378 ON THE PLACE OF FISH IN 



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. 



The Greeks. Among the ancient Greeks diet received much at- 

 tention, even at an early t period 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 

 neroes was such as was most regarded at the time 



Greeks as so o f the wr i te r as productive of mental and bodily 



muscle- 

 forming as vigour. Familiar with the rich fisheries of the Medi- 

 beef or 



mutton. 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 Athenaeus in " The 



