_A._ I am a pupil of Soterides, Who, when his king was distant from the sea Full twelve days' journey, and in winter's depth, Fed him with rich anchovies to his wish, And made the guests to marvel. _B._ How was that? _A._ He took a female turnip, shred it fine Into the figure of the delicate fish; Then did he pour on oil and savoury salt With careful hand in due proportion. On that he strew'd twelve grains of poppy seed, Food which the Scythians love; then boil'd it all. And when the turnip touch'd the royal lips, Thus spake the king to the admiring guests: "A cook is quite as useful as a poet, And quite as wise, and these anchovies show it." 14. Archilochus, the Parian poet, says of Pericles, that he would often come to a banquet without being invited, after the fashion of the Myconians. But it seems to me that the Myconians are calumniated as sordid and covetous because of their poverty, and because they live in a barren island. At all events Cratinus calls Ischomachus of Myconos sordid. _A._ But how can you be generous, if the son Of old Ischomachus of Myconos? _B._ I, a good man, may banquet with the good, For friends should have all their delights in common. Archilochus says:-- You come and drink full cups of Chian wine, And yet give no return for them, nor wait To be invited, as a friend would do. Your belly is your god, and thus misleads Your better sense to acts of shamelessness. And Eubulus, the comic writer, says somewhere:-- We have invited two unequall'd men, Philocrates and eke Philocrates. For that one man I always count as two, I don't know that I might not e'en say three. They say that once when he was ask'd to dinner, To come when first the dial gave a shade Of twenty feet, he with the lark uprose, Measuring the shadow of the morning sun, Which gave a shade of twenty feet and two. Off to his host he went, and pardon begg'd For having been detain'd by business; A man who came at daybreak to his dinner! Amphis, the comic writer, says:-- A man who comes late to a feast, At which he has nothing to pay, Will be sure if in battle he's press'd, To run like a coward away. And Chrysippus says:-- Never shun a banquet gay, Where the cost on others falls; Let them, if they like it, pay For your breakfasts, dinners, balls. And Antiphanes says:-- More blest than all the gods is he, Whom every one is glad to see, Who from all care and cost is free. And again:-- Happy am I, who never have cause To be anxious for meat to put in my jaws.