EELS AS GODS, AND DAINTIES 249 



The passage in Menander's,i Dmnkefiness which makes one 

 of the characters declaim that, were he a god, he would never 

 allow a loin of beef to load his altars, unless an Eel were also 

 sacrificed, testifies to the preference for the Eel to meat. 

 Numerous are the paeans of praise rendered by Greek writers 

 to the superlative excellence of the fish. 



The Eel is dight " the King of fish " - ; he, or rather she, 

 was " the white-skinned Nymph " 3 ; was " chief of the fifty 

 Virgins of Lake Copais " ^ ; was a very " Goddess," 



" Then there came 

 Those natives of the Lakes, the eels, 

 Boeotian goddesses, all clothed in beet," ^ 



(with which, or majoram, on beech leaves, Aristophanes ^ tells 

 us they were often served) ; and, the very last word in laudation, 

 was " the Helen of the Feast " ^ 



Whether this was applied because the fish was the personifi- 

 cation of all delicate dainties, as Helen was the fairest of all 

 the fair, or because every guest strove like Paris to supplant 

 his neighbour and keep her all to himself, the reader must choose. 

 Athenseus certainly leans to the latter view.^ 



Philetffirus ^ would seem to have no doubt in identifying 

 what is the sting of death and what is the victory of the grave, 



" For when you're dead, you cannot then eat eels." 



To the sense of smell as well as that of taste the Murcenidce 



Although both belong to the large family of Murcenidce, the Murcsna is usually 

 a much smaller fish, seldom over 2^ feet long. In shape and general appearance 

 it closely resembles the Eel, but can be differentiated by its teeth and certain 

 spots over the body. It becomes very corpulent, so much so that in late Ufe 

 it is unable to keep its back under water : it is easier to flay, and whiter of 

 flesh than its relative. Apart from its mating with the viper, and its tendency 

 (teste Columella) to go mad, its chief characteristics are greed and fierceness 

 of attack. The second book of Oppian has two really spirited pictures of its 

 fight with, and conquest of, the Cuttle fish, and of its rush at, but eventual defeat 

 by, the Lobster. At Athens the Eel, at Rome the Murasna, was the favourite. 



1 Menand. Vlidri, frag. I. 11 fi., ap. Athen., 8, 67. 



2 Archestratos, ap. Athen., 7, 53. 



3 Enbul. Echo. frag, i, i f., ap. Athen. 7, 56. 



* Aristoph., Ach., 883. See F. M. Blaydes's note on 880 ff. 



* Eubul., Ion, frag. 2, 3 f., ap. Athen., 7, 56. 

 8 Aristoph., Ach., 894. Pax, 1014. 



' Bk. 7, 53- 



« Bk. VII. 53. 



' Philetaer., Oinopion, frag, i, 4 ap. Athen., 7, 12. 



