[320] Bk. I. 18.
[321] See Hall, op. cit. p. 22 (1914), and ibid., p. 35 (1912). Lucian, although a Syrian (to which nation fish was from the earliest times a forbidden food), frequently shows himself very conversant with fishes and avails himself of their characteristics: e.g. Menelaus, after witnessing some of the “turns” of that celebrated “lightning-change artist,” Proteus, exclaims frankly, “there must be some fraud!” The artist pooh-poohs him and bids him consider the everyday miracle of invisibility wrought by the Polypus, who having “selected his rock and having attached himself by means of his suckers, assimilates himself to it, changing his colour to match that of the rock. Thus there is no contrast of colour to betray his presence: he looks just like a stone” (Dialogues of the Sea Gods, iv. 1-3, Fowler’s Translation).
[322] Such in Fowler’s Translation, V. 48, is the rendering of κύων, which is quite wrong for two reasons. First, κύων is almost certainly our dog-fish or its cousin. Cf. Aristotle, N. H., VI. 118. Second, the salmon is not found in Greek waters, and so could not be fished for from the Acropolis. Cf. infra, Chapter XIII.
[323] Heliod., Æthiop., 5, 18. Cf. Hall, op. cit., 1914.
[324] Anth. Pal., IX. 442. Trs. from the Greek Anthology as selected for Westminster, Eton, etc.
[325] Athen., VII., 48.
[326] Ovid has, I believe, more piscatory passages than any other poet, except professional writers, such as Oppian. His ten years’ banishment to Tomi at the mouth of the Danube and on the shores of the fishful Euxine no doubt added to his love and his mention of Fishing.
[327] Arist., N. H., IX. 13., Pliny, IX. 88. Hardouin suggests that Pliny may have learned this fact from the works of Nigidius Figulus.
[328] Cf. J. G. Schneider, Petri Artedi Synonymia Piscium, etc., Lipsiæ, 1789. This work is an excellent example of the learning and industry of this most versatile editor and commentator: in nearly all points that are matters of doubt or dispute I have followed him.
[329] Ibid., p. 76.