Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/29

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FISH. praising the Rhodian anchovies, and comparing many of the productions of Attica to those of Rhodes, says—"We may compare to the anchovies of Phalerum those which are called the Æniatides, and you may compare the ellops and the orphus with the glauciscus; and with the Eleusinian plaice and turbot, and whatever other fish there may be among them enjoying a reputation higher than that of Cecrops, Rhodes has the fox fish to compare." But the author of the Delight of Life, exhorts the man who is unable to purchase enough to satisfy his appetite, to get fish to eat by robbery, rather than go without it. But Lynceus calls Archestratus an epicure, who in that much celebrated poem of his speaks thus of the shark:—

Are you at Rhodes? e'en if about to die,
Still, if a man would sell you a fox shark,
The fish the Syracusans call the dog,
Seize on it eagerly; at least, if fat:
And then compose yourself to meet your fate
With brow serene and mind well satisfied.

25. The acharnus is mentioned by Callias in his Cyclops—

A harp-fish roast, besides a ray,
  The head too of a tunny,
And eel, some crabs, and this acharnus,
  The great Ænean dainty.

26. The ray, roach, or sea frog may also be mentioned. They are mentioned under the two former names by Aristotle in his treatise on Animals, where he classes them under the head of cartilaginous fish. And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, says—

At Callias's house there is much pleasure,
For he has crabs for dinner, rays besides,
And hares, and women with light twinkling feet.

And Epicharmus says, in his Marriage of Hebe—

And there were rays and sea-frogs, sawfish, sharks,
Camitæ, roach, and lobsters with hard shells.

And in his Megarian Woman he writes—

          Its sides were like a ray,
Its back was altogether like a roach,
Its head was long, far more like a stag's,
Its flanks were like a scorpion's, son of the sea.

And Sannyrion says, in his Laughter—

O rays, O dainty grayling.

And Aristotle in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of