13. Theophrastus also says, that the fig-tree if planted among squills grows up faster, and is not so liable to be destroyed by worms: and, in fact, that everything which is planted among squills both grows faster and is more sure to be vigorous. And in a subsequent passage Theophrastus says, in the second book of his Causes—"The fig called the Indian fig, though it is a tree of a wonderful size, bears a very small fruit; and not much of it; as if it had expended all its strength in making wood." And in the second book of his History of Plants, the philosopher says—"There is also another kind of fig in Greece, and in Cilicia and Cyprus, which bears green figs; and that tree bears a real fig, σῦκον in front of the leaf, and a green fig, ὄλυνθος behind the leaf. And these green figs grow wholly on the wood which is a year old, and not on the new wood." And this kind of fig-tree produces the green fig ripe and sweet, very different from the green fig which we have; and it grows to a much greater size than the genuine fig. And the time when it is in season is not long

[[131]]after the tree has made its wood. And I know, too, that there are many other names of fig-trees; there are the Royal, and the Fig Royal, and the Cirrocœladian, and the Hyladian, and the Deerflesh, and the Lapyrian, and the Subbitter, and the Dragon-headed, and the White-faced, and the Black-faced, and the Fountain fig, and the Mylaic, and the Ascalonian.

14. Tryphon also speaks of the names of figs in the second book of his History of Plants, and says that Dorion states, in his book of the Farm, that Sukeas, one of the Titans, being pursued by Jupiter, was received in her bosom as in an asylum by his mother Earth; and that the earth sent forth that plant as a place of refuge for her son; from whom also the city Sukea in Cilicia has its name. But Pherenicus the epic poet, a Heraclean by birth, says that the fig-tree, (συκῆ) is so called from Suke the daughter of Oxylus: for that Oxylus the son of Orius, having intrigued with his sister Hamadryas, had several children, and among them Carya (the nut-tree), Balanus (the acorn-bearing oak), Craneus (the cornel-tree), Orea (the ash), Ægeirus (the poplar), Ptelea (the elm), Ampelus (the vine), Suke (the fig-tree): and that these daughters were all called the Hamadryad Nymphs; and that from them many of the trees were named. On which account Hipponax says—

The fig-tree black, the sister of the vine.

And Sosibius the Lacedæmonian, after stating that the fig-tree was the discovery of Bacchus, says that on this account the Lacedæmonians worship Bacchus Sukites. But the people of Naxus, as Andriscus and Aglaosthenes related, state that Bacchus is called Meilichius, because of his gift of the fruit of the fig-tree: and that on this account the face of the god whom they call Bacchus Dionysus is like a vine, and that of the god called Bacchus Meilichius is like a fig. For figs are called μείλιχα by the Naxians.

15. Now that the fig is the most useful to man of all the fruits which grow upon trees is sufficiently shown by Herodotus the Lycian, who urges this point at great length, in his treatise on Figs. For he says that young children grow to a great size if they are fed on the juice of figs. And Pherecrates, who wrote the Persæ, says—

If any one of us, after absence, sees a fig,
He will apply it like a plaster to his children's eyes:

[[132]] as if there were no ordinary medicinal power in the fig. And Herodotus, the most wonderful and sweet of all writers, says in the first book of his Histories, that figs are of the greatest good, speaking thus:—"O king, you are preparing to make war upon men of this character, who wear breeches of leather, and all the rest of their garments are made of leather; and they eat not whatever they fancy, but what they have, since they have but a rough country; moreover they do not, by Jove, use wine, but they drink water; they have no figs to eat, nor any other good thing."

And Polybius of Megalopolis, in the twelfth book of his Histories, says—"Philip, the father of Perseus, when he overran Asia, being in want of provisions, took figs for his soldiers from the Magnesians, as they had no corn. On which account, too, when he became master of Myus, he gave that place to the Magnesians in return for their figs." And Ananius, the writer of Iambics, says—

He who should shut up gold within his house,
And a few figs, and two or three men,
Would see how far the figs surpass the gold.