But the fish called balani, or acorns, because of their resemblance to the acorn of an oak, differ according to the places where they are found. For the Egyptian balani are sweet, tender, delicious to the taste, nutritious, very juicy indeed, diuretic, and good for the bowels; but other kinds have a salter taste. The fish called ὤτια, or ears, are most nutritious when fried; but the pholades are exceedingly pleasant to the taste, but have a bad smell, and an injurious juice.

41. "Sea-urchins are tender, full of pleasant juice, with a strong smell, filling, and apt to turn on the stomach; but if eaten with sharp mead, and parsley, and mint, they are good for the stomach, and sweet, and full of pleasant juice. But the sweet-tasted are the red ones, and the apple-coloured, and the thickest, and those which if you scrape their flesh emit a milky liquid. But those which are found near Cephalenia and around Icaria, and in the Adriatic are—at least many of them are—rather bitter; but those which are taken on the rock of Sicily are very aperient to the bowels." But Aristotle says that there are many kinds of sea-urchins: one of which is eaten, that, namely, in which is found what are called eggs. But the other two kinds are those which are called Spatangi, and those which are called Brysæ: and Sophron mentions the spatangi, and so does Aristophanes in his Olcades, using the following language:—

And Epicharmus, in his Marriage of Hebe, speaks of the sea-urchins, and says—

And Demetrius the Scepsian, in the twenty-sixth book of his Trojan Preparation, says that a Lacedæmonian once being invited to a banquet, when some sea-urchins were put before him on the table, took one, not knowing the proper manner in which it should be eaten, and not attending to those who were in the company to see how they ate it. And so he put it in his mouth with the skin or shell and all, and began to crush the sea-urchin with his teeth; and being exceedingly disgusted with what he was eating, and not perceiving how to get rid of the roughness of the taste, he said, "O what nasty food! I will not now be so effeminate as to eject it, but I will never take you again." But the sea-urchins, and indeed the whole echinus tribe, whether living on land or sea, can take care of and protect themselves against those who try to catch them, putting out their thorns, like a sort of palisade. And to this Ion the Chian bears testimony in his Phœnix or in his Cæneus, saying—

42. "Of limpets," says Diphilus, "some are very small, and some are like oysters. But they are hard, and give but little juice, and are not very sharp in taste. But they have a pleasant flavour, and are easily digested; and when boiled they are particularly nice. But the pinnæ are diuretic, nutritious, not very digestible, or manageable. And the ceryces are like them; the necks of which fish are good for the stomach, but not very digestible; on which account they are good for people with weak stomachs, as being strengthening; but they are difficult to be secreted, and they are moderately nutritious. Now the parts of them which are called the mecon, which are in the lower part of their bellies, are tender and easily digested; on which account they also are good for people who are weak in the stomach. But the purple-fish are something between the pinna and the ceryx; [153]the necks of which are very juicy, and very pleasant to the palate; but the other parts of them are briny, and yet sweet, and easily digestible, and mix very well with other food. But oysters are generated in rivers, and in lakes, and in the sea. But the best are those which belong to the sea, when there is a lake or a river close at hand: for they are full of pleasant juice, and are larger and sweeter than others: but those which are near the shore, or near rocks, without any mixture of mud or water, are small, harsh, and of pungent taste. But the oysters which are taken in the spring, and those which are taken about the beginning of the summer, are better, and full, and have a sort of sea taste, not unmixed with sweetness, and are good for the stomach and easily secreted; and when boiled up with mallow, or sorrel, or with fish, or by themselves, they are nutritious, and good for the bowels.

43. But Mnesitheus the Athenian, in his treatise on Comestibles, says—"Oysters, and cockles, and mussels, and similar things, are not very digestible in their meat, because of a sort of saline moisture which there is in them, on which account, when eaten raw, they produce an effect on the bowels by reason of their saltness. But when boiled they get rid of all, or at all events of most, of their saltness, which they infuse into the water which boils them. On which account, the water in which any of the oyster tribe are boiled is very apt to have a strong effect in disordering the bowels. But the meat of the oysters when boiled, makes a great noise when it has been deprived of its moisture. But roasted oysters, when any one roasts them cleverly, are very free from any sort of inconvenience; for all the evil properties are removed by fire; on which account they are not as indigestible as raw ones, and they have all the moisture which is originally contained in them dried up; and it is the moisture which has too great an effect in relaxing the bowels. But every oyster supplies a moist and somewhat indigestible kind of nourishment, and they are not at all good as diuretics. But the sea-nettle, and the eggs of sea-urchins, and such things as that, give a moist nourishment, though not in any great quantity; but they have a tendency to relax the bowels, and they are diuretic.

44. Nicander the Colophonian, in his book on the Farm, enumerates all the following kinds of oysters—

And Archestratus says, in his Gastronomy—

And Philyllius, or whoever is the author of the book called The Cities, says, "Chemæ, limpets, solens, mussels, pinnas and periwinkles from Methymna:" but ὄστρειον was the only form of the name for all these fish among the ancients. Cratinus says in his Archilochi—

And Epicharmus says, in his Marriage of Hebe—

Where he uses the same form ὄστρειον. But afterwards the form ὄστρεον like ὄρνεον began to be used. Plato, in his Phædrus, says, "bound together like oysters" (ὄστρεον). And in the tenth book of his Politia, he says, "oysters (ὄστρεα) stuck together;" "oysters (ὄστρεα) and seaweed." But the peloris, or giant mussel, were so named from the word πελώριος, vast. For it is much larger than the cheme, and very different from it. But Aristotle says that they are generated in the sand. And Ion the Chian mentions the chema, in his Epidemiæ, and perhaps the shell-fish got the name of χήμη παρὰ τὸ κεχῃνέναι, from opening their mouths."

45. But concerning the oysters which are grown in the Indian Ocean; (for it is not unreasonable to speak of them, on account of the use of pearls;) Theophrastus speaks in his treatise on Precious Stones, and says, "But among the stones which are much admired is that which is called the pearl, being transparent in its character; and they make very [155]expensive necklaces of them. They are found in an oyster which is something like the pinna, only less. And in size the pearl resembles a large fish's eye." Androsthenes, too, in his Voyage along the Coast of India, writes in these terms—"But of strombi, and chærini, and other shell-fish, there are many different varieties, and they are very different from the shell-fish which we have. And they have the purple-fish, and a great multitude of other kinds of oysters. There is also one kind which is peculiar to those seas, which the natives call the berberi, from which the precious stone called the pearl comes. And this pearl is very expensive in Asia, being sold in Persia and the inland countries for its weight in gold. And the appearance of the oyster which contains it is much the same as that of the cteis oyster, only its shell is not indented, but smooth and shaggy. And it has not two ears as the cteis oyster has, but only one. The stone is engendered in the flesh of the oyster, just as the measles are in pork. And it is of a very golden colour, so as not easily to be distinguished from gold when it is put by the side of it; but some pearls are of a silvery appearance, and some are completely white like the eyes of fish. But Chares of Mitylene, in the seventh book of his Histories of Alexander, says—"There is caught in the Indian sea, and also off the coast of Armenia, and Persia, and Susiana, and Babylonia, a fish very like an oyster; and it is large and oblong, containing within the shell flesh which is plentiful and white, and very fragrant, from which the men pick out white bones which they call the pearl. And they make of them necklaces and chains for the hands and feet, of which the Persians are very fond, as are the Medes and all Asiatics, esteeming them as much more valuable than golden ornaments."

46. But Isidorus the Characene, in his Description of Parthia, says, that "in the Persian sea there is an island where a great number of pearls are found; on which account there are quantities of boats made of rushes all about the island, from which men leap into the sea, and dive down twenty fathoms, and bring up two shells. And they say that when there is a long continuance of thunder-storms, and heavy falls of rain, then the pinna produces most young, and then, too, the greatest quantity of pearls is engendered, and those, too, of the finest size and quality. In the winter [156]the pinna is accustomed to descend into chambers at the very bottom of the sea; but in summer they swim about all night with their shells open, which they close in the day-time: and as many as stick to the crags, or rocks, throw out roots, and remaining fixed there, they generate pearls. But they are supported and nourished by something which adheres to their flesh: and this also sticks to the mouth of the cockle, having talons and bringing it food: and it is something like a little crab, and is called the guardian of the pinna. And its flesh penetrates through the centre of the cockle-shell, like a root: and the pearl being generated close to it, grows through the solid portion of the shell, and keeps growing as long as it continues to adhere to the shell. But when the flesh gets under the excrescence, and cutting its way onwards, gently separates the pearl from the shell, then when the pearl is surrounded by flesh, it is no longer nourished so far as to grow at all; but the flesh makes it smoother, and more transparent, and more pure. And so, too, the pinna, which lives at the bottom, engenders the most transparent sort of pearl; and it produces them also very pure and of large size. But that which keeps near the surface, and is constantly rising, is of a smaller size and a worse colour, because it is affected by the rays of the sun. But those who hunt for pearls are in danger when they hastily put their hand into the opening of the shell, for immediately the fish closes its shell, and very often their fingers are sawn off; and sometimes they die immediately. But all those who put in their hand sideways easily draw off the shells from the rock. And Menander makes mention of Emeralds also, in his Little Boy—

And the word for emerald is more correctly written μάραγδος, without a σ. For it is derived from the verb μαρμαίρω, to glisten, because it is a transparent stone.

47. After this conversation some dishes were set on the table, full of many kinds of boiled meat: feet, and head, and ears, and loins; and also entrails, and intestines, and tongues; as is the custom at the places which are called boiled meat shops at Alexandria. For, O Ulpian, the word ἑφθοπώλιον, a boiled meat shop, is used by Posidippus, in his Little Boy. And again, while they were inquiring who had ever [157] named any of these dishes, one of the party said, Aristophanes mentions entrails as things which are eatable, in his Knights—

And presently after he adds—

And again he says—

And again he says—

And Cratinus, in his Pluti, mentions jawbones of meat—

And Sophocles, in the Amycus, says—

And Plato, in his Timæus, writes, "And he bound up some jawbones for them, so as to give the appearance of a whole face." And Xenophon says, in his book on Horsemanship, "A small jawbone closely pressed." But some call it, not σιαγὼν, but ὑαγὼν, spelling the word with a υ, saying that it is derived from the word ὑς. Epicharmus also speaks of tripe, χορδαὶ as we call it, but he calls it ὄρυαι, having given one of his plays the title of Orya. And Aristophanes, in his Clouds, writes—

And Cratinus, in his Pytina, says—

And Eupolis speaks of it also, in his Goats. But Alexis, either in his Leucadia, or in his Runaways, says—

And Antiphanes, in his Marriage, says—

[158] 48. And as for feet, and ears, and even noses of beasts, they are all mentioned by Alexis, in his Crateua or the Physic-seller. And I will adduce a slight proof of that presently, which contains a good many of the names about which we are inquiring. Theophilus says, in his Pancratiast—

And Anaxilas says, in his Cooks—

And Anaxilas says, in the Circe—

And in the Calypso—

Anaxandrides has mentioned also ears in the Satyrus. And Axionicus says, in his Chalcis—

And Aristophanes says, in his Proagon—

And Pherecrates says, in his Trifles—

And there is a place which is called Ῥύγχος, or Snout, near Stratos, in Ætolia, as Polybius testifies, in the sixth book of his Histories. And Stesichorus says, in his Boar Hunting—

[159] And we have already said that the word ῥύγχος properly applies only to the snout of a swine; but that it is sometimes used for the nose of other animals, Archippus has proved, saying in jest, in his Second Amphitryon, of the human face—

And Araros says, in his Adonis—

49. And Aristophanes makes mention of the extremities of animals as forming a common dish, in his Æolosicon—

And in his Gerytades he says—

And Antiphanes says, in his Corinthia—

But Callimachus testifies that, in reality, a pig is sacrificed to Venus; or perhaps it is Zenodotus who says so in his Historic Records, writing thus, "The Argives sacrifice a pig to Venus, and the festival at which this takes place is called Hysteria." And Pherecrates says, in his Miners—

And Alexis says, in his Dice Players—

And he says again, in his Pannuchis or in his Wool-weavers—

And Pherecrates also speaks of boiled feet, in his Slave-master—

And Antiphanes says, in his Parasite—

And Ecphantides says, in his Satyrs—

And Aristophanes speaks of tongue as a dish, in his Tryers, in the following words—

50. Now when all this conversation had taken place on these subjects, the physicians who were present would not depart without taking their share in it. For Dionysiocles said, Mnesitheus the Athenian, in his book about Comestibles, has said, "The head and feet of a pig have not a great deal in them which is rich and nutritious." And Leonidas writes, "Demon, in the fourth book of his Attica, says that Thymœtes, his younger brother, slew Apheidas, who was king of Athens, he himself being a bastard, and usurped the kingdom. And in his time, Melanthus the Messenian was banished from his country, and consulted the Pythia as to where he should dwell: and she said wherever he was first honoured by gifts of hospitality, when men set before him feet and a head for supper. And this happened to him at Eleusis; for as the priestesses happened at the time to be solemnizing one of their national festivals, and to have [161]consumed all the meat, and as nothing but the head and feet of the victim were left, they sent them to Melanthius.

51. Then a paunch[161:1] was brought in, which may be looked upon as a sort of metropolis, and the mother of the sons of Hippocrates, whom I know to have been turned into ridicule by the comic poets on account of their swinish disposition. And Ulpian, looking upon it, said,—Come now, my friends, whom does the paunch lie with? For we have now been minding the belly long enough, and it is time for us now to have some real conversation. And as for these cynics, I bid them be silent, now that they have eaten abundantly, unless they like to gnaw some of the cheeks, and heads, and bones, which no one will grudge their enjoying like dogs, as they are; for that is what they are, and what they are proud of being called.

Euripides says, in his Cretan Women. For they wish to eat and drink everything, never considering what the divine Plato says in his Protagoras, "That disputing about poetry, is like banquets of low and insignificant persons. For they, because they are unable in their drinking parties to amuse one another by their own talents, and by their own voices and conversation, by reason of their ignorance and stupidity, make female flute-players of great consequence, hiring at a high price sounds which they cannot utter themselves, I mean the music of flutes, and by means of this music they are able to get on with one another. But where the guests are gentlemanly, and accomplished, and well educated, you will not see any flute-playing women, or dancing women, or female harpers, but they are able themselves to pass the time with one another agreeably, without all this nonsense and trifling, by means of their own voices, speaking and hearing one another in turn with all decency, even if they drink a great deal of wine." And this is what all you Cynics do, O Cynulcus; you drink, or rather you get drunk, and then, like flute-players and dancing-women, you prevent all the pleasure of conversation: "living," to use the words of the same Plato, which he utters in his Philebus, "not the life of a man, but of some mollusk, or of some other marine animal which has life in a shell-encased body."

[162] 52. And Cynulcus, being very angry, said,—You glutton of a man, whose god is your belly, you know nothing else yourself, nor are you able to keep up an uninterrupted conversation, nor to recollect any history, nor to begin anything which may tend to throw a charm on any discussion. But you have been wasting all the time with questions of this sort, "Is there such and such a statement? Is there not? Has such and such a thing been said? Has it not been said?" And you attack and examine closely everything which occurs in anything which is said, collecting all your thorns—living continually

never collecting any sweet flowers. Are you not the person who call that which is called by the Romans strena, being so named in accordance with some national tradition, and which is accustomed to be given to friends, epinomis? And if you do this in imitation of Plato, we should be glad to learn it; but if you find that any one of the ancients has ever spoken in such a manner, tell us who it is who has. For I know that there is some part of a trireme which is called epinomis, as Apollonius states in his treatise on what relates to Triremes. Are not you the man who called your new stout cloak, which had never yet been used by you, (for the proper name of it, my friend, is really φαινόλης,) useless? saying—"My slave Leucus, give me that useless cloak." And once going to the bath, did not you say to a man who asked you, Whither now? I am going, said you, ἀπολούμενος (pronouncing the word as if it meant to kill yourself rather than to bathe). And that very day your beautiful garment was purloined from you by some bath robbers; so that there was great laughter in the bath, at this useless cloak being hunted for. At another time too, O my dear friends; (for the plain truth shall be told you,) he tripped against a stone and dislocated his knees. And when he was cured he again came into public: and when men asked him, What is the matter, O Ulpian? he said it was a black eye. And I (for I was with him at the time) being then unable to restrain my laughter, got anointed under the eyes with some thick ointment by a physician who was a friend of mine, and then said to those who asked me, What is the matter with you, that I had hurt my leg.

53. There is also another imitator of the same wisdom, [163]Pompeianus the Philadelphian; a man not destitute of shrewdness, but still a terrible wordcatcher: and he, conversing with his servant, calling him by name with a loud voice, said—"Strombichides, bring me to the gymnasium those intolerable slippers (he used the word ἀφορήτους, intending it to mean what he had never worn) and my useless (he used the word ἄχρηστος, by which he meant which he had never used) cloak. For I, as soon as I have bound up my beard, shall address my friends. For I have got some roast fish. And bring me a cruet of oil. For first of all we will be crushed (he used the word συντριβησόμεθον, meaning to say we will rub ourselves well), and then we will be utterly destroyed (his word was ἀπολούμεθον, and he meant to say we will have a bath)." And this same sophist, in the month of February, as the Romans call it, (and Juba the Mauritanian says that this month has its name[163:1] from the terrors caused by the spirits under the earth, and from the means used to get rid of those fears, at which season the greatest severity of winter occurs, and it is the custom of them to offer libations for many days to those who are dead:) in the month of February, I say, he said to one of his friends—"It is a long time since you have seen me, because of the heat." And when the festival of the Panathenæa was being celebrated, during which the courts of justice do not assemble, he said—"This is the birthday of the virgin goddess Minerva," (but he pronounced the word ἀλέκτορος, as if he had meant of the cock of Minerva,) "and this day is unjust," (for he [164]called it ἄδικος, though he meant the word to have the sense of being a holiday for the courts of law). And once he called a companion of ours who came back from Delphi without having received an answer from the god, ἄχρηστον, (which never means anything but useless, but he used the word for unanswered). And once when he was making a public display of his eloquence, and going through a long panegyric on the Queen of cities, he said, Most admirable is the Roman dominion, and ἀνυπόστατος (he meant irresistible).[164:1]

54. Such now, my friends, are Ulpian's companions, the sophists; men who call even the thing which the Romans call miliarium, that is to say, a vessel designed to prepare boiling water in, ἰπνολέβης, an oven-kettle; being manufacturers of many names, and far outrunning by many parasangs the Sicilian Dionysius: who called a virgin μένανδρος (from μένω and ἀνὴρ), because she is waiting for a husband; and a pillar μενεκράτης (from μένω and κράτος), because it remains and is strong. And a javelin he called βαλλάντιον, because (ἄντιον βάλλεται) it is thrown against something; and mouse-holes he called μυστήρια, mysteries, (from τηρεῖν τοὺς μῦς) because they keep the mice. And Athanis, in the first book of his History of the Affairs of Sicily, says that the same Dionysius gave an ox the name of γαρότας; and a pig he called ἴακχος. And Alexarchus was a man of the same sort, the brother of Cassander, who was king of Macedonia, who built the city called Uranopolis. And Heraclides Lembus speaks concerning him in the seventh book of his Histories, and says; "Alexarchus, who founded the city Uranopolis, imported many peculiar words and forms of speaking into the language: calling a cock ὀρθροβόας, or he that crows in the morn; and a barber βροτοκέρτης, or one who cuts men; and a drachm he called ἀργυρὶς, a piece of silver; and a chœnix he called ἡμεροτροφὶς, what feeds a man for a day; and a herald he called ἀπύτης, a bawler. And once he wrote a letter to the magistrates of the Cassandrians in this form:[164:2]—Ἀλέξαρχος ὁ μάρμων πρόμοις [165]γαθεῖν. τοὺς ἡλιοκρεῖς οἰῶν οἶδα λιποῦσα θεωτῶν ἔργων κρατήτορας μορσίμῳ τύχᾳ κεκυρωμένας θεοῦ πόγαις χυτλώσαντες αὐτοὺς, καὶ φύλακας ὀριγένεις." But what that letter means I think that even the Pythian Apollo himself could hardly tell. For, as Antiphanes says, in his Cleophanes,—

55. I know too that Simonides the poet, somewhere or other, has called Jupiter Ἀρίσταρχος, (meaning ἄριστος ἄρχων, best of rulers;) and Æschylus calls Pluto Ἀγησίλαος, (from ἄγειν τὸν λαὸν, collecting the people;) and Nicander the Colophonian called the asp, the animal, ἰοχέαιρα, poisonous, (from ἰὸs, poison, and χέω, to emit; though the word is usually applied to Diana in the sense of shooting arrows, because ἰὸs also means an arrow.)

And it is on account of these tricks and others like them that the divine Plato, in his Politics, after having said that some animals live on the dry land, and others in the water, and also, that there are some classes which are fed on dry food, others on moist food, and others which graze, giving the names of ξηροβατικὰ and ὑγροβατικὰ, and again, of ξηροτροφικὰ, ὑγροτροφικὰ and ξηρονομικὰ to the different kinds of animals, according as they live on the land, or in the water, or in the air—adds, by way of exhortation to those manufacturers of names to guard against novelty, the following sentence, word for word:—"And if you take care not to appear too anxious in making new names you will continue to old [166]age with a greater reputation for prudence." But I know that Herodes Atticus, a rhetorician, named the piece of wood which was put through his wheels when he was going in his chariot down steep places, τροχοπέδης, (as a fetter to the wheels.) Although Simaristus, in his Synonymes, had already given this piece of wood the name of ἐποχλεὺς, or the drag. And Sophocles the poet, in some one of his works, called a guardian a bolt, saying—

And, in another place, he has given an anchor the name of ἰσχὰς or the holder, because it κατέχει, holds the ship—

And Demades the orator said that Ægina was the "eyesore of the Peiræus," and that Samos was "a fragment broken off from the city." And he called the young men "the spring of the people;" and the wall he called "the garment of the city;" and a trumpeter he entitled "the common cock of the Athenians." But this word-hunting sophist used all sorts of far more far-fetched expressions. And whence, O Ulpian, did it occur to you to use the word κεχορτασμένος for satiated, when κορέω is the proper verb for that meaning, and χορτάζω means to feed?

56. In reply to this Ulpian said with a cheerful laugh,—But do not bark at me, my friend, and do not be savage with me, putting on a sort of hydrophobia, especially now that this is the season of the dog-days. You ought rather to fawn upon and be gentle towards your messmates, lest we should institute a festival for dog killing, in the place of that one which is celebrated by the Argives. For, my most sagacious gentleman, χορτάζομαι is used by Cratinus in his Ulysses in this way:—