SOLES, THE SANDALS OF GODDESSES 265 



From likeness to a tongue sprang its first Greek and Latin 

 names ; from likeness to a sandal its second, aavdaXiov and 

 solea. Thus we find Matron 1 establishing, or merely per- 

 petuating, the pretty mjdih that these fish, possibly from some 

 adhesive power — and is it heresy to suggest their breadth ? — 

 served the Goddesses of Ocean as sandals or shoes : 



"^tCtvSaXa §' av iraf)l9riK£V dtiytvi] duavaTadJV 

 BodyXuxraov, og 'ivaitv Iv aXfUj finpfivpovarj. 



As Yonge renders them — 



" And next (the goddesses such sandals wear) 

 Of mighty soles, a firm and well-matched pair," 



the verses have the double demerit of being uncomplimentary 

 to Aphrodite et Cie, and of reading into Matron an allusion 

 unwarranted by his lines. ^ 



A not dissimilar use of the Sole is instanced in Polynesian 

 theology. Ina the daughter of Vaitooringa attempted flight 

 to the sacred island. Fish after fish essayed to bear her 

 thither, but unequal to the burden dropped her in the shallow 

 water. At last she besought the Sole, who managed to carry 

 her as far as the breakers. Here, again unshipped, she lost her 

 divine temper, and stamped with such fierceness on the head 

 of the unfortunate helper of distressful maids that its under 

 eye was squeezed right through to the upper side. " Hence 

 the Sole is now obliged to swim flat on one side of its face, 

 having no eye." ^ 



Plautus puns or makes play on Solca, which means, first, 

 a shoe or sandal (as does (jav^uXiov), and, second, the fish, and 

 sculponecB, a kind of wooden shoe (which Cato * remembers 



juditious Directorie, of Methodicall Instructions for the guide and governing 

 the health of Man " : 



"Si pisces molles sunt, magno corpore toUes. 

 Si pisces duri, parvi sunt plus valituri." 

 Cf. Regimen Sanitatis Salevni, London, 1617, but better still Sir A. Croke'sed., 

 Oxford, 1830. 



^ In Athen., 4, 13, line 76 ff. 



2 It is noteworthy that two of the Nymphs on the "Nereid Monument " 

 are supported by fish (A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the British 

 Museum (London, 1900), ii. 35, Nos. 910, 911). 



^ Cf. Robinson, op. cit., 82. 



* De Re Rust., 59. 



