And Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, in the ninth book of his Commentaries, says—"When I was at Assus, the Assians brought me a pig ([Greek: choiron]) two cubits and a half in height, and the whole of his body corresponding in length to that height; and of a colour as white as snow: and they said that King Eumenes had been very diligent in buying all such animals of them, and that he had given as much as four thousand drachmæ a piece for one." And Æschylus says—
But I will place this carefully fed pig
Within the crackling oven; and, I pray,
What nicer dish can e'er be given to man?
And in another place he says—
A. Is he a white one?
B. Aye, indeed he is
A snow white pig ( [Greek: choiros]), and singed most carefully.
A. Now boil him, and take care he is not burnt.
And again in another place he says—
But having kill'd this pig ([Greek: choiron tonde]), of the same litter
Which has wrought so much mischief in the house,
Pushing and turning ev'rything upside down.
And these lines have all been quoted by Chamæleon, in his Commentary on Æschylus.
18. But concerning the pig, that it is accounted a sacred animal among the Cretans, Agathocles the Babylonian, in the first book of his account of Cyzicus, speaks as follows—"They say that Jupiter was born in Crete, on the mountain Dicte; on which mountain a mysterious sacrifice used to take place. For it is said that a sow allowed Jupiter to suck its udder. And that she going about with her constant grunting, made the whining of the infant inaudible to those who were looking for him. On which account all the Cretans think that that animal is to be worshipped; and nothing, it is said, can induce them to eat its flesh. And the Praisians also sacrifice to a sow; and this is a regular sacrifice among that people before marriage. And Neanthes of Cyzicus gives a similar account, in the second book of his treatise on Mysteries.
Achæus the Eretrian mentions full-grown sows under the name of [Greek: petalides hyes] in Æthon, a satyric drama, where he says—
And I have often heard of full-grown sows
Under this shape and form.
