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

---

The lettuce was in great request as an article of food. Its name is θρῖδαξ, but the Attics call it θριδακίνη. Epicharmus says—

A lettuce (θρῖδαξ) with its stalk peel'd all the way up.

But Strattis calls lettuces θριδακινίδες, and says—

The leek-destroying grubs, which go
Throughout the leafy gardens
On fifty feet, and leave their trace,
Gnawing all herbs and vegetables;
Leading the dances of the long-tailed satyrs
Amid the petals of the verdant herbs,
And of the juicy lettuces (θριδακινίδες),
And of the fragrant parsley.

And Theophrastus says, “Of lettuce (θριδακίνη) the white is the sweeter and the more tender: there are three kinds; there is the lettuce with the broad stalk, and the lettuce with the round stalk, and in the third place there is the Lacedæmonian lettuce-its leaf is like that of a thistle, but it grows up straight and tall, and it never sends up any side shoots from the main stalk. But some plants of the broad kind are so very broad in the stalk that some people even use them for doors to their gardens. But when the stalks are cut, then those which shoot again are the sweetest of any.”