Laudator Temporis Acti

Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), The Greek Islands (London: Faber and Faber, 1980), pp. 58-59:

On the other hand, St Paul (who got into trouble almost wherever he went) had a particularly hard time in Crete, for he told Titus (the first Bishop of Crete) that, to quote a poet, the islanders were 'always liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies'. It is clear that he had gone into a bar in Chanea for an ouzo, with a mass of contentious epistles under his arm, and had naturally received what the New York bartenders would call 'the bum's rush'. Much the same thing happened in Cyprus. As for the phrase 'slow bellies', this needs checking with the original; it surely must be a bad translation. How could the saint so assail the digestive tract of the Cretans? Cretans eat faster and more than most islanders. I suspect the passage means something different — perhaps that they were slow to kindle to the faith. At any rate, it is clear St Paul thought the Cretans had not been sent on earth to charm; which suggests he must have been badly treated.

Paul, Epistle to Titus 1:12 (KJV):

One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

εἶπέν τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἴδιος αὐτῶν προφήτης Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.

The "prophet" was Epimenides (fragment 1 Diels-Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 9th ed., vol. I, pp. 31-32 ). See Robert Renehan (1935-2019), "Classical Greek Quotations in the New Testament," in David Neiman and Margaret Schatkin, edd., The Heritage of the Early Church: Essays in Honor of ... Georges Vasilievich Florovsky (Rome: Pont. Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1973 = Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 195), pp. 17-46 (at 34-37).

Commentators cite Juvenal 4.107:

venter ... tardus.