Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 24

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[24] But let these examples suffice to show that sea animals are not entirely unrelated to us or cut off from human fellowship. Of their uncontaminated and native intelligence their caution is strong evidence. For nothing that swims and does not merely stick or cling to rocks is easily taken or captured without trouble by man as are asses by wolves, bees by bee-eaters,¹ cicadas by swallows, and snakes by deer, which easily attract them.² This, in fact, is why deer are called elaphoi, not from their swiftness,³ but from their power of attracting snakes.⁴ So too the ram draws the wolf by stamping and they say that very many creatures, and particularly apes, are attracted to the panther by their pleasure in its scent.⁵ But in practically all sea-creatures any sensation is suspect and evokes an intelligently inspired defensive reaction against attack, so that fishing has been rendered no simple or trivial task, but needs all manner of implements and clever and deceitful tricks to use against the fish.

This is perfectly clear from ready examples: no one wants to have an angler s rod too thick, though it needs elasticity to withstand the thrashing of such fish as are caught; men select, rather, a slender rod so that it may not cast a broad shadow and arouse suspicion.⁶ In the next place, they do not thicken the line with many plies when they attach the loop and do not make it rough; for this, too, betrays the lure to the fish. They also contrive that the hairs which form the leader shall be as white as possible; for in this way they are less conspicuous in the sea because of the similarity of colour. The remark of the Poet⁷:

Like lead she⁸ sank into the great sea depths,

Like lead infixed in hora of rustic ox

Which brings destruction to the ravenous fish -

some misunderstand this and imagine that the ancients used ox-hair for their lines, alleging that keras⁹ means hair and for this reason keirasthai means to have one’s hair cut and koura is a haircut¹⁰ and the keroplastes¹¹ in Archilochus¹² is one who is fond of trimming and beautifying the hair. But this is not so: they use horse-hair which they take from males, for mares by wetting the hair with their urine make it weak.¹³ Aristarchus¹⁴ declares that there is nothing erudite or subtle in these lines; the fact is that a small piece of horn was attached to the line in front of the hook, since the fish, when they are confronted by anything else, chew the line in two.¹⁵ They use rounded hooks¹⁶ to catch mullets and bonitos, whose mouths are small¹⁷; for they are wary of a broader hook. Often, indeed, the mullet suspects even a rounded hook and swims around it, flipping the bait with its tail and snatching up bits it has dislodged; or if it cannot do this, it closes its mouth and purses it up and with the tips of its lips nibbles away at the bait.¹⁸

The sea-bass is braver than your elephant¹⁹: it is not from another, but from himself without assistance, that he extracts the barb when he is caught by the hook; he swings his head from side to side to widen the wound, enduring the pain of tearing his flesh until he can throw off the hook.²⁰ The fox-shark²¹ does not often approach the hook and shuns the lure; but if he is caught, he immediately turns himself inside out, for by reason of the elasticity and flexibility of his body he can naturally shift and twist it about, so that when he is inside out, the hook falls away.

De sollertia animalium. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold, and Helmbold, William C., translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 24 focus

[24]

ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ.

ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἔστω τοῦ μὴ παντάπασιν ἐκφύλου μηδʼ ἀσυμπαθοῦς πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἱκανὰ δείγματα· τῆς δʼ ἀκράτου καὶ φυσικῆς συνέσεως μέγα δήλωμα τὸ κοινόν ἐστιν· οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως εὐχείρωτον 976d ἀνθρώπῳ νηκτόν, ὃ μὴ πέτραις προσέχεται καὶ προσπέφυκεν, οὐδʼ ἁλώσιμον ἄνευ πραγματείας, 5 ὡς λύκοις μὲν ὄνοι καὶ μέροψι μέλισσαι χελιδόσι δὲ τέττιγες, ἐλάφοις δʼ ὄφεις ἀγόμενοι ῥᾳδίως ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ᾗ καὶ τοὔνομα πεποίηται παρώνυμον οὐ τῆς ἐλαφρότητος ἀλλὰ τῆς ἕλξεως τοῦ ὄφεως,, καὶ τὸ πρόβατον προσκαλεῖται τῷ ποδὶ τὸν λύκον· τῇ δὲ 10 παρδάλει τὰ πλεῖστα προσχωρεῖν χαίροντα τῇ ὀσμῇ μάλιστα δὲ τὸν πίθηκον λέγουσι. τῶν δὲ θαλαττίων ὁμοῦ τι πάντων ἡ προαίσθησις ὕποπτος οὖσα 976e καὶ πεφυλαγμένη πρὸς τὰς ἐπιθέσεις ὑπὸ συνέσεως, οὐχ ἁπλοῦν τὸ τῆς ἄγρας ἔργον οὐδὲ φαῦλον ἀλλʼ 15 ὀργάνων τε παντοδαπῶν καὶ σοφισμάτων ἐπʼ αὐτὰ δεινῶν καὶ ἀπατηλῶν δεόμενον ἀπείργασται. καὶ τοῦτο δῆλόν ἐστιν ἀπὸ τῶν πάνυ προχείρων. τὸν μὲν γὰρ ἀσπαλιευτικὸν κάλαμον οὐ βούλονται πάχος ἔχειν, καίπερ εὐτόνου δεόμενοι πρὸς τοὺς σπαραγμοὺς 20 τῶν ἁλισκομένων, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐκλέγονται τὸν λεπτόν, ὅπως μὴ πλατεῖαν ἐπιβάλλων σκιὰν ἐκταράττῃ τὸ ὕποπτον αὐτῶν. ἔπειτα τὴν ὁρμιὰν οὐ ποιοῦσι πολύπλοκον τοῖς ἅμμασι τῶν βρόχων 976f οὐδὲ τραχεῖαν ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο τοῦ δόλου γίγνεται 25 τεκμήριον αὐτοῖς. καὶ τῶν τριχῶν τὰ καθήκοντα πρὸς τὸ ἄγκιστρον ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα λευκὰ φαίνεσθαι μηχανῶνται μᾶλλον γὰρ οὕτως ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ διʼ ὁμοιότητα τῆς χρόας λανθάνουσι. τὸ δʼ ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ λεγόμενον

ἡ δὲ μολυβδαίνῃ ἰκέλη ἐς βυσσὸν ὄρουσεν,

ἣτε κατʼ ἀγραύλοιο βοὸς κέρας ἐμβεβαυῖα 5

ἔρχεται ὠμηστῇσιν ἐπʼ ἰχθύσι κῆρα φέρουσα·

παρακούοντες ἔνιοι βοείαις θριξὶν οἴονται πρὸς τὰς ὁρμιὰς χρῆσθαι τοὺς παλαιούς· κέρας γὰρ τὴν τρίχα λέγεσθαι καὶ τὸ κείρασθαι διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν κουράν· καὶ τὸν παρʼ Ἀρχιλόχῳ κεροπλάστην φιλόκοσμον 10 977a εἶναι περὶ κόμην καὶ καλλωπιστήν. ἔστι δʼ οὐκ ἀληθές· ἱππείαις γὰρ θριξὶ χρῶνται, τὰς τῶν ἀρρένων λαμβάνοντες· αἱ γὰρ θήλειαι. τῷ οὔρῳ τὴν τρίχα βεβρεγμένην ἀδρανῆ ποιοῦσιν. Ἀριστοτέλης δέ φησι μηδὲν ἐν τούτοις λέγεσθαι 15 σοφὸν ἢ περιττὸν ἀλλὰ τῷ ὄντι κεράτιον περιτίθεσθαι πρὸ τοῦ ἀγκίστρου περὶ τὴν ὁρμιάν, ἐπεὶ πρὸς ἄλλο ἐρχόμενοι διεσθίουσι. τῶν δʼ ἀγκίστρων τοῖς μὲν στρογγύλοις, ἐπὶ κεστρέας καὶ ἀμίας χρῶνται μικροστόμους ὄντας τὸ γὰρ εὐθύτερον εὐλαβοῦνται· 20 πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τὸ στρογγύλον ὁ κεστρεὺς 977b ὑποπτεύων ἐν κύκλῳ περινήχεται, τῇ οὐρᾷ περιρραπίζων τὸ ἐδώδιμον καὶ ἀνακάπτων τὸ ἀποκρουόμενον· ἂν δὲ μὴ δύνηται, συναγαγὼν τὸ στόμα καὶ περιστείλας, τοῖς χείλεσιν ἄκροις ἐπιψαύων ἀποκνίζει τοῦ δελέατος. ὁ δὲ λάβραξ ἀνδρικώτερον τοῦ ἐλέφαντος οὐχ ἕτερον ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ἑαυτόν, ὅταν περιπέσῃ τῷ ἀγκίστρῳ, βελουλκεῖ, τῇ δεῦρο κἀκεῖ 5 παραλλάξει τῆς κεφαλῆς ἀνευρύνων τὸ τραῦμα καὶ τὸν ἐκ τοῦ σπαραγμοῦ πόνον ὑπομένων, ἄχρι ἂν ἐκβάλῃ τὸ ἄγκιστρον. ἡ δʼ ἀλώπηξ οὐ πολλάκις μὲν ἀγκίστρῳ πρόσεισιν ἀλλὰ φεύγει τὸν δόλον, ἁλοῦσα δʼ εὐθὺς ἐκτρέπεται πέφυκε γὰρ διʼ εὐτονίαν 10 977c καὶ ὑγρότητα μεταβάλλειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ στρέφειν, ὥστε τῶν ἐντὸς ἐκτὸς γενομένων ἀποπίπτειν τὸ ἄγκιστρον.

Translations (1)

Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land? Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 24 focus

[24] But let these examples suffice to show, that fish are not altogether strangers to mankind, nor altogether void of human affection. But for a great and common demonstration of their unmixed and natural understanding, we find that there is not any fish that swims, unless they be such as stick and cling to the rocks, which is so easily taken by men, as asses are seized by wolves, bees by bee-eaters, grasshoppers by swallows, serpents by harts. And these last are therefore called ἔλαφοι, not from their swiftness ( ἐλαφρότης), but from a faculty which they have of drawing serpents to them ( ἕλκειν ὄφεις). So sheep call the wolf by the sound of their feet, and the panther allures to her paws both apes and other creatures by the fragrant smell of her body. But so suspicious is the sense of all water animals, and so watchful are they to avoid all baits and treacheries against them, by reason of their extraordinary cunning, that fishing thereby becomes no easy or single labor, but a toil that requires various instruments and many tricks of human cunning and deceit. This is apparent from examples near at hand. For no man desires an angling-rod too thick, though strong enough to hold against the twitches of the fish when taken; but rather they require it slender, lest by casting too great a shadow upon the water, it should frighten the suspicious creature. In the next place, they never knit too many knots in the line, but make it as smooth as may be, for that would too much discover the deceit; and then for the hairs which are next the hook, they endeavor to get the whitest they can meet with; for so, by reason of the likeness of color, they lie the more easily concealed in the water. Therefore some there are who, wrongly expounding the following verses of Homer,¹

She to the bottom quickly sinks, like lead,

Which fixt to horn of rustic ox descends,

And brings destruction to the greedy fish,

believe that the ancients made use of ox-hair for their lines with which they angled, alleging that κέρας then signified hair,—from whence κείρασθαι, to be shaved, and κουρά, shaving,—and that κεροπλάστης in Archilochus signified one who takes delight in trimming and decking the hair. But this is an error. For they made use of horse-hair, more especially that of male horses. For mares, by moistening their tails with their urine, render the hair weak and brittle. Though Aristotle will not allow any thing to be said in all this that requires such extraordinary subtlety. Only he says, that the lower piece of the line was fortified with a little hollow piece of horn, lest the fish should come at the line itself and bite it off; moreover, that they made use of round hooks to catch mullets and tunnies, in regard they had but small mouths, for that they were afraid of a straight hook. He also further says, that the mullet many times suspecting the round hook, will swim round about it, flapping the bait with his tail, and then turning round, secures to himself so much as he has broken off. Or if he cannot do that, he shuts his mouth close, and with the extremities of his lips nibbles off some part of the bait.

The fish called labrax behaves himself more stoutly than the elephant; for when he perceives himself struck with the hook, without assistance he sets himself at liberty, widening the wound by flinging his head to and fro, and enduring the painful twingings of the hook, till he have freed himself from it with the loss of his flesh. The sea fox (or the fish called alopex) seldom bites, but avoids the deceit; but if he chance to be taken, he presently turns the inside of his body outward. For by reason of the strength and moisture of his body, he has a peculiar faculty to turn it so that, the inside coming to be outermost, the hook falls off. These things demonstrate understanding, and a subtle and extraordinary use of it in the nick and juncture of time.

Notes on the current edition

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer

1. A bird: Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13 (615 b 25); Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 11; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 99.

2. Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 6; v. 48.

3. Elaphrotes.

4. Helxis opheos, a fantastic etymology. Neither derivation is correct, elaphos being related to the Lithuanian elnis, deer. For the references see Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 234.

5. See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 13); add Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 6; v. 40.

6. Cf. Gow on Theocritus, xxi. 10.

7. Homer, Iliad, xxiv. 80-82.

8. Iris going to visit Thetis.

9. It means, of course, horn as above in Homer, Iliad, xxiv. 81.

10. Or lock of hair.

11. Horn-fashioner, so called from the horn-like bunching together of the hair: see the scholia on Iliad, xxiv. 81.

12. Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 126, frag. 57; Diehl, Anth. Lyrica, i, p. 228, frag. 59. See the note on 967 f supra.

13. Cf. Mor. 915 f - 916 a.

14. Not Aristotle, as the mss. read. See Platt, Class. Quart. v. 255.

15. The section of horn was put around the line. It was therefore a tube. It was in front of the hook as one held it in his hand and attached it to the line. It was therefore at the hook end of the leader. Its hardness prevented the line from being severed. Its neutral coloration prevented the fish from being frightened off. Note that Oppian ( Hal. iii. 147) comments on the use of a hook with an abnormally long shank for the same purpose (Andrews).

16. A prototype of the Sobey hook.

17. See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 19); Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144.

18. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145; Oppian, Hal. iii. 524 ff.

19. Cf. 974 d supra.

20. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 40, of the tunny; Ovid, Hal. 39 f. and Oppian, Hal. iii. 128 ff., of the bass.

21. Plutarch seems here to have confused this fish with the so-called scolopendra (of which he writes correctly in Mor. 567 b; see also Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 424). Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 11); Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 12; Varia Hist. i. 5; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145. There are fish (but not sharks) which can disgorge their stomachs and swallow them again. Note that hasty reading of Aristotle l.c. could easily cause this misstatement (Andrews).

Plutarch De sollertia animalium 24

Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator)

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