50 PROSE HALIETTTICS. 



too of fishy origin were coined, and ancient literature 

 drew from the same prolific source some of its prettiest 

 similes, myths, and fahles. They gave their names to 

 towns,* islands, promontories, ships, and taverns: among 

 precious stones, the sapphire (scarites) is indebted for 

 its nomenclature to the famous parrot-fish scarus, after 

 which the illustrious family of the same name was also 

 called: two well-known species, besides the Grata and 

 Mursena, for example, gave theirs to other Roman patri- 

 cians, just as our plebeian Sprats, Salmons, Pikes, Her- 

 rings, Chubbs, Rudds, and Roaches, are denominatedfrom 

 species familiar to our own ponds, rivers, and estuanes. 

 But greater honours than these remain to be related: 

 the first artists vied in representing them; Phidias' fish 

 were as wonderful for the execution, as his Jove: 



Mark Phidias' fist group'd by yon stony brim; 

 Add but a drop of water, and they swim.f 



Arion rode one: 



A fiddler on a fish through waves advanced. 

 He twang'd the catgut, and the dolphins danced. 



Each deity was symbolized by some particular fish of- 

 fered on his altar exclusively: J like the ox in Egypt, 

 however, they were sometimes the victim and sometimes 

 the god: thus the eel was the principal object of divine 



* ^ayp&iroKis, AaronoKis, cities famed for the supply and qua- 

 lity of their phagrus and latos. 



t Martial. 



J As the lyra or gurnard to Apollo, his own fish zeus, the dory, 

 to Jupiter, the mullet to Hecate, boax to Mercury, the aphys to 

 Venus,' and the msena to Luna. ' Hence,' says Gesner, 'it would 

 have been wiser to counsel one's friend who had a bee in his 

 bonnet, to offer a msenee to the moon for his recovery, than to 

 make him drink hellebore, or to send him on a voyage to An. 

 ticyra.' 



' Moule says the minnow, but plainly without any authority. 



