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 And as this was the case, they say that it was a burden imposed on every member of the choruses who was not present at the appointed time, that he should give the ass a chœnix of barley; and that this is stated by the same poet; and that what is meant by not liking to win the grasshopper's prize, is not liking to sing; and that by Panopeiadean is meant the ass, and the mighty feast is the chœnix of barley.

85. And of the same kind is the epigram of Theognis the poet,—

For a sea-corpse has call'd me now back home, Which, though dead, speaketh with a living mouth.

Where he means the cockle. And we may consider of the same character those sentences in which we use words which resemble men's names, as—

[Greek: labôn aristonikon en machê kratos;] He gain'd in battle a glorious victory;

where [Greek: aristonikos] sounds like the name of a man, Aristonicus. And there is also that riddle which is so frequently repeated—

Five men came to one place in vessels ten, And fought with stones, but might not lift a stone, And died of thirst while water reach'd their chins.

86. And what punishment had the Athenians who could not solve this riddle when proposed to them, if it was only to drink a bowl of mixed wine, as Clearchus has stated in his Definition? And, in the first book of his treatise on Proverbs, he writes thus—"The investigation of riddles is not unconnected with philosophy; for the ancients used to make a display of their erudition by such things; for they used at their entertainments to ask questions, not such as the men of the present day ask one another, as to what sort of amorous enjoyment is the most delicious, or what kind of fish is nicest, or what is most in season at the moment; or again, what fish is best to eat at the time of Arcturus, or what after the rising of the Pleiades, or of the Dogstar. And then they offer kisses as prizes for those who gain the victory in such questions; such as are hateful to men of liberal sentiments; and as a punishment for those who are defeated they enjoin them to drink sheer wine; which they drink more willingly than the cup of health. For these things are well adapted to any one who has devoted his attention to the writings of Philænis and Archestratus, or who has studied the books called Gastro