Book 7
65
And the intestines of this fish are highly extolled, as Eubulus also tells us, in his Ionian,— And after this the luscious intestines Of roasted tunnies sail'd upon the table. And Aristophanes, in his Lemnian Woman, says— Despise not thou the fat Bœotian eel, Nor grayling, nor the entrails of the tunny. And Strattis, in his Atalanta, says— Next buy the entrails of a tunny, and Some pettitoes of pigs, to cost a drachma. And the same poet says in his Macedonians— And the sweet entrails of the tunny fish. And Eriphus says in his Melibœa— These things poor men cannot afford to buy, The entrails of the tunny or the head Of greedy pike, or conger, or cuttle-fish, Which I don't think the gods above despise. But when Theopompus, in his Callæschrus, says, The ὑπογάστριον of fish, O Ceres, we must take notice that the writers of his time apply the term ὑπογάστριον to fish, but very seldom to pigs or other animals; but it is uncertain what animals Antiphanes is speaking of, when he makes use of the term ὑπογάστριον in his Ponticus, where he says— Whoever has by chance bought dainty food For these accursed and abandon'd women, Such as ὑπογάστρια, which may Neptune Confound for ever; and who seeks to place Beside them now a dainty loin of meat . . . And Alexis, in his Ulysses weaving, praises the head of the tunny; and says— A. And I will throw the fishers headlong down Into the pit. They only catch for me Food fit for freed men; trichides and squids, And partly fried fish. B. But not long ago, This man, if he could get a tunny's head, Thought he was eating tunnies whole, and eels. They praised also that part of the tunny which they called the key, as Aristophon does, in his Peirithus:— A. But now the dinner is all spoilt entirely. B. Here are two roasted keys quite fit to eat. A. What, keys to open doors? B. No, tunny keys; A dainty dish. A. There is the Spartan key too.
