But whence is it, O you wisest of men, that orion, who wrote a list of fish, has been mentioned as if he were the writer of some valuable history?—a fellow who, I know, has been named a musician and a fish-devourer, but certainly not a historian. Accordingly Machon, the comic poet, speaks of him as a musician, saying—
Dorion the musician once did comeAnd Lynceus the Samian, the pupil of Theophrastus, and the brother of Duris, who wrote the Histories, and made himself tyrant of his country, writes thus in his Apophthegms— “When a man once said to Dorion the flute-player, that the ray was a good fish, he said—' Yes, about as good as if a man were to eat a boiled cloak.' And once, when some one else praised the entrails of tunny-fish, he said—' You are quite right, but then a man must eat them as I eat them;' and when the man asked him how that was, he said—' How? why willingly.' And he said that crawfish had three good qualities,—exercise, good food, and contemplation. And once, at Cyprus, when he was supping with Nicocreon, he praised a goblet that there was there; and Nicocreon said—'Whatever there is here that you fancy, the artist will make you another like it.' 'Let him make that,' he replied, 'for you; but do you give me this one.” ' And this was a clever speech of the flute-player; for there is an old saying that—
To Mylon, all in vain; for he could find
No resting-place which he could hire at all;
So on some sacred ground he sat him down,
Which was by chance before the city gates,
And there he saw the keeper of the temple
Prepare a sacrifice.—"I pray thee, tell me,
In chaste Minerva's name, and all the gods',
What deity is it that owns this temple?"
The keeper thus replied: "This is, O stranger,
Of Jupiter-Neptune the sacred shrine."
“How then,” said Dorion, "could any man
Expect to find a lodging in a place
Which in one temple crowds a pair of gods?"
'Tis not that God denies a flutist sense,[p. 534]
But when he comes to blow it flies away.
