market in great quantities, as they were 

 the principal food of the poorer classes 

 and were sold very cheap. 



The hours for the fish market in Athens 

 must have been a time of very great in 

 terest, not only to the Athenian house 

 holder but to the foreigner sojourning 

 within the city. To preserve order and 

 also to give all customers an equal chance 

 to procure the rare specimens offered for 

 sale, several stringent laws were enacted 

 to govern the market. Among other reg 

 ulations was one requiring the opening of 

 the market to be announced by the ring 

 ing of a bell. Apparently there was no 

 fixed moment of time when this bell 

 should be rung, but the time varied little 

 from day to day. If we can believe our 

 ancient authorities, the ringing of the bell 

 was the occasion for a rush, pellmell, to 

 the market, each seeking to obtain the 

 first choice, Strabo tells us an interest 

 ing story anent this custom. On one oc 

 casion a musician was performing before 

 a number of invited guests, and when, 

 in the midst of a composition, the bell 

 rang, in a moment the guests were up 

 and away to the market, all except one 

 man, who was deaf. When the lyrist 

 had finished he was very careful to 

 thank his lone auditor for his courtesy in 

 remaining to hear him through, instead 

 of running away when the bell rang, as 

 the rest did. "Oh, has the bell rung?" 

 asked the deaf man. And when informed 

 that it had, he, too, hastened to the mar 

 ket. 



The Greek interest in fishes seems 

 never to have gone beyond their utility 

 as an article of food. The building of 

 aquaria and fish-ponds never came to be 

 the sport of the Greeks, although they be 

 came extravagant luxuries among the 

 Romans. Likewise fishing never became 

 the sport of a Greek gentleman, unless, 

 perchance, at a rather late period. Plato 

 excludes fishing from the sports of a free- 

 born gentleman. The only sport he would 

 have him engage in was the chase, which, 

 athletic games aside, was about the only 

 outdoor sport a Greek gentleman seems 

 to have indulged in. For instance, there 

 is no mention in Greek literature of 

 horseback riding as a pastime, yet horse 

 manship was an accomplishment in which 

 every Greek gentleman received special 



training. Likewise, though fishing was 

 not a recognized sport, yet the science of 

 angling was well understood among them 

 by the third century B. C., and probably 

 much earlier. This we learn from a beau 

 tiful poem by the Alexandrian poet Theo 

 critus, entitled "The Fishermen." I will 

 quote a portion of the poem translated 

 into prose, partly because it gives us a 

 picture of some ancient professional fish 

 ermen in the camp, partly because it men 

 tions all the ancient instruments of the 

 business. 



"Two fishers, on a time, two old men, 

 together lay and slept; they had strown 

 the dry sea-moss for a bed in their wat 

 tled cabin, and there they lay against the 

 leafy wall. Beside them were strewn the 

 instruments of their toilsome hands, the 

 fishing-creels, the rods of reed, the hooks, 

 the sails bedraggled with sea-spoil, the 

 lines, the weels, the lobster pots woven 

 of rushes, the seines, two oars, and an old 

 coble upon props. Beneath their heads 

 was a scanty matting, their clothes, their 

 sailor's caps. Here was all their toil, here 

 all their wealth. The threshold no door 

 did guard nor a watch-dog; all these 

 things, all, to them seemed superfluity, 

 for Poverty was their sentinel. They had 

 no neighbor by them, but ever against 

 their narrow cabin gently floated up the 

 sea." 



Long before daylight one of them 

 awoke and aroused his companion to tell 

 him the dream he had had. I shall quote 

 the dream, as it graphically describes ai 

 ancient angler busy at his task : "As 

 was sleeping late, amid the labors of the 

 salt sea (an3 truly not too full-fed, for we 

 supped early, if thou dost remember, and 

 did not overtax our bellies), I saw myself 

 busy on a rock, and there I sat and watch 

 ed the fishes, and kept spinning the bait 

 with the rods. And one of the fish nib 

 bled, a fat one, for in sleep dogs dream of 

 bread, and of fish dream I. Well, he was 

 tightly hooked, and the blood was run 

 ning, and the rod I grasped was bent 

 with his struggle. So, with both hands, 

 I strained and had a sore tussle for the 

 monster. How was I ever to land so big 

 a fish with hooks all too slim ! Then, just 

 to remind him he was hooked, I gently 

 pricked him, pricked, and slackened, and, 

 as he did not run, I took in line. My toil 



90 



