Then came in figs, the emblem of fair Athens,
And bunches of sweet thyme.
And Lynceus, in his epistle to the comic poet, Posidippus, says—"In the delineation of the tragic passions, I do not think that Euripides is at all superior to Sophocles, but in dried figs, I do think that Attica is superior to every other country on earth." And in his letter to Diagoras, he writes thus:—"But this country opposes to the Chelidonian dried figs those which are called Brigindaridæ, which in their name indeed are barbarous, but which in delicious flavour are not at all less Attic than the others. And Phœnicides, in his Hated Woman, says—
They celebrate the praise of myrtle-berries,
Of honey, of the Propylæa, and of figs;
Now these I tasted when I first arrived,
And saw the Propylæa; yet have I found nothing
Which to a woodcock can for taste compare.
In which lines we must take notice of the mention of the woodcock. But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Names, says that "the most excellent dried figs are those called Ægilides; and that Ægila is the name of a borough in Attica, which derives its name from a hero called Ægilus; but that the dried figs of a reddish black colour are called Chelidonians." Theopompus also, in the Peace, praising the Tithrasian figs, speaks thus—
Barley-cakes, cheesecakes, and Tithrasian figs.