Moreover, Archestratus thus speaks of the eel:—
I praise all kinds of eels; but far the best
Is that which fishermen do take in the sea
Opposite to the strait of Rhegium.
Where you, Messenius, who daily put
This food within your mouth, surpass all mortals
In real pleasure. Though none can deny
That great the virtue and the glory is
Of the Strymonian and Copaic eels.
For they are large, and wonderfully fat;
And I do think in short that of all fish
The best in flavour is the noble eel,
Although he cannot propagate his species.
54. But, as Homer has said,
The eels and fish were startled,
Archilochus has also said, in a manner not inconsistent with that—
And you received full many sightless eels.
EELS.
But the Athenians, as Tryphon says, form all the cases in the singular number with the υ, but do not make the cases in the plural in a similar manner. Accordingly, Aristophanes, in his Acharnensians, says—
Behold, O boys, the noble eel (ἔγχελυν);
and, in his Lemnian Women, he says—