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
And in other places Aristotle says, "The cestreus is a fish with
serrated teeth, but he does not eat other fishes; and, indeed, he is in
no respect carnivorous. But of these fish there are several kinds—the
cephalus, the chellon, and the pheræus. And the chellon feeds close to
land, but the pheræus does not; and they use the following food—the
pheræus uses the mucus which proceeds from itself, and the chellon eats
slime and sand. It is said, also, that the spawn of the cestreus is not
eaten by any other fish, just as the cestreus also eats no other fish."
But Euthydemus the Athenian, in his treatise on Cured Fish, says that
the spheneus and the dactyleus are both different species of cestres;
and also that there is a species which are called cephali, because they
have very large heads. And those which are called spheneus,[4] are
called so because they are thin and four-cornered; and the dactyleis
are not so thick as two fingers. But the most excellent of the cestres
are those which are caught near Abdera, as Archestratus has told us;
and the second-best are those which come from Sinope.
78. But the cestres are called by some writers plotes, as Polemo says,
in his treatise on the Rivers in Sicily. And Epicharmus, in his Muses,
gives them this name—
Æolians, and plotes, and cynoglossi.
There also were sciathides.
And Aristotle, in his treatise on the Dispositions and Way of Living of
Animals, says that "the cestres live even if they are deprived of their
tails. But the cestreus is eaten by the pike, and the conger is eaten
by the turbot." And there is an often-quoted proverb, "The cestreus
is fasting," which is applied to men who live with strict regard to
justice, because the cestreus is never carnivorous. Anaxilas, in his
Morose Man, attacking Maton the Sophist for his gluttony, says—
Maton seized hold of a large cestreus' head,
And ate it all. But I am quite undone.
And that beautiful writer, Archestratus, says—
Buy if you can a cestreus which has come
From the sea-girt Ægina; then you shall
For well-bred men be fitting company.
Diocles, in his Sea, says—
The cestreus leaps for joy.
79. But that the nestes are a kind of cestreus, Archippus tells us, in
his Hercules Marrying:—
Nestes cestres, cephali.
And Antiphanes, in his Lampon, says—
But all the other soldiers which you have
Are hungry (νήστεις) cestres.
And Alexis, in his Phrygian, says—
So I a nestis cestreus now run home.
Ameipsias says, in his Men playing at the Cottabus—
_A._ And I will seek the forum, there to find
Some one to take my work.
_B._ I wish you would,
You would all have less time to follow me,
Like any hungry (νῆστις) cestreus.
And Euphron says, in his Ugly Woman—
Midas then is a cestreus—see, he walks
Along the city fasting (νῆστις).
[Sidenote: FISH.]
And Philemon says, in his Men dying together—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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