The Greeks. 
Fish was 
apparently 
not regarded 
by ancient 
Greeks as so 
muscle- 
forming as 
beef or 
mutton. 
48 ON THE PLACE OF FIsiain 
were tanks in which fish were bred and fattened. 
Among the zoological inscriptions from the palace of 
Assurbanipal (B.c. 664), the Sardanapalus of Greek 
writers, are several lists, some of them fragmentary, 
of the various kinds of fish known to the Assyrians. 
In the religious calendars found at Babylon, dating 
about B.C. 550, we find that fish was ordered to be 
eaten on certain days by the people. 
Among the ancient Greeks diet received much at- 
tention, even at an earlyjperiod of their history, for 
Homer is careful to give details of the feasts of his 
heroes, whom he describes as living not on dainty 
dishes, but on such foods as were calculated to make 
them vigorous in body and mind. The characteristic 
feature of the diet of the Homeric age is, with tem- 
perance, that the banquet is composed of “viands of 
simple kind” and “wholesome sort.” The chief seem 
to have been mutton, beef, or pork, roast and in some 
cases boiled, though the former mode of. dressing 
was more frequent. These imply the possession of 
herds which represent wealth. To the meats were 
added bread in abundance, and wine, but no fruit or 
game or fish are mentioned. We may fairly conclude 
that the diet thus set forth by Homer as that of the 
heroes was such as was most regarded at the time 
of the writer as productive of mental and bodily 
vigour. Familiar with the rich fisheries of the Medi- 
terranean, he seems to have regarded fish as the 
wealth of the sea for the masses of the poor only, 
but he never once represents fish any more than he 
does game as being on the table of his great men. 
For the banquet of the later luxurious age of 
Greece, so vividly described by Athenzus in “The 
