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
58. The erythrinus, or red mullet, has been mentioned too. Aristotle,
in his book on Animals, and Speusippus both say that the fishes called
erythrinus, phagrus, and hepatus are all very nearly alike. And Dorion
has said much the same in his treatise on Fish. But the Cyrenæans give
the name of erythrinus to the hyca; as Clitarchus tells us in his
Dialects.
59. The encrasicholi are also mentioned by Aristotle as fish of small
size, in his treatise on What relates to Animals. But Dorion, in his
book on Fishes, speaks of the encrasicholi among those which are
best boiled, speaking in the following terms—"One ought to boil the
encrasicholi, and the iopes, and the atherinæ, and the tench, and the
smaller mullets, and the cuttle-fish, and the squid, and the different
kinds of crab or crawfish."
60. The hepsetus, or boiled fish, is a name given to several small
fish. Aristophanes, in his Anagyrus, says—
There is not one dish of hepseti.
And Archippus says in his Fishes—
An hepsetus fell in with an anchovy
And quick devour'd him.
And Eupolis, in his Goats, says—
Ye graces who do love the hepseti.
And Eubulus, in his Prosusia or Cycnus, says—
Contented if just once in each twelve days
He sees an hepsetus well boil'd in beet.
And Alexis, in his Apeglaucomenos, says—
There were some hepseti besides served up
In a dædalean manner. For they call
All clever works by the name of Dædalus;
and presently afterwards he continues—
Will you not now then try the coracini?
Nor trichides, nor any hepseti?
But this word is always used in the plural, ἑψητοὶ, because they are
only served up in numbers. Aristophanes, in his Dramata or Niobus, says—
I will say nothing of a dish of hepseti.
And Menander, in his Perinthian Woman, says—
The boy came in bringing some hepseti.
But Nicostratus uses the word in the singular number, in his Hesiod—
A bembras, an anchovy, and a hepsetus.
And Posidippus, in his Woman shut up, says—
She's gone to buy a hepsetus.
But in my country Naucratis, what they call hepseti are little fish
left in the drains or ditches, when the Nile ceases its overflowing.
61. The hepatus or lebias is the next fish to be noticed. Diocles
affirms that this is one of those fish which stick to the rocks; but
Speusippus says that the hepatus is the same as the phagrus. But it
is a solitary fish, as Aristotle declares, carnivorous, and with
serrated teeth; black as to its flesh, and having eyes large, out of
all proportion to the rest of its size; and its heart is triangular and
white. But Archestratus, the marshal of banquets, says—
Remember that the lebias is best,
As also is the hepatus, in the waves
Which wash the Delian and the Tenian shores.
[Sidenote: THE TUNNY-FISH.]
62. Then come the elacatenes, or spindle-fish. Mnesimachus, in his
Horse-breeder, classes together in one line—
The turbot, tunny, tench, elacatene.
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