The Deipnosophists (1.6)

The sophist uses the word Dinnerchaser, on which Clearchus says that Charmus the Syracusan adopted some little versicles and proverbs very neatly to whatever was put on the table. As on seeing a fish, he says:—

I come from the salt depths of Aegeus' sea.

And when he saw some ceryces he said—

Hail holy heralds (κήρυκες), messengers of Jove.

And on seeing tripe,

Crooked ways, and nothing sound.

When a well-stuffed cuttlefish is served up,

Good morrow, fool.

When he saw some pickled char,

O charming sight; hence with the vulgar crowd.

And on beholding a skinned eel,

Beauty when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.

Many such men then as these, he says, were present at Laurentius's supper; bringing books out of their bags, as their contribution to the picnic. And he says also that Charmus, having something ready for everything that was served up, as has been already said, appeared to the Massenians to be a most accomplished man; as also did Calliphanes, who was called the son of Parabrycon, who having copied out the beginnings of many poems and other writings, recollected three or four stanzas of each, aiming at a reputation for extensive learning, And many other men had in their mouths turbots caught in the Sicilian sea, and swimming eels, and the trail of the tunny-fish of Pachynum, and kids from Melos, and mullets from Symæthus. And, of dishes of less repute, there were cockles from Pelorum, anchovies from Lipara, turnips from Mantinea, rape from Thebes, and beetroot from the Ascræans. And Cleanthes the Tarentine, as Clearchus says, said everything while the drinking lasted, in metres. And so did Pamphilus the Sicilian, in this way:—

Give me a cup of sack, that partridge leg,

Likewise a pot, or else at least a cheesecake.

Being, says he, men with fair means, and not forced to earn their dinner with their hands,—

Bringing baskets full of votes.