Ἐρώτησις Ὁμήρου. Άνδρες ἀπ’ Ἀρκαδίης ἁλιήτορες, ἠ ῥ’ ἔχομέν τι; Ἀνταπόκρισις Ἀρκάδων. Ὄσσ’ ἔλομεν, λιπόμεσθ’, ὄσσ’ οὺχ ούχ ἕλομεν, φερόμεσθα, which may perhaps be rendered in rhyme, “Fishers from Arcady, have we aught? Our catch, we left; we bear, what we ne’er caught!” [189] It suggests itself to me that in the answer to the riddle there is just possibly a play within a play, or a double latent meaning, for the word φθεὶρ denotes not only a louse, but also a fish of the Remora kind. Perhaps this humour is too subtle even for a class so noted for “calliditas,” or shrewd wit, as Greek fishermen are reputed to have been. [190] _Anth. Pal._, VII. 3. Κοσμήτορα I prefer to translate “marshal,” its first meaning, rather than “adorner” adopted by Coleridge, as being far stronger, and more fitting for a poet who had “marshalled” on his stage of the _Iliad_ so many heroes. Herodotus states that the people of Ios (not Homer) wrote the epitaph at a subsequent date. [191] It was on the advice of Socrates that Xenophon consulted the oracle at Delphi, before he set forth for the campaign in Asia, which forms the story of his _Anabasis_. Tablets discovered in Epirus in 1877 by C. Carapanos (_see_ _Dodone et ses Ruines_, Paris, 1878) give examples of questions addressed to the oracle at Delphi. Agis asks if some mattresses and pillows are likely to be recovered. Another pilgrim enquires whether the god recommends sheep-farming as an investment. [192] _Il._, vii. 451. [193] Plutarch’s account (_Sept. Sap. Conviv._, ch. 19) varies in many details; notably, (1) it acquits Hesiod of seduction, (2) the brothers of flight, (3) the maiden of hanging herself. CHAPTER IV THE DOLPHIN—HERODOTUS—THE ICHTHYOPHAGI—THE TUNNY The _Shield of Heracles_, now rarely attributed to Hesiod the poet nearest in time to Homer, gives us pictures, similar if more ornate in style to those in Homer’s “The Shield of Achilles.” _The Shield of Heracles_ would probably not have been written had not Homer’s “Shield of Achilles” existed. It differs from the older poem in the presentation of mythological scenes and a scene of fishing, but is perhaps the most complete illustration from fisher life extant before Theocritus. “there appeared A sheltering haven from the untamed rage Of ocean. It was wrought of tin refined And rounded by the chisel; and it seemed Like to the dashing wave; and in the midst Full many dolphins chased the fry, and show’d As though they swam the waters, to and fro Darting tumultuous. Two of silver scale Panting above the wave, the fishes mute Gorged, that beneath them shook their quivering fins In brass. But on the crag a fisher sate Observant: in his grasp he held a net Like one that, poising, rises to the throw.”[194]