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

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Zoilus replied to this, and said-Aristophanes, my good friend, in his Lemnian Woman, has used the word τακερὸς for delicate, saying—

Lemnus producing good and delicate (τακεροὺς) beans:

and Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, says—

To make the vetches delicate (τυκερούς):

and Nicander the Colophonian has used the word σίναπι in his Theriacans, where he said—

A brazen cucumber and mustard too (σίνηπυ);

and in his Georgics he writes—

The biting pungent seed of mustard (σινήπυος);

and again he says—

Cardamum and the plant which stings the nose,
The black-leav'd mustard (σίνηπυ).

And Crates, in his treatise on the Attic Dialect, introduces Aristophanes as saying—

He looked mustard (σίναπυ) and drew down his brows,

as Seleucus quotes it, in his books on Hellenism. But it is a line out of the Knights, and it ought to be read thus—

κἄβλεψε νάπυ, not καὶ βλέπε σινάπυ:

for no Attic writer ever used the form σίναπυ, although there is a reason for each form. For νάπυ may be said, as if it were νάφυ, because it has no φύσις, or growth. Fr it is ἀφυὲς and little, like the anchovy, which is called ἀφύη, and is called σίναπυ, because it injures the eyes (σίνεται τοὺς ὦπας） [p. 578] by its smell, as the onion has the name of κρόμμυον, because it makes us wink our eyes (ὅτι τὰς κόρας μύομεν). And Xenarchus the comic writer says, in his Scythians—

This evil is no longer evil; so
My daughter is corrupted by the stranger.

And that exquisite writer, Aristophanes, mentions salt and vinegar, saying, in the place where he speaks of Sthenelus the tragedian,—

A. How can I swallow Sthenelus's words?
B. By soaking them in vinegar or white salt.