PIGS. And in his Acharnians he says—
For she is young ([Greek: nea]), but when she is a sow ([Greek: delphakoumena]),
You'll see she'll have a large, fat, ruddy tail;
And if you keep her she'll be a noble pig ([Greek: choiros kala]).
And Eupolis, in his Golden Age, uses it as feminine; and Hipponax wrote—
[Greek: Hôs Ephesiê delphax].
And, indeed, it is the female pig which is more correctly called by this name, as having [Greek: delphyas], for that word [Greek: delphys] means a womb. And it is the word from which [Greek: adelphos] is derived. But respecting the age of these animals, Cratinus speaks in his Archilochi, saying—
These men have [Greek: delphakes], the others [Greek: choiroi].
And Aristophanes the grammarian, in his treatise on Ages, says—"Those pigs which are now come to a compact form, are called [Greek: delphakes]; but those which are tender, and are full of juice, are called [Greek: choiroi];" and this makes that line of Homer intelligible—
The servants all have little pigs ([Greek: choirea]) to eat,
But on fat hogs ([Greek: syes]) the dainty suitors feast.[1]
And Plato the comic poet, in his Poet, uses the word in the masculine gender, and says—
He led away the pig ([Greek: ton delphaka]) in silence.
But there was ancient custom, as Androtion tells us, for the sake of the produce of the herds, never to slay a sheep which had not been shorn, or which had never had young, on which account they always ate full-grown animals:
But on fat hogs the dainty suitors feast.
And even to this day the priest of Minerva never sacrifices a lamb, and never tastes cheese. And when, on one occasion, there was a want of oxen, Philochorus says, that a law was passed that they should abstain from slaying them on account of their scarcity, wishing to get a greater number, and to increase the stock by not slaying them. But the Ionians use the word [Greek: choiros] also of the female pig, as Hipponax does, where he says—
With pure libations and the offer'd paunch
Of a wild sow ([Greek: agrias choirou]).
And Sophocles, in his Tænarus, a satyric drama, says—
Should you then guard her, like a chain'd up sow ([Greek: choiron desmian])?
- ↑ Hom. Odyss. xiv. 80.
