Note 146 — Chapter I · HOMER—THE POSITION OF FISHERMEN
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It is but fair, however, to add that the Scholiast notes this passage as the only one in the Iliad where fish is mentioned as a food, while Monro makes the ingenious comment that these oysters, or shell fish, are to be regarded not as luxuries, but as a way of satisfying the hunger of a crew at sea. Of oysters this is the only mention in the Homeric Poems. As oyster shells and even unopened oyster shells were found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenæ, the liking for oysters is not likely to have been lost between the Mycenæan and the Homeric times. The remains of the Homeric (sixth) city at Troy yielded very many cockle shells, but of cockles there seems no mention in the poems.
Numerous representations of fishes are found on Mycenæan and Cretan works of art.