The later 
recognition of 
its dietetic 
value. 
General 
inferences, 
50 ON THE PLACE OF FISHIN 
Athenzus and the numerous authorities he quotes 
shows that fish was a recognised article of diet, 
and that the greatest care was taken in the se- 
lection of the best and most digestive species for the 
table. 
More than forty kinds are enumerated as eaten by 
the Greeks. Among the shellfish were oysters from 
Abydus, mussels from Anus, and cockles from 
Messene, which were eaten raw, but on account of the 
amount of salt water they absorb, which rendered 
them indigestible, Mnesitheus, the Athenian, recom- 
mends their being boiled; the reason he states being 
that when boiled they get rid of all, or at all events of 
most, of their saltness. Of the sea-fish eaten we find 
mention of tunny, turbot, mullet, char, and conger 
eels as most in favour, while pike, eels, and gray- 
ling represent the freshwater fish, The great fond- 
ness of the epicure for fish is illustrated by an anec- 
dote preserved to us by Athenzus. Philoxeus of 
Cytheras, learning from his doctor that he was 
going to die of indigestion, from having éaten too 
much of a most exquisite fish—“Be it so,’ he 
exclaimed ; “but before I go allow me to finish the 
remainder.” 
So far as we can gather the history of fish-eating 
among the Greeks seems to have been this: the poor 
always used them as the many streams and countless 
bays and inlets of the irregular coast furnished them 
in abundance. The wealthy who relied on their 
herds and flocks for food, despised fish till in the 
later period of fastidious luxury the daintier kinds, 
or those which could only be obtained at trouble and 
cost, became fashionable delicacies. Those who 
