Book 8
24
But with respect to Callimedon, the son of Carabus, Timocles, in his Busybody, tells us that he was fond of fish, and also that he squinted:— Then up came Carabus Callimedon, And looking on me, as it seem'd to me, He kept on speaking to some other man. And I, as it was likely, understanding No word of what they said, did only nod. But all the girls do keep on looking at him, While they pretend to turn their eyes away. And Alexis, in his Crateua, or the Apothecary, says— A. I am now, these last four days, taking care of These κόραι for Callimedon. B. Had he then Any κόραι (damsels) for daughters? A. I mean κόραι, The pupils of the eyes; which e'en Melampus, Who could alone appease the raging Prœtides, Would e'er be able to keep looking straight. And he ridicules him in a similar manner in the play entitled The Men running together. But he also jests on him for his epicurism as to fish, in the Phædo, or Phædria, where he says— A. You shall be ædile if the gods approve, That you may stop Callimedon descending Like any storm all day upon the fish. B. You speak of work for tyrants, not for ædiles; For the man's brave, and useful to the city. And the very same iambics are repeated in the play entitled Into the Well; but, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, he says— If I love any strangers more than you, I'll willingly be turn'd into an eel, That Carabus Callimedon may buy me. And in his Crateua he says— And Carabus Callimedon with Orpheus. And Antiphanes says, in his Gorgythus,— 'Twould harder be to make me change my mind Than to induce Callimedon to pass The head of a sea-grayling. And Eubulus, in his Persons saved, says— Others prostrating them before the gods, Are found with Carabus, who alone of men Can eat whole salt-fish out of boiling dishes So wholly as to leave no single mouthful. And Theophilus, in his Physician, ridiculing his coldness of expression, says—And the slave put before the young man himself with great eagerness a little eel: his father had a fine cuttle-fish before him. 'Father,' says he, ' what do you think of your crawfish ' 'It is cold,' says he; 'take it away, —I don't want to eat any orators.' There is a punning allusion here to κάραβος, a crawfish, and to Callimedon's nickname, Carabus And when Philemon says, in his Canvasser,— Agyrrius, when a crawfish was before him, On seeing him exclaim'd, Hail, dear papa! Still what did he do? He ate his dear papa! And Herodicus the Cratetian, commenting on this in his Miscellaneous Commentaries, says that Agyrrius was the name of the son of Callimedon.
