The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 91

_B._ You should say cestra, in strict Attic Greek.

And Nicophon, in his Pandora, says--

The cestra and the pike.

And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says--

The cestra and the variegated perch.

123. The cuttle-fish is often mentioned. Aristophanes says, in his Danaides,--

And when I have the cuttle-fish and polypus.

And the penultima of this word has the acute accent, like that in the word a?t?a, as Philemon tells us; like these words, pa?d?a, ta???a, ????a.

But Aristotle says that the cuttle-fish has eight feet, of which the two lowest are the largest; and that it has two proboscises, and between them it has its eyes and mouth placed. And it has two teeth, one above and one below; and what is called a sh.e.l.l on its back. And the ink is contained in what is called the mutis, which answers to the liver; and it lies near its mouth, being something like a bladder. Its belly is wide and smooth, like the paunch of an ox. And the little cuttle-fish feed on small fish, extending their proboscises like fishermen's lines, and catching their prey with them. It is said, too, that when a storm comes, they seize hold of the rocks with their proboscises, as if they were anchors, and so fix themselves firm. And when the cuttle-fish is pursued, it discharges its ink, and is hidden in it, making it appear as if it were flying forwards. And it is also said, that when the female is struck by a harpoon, the male fish come to its a.s.sistance, dragging it on; but if the male fish be taken, the female fish flees away. But the cuttle-fish does not live more than a year, as neither does the polypus.

But, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, Aristotle says--"The cuttle-fish and the squids swim together, being united together at the mouths, and also touching one another with their feelers, so as to join in that manner; and they also join proboscis to proboscis. But of all the molluscous fish, the cuttle-fish is the earliest in the spring to bring forth its young; and they do not bring forth at every season. But they go with young fifteen days; and when they lay their eggs, the male follows the female, and breathes upon the eggs and makes them firm. And they move in pairs; and the male is more variegated than the female, and blacker on the back."

124. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says--

The polypus, likewise the cuttle-fish, And the swift-moving squid.

And we must also take notice of this, with reference to Speusippus, who says that the cuttle-fish and the squid are the same fish. But when Hipponax, in his Iambics, uses the words s?p??? ?p?sfa?a, the interpreters have explained the expression as meaning "the ink of the cuttle-fish." But the word ?p?sfa?a is, properly speaking, equivalent, to ?p?t??a, a dish compounded of various ingredients, as Erasistratus tells us, in his Cookery Book. And he writes as follows--"But ?p?sfa?a is made with roast meat and blood stirred up and compounded with cheese, and salt, and c.u.mmin, and a.s.saftida; but the meat may also be boiled." And Glaucus the Locrian, in his Cookery Book, writes as follows--"?p?sfa?a is blood boiled, and a.s.saftida, and boiled lees of wine; or sometimes honey and vinegar, and milk and cheese, and sweet-smelling herbs are shred and mixed together in it." And Archestratus, that man of the most varied learning, says--

The cuttle-fish of Abdera and the middle of Maronea.

And Aristophanes, in his Thesmophoriazusae, says--

Has any fish or cuttle-fish been bought?

And in the Danaides he says--

Osmulia, mnidea, and cuttle-fish.

Theopompus, in his Aphrodite, says--

. . . But eat, my friend, This cuttle-fish, and this small polypus.

But concerning the boiling of the small polypus, Alexis, in his Wicked Woman, introduces a cook speaking as follows--

Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought For one small drachma. And when I've cut off Their feelers and their fins, I then shall boil them.

And cutting up the main part of their meat Into small dice, and rubbing in some salt, After the guests already are sat down, I then shall put them in the frying-pan, And serve up hot towards the end of supper.

125. The next fish is the mullet; and t????? is like ?????, ending in ?.

For the feminine nouns which end in ?a require another ? before the ?a; as s????a, ?e??s???a. But all the words which have ? united to ? end in ?; as t?????, a????, ?e????. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that the mullet brings forth three times in the year; and states that the fishermen have adopted this opinion from the sp.a.w.n being seen three times a-year in certain localities. And perhaps it is from the word t??? (three times) that it has its name; just as the fish called ??a has its name from its being a fish which does not go about by itself, but in shoals (?a). And the s????? is so called from s?a??? (to leap); as also is the ?a???. And the ?f?? is so named as being ?f???, which is equivalent to d?sf???, that is to say, slowly propagated.

Then ?????? has its name from ??? (to rush), because it is an impetuous fish, from being driven about by its fly in the head at the time of the rising of the Dog-star. But it is a fish with serrated teeth, gregarious, and spotted all over, and also carnivorous: and when it has had young three times it becomes barren; for some little worms are engendered in its womb, which devour the young as soon as they are conceived. And from the actual facts, Epicharmus calls them hump-backed, in his Hebe's Wedding, where he says--

He brought the hump-back'd mullet too, And the ungrateful baeones.

But Sophron, in his Male Farces, speaks of a fish which he calls t??????, saying,

The trigola which cuts the navel string.

And in another place he says--

The trigola which loves calm weather.

And in his play called Paedica he says--

. . . . . trigola . . . .

But, in his Affairs of Women, he says--

The bearded mullet (t?????).

But Diocles, in his books addressed to Plistarchus, says that the mullet is a fish of hard flesh; and Speusippus says that the sea-cuckoo, the sea-swallow, and the mullet are all alike; on which account Tryphon says, in his treatise on Animals, that some people think that the trigola is the sea-cuckoo, from its likeness to it, and from the dryness of its hindquarters; which Sophron indicates, when he says--

The fat mullets and the hinder parts of the trigola.

126. But Plato, in his Phaon, says--

The mullet is not wholesome for the nerves, For it is sacred to the chaste Diana, And all excitement hates.

But the mullet is attributed to Hecate as her fish, on account of the common derivation of their names; for Hecate is called t???d?t??, as presiding over places where three roads meet, and t????????, as having three eyes; and also they provide her a banquet on the thirtieth day of each month (ta?? t??a??s?). And, on similar principles, they a.s.sign to Apollo the fish ???a???, from ?????a (the harp); and the ?a? to Mercury, from ??? (to speak); and the ??tt?? to Bacchus, from ??ss??

(ivy); and the f??a??? to Venus, as Aristophanes in his Birds says, from the similarity of its name to the word fa????. And so the bird called the ??ssa (or duck), they call Neptune's bird; and the sea production which we call ?f??, and others ?f??a, and which is more generally called ?f??? (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 G.o.ds, says that the mullet is sacrificed to Hecate on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the G.o.ddess is t????f??, of a triple form. But Melanthus, in his treatise on the Eleusinian Mysteries, says that both the t????? and the a???? (or sprat), are sacred to Hecate, because Hecate is also a G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ddess 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 ?????a, and there there is a shrine to ???t? ?????a?????; on which account Chariclides, in his Chain, says--

O mistress Hecate, Trioditis, With three forms (t????fe) and three faces (t??p??s?pe), Propitiated with mullets (t????a??).

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 Erythrae they are caught in sh.o.r.e And are most excellent.

And Cratinus, in his Trophonius, says--

And do not eat a red-flesh'd mullet hard, Brought from aexona; nor of any turtle, Or mighty melanurus from those seas.

But Nausicrates, the comic poet, praises the mullets from aexona, in his Captains of s.h.i.+ps, saying--

_A._ Those yellow fleshed fish, which the high wave That beats aexona brings towards the sh.o.r.e, 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 taenia; and this is mentioned by Epicharmus:--

The most beloved taenia, which are thin, But highly flavour'd, and need little fire.

And Mithaecus, in his Cookery Book, says--"Having taken out the entrails of the taenia, 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 taeniae;