Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 32

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[32]

PHAEDIMUS.

And we shall observe this difference even more clearly when we turn our attention to the oldest and most important of social institutions and duties, those concerned with generation and procreation. Now in the first place those fish that inhabit a sea that borders on lagoons or receives rivers resort to these when they are ready to deposit then; eggs, seeking the tranquillity and smoothness of fresh water, since calm is a good midwife. Besides, lagoons and rivers are devoid of sea monsters,¹ so that the eggs and fry may survive. This is the reason why the Black Sea is most favoured for spawning by very many fish. It breeds no large sea beasts at all except an infrequent seal and a small dolphin²; besides, the influx of rivers - and those which empty into the Black Sea are numerous and very large - creates a gentle blend conducive to the production of offspring. The most wonderful tale is told about the anthias,³ which Homer⁴ calls Sacred Fish.⁵ Yet some think that sacred means important, just as we call the important bone os sacrum⁶ and epilepsy, an important disease, the sacred disease.⁷ Others interpret it in the ordinary sense as meaning dedicated or consecrated. Eratosthenes⁸ seems to refer to the gilthead⁹ when he says

Swift courser golden-browed, the sacred fish.

Many say that this is the sturgeon,¹⁰ which is rare and hard to catch, though it is often seen off the coast of Pamphylia. If any ever do succeed in catching it, they put on wreaths themselves and wreathe their boats; and, as they sail past, they are welcomed and honoured with shouts and applause. But most authorities hold that it is the anthias that is and is called sacred, for wherever this fish appears there are no sea monsters. Sponge-fishers¹¹ may dive in confidence and fish may spawn without fear, as though they had a guarantor of their immunity. The reason for this is a puzzle: whether the monsters avoid the anthias as elephants do a pig¹² and lions a cock,¹³ or whether there are indications of places free from monsters, which the fish comes to know and frequents, being an intelligent creature with a good memory.

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.) — 32 focus

[32]

ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ.

ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον κατοψόμεθα τὴν διαφοράν, ἐπὶ τὰ πρεσβύτατα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν κοινωνικῶν ἔργων καὶ καθηκόντων τὰ περὶ τὰς γενέσεις καὶ τεκνώσεις τὸν λόγον τρέψαντες. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ οἱ λίμναις παρήκουσαν ἢ ποταμοὺς ὑποδεχομένην 10 νεμόμενοι θάλατταν ἰχθύες, ὅταν μέλλωσι τίκτειν, ἀνατρέχουσι, τῶν ποτίμων ὑδάτων τὴν πραότητα καὶ τὸ ἄσαλον διώκοντες· ἀγαθὴ γὰρ ἡ γαλήνη λοχεῦσαι καὶ τὸ ἄθηρον ἅμα ταῖς λίμναις ἔνεστι καὶ ποταμοῖς, ὥστε σῴζεσθαι τὰ τικτόμενα. διὸ 15 981d καὶ πλεῖστα καὶ μάλιστα γονεύεται περὶ τὸν Εὔξεινον πόντον· οὐ γὰρ τρέφει κήτη ἀλλʼ ἢ φώκην ἀραιὰν καὶ δελφῖνα μικρόν. ἔτι δʼ ἡ τῶν ποταμῶν ἐπιμιξία, πλείστων καὶ μεγίστων ἐκδιδόντων εἰς τὸν Πόντον, ἤπιον παρέχει καὶ πρόσφορον τοῖς 20 λοχευομένοις κρᾶσιν. τὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθίου θαυμασιώτατόν ἐστιν, ὃν Ὅμηρος ἱερὸν ἰχθύν εἴρηκε· καίτοι μέγαν τινὲς οἴονται τὸν ἱερὸν καθάπερ ὀστοῦν ἱερὸν τὸ μέγα, καὶ τὴν ἐπιληψίαν, μεγάλην νόσον οὖσαν, ἱερὰν καλοῦσιν· ἔνιοι δὲ κοινῶς τὸν ἄφετον 25 καὶ ἱερωμένον. Ἐρατοσθένης,· δὲ τὸν χρύσοφρυν ἔοικεν

εὐδρομίην χρύσειον ἐπʼ ὀφρύσιν ἱερὸν ἰχθύν

λέγειν·ʼ πολλοὶ δὲ τὸν ἔλλοπα, σπάνιος γάρ ἐστι καὶ οὐ ῥᾴδιος ἁλῶναι. φαίνεται δὲ περὶ Παμφυλίαν 981e πολλάκις ἂν οὖν ποτε λάβωσι, στεφανοῦνται μὲν 5 αὐτοὶ στεφανοῦσι δὲ τὰς ἁλιάδας, κρότῳ δὲ καὶ πατάγῳ καταπλέοντας αὐτοὺς ὑποδέχονται καὶ τιμῶσιν. οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι τὸν ἀνθίαν ἱερὸν εἶναι καὶ λέγεσθαι νομίζουσιν ὅπου γὰρ ἂν ἀνθίας ὀφθῇ θηρίον οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ θαρροῦντες μὲν οἱ σπογγοθῆραι κατακολυμβῶσι 10 θαρροῦντες δὲ τίκτουσιν οἱ ἰχθύες, ὥσπερ ἐγγυητὴν ἀσυλίας ἔχοντες ἡ δʼ αἰτία δυσλόγιστος, εἴτε φεύγει τὰ θηρία τὸν ἀνθίαν ὡς σῦν ἐλέφαντες ἀλεκτρυόνα δὲ λέοντες· εἴτʼ ἐστὶ σημεῖα 981f τόπων ἀθήρων, ἃ γιγνώσκει καὶ παραφυλάττει συνετὸς 15 ὢν καὶ μνημονικὸς ὁ ἰχθύς.

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.) — 32 focus

[32] We shall observe this difference more evidently, if we direct our discourses upon the most ancient and greatest works of common society, which are the works of generation and procreation of offspring. For in the first place, those fish that frequent the shores next adjoining to vast lakes or great rivers, when they are near their time of bringing forth, retire up into those places, seeking the fresh waters which are more gentle and void of brine. For tranquillity is most convenient for such as bring forth, and there is most safety in rivers and lakes for their young ones, as being freest from the devouring monsters of the sea. Which is the reason that there is the greatest plenty of fish about the Euxine Sea, where there are no whales, but only small sea-calves or little dolphins. Besides, the mixture of rivers, many in number, and those very large, that fall into the Pontus, make the temperature more kindly and proper for breeding and bringing forth. And that is most wonderful which is reported of the anthias, which Homer¹ calls the sacred fish, though some interpret sacred to signify great in that place, as we call a certain great bone os sacrum, and the epilepsy, being a great disease, the sacred disease, though others interpret that to be sacred which ought not to be touched, as being dedicated to holy use. And Eratosthenes seems to take the gilthead, so called from the golden hair about his eyes, for the sacred fish; though many believe it to be the ellops,—a fish seldom seen and difficult to be caught, yet many times it appears in the rivers of Pamphylia. So they that catch them are crowned, and their boats are also adorned with garlands, and as they pass along they are received and honored with loud shouts and clapping of hands. However it be, most people take the anthias to be a sacred fish, because that where the anthias appears, there are no sea-monsters, but the sponge-cutters dive boldly, and the fish as fearlessly spawn, as having a pledge for their security. And the reason is twofold, either because the sea-monsters dread the anthias, as elephants dread a hog, and lions a cock; or else it is a sign that there are no sea-monsters in those places, which the anthias knows and observes, as being an intelligent fish, endued with sense and a good memory.

Notes on the current edition

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer

1. See 981 e infra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 71.

2. Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 2); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 49 f.; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 9; ix. 59; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 599; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. 47; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 54, 281.

3. On the identity see note on 977 c supra.

4. Iliad, xvi. 407.

5. See Gow on Theocritus, frag. 3. Homer does not call the anthias Sacred Fish, but merely alludes to a sacred fish; and in later times several were so regarded.

6. The last bone of the spine.

7. Cf. [Hippocrates], De Morbo Sacro (L.C.L., vol. ii, pp. 138 ff.); Herodotus, iii. 33; Plato, Timaeus, 85 a-b.

8. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina, p. 60, frag. 12. 3; Hiller, frag. 14 (p. 31).

9. See Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 169.

10. See 979 c supra. They are wrong, for while both the gilthead and the sturgeon were sacred fish, the description points clearly to the gilthead.

11. Cf. 950 c supra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 153; Thompson, Glossary, p. 15.

12. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38; viii. 28; xvi. 36; al..

13. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 31; vi. 22; viii. 28; al.

Plutarch De sollertia animalium 32

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

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PHAEDIMUS.

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ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ.

Notes on the current edition

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