The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 76

And Erinna, or whoever it was who composed the poem which is attributed to her, says--

O pompilus, thou fish who dost bestow A prosp'rous voyage on the hardy sailor, Conduct (p?pe?sa??) my dear companion safely home.

19. And Apollonius the Rhodian or Naucratian, in his History of the foundation of Naucratis, says, "Pompilus was originally a man; and he was changed into a fish, on account of some love affair of Apollo's. For the river Imbrasus flows by the city of the Samians,--

And join'd to him, the fairest of the nymphs, The young and n.o.ble Chesias, bore a daughter, The lovely maid Ocyrhoe--her whose beauty Was the kind Hours' heaven-descended gift.

They say then that Apollo fell in love with her and endeavoured to ravish her; and that she having crossed over to Miletus at the time of some festival of Diana, when the endeavour was about to be made to carry her off, being afraid of such an attempt being made, and being on her guard, entreated Pompilus, who was a seafaring man and a friend of her father, to conduct her safe back again to her own country, saying this,--

O Pompilus, to whose wise breast are known The rapid depths of the hoa.r.s.e roaring sea, Show that your mind doth recollect my sire, Who was your friend, and save his daughter now.

And they say that he led her down to the sh.o.r.e, and conducted her safely across the sea: and that Apollo appeared and carried off the maiden, and sunk the ship with stones, and metamorphosed Pompilus into a fish of the same name, and that he made

The Pompilus an everlasting slave Of ships that swiftly pa.s.s along the sea.

20. But Theocritus the Syracusan, in his poem ent.i.tled Berenice, calls the fish which is called leucus the sacred fish, speaking thus--

And if a mortal seeks the G.o.ds with prayer For a successful hunt, or plenteous gold, A man who lives by the sea, whose nets he makes His ploughs to raise his crops; then let him come, And just at nightfall sacrifice with prayer To this same G.o.ddess the most sacred fish, Which men call leucus, (loveliest he of fish,) Then let him bend his nets; and soon he shall Draw them back from the waters full of prey.

But Dionysius, who was surnamed the Iambic, in his treatise on Dialects, writes thus--"We have heard accordingly an Eretrian fisherman, and many other fishermen, too, of other countries, call the pompilus the sacred fish. Now the pompilus is a sea fish, and is very commonly seen around ships, being something like the tunny called pelamys. However, some one spoken of by the poet catches this fish;--

Sitting upon a high projecting rock He caught the sacred fish.

Unless, indeed, there be any other kind which is likewise called the sacred fish. But Callimachus in his Galatea calls the chrysophrys the sacred fish, where he says--

Or shall I rather say the gold-brow'd fish, That sacred fish, or perch, or all the rest Which swim beneath the vast unfathom'd sea.

But in his Epigrams the same poet says--

The sacred sacred hyca.

But some understand by the term sacred fish, one let go and dedicated to the G.o.d, just as people give the same name to a consecrated ox. But others consider that sacred is here only equivalent to great, as Homer speaks of

The sacred might of Alcinous.

And some think that it is only called ?e??? as ??e??? p??? t?? ???? (going down stream)."

21. But c.l.i.tarchus, in the seventh book of his treatise on Dialects, says--"The nautical people call the pompilus the sacred fish, because it conducts ships out of the open sea into harbour, on which account it is called p?p???? from p?p?, being the same fish as the chrysophrys." And Eratosthenes in his Mercury says--

They left a share of all their booty there; Still living centipedes, the bearded mullet, The sea-thrush, with dark spots embroider'd o'er, Or the swift sacred fish with golden brows.

Now after all this discussion of ours about fish, the excellent Ulpian may ask why Archestratus, speaking in those excellent suggestions of his of the cured fish on the Bosphorus, says--

Those which do come from the Bosphoric seas Are whitest; only let there be no sample Of the hard meat o' the fish which grow around The Lake Maeotis; not in verse can I That fish correctly name.

What is the fish, which he says it is not proper to mention in poetry?

22. Anchovies must be next considered. And, indeed, Aristonymus uses the word in the singular number, in his Shivering Sun--

So that there really is not one anchovy.

But of the anchovies there are many kinds, and the one which is called aphritis[447:1] is not produced from roe, as Aristotle says, but from a foam which floats upon the surface of the water, and which collects in quant.i.ties when there have been heavy rains. There is also another kind called cobitis, and that is produced from some little worthless gudgeons which are generated in the sand; and from this anchovy itself another kind is produced, which is called the encrasicholus. There is also another anchovy which is the offspring of the sprat; and another which comes from the membras; and another still which comes from the small cestris, which is engendered in the sand and slime. But of all these kinds the aphritis is the best. But Dorion, in his treatise on Fishes, speaks of a fish called the cobites, as good boiled, and also of the sp.a.w.n of the atherina; and atherina is the name of a fish; and some also call the triglitis an anchovy. But Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, enumerates the anchovies among the shrimps or membrades; making a distinction between this and what is called the seed. And Icesius says, "Of the anchovy, there is one sort which is white and very thin and frothy, which some people also call the cobitis. And there is another which is not so clean as that, and which is larger; but the clean and thin one is the better of the two." And Archestratus the contriver of delicate dishes, says,--

Use all anchovies for manure, except The Attic fish; I mean that useful seed Which the Ionians do call the foam; And take it fresh; just caught within the bays, The sacred bays of beautiful Phalerum.

Good is it too, when by the sea-girt isle Of Rhodes you eat it, if it's not imported.

And if you wish to taste it in perfection, Boil nettles with it--nettles whose green leaves On both sides crown the stem; put these in the dish Around the fish, then fry them in one pan, And mix in fragrant herbs well steep'd in oil.

23. But Clearchus the Peripatetic, in his treatise on Proverbs, speaks of the anchovy, and says--"Because they want very little fire for the frying-pan, Archestratus recommends people to put them into a pan which is already hot, and to take them off as soon as they hiss. And they are done, and begin to hiss in a moment, like oil; on which account it is said, 'Anchovy, look at the fire.'" And Chrysippus the philosopher, in his treatise on the Things which deserve to be sought for their own Sakes, says, "The anchovy which is found in the sea at Athens, men despise on account of its abundance, and say that it is a poor man's fish; but in other cities they prize it above everything, even where it is far inferior to the Attic anchovy. Moreover some people," says he, "endeavour to rear the Adriatic fowls in this place, which are much less useful than our own kinds, inasmuch as they are smaller. But the people in the Adriatic, on the contrary, send for our breed from hence."

Hermippus, too, uses the word ?f?? in the singular number, in his Demotae, where he says,--

You seem not now to move even an anchovy.

And Calcias, in his Cyclops, says--

In preference to the best anchovy.

And Aristonymus, in his Shivering Sun, says--

So that there is not really one anchovy.

But Aristophanes uses the diminutive form, and calls them ?f?d?a in his Friers, saying--

Nor these little Phaleric ?f?d?a.

24. But Lynceus the Samian, in his letter to Diagoras, praising the Rhodian anchovies, and comparing many of the productions of Attica to those of Rhodes, says--"We may compare to the anchovies of Phalerum those which are called the aeniatides, and you may compare the ellops and the orphus with the glauciscus; and with the Eleusinian plaice and turbot, and whatever other fish there may be among them enjoying a reputation higher than that of Cecrops, Rhodes has the fox fish to compare." But the author of the Delight of Life, exhorts the man who is unable to purchase enough to satisfy his appet.i.te, to get fish to eat by robbery, rather than go without it. But Lynceus calls Archestratus an epicure, who in that much celebrated poem of his speaks thus of the shark:--

Are you at Rhodes? e'en if about to die, Still, if a man would sell you a fox shark, The fish the Syracusans call the dog, Seize on it eagerly; at least, if fat: And then compose yourself to meet your fate With brow serene and mind well satisfied.

25. The acharnus is mentioned by Callias in his Cyclops--

A harp-fish roast, besides a ray, The head too of a tunny, And eel, some crabs, and this acharnus, The great aenean dainty.

26. The ray, roach, or sea frog may also be mentioned. They are mentioned under the two former names by Aristotle in his treatise on Animals, where he cla.s.ses them under the head of cartilaginous fish. And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, says--

At Callias's house there is much pleasure, For he has crabs for dinner, rays besides, And hares, and women with light twinkling feet.

And Epicharmus says, in his Marriage of Hebe--

And there were rays and sea-frogs, sawfish, sharks, Camitae, roach, and lobsters with hard sh.e.l.ls.

And in his Megarian Woman he writes--

Its sides were like a ray, Its back was altogether like a roach, Its head was long, far more like a stag's, Its flanks were like a scorpion's, son of the sea.

And Sannyrion says, in his Laughter--

O rays, O dainty grayling.