Chap. 54.] FISHES MENTIONED IN THE POEM OF OVID. G.5 



aulos, donax, onyx or dactylus ; the spondylus,^^ the smaris,^' 

 the starfish, ^'^ and the sponges. ^^ There is the sea-thrush^ also, 

 famous among the rock-fish, the thynuis,^ the thranis, by some 

 writers known as the xiphias f the thrissa,* the torpedo,^ the 

 tethea,^ the tritomus, a large kind of pelamis,'' which admits 

 of being cut into three cybia f the shells of Yenus,^ the grape- 

 fish,^*^ and the xiphias.^^ 



CHAP, 54. ADDITIONAL NAMES OF FISHES FOUND IN THE POEM 



OF OVID. 



To the above enumeration we will add some names given in 

 the poem of Ovid,^" which are not to be found in any other 

 writer : species, however, which are probably peculiar to the 

 Euxine, on the shores^^ of which he commenced that work 

 towards the close of his life. The fishes thus mentioned by 

 him are the sea-ox, the cercyrus, that dwells among the rocks, 

 the orphus,^* the red erythinus,^^ the iulus,^'' the tinted mor- 

 myr, the chrysophrys^^ a fish of a golden colour, the parus,^^ 

 the tragus,'^ the melanurus'-" remarkable for the beauty of its 

 tail, and the epodes,"^ a flat fish. 



In addition to these remarkable kinds of fishes, the same 

 poet tells us that the channes'^" conceives of itself, that the 



^^ A sort of mollusk, Littre thinks. There is a shell-fish known as the 

 Spondylus gsederopus of Linnaeus. 

 " See Chapters 34, 45, and 46, of this Book. ^^ gee B. is. c. 86. 



99 See B. ix. c. 69. i See B. ix. c. 20. 



2 A sort of tunny, probably. 



3 See Chapter 6 of this Book. Probably the same as the "gladius" 

 of this Chapter, and of B. ix. cc. 1, 21. 



* Considered by Littre to be the Shad. ^ See B. ix. c. 67. 



« See Chapter 30 of this Book. ' See B. ix. c. 18. 



8 See B. ix. c. 18. ^ See B. ix. c. 52, and Chapter 1 of this Book. 



'0 See B. ix. c. 1, and c. 49 of this Book. ^ See Note 3 above. 



^- The Halieuticon, already mentioned in Chapter 5 of this Book. 

 ^•^ At the town of'Tomi, whither he was banished by Augustus Csesar. 

 1* See B. ix. c. 24. 



15 See B. ix. cc. 23, 77, and Chapters 31, 50, of this Book. 

 '^ The same, probably, as the "• iulis" mentioned in the preceding Chapter. 

 1" The " golden brow." The same as the "Aurata" or '* dorade" of 

 B, ix. c. 25, and Chapters 16 and 53 of this Book. 

 '" An unknown fish ; the reading is doubtful. 

 19 The '* goat-fish." It does not appear to have been identified. 

 2'^ Literally, the " black tail." See the preceding Chapter. 



21 According to Rondelet, a fish resembling the Coracinus. 



22 See B. ix. c. 23. 



VOL. VI. r 



