78 THEFARMERS III
to the extension of trade.1 The saying: 'You are not yet on the
celery and rue' was used to mean: 'You are scarcely at the edge
of a thing', for these plants formed the borders in gardens.2
Further allusions to the products of the vegetable garden are
made, when a stye on the eyelid is compared with a pumpkin,
or when Odysseus is said to have bought in Samos a seed-
cucumber.3 Bees and poultry were included in this kind of
farming.4 People were naturally proud of hens who laid well,
and seem to have believed that it was possible to force them to
lay 'wind-eggs'.5 Geese and pigeons apparently were usually
imported from Boeotia.6 The frequent combination of agri-
culture and gardening is shown in a lively fashion by the pro-
verb 'A pig among roses '7 It had the same meaning as our
'A bull in a china-shop'; the Athenian expression, however, is
not taken as it were from a story, but from the possibilities of
everyday life.
The picture of husbandry and gardening gains in vividness
when seen in its dependence on nature 8 The farmer loved all
the seasons, each of which had its beauty, its pleasures and
its advantages/ but they could also do much harm. 'The
fruits are spoiled by hoar-frost, and I give my sweat to the
winds':10 the picture is harsh; it may be an allusion to some
1 frg 569, Kratmos 98, cf P 577 Some scholars have drawn the conclusion
— as far as I can see, from frg 569 only — that in Athens violets were grown by
forcing during the winter (cf Heichelheim, 387) But the climate of Attica
itself sufficed Th v Heldnch (m A, Mommsen, Gnechtsche Jahreszeiten, Heft
5, 1877, 592) assures us that violets (viola odorata) blossomed from the beginning
of November until April, or, according to the diagram, p 484., from the begin-
ning of December until the middle of May. At any rate, there is nothing special
about these violets The conditions are similar for other plants mentioned in frg
569, eg. the late pumpkins or the early carrots (Heldnch 585^, $9of) Xen-
ophon (Poroiy i, 3) sums up the climatic effects TTCCVTOC evTCtOBcx TrpcoiociTocroc
Hev apxsTca, oyiaiTocra Se Afiyei
a W 480 3 C 327, Kratmos 136, cf also K.63of
4 W 366 —frg 18, Plat. 209, Stratus 58? cf B 500
5 Theop. 9. —frg. 185-6, Plat 19-20 A wind-egg is an 'unfertilized egg
incapable of producing chicken' (C O.D ) Pliny, nh X, 166 describes such
sterile eggs as much less pleasant than normal eggs. It is possible that m the
passages mentioned the dbov OTrrjveniov is supposed to be an egg produced
without impregnation, such as that of Nvr£ in B 695 On the other hand, adesp
5 D = 44 P, 9$ seems definite about the wind-eggs V£OT[T{' OUK evi]
5 A 878, P 1004 7 Krates 4 8 Cf Xen otk 5, 18
9 P H27*F, ii4ofF,ii59fF,cf 1168 T60pai cpiAoci
lft adesp 381