THE POLYPUS.
Worship this shrine of Philadelphus' wife,
Venus Arsinoe, whom Callicrates,
The naval leader, first did firmly place
On this most beautiful Zephyrian shore.
And she will on your pious voyage smile,
And amid storms will for her votaries
Smooth the vex'd surface of the wide-spread sea.
Ion the tragedian also mentions the polypus, in his Phœnix, saying—
I hate the colour-changing polypus,
Clinging with bloodless feelers to the rocks.
107. Now the different species of polypus are these: the eledone, the polypodine, the bolbotine, the osmylus; as both Aristotle and Speusippus teach us. But, in his book on Animals and their Properties, Aristotle says that the polypus, the osmylus, the eledone, the cuttle-fish, and the squid, are all molluscous. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
A polypus, a cuttle-fish, and quickly-moving squid,
A foul-smelling bolbitine, and chattering old woman.
And Archestratus says—
The Carian and the Thasian polypi
Are far the best; Corcyra too can breed
Fish of large size and very numerous.
But the Dorians spell the word with an [Greek: ô], [Greek: pôlypous]; as, for instance, Epicharmus. Simonides too has the expression, [Greek: pôlypon dizêmenos]. But the Attics spell the word [Greek: polypous], with an [Greek: o]: and it is a cartilaginous fish; for [Greek: chondrôdês] and [Greek: selachôdês] have the same meaning;—
The polypodes and the dog-shark.
Moreover, all the fish belonging to the species of the cuttle-fish are called molluscous. But the whole tribe of . . . is cartilaginous.
108. There is also a fish called the pagurus; and it is mentioned by Timocles or Xenarchus, in his Purple, thus—
But I, as being a skilful fisherman,
Have carefully devised all sorts of arts
To catch those vile paguri, enemies
To all the gods and all the little fishes.
And shall I not without delay beguile
An old buglossus? That would be well done.
109. There is also the pelamys. Phrynichus mentions it in his Muses; and Aristotle, in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, says the pelamydes and the tunnies
