The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 85

79. But that the nestes are a kind of cestreus, Archippus tells us, in his Hercules Marrying:--

Nestes cestres, cephali.

And Antiphanes, in his Lampon, says--

But all the other soldiers which you have Are hungry (??ste??) cestres.

And Alexis, in his Phrygian, says--

So I a nestis cestreus now run home.

Ameipsias says, in his Men playing at the Cottabus--

_A._ And I will seek the forum, there to find Some one to take my work.

_B._ I wish you would, You would all have less time to follow me, Like any hungry (??st??) cestreus.

And Euphron says, in his Ugly Woman--

Midas then is a cestreus--see, he walks Along the city fasting (??st??).

And Philemon says, in his Men dying together--

I bought me now a nestis cestreus roasted Of no great size.

Aristophanes, in his Gerytades, says--

Is there within a colony of man cestres?

For that they all are ??st?de? you know.

Anaxandrides says, in his Ulysses--

He usually goes supperless about, Like a cestrinus nestis.

And Eubulus, in his Nausicaa, says--

Who has been drown'd 'tis now four days ago, Leading the life of a sad nestis cestreus.

80. When all this had been said about this nice dish of fish, one of the cynics coming late in the evening said, "My friends, are we, too, keeping a fast, as if this were the middle day of the Thesmophoria, since we are now fasting like cestres? For, as Diphilus says, in his Lemnian Women--

These men have supp'd, but I, wretch that I am, Shall be a cestreus through th' extreme of fasting.

And Myrtilus answering, said--

But stand in order--

as the Hedychares of Theopompus says--

hungry band of cestres, You who are fed, like geese, on vegetables.

For you shall not take a share of any of these things before either you, or your fellow-pupil Ulpian, tell me why the cestreus is the only fish which is called the faster. And Ulpian said,--It is because he never takes any living bait; and when he is caught, it is neither effected by any meat nor by any living animal; as Aristotle tells us, when he says "perhaps his being hungry makes him lazy;" and also that "when he is frightened he hides his head, as if by so doing he concealed his whole body." But Plato, in his Holidays, says--

As I was going out I met a fisherman, And he was bringing me some cestres, and He brought me all those worthless starving fish.

But do you tell me, O you Thessalian wrestler, Myrtilus! why it is that fish are called by the poets ????pe?? And he said,--It is because they are voiceless; but some insist upon it that, by strict a.n.a.logy, the word ought to be ????pe?, because they are deprived of voice: for the verb ???es?a? means to be deprived, and ?? means voice.[484:1] And are you ignorant of this, when you are an ????? yourself? But I, as the wise Epicharmus says, when this dog makes me no answer,--

Am by myself enough well to reply To what two men have lately said before me.

And I say that they are called ????pe? from being covered with scales, [the word coming from the same root, and being equivalent to ?ep?d?t??]. But I will tell you (though that is not a question which has been asked) why the Pythagoreans, who do touch other living creatures, though sparingly, and who allow themselves even to sacrifice some, absolutely abstain altogether from fish alone. Is it because of their silence? for they think silence a very divine quality. Since, then, you, O you Molossian dogs, are always silent, but are still not Pythagoreans, we will now go on to the rest of the discussion about fish.

81. There is a fish called the coracinus. The coracini, which are caught at sea, says Icesius, contain but little nourishment; but they are easily secreted, and have a moderate supply of good juice. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that "it happens to nearly all fish to have a rapid growth, and this is the case, in no small degree, with the coracinus; and he lays his eggs close to the land, in places full of weeds and moss." But Speusippus, in the second book of his treatise on Similitudes, says that the black-tail and the coracinus are much alike. But Numenius, in his Treatise on the Art of Fishing, says--

It easily would attract the spotted coracinus.

And perhaps the aeoliae mentioned by Epicharmus, in his Muses, may be the same as coracini. For Epicharmus says--

aeoliae, plotes, cynoglossi too.

But, in his Hebe's Marriage, he speaks of the aeoliae as a different fish; for he says--

There there were mussels, and the alphastic fish, And coracini like to coriander seed, aeoliae, plotes too, and the cynoglossi.

But Euthydemus, in his essay on Cured Fish, says that the coracinus is by many people called the saperda. And Heracleon the Ephesian has said much the same thing; and so has Philotimus, in his Cookery Book. But that the saperdas and the coracinus are both called the platistacus is affirmed by Parmeno the Rhodian, in the first book of his Culinary Doctrine. But Aristophanes, in his Telmessians, uses the expression "black-finned coracini."

Pherecrates also uses the word in its diminutive form, in his Forgetful Man, where he says--

Being with your ???a????d?a and a???d?a.

And Amphis says, in his Ialemus--

Whoever eats a sea-born coracinus When he may have a grayling, is a fool.

But the coracini of the Nile are very sweet and delicious in their flesh, as those who have tried them know; and they have got their name from continually moving their eyes (d?? t? t?? ???a? ???e??), and never ceasing. But the Alexandrians call them plataces, which is, more correctly speaking, the name of the whole genus.

82. There is also a fish called the cyprinus, or carp. He also, as Aristotle tells us, is a carnivorous and gregarious fish; and he has his tongue, not in the lower part of the mouth, but in the upper part. But Dorion, mentioning him in his list among the lake and river fish, writes thus: "A scaly fish, whom some people call the cyprinus."

83. There is also the tench. "The tench is very juicy," as Icesius says, "exceedingly attractive to the palate, very easily secreted, not very nutritious, nor is the juice which they give very wholesome. But, in delicacy of flavour, the white kind is superior to the black. But the flesh of the green tench is more dry, and devoid of fat; and they give a much smaller quant.i.ty of juice, and what they do give is thinner. Still they are more nutritious, on account of their size." Diocles says that those which are found in rocky situations are very tender. But Numenius, in his treatise on Fishing, calls them, not ?????, but ?????.

A char or tench (?????) of mighty size and bold.

And Sophron, in his Countryman, speaks of "The cothons, who bathe in mud;" and perhaps it was from the name of this fish that he called the son of his Tunny-catcher, in the play, Cothonias. But it is the Sicilians who call the tench ?????, as Nicander the Colophonian tells us, in his book on Dialects; and Apollodorus confirms the statement, in his treatise on the Modest and Temperate Man. But Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, names the tench, calling it ?????:--

The turtle with their sting behind, and then the tender tench.

And Antiphanes, in his Timon, praising the tench, tells us in what places they are to be found in the greatest perfection, in these lines:--

I come, but I have been to great expense In buying viands for this marriage feast.

I've bought a pennyworth of frankincense To offer to the G.o.ds and all the G.o.ddesses, And to the heroes I will offer cakes.

But when I bid that rascally house-breaking Seller of fish to add a dainty dish, "I'll throw you in," says he, "the borough itself, For they are all Phalericans." The rest I do believe were selling our Otrynicans.[486:1]