The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 33

Enough of this. Do'st not agree with me?

_B._ Indeed I do, all things are plain to me.

61. Plato, too, in his Joint Deceiver, introduces the father of a young man in great indignation, on the ground that his son's principles and way of living have been injured by his tutor; and he says--

_A._ You now have been the ruin of my son, You wretch, you have persuaded him t' embark In a course of life quite foreign to his habits And former inclinations. You have taught him To drink i' th' morning, quite beyond his wont.

_B._ Do you blame me that he has learnt to live?

_A._ Call you this living?

_B._ So the wise do say: At all events the allwise Epicurus Tells us that pleasure is the only good.

_A._ No doubt, and n.o.body can entertain A different opinion. To live well Must be to rightly live; is it not so?

Tell me, I pray thee, hast thou ever seen Any philosopher confused with wine?

Or overtaken with those joys of yours?

_B._ Aye, all of them. Those who lift up their brows, Who look most solemn in the promenades, And in their daily conversation, Who turn their eyes away in high disdain If you put plaice or turbot on their board, Know for all that the fish's daintiest part.

Seek out the head, the fins; the sound, the roe, And make men marvel at their gluttony.

62. And in Antiphanes, in his Soldier or in his Tycho, a man is introduced delivering rules in this way, saying--

Whoever is a mortal man, and thinks This life has any sure possession, Is woefully deceived. For either taxes Take off his property; or he goes to law And loses all he seeks, and all he has: Or else he's made a magistrate, and bears The losses they are subject to; or else The people bid him a choragus be, And furnish golden garments for a chorus; And wear but rags himself. Or as a captain Of some tall ship, he hangs himself; or else Takes the command, and then is taken prisoner: Or else, both waking and in soundest sleep, He's helpless, pillaged by his own domestics.

Nothing is sure, save what a man can eat, And treats himself to day by day. Nor then, Is even this too sure. For guests drop in To eat what you have order'd for yourself.

So not until you've got it 'twixt your teeth Ought you to think that e'en your dinner's safe.

And he says the same in his Hydria.

63. Now if any one, my friends, were to consider this, he would naturally and reasonably praise the honest Chrysippus, who examined accurately into the nature of Epicurus's philosophy, and said, "That the Gastrology of Archestratus was the metropolis of his philosophy;" which all the epicures of philosophers call the Theogony, as it were, that beautiful epic poem; to whom Theognetus, in his Phasma or in his Miser, says--

My man, you will destroy me in this way; For you are ill and surfeited with all The divers arguments of all the Stoics.

"Gold is no part of man, mere pa.s.sing rime.

Wisdom's his real wealth, solid like ice; No one who has it ever loses it."

Oh! wretched that I am; what cruel fate Has lodged me here with this philosopher?

Wretch, you have learnt a most perverted learning; Your books have turn'd your whole life upside down; Buried in deep philosophy you talk Of earth and heaven, both of which care little For you and all your arguments.

64. While Ulpian was continuing to talk in this way, the servants came in bearing on some dishes some crabs bigger than Callimedon, the orator, who, because he was so very fond of this food was himself called the Crab. Accordingly, Alexis, in his Dorcis, or the Flatterer, (as also others of the comic poets do,) hands him down, as a general rule, as being most devoted to fish, saying--

It has been voted by the fish-sellers, To raise a brazen statue to Callimedon At the Panathenaic festival In the midst of the fish-market; and the statue Shall in his right hand hold a roasted crab, As being the sole patron of their trade, Which other men neglect and seek to crush.

But the taste of the crab is one which many people have been very much devoted to; as may be shown by many pa.s.sages in different comedies; but at present Aristophanes will suffice, who in the Thesmophoriazusae speaks as follows--

_A._ Has any fish been bought? a cuttle-fish, Or a broad squill, or else a polypus; Or roasted mullet, or perhaps some beet-root?

_B._ Indeed there was not.

_A._ Or a roach or dace?

_B._ Nothing of such a sort?

_A._ Was there no black-pudding, Nor tripe, nor sausage, nor boar's liver fried, No honeycomb, no paunch of pig, no eel, No mighty crab, with which you might recruit The strength of women wearied with long toil?

But by broad squills he must have meant what we call astaci, a kind of crab which Philyllius mentions in his Cities. And Archestratus, in that famous poem of his where he never once mentions the crab by the name of ???a??, does speak of the ?sta???. As he does also in the following pa.s.sage--

But pa.s.sing over trifles, buy an astacus, Which has long hands and heavy too, but feet Of delicate smallness, and which slowly walks Over the earth's face. A goodly troop there are Of such, and those of finest flavour, where The isles of Lipara do gem the ocean: And many lie in the broad h.e.l.lespont.

And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, shows plainly that the ?sta???

spoken of by Archestratus is the same as the ???a??, speaking as follows--

There are astaci and colybdaenae, both equipp'd With little feet and long hands, both coming under The name of ???a??.

65. But the carabi, and astaci, and also carides or squills, are each a distinct genus. But the Athenians spell the name ?sta?? with an ?, ?sta???, just as they also write ?staf?da?. But Epicharmus in his Earth and Sea says--

??sta??? ?a???????.

And Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that of soft-sh.e.l.led animals the following are nearly like one another. The coracus, the astacus, the nymphe, the arctus, the carcinus, and the pagurus. And Diocles the Carystian says, "Carides, carcini, carabi, and astaci, are pleasant to the taste and diuretic." And Epicharmus has also mentioned the colybdaena in the lines I have quoted above; which Nicander calls the beauty of the sea; but Heraclides in his Cookery Book gives that name to the caris. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says, "Of soft-sh.e.l.led animals the carabi, the astaci, the carides, and others of the same sort, are propagated like quadrupeds; and they breed at the beginning of spring; as indeed is no secret to anybody; but at times they breed when the fig begins to ripen.

Now carabi are found in rough and rocky places; but astaci in smooth ground; neither kind in muddy places: on which account there are astaci produced in the h.e.l.lespont and about Thasos; and carabi off Cape Sigeum and Mount Athos. But the whole race of crabs is long-lived. But Theophrastus, in his book on Animals who dive in Holes, says that the astaci and carabi and carides all cast off their old age.

66. But concerning carides, Ephorus mentions in his first book that there is a city called Carides near the island of Chios; and he says that it was founded by Macar and those of his companions who were saved out of the deluge which happened in the time of Deucalion; and that to this very day the place is called Carides. But Archestratus, the inventor of made dishes, gives these recommendations--

But if you ever come to Iasus, A city of the Carians, you shall have A caris of huge size, but rare to buy.

Many there are where Macedon is wash'd By the deep sea, and in Ambracia's gulf.

But Araros in his Campylion has used the word ?a??da with the penultima circ.u.mflexed and long--

The strangely bent carides did leap forth Like dolphins into the rope-woven vessel.

And Eubulus says in his Orthane--

I put a carid (?a??da) down and took it up again.

Anaxandrides says in his Lycurgus--

And he plays with little carids (?a??d?????), And little partridges, and little lettuces; And little sparrows, and with little cups, And little scindaries, and little gudgeons.

And the same poet says in his Pandarus--

If you don't stoop, my friend, you'll upright be.

But she is like a carid (?a??d??) in her person; Bent out, and like an anchor standing firm.

And in his Cerkios he says--

I'll make them redder than a roasted carid (?a??d??).

And Eubulus says in his Grandmothers--

And carids (?a??de?) of the humpback'd sort.