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
Clio's an epicure. Let's shut our eyes.
I beg you, Clio, by yourself to feed.
This conger costs a drachma; leave a pledge,
A band, an earring, or some ornament.
But we cannot endure the sight of you;
You're our Medusa; and we're turn'd to stone,
Not by the Gorgon, but by that whole conger.
35. And Aristodemus, in his Catalogue of Laughable Sayings, says that
Euphranor the epicure, having heard that another epicure in fish
was dead from having eaten a hot slice of fish, cried out, "What a
sacrilegious death!" And Cindon the fish-eater, and Demylus (and he
also was an epicure in fish), when a sea-grayling was set before them,
and nothing else, the former took one eye of the fish, and then Demylus
seized hold of Cindon's eye, crying, "Let his eye go, and I will let
your's go." And once at a feast, when a fine dish of fish was served
up, Demylus, not being able to contrive any way by which he might get
the whole of it to himself, spat upon it. And Zeno the Cittiæan, the
founder of the Stoic school, when he had lived a long time with a great
epicure in fish, (as Antigonus the Carystian tells us, in his life of
Zeno,) once, when a very large fish was by chance served up to them,
and when no other food was provided, took the whole fish from the
platter, pretending to be about to eat it all himself; and, when the
other looked at him, said—"What do you think, then, that those who
live with you must suffer every day, if you cannot endure my being a
glutton for a single day?" And Ister says that Choerilus the poet used
to receive four minæ every day from Archelaus, and that he spent them
all on fish, of which he was so exceedingly fond.
[Sidenote: EPICURES.]
I am aware, also, that there have been boys who were great fish-eaters,
who are mentioned by Clearchus, in his book on Sands; which says
that Psammitichus, king of Egypt, bred up some boys to eat nothing
but fish, when he was anxious to discover the source of the Nile;
and that he accustomed others to endure a great degree of thirst,
who were to be employed in exploring the sands in Libya; of whom,
however, very few escaped in safety. I know, too, that the oxen around
Mosynus, in Thrace, eat fish, which are given to them in their cribs.
And Phœnicides, having set fish before men who had brought their
contribution for a banquet, said that the sea was common, but that the
fish in it belonged to those who bought them.
36. And, my friends, the noun ὀψοφάγος (an eater of fish), and the
verb ὀψοφάγω (to eat fish), are both used. Aristophanes, in his second
edition of the Clouds, says—
Not to eat fish (ὀψοφάγειν) nor to giggle.
And Cephisodorus, in his Pig, says—
Not a fish-eater (οψοφαγος) nor a chatterer.
Machon, in his Letter, says—
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