Deipnosophistae

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.

And Alexis, in his Demetrius, ridicules, in his comic manner, a man of the name of Phayllus, as very fond of fish, in these lines:—

1. First of all, whether the wind blew north or south,
2. As long as it blew hard, it was not possible
3. For anybody to get fish to eat.
4. But now, besides that pair of stormy winds,
5. We've a third tempest risen in Phayllus;
6. For when this last storm bursts upon the market,
7. He buys up all the fish at all the stalls,
8. And bears it off; so that we are reduced
9. To squabble for the vegetables remaining.

And Antiphanes, in his Female Fisher, enumerating some people as exceedingly fond of fish, says—

1. Give me some cuttle-fish first. O Hercules!
2. They've dirtied every place with ink; here, take them
3. And throw them back again into the sea,
4. To wash them clean: or else they'll say, O Dorion,
5. That you have caught some rotten cuttle-fish:
6. And put this crawfish back beside the sprats.
7. He's a fine fish, by Jove. O mighty Jove,
8. O you Callimedon, who now will eat you?
9. No one who's not prepared to pay his share.
10. I've giv'n you your place here on the right,
11. You mullets, food of great Callisthenes;
12. Who eats his patrimony in one dish;
13. Next comes the mighty conger from Sinope,
14. With his stout spines; the first who comes shall have him;
15. For Misgolas has no great love for such.
16. But here's a citharus, and if he sees him
17. He never will keep off his hands from him;
18. For he, indeed, does secretly adhere
19. As close as wax to all the harp-players (κιθαρῳδοῖς).
20. I ought to send this best of fish, this tench,
21. Still all alive, and leaping in his dish,
22. To the fair Pythionica, he's so fine:
23. But still she will not taste him, as her heart
24. Is wholly set on cured fish.—Here I place
25. These thin anchovies and this dainty turtle
26. Apart for Theano, to counterbalance her.

And it is a very clever way in which Antiphanes thus jested upon Misgolas, as devoting all his attention to beautiful

harp-players and lyre-players; for Aeschines the orator, in his speech against Timarchus, says this of him—

Misgolas, the son of Naucrates, of Colyttus, O men of Athens, is a man in other respects brave and virtuous, and no one can find any fault with him in any particular; but he is known to be exceedingly devoted to this kind of business, and always to have about him some harp-players, and people who sing to the music of the harp. And I say this, not by way of disparaging him, but in order that you may be aware what sort of person he is.

And Timocles, in his Sappho, says—

1. Misgolas is not seen to enter in,
2. Excited as he is by blooming youth.

And Alexis, in his Agonis, or the Little Horse, says—

1. O mother, do not threaten me, I pray,
2. With Misgolas, for I am not a harp-player.

But Antiphanes says that Pythionica is fond of cured fish, since she had for lovers the sons of Chærephilus, the seller of salt-fish; as Timocles says, in his Icarians,—

1. When that stout Anytus to Pythionica
2. Does come, to eat with her; for she invites him,
3. As people say, whenever she does get
4. Two noble tunnies from Chærephilus;
5. So fond is she of all things that are large.

And again he says—

1. And Pythionica will receive you gladly,
2. And very likely will devour the gifts
3. Which you have lately here received from us,
4. For she's insatiable. Still do you
5. Bid her give you a basket of cured fish;
6. For she has plenty; and she has indeed
7. A couple of saperdæ; ugly fish,
8. Ill salted, and broad nosed.

And before this she had a lover whose name was Cobius.

But with respect to Callimedon, the son of Carabus, Timocles, in his Busybody, tells us that he was fond of fish, and also that he squinted:—

1. Then up came Carabus Callimedon,
2. And looking on me, as it seem'd to me,
3. He kept on speaking to some other man.
4. And I, as it was likely, understanding
5. No word of what they said, did only nod.
6. But all the girls do keep on looking at him,
7. While they pretend to turn their eyes away.

And Alexis, in his Crateua, or the Apothecary, says—

1. A. I am now, these last four days, taking care of
2. These κόραι for Callimedon.
3. B. Had he then
4. Any κόραι (damsels) for daughters?
5. A. I mean κόραι,
6. The pupils of the eyes; which e'en Melampus,
7. Who could alone appease the raging Prœtides,
8. Would e'er be able to keep looking straight.

And he ridicules him in a similar manner in the play entitled The Men running together. But he also jests on him for his epicurism as to fish, in the Phædo, or Phædria, where he says—

1. A. You shall be ædile if the gods approve,
2. That you may stop Callimedon descending
3. Like any storm all day upon the fish.
4. B. You speak of work for tyrants, not for ædiles;
5. For the man's brave, and useful to the city.

And the very same iambics are repeated in the play entitled Into the Well; but, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, he says—

1. If I love any strangers more than you,
2. I'll willingly be turn'd into an eel,
3. That Carabus Callimedon may buy me.

And in his Crateua he says—

1. And Carabus Callimedon with Orpheus.

And Antiphanes says, in his Gorgythus,—

1. 'Twould harder be to make me change my mind
2. Than to induce Callimedon to pass
3. The head of a sea-grayling.

And Eubulus, in his Persons saved, says—

1. Others prostrating them before the gods,
2. Are found with Carabus, who alone of men
3. Can eat whole salt-fish out of boiling dishes
4. So wholly as to leave no single mouthful.

And Theophilus, in his Physician, ridiculing his coldness of expression, says—

And the slave put before the young man himself with great eagerness a little eel: his father had a fine cuttle-fish before him. 'Father,' says he, ' what do you think of your crawfish ' 'It is cold,' says he; 'take it away, —I don't want to eat any orators.'

[*](There is a punning allusion here to κάραβος, a crawfish, and to Callimedon's nickname, Carabus) And when Philemon says, in his Canvasser,—

1. Agyrrius, when a crawfish was before him,
2. On seeing him exclaim'd, Hail, dear papa!
3. Still what did he do? He ate his dear papa!

And Herodicus the Cratetian, commenting on this in his Miscellaneous Commentaries, says that Agyrrius was the name of the son of Callimedon.

The following people, too, have all been great epicures about fish. Antagoras the poet would not allow his slave to touch his fish with oil, but made him wash it; as Hegesander tells us. And when in the army, he was once boiling a dish of congers, and had his clothes girt round him, Antigonus the king, who was standing by, said,

Tell me, Antagoras, do you think that Homer, who celebrated the exploits of Agamemnon, ever boiled congers

And it is said that he answered, not without wit,

And do you think that Agamemnon, who performed those exploits, ever busied himself about inquiring who was cooking congers in his army?

And once, when Antagoras was cooking a bird of some kind, he said that he would not go to the bath, because he was afraid that the slaves might come and suck up the gravy. And when Philocydes said that his mother would take care of that,

Shall I,

said he,

entrust the gravy of game to my mother?

And Androcydes of Cyzicus, the painter, being very fond of fish, as Polemo relates, carried his luxury to such a pitch that he even painted with great care the fish which are around Scylla.

But concerning Philoxenus of Cythera, the dithyrambic poet, Machon the comic poet writes thus:—

1. They say Philoxenus, the ancient poet
2. Of dithyrambics, was so wonderfully
3. Attach'd to fish, that once at Syracuse
4. He bought a polypus two cubits long,
5. Then dress'd it, and then ate it up himself,
6. All but the head-and afterwards fell sick,
7. Seized with a sharp attack of indigestion.
8. Then when some doctor came to him to see him,
9. Who saw that he was greatly out of order;

10. If,

    said the doctor, "you have any business
11. Not well arranged, do not delay to settle it,
12. For you will die before six hours are over."
13. Philoxenus replied, "All my affairs,
14. O doctor, are well ended and arranged,
15. Long, long ago By favour of the gods,
16. I leave my dithyrambics all full-grown,
17. And crown'd with many a prize of victory;
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18. And I commit them to the guardianship
19. Of my dear foster-sisters, the Nine Muses,
20. And join to them both Bacchus and fair Venus.
21. This is my will. But now, since Charon gives
22. No time, but, as in the Niobe of Timotheus,
23. Keeps crying out, 'Now cross;' and deadly fate
24. Calls me away, who can't be disobey'd,
25. That I may go below with all my goods,
26. Bring me the relics of that polypus."

And in another part he says—

1. Philoxenus of Cythera, as men say,
2. Wished that he had a throat three cubits long;

3. That I might drink,

   said he, "as long as possible,
4. And that my food may all at once delight me."

And Diogenes the Cynic, having eaten a polypus raw, died of a swelling in the belly. But concerning Philoxenus, Sopater the parodist also speaks, saying—

1. For, between two rich courses of fine fish,
2. He pleased himself by looking down the centre
3. Of Aetna's crater.

And Hyperides the orator was an epicure in fish; as Timocles the comic writer tells us, in his Delos, where he enumerates all the people who had taken bribes from Harpalus: and he writes thus—

1. A. Demosthenes has half-a-hundred talents.
2. B. A lucky man, if no one shares with him.
3. A. And Moerocles has got a mighty sum.
4. B. He was a fool who gave them; lucky he
5. Who got them.
6. A. Demon and Callisthenes
7. Have also got large sums.
8. B. Well, they were poor,
9. So that we well may pardon them for taking them.
10. A. And that great orator Hyperides.
11. B. Why, he will all our fishmongers enrich;
12. An epicure! Gulls are mere Syrians,
13. Compared to him.

And in the Icarians, the same poet says—

1. Then cross Hyperides, that fishy river,
2. Which with a gentle sound, bubbling with boasts
3. Of prudent speeches, with mild repetitions
4. * * * * *
5. And hired, bedews the plain of him who gave it.

And Philetærus, in his Aesculapius, says that Hyperides, besides being a glutton, was also a gambler. As also Axionicus, in his Lover of Euripides, says that Callias the orator was; and his words are—

A man of the name of Glaucus came to this place, bringing from Pontus a kind of shark, a fish of extraordinary magnitude,—a great dainty for epicures in fish, and, in fact, for all men who are devoted to the pleasures of the table. And he brought it on his shoulders, and said, ' Whom shall I instruct how to dress it, and how shall it be dressed? Will you have it soaked in a sauce of green herbs, or shall I baste its body with basting of warm brine, and then dress it on a fierce fire?' And a man named Moschio, a great flute-player, cried out that he should like to eat it boiled in warm pickle-juice. And this was meant as a reproof for you, O Calaides! for you are very fond of figs and cured fish; and yet you will not taste a most exquisite fish which you have served up to you in pickle.

Reproaching him with the figs as if he were a sycophant; and perhaps concealing under the mention of the cured fish, some intimation of his having been implicated in discreditable conduct. And Hermippus says, in the third book of his treatise on the Pupils of Isocrates, that Hyperides was in the habit of taking a walk, the first thing in the morning, in the fish-market.

And Timæus of Tauromenium says that Aristotle the philosopher was a great epicure in respect of fish. Matron the sophist, also, was a great fish-eater: and Antiphanes, in his Harp-player, intimates this; for that play begins thus—

1. He tells no lie . . . .
2. A man dug out his eye, as Matron does
3. The eyes of fish when he comes near to them.

And Anaxilas says, in his Morose Man,—

1. Matron has carried off and eaten up
2. A cestris' head; and I am quite undone.

It being the very extravagance of gluttony to carry a thing off while eating it, and such a thing too as the head of a cestris; unless, perhaps, you may suppose, that those who are skilful in such things are aware of there being some particular good qualities in the head of a cestris; and if so, it belonged to Archestratus's gluttony to explain that to us.

But Antiphanes, in his Rich Man, gives us a catalogue of epicures, in the following lines:—

1. Euthymus too was there, with sandals on,
2. A ring upon his finger, well perfumed,
3. Silently pondering on I know not what.
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4. Phœnicides too, and my friend Taureas,
5. Such great inveterate epicures that they
6. Would swallow all the remnants in the market;
7. They at this sight seem'd almost like to die,
8. And bore the scarcity with small good humour;
9. But gather'd crowds and made this speech to them:—
10. "What an intolerable thing it is
11. That any of you men should claim the sea,
12. And spend much money in marine pursuits,
13. While not one fin of fish comes to this market!
14. What is the use of all our governors
15. Who sway the islands? We must make a law
16. That there should be copious importation
17. Of every kind of fish. But Matron now
18. Has carried off the fishermen; and then
19. There's Diogeiton, who, by Jove, has brought
20. The hucksters over to keep back for him
21. All the best fish; and he's not popular
22. For doing this, for there is mighty waste
23. In marriage feasts and youthful luxury."

But Euphron, in his Muses, says,—

1. But when at some fine banquet of young men
2. Phœnicides perceived a smoking dish
3. Full of the sons of Nereus, he held bach
4. His hands, with rage excited. Thus he spoke:—
5. "Who boasts himself a clever parasite
6. At eating at the public cost? who thinks
7. To filch the dainty dishes from the middle?
8. Where's Corydus, or Phyromachus, or Nillus?
9. Let them come here, they shall get nought of this."

But Melanthus the tragic poet was a person of the same sort; and he also wrote elegies. But Leucon, in his Men of the same Tribe, cuts his jokes upon him in the fashion of the comic writers, on account of his gluttony; and so does Aristophanes in the Peace, and Pherecrates in his Petale. But Archippus, in his play called The Fishes, having put him in chains as an epicure, gives him up to the fishes, to be eaten by them in retaliation. And, indeed, even Aristippus, the pupil of Socrates, was a great epicure,—a man who was once reproached by Plato for his gluttony, as Sotion ad Hegesander relate. And the Delphian writes thus:—

Aristippus, when Plato reproached him for having bought a number of fish, said that he had bought them for two obols; and when Plato said, 'I myself would have bought them at th t price,' 'You see, then,' said he, '0 Plato! that it is not I who am an epicure, but you who are a miser.'

And Antiphanes, in his Female Flute-player, or the Female Twins, laughing at a man named Phoinicides for his gluttony, says—

1. Menelaus warr'd for ten whole years against
2. The Trojan nation for one lovely woman.
3. Phoinicides, too, attacks Taureas
4. For one fine eel.

But Demosthenes the orator reproaches Pherecrates, because, with the gold which he received for his treason, he bought himself courtesans and fish, and charges him with debauchery and gluttony. But Diodes the epicure, as Hegesander says, when a man once asked him which of the two fish was the best, the conger or the pike, said—

The one when it is boiled, and the other when it is roasted.

And Leonteus the Argive also was an epicure: he was a tragedian, and a pupil of Athenion, and a slave of Juba, king of Mauritania; as Amarantus relates, in his treatise on the Stage, saying that Juba wrote this epigram on him, because he had acted the character of Hypsipyle very badly:—

1. If you should wish to see the genius
2. Of that devoted artichoke-devourer
3. Leonteus the tragedian, don't regard
4. The sorrow-stricken heart of Hypsipyle.
5. I once was dear to Bacchus, and his taste
6. Is ne'er perverted by base bribes t' approve
7. Untuneful sounds. But now the pots and pans,
8. And well-fill'd dishes have destroyed my voice,
9. While I've been anxious to indulge my stomach.

And Hegesander tells us that Phoryscus, the fish-eater, once, when he was not able to take exactly as much fish as he wished, but when a greater part of it was following his hand, as he was helping himself, said,—

1. But what resists is utterly destroy'd,

and so ate up the whole fish. And Bion, when some one had been beforehand with him, and had already taken the upper part of the fish, having turned it round himself, and eating abundantly of it, said, after he had done,—

1. But Ino finish'd all the rest o' the business.

And Theocritus the Chian, when the wife of Diocles the epicure died, and when the widowed husband, while making a funeral feast for her, kept on eating delicacies and crying all the time, said—

Stop crying, you wretched man; for you will not remedy your grief by eating all that fish.

And when the same Diodes had also eaten up his land through gluttony, and was one day, while bolting down some hot fish, complaining that his palate (οὐρανὸς) was burnt, Theocritus, who was present, said to him—

Then it only remains for you to drink up the sea, and then you will have got rid of the three greatest things in the world,—earth, and sea, and heaven (οὐρανός).

And Clearchus, in his Lives, describing some person who was fond of fish, says—

Technon, one of the old flute-players, when Charmus the flute-player died, (and he, too, was very fond of fish,) sacrificed to the dead man a large dish of every sort of fish on his tomb.

Alexis the poet, also, was a great epicure in fish, as Lynceus the Samian tells us; and being once ridiculed by some chattering fellows on account of his epicurism, when they asked him what he liked most to eat, Alexis said,

Roasted chatterers.

Hermippus mentions also Nothippus the tragic poet, in his Tales, thus—

1. But if such a race of men
2. Were to wage a present war
3. With those who now exist on earth,
4. And if a roast ray led them on,
5. Or a fine side of well-fed pork,
6. The rest might safely stay at home,
7. And trust Nothippus by himself,
8. For he alone would swallow up
9. The whole Peloponnesus:—

and that the man meant here was the poet, Teleclides shows plainly, in his Hesiods.

Myniscus, the tragic actor, is ridiculed by Plato, the comic writer, in his Syrphax, as an epicure in respect of fish; where he says—

1. A. Here is an Anagyrasian orphus for you,
2. Which e'en my friend Myniscus the Chalcidean
3. Could hardly finish.
4. B. Much obliged to you.

And for a similar reason, Callias, in his Pedetæ, and Lysippus, in his Bacchæ, ridicule Lampon the soothsayer. But Cratinus, in his Female Runaways, speaking of him, says—

Lam- pon, whom nothing which men said of him could keep away from any banquet of his friends;

and adds,

But now again he is belching away; for he devours everything which he can see, and he would fight even for a mullet.

And Hedylus, in his Epigrams, giving a list of epicures in fish, mentions a man named Phaedo, in these lines:—

1. But Phædo, that great harpist, praises phyces,
2. And sausages, he's such an epicure.

And he mentions Agisoto, in these lines:—

1. The fish is boil'd, now firmly bar the doors,
2. Lest Agis, Proteus of the dishes, enter;
3. For he'll be fire, water,—what he likes;
4. But bar the door . . . . . .
5. For he, transform'd, like Jupiter, to gold
6. Will hasten to this rich Acrisian dish.

He also speaks of a woman named Clio, on a similar account, saying—

1. Clio's an epicure. Let's shut our eyes.
2. I beg you, Clio, by yourself to feed.
3. This conger costs a drachma; leave a pledge,
4. A band, an earring, or some ornament.
5. But we cannot endure the sight of you;
6. You're our Medusa; and we're turn'd to stone,
7. Not by the Gorgon, but by that whole conger.

And Aristodemus, in his Catalogue of Laughable Sayings, says that Euphranor the epicure, having heard that another epicure in fish was dead from having eaten a hot slice of fish, cried out,

What a sacrilegious death!

And Cindon the fish-eater, and Demylus (and he also was an epicure in fish), when a sea-grayling was set before them, and nothing else, the former took one eye of the fish, and then Demylus seized hold of Cindon's eye, crying,

Let his eye go, and I will let your's go.

And once at a feast, when a fine dish of fish was served up, Demylus, not being able to contrive any way by which he might get the whole of it to himself, spat upon it. And Zeno the Cittiæan, the founder of the Stoic school, when he had lived a long time with a great epicure in fish, (as Antigonus the Carystian tells us, in his life of Zeno,) once, when a very large fish was by chance served up to them, and when no other food was provided, took the whole fish from the platter, pretending to be about to eat it all himself; and, when the other looked at him, said—

What do you think, then, that those who live with you must suffer every day, if you cannot endure my being a glutton for a single day?

And Ister says that Chœrilus the poet used to receive four minæ every day from Archelaus, and that he spent them all on fish, of which he was so exceedingly fond.

I am aware, also, that there have been boys who were great fish-eaters, who are mentioned by Clearchus, in his book on Sands; which says that Psammitichus, king of Egypt, bred up some boys to eat nothing but fish, when he was anxious to discover the source of the Nile; and that he accustomed others to endure a great degree of thirst, who were to be employed in exploring the sands in Libya; of whom, however, very few escaped in safety. I know, too, that the oxen around Mosynus, in Thrace, eat fish, which are given to them in their cribs. And Phœnicides, having set fish before men who had brought their contribution for a banquet, said that the sea was common, but that the fish in it belonged to those who bought them.

And, my friends, the noun ὀψοφάγος (an eater of fish), and the verb ὀψοφάγω (to eat fish), are both used. Aristophanes, in his second edition of the Clouds, says—

1. Not to eat fish (ὀψοφάγειν) nor to giggle.

And Cephisodorus, in his Pig, says—

1. Not a fish-eater (ὀψοφάγος) nor a chatterer.

Machon, in his Letter, says—

1. I am a fish-eater (ὀψοφάγος), and this is now
2. The whole foundation of the art we practise.
3. And he who wishes not to spoil the dishes
4. Served up to others, should be pleased himself.
5. For he who rightly cares for his own eating
6. Will not be a bad cook. And if you keep
7. Your organs, sense and taste, in proper order,
8. You will not err. But often taste your dishes
9. While you are boiling them. Do they want salt?
10. Add some;—is any other seasoning needed
11. Add it, and taste again-till you've arrived
12. At harmony of flavour; like a man
13. Who tunes a lyre till it rightly sounds.
14. And then, when everything is well in tune,
15. Bring in a troop of willing damsels fair,
16. Equal in number to the banqueters.

In addition to these epicures in fish, my friends, I am aware also that Apollo is honoured among the Eleans, under the title of Fish-eater: and Polemo mentions this name of his in his letter to Attalus. I am aware, also, that in Pisa there is a picture consecrated in the temple of Diana Alphosa (and it is the work of Cleanthes the Corinthian), in which Neptune is represented as bringing a tunny to Jupiter in labour; as. Demetrius tells us, in the eighth book of his Trojan Array.

These, then, are the things, said Democritus, which I myself have brought in the way of my contribution, not going to eat fish myself, for the sake of my excellent friend Ulpian; who, on account of the national customs of the Syrians, has deprived us of our fish, continually bringing forward one thing after another. And Antipater of Tarsus, the Stoic philosopher, in the fourth book of his treatise on Superstition, tells us that it is said by some people that Gatis, the queen of the Syrians, was so exceedingly fond of fish, that she issued a proclamation that no one should eat fish without Gatis being invited (ἄτερ γάτιδος); and that the common people, out of ignorance, thought her name was Atergatis, and abstained wholly from fish. And Mnaseus, in the second book of his History of Asia, speaks thus—

But I think that Atergatis was a very bad queen, and that she ruled the people with great harshness, so that she even forbad them by law to eat fish, and ordered them to bring all the fish to her, because she was so fond of that food; and, on account of this order of hers, a custom still prevails, when the Syrians pray to the goddess, to offer her golden or silver fish; and for the priests every day to place on the table before the god real fish also, carefully dressed, both boiled and roasted, which the priests of the goddess eat themselves.

And a little further on, he says again—

But Atergatis (as Xanthus the Lydian says), being taken prisoner by Mopsus, king of Lydia, was drowned with her son in the lake near Ascalon, because of her insolence, and was eaten up by fishes.

And you, perhaps, my friends, have willingly passed by (as if it were some sacred fish) the fish mentioned by Ephippus the comic poet, which he says was dressed for Geryon, in his play called Geryon. The lines are these:—

1. A. When the natives of the land
2. Catch a fish which is not common,
3. But fine, as large as the whole isle
4. Of Crete, he furnishes a dish
5. Able to hold a hundred such;
6. And orders all who live around,
7. Sindi, and Lycians, and Paphians,
8. Cranai, and Mygdoniotæ,
9. To cut down wood, because the king
10. Is boiling this enormous fish.
11. So then they bring a load of wood,
12. Enough to go all round the city,
v.2.p.547
13. And light the fire. Then they bring
14. A lake of water to make brine,
15. And for eight months a hundred carts
16. Are hard at work to carry salt.
17. And around the dish's edge
18. Five five-oar'd boats keep always rowing;
19. And bid the slaves take care the fire
20. Burns not the Lycian magistrates.
21. B. Cease to blow this cold air on us,
22. King of Macedon, extinguish
23. The Celts, and do not burn them more.

But I am not ignorant that Ephippus has said the very same thing in his play called the Peltast; in which the following lines also are subjoined to those which I have just quoted:—

1. Talking all this nonsense, he
2. Raises the wonder of the youths
3. With whom he feasts, though knowing not
4. The simplest sums and plainest figures;
5. But drags his cloak along the ground
6. With a most lordly, pompous air.

But, with reference to whom it is that Ephippus said this, it is now proper for you to inquire, my good friend Ulpian, and then to tell us; and in this inquiry—

1. If you find aught hard and inexplicable,
2. Repeat it over, understand it clearly,—
3. For I have much more leisure than I like;

as Prometheus says in Aeschylus.

And on this Cynulcus exclaimed:—And what great subject of inquiry,—I do not say great fish,—can this fellow admit into his mind?-a man who is always picking out the spines of hepseti and atherintæ, and even of worse fish than these, if there be any such, passing over all finer fish.

For, as Eubulus says, in the Ixion,—

1. As if a man at a luxurious feast,
2. When cheese-cakes are before him, chooses nought
3. But anise, parsley, and such silly fare,
4. And ill-dress'd cardamums . . . .

so, too, this Pot-friend, Ulpian,—to use a would of my fellow-Megalopolitan, Cercidas,—appears to me to eat nothing that a man ought to eat, but to watch those who are eating, to see if they have passed over any spine or any callous or gristly morsel of the meat set before them; never once considering what the admirable and brilliant Aeschylus has said, who called his tragedies,

Relics of the noble banquets of Homer.

But Aeschylus was one of the greatest of philosophers,—a man who, being once defeated undeservedly, as Theophrastus or Chamæleon (whichever was really the author of the book), in his treatise on Pleasure, has related, said that he committed his tragedies to time, well knowing that he should hereafter receive the honour due to him.