And, on similar principles, they assign to Apollo the fish [Greek: kitharos], from [Greek: kithara] (the harp); and the [Greek: boax] to Mercury, from [Greek: boaô] (to speak); and the [Greek: kittos] to Bacchus, from [Greek: kissos] (ivy); and the [Greek: phalaris] to Venus, as Aristophanes in his Birds says, from the similarity of its name to the word [Greek: phallos]. And so the bird called the [Greek: nêssa] (or duck), they call Neptune's bird; and the sea production which we call [Greek: aphya], and others [Greek: aphrya], and which is more generally called [Greek: aphros] (foam), they also give to him; though they say that this also is very dear to Venus, because she herself was born of foam. But Apollodorus, in his books concerning the Gods, says that the mullet is sacrificed to Hecate on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the goddess is [Greek: trimorphos], of a triple form. But Melanthus, in his treatise on the Eleusinian Mysteries, says that both the [Greek: triglê] and the [Greek: mainis] (or sprat), are sacred to Hecate, because Hecate is also a goddess of the sea. But Hegesander the Delphian says that the mullet is accustomed to be carried about in the Artemisia, because it is accustomed diligently to hunt out and destroy the sea-hares, which are poisonous animals; on which account, as it does this to the great benefit of mankind, the mullet as a huntress is considered sacred to the goddess who is also a huntress. And Sophron has called the mullet "bearded," because those which have beards are better flavoured than those which have not. And there is a place at Athens called [Greek: Trigla], and there there is a shrine to [Greek: Hekatê Triglanthinê]; on which account Chariclides, in his Chain, says—
O mistress Hecate, Trioditis,
With three forms ([Greek: trimorphe]) and three faces ([Greek: triprosôpe]),
Propitiated with mullets ([Greek: triglais]).
127. And if the mullet, while alive, be choked with wine, and then a man drinks the wine, he will no longer be able to indulge in the pleasures of Venus, as Terpsicles tells us in his book on Amatory Pleasures. And if a woman drinks this same wine, she never becomes pregnant. Birds, too, are affected in the same manner. But Archestratus, that very learned man, after he has praised the Milesian mullet which are found at Teichius, proceeds to say—
If you at Thasos are, then buy a mullet;
You ne'er will get a worse, unless indeed
You go to Tius; but even those are fair:
But at Erythræ they are caught in shore
And are most excellent.
