17. But Aristotle, in his treatise on the Habits of Animals, says—"They say that wherever the anthias is found, there is no beast or fish of prey ever seen; and accordingly the collectors of sponge use him as a guide, and dive boldly wherever he is found, and call him the sacred fish." And Dorion also mentions him in his book on Fishes, saying, "Some call the anthias by the name of callicthys, and also by that of callionymus and ellops." And Icesius, in his treatise on Materials, says that he is called wolf by some authors, and by others callionymus: and that he is a fish of very solid meat, and full of delicious juice, and easy of digestion; but not very good for the stomach. But Aristotle says that the callicthys is a fish with serrated teeth, carnivorous and gregarious. And Epicharmus, in his Muses, enumerates the ellops among the fishes, but passes over the callicthys or callionymus in silence as being identical with it; and of the ellops he speaks thus,—
And then the high-priced ellops.
And the same poet says, subsequently—
He was the fish of which great Jupiter
Once bought a pair for money, and enjoin'd
His slaves to give him one, and Juno t'other.
But Dorion, in his treatise on Fish, says that the anthias and the callicthys are different fish; and also that the callionymus is not the same as the ellops.
18. But what is the fish which is called the Sacred fish? The author of the Telchinian History, whether it was Epimenides the Cretan, or Teleclides, or any one else, says,—"What are called the sacred fish, are dolphins and pompili." But the pompilus is a very amorous animal; as being sprung himself, at the same time with Venus, from heavenly blood. And Nicander, in the second book of his Œtaica, says—
The pompilus, who points the safest road
To anxious mariners who burn with love,
And without speaking warns them against danger.
And Alexander the Ætolian, in his Crica, if indeed it is a genuine poem, says—
Still did the pompilus direct the helm,
Swimming behind, and guide it down the gulf,
The minister of the gods, the sacred pompilus.
And Pancrates the Arcadian, in his work entitled "Works of the Sea," having first said—