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
6. Moreover, Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus
the Cyrenæan, whom I have previously mentioned. "There are some fish
which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound. Such are those
which are found near Cleitor, in Arcadia, in the river called Ladon.
For they have a voice, and utter a very audible sound." And Nicolaus,
of Damascus, in the hundred and fourth book of his History, says—"In
the country around Apamea, in Phrygia, at the time of the Mithridatic
wars, there were some earthquakes, after which there appeared in that
district some lakes which previously had no existence, and rivers, and
other springs which had been opened by the earthquake. Many also which
had previously existed disappeared. And such a quantity of additional
water, which was brackish and of a sea-green colour, burst up in that
district, though it is at a very great distance from the sea, that
all the neighbouring country was filled with oysters and fish, and
all other productions of the sea." I know also that it has very often
rained fishes. At all events, Phænias, in the second book of his
Eresian Magistrates, says that in the Chersonesus it once rained fish
uninterruptedly for three days; and Phylarchus, in his fourth book,
says that people had often seen it raining fish, and often also raining
wheat, and that the same thing has happened with respect to frogs. At
all events, Heraclides Lembus, in the twenty-first book of his History,
says—"In Pæonia and Dardania it has, they say, before now rained frogs;
and so great has been the number of these frogs that the houses and
the roads have been full of them; and at first, for some days, the
inhabitants, endeavouring to kill them, and shutting up their houses,
endured the pest; but when they did no good, but found that all their
vessels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up
and roasted with everything they ate, and when besides all this, they
could not make use of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for
the heaps of frogs that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the
smell of those that died, they fled the country."
[Sidenote: FISH.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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