The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)

by of Naucratis Athenaeus

2. Now, as a long discussion had taken place about fish, it was plain that Cynulcus was annoyed at it; and so the excellent Democritus, anticipating him, said—But, O you men fish, as Archippus says, you have omitted (for I too must throw in a little contribution of my own) those which are called fossil fishes, which are produced at Heraclea, and near Tium, in Pontus, which is a colony of the Milesians, though Theophrastus gives us an account of them. And this very same philosopher has also told us about those that are congealed in ice the whole winter, so that they have no feeling whatever, and make not the slightest motion, until they are put into the saucepans and boiled. And these fish have this especial peculiarity, which also belongs in some degree to the fish which are called fossil fish in Paphlagonia. For it is said that ditches are dug in those places to an exceeding depth, where no overflow of rivers ever reaches, nor of any other waters whatever; and yet in those ditches there are found living fishes.

3. But Mnaseas of Patra, in his Periplus, says that the fish in the river Clitor are not dumb; though Aristotle has stated in writing that the only fishes which have any voice are the scarus and the river-hog. And Philostephanus, who was a Cyrenæan by birth, and a friend of Callimachus, in his treatise on Extraordinary Rivers, says that in the river Aroanius, which flows through Pheneum, there are fish which sing like thrushes, and that they are called the poiciliæ. And Nymphodorus the Syracusan, in his Voyages, says that there are pike in the river Helorus, and large eels, so tame that they take bread out of the hands of any who bring it to them. And I myself, and very likely many of you too, have seen cestres tamed to the hand in the fountain of Arethusa, near Chalcis; and eels, having silver and golden earrings, taking food from any one who offered it to them, and entrails from the victims, and fresh cheese. And Semus says, in the sixth book of his Delias—"They say that a boy once dipped a ewer into the well, and brought water to some Athenians who were sacrificing at Delos, to wash their hands with; and he brought up, as it happened, some fish in the ewer along with the water: and that on this the soothsayers of the Delians told them that they should become the lords of the sea."

AQUATIC ANIMALS.

4. And Polybius, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that behind Pyrene, as far as the river Narbo, the whole country is a plain, through which the rivers Illiberis and Rhoscynus proceed, flowing through cities of the same name as themselves, which are inhabited by some of the Celtæ; and in this plain he says that the above-mentioned fossil fish are also found. And he says that the soil of that plain is light, and that a great quantity of the herb agrostis grows in it; and that beneath it, as the soil is sandy for a depth of two or three cubits, the water flows, which wanders away from these rivers; and so the fish, too, leaving the rivers, and proceeding underground, in the course of these erratic underflowings, in quest of food (for they are exceedingly fond of the root of the agrostis), have caused the whole plain to be full of subterranean fish, which people catch when they dig up the plain. "And among the Indians," says Theophrastus, "there are fish which go forth out of the rivers over the land, and then, leaping back, return again to the water, just like frogs; being in appearance very like the fish which are called maxini."

5. But I am not ignorant of what Clearchus, the Peripatetic philosopher, has said about what he calls the exocoetus fish, or fish which comes out of the water to sleep, which he mentions in his work entitled A Treatise on Aquatic Animals. For he has said, (and I think that I recollect his exact words, which are as follows,) "The exocoetus fish, which some people call Adonis, has derived its name from constantly taking his rest out of the water. He is rather of a red colour, and from his gills down to his tail he has on each side of his body one white stripe reaching the whole length of his body. And he is round, but not being broad, he is equal in size to the cestrinisci which are found near the shore; and they are as near as may be about eight fingers in length. Altogether he is very like the fish called the sea-goat, except that the latter has a black place under his stomach, which they call the beard of the goat. And the exocoetus is one of the fish which keeps near to the rocks, and spends his life in rocky places. When it is calm weather he springs up with the waves and lies on the rocks for a considerable time, sleeping on the dry land, and turning himself so as to bask in the sun: and then, when he has had sufficient rest, he rolls towards the water again, until the wave, taking him again, bears him with the reflux back into the sea. And when he is awake on the dry land then he is on his guard against those birds which are called pareudistæ, such as the halcyon, the sandpiper, and the helorius, which is a bird like the rail. For these birds in calm weather feed on the dry land, and often attack the exocoetus; but when he sees them at a distance he flies, leaping and panting, until he dives beneath the water."

6. Moreover, Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus the Cyrenæan, whom I have previously mentioned. "There are some fish which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound. Such are those which are found near Cleitor, in Arcadia, in the river called Ladon. For they have a voice, and utter a very audible sound." And Nicolaus, of Damascus, in the hundred and fourth book of his History, says—"In the country around Apamea, in Phrygia, at the time of the Mithridatic wars, there were some earthquakes, after which there appeared in that district some lakes which previously had no existence, and rivers, and other springs which had been opened by the earthquake. Many also which had previously existed disappeared. And such a quantity of additional water, which was brackish and of a sea-green colour, burst up in that district, though it is at a very great distance from the sea, that all the neighbouring country was filled with oysters and fish, and all other productions of the sea." I know also that it has very often rained fishes. At all events, Phænias, in the second book of his Eresian Magistrates, says that in the Chersonesus it once rained fish uninterruptedly for three days; and Phylarchus, in his fourth book, says that people had often seen it raining fish, and often also raining wheat, and that the same thing has happened with respect to frogs. At all events, Heraclides Lembus, in the twenty-first book of his History, says—"In Pæonia and Dardania it has, they say, before now rained frogs; and so great has been the number of these frogs that the houses and the roads have been full of them; and at first, for some days, the inhabitants, endeavouring to kill them, and shutting up their houses, endured the pest; but when they did no good, but found that all their vessels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up and roasted with everything they ate, and when besides all this, they could not make use of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for the heaps of frogs that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the smell of those that died, they fled the country."

FISH.

7. I am aware, too, that Posidonius the Stoic makes this statement about the abundance of the fish:—"When Tryphon of Apamea, who seized upon the kingdom of Syria, was attacked by Sarpedon, the general of Demetrius, near the city of Ptolemais, and when Sarpedon, being defeated, retired into the inland parts of the country with his own troops, but the army of Tryphon, having been victorious in the battle, were marching along the shore, on a sudden, a wave of the sea, rising to a great height, came over the land, and overwhelmed them all, and destroyed them beneath the waters, and the retreating wave also left an immense heap of fish with the corpses. And Sarpedon and his army hearing of what had happened, came up, and were delighted at the sight of the corpses of their enemies, and carried away an enormous quantity of fish, and made a sacrifice to Neptune who puts armies to flight, near the suburbs of the city."

8. Nor will I pass over in silence the men who prophesy from fish in Lycia, concerning whom Polycharmus speaks, in the second book of his Affairs of Lycia; writing in this manner:—"For when they have come to the sea, at a place where there is on the shore a grove sacred to Apollo, and where there is an eddy on the sand, the persons who are consulting the oracle come, bringing with them two wooden spits, having each of them ten pieces of roast meat on them. And the priest sits down by the side of the grove in silence; but he who is consulting the oracle throws the spits into the eddy, and looks on to see what happens. And after he has put the spits in, then the eddy becomes full of salt water, and there comes up such an enormous quantity of fish of such a description that he is amazed at the sight, and is even, as it were, alarmed at the magnitude of it. And when the prophet enumerates the different species of fish, the person who is consulting the oracle in this manner receives the prophecy from the priest respecting the matters about which he has prayed for information. And there appear in the eddy orphi, and sea-grayling, and sometimes some sorts of whales, such as the phalæna, or pristis, and a great many other fish which are rarely seen, and strange to the sight."

And Artemidorus, in the tenth book of his Geography, says that—"It is said by the natives that a fountain springs up in that place of sweet water, to which it is owing that these eddies exist there; and that very large fish are produced in that eddying place. And those who are sacrificing throw to these fish the first-fruits of what they offer, piercing them through with wooden spits, being pieces of meat, roasted and boiled, and cakes of barley and loaves. And both the harbour and the place is called Dinus."[9]