FISH. And Cratinus, in his Trophonius, says—
And do not eat a red-flesh'd mullet hard,
Brought from Æxona; nor of any turtle,
Or mighty melanurus from those seas.
But Nausicrates, the comic poet, praises the mullets from Æxona, in his Captains of Ships, saying—
Those yellow fleshed fish, which the high wave
That beats Æxona brings towards the shore,
The best of fish; with which we venerate
The light-bestowing daughter of great Jove;
When sailors offer gifts of feasts to heaven.
B. You mean the mullet.
128. There is, too, the tænia; and this is mentioned by Epicharmus:—
The most belovèd tænia, which are thin,
But highly flavour'd, and need little fire.
And Mithæcus, in his Cookery Book, says—"Having taken out the entrails of the tænia, and cut off its head, and washed it, and having cut it into slices, sprinkle over it cheese and oil." But this fish is found in the greatest number and in the finest condition off Canopus, which is near Alexandria; and also off Seleucia, which is close to Antioch. But when Eupolis, in his Prospaltii, says—
His mother was a Thracian woman,
A seller of tæniæ;
he then means by the word [Greek: tainia], not the fish, but those pieces of woven work and girdles with which women bind their waists.
129. Another fish is the trachurus, or rough-tail. Diocles mentions this as a dry fish. And Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, says—
The aconia and the wagtail too,
And the . . . trachurus.
There is also the taulopias. Concerning this fish, Archestratus says—
When it is summer buy a good-sized head
Of fresh taulopias, just when Phaethon
Is driving his last course. Dress it with speed.
Serve it up hot, and some good seasoning with it,
Then take its entrails, spit and roast them too.
130. There is also the [Greek: teuthis], [which is a kind of cuttle-fish, different from the [Greek: sêpia].] Aristotle says that this also is a
