The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 79

I let bawl on. For if you go to them, First there is language hard and blows to bear; Secondly, one must slave the livelong night; And when at last you ask them for your pay, "First bring the pot," say they. "There was no vinegar In all that salad." Ask again. "Aye, you Shall be the first to be well beaten here."

I could recount ten thousand facts like this.

_B._ But where I take now is a rich brothel, Where a rich courtesan with other friends Desires to celebrate with great abundance A joyous feast in honour of Adonis, And where you may enjoy yourself in style.

40. And Archedicus, in his Treasure, another philosophical cookling, speaks in this way--

In the first place the guests invited came While still the fish lay on the dresser raw.

"Give me some water." "Bring the fish up quick."

Then placing all my pans upon the fire, I soak'd the ashes well with oil, and raise A rapid heat. Meantime the fragrant herbs And pleasant sharpness of the seasonings Delight my master. Quickly I serve up Some fish exactly boil'd; retaining all His juice, and all his unextracted flavour; A dish which, any free-born man must know How to appreciate rightly. In this manner At the expense of one small pot of oil I gain employment at full fifty banquets.

And Philostepha.n.u.s, in his Delian, gives a catalogue of the names of some celebrated cooks in these lines, and those which follow them--

In my opinion you, O Daedalus, Surpa.s.s all cooks in skill and genius, Save the Athenian Thimbron, call'd the Top.

So here I've come to beg your services, Bringing the wages which I know you ask.

41. And Sotades, not the Maronite poet, who composed Ionian songs, but the poet of the middle comedy, in the play ent.i.tled The Shut-up Women, (for that was the name which he gave to it,) introduces a cook making the following speech,--

First I did take some squills, and fried them all; Then a large shark I cut in slices large, Roasting the middle parts, and the remainder I boil'd and stuff'd with half-ripe mulberries.

Then I take two large heads of dainty grayling, And in a large dish place them, adding simply Herbs, c.u.mmin, salt, some water, and some oil.

Then after this I bought a splendid pike, To boil in pickle with all sorts of herbs.

Avoiding all such roasts as want a spit, I bought too some fine mullet, and young thrushes, And put them on the coats just as they were, Adding a little brine and marjoram.

To these I added cuttle-fish and squills.

A fine dish is the squill when carefully cook'd.

But the rich cuttle-fish is eaten plain, Though I did stuff them all with a rich forced meat Of almost every kind of herb and flower.

Then there were several dishes of boil'd meats, And sauce-boats full of oil and vinegar.

Besides all this a conger fine and fat I bought, and buried in a fragrant pickle; Likewise some tench, and clinging to the rocks Some limpets. All their heads I tore away, And cover'd them with flour and bread crumbs over, And then prepared them as I dress'd the squills.

There was a widow'd amia too, a n.o.ble And dainty fish. That did I wrap in fig-leaves, And soak'd it through with oil, and over all With swaddling clothes of marjoram did I fold it, And hid it like a torch beneath the ashes.

With it I took anchovies from Phalerum, And pour'd on them one cruet full of water, Then shredding herbs quite fine, I add more oil, More than two cotylae in quant.i.ty.

What next? That's all. This sir is what I do, Not learning from recipes or books of cookery.

42. However, this is enough about cooks. But we must say something about the conger. For Archestratus, in his Gastronomy, tells us how every part of it should be treated, saying--

In Sicyon my friend you best can get A mighty head of conger, fat, and strong, And large; and also take his entrails whole, Then boil him a long time, well-soak'd in brine.

And after this he goes through the whole country of Italy, saying where the congers are best, describing them like a regular writer of an Itinerary, and he says--

There too fine congers may be caught, and they Are to all other fish as far superior As a fat tunny is to coracini.

And Alexis, in his Seven against Thebes, says--

And all the parts of a fine conger eel Well hash'd together, overlaid with fat.

And Archedicus, in his Treasure, introduces a cook speaking of some fish which he has been buying in the following terms--

Then for three drachmas I a grayling bought.

Five more I gave for a large conger's head And shoulders. (Oh, how hard a thing is life!) Another drachma for the neck. I swear By Phbus, if I knew where I could get Or buy another neck myself, at once I'd choke the one which now is on my shoulders, Rather than bring these dishes to this place.

For no one ever had a harder job To buy so many things at such a price; And yet if I have bought a thing worth buying May I be hang'd. They will devour me.

What I now say is what concerns myself.

And then, such wine they spit out on the ground!

Alas! Alas!

43. There is a kind of shark called ?a?e??, which is eaten. And Icesius, in his treatise on Materials, says that the best and tenderest kind of galei are those called asteriae. But Aristotle says that there are many kinds of them--the th.o.r.n.y, the smooth, the spotted, the young galeus, the fox shark, and the file shark. But Dorion, in his Book on Fishes, says that the fox shark has only one fin towards his tail, but has none along the ridge of his back. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says that the centrines is also a kind of shark, and also the notida.n.u.s. But Epaenetus, in his Cookery Book, calls the latter the enotideus, and says "that the centrines is very inferior to him, and that it has a bad smell; and that the one may be distinguished from the other by the fact of the centrines having a sort of spur on his first fin, while the rest of the kinds have not got such a thing." "And he says that these fishes have no fat or suet in them, because they are cartilaginous."

And the acanthias, or th.o.r.n.y shark, has this peculiarity, that his heart is five-cornered. And the galeus has three young at most; and it receives its young into his mouth, and immediately ejects them again; and the variegated galeus is especially fond of doing this, and so is the fox shark. But the other kinds do not do so, because of the roughness of the skins of the young ones.

44. But Archestratus, the man who lived the life of Sardanapalus, speaking of the galeus as he is found at Rhodes, says that it is the same fish as that which, among the Romans, is brought on the table to the music of flutes, and accompanied with crowns, the slaves also who carry it being crowned, and that it is called by the Romans accipesius.

But the accipesius, the same as the acipenser, or sturgeon, is but a small fish in comparison, and has a longer nose, and is more triangular than the galeus in his shape. And the very smallest and cheapest galeus is not sold at a lower price than a thousand Attic drachmae.[462:1] But Appian, the grammarian, in his essay on the Luxury of Apicius, says that the accipesius is the fish called the ellops by the Greeks. But Archestratus, speaking of the Rhodian galeus, counselling his companions in a fatherly sort of way, says--

Are you at Rhodes? e'en if about to die, Still, if a man would sell you a fox shark, The fish the Syracusans call the dog, Seize on it eagerly; at least, if fat: And then compose yourself to meet your fate With brow serene and mind well satisfied.

Lynceus, the Samian, also quotes these verses in his letter to Diagoras, and says that the poet is quite right in advising the man who cannot afford the price for one, to gratify his appet.i.te by robbery rather than go without it. For he says that Theseus, who I take to have been some very good-looking man, offered to indulge Tlepolemus in anything if he would only give him one of these fish. And Timocles, in his play called The Ring, says--

Galei and rays, and all the fish besides Which cooks do dress with sauce and vinegar.

45. There is also the sea-grayling. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says--

There is the variegated scorpion, The lizard, and the fat sea-grayling too.

And Numenius, in his Treatise on Fis.h.i.+ng, says--

The hycca, the callicthys, and the chromis, The orphus, the sea-grayling too, who haunts The places where seaweed and moss abound.

And Archestratus, praising the head of the glaucus, says--

If you're at Megara or at Olynthus, Dress me a grayling's head. For in the shallows Around those towns he's taken in perfection.

And Antiphanes, in his Shepherd, says--

Botian eels, and mussels too from Pontus, Graylings from Megara, from Carystus shrimps, Eretrian phagri, and the Scyrian crabs.

And the same writer, in his Philotis, speaks thus--

_A._ What shall be done with the grayling?

_B._ Why Now, as at other times, boil him in brine.

_A._ What with the pike?

_B._ Why roast him whole, and dish him.

_A._ What with the galeus?

_B._ Do him up with stuffing, And serve him hot.

_A._ How will you have the eels?

_B._ Cook them with salt, and marjoram, and water.

_A._ The conger?