Fish. Pherecrates in his Ant-Men, saying—"They say that there is no other fish whatever, which has any voice at all;" adds afterwards,—"By Castor and Pollux, there is at least no other fish except the boax." And Aristophanes the Byzantian says—"That we are wrong to call the fish boax, when we ought to call it boops, since, though it is but a little fish, it has very large eyes, so that it might be called boops, having bulls' eyes." But we may reply to him, If we are wrong in naming him as we do, why do we say coracinus, not corocinus? For he derives his name from moving the pupils of his eyes ([Greek: apo tou tas koras kinein]). And so too, why do we not call the fish [Greek: seiouros] instead of [Greek: silouros]? for he has his name from continually shaking his tail ([Greek: apo tou seiein tên ouran])?
28. With respect to the small kind of anchovy called membras, Phrynicus, in his Tragedians, says—
O golden-headed membrades, sons of the sea.
But Epicharmus in his Hebe's Wedding, calls them bambradones, and says—
Bambradones and sea-thrushes, and hares,
And furious dragons.
And Sophron in his Manly Qualities, says—"The bambradon, and the needle fish." And Numenius says, in his Treatise on Fishing,
Or a small sprat, or it may be a bembras,
Kept in a well; you recollect these baits.
And Dorion in his book on Fishes, says—"Having taken off the head of a bembras, if it be one of a tolerable size, and having washed it with water, and a small quantity of salt, then boil it in the same manner as you do a mullet; and the bembras is the only kind of anchovy from which is derived the condiment called bembraphya; which is mentioned by Aristonymus in the Sun Shivering—
The carcinobates of Sicily
Resembles the bembraphya.
Still the Attic writers often call them bembrades. Aristomenes says in his Jugglers—
Bringing some bembrades purchased for an obol.
And Aristonymus in his Sun Shivering, says—
The large anchovy plainly is not now,
Nor e'en the bembras, quite unfortunate.
