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
11. I know, also, what is related about the fish called apopyris,
which is found in the lake Bolbe; concerning which Hegesander, in his
Commentaries, speaks thus:—"Around Apollonia of Chalcis two rivers
flow, the Ammites and the Olynthiacus, and they both fall into the lake
Bolbe. And on the river Olynthiacus there is a monument of Olynthus,
the son of Hercules and Bolbe. And in the months Anthesterion and
Elaphebolion, the natives say that Bolbe sends Apopyris to Olynthus;
and that about this time a most enormous number of fish ascend out
of the lake into the river Olynthiacus: and this is a shallow river,
scarcely deep enough to wet a man's ankles; but for all that there does
not the less come a great number of fish, so that all the people of the
district get enough cured fish for their use for the year. And it is
a wonderful fact that they never pass above the monument of Olynthus.
They say, in explanation of this, that the people of Apollonia did
formerly, in the month Elaphebolion, celebrate sacrifices to the dead,
but that they do so now in the month Anthesterion; and that on this
account this ascent is made by the fish in those months alone in which
the natives are accustomed to pay honour to their national heroes."
12. And this is the state of the case, O men fish; for you, having
collected together every kind of thing, have thrown us out to be food
for fishes, instead of giving them as food for us,—making such long
speeches as not even Ichthys, the philosopher of Megara, nor Ichthyon
(and this also is a proper name), who is mentioned by Teleclides in his
Amphictyons, would make to us. And, on your account, I will give this
advice to the servant, as it is said in the Ant-Men of Pherecrates:—
Mind that you never, O Deucalion,
(Even if I bid you,) set a fish before me.
For in Delos, as we are told by Semus the Delian, in the second book
of the Delias, when they sacrifice to Brizo,—and she is a deity who
prophesies to people asleep (for the ancients used βριόζω as synonymous
with καθεύδω, to sleep, saying—
Then sleeping (ἀποβρίξαντες) there we waited for the dawn)—
so, when the Delian women sacrifice to this deity, they bring her, as
their offering, boats full of all kinds of good things, except fish;
because they address prayers to her on every subject, and especially
for the safety of their vessels.
13. But, my friends, though I admire Chrysippus, the leader of the
sect of the Stoics, on many accounts, I also praise him especially for
having always classed Archestratus, that man who is so famous for his
treatise on Cookery, with Philænis, to whom that indelicate composition
about Amatory Pleasures is attributed; which, however, Æschrion, the
iambic poet of Samos, says was written by Polycrates the sophist, and
attributed to Philænis for the sake of calumniating her, when she was a
most respectable woman. And the iambics, in which this is stated, run
as follows:—
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