[269] In _Anth. Pal._, VII. 305, this epigram is headed in the MS. Ἀδδαίου Μιτυληναίου, which is obviously wrong, for either Μιτυληναίου should be Μακεδόνος, or Ἀδδαίου is a mistake. Bergk assigns it to Alcæus of Messine—probably with reason, as it is not unlike his style, and his name is more than once confused with Alcæus of Mitylene, the famous lyric poet. (For Alcæus of Messene, see Mackail’s _Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology_ (London, 1890), p. 297 f.) Stadtmüller the latest editor of _Anth. Pal._ conjectures as author Alpheus of Mitylene, but unconvincingly to Mackail and other authorities. Translated by E. W. Peter—_The Poets and Poetry of the Ancients_, London, 1858. ὁ γριπεὺς Διότιμος ὁ κύμασιν ὁλκάδα πιστὴν κἠν χθονὶ τὴν αὐτὴν οἶκον ἕχων πενίης, κ.τ.λ. Cf. Etruscus Messenius, _Anth. Pal._, VII. 381, 5 f. ὄλβιος ὁ γριπεὺς ἰδίη καὶ πόντον ἐπέπλει νηΐι, καὶ ἐξ ἰδίης ἕδραμεν εἰς Ἀΐδην. [270] For this and other passages quoted or incorporated, I am greatly in debt to Dr. Henry Marion Hall’s _Idylls of Fishermen_, New York, 1912 and 1914, and to A. F. Campaux’s preface to his _De Ecloga Piscatoris qualem: veteribus adumbratam absolvere sibi proposuit Sannazarius_, Paris, 1859. [271] And yet “the eternal feminine” question was to the fore very early, as we see from the old oracle quoted by Herodotus, VI. 77: “But when the female at last shall conquer the male in the battle, Conquer and drive him forth, and glory shall gain among Argives.” [272] Poll., _Onomasticon_, 10, 52, and 10, 45. In later literature references, etc., to fish are countless: one of the lost plays of Aristophanes bore, indeed, the title of _The Eel_, according to Keller, _op. cit._, 357. [273] This name was applied, according to Athenæus, XIV. 10, from the peculiar poetry made by those who kept cattle.