does not the less come a great number of fish, so that all the people of the district get enough cured fish for their use for the year. And it is a wonderful fact that they never pass above the monument of Olynthus. They say, in explanation of this, that the people of Apollonia did formerly, in the month Elaphebolion, celebrate sacrifices to the dead, but that they do so now in the month Anthesterion; and that on this account this ascent is made by the fish in those months alone in which the natives are accustomed to pay honour to their national heroes.

And this is the state of the case, O men fish; for you, having collected together every kind of thing, have thrown us out to be food for fishes, instead of giving them as food for us,—making such long speeches as not even Ichthys, the phi- losopher of Megara, nor Ichthyon (and this also is a proper name), who is mentioned by Teleclides in his Amphicytons would make to us. And, on your account, I will give this advice to the servant, as it is said in the Ant Men of Phere- crates:—

1. Mind that you never, O Deucalion,
2. (Even if I bid you,) set a fish before me.

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

But, my friends, though I admire Chrysippus, the leader of the sect of the Stoics, on many accounts, I also praise him especially for having always classed Archestratus, that man who is so famous for his treatise on Cookery, with Philenis, to whom that indelicate composition about Amatory Pleasures is attributed; which, however, Aeschrion, the iambic poet of Samos, says was written by Polycrates the sophist, and attributed to Philænis for the sake of calumniating her, when she was a most respectable woman. And the iambics, in which this is stated, run as follows:—

1. I am Philænis, famous among men;
2. And here I lie, o'erwhelm'd by long old age.
3. Do not, O foolish sailor, pass this cape
4. Laughing and scorning and reproaching me.
5. For. now I swear by Jove, and by the gods
6. Who reign below, I never lustful was,
7. I never made myself a sport to man.
8. But one Polycrates, of Attic race,
9. A trashy chatterer, and a false accuser,
10. Wrote what he wrote; I know not what it was.

The books, too, of Philænis, and the Gastronomy of Archestratus, and all the drugs calculated to provoke appetite or sensual desires, and also all the servants who are skilled in such motions and such figures, and whose occupation it is to attend to these things.

That they learn such things, and get hold of the books written on such subjects by Philænis and Archestratus, and by those who have written similar works.

Just as it would not be advisable to study the writings of Philænis or the Gastronomy of Archestratus, as tending to make a person live better.

But you, who are constantly making mention of this Archestratus, have made this entertainment full of intem- perance; for what of all the things which could unduly excite

1. Knowing that you are mortal, feed your soul
2. On banquets and delights; for in the grave
3. There's no enjoyment left. I now am dust
4. Who once was king of mighty Nineveh;
5. The things which I did eat, the joys of love,
6. The insolent thoughts with which my wealth did fill me,
7. Are all I now have left; for all my power
8. And all my happiness is gone for ever.
9. This is the only prudent rule of life,
10. I never shall forget it, let who will
11. Hoard boundless treasures of uncounted gold.

1. To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight,
2. The feast or bath by day, and love by night.

1. I to all mortals now give this advice:
2. Live for the day with pleasure; he who dies
3. Is nought; an empty shade beneath the earth:
4. Man lives but a short space, and therefore should,
5. While life remains, enjoy himself.

1. The man who knows that he is but a mortal,
2. And yet seeks not enjoyment while alive,
3. Leaving all other cares, is but a fool
4. In mine and all wise men's opinion,
5. And most unhappy in his destiny.

1. Drink and play, our mortal life
2. On earth can but a brief space last;
3. Death alone will last for ever,
4. When once our too brief term is past.

1. Eat, drink, indulge thy soul with all delights,
2. This stone is all that now remains for Bacchides.

Alexis, in his Tutor of Intemperate Men—(as Sotion the Alexandrian says, in his Commentary on the Silli of Timon; for I myself have never met with the play, though I have read more than eight hundred plays of what is called the Middle Comedy, and have made extracts from them, but still I have never fallen in with the Tutor of Intemperate Men, nor do I recollect having seen any mention of it in any regular list of such plays; for Callimachus has not inserted it in his catalogue, nor has Aristophanes, nor even those scholars at Pergamus, who have handed down to us lists of plays,)how— ever, Sotion says that in that play a slave, named Xanthias, was represented as exhorting all his fellow-slaves to a life of luxury, and saying—

1. Why do you talk such stuff, why run about
2. To the Lyceum and the Academy,
3. To the Odeum's gates, hunting in vain
4. For all the sophists' nonsense? there's no good in it;
5. Let us drink, drink, I say. O Sicon, Sicon!
6. Let us amuse ourselves; while time allows us
7. To gratify our souls.—Enjoy yourself,
8. My good friend Manes! nothing is worth more
9. To you than your own stomach. That's your father;
10. That only is your mother;-as for virtues,
11. And embassies, and military commands,
12. They are but noisy boasts, vain empty dreams.
13. Fate at its destined hour will come to chill you;
14. Take all that you can get to eat and drink;
15. Pericles, Codrus, Cimon, are but dust.

But it would be better, says Chrysippus, if the lines inscribed on the tomb of Sardanapalus were altered thus—

1. Knowing that thou art mortal, feed thy soul
2. On wise discourse. There is no good in eating.
3. For I am now no good, who once did eat
4. All that I could, and sought all kinds of pleasure.
5. Now what I thought and learnt and heard of wisdom
6. Is all I now have left; my luxuries
7. And all my joys have long deserted me.

1. Of all bad things the chief is appetite.

But Clearchus, in his essay on Proverbs, says that Terpsion was the tutor of Archestratus, who was also the first person who wrote a book on Gastronomy; and he says that he gave precepts to his pupils as to what they ought to

1. Eat now a turtle, or else leave it alone;

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

But whence is it, O you wisest of men, that orion, who wrote a list of fish, has been mentioned as if he were the writer of some valuable history?—a fellow who, I know, has been named a musician and a fish-devourer, but certainly not a historian. Accordingly Machon, the comic poet, speaks of him as a musician, saying—

1. Dorion the musician once did come
2. To Mylon, all in vain; for he could find
3. No resting-place which he could hire at all;
4. So on some sacred ground he sat him down,
5. Which was by chance before the city gates,
6. And there he saw the keeper of the temple
7. Prepare a sacrifice.—"I pray thee, tell me,
8. In chaste Minerva's name, and all the gods',
9. What deity is it that owns this temple?"
10. The keeper thus replied: "This is, O stranger,
11. Of Jupiter-Neptune the sacred shrine."

12. How then,

    said Dorion, "could any man
13. Expect to find a lodging in a place
14. Which in one temple crowds a pair of gods?"

When a man once said to Dorion the flute-player, that the ray was a good fish, he said—' Yes, about as good as if a man were to eat a boiled cloak.' And once, when some one else praised the entrails of tunny-fish, he said—' You are quite right, but then a man must eat them as I eat them;' and when the man asked him how that was, he said—' How? why willingly.' And he said that crawfish had three good qualities,—exercise, good food, and contemplation. And once, at Cyprus, when he was supping with Nicocreon, he praised a goblet that there was there; and Nicocreon said—'Whatever there is here that you fancy, the artist will make you another like it.' 'Let him make that,' he replied, 'for you; but do you give me this one.

1. 'Tis not that God denies a flutist sense,
2. But when he comes to blow it flies away.

And Hegesander, in his Commentaries, says this of him—

Dorion, the great fish-eater, once, when his slave had neglected to buy fish, scourged him, and ordered him to tell him the names of the best fish; and when the boy had counted up the orphus, and the sea-grayling, and the conger, and others of this sort, he said—'I desired you to tell me the names of fishes, and not of gods.'

Dorion the musician was club-footed; and once, in some entertainment, he lost the slipper of his lame foot; on which he said, 'I will not wish anything more to the thief than that the slipper may fit him.'

1. No, but all night Dorion the dish-piper
2. Does stay in-doors with us.

I know, too, the sportive sayings which Lasus of Hermione has uttered about fishes; which Chamæleon of Heraclea has recorded in writing, in his book on this very Lasus, where he says—' They say that Lasus called raw fish ὀπτὸς (which means roasted or visible); and when many people wondered why he did so, he thus began to prove what he had said; arguing thus: 'As whatever a person can hear (ἀκοῦσαι) is properly called ἀκουστὸν, and as whatever a person can understand by his intellect (νοῆσαι) is properly called νοητὸν, so whatever any one can see (ὄπτεσθαι) is clearly ὀπτόν;; as therefore it was possible to see the fish, he evidently was ὀπτός.ʼ.' And once, in a joke, he stole a fish from a fisherman, and having taken it, he gave it to one of the bystanders; and when the fisherman put him to his oath, he swore that he had not got it himself, and that he had not seen any one else take it; because, in fact, he himself had taken it, but some one else had got it. And then he prompted the other man, on the other hand, to swear that he had not taken it himself, and that he was not acquainted with any one else who had it; for, in fact, Lasus had taken it, and he himself had it.” And Epicharmus jests in the same way; as, in his Logus and Logina,—

1. A. Jupiter 'tis who did invite me, giving
2. A feast (γ’ ἔρανον) to Pelops.
3. B. 'Tis a sorry food,
4. That crane (γέρανος), to my mind.
5. A. But I did not say
6. A crane (γέρανον), but a feast (ἔρανόν γε), as you might well have heard.