Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—FISHING RIDDLE CAUSES HOMER'S DEATH^7If left to a jury composed of or even leavened by fishersinstead of to the king, the verdict would surely have gone theother way, were it only on the ground that while Homer affordsseveral spirited pictures of fishing, we search in vain all Hesiod'sgenuine works for any mention, for even any allusion tofishing.The word fish occurs only in Works and Days, Une 277.Even if we allow The Shield of Heracles to be by Hesiod, wefind but one passage (lines 214-5) relating to fishing, and thiswith a Net.i Hesiod's silence on the subject surprises, for{a) he boasts himself the poet of country life, (6) states thatas a youth he fed and led his flocks on the sides and amid thestreams of Mount Helicon, and (c) passed the rest of his Hfeon the banks of the river Cephissus.2Homer had previously, on consulting the Pythian Priestessas to the country whence he sprang, received a response,which I render" Thy mother's home is los, where in timeThou'lt lie ;But now let the 'Aywi^ speak.but 'ware the young lads' riddling rhyme." ^" After the contest the poetsailed unto los, and there abode a long time, being alreadyan old man. Sitting one day on the sea-shore, he asked somelads returning from fishing," 'Fishermen from Arcadia, have we aught ? 'and Days a reputation like that enjoyed by Hesiod, especially if we rememberthat at Thespiae, to which the village of Ascra, the birthplace and early homeof Hesiod, was subject, agriculture was held degrading to a freeman " (Smith,Diet. Gk.-Rom. Biog, and Myth., s. v. " Hesiod").^ When Pausanias came to Thespiae on his Boeotian round, the representativesof the Corporation who owned the land told him dogmatically that theWorks and Days alone came from the Master's hand, and showed him thene varietur copy on lead, wanting the prooemium which we read at the head ofthe poem (Pans., 9. 31. 4).* The passage, attributed by Euthydemus (in his Treatise on Pickled Fish)to Hesiod, which mentions seven fish, does not upset my statement, becausethe paternity of the work has long been deemed spurious. Even Athenaeusbrands the verses as " the work of some cook, rather than that of the greataccompUshed Hesiod," and concludes from intrinsic evidence, such as themention of Byzantium, etc., and the Campanians, etc., " when Hesiod wasmany years more ancient than any of these places or tribes," that they werewritten by Euthydemus. See Athen., III. 84.' 'AWa vecjv TralSuv alviyua