I70 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



ning of a wedding among the ancient princes and 

 exalted personages of Etruria the newly made 

 husband and wife at their union first sacrifice a 

 lo pig.^ The ancient Latins, too, as well as the 

 Greeks, seem to have had the same custom ; for the 

 women of our country (especially nurses) call that 

 part which in girls distinguishes their sex porcus 

 (pig), the Greek women x^ipov^ (pig)) meaning that 

 the term is a worthy symbol of marriage. The race 

 of pigs is, they say, a gift of nature designed to 

 grace the banquet, and so life^ was given them, 

 just as salt is, to keep their flesh good. 



Athenaeus men first learnt the joys of roast pork through 

 sacrifice. Lamb, In his essay on roast pork, assigns another 

 and an equally credible origin. 



' Porcum immolant. Athenaeus (Deipn., iii) says that the 

 ancient Greeks used to sacrifice a pig to Venus, and Aristo- 

 phanes (Ach., 758) has : 



AI. ciXX' ovyl xoT/Oog r' ^A(}>podiTr], Overai. 

 ME. ov xoipoQ ^ Acpp 01)17 q. ; fiovq. ya daifiovwv. 



But this is a mere scurrility ; and neither passage helps us to 

 a knowledge of the Etruscan custom about which I can find 

 nothing. 



^ Xo~ipovy as frequently in Aristophanes. Cf. Scholiast on 

 Acharnians, 737 (773) : Tovto frjciv tTrtt kuI to yvvaiKeiop aldolov 

 Xoipov IkoXovv 01 "EWrjveg. 



^ Anima. Cicero (Nat. D., ii, 64) ascribes this saying to the 

 Stoic Chryslppus. Sus vero, quid habet praeter escam? Cui 

 quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datum dicit esse 

 Chrysippus. He repeats the saying (De Fin., v, 13), Pliny 

 (N. H., viii, 51) says that " the pig is the stupidest of animals, 

 and it was thought, not without humour, that life was given 

 to it instead of salt." 



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