[48] _Plutarch_, De superstitione II. 170 D., Τὴν δὲ Συρίαν θεὸν οἱ δεισιδαίμονες νομίζουσιν ἂν μαινίδας τὶς ἢ ἀφύας φάγῃ τὰ ἀντικνήμια διεσθίειν, ἕλκεσι τὸ σῶμα πιμπλάναι, συντήκειν τὸ ἧπαρ. (for translation see text above). We may add that μαινίδας is the _maena_ (sprat) of the Romans, for which _Hesychius_ has σαραπίους, while _Plautus_ uses _deglupta maena_ (skinned sprat) as a contemptuous name for a vicious debauchee (above p. 238. Note 1.). By the Dea Syra some have understood the goddess Derceto, who was worshipped at Ascalon under the image of a maiden, whose lower half ended in a fish. To her the fishes were sacred, and for this reason the Syrians were forbidden to eat fish. Comp. _Lucian_, De Dea Syra p. 672. _Diodorus Siculus_, II. 4. [49] _Porphyrius_, De Abstinentia bk. IV. ch. 15., παράδειγμα τοὺς Σύρους λαβέ· Ὅταν φάγωσιν ἰχθὺν ἐκεῖνοι διά τινα Αὑτῶν ἀκρασίαν, τοὺς πόδας καὶ γαστέρα Οιδοῦσιν· εἶτα σακκίον ἔλαβον· εἰς δ’ ὁδὸν Ἐκάθισαν αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ κόπρου καὶ τὴν θεὸν Ἐξιλάσαντο τῷ ταπεινῶσαι σφόδρα. (As an example take the Syrians: These people, when they have eaten fish, in consequence of some unwholesome quality in themselves, swell in feet and belly. Then they take quickly a wallet; and down they sit by the road-side on dung, and so appease the goddess by their exceeding humbleness). At Athens ἕλκη ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς ἀντικνημίοις (to have sores on the shin-bones) would seem to have been a usual thing, according to _Theophrastus_, Charact. XIX. [50] _Athenaeus_, Deipnosoph. bk. VIII. p. 346. d. Indeed it would seem that the Stoic _Antipater_ of Tarsus related how a Syrian Queen Gatis was excessively fond of eating fish, and accordingly forbad anyone ἄτερ Γάτιδος (except Gatis) in the whole country to indulge in it, and from this circumstance came the name of Atergatis—the Syrian Venus! [51] _Martial_, Bk. I. Epigr. 79. Possibly also the passage in _Hippocrates_, Epidem. bk. VII., Vol. III. 691 of Kühn’s ed., ὁ τὸ καρκίνωμα τὸ ἐν τῇ φάρυγγι καυθεὶς ὑγιὴς ἐγένετο ὑφ’ ἡμέων, (The patient who was cauterized for cancer of the throat recovered under our treatment), which Jöhrens in a quotation to be given presently (below § 25.) refers to Venereal disease, as is also done by him in the case of the throat-ulcers mentioned in the Tract of _Hippocrates_, De Dentitione (On Teething), Vol. I. p. 484. of Kühn’s ed. [52] A striking analogy to this suicide is to be found in the well-known passage of _Pliny_ (Epist. bk. VI. epist. 24.), one of much importance in connection with affections of the genitals, which may therefore very well be quoted here by anticipation: