Apuleius' Magical Fish (Note I)

I have been reading James Davidson's 1997 Courtesans and Fishcakes over the past week. Davidson offers a possible answer to the odd accusation made by Apuleius's opponents that he sought strange fish for magical purposes (p. 9):

In a later period there is evidence that the influence exercised by fish in the process of seduction was thought to reveal some occult power. Apuleius, author of the Golden Ass, had to defend himself from a charge of casting a love-spell over his rich and aged wife with the magical assistance of fish purchased in the market. There is little evidence for this supernatural connection in the classical period, although because of her triple-sounding name, the red-mullet, or trigle, was associated with the triple-faced patron of witches and guardian of road junctions, Hecate.

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