Tuna in the Ancient World, by Daniel B. Levine.

American Institute of Wine and Food Professional Series #1 (Ode To Tuna).

French Culinary Institute, New York City.

March 21, 2006.

(slide 1) The ancient peoples of the Mediterranean valued the tuna immensely. (slide 2) From the Pillars of Heracles in the west to the Black Sea in the East, they hunted and consumed this fish in earnest. The ancients delighted in its taste, and profited by its harvest. They wrote about tuna, drew pictures of tuna, and inscribed their images on coins. This delicacy inspired poets and playwrights, attracted the attention of scientists and geographers, and served as sacrificial offerings to the gods themselves.

(slide 3) Greeks from the classical period onward were crazy about fish in general, and the tuna in particular. Fish was the most preferred dish to accompany their basic grain diet, the favorite relish, or 'opson.' One ancient author writes,

'It is no wonder, my friends, that among all the specially prepared dishes which we call an opson, the fish is the only one which has won its way, on account of its excellent eating qualities, to be called by this name, because people are so mad for this kind of food We give the name 'relish eaters,' opsophagoi rather to people who gad about among the fishmongers.' (Athen. 276e5).

Elsewhere, we learn that the ancient people of the island of Rhodes considered those who are fish-lovers the only real gentlemen, and those who prefer meat to be lesser men:

Now I wish to report to you an opinion held by the Rhodians. In Rhodes, it is said, anyone who looks at the fish in the market and admires them and is much more of an epicure than other people ­ literally, the biggest opsophagos of all -- any such person is esteemed by his fellow citizens as a gentleman (eleutherios). But a man who shows a preference for meat is criticized by the Rhodians as vulgar and gluttonous. Whether they are right in this or mistaken, I shall not deign to discuss. (Aelian Hist. Misc. 1.28)

(slide 4) Among the thousands of fish which the Greeks harvested, they prized the tuna mightily. Archestratus of Gela says that as much as eels were valued as the best of all foods, the fattest tuna is so much superior to the most utterly worthless of fish. Furthermore, he suggests the eating of Sicilian tuna slices (temachos), and continues (slide 5):

And if you come to the holy city of famous Byzantion,/ I urge you again to eat a steak of peak-season tuna; for it is very good/and soft. (Archestratus Fr.39).

Indeed, the Greeks valued tuna in many forms. Besides serving it by the grilled slice, they also served it dried, salted, and pickled, making the important staple tarikhos (preserved fish), which was shipped throughout the Mediterranean We know a few things about ancient preparation of tuna for eating. One of the earliest references to its attractive flavor comes from the sixth-century BCE poet Hipponax, who wrote about a man who literally wasted his life by luxuriously overindulging in tuna with a savory sauce:

For one of them, dining at his ease and lavishly every day on tuna and savory sauce (myssotos) like a eunuch from Lampsacus, ate up his inheritance; as a result he has to dig a rocky hillside, munching on cheap figs and coarse barley bread, fodder for slaves (Hipponax Fr. 26, = Athen. Deipn. 7.304)

Note that the eunuch to whom Hipponax compares this gourmand hailed from Lampsacus, a wealthy town near Troy at the entrance to the Hellespont, just southwest of Byzantium. There is a reason for this. The best tuna came from the narrow Propontis, the entrance to the Black Sea. This savory sauce, myssotos, greatly complemented the tuna. Sometimes translated as 'olio,' mussotos was a mess of cheese, honey, and garlic beaten together, a type of mince meat (LSJ). One ancient Greek food writer said that tuna is 'no mean food, but one that stands out among all fish in a savory sauce' (Ananius, in Athen. Deipn. 7.282b).

(slide 6) Greeks especially esteemed the belly-pieces of tuna (ta hypogastria). Other edible pieces include the shoulders, or 'keys' (kleides = claviculae), and the head (Athen. Deipn. 303a). Two lost comedies by Antiphanes apparently praised the 'middle slice of the very best Byzantine tunny' and the 'tail-cut' (to ouraion) of the female tuna (Athen. Deipn. 304a). (slide 7) The epicure Archestratus provides a recipe in dactylic hexameter poetry::

And have a tail-cut from the she-tunny -- the large she-tunny, I repeat, whose mother-city is Byzantium. Slice it and roast it all rightly, sprinkling just a little salt, and buttering it with oil. Eat the slices hot, dipping them into a pungent brine (drimeian es halmen); they are nice even if you want to eat them without sauce (literally: dry), like the deathless gods in form and stature. But if you serve it sprinkled with vinegar, it is ruined. (Fr. 38 = Athen. Deipn. 7.303e)

Archestratus gives us another recipe for tuna: the Amia, or Bonito, which, according to Hikesios, is always well-flavored and tender:

As for the amia, prepare that in the autumn, when the Pleiad is setting, and in any way you like. Why need I recite it for you word for word? For you cannot not possibly spoil it even if you want to Wrap it in fig-leaves with a very little marjoram (origanoi). No cheese, no nonsense! Just place it tenderly in fig-leaves and tie them on top with a string; then push it under hot ashes, thinking wisely of the time when it is done, and don't burn it! Let it come to you from lovely (erateinou) Byzantium if you desire the best, yet you will get what is good even if it is caught somewhere near this place here. But it is poorer (kheiron) the farther you go from the Hellespont (near Byzantium), and if you journey over the glorious courses of the briny Aegean main, it is no longer the same, but utterly belies my earlier praise. (Athenaeus 7. 278a-d)

Again, we see that the ancients praised the excellence of the tuna in the Hellespont, near Byzantium.

Tuna, like other fish, got around. (slide 8) They migrated, and great shoals of tuna used to go in and out of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Black Sea, which the Greeks called the Pontus. Aristotle wrote that 'Tunnies, pelamyds and bonitos enter the Pontus in spring and spend the summer there, and so do practically the majority of the shoaling and gregarious fishes' (Hist. An. 598a20).

Aristotle carefully observed these migrations through the narrow channels of the Propontus near Byzantium, and made a strange conclusion about tuna's eyesight: 'The tunny swim inwards while keeping to the left shore; some say they do this because they see more sharply with the right eye, not having sharp sight by nature' (Aristotle, Hist. An. 598b19). This odd 'fact' appears in several later writers, including Athenaeus and Aelian, who even quotes a character in a play by Aeschylus (5th century BCE), who says of someone that he 'cast his left eye askance like a tunny' (Fr. 308N).

Oppian's epic on fishing speaks more poetically of the tuna migration from the Atlantic past Spain, France, Italy, and Sicily:

The breed of Tunnies comes from the spacious Ocean, and they travel into the regions of our sea when they lust after the frenzy of mating in spring. First the Iberians who plume themselves upon their might capture them within the Iberian brine; next by the mouth of the Rhone the Celts and the ancient inhabitants of Phocaea (Massalia) hunt them; and thirdly those who are dwellers in the Trinacrian isle (Sicily) and by the waves of the Tyrrhenian sea. Thence in the unmeasured deeps they scatter this way or that and travel over all the sea. Abundant and wondrous is the spoil for fishermen when the host of Tunnies set forth in spring. (Oppian Hal. 3.620ff.)

The geographer Strabo quotes the historian Polybius on the subject of tuna migration from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean. Although the ancients knew that these fish were carnivorous, they also believed that they ate a sort of sea plant which they called the 'sea acorn,' and thus were called 'sea pigs,' since swine on land ate the fruit of the oak as a favorite food (Strabo Geog. 3.2).

Strabo also writes of the migration of young tuna from their birthplace in the northern reaches of the Black Sea, and their journey to Byzantium, where they must pass through the narrow channel to reach the sea beyond. Their journey is treacherous because of the fishermen who know exactly when and where they will pass. He describes vividly their trip and their capture at Byzantium, explaining how they provide riches for the Byzantines through their great numbers (Geography 7.6.2).

(slide 9) Indeed, an inscription found in the area of the narrow straits that connect the Black Sea to the Aegean, describing fishing there confirms Strabo's observations. Ephraim Lytle has recently explicated an inscription, which was set up 'by fishermen who had leased the rights to a tuna tower, or lookout He shows that 'the hierarchically arranged list of individuals and duties corresponds to a single large-scale seine and salt-fish operation,' containing named individual fishermen and their duties. Furthermore, he notes that a 'second inscription appears to attest the existence of an identically structured operation at a different location, and additional epigraphic evidence suggests the existence of similar operations in various locations stretching from the Sea of Marmora to the Saronic Gulf to the Cyclades.' (slide 10)

Ancient descriptions of these tuna fishing operations give us a vivid image of the process. We possess long and detailed accounts from Aelian and Oppian of various procedures involving watchmen on tall towers or high hills, who spot the tuna and give directions to men who use boats, nets, and other methods to bring the fish to shore. (slide 11) At the end of one of his detailed accounts, Aelian speaks of how fishermen pray as part of their hunt: When the fish are in the net the fishermen pray to the gods of hunting that no other fish leap out of the net and show the tuna how to escape. 'But if none of the sea-roaming gods be angry with the fishermen, then often even when the fishes are haled out of the sea upon the solid shore they will not leave the net but cling to it' (Oppian Hal. 562-587).

The prayers of the fishermen at the precarious moment when the tuna have been caught, but not yet brought out of the net, remind us that the whole operation was fraught with uncertainty. Aelian's account of Black Sea tuna operations explains that the fishermen pray to Poseidon alexikakos ('the averter of disaster') at the crucial moment when they remove the fish from the nets -- out of fear that swordfish or dolphins will break the nets and let the tuna escape (Aelian On Animals 15.6). (slide 12) The second-century CE traveler Pausanias tells of how the people of Corfu came to dedicate at Delphi a giant bronze statue of a bull to Poseidon as the result of a prodigious catch of tuna. They had seen a bull bellowing at the seashore, and discovered that it was actually remarking on a massive school of tuna, which they were unable to catch. The Corcyreans then sent an embassy to Apollo's oracle at Delphi, sacrificed the bull, and caught the fish. The bull statue was erected with one tenth of their profit, commemorating their catch for eternity (10.9.3).

(slide 13) We have some scanty information on tuna sacrifice to Poseidon, and of dried fish (tarichos) which were offered to a local hero (Ath .Deip. 7.303b,298c). Now, mammals were the preferred sacrifice for the Olympian deities, due to their large supply of blood. Tuna, therefore, because of the fact that they have an abundant amount of blood, were likely also acceptable sacrifices to Poseidon.

The Roman satirist Persius (1st century CE) enigmatically refers to a Jewish holiday, perhaps the Sabbath, which includes wine, specially decorated lamps and 'the tail of tuna fish swimming coiling around the red bowl' (Sat. 5.180-84, S. Braund, tr.). After antiquity, Jews ate fish for a Sabbath treat, and so Persius' comment has led several scholars to associate the eating of tuna with the ancient cena pura, or special ancient Jewish meal. The tuna, being traditionally the largest and best-quality fish, would be appropriate as a special food, and likely served as a symbol of "the cena pura, the Friday evening meal, or as the normal meal before a Festival, at which fish was eaten" (Erwin Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 5, 45).

The tuna's movement gave the Greeks the idea of the origin of their name. They derived the word tuna (thunnos) from the verb thuno, that means 'to dart, or move quickly' (Athen. Deipn. 302b), and Oppian uses the etymology to make a pun when he refers to the 'dashing Tunny' (thunnoi thunontes), as being 'most excellent among fishes for spring and speed' (Oppian Hal. 1.179). Furthermore, a passage in the Deipnosophistai derives the name of the bonito, Amiai, from the Greek words that reflect their tendency to travel in schools: hama (together) and ienai (to go): 'these fish 'go with' their kind, for they are gregarious.'

(slide 14) Finally, we note that The ancients remarked on the parasite they called oistros.. This parasite, probably the copepod Brachiella thynni, or Cecrops Latreillii, made a great impression on ancient fish observers. Aristotle gives us the first description of this so-called 'gadfly', saying that it is found round its fins, and 'is like a scorpion, and about the size of a spider. (Hist. Animal. 557a27). Athenaeus compares the oistros to a small maggot (skolekion). Aristotle also tells us that the tuna is worse to eat in the summer, when the oistros plagues it, and better to eat in the fall, when it stops suffering from the gadfly. Several sources describe how this parasite is responsible for a 'gadfly-frenzy' that makes both tuna and swordfish leap out of the water, sometimes into ships (Arist. Hist. An. 602a25, Pliny Nat. Hist. 9.54, Oppian Hal. 2.506-532 ). Oppian's epic poem on fish provides the most picturesque description, which you can see on the quotation list.

(slide 15) Not many painted or sculpted images of tuna survive from the ancient Mediterranean world, with the exception of a few vase paintings, and the coinage of Gades (near the Pillars of Heracles), and Cyzicus (at the entrance to the Black Sea). It is not surprising that these two areas were the most well-known for tuna fishing wealth. The citizens of these states at opposite ends of the Mediterranean paid tribute to their natural resource by putting images of tuna upon their coins. Tuna became their badge. The Punic people of Gades in Spain (modern Cadiz), minted coins with the head of Melqart (the Phoenician Heracles) on the obverse, and images of tuna on the reverse. The Greek state of Cyzicus in the Propontis, however, holds the title of 'Tuna Coinage King.' (slide 16) Over the span of almost three hundred years Cyzicus minted thousands of coins with the tuna image on practically every one. (slide 17) Today, a few fish-producing countries have revived the ancient practice by putting images of tuna on their coins and stamps, as reminders of the continuing importance of this noble fish. (slide 18, 19, 20).

Thank you.