A chorus too of voiceless fish rush'd on,
Making a noise with their quick moving tails.

The tails not fawning on their mistress, but beating against the dish. And as Achæus says in his Fates—

There was a mighty mass of the sea-born herd—
A spectacle which fill'd the wat'ry waste,
Breaking the silence with their rapid tails;)

I will now recapitulate to you what the Deipnosophists said about each: for each of them brought to the discussion of the subject some contribution of quotation from books; though I will not mention the names of all who took part in the conversation, they were so numerous.

Amphis says in his Leucas—

Whoever buys some ὄψον for his supper,
And, when he might get real genuine fish,
Contents himself with radishes, is mad.

And that you may find it easy to remember what was said, I will arrange the names in alphabetical order. For as

[[436]]Sophocles, in his Ajax Mastigophorus, called fish ἐλλοὶ, saying—

He gave him to the ἐλλοὶ ἰχθύες 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 ὀψοφαγίστατος [exceedingly fond of fish], (for that is a word which Xenophon has used in his Memorabilia, where he writes, "He is ὀψοφαγίστατος 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—