Hmmm...not sure what to think of this, but, I'm putting it out there, casting my line to see what happens.
Today, riding back home on my bike, I passed one of the various Saturday-morning markets. Traditionally these are itinerant merchants who travel in large trailer caravans from city to city throughout the region, plying their wares on specific dates in specific market locales. No market would be complete here, however, without the fishmonger. And, today was no exception.
By the time that I got to the market, they were cleaning up, which for the fishmonger, that meant emptying the ice into the street that had held the fish. Needless to say, it creates quite an aroma.
Like Proust's fictional madeleine epiphany, the smell took me back to many places. I remembered the fish markets in Venice, Bruges, and the old Fish market areas in Antwerp from twenty years ago when I first lived here as a student. Those old markets are gone, but the smell still brings back vivid visions of buckets of eels and other fish lining the streets which now house expensive antique stores and bric-a-brac shops. I remember the Fulton fish market in NYC, downtown Seattle from a trip nearly 25 years ago, and the port of Naples. I remembered seeing hairy-armed, balding Turkish men sitting around on plastic buckets, gutting fish in Istanbul from the Bosphorus, tossing the offal to a clowder of street cats. Most certainly the Rue du Bouchers in Brussels came to mind where touristy restaurants line the narrow street and its tributaries helmed by annoying barkers showing their seafood displays for inflated prices. And, more fondly, the Via Pescherie Vecchie of Bologna, which is every food-lover's dream street, filled with fresh produce, hand-made pasta, fresh fish and meats and cheese to satisfy any gourmand's appetite.
But, then, something clicked in my mind. For, when I started thinking about being in Greece and traveling the islands, I remember many fishing tackles on the beaches and boats aplenty, but then, when I thought of Plato and Socrates, I realized something was missing.
There are no fish in the works of Plato, save for a very scant reference here and there. Socrates has his favorites for metaphors, namely Horses, Cobblers, Harpists, Athletes, and Dogs, but, by the Dog, there are no fish!
The more I tried to think of an example, greater the lack of fish became. In addition, when I thought of the Odyssey, that is THE sea-faring epic of Greece, there are no fish, or very few of note. The best that I got from looking around the web was that fishing was considered to be a lowly trade. Well, that never stopped Socrates from using the common man as his champion. I am beginning to wonder now if there is something else here, or if it is merely a red herring.
Were Socrates and Plato averse to seafood I wonder? Or, was it just really not much part of the diet. It was one of those things that I think I just took for granted, mainly because I didn't think about it. It's like a trompe l'oeil that I imagine fishing and seafood when I think of Ancient Greece, and perhaps it was there aplenty, but my memory is actually from the fishing activity that I saw as a teenager backpacking across Europe, not from something I had read.
The mind can play funny tricks on us...and the power of suggestion is not to by underestimated.
Today, riding back home on my bike, I passed one of the various Saturday-morning markets. Traditionally these are itinerant merchants who travel in large trailer caravans from city to city throughout the region, plying their wares on specific dates in specific market locales. No market would be complete here, however, without the fishmonger. And, today was no exception.
By the time that I got to the market, they were cleaning up, which for the fishmonger, that meant emptying the ice into the street that had held the fish. Needless to say, it creates quite an aroma.
Like Proust's fictional madeleine epiphany, the smell took me back to many places. I remembered the fish markets in Venice, Bruges, and the old Fish market areas in Antwerp from twenty years ago when I first lived here as a student. Those old markets are gone, but the smell still brings back vivid visions of buckets of eels and other fish lining the streets which now house expensive antique stores and bric-a-brac shops. I remember the Fulton fish market in NYC, downtown Seattle from a trip nearly 25 years ago, and the port of Naples. I remembered seeing hairy-armed, balding Turkish men sitting around on plastic buckets, gutting fish in Istanbul from the Bosphorus, tossing the offal to a clowder of street cats. Most certainly the Rue du Bouchers in Brussels came to mind where touristy restaurants line the narrow street and its tributaries helmed by annoying barkers showing their seafood displays for inflated prices. And, more fondly, the Via Pescherie Vecchie of Bologna, which is every food-lover's dream street, filled with fresh produce, hand-made pasta, fresh fish and meats and cheese to satisfy any gourmand's appetite.
But, then, something clicked in my mind. For, when I started thinking about being in Greece and traveling the islands, I remember many fishing tackles on the beaches and boats aplenty, but then, when I thought of Plato and Socrates, I realized something was missing.
There are no fish in the works of Plato, save for a very scant reference here and there. Socrates has his favorites for metaphors, namely Horses, Cobblers, Harpists, Athletes, and Dogs, but, by the Dog, there are no fish!
The more I tried to think of an example, greater the lack of fish became. In addition, when I thought of the Odyssey, that is THE sea-faring epic of Greece, there are no fish, or very few of note. The best that I got from looking around the web was that fishing was considered to be a lowly trade. Well, that never stopped Socrates from using the common man as his champion. I am beginning to wonder now if there is something else here, or if it is merely a red herring.
Were Socrates and Plato averse to seafood I wonder? Or, was it just really not much part of the diet. It was one of those things that I think I just took for granted, mainly because I didn't think about it. It's like a trompe l'oeil that I imagine fishing and seafood when I think of Ancient Greece, and perhaps it was there aplenty, but my memory is actually from the fishing activity that I saw as a teenager backpacking across Europe, not from something I had read.
The mind can play funny tricks on us...and the power of suggestion is not to by underestimated.
