Book 7
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The hepsetus, or boiled fish, is a name given to several small fish. Aristophanes, in his Anagyrus, says— There is not one dish of hepseti. And Archippus says in his Fishes— An hepsetus fell in with an anchovy And quick devour'd him. And Eupolis, in his Goats, says— Ye graces who do love the hepseti. And Eubulus, in his Prosusia or Cycnus, says— Contented if just once in each twelve days He sees an hepsetus well boil'd in beet. And Alexis, in his Apeglaucomenos, says— There were some hepseti besides served up In a dædalean manner. For they call All clever works by the name of Dædalus; and presently afterwards he continues— Will you not now then try the coracini? Nor trichides, nor any hepseti? But this word is always used in the plural, ἑψητοὶ, because they are only served up in numbers. Aristophanes, in his Dramata or Niobus, says— I will say nothing of a dish of hepseti. And Menander, in his Perinthian Woman, says— The boy came in bringing some hepseti. But Nicostratus uses the word in the singular number, in his Hesiod— A bembras, an anchovy, and a hepsetus. And Posidippus, in his Woman shut up, says— She's gone to buy a hepsetus. But in my country Naucratis, what they call hepseti are little fish left in the drains or ditches, when the Nile ceases its overflowing.
61
The hepatus or lebias is the next fish to be noticed. Diodes affirms that this is one of those fish which stick to the rocks; but Speusippus says that the hepatus is the same as the phagrus. But it is a solitary fish, as Aristotle declares, carnivorous, and with serrated teeth; black as to its flesh, and having eyes large, out of all proportion to the rest of its size; and its heart is triangular and white. But Archestratus, the marshal of banquets, says— Remember that the lebias is best, As also is the hepatus, in the waves Which wash the Delian and the Tenian shores.
