The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
49. Moreover, he says that all the molluscous fish, and the shell-fish,
and the cartilaginous fish, and all insects, spend a long time in
copulation; but that the dolphin and some other fish copulate lying
alongside the female. And he says that the dolphins are very slow,
but fish in general very quick. Again he says that the lion has very
solid bones, and that if they are struck, fire comes from them as from
flint stones. And that the dolphin has bones, but no spine; but that
cartilaginous fish have both gristle and spine. And of animals he says
that some are terrestrial and some aquatic; and that some even live in
the fire; and that there are some, which he calls ephemera, which live
only one day: and that there are some which are amphibious, such as the
river-horse, and the crocodile, and the otter. And that all animals in
general have two forefeet, but that the crab has four; and that all the
animals which have blood are either without feet at all, or are bipeds,
or quadrupeds; and that all the animals which have more than four feet
are destitute of blood: on which account every animal which moves,
moves by what he calls four tokens,—man by two hands and two feet, a
bird by two feet and two wings, an eel and a conger by two fins and
two joints. Moreover, some animals have hands, as a man has, and some
appear to have hands, as a monkey does; for there is no brute beast
which can really give and take, and it is for those things that hands
are given to men as instruments. Again, some animals have limbs, as a
man, an ox, an ass; and some have no limbs, as a serpent, an oyster,
the pulmo marinus. There are also many animals which are not always
visible, such as those which hide in holes; and those which do not hide
in holes are still not always visible, as swallows and cranes.
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