FISH. keeping the analogy to the noun [Greek: pous], from which it is derived. But in the accusative case we find the form [Greek: polypoun], just as we find [Greek: Alkinoun] and [Greek: Oidipoun]. Æschylus, too, has the form [Greek: tripoun], as an epithet of a caldron, in his Athamas, from [Greek: pous], as if it were a simple noun like [Greek: nous]. But the form [Greek: pôlypos] is Æolic. For the Attics always say [Greek: polypous]. Aristophanes, in his Dædalus says—
When then I had this polypus ([Greek: poulypous]) and cuttle-fish.
And in another place he says—
He put before me a polypus ([Greek: poulypoun]).
And in another place he has—
They are the blows of a polypus press'd tight.
And Alcæus says, in his Adulterous Sisters,—
The man's a fool and has the mind of a polypus ([Greek: poulypodos]).
But Ameipsias, in his Glutton, says—
I want, it seems, a heap of polypi ([Greek: poulypôn]).
And Plato, in his Boy, writes—
First of all you like the polypodes ([Greek: tous poulypodas]).
Alcæus in another passage says—
I myself eat like any polypus ([Greek: poulypous]).
But others use the accusative case [Greek: polypoda], in strict analogy with [Greek: pous], [Greek: podos], [Greek: podi], [Greek: poda]. Eupolis, in his Demi, has—
The man's a fellow-citizen of mine,
A very polypus in disposition.
101. Diocles, in the first book of his treatise on Wholesome Things, says—"The molluscous fish are calculated to give pleasure, and to excite the amorous propensities; especially the polypi ([Greek: hoi polypodes])." And Aristotle relates that the polypus has eight feet, of which the two highest and the two lowest are the smallest, and those in the middle are the largest; and they have also two feelers, with which they bring their food to their mouth. And they have their eyes placed above their two upper feet; and their mouth and teeth are between their feet. And when the polypus is dissected, he has a brain divided into two parts; and what is called his ink is not black, like the cuttle-fish, but of a reddish colour, in that part of him which is called the poppy; but the poppy lies above the stomach, like a bladder: and it has no intestines, like other fish. But for food it uses at times the flesh of small shell-fish, and casts the shells outside its body; by which the
