Note 551 — Chapter XV · FISH IN SACRIFICES—PICKLED FISH—VIVARIA OF OYSTERS, ETC.—ARCHIMEDES
Reading edition
Martial, Ep., IV. 30, 4.
“Qui norunt dominum manumque lambunt Illam, qua nihil est in orbe maius. Quid quod nomen habent et ad magistri Vocem quisque sui venit citatus?”
and Martial, X. 30, 22.
“Natat ad magistrum delicata muræna, Nomenculator mugilem citat notum, Et adesse jussi prodeunt senes mulli.”
Cicero, Ep. ad Att., XX. I., “Our leading people think that they attain unto Heaven if they own in their ponds bearded mullets, who will come to them to be stroked.” Cf. Lucian (De Dea Syria, 45-48). Ælian, VIII. 4, confirms these statements, and in 12. 30, tells of a spring in Caria sacred to Zeus, in which were kept eels decked with earrings and chains of gold, while Pliny, XXXII. 8, writes that at the Temple of Venus at Hierapolis, of which Lucian speaks as an eye-witness, “adveniunt pisces exornati auro.” This practice is, and has been, world-wide. “Fishes though little have long ears,” is an old Chinese proverb. “In Japan fish are summoned to dinner by melodious gongs. In India, I have seen them called out of the muddy depths of the river at Dohlpore by the ringing of a handbell, while carp in Belgium answer at once to the whistle of the monks who feed them, and in far away Otaheite, the chiefs have pet eels, whom they whistle to the surface” (Robinson, op. cit., p. 14). Cf. Athen., VIII. 3, “and I myself and very likely many of you too have seen eels having golden and silver earrings, taking food from any one who offered it to them.” The Egyptians similarly adorned their crocodiles with gold earrings. Herod. 2. 69.