Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/214

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  • self and your friends." And Hippolochus the Macedonian,

whom we have mentioned before now, in his epistle to the above-named Lynceus, mentioned many wild boars ([Greek: syagrôn]). But, since you have turned off the question which was put to you about the colour of the Calydonian boar, and whether any one states him to have been white as to his flesh, we ourselves will tell you who has said so; and you yourself may investigate the proofs which I bring. For some time ago, I read the dithyrambics of Cleomenes of Rhegium; and this account is given in that ode of them which is entitled Meleager. And I am not ignorant that the inhabitants of Sicily call the wild boar (which we call [Greek: syagros]) [Greek: aschedôros]. And Æschylus, in his Phorcides, comparing Perseus to a wild boar, says—

He rush'd into the cave like a wild boar ([Greek: aschedôros hôs]).

And Sciras (and he is a poet of what is called the Italian comedy, and a native of Tarentum), in his Meleager, says—

Where shepherds never choose to feed their flocks,
Nor does the wild boar range and chase his mate.

And it is not wonderful that Æschylus, who lived for some time in Sicily, should use many Sicilian words.

66. There were also very often kids brought round by the servants, dressed in various ways; some of them with a great deal of assafœtida, which afforded us no ordinary pleasure; for the flesh of the goat is exceedingly nutritious. At all events, Clitomachus the Carthaginian, who is inferior to no one of the new Academy for his spirit of philosophical investigation, says that a certain Theban athlete surpassed all the men of his time in strength, because he ate goat's flesh; for the juice of that meat is nervous and sticky, and such as can remain a long time in the substance of the body. And this wrestler used to be much laughed at, because of the unpleasant smell of his perspiration. And all the meat of pigs and lambs, while it remains undigested in the system, is very apt to turn, because of the fat. But the banquets spoken of by the comic poets rather please the ears by sweet sounds, than the palate by sweet tastes; as, for instance, the feast mentioned by Antiphanes, in his Female Physician—

A. But what meat do you eat with most delight?
B. What meat?—why if you mean as to its cheapness,
     There's mutton ere it bears you wool or milk,
     That is to say, there's lamb, my friend; and so