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 the penultima of this word has the acute accent, like that in the
word αἰτία, as Philemon tells us; like these words, παιδία, ταινία,
οἰκία. But Aristotle says that the cuttle-fish has eight feet, of which
the two lowest are the largest; and that it has two proboscises, and
between them it has its eyes and mouth placed. And it has two teeth,
one above and one below; and what is called a shell on its back. And
the ink is contained in what is called the mutis, which answers to the
liver; and it lies near its mouth, being something like a bladder. Its
belly is wide and smooth, like the paunch of an ox. And the little
cuttle-fish feed on small fish, extending their proboscises like
fishermen's lines, and catching their prey with them. It is said,
too, that when a storm comes, they seize hold of the rocks with their
proboscises, as if they were anchors, and so fix themselves firm. And
when the cuttle-fish is pursued, it discharges its ink, and is hidden
in it, making it appear as if it were flying forwards. And it is also
said, that when the female is struck by a harpoon, the male fish come
to its assistance, dragging it on; but if the male fish be taken, the
female fish flees away. But the cuttle-fish does not live more than
a year, as neither does the polypus. But, in the fifth book of his
Parts of Animals, Aristotle says—"The cuttle-fish and the squids swim
together, being united together at the mouths, and also touching one
another with their feelers, so as to join in that manner; and they
also join proboscis to proboscis. But of all the molluscous fish, the
cuttle-fish is the earliest in the spring to bring forth its young; and
they do not bring forth at every season. But they go with young fifteen
days; and when they lay their eggs, the male follows the female, and
breathes upon the eggs and makes them firm. And they move in pairs; and
the male is more variegated than the female, and blacker on the back."
124. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
The polypus, likewise the cuttle-fish,
And the swift-moving squid.
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