Carian Iasos

This book is written by Italian Archaeological Mission at Iasos.

‘Then come one to Iasus, which lies on an island close to mainland. It has a harbour; and the people gain most of their livelihood from the sea, for the sea here is well supplied with fish, but the soil of the country is rather poor. Indeed, people fabricate stories of this kind in regard to Iasus: When a citharoede was giving a recital, the people all listened for a time, but when the bell that announced the sale of fish rang, they all left him and went away to the fish market, except one man who was hard of hearing. The citharoede, therefore, went up to him and said: ‘Sir, I am grateful to you for the honour you have done me and for your love of music, for all the other except you went away the moment they heard the sound of the bell’. And the man said, ‘What’s that you say? Has the bell aready rung?’ And when the citharoede said "Yes”, the man said, ‘Fare thee well,’ and himself arose and went away.’