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

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And Aristophanes mentions the fig, in his “Farmers;” speaking as follows:—

I am planting figs of all sorts except the Lacedæmonian,
For this kind is the fig of an enemy and a tyrant:
And it would not have been so small a fruit if it had not been a great hater of the people.

But he called it small because it was not a large plant. But Alexis, in his “Olynthian,” mentioning the Phrygian figs, says—

And the beautiful fig,
The wonderful invention of the Phrygian fig,
The diine object of my mother's care.

And of those figs which are called φιβάλεοι, mention is made by many of the comic writers; and Pherecrates, in his “Crapatalli,” says—

O my good friend, make haste and catch a fever,
And then alarm yourself with no anxiety,
But eat Phibalean figs all the summer;
And then, when you have eaten your fill, sleep the whole of the midday;
And then feel violent pains, get in a fever, and holloa.

And Teleclides, in his Amphictyons, says—

How beautiful those Phibalean figs are!

They also call myrtle-berries Phibalean. As Antiphanes does in his “Cretans”—

. . . . . But first of all
I want some myrtle-berries on the table,
Which I may eat when e'er I counsel take;
And they must be Phibalean, very fine,
Fit for a garland.

Epigenes too mentions Chelidonian figs, that is, figs fit for swallows, in his Bacchea—

Then, in a little while, a well-fill'd basket
Of dry Chelidonian figs is brought in.

And Androtion, or Philippus, or Hegemon, in the Book of the Farm, gives a list of these kinds of figs, saying—"In the [p. 127] plain it is desirable to plant specimens of the Chelidonian fig, of the fig called Erinean, of the Leukerinean, and of the Phibalean; but plant the Oporobasilis, the queen of autumn, everywhere; for each kind has some useful qualities; and, above all, the pollarded trees, and the phormynian, and the double bearers, and the Megarian, and the Lacedæmonian kinds are desirable, if there is plenty of water.