The Carian and the Thasian polypi
Are far the best; Corcyra too can breed
Fish of large size and very numerous.
But the Dorians spell the word with an ω, πωλύπους; as, for instance, Epicharmus. Simonides too has the expression, πώλυπον διζήμενος. But the Attics spell the word πολύπους, with an ο: and it is a cartilaginous fish; for χονδρώδης and σελαχώδης have the same meaning;—
The polypodes and the dog-shark.
Moreover, all the fish belonging to the species of the cuttle-fish are called molluscous. But the whole tribe of . . . . . is cartilaginous.
108. There is also a fish called the pagurus; and it is mentioned by Timocles or Xenarchus, in his Purple, thus—
But I, as being a skilful fisherman,
Have carefully devised all sorts of arts
To catch those vile paguri, enemies
To all the gods and all the little fishes.
And shall I not without delay beguile
An old buglossus? That would be well done.
109. There is also the pelamys. Phrynichus mentions it in his Muses; and Aristotle, in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, says the pelamydes and the tunnies breed in the Black Sea, but not anywhere else. Sophocles also mentions them, in his Shepherds:—
There, too, the foreign pelamys does winter,
The stranger from the Hellespont. For she
Doth come with many of her kind in summer
To these cool waters of the Bosphorus.
110. Then there is the perch. He also is mentioned by Diocles; and Speusippus, in the second book of his treatise on Things Resembling one another, says that the perch, the canna, and the phycis are all nearly alike. And Epicharmus says—
The comaris, the sea-dog, and the cestra
And variegated perch.