326 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



clearly, I fancy, the shortage of pasture in Greece, and, therefore, of meat or 

 potential meat. Somewhat later Aristotle comments on those species of fishes or 

 fowls, from which human needs are supplied ; and the first human need is of food. 

 I am aware that Aristotle also tells us in this Chapter II. of Book I. that a states- 

 man or householder should have an acquaintance with the most profitable kinds 

 of property in horses, cattle, sheep, and so on. But this passage does not bear 

 exclusively, if at all, on the subject of food, as is evident from the reference to 

 linvoiv and 6/xolcos be Kai tu>v Xonrav £a>a)v. Nor do all these various animals thrive 

 in the same place, he says. Moreover, whatever their uses, they are described in 

 the variant readings as being either Krfjvr) or Krfjuara, and are from their context 

 distinguished from what Aristotle himself terms yewpyia. In truth, he goes on to 

 remark, as we saw, that in the next place the statesman or householder must be 

 practically acquainted with farming, both agriculture and tree cultivation, and also 

 with the tending of bees and with all other winged or swimming creatures, so far 

 as they supply human needs. 1 



Let us further observe that Aristotle cites with approval Hesiod's Works and 

 Days, 1. 405 — 



oIkov p.ev irpcoTia-ra yvvaiKa re fiovv t' dporrjpa, 



" First house and wife and an ox for the ploughing withal." And the reason he 

 gives is significant — 6 yap [Bovs dvr' oIkctov toIs nevrjaiv eariu — the ox is the poor 

 man's slave, that is, his instrument, not his food. 2 



We are, I think, led to conclude (1) that fish and birds were consumed, albeit 

 Plato's silence about them would suggest they were not staple items ; (2) that 

 meat in the sense of beef and mutton was not a common article of diet. 3 These 

 conclusions are, I think, in accordance with what we might infer prima facie or 

 may read in another connection. Prima facie we are led to conjecture from 

 Athens' geographical position that there at least fish would be eaten ; and we 

 know that in more primitive times " Fish was caught plentifully on the coast, and 

 formed the staple article of diet. Meat was rarely eaten." 4 Whether fish in the 

 days of Aristotle was to any great extent still consumed is immaterial to my 

 immediate purpose, and we need not stay here to inquire. There are, moreover, 

 collateral reasons — they will shortly appear in some measure — for assuming 

 that the soil of Greece was but poorly adapted to flocks and herds. And its 

 unsuitability to pasture became each year ever the greater. 



It may in this connection be objected that Plato in Republic, Book III., speaks 

 of roast, as opposed to boiled, meat as being the most convenient diet for soldiers. 5 

 But a reference to this passage will show that Plato is citing the custom in Homer, 



not by exchange nor by retail trade (ol pev ovu filoi roaovroi o-x*8bv ela-iv, k.t.X.). 

 But shepherds, neatherds, and swineherds are not specifically mentioned and must 

 all be included, if all are included, in the laziest class. 



1 Jowett again mistranslates : "the keeping of bees and of fish or fowl or of 

 any animals which may be useful to man." This rendering is wrong in two ways. 

 It is not " the keeping of fish or fowl " — the words understood with each genitive 

 are clearly 8e'i epneipov eivat. Nor is it " or of any animals " — the Greek words are 

 very precise, tcov aXXcov £d>a>v tcov ttXkdtuiv 7} tvTr)Vu>v, &di' 6'crcoi/ ecrri rvy\dveiv fiorjOeias. 

 BoTjdela is wider than rpocprj ; see the phrase in Bk. I. c. 8, rijs rpocprjs Kai aXXrjs 

 jBoTjdeias cvenev. 



2 Politics, Bk. I. c. 2. 



3 Plato refers to the breeding of birds, but always of cocks or of quails for 

 fighting {Rep. V. 459a ; Laws, VII. 789^ ; Lysis, 2\2d; 1 Alcib. I20«). 



* Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles, p. 70. 

 6 4°4< 7 '; P-dXi(TT tvnopa. 



