First of all, whether the wind blew north or south,
As long as it blew hard, it was not possible
For anybody to get fish to eat.
But now, besides that pair of stormy winds,
We've a third tempest risen in Phayllus;
For when this last storm bursts upon the market,
He buys up all the fish at all the stalls,
And bears it off; so that we are reduced
To squabble for the vegetables remaining.
And Antiphanes, in his Female Fisher, enumerating some people as exceedingly fond of fish, says—
Give me some cuttle-fish first. O Hercules!
They've dirtied every place with ink; here, take them
And throw them back again into the sea,
To wash them clean: or else they'll say, O Dorion,
That you have caught some rotten cuttle-fish:
And put this crawfish back beside the sprats.
He's a fine fish, by Jove. O mighty Jove,
O you Callimedon, who now will eat you?
No one who's not prepared to pay his share.
I've giv'n you your place here on the right,
You mullets, food of great Callisthenes;
Who eats his patrimony in one dish;
Next comes the mighty conger from Sinope,
With his stout spines; the first who comes shall have him;
For Misgolas has no great love for such.
But here's a citharus, and if he sees him
He never will keep off his hands from him;
For he, indeed, does secretly adhere
As close as wax to all the harp-players (κιθαρῳδοῖς).
I ought to send this best of fish, this tench,
Still all alive, and leaping in his dish,
To the fair Pythionica, he's so fine:
But still she will not taste him, as her heart
Is wholly set on cured fish.—Here I place
These thin anchovies and this dainty turtle
Apart for Theano, to counterbalance her.
22. And it is a very clever way in which Antiphanes thus jested upon Misgolas, as devoting all his attention to beautiful harp-players and lyre-players; for Æschines the orator, in his speech against Timarchus, says this of him—"Misgolas, the son of Naucrates, of Colyttus, O men of Athens, is a man in other respects brave and virtuous, and no one can find any fault with him in any particular; but he is known to be exceedingly devoted to this kind of business, and always to have about him some harp-players, and people who sing to the music of the harp. And I say this, not by way of disparaging him, but in order that you may be aware what sort of person he is." And Timocles, in his Sappho, says—
Misgolas is not seen to enter in,
Excited as he is by blooming youth.
And Alexis, in his Agonis, or the Little Horse, says—
O mother, do not threaten me, I pray,
With Misgolas, for I am not a harp-player.
23. But Antiphanes says that Pythionica is fond of cured fish, since she had for lovers the sons of Chærephilus, the seller of salt-fish; as Timocles says, in his Icarians,—
When that stout Anytus to Pythionica
Does come, to eat with her; for she invites him,
As people say, whenever she does get
Two noble tunnies from Chærephilus;
So fond is she of all things that are large.
And again he says—