Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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With respect to the small kind of anchovy called membras, Phrynicus, in his Tragedians, says—

O golden-headed membrades, sons of the sea.

But Epicharmus in his Hebe's Wedding, calls them bambradones, and says—

Bambradones and sea-thrushes, and hares,
And furious dragons.

And Sophron in his Manly Qualities, says—“The bambradon, and the needle fish.” And Numenius says, in his Treatise on Fishing,

Or a small sprat, or it may be a bembras,
Kept in a well; you recollect these baits.

And Dorion in his book on Fishes, says—"Having taken off the head of a bembras, if it be one of a tolerable size, and having washed it with water, and a small quantity of salt, then boil it in the same manner as you do a mullet; and the bembras is the only kind of anchovy from which is derived the condiment called bembraphya; which is mentioned by Aristonymus in the Sun Shivering—

The carcinobates of Sicily
Resembles the bembraphya.

Still the Attic writers often call them bembrades. Aristomenes says in his Jugglers—

Bringing some bembrades purchased for an obol.

And Aristonymus in his Sun Shivering, says—

The large anchovy plainly is not now,
Nor e'en the bembras, quite unfortunate.

[p. 452] And Aristophanes says in his Old Age—

Fed on the hoary bembrades.

And Plato in his Old Men, says—

O Hercules, do just survey these bembrades.

But in the Goats of Eupolis we may find the word written also with a μ (not βεμβρὰς but μεμβρὰς). And Antiphanes says, in his Cnœsthis;—

They do proclaim within the fishmarket
The most absurd of proclamations,
For just now one did shout with all his voice'
That he had got some bembrades sweet as honey;
But if this be the case, then what should hinder
The honey-sellers crying out and saying,
That they have honey stinking like a bembras?

And Alexis in his Woman leading the Chorus, writes the word with a μ—

Who to the young folks making merry, then
Put forth but lately pulse and membrades,
And well-press'd grapes to eat.

And in his Protochorus he says—

No poorer meal, by Bacchus now I swear,
Have I e'er tasted since I first became
A parasite; I'd rather sup on membrades
With any one who could speak Attic Greek;
It would be better for me.