Book 14
68
When the philosopher says γενναῖα, he means εὐγενῆ,, gene- rous, as Archilochus also uses the word— Come hither, you are generous (γενναῖος); or, perhaps, he means ἐπιγεγενημένα; that is to say, grafted. For Aristotle speaks of grafted pears, and calls them ἐπεμβολάδες. And Demosthenes, in his speech in defence of Ctesiphon, has the sentence, gathering figs, and grapes (βότρυς), and olives. And Xenophon, in his (Economics, says, that grapes (τὰς σταφυλὰς) are ripened by the sun. And our ancestors also have been acquainted with the practice of steeping grapes in wine. Accordingly Eubulus, in his Catacollomenos, says— But take these grapes (βότρυς), and in neat wine pound them. And pour upon them many cups of water. Then make him eat them when well steep'd in wine. And the poet, who is the author of the Chiron, which is generally attributed to Pherecrates, says— Almonds and apples, and the arbutus first, And myrtle-berries, pastry, too, and grapes Well steep'd in wine; and marrow. And that every sort of autumn fruit was always plentiful at Athens, Aristophanes testifies in his Horæ. Why, then, should that appear strange which Aethlius the Samian asserts in the fifth book of his Samian Annals, where he says, The fig, and the grape, and the medlar, and the apple, and the rose grow twice a-year? And Lynceus, in his letter to Diagoras, praising the Nicostratian grape, which grows in Attica, and comparing it to the Rhodiacan, says, As rivals of the Nicostratian grapes they grow the Hipponian grape; which after the month Hecatombæon (like a good servant) has constantly the same good disposition towards its masters.
