HALIEUTIGA, II. 20-46 



yoking oxen and ploughing the fields and reaping the 

 fruitful harvest of wheat. Carpentry of wood and 

 building of houses and weaving of cloth with the 

 goodly wool of sheep — these hath Pallas taught to 

 men. The gifts of Ares are swords and brazen 

 tunics to array the limbs and helmets and spears and 

 whatsoever things Enyo " dehghts in. The gifts of 

 the Muses and Apollo are songs. Hermes hath 

 bestowed eloquence ^ and doughty feats of strength.'' 

 Hephaestus hath in his charge the sweaty toil of the 

 hammer. These devices also of the sea and the 

 business of fishing and the power to mark the multi- 

 tude of fishes that travel in the water — these hath 

 some god given to men ; even he who also first filled 

 the rent bowels of earth with the gathered rivers and 

 poured forth the bitter sea and wTcathed it as a 

 garland, confining it about with crags and beaches ; 

 whether one should more fitly call him wide-ruhng 

 Poseidon or ancient Nereus or Phorcys, or other god 

 that rules the sea. But may all the gods that keep 

 Olympus, and they that dwell in the sea, or on the 

 bounteous earth, or in the air, have a gracious heart 

 toward thee, O blessed wielder of the sceptre, and 

 toward thy glorious offspring and to all thy people 

 and to our song. 



Among fishes neither justice <* is of any account 

 nor is there any mercy nor love ; for all the fish that 

 swim are bitter foes to one another. The stronger * 

 ever devours the weaker ; this against that swims 



tirel 01' SiKt] iariv Iv avToU ; Plut. Mor. 964 b and ihid. 970 b 

 ifUKTa yap SKfiva {to. lva\a fipa) KOfiiSy irpoi X°'P"' f"^' iffropya ; 

 Ael. vi. 50. 



« Shakesp. Per. ii. 1, Fisherman iii. Master, I marvel 

 how the fishes Hve in the sea. Fisherman i. Why, as men 

 do a-land ; the great ones eat up the Uttle ones. 



285 



