Instead of all these animals, they have locusts; But I hate above all things the shell of the sesilus. And Apellas relates that the Lacedæmonians call the snail σέμελος. But Apollodorus, in the second book of his Etymologies, says that there are some snails which are called κωλυσιδειπνοι, _interrupters of banquets_. 64. The next vegetable to be mentioned is Onions.--In the Amalthea of Eubulus, Hercules is represented as refusing to eat them; saying-- Whether it's hot, or whether it is dry, Or whether it is something 'tween the two, Are points of more importance than old Troy. But I have not come here to fill myself With cabbages, or benjamin, or other Impious and bitter danties, or with onions. But that which tends the most to vigorous strength And health is food which I delight in chiefly. Meat of beef, boil'd and fresh, and plenty of it, And a large well-filled dish of oxen's feet, Three roasting pigs besides, sprinkled with salt. Alexis, while explaining the efficacy of onions in aphrodisiac matters, says-- Pinnas, beetles, snails, muscles, eggs, calves'-feet, And many other philters, may be found More useful still to one who loves his mistress. Xenarchus, in the Butalion, says-- A house is ruined which has a master Whose fortune's gone, and whom the evil genius Has struck. And so the once great house of the Pelops Is weak and nerveless. Nor can earth-born onion, Fair Ceres' handmaid, who contracts the neck, Even when boiled, assist to check this evil. Nor e'en the polypus, who swells the veins, Born in dark eddies of the deepest sea, When taken in the net of stern necessity By hungry mortals, fill the broad deep bosom Of the large dish turn'd by the potter's wheel. And Archestratus says-- I love not onions, nor yet cabbages, Nor the sweet barberry-tree, nor all the other Dainties and sweetmeats of the second course. 65. Heraclides the Tarentine, in his Banquet, says--"The onion, and the snail, and the egg, and similar things, appear to be productive of seed; not because they are very nutritious, but because their original natures are similar, and because their powers resemble that." And Diphilus says--"Onions are difficult to digest, but very nutritious, and good for the stomach. And, moreover, they are productive of moisture, and cleansing, but they dim the eyes, and excite the amatory propensities. But the proverb says-- The onion will do you no good if you have no strength yourself. But those onions which are called the _royal_ onions, really do stimulate the amatory propensities, for they are superior to the other kinds; and next to them are the red ones. But the white ones, and the Libyan onions, are something like squills. But the worst of all are the Egyptian.