CHAPTER VI 
CHARACTERISTICS OF FISHERMEN IN GREECE AND ROME 
—POVERTY ‘‘THE BADGE OF ALL OUR TRIBE’’— 
DEITIES OF FISHING 
“ Laud to the Lord, who gives to this, to that denies his wishes, 
And dooms one toil and catch the prey, another eat the fishes.” ' 
Tuis seems the most convenient, if not quite the chronological, 
place for examining the position and attributes of fishermen in 
the poems, epigrams, and eclogues of Greek literature. 
Of the two oldest of fisher-folk epigrams or epitaphs, the 
first is attributed to Sappho, the second to Alczus of Mitylene. 
In these rings insistent the same note of hard toil and poverty, 
which permeates the piscatory eclogues of Theocritus and his 
followers. 
From Sappho “ the sole woman of any age or any country 
who gained and still holds an unchallenged place in the first 
rank of the world’s poets ’’ 2 comes down 
“‘ Meniscus, mourning for his only son, 
The toil-experienced fisher Pelagon, 
Has placed upon his tomb a net and oar, 
The badges of a painful life and poor.” 8 
I cherished high hope of finding in the recently discovered 
Fragments of Sappho in Part X. of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 
1 Burton, Arabian Nighis. 
2 Mackail, op. cit., p. 92. Cf. Strabo’s naive but curiously true phrase 
about her, “‘ a marvellous creature” (@aupaordy Ti xpiiua). 
3 Anth. Pal., VII. 505: 
TH ypimet MeAdyou wathp éxéOnre Mevicxos 
kiprov Kal Kéray, uyaua, Kaxotolas, 
Translated by T. Fawkes, 
116 
