393 PEOSE HAI/IEUTICS. 



forms tlie reader he was obliged to figure for illustration 

 a victim of the guillotine, not being able to procure one 

 such gadus in an unmutilated state. Greek hyperbole 

 seems to have reached its climax in describiag the de- 

 lights of a conger feast. One unsavoury Achsean de- 

 clared that the fragrant odour exhaled from its body ia 

 cooking, was sufficient to restore the lost sense of smell 

 to a dead man's nose ; and, that boiled iu fine brine (eV 

 evavdecrrepa aXfiy) "^ it was a dish to change the human 

 nature into the divine.' To quote but one more speci- 

 men of- gastronomic rodomontade, a bombastic enthusi- 

 ast, hearing from his caterer (amidst the names of fish in 

 the market read out for his morning consideration) those 

 of leucisci and conger, stops him to say, that in place of 

 naming fish he was rehearsing a list of gods. 



Terence, that accurate observer of minute Graecisms, 

 has put this characteristic trait of congerism into the 

 mouth of an Attic menial, in one of his Latin- Greek 

 comedies : ' Here, Dromo, gut those other fish yourself, 

 but throw me this whacking (maximum) conger into a 

 trough ; let there be plenty of water for him to stir about 

 and wash in ; when I return he shall be boned, but on 

 no account meddle with him before.' Even dressing a 

 conger was held, it seems, so refined a species of cookery, 

 that neither rank nor genius thought themselves de- 

 meaned by the occupation : a poet-laureate might stew 

 one, assisted by his patron sovereign, without disparage- 

 ment to either. '"Whilst Antagoras,' as we read in 

 Athenseus, ' was thus busied, king Antigonus, after helping 

 in the culinary labour, began to wonder whether Homer, 

 after he had deigned to celebrate the achievements of 

 Agamemnon {g. d. and T, Antagoras, expect one day as 

 much at your hands), ever cooked a conger.' 'And I,' 

 retorted the poet artiste, ' should wonder yet more if it 

 could ever have entered into the head of so great a man 

 to make so trifling an inquiry.' 



