The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 82

58. The erythrinus, or red mullet, has been mentioned too. Aristotle, in his book on Animals, and Speusippus both say that the fishes called erythrinus, phagrus, and hepatus are all very nearly alike. And Dorion has said much the same in his treatise on Fish. But the Cyrenaeans give the name of erythrinus to the hyca; as c.l.i.tarchus tells us in his Dialects.

59. The encrasicholi are also mentioned by Aristotle as fish of small size, in his treatise on What relates to Animals. But Dorion, in his book on Fishes, speaks of the encrasicholi among those which are best boiled, speaking in the following terms--"One ought to boil the encrasicholi, and the iopes, and the atherinae, and the tench, and the smaller mullets, and the cuttle-fish, and the squid, and the different kinds of crab or craw-fish."

60. The hepsetus, or boiled fish, is a name given to several small fish.

Aristophanes, in his Anagyrus, says--

There is not one dish of hepseti.

And Archippus says in his Fishes--

An hepsetus fell in with an anchovy And quick devour'd him.

And Eupolis, in his Goats, says--

Ye graces who do love the hepseti.

And Eubulus, in his Prosusia or Cycnus, says--

Contented if just once in each twelve days He sees an hepsetus well boil'd in beet.

And Alexis, in his Apeglaucomenos, says--

There were some hepseti besides served up In a daedalean manner. For they call All clever works by the name of Daedalus;

and presently afterwards he continues--

Will you not now then try the coracini?

Nor trichides, nor any hepseti?

But this word is always used in the plural, ???t??, because they are only served up in numbers. Aristophanes, in his Dramata or Niobus, says--

I will say nothing of a dish of hepseti.

And Menander, in his Perinthian Woman, says--

The boy came in bringing some hepseti.

But Nicostratus uses the word in the singular number, in his Hesiod--

A bembras, an anchovy, and a hepsetus.

And Posidippus, in his Woman shut up, says--

She's gone to buy a hepsetus.

But in my country Naucratis, what they call hepseti are little fish left in the drains or ditches, when the Nile ceases its overflowing.

61. The hepatus or lebias is the next fish to be noticed. Diocles affirms that this is one of those fish which stick to the rocks; but Speusippus says that the hepatus is the same as the phagrus. But it is a solitary fish, as Aristotle declares, carnivorous, and with serrated teeth; black as to its flesh, and having eyes large, out of all proportion to the rest of its size; and its heart is triangular and white. But Archestratus, the marshal of banquets, says--

Remember that the lebias is best, As also is the hepatus, in the waves Which wash the Delian and the Tenian sh.o.r.es.

62. Then come the elacatenes, or spindle fish. Mnesimachus, in his Horsebreeder, cla.s.ses together in one line--

The turbot, tunny, tench, elacatene.

But they are a cetaceous fish, very good for curing. Menander, in his Colons, says--

The tench, th' elacatene, and the tail-fin of The sea-dog are the best for pickling.

And Mnaseas of Patra says, "Of Ichthys and Hesychia, his sister, were born the galene, the lamprey, and the elacatene.

63. The tunny must also not be forgotten. Aristotle says this fish swims into the Black Sea, always keeping the land on the right; but that he sails out again, keeping the land on the left. For that he can see much best with his right eye, but that he is rather blind with his left eye.

And under his fins he has a sort of gadfly; he delights in heat, on which account he comes wherever there is sand; and he is most eatable at the season when he gets rid of that fly. But he propagates his species after his time of torpor is over, as we are told by Theophrastus; and as long as his offspring are little, he is very difficult to catch, but when they get larger, then he is easily caught, because of the gadfly.

But the tunny lies in holes, although he is a fish with a great deal of blood. And Archestratus says--

Around the sacred and the s.p.a.cious isle Of Samos you may see large tunnies caught.

The Samians call them horcyes, and others Do name them cetus. These 'tis well to buy, Fit offering for the G.o.ds; and do it quickly, Nor stop to haggle or bargain for the price.

Good too are those which fair Byzantium, Or the Carystian marble rocks do breed.

And in the famous isle of Sicily, The Cephaldian and Tyndarian sh.o.r.es Send forth fish richer still. And if you come To sacred Italy, where Hipponium's cape Frowns on the waves which lave the Bruttian coast, Those are the best of all. The tunnies there Have gain'd the height of fame and palm of victory.

Still those which there you find have wander'd far, Cross'd many seas, and many a roaring strait, So that we often catch them out of season.

64. But this fish was called the tunny (??????) from rushing (?p? t??

??e??), and moving rapidly. For it is an impetuous fish, from, at a particular season, having a gadfly in its head; by which Aristotle says that it is driven about, writing thus--"But the tunny fish and the sword fish are driven to frenzy about the time of the rising of the dogstar; for both of them at that season have under their fins something like a small worm, which is called strus, resembling a scorpion, and in size something similar to a spider, and this makes them leap about in leaps as large as those of the dolphin." And Theodoridas says,--

The tunnies bend their furious course to Gades.

But Polybius of Megalopolis, in the thirty-fourth book of his History, speaking of the Lusitanian district in Iberia, says, "That in the sea, in these parts, acorn-bearing oaks grow, on the fruit of which the tunnies feed, and grow fat; so that a person who called the tunny the pig of the sea would not err, for the tunnies, like the pigs, grow to a great size on these acorns."

65. And the intestines of this fish are highly extolled, as Eubulus also tells us, in his Ionian,--

And after this the luscious intestines Of roasted tunnies sail'd upon the table.

And Aristophanes, in his Lemnian Woman, says--

Despise not thou the fat Botian eel, Nor grayling, nor the entrails of the tunny.

And Strattis, in his Atalanta, says--

Next buy the entrails of a tunny, and Some pett.i.toes of pigs, to cost a drachma.

And the same poet says in his Macedonians--

And the sweet entrails of the tunny fish.

And Eriphus says in his Meliba--

These things poor men cannot afford to buy, The entrails of the tunny or the head Of greedy pike, or conger, or cuttle-fish, Which I don't think the G.o.ds above despise.