For Tethyan oysters, go to Chalcedon;
But for the Heralds,[[610]] may Zeus overwhelm them
Both in the sea and in the agora!
Aye, all except my old friend Agathon,
Who in the midst of Lesbian vineyards dwells.[[611]]
We have already mentioned the magnificent eels of Lake Copais,[[612]] in Bœotia, a longing for which appears to have been Aristophanes’s chief motive for desiring an end to the Peloponnesian war. Next in excellence were those caught in the river Strymon, and the Faro of Messina.[[613]] The ellops, by some supposed to be the sword-fish,[[614]] was found in greatest perfection near Syracuse; at least, in the opinion of Archestratos; but Varro and Pliny give the preference to that of Rhodes, and others to that of the Pamphylian sea.[[615]] The red mullet, the hepsetos, the hepatos, the elacaten, the thunny, the hippouros, the hippos, or sea-horse, found in perfection on the shores[[616]] of Phœnicia, the ioulis, the kichlè, or sea-thrush, the sea-boar, the citharos, the kordylos, the river cray-fish, the shark, which was eaten when young, the mullet, the coracinos, the carp, the gudgeon, the sea-cuckoo, the sea-wolf, the latos, the leobatos, or smooth ray, the lamprey,[[617]] the myræna, the anchovy,[[618]] the black tail, the torpedo, the mormyros, the orphos, the onos, the polypus, the crab, the sea-perch, the physa, or sea-tench, the raphis, the sea-dog,[[619]] the scaros, the sparos, the scorpios, the salpe, or stock-fish, the synodon, the sauros, the scepinos, or halibut, the sciaina, the syagris, the sphyræna, the sepia, the tœnia, the skate, the cuttle-fish, the hyca, the phagros, the perca cabrilla, the chromis, the gilthead, the trichidon, the thratta, and the turbot;[[620]] such is a list of the fish in common use among the Greeks. The species it will be seen has not in many cases been ascertained.
[515]. Cf. Plut. Quæst. Græc. 51.
[516]. Cf. Dion. Perieg. 1082.
[517]. These people were great eaters, and held none in estimation but those who resembled them. Aristoph. Acharn. 74. sqq.