Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/242

This page needs to be proofread.

him by the king, and reserve only a small portion for his own use. And when some one asked him the reason of his doing so, he said—"In order that both the liberality of Hiero and my economy may be visible to every one."

The dish called udder is mentioned by Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, in the following lines—

Being a woman, 'tis but reasonable
That I should bring an udder.

But Antidotus uses not the word [Greek: outhar], but [Greek: hypogastrion], in his Querulous Man.

74. Matron, in his Parodies, speaks of animals being fattened for food, and birds also, in these lines—

Thus spake the hero, and the servants smiled,
And after brought, on silver dishes piled,
Fine fatten'd birds, clean singed around with flame,
Like cheesecakes on the back, their age the same.

And Sopater the farce-writer speaks of fattened sucking-pigs in his Marriage of Bacchis, saying this—

If there was anywhere an oven, there
The well-fed sucking-pig did crackle, roasting.

But Æschines uses the form [Greek: delphakion] for [Greek: delphax] in his Alcibiades, saying, "Just as the women at the cookshops breed sucking-pigs ([Greek: delphakia])." And Antiphanes, in his Physiognomist, says—

Those women take the sucking-pigs ([Greek: delphakia]),
And fatten them by force;

And in his Persuasive Man he says—

To be fed up instead of pigs ([Greek: delphakiôn]).

Plato, however, has used the word [Greek: delphax] in the masculine gender in his Poet, where he says—

Leanest of pigs ([Greek: delphaka rhaiotaton]).

And Sophocles, in his play called Insolence, says—

Wishing to eat [Greek: ton delphaka].

And Cratinus, in his Ulysseses, has the expression—

Large pigs ([Greek: delphakas megalous]).

But Nicochares uses the word as feminine, saying—

A pregnant sow ([Greek: kyousan delphaka]);

And Eupolis, in his Golden Age, says—

Did he not serve up at the feast a sucking-pig ([Greek: delphaka]),
Whose teeth were not yet grown, a beautiful beast ([Greek: kalên])?

And Plato, in his Io, says—

Bring hither now the head of the sucking-pig ([Greek: tês delphakos]).