Book 8
16
But it would be better, says Chrysippus, if the lines inscribed on the tomb of Sardanapalus were altered thus— Knowing that thou art mortal, feed thy soul On wise discourse. There is no good in eating. For I am now no good, who once did eat All that I could, and sought all kinds of pleasure. Now what I thought and learnt and heard of wisdom Is all I now have left; my luxuries And all my joys have long deserted me. And Timon says, very beautifully,— Of all bad things the chief is appetite.
17
But Clearchus, in his essay on Proverbs, says that Terpsion was the tutor of Archestratus, who was also the first person who wrote a book on Gastronomy; and he says that he gave precepts to his pupils as to what they ought to abstain from; and that Terpsion once extemporised the following line about a turtle:— Eat now a turtle, or else leave it alone; which, however, others read— Eat now a turtle's flesh, or leave it alone.
