And Aristophanes says in his Old Age—
Fed on the hoary bembrades.
And Plato in his Old Men, says—
O Hercules, do just survey these bembrades.
But in the Goats of Eupolis we may find the word written also with a [Greek: m] (not [Greek: bembras] but [Greek: membras]). And Antiphanes says, in his Cnœsthis;—
They do proclaim within the fishmarket
The most absurd of proclamations,
For just now one did shout with all his voice
That he had got some bembrades sweet as honey;
But if this be the case, then what should hinder
The honey-sellers crying out and saying,
That they have honey stinking like a bembras?
And Alexis in his Woman leading the Chorus, writes the word with a [Greek: m]—
Who to the young folks making merry, then
Put forth but lately pulse and membrades,
And well-press'd grapes to eat.
And in his Protochorus he says—
No poorer meal, by Bacchus now I swear,
Have I e'er tasted since I first became
A parasite; I'd rather sup on membrades
With any one who could speak Attic Greek;
It would be better for me.
29. There is also a fish called the blennus, and it is mentioned by Sophron, in his play entitled The Fisherman and the Countryman, and he calls it the fat blennus. It is something like the tench in shape. But Epicharmus in his Hebe's Wedding speaks of a fish which he calls baiones, where he says—
Come now and bring me high-backed mullets,
And the ungrateful baiones.
And among the Attic writers there is a proverb, "No baion for me; he is a poor fish."
30. There is also a shell-fish called buglossus. And Archestratus, the Pythagorean, says, because of his temperate habits,
Then we may take a turbot plump, or e'en
A rough buglossus in the summer time,
If one is near the famous Chalcis.
And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
There were buglossi and the harp-fish there.
