ECONOMIC VALUE OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 91 



Alexis, in his '' Pseudypobolemaeus," writes : — 



Take the stiff feelers of the polypus^ 



And with them you shall find some modest liver 



And cutlets of wild goats, which you shall eat. 



The eggs of the octopus and sepia were also regarded as dainties. 

 Hegemon of Thasos thus refers to them in his " Philuma : " — 



Go quickly ! buy me of \}a-sX polypus^ 

 And fry the roe^ and give it us to eat. 



But to fry octopus was not, by some, considered good cooking. 

 Nicostratus of Philet^rus says, in the " Antyllus :" — 



I never again will venture to eat cuttle-fish whicli has been dressed in a 

 fiying-pan. 



They ate heartily at breakfast in those times, it seems, for Epi- 

 charmus tells us in " The Sirens : " — 



In the morning early, at the break of day, 

 We roasted plump anchovies, 

 Cutlets of well-fed pork and polypi ; 

 And then we drank sweet wine. 



Philoxenus, the poet of Cythera, is reported to have been a very 

 greedy man. He wished that he had a throat three cubits long, 

 that he might drink as long as possible, and that his food might 

 all at once delight him. Machon, the comic poet, relates how 

 his fondness for well-cooked octopus and his insatiate gluttony 

 caused his death : — 



They say Philoxenus, the ancient poet 

 Of Dithyrambics, was so wonderfully 

 Attached to fish, that once at Syracuse 

 He bought a polypus two cubits long, 

 Then dress'd it, and then ate it up himself, 

 All but the head — and afterwards fell sick. 

 Seized with a sharp attack of indigestion. 

 Then when some doctor came to him to see \\\\\\ 



