5
It was, indeed, a witty remark of the Spartan Cf. Mor. 234 e-f, where it is meat, not fish, that is bought; see also 128 c. who bought a little fish in an inn and gave it to the innkeeper to prepare. When the latter asked for cheese and vinegar and oil,To make a sauce for the fish. The innkeeper’s action was natural enough, in view of Hegesander’s comment (Athenaeus, 564 a) that apparently everyone liked the seasonings, not the fish, since no one wanted fish plain and unseasoned. the Spartan said, If I had those, I should not have bought a fish. But we are so refined in our blood-letting that we term flesh a supplementary foodSee 991 d (and the note), 993 b, 994 b supra.; and then we need supplements for the flesh itself, mixing oil, wine, honey, fish paste, vinegar, with Syrian and Arabian spices,See 990 b supra. as though we were really embalming a corpse for burial. The fact is that meat is so softened and dissolved and, in a way, predigested that it is hard for digestion to cope with it; and if digestion loses the battle, the meats affect us with dreadful pains and malignant forms of indigestion.
