Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/16

 Sophocles, in his Ajax Mastigophorus, called fish [Greek: elloi], saying—

He gave him to the [Greek: elloi ichthyes] to eat;

one of the company asked whether any one before Sophocles ever used this word; to whom Zoilus replied,—But I, who am not a person [Greek: opsophagistatos] [exceedingly fond of fish], (for that is a word which Xenophon has used in his Memorabilia, where he writes, "He is [Greek: opsophagistatos] and the greatest fool possible,") am well aware that the man who wrote the poem Titanomachia [or the Battle of the Giants], whether he be Eumelus the Corinthian, or Arctinus, or whatever else his name may chance to have been, in the second book of his poem speaks thus—

In it did swim the gold-faced [Greek: elloi ichthyes], And sported in the sea's ambrosial depths.

And Sophocles was very fond of the Epic Cycle, so that he composed even entire plays in which he has followed the stories told in their fables.

6. Presently when the tunnies called Amiæ were put on the table, some one said,—Aristotle speaks of this fish, and says that they have gills out of sight, and that they have very sharp teeth, and that they belong to the gregarious and carnivorous class of fishes: and that they have a gall of equal extent with their whole intestines, and a spleen of corresponding proportions. It is said also that when they are hooked, they leap up towards the fisherman, and bite through the line and so escape. And Archippus mentions them in his play entitled the Fishes, where he says—

But when you were eating the fat amiæ.

And Epicharmus in his Sirens says—

A. In the morning early, at the break of day, We roasted plump anchovies, Cutlets of well-fed pork, and polypi; And then we drank sweet wine. B. Alack! alack! my silly wife detain'd me, Chattering near the monument. A. I'm sorry for you. Then, too, there were mullets And large plump amiæ— A noble pair i' the middle of the table, And eke a pair of pigeons, A scorpion and a lobster.

And Aristotle, inquiring into the etymology of the name, says that they were called amiæ, [Greek: para to hama ienai tais para-*]