The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 38

_A._ But are you sure you've nought embezzled here?

_B._ My friend, you've no experience of the market; You know not how the grubs devour the greens.

_A._ But how is that a reason for your charging A double price for salt-fish?

_B._ The greengrocer Is also a salt-fishmonger; go and ask him.

A conger, tenpence.

_A._ That is not too much.

What next?

_B._ I bought a roast fish for a drachma.

_A._ Bah! how he runs on now towards the end, As if a fever had o'ertaken him.

_B._ Then add the wine, of which I bought three gallons When you were drunk, ten obols for each gallon.

87. And Icesius says, in the second book of his treatise on the Materials of Nourishment, that pelamydes are a large kind of cybium. And Posidippus speaks of the cybium, in his Transformed. But Euthydemus, in his treatise on Salt Fish, says that the fish called the Delca.n.u.s is so named from the river Delcon, where it is taken; and then, when pickled and salted, it is very good indeed for the stomach. But Dorion, in his book on Fishes, calls the leptinus the lebia.n.u.s, and says, "that some people say that is the same fish as the delca.n.u.s; and that the ceracinus is called by many people the saperdes; and that the best are those which come from the Palus Maeotis. And he says that the mullet which are caught about Abdera are excellent; and next to them, those which are caught near Sinope; and that they, when pickled and salted, are very good for the stomach. But those, he says, which are called mulli are by some people called agnotidia, and by some platistaci, though they are all the same fish; as also is the ch.e.l.lares. For that he, being but one fish, has received a great variety of names; for that he is called a bacchus, and an oniscus, and a ch.e.l.lares. And those of the larger size are called platistaci, and those of middle size mulli, and those which are but small are called agnotidia. But Aristophanes also mentions the mulli, in his Holcades--

s...o...b..i, and coliae, and lebii, And mulli, and saperdae, and all tunnies.

88. When Dionysiocles was silent upon this, Varus the grammarian said,--But Antiphanes the poet, also, in his Deucalion, mentions these kinds of pickled salt-fish, where he says--

If any one should wish for caviar From mighty sturgeon, fresh from Cadiz' sea; Or else delights in the Byzantine tunny, And courts its fragrance.

And in his Parasite he says--

Caviar from the sturgeon in the middle, Fat, white as snow, and hot.

And Nicostratus or Philetaerus, in his Antyllus, says--

Let the Byzantine salt-fish triumph here, And paunch from Cadiz, carefully preserved.

And a little further on, he proceeds--

But, O ye earth and G.o.ds! I found a man, An honest fishmonger of pickled fish, Of whom I bought a huge fish ready scaled, Cheap at a drachma, for two oboli.

Three days' hard eating scarcely would suffice That we might finish it; no, nor a fortnight, So far does it exceed the common size.

After this Ulpian, looking upon Plutarch, chimed in,--It seems to me that no one, in all that has been said, has included the Mendesian fish, which are so much fancied by you gentlemen of Alexandria; though I should have thought that a mad dog would scarcely touch them; nor has any one mentioned the hemineri or half-fresh fish, which you think so good, nor the pickled shads. And Plutarch replied,--The heminerus, as far as I know, does not differ from the half-pickled fish which have been already mentioned, and which your elegant Archestratus speaks of; but, however, Sopater the Paphian has mentioned the heminerus, in his Slave of Mystacus, saying--

He then received the caviar from a sturgeon Bred in the mighty Danube, dish much prized, Half-fresh, half-pickled, by the wandering Scythians.

And the same man includes the Mendesian in his list--

A slightly salt Mendesian in season, And mullet roasted on the glowing embers.

And all those who have tried, know that these dishes are by far more delicate and agreeable than the vegetables and figs which you make such a fuss about. Tell us now also, whether the word t?????? is used in the masculine gender by the Attic writers; for we know it is by Epicharmus.

89. And while Ulpian was thinking this over with himself, Myrtilus, antic.i.p.ating him, said,--Cratinus, in his Dionysalexander, has--

I will my basket fill with Pontic pickles,

(where he uses t?????? as masculine;) and Plato, in his Jupiter Illtreated, says--

All that I have amounts to this, And I shall lose my pickled fish (ta??????).

And Aristophanes says, in his Daitaleis--

I'm not ashamed to wash this fine salt-fish (t?? t?????? t??t???), From all the evils which I know he has.

And Crates says, in his Beasts--

And you must boil some greens, and roast some fish, And pickled fish likewise, (t??? ta??????,) and keep your hands From doing any injury to us.

But the noun is formed in a very singular manner by Hermippus, in his Female Bread-Sellers--

And fat pickled fish (t?????? p???a).

And Sophocles says, in his Phineus--

A pickled corpse (?e???? t??????) Egyptian to behold.

Aristophanes has also treated us to a diminutive form of the word, in his Peace--

Bring us some good ta?????? to the fields

And Cephisodorus says, in his Pig--

Some middling meat, or some ta??????.

And Pherecrates, in his Deserters, has--

The woman boil'd some pulse porridge, and lentils, And so awaited each of us, and roasted Besides an orphan small ta??????.

Epicharmus also uses the word in the masculine gender, ? t??????. And Herodotus does the same in his ninth book; where he says--"The salt-fish (?? t??????) lying on the fire, leaped about and quivered."

And the proverbs, too, in which the word occurs, have it in the masculine gender:--

Salt-fish (t??????) is done if it but see the fire.

Salt-fish (t??????) when too long kept loves marjoram.

Salt-fish (t??????) does never get its due from men.

But the Attic writers often use it as a neuter word; and the genitive case, as they use it, is t?? ta??????. Chionides says, in his Beggars--

Will you then eat some pickled fish (t?? ta??????), ye G.o.ds!

And the dative is ta???e?, like ??fe?--