Greek mythology shows us that for a long time, perhaps many centuries, the ancestors of the Greeks knew but very little about the sea or about rivers. The numerous monsters of the sea, products of the imagination, combined in their forms the parts of marine and land animals, including man. The angry waves suggested to them some creature that was wroth; in the ocean depths what more likely to be found than the caverns empty and dry, the homes of the monsters with which they had peopled it? Their knowledge of the sea was of very slow growth. It was yet a divine thing in Homer’s time, who lived just before the dawn of history. Their knowledge of marine life had made but little if any greater advance than their knowledge of the sea itself. The people of Homer make no use whatever of fish. We do not find a word indicating that either noble or slave ate fish, although the bill of fare in the Homeric household is given to us with considerable fullness. Passing over two centuries or more to the Athens of Pericles’ time, we will find that a great change has been wrought. Fish is now the daintiest viand that comes into the Athenian market. The fishing industry has developed and grown to immense proportions. The fishmonger has taken on a character which seems destined to be eternal. Till this day it has suffered no change except that he has transferred to his wife some of the traits that once were his. The task of supplying the fish-market of Athens and other cities must have required a large number of fishermen. For at this time fish might almost be called the national dish, hence an enormous consumption, whereas the means of capture were far inferior to those of to-day. As a matter of fact the market was supplied from a very wide area, but chiefly from the seas to the east. Far along the north and south shores of the Black Sea the industry was a flourishing one. Particularly from these regions were salted and dried fish supplied. Here they were prepared in the huts of the individual fisherman and were gathered up by the traders, who sailed their little boats far and wide in search of traffic. The fish were exchanged for merchandise, especially for earthen utensils and for clothing. These salted and dried fish were the staple varieties and were supplied to the market in great quantities, as they were the principal food of the poorer classes and were sold very cheap.