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VIII.358C‑365E

This webpage reproduces a section of
The Deipnosophistae

of
Athenaeus

published in Vol. IV
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1930

The text is in the public domain.

This page has not been proofread.
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IX.376C‑383F

(Vol. IV) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

Book IX
(Part 1 of 5)

 p159  366"And let us once more bethink us of supper, and let them pour water over our hands; and in the morning there will be tales"​1 for you and for me, Timocrates. In fact, no sooner were some hams served to us, and someone had asked whether they were tender, than Ulpian began: "In what author is that word takeron for 'tender' found? And who has called napy (mustard) sinapy? For I see that it is served in side-dishes along with the hams (koleoi). Yes, koleoi; for I know that this word is used thus as a masculine, and not, as our native​2 Athenians would have it, solely as a feminine.​3 Epicharmus, at any rate, says in The Woman from Megara:​4 B'Sausage, cheese, hams (koleoi), vertebrae; but of things fit to eat, not a single thing.' And in Cyclops:​5 'Sausages are nice, I swear by Zeus, and so is a ham (koleos).' Learn this, too, of me, most learned men, that in this line Epicharmus speaks of sausage as chordé, though elsewhere he always calls it orya. Again, I see seasoned salt in other side-dishes. But our Cynics are full of unseasoned salt; among them, to quote Antiphanes,​6 another Cynic says in The Bag: C'A. Of  p161 the relishes which come from the sea we always have one, and that day in, day out. I mean salt. . . . With that to season it, we manage to drink our poor wine — a speciality, Zeus be my witness, that matches our house.​7 B. What do you mean, then, by calling it a speciality? A. Why, it's the kind do thing that is expedient for the entire company to drink from the cruet, like a cup.' And I also see garum sauce beaten up in a mixture with vinegar. I know that in our day some inhabitants of Pontus prepare a special kind which is called vinegar-garum."

In answer to this Zoïlus said: "Aristophanes, sir, applied the word 'tender' to what is dainty when he said, in The Lemnian Women:​8 D'Lemnos, which grows fine, tender beans.' And Pherecrates in Good-for-Nothings9 'To make the chick-peas tender on the spot.' As for mustard, Nicander of Colophon gave it the name sinepy in Theriaca thus:​10 'Yea, verily, a brass-bound gourd, or sinepy.' And in the Georgics he says:​11 'Seeds of mustard (sinepy) with sharp bite.' And again:​12 'Pepper-grass and nose-smart and dark-leaved sinepy.' Crates, in the treatise On Attic Diction, cites​13 Aristophanes as saying: 367 'He had a mustard (sinapy)º look, and drew back his  p163 brow.' Thus Crates, according to Seleucus in his work On Hellenism. But the verse is from The Knights, and runs thus:​14 'He had a mustard (napy) look.' No Attic writer ever said sinapy. Yet either form is reasonable. For napy is, as it were, naphy,​15 because it has lost growth; for it is without size and small, just like aphye.​16 Sinapy, on the other hand, is so called because it hurts (sinetai) faces (ops) in the smelling, just as the onion (krommyon) is so called because we close (myomen) our eyes (korai). The comic poet Xenarchus said in The Scythians:​17 'This pain isn't pain any more; Bmy little daughter has applied a mustard-plaster by the help of the foreign woman.' Salt and vinegar also are mentioned by the excellent Aristophanes in the lines about the tragic poet Sthenelus. He says:​18 'And how could I ever chew the words of Sthenelus? Can I souse them in vinegar or white salt?'

"We then, my good fellow, have contributed these examples to help you answer your questions.​19 And now you should answer the question, in what author the word paropsis20 is used of the well-known vessel. CFor I know that Plato, in Holidays, uses the word of a specially prepared, mixed dish, or some spice​21 of that sort, thus:​22 'Whence we might have a barley-cake and side-dishes.' But in Europa, again, he uses the word in an extended passage of any exquisite delight; in it is the following:​23 'A. A  p165 sleeping woman is inert. Z. I understand that! A. But when she is awake, the side-dishes, taken by themselves alone, are a much greater contribution to pleasure than all else. Z. What, are there 'side-dishes' in loving, DI entreat you?' And in the next lines he goes on to describe these 'side-dishes' as if he were speaking of a relish at table. Again, in Phaon:​24 'Frivolous dallyings are like side-dishes; their delight is brief, and quickly are they spent.' Aristophanes in Daedalus:​25 'To all women, in one way or another, an adulterer ready for his work is like a side-dish.' "

Since, then, Ulpian had nothing to say, Leonides spoke up: "But I have a right to speak, having for a long time kept silence. EAs Evenus of Paros says:​26 'Many there be whose habit is to dispute everything indiscriminately, but further than that, it is not their habit to dispute soundly. And against these one ancient saying suffices: "To you these things may seem so to be, but to me they seem otherwise." One can very soon convince the wise by a word well spoken, for they are the easiest to instruct.' FAnd so, Myrtilus, my love (for I have got the floor before you),​27 Antiphanes uses the word paropsis of the vessel in The Boeotian  p167 Woman:​28 'He called out, and served in a saucer' . . .​29 And Alexis in Hesionê:​30 'When he saw two fellows bringing in the table laden with its adornment of varied saucers,​31 he no longer had eyes for me.' Again, the author of the lines attributed to Magnes says, in Dionysus, first edition:​32 'These are saucers full of troubles for me.' 368 And Achaeus in the satyric drama Aethon:​33 'Let me have other well-stewed saucer-meats served chopped in fine bits, and steaming dishes aflame on the side.' And the comic poet Sotades in Ransomed:​34 'Plainly I am only a side-dish to Crobylus; he masticates Crobylus, but bolts me on the side.' But Xenophon's use of the word, in the first book out of Cyropaedeia, is ambiguous. For that philosopher says:​35 'He set before him side-dishes and all kinds of sauces and meats.' BAnd in the author of Cheiron, which is attributed to Pherecrates, the word paropsis is used of a sauce, and not, as Didymus maintains in his treatise on The Corrupt Use of Words,​36 of the vessel containing it. Pherecrates says:​37 'Zeus is my witness, these fellows, like side-dishes, have qualities according to their seasoning, and the host who has invited them regards them as  p169 a worthless trifle.' Nicophon in The Sirens:​38 'Let sausage fight for a place with the side-dishes.' Aristophanes in Daedalus:​39 C'To all women, in one way or another, at least, an adulterer ready for his work is like a side-dish.' Plato in Holidays:​40 'Whence we might have a barley-cake and side-dishes.' He speaks, too, of the seasoning and dressing of bulbs. And the Attic writers, you Syro-Atticist, Ulpian, say embamma for sauce. Thus Theopompus in The Peace:​41 'The weather loaf is nice,​42 but to cheat us with the addition Dof sauces to the loaves is vicious.'

"Attic writers say both kôlen and kolê for ham. Eupolis in Autolycus:​43 'Legs and haunches (kolênes) aimed straight at the ceiling.' Euripides in Sciron:​44 'Not even haunches (kolêns) of young venison.' But from the form kolea there is a contracted form; like syke, sykê (fig-tree), leontea, leontê (lion-skin), so kolea, kolê. Aristophanes in the second Plutus:​45 'Alas for the ham (kolê) which I used to eat!' And in Men of Dinnerville:​46 E'Hams (kolae) from tender young porkers, and winged tid-bits.' In The Storks:​47 'Lambs' heads and kids' hams.' Plato in The  p171 Griffins:​48 'Fishes, hams, sausages.' Ameipsias in Connus:​49 'Special perquisites given to the priests are a ham, the rib, and the left side of the head.' Xenophon in Art of Hunting:​50 'A fleshy ham, loose flanks.' So, also, Xenophanes of Colophon says in his Elegies:​51 F'For though thou didst send but the ham of a kid, thou has won the fat leg of a stout bull, a rich prize for a man to win, whose fame shall reach over all Greece, and never cease so long as the Greek mode of songs shall be.' "

Although many viands of all kinds were brought in successively after those we have mentioned, we shall indicate those only which deserve record. For besides a quantity of other​52 birds, including geese, there were also the small birds which some call woodpeckers; 369 also pigs, and the much-sought-after pheasants. I will, therefore, first set forth the vegetables for you, and then proceed to explain the other things.

Turnips. — These, as Apollas says​53 in his book On the Cities of Peloponnesus, are called by the Lacedaemonians paunches. But Nicander of Colophon, in his Glossary, says​54 that cabbages are called paunches in Boeotia, while turnips are called zekeltides.​55 Amerias and Timachidas, on the other hand, say that gourds are called zekeltides. BSpeusippus, in the  p173 second book of Similars, says that radish, turnip, rape-turnip, and nose-smart are similar. Glaucus, in The Art of Cookery, calls the rape-turnip (raphys) rapys, spelling it with p without the aspirate. There is nothing else similar to these except what is to‑day called bounias.​56 Theophrastus, though he does not mention the bounias by name, speaks​57 of a certain turnip which he calls male-turnip, and perhaps this is the bounias. Nicander mentions the bounias in the Georgics:​58 'Turnips shalt thou sow on ground levelled with a roller, Cthat they may grow more level and equal to their moulds.​59 Sow bouniades, too, and carrots, evenly with cabbages. Of turnip and cabbage, in truth, two families appear in our gardens, long and solid." Cephisian turnips are mentioned by Crates in Orators thus:​60 "Very much like Cephisian turnips." Theophrastus says​61 there are two kinds of turnips, male and female; both grow from the same seed. Poseidonius (he of the Porch), in the twenty-seventh book of his Histories, says​62 that in Dalmatia Dthere are turnips that grow without cultivation, and carrots that grow wild. Diphilus, the physician of Siphnos, says that the turnip is thinning, acrid, and hard to digest; it is also likely to cause flatulence. The bounias, he says, is better; for it is sweeter and more digestible, in addition to being wholesome and  p175 nourishing. The roasted turnip, he adds, is more easily digested, but is excessively thinning. Eubulus mentions it thus in Ancylion:​63 E"I bring you here a turnip for roasting." And Alexis in God-inspired:​64 "I babble the while I roast slices of turnip for Ptolemy." The pickled turnip is more thinning than the boiled, especially when it is done in mustard, according to Diphilus.

The Cabbage. — Eudemus of Athens, in his book On Vegetables, says that there are three sorts of cabbage, the so‑called halmyris,​65 the smooth-leaf, and the parsley-leaved; in flavour the halmyris is judged supreme. F"It grows in Eretria, Cyme, and Rhodes, also in Cnidus and Ephesus. The smooth-leaf grows in all countries. The parsley-leaved has its name from its curliness, for in this respect it resembles parsley, and also in its tendency to compactness."​66 Theophrastus writes thus:​67 "Of the rhaphanos (by which I mean the cabbage) there are two sorts, one curly-leaved, the other wild." Diphilus of Siphnos says: "The cabbage which grows in Cyme is very good and sweet, but in Alexandria it is bitter. Seed brought from Rhodes to Alexandria produces a cabbage which is sweet for the first year, but after that period it becomes acclimatized."​68 Nicander says in the Georgics:​69 370 "Smooth-skinned is the cabbage, but sometimes it occurs in wild state, with many leaves, and grows rank in seeded gardens; either  p177 branching in curly tendrils with brownish leaves, or purplish and like disordered hair, or again, in ugly greenish tints its hollow leaf is like the sole-leather with which they mend sandals turned and patched; it is the plant which those of yore called the prophet among vegetables" Now perhaps Nicander has called the cabbage a prophet because it is sacred, Bsince in the iambic verses of Hipponax something of this kind is said:​70 'But he slipped away, and made entreaty of the seven-leaved cabbage, to which Pandora sacrificed a moulded cake at the Thargelia to take the curse away."​71 And Ananius says:​72 "And I like you by far the most in all the world, so have me Cabbage!" And Telecleides in The Prytanes said:​73 "So help me Cabbages!" So Epicharmus in Earth and Sea:​74 "So help me Cabbage!" Eupolis in The Bathers:​75 "So help me Cabbage!" It was thought that this oath was Ionian; Cand it is not surprising that some people swore by the cabbage, seeing that even Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Porch, imitated Socrates' oath by the dog and swore, in his turn, by the caper, as Empedus says in his Reminiscences.​76 At Athens, too, a cabbage was prepared for women in childbed as a kind of antidote in their food. Ephippus, at any rate, says in Geryones:​77 "If  p179 that is so, then how is it that there is no wreath before the doors, Dno savour of cooking strikes the tip ends of the projecting nose, though the feast of the Amphidromia is on? For then it is the custom to toast slices of Gallipoli cheese, to broil some fat lamb chops, to pluck the feathers from ringdoves, thrushes, and finches withal, at the same time to devour cuttle-fish and squids, to pound with care many wriggling polyps, and drink many a cup not too diluted." But Antiphanes mentions the cabbage as a cheap food Ein these lines from The Parasite:​78 "You now understand what kind of things they are — wheat loaves, garlic, cheese, flat-cakes, things which gentlemen eat; not smoked fish, not lamb chops spread with seasoning, no jumbled pastry, and dishes fit to ruin men. Yes, and they will boil sleek cabbages — ye gods! — and serve pea-soup with them." Diphilus in Greedy:​79 "There have come with a swoop all kinds of goodies, of their own accord; Fthere's a sleek cabbage, entrails in abundance, tenderest pieces of meat — things, I can tell you, not at all like my pot-herbs or d–––––––––––––d crushed olives." Alcaeus in The Wrestling-school:​80 "She was already boiling a pot of cabbages." Polyzelus,  p181 mentioning them by the name crambê in Birth of the Muses, says:​81 "Many tall-leaved cabbages."

371 Beets. — As to these, Theophrastus says​82 that the white is juicier than the red, has fewer seeds, and is called Sicilian. He​83 says that the seutlis is different from the teutlon. Hence the comic poet Diphilus criticizes​84 someone in the play of The Hero for misuse of the word, "and calling teutla seutlides." Eudemus, in his book On Vegetables, says there are four kinds of beets — the drawn, the stalked, the white, the common; the last is dun-coloured. Diphilus of Siphnos says that the beet is juicier than the cabbage and is somewhat more nourishing; when boiled and eaten with mustard it is more thinning and calculated to destroy worms. BThe white acts more readily on the bowels, the red is more diuretic. Their roots are also better flavoured and more nourishing.

The Carrot.85 — "This is pungent," says Diphilus, "very nourishing and fairly wholesome, with a tendency to loosening and windiness; not easy to digest, very diuretic, calculated to rouse sexual desire; hence by some it is called love-philtre.' Numenius says in The Art of Angling:​86 "Of the herbs which grow unsown or are found rooted in our fields in winter, Cor when flowering springtime  p183 comes, there are the scraggly cardoon and the wild carrot, the deep-rooted rape-turnip, and the wild bur-parsley." Nicander in the second book of the Georgics says:​87 "Among them, too, are the high stalk of the fennel, the roots of rock-parsley, with it, also, the scraggly carrot itself, horse-parsley, sow-thistle, hound's-tongue, and chicory; with them, too, thou shalt pound the pungent leaves of edderwort, or the herb which is called bird's milk." Theophrastus, also, mentions the carrot. DPhaenias, in the fifth book of his work On Plants, writes as follows:​88 "With respect to the qualities of its seed, the so‑called seps and the seed of the carrot." And in the first book he says:​89a "Umbelliferous types of seeded plants are found in anise, fennel, carrot, bur-parsley, hemlock, coriander, and squill, which some call mouse-bane." Since Nicander has mentioned edderwort, it will be added that Phaenias, also, writes as follows in the book before-mentioned:​89b "Edder-wort, which some call arum. . . ."​90 Diocles, in the first book of his Hygiene, calls​91 the carrot (staphylinus) astaphylinus. What is called the "sliced," which is a large, well-grown carrot, Eis juicier than the carrot and more heating, diuretic, wholesome, and easy to digest, as Diphilus records.

 p185  The Leek.92 — This, the same Diphilus, is also called prasium, and it is more juicy than the "sliced" plant (carrot). It is also moderately thinning, nourishing, and also likely to cause flatulence. Epaenetus in The Art of Cookery says that leeks are called gethyllides (spring onions). This name, I find, has received mention in Eubulus's Pimp, as follows:​93 F"I couldn't touch a bit of bread; for I have just eaten at the house of Gnathaenium; I found her cooking spring onions." But others say that this is what is called gethyon (horn onion), mentioned by Phrynichus in Cronus.​94 Didymus, in his explanatory notes on this play, says that horn onions are similar to the so‑called vine-leeks, and that the same are also called gethyllides. These last are mentioned thus by Epicharmus in Philoctetes:​95 "among them were two heads of garlic and two horn onions." 372 Aristophanes in Aeolosicon, second edition:​96 "Roots of horn onions, with qualities that imitate garlic." Polemon the geographer, in his work On Samothrace, says that Leto had a pregnant woman's craving for the horn onion. He writes as follows:​97 'It is ordained among the Delphians that whosoever shall bring for the festival of the Theoxenia​98 the largest horn onion to Leto, shall receive a portion from the table. And I have myself seen a horn onion as large as a turnip or the round radish. BThey relate that  p187 Leto, before the birth of Apollo, had a craving for the horn onion; hence it has received this special honour."

The Gourd. — Once, in the season of winter, cucumbers were served to us,​99 and we all wondered, thinking they were fresh, and we recalled what the witty Aristophanes said in The Seasons when he praised the fair city of Athens in these lines:​100 "A. You will see, in midwinter, cucumbers, grapes, fruit, wreaths of violets, roes, and lilies — a dust-cloud utterly blinding. CThe same tradesman sells thrushes, pears, honeycomb, olives, beestings, haggis, celandine, cicadas, embryo-meat. You can see baskets of figs and of myrtle-berries together, covered with snow, and what is more, they sow cucumbers at the same time with turnips, so that nobody knows any longer what time of the year it is. . . . A very great boon, if one may get throughout the year whatever he wants. B. A very great evil, rather! For if they couldn't get these things, they wouldn't be so eager for them and spend so much money on them. As for me, I would supply these things for a brief season and then take them away. A. I too do that for other cities, but not for Athens. DThe Athenians enjoy all these things because they revere the gods. B. Much  p189 good, then, does it do them for revering you, as you say! A. Why, how's that? B. You have made their city Egypt instead of Athens."​101 We wondered, as I was saying, that we should be eating cucumbers in the month of January; for they were fresh and had all their native savour. But it so happened that they belonged to the class of things which are compounded by cooks who know how to play these kinds of tricks. Accordingly, Larensis asked whether the ancients also understood this use. EUlpian replied: "Nicander of Colophon, in the second book of his Georgics, mentions this use, but he names these gourds sikyae; they were, in fact, called thus, as we have explained before.​102 He says:​103 'As for the gourds themselves, cut and skewer them in clues and dry them in the air; then hang them up over the smoke, so that when winter comes the slaves may have enough to fill the capacious pot and gulp it down at their ease, Fand that the girl who grinds the cornº may pour in to the vat boiled pulse of every kind. In it, too, they have laid the clues of gourd, after thoroughly washing them, and mushrooms and dried vegetables long since plaited in strings, with broccoli-stalks as well — to lie all together until spring comes.' "

373 Chickens. — Chickens followed the gourds and other "shredded" vegetables. This last is a term used​104 by Aristophanes in The Woman of delos, of chopped  p191 vegetables: "Shredded, or pressed in cakes." So Myrtilus spoke up: "Colloquial usage to‑day calls only hens​105 by the name of birds and birdlings, a great number of which I see being served. (And the philosopher Chrysippus, in the fifth book On Pleasure and the Good, writes as follows: 'Just as some persons are more inclined to regard white fowls as pleasanter to the taste than dark.') BBut the male birds are called cocks or cockerels. Yet among the ancients the word ornis (bird) was used, both as a masculine and a feminine, of other birds as well, and not merely of this special sort, concerning which colloquial usage speaks of 'buying birds.'​106 Homer, at any rate, says:​107 'Many birds, under the sun's rays.' And elsewhere he has the feminine:​108 'To the shrill bird.' Also:​109 'As a bird brings to her unfledged nestling as morsel when she has found it, but with herself it goes hard.' CBut Menander, in the first edition of The Heiress, clearly brings out the colloquial usage when he says:​110 'A cock crowed lustily. Won't you shoo away,' says he, 'these birds (ornithas) from us?' And again 'She has at last shooed away the birds (ornis) with difficulty.' Cratinus uses the term ornithia (birdlings) thus in Nemesis:​111 'All the other birdlings.' Of the male bird we have not only the accusative form ornin, but also ornitha. DThis Cratinus in the same play: 'A red-winged bird' (ornitha).​112 And again:113  p193 'So, then, you must turn into a large bird.'​114 And Sophocles in Sons of Antenor:​115 'Bird and herald and minister.' Aeschylus in The Cabeiri:​116 'I make you not the bird (omen) of my journey.' Xenophon in the second book of Cyropaedeia:​117 'Against the birds in the severest weather.' Menander in The Girl Twins:​118 'I have come with a present of birds (orneis).' And later on he says: 'He sends birds (ornithas).' But that for the plural they also say ornis is shown by the testimony of Menander quoted above.​119 EWhy, even Alcman says,​120 I believe: 'The maidens scattered​121 without finishing their song, like birds (ornis) when a hawk flies over them.' And Eupolis in The Demes:​122 'Isn't it dreadful, then, that I should bring forth children who are rams, and chicks who are birds (ornis) like their father?' On the other hand, old writers use the word alectryon123 even as a feminine. Cratinus in Nemesis:​124 'Leda, it is now thy task; thou must needs be in no wise different from a well-behaved hen (alectryon) in thy ways, clucking over the egg here, Fthat thou may hatch out for us a beautiful and marvellous bird from it.'  p195 Strattis in Keeping Cool:​125 'All the hens and sucking-pigs are dead, and the little birds (ornithia) as well.' Anaxandrides in Tereus:​126 'They like to watch the boars copulating, and the hens when they are covered.' Now that I have mentioned this comedian, and know that his play, Tereus, is not rated among the best, 374 I am going to quote for your opinion, my friends, what Chamaeleon of Heracleia says in the sixth book of his work On Comedy. He writes as follows:​127 'Once when Anaxandrides was producing a dithyramb at Athens, he entered the theatre on horseback and recited something from the song. He was fine-looking and tall, affected long hair, and wore a purple cloak with golden hem. Being of a morose disposition, he used to do this with his comedies: Bwhenever he failed to win, he took and gave them to the grocer to cut up for wrappings,​128 and he never revised them, as most writers did. In this way he destroyed many plays which had been elaborately composed, because his old age made him peevish towards the spectators.' It is said that he was Rhodian-born, from Camirus. Therefore I wonder how the Tereus survived, since it did not win a victory, and other plays of the same au which had a similar fate. Theopompus, in The Peace, also used the word alectryon of the female bird when he said:​129 'I am grieved at the loss of my hen, that laid very nice eggs.' CAnd Aristophanes in Daedalus:​130 'She  p197 has laid a very large egg, like a hen.' And again: 'Many a hen, whether she will or no, lays wind-eggs often.' And in The Clouds, when the old man is being instructed in the proper distinction of terms, he says:​131 'STREPS. Well, now, how am I to call it? SOCRATES. Call this a fowless, but the other a fowl.' That pair of words is also found for hen and cock. DSimonides said:​132 'Thou cock with lovely song.' Cratinus in The Seasons:​133 'Like the Persian cock whose whole-voiced note rings out at all hours.' It is spoken of in this way because it wakes us up from our bed. The Dorians use the nominative ornix, and pronounce the genitive, ornichos,​134 with ch. Yet Alcman shows the nominative in s:​135 'The sea-purple bird (ornis) of spring,' even with the genitive in ch:​136 'I know the melodies of all birds (ornichôn).' "

The Shoat. — Epicharmus thus calls the male pig (delphax) Ein Odysseus the Runaway:​137 "While I had charge of my neighbours' shoat at the Eleusinia I lost it in some mysterious way, not willingly; and so he said that I was trading in these wares with the Achaeans, and he swore that I had played false with that shoat." Anaxilas also, in Circe, uses the word delphax as a masculine, but applies the name to the adult hog,  p199 saying:​138 F"Some of you she will turn into mountain-ranging, forest-roving shoats, others into panthers, others into savage wolves or lions." But Aristophanes applies the word to female pigs in Masters of the Frying-pan:​139 "Or the paunch of a shoat killed in the autumn." Also in The Acharnians:​140 "That's because she is too young; but when she is grown to the size of a shoat, she will have a tail that is large and thick and red. 375 So if you will but feed her, you will, I'm sure, have in her a nice pig." So Eupolis in The Golden Age.​141 Hipponax also had its feminine:​142 "Like an Ephesian shoat." Properly, only the females would be so called (delphakes), as having wombs (delphyas), since the uterus is called by that name, and the word for brothers (adelphoi) is derive from it. Concerning the age of the animal, Cratinus says in The Archilochuses:​143 "Already shoats, but pigs in the eyes of all the others." Now Aristophanes the grammarian says in the book On Ages:​144 B"As to swine, those whose growth has already been reached are shoats (delphakes), but the tender, juicy ones are pigs." Thus the Homeric expression​145 becomes clear: "What the slaves have at hand — flesh of sucking-pigs; but the suitors eat the fatted hogs." The comic poet Plato, in The Poet,​146 used the word delphax as a masculine: "He led away the shoat in silence." There was an old law, according to Androtion,​147 that in order to ensure the increase of  p201 domestic animals they should not sacrifice a sheep that had not been shorn, or that had not had a lamb; hence they used to eat only the adult animals; C"but the suitors eat the fatted hogs." So to‑day, also, it is the custom that the priestess of Athena shall not sacrifice a ewe lamb or taste of cheese. At one time, also, when there was a dearth of cows, according to Philochorus,​148 a law was passed, on account of the scarcity, that they should abstain from these animals, since they wished to amass them and fill up their numbers by not slaughtering them. The female pig is called choiros by the Ionians, as in Hipponax:​149 "With libation and entrails of a wild pig." DAnd Sophocles in The Epitaenarians:​150 "Therefore guard it like a dun pig on a rope." But King Ptolemy of Egypt, in the ninth book of his Reminiscences, says:​151 "When I journeyed to Assus, the people there offered me a pig (choiros) which was two and one-half cubits high, with a length which exactly accorded with that height, and snow-white in colour. They said, too, that King Eumenes bought such creatures expressly from them, paying four thousand drachmas for one." Aeschylus says:​152a E"And I will place this well-suckled pig in a roaring oven. For what dish could be better for a man than that?" And again:​152b "White, of  p203 course, and nicely singed is the pig. Cook yourself, pig, and don't be bothered by a little fire!" Still again:​153 "I have sacrificed this pig, from the same sow that has done me much mischief in the house by romping about and turning things pêle-mêle up and down." FThese examples were cited by Chamaeleon in his work On Aeschylus.154

Speaking of hogs: that the animal is sacred among the Cretans, Agathocles of Babylon, in his book On Cyzicus,​155 shows thus: "In Crete they tell the story that the birth of Zeus occurred on Mount Dicte, where there is a secret rite. 376 For it is said that a sow offered suck to Zeus, and as she roved about, she, by her own grunting, caused the infant's whimpering to be inaudible to the passers-by. Hence this creature is universally regarded with great reverence, and no one, Agathocles says, would eat of its flesh. The people of Praesus even offer sacrifices to the pig, and this rite is regularly observed by them before the marriage ceremony." A similar narrative is given by Neanthes of Cyzicus in the second book of his work On Ritual of Initiation.​156 Achaeus of Eretria mentions full-grown sows, which he calls petalides, in the satyric drama Aethon,​157 thus: "Full oft did I hear full-grown sows . . . in these shapes."​158 BHe calls them petalides, transferring the term from calves; for these are called petaloi (spreading) when their horns are outspread. Following the example of  p205 Achaeus, Eratosthenes also, in Anterinys, called​159 hogs larinoi (fatted), transferring the term, in this case also, from "larinoi cattle"; these were so‑called either from the verb larineuesthai, which means to be fattened — Sophron;​160 "The cattle are being fattened" — or from a village Larina in Epeirus, or from the cattle-tender; Che was named Larinus.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Od. IV.213.

2 Ulpian himself affects Atticism.

3 In the form kolea, pl. koleai.

4 Kaibel 17.

5 Ibid. 105.

6 Kock II.66.

7 i.e. our house is poor, our wine is poor. For the last line supply jjj.

8 Kock I.486.

9 Ibid. 169; but cf. Athen. 55b.

10 Vs. 921, cf. p159 Schneider.

11 Frag. 70.16 Schneider; Athen. 133e.

12 Frag. 84 Schneider.

13 p65 Wachsmuth.

14 vs. 631.

15 As if compounded of jjj, "and," and jjj, "grow."

16 "Small fry," 284f‑285f.

17 Kock II.472.

18 Kock I.429, from Gerytades; see Schol. Vesp. 1312.

19 Cf. above, 366b.

20 Properly a relish served as a side-dish or sauce. The use here discussed is condemned in Lombard. Phryn. 176.

21 Eng. spice, from Lat. species, originally meant "kind," Greek jjj.

22 Kock I.609, below 368c.

23 Ibid. 611; A. expostulates with Zeus for attacking Europa in her sleep, cf. Aeschyl. Agam. 1447, Aristoph. Lysistr. 162‑166.

24 Kock I.649.

25 Ibid. 436, below, 368b.

26 P. L. G.4 II.269.

27 Literally "I have snatched the word away from you." Cf. German "Ich greife das Wort," of one who diadems of the Speaker the right of speech.

28 Kock II.36; but the word may be taken also in the other sense, "as a relish."

29 Sc. bulbs, Pollux X.88.

30 Kock II.324.

31 In spite of Leonides, the meaning is really "different relishes."

32 Kock I.7; but the true interpretation is "these are but side-dishes to my troubles."

33 T. G. F.2 748; for the title see Athen. 270c note b.

34 Kock II.449.

35 Cyrop. I.3.4; Astyages entertains his grandson Cyrus.

36 p19 Schmidt.

37 Kock I.191; the uncertain text seems to compare parasites with sauces, whose quality is determined solely by their piquancy.

38 Kock I.777; perhaps to be added to the quotation in Athen. 269e.

39 Ibid. 436, above, 367d.

40 Kock I.609, above, 367c.

41 Kock I.735.

42 i.e., by itself alone.

43 Kock I.269, cf. Aristoph. Lysistr. 229.

44 T. G. F.2 573.

45 Plut. 1128; Hermes speaks. An earlier Plutus was produced in 408 B.C.

46 Kock I.450.

47 Ibid. 504.

48 Kock I.604.

49 Ibid. 672; see Athen. 218c and note e.

50 Chap. 5.30, of a hare.

51 P. L. G.4 II.114, Diels PPFR III.1.38, perhaps referring to the alleged greed of Simonides (Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 697).

52 See critical note.

53 F. H. G. IV.307.

54 Frag. 132 Schneider.

55 Cf. Hesychius s.v. jjj, defined as the Phrygian word for jjj, "vegetables," in modern Greek "cabbages."

56 French turnip or kohlrabi, choux raves.

57 Hist. Pl. VII.4.3.

58 Frag. 70 Schneider, cf. Athen. 13d.

59 "Equal to their moulds," a kind of litotes, means "keeping to their proprietor Scottish," since the turnip, unless evenly sown, will send out divided roots.

60 Kock I.138.

61 Hist. Pl. VII.4.3.

62 F. H. G. III.263.

63 Kock II.165.

64 Ibid. 325.

65 "grown on salty ground."

66 Probably kailº is meant.

67 Hist. Pl. VII.4.4.

68 i.e. becomes bitter.

69 Frag. 85 Schneider.

70 P. L. G.4 II.475. The verses are choliambic.

71 The jjj was a scape-goat offered in atonement, or in purification of the community. For jjj see 172b, 644d.

72 P. L. G.4 II.502.

73 Kock I.216.

74 Kaibel 95.

75 Kock I.275.

76 F. H. G. IV.403.

77 Kock II.251, Athen. 65c.

78 Kock II.86.

79 Kock II.544; for jjj cf. Athen. 270a, and for crushed olives, Athen. 56B‑C.

80 Kock I.762, cf. Aristoph. Ran. 505.

81 Kock I.792.

82 Hist. Pl. VII.4.4.

83 Not Theophrastus, but some grammarian who objected to the use of seutlis for teutlon.

84 Kock II.557.

85 Early editors rendered jjj by pastinaca, parsnip.

86 This quotation could hardly have come from the Halieuticon (it is not in Birt), and may not have come from Numenius even.

87 Frag. 71 Schneider.

88 F. H. G. II.300; evidently from a list of antidotes; carrot-seed is here mentioned as a cure for the bite of the seps, a kind of lizard-snake. Nic. Ther. 843, Diosc. III.54 (59).

89a 89b F. H. G.2.300.

90 See critical note.

91 p168 Wellmann.

92 Literally "headed plant."

93 Kock II.195.

94 Kock I.373.

95 Kaibel 116.

96 Kock I.393.

97 Frag. 36 Preller.

98 See 82e note c, 137e, 252b note f.

99 See Introd. vol. I p. xi; jjj may be used of any gourd, see Athen. 58f and note a, 68d. It is here rendered "cucumber," though probably nearer related to "Italian squash," French courges.

100 Kock I.536, cf. Xen. Vect. 1.3; apparently two divinities are disputing, one of whom is probably Athena.

101 No Athenian in his senses would exchange Athens for any other town; see Plato, Crito 54a.

102 59A‑B.

103 Frag. 72 Schneider.

104 Kock I.592, II.43; see critical note 1, p190.

105 Meaning barn-yard fowls.

106 i.e. fowls.

107 Od. II.181; referring to birds of the air, and using a masculine adjective.

108 Il. XIV.290, here meaning a bird of prey.

109 Il. IX.323.

110 Kock III.49.

111 Kock I.50; the form is colloquial, not diminutive in meaning.

112 Perhaps the flamingo.

113 Kock I.48.

114 Such as the swan into which Zeus was changed.

115 T. G. F.4 160; here and in the next quotation "bird" means "omen."

116 Ibid. 31.

117 I.6.39; of game birds in the forest.

118 Kock III.35.

119 373c; see 243d.

120 P. L. G.4 III.47.

121 Literally "broke up," sc. their band.

122 Kock I.283; rams were proverbial for ingratitude, jjj (mangers) jjj, Zenob. IV.63. For the second vs. cf. Aristoph. Av. 767.

123 Properly masculine, "cock"; see Aristoph. Nub. 662, and below 374c.

124 Kock I.48.

125 Kock I.728.

126 Kock II.156.

127 Frag. 17 Koepke.

128 The fate of bad verses; cf.  Hor. Ep. II.1.269.

129 Kock I.735.

130 Ibid. 435.

131 Aristoph. Nub. 665; Strepsiades speaks first.

132 P. L. G.4 III.421.

133 Kock I.91.

134 Instead of ornithos.

135 P. L. G.4 III.47.

136 Ibid. 58.

137 Kaibel 109.

138 Kock II.266.

139 Kock I.522, Athen. 96c.

140 l. 786.

141 Athen. 657a; Kock I.335.

142 P. L. G.4 II.485.

143 Kock I.12.

144 p120 Nauck.

145 Od. XIV.80.

146 Kock I.631.

147 F. H. G. I.375.

148 F. H. G. I.394.

149 P. L. G.4 II.476, where the adjective "wild" is in the feminine.

150 T. G. F.2 179, from a satyric drama with obscure title. The text is very uncertain.

151 F. H. G. III.188; in all other quotations from Ptolemy, Athenaeus has the title jjj, "Commentaries." The passage is cited to prove that choiros could mean a male pig.

152a 152b T. G. F.2 96.

153 T. G. F.2 97.

154 Frag. 23 Koepke.

155 F. H. G. IV.289.

156 F. H. G. III.8.

157 T. G. F.2 748; see Athen. 270c note b.

158 Or, following M. Schmidt's conjecture (see critical note), "Full oft did I hear the voice of full-grown sows in the darkness of this night."

159 Frag. 25 Hiller; the title, Anterinys, is formed like Anteros, Antares, etc.

160 Kaibel 171.

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