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
Use all anchovies for manure, except
The Attic fish; I mean that useful seed
Which the Ionians do call the foam;
And take it fresh; just caught within the bays,
The sacred bays of beautiful Phalerum.
Good is it too, when by the sea-girt isle
Of Rhodes you eat it, if it's not imported.
And if you wish to taste it in perfection,
Boil nettles with it—nettles whose green leaves
On both sides crown the stem; put these in the dish
Around the fish, then fry them in one pan,
And mix in fragrant herbs well steep'd in oil.
23. But Clearchus the Peripatetic, in his treatise on Proverbs, speaks
of the anchovy, and says—"Because they want very little fire for the
frying-pan, Archestratus recommends people to put them into a pan which
is already hot, and to take them off as soon as they hiss. And they
are done, and begin to hiss in a moment, like oil; on which account it
is said, 'Anchovy, look at the fire.'" And Chrysippus the philosopher,
in his treatise on the Things which deserve to be sought for their own
Sakes, says, "The anchovy which is found in the sea at Athens, men
despise on account of its abundance, and say that it is a poor man's
fish; but in other cities they prize it above everything, even where
it is far inferior to the Attic anchovy. Moreover some people," says
he, "endeavour to rear the Adriatic fowls in this place, which are
much less useful than our own kinds, inasmuch as they are smaller. But
the people in the Adriatic, on the contrary, send for our breed from
hence." Hermippus, too, uses the word ἀφύη in the singular number, in
his Demotæ, where he says,—
You seem not now to move even an anchovy.
And Callias, in his Cyclops, says—
In preference to the best anchovy.
And Aristonymus, in his Shivering Sun, says—
So that there is not really one anchovy.
But Aristophanes uses the diminutive form, and calls them ἀφύδια in his
Friers, saying—
Nor these little Phaleric ἀφύδια.
[Sidenote: FISH.]
24. But Lynceus the Samian, in his letter to Diagoras, praising the
Rhodian anchovies, and comparing many of the productions of Attica to
those of Rhodes, says—"We may compare to the anchovies of Phalerum
those which are called the Æniatides, and you may compare the ellops
and the orphus with the glauciscus; and with the Eleusinian plaice
and turbot, and whatever other fish there may be among them enjoying
a reputation higher than that of Cecrops, Rhodes has the fox fish to
compare." But the author of the Delight of Life, exhorts the man who is
unable to purchase enough to satisfy his appetite, to get fish to eat
by robbery, rather than go without it. But Lynceus calls Archestratus
an epicure, who in that much celebrated poem of his speaks thus of the
shark:—
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