69.

First, then, I saw a man whose name was Nercus;
With noble oysters laden; an aged man,
And clad in brown sea-weed. I took the oysters
And eke some fine sea-urchins; a good prelude
To a rich banquet daintily supplied.
When they were done, next came some little fish,
Still quivering as if they felt a fear
Of what should now befal them. Courage, said I,
My little friends, and fear no harm from me;
And to spare them I bought a large flat glaucus.
Then a torpedo came; for it did strike me,
That even if my wife should chance to touch it
She from its shock would surely take no harm.
So for my frying-pan I've soles and plaice,
Carides, gudgeons, perch, and spars, and eels,
A dish more varied than a peacock's tail.
Slices of meat, and feet, and snouts, and ears,
And a pig's liver neatly wrapp'd in caul.
For by itself it looks too coarse and livid.
No cook shall touch or e'er behold these dainties;
He would destroy them all. I'll manage them
Myself; with skill and varied art the sauce
I will compound, in such a tasty way
That all the guests shall plunge their very teeth

[[178]] Into the dish for joy and eagerness;
And the recipes and different modes of dressing
I am prepared to teach the world for nothing,
If men are only wise enough to learn.

70. But that it was the fashion for liver to be wrapped up in a caul is stated by Hegesander the Delphian in his Memorials, where he says that Metanira the courtesan, having got a piece of the lungs of the animal in the liver which was thus wrapped up, as soon as she had unfolded the outer coat of fat and seen it, cried out—

I am undone, the tunic's treacherous folds
Have now entangled me to my destruction.

And perhaps it was because of its being in this state that Crobylus the comic poet called the liver modest; as Alexis also does in his Pseudypobolemæus, speaking as follows—

Take the stiff feelers of the polypus,
And in them you shall find some modest liver,
And cutlets of wild goats, which you shall eat.

But Aristophanes uses the diminutive form ἡπάτιον in his Tagenistæ, and so does Alcæus in the Palæstra, and Eubulus in his Deucalion. And the first letter of ἧπαρ and ἡπάτιον must be aspirated. For a synalœpha is used by Archilochus with the aspirate; when he says—

For you do seem to have no gall ἐφ' ἥπατι (in your liver).

There is also a fish which is called ἥπατος, which Eubulus himself mentions in his Lacedæmonians or Leda, and says that it has no gall in it—