Now the different species of polypus are these: the eledone, the polypodine, the bolbotine, the osmylus; as both Aristotle and Speusippus teach us. But, in his book on Animals and their Properties, Aristotle says that the polypus, the osmylus, the eledone, the cuttle-fish, and the squid, are all molluscous. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
A polypus, a cuttle-fish, and quickly-moving squid,And Archestratus says—
A foul-smelling bolbitine, and chattering old woman.
The Carian and the Thasian polypiBut the Dorians spell the word with an ω, πωλύπους; as, for instance, Epicharmus. Simonides too has the expression, πώλυπον διζήμενος. But the Attics spell the word πολύπους, with an o: and it is a cartilaginous fish; for χονδρώδης and σελαχώδης have the same meaning;—
Are far the best; Corcyra too can breed
Fish of large size and very numerous.
The polypodes and the dog-shark.Moreover, all the fish belonging to the species of the cuttlefish are called molluscous. But the whole tribe of . . . is cartilaginous.
