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Title: The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Author: Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Language: English
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THE LEARNED OF ATHENÆUS, VOL. 3 (OF 3) ***
Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold
text by =equal signs=.
THE
DEIPNOSOPHISTS
OR
BANQUET OF THE LEARNED
OF
ATHENÆUS.
LITERALLY TRANSLATED
BY C. D. YONGE, B. A.
WITH AN APPENDIX OF POETICAL FRAGMENTS,
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY VARIOUS AUTHORS,
AND A GENERAL INDEX.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
M DCCC LIV.
CONTENTS OF VOL. III.
BOOK XII.
Love of Pleasure—Luxury of the Persians—Profligacy of the Lydians
Persian Customs—The Sybarites—The Tarentines—The Milesians
—The Abydenes—The Colophonians—Luxury of the Syrians—Of the
Asiatic Kings—Sardanapalus—Philip—The Pisistratidæ—Alcibiades
—Pausanias—Diomnestus—Alexander—Polycrates—Agrigentum
—Lucullus—Aristippus—The Persian—Epicurus—Anaxarchus—
Ptolemy Euergetes—The Lacedæmonians—Cincsias—Anointing—
Venus Callipyge 818‒888
BOOK XIII.
Lacedæmonian Marriages—Hercules—Rapacity of Courtesans—Folly
of Marrying—Love—Beauty—Courtesans—Hetæræ—Courtesans—
Love—Beauty of Women—Praise of Modesty—Faults of Philosophers
—Lending Money 888‒978
BOOK XIV.
Jesters—Concerts—Songs—Rhapsodists—Magodi—Harp-players—
Music—Dancing—Dances—Music—Musical Instruments—Music—
Love Songs—Sweetmeats—Different Courses at Dinner—Dessert—
Cheesecakes—Cakes—Vegetables—Pomegranates—Figs—Grapes—
Peacocks—Partridges—The Helots—Cheese—Cooks—The
Thessalians—Ματτύη 978‒1062
BOOK XV.
The Cottabus—Garlands—Dyes—Perfumes—Libations—Scolia—
Parodies—Torches 1062‒1122
APPENDIX 1123
INDEX.
BOOK XII.
1. YOU appear to me, my good friend Timocrates, to be a man of Cyrene,
according to the Tyndareus of Alexis—
For there if any man invites another
To any banquet, eighteen others come;
Ten chariots, and fifteen pairs of horses,
And for all these you must provide the food,
So that 'twere better to invite nobody
And it would be better for me also to hold my tongue, and not to add
anything more to all that has been said already; but since you ask me
very earnestly for a discussion on those men who have been notorious
for luxury, and on their effeminate practices, you must be gratified.
2. For enjoyment is connected, in the first instance, with appetite;
and in the second place, with pleasure. And Sophocles the poet, being a
man fond of enjoyment, in order to avoid accusing old age, attributed
his impotence in amatory pleasures to his temperance, saying that he
was glad to be released from them as from some hard master. But I
say that the Judgment of Paris is a tale originally invented by the
ancients, as a comparison between pleasure and virtue. Accordingly,
when Venus, that is to say pleasure, was preferred, everything was
thrown into confusion. And that excellent writer Xenophon seems to
me to have invented his fable about Hercules and Virtue on the same
principle. For according to Empedocles—
Mars was no god to them, nor gallant War,
Nor Jupiter the king, nor Saturn old,
Nor Neptune; Venus was their only queen.
Her they propitiate and duly worship
With pious images, with beauteous figures
Skilfully carved; with fragrant incenses,
And holy offerings of unmix'd myrrh,
And sweetly-smelling frankincense; and many
A pure libation of fresh golden honey
They pour'd along the floor.
[Sidenote: LOVE OF PLEASURE.]
And Menander, in his Harp-player, speaking of some one who was very
fond of music, says—
He was to music much devoted, and
Sought ever pleasing sounds to gratify
His delicate taste.
3. And yet some people say that the desire of pleasure is a natural
desire, as may be proved by all animals becoming enslaved by it; as
if cowardice, and fear, and all sorts of other passions were not also
common to all animals, and yet these are rejected by all who use their
reason. Accordingly, to be very eager in the pursuit of pleasure is
to go hunting for pain. On which account Homer, wishing to represent
pleasure in an odious light, says that the greatest of the gods receive
no advantage from their power, but are even much injured by it, if they
will allow themselves to be hurried away by the pursuit of pleasure.
For all the anxiety which Jupiter, when awake, lavished on the Trojans,
was lost in open day, when he abandoned himself to pleasure. And Mars,
who was a most valiant deity, was put in chains by Vulcan, who was very
powerless, and incurred great disgrace and punishment, when he had
given himself up to irrational love; and therefore he says to the Gods,
when they came to see him in fetters—
Behold, on wrong
Swift vengeance waits, and art subdues the strong.
Dwells there a god on all th' Olympian brow
More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow?
Yet Vulcan conquers, and the God of arms
Must pay the penalty for lawless charms.[1]
But no one ever calls the life of Aristides a life of pleasure (ἡδὺς),
but that is an epithet they apply to Smindyrides the Sybarite, and to
Sardanapalus, though as far as glory went, as Theophrastus says in his
book on Pleasure, it was a far more splendid one; but Aristides never
devoted himself to luxury as those other men did. Nor would any one
call the life of Agesilaus the king of the Lacedæmonians ἡδὺς; but this
name they would apply rather to the life of Ananis, a man who, as far
as real glory is concerned, is totally unknown. Nor would one call the
life of the heroes who fought against Troy ἡδὺς; but they would speak
in that way much more of the men of the present time; and naturally
enough. For the lives of those men were destitute of any luxurious
preparation, and, as I might almost say, had no seasoning to them,
inasmuch as at that time there was no commercial intercourse between
nations, nor were the arts of refinement carried to any degree of
accuracy; but the life of men of the present day is planned with entire
reference to laziness, and enjoyment, and to all sorts of pastimes.
4. But Plato, in his Philebus, says—"Pleasure is the most insolent of
all things; and, as it is reported, in amatory enjoyments, which are
said to be the most powerful of all, even perjury has been pardoned by
the Gods, as if pleasure was like a child, incapable of distinguishing
between right and wrong." And in the eighth book of his Polity, the
same Plato has previously dilated upon the doctrine so much pressed
by the Epicureans, that, of the desires, some are natural but not
necessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, writing thus—"Is
not the desire to eat enough for health and strength of body, and
for bread and meat to that extent, a necessary desire?—I think it
is.—At all events, the desire for food for these two purposes is
necessary, inasmuch as it is salutary, and inasmuch as it is able to
remove hunger?—No doubt.—And the desire for meat, too, is a necessary
desire, if it at all contributes to a good habit of body?—Most
undoubtedly.—What, then, are we to say? Is no desire which goes beyond
the appetite for this kind of food, and for other food similar to it,
and which, if it is checked in young people, can be entirely stifled,
and which is injurious also to the body, and injurious also to the
mind, both as far as its intellectual powers are concerned, and also
as to its temperance, entitled to be called a necessary one?—Most
certainly not."
[Sidenote: LOVE OF PLEASURE.]
5. But Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Pleasure, speaks as
follows—"Tyrants and kings, having all kinds of good things in their
power, and having had experience of all things, place pleasure in the
first rank, on the ground that pleasure makes the nature of man more
magnanimous. Accordingly, all those who have honoured pleasure above
everything, and who have deliberately chosen to live a life of luxury,
have been and magnificent people, as, for instance, the Medes and the
Persians. For they, of all men, are those who hold pleasure and luxury
in the highest honour; and they, at the same time, are the most valiant
and magnanimous of all the barbarians. For to indulge in pleasure and
luxury is the conduct of freeborn men and of a liberal disposition. For
pleasure relaxes the soul and invigorates it. But labour belongs to
slaves and to mean men; on which account they are contracted in their
natural dispositions. And the city of the Athenians, while it indulged
in luxury, was a very great city, and bred very magnanimous men. For
they wore purple garments, and were clad in embroidered tunics; and
they bound up their hair in knots, and wore golden grasshoppers over
their foreheads and in their hair: and their slaves followed them,
bearing folding chairs for them, in order that, if they wished to sit
down, they might not be without some proper seat, and forced to put
up with any chance seat. And these men were such heroes, that they
conquered in the battle of Marathon, and they alone worsted the power
of combined Asia. And all those who are the wisest of men, and who have
the greatest reputation for wisdom, think pleasure the greatest good.
Simonides certainly does when he says—
For what kind of human life
Can be worth desiring,
If pleasure be denied to it?
What kingly power even?
Without pleasure e'en the gods
Have nothing to be envied for.
And Pindar, giving advice to Hiero the tyrant of Syracuse, says—
Never obscure fair pleasure in your life;
A life of pleasure is the best for man.
And Homer, too, speaks of pleasure and indulgence in the following
terms—
How sweet the products of a peaceful reign,—
The heaven-taught poet and enchanting strain,
The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast,
A loud rejoicing, and a people blest!
How goodly seems it ever to employ
Man's social days in union and in joy;
The plenteous board high heap'd with cates divine,
And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine.
And again, he calls the gods "living at ease." And "at ease" certainly
means "without labour;" as if he meant to show by this expression, that
the greatest of all evils is labour and trouble in life.
6. On which account Megaclides finds fault with those poets who came
after Homer and Hesiod, and have written about Hercules, relating how
he led armies and took cities,—who passed the greater part of his life
among men in the most excessive pleasure, and married a greater number
of women than any other man; and who had unacknowledged children, by a
greater number of virgins, than any other man. For any one might say to
those who do not admit all this—"Whence, my good friends, is it that
you attribute to him all this excessive love of eating; or whence is it
that the custom has originated among men of leaving nothing in the cup
when we pour a libation to Hercules, if he had no regard for pleasure?
or why are the hot springs which rise out of the ground universally
said to be sacred to Hercules; or why are people in the habit of
calling soft couches the beds of Hercules, if he despised all those who
live luxuriously?" Accordingly, says he, the later poets represent him
as going about in the guise of a robber by himself, having a club, and
a lion's hide, and his bow. And they say that Stesichorus of Himera was
the original inventor of this fable. But Xanthus the lyric poet, who
was more ancient than Stesichorus, as Stesichorus himself tells us,
does not, according to the statement of Megaclides, clothe him in this
dress, but in that which Homer gives him. But Stesichorus perverted a
great many of the accounts given by Xanthus, as he does also in the
case of what is called the Orestea. But Antisthenes, when he said that
pleasure was a good, added—"such as brought no repentance in its
train."
7. But Ulysses, in Homer, appears to have been the original guide to
Epicurus, in the matter of that pleasure which he has always in his
mouth; for Ulysses says to Alcinous—
. . . . . . . Thou whom first in sway,
As first in virtue, these thy realms obey,
How goodly seems it ever to employ
Man's social days in union and in joy!
The plenteous board high heap'd with cates divine,
And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine,
The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast,
Are of all joys most lasting and the best.
[Sidenote: A LOVE OF PLEASURE.]
But Megaclides says that Ulysses is here adapting himself to the
times, for the sake of appearing to be of the same disposition as the
Phæacians; and that with that view he embraces their luxurious habits,
as he had already heard from Alcinous, speaking of his whole nation—
To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight,
The feast or bath by day, and love by night;
for he thought that that would be the only way by which he could
avoid failing in the hopes he cherished. And a similar man is he who
recommends Amphilochus his son—
Remember thou, my son, to always dwell
In every city cherishing a mind
Like to the skin of a rock-haunting fish;
And always with the present company
Agree, but when away you can change your mind.
And Sophocles speaks in a like spirit, in the Iphigenia—
As the wise polypus doth quickly change
His hue according to the rocks he's near,
So change your mind and your apparent feelings.
And Theognis says—
Imitate the wary cunning of the polypus.
And some say that Homer was of this mind, when he often prefers the
voluptuous life to the virtuous one, saying—
And now Olympus' shining gates unfold;
The Gods with Jove assume their thrones of gold;
Immortal Hebe, fresh with bloom divine,
The golden goblet crowns with purple wine;
While the full bowl flows round the Powers employ
Their careful eyes on long-contended Troy.
And the same poet represents Menelaus as saying—
Nor then should aught but death have torn apart
From me so loving and so glad a heart.
And in another place—
We sat secure, while fast around did roll
The dance, and jest, and ever-flowing bowl.
And in the same spirit Ulysses, at the court of Alcinous, represents
luxury and wantonness as the main end of life.
8. But of all nations the Persians were the first to become notorious
for their luxury; and the Persian kings even spent their winters at
Susa and their summers at Ecbatana. And Aristocles and Chares say that
Susa derives its name from the seasonable and beautiful character of
the place: for that what the Greeks call the lily, is called in the
Persian language σοῦσον. But they pass their autumns in Persepolis;
and the rest of the year they spend in Babylon. And in like manner the
kings of the Parthians spend their spring in Rhagæ, and their winter
in Babylon, and the rest of the year at Hecatompylus. And even the
very thing which the Persian monarchs used to wear on their heads,
showed plainly enough their extreme devotion to luxury. For it was
made, according to the account of Dinon, of myrrh and of something
called labyzus. And the labyzus is a sweet-smelling plant, and more
valuable than myrrh. And whenever, says Dinon, the king dismounts from
his chariot, he does not jump down, however small the height from the
chariot to the ground may be, nor is he helped down, leaning on any
one's hand, but a golden chair is always put by him, and he gets on
that to descend; on which account the king's chairbearer always follows
him. And three hundred women are his guard, as Heraclides of Cumæ
relates, in the first book of his history of Persia. And they sleep
all day, that they may watch all night; and they pass the whole night
in singing and playing, with lights burning. And very often the king
takes pleasure with them in the hall of the Melophori. The Melophori
are one of his troops of guards, all Persians by birth, having golden
apples (μῆλα) on the points of their spears, a thousand in number, all
picked men out of the main body of ten thousand Persians who are called
the Immortals. And the king used to go on foot through this hall, very
fine Sardian carpets being spread in his road, on which no one but the
king ever trod. And when he came to the last hall, then he mounted a
chariot, but sometimes he mounted a horse; but on foot he was never
seen outside of his palace. And if he went out to hunt, his concubines
also went with him. And the throne on which he used to sit, when he was
transacting business, was made of gold; and it was surrounded by four
small pillars made of gold, inlaid with precious stones, and on them
there was spread a purple cloth richly embroidered.
[Sidenote: LUXURY OF THE PERSIANS.]
9. But Clearchus the Solensian, in the fourth book of his Lives, having
previously spoken about the luxury of the Medes, and having said that
on this account they made eunuchs of many citizens of the neighbouring
tribes, adds, "that the institution of the Melophori was adopted by
the Persians from the Medes, being not only a revenge for what they
had suffered themselves, but also a memorial of the luxury of the
body-guards, to indicate to what a pitch of effeminacy they had come.
For, as it seems, the unseasonable and superfluous luxury of their
daily life could make even the men who are armed with spears, mere
mountebanks." And a little further on he says—"And accordingly, while
he gave to all those who could invent him any new kind of food, a prize
for their invention, he did not, while loading them with honours, allow
the food which they had invented to be set before them, but enjoyed it
all by himself, and thought this was the greatest wisdom. For this, I
imagine, is what is called the brains of Jupiter and of a king at the
same time."
But Chares of Mitylene, in the fifth book of his History of Alexander,
says—"The Persian kings had come to such a pitch of luxury, that at the
head of the royal couch there was a supper-room laid with five couches,
in which there were always kept five thousand talents of gold; and this
was called the king's pillow. And at his feet was another supper-room,
prepared with three couches, in which there were constantly kept three
thousand talents of silver; and this was called the king's footstool.
And in his bed-chamber there was also a golden vine, inlaid with
precious stones, above the king's bed." And this vine, Amyntas says in
his Posts, had bunches of grapes, composed of most valuable precious
stones; and not far from it there was placed a golden bowl, the work of
Theodorus of Samos. And Agathocles, in the third book of his History
of Cyzicus, says, that there is also among the Persians a water called
the golden water, and that it rises in seventy springs; and that no one
ever drinks of it but the king alone, and the eldest of his sons. And
if any one else drinks of it, the punishment is death.
10. But Xenophon, in the eighth book of his Cyropædia, says—"They
still used at that time to practise the discipline of the Persians,
but the dress and effeminacy of the Medes. But now they disregard the
sight of the ancient Persian bravery becoming extinct, and they are
solicitous only to preserve the effeminacy of the Medes. And I think it
a good opportunity to give an account of their luxurious habits. For,
in the first place, it is not enough for them to have their beds softly
spread, but they put even the feet of their couches upon carpets in
order that the floor may not present resistance to them, but that the
carpets may yield to their pressure. And as for the things which are
dressed for their table, nothing is omitted which has been discovered
before, and they are also continually inventing something new; and the
same is the way with all other delicacies. For they retain men whose
sole business it is to invent things of this kind. And in winter it is
not enough for them to have their head, and their body, and their feet
covered, but on even the tips of their fingers they wear shaggy gloves
and finger-stalls; and in summer they are not satisfied with the shade
of the trees and of the rocks, but they also have men placed in them to
contrive additional means of producing shade." And in the passage which
follows this one, he proceeds to say—"But now they have more clothes
laid upon their horses than they have even on their beds. For they do
not pay so much attention to their horsemanship as to sitting softly.
Moreover, they have porters, and breadmakers, and confectioners, and
cup-bearers, and men to serve up their meals and to take them away, and
men to lull them to sleep and men to wake them, and dressers to anoint
them and to rub them, and to get them up well in every respect."
[Sidenote: PROFLIGACY OF THE LYDIANS.]
11. The Lydians, too, went to such a pitch of luxury, that they
were the first to castrate women, as Xanthus the Lydian tells us,
or whoever else it was who wrote the History which is attributed to
him, whom Artemon of Cassandra, in his treatise on the Collection of
Books, states to have been Dionysius who was surnamed Leather-armed;
but Artemon was not aware that Ephorus the historian mentions him as
being an older man than the other, and as having been the man who
supplied Herodotus with some of his materials. Xanthus, then, in the
second book of his Affairs of Lydia, says that Adramyttes, the king
of the Lydians, was the first man who ever castrated women, and used
female eunuchs instead of male eunuchs. But Clearchus, in the fourth
book of his Lives, says—"The Lydians, out of luxury, made parks; and
having planted them like gardens, made them very shady, thinking it
a refinement in luxury if the sun never touched them with its rays at
all; and at last they carried their insolence to such a height, that
they used to collect other men's wives and maidens into a place that,
from this conduct, got the name of Hagneon, and there ravished them.
And at last, having become utterly effeminate, they lived wholly like
women instead of like men; on which account their age produced even
a female tyrant, in the person of one of those who had been ravished
in this way, by name Omphale. And she was the first to inflict on the
Lydians the punishment that they deserved. For to be governed and
insulted by a woman is a sufficient proof of the severity with which
they were treated. Accordingly she, being a very intemperate woman
herself, and meaning to revenge the insults to which she herself had
been subjected, gave the maiden daughters of the masters to their
slaves, in the very same place in which she herself had been ravished.
And then having forcibly collected them all in this place, she shut up
the mistresses with their slaves.
On which account the Lydians, wishing to soften the bitterness of the
transaction, call the place the Woman's Contest—the Sweet Embrace. And
not only were the wives of the Lydians exposed to all comers, but those
also of the Epizephyrian Locrians, and also those of the Cyprians—and,
in fact, those of all the nations who devote their daughters to the
lives of prostitutes; and it appears to be, in truth, a sort of
reminding of, and revenge for, some ancient insult. So against her a
Lydian man of noble birth rose up, one who had been previously offended
at the government of Midas; while Midas lay in effeminacy, and luxury,
and a purple robe, working in the company of the women at the loom. But
as Omphale slew all the strangers whom she admitted to her embraces, he
chastised both—the one, being a stupid and illiterate man, he dragged
out by his ears; a man who, for want of sense, had the surname of the
most stupid of all animals: but the woman....
12. And the Lydians were also the first people to introduce the use of
the sauce called caruca; concerning the preparation of which all those
who have written cookery books have spoken a good deal—namely, Glaucus
the Locrian, and Mithæcus, and Dionysius, and the two Heraclidæ (who
were by birth Syracusans), and Agis, and Epænetus, and Dionysius, and
also Hegesippus, and Erasistratus, and Euthydemus, and Criton; and
besides these, Stephanus, and Archytas, and Acestius, and Acesias, and
Diocles, and Philistion; for I know that all these men have written
cookery books. And the Lydians, too, used to speak of a dish which
they called candaulus; and there was not one kind of candaulus only,
but three, so wholly devoted were they to luxury. And Hegesippus the
Tarentine says, that the candaulus is made of boiled meat, and grated
bread, and Phrygian cheese, and aniseed, and thick broth: and it is
mentioned by Alexis, in his Woman Working all Night, or The Spinners;
and it is a cook who is represented as speaking:—
_A._ And, besides this, we now will serve you up
A dish whose name's candaulus.
_B._ I've ne'er tasted
Candaulus, nor have I e'er heard of it.
_A._ 'Tis a most grand invention, and 'tis mine;
And if I put a dish of it before you,
Such will be your delight that you'll devour
Your very fingers ere you lose a bit of it.
We here will get some balls of snow-white wool.
* * * * *
You will serve up an egg well shred, and twice
Boil'd till it's hard; a sausage, too, of honey;
Some pickle from the frying-pan, some slices
Of new-made Cynthian cheese; and then
A bunch of grapes, steep'd in a cup of wine:
But this part of the dish is always laugh'd at,
And yet it is the mainstay of the meal.
_B._ Laugh on, my friend; but now be off, I beg,
With all your talk about candauli, and
Your sausages, and dishes, and such luxuries.
Philemon also mentions the candaulus in his Passer-by, where he says—
For I have all these witnesses in the city,
That I'm the only one can dress a sausage,
A candaulus, eggs, a thrium, all in no time:
Was there any error or mistake in this?
And Nicostratus, in his Cook, says—
A man who could not even dress black broth,
But only thria and candauli.
And Menander, in his Trophonius, says—
Here comes a very rich Ionian,
And so I make a good thick soup, and eke
A rich candaulus, amatory food.
[Sidenote: PERSIAN CUSTOMS.]
And the Lydians, when going out to war, array themselves to the tune of
flutes and pipes, as Herodotus says; and the Lacedæmonians also attack
their enemies keeping time to their flutes, as the Cretans keep time to
the lyre.
13. But Heraclides of Cumæ, who wrote the History of Persia, having
said in his book entitled The Preparation, that in the country which
produces frankincense the king is independent, and responsible to no
one, proceeds as follows:—"And he exceeds every one in luxury and
indolence; for he stays for ever in his palace, passing his whole life
in luxury and extravagance; and he does no single thing, nor does he
see many people. But he appoints the judges, and if any one thinks that
they have decided unjustly, there is a window in the highest part of
the palace, and it is fastened with a chain: accordingly, he who thinks
that an unjust decision has been given against him, takes hold of the
chain, and drags the window; and when the king hears it, he summons
the man, and hears the cause himself. And if the judges appear to have
decided unjustly, they are put to death; but if they appear to have
decided justly, then the man who has moved the window is put to death."
And it is said that the sum expended every day on the king, and on his
wives and friends, amounts to fifteen Babylonian talents.
14. And among the Tyrrhenians, who carry their luxury to an
extraordinary pitch, Timæus, in his first book, relates that the female
servants wait on the men in a state of nudity. And Theopompus, in the
forty-third book of his History, states, "that it is a law among the
Tyrrhenians that all their women should be in common: and that the
women pay the greatest attention to their persons, and often practise
gymnastic exercises, naked, among the men, and sometimes with one
another; for that it is not accounted shameful for them to be seen
naked. And that they sup not with their own husbands, but with any one
who happens to be present; and they pledge whoever they please in their
cups: and that they are wonderful women to drink, and very handsome.
And that the Tyrrhenians bring up all the children that are born, no
one knowing to what father each child belongs: and the children, too,
live in the same manner as those who have brought them up, having
feasts very frequently, and being intimate with all the women. Nor is
it reckoned among the Tyrrhenians at all disgraceful either to do or
suffer anything in the open air, or to be seen while it is going on;
for it is quite the custom of their country: and they are so far from
thinking it disgraceful, that they even say, when the master of the
house is indulging his appetites, and any one asks for him, that he is
doing so and so, using the coarsest possible words for his occupation.
But when they are together in parties of companions or relations, they
act in the following manner. First of all, when they have stopped
drinking, and are about to go to sleep, while the lights are still
burning, the servants introduce sometimes courtesans, and sometimes
beautiful boys, and sometimes women; and when they have enjoyed them,
they proceed to acts of still grosser licentiousness: and they indulge
their appetites, and make parties on purpose, sometimes keeping one
another in sight, but more frequently making tents around the beds,
which are made of plaited laths, with cloths thrown over them. And the
objects of their love are usually women; still they are not invariably
as particular as they might be and they are very beautiful, as is
natural for people to be who live delicately, and who take great care
of their persons."
And all the barbarians who live towards the west, smooth their bodies
by rubbing them with pitch, and by shaving them; and among the
Tyrrhenians there are many shops in which this trade is practised,
and many artists whose sole employment it is, just as there are
barbers among us. And when the Tyrrhenians go to these men, they give
themselves wholly up to them, not being ashamed of having spectators,
or of those who may be passing by. And many of the Greeks, and of those
who inhabit Italy, adopt this practice, having learnt it from the
Samnites and Messapians. But the Tyrrhenians (as Alcimus relates) are
so far gone in luxury, that they even make bread, and box, and flog
people to the sound of the flute.
[Sidenote: THE SYBARITES.]
15. The tables of the Sicilians also are very notorious for their
luxury. "And they say that even the sea in their region is sweet,
delighting in the food which is procured from it," as Clearchus says,
in the fifth book of his Lives. And why need we mention the Sybarites,
among whom bathing men and pourers of water were first introduced in
fetters, in order to prevent their going too fast, and to prevent also
their scalding the bathers in their haste? And the Sybarites were the
first people to forbid those who practise noisy arts from dwelling
in their city; such as braziers, and smiths, and carpenters, and men
of similar trades; providing that their slumbers should always be
undisturbed. And it used to be unlawful to rear a cock in their city.
And Timæus relates concerning them, that a citizen of Sybaris once
going into the country, seeing the husbandmen digging, said that he
himself felt as if he had broken his bones by the sight; and some one
who heard him replied, "I, when I heard you say this, felt as if I had
a pain in my side." And once, at Crotona, some Sybarites were standing
by some one of the athletes who was digging up dust for the palæstra,
and said they marvelled that men who had such a city had no slaves to
dig the palæstra for them. But another Sybarite, coming to Lacedæmon,
and being invited to the phiditium, sitting down on a wooden seat and
eating with them, said that originally he had been surprised at hearing
of the valour of the Lacedæmonians; but that now that he had seen it,
he thought that they in no respect surpassed other men: for that the
greatest coward on earth would rather die a thousand times than live
and endure such a life as theirs.
16. And it is a custom among them that even their children, up to the
age when they are ranked among the ephebi, should wear purple robes,
and curls braided with gold. And it is a custom with them also to breed
up in their houses little mannikins and dwarfs (as Timon says), who are
called by some people στίλπωνες; and also little Maltese dogs, which
follow them even to the gymnasia. And it was these men, and men like
them, to whom Masinissa, king of Mauritania, made answer (as Ptolemy
rebates, in the eighth book of his Commentaries), when they were
seeking to buy some monkeys: "Why,—do not your wives, my good friends,
produce any offspring?" For Masinissa was very fond of children, and
kept about him and brought up the children of his sons, and of his
daughters equally, and he had a great many of them: and he brought them
all up till they were three years old, and after that he sent them
to their parents, having the younger ones to take their places. And
Eubulus the comic writer has said the same thing in his Graces:—
For is it not, I pray you, better far
For one man, who can well afford such acts,
To rear a man, than a loud gaping goose,
Or sparrow, or ape—most mischievous of beasts?
And Athenodorus, in his treatise on Serious Studies and Amusements,
says that "Archytas of Tarentum, who was both a statesman and
a philosopher, having many slaves, was always delighted at his
entertainments when any of them came to his banquets. But the Sybarites
delighted only in Maltese puppy dogs, and in men which were no men."
17. The Sybarites used to wear also garments made of Milesian wool,
from which there arose a great friendship between the two cities, as
Timæus relates. For of the inhabitants of Italy, the Milesians gave
the preference to the Tyrrhenians, and of foreigners to the Ionians,
because they were devoted to luxury. But the cavalry of the Sybarites,
being in number more than five thousand, used to go in procession with
saffron-coloured robes over their breastplates; and in the summer their
younger men used to go away to the caves of the Lusiades Nymphs, and
live there in all kinds of luxury. And whenever the rich men of that
country left the city for the country, although they always travelled
in chariots, still they used to consume three days in a day's journey.
And some of the roads which led to their villas in the country were
covered with awnings all over; and a great many of them had cellars
near the sea, into which their wine was brought by canals from the
country, and some of it was then sold out of the district, but some was
brought into the city in boats. They also celebrate in public numbers
of feasts; and they honour those who display great magnificence on
such occasions with golden crowns, and they proclaim their names at
the public sacrifices and games; announcing not only their general
goodwill towards the city, but also the great magnificence which they
had displayed in the feasts. And on these occasions they even crown
those cooks who have served up the most exquisite dishes. And among
the Sybarites there were found baths in which, while they lay down,
they were steamed with warm vapours. And they were the first people who
introduced the custom of bringing chamber-pots into entertainments. But
laughing at those who left their countries to travel in foreign lands,
they themselves used to boast that they had grown old without ever
having crossed the bridges which led over their frontier rivers.
[Sidenote: THE SYBARITES.]
18. But it seems to me, that besides the fact of the riches of the
Sybarites, the very natural character of their country,—since there
are no harbours on their coasts, and since, in consequence, nearly all
the produce of the land is consumed by the citizens themselves,—and
to some extent also an oracle of the God, has excited them all to
luxury, and has caused them to live in practices of most immoderate
dissoluteness. But their city lies in a hollow, and in summer is
liable to excess of cold both morning and evening, but in the middle
of the day the heat is intolerable, so that the greater part of them
believe that the rivers contribute a great deal to the health of the
inhabitants; on which account it has been said, that "a man who, living
at Sybaris, wishes not to die before his time, ought never to see the
sun either rise or set." And once they sent to the oracle to consult
the God (and one of the ambassadors was named Amyris), and to ask how
long their prosperity should last; and the priestess of Delphi answered
them—
You shall be happy, Sybarite,—very happy,
And all your time in entertainments pass,
While you continue to th' immortal gods
The worship due: but when you come, at length,
To honour mortal man beyond the gods,
Then foreign war and intestine sedition
Shall come upon you, and shall crush your city.
When they had heard this they thought the God had said to them that
they should never have their luxury terminated; for that there was no
chance of their ever honouring a man more than God. But in agreement
with the oracle they experienced a change of fortune, when one of them
flogging one of his slaves, continued to beat him after he had sought
an asylum in a temple; but when at last he fled to the tomb of his
father, he let him go, out of shame. But their whole revenues were
dissipated by the way in which they rivalled one another in luxury. And
the city also rivalled all other cities in luxury. And not long after
this circumstance, when many omens of impending destruction, which
it is not necessary to allude to further at present, had given them
notice, they were destroyed.
19. But they had carried their luxury to such a pitch that they had
taught even their horses to dance at their feasts to the music of the
flute. Accordingly the people of Crotona, knowing this, and being at
war with them, as Aristotle relates in his History of the Constitution
of Sybaris, played before their horses the air to which they were
accustomed to dance; for the people of Crotona also had flute-players
in military uniform. And as soon as the horses heard them playing on
the flute, they not only began to dance, but ran over to the army of
the Crotonians, carrying their riders with them.
And Charon of Lampsacus tells a similar story about the Cardians,
in the second book of his Annals, writing as follows:—"The Bisaltæ
invaded the territory of the Cardians, and conquered them. But the
general of the Bisaltæ was Onaris; and he, while he was a boy, had been
sold as a slave in Cardia; and having lived as a slave to one of the
Cardians, he had been taught the trade of a barber. And the Cardians
had an oracle warning them that the Bisaltæ would some day invade
them; and they very often used to talk over this oracle while sitting
in this barber's shop. And Onaris, escaping from Cardia to his own
country, prompted the Bisaltæ to invade the Cardians, and was himself
elected general of the Bisaltæ. But all the Cardians had been in the
habit of teaching their horses to dance at their feasts to the music of
the flute; and they, standing on their hind feet, used to dance with
their fore feet in time to the airs which they had been taught. Onaris
then, knowing these things, got a female flute-player from among the
Cardians. And this female flute-player coming to the Bisaltæ, taught
many of their flute-players; and when they had learnt sufficiently, he
took them in his army against the Cardians. And when the battle took
place, he ordered the flute-players to play the airs which they had
learnt, and which the horses of the Cardians knew. And when the horses
heard the flute, they stood up on their hind feet, and took to dancing.
But the main strength of the Cardians was in their cavalry, and so they
were conquered."
[Sidenote: THE SYBARITES.]
And one of the Sybarites, once wishing to sail over to Crotona, hired a
vessel to carry him by himself, on condition that no one was to splash
him, and that no one else was to be taken on board, and that he might
take his horse with him. And when the captain of the ship had agreed to
these terms, he put his horse on board, and ordered some straw to be
spread under the horse. And afterwards he begged one of those who
had accompanied him down to the vessel to go with him, saying, "I
have already stipulated with the captain of the ship to keep along
the shore." But he replied, "I should have had great difficulty in
complying with your wishes if you had been going to walk along the
sea-shore, much less can I do so when you are going to sail along the
land."
20. But Phylarchus, in the twenty-fifth book of his History, (having
said that there was a law at Syracuse, that the women should not
wear golden ornaments, nor garments embroidered with flowers, nor
robes with purple borders, unless they professed that they were
public prostitutes; and that there was another law, that a man should
not adorn his person, nor wear any extraordinarily handsome robes,
different from the rest of the citizens, unless he meant to confess
that he was an adulterer and a profligate: and also, that a freewoman
was not to walk abroad when the sun had set, unless she was going
to commit adultery; and even by day they were not allowed to go out
without the leave of the regulators of the women, and without one
female servant following them,)—Phylarchus, I say, states, that "the
Sybarites, having given loose to their luxury, made a law that women
might be invited to banquets, and that those who intended to invite
them to sacred festivities must make preparation a year before, in
order that they might have all that time to provide themselves with
garments and other ornaments in a suitable manner worthy of the
occasion, and so might come to the banquet to which they were invited.
And if any confectioner or cook invented any peculiar and excellent
dish, no other artist was allowed to make this for a year; but he alone
who invented it was entitled to all the profit to be derived from
the manufacture of it for that time; in order that others might be
induced to labour at excelling in such pursuits. And in the same way,
it was provided that those who sold eels were not to be liable to pay
tribute, nor those who caught them either. And in the same way the laws
exempted from all burdens those who dyed the marine purple and those
who imported it."
21. They, then, having carried their luxury and insolence to a great
height, at last, when thirty ambassadors came to them from the people
of Crotona, slew them all, and threw their bodies down over the
wall, and left them there to be eaten by beasts. And this was the
beginning of great evils to them, as the Deity was much offended at
it. Accordingly, a few days afterwards all their chief magistrates
appeared to see the same vision on one night; for they thought that
they saw Juno coming into the midst of the market-place, and vomiting
gall; and a spring of blood arose in her temple. But even then they
did not desist from their arrogance, until they were all destroyed by
the Crotonians. But Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Justice,
says,—"The Sybarites having put down the tyranny of Telys, and having
destroyed all those who had exercised authority, met them and slew
them at the altars of the gods. And at the sight of this slaughter the
statue of Juno turned itself away, and the floor sent up a fountain
of blood, so that they were forced to cover all the place around with
brazen tablets, wishing to stop the rising of the blood: on which
account they were all driven from their city and destroyed. And they
had also been desirous to obscure the glory of the famous games at
Olympia; for watching the time when they are celebrated, they attempted
to draw over the athletes to their side by the extravagance of the
prizes which they offered."
[Sidenote: THE TARENTINES.]
22. And the men of Crotona, as Timæus says, after they had destroyed
the people of Sybaris, began to indulge in luxury; so that their chief
magistrate went about the city clad in a purple robe, and wearing a
golden crown on his head, and wearing also white sandals. But some
say that this was not done out of luxury, but owing to Democedes the
physician, who was by birth a native of Crotona; and who having lived
with Polycrates the tyrant of Samos, and having been taken prisoner
by the Persians after his death, was taken to the king of Persia,
after Orœtes had put Polycrates to death. And Democedes, having cured
Atossa, the wife of Darius, and daughter of Cyrus, who had a complaint
in her breast, asked of her this reward, to be sent back to Greece, on
condition of returning again to Persia; and having obtained his request
he came to Crotona. And as he wished to remain there, when some Persian
laid hold of him and said that he was a slave of the king of Persia,
the Crotonians took him away, and having stripped the Persian of his
robe, dressed the lictor of their chief magistrate in it. And
from that time forward, the lictor, having on the Persian robe, went
round with the chief magistrate to all the altars every seventh day;
not for the sake of luxury or insolence, but doing it for the purpose
of insulting the Persians. But after this the men of Crotona, as Timæus
says, attempted to put an end to the Assembly at Olympia, by appointing
a meeting for games, with enormously rich prizes, to be held at exactly
the same time as the Olympian games; but some say that the Sybarites
did this.
23. But Clearchus, in the fourth book of his Lives, says that the
people of Tarentum, being a very valiant and powerful people, carried
their luxury to such a height, that they used to make their whole body
smooth, and that they were the first people who set other nations an
example of this smoothness. They also, says he, all wore very beautiful
fringes on their garments; such as those with which now the life of
woman is refined. And afterwards, being led on by their luxury to
insolence, they overthrew a city of the Iapyges, called Carbina, and
collected all the boys and maidens, and women in the flower of their
age, out of it into the temples of the Carbinians; and building tents
there, they exposed them naked by day for all who chose to come and
look at them, so that whoever pleased, leaping, as it were, on this
unfortunate band, might satiate his appetites with the beauty of those
who were there assembled, in the sight of every one, and above all of
the Gods, whom they were thinking of but little. And this aroused the
indignation of the Deity, so that he struck all the Tarentines who
behaved so impiously in Carbina with his thunderbolts. And even to
this day at Tarentum every one of the houses has the same number of
pillars before its doors as that of the people whom it received back of
those who were sent to Iapygia. And, when the day comes which is the
anniversary of their death, they do not bewail those who perished at
those pillars, nor do they offer the libations which are customary in
other cases, but they offer sacrifices to Jupiter the Thunderer.
24. Now the race of the Iapygians came originally from Crete, being
descended from those Cretans who came to seek for Glaucus, and settled
in that part of Italy; but afterwards, they, forgetting the orderly
life of the Cretans, came to such a pitch of luxury, and from thence
to such a degree of insolence, that they were the first people who
painted their faces, and who wore headbands and false hair, and
who clothed themselves in robes embroidered with flowers, and who
considered it disgraceful to cultivate the land, or to do any kind
of labour. And most of them made their houses more beautiful than
the temples of the gods; and so they say, that the leaders of the
Iapygians, treating the Deity with insult, destroyed the images of
the gods out of the temples, ordering them to give place to their
superiors. On which account, being struck with fire and thunderbolts,
they gave rise to this report; for indeed the thunderbolts with which
they were stricken down were visible a long time afterwards. And to
this very day all their descendants live with shaven heads and in
mourning apparel, in want of all the luxuries which previously belonged
to them.
25. But the Spaniards, although they go about in robes like those of
the tragedians, and richly embroidered, and in tunics which reach down
to the feet, are not at all hindered by their dress from displaying
their vigour in war; but the people of Massilia became very effeminate,
wearing the same highly ornamented kind of dress which the Spaniards
used to wear; but they behave in a shameless manner, on account of
the effeminacy of their souls, behaving like women, out of luxury:
from which the proverb has gone about,—May you sail to Massilia. And
the inhabitants of Siris, which place was first inhabited by people
who touched there on their return from Troy, and after them by the
Colophonians, as Timæus and Aristotle tell us, indulged in luxury no
less than the Sybarites; for it was a peculiar national custom of
theirs to wear embroidered tunics, which they girded up with expensive
girdles (μίτραι); and on this account they were called by the
inhabitants of the adjacent countries ηιτροχίτωνες, since
Homer calls those who have no girdles ἀμιτροχίτωνες. And
Archilochus the poet marvelled beyond anything at the country of the
Siritans, and at their prosperity. Accordingly, speaking of Thasos as
inferior to Siris, he says—
For there is not on earth a place so sweet,
Or lovely, or desirable as that
Which stands upon the stream of gentle Siris.
[Sidenote: THE MILESIANS.]
But the place was called Siris, as Timæus asserts, and as Euripides
says too in his play called The Female Prisoner, or Melanippe, from
a woman named Siris, but according to Archilochus, from a river of
the same name. And the number of the population was very great in
proportion to the size of the place and extent of the country, owing
to the luxurious and delicious character of the climate all around. On
which account nearly all that part of Italy which was colonised by the
Greeks was called Magna Græcia.
26. "But the Milesians, as long as they abstained from luxury,
conquered the Scythians," as Ephorus says, "and founded all the cities
on the Hellespont, and settled all the country about the Euxine Sea
with beautiful cities. And they all betook themselves to Miletus.
But when they were enervated by pleasure and luxury, all the valiant
character of the city disappeared, as Aristotle tells us; and indeed a
proverb arose from them,—
Once on a time Milesians were brave."
Heraclides of Pontus, in the second book of his treatise on Justice,
says,—"The city of the Milesians fell into misfortunes, on account of
the luxurious lives of the citizens, and on account of the political
factions; for the citizens, not loving equity, destroyed their enemies
root and branch. For all the rich men and the populace formed opposite
factions (and they call the populace Gergithæ). At first the people got
the better, and drove out the rich men, and, collecting the children of
those who fled into some threshing-floors, collected a lot of oxen, and
so trampled them to death, destroying them in a most impious manner.
Therefore, when in their turn the rich men got the upper hand, they
smeared over all those whom they got into their power with pitch, and
so burnt them alive. And when they were being burnt, they say that many
other prodigies were seen, and also that a sacred olive took fire of
its own accord; on which account the God drove them for a long time
from his oracle; and when they asked the oracle on what account they
were driven away, he said—
My heart is grieved for the defenceless Gergithæ,
So helplessly destroy'd; and for the fate
Of the poor pitch-clad bands, and for the tree
Which never more shall flourish or bear fruit.
And Clearchus, in his fourth book, says that the Milesians, imitating
the luxury of the Colophonians, disseminated it among their
neighbours. And then he says that they, when reproved for it, said one
to another, "Keep at home your native Milesian wares, and publish them
not."
27. And concerning the Scythians, Clearchus, in what follows these last
words, proceeds to say—"The nation of the Scythians was the first to
use common laws; but after that, they became in their turn the most
miserable of all nations, on account of their insolence: for they
indulged in luxury to a degree in which no other nation did, being
prosperous in everything, and having great resources of all sorts for
such indulgences. And this is plain from the traces which exist of it
to this day in the apparel worn, and way of life practised, by their
chief men. For they, being very luxurious, and indeed being the first
men who abandoned themselves wholly to luxury, proceeded to such a
pitch of insolence that they used to cut off the noses of all the
men wherever they came; and their descendants, after they emigrated
to other countries, even now derive their name from this treatment.
But their wives used to tattoo the wives of the Thracians, (of those
Thracians, that is, who lived on the northern and western frontiers
of Scythia,) all over their bodies, drawing figures on them with the
tongues of their buckles; on which account, many years afterwards, the
wives of the Thracians who had been treated in this manner effaced
this disgrace in a peculiar manner of their own, tattooing also all
the rest of their skin all over, in order that by this means the brand
of disgrace and insult which was imprinted on their bodies, being
multiplied in so various a manner, might efface the reproach by being
called an ornament. And they lorded it over all other nations in so
tyrannical a manner, that the offices of slavery, which are painful
enough to all men, made it plain to all succeeding ages what was the
real character of "a Scythian command."
Therefore, on account of the number of disasters which oppressed them,
since every people had lost, through grief, all the comforts of life,
and all their hair at the same time, foreign nations called all cutting
of the hair which is done by way of insult, aposkythizomai.
28. And Callias, or Diocles, (whichever was the author of the
Cyclopes), ridiculing the whole nation of the Ionians in that play,
says—
[Sidenote: THE ABYDENES.]
What has become of that luxurious
Ionia, with the sumptuous supper-tables?
Tell me, how does it fare?
And the people of Abydus (and Abydus is a colony of Miletus) are very
luxurious in their way of life, and wholly enervated by pleasure; as
Hermippus tells us, in his Soldiers—
_A._ I do rejoice when I behold an army
From o'er the sea,—to see how soft they are
And delicate to view, with flowing hair,
And well-smooth'd muscles in their tender arms.
_B._ Have you heard Abydus has become a man?
And Aristophanes, in his Triphales, ridiculing (after the fashion of
the comedians) many of the Ionians, says—
Then all the other eminent foreigners
Who were at hand, kept following steadily,
And much they press'd him, begging he would take
The boy with him to Chios, and there sell him:
Another hoped he'd take him to Clazomenæ;
A third was all for Ephesus; a fourth
Preferred Abydus on the Hellespont:
And all these places in his way did lie.
But concerning the people of Abydus, Antipho, in reply to the attacks
of Alcibiades, speaks as follows:—"After you had been considered
by your guardians old enough to be your own master, you, receiving
your property from their hands, went away by sea to Abydus,—not for
the purpose of transacting any private business of your own, nor on
account of any commission of the state respecting any public rights
of hospitality; but, led only by your own lawless and intemperate
disposition, to learn lascivious habits and actions from the women at
Abydus, in order that you might be able to put them in practice during
the remainder of your life."
29. The Magnesians also, who lived on the banks of the Mæander, were
undone because they indulged in too much luxury, as Callinus relates in
his Elegies; and Archilochus confirms this: for the city of Magnesia
was taken by the Ephesians. And concerning these same Ephesians,
Democritus, who was himself an Ephesian, speaks in the first book of
his treatise on the Temple of Diana at Ephesus; where, relating their
excessive effeminacy, and the dyed garments which they used to wear, he
uses these expressions:—"And as for the violet and purple robes of the
Ionians, and their saffron garments, embroidered with round figures,
those are known to every one; and the caps which they wear on their
heads are in like manner embroidered with figures of animals. They wear
also garments called sarapes, of yellow, or scarlet, or white, and
some even of purple: and they wear also long robes called calasires,
of Corinthian workmanship; and some of these are purple, and some
violet-coloured, and some hyacinth-coloured; and one may also see some
which are of a fiery red, and others which are of a sea-green colour.
There are also Persian calasires, which are the most beautiful of
all. And one may see also," continues Democritus, "the garments which
they call actææ; and the actæa is the most costly of all the Persian
articles of dress: and this actæa is woven for the sake of fineness and
of strength, and it is ornamented all over with golden millet-grains;
and all the millet-grains have knots of purple thread passing through
the middle, to fasten them inside the garment." And he says that the
Ephesians use all these things, being wholly devoted to luxury.
30. But Duris, speaking concerning the luxury of the Samians, quotes
the poems of Asius, to prove that they used to wear armlets on their
arms; and that, when celebrating the festival of the Heræa, they used
to go about with their hair carefully combed down over the back of
their head and over their shoulders; and he says that this is proved
to have been their regular practice by this proverb—"To go, like a
worshipper of Juno, with his hair braided."
Now the verses of Asius run as follows:—
And they march'd, with carefully comb'd hair
To the most holy spot of Juno's temple,
Clad in magnificent robes, whose snow-white folds
Reach'd to the ground of the extensive earth,
And golden knobs on them like grasshoppers,
And golden chaplets loosely held their hair,
Gracefully waving in the genial breeze;
And on their arms were armlets, highly wrought,
* * * * * * * * * * and sung
The praises of the mighty warrior.
But Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Pleasure, says that the
Samians, being most extravagantly luxurious, destroyed the city, out
of their meanness to one another, as effectually as the Sybarites
destroyed theirs.
[Sidenote: THE COLOPHONIANS.]
31. But the Colophonians (as Phylarchus says), who originally adopted
a very rigid course of life, when, in consequence of the alliance and
friendship which they formed with the Lydians, they began to give way
to luxury, used to go into public with their hair adorned with golden
ornaments, as Xenophanes tells us—
They learnt all sorts of useless foolishness
From the effeminate Lydians, while they
Were held in bondage to sharp tyranny.
They went into the forum richly clad
In purple garments, in numerous companies,
Whose strength was not less than a thousand men,
Boasting of hair luxuriously dress'd,
Dripping with costly and sweet-smelling oils.
And to such a degree did they carry their dissoluteness and their
unseemly drunkenness, that some of them never once saw the sun either
rise or set: and they passed a law, which continued even to our
time, that the female flute-players and female harpers, and all such
musicians and singers, should receive pay from daybreak to midday, and
until the lamps were lighted; but after that they set aside the rest
of the night to get drunk in. And Theopompus, in the fifteenth book of
his History, says, "that a thousand men of that city used to walk about
the city, wearing purple garments, which was at that time a colour rare
even among kings, and greatly sought after; for purple was constantly
sold for its weight in silver. And so, owing to these practices, they
fell under the power of tyrants, and became torn by factions, and so
were undone with their country." And Diogenes the Babylonian gave the
same account of them, in the first book of his Laws. And Antiphanes,
speaking generally of the luxury of all the Ionians, has the following
lines in his Dodona:—
Say, from what country do you come, what land
Call you your home? Is this a delicate
Luxurious band of long and soft-robed men
From cities of Ionia that here approaches?
And Theophrastus, in his essay on Pleasure, says that the Ionians, on
account of the extraordinary height to which they carried their luxury,
gave rise to what is now known as the golden proverb.
32. And Theopompus, in the eighth book of his History of the Affairs
of Philip, says that some of those tribes which live on the sea-coast
are exceedingly luxurious in their manner of living. But about the
Byzantians and Chalcedonians, the same Theopompus makes the following
statement:—"But the Byzantians, because they had been governed a
long time by a democracy, and because their city was so situated as
to be a kind of mart, and because the whole people spent the whole
of their time in the market-place and about the harbour, were very
intemperate, and in the constant habit of feasting and drinking at the
wine-sellers'. But the Chalcedonians, before they became members of the
same city with them, were men who at all times cultivated better habits
and principles of life; but after they had tasted of the democracy of
the Byzantians, they fell into ruinous luxury, and, from having been
most temperate and moderate in their daily life, they became a nation
of hard drinkers, and very extravagant." And, in the twenty-first book
of the History of the Affairs of Philip, he says that the nation of
the Umbrians (and that is a tribe which lives on the shores of the
Hadriatic) was exceedingly devoted to luxury, and lived in a manner
very like the Lydians, and had a fertile country, owing to which they
advanced in prosperity.
33. But speaking about the Thessalians, in his fourth book, he says
that "they spend all their time among dancing women and flute-playing
women, and some spend all the day in dice and drinking, and similar
pastimes; and they are more anxious how they may display their tables
loaded with all kinds of food, than how they may exhibit a regular and
orderly life. But the Pharsalians," says he, "are of all men the most
indolent and the most extravagant." And the Thessalians are confessed
(as Critias says) to be the most extravagant of all the Greeks, both in
their way of living and in their apparel; which was a reason why they
conducted the Persians into Greece, desiring to copy their luxury and
expense.
But concerning the Ætolians, Polybius tells us, in the thirteenth
book of his History, that on account of their continual wars, and
the extravagance of their lives, they became involved in debt. And
Agatharchides, in the twelfth book of his Histories, says—"The
Ætolians are so much the more ready to encounter death, in proportion
as they seek to live extravagantly and with greater prodigality than
any other nation."
[Sidenote: LUXURY OF THE SYRIANS.]
34. But the Sicilians, and especially the Syracusans, are very
notorious for their luxury; as Aristophanes also tells us, in his
Daitaleis, where he says—
But after that I sent you, you did not
Learn this at all; but only learnt to drink,
And sing loose songs at Syracusan feasts,
And how to share in Sybaritic banquets,
And to drink Chian wine in Spartan cups.
But Plato, in his Epistles, says—"It was with this intention that I
went to Italy and Sicily, when I paid my first visit there. But when I
got there, the way of life that I found there was not at all pleasing
to me; for twice in the day they eat to satiety, and they never sleep
alone at night; and they indulge also in all other such practices as
naturally follow on such habits: for, after such habits as these, no
man in all the world, who has been bred up in them from his youth, can
possibly turn out sensible; and as for being temperate and virtuous,
that none of them ever think of." And in the third book of his Polity
he writes as follows:—"It seems to me, my friend, that you do not
approve of the Syracusan tables, and the Sicilian variety of dishes;
and you do not approve either of men, who wish to preserve a vigorous
constitution, devoting themselves to Corinthian mistresses; nor do
you much admire the delicacy which is usually attributed to Athenian
sweetmeats."
35. But Posidonius, in the sixteenth book of his Histories, speaking
of the cities in Syria, and saying how luxurious they were, writes
as follows:—"The inhabitants of the towns, on account of the great
fertility of the land, used to derive great revenues from their
estates, and after their labours for necessary things used to celebrate
frequent entertainments, at which they feasted incessantly, using their
gymnasia for baths, and anointing themselves with very costly oils and
perfumes; and they passed all their time in their γραμματεῖα, for that
was the name which they gave to their public banqueting-rooms, as if
they had been their own private houses; and the greater part of the day
they remained in them, filling their bellies with meat and drink, so
as even to carry away a good deal to eat at home; and they delighted
their ears with the music of a noisy lyre, so that whole cities
resounded with such noises." But Agatharchides, in the thirty-fifth
book of his Affairs of Europe, says—"The Arycandians of Lycia, being
neighbours of the Limyres, having got involved in debt, on account
of the intemperance and extravagance of their way of living, and, by
reason of their indolence and devotion to pleasure, being unable to
discharge their debts, placed all their hopes on Mithridates, thinking
that he would reward them with a general abolition of debts." And, in
his thirty-first book, he says that the Zacynthians were inexperienced
in war, because they were accustomed to live in ease and opulence.
36. And Polybius, in his seventh book, says, that the inhabitants
of Capua in Campania, having become exceedingly rich through the
excellence of their soil, fell into habits of luxury and extravagance,
exceeding all that is reported of the inhabitants of Crotona or
Sybaris. "Accordingly," says he, "they, not being able to bear their
present prosperity, called in Hannibal, owing to which act they
afterwards suffered intolerable calamities at the hands of the Romans.
But the people of Petelia, who kept the promises which they had made to
the Romans, behaved with such resolution and fortitude when besieged by
Hannibal, that they did not surrender till they had eaten all the hides
which there were in the city, and the bark and young branches of all
the trees which grew in the city, and till they had endured a siege for
eleven months, without any one coming to their assistance; and they did
not even then surrender without the permission of the Romans."
37. And Phylarchus, in the eleventh book of his History, says that
Æschylus says that the Curetes derived their name from their luxurious
habits—
And their luxurious curls, like a fond girl's,
On which account they call'd him Κουρῆτες.[2]
And Agathon in his Thyestes says, that "the suitors who courted the
daughter of Pronax came sumptuously dressed in all other points, and
also with very long, carefully dressed hair. And when they failed in
obtaining her hand—
At least (say they) we cut and dress'd our hair,
To be an evidence of our luxury,
A lovely action of a cheerful mind;
And thence we gain'd the glory of a name,—
To be κουρῆτες, from our well-cut (κοίριμος) hair."
[Sidenote: LUXURY OF THE ASIATIC KINGS.]
And the people of Cumæ in Italy, as Hyperochus tells us, or whoever
else it was who wrote the History of Cumæ which is attributed to him,
wore golden brocaded garments all day, and robes embroidered with
flowers; and used to go to the fields with their wives, riding in
chariots.—And this is what I have to say about the luxury of nations
and cities.
38. But of individual instances I have heard the following
stories:—Ctesias, in the third book of his History of Persia, says,
that all those who were ever kings in Asia devoted themselves mainly
to luxury; and above all of them, Ninyas did so, the son of Ninus and
Semiramis. He, therefore, remaining in-doors and living luxuriously,
was never seen by any one, except by his eunuchs and by his own women.
And another king of this sort was Sardanapalus, whom some call the
son of Anacyndaraxes, and others the son of Anabaxarus. And so, when
Arbaces, who was one of the generals under him, a Mede by birth,
endeavoured to manage, by the assistance of one of the eunuchs, whose
name was Sparamizus, to see Sardanapalus; and when he with difficulty
prevailed upon him, with the consent of the king himself,—when the
Mede entered and saw him, painted with vermilion and adorned like a
woman, sitting among his concubines carding purple wool, and sitting
among them with his feet up, wearing a woman's robe, and with his beard
carefully scraped, and his face smoothed with pumice-stone (for he
was whiter than milk, and pencilled under his eyes and eyebrows; and
when he saw Arbaces, he was just putting a little more white under his
eyes), most historians, among whom Duris is one, relate that Arbaces,
being indignant at his countrymen being ruled over by such a monarch
as that, stabbed him and slew him. But Ctesias says that he went to
war with him, and collected a great army, and then that Sardanapalus,
being dethroned by Arbaces, died, burning himself alive in his palace,
having heaped up a funeral pile four plethra in extent, on which he
placed a hundred and fifty golden couches, and a corresponding number
of tables, these, too, being all made of gold. And he also erected on
the funeral pile a chamber a hundred feet long, made of wood; and in
it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down with his wife,
and his concubines lay on other couches around. For he had sent on his
three sons and his daughters, when he saw that his affairs were getting
in a dangerous state, to Nineveh, to the king of that city, giving them
three thousand talents of gold. And he made the roof of this apartment
of large stout beams, and then all the walls of it he made of numerous
thick planks, so that it was impossible to escape out of it. And in
it he placed ten millions of talents of gold, and a hundred millions
of talents of silver, and robes, and purple garments, and every kind
of apparel imaginable. And after that he bade the slaves set fire to
the pile; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke
wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice; but
the eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way
Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with
as much magnanimity as possible.
39. But Clearchus, relating the history of the king of Persia, says
that—"in a very prudent manner he proposed prizes for any one who
could invent any delicious food. For this is what, I imagine, is meant
by the brains of Jupiter and the king. On which account," continues he,
"Sardanapalus was the most happy of all monarchs, who during his whole
life preferred enjoyment to everything else, and who, even after his
death, shows by his fingers, in the figure carved on his tomb, how much
ridicule all human affairs deserve, being not worth the snap of his
fingers which he makes . . . . . . . . anxiety about other things."
However, Sardanapalus does not appear to have lived all his life in
entire inaction; for the inscription on his tomb says—
Sardanapalus
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,
In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus;
But now he's dead.
And Amyntas, in the third book of his Account of the Posts, says
that at Nineveh there is a very high mound, which Cyrus levelled
with the ground when he besieged the city, and raised another mound
against the city; and that this mound was said to have been erected by
Sardanapalus the son of King Ninus; and that on it there was said to be
inscribed, on a marble pillar and in Chaldaic characters, the following
inscription, which Chærilus translated into Greek, and reduced to
metre. And the inscription is as follows—
[Sidenote: SARDANAPALUS.]
I was the king, and while I lived on earth,
And saw the bright rays of the genial sun,
I ate and drank and loved; and knew full well
The time that men do live on earth was brief,
And liable to many sudden changes,
Reverses, and calamities. Now others
Will have th' enjoyment of my luxuries,
Which I do leave behind me. For these reasons
I never ceased one single day from pleasure.
But Clitarchus, in the fourth book of his History of Alexander, says
that Sardanapalus died of old age after he had lost the sovereignty
over the Syrians. And Aristobulus says—"In Anchiale, which was built
by Sardanapalus, did Alexander, when he was on his expedition against
the Persians, pitch his camp. And at no great distance was the monument
of Sardanapalus, on which there was a marble figure putting together
the fingers of its right hand, as if it were giving a fillip. And there
was on it the following inscription in Assyrian characters—
Sardanapalus
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,
In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus.
Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth e'en this,—
by "this" meaning the fillip he was giving with his fingers.
40. But Sardanapalus was not the only king who was very luxurious, but
so was also Androcotus the Phrygian. For he also used to wear a robe
embroidered with flowers; and to adorn himself more superbly than a
woman, as Mnaseas relates, in the third book of his History of Europe.
But Clearchus, in the fifth book of his Lives, says that Sagaus the
king of the Mariandyni used, out of luxury, to eat, till he arrived at
old age, out of his nurse's mouth, that he might not have the trouble
of chewing his own food; and that he never put his hand lower than
his navel; on which account Aristotle, laughing at Xenocrates the
Chalcedonian, for a similar preposterous piece of laziness, says—
His hands are clean, but sure his mind is not.
And Ctesias relates that Annarus, a lieutenant of the king of Persia,
and governor of Babylon, wore the entire dress and ornaments of a
woman; and though he was only a slave of the king, there used to come
into the room while he was at supper a hundred and fifty women playing
the lyre and singing. And they played and sang all the time that he was
eating. And Phœnix of Colophon, the poet, speaking of Ninus, in the
first book of his Iambics, says—
There was a man named Ninus, as I hear,
King of Assyria, who had a sea
Of liquid gold, and many other treasures,
More than the whole sand of the Caspian sea.
He never saw a star in all his life,
But sat still always, nor did wish to see one;
He never, in his place among the Magi,
Roused the sacred fire, as the law bids,
Touching the God with consecrated wand;
He was no orator, no prudent judge,
He never learn'd to speak, or count a sum,
But was a wondrous man to eat and drink
And love, and disregarded all besides:
And when he died he left this rule to men,
Where Nineveh and his monument now stands:—
"Behold and hear, whether from wide Assyria
You come, or else from Media, or if
You're a Choraxian, or a long-hair'd native
Of the lake country in Upper India,
For these my warnings are not vain or false:
I once was Ninus, a live breathing man,
Now I am nothing, only dust and clay,
And all I ate, and all I sang and jested,
And all I loved........
But now my enemies have come upon me,
They have my treasures and my happiness,
Tearing me as the Bacchæ tear a kid;
And I am gone, not taking with me gold,
Or horses, or a single silver chariot;
Once I did wear a crown, now I am dust.
[Sidenote: PHILIP.]
41. But Theopompus, in the fifteenth book of his History of Philip,
says that "Straton the king of Sidon surpassed all men in luxury and
devotion to pleasure. For as Homer has represented the Phæacians
as living feasting and drinking, and listening to harp-players and
rhapsodists, so also did Straton pass the whole of his life; and so
much the more devoted to pleasure was he than they, that the Phæacians,
as Homer reports, used to hold their banquets in the company of their
own wives and daughters; but Straton used to prepare his entertainments
with flute-playing and harp-playing and lyre-playing women. And he sent
for many courtesans from Peloponnesus, and for many musicians from
Ionia, and for other girls from every part of Greece; some skilful in
singing and some in dancing, for exhibitions of skill in which they had
contests before himself and his friends; and with these women he spent
a great deal of his time. He then, delighting in such a life as this,
and being by nature a slave to his passions, was also especially urged
on by rivalry with Nicocles. For he and Nicocles were always rivalling
one another; each of them devoted all his attention to living more
luxuriously and pleasantly than the other. And so they carried their
emulation to such a height, as we have heard, that when either of them
heard from his visitors what was the furniture of the other's house,
and how great was the expense gone to by the other for any sacrifice,
he immediately set to work to surpass him in such things. And they were
anxious to appear to all men prosperous and deserving of envy. Not but
what neither of them continued prosperous throughout the whole of their
lives, but were both of them destroyed by violent deaths."
And Anaximenes, in his book entitled the Reverses of Kings, giving
the same account of Straton, says that he was always endeavouring to
rival Nicocles, who was the king of Salamis in Cyprus, and who was
exceedingly devoted to luxury and debauchery, and that they both came
to a violent end.
42. And in the first book of his History of the Affairs of Philip,
Theopompus, speaking of Philip, says—"And on the third day he comes
to Onocarsis, which was a strong place in Thrace, having a large
grove kept in beautiful order, and full of every resource for living
pleasantly, especially during the summer. For it was one of the
places which had been especially selected by Cotys, who, of all the
kings that ever lived in Thrace, was the most eager in his pursuit of
pleasure and luxury. And going round all the country, wherever he saw
any place shaded with trees and well watered with springs, he made it
into a banqueting place. And going to them whenever he chose, he used
to celebrate sacrifices to the Gods, and there he would stay with his
lieutenants, being a very happy and enviable man, until he took it
into his head to blaspheme Minerva, and to treat her with contempt."
And the historian goes on to say, that Cotys once prepared a feast, as
if Minerva had married him; and prepared a bed-chamber for her, and
then, in a state of intoxication, he waited for the goddess. And being
already totally out of his mind, he sent one of his body-guards to see
whether the goddess had arrived at the bed-chamber. And when he came
there, and went back and reported that there was nobody there, he shot
him and killed him. And he treated a second in the same way, until a
third went, and on his return told him that the goddess had been a long
time waiting for him. And this king, being once jealous of his wife,
cut her up with his own hands, beginning at her legs.
43. But in the thirteenth book of his History of the Affairs of Philip,
speaking of Chabrias the Athenian, he says—"But he was unable to live
in the city, partly on account of his intemperance, and partly because
of the extravagant habits of his daily life, and partly because of the
Athenians. For they are always unfavourable to eminent men; on which
account their most illustrious citizens preferred to live out of the
city. For instance, Iphicrates lived in Thrace, and Conon in Cyprus,
and Timotheus in Lesbos, and Chares at Sigeum, and Chabrias himself in
Egypt." And about Chares he says, in his forty-fifth book—"But Chares
was a slow and stupid man, and one wholly devoted to pleasure. And
even when he was engaged in his military expeditions, he used to take
about with him female flute-players, and female harp-players, and a lot
of common courtesans. And of the money which was contributed for the
purposes of the war, some he expended on this sort of profligacy, and
some he left behind at Athens, to be distributed among the orators and
those who propose decrees, and on those private individuals who had
actions depending. And for all this the Athenian populace was so far
from being indignant, that for this very reason he became more popular
than any other citizen; and naturally too: for they all lived in this
manner, that their young men spent all their time among flute-players
and courtesans; and those who were a little older than they, devoted
themselves to gambling, and profligacy of that sort; and the whole
people spent more money on its public banquets and entertainments than
on the provision necessary for the well-doing of the state.
[Sidenote: THE PISISTRATIDÆ.]
But in the work of Theopompus, entitled, "Concerning the Money of which
the Temple at Delphi was pillaged," he says—"Chares the Athenian got
sixty talents by means of Lysander. And with this money he gave a
banquet to the Athenians in the market-place, celebrating a triumphal
sacrifice in honour of their victory gained in the battle which took
place against the foreign troops of Philip." And these troops were
commanded by Adæus, surnamed the Cock, concerning whom Heraclides the
comic poet speaks in the following manner—
But when he caught the dunghill cock of Philip
Crowing too early in the morn, and straying,
He kill'd him; for he had not got his crest on.
And having kill'd this one, then Chares gave
A splendid banquet to the Athenian people;
So liberal and magnificent was he.
And Duris gives the same account.
44. But Idomeneus tells us that the Pisistratidæ also, Hippias and
Hipparchus, instituted banquets and entertainments; on which account
they had a vast quantity of horses and other articles of luxury. And
this it was that made their government so oppressive. And yet their
father, Pisistratus, had been a moderate man in his pleasures, so that
he never stationed guards in his fortified places, nor in his gardens,
as Theopompus relates in his twenty-first book, but let any one who
chose come in and enjoy them, and take whatever he pleased. And Cimon
afterwards adopted the same conduct, in imitation of Pisistratus. And
Theopompus mentions Cimon in the tenth book of his History of the
Affairs of Philip, saying—"Cimon the Athenian never placed any one in
his fields or gardens to protect the fruit, in order that any of the
citizens who chose might go in and pick the fruit, and take whatever
they wanted in those places. And besides this, he opened his house to
every one, and made a daily practice of providing a plain meal for a
great number of people; and all the poor Athenians who came that way
might enter and partake of it. He also paid great attention to all
those who from day-to-day came to ask something of him; and they say
that he used always to take about with him one or two young men bearing
bags of money. And he ordered them to give money to whoever came to him
to ask anything of him. And they say that he also often contributed
towards the expense of funerals. And this too is a thing that he often
did; whenever he met any citizen badly clad, he used to order one of
the young men who were following him to change cloaks with him. And so
by all these means he acquired a high reputation, and was the first of
all the citizens."
But Pisistratus was in many respects very oppressive; and some say
that that statue of Bacchus which there is at Athens was made in his
likeness.
45. And Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Pleasure, says that
Pericles, nicknamed the Olympian, after he got rid of his wife out
of his house, and devoted himself to a life of pleasure, lived with
Aspasia, the courtesan from Megara, and spent the greater part of
his substance on her. And Themistocles, when the Athenians were not
yet in such a state of intoxication, and had not yet begun to use
courtesans, openly filled a chariot with prostitutes, and drove early
in the morning through the Ceramicus when it was full. But Idomeneus
has made this statement in an ambiguous manner, so as to leave it
uncertain whether he means that he harnessed the prostitutes in his
chariot like horses, or merely that he made them mount his four-horsed
chariot. And Possis, in the third book of his History of the Affairs
of Magnesia, says, that Themistocles, having been invested with a
crowned magistracy in Magnesia, sacrificed to Minerva, and called the
festival the Panathenæa. And he sacrificed also to Dionysius Choopotes,
and celebrated the festival of the Choeis there. But Clearchus, in the
first book of his treatise on Friendship, says that Themistocles had
a triclinium of great beauty made for him, and said that he should be
quite contented if he could fill that with friends.
46. And Chamæleon of Pontus, in his Essay on Anacreon, having quoted
these lines—
And Periphoretus Artemon
Is loved by golden-hair'd Eurypyle,
says that Artemo derived this nickname from living luxuriously, and
being carried about (περιφέρεσθαι) on a couch. For Anacreon
says that he had been previously very poor, and then became on a sudden
very luxurious, in the following verses—
Having before a poor berberium cloak,
And scanty cap, and his poor ears
With wooden earrings decorated,
And wearing round his ribs a newly-bought
Raw ox-hide, fitter for a case
For an old-fashion'd shield, this wretch
Artemon, who long has lived
With bakers' women, and the lowest of the low,
Now having found a new style of life,
Often thrusts his neck into the yoke,
Or beneath the spear doth crouch;
And many a weal he can display,
Mark'd on his back with well-deserved scourge;
And well pluck'd as to hair and beard.
But now he mounts his chariot, he the son
Of Cyca, and his golden earrings wears;
And like a woman bears
An ivory parasol o'er his delicate head.
[Sidenote: ALCIBIADES.]
47. But Satyrus, speaking of the beautiful Alcibiades, says,—"It
is said that when he was in Ionia, he was more luxurious than the
Ionians themselves. And when he was in Thebes he trained himself, and
practised gymnastic exercises, being more of a Bœotian than the Thebans
themselves. And in Thessaly he loved horses and drove chariots; being
fonder of horses than the Aleuadæ: and at Sparta he practised courage
and fortitude, and surpassed the Lacedæmonians themselves. And again,
in Thrace he out-drank even the Thracians themselves. And once wishing
to tempt his wife, he sent her a thousand Darics in another man's
name: and being exceedingly beautiful in his person, he cherished his
hair the greater part of his life, and used to wear an extraordinary
kind of shoe, which is called Alcibias from him. And whenever he was a
choregus, he made a procession clad in a purple robe; and going into
the theatre he was admired not only by the men, but also by the women:
on which account Antisthenes, the pupil of Socrates, who often had seen
Alcibiades, speaks of him as a powerful and manly man, and impatient
of restraint, and audacious, and exceedingly beautiful through all his
life.
"And whenever he went on a journey he used four of the allied cities
as his maid-servants. For the Ephesians used to put up a Persian tent
for him; and the Chians used to find him food for his horses; and
the people of Cyzicus supplied him with victims for his sacrifices
and banquets; and the Lesbians gave him wine, and everything else
which he wanted for his daily food. And when he came to Athens from
Olympia, he offered up two pictures, the work of Aglaophon: one of
which represented the priestesses of Olympia and Delphi crowning him;
and in the other Nemea was sitting, and Alcibiades on her knees,
appearing more beautiful than any of the women. And even when on
military expeditions he wished to appear beautiful; accordingly he had
a shield made of gold and ivory, on which was carved Love brandishing a
thunderbolt as the ensign. And once having gone to supper at the house
of Anytus, by whom he was greatly beloved, and who was a rich man, when
one of the company who was supping there with him was Thrasyllus, (and
he was a poor man,) he pledged Thrasyllus in half the cups which were
set out on the side-board, and then ordered the servants to carry them
to Thrasyllus's house; and then he very civilly wished Anytus good
night, and so departed. But Anytus, in a very affectionate and liberal
spirit, when some one said what an inconsiderate thing Alcibiades had
done; 'No, by Jove,' said he, 'but what a kind and considerate thing;
for when he had the power to have taken away everything, he has left me
half.'"
48. And Lysias the orator, speaking of his luxury, says—"For Axiochus
and Alcibiades having sailed to the Hellespont, married at Abydus, both
of them marrying one wife, Medontias of Abydus, and both cohabited with
her. After this they had a daughter, and they said that they could
not tell whose daughter she was; and when she was old enough to be
married, they both cohabited with her too; and when Alcibiades came to
her, he said that she was the daughter of Axiochus, and Axiochus in
his turn said she was the daughter of Alcibiades." And he is ridiculed
by Eupolis, after the fashion of the comic writers, as being very
intemperate with regard to women; for Eupolis says in his Flatterers—
_A._ Let Alcibiades leave the women's rooms.
_B._ Why do you jest . . . .
Will you not now go home and try your hand
On your own wife?
And Pherecrates says—
For Alcibiades, who's no man (ἀνὴρ) at all,
Is, as it seems, now every woman's husband (ἀνήρ).
And when he was at Sparta he seduced Timæa, the wife of Agis the king.
And when some people reproached him for so doing, he said, "that he did
not intrigue with her out of incontinence, but in order that a son of
his might be king at Sparta; and that the kings might no longer be said
to be descended from Hercules, but from Alcibiades:" and when he was
engaged in his military expeditions, he used to take about, with him
Timandra, the mother of Lais the Corinthian, and Theodote, who was an
Athenian courtesan.
[Sidenote: PAUSANIAS.]
49. But after his banishment, having made the Athenians masters of the
Hellespont, and having taken more than five thousand Peloponnesians
prisoners, he sent them to Athens; and after this, returning to his
country, he crowned the Attic triremes with branches, and mitres, and
fillets. And fastening to his own vessels a quantity of ships which he
had taken, with their beaks broken off, to the number of two hundred,
and conveying also transports full of Lacedæmonian and Peloponnesian
spoils and arms, he sailed into the Piræus: and the trireme in which he
himself was, ran up to the very bars of the Piræus with purple sails;
and when it got inside the harbour, and when the rowers took their
oars, Chrysogonus played on a flute the trieric air, clad in a Persian
robe, and Callippides the tragedian, clad in a theatrical dress, gave
the word to the rowers. On account of which some one said with great
wit—"Sparta could never have endured two Lysanders, nor Athens two
Alcibiadeses." But Alcibiades was imitating the Medism of Pausanias,
and when he was staying with Pharnabazus, he put on a Persian robe, and
learnt the Persian language, as Themistocles had done.
50. And Duris says, in the twenty-second book of his
History,—"Pausanias, the king of Lacedæmon, having laid aside the
national cloak of Lacedæmon, adopted the Persian dress. And Dionysius,
the tyrant of Sicily, adopted a theatrical robe and a golden tragic
crown with a clasp. And Alexander, when he became master of Asia, also
adopted the Persian dress. But Demetrius outdid them all; for the
very shoes which he wore he had made in a most costly manner; for in
its form it was a kind of buskin, made of most expensive purple wool;
and on this the makers wove a great deal of golden embroidery, both
before and behind; and his cloak was of a brilliant tawny colour; and,
in short, a representation of the heavens was woven into it, having
the stars and twelve signs of the Zodiac all wrought in gold; and
his head-band was spangled all over with gold, binding on a purple
broad-brimmed hat in such a manner that the outer fringes hung down
the back. And when the Demetrian festival was celebrated at Athens,
Demetrius himself was painted on the proscenium, sitting on the world."
And Nymphis of Heraclea, in the sixth book of his treatise on his
Country, says—"Pausanias, who defeated Mardonius at Platæa, having
transgressed the laws of Sparta, and given himself up to pride, when
staying near Byzantium, dared to put an inscription on the brazen
goblet which is there consecrated to the gods, whose temple is at the
entrance of the strait, (and the goblet is in existence to this day,)
as if he had dedicated it himself; putting this inscription on it,
forgetting himself through his luxury and arrogance—
Pausanias, the general of broad Greece,
Offered this goblet to the royal Neptune,
A fit memorial of his deathless valour,
Here in the Euxine sea. He was by birth
A Spartan, and Cleombrotus's son,
Sprung from the ancient race of Hercules."
51. "Pharax the Lacedæmonian also indulged himself in luxury," as
Theopompus tells us in the fourteenth book of his History, "and he
abandoned himself to pleasure in so dissolute and unrestrained a
manner, that by reason of his intemperance he was much oftener taken
for a Sicilian, than for a Spartan by reason of his country." And in
his fifty-second book he says that "Archidamus the Lacedæmonian, having
abandoned his national customs, adopted foreign and effeminate habits;
so that he could not endure the way of life which existed in his own
country, but was always, by reason of his intemperance, anxious to live
in foreign countries. And when the Tarentines sent an embassy about
an alliance, he was anxious to go out with them as an ally; and being
there, and having been slain in the wars, he was not thought worthy
even of a burial, although the Tarentines offered a great deal of money
to the enemy to be allowed to take up his body."
And Phylarchus, in the tenth book of his Histories, says that Isanthes
was the king of that tribe of Thracians called Crobyzi, and that he
surpassed all the men of his time in luxury; and he was a rich man, and
very handsome. And the same historian tells us, in his twenty-second
book, that Ptolemy the Second, king of Egypt, the most admirable of all
princes, and the most learned and accomplished of men, was so beguiled
and debased in his mind by his unseasonable luxury, that he actually
dreamed that he should live for ever, and said that he alone had found
out how to become immortal. And once, after he had been afflicted by
the gout for many days, when at last he got a little better, and saw
through his window-blinds some Egyptians dining by the river side, and
eating whatever it might be that they had, and lying at random on the
sand, "O wretched man that I am," said he, "that I am not one of those
men!"
[Sidenote: DIOMNESTUS.]
52. Now Callias and his flatterers we have already sufficiently
mentioned. But since Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on
Pleasures, speaks of him, we will return to the subject and quote what
he says:—"When first the Persians made an expedition against Greece,
there was, as they say, an Eretrian of the name of Diomnestus, who
became master of all the treasures of the general; for he happened to
have pitched his tent in his field, and to have put his money away in
some room of his house. But when the Persians were all destroyed, then
Diomnestus took the money without any one being aware of it; but when
the king of Persia sent an army into Eretria the second time, ordering
his generals utterly to destroy the city, then, as was natural, all
who were at all well off carried away their treasures. Accordingly
those of the family of Diomnestus who were left, secretly removed their
money to Athens, to the house of Hipponicus, the son of Callias, who
was surnamed Ammon; and when all the Eretrians had been driven out of
their city by the Persians, this family remained still in possession of
their wealth, which was great. So Hipponicus, who was the son of that
man who had originally received the deposit, begged the Athenians to
grant him a place in the Acropolis, where he might construct a room to
store up all this money in, saying that it was not safe for such vast
sums to remain in a private house. And the Athenians did grant him such
a place; but afterwards, he, being warned against such a step by his
friends, changed his mind.
"Callias, therefore, became the master of all this money, and lived
a life of pleasure, (for what limit was there to the flatterers who
surrounded him, or to the troops of companions who were always about
him? and what extravagance was there which he did not think nothing
of?) However, his voluptuous life afterwards reduced him so low, that
he was compelled to pass the rest of his life with one barbarian old
woman for a servant, and he was in want of actual daily necessaries,
and so he died.
"But who was it who got rid of the riches of Nicias of Pergasa, or of
Ischomachus? was it not Autoclees and Epiclees, who preferred living
with one another, and who considered everything second to pleasure?
and after they had squandered all this wealth, they drank hemlock
together, and so perished."
53. But, concerning the luxury of Alexander the Great, Ephippus the
Olynthian, in his treatise on the Deaths of Alexander and Hephæstion,
says that "he had in his park a golden throne, and couches with
silver feet, on which he used to sit and transact business with his
companions." But Nicobule says, that "while he was at supper all the
morris dancers and athletes studied to amuse the king; and at his very
last banquet, Alexander, remembering an episode in the Andromeda of
Euripides, recited it in a declamatory manner, and then drank a cup of
unmixed wine with great eagerness, and compelled all the rest to do
so too." And Ephippus tells us that "Alexander used to wear even the
sacred vestments at his entertainments; and sometimes he would wear the
purple robe, and cloven sandals, and horns of Ammon, as if he had been
the god; and sometimes he would imitate Diana, whose dress he often
wore while driving in his chariot; having on also a Persian robe, but
displaying above his shoulders the bow and javelin of the goddess.
Sometimes also he would appear in the guise of Mercury; at other times,
and indeed almost every day, he would wear a purple cloak, and a tunic
shot with white, and a cap which had a royal diadem attached to it. And
when he was in private with his friends he wore the sandals of Mercury,
and the petasus on his head, and held the caduceus in his hand. Often
also he wore a lion's skin, and carried a club, like Hercules."
[Sidenote: ALEXANDER.]
What wonder then is it, if in our time the emperor Commodus, when he
drove abroad in his chariot, had the club of Hercules lying beside
him, with a lion's skin spread at his feet, and liked to be called
Hercules, when even Alexander, the pupil of Aristotle, represented
himself as like so many gods, and even like Diana? And Alexander used
to have the floor sprinkled with exquisite perfumes and with fragrant
wine; and myrrh was burnt before him, and other kinds of incense; and
all the bystanders kept silence, or spoke only words of good omen,
out of fear. For he was a very violent man, with no regard for human
life; for he appeared to be a man of a melancholic constitution. And
on one occasion, at Ecbatana, when he was offering a sacrifice to
Bacchus, and when everything was prepared in a most lavish manner
for the banquet, . . . and Satrabates the satrap, feasted all the
soldiers.... "But when a great multitude was collected to see the
spectacle," says Ephippus, "there were on a sudden some arrogant
proclamations published, more insolent even than Persian arrogance was
wont to dictate. For, as different people were publishing different
proclamations, and proposing to make Alexander large presents, which
they called crowns; one of the keepers of his armoury, going beyond
all previous flattery, having previously arranged the matter with
Alexander, ordered the herald to proclaim that Gorgos, the keeper of
the armoury, presents Alexander, the son of Ammon, with three thousand
pieces of gold; and will also present him, when he lays siege to
Athens, with ten thousand complete suits of armour, and with an equal
number of catapults and all weapons required for the war.
54. And Chares, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander,
says—"When he took Darius prisoner, he celebrated a marriage-feast
for himself and his companions, having had ninety-two bedchambers
prepared in the same place. There was a house built capable of
containing a hundred couches; and in it every couch was adorned with
wedding paraphernalia to the value of twenty minæ, and was made of
silver itself; but his own bed had golden feet. And he also invited to
the banquet which he gave, all his own private friends, and those he
arranged opposite to himself and the other bridegrooms; and his forces
also belonging to the army and navy, and all the ambassadors which were
present, and all the other strangers who were staying at his court.
And the apartment was furnished in the most costly and magnificent
manner, with sumptuous garments and cloths, and beneath them were
other cloths of purple, and scarlet, and gold. And, for the sake of
solidity, pillars supported the tent, each twenty cubits long, plated
all over with gold and silver, and inlaid with precious stones; and all
around these were spread costly curtains embroidered with figures of
animals, and with gold, having gold and silver curtain-rods. And the
circumference of the court was four stadia. And the banquet took place,
beginning at the sound of a trumpet, at that marriage-feast, and on
other occasions whenever the king offered a solemn sacrifice, so that
all the army knew it.
And this marriage-feast lasted five days. And a great number both
of barbarians and Greeks brought contributions to it; and also some
of the Indian tribes did so. And there were present some wonderful
conjurors—Scymnus of Tarentum, and Philistides of Syracuse, and
Heraclitus of Mitylene; after whom also Alexis of Tarentum, the
rhapsodist, exhibited his skill. There came also harp-players, who
played without singing,—Cratinus of Methymne, and Aristonymus the
Athenian, and Athenodorus the Teian. And Heraclitus the Tarentine
played on the harp, accompanying himself with his voice, and so did
Aristocrates the Theban. And of flute-players accompanied with song,
there were present Dionysius of Heraclea, and Hyperbolus of Cyzicus.
And of other flute-players there were the following, who first of all
played the air called The Pythian, and afterwards played with the
choruses,—Timotheus, Phrynichus, Caphesias, Diophantus, and also Evius
the Chalcidian. And from this time forward, those who were formerly
called Dionysio-colaces,[3] were called Alexandro-colaces, on account
of the extravagant liberality of their presents, with which Alexander
was pleased. And there were also tragedians who acted,—Thessalus, and
Athenodorus, and Aristocritus; and of comic actors there were Lycon,
and Phormion, and Ariston. There was also Phasimelus the harp-player.
And the crowns sent by the ambassadors and by other people amounted in
value to fifteen thousand talents.
[Sidenote: ALEXANDER.]
55. But Polycletus of Larissa, in the eighth book of his History, says
that Alexander used to sleep on a golden, couch, and that flute-playing
men and women followed him to the camp, and that he used to drink till
daybreak. And Clearchus, in his treatise on Lives, speaking of Darius
who was dethroned by Alexander, says, "The king of the Persians offered
prizes to those who could invent pleasures for him, and by this conduct
allowed his whole empire and sovereignty to be subverted by pleasures.
Nor was he aware that he was defeating himself till others had wrested
his sceptre from him and had been proclaimed in his place." And
Phylarchus, in the twenty-third book of his History, and Agatharchides
of Cnidus, in the tenth book of his History of Asia, say that the
companions also of Alexander gave way to the most extravagant
luxury. And one of them was a man named Agnon, who used to wear golden
studs in his sandals and shoes. And Cleitus, who was surnamed The
White, whenever he was about to transact business, used to converse
with every one who came to him while walking about on a purple carpet.
And Perdiccas and Craterus, who were fond of athletic exercises, had
men follow them with hides fastened together so as to cover a place
an entire stadium in extent; and then they selected a spot within the
encampment which they had covered with these skins as an awning; and
under this they practised their gymnastics.
They were followed also by numerous beasts of burden, which carried
sand for the use of the palæstra. And Leonnatus and Menelaus, who
were very fond of hunting, had curtains brought after them calculated
to enclose a space a hundred stadia in circumference, with which
they fenced in a large space and then practised hunting within it.
And as for the golden plane-trees, and the golden vine—having on it
bunches of grapes made of emeralds and Indian carbuncles, and all
sorts of other stones of the most costly and magnificent description,
under which the kings of Persia used often to sit when transacting
business,—the expense of all this, says Phylarchus, was far less than
the daily sums squandered by Alexander; for he had a tent capable of
containing a hundred couches, and fifty golden pillars supported it.
And over it were spread golden canopies wrought with the most superb
and costly embroidery, to shade all the upper part of it. And first of
all, five hundred Persian Melophori stood all round the inside of it,
clad in robes of purple and apple-green; and besides them there were
bowmen to the number of a thousand, some clad in garments of a fiery
red, and others in purple; and many of them had blue cloaks. And in
front of them stood five hundred Macedonian Argyraspides; and in the
middle of the tent was placed a golden chair, on which Alexander used
to sit and transact business, his body-guards standing all around. And
on the outside, all round the tent, was a troop of elephants regularly
equipped, and a thousand Macedonians, having Macedonian dresses; and
then ten thousand Persians: and the number of those who wore purple
amounted to five hundred, to whom Alexander gave this dress for them
to wear. And though he had such a numerous retinue of friends and
servants, still no one dared to approach Alexander of his own accord;
so great was his dignity and the veneration with which they regarded
him. And at that time Alexander wrote letters to the cities in Ionia,
and to the Chians first of all, to send him a quantity of purple; for
he wished all his companions to wear purple robes. And when his letter
was read among the Chians, Theocritus the philosopher being present,
said—
He fell by purple[4] death and mighty fate.
56. And Posidonius, in the twenty-eighth book of his History, says that
"Antiochus the king, who was surnamed Grypus, when he was celebrating
the games at Daphne, gave a magnificent entertainment; at which, first
of all, a distribution of entire joints took place, and after that
another distribution of geese, and hares, and antelopes all alive.
There were also," says he, "distributed golden crowns to the feasters,
and a great quantity of silver plate, and of servants, and horses, and
camels. And every one was expected to mount a camel, and drink; and
after that he was presented with the camel, and with all that was on
the camel, and the boy who stood by it." And in his fourteenth book,
speaking of his namesake Antiochus, who made war upon Arsaces, and
invaded Media, he says that "he made a feast for a great multitude
every day; at which, besides the things which were consumed, and the
heaps of fragments which were left, every one of the guests carried
away with him entire joints of beasts, and birds, and fishes which
had never been carved, all ready dressed, in sufficient quantities to
fill a waggon. And after this they were presented with a quantity of
sweetmeats, and chaplets, and crowns of myrrh and frankincense, with
turbans as long as a man, made of strips of gold brocade."
57. But Clytus, the pupil of Aristotle, in his History of Miletus, says
that "Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, collected everything that was
worth speaking of everywhere to gratify his luxury, having assembled
dogs from Epirus, and goats from Scyros, and sheep from Miletus, and
swine from Sicily."
[Sidenote: POLYCRATES.]
And Alexis, in the third book of his Samian Annals, says that "Samos
was adorned by Polycrates with the productions of many other cities;
as he imported Molossian and Lacedæmonian dogs, and goats from Scyros
and Naxos, and sheep from Miletus and Attica. He also," says he, "sent
for artists, promising them enormous wages. But before he became
tyrant, having prepared a number of costly couches and goblets, he
allowed any one the use of them who was preparing any marriage-feast or
extraordinary entertainment." And after hearing all these particulars
we may well admire the tyrant, because it was nowhere written that he
had sent for any women or boys from any other countries, although he
was of a very amorous constitution, and was a rival in love of Anacreon
the poet; and once, in a fit of jealousy, he cut off all the hair of
the object of his passion. And Polycrates was the first man who called
the ships which he had built Samians, in honour of his country.
But Clearchus says that "Polycrates, the tyrant of the effeminate
Samos, was ruined by the intemperance of his life, imitating the
effeminate practices of the Lydians; on which account, in opposition
to the place in Sardis called the beautiful Ancon, he prepared a place
in the chief city of the Samians, called Laura; he made those famous
Samian flowers in opposition to the Lydian. And the Samian Laura was a
narrow street in the city, full of common women, and of all kinds of
food calculated to gratify intemperance and to promote enjoyment, with
which he actually filled Greece. But the flowers of the Samians are the
preeminent beauty of the men and women, and indeed of the whole city,
at its festivals and banquets." And these are the words of Clearchus.
And I myself am acquainted with a narrow street in my native city of
Alexandria, which to this very day is called the Happy Street, in which
every apparatus of luxury used to be sold.
58. But Aristotle, in his treatise on Admirable and Wonderful Things,
says that "Alcisthenes of Sybaris, out of luxury, had a garment
prepared for him of such excessive expensiveness that he exhibited
it at Lacinium, at the festival of Juno, at which all the Italians
assemble, and that of all the things which were exhibited that was
the most admired." And he says that "Dionysius the elder afterwards
became master of it, and sold it to the Carthaginians for a hundred
and twenty talents." Polemo also speaks of it in his book entitled, A
Treatise concerning the Sacred Garments at Carthage. But concerning
Smindyrides of Sybaris, and his luxury, Herodotus has told us, in his
sixth book, saying that he sailed from Sybaris to court Agariste, the
daughter of Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon. "And," says he, "there
came from Italy Smindyrides, the son of Hippocrates, a citizen of
Sybaris; who carried his luxury to the greatest height that ever was
heard of among men. At all events he was attended by a thousand cooks
and bird-catchers." Timæus also mentions him in his seventh book.
But of the luxury of Dionysius the younger, who was also tyrant of
Sicily, an account is given by Satyrus the Peripatetic, in his Lives.
For he says that he used to fill rooms holding thirty couches with
feasters. And Clearchus, in the fourth book of his Lives, writes as
follows:—"But Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, the cruel oppressor of
all Sicily, when he came to the city of the Locrians, which was his
metropolis, (for Doris his mother was a Locrian woman by birth,) having
strewed the floor of the largest house in the city with wild thyme
and roses, sent for all the maidens of the Locrians in turn; and then
rolled about naked, with them naked also, on this layer of flowers,
omitting no circumstance of infamy. And so, not long afterwards, they
who had been insulted in this manner having got his wife and children
into their power, prostituted them in the public roads with great
insult, sparing them no kind of degradation. And when they had wreaked
their vengeance upon them, they thrust needles under the nails of their
fingers, and put them to death with torture. And when they were dead,
they pounded their bones in mortars, and having cut up and distributed
the rest of their flesh, they imprecated curses on all who did not
eat of it; and in accordance with this unholy imprecation, they put
their flesh into the mills with the flour, that it might be eaten by
all those who made bread. And all the other parts they sunk in the
sea. But Dionysius himself, at last going about as a begging priest
of Cybele, and beating the drum, ended his life very miserably. We,
therefore, ought to guard against what is called luxury, which is the
ruin of a man's life; and we ought to think insolence the destruction
of everything."
[Sidenote: AGRIGENTUM.]
59. But Diodorus Siculus, in his books On the Library, says that "the
citizens of Agrigentum prepared for Gelon a very costly swimming-bath,
being seven stadia in circumference and twenty cubits deep; and water
was introduced into it from the rivers and fountains, and it served for
a great pond to breed fish in, and supplied great quantities of fish
for the luxury and enjoyment of Gelon. A great number of swans also,"
as he relates, "flew into it; so that it was a very beautiful sight.
But afterwards the lake was destroyed by becoming filled with mud."
And Duris, in the tenth book of his History of Agathocles, says that
near the city of Hipponium a grove is shown of extraordinary beauty,
excellently well watered; in which there is also a place called the
Horn of Amalthea; and that this grove was made by Gelon. But Silenus
of Calatia, in the third book of his History of Sicily, says that
near Syracuse there is a garden laid out in a most expensive manner,
which is called Mythus, in which Hiero the king used to transact his
business. And the whole country about Panormus,[5] in Sicily, is called
The Garden, because it is full of highly-cultivated trees, as Callias
tells us in the eighth book of his History of Agathocles.
And Posidonius, in the eighth book of his History, speaking of
Damophilus the Sicilian, by whose means it was that the Servile war
was stirred up, and saying that he was a slave to his luxury, writes
as follows:—"He therefore was a slave to luxury and debauchery.
And he used to drive through the country on a four-wheeled chariot,
taking with him horses, and servants of great personal beauty, and
a disorderly crowd of flatterers and military boys running around
his chariot. And ultimately he, with his whole family, perished in a
disgraceful manner, being treated with the most extreme violence and
insult by his own slaves."
60. And Demetrius Phalereus, as Duris says in the sixteenth volume of
his Histories, being possessed of a revenue of twelve hundred talents
a-year, and spending a small portion of it on his soldiers, and on
the necessary expenses of the state, squandered all the rest of it on
gratifying his innate love of debauchery, having splendid banquets
every day, and a great number of guests to feast with him. And in the
prodigality of his expense in his entertainments, he outdid even
the Macedonians, and, at the same time, in the elegance of them, he
surpassed the Cyprians and Phœnicians. And perfumes were sprinkled
over the ground, and many of the floors in the men's apartments were
inlaid with flowers, and were exquisitely wrought in other ways by
the artists. There were also secret meetings with women, and other
scenes more shameful still. And Demetrius, who gave laws to others,
and who regulated the lives of others, exhibited in his own life an
utter contempt of all law. He also paid great attention to his personal
appearance, and dyed the hair of his head with a yellow colour, and
anointed his face with rouge, and smeared himself over with other
unguents also; for he was anxious to appear agreeable and beautiful in
the eyes of all whom he met.
And in the procession of the Dionysia, which he celebrated when he
was archon at Athens, a chorus sang an ode of Siromen the Solensian,
addressed to him, in which he was called, Like the Sun:—
And above all the noble prince
Demetrius, like the sun in face,
Honours you, Bacchus, with a holy worship.
And Carystius of Pergamus, in the third book of his Commentaries,
says—"Demetrius Phalereus, when his brother Himeræus was put to death
by Antipater, was himself staying with Nicanor; and he was accused of
having sacrificed the Epiphaneia in honour of his brother. And after
he became a friend of Cassander, he was very powerful. And at first
his dinner consisted of a kind of pickle, containing olives from all
countries, and cheese from the islands; but when he became rich, he
bought Moschion, the most skilful of all the cooks and confectioners
of that age. And he had such vast quantities of food prepared for
him every day, that, as he gave Moschion what was left each day, he
(Moschion) in two years purchased three detached houses in the city;
and insulted freeborn boys, and some of the wives of the most eminent
of the citizens: and all the boys envied Theognis, with whom he was in
love. And so important an honour was it considered to be allowed to
come near Demetrius, that, as he one day had walked about after dinner
near the Tripods, on all the following days all the most beautiful boys
came together to that place, in the hopes of being seen by him."
[Sidenote: LUCULLUS.]
61. And Nicolaus the Peripatetic, in the tenth book of his History,
and again in the twentieth book, says that Lucullus, when he came
to Rome and celebrated his triumph, and gave an account of the war
against Mithridates, ran into the most unbounded extravagance, after
having previously been very moderate; and was altogether the first
guide to luxury, and the first example of it, among the Romans, having
become master of the riches of two kings, Mithridates and Tigranes.
And Sittius, also, was a man very notorious among the Romans for his
luxury and effeminacy, as Rutilius tells us; for as to Apicius, we
have already spoken of him. And almost all historians relate that
Pausanias and Lysander were very notorious for their luxury; on which
account Agis said of Lysander, that Sparta had produced him as a
second Pausanias. But Theopompus, in the tenth book of his History
of the Affairs of Greece, gives exactly the contrary account of
Lysander, saying that "he was a most laborious man, able to earn the
goodwill of both private individuals and monarchs, being very moderate
and temperate, and superior to all the allurements of pleasure; and
accordingly, when he had become master of almost the whole of Greece,
it will be found that he never in any city indulged in amatory
excesses, or in unreasonable drinking parties and revels."
62. But luxury and extravagance were so very much practised among the
ancients, that even Parrhasius the painter always wore a purple robe,
and a golden crown on his head, as Clearchus relates, in his Lives: for
he, being most immoderately luxurious, and also to a degree beyond what
was becoming to a painter, laid claim, in words, to great virtue, and
inscribed upon the works which were done by him—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work.
But some one else, being indignant at this inscription, wrote by the
side of it, ῥαβδοδίαιτος (worthy of a stick). Parrhasius also
put the following inscription on many of his works:—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work: a worthy citizen
Of noble Ephesus. His father's name
Evenor was, and he, his lawful son,
Was the first artist in the whole of Greece.
He also boasted, in a way which no one could be indignant at, in the
following lines:—
This will I say, though strange it may appear,
That clear plain limits of this noble art
Have been discover'd by my hand, and proved.
And now the boundary which none can pass
Is well defined, though nought that men can do
Will ever wholly escape blame or envy.
And once, at Samos, when he was contending with a very inferior
painter in a picture of Ajax, and was defeated, when his friends were
sympathising with him and expressing their indignation, he said that
he himself cared very little about it, but that he was sorry for Ajax,
who was thus defeated a second time. And so great was his luxury, that
he wore a purple robe, and a white turban on his head; and used to lean
on a stick, ornamented all round with golden fretted work: and he used
even to fasten the strings of his sandals with golden clasps. However,
as regarded his art, he was not churlish or ill-tempered, but affable
and good-humoured; so that he sang all the time that he was painting,
as Theophrastus relates, in his treatise on Happiness.
But once he spoke in a marvellous strain, more like a quack, when he
said, when he was painting the Hercules at Lindus, that the god had
appeared to him in a dream, in that form and dress which was the best
adapted for painting; on which account he inscribed on the picture—
Here you may see the god as oft he stood
Before Parrhasius in his sleep by night.
[Sidenote: ARISTIPPUS.]
63. We find also whole schools of philosophers which have openly
professed to have made choice of pleasure. And there is the school
called the Cyrenaic, which derives its origin from Aristippus the pupil
of Socrates: and he devoted himself to pleasure in such a way, that he
said that it was the main end of life; and that happiness was founded
on it, and that happiness was at best but short-lived. And he, like
the most debauched of men, thought that he had nothing to do either
with the recollection of past enjoyments, or with the hope of future
ones; but he judged of all good by the present alone, and thought that
having enjoyed, and being about to enjoy, did not at all concern him;
since the one case had no longer any existence, and the other did not
yet exist and was necessarily uncertain: acting in this respect like
thoroughly dissolute men, who are content with being prosperous at the
present moment. And his life was quite consistent with his theory; for
he spent the whole of it in all kinds of luxury and extravagance, both
in perfumes, and dress, and women. Accordingly, he openly kept Lais as
his mistress; and he delighted in all the extravagance of Dionysius,
although he was often treated insultingly by him.
Accordingly, Hegesander says that once, when he was assigned a very
mean place at a banquet by Dionysius, he endured it patiently; and when
Dionysius asked him what he thought of his present place, in comparison
of his yesterday's seat, he said, "That the one was much the same as
the other; for that one," says he, "is a mean seat to-day, because it
is deprived of me; but it was yesterday the most respectable seat in
the room, owing to me: and this one to-day has become respectable,
because of my presence in it; but yesterday it was an inglorious
seat, as I was not present in it." And in another place Hegesander
says—"Aristippus, being ducked with water by Dionysius's servants,
and being ridiculed by Antiphon for bearing it patiently, said, 'But
suppose I had been out fishing, and got wet, was I to have left my
employment, and come away?'" And Aristippus sojourned a considerable
time in Ægina, indulging in every kind of luxury; on which account
Xenophon says in his Memorabilia, that Socrates often reproved him, and
invented the apologue of Virtue and Pleasure to apply it to him. And
Aristippus said, respecting Lais, "I have her, and I am not possessed
by her." And when he was at the court of Dionysius, he once had a
quarrel with some people about a choice of three women. And he used to
wash with perfumes, and to say that—
E'en in the midst of Bacchanalian revels
A modest woman will not be corrupted.
And Alexis, turning him into ridicule in his Galatea, represents
one of the slaves as speaking in the following manner of one of his
disciples:—
For this my master once did turn his thoughts
To study, when he was a stripling young,
And set his mind to learn philosophy.
And then a Cyrenean, as he calls himself,
Named Aristippus, an ingenious sophist,
And far the first of all the men of his time,
But also far the most intemperate,
Was in the city. Him my master sought,
Giving a talent to become his pupil:
He did not learn, indeed, much skill or wisdom,
But got instead a sad complaint on his chest.
And Antiphanes, in his Antæus, speaking of the luxurious habits of the
philosophers, says—
My friend, now do you know who this old man
Is called? By his look he seems to be a Greek.
His cloak is white, his tunic fawn-colour'd,
His hat is soft, his stick of moderate size,
His table scanty. Why need I say more,
I seem to see the genuine Academy.
[Sidenote: THE PERSIAN.]
64. And Aristoxenus the musician, in his Life of Archytas, represents
ambassadors as having been sent by Dionysius the younger to the city
of the Tarentines, among whom was Polyarchus, who was surnamed the
Luxurious, a man wholly devoted to sensual pleasures, not only in deed,
but in word and profession also. And he was a friend of Archytas, and
not wholly unversed in philosophy; and so he used to come with him
into the sacred precincts, and to walk with him and with his friends,
listening to his lectures and arguments: and once, when there was a
long dispute and discussion about the passions, and altogether about
sensual pleasures, Polyarchus said—"I, indeed, my friends, have often
considered the matter, and it has seemed to me that this system of the
virtues is altogether a long way removed from nature; for nature, when
it utters its own voice, orders one to follow pleasure, and says that
this is the conduct of a wise man: but that to oppose it, and to bring
one's appetites into a state of slavery, is neither the part of a wise
man, nor of a fortunate man, nor indeed of one who has any accurate
understanding of what the constitution of human nature really is. And
it is a strong proof of this, that all men, when they have acquired
any power worth speaking of, betake themselves to sensual pleasures,
and think the power of indulging them the principal advantage to be
gained from the possession of power, and everything else, so to say,
as unimportant and superfluous. And we may adduce the example of the
Persian king at present, and every other tyrant possessed of any power
worth speaking of,—and in former times, the sovereigns of the Lydians
and of the Medes,—and even in earlier times still, the tyrants of the
Syrians behaved in the same manner; for all these men left no kind of
pleasure unexplored: and it is even said that rewards were offered by
the Persians to any one who was able to invent a new pleasure. And it
was a very wise offer to make; for the nature of man is soon satiated
with long-continued pleasures, even if they be of a very exquisite
nature. So that, since novelty has a very great effect in making a
pleasure appear greater, we must not despise it, but rather pay great
attention to it. And on this account it is that many different kinds
of dishes have been invented, and many sorts of sweetmeats; and many
discoveries have been made in the articles of incenses and perfumes,
and clothes, and beds, and, above all, of cups and other articles of
furniture. For all these things contribute some amount of pleasure,
when the material which is admired by human nature is properly
employed: and this appears to be the case with gold and silver, and
with most things which are pleasing to the eye and also rare, and with
all things which are elaborated to a high degree of perfection by
manual arts and skill."
65. And having discussed after this all the attendance with which the
king of the Persians is surrounded, and what a number of servants he
has, and what their different offices are, and also about his amorous
indulgences, and also about the sweet perfume of his skin, and his
personal beauty, and the way in which he lives among his friends, and
the pleasing sights or sounds which are sought out to gratify him, he
said that he considered "the king of Persia the happiest of all men
now alive. For there are pleasures prepared for him which are both
most numerous and most perfect in their kind. And next to him," said
he, "any one may fairly rank our sovereign, though he falls far short
of the king of Persia. For this latter has all Asia to supply him
with luxury, but the store which supplies Dionysius will seem very
contemptible if compared with his. That, then, such a life as his is
worth struggling for, is plain from what has happened. For the Medes,
after encountering the greatest dangers, deprived the Syrians of the
supremacy, for no other object except to possess themselves of the
unrestrained licence of the Syrians. And the Persians overthrew the
Medes for the same reason, namely, in order to have an unrestrained
enjoyment of sensual pleasures. And the lawgivers who wish the
whole race of men to be on an equality, and that no citizens shall
indulge in superfluous luxury, have made some species of virtue hold
its head up. And they have written laws about contracts and other
matters of the same kind, and whatever appeared to be necessary for
political communion, and also with respect to dress, and to all the
other circumstances of life, that they should be similar among all
the citizens. And so, as all the lawgivers made war upon every kind
of covetousness, then first the praises of justice began to be more
thought of: and one of the poets spoke of—
The golden face of justice;
and in another passage some one speaks of—
The golden eye of justice.
And the very name of justice came to be accounted divine, so that in
some countries there were altars erected and sacrifices instituted to
Justice. And next to this they inculcated a respect for modesty and
temperance, and called an excess in enjoyment covetousness; so that a
man who obeyed the laws and was influenced by the common conversation
of men in general, was necessarily moderate with respect to sensual
pleasures."
66. And Duris says, in the twenty-third volume of his History, that in
ancient times the nobles had a positive fondness for getting drunk. On
which account Homer represents Achilles as reproaching Agamemnon, and
saying—
O thou whose senses are all dimm'd with wine,[6]
Thou dog in forehead.
And when he is describing the death of the king, he makes Agamemnon
say—
E'en in my mirth, and at the friendly feast,
O'er the full bowl the traitor stabb'd his guest;[7]
pointing out that his death was partly caused by his fondness for
drunkenness.
Speusippus also, the relation of Plato, and his successor in his
school, was a man very fond of pleasure. At all events Dionysius, the
tyrant of Sicily, in his letter to him blaming him for his fondness for
pleasure, reproaches him also for his covetousness, and for his love of
Lasthenea the Arcadian, who had been a pupil of Plato.
[Sidenote: EPICURUS.]
67. But not only did Aristippus and his followers embrace
that pleasure which consists in motion, but also Epicurus and his
followers did the same. And not to say anything of those sudden
motions, and irritations, and titillations, and also those prickings
and stimuli which Epicurus often brings forward, I will merely cite
what he has said in his treatise on the End. For he says—"For I
am not able to perceive any good, if I take away all the pleasures
which arise from flavours, and if I leave out of the question all
the pleasures arising from amorous indulgences, and all those which
are caused by hearing sweet sounds, and all those motions which are
excited by figures which are pleasant to the sight." And Metrodorus
in his Epistles says—"My good natural philosopher Timocrates, reason
which proceeds according to nature devotes its whole attention to the
stomach." And Epicurus says—"The origin and root of all good is the
pleasure of the stomach; and all excessive efforts of wisdom have
reference to the stomach." And again, in his treatise concerning the
End, he says—"You ought therefore to respect honour and the virtues,
and all things of that sort, if they produce pleasure; but if they do
not, then we may as well have nothing to do with them:" evidently in
these words making virtue subordinate to pleasure, and performing as
it were the part of a handmaid to it. And in another place he says—"I
spit upon honour, and those who worship it in a foolish manner, when it
produces no pleasure."
68. Well then did the Romans, who are in every respect the most
admirable of men, banish Alcius and Philiscus the Epicureans out
of their city, when Lucius Postumius was consul, on account of the
pleasures which they sought to introduce into the city. And in the
same manner the Messenians by a public decree banished the Epicureans.
But Antiochus the king banished all the philosophers out of his
kingdom, writing thus—"King Antiochus to Phanias: We have written to
you before, that no philosopher is to remain in the city, nor in the
country. But we hear that there is no small number of them, and that
they do great injury to the young men, because you have done none of
the things about which we wrote to you. As soon, therefore, as you
receive this letter, order a proclamation to be made, that all the
philosophers do at once depart from those places, and that as many
young men as are detected in going to them, shall be fastened to a
pillar and flogged, and their fathers shall be held in great blame. And
let not this order be transgressed."
But before Epicurus, Sophocles the poet was a great instigator to
pleasure, speaking as follows in his Antigone[8]—
For when men utterly forsake all pleasure,
I reckon such a man no longer living,
But look upon him as a breathing corpse.
He may have, if you like, great wealth at home,
And go in monarch's guise; but if his wealth
And power bring no pleasure to his mind,
I would not for a moment deem it all
Worthy a moment's thought compared with pleasure.
69. "And Lycon the Peripatetic," as Antigonus the Carystian says,
"when as a young man he had come to Athens for the sake of his
education, was most accurately informed about everything relating to
banquets and drinking parties, and as to how much pay every courtesan
required. But afterwards having become the chief man of the Peripatetic
school, he used to entertain his friends at banquets with excessive
arrogance and extravagance. For, besides the music which was provided
at his entertainments, and the silver plate and coverlets which were
exhibited, all the rest of the preparation and the superb character
of the dishes was such, and the multitude of tables and cooks was so
great, that many people were actually alarmed, and, though they wished
to be admitted into his school, shrunk back, fearing to enter, as into
a badly governed state, which was always burdening its citizens with
liturgies and other expensive offices.
[Sidenote: ANAXARCHUS.]
For men were compelled to undertake the regular office of chief of the
Peripatetic school. And the duties of this office were, to superintend
all the novices for thirty days, and see that they conducted themselves
with regularity. And then, on the last day of the month, having
received nine obols from each of the novices, he received at supper
not only all those who contributed their share, but all those also
whom Lycon might chance to invite, and also all those of the elders
who were diligent in attending the school; so that the money which was
collected was not sufficient even for providing sufficient unguents
and garlands. He also was bound to perform the sacrifices, and to
become an overseer of the Muses. All which duties appeared to have
but little connexion with reason or with philosophy, but to be more
akin to luxury and parade. For if any people were admitted who were not
able to spend money on these objects, they, setting out with a very
scanty and ordinary choregia . . . . and the money was very much out of
proportion . . . . For Plato and Speusippus had not established these
entertainments, in order that people might dwell upon the pleasures
of the table from daybreak, or for the sake of getting drunk; but in
order that men might appear to honour the Deity, and to associate with
one another in a natural manner; and chiefly with a view to natural
relaxation and conversation; all which things afterwards became in
their eyes second to the softness of their garments, and to their
indulgence in their before-mentioned extravagance. Nor do I except the
rest. For Lycon, to gratify his luxurious and insolent disposition, had
a room large enough to hold twenty couches, in the most frequented part
of the city, in Conon's house, which was well adapted for him to give
parties in. And Lycon was a skilful and clever player at ball."
70. And of Anaxarchus, Clearchus the Solensian writes, in the fifth
book of his Lives, in the following manner—"Anaxarchus, who was one of
those who called themselves Eudæmonici, after he had become a rich man
through the folly of those men who supplied him with means out of their
abundance, used to have a naked full-grown damsel for his cup-bearer,
who was superior in beauty to all her fellows; she, if one is to look
at the real truth, thus exposing the intemperance of all those who
employed her. And his baker used to knead the dough wearing gloves
on his hands, and a cover on his mouth, to prevent any perspiration
running off his hands, and also to prevent him from breathing on his
cakes while he was kneading them." So that a man might fairly quote to
this wise philosopher the verses of Anaxilas the lyric poet—
And anointing one's skin with a gold-colour'd ointment,
And wearing long cloaks reaching down to the ground,
And the thinnest of slippers, and eating rich truffles,
And the richest of cheese, and the newest of eggs;
And all sorts of shell-fish, and drinking strong wine
From the island of Chios, and having, besides,
A lot of Ephesian beautiful letters,
In carefully-sewn leather bags.
71. But how far superior to these men is Gorgias the Leontine; of
whom the same Clearchus says, in the eighth book of his Lives, that
because of the temperance of his life he lived nearly eighty years in
the full possession of all his intellect and faculties. And when some
one asked him what his system had been which had caused him to live
with such comfort, and to retain such full possession of his senses,
he said, "I have never done anything merely for the sake of pleasure."
But Demetrius of Byzantium, in the fourth book of his treatise on
Poems, says—"Gorgias the Leontine, being once asked by some one what
was the cause of his living more than a hundred years, said that it
was because he had never done anything to please any one else except
himself." And Ochus, after he had had a long enjoyment of kingly power,
and of all the other things which make life pleasant, being asked
towards the close of his life by his eldest son, by what course of
conduct he had preserved the kingly power for so many years, that he
also might imitate it; replied, "By behaving justly towards all men and
all gods." And Carystius of Pergamus, in his Historical Commentaries,
says—"Cephisodorus the Theban relates that Polydorus the physician of
Teos used to live with Antipater; and that the king had a common kind
of coarse carpet worked in rings like a counterpane, on which he used
to recline; and brazen bowls and only a small number of cups; for that
he was a man fond of plain living and averse to luxury."
[Sidenote: PTOLEMY EUERGETES.]
72. But the story which we have of Tithonus represents him as a person
sleeping from daybreak to sunset, so that his appetites scarcely
awakened him by evening. On which account he was said to sleep with
Aurora, because he was so wholly enslaved by his appetites. And as he
was at a later period of life prevented from indulging them by old
age, and being wholly dependent on them.... And Melanthius, stretching
out his neck, was choked by his enjoyments, being a greater glutton
than the Melanthius of Ulysses. And many other men have destroyed
their bodily strength entirely by their unreasonable indulgence; and
some have become inordinately fat; and others have become stupid
and insensible by reason of their inordinate luxury. Accordingly,
Nymphis of Heraclea, in the second book of his History of Heraclea,
says—"Dionysius the son of Clearchus, who was the first tyrant of
Heraclea, and who was himself afterwards tyrant of his country, grew
enormously fat without perceiving it, owing to his luxury and to his
daily gluttony; so that on account of his obesity he was constantly
oppressed by a difficulty of breathing and a feeling of suffocation.
On which account his physicians ordered thin needles of an exceedingly
great length to be made, to be run into his sides and chest whenever
he fell into a deeper sleep than usual. And up to a certain point his
flesh was so callous by reason of the fat, that it never felt the
needles; but if ever they touched a part that was not so overloaded,
then he felt them, and was awakened by them. And he used to give
answers to people who came to him, holding a chest in front of his
body so as to conceal all the rest of his person, and leave only
his face visible; and in this condition he conversed with those who
came to him." And Menander also, who was a person as little given to
evil-speaking as possible, mentions him in his Fishermen, introducing
some exiles from Heraclea as saying—
For a fat pig was lying on his face;
and in another place he says—
He gave himself to luxury so wholly,
That he could not last long to practise it;
and again he says—
Forming desires for myself, this death
Does seem the only happy one,—to grow
Fat in my heart and stomach, and so lie
Flat on my back, and never say a word,
Drawing my breath high up, eating my fill,
And saying, "Here I waste away with pleasure."
And he died when he was fifty-five years of age, of which he had
been tyrant thirty-three,—being superior to all the tyrants who had
preceded him in gentleness and humanity.
73. And Ptolemy the Seventh, king of Egypt, was a man of this sort,
the same who caused himself to be styled Euergetes,[9] but who was
called Cacergetes by the Alexandrians. Accordingly, Posidonius the
Stoic, who went with Scipio Africanus when he was sent to Alexandria,
and who there saw this Ptolemy, writes thus, in the seventh book of
his History,—"But owing to his luxury his whole body was eaten up with
fat, and with the greatness of his belly, which was so large that no
one could put his arms all round it; and he wore over it a tunic
which reached down to his feet, having sleeves which reached to his
wrists, and he never by any chance walked out except on this occasion
of Scipio's visit." And that this king was not averse to luxury, he
tells us when he speaks of himself, relating, in the eighth book of his
Commentaries, how he was priest of Apollo at Cyrene, and how he gave a
banquet to those who had been priests before him; writing thus:—"The
Artemitia is the great festival of Cyrene, on which occasion the priest
of Apollo (and that office is one which lasts a year) gives a banquet
to all those who have been his predecessors in the office; and he sets
before each of them a separate dish. And this dish is an earthenware
vessel, holding about twenty artabæ,[10] in which there are many kinds
of game elaborately dressed, and many kinds of bread, and of tame
birds, and of sea-fish, and also many species of foreign preserved
meats and pickled fish. And very often some people also furnish them
with a handsome youth as an attendant. But we ourselves omitted all
this, and instead we furnished them with cups of solid silver, each
being of as much value as all the things which we have just enumerated
put together; and also we presented each man with a horse properly
harnessed, and a groom, and gilt trappings; and we invited each man to
mount his horse and ride him home."
His son Alexander also became exceedingly fat, the one, I mean, who
put his mother to death who had been his partner in the kingdom.
Accordingly Posidonius, in the forty-seventh book of his History,
mentions him in the following terms:—"But the king of Egypt being
detested by the multitude, but flattered by the people whom he had
about him, and living in great luxury, was not able even to walk,
unless he went leaning on two friends; but for all that he would, at
his banquets, leap off from a high couch, and dance bare-foot with more
vigour than even those who made dancing their profession."
[Sidenote: THE LACEDÆMONIANS.]
74. And Agatharchides, in the sixteenth book of his History of Europe,
says that Magas, who was king of Cyrene for fifty years, and who never
had any wars, but spent all his time in luxury, became, towards the
end of his life, so immensely bulky and burdensome to himself, that
he was at last actually choked by his fat, from the inactivity of his
body, and the enormous quantity of food which he consumed. But among
the Lacedæmonians, the same man relates, in his twenty-seventh book,
that it is thought a proof of no ordinary infamy if any one is of an
unmanly appearance, or if any one appears at all inclined to have a
large belly; as the young men are exhibited naked before the ephori
every ten days. And the ephori used every day to take notice both of
the clothes and bedding of the young men; and very properly. For the
cooks at Lacedæmon were employed solely on dressing meat plainly, and
on nothing else. And in his twenty-seventh book, Agatharchides says
that the Lacedæmonians brought Nauclides, the son of Polybiades, who
was enormously fat in his body, and who had become of a vast size
through luxury, into the middle of the assembly; and then, after
Lysander had publicly reproached him as an effeminate voluptuary,
they nearly banished him from the city, and threatened him that they
would certainly do so if he did not reform his life; on which occasion
Lysander said that Agesilaus also, when he was in the country near the
Hellespont, making war against the barbarians, seeing the Asiatics
very expensively clothed, but utterly useless in their bodies, ordered
all who were taken prisoners, to be stripped naked and sold by the
auctioneer; and after that he ordered their clothes to be sold without
them; in order that the allies, knowing that they had to fight for a
great prize, and against very contemptible men, might advance with
greater spirit against their enemies. And Python the orator, of
Byzantium, as Leon, his fellow-citizen, relates, was enormously fat;
and once, when the Byzantians were divided against one another in
seditious quarrels, he, exhorting his fellow-citizens to unanimity,
said—"You see, my friends, what a size my body is; but I have a wife
who is much fatter than I am; now, when we are both agreed, one small
bed is large enough for both of us; but when we quarrel, the whole
house is not big enough for us."
75. How much better, then, is it, my good friend Timocrates, to be
poor and thinner than even those men whom Hermippus mentions in his
Cercopes, than to be enormously rich, and like that whale of Tanagra,
as the before-mentioned men were! But Hermippus uses the following
language, addressing Bacchus on the present occasion—
For poor men now to sacrifice to you
But maim'd and crippled oxen; thinner far
Than e'en Thoumantis or Leotrophides.
And Aristophanes, in his Gerytades, gives a list of the following
people as very thin, who, he says, were sent as ambassadors by the
poets on earth down to hell to the poets there, and his words are—
_A._ And who is this who dares to pierce the gates
Of lurid darkness, and the realms o' the dead?
_B._ We're by unanimous agreement chosen,
(Making the choice in solemn convocation,)
One man from each department of our art,
Who were well known to be frequenters of the Shades,
As often voluntarily going thither.
_A._ Are there among you any men who thus
Frequent the realms of Pluto?
_B._ Aye, by Jove,
And plenty; just as there are men who go
To Thrace and then come back again. You know
The whole case now.
_A._ And what may be their names?
First, there's Sannyrion, the comic poet;
Then, of the tragic chori, Melitus;
And of the Cyclic bards, Cinesias.
And presently afterwards he says—
On what slight hopes did you then all rely!
For if a fit of diarrhœa came
Upon these men, they'd all be carried off.
And Strattis also mentions Sannyrion, in his Men fond of Cold, saying—
The leathern aid of wise Sannyrion.
And Sannyrion himself speaks of Melitus, in his play called Laughter,
speaking as follows—
Melitus, that carcase from Lenæum rising.
[Sidenote: CINESIAS.]
76. And Cinesias was in reality an exceedingly tall and exceedingly
thin man; on whom Strattis wrote an entire play, calling him the
Phthian Achilles, because in his own poetry he was constantly using the
word φθιῶτα. And accordingly, he, playing on his appearance,
continually addresses him—
Φθιῶτ' Ἀχιλλεῦ.—
But others, as, for instance, Aristophanes, often call him φιλύρινος
Κινησίας, because he took a plank of linden wood (φιλύρα), and fastened
it to his waist under his girdle, in order to avoid stooping, because
of his great height and extreme thinness. But that Cinesias was a man
of delicate health, and badly off in other respects, we are told by
Lysias the orator, in his oration inscribed, "For Phanias accused of
illegal Practices," in which he says that he, having abandoned his
regular profession, had taken to trumping up false accusations against
people, and to making money by such means. And that he means the poet
here, and no one else, is plain from the fact that he shows also that
he had been attacked by the comic poets for impiety. And he also, in
the oration itself, shows that he was a person of that character. And
the words of the orator are as follows:—"But I marvel that you are
not indignant at such a man as Cinesias coming forward in aid of the
laws, whom you all know to be the most impious of all men, and the
greatest violater of the laws that has ever existed. Is not he the
man who has committed such offences against the gods as all other men
think it shameful even to speak of, though you hear the comic poets
mention such actions of his every year? Did not Apollophanes, and
Mystalides, and Lysitheus feast with him, selecting one of the days on
which it was not lawful to hold a feast, giving themselves the name of
Cacodæmonistæ,[11] instead of Numeniastæ, a name indeed appropriate
enough to their fortunes? Nor, indeed, did it occur to them that they
were really doing what that name denotes; but they acted in this manner
to show their contempt for the gods and for our laws. And accordingly,
each of those men perished, as it was reasonable to expect that such
men should.
"But this man, with whom you are all acquainted, the gods have treated
in such a manner, that his very enemies would rather that he should
live than die, as an example to all other men, that they may see that
the immortal Gods do not postpone the punishment due to men who behave
insolently towards their Deity, so as to reserve it for their children;
but that they destroy the men themselves in a miserable manner,
inflicting on them greater and more terrible calamities and diseases
than on any other men whatever. For to die, or to be afflicted with
sickness in an ordinary manner, is the common lot of all of us; but
to be in such a condition as they are reduced to, and to remain a long
time in such a state, and to be dying every day, and yet not be able to
end one's life, is a punishment allotted to men who act as this man has
acted, in defiance of all human and divine law." And this orator used
this language respecting Cinesias.
77. Philetas also, the Coan poet, was a very thin man; so that, by
reason of the leanness of his body, he used to wear balls made of lead
fastened to his feet, to prevent himself from being blown over by the
wind. And Polemo, surnamed Periegetes, in his treatise on Wonderful
People and Things, says that Archestratus the soothsayer, being taken
prisoner by the enemy, and being put into the scale, was found to
weigh only one obol, so very thin was he. The same man also relates
that Panaretus never had occasion to consult a physician, but that he
used to be a pupil of Arcesilaus the philosopher; and that he was a
companion of Ptolemy Euergetes, receiving from him a salary of twelve
talents every year. And he was the thinnest of men, though he never had
any illness all his life.
But Metrodorus the Scepsian, in the second book of his treatise on
the Art of Training, says that Hipponax the poet was not only very
diminutive in person, but also very thin; and that he, nevertheless,
was so strong in his sinews, that, among other feats of strength, he
could throw an empty oil cruise an extraordinary distance, although
light bodies are not easy to be propelled violently, because they
cannot cut the air so well. Philippides, also, was extremely thin,
against whom there is an oration extant of Hyperides the orator, who
says that he was one of those men who governed the state. And he
was very insignificant in appearance by reason of his thinness, as
Hyperides has related. And Alexis, in his Thesprotians, said—
O Mercury, sent by the gods above,
You who've obtained Philippides by lot;
And you, too, eye of darkly-robed night.
And Aristophon, in his play called Plato, says—
_A._ I will within these three days make this man
Thinner than e'en Philippides.
_B._ How so?
Can you kill men in such a very short time?
[Sidenote: ANOINTING.]
And Menander, in his Passion, says—
If hunger should attack your well-shaped person,
'Twould make you thinner than Philippides.
And the word πεφιλιππιδῶσθαι was used for being extremely
thin, as we find in Alexis; who, in his Women taking Mandragora, says—
_A._ You must be ill. You are, by Jove, the very
Leanest of sparrows—a complete Philippides
(πεφιλιππίδωσαι).
_B._ Don't tell me such strange things: I'm all but dead;
_A._ I pity your sad case.
At all events, it is much better to look like that, than to be like the
man of whom Antiphanes in his Æolus says—
This man then, such a sot and glutton is he,
And so enormous is his size of body,
Is called by all his countrymen the Bladder.
And Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Pleasure, says that Dinias
the perfumer gave himself up to love because of his luxury, and spent a
vast sum of money on it; and when, at last, he failed in his desires,
out of grief he mutilated himself, his unbridled luxury bringing him
into this trouble.
78. But it was the fashion at Athens to anoint even the feet of those
men who were very luxurious with ointment, a custom which Cephisodorus
alludes to in his Trophonius—
Then to anoint my body go and buy
Essence of lilies, and of roses too,
I beg you, Xanthias; and also buy
For my poor feet some baccaris.
And Eubulus, in his Sphingocarion, says—
* * * *
. . . . Lying full softly in a bed-chamber;
Around him were most delicate cloaks, well suited
For tender maidens, soft, voluptuous;
Such as those are, who well perfumed and fragrant
With amaracine oils, do rub my feet.
But the author of the Procris gives an account of what care ought to be
taken of Procris's dog, speaking of a dog as if he were a man—
_A._ Strew, then, soft carpets underneath the dog,
And place beneath cloths of Milesian wool;
And put above them all a purple rug.
_B._ Phœbus Apollo!
_A._ Then in goose's milk
Soak him some groats.
_B._ O mighty Hercules!
_A._ And with Megallian oils anoint his feet.
And Antiphanes, in his Alcestis, represents some one as anointing his
feet with oil; but in his Mendicant Priest of Cybele, he says—
He bade the damsel take some choice perfumes
From the altar of the goddess, and then, first,
Anoint his feet with it, and then his knees:
But the first moment that the girl did touch
His feet, he leaped up.
And in his Zacynthus he says—
Have I not, then, a right to be fond of women,
And to regard them all with tender love,
For is it not a sweet and noble thing
To be treated just as you are; and to have
One's feet anointed by fair delicate hands?
And in his Thoricians he says—
He bathes completely—but what is't he does?
He bathes his hands and feet, and well anoints them
With perfume from a gold and ample ewer.
And with a purple dye he smears his jaws
And bosom; and his arms with oil of thyme;
His eyebrows and his hair with marjoram;
His knees and neck with essence of wild ivy.
And Anaxandrides, in his Protesilaus, says—
Ointment from Peron, which this fellow sold
But yesterday to Melanopus here,
A costly bargain fresh from Egypt, which
Anoints to-day Callistratus's feet.
And Teleclides, in his Prytanes, alludes to the lives of the citizens,
even in the time of Themistocles, as having been very much devoted to
luxury. And Cratinus in his Chirones, speaking of the luxury of the
former generations, says—
There was a scent of delicate thyme besides,
And roses too, and lilies by my ear;
And in my hands I held an apple, and
A staff, and thus I did harangue the people.
[Sidenote: VENUS CALLIPYGE.]
79. And Clearchus the Solensian, in his treatise on Love Matters,
says—"Why is it that we carry in our hands flowers, and apples, and
things of that sort? Is it that by our delight in these things nature
points out those of us who have a desire for all kinds of beauty? Is
it, therefore, as a kind of specimen of beauty that men carry beautiful
things in their hands, and take delight in them? Or do they carry
them about for two objects? For by these means the beginning of good
fortune, and an indication of one's wishes, is to a certain extent
secured; to those who are asked for them, by their being addressed, and
to those who give them, because they give an intimation beforehand,
that they must give of their beauty in exchange. For a request for
beautiful flowers and fruits, intimates that those who receive them are
prepared to give in return the beauty of their persons. Perhaps also
people are fond of those things, and carry them about them in order
to comfort and mitigate the vexation which arises from the neglect or
absence of those whom they love. For by the presence of these agreeable
objects, the desire for those persons whom we love is blunted; unless,
indeed, we may rather say that it is for the sake of personal ornament
that people carry those things, and take delight in them, just as
they wear anything else which tends to ornament. For not only those
people who are crowned with flowers, but those also who carry them in
their hands, find their whole appearance is improved by them. Perhaps
also, people carry them simply because of their love for any beautiful
object. For the love of beautiful objects shows that we are inclined to
be fond of the productions of the seasons.
For the face of spring and autumn is really beautiful, when looked at
in their flowers and fruits. And all persons who are in love, being
made, as it were, luxurious by their passion, and inclined to admire
beauty, are softened by the sight of beauty of any sort. For it is
something natural that people who fancy that they themselves are
beautiful and elegant, should be fond of flowers; on which account the
companions of Proserpine are represented as gathering flowers. And
Sappho says—
I saw a lovely maiden gathering flowers.
80. But in former times men were so devoted to luxury, that they
dedicated a temple to Venus Callipyge on this account. A certain
countryman had two beautiful daughters; and they once, contending with
one another, went into the public roads, disputing as they went, which
had the most beautiful buttocks. And as a young man was passing, who
had an aged father, they showed themselves to him also. And he, when
he had seen both, decided in favour of the elder; and falling in love
with her, he returned into the city and fell ill, and took to his bed,
and related what had happened to his brother, who was younger than he;
and he also, going into the fields and seeing the damsels himself,
fell in love with the other. Accordingly, their father, when with all
his exhortations he could not persuade his sons to think of a higher
marriage, brings these damsels to them out of the fields, having
persuaded their father to give them to him, and marries them to his
sons. And they were always called the καλλίπνγοι; as Cercidas
of Megalopolis says in his Iambics, in the following line—
There was a pair of καλλίπνγοι women
At Syracuse.
So they, having now become rich women, built a temple to Venus, calling
the goddess καλλίπνγος, as Archelaus also relates in his
Iambics.
And that the luxury of madness is exceedingly great is very pleasantly
argued by Heraclides of Pontus, in his treatise on Pleasure, where
he says—"Thrasylaus the Æxonensian, the son of Pythodorus, was once
afflicted with such violent madness, that he thought that all the
vessels which came to the Piræus belonged to him. And he entered them
in his books as such; and sent them away, and regulated their affairs
in his mind, and when they returned to port he received them with great
joy, as a man might be expected to who was master of so much wealth.
And when any were lost, he never inquired about them, but he rejoiced
in all that arrived safe; and so he lived with great pleasure. But when
his brother Crito returned from Sicily, and took him and put him into
the hands of a doctor, and cured him of his madness, he himself related
his madness, and said that he had never been happier in his life; for
that he never felt any grief, but that the quantity of pleasure which
he experienced was something unspeakable."
FOOTNOTES.
[1] This is a blunder of Athenæus. Mars does not say this, but
it is the observation made by the gods to each other.
Ὧδε δέ τις εἴπεσκε ἰδὼν ἐς πλήσιον ἄλλον. Odys. viii. 328.
[2] From κείρω, to cut and dress the hair.
[3] Κόλαξ, a flatterer.
[4] Πορφύρεος is a common epithet of death in Homer.
Liddell and Scott say—"The first notion of πορφύρεος was
probably of the troubled sea, υ. πορφύρω,"—and refer the
use of it in this passage to the colour of the blood, unless it be =
μέλας θάνατος.
[5] The modern Palermo.
[6] Iliad. i. 225.
[7] Odyss. ii. 418.
[8] Soph. Ant. 1169.
[9] Εὐεργέτης, from εὖ, well; Κακεργέτης, from κακῶς, ill;
and ἔργον, a work.
[10] The artabe was equivalent to the Greek medimnus, which was
a measure holding about twelve gallons.
[11] Cacodæmonistæ, from κακὸς, bad, and δαίμων, a deity.
Numeniastæ, from Νουμήνια, the Feast of the New Moon.
BOOK XIII.
[Sidenote: LACEDÆMONIAN MARRIAGES.]
1. ANTIPHANES the comic writer, my friend Timocrates, when he was
reading one of his own comedies to Alexander the king, and when it was
plain that the king did not think much of it, said to him, "The fact
is, O king, that a man who is to appreciate this play, ought to have
often supped at picnic feasts, and must have often borne and inflicted
blows in the cause of courtesans," as Lycophron the Chalcidian relates
in his treatise on Comedy. And accordingly we, who are now about to
set out a discussion on amatory matters, (for there was a good deal of
conversation about married women and about courtesans,) saying what we
have to say to people who understand the subject, invoking the Muse
Erato to be so good as to impress anew on our memory that amatory
catalogue, will make our commencement from this point—
Come now, O Erato, and tell me truly
what it was that was said by the different guests about love and about
amatory matters.
2. For our admirable host, praising the married women, said that
Hermippus stated in his book about lawgivers, that at Lacedæmon all the
damsels used to be shut up in a dark room, while a number of unmarried
young men were shut up with them; and whichever girl each of the young
men caught hold of he led away as his wife, without a dowry. On which
account they punished Lysander, because he left his former wife, and
wished to marry another who was by far more beautiful. But Clearchus
the Solensian, in his treatise on Proverbs, says,—"In Lacedæmon the
women, on a certain festival, drag the unmarried men to an altar, and
then buffet them; in order that, for the purpose of avoiding the insult
of such treatment, they may become more affectionate, and in due season
may turn their thoughts to marriage. But at Athens, Cecrops was the
first person who married a man to one wife only, when before his time
connexions had taken place at random, and men had had their wives in
common. On which account it was, as some people state, that Cecrops was
called διφυὴς,[12] because before his time people did not know
who their fathers were, by reason of the numbers of men who might have
been so."
And beginning in this manner, one might fairly blame those who
attributed to Socrates two wives, Xanthippe and Myrto, the daughter
of Aristides; not of that Aristides who was surnamed the Just,
(for the time does not agree,) but of his descendant in the third
generation. And the men who made this statement are Callisthenes, and
Demetrius Phalereus, and Satyrus the Peripatetic, and Aristoxenus;
who were preceded in it by Aristotle, who relates the same story in
his treatise on Nobleness of Birth. Unless perhaps this licence was
allowed by a decree at that time on account of the scarcity of men,
so that any one who pleased might have two wives; to which it must be
owing that the comic poets make no mention of this fact, though they
very often mention Socrates. And Hieronymus of Rhodes has cited the
decree about wives; which I will send to you, since I have the book.
But Panætius the Rhodian has contradicted those who make this statement
about the wives of Socrates.
[Sidenote: HERCULES.]
3. But among the Persians the queen tolerates the king's having a
number of concubines, because there the king rules his wife like her
master; and also because the queen, as Dinon states in his history
of Persia, receives a great deal of respect from the concubines. At
all events they offer her adoration. And Priam, too, had a great many
women, and Hecuba was not indignant. Accordingly, Priam says—
Yet what a race! ere Greece to Ilion came,
The pledge of many a loved and loving dame.
Nineteen one mother bore—dead, all are dead![13]
But among the Greeks, the mother of Phœnix does not tolerate the
concubine of Amyntor. And Medea, although well acquainted with the
fashion, as one well established among the barbarians, refuses to
tolerate the marriage of Glauce, having been forsooth already initiated
in better and Greek habits. And Clytæmnestra, being exceedingly
indignant at a similar provocation, slays Cassandra with Agamemnon
himself, whom the monarch brought with him into Greece, having given
in to the fashion of barbarian marriages. "And a man may wonder,"
says Aristotle, "that Homer has nowhere in the Iliad represented any
concubine as living with Menelaus, though he has given wives to every
one else. And accordingly, in Homer, even old men sleep with women,
such as Nestor and Phœnix. For these men were not worn out or disabled
in the time of their youth, either by intoxication, or by too much
indulgence in love; or by any weakness of digestion engendered by
gluttony; so that it was natural for them to be still vigorous in old
age. The king of Sparta, then, appears to have too much respect for
his wedded wife Helena, on whose account he collected all the Grecian
army; and on this account he keeps aloof from any other connexion. But
Agamemnon is reproached by Thersites, as a man with many wives—
'Tis thine, whate'er the warrior's breast inflames, The golden spoil,
and thine the lovely dames; With all the wealth our wars and blood
bestow, Thy tents are crowded and thy chests o'erflow.[14]
"But it is not natural," says Aristotle, "to suppose that all that
multitude of female slaves were given to him as concubines, but only
as prizes; since he also provided himself with a great quantity of
wine,—but not for the purpose of getting drunk himself."
4. But Hercules is the man who appears to have had more wives than
any one else, for he was very much addicted to women; and he had
them in turn, like a soldier, and a man employed at different times
in different countries. And by them he had also a great multitude of
children. For, in one week, as Herodorus relates, he relieved the fifty
daughters of Thestias of their virginity. Ægeus also was a man of many
wives. For, first of all he married the daughter of Hoples, and after
her he married one of the daughters of Chalcodous, and giving both of
them to his friends, he cohabited with a great many without marriage.
Afterwards he took Æthra, the daughter of Pittheus; after her he took
Medea. And Theseus, having attempted to ravish Helen, after that
carried off Ariadne. Accordingly Istrus, in the fourteenth book of his
History of the Affairs of Athens, giving a catalogue of those women who
became the wives of Theseus, says that some of them became so out of
love, and that some were carried off by force, and some were married in
legal marriage. Now by force were ravished Helen, Ariadne, Hippolyta,
and the daughters of Cercyon and Sinis; and he legally married Melibœa,
the mother of Ajax. And Hesiod says that he married also Hippe and
Ægle; on account of whom he broke the oaths which he had sworn to
Ariadne, as Cercops tells us. And Pherecydes adds Pherebœa. And before
ravishing Helen he had also carried off Anaxo from Troy; and after
Hippolyta he also had Phædra.
5. And Philip the Macedonian did not take any women with him to his
wars, as Darius did, whose power was subverted by Alexander. For he
used to take about with him three hundred and fifty concubines in
all his wars; as Dicæearchus relates in the third book of his Life in
Greece. "But Philip," says he, "was always marrying new wives in war
time. For, in the twenty-two years which he reigned, as Satyrus relates
in his History of his Life, having married Audata the Illyrian, he had
by her a daughter named Cynna; and he also married Phila, a sister
of Derdas and Machatas. And wishing to conciliate the nation of the
Thessalians, he had children by two Thessalian women; one of whom was
Nicesipolis of Pheræ, who brought him a daughter named Thessalonica;
and the other was Philenora of Larissa, by whom he had Aridæus. He
also acquired the kingdom of the Molossi, when he married Olympias,
by whom he had Alexander and Cleopatra. And when he subdued Thrace,
there came to him Cithelas, the king of the Thracians, bringing with
him Meda his daughter, and many presents: and having married her, he
added her to Olympias. And after all these, being violently in love,
he married Cleopatra, the sister of Hippostratus and niece of Attalus.
And bringing her also home to Olympias, he made all his life unquiet
and troubled. For, as soon as this marriage took place, Attalus said,
'Now, indeed, legitimate kings shall be born, and not bastards.' And
Alexander having heard this, smote Attalus with a goblet which he had
in his hand; and Attalus in return struck him with his cup. And after
that Olympias fled to the Molossi; and Alexander fled to the Illyrians.
And Cleopatra bore to Philip a daughter who was named Europa."
Euripides the poet, also, was much addicted to women: at all events
Hieronymus in his Historical Commentaries speaks as follows,—"When
some one told Sophocles that Euripides was a woman-hater, 'He may be,'
said he, 'in his tragedies, but in his bed he is very fond of women.'"
6. But our married women are not such as Eubulus speaks of in his
Female Garland-sellers—
By Jove, we are not painted with vermilion.
Nor with dark mulberry juice, as you are often:
And then, if in the summer you go out,
Two rivulets of dark discoloured hue
Flow from your eyes, and sweat drops from your jaws,
And makes a scarlet furrow down your neck;
And the light hair, which wantons o'er your face,
Seems grey, so thickly is it plastered over.
[Sidenote: RAPACITY OF COURTESANS.]
And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says—
The man whoe'er has loved a courtesan,
Will say that no more lawless worthless race
Can anywhere be found: for what ferocious
Unsociable she-dragon, what Chimæra,
Though it breathe fire from its mouth, what Charybdis,
What three-headed Scylla, dog o' the sea,
Or hydra, sphinx, or raging lioness,
Or viper, or winged harpy (greedy race),
Could go beyond those most accursed harlots?
There is no monster greater. They alone
Surpass all other evils put together.
And let us now consider them in order:—
First there is Plangon; she, like a chimæra,
Scorches the wretched barbarians with fire;
One knight alone was found to rid the world of her,
Who, like a brave man, stole her furniture
And fled, and she despairing, disappear'd.
Then for Sinope's friends, may I not say
That 'tis a hydra they cohabit with?
For she is old: but near her age, and like her,
Greedy Gnathæna flaunts, a two-fold evil.
And as for Nannion, in what, I pray,
Does she from Scylla differ? Has she not
Already swallow'd up two lovers, and
Open'd her greedy jaws t' enfold a third?
But he with prosp'rous oar escaped the gulf.
Then does not Phryne beat Charybdis hollow?
Who swallows the sea-captains, ship and all.
Is not Theano a mere Siren pluck'd?
Their face and voice are woman's, but their legs
Are feather'd like a blackbird's. Take the lot,
'Tis not too much to call them Theban Sphinxes.
For they speak nothing plain, but only riddles;
And in enigmas tell their victims how
They love and dote, and long to be caress'd.
"Would that I had a quadruped," says one,
That may serve for a bed or easy chair
"Would that I had a tripod"—"Or a biped,"
That is, a handmaid. And the hapless fool
Who understands these hints, like Œdipus,
If saved at all is saved against his will.
But they who do believe they're really loved
Are much elated, and raise their heads to heaven.
And in a word, of all the beasts on earth
The direst and most treacherous is a harlot.
7. After Laurentius had said all this, Leonidas, finding fault with
the name of wife (γαμετὴ), quoted these verses out of the
Soothsayers of Alexis—
Oh wretched are we husbands, who have sold
All liberty of life, all luxury,
And live as slaves of women, not as freemen.
We say we have a dowry; do we not
Endure the penalty, full of female bile,
Compared to which the bile of man's pure honey?
For men, though injured, pardon: but the women
First injure us, and then reproach us more;
They rule those whom they should not; those they should
They constantly neglect. They falsely swear;
They have no single hardship, no disease;
And yet they are complaining without end.
And Xenarchus, in his Sleep, says—
Are then the grasshoppers not happy, say you?
When they have wives who cannot speak a word.
And Philetærus, in his Corinthiast, says—
O Jupiter, how soft and bland an eye
The lady has! 'Tis not for nothing we
Behold the temple of Hetæra here;
But there is not one temple to a wife
Throughout the whole of Greece.
And Amphis says in his Athamas—
Is not a courtesan much more good-humour'd
Than any wedded wife? No doubt she is,
And 'tis but natural; for she, by law,
Thinks she's a right to sulk and stay at home:
But well the other knows that 'tis her manners
By which alone she can retain her friends;
And if they fail, she must seek out some others.
8. And Eubulus, in his Chrysille, says—
May that man, fool as he is, who marries
A second wife, most miserably perish;
Him who weds one, I will not blame too much,
For he knew little of the ills he courted.
But well the widower had proved all
The ills which are in wedlock and in wives.
And a little further on he says—
O holy Jove, may I be quite undone,
If e'er I say a word against the women,
The choicest of all creatures. And suppose
Medea was a termagant,—what then?
Was not Penelope a noble creature?
If one should say, "Just think of Clytæmnestra,"
I meet him with Alcestis chaste and true.
Perhaps he'll turn and say no good of Phædra;
But think of virtuous . . . who? . . . Alas, alas!
I cannot recollect another good one,
Though I could still count bad ones up by scores.
[Sidenote: FOLLY OF MARRYING.]
And Aristophon, in his Callonides, says—
May he be quite undone, he well deserves it,
Who dares to marry any second wife;
A man who marries once may be excused;
Not knowing what misfortune he was seeking.
But he who, once escaped, then tries another,
With his eyes open seeks for misery.
And Antiphanes, in his Philopator, says—
_A._ He's married now.
_B._ How say you? do you mean
He's really gone and married—when I left him,
Alive and well, possess'd of all his senses?
And Menander, in his Woman carrying the Sacred Vessel of Minerva, or
the Female Flute-player, says—
_A._ You will not marry if you're in your senses
When you have left this life. For I myself
Did marry; so I recommend you not to.
_B._ The matter is decided—the die is cast.
_A._ Go on then. I do wish you then well over it;
But you are taking arms, with no good reason,
Against a sea of troubles. In the waves
Of the deep Libyan or Ægean sea
Scarce three of thirty ships are lost or wreck'd;
But scarcely one poor husband 'scapes at all.
And in his Woman Burnt he says—
Oh, may the man be totally undone
Who was the first to venture on a wife;
And then the next who follow'd his example;
And then the third, and fourth, and all who follow'd.
And Carcinus the tragedian, in his Semele (which begins, "O nights"),
says—
O Jupiter, why need one waste one's words
In speaking ill of women? for what worse
Can he add, when he once has call'd them women?
9. But, above all other cases, those who when advanced in years marry
young wives, do not perceive that they are running voluntarily into
danger, which every one else foresees plainly: and that, too, though
the Megarian poet[15] has given them this warning:—
A young wife suits not with an aged husband;
For she will not obey the pilot's helm
Like a well-managed boat; nor can the anchor
Hold her securely in her port, but oft
She breaks her chains and cables in the night,
And headlong drives into another harbour.
And Theophilus, in his Neoptolemus, says—
A young wife does not suit an old man well;
For, like a crazy boat, she not at all
Answers the helm, but slips her cable off
By night, and in some other port is found.
10. And I do not think that any of you are ignorant, my friends, that
the greatest wars have taken place on account of women:—the Trojan war
on account of Helen; the plague which took place in it was on account
of Chryseis; the anger of Achilles was excited about Briseis; and the
war called the Sacred War, on account of another wife (as Duris relates
in the second book of his History), who was a Theban by birth, by name
Theano, and who was carried off by some Phocian. And this war also
lasted ten years, and in the tenth year was brought to an end by the
cooperation of Philip; for by his aid the Thebans took Phocis.
The war, also, which is called the Crissæan War (as Callisthenes
tells us in his account of the Sacred War), when the Crissæans made
war upon the Phocians, lasted ten years; and it was excited on this
account,—because the Crissæans carried off Megisto, the daughter of
Pelagon the Phocian, and the daughters of the Argives, as they were
returning from the Pythian temple: and in the tenth year Crissa was
taken. And whole families also have been ruined owing to women;—for
instance, that of Philip, the father of Alexander, was ruined on
account of his marriage with Cleopatra; and Hercules was ruined by his
marriage with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus; and Theseus on account
of his marriage with Phædra, the daughter of Minos; and Athamas on
account of his marriage with Themisto, the daughter of Hypseus; and
Jason on account of his marriage with Glauce, the daughter of Creon;
and Agamemnon on account of Cassandra. And the expedition of Cambyses
against Egypt (as Ctesias relates) took place on account of a woman;
for Cambyses, having heard that Egyptian women were far more amorous
than other women, sent to Amasis the king of the Egyptians, asking him
for one of his daughters in marriage. But he did not give him one of
his own daughters, thinking that she would not be honoured as a wife,
but only treated as a concubine; but he sent him Nitetis, the daughter
of Apries.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
And Apries had been deposed from the sovereignty of Egypt, because of
the defeats which had been received by him from the Cyreneans; and
afterwards he had been put to death by Amasis. Accordingly, Cambyses,
being much pleased with Nitetis, and being very violently in love
with her, learns the whole circumstances of the case from her; and
she entreated him to avenge the murder of Apries, and persuaded him
to make war upon the Egyptians. But Dinon, in his History of Persia,
and Lynceas of Naucratis, in the third book of his History of Egypt,
say that it was Cyrus to whom Nitetis was sent by Amasis; and that she
was the mother of Cambyses, who made this expedition against Egypt to
avenge the wrongs of his mother and her family. But Duris the Samian
says that the first war carried on by two women was that between
Olympias and Eurydice; in which Olympias advanced something in the
manner of a Bacchanalian, with drums beating; but Eurydice came forward
armed like a Macedonian soldier, having been already accustomed to war
and military habits at the court of Cynnane the Illyrian.
11. Now, after this conversation, it seemed good to the philosophers
who were present to say something themselves about love and about
beauty: and so a great many philosophical sentiments were uttered;
among which, some quoted some of the songs of the dramatic philosopher,
Euripides,—some of which were these:—
Love, who is wisdom's pupil gay,
To virtue often leads the way:
And this great god
Is of all others far the best for man;
For with his gentle nod
He bids them hope, and banishes all pain.
May I be ne'er mixed up with those who scorn
To own his power, and live forlorn,
Cherishing habits all uncouth.
I bid the youth
Of my dear country ne'er to flee from Love,
But welcome him, and willing subjects prove.[16]
And some one else quoted from Pindar—
Let it be my fate always to love,
And to obey Love's will in proper season.
And some one else added the following lines from Euripides—
But you, O mighty Love, of gods and men
The sovereign ruler, either bid what's fair
To seem no longer fair; or else bring aid
To hapless lovers whom you've caused to love,
And aid the labours you yourself have prompted.
If you do this, the gods will honour you;
But if you keep aloof, you will not even
Retain the gratitude which now they feel
For having learnt of you the way to love.[17]
12. And Pontianus said that Zeno the Cittiæan thought that Love was the
God of Friendship and Liberty, and also that he was the great author of
concord among men; but that he had no other office. On which account,
he says in his Polity, that Love is a God, being one who cooperates
in securing the safety of the city. And the philosophers, also, who
preceded him considered Love a venerable Deity, removed from everything
discreditable: and this is plain from their having set up holy statues
in his honour in their Gymnasia, along with those of Mercury and
Hercules—the one of whom is the patron of eloquence, and the other
of valour. And when these are united, friendship and unanimity are
engendered; by means of which the most perfect liberty is secured to
those who excel in these practices. But the Athenians were so far
from thinking that Love presided over the gratification of the mere
sensual appetites, that, though the Academy was manifestly consecrated
to Minerva, they yet erected in that place also a statue of Love, and
sacrificed to it.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
The Thespians also celebrate Erotidia, or festivals of Love, just as
the Athenians do Athenæa, or festivals of Minerva, and as the Eleans
celebrate the Olympian festivals, and the Rhodians the Halæan. And
in the public sacrifices, everywhere almost, Love is honoured. And
the Lacedæmonians offer sacrifices to Love before they go to battle,
thinking that safety and victory depend on the friendship of those who
stand side by side in the battle array. And the Cretans, in their line
of battle, adorn the handsomest of their citizens, and employ them to
offer sacrifices to Love on behalf of the state, as Sosicrates relates.
And the regiment among the Thebans which is called the Sacred Band, is
wholly composed of mutual lovers, indicating the majesty of the God, as
these men prefer a glorious death to a shameful and discreditable
life. But the Samians (as Erxias says, in his History of Colophon),
having consecrated a gymnasium to Love, called the festival which was
instituted in his honour the Eleutheria, or Feast of Liberty; and it
was owing to this God, too, that the Athenians obtained their freedom.
And the Pisistratidæ, after their banishment, were the first people
who ever endeavoured to throw discredit on the events which took place
through his influence.
13. After this had been said, Plutarch cited the following passage from
the Phædrus of Alexis:—
As I was coming from Piræus lately,
In great perplexity and sad distress,
I fell to thoughts of deep philosophy.
And first I thought that all the painters seem
Ignorant of the real nature of Love;
And so do all the other artists too,
Whoe'er make statues of this deity:
For he is neither male nor female either;
Again, he is not God, nor yet is he man:
He is not foolish, nor yet is he wise;
But he's made up of all kinds of quality,
And underneath one form bears many natures.
His courage is a man's; his cowardice
A very woman's. Then his folly is
Pure madness, but his wisdom a philosopher's;
His vehemence is that of a wild beast,
But his endurance is like adamant;
His jealousy equals any other god's.
And I, indeed,—by all the gods I swear,—
Do not myself precisely understand him;
But still he much resembles my description,
Excepting in the name.
And Eubulus, or Ararus, in his Campylion, says—
What man was he, what modeller or painter,
Who first did represent young Love as wing'd?
He was a man fit only to draw swallows.
Quite ignorant of the character of the god.
For he's not light, nor easy for a man
Who's once by him been master'd, to shake off;
But he's a heavy and tenacious master.
How, then, can he be spoken of as wing'd?
The man's a fool who such a thing could say.
And Alexis, in his Man Lamenting, says—
For this opinion is by all the Sophists
Embraced, that Love is not a winged god;
But that the winged parties are the lovers,
And that he falsely bears this imputation:
So that it is out of pure ignorance
That painters clothe this deity with wings.
14. And Theophrastus, in his book on Love, says that Chæremon the
tragedian said in one of his plays, that—
As wine adapts itself to the constitution
Of those who drink it, so likewise does Love
Who, when he's moderately worshipp'd,
Is mild and manageable; but if loosed
From moderation, then is fierce and troublesome.
On which account the same poet afterwards, distinguishing his powers
with some felicity, says—
For he doth bend a double bow of beauty,
And sometimes men to fortune leads,
But sometimes overwhelms their lives
With trouble and confusion.[18]
But the same poet also, in his play entitled The Wounded Man, speaks of
people in love in this manner:—
Who would not say that those who love alone
Deserve to be consider'd living men?
For first of all they must be skilful soldiers,
And able to endure great toil of body,
And to stick close to th' objects of their love:
They must be active, and inventive too,
Eager, and fertile in expedients,
And prompt to see their way in difficulties.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
And Theophilus, in his Man fond of the Flute, says—
Who says that lovers are devoid of sense?
He is himself no better than a fool:
For if you take away from life its pleasures,
You leave it nothing but impending death.
And I myself am now indeed in love
With a fair maiden playing on the harp;
And tell me, pray, am I a fool for that?
She's fair, she's tall, she's skilful in her art;
And I'm more glad when I see her, than you
When you divide your salaries among you.
But Aristophon, in his Pythagorean, says—
Now, is not Love deservedly cast out
From his place among the twelve immortal gods?
For he did sow the seeds of great confusion,
And quarrels dire, among that heavenly band,
When he was one of them. And, as he was
Bold and impertinent, they clipp'd his wings,
That he might never soar again to heaven;
And then they banished him to us below;
And for the wings which he did boast before,
Them they did give to Victory, a spoil
Well won, and splendid, from her enemy.
Amphis, too, in his Dithyrambic, speaks thus of loving—
What say'st thou?—dost thou think that all your words
Could e'er persuade me that that man's a lover
Who falls in love with a girl's manners only,
And never thinks what kind of face she's got?
I call him mad; nor can I e'er believe
That a poor man, who often sees a rich one,
Forbears to covet some of his great riches.
But Alexis says in his Helena—
The man who falls in love with beauty's flower,
And taketh heed of nothing else, may be
A lover of pleasure, but not of his love;
And he does openly disparage Love,
And causes him to be suspect to others.
15. Myrtilus, having cited these lines of Alexis, and then looking
round on the men who were partisans of the Stoic school, having first
recited the following passage out of the lambics of Hermeas the Curian—
Listen, you Stoiclings, traffickers in nonsense,
Punners on words,—gluttons, who by yourselves
Eat up the whole of what is in the dishes,
And give no single bit to a philosopher.
Besides, you are most clearly proved to do
All that is contrary to those professions
Which you so pompously parade abroad,
Hunting for beauty;—
went on to say,—And in this point alone you are imitators of the
master of your school, Zeno the Phœnician, who was always a slave to
the most infamous passions (as Antigonus the Carystian relates, in
his History of his Life); for you are always saying that "the proper
object of love is not the body, but the mind;" you who say at the same
time, that you ought to remain faithful to the objects of your love,
till they are eight-and-twenty years of age. And Ariston of Ceos, the
Peripatetic, appears to me to have said very well (in the second book
of his treatise on Likenesses connected with Love), to some Athenian
who was very tall for his age, and at the same time was boasting of his
beauty, (and his name was Dorus,) "It seems to me that one may very
well apply to you the line which Ulysses uttered when he met Dolon—
Great was thy aim, and mighty is the prize.[19]
16. But Hegesander, in his Commentaries, says that all men love
seasoned dishes, but not plain meats, or plainly dressed fish. And
accordingly, when seasoned dishes are wanting, no one willingly
eats either meat or fish; nor does any one desire meat which is raw
and unseasoned. For anciently men used to love boys (as Aristophon
relates); on which account it came to pass that the objects of their
love were called παιδικά. And it was with truth (as Clearchus
says in the first book of his treatise on Love and the Affairs of Love)
that Lycophronides said—
No boy, no maid with golden ornaments,
No woman with a deep and ample robe,
Is so much beautiful as modest; for
'Tis modesty that gives the bloom to beauty.
And Aristotle said that lovers look at no other part of the objects of
their affection, but only at their eyes, in which modesty makes her
abode. And Sophocles somewhere represents Hippodamia as speaking of the
beauty of Pelops, and saying—
And in his eyes the charm which love compels
Shines forth a light, embellishing his face:
He glows himself, and he makes me glow too,
Measuring my eyes with his,—as any builder
Makes his work correspond to his careful rule.[20]
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
17. And Licymnius the Chian, saying that Somnus was in love with
Endymion, represents him as refusing to close the eyes of the youth
even when he is asleep; but the God sends his beloved object to sleep
with his eyelids still open, so that he may not for a single moment
be deprived of the pleasure of contemplating them. And his words are
these—
But Somnus much delighted
In the bright beams which shot from his eyes,
And lull'd the youth to sleep with unclosed lids.
And Sappho says to a man who was admired above all measure for his
beauty, and who was accounted very handsome indeed—
Stand opposite, my love,
And open upon me
The beauteous grace which from your eyes doth flow.
And what says Anacreon?—
Oh, boy, as maiden fair,
I fix my heart on you;
But you despise my prayer,
And little care that you do hold the reins
Which my soul's course incessantly do guide.[21]
And the magnificent Pindar says—
The man who gazes on the brilliant rays
Which shoot from th' eyes
Of beautiful Theoxenus, and yet can feel his heart
Unmoved within his breast, nor yields to love,
Must have a heart
Black, and composed of adamant or iron.[22]
But the Cyclops of Philoxenus of Cythera, in love with Galatea, and
praising her beauty, and prophesying, as it were, his own blindness,
praises every part of her rather than mention her eyes, which he does
not; speaking thus:—
O Galatea,
Nymph with the beauteous face and golden hair,
Whose voice the Graces tune,
True flower of love, my beauteous Galatea.
But this is but a blind panegyric, and not at all to be compared with
the encomium of Ibycus:—
Beauteous Euryalus, of all the Graces
The choicest branch,—object of love to all
The fair-hair'd maidens,—sure the soft-eyed goddess,
The Cyprian queen, and soft Persuasion
Combin'd to nourish you on beds of roses.
And Phrynichus said of Troilus—
The light of love shines in his purple cheeks.
18. But you prefer having all the objects of your love shaved and
hairless. And this custom of shaving the beard originated in the age of
Alexander, as Chrysippus tells us in the fourth book of his treatise on
The Beautiful and on Pleasure. And I think it will not be unseasonable
if I quote what he says; for he is an author of whom I am very fond, on
account of his great learning and his gentle good-humoured disposition.
And this is the language of the philosopher:—"The custom of shaving
the beard was introduced in the time of Alexander, for the people in
earlier times did not practise it; and Timotheus the flute-player used
to play on the flute having a very long beard. And at Athens they even
now remember that the man who first shaved his chin, (and he is not a
very ancient man indeed,) was given the surname of Κόρσης;[23]
on which account Alexis says—
Do you see any man whose beard has been
Removed by sharp pitch-plasters or by razors?
In one of these two ways he may be spoken of:
Either he seems to me to think of war,
And so to be rehearsing acts of fierce
Hostility against his beard and chin;
Or else he's some complaint of wealthy men.
For how, I pray you, do your beards annoy you?—
Beards by which best you may be known as men?
Unless, indeed, you're planning now some deed
Unworthy of the character of men.
And Diogenes, when he saw some one once whose chin was smooth, said,
'I am afraid you think you have great ground to accuse nature, for
having made you a man and not a woman.' And once, when he saw another
man, riding a horse, who was shaved in the same manner, and perfumed
all over, and clothed, too, in a fashion corresponding to those
particulars, he said that he had often asked what a Ἱππόπορνος was;
and now he had found out. And at Rhodes, though there is a law against
shaving, still no one ever prosecutes another for doing so, as the
whole population is shaved. And at Byzantium, though there is a penalty
to which any barber is liable who is possessed of a razor, still every
one uses a razor none the less for that law." And this is the statement
of the admirable Chrysippus.
[Sidenote: BEAUTY.]
19. But that wise Zeno, as Antigonus the Carystian says, speaking, as
it should seem, almost prophetically of the lives and professed
discipline of your sect, said that "those who misunderstood and failed
rightly to enter into the spirit of his words, would become dirty and
ungentlemanlike-looking; just as those who adopted Aristippus's sect,
but perverted his precepts, became intemperate and shameless." And the
greater portion of you are such as that, men with contracted brows, and
dirty clothes, sordid not only in your dispositions, but also in your
appearance. For, wishing to assume the character of independence and
frugality, you are found at the gate of covetousness, living sordidly,
clothed in scanty cloaks, filling the soles of your shoes with nails,
and giving hard names to any one who uses the very smallest quantity
of perfume, or who is dressed in apparel which is at all delicate. But
men of your sect have no business to be attracted by money, or to lead
about the objects of their love with their beards shaved and smooth,
who follow you about the Lyceum—
Thin, starved philosophers, as dry as leather,
as Antiphanes calls them.
20. But I am a great admirer of beauty myself. For, in the contests
[at Athens] for the prize of manliness, they select the handsomest,
and give them the post of honour to bear the sacred vessels at the
festivals of the gods. And at Elis there is a contest as to beauty, and
the conqueror has the vessels of the goddess given to him to carry;
and the next handsomest has the ox to lead, and the third places the
sacrificial cakes on the head of the victim. But Heraclides Lembus
relates that in Sparta the handsomest man and the handsomest woman have
special honours conferred on them; and Sparta is famous for producing
the handsomest women in the world. On which account they tell a story
of king Archidamus, that when one wife was offered to him who was very
handsome, and another who was ugly but rich, and he chose the rich
one, the Ephori imposed a fine upon him, saying that he had preferred
begetting kinglings rather than kings for the Spartans. And Euripides
has said—
Her very mien is worthy of a kingdom.[24]
And in Homer, the old men among the people marvelling at the beauty of
Helen, are represented as speaking thus to one another—
They cried, "No wonder such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms;—
What winning graces! what majestic mien!
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen."[25]
And even Priam himself is moved at the beauty of the woman, though he
is in great distress. And also he admires Agamemnon for his beauty, and
uses the following language respecting him—
Say, what Greek is he
Around whose brow such martial graces shine,—
So tall, so awful, and almost divine?
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien.[26]
And many nations have made the handsomest men their kings on that
account. As even to this day that Æthiopian tribe called the Immortals
does; as Bion relates in his History of the Affairs of Æthiopia. For,
as it would seem, they consider beauty as the especial attribute of
kings. And goddesses have contended with one another respecting beauty;
and it was on account of his beauty that the gods carried off Ganymede
to be their cup-bearer—
The matchless Ganymede, divinely fair,
Whom Heaven, enamour'd, snatch'd to upper air.[27]
And who are they whom the goddesses have carried off? are they not the
handsomest of men? And they cohabit with them; as Aurora does with
Cephalus and Clitus and Tithonus; and Ceres with Jason; and Venus with
Anchises and Adonis. And it was for the sake of beauty also that the
greatest of the gods entered through a roof under the form of gold, and
became a bull, and often transformed himself into a winged eagle, as he
did in the case of Ægina. And Socrates the philosopher, who despised
everything, was, for all that, subdued by the beauty of Alcibiades; as
also was the venerable Aristotle by the beauty of his pupil Phaselites.
And do not we too, even in the case of inanimate things, prefer what
is the most beautiful? The fashion, too, of Sparta is much praised, I
mean that of displaying their virgins naked to their guests; and in
the island of Chios it is a beautiful sight to go to the gymnasia and
the race-courses, and to see the young men wrestling naked with the
maidens, who are also naked.
[Sidenote: BEAUTY.]
21. And Cynulcus said:—And do you dare to talk in this way, you who
are not "rosy-fingered," as Cratinus says, but who have one foot made
of cow-dung? and do you bring up again the recollection of that poet
your namesake, who spends all his time in cookshops and inns? although
Isocrates the orator has said, in his Areopagitic Oration, "But not
one of their servants ever would have ventured to eat or drink in a
cookshop; for they studied to keep up the dignity of their appearance,
and not to behave like buffoons." And Hyperides, in his oration against
Patrocles, (if, at least, the speech is a genuine one,) says that
they forbade a man who had dined at a cookshop from going up to the
Areopagus. But you, you sophist, spend your time in cookshops, not with
your friends (ἑταίρων), but with prostitutes (ἑταιρῶν), having a lot
of pimps and procuresses about you, and always carrying about these
books of Aristophanes, and Apollodorus, and Ammonius, and Antiphanes,
and also of Gorgias the Athenian, who have all written about the
prostitutes at Athens.
Oh, what a learned man you are! how far are you from imitating
Theomandrus of Cyrene, who, as Theophrastus, in his treatise on
Happiness, says, used to go about and profess that he gave lessons in
prosperity. You, you teacher of love, are in no respect better than
Amasis of Elis, whom Theophrastus, in his treatise on Love, says was
extraordinarily addicted to amatory pursuits. And a man will not be
much out who calls you a πορνογράφος, just as they call Aristides
and Pausanias and Nicophanes ζωγράφοι. And Polemo mentions them, as
painting the subjects which they did paint exceedingly well, in his
treatise on the Pictures at Sicyon. Think, my friends, of the great and
varied learning of this grammarian, who does not conceal what he means,
but openly quotes the verses of Eubulus, in his Cercopes—
I came to Corinth; there I ate with pleasure
Some herb called basil (ocimum), and was ruin'd by it;
And also, trifling there, I lost my cloak.
And the Corinthian sophist is very fine here, explaining to his pupils
that Ocimum is the name of a harlot. And a great many other plays also,
you impudent fellow, derived their names from courtesans. There is the
Thalassa of Diodes, the Corianno of Pherecrates, the Antea of Eunicus
or Philyllus, the Thais, and the Phanion of Menander, the Opora of
Alexis, the Clepsydra of Eubulus—and the woman who bore this name, had
it because she used to distribute her company by the hour-glass, and to
dismiss her visitors when it had run down; as Asclepiades, the son of
Areas, relates in his History of Demetrius Phalereus; and he says that
her proper name was Meticha.
22.
There is a courtesan . . . . .
(as Antiphanes says in his Clown)—
. . . who is a positive
Calamity and ruin to her keeper;
And yet he's glad at nourishing such a pest.
On which account, in the Neæra of Timocles, a man is represented as
lamenting his fate, and saying—
But I, unhappy man, who first loved Phryne
When she was but a gatherer of capers,
And was not quite as rich as now she is,—
I who such sums of money spent upon her,
Am now excluded from her doors.
And in the play entitled Orestantoclides, the same Timocles says—
And round the wretched man old women sleep,
Nannium and Plangon, Lyca, Phryne too,
Gnathæna, Pythionica, Myrrhina,
Chrysis, Conallis, Hieroclea, and
Lapadium also.
And these courtesans are mentioned by Amphis, in his Curis, where he
says—
Wealth truly seems to me to be quite blind,
Since he ne'er ventures near this woman's doors,
But haunts Sinope, Nannium, and Lyca,
And others like them, traps of men's existence,
And in their houses sits like one amazed,
And ne'er departs.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
23. And Alexis, in the drama entitled Isostasium, thus describes the
equipment of a courtesan, and the artifices which some women use to
make themselves up—
For, first of all, to earn themselves much gain,
And better to plunder all the neighbouring men,
They use a heap of adventitious aids.—
They plot to take in every one. And when,
By subtle artifice, they've made some money,
They enlist fresh girls, and add recruits, who ne'er
Have tried the trade, unto their cunning troop,
And drill them so that they are very soon
Different in manners, and in look, and semblance
From all they were before. Suppose one's short—
They put cork soles within the heels of her shoes:
Is any one too tall—she wears a slipper
Of thinnest substance, and, with head depress'd
Between the shoulders, walks the public streets,
And so takes off from her superfluous height.
Is any one too lean about the flank—
They hoop her with a bustle, so that all
Who see her marvel at her fair proportions.
Has any one too prominent a stomach—
They crown it with false breasts, such as perchance
At times you may in comic actors see;
And what is still too prominent, they force
Back, ramming it as if with scaffolding.
Has any one red eyebrows—those they smear
With soot. Has any one a dark complexion—
White-lead will that correct. This girl's too fair—
They rub her well with rich vermilion.
Is she a splendid figure—then her charms
Are shown in naked beauty to the purchaser.
Has she good teeth—then she is forced to laugh,
That all the bystanders may see her mouth,
How beautiful it is; and if she be
But ill-inclined to laugh, then she is kept
Close within doors whole days, and all the things
Which cooks keep by them when they sell goats' heads,
Such as a stick of myrrh, she's forced to keep
Between her lips, till they have learnt the shape
Of the required grin. And by such arts
They make their charms and persons up for market.
24. And therefore I advise you, my Thessalian friend with the handsome
chairs, to be content to embrace the women in the brothels, and not to
spend the inheritance of your children on vanities. For, truly, the
lame man gets on best at this sort of work; since your father, the
boot-maker, did not lecture you and teach you any great deal, and did
not confine you to looking at leather. Or do you not know those women,
as we find them called in the Pannuchis of Eubulus—
Thrifty decoys, who gather in the money,—
Fillies well-train'd of Venus, standing naked
In long array, clad in transparent robes
Of thinnest web, like the fair damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream;
From whom, with safety and frugality,
You may buy pleasure at a moderate cost.
And in his Nannium, (the play under this name is the work of Eubulus,
and not of Philippides)—
For he who secretly goes hunting for
Illicit love, must surely of all men
Most miserable be; and yet he may
See in the light of the sun a willing row
Of naked damsels, standing all array'd
In robes transparent, like the damsels whom
Eridanus waters with his holy stream,
And buy some pleasure at a trifling rate,
Without pursuing joys he's bound to hide,
(There is no heavier calamity,)
Just out of wantonness and not for love.
I do bewail the fate of hapless Greece,
Which sent forth such an admiral as Cydias.
Xenarchus also, in his Pentathlum, reproaches those men who live as you
do, and who fix their hearts on extravagant courtesans, and on freeborn
women; in the following lines—
It is a terrible, yes a terrible and
Intolerable evil, what the young
Men do throughout this city. For although
There are most beauteous damsels in the brothels,
Which any man may see standing all willing
In the full light of day, with open bosoms,
Showing their naked charms, all of a row,
Marshall'd in order; and though they may choose
Without the slightest trouble, as they fancy,
Thin, stout, or round, tall, wrinkled, or smooth-faced,
Young, old, or middle-aged, or elderly,
So that they need not clamber up a ladder,
Nor steal through windows out of free men's houses,
Nor smuggle themselves in in bags of chaff;
For these gay girls will ravish you by force,
And drag you in to them; if old, they'll call you
Their dear papa; if young, their darling baby:
And these a man may fearlessly and cheaply
Amuse himself with, morning, noon, or night,
And any way he pleases; but the others
He dares not gaze on openly nor look at,
But, fearing, trembling, shivering, with his heart,
As men say, in his mouth, he creeps towards them.
And how can they, O sea-born mistress mine,
Immortal Venus! act as well they ought,
E'en when they have the opportunity,
If any thought of Draco's laws comes o'er them?
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
25. And Philemon, in his Brothers, relates that Solon at first, on
account of the unbridled passions of the young, made a law that women
might be brought to be prostituted at brothels; as Nicander of Colophon
also states, in the third book of his History of the Affairs of
Colophon,—saying that he first erected a temple to the Public Venus
with the money which was earned by the women who were prostituted at
these brothels.
But Philemon speaks on this subject as follows:—
But you did well for every man, O Solon;
For they do say you were the first to see
The justice of a public-spirited measure,
The saviour of the state—(and it is fit
For me to utter this avowal, Solon);—
You, seeing that the state was full of men,
Young, and possess'd of all the natural appetites,
And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business,
Bought women, and in certain spots did place them,
Common to be, and ready for all comers.
They naked stand: look well at them, my youth,—
Do not deceive yourself; a'nt you well off?
You're ready, so are they: the door is open—
The price an obol: enter straight—there is
No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;
But do just what you like, and how you like.
You're off: wish her good-bye; she's no more claim on you.
And Aspasia, the friend of Socrates, imported great numbers of
beautiful women, and Greece was entirely filled with her courtesans;
as that witty writer Aristophanes (in his Acharnenses[28])
relates,—saying, that the Peloponnesian war was excited by Pericles,
on account of his love for Aspasia, and on account of the girls who had
been carried away from her by the Megarians.
For some young men, drunk with the cottabus
Going to Megara, carry off by stealth
A harlot named Simætha. Then the citizens
Of Megara, full of grief and indignation,
Stole in return two of Aspasia's girls;
And this was the beginning of the war
Which devastated Greece, for three lewd women.
26. I therefore, my most learned grammarian, warn you to beware of the
courtesans who want a high price, because
You may see other damsels play the flute,
All playing th' air of Phœbus, or of Jove;
But these play no air save the air of the hawk,
as Epicrates says in his Anti-Lais; in which play he also uses the
following expressions concerning the celebrated Lais:—
But this fair Lais is both drunk and lazy,
And cares for nothing, save what she may eat
And drink all day. And she, as I do think,
Has the same fate the eagles have; for they,
When they are young, down from the mountains stoop,
Ravage the flocks and eat the timid hares,
Bearing their prey aloft with fearful might.
But when they're old, on temple tops they perch,
Hungry and helpless; and the soothsayers
Turn such a sight into a prodigy.
And so might Lais well be thought an omen;
For when she was a maiden, young and fresh,
She was quite savage with her wondrous riches;
And you might easier get access to
The satrap Pharnabazus. But at present,
Now that she's more advanced in years, and age
Has meddled with her body's round proportions,
'Tis easy both to see her and to scorn her.
Now she runs everywhere to get some drink;
She'll take a stater—aye, or a triobolus;
She will admit you, young or old; and is
Become so tame, so utterly subdued,
That she will take the money from your hand.
Anaxandrides also, in his Old-Man's Madness, mentions Lais, and
includes her with many other courtesans in a list which he gives in the
following lines:—
_A._ You know Corinthian Lais?
_B._ To be sure;
My countrywoman.
_A._ Well, she had a friend,
By name Anthea.
_B._ Yes; I knew her well.
_A._ Well, in those days Lagisca was in beauty;
Theolyta, too, was wondrous fair to see,
And seemed likely to be fairer still;
And Ocimon was beautiful as any.
27. This, then, is the advice I want to give you, my friend Myrtilus;
and, as we read in the Cynegis of Philetærus,—
Now you are old, reform those ways of yours;
Know you not that 'tis hardly well to die
In the embraces of a prostitute,
As men do say Phormisius perished?
Or do you think that delightful which Timocles speaks of in his
Marathonian Women?—
[Sidenote: HETÆRÆ.]
How great the difference whether you pass the night
With a lawful wife or with a prostitute!
Bah! Where's the firmness of the flesh, the freshness
Of breath and of complexion? Oh, ye gods!
What appetite it gives one not to find
Everything waiting, but to be constrain'd
To struggle a little, and from tender hands
To bear soft blows and bullets; that, indeed,
Is really pleasure.
And as Cynulcus had still a good deal which he wished to say, and as
Magnus was preparing to attack him for the sake of Myrtilus,—Myrtilus,
being beforehand with him (for he hated the Syrian), said—
But our hopes were not so clean worn out,
As to need aid from bitter enemies;
as Callimachus says. For are not we, O Cynulcus, able to defend
ourselves?
How rude you are, and boorish with your jokes!
Your tongue is all on the left side of your mouth;
as Ephippus says in his Philyra. For you seem to me to be one of those
men
Who of the Muses learnt but ill-shaped letters,
as some one of the parody writers has it.
28. I therefore, my friends and messmates, have not, as is said in the
Auræ of Metagenes, or in the Mammacythus of Aristagoras,
Told you of female dancers, courtesans
Who once were fair; and now I do not tell you
Of flute-playing girls, just reaching womanhood,
Who not unwillingly, for adequate pay,
Have borne the love of vulgar men;
but I have been speaking of regular professional Hetæræ—that is to say,
of those who are able to preserve a friendship free from trickery; whom
Cynulcus does not venture to speak ill of, and who of all women are the
only ones who have derived their name from friendship, or from that
goddess who is named by the Athenians Venus Hetæra: concerning whom
Apollodorus the Athenian speaks, in his treatise on the Gods, in the
following manner:—"And they worship Venus Hetæra, who brings together
male and female companions (ἑταίρους καὶ ἑταίρας)—that is to say,
mistresses." Accordingly, even to this day, freeborn women and maidens
call their associates and friends their ἑταῖραι; as Sappho does, where
she says—
And now with tuneful voice I'll sing
These pleasing songs to my companions (ἑταίραις).
And in another place she says—
Niobe and Latona were of old
Affectionate companions (ἑταῖραι) to each other.
They also call women who prostitute themselves for money, ἑταῖραι. And
the verb which they use for prostituting oneself for money is ἑταιρέω,
not regarding the etymology of the word, but applying a more decent
term to the trade; as Menander, in his Deposit, distinguishing the
ἑταῖροι from the ἑταῖραι, says—
You've done an act not suited to companions (ἑταίρωv),
But, by Jove, far more fit for courtesans (ἑταιρῶν),
These words, so near the same, do make the sense
Not always easily to be distinguished.
29. But concerning courtesans, Ephippus, in his Merchandise, speaks as
follows:—
And then if, when we enter through their doors,
They see that we are out of sorts at all,
They flatter us and soothe us, kiss us gently,
Not pressing hard as though our lips were enemies,
But with soft open kisses like a sparrow;
They sing, and comfort us, and make us cheerful,
And straightway banish all our care and grief,
And make our faces bright again with smiles.
And Eubulus, in his Campylion, introducing a courtesan of modest
deportment, says—
How modestly she sat the while at supper!
Not like the rest, who make great balls of leeks,
And stuff their cheeks with them, and loudly crunch
Within their jaws large lumps of greasy meat;
But delicately tasting of each dish,
In mouthfuls small, like a Milesian maiden.
And Antiphanes says in his Hydra—
But he, the man of whom I now was speaking,
Seeing a woman who lived near his house,
A courtesan, did fall at once in love with her;
She was a citizen, without a guardian
Or any near relations, and her manners
Pure, and on virtue's strictest model form'd,
A genuine mistress (ἑταῖρα); for the rest of the crew
Bring into disrepute, by their vile manners,
A name which in itself has nothing wrong.
And Anaxilas, in his Neottis, says—
[Sidenote: HETÆRÆ.]
_A._ But if a woman does at all times use
Fair, moderate language, giving her services
Favourable to all who stand in need of her,
She from her prompt companionship (ἑταιρίας) does earn
The title of companion (ἑταῖρα); and you,
As you say rightly, have not fall'n in love
With a vile harlot (πόρνη), but with a companion (ἑταῖρα).
Is she not one of pure and simple manners?
_B._ At all events, by Jove, she's beautiful.
30. But that systematic debaucher of youths of yours, is such a person
as Alexis, or Antiphanes, represents him, in his Sleep—
On this account, that profligate, when supping
With us, will never eat an onion even,
Not to annoy the object of his love.
And Ephippus has spoken very well of people of that description in his
Sappho, where he says—
For when one in the flower of his age
Learns to sneak into other men's abodes,
And shares of meals where he has not contributed,
He must some other mode of payment mean.
And Æschines the orator has said something of the same kind in his
Speech against Timarchus.
31. But concerning courtesans, Philetærus, in his Huntress, has the
following lines:—
'Tis not for nothing that where'er we go
We find a temple of Hetæra there,
But nowhere one to any wedded wife.
I know, too, that there is a festival called the Hetæridia, which is
celebrated in Magnesia, not owing to the courtesans, but to another
cause, which is mentioned by Hegesander in his Commentaries, who writes
thus:—"The Magnesians celebrate a festival called Hetæridia; and they
give this account of it: that originally Jason, the son of Æson, when
he had collected the Argonauts, sacrificed to Jupiter Hetærias, and
called the festival Hetæridia. And the Macedonian kings also celebrated
the Hetæridia."
There is also a temple of Venus the Prostitute (πόρνη) at Abydus, as
Pamphylus asserts:—"For when all the city was oppressed by slavery, the
guards in the city, after a sacrifice on one occasion (as Cleanthus
relates in his essays on Fables), having got intoxicated, took several
courtesans; and one of these women, when she saw that the men were all
fast asleep, taking the keys, got over the wall, and brought the news
to the citizens of Abydus. And they, on this, immediately came in arms,
and slew the guards, and made themselves masters of the walls, and
recovered their freedom; and to show their gratitude to the prostitute
they built a temple to Venus the Prostitute."
And Alexis the Samian, in the second book of his Samian Annals,
says—"The Athenian prostitutes who followed Pericles when he laid siege
to Samos, having made vast sums of money by their beauty, dedicated
a statue of Venus at Samos, which some call Venus among the Reeds,
and others Venus in the Marsh." And Eualces, in his History of the
Affairs of Ephesus, says that there is at Ephesus also a temple to
Venus the Courtesan (ἑταῖρα). And Clearchus, in the first book of his
treatise on Amatory Matters, says—"Gyges the king of the Lydians was
very celebrated, not only on account of his mistress while she was
alive, having submitted himself and his whole dominions to her power,
but also after she was dead; inasmuch as he assembled all the Lydians
in the whole country, and raised that mound which is even now called
the tomb of the Lydian Courtesan; building it up to a great height, so
that when he was travelling in the country, inside of Mount Tmolus,
wherever he was, he could always see the tomb; and it was a conspicuous
object to all the inhabitants of Lydia." And Demosthenes the orator,
in his Speech against Neæra (if it is a genuine one, which Apollodorus
says it is), says—"Now we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure,
but concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and wives for the
purpose of having children legitimately, and of having a faithful
guardian of all our household affairs."
32. I will now mention to you, O Cynulcus, an Ionian story (spinning it
out, as Æschylus says,) about courtesans, beginning with the beautiful
Corinth, since you have reproached me with having been a schoolmaster
in that city.
It is an ancient custom at Corinth (as Chamæleon of Heraclea
relates, in his treatise on Pindar), whenever the city addresses any
supplication to Venus, about any important matter, to employ as many
courtesans as possible to join in the supplication; and they, too, pray
to the goddess, and afterwards they are present at the sacrifices.
And when the king of Persia was leading his army against Greece (as
Theopompus also relates, and so does Timæus, in his seventh book),
the Corinthian courtesans offered prayers for the safety of Greece,
going to the temple of Venus. On which account, after the Corinthians
had consecrated a picture to the goddess (which remains even to this
day), and as in this picture they had painted the portraits of the
courtesans who made this supplication at the time, and who were present
afterwards, Simonides composed this epigram:—
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
These damsels, in behalf of Greece, and all
Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth,
Praying to Venus, the all-powerful goddess;
Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever
To leave the citadel of Greece to fall
Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians.
And even private individuals sometimes vow to Venus, that if they
succeed in the objects for which they are offering their vows, they
will bring her a stated number of courtesans.
33. As this custom, then, exists with reference to this goddess,
Xenophon the Corinthian, when going to Olympia, to the games, vowed
that he, if he were victorious, would bring her some courtesans. And
Pindar at first wrote a panegyric on him, which begins thus:—
Praising the house which in th' Olympic games
Has thrice borne off the victory.[29]
But afterwards he composed a scolium[30] on him, which was sung at the
sacrificial feasts; in the exordium of which he turns at once to the
courtesans who joined in the sacrifice to Venus, in the presence of
Xenophon, while he was sacrificing to the goddess himself; on which
account he says—
O queen of Cyprus' isle,
Come to this grove!
Lo, Xenophon, succeeding in his aim,
Brings you a band of willing maidens,
Dancing on a hundred feet.
And the opening lines of the song were these:—
O hospitable damsels, fairest train
Of soft Persuasion,—
Ornament of the wealthy Corinth,
Bearing in willing hands the golden drops
That from the frankincense distil, and flying
To the fair mother of the Loves,
Who dwelleth in the sky,
The lovely Venus,—you do bring to us
Comfort and hope in danger, that we may
Hereafter, in the delicate beds of Love,
Heap the long-wished-for fruits of joy,
Lovely and necessary to all mortal men.
And after having begun in this manner, he proceeds to say—
But now I marvel, and wait anxiously
To see what will my masters say of me,
Who thus begin
My scolium with this amatory preface,
Willing companion of these willing damsels.
And it is plain here that the poet, while addressing the courtesans in
this way, was in some doubt as to the light in which it would appear to
the Corinthians; but, trusting to his own genius, he proceeds with the
following verse—
We teach pure gold on a well-tried lyre.
And Alexis, in his Loving Woman, tells us that the courtesans at
Corinth celebrate a festival of their own, called Aphrodisia; where he
says—
The city at the time was celebrating
The Aphrodisia of the courtesans:
This is a different festival from that
Which the free women solemnize: and then
It is the custom on those days that all
The courtesans should feast with us in common.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
34. But at Lacedæmon (as Polemo Periegetes says, in his treatise on
the Offerings at Lacedæmon,) there is a statue of a very celebrated
courtesan, named Cottina, who, he tells us, consecrated a brazen
cow; and Polemo's words are these:—"And the statue of Cottina the
courtesan, on account of whose celebrity there is still a brothel which
is called by her name, near the hill on which the temple of Bacchus
stands, is a conspicuous object, well known to many of the citizens.
And there is also a votive offering of hers besides that to Minerva
Chalciœcos—a brazen cow, and also the before-mentioned image." And the
handsome Alcibiades, of whom one of the comic poets said—
And then the delicate Alcibiades,
O earth and all the gods! whom Lacedæmon
Desires to catch in his adulteries,
though he was beloved by the wife of Agis, used to go and held his
revels at the doors of the courtesans, leaving all the Lacedæmonian
and Athenian women. He also fell in love with Medontis of Abydos, from
the mere report of her beauty; and sailing to the Hellespont with
Axiochus, who was a lover of his on account of his beauty, (as Lysias
the orator states, in his speech against him,) he allowed Axiochus to
share her with him. Moreover, Alcibiades used always to carry about two
other courtesans with him in all his expeditions, namely, Damasandra,
the mother of the younger Lais, and Theodote; by whom, after he was
dead, he was buried in Melissa, a village of Phrygia, after he had been
overwhelmed by the treachery of Pharnabazus. And we ourselves saw the
tomb of Alcibiades at Melissa, when we went from Synadæ to Metropolis;
and at that tomb there is sacrificed an ox every year, by the command
of that most excellent emperor Adrian, who also erected on the tomb a
statue of Alcibiades in Parian marble.
35. And we must not wonder at people having on some occasions fallen
in love with others from the mere report of their beauty, when Chares
of Mitylene, in the tenth book of his History of Alexander, says
that some people have even seen in dreams those whom they have never
beheld before, and fallen in love with them so. And he writes as
follows:—"Hystaspes had a younger brother whose name was Zariadres:
and they were both men of great personal beauty. And the story told
concerning them by the natives of the country is, that they were the
offspring of Venus and Adonis. Now Hystaspes was sovereign of Media,
and of the lower country adjoining it; and Zariadres was sovereign of
the country above the Caspian gates as far as the river Tanais. Now the
daughter of Omartes, the king of the Marathi, a tribe dwelling on the
other side of the Tanais, was named Odatis. And concerning her it is
written in the Histories, that she in her sleep beheld Zariadres, and
fell in love with him; and that the very same thing happened to him
with respect to her. And so for a long time they were in love with one
another, simply on account of the visions which they had seen in their
dreams. And Odatis was the most beautiful of all the women in Asia; and
Zariadres also was very handsome. Accordingly, when Zariadres sent to
Omartes and expressed a desire to marry the damsel, Omartes would not
agree to it, because he was destitute of male offspring; for he wished
to give her to one of his own people about his court. And not long
afterwards, Omartes having assembled all the chief men of his kingdom,
and all his friends and relations, held a marriage-feast, without
saying beforehand to whom he was going to give his daughter. And as the
wine went round, her father summoned Odatis to the banquet, and said,
in the hearing of all the guests,—'We, my daughter Odatis, are now
celebrating your marriage-feast; so now do you look around, and survey
all those who are present, and then take a golden goblet and fill it,
and give it to the man to whom you like to be married; for you shall be
called his wife.' And she, having looked round upon them all, went away
weeping, being anxious to see Zariadres, for she had sent him word that
her marriage-feast was about to be celebrated. But he, being encamped
on the Tanais, and leaving the army encamped there without being
perceived, crossed the river with his charioteer alone; and going by
night in his chariot, passed through the city, having gone about eight
hundred stadia without stopping. And when he got near the town in which
the marriage festival was being celebrated, and leaving, in some place
near, his chariot with the charioteer, he went forward by himself,
clad in a Scythian robe. And when he arrived at the palace, and seeing
Odatis standing in front of the side-board in tears, and filling the
goblet very slowly, he stood near her and said, 'O Odatis, here I am
come, as you requested me to,—I, Zariadres.' And she, perceiving a
stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she
had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly rejoiced, gave him the bowl.
And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away,
having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing
their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon
her, they said that they did not know which way she was gone. And the
story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia,
and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of
the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private
houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their
daughters the name of Odatis."
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
36. Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a
similar circumstance as having taken place, writing as follows:—"The
Phocæans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Marseilles.
And Euxenus the Phocæan was connected by ties of hospitality with
Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was
celebrating the marriage-feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus,
who happened to be in the neighbourhood, to the feast. And the marriage
was to be conducted in this manner:—After the supper was over the
damsel was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly
mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to
whomsoever she gave it, he was to be the bridegroom. And the damsel
coming in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other
reason, gives the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was
Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father
(thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it)
had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife,
and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxena. And the family
which is descended from that damsel remains in Marseilles to this day,
and is known as the Protiadæ; for Protis was the name of the son of
Euxenus and Aristoxena."
37. And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot
full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market
was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and
Nannium. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan,
whose name was Abrotonum? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on
Illustrious Men—
Abrotonum was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.
But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History
of Grecian Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.
And when Cyrus the younger was making his expedition against his
brother, did he not carry with him a courtesan of Phocæa, who was a
very clever and very beautiful woman? and Zenophanes says that her name
was originally Milto, but that it was afterwards changed to Aspasia.
And a Milesian concubine also accompanied him. And did not the great
Alexander keep Thais about him, who was an Athenian courtesan? And
Clitarchus speaks of her as having been the cause that the palace
of Persepolis was burnt down. And this Thais, after the death of
Alexander, married Ptolemy, who became the first king of Egypt, and
she bore him sons, Leontiscus and Lagos, and a daughter named Irene,
who was married to Eunostus, the king of Soli, a town of Cyprus. And
the second king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus by name, as Ptolemy
Euergetes relates in the third book of his Commentaries, had a great
many mistresses,—namely, Didyma, who was a native of the country, and
very beautiful; and Bilisticha; and, besides them, Agathoclea, and
Stratonice, who had a great monument on the sea-shore, near Eleusis;
and Myrtium, and a great many more; as he was a man excessively
addicted to amatory pleasures. And Polybius, in the fourteenth book of
his History, says that there are a great many statues of a woman named
Clino, who was his cup-bearer, in Alexandria, clothed in a tunic only,
and holding a cornucopia in her hand. "And are not," says he, "the
finest houses called by the names of Myrtium, and Mnesis, and Pothina?
and yet Mnesis was only a female flute-player, and so was Pothine, and
Myrtium was one of the most notorious and common prostitutes in the
city."
Was there not also Agathoclea the courtesan, who had great power over
king Ptolemy Philopator? in fact, was it not she who was the ruin of
his whole kingdom? And Eumachus the Neapolitan, in the second book of
his History of Hannibal, says that Hieronymus, the tyrant of Syracuse,
fell in love with one of the common prostitutes who followed her trade
in a brothel, whose name was Pitho, and married her, and made her queen
of Syracuse.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
38. And Timotheus, who was general of the Athenians, with a very high
reputation, was the son of a courtesan, a Thracian by birth, but,
except that she was a courtesan, of very excellent character; for when
women of this class do behave modestly, they are superior to those who
give themselves airs on account of their virtue. But Timotheus being on
one occasion reproached as being the son of a mother of that character,
said,—"But I am much obliged to her, because it is owing to her that
I am the son of Conon." And Carystius, in his Historic Commentaries,
says that Philetærus the king of Pergamus, and of all that country
which is now called the New Province, was the son of a woman named
Boa, who was a flute-player and a courtesan, a Paphlagonian by birth.
And Aristophon the orator, who in the archonship of Euclides proposed
a law, that every one who was not born of a woman who was a citizen
should be accounted a bastard, was himself, convicted, by Calliades the
comic poet, of having children by a courtesan named Choregis, as the
same Carystius relates in the third book of his Commentaries.
Besides all these men, was not Demetrius Poliorcetes evidently in love
with Lamia the flute-player, by whom he had a daughter named Phila? And
Polemo, in his treatise on the colonnade called Pœcile at Sicyon, says
that Lamia was the daughter of Cleanor an Athenian, and that she built
the before-mentioned colonnade for the people of Sicyon. Demetrius was
also in love with Leæna, and she was also an Athenian courtesan; and
with a great many other women besides.
39. And Machon the comic poet, in his play entitled the Chriæ, speaks
thus:—
But as Leæna was by nature form'd
To give her lovers most exceeding pleasure,
And was besides much favour'd by Demetrius,
They say that Lamia also gratified
The king; and when he praised her grace and quickness,
The damsel answer'd: And besides you can,
If you do wish, subdue a lioness (λέαιναν).
But Lamia was always very witty and prompt in repartee, as also was
Gnathæna, whom we shall mention presently. And again Machon writes thus
about Lamia:—
Demetrius the king was once displaying
Amid his cups a great variety
Of kinds of perfumes to his Lamia:
Now Lamia was a female flute-player,
With whom 'tis always said Demetrius
Was very much in love. But when she scoff'd
At all his perfumes, and, moreover, treated
The monarch with exceeding insolence,
He bade a slave bring some cheap unguent, and
He rubbed himself with that, and smear'd his fingers,
And said, "At least smell this, O Lamia,
And see how much this scent does beat all others."
She laughingly replied: "But know, O king,
That smell does seem to me the worst of all."
"But," said Demetrius, "I swear, by the gods,
That 'tis produced from a right royal nut."
40. But Ptolemy the son of Agesarchus, in his History of Philopator,
giving a list of the mistresses of the different kings, says—"Philip
the Macedonian promoted Philinna, the dancing-woman, by whom he had
Aridæus, who was king of Macedonia after Alexander. And Demetrius
Poliorcetes, besides the women who have already been mentioned, had a
mistress named Mania; and Antigonus had one named Demo, by whom he had
a son named Alcyoneus; and Seleucus the younger had two, whose names
were Mysta and Nysa." But Heraclides Lenebus, in the thirty-sixth book
of his History, says that Demo was the mistress of Demetrius; and that
his father Antigonus was also in love with her: and that he put to
death Oxythemis as having sinned a good deal with Demetrius; and he
also put to the torture and executed the maid-servants of Demo.
41. But concerning the name of Mania, which we have just mentioned, the
same Machon says this:—
Some one perhaps of those who hear this now,
May fairly wonder how it came to pass
That an Athenian woman had a name,
Or e'en a nickname, such as Mania.
For 'tis disgraceful for a woman thus
To bear a Phrygian name; she being, too,
A courtesan from the very heart of Greece.
And how came she to sink the city of Athens,
By which all other nations are much sway'd?
The fact is that her name from early childhood
Was this—Melitta. And as she grew up
A trifle shorter than her playfellows,
But with a sweet voice and engaging manners,
And with such beauty and excellence of face
As made a deep impression upon all men,
She'd many lovers, foreigners and citizens.
So that when any conversation
Arose about this woman, each man said,
The fair Melitta was his madness (μανία). Aye,
And she herself contributed to this name;
For when she jested she would oft repeat
This word μανία; and when in sport she blamed
Or praised any one, she would bring in,
In either sentence, this word μανία.
So some one of her lovers, dwelling on
The word, appears to have nicknamed the girl
Mania; and this extra name prevailed
More than her real one. It seems, besides,
That Mania was afflicted with the stone.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
42. And that Mania was also excellent in witty repartee, Machon tells
us in these verses about her,—
There was a victor in the pancratium,
Named Leontiscus, who loved Mania,
And kept her with him as his lawful wife;
But finding afterwards that she did play
The harlot with Antenor, was indignant:
But she replied,—"My darling, never mind;
I only wanted just to feel and prove,
In a single night, how great the strength might be
Of two such athletes, victors at Olympia."
They say again that Mania once was ask'd,
By King Demetrius, for a perfect sight
Of all her beauties; and she, in return,
Demanded that he should grant her a favour.
When he agreed, she turned her back, and said,—
"O son of Agamemnon, now the Gods
Grant you to see what you so long have wish'd for."[31]
On one occasion, too, a foreigner,
Who a deserter was believed to be,
Had come by chance to Athens; and he sent
For Mania, and gave her all she ask'd.
It happen'd that he had procured for supper
Some of those table-jesters, common buffoons,
Who always raise a laugh to please their feeders;
And wishing to appear a witty man,
Used to politest conversation,
While Mania was sporting gracefully,
As was her wont, and often rising up
To reach a dish of hare, he tried to raise
A joke upon her, and thus spoke,—"My friends,
Tell me, I pray you by the Gods, what animal
You think runs fastest o'er the mountain-tops?"
"Why, my love, a deserter," answer'd Mania.
Another time, when Mania came to see him,
She laugh'd at the deserter, telling him,
That once in battle he had lost his shield.
But this brave soldier, looking somewhat fierce,
Sent her away. And as she was departing,
She said, "My love, don't be so much annoy'd;
For 'twas not you, who, when you ran away,
Did lose that shield, but he who lent it you."
Another time they say a man who was
A thorough profligate, did entertain
Mania at supper; and when he question'd her,
"Do you like being up or down the best?"
She laugh'd, and said, "I'd rather be up, my friend,
For I'm afraid, lest, if I lay me down,
You'd bite my plaited hair from off my head."
43. But Machon has also collected the witty sayings of other courtesans
too; and it will not be unseasonable to enumerate some of them now.
Accordingly he mentions Gnathæna thus:—
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
Diphilus once was drinking with Gnathæna.
Said he, "Your cup is somewhat cold, Gnathæna;"
And she replied, "'Tis no great wonder, Diphilus,
For we take care to put some of your Plays in it."
Diphilus was once invited to a banquet
At fair Gnathæna's house, as men do say,
On the holy day of Venus' festival—
(He being a man above her other lovers
Beloved by her, though she conceal'd her flame).
He came accordingly, and brought with him
Two jars of Chian wine, and four, quite full,
Of wine from Thasos; perfumes, too, and crowns;
Sweetmeats and venison; fillets for the head;
Fish, and a cook, and a female flute-player.
In the meantime a Syrian friend of hers
Sent her some snow, and one saperdes; she
Being ashamed lest any one should hear
She had received such gifts, and, above all men,
Fearing lest Diphilus should get at them,
And show her up in one of his Comedies,
She bade a slave to carry off at once
The salt-fish to the men who wanted salt,
As every one did know; the snow she told him
To mix with the wine unseen by any one.
And then she bade the boy to fill the cup
With ten full cyathi of wine, and bear it
At once to Diphilus. He eagerly
Received the cup, and drain'd it to the bottom,
And, marvelling at the delicious coolness,
Said—"By Minerva, and by all the gods,
You must, Gnathæna, be allow'd by all
To have a most deliciously cool well."
"Yes," said she, "for we carefully put in,
From day-to-day, the prologues of your plays."
A slave who had been flogg'd, whose back was mark'd
With heavy weals, was once, as it fell out,
Reposing with Gnathæna:—then, as she
Embraced him, she found out how rough all over
His back did feel. "Oh wretched man," said she,
"In what engagement did you get these wounds?"
He in a few words answer'd her, and said,
"That when a boy, once playing with his playmates,
He'd fallen backwards into the fire by accident."
"Well," said she, "if you were so wanton then,
You well deserved to be flogg'd, my friend."
Gnathæna once was supping with Dexithea,
Who was a courtesan as well as she;
And when Dexithea put aside with care
Nearly all the daintiest morsels for her mother,
She said, "I swear by Dian, had I known
How you went on, Dexithea, I would rather
Have gone to supper with your mother than you."
When this Gnathæna was advanced in years,
Hastening, as all might see, towards the grave,
They say she once went out into the market,
And look'd at all the fish, and ask'd the price
Of every article she saw. And seeing
A handsome butcher standing at his stall,
Just in the flower of youth,—"Oh, in God's name,
Tell me, my youth, what is your price (πῶς ἴστης) to-day?"
He laugh'd, and said, "Why, if I stoop, three obols."
"But who," said she, "did give you leave, you wretch,
To use your Carian weights in Attica?"
Stratocles once made all his friends a present
Of kids and shell-fish greatly salted, seeming
To have dress'd them carefully, so that his friends
Should the next morning be o'erwhelm'd with thirst,
And thus protract their drinking, so that he
Might draw from them some ample contributions.
Therefore Gnathæna said to one of her lovers,
Seeing him wavering about his offerings,
"After the kids[32] Stratocles brings a storm."
Gnathæna, seeing once a thin young man,
Of black complexion, lean as any scarecrow,
Reeking with oil, and shorter than his fellows,
Called him in jest Adonis. When the youth
Answer'd her in a rude and violent manner,
She looking on her daughter who was with her,
Said, "Ah! it serves me right for my mistake."
They say that one fine day a youth from Pontus
Was sleeping with Gnathæna, and at morn
He ask'd her to display her beauties to him.
But she replied, "You have no time, for now
It is the hour to drive the pigs to feed."
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
44. He also mentions the following sayings of Gnathænium, who was the
grand-daughter of Gnathæna:—
It happen'd once that a very aged satrap,
Full ninety years of age, had come to Athens,
And on the feast of Saturn he beheld
Gnathænium with Gnathæna going out
From a fair temple sacred to Aphrodite,
And noticing her form and grace of motion,
He just inquired "How much she ask'd a night?"
Gnathæna, looking on his purple robe,
And princely body-guard, said, "A thousand drachmæ."
He, as if smitten with a mortal wound,
Said, "I perceive, because of all these soldiers,
You look upon me as a captured enemy;
But take five minæ, and agree with me,
And let them get a bed prepared for us."
She, as the satrap seem'd a witty man,
Received his terms, and said, "Give what you like,
O father, for I know most certainly,
You'll give my daughter twice as much at night."
There was at Athens once a handsome smith,
When she, Gnathænium, had almost abandon'd
Her trade, and would no longer common be,
Moved by the love of the actor Andronicus;
(But at this moment he was gone away,
After she'd brought him a male child;) this smith
Then long besought the fair Gnathænium
To fix her price; and though she long refused,
By long entreaty and liberality,
At last he won her over to consent.
But being but a rude and ill-bred clown,
He, one day sitting with some friends of his
In a leather-cutter's shop, began to talk
About Gnathænium to divert their leisure,
Narrating all their fond love passages.
But after this, when Andronicus came
From Corinth back again, and heard the news,
He bitterly reproach'd her, and at supper
He said, with just complaint, unto Gnathænium,
That she had never granted him such liberties
As this flogg'd slave had had allow'd to him.
And then they say Gnathænium thus replied:
That she was her own mistress, and the smith
Was so begrimed with soot and dirt that she
Had no more than she could help to do with him.
One day they say Gnathænium, at supper,
Would not kiss Andronicus when he wish'd,
Though she had done so every day before;
But she was angry that he gave her nothing.
Said he, on this, "Gnathæna, don't you see
How haughtily your daughter's treating me?"
And she, indignant, said, "You wretched girl,
Take him and kiss him if he wishes it."
But she replied, "Why should I kiss him, mother,
Who does no good to any one in the house,
But seeks to have his Argos all for nothing?"
Once, on a day of festival, Gnathænium
Went down to the Piræus to a lover,
Who was a foreign merchant, riding cheaply
On a poor mule, and having after her
Three donkeys, three maid-servants, and one nurse.
Then, at a narrow spot in the road, they met
One of those knavish wrestlers, men who sell
Their battles, always taking care to lose them;
And as he could not pass by easily,
Being crowded up, he cried—"You wretched man,
You donkey-driver, if you get not quickly
Out of my way, I will upset these women,
And all the donkeys and the mule to boot."
But quick Gnathænium said, "My friend, I pray you,
Don't be so valiant now, when you have never Done any feat of
spirit or strength before."
45. And afterwards, Machon gives us the following anecdotes:—
They say that Lais the Corinthian,
Once when she saw Euripides in a garden,
Holding a tablet and a pen attach'd to it,
Cried out to him, "Now, answer me, my poet,
What was your meaning when you wrote in your play,
'Away, you shameless doer?'" And Euripides,
Amazed, and wondering at her audacity,
Said, "Why, you seem to me to be yourself
A shameless doer." And she, laughing, answer'd,
"How shameless, if my partners do not think so?"
Glycerium once received from some lover
A new Corinthian cloak with purple sleeves,
And gave it to a fuller. Afterwards,
When she thought he'd had time enough to clean it,
She sent her maidservant to fetch it back,
Giving her money, that she might pay for it.
But, said the fuller, "You must bring me first
Three measures full of oil, for want of that
Is what has hindered me from finishing."
The maid went back and told her mistress all.
"Wretch that I am!" Glycerium said, "for he
Is going to fry my cloak like any herring."
Demophoon once, the friend of Sophocles,
While a young man, fell furiously in love
With Nico, called the Goat, though she was old:
And she had earn'd this name of Goat, because
She quite devour'd once a mighty friend of hers,
Named Thallus,[33] when he came to Attica
To buy some Chelidonian figs, and also
To export some honey from th' Hymettian hill.
And it is said this woman was fair to view.
And when Demophoon tried to win her over,
"A pretty thing," said she, "that all you get
From me you may present to Sophocles."
Callisto once, who was nicknamed the Sow,
Was fiercely quarrelling with her own mother,
Who also was nicknamed the Crow. Gnathæna
Appeased the quarrel, and when ask'd the cause of it,
Said, "What else could it be, but that one Crow
Was finding fault with the blackness of the other?"
Men say that Hippe once, the courtesan,
Had a lover named Theodotus, a man
Who at the time was prefect of the granaries
And she on one occasion late in th' evening
Came to a banquet of King Ptolemy,
And she'd been often used to drink with him
So, as she now was very late, she said,
"I'm very thirsty, papa Ptolemy,
So let the cup-bearer pour me four gills
Into a larger cup." The king replied,
"You must have it in a platter, for you seem
Already, Hippe,[34] to have had plenty of hay."
A man named Morichus was courting Phryne,
The Thespian damsel. And, as she required
A mina, "'Tis a mighty sum," said Morichus,
"Did you not yesterday charge a foreigner
Two little pieces of gold?" "Wait till I want you,"
Said she, "and I will take the same from you."
'Tis said that Nico, who was call'd the Goat,
Once when a man named Pytho had deserted her,
And taken up with the great fat Euardis,
But after a time did send again for her,
Said to the slave who came to fetch her, "Now
That Pytho is well sated with his swine,
Does he desire to return to a goat?"
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
46. Up to this point we have been recapitulating the things mentioned
by Macho. For our beautiful Athens has produced such a number of
courtesans (of whom I will tell you as many anecdotes as I can) as
no other populous city ever produced. At all events, Aristophanes
the Byzantian counted up a hundred and thirty-five, and Apollodorus
a still greater number; and Gorgias enumerated still more, saying
that, among a great many more, these eminent ones had been omitted by
Aristophanes—namely, one who was surnamed Paroinos, and Lampyris, and
Euphrosyne: and this last was the daughter of a fuller. And, besides
these, he has omitted Megisto, Agallis, Thaumarium, Theoclea (and
she was nicknamed the Crow), Lenætocystos, Astra, Gnathæna, and her
grand-daughter Gnathænium, and Sige, and Synoris (who was nicknamed
the Candle), and Euclea, and Grymæa, and Thryallis, and Chimæra,
and Lampas. But Diphilus the comic poet was violently in love with
Gnathæna, (as has been already stated, and as Lynceus the Samian
relates in his Commentaries;) and so once, when on the stage he had
acted very badly, and was turned out (ἠρμένος) of the theatre, and,
for all that, came to Gnathæna as if nothing had happened; and when
he, after he had arrived, begged Gnathæna to wash his feet, "Why do
you want that?" said she; "were you not carried (ἠρμένος) hither?"
And Gnathæna was very ready with her repartees. And there were other
courtesans who had a great opinion of themselves, paying attention to
education, and spending a part of their time on literature; so that
they were very ready with their rejoinders and replies.
Accordingly, when on one occasion Stilpo, at a banquet, was accusing
Glycera of seducing the young men of the city, (as Satyrus mentions in
his Lives,) Glycera took him up and said, "You and I are accused of
the same thing, O Stilpo; for they say that you corrupt all who come
to you, by teaching them profitless and amorous sophistries; and they
accuse me of the same thing: for if people waste their time, and are
treated ill, it makes no difference whether they are living with a
philosopher or with a harlot." For, according to Agathon,
It does not follow, because a woman's body
Is void of strength, that her mind, too, is weak.
47. And Lynceus has recorded many repartees of Gnathæna. There was a
parasite who used to live upon an old woman, and kept himself in very
good condition; and Gnathæna, seeing him, said, "My young friend,
you appear to be in very good case." "What then do you think," said
he, "that I should be if I slept by myself?" "Why, I think you would
starve," said she. Once, when Pausanius, who was nicknamed Laccus,[35]
was dancing, he fell into a cask. "The cellar," says Gnathæna, "has
fallen into the cask." On one occasion, some one put a very little wine
into a wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. "It is
very little of its age," said she, "to be as old as that." Once at a
drinking-party, some young men were fighting about her, and beating one
another, and she said to the one who was worsted, "Be of
good cheer, my boy; for it is not a contest to be decided by crowns,
but by guineas." There was a man who once gave her daughter a mina,
and never brought her anything more, though he came to see her very
often. "Do you think, my boy," said she, "that now you have once paid
your mina, you are to come here for ever, as if you were going to
Hippomachus the trainer?" On one occasion, when Phryne said to her,
with some bitterness, "What would become of you if you had the stone?"
"I would give it to you," said she, "to sharpen your wit upon." For
it was said that Gnathæna was liable to the stone, while the other
certainly wanted it as Gnathæna hinted. On one occasion, some men were
drinking in her house, and were eating some lentils dressed with onions
(βολβοφάκη); as the maidservant was clearing the table, and
putting some of the lentils in her bosom (κόλπον), Gnathæna
said, "She is thinking of making some κολποφάκη."
Once, when Andronicus the tragedian had been acting his part in the
representation of the Epigoni with great applause, and was coming to
a drinking-party at her house, and sent a boy forward to bid her make
preparation to receive him, she said—
"O cursed boy, what word is this you've spoken?"
And once, when a chattering fellow was relating that he was just
come from the Hellespont, "Why, then," said she, "did you not go to
the first city in that country?" and when he asked what city, "To
Sigeum,"[36] said she. Once, when a man came to see her, and saw some
eggs on a dish, and said, "Are these raw, Gnathæna, or boiled?" "They
are made of brass, my boy," said she. On one occasion, when Chærephon
came to sup with her without an invitation, Gnathæna pledged him in a
cup of wine. "Take it," said she, "you proud fellow." And he said, "I
proud?" "Who can be more so," said she, "when you come without even
being invited?" And Nico, who was nicknamed the Goat (as Lynceus tells
us), once when she met a parasite, who was very thin in consequence of
a long sickness, said to him, "How lean you are." "No wonder," says he;
"for what do you think is all that I have had to eat these three days?"
"Why, a leather bottle," says she, "or perhaps your shoes."
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
48. There was a courtesan named Metanira; and when Democles the
parasite, who was nicknamed Lagynion, fell down in a lot of whitewash,
she said, "Yes, for you have devoted yourself to a place where there
are pebbles." And when he sprung upon a couch which was near him, "Take
care," said she, "lest you get upset." These sayings are recorded
by Hegesander. And Aristodemus, in the second book of his Laughable
Records, says that Gnathæna was hired by two men, a soldier and a
branded slave; and so when the soldier, in his rude manner, called her
a cistern, "How can I be so?" said she; "is it because two rivers,
Lycus and Eleutherus, fall into me?" On one occasion, when some poor
lovers of the daughter of Gnathæna came to feast at her house, and
threatened to throw it down, saying that they had brought spades
and mattocks on purpose; "But," said Gnathæna, "if you had those
implements, you should have pawned them, and brought some money with
you." And Gnathæna was always very neat and witty in all she said;
and she even compiled a code of laws for banquets, according to which
lovers were to be admitted to her and to her daughters, in imitation of
the philosophers, who had drawn up similar documents. And Callimachus
has recorded this code of hers in the third Catalogue of Laws which he
has given; and he has quoted the first words of it as follows:—"This
law has been compiled, being fair and equitable; and it is written in
three hundred and twenty-three verses."
49. But a slave who had been flogged hired Callistium, who was
nicknamed Poor Helen; and as it was summer, and he was lying down
naked, she, seeing the marks of the whip, said, "Where did you get
this, you unhappy man?" and he said, "Some broth was spilt over me when
I was a boy." And she said, "It must have been made of neats'-leather."
And once, when Menander the poet had failed with one of his plays,
and came to her house, Glycera brought him some milk, and recommended
him to drink it. But he said he would rather not, for there was some
γραῦς[37] on it. But she replied, "Blow it away, and take what
there is beneath."
Thais said once to a boastful lover of hers, who had borrowed some
goblets from a great many people, and said that he meant to break them
up, and make others of them, "You will destroy what belongs to each
private person." Leontium was once sitting at table with a lover of
hers, when Glycera came in to supper; and as the man began to pay more
attention to Glycera, Leontium was much annoyed: and presently, when
her friend turned round, and asked her what she was vexed at, she said,
"Ἡ ὑστέρα[38] pains me."
A lover of hers once sent his seal to Lais the Corinthian, and desired
her to come to him; but she said, "I cannot come; it is only clay."
Thais was one day going to a lover of hers, who smelt like a goat; and
when some one asked her whither she was going, she said—
To dwell with Ægeus,[39] great Pandion's son.
Phryne, too, was once supping with a man of the same description, and,
lifting up the hide of a pig, she said, "Take it, and eat[40] it."
And once, when one of her friends sent her some wine, which was very
good, but the quantity was small; and when he told her that it was ten
years old; "It is very little of its age," said she. And once, when
the question was asked at a certain banquet, why it is that crowns are
hung up about banqueting-rooms, she said, "Because they delight the
mind."[41] And once, when a slave, who had been flogged, was giving
himself airs as a young man towards her, and saying that he had been
often entangled, she pretended to look vexed; and when he asked her
the reason, "I am jealous of you," said she, "because you have been so
often smitten."[42] Once a very covetous lover of hers was coaxing her,
and saying to her, "You are the Venus of Praxiteles;" "And you," said
she, "are the Cupid of Phidias."[43]
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
50. And as I am aware that some of those men who have been involved
in the administration of affairs of state have mentioned courtesans,
either accusing or excusing them, I will enumerate some instances
of those who have done so. For Demosthenes, in his speech against
Androtion, mentions Sinope and Phanostrate; and respecting Sinope,
Herodicus the pupil of Crates says, in the sixth book of his treatise
on People mentioned in the Comic Poets, that she was called Abydus,
because she was an old woman. And Antiphanes mentions her in his
Arcadian, and in his Gardener, and in his Sempstress, and in his Female
Fisher, and in his Neottis. And Alexis mentions her in his Cleobuline,
and Callicrates speaks of her in his Moschion; and concerning
Phanostrate, Apollodorus, in his treatise on the Courtesans at Athens,
says that she was called Phtheiropyle, because she used to stand at the
door (πύλη) and hunt for lice (φθεῖρες).
And in his oration against Aristagoras, Hyperides says—"And again you
have named, in the same manner, the animals called aphyæ." Now, aphyæ,
besides meaning anchovies, was also a nickname for some courtesans;
concerning whom the before-mentioned Apollodorus says—"Stagonium and
Amphis were two sisters, and they were called Aphyæ, because they were
white, and thin, and had large eyes." And Antiphanes, in his book on
Courtesans, says that Nicostratis was called Aphya for the same reason.
And the same Hyperides, in his speech against Mantitheus, who was being
prosecuted for an assault, speaks in the following manner respecting
Glycera—"Bringing with him Glycera the daughter of Thalassis in a
pair-horse chariot." But it is uncertain whether this is the same
Glycera who was the mistress of Harpalus; concerning whom Theopompus
speaks in his treatise on the Chian Epistle, saying that after the
death of Pythionica, Harpalus sent for Glycera to come to him from
Athens; and when she came, she lived in the palace which is at Tarsus,
and was honoured with royal honours by the populace, and was called
queen; and an edict was issued, forbidding any one to present Harpalus
with a crown, without at the same time presenting Glycera with another.
And at Rhossus, he went so far as to erect a brazen statue of her by
the side of his own statue. And Clitarchus has given the same account
in his History of Alexander. But the author of Agen, a satyric drama,
(whoever he was, whether it was Python of Catana, or king Alexander
himself,) says—
And now they say that Harpalus has sent them
Unnumber'd sacks of corn, no fewer than
Those sent by Agen, and is made a citizen:
But this was Glycera's corn, and it may be
Ruin to them, and not a harlot's earnest.
51. And Lysias, in his oration against Lais, if, indeed, the speech is
a genuine one, mentions these circumstances—"Philyra abandoned the
trade of a harlot when she was still quite young; and so did Scione,
and Hippaphesis, and Theoclea, and Psamathe, and Lagisca, and Anthea."
But perhaps, instead of Anthea, we ought to read Antea. For I do not
find any mention made by any one of a harlot named Anthea. But there is
a whole play named after Antea, by either Eunicus or Philyllius. And
the author of the oration against Neæra, whoever he was, also mentions
her. But in the oration against Philonides, who was being prosecuted
for an assault, Lysias, if at least it is a genuine speech of his,
mentions also a courtesan called Nais. And in his speech against Medon,
for perjury, he mentions one by the name of Anticyra; but this was only
a nickname given to a woman, whose real name was Hoia, as Antiphanes
informs us in his treatise on Courtesans, where he says that she was
called Anticyra,[44] because she was in the habit of drinking with
men who were crazy and mad; or else because she was at one time the
mistress of Nicostratus the physician, and he, when he died, left her a
great quantity of hellebore, and nothing else. Lycurgus, also, in his
oration against Leocrates, mentions a courtesan named Irenis, as being
the mistress of Leocrates. And Hyperides mentions Nico in his oration
against Patrocles. And we have already mentioned that she used to be
nicknamed the Goat, because she had ruined Thallus the innkeeper. And
that the goats are very fond of the young shoots of the olive (θάλλοι),
on which account the animal is never allowed to approach the Acropolis,
and is also never sacrificed to Minerva, is a fact which we shall
dilate upon hereafter. But Sophocles, in his play called The Shepherds,
mentions that this animal does browse upon the young shoots, speaking
as follows—
For early in the morning, ere a man
Of all the folks about the stable saw me,
As I was bringing to the goat a thallus
Fresh pluck'd, I saw the army marching on
By the projecting headland.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
Alexis also mentions Nannium, in his Tarentines, thus—
But Nannium is mad for love of Bacchus,—
jesting upon her as addicted to intoxication. And Menander, in his
false Hercules, says—
Did he not try to wheedle Nannium?
And Antiphanes, in his treatise on Courtesans, says—"Nannium was
nicknamed the Proscenium, because she had a beautiful face, and used
to wear very costly garments embroidered with gold, but when she
was undressed she was a very bad figure. And Corone was Nannium's
daughter, and she was nicknamed Tethe, from her exceedingly debauched
habits." Hyperides, in his oration against Patrocles, also speaks of
a female flute-player named Nemeas. And we may wonder how it was that
the Athenians permitted a courtesan to have such a name, which was
that of a most honourable and solemn festival. For not only those who
prostituted themselves, but all other slaves also were forbidden to
take such names as that, as Polemo tells us, in his treatise on the
Acropolis.
52. The same Hyperides also mentions my Ocimum, as you call her, O
Cynulcus, in his second oration against Aristagoras, speaking thus—"As
Lais, who appears to have been superior in beauty to any woman who had
ever been seen, and Ocimum, and Metanira." And Nicostratus, a poet of
the middle comedy, mentions her also in his Pandrosus, where he says—
Then go the same way to Aerope,
And bid her send some clothes immediately,
And brazen vessels, to fair Ocimum.
And Menander, in his comedy called The Flatterer, gives the following
catalogue of courtesans—
Chrysis, Corone, Ischas, and Anticyra,
And the most beautiful Nannarium,—
All these you had.
And Philetærus, in his Female Hunter, says—
Is not Cercope now extremely old,
Three thousand years at least? and is not Telesis,
Diopithes' ugly daughter, three times that?
And as for old Theolyte, no man
Alive can tell the date when she was born.
Then did not Lais persevere in her trade
Till the last day of her life? and Isthmias,
Neæra too, and Phila, grew quite rotten.
I need not mention all the Cossyphæ,
Galenæ, and Coronæ; nor will I
Say aught of Nais, as her teeth are gone.
And Theophilus, in his Amateur of the Flute, says—
Lest he should with disastrous shipwreck fall
Into Meconis, Lais, or Sisymbrion,
Or Barathrum, or Thallusa, or any other
With whom the panders bait their nets for youths,
Nannium, or Malthace.
53. Now when Myrtilus had uttered all this with extreme volubility, he
added:—May no such disaster befal you, O philosophers, who even before
the rise of the sect called Voluptuaries, yourselves broke down the
wall of pleasure, as Eratosthenes somewhere or other expresses it. And
indeed I have now quoted enough of the smart sayings of the courtesans,
and I will pass on to another topic. And first of all, I will speak
of that most devoted lover of truth, Epicurus, who, never having been
initiated into the encyclic series of learning, used to say that
those were well off who applied themselves to philosophy in the same
way in which he did himself; and these were his words—"I praise and
congratulate you, my young man, because you have come over to the study
of philosophy unimbued with any system." On which account Timon styles
him—
The most unletter'd schoolmaster alive.
Now, had not this very Epicurus Leontium for his mistress, her, I mean,
who was so celebrated as a courtesan? But she did not cease to live as
a prostitute when she began to learn philosophy, but still prostituted
herself to the whole sect of Epicureans in the gardens, and to Epicurus
himself, in the most open manner; so that this great philosopher was
exceedingly fond of her, though he mentions this fact in his epistles
to Hermarchus.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
54. But as for Lais of Hyccara—(and Hyccara is a city in Sicily, from
which place she came to Corinth, having been made a prisoner of war,
as Polemo relates in the sixth book of his History, addressed to
Timæus: and Aristippus was one of her lovers, and so was Demosthenes
the orator, and Diogenes the Cynic: and it was also said that the
Venus, which is at Corinth, and is called Melænis, appeared to her in
a dream, intimating to her by such an appearance that she would be
courted by many lovers of great wealth;)—Lais, I say, is mentioned by
Hyperides, in the second of his speeches against Aristagoras. And
Apelles the painter, having seen Lais while she was still a maiden,
drawing water at the fountain Pirene, and marvelling at her beauty,
took her with him on one occasion to a banquet of his friends. And when
his companions laughed at him because he had brought a maiden with him
to the party, instead of a courtesan, he said—"Do not wonder, for I
will show you that she is quite beautiful enough for future enjoyment
within three years." And a prediction of this sort was made by Socrates
also, respecting Theodote the Athenian, as Xenophon tells us in his
Memorabilia, for he used to say—"That she was very beautiful, and had
a bosom finely shaped beyond all description. And let us," said he,
"go and see the woman; for people cannot judge of beauty by hearsay."
But Lais was so beautiful, that painters used to come to her to copy
her bosom and her breasts. And Lais was a rival of Phryne, and had an
immense number of lovers, never caring whether they were rich or poor,
and never treating them with any insolence.
55. And Aristippus every year used to spend whole days with her in
Ægina, at the festival of Neptune. And once, being reproached by his
servant, who said to him—"You give her such large sums of money, but
she admits Diogenes the Cynic for nothing:" he answered, "I give Lais a
great deal, that I myself may enjoy her, and not that no one else may."
And when Diogenes said, "Since you, O Aristippus, cohabit with a common
prostitute, either, therefore, become a Cynic yourself, as I am, or
else abandon her;" Aristippus answered him—"Does it appear to you, O
Diogenes, an absurd thing to live in a house where other men have lived
before you?" "Not at all," said he. "Well, then, does it appear to you
absurd to sail in a ship in which other men have sailed before you?"
"By no means," said he. "Well, then," replied Aristippus, "it is not a
bit more absurd to be in love with a woman with whom many men have been
in love already."
And Nymphodorus the Syracusan, in his treatise on the People who
have been admired and eminent in Sicily, says that Lais was a native
of Hyccara, which he describes as a strong fortress in Sicily. But
Strattis, in his play entitled The Macedonians or Pausanias, says that
she was a Corinthian, in the following lines—
_A._ Where do these damsels come from, and who are they?
_B._ At present they are come from Megara,
But they by birth are all Corinthians:
This one is Lais, who is so well known.
And Timæus, in the thirteenth book of his History, says she came from
Hyccara, (using the word in the plural number;) as Polemo has stated,
where he says that she was murdered by some women in Thessaly, because
she was beloved by a Thessalian of the name of Pausanias; and that she
was beaten to death, out of envy and jealousy, by wooden footstools in
the temple of Venus; and that from this circumstance that temple is
called the temple of the impious Venus; and that her tomb is shown on
the banks of the Peneus, having on it an emblem of a stone water-ewer,
and this inscription—
This is the tomb of Lais, to whose beauty,
Equal to that of heavenly goddesses,
The glorious and unconquer'd Greece did bow;
Love was her father, Corinth was her home,
Now in the rich Thessalian plain she lies;—
so that those men talk nonsense who say that she was buried in Corinth,
near the Craneum.
56. And did not Aristotle the Stagirite have a son named Nicomachus
by a courtesan named Herpyllis? and did he not live with her till his
death? as Hermippus informs us in the first book of his History of
Aristotle, saying that great care was taken of her in the philosopher's
will. And did not our admirable Plato love Archaianassa, a courtesan of
Colophon? so that he even composed this song in her honour:—
My mistress is the fair Archaianassa
From Colophon, a damsel in whom Love
Sits on her very wrinkles irresistible.
Wretched are those, whom in the flower of youth,
When first she came across the sea, she met;
They must have been entirely consumed.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
And did not Pericles the Olympian (as Clearchus tells us in the
first book of his treatise on Amatory Matters) throw all Greece into
confusion on account of Aspasia, not the younger one, but that one
who associated with the wise Socrates; and that, too, though he was a
man who had acquired such a vast reputation for wisdom and political
sagacity? But, indeed, Pericles was always a man much addicted
to amorous indulgences; and he cohabited even with his own son's
wife, as Stesimbrotus the Thasian informs us; and Stesimbrotus was
a contemporary of his, and had seen him, as he tells us in his book
entitled a Treatise on Themistocles, and Thucydides, and Pericles.
And Antisthenes, the pupil of Socrates, tells us that Pericles, being
in love with Aspasia, used to kiss her twice every day, once when he
entered her house, and once when he left it. And when she was impeached
for impiety, he himself spoke in her behalf, and shed more tears for
her sake than he did when his own property and his own life were
imperilled. Moreover, when Cimon had had an incestuous intrigue with
Elpinice, his sister, who was afterwards given in marriage to Callias,
and when he was banished, Pericles contrived his recall, exacting the
favours of Elpinice as his recompense.
And Pythænetus, in the third book of his History of Ægina, says that
Periander fell violently in love with Melissa, the daughter of Procles
of Epidaurus, when he had seen her clothed in the Peloponnesian fashion
(for she had on no cloak, but a single tunic only, and was acting
as cup-bearer to the young men,) and he married her. And Tigris of
Leucadia was the mistress of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who was the third
in descent from the Pyrrhus who invaded Italy; but Olympias, the young
man's mother, took her off by poison.
57. And Ulpian, as if he had got some unexpected gain, while Myrtilus
was still speaking, said:—Do we say ὁ τίγρις in the masculine gender?
for I know that Philemon says this in his play called Neæra:—
_A._ Just as Seleucus sent the tiger (τὴν τίγριν) here,
Which we have seen, so we in turn ought now
To send Seleucus back a beast from here.
_B._ Let's send him a trigeranum;[45] for that's
An animal not known much in those parts.
And Myrtilus said to him:—Since you interrupted us when we were
making out a catalogue of women, not like the lists of Sosicrates the
Phanagorite, or like the catalogue of women of Nilænetus the Samian or
Abderitan (whichever was really his native country), I, digressing a
little, will turn to your question, my old Phœnix. Learn, then, that
Alexis, in his Pyraunus, has said τὸν τίγριν, using the word
in the masculine gender; and these are his words:
Come, open quick the door; I have been here,
Though all unseen, walking some time,—a statue,
A millstone, and a seahorse, and a wall,
The tiger (ὁ τίγρις) of Seleucus.
And I might quote other evidences of the fact, but I postpone them for
the present, while I finish my catalogue, as far as it comprehends the
beautiful women.
58. For Clearchus speaks thus concerning Epaminondas: "Epaminondas the
Theban behaved with more dignity than these men did; but still there
was a want of dignity in the way in which he was induced to waver in
his sentiments in his association with women, as any one will admit
who considers his conduct with the wife of Lacon." But Hyperides the
orator, having driven his son Glaucippus out of his house, received
into it that most extravagant courtesan Myrrhina, and kept her in the
city; and he also kept Aristagora in the Piræus, and Phila at Eleusis,
whom he bought for a very large sum, and then emancipated; and after
that he made her his housekeeper, as Idomeneus relates. But, in his
oration in defence of Phryne, Hyperides confesses that he is in love
with the woman; and yet, before he had got cured of that love, he
introduced the above-mentioned Myrrhina into his house.
59. Now Phryne was a native of Thespiæ; and being prosecuted by Euthias
on a capital charge, she was acquitted: on which account Euthias was
so indignant that he never instituted any prosecution afterwards, as
Hermippus tells us. But Hyperides, when pleading Phryne's cause, as he
did not succeed at all, but it was plain that the judges were about
to condemn her, brought her forth into the middle of the court, and,
tearing open her tunic and displaying her naked bosom, employed all
the end of his speech, with the highest oratorical art, to excite the
pity of her judges by the sight of her beauty, and inspired the judges
with a superstitious fear, so that they were so moved by pity as not
to be able to stand the idea of condemning to death "a prophetess and
priestess of Venus." And when she was acquitted, a decree was drawn
up in the following form: "That hereafter no orator should endeavour
to excite pity on behalf of anyone, and that no man or woman, when
impeached, shall have his or her case decided on while present."
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
But Phryne was a really beautiful woman, even in those parts of her
person which were not generally seen: on which account it was not easy
to see her naked; for she used to wear a tunic which covered her whole
person, and she never used the public baths. But on the solemn assembly
of the Eleusinian festival, and on the feast of the Posidonia, then
she laid aside her garments in the sight of all the assembled Greeks,
and having undone her hair, she went to bathe in the sea; and it was
from her that Apelles took his picture of the Venus Anadyomene; and
Praxiteles the statuary, who was a lover of hers, modelled the Cnidian
Venus from her body; and on the pedestal of his statue of Cupid, which
is placed below the stage in the theatre, he wrote the following
inscription:—
Praxiteles has devoted earnest care
To representing all the love he felt,
Drawing his model from his inmost heart:
I gave myself to Phryne for her wages,
And now I no more charms employ, nor arrows,
Save those of earnest glances at my love.
And he gave Phryne the choice of his statues, whether she chose to take
the Cupid, or the Satyrus which is in the street called the Tripods;
and she, having chosen the Cupid, consecrated it in the temple at
Thespiæ. And the people of her neighbourhood, having had a statue
made of Phryne herself, of solid gold, consecrated it in the temple
of Delphi, having had it placed on a pillar of Pentelican marble; and
the statue was made by Praxiteles. And when Crates the Cynic saw it,
he called it "a votive offering of the profligacy of Greece." And this
statue stood in the middle between that of Archidamus, king of the
Lacedæmonians, and that of Philip the son of Amyntas; and it bore this
inscription—"Phryne of Thespiæ, the daughter of Epicles," as we are
told by Alcetas, in the second book of his treatise on the Offerings at
Delphi.
60. But Apollodorus, in his book on Courtesans, says that there were
two women named Phryne, one of whom was nicknamed Clausigelos,[46]
and the other Saperdium. But Herodicus, in the sixth book of his
Essay on People mentioned by the Comic Poets, says that the one who is
mentioned by the orators was called Sestos, because she sifted
(ἀποσήθω) and stripped bare all her lovers; and that the other was the
native of Thespiæ. But Phryne was exceedingly rich, and she offered to
build a wall round Thebes, if the Thebans would inscribe on the wall,
"Alexander destroyed this wall, but Phryne the courtesan restored it;"
as Callistratus states in his treatise on Courtesans. And Timocles the
comic poet, in his Neæra, has mentioned her riches (the passage has
been already cited); and so has Amphis, in his Curis. And Gryllion
was a parasite of Phryne's, though he was one of the judges of the
Areopagus; as also Satyrus, the Olynthian actor, was a parasite of
Pamphila. But Aristogiton, in his book against Phryne, says that her
proper name was Mnesarete; and I am aware that Diodorus Periegetes says
that the oration against her which is ascribed to Euthias, is really
the work of Anaximenes. But Posidippus the comic poet, in his Ephesian
Women, speaks in the following manner concerning her:—
Before our time, the Thespian Phryne was
Far the most famous of all courtesans;
And even though you're later than her age,
Still you have heard of the trial which she stood.
She was accused on a capital charge
Before the Heliæa, being said
To have corrupted all the citizens;
But she besought the judges separately
With tears, and so just saved herself from judgment.
61. And I would have you all to know that Democles, the orator, became
the father of Demeas, by a female flute-player who was a courtesan; and
once when he, Demeas, was giving himself airs in the tribune, Hyperides
stopped his mouth, saying, "Will not you be silent, young man? why,
you make more puffing than your mother did." And also Bion of the
Borysthenes, the philosopher, was the son of a Lacedæmonian courtesan
named Olympia; as Nicias the Nicæan informs us in his treatise called
the Successions of the Philosophers. And Sophocles the tragedian,
when he was an old man, was a lover of Theoris the courtesan; and
accordingly, supplicating the favour and assistance of Venus, he says—
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
Hear me now praying, goddess, nurse of youths,
And grant that this my love may scorn young men,
And their most feeble fancies and embraces;
And rather cling to grey-headed old men,
Whose minds are vigorous, though their limbs be weak.
And these verses are some of those which are at times attributed to
Homer. But he mentions Theoris by name, speaking thus in one of his
plain choruses:—
For dear to me Theoris is.
And towards the end of his life, as Hegesander says, he was a lover
of the courtesan Archippa, and he left her the heiress of all his
property; but as Archippa cohabited with Sophocles, though he was very
old, Smicrines, her former lover, being asked by some one what Archippa
was doing, said very wittily, "Why, like the owls, she is sitting on
the tombs."
62. But Isocrates also, the most modest of all the orators, had a
mistress named Metanira, who was very beautiful, as Lysias relates in
his Letters. But Demosthenes, in his oration against Neæra, says that
Metanira was the mistress of Lysias. And Lysias also was desperately
in love with Lagis the courtesan, whose panegyric Cephalus the orator
wrote, just as Alcidamas the Elæan, the pupil of Gorgias, himself
wrote a panegyric on the courtesan Nais. And, in his oration against
Philonides, who was under prosecution for an assault, (if, at least,
the oration be a genuine one,) Lysias says that Nais was the mistress
of Philonides, writing as follows:—"There is then a woman who is a
courtesan, Nais by name, whose keeper is Archias; but your friend
Philonides states himself to be in love with her." Aristophanes also
mentions her in his Gerytades, and perhaps also in his Plutus, where he
says—
Is it not owing to you the greedy Lais
Does love Philonides?
For perhaps here we ought to read Nais, and not Lais. But Hermippus, in
his Essay on Isocrates, says that Isocrates, when he was advancing in
years, took the courtesan Lagisca to his house, and had a daughter by
her. And Strattis speaks of her in these lines:—
And while she still was in her bed, I saw
Isocrates' concubine, Lagisca,
Playing her tricks; and with her the flute-maker.
And Lysias, in his speech against Lais, (if, at least, the oration be
a genuine one,) mentions her, giving a list of other courtesans also,
in the following words:—"Philyra indeed abandoned the trade of a
courtesan while she was still young; and Scione, and Hippaphesis, and
Theoclea, and Psamathe, and Lagisca, and Anthea, and Aristoclea, all
abandoned it also at an early age."
63. But it is reported that Demosthenes the orator had children by
a courtesan; at all events he himself, in his speech about gold,
introduced his children before the court, in order to obtain pity by
their means, without their mother; although it was customary to bring
forward the wives of those who were on their trial; however, he did
this for shame's sake, hoping to avoid calumny. But this orator was
exceedingly addicted to amorous indulgences, as Idomeneus tells us.
Accordingly, being in love with a youth named Aristarchus, he once,
when he was intoxicated, insulted Nicodemus on his account, and struck
out his eyes. He is related also to have been very extravagant in his
table, and his followers, and in women. Therefore, his secretary once
said, "But what can any one say of Demosthenes? For everything that he
has thought of for a whole year, is all thrown into confusion by one
woman in one night." Accordingly, he is said to have received into his
house a youth named Cnosion, although he had a wife; and she, being
indignant at this, went herself and slept with Cnosion.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
64. And Demetrius the king, the last of all Alexander's successors, had
a mistress named Myrrhina, a Samian courtesan; and in every respect
but the crown, he made her his partner in the kingdom, as Nicolaus of
Damascus tells us. And Ptolemy the son of Ptolemy Philadelphus the
king, who was governor of the garrison in Ephesus, had a mistress named
Irene. And she, when plots were laid against Ptolemy by the Thracians
at Ephesus, and when he fled to the temple of Diana, fled with him: and
when the conspirators had murdered him, Irene seizing hold of the bars
of the doors of the temple, sprinkled the altar with his blood till
they slew her also. And Sophron the governor of Ephesus had a mistress,
Danae, the daughter of Leontium the Epicurean, who was also a courtesan
herself. And by her means he was saved when a plot was laid against
him by Laodice, and Laodice was thrown down a precipice, as Phylarchus
relates in his twelfth book in these words: "Danae was a chosen
companion of Laodice, and was trusted by her with all her secrets;
and, being the daughter of that Leontium who had studied with Epicurus
the natural philosopher, and having been herself formerly the mistress
of Sophron, she, perceiving that Laodice was laying a plot to murder
Sophron, revealed the plot to Sophron by a sign. And he, understanding
the sign, and pretending to agree to what she was saying to him,
asked two days to deliberate on what he should do. And, when she had
agreed to that, he fled away by night to Ephesus. But Laodice, when
she learnt what had been done by Danae, threw her down a precipice,
discarding all recollection of their former friendship. And they say
that Danae, when she perceived the danger which was impending over her,
was interrogated by Laodice, and refused to give her any answer; but,
when she was dragged to the precipice, then she said, that "many people
justly despise the Deity, and they may justify themselves by my case,
who having saved a man who was to me as my husband, am requited in this
manner by the Deity. But Laodice, who murdered her husband, is thought
worthy of such honour."
The same Phylarchus also speaks of Mysta, in his fourteenth book, in
these terms: "Mysta was the mistress of Seleucus the king, and when
Seleucus was defeated by the Galatæ, and was with difficulty able to
save himself by flight, she put off the robes of a queen which she
had been accustomed to wear, and assumed the garment of an ordinary
servant; and being taken prisoner, was carried away with the rest of
the captives. And being sold in the same manner as her handmaidens, she
came to Rhodes; and there, when she had revealed who she was, she was
sent back with great honour to Seleucus by the Rhodians."
65. But Demetrius Phalereus being in love with Lampito, a courtesan
of Samos, was pleased when he himself was addressed as Lampito, as
Diyllus tells us; and he also had himself called Charitoblepharos.[47]
And Nicarete the courtesan was the mistress of Stephanus the orator;
and Metanira was the mistress of Lysias the sophist; and these women
were the slaves of Casius the Elean, with many other such, as Antea,
Stratola, Aristoclea, Phila, Isthmias, and Neæra. But Neæra was the
mistress of Stratoclides, and also of Xenoclides the poet, and of
Hipparchus the actor, and of Phrynion the Pæanian, who was the son of
Demon and the nephew of Demochares. And Phrynichus and Stephanus the
orator used to have Neæra in turn, each a day, since their friends had
so arbitrated the matter for them; and the daughter of Neæra, whose
name was Strymbela, and who was afterwards called Phano, Stephanus
gave (as if she had been his own daughter) in marriage to Phrastor of
Ægialea; as Demosthenes tells us in his oration against Neæra. And he
also speaks in the following manner about Sinope the courtesan: "And
you punished Archias the hierophant, when he was convicted before the
regular tribunals of behaving with impiety, and offering sacrifices
which were contrary to the laws of the nation. And he was accused also
of other things, and among them of having sacrificed a victim on the
festival of Ceres, which was offered by Sinope the courtesan, on the
altar which is in the court of the temple at Eleusis, though it is
against the law to sacrifice any victims on that day; and though, too,
it was no part of his duty to sacrifice at all, but it belonged to the
priestess to do so."
66. Plangon the Milesian was also a celebrated courtesan; and she,
as she was most wonderfully beautiful, was beloved by a young man
of Colophon, who had a mistress already whose name was Bacchis.
Accordingly, when this young man began to address his solicitations
to Plangon, she, having heard of the beauty of Bacchis, and wishing
to make the young man abandon his love for her, when she was unable
to effect that, she required as the price of her favours the necklace
of Bacchis, which was very celebrated. And he, as he was exceedingly
in love, entreated Bacchis not to see him totally overwhelmed with
despair; and Bacchis, seeing the excited state of the young man, gave
him the necklace. And Plangon, when she saw the freedom from jealousy
which was exhibited by Bacchis, sent her back the necklace, but kept
the young man: and ever after Plangon and Bacchis were friends, loving
the young man in common; and the Ionians being amazed at this, as
Menetor tells us in his treatise concerning Offerings, gave Plangon the
name of Pasiphila.[48] And Archilochus mentions her in the following
lines:—
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
As a fig-tree planted on a lofty rock
Feeds many crows and jackdaws, so Pasiphila's
A willing entertainer of all strangers.
That Menander the poet was a lover of Glycera, is notorious to
everybody; but still he was not well pleased with her. For when
Philemon was in love with a courtesan, and in one of his plays called
her "Excellent," Menander, in one of his plays, said, in contradiction
to this, that there was no courtesan who was good.
67. And Harpalus the Macedonian, who robbed Alexander of vast sums of
money and then fled to Athens, being in love with Pythionica, spent an
immense deal of money on her; and she was a courtesan. And when she
died he erected a monument to her which cost him many talents. And
as he was carrying her out to burial, as Posidonius tells us in the
twenty-second book of his History, he had the body accompanied with
a band of the most eminent artists of all kinds, and with all sorts
of musical instruments and songs. And Dicæarchus, in his Essay on the
Descent to the Cave of Trophonius, says,—"And that same sort of thing
may happen to any one who goes to the city of the Athenians, and who
proceeds by the road leading from Eleusis, which is called the Sacred
Road; for, if he stops at that point from which he first gets a sight
of Athens, and of the temple, and of the citadel, he will see a tomb
built by the wayside, of such a size that there is none other near
which can be compared with it for magnitude. And at first, as would be
natural, he would pronounce it to be the tomb, beyond all question, of
Miltiades, or Cimon, or Pericles, or of some other of the great men
of Athens. And above all, he would feel sure that it had been erected
by the city at the public expense; or at all events by some public
decree; and then, again, when he heard it was the tomb of Pythionica
the courtesan, what must be his feelings?"
And Theopompus also, in his letter to Alexander, speaking reproachfully
of the profligacy of Harpalus, says,—"But just consider and listen to
the truth, as you may hear from the people of Babylon, as to the manner
in which he treated Pythionica when she was dead; who was originally
the slave of Bacchis, the female flute-player. And Bacchis herself had
been the slave of Sinope the Thracian, who brought her establishment of
harlots from Ægina to Athens; so that she was not only trebly a slave,
but also trebly a harlot. He, however, erected two monuments to her at
an expense exceeding two hundred talents. And every one marvelled that
no one of all those who died in Cilicia, in defence of your dominions
and of the freedom of the Greeks, had had any tomb adorned for them
either by him or by any other of the governors of the state; but that
a tomb should be erected to Pythionica the courtesan, both in Athens
and in Babylon; and they have now stood a long time. For a man who
ventured to call himself a friend to you, has dared to consecrate a
temple and a spot of ground to a woman whom everybody knew to have been
common to every one who chose at the same fixed price, and to call both
the temple and the altar those of Pythionica Venus; and in so doing,
he despised also the vengeance of the Gods, and endeavoured to insult
the honours to which you are entitled." Philemon also mentions these
circumstances, in his comedy called the Babylonian, where he says—
You shall be queen of Babylon if the Fates
Will but permit it. Sure you recollect
Pythionica and proud Harpalus.
Alexis also mentions her in his Lyciscus.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
68. But after the death of Pythionica, Harpalus sent for Glycera, and
she also was a courtesan, as Theopompus relates, when he says that
Harpalus issued an edict that no one should present him with a crown,
without at the same time paying a similar compliment to his prostitute;
and adds,—"He has also erected a brazen statue to Glycera in Rhossus of
Syria, where he intends to erect one of you, and another of himself.
And he has permitted her to dwell in the palace in Tarsus, and he
permits her to receive adoration from the people, and to bear the title
of Queen, and to be complimented with other presents, which are only
fit for your own mother and your own wife." And we have a testimony
coinciding with this from the author of the Satyric drama called Agen,
which was exhibited, on the occasion when the Dionysian festival was
celebrated on the banks of the river Hydaspes, by the author, whether
he was Pythen of Catana or Byzantium, or the king himself. And it was
exhibited when Harpalus was now flying to the sea-shore, after he had
revolted; and it mentions Pythionica as already dead; and Glycera,
as being with Harpalus, and as being the person who encouraged the
Athenians to receive presents from Harpalus. And the verses of the play
are as follows:—
_A._ There is a pinnacle, where never birds
Have made their nests, where the long reeds do grow;
And on the left is the illustrious temple
Raised to a courtesan, which Pallides
Erected, but repenting of the deed,
Condemn'd himself for it to banishment.
And when some magi of the barbarians
Saw him oppressed with the stings of conscience,
They made him trust that they could raise again
The soul of Pythionica.
And the author of the play calls Harpalus Pallides in this passage; but
in what follows, he speaks of him by his real name, saying—
_B._ But I do wish to learn from you, since I
Dwell a long way from thence, what is the fate
At present of the land of Athens; and
How all its people fare?
_A._ Why, when they said
That they were slaves, they plenty had to eat,
But now they have raw vegetables only,
And fennel, and but little corn or meat.
_B._ I likewise hear that Harpalus has sent them
A quantity of corn no less than Agen,
And has been made a citizen of Athens.
That corn was Glycera's. But it is perhaps
To them a pledge of ruin, not of a courtesan.
69. Naucratis also has produced some very celebrated courtesans of
exceeding beauty; for instance, Doricha, whom the beautiful Sappho,
as she became the mistress of her brother Charaxus, who had gone to
Naucratis on some mercantile business, accuses in her poetry of having
stripped Charaxus of a great deal of his property. But Herodotus calls
her Rhodopis, being evidently ignorant that Rhodopis and Doricha
were two different people; and it was Rhodopis who dedicated those
celebrated spits at Delphi, which Cratinus mentions in the following
lines—
* * * *
Posidippus also made this epigram on Doricha, although he had often
mentioned her in his Æthiopia, and this is the epigram—
Here, Doricha, your bones have long been laid,
Here is your hair, and your well-scented robe:
You who once loved the elegant Charaxus,
And quaff'd with him the morning bowl of wine.
But Sappho's pages live, and still shall live,
In which is many a mention of your name,
Which still your native Naucratis shall cherish,
As long as any ship sails down the Nile.
Archedice also was a native of Naucratis; and she was a courtesan of
great beauty. "For some how or other," as Herodotus says, "Naucratis is
in the habit of producing beautiful courtesans."
70. There was also a certain courtesan named Sappho, a native of
Eresus, who was in love with the beautiful Phaon, and she was very
celebrated, as Nymphis relates in his Voyage round Asia. But Nicarete
of Megara, who was a courtesan, was not a woman of ignoble birth, but
she was born of free parents, and was very well calculated to excite
affection by reason of her accomplishments, and she was a pupil of
Stilpon the philosopher.
There was also Bilisticha the Argive, who was a very celebrated
courtesan, and who traced her descent back to the Atridæ, as those
historians relate who have written the history of the affairs of
Argolis. There was also a courtesan named Leæna, whose name is very
celebrated, and she was the mistress of Harmodius, who slew the tyrant.
And she, being tortured by command of Hippias the tyrant, died under
the torture without having said a word. Stratocles the orator also
had for his mistress a courtesan whose name was Leme,[49] and who was
nicknamed Parorama, because she used to let whoever chose come to her
for two drachmas, as Gorgias says in his treatise on Courtesans.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
Now though Myrtilus appeared to be intending to say no more after
this, he resumed his subject, and said:—But I was nearly forgetting,
my friends, to tell you of the Lyda of Antimachus, and also of her
namesake Lyda, who was also a courtesan and the mistress of Lamynthius
the Milesian. For each of these poets, as Clearchus tells us in his
Tales of Love, being inflamed with love for the barbarian Lyde, wrote
poems, the one in elegiac, and the other in lyric verse, and they both
entitled their poems "Lyde." I omitted also to mention the female
flute-player Nanno, the mistress of Mimnermus, and Leontium, the
mistress of Hermesianax of Colophon. For he inscribed with her name, as
she was his mistress, three books of elegiac poetry, in the third of
which he gives a catalogue of things relating to Love; speaking in the
following manner:—
71.
You know, too, how Œager's much-loved son,
Skilfully playing on the Thracian harp,
Brought back from hell his dear Agriope,
And sail'd across th' inhospitable land
Where Charon drags down in his common boat
The souls of all the dead; and far resounds
The marshy stream slow creeping through the reeds
That line the death-like banks. But Orpheus dared
With fearless soul to pass that lonely wave,
Striking his harp with well-accustom'd hand.
And with his lay he moved the pitiless gods,
And various monsters of unfeeling hell.
He raised a placid smile beneath the brows
Of grim Cocytus; he subdued the glance
So pitiless of the fierce, implacable dog,
Who sharpen'd in the flames his fearful bark,
Whose eye did glare with fire, and whose heads
With triple brows struck fear on all who saw.
He sang, and moved these mighty sovereigns;
So that Agriope once again did breathe
The breath of life. Nor did the son of Mene,
Friend of the Graces, the sweet-voiced Musæus,
Leave his Antiope without due honour,
Who, amid the virgins sought by many suitors
In holiest Eleusis' sacred soil,
Sang the loud joyful song of secret oracles,
Priestess of Rharian[50] Ceres, warning men.
And her renown to Pluto's realms extends.
Nor did these bards alone feel Cupid's sway;
The ancient bard, leaving Bœotia's halls,
Hesiod, the keeper of all kinds of learning,
Came to fair Ascra's Heliconian village,
Where long he sought Eoia's wayward love;
Much he endured, and many books he wrote,
The maid the inspiring subject of his song.
And that great poet whom Jove's Fate protects,
Sweetest of all the votaries of the muse,
Immortal Homer, sought the rocky isle
Of Ithaca, moved by love for all the virtue
And beauty of the chaste Penelope.
Much for her sake he suffer'd; then he sought
A barren isle far from his native land,
And wept the race of Icarus, and of Amyclus
And Sparta, moved by his own woes' remembrances.
Who has not heard of sweet Mimnermus' fame;
Parent of plaintive elegiac verses,
Which to his lyre in sweetest sounds he sang?
Much did he suffer, burning with the love
Of cruel Nanno; and full oft inflamed
With ardent passion, did he feast with her,
Breathing his love to his melodious pipe;
And to his hate of fierce Hermobius
And Pherecles, tuneful utterance he gave.
Antimachus, too, felt the flame inspired
By Lydian Lyde; and he sought the stream
Of golden-waved Pactolus, where he laid
His lost love underneath the tearless earth,
And weeping, went his way to Colophon;
And with his wailing thus sweet volumes fill'd,
Shunning all toil or other occupation.
How many festive parties frequent rang
With the fond love of Lesbian Alcæus,
Who sang the praises of the amorous Sappho,
And grieved his Teian[51] rival, breathing songs
Such as the nightingale would gladly imitate;
For the divine Anacreon also sought
To win the heart of the sacred poetess,
Chief ornament of all the Lesbian bands;
And so he roved about, now leaving Samos,
Now parting from his own enslavèd land,
Parent of vines, to wine-producing Lesbos;
And often he beheld Cape Lectum there,
Across th' Æolian wave. But greatest of all,
The Attic bee[52] oft left its rugged hill,
Singing in tragic choruses divine,
Bacchus and Love * *
* * * * *
I tell, besides, how that too cautious man,
Who earn'd deserved hate from every woman,
Stricken by a random shot, did not escape
Nocturnal pangs of Love; but wander'd o'er
The Macedonian hills and valleys green,
Smitten with love for fair Argea, who
Kept Archelaus' house, till the angry god
Found a fit death for cold Euripides,
Striving with hungry hounds in vain for life.
Then there's the man whom, mid Cythera's rocks,
The Muses rear'd, a faithful worshipper
Of Bacchus and the flute, Philoxenus:
Well all men know by what fierce passion moved
He to this city came; for all have heard
His praise of Galatea, which he sang
Amid the sheepfolds. And you likewise know
The bard to whom the citizens of Cos
A brazen statue raised to do him honour,
And who oft sang the praises of his Battis,
Sitting beneath a plane-tree's shade, Philetas;
In verses that no time shall e'er destroy.
Nor do those men whose lot in life is hard,
Seeking the secret paths of high philosophy,
Or those whom logic's mazes hold in chains,
Or that laborious eloquence of words,
Shun the sharp struggle and sweet strife of Love;
But willing, follow his triumphant car.
Long did the charms of fair Theano bind
The Samian Pythagoras, who laid bare
The tortuous mysteries of geometry;
Who all the mazes of the sphere unfolded,
And knew the laws which regulate the world,
The atmosphere which doth surround the world,
And motions of the sun, and moon, and stars.
Nor did the wisest of all mortal men,
Great Socrates, escape the fierce contagion,
But yielded to the fiery might of Venus,
And to the fascinations of the sex,
Laying his cares down at Aspasia's feet;
And though all doubts of nature he could solve,
He found no refuge from the pursuit of Love.
Love, too, did draw within the narrow Isthmus
The Cyrenean sage: and winning Lais,
With her resistless charms, subdued and bound
Wise Aristippus, who philosophy
Deserted, and preferr'd a trifling life.
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
72. But in this Hermesianax is mistaken when he represents Sappho and
Anacreon as contemporaries. For the one lived in the time of Cyrus and
Polycrates; but Sappho lived in the reign of Alyattes, the father of
Crœsus. But Chameleon, in his treatise on Sappho, does assert that some
people say that these verses were made upon her by Anacreon—
Love, the golden-haired god,
Struck me with his purple ball,
And with his many wiles doth seize
And challenge me to sport with him.
But she—and she from Lesbos comes,
That populous and wealthy isle—
Laughs at my hair and calls it grey,
And will prefer a younger lover.
And he says, too, that Sappho says this to him—
You, O my golden-throned muse,
Did surely dictate that sweet hymn,
Which the noble Teian bard,
From the fair and fertile isle,
Chief muse of lovely womanhood,
Sang with his dulcet voice.
But it is plain enough in reality that this piece of poetry is not
Sappho's. And I think myself that Hermesianax is joking concerning the
love of Anacreon and Sappho. For Diphilus the comic poet, in his play
called Sappho, has represented Archilochus and Hipponax as the lovers
of Sappho.
Now it appears to me, my friends, that I have displayed some diligence
in getting up this amorous catalogue for you, as I myself am not a
person so mad about love as Cynulcus, with his calumnious spirit, has
represented me. I confess, indeed, that I am amorous, but I do deny
that I am frantic on the subject.
And why should I dilate upon my sorrows,
When I may hide them all in night and silence?
as Æschylus the Alexandrian has said in his Amphitryon. And this is the
same Æschylus who composed the Messenian poems—a man entirely without
any education.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
73. Therefore I, considering that Love is a mighty and most powerful
deity, and that the Golden Venus is so too, recollect the verses of
Euripides on the subject, and say—
Dost thou not see how great a deity
Resistless Venus is? No tongue can tell,
No calculation can arrive at all
Her power, or her dominions' vast extent;
She nourishes you and me and all mankind,
And I can prove this, not in words alone,
But facts will show the might of this fair goddess.
The earth loves rain when the parch'd plains are dry,
And lose their glad fertility of yield
From want of moisture. Then the ample heaven,
When fill'd with rain, and moved by Venus' power,
Loves to descend to anxious earth's embrace;
Then when these two are join'd in tender love
They are the parents of all fruits to us,
They bring them forth, they cherish them; and so
The race of man both lives and flourishes.
And that most magnificent poet Æschylus, in his Danaides, introduces
Venus herself speaking thus—
Then, too, the earth feels love, and longs for wedlock,
And rain, descending from the amorous air,
Impregnates his desiring mate; and she
Brings forth delicious food for mortal man,—
Herds of fat sheep, and corn, the gift of Ceres;
The trees love moisture, too, and rain descends
T' indulge their longings, I alone the cause.
74. And again, in the Hippolytus[53] of Euripides, Venus says—
And all who dwell to th' eastward of the sea,
And the Atlantic waves, all who behold
The beams of the rising and the setting sun,
Know that I favour those who honour me,
And crush all those who boast themselves against me.
And, therefore, in the case of a young man who had every other
imaginable virtue, this one fault alone, that he did not honour Venus,
was the cause of his destruction. And neither Diana, who loved him
exceedingly, nor any other of the gods or demi-gods could defend him;
and accordingly, in the words of the same poet,—
Whoe'er denies that Love's the only god,[54]
Is foolish, ignorant of all that's true,
And knows not him who is the greatest deity
Acknowledged by all nations.
And the wise Anacreon, who is in everybody's mouth, is always
celebrating love. And, accordingly, the admirable Critias also speaks
of him in the following manner:—
Teos brought forth, a source of pride to Greece,
The sweet Anacreon, who with sweet notes twined
A wreath of tuneful song in woman's praise,
The choicest ornament of revelling feasts,
The most seductive charm; a match for flutes'
Or pipes' shrill aid, or softly moving lyre:
O Teian bard, your fame shall never die;
Age shall not touch it; while the willing slave
Mingles the wine and water in the bowl,
And fills the welcome goblet for the guests;
While female hands, with many twinkling feet,
Lead their glad nightly dance; while many drops,
Daughters of these glad cups, great Bacchus' juice,
Fall with good omen on the cottabus dish.
75. But Archytas the Harmonist, as Chamæleon calls him, says that
Alcman was the original poet of amatory songs, and that he was the
first poet to introduce melodies inciting to lawless indulgence, ...
being, with respect to women.... On which account he says in one of his
odes—
But Love again, so Venus wills,
Descends into my heart,
And with his gentle dew refreshes me.
He says also that he was in a moderate degree in love with
Megalostrate, who was a poetess, and who was able to allure lovers to
her by the charms of her conversation. And he speaks thus concerning
her—
This gift, by the sweet Muse inspired,
That lovely damsel gave,
The golden-hair'd Megalostrate.
And Stesichorus, who was in no moderate degree given to amorous
pursuits, composed many poems of this kind; which in ancient times were
called παιδιὰ and παιδικά. And, in fact, there was such emulation about
composing poems of this sort, and so far was any one from thinking
lightly of the amatory poets, that Æschylus, who was a very great poet,
and Sophocles, too, introduced the subject of the loves of men on the
stage in their tragedies: the one describing the love of Achilles for
Patroclus, and the other, in his Niobe, the mutual love of her sons (on
which account some men have given an ill name to that tragedy); and all
such passages as those are very agreeable to the spectators.
76. Ibycus, too, of Rhegium, speaks loudly as follows—
In early spring the gold Cydonian apples,
Water'd by streams from ever-flowing rivers,
Where the pure garden of the Virgins is,
And the young grapes, growing beneath the shade
Of ample branches, flourish and increase:
But Love, who never rests, gives me no shade,
Nor any recruiting dew; but like the wind,
Fierce rushing from the north, with rapid fire,
Urged on by Venus, with its maddening drought
Burns up my heart, and from my earliest youth,
Rules o'er my soul with fierce dominion.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
And Pindar, who was of an exceedingly amorous disposition, says—
Oh may it ever be to me to love,
And to indulge my love, remote from fear;
And do not thou, my mind, pursue a chase
Beyond the present number of your years.
On which account Timon, in his Silli, says—
There is a time to love, a time to wed,
A time to leave off loving;
and adds that it is not well to wait until some one else shall say, in
the words of this same philosopher—
When this man ought to set (δύνειν) he now begins
To follow pleasure (ἡδίνεσθαι).
Pindar also mentions Theoxenus of Tenedos, who was much beloved by him;
and what does he say about him?—
And now (for seasonable is the time)
You ought, my soul, to pluck the flowers of love,
Which suit your age.
And he who, looking on the brilliant light that beams
From the sweet countenance of Theoxenus,
Is not subdued by love,
Must have a dark discolour'd heart,
Of adamant or iron made,
And harden'd long in the smith's glowing furnace.
That man is scorn'd by bright-eyed Venus.
Or else he's poor, and care doth fill his breast;
Or else beneath some female insolence
He withers, and so drags on an anxious life:
But I, like comb of wily bees,
Melt under Venus's warm rays,
And waste away while I behold
The budding graces of the youth I love.
Surely at Tenedos, persuasion soft,
And every grace,
Abides in the lovely son of wise Agesilas.
77. And many men used to be as fond of having boys for their favourites
as women for their mistresses. And this was a frequent fashion in
many very well regulated cities of Greece. Accordingly, the Cretans,
as I have said before, and the Chalcidians in Eubœa, were very much
addicted to the custom of having boy-favourites. Therefore Echemenes,
in his History of Crete, says that it was not Jupiter who carried off
Ganymede, but Minos. But the before-mentioned Chalcidians say that
Ganymede was carried off from them by Jupiter; and they show the
spot, which they call Harpagius;[55] and it is a place which produces
extraordinary myrtles. And Minos abandoned his enmity to the Athenians,
(although it had originated in consequence of the death of his son, out
of his love for Theseus: and he gave his daughter Phædra to him for
his wife,) as Zenis, or Zeneus, the Chian, tells us in his treatise on
Country.
78. But Hieronymus the Peripatetic says that the ancients were
anxious to encourage the practice of having boy-favourites, because
the vigorous disposition of youths, and the confidence engendered by
their association with each other, has often led to the overthrow of
tyrannies. For in the presence of his favourite, a man would choose to
do anything rather than to get the character of a coward. And this was
proved in practice in the case of the Sacred Band, as it was called,
which was established at Thebes by Epaminondas. And the death of the
Pisistratidæ was brought about by Harmodius and Aristogiton; and at
Agrigentum in Sicily, the mutual love of Chariton and Melanippus
produced a similar result, as we are told by Heraclides of Pontus, in
his treatise on Amatory Matters. For Melanippus and Chariton, being
informed against as plotting against Phalaris, and being put to the
torture in order to compel them to reveal their accomplices, not only
did not betray them, but even made Phalaris himself pity them, on
account of the tortures which they had undergone, so that he dismissed
them with great praise. On which account Apollo, being pleased at
this conduct, gave Phalaris a respite from death; declaring this to
the men who consulted the Pythian priestess as to how they might best
attack him. He also gave them an oracle respecting Chariton, putting
the Pentameter before the Hexameter, in the same way as afterwards
Dionysius the Athenian did, who was nicknamed the Brazen, in his
Elegies; and the oracle runs as follows—
Happy were Chariton and Melanippus,
Authors of heavenly love to many men.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
The circumstances, too, that happened to Cratinus the Athenian, are
very notorious. For he, being a very beautiful boy, at the time when
Epimenides was purifying Attica by human sacrifices, on account of
some old pollution, as Neanthes of Cyzicus relates in the second book
of his treatise on Sacrifices, willingly gave himself up to secure
the safety of the woman who had brought him up. And after his death,
Apollodorus, his friend, also devoted himself to death, and so the
calamities of the country were terminated. And owing to favouritism of
this kind, the tyrants (for friendships of this sort were very adverse
to their interests) altogether forbad the fashion of making favourites
of boys, and wholly abolished it. And some of them even burnt down
and rased to the ground the palæstræ, considering them as fortresses
hostile to their own citadels; as, for instance, Polycrates the tyrant
of Samos did.
79. But among the Spartans, as Agnon the Academic philosopher tells us,
girls and boys are all treated in the same way before marriage: for the
great lawgiver Solon has said—
Admiring pretty legs and rosy lips;—
as Æschylus and Sophocles have openly made similar statements; the one
saying, in the Myrmidons—
You paid not due respect to modesty,
Led by your passion for too frequent kisses;—
and the other, in his Colchian Women, speaking of Ganymede, says—
Inflaming with his beauty mighty Jove.
But I am not ignorant that the stories which are told about Cratinus
and Aristodemus are stated by Polemo Periegetes, in his Replies to
Neanthes, to be all mere inventions. But you, O Cynulcus, believe that
all these stories are true, let them be ever so false. And you take
the greatest pleasure in all such poems as turn on boys and favourites
of that kind; while the fashion of making favourites of boys was first
introduced among the Grecians from Crete, as Timæus informs us. But
others say that Laius was the originator of this custom, when he was
received in hospitality by Pelops; and that he took a great fancy to
his son, Chrysippus, whom he put into his chariot and carried off, and
fled with to Thebes. But Praxilla the Sicyonian says that Chrysippus
was carried off by Jupiter. And the Celtæ, too, although they have the
most beautiful women of all the barbarians, still make great favourites
of boys.... And the Persians, according to the statement of Herodotus,
learnt from the Greeks to adopt this fashion.
80. Alexander the king was also very much in the habit of giving
in to this fashion. Accordingly, Dicæarchus, in his treatise on the
Sacrifice at Troy, says that he was so much under the influence of
Bagoas the eunuch, that he embraced him in the sight of the whole
theatre; and that when the whole theatre shouted in approval of the
action, he repeated it. And Carystius, in his Historic Commentaries,
says,—"Charon the Chalcidian had a boy of great beauty, who was a
great favourite of his: but when Alexander, on one occasion, at a great
entertainment given by Craterus, praised this boy very much, Charon
bade the boy go and salute Alexander: and he said, 'Not so, for he will
not please me so much as he will vex you.' For though the king was of a
very amorous disposition, still he was at all times sufficiently master
of himself to have a due regard to decorum, and to the preservation of
appearances. And in the same spirit, when he had taken as prisoners
the daughters of Darius, and his wife, who was of extraordinary
beauty, he not only abstained from offering them any insult, but he
took care never to let them feel that they were prisoners at all; but
ordered them to be treated in every respect, and to be supplied with
everything, just as if Darius had still been in his palace; on which
account, Darius, when he heard of this conduct, raised his hands to the
Sun and prayed that either he might be king, or Alexander."
But Ibycus states that Talus was a great favourite of Rhadamanthus the
Just. And Diotimus, in his Heraclea, says that Eurystheus was a great
favourite of Hercules, on which account he willingly endured all his
labours for his sake. And it is said that Argynnus was a favourite of
Agamemnon; and that they first became acquainted from Agamemnon seeing
Argynnus bathing in the Cephisus. And afterwards, when he was drowned
in this river, (for he was continually bathing in it,) Agamemnon
buried him, and raised a temple on the spot to Venus Argynnis. But
Licymnius of Chios, in his Dithyrambics, says that it was Hymenæus
of whom Argynnus was a favourite. And Aristocles the harp-player was
a favourite of King Antigonus: and Antigonus the Carystian, in his
Life of Zeno, writes of him in the following terms:—"Antigonus the
king used often to go to sup with Zeno; and once, as he was returning
by daylight from some entertainment, he went to Zeno's house, and
persuaded him to go with him to sup with Aristocles the harp-player,
who was an excessive favourite of the king's."
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
81. Sophocles, too, had a great fancy for having boy-favourites, equal
to the addiction of Euripides for women. And accordingly, Ion the poet,
in his book on the Arrival of Illustrious Men in the Island of Chios,
writes thus:—"I met Sophocles the poet in Chios, when he was sailing
to Lesbos as the general: he was a man very pleasant over his wine, and
very witty. And when Hermesilaus, who was connected with him by ancient
ties of hospitality, and who was also the proxenus[56] of the Athenians,
entertained him, the boy who was mixing the wine was standing by the
fire, being a boy of a very beautiful complexion, but made red by the
fire: so Sophocles called him and said, 'Do you wish me to drink with
pleasure?' and when he said that he did, he said, 'Well, then, bring
me the cup, and take it away again in a leisurely manner.' And as the
boy blushed all the more at this, Sophocles said to the guest who was
sitting next to him, 'How well did Phrynichus speak when he said—
The light of love doth shine in purple cheeks.
And a man from Eretria, or from Erythræ, who was a schoolmaster,
answered him,—'You are a great man in poetry, O Sophocles; but still
Phrynichus did not say well when he called purple cheeks a mark of
beauty. For if a painter were to cover the cheeks of this boy with
purple paint he would not be beautiful at all. And so it is not well to
compare what is beautiful with what is not so.' And on this Sophocles,
laughing at the Eretrian, said,—'Then, my friend, I suppose you are
not pleased with the line in Simonides which is generally considered
among the Greeks to be a beautiful one—
The maid pour'd forth a gentle voice
From out her purple mouth.[57]
And you do not either like the poet who spoke of the golden-haired
Apollo; for if a painter were to represent the hair of the god as
actually golden, and not black, the picture would be all the worse. Nor
do you approve of the poet who spoke of rosy-fingered.[58] For if any
one were to dip his fingers in rosy-coloured paint he would make his
hands like those of a purple-dyer, and not of a pretty woman.' And when
they all laughed at this, the Eretrian was checked by the reproof; and
Sophocles again turned to pursue the conversation with the boy; for he
asked him, as he was brushing away the straws from the cup with his
little finger, whether he saw any straws: and when he said that he did,
he said, 'Blow them away, then, that you may not dirty your fingers.'
And when he brought his face near the cup he held the cup nearer to his
own mouth, so as to bring his own head nearer to the head of the boy.
And when he was very near he took him by the hand and kissed him. And
when all clapped their hands, laughing and shouting out, to see how
well he had taken the boy in, he said, 'I, my friends, am meditating
on the art of generalship, since Pericles has said that I know how to
compose poetry, but not how to be a general; now has not this stratagem
of mine succeeded perfectly?' And he both said and did many things of
this kind in a witty manner, drinking and giving himself up to mirth:
but as to political affairs he was not able nor energetic in them, but
behaved as any other virtuous Athenian might have done.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
82. And Hieronymus of Rhodes, in his Historic Commentaries, says that
Sophocles was not always so moderate, but that he at times committed
greater excesses, and gave Euripides a handle to reproach him, as
bringing himself into disrepute by his excessive intemperance.
83. And Theopompus, in his treatise on the Treasures of which the
Temple at Delphi was plundered, says that "Asopichus, being a favourite
of Epaminondas, had the trophy of Leuctra represented in relief on his
shield, and that he encountered danger with extraordinary gallantry;
and that this shield is consecrated at Delphi, in the portico." And
in the same treatise, Theopompus further alleges that "Phayllus, the
tyrant of Phocis, was extremely addicted to women; but that Onomarchus
used to select boys as his favourites: and that he had a favourite,
the son of Pythodorus the Sicyonian, to whom, when he came to Delphi
to devote his hair to the god (and he was a youth of great beauty),
Onomarchus gave the offerings of the Sybarites—four golden combs.
And Phayllus gave to the daughter of Diniades, who was a female
flute-player, a Bromiadian,[59] a silver goblet of the Phocæans, and a
golden crown of ivy-leaves, the offering of the Peparethians. And," he
says, "she was about to play the flute at the Pythian games, if she had
not been hindered by the populace.
"Onomarchus also gave," as he says, "to his favourite Lycolas, and to
Physcidas the son of Tricholaus (who was very handsome), a crown of
laurel, the offering of the Ephesians. This boy was brought also to
Philip by his father, but was dismissed without any favour. Onomarchus
also gave to Damippus, the son of Epilycus of Amphipolis, who was a
youth of great beauty, a present which had been consecrated to the god
by Plisthenes.
"And Philomelus gave to Pharsalia, a dancing-woman from Thessaly,
a golden crown of laurel-leaves, which had been offered by the
Lampsacenes. But Pharsalia herself was afterwards torn to pieces at
Metapontum, by the soothsayers, in the market-place, on the occasion
of a voice coming forth out of the brazen laurel which the people
of Metapontum had set up at the time when Aristeas of Proconnesus
was sojourning among them, on his return, as he stated, from the
Hyperboreans, the first moment that she was seen entering the
market-place. And when men afterwards inquired into the reason for this
violence, she was found to have been put to death on account of this
crown which belonged to the god."
84. Now I warn you, O philosophers, who indulge in unnatural passions,
and who treat the great goddess Venus with impiety, to beware, lest
you be destroyed in the same manner. For boys are only handsome, as
Glycera the courtesan said, while they are like women: at least, this
is the saying attributed to her by Clearchus. But my opinion is that
the conduct of Cleonymus the Spartan was in strict conformity with
nature, who was the first man to take such hostages as he took from
the Metapontines—namely, two hundred of their most respectable and
beautiful virgins; as is related by Duris the Samian, in the third book
of his History of Agathocles. And I too, as is said by Epicrates in his
Antilais,
Have learnt by heart completely all the songs
Breathing of love which sweetest Sappho sang,
Or the Lamynthian Cleomenes.
But you, my philosophical friends, even when you are in love with
women . . . as Clearchus says. For a bull was excited by the sight of
the brazen cow at Pirene: and in a picture that existed of a bitch,
and a pigeon, and a goose; and a gander came up to the goose, and a
dog to the bitch, and a male pigeon to the pigeon, and not one of them
discovered the deception till they got close to them; but when they
got near enough to touch them, they desisted; just as Clisophus the
Salymbrian did. For he fell in love with a statue of Parian marble
that then was at Samos, and shut himself up in the temple to gratify
his affection; but when he found that he could make no impression on
the coldness and unimpressibility of the stone, then he discarded his
passion. And Alexis the poet mentions this circumstance in his drama
entitled The Picture, where he says—
And such another circumstance, they say,
Took place in Samos: there a man did fall
In love with a fair maiden wrought in marble,
And shut himself up with her in the temple.
And Philemon mentions the same fact, and says—
But once a man, 'tis said, did fall, at Samos,
In love with a marble woman; and he went
And shut himself up with her in the temple.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
But the statue spoken of is the work of Ctesicles; as Adæus of Mitylene
tells us in his treatise on Statuaries. And Polemo, or whoever the
author of the book called Helladicus is, says—"At Delphi, in the
museum of the pictures, there are two boys wrought in marble; one of
which, the Delphians say, was so fallen in love with by some one who
came to see it, that he made love to it, and shut himself up with
it, and presented it with a crown; but when he was detected, the god
ordered the Delphians, who consulted his oracle with reference to the
subject, to dismiss him freely, for that he had given him a handsome
reward.
85. And even brute beasts have fallen in love with men: for there was
a cock who took a fancy to a man of the name of Secundus, a cup-bearer
of the king; and the cock was nicknamed the Centaur. But this Secundus
was a slave of Nicomedes the king of Bithynia; as Nicander informs us
in the sixth book of his essay on the Revolutions of Fortune. And,
at Ægium, a goose took a fancy to a boy; as Clearchus relates in the
first book of his Amatory Anecdotes. And Theophrastus, in his essay
on Love, says that the name of this boy was Amphilochus, and that he
was a native of Olenus. And Hermeas the son of Hermodorus, who was a
Samian by birth, says that a goose also took a fancy to Lacydes the
philosopher. And in Leucadia (according to a story told by Clearchus),
a peacock fell so in love with a maiden there, that when she died, the
bird died too. There is a story also that, at Iasus, a dolphin took a
fancy to a boy (and this story is told by Duris, in the ninth book of
his History); and the subject of that book is the history of Alexander,
and the historian's words are these: "He likewise sent for the boy from
Iasus. For near Iasus there was a boy whose name was Dionysius, and he
once, when leaving the palæstra with the rest of the boys, went down to
the sea and bathed; and a dolphin came forward out of the deep water to
meet him, and taking him on his back, swam away with him a considerable
distance into the open sea, and then brought him back again to
land." But the dolphin is an animal which is very fond of men, and
very intelligent, and one very susceptible of gratitude. Accordingly
Phylarchus, in his twelfth book, says—"Coiranus the Milesian, when he
saw some fishermen who had caught a dolphin in a net, and who were
about to cut it up, gave them some money and bought the fish, and took
it down and put it back in the sea again. And after this it happened to
him to be shipwrecked near Myconos, and while every one else perished,
Coiranus alone was saved by a dolphin. And when, at last, he died of
old age in his native country, as it so happened that his funeral
procession passed along the sea-shore close to Miletus, a great shoal
of dolphins appeared on that day in the harbour, keeping only a very
little distance from those who were attending the funeral of Coiranus,
as if they also were joining in the procession and sharing in their
grief."
The same Phylarchus also relates, in the twentieth book of his History,
the great affection which was once displayed by an elephant for a boy.
And his words are these: "But there was a female elephant kept with
this elephant, and the name of the female elephant was Nicæa; and to
her the wife of the king of India, when dying, entrusted her child,
which was just a month old. And when the woman did die, the affection
for the child displayed by the beast was most extraordinary; for it
could not endure the child to be away; and whenever it did not see him,
it was out of spirits. And so, whenever the nurse fed the infant with
milk, she placed it in its cradle between the feet of the beast; and if
she had not done so, the elephant would not take any food; and after
this, it would take whatever reeds and grass there were near, and,
while the child was sleeping, beat away the flies with the bundle. And
whenever the child wept, it would rock the cradle with its trunk, and
lull it to sleep. And very often the male elephant did the same."
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
86. But you, O philosophers, are far fiercer than dolphins and
elephants, and are also much more untameable; although Persæus the
Cittiæan, in his Recollections of Banquets, says loudly,—"It is a very
consistent subject of conversation at drinking parties for men to
talk of amatory matters; for we are naturally inclined to such topics
after drinking. And at those times we should praise those who indulge
in that kind of conversation to a moderate and temperate degree, but
blame those who go to excess in it, and behave in a beastly manner.
But if logicians, when assembled in a social party, were to talk about
syllogisms, then a man might very fairly think that they were acting
very unseasonably. And a respectable and virtuous man will at times get
drunk; but they who wish to appear extraordinarily temperate, keep up
this character amid their cups for a certain time, but afterwards, as
the wine begins to take effect on them, they descend to every kind of
impropriety and indecency. And this was the case very lately with the
ambassadors who came to Antigonus from Arcadia; for they sat at dinner
with great severity of countenance, and with great propriety, as they
thought,—not only not looking at any one of us, but not even looking at
one another. But as the wine went round, and music of different kinds
was introduced, and when the Thessalian dancing-women, as their fashion
is, came in, and danced quite naked, except that they had girdles round
their waists, then the men could not restrain themselves any longer,
but jumped up off the couches, and shouted as if they were beholding a
most gratifying sight; and they congratulated the king because he had
it in his power to indulge in such pastimes; and they did and said a
great many more vulgar things of the same kind.
"And one of the philosophers who was once drinking with us, when a
flute-playing girl came in, and when there was plenty of room near him,
when the girl wished to sit down near him, would not allow her, but
drew himself up and looked grave. And then afterwards, when the girl
was put up to auction, as is often the fashion at such entertainments,
he was exceedingly eager to buy her, and quarrelled with the man who
sold her, on the ground that he had knocked her down too speedily to
some one else; and he said that the auctioneer had not fairly sold her.
And at last this grave philosopher, he who at first would not permit
the girl even to sit near him, came to blows about her." And perhaps
this very philosopher, who came to blows about the flute-playing girl,
may have been Persæus himself; for Antigonus the Carystian, in his
treatise on Zeno, makes the following statement:—"Zeno the Cittiæan,
when once Perseus at a drinking-party bought a flute-playing girl, and
after that was afraid to bring her home, because he lived in the same
house with Zeno, becoming acquainted with the circumstance, brought
the girl home himself, and shut her up with Persæus." I know, also,
that Polystratus the Athenian, who was a pupil of Theophrastus, and who
was surnamed the Tyrrhenian, used often to put on the garments of the
female flute-players.
87. Kings, too, have shown great anxiety about musical women; as
Parmenion tells us in his Letter to Alexander, which he sent to that
monarch after he had taken Damascus, and after he had become master
of all the baggage of Darius. Accordingly, having enumerated all the
things which he had taken, he writes as follows:—"I found three
hundred and twenty-nine concubines of the king, all skilled in music;
and forty-six men who were skilful in making garlands, and two hundred
and seventy-seven confectioners, and twenty-nine boilers of pots, and
thirteen cooks skilful in preparing milk, and seventeen artists who
mixed drinks, and seventy slaves who strain wine, and forty preparers
of perfumes." And I say to you, O my companions, that there is no sight
which has a greater tendency to gladden the eyes than the beauty of
a woman. Accordingly Œneus, in the play of Chæremon the tragedian,
speaking of some maidens whom he had seen, says, in the play called
Œneus,—
And one did lie with garment well thrown back,
Showing her snow-white bosom to the moon:
Another, as she lightly danced, display'd
The fair proportions of her lefthand side,
Naked—a lovely picture for the air
To wanton with; and her complexion white
Strove with the darkening shades. Another bared
Her lovely arms and taper fingers all:
Another, with her robe high round her neck,
Conceal'd her bosom, but a rent below
Show'd all her shapely thighs. The Graces smiled,
And love, not without hope, did lead me on.
Then on th' inviting asphodel they fell,
Plucking the dark leaves of the violet flower,
And crocus, which, with purple petals rising,
Copies the golden rays of the early sun.
There, too, the Persian sweetly-smelling marjoram
Stretch'd out its neck along the laughing meadow.
88. And the same poet, being passionately fond of flowers, says also in
his Alphesibœa—
The glorious beauty of her dazzling body
Shone brilliant, a sweet sight to every eye;
And modesty, a tender blush exciting,
Tinted her gentle cheeks with delicate rose:
Her waxy hair, in gracefully modell'd curls,
Falling as though arranged by sculptor's hand,
Waved in the wanton breeze luxuriant.
[Sidenote: BEAUTY OF WOMEN.]
And in his Io he calls the flowers children of spring, where he says—
Strewing around sweet children of the spring.
And in his Centaur, which is a drama composed in many metres of various
kinds, he calls them children of the meadow—
There, too, they did invade the countless host
Of all the new-born flowers that deck the fields,
Hunting with joy the offspring of the meadows.
And in his Bacchus he says—
The ivy, lover of the dance,
Child of the mirthful year.
And in his Ulysses he speaks thus of roses:—
And in their hair the Hours' choicest gifts
They wore, the flowering, fragrant rose,
The loveliest foster-child of spring.
And in his Thyestes he says—
The brilliant rose, and modest snow-white lily.
And in his Minyæ he says—
There was full many a store of Venus to view,
Dark in the rich flowers in due season ripe.
89. Now there have been many women celebrated for their beauty (for, as
Euripides says—
E'en an old bard may sing of memory)
There was, for instance, Thargelia the Milesian, who was married
to fourteen different husbands, so very beautiful and accomplished
was she, as Hippias the Sophist says, in his book which is entitled
Synagoge. But Dinon, in the fifth book of his History of Persia, and
in the first part of it, says that the wife of Bagazus, who was a
sister of Xerxes by the same father, (and her name was Anytis,) was the
most beautiful and the most licentious of all the women in Asia. And
Phylarchus, in his nineteenth book, says that Timosa, the concubine of
Oxyartes, surpassed all women in beauty, and that the king of Egypt had
originally sent her as a present to Statira, the wife of the king.
And Theopompus, in the fifty-sixth book of his History, speaks of
Xenopithea, the mother of Lysandrides, as the most beautiful of all
the women in Peloponnesus. And the Lacedæmonians put her to death,
and her sister Chryse also, when Agesilaus the king, having raised a
seditious tumult in the city, procured Lysandrides, who was his enemy,
to be banished by the Lacedæmonians. Pantica of Cyprus was also a
very beautiful woman; and she is mentioned by Phylarchus, in the tenth
book of his History, where he says that when she was with Olympias,
the mother of Alexander, Monimus, the son of Pythion, asked her in
marriage. And, as she was a very licentious woman, Olympias said to
him—"O wretched man, you are marrying with your eyes, and not with
your understanding." They also say that the woman who brought back
Pisistratus to assume the tyranny, clad in the semblance of Minerva the
Saviour, was very beautiful, as indeed she ought to have been, seeing
that she assumed the appearance of a goddess. And she was a seller of
garlands; and Pisistratus afterwards gave her in marriage to Hipparchus
his son, as Clidemus relates in the eighth book of his Returns, where
he says—"And he also gave the woman, by name Phya, who had been in
the chariot with him, in marriage to his son Hipparchus. And she was
the daughter of a man named Socrates. And he took for Hippias, who
succeeded him in the tyranny, the daughter of Charmus the polemarch,
who was extraordinarily beautiful."
And it happened, as it is said, that Charmus was a great admirer of
Hippias, and that he was the man who first erected a statue of Love in
the Academy, on which there is the following inscription—
O wily Love, Charmus this altar raised
At the well-shaded bounds of her Gymnasium.
Hesiod, also, in the third book of his Melampodia, calls Chalcis in
Eubœa,
Land of fair women;—
for the women there are very beautiful, as Theophrastus also asserts.
And Nymphodorus, in his Voyage round Asia, says that there are nowhere
more beautiful women than those in Tenedos, an island close to Troy.
[Sidenote: PRAISE OF MODESTY.]
90. I am aware, too, that on one occasion there was a contest of beauty
instituted among women. And Nicias, speaking of it in his History of
Arcadia, says that Cypselus instituted it, having built a city in the
plain which is watered by the Alpheus; in which he established some
Parrhasians, and consecrated a plot of sacred ground and an altar to
Ceres of Eleusis, in whose festival it was that he had instituted this
contest of beauty. And he says that the woman who gained the victory
in this contest was Herodice.
And even to this day this contest is continued; and the women who
contend in it are called Goldbearing. And Theophrastus says that there
is also a contest of beauty which takes place among the Eleans, and
that the decision is come to with great care and deliberation; and that
those who gain the victory receive arms as their prize, which Dionysius
of Leuctra says are offered up to Minerva. And he says, too, that the
victor is adorned with fillets by his friends, and goes in procession
to the temple; and that a crown of myrtle is given to him (at least
this is the statement of Myrsilus, in his Historical Paradoxes). "But
in some places," says the same Theophrastus, "there are contests
between the women in respect of modesty and good management, as there
are among the barbarians; and at other places also there are contests
about beauty, on the ground that this also is entitled to honour,
as for instance, there are in Tenedos and Lesbos. But they say that
this is the gift of chance, or of nature; but that the honour paid
to modesty ought to be one of a greater degree. For that it is in
consequence of modesty that beauty is beautiful; for without modesty it
is apt to be subdued by intemperance."
91. Now, when Myrtilus had said all this in a connected statement; and
when all were marvelling at his memory, Cynulcus said—
Your multifarious learning I do wonder at—
Though there is not a thing more vain and useless,
says Hippon the Atheist. But the divine Heraclitus also says—"A great
variety of information does not usually give wisdom." And Timon said—
There is great ostentation and parade
Of multifarious learning, than which nothing
Can be more vain or useless.
For what is the use of so many names, my good grammarian, which are
more calculated to overwhelm the hearers than to do them any good? And
if any one were to inquire of you, who they were who were shut up in
the wooden horse, you would perhaps be able to tell the names of one or
two; and even this you would not do out of the verses of Stesichorus,
(for that could hardly be,) but out of the Storming of Troy, by
Sacadas the Argive; for he has given a catalogue of a great number of
names. Nor indeed could you properly give a list of the companions of
Ulysses, and say who they were who were devoured by the Cyclops, or
by the Læstrygonians, and whether they were really devoured or not.
And you do not even know this, in spite of your frequent mention of
Phylarchus, that in the cities of the Ceans it is not possible to see
either courtesans or female flute-players. And Myrtilus said,—But
where has Phylarchus stated this? For I have read through all his
history. And when he said,—In the twenty-third book; Myrtilus said—
92. Do I not then deservedly detest all you philosophers, since you are
all haters of philology,—men whom not only did Lysimachus the king
banish from his own dominions, as Carystius tells us in his Historic
Reminiscences, but the Athenians did so too. At all events, Alexis, in
his Horse, says—
Is this the Academy; is this Xenocrates?
May the gods greatly bless Demetrius
And all the lawgivers; for, as men say,
They've driven out of Attica with disgrace
All those who do profess to teach the youth
Learning and science.
And a certain man named Sophocles, passed a decree to banish all the
philosophers from Attica. And Philo, the friend of Aristotle, wrote
an oration against him; and Demochares, on the other hand, who was
the cousin of Demosthenes, composed a defence for Sophocles. And the
Romans, who are in every respect the best of men, banished all the
sophists from Rome, on the ground of their corrupting the youth of the
city, though, at a subsequent time, somehow or other, they admitted
them. And Anaxippus the comic poet declares your folly in his Man
struck by Lightning, speaking thus—
Alas, you're a philosopher; but I
Do think philosophers are only wise
In quibbling about words; in deeds they are,
As far as I can see, completely foolish.
[Sidenote: FAULTS OF PHILOSOPHERS.]
It is, therefore, with good reason that many cities, and especially
the city of the Lacedæmonians, as Chamæleon says in his book on
Simonides, will not admit either rhetoric or philosophy, on account
of the jealousy, and strife, and profitless discussions to which they
give rise; owing to which it was that Socrates was put to death; he,
who argued against the judges who were given him by lot, discoursing
of justice to them when they were a pack of most corrupt men. And it
is owing to this, too, that Theodorus the Atheist was put to death,
and that Diagoras was banished; and this latter, sailing away when he
was banished, was wrecked. But Theotimus, who wrote the books against
Epicurus, was accused by Zeno the Epicurean, and put to death; as is
related by Demetrius the Magnesian, in his treatise on People and
Things which go by the same Name.
93. And, in short, according to Clearchus the Solensian, you do not
adopt a manly system of life, but you do really aim at a system which
might become a dog; but although this animal has four excellent
qualities, you select none but the worst of his qualities for your
imitation. For a dog is a wonderful animal as to his power of smelling
and of distinguishing what belongs to his own family and what does not;
and the way in which he associates with man, and the manner in which
he watches over and protects the houses of all those who are kind to
him, is extraordinary. But you who imitate the dogs, do neither of
these things. For you do not associate with men, nor do you distinguish
between those with whom you are acquainted; and being very deficient
in sensibility, you live in an indolent and indifferent manner. But
while the dog is also a snarling and greedy animal, and also hard in
his way of living, and naked; these habits of his you practise, being
abusive and gluttonous, and, besides all this, living without a home
or a hearth. The result of all which circumstances is, that you are
destitute of virtue, and quite unserviceable for any useful purpose in
life. For there is nothing less philosophical than those persons who
are called philosophers. For whoever supposed that Æschines, the pupil
of Socrates, would have been such a man in his manners as Lysias the
orator, in his speeches on the Contracts, represents him to have been;
when, out of the dialogues which are extant, and generally represented
to be his work, we are inclined to admire him as an equitable and
moderate man? unless, indeed, those writings are in reality the work of
the wise Socrates, and were given to Æschines by Xanthippe, the wife of
Socrates, after his death, which Idomeneus asserts to be the case.
94. But Lysias, in the oration which bears this title—"Against
Æschines, the Pupil of Socrates, for Debt," (for I will recite the
passage, even though it be a rather long one, on account of your
excessive arrogance, O philosophers,)—begins in the following
manner—"I never should have imagined, O judges, that Æschines would
have dared to come into court on a trial which is so discreditable to
him. For a more disgracefully false accusation than the one which he
has brought forward, I do not believe it to be easy to find. For he,
O judges, owing a sum of money with a covenanted interest of three
drachmæ to Sosinomus the banker and Aristogiton, came to me, and
besought me not to allow him to be wholly stripped of his own property,
in consequence of this high interest. 'And I,' said he, 'am at this
moment carrying on the trade of a perfumer; but I want capital to go
on with, and I will pay you nine[60] obols a month interest.'" A fine
end to the happiness of this philosopher was the trade of a perfumer,
and admirably harmonizing with the philosophy of Socrates, a man who
utterly rejected the use of all perfumes and unguents! And moreover,
Solon the lawgiver expressly forbade a man to devote himself to any
such business: on which account Pherecrates, in his Oven, or Woman
sitting up all Night, says—
Why should he practise a perfumer's trade,
Sitting beneath a high umbrella there,
Preparing for himself a seat on which
To gossip with the youths the whole day long?
And presently afterwards he says—
And no one ever saw a female cook
Or any fishwoman; for every class
Should practise arts which are best suited to it.
[Sidenote: LENDING MONEY.]
And after what I have already quoted, the orator proceeds to say—"And
I was persuaded by this speech of his, considering also that this
Æschines had been the pupil of Socrates, and was a man who uttered
fine sentiments about virtue and justice, and who would never attempt
nor venture on the actions practised by dishonest and unjust men."
95. And after this again, after he had run through the accusation of
Æschines, and had explained how he had borrowed the money, and how he
never paid either interest or principal, and how, when an action was
brought against him, he had allowed judgment to go by default, and how
a branded slave of his had been put forward by him as security; and
after he had brought a good many more charges of the same kind against
him, he thus proceeded:—"But, O judges, I am not the only person to
whom he behaves in this manner, but he treats every one who has any
dealings with him in the same manner. Are not even all the wine-sellers
who live near him, from whom he gets wine for his entertainments
and never pays for it, bringing actions against him, having already
closed their shops against him? And his neighbours are ill-treated
by him to such a degree that they leave their own houses, and go and
rent others which are at a distance from him. And with respect to all
the contributions which he collects, he never himself puts down the
remaining share which is due from him, but all the money which ever
gets into this pedlar's hands is lost as if it were utterly destroyed.
And such a number of men come to his house daily at dawn, to ask for
their money which he owes them, that passers-by suppose he must be
dead, and that such a crowd can only be collected to attend his funeral.
"And those men who live in the Piræus have such an opinion of him, that
they think it a far less perilous business to sail to the Adriatic
than to deal with him; for he thinks that all that he can borrow is
much more actually his own than what his father left him. Has he not
got possession of the property of Hermæus the perfumer, after having
seduced his wife, though she was seventy years old? whom he pretended
to be in love with, and then treated in such a manner that she reduced
her husband and her sons to beggary, and made him a perfumer instead
of a pedlar! in so amorous a manner did he handle the damsel, enjoying
the fruit of her youth, when it would have been less trouble to him to
count her teeth than the fingers of her hand, they were so much fewer.
And now come forward, you witnesses, who will prove these facts.—This,
then, is the life of this sophist."
These, O Cynulcus, are the words of Lysias. But I, in the words of
Aristarchus the tragic poet,
Saying no more, but this in self-defence,
will now cease my attack upon you and the rest of the Cynics.
FOOTNOTES.
[12] διφυὴς meaning, "of double nature."
[13] Iliad, xxiv. 489.
[14] Iliad, ii. 220.
[15] Theognis.
[16] It is not known from what play this fragment comes. It is
given in the Variorum Edition of Euripides, _Inc. Fragm._ 165.
[17] From the Andromeda.
[18] This is a blunder of Athenæus; for the passage alluded to
is evidently that in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides. The lines as
quoted in the text here are—
Δίδυμα γὰρ τόξα αὐτὸν
Ἐντείνεσθαι χαρίτων
Τὸ μὲν ἐπ' εἰαίωνι τύχα
Τὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶς.
The passage in Euripides is—
Δίδυμ' Ἕρως ὁ χρυσοκόμας
Τόξ' ἐντείνεται χαρίτων
Τὸ μὲν ἐπ' εὐαίωνι πότμῳ
Τὸ δ' ἐπὶ συγχύσει βιοτᾶω.—_Iph. in Aul._ 552.
[19] Iliad, x. 401.
[20] This fragment is from the Hippodamia.
[21] Ode 67.
[22] This is not from any one of the odes, which we have
entire; but is only a fragment.
[23] From κείρω, to cut the hair.
[24] From the Æolus.
[25] Iliad, iii. 156.
[26] Ib. iii. 170.
[27] Ib. xx. 234.
[28] Ach. 524.
[29] Pind. Ol. 13.
[30] A σκολιὸν was a song which went round at banquets,
sung to the lyre by the guests, one after another, said to have been
introduced by Terpander; but the word is first found in Pind. Fr.
lxxxvii. 9; Aristoph. Ach. 532. The name is of uncertain origin: some
refer it to the character of the music, νόμος σκολιὸς, as opposed to
νόμος ὔρθιος; others to the ῥυθμὸς σκολιὸς, or amphibrachic rhythm
recognised in many scolia; but most, after Dicæarchus and Plutarch,
from the irregular zigzag way it went round the table, each guest
who sung holding a myrtle-branch, which he passed on to any one he
chose.—Lid. & Scott, Gr. Lex. _in voc._
[31] These are the second and third lines of the Electra of
Sophocles.
[32] The Kids was a constellation rising about the beginning of
October, and supposed by the ancients to bring storms.
Theocritus says—
χὤταν ἐφ' ἑσπερίοις ἐρίφοις νότος ὑγρὰ διώκῃ κύματα.—vii. 53.
[33] Θάλλος means "a young twig."
[34] There is a pun here on her name,—Ἵππη meaning a
mare.
[35] Λάκκος, a cistern; a cellar.
[36] This is a pun on the similarity of the name Σίγειον to
σιγὴ, silence.
[37] Γραῦς means both an old woman, and the scum on
boiled milk.
[38] Ὑστέρα means both "the womb," and "the new
comer."
[39] Punning on the similarity of the name Αἰγεὺς to
αἲξ, a goat.
[40] Punning on the similarity of κατατράγω, to eat,
and τράγος, a goat.
[41] The Greek word is ψυχαγωγοῦσι, which might perhaps also
mean to bring coolness, from ψῦχος, coolness.
[42] The young man says πολλαῖς συμπέπλεχθαι
(γύναιξι scil.), but Phryne chooses to suppose that he meant
to say πολλαῖς πληγαῖς, blows.
[43] This is a pun on the name Φειδίας, as if from
φείδω, to be stingy.
[44] Anticyra was the name of three islands celebrated as
producing a great quantity of hellebore. Horace, speaking of a madman,
says:
Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquam
Tonsori Licino commiserit.—A. P. 300.
[45] This probably means a large crane.
[46] From κλαίω, to weep, and γέλως,
laughter.
[47] That is, With beautiful Eyelids; from χάρις,
grace, and βλέφαρον, an eyelid.
[48] The universal Friend.
[49] Λήμη literally means the matter which gathers in
the corner of the eyes; λήμαι, sore eyes. Παρόραμα means an oversight,
a defect in sight; but there is supposed to be some corruption in
this latter word.
[50] Rharia was a name of Ceres, from the Rharian plain near
Eleusis, where corn was first sown by Triptolemus, the son of Rharus.
It is mentioned by Homer:—
ἐς δ' ἄρα Ῥάριον ἷξε, φερέσβιον οὖθαρ ἀρούρης
τὸ πρίν, ἄταρ τότε γ' οὔτι φερέσβιον, ἀλλὰ ἕκηλον
εἱστήκι πανάφυλλον, ἔκευθε δ' ἄρα κρῖ λευκὸν
μήδεσι Δήμητρος καλλισφύρου.—Od. in Cerer. 450.
[51] Anacreon.
[52] Sophocles.
[53] V. 3.
[54] This is not from the Hippolytus, but is a fragment from
the Auge.
[55] From ἁρπάζω, to carry off.
[56] "Of far greater importance was the public hospitality
(προξενία) which existed between two states, or between an
individual or a family on the one hand, and a whole state on the
other.... When two states established public hospitality, it was
necessary that in each state persons should be appointed to show
hospitality to, and watch over the interests of all persons who came
from the state connected by hospitality. The persons who were
appointed to this office, as the recognised agents of the state for
which they acted, were called πρόξενοι....
"The office of πρόξενοσ, which bears great resemblance to that
of a modern consul, or minister resident, was in some cases hereditary
in a particular family. When a state appointed a proxenus, it either
sent out one of its own citizens to reside in the other state, or it
selected one of the citizens of the other, and conferred on him the
honour of proxenus.... This custom seems in later times to have been
universally adopted by the Greeks....
"The principal duties of a proxenus were to receive those persons,
especially ambassadors, who came from the state which he represented;
to procure for them admission to the assembly, and seats in the
theatre; to act as the patron of the strangers, and to mediate between
the two states, if any dispute arose. If a stranger died in the state,
the proxenus of his country had to take care of the property of the
deceased. The proxenus usually enjoyed exemption from taxes; and their
persons were inviolable both by sea and land."—Smith, Dict. Ant. v.
_Hospitium_, p. 491.
[57] Pindar, Ol. vi. 71.
[58] Homer gives this epithet to Aurora, Iliad, i. 477, and in
many other places.
[59] Schweighauser says this word is to him totally
unintelligible.
[60] This would have been 18 per cent. Three drachmæ were
about 36 per cent. The former appears to have been the usual rate of
interest at Athens in the time of Lysias; for we find in Demosthenes
that interest ἐπὶ δραχμῇ, that is to say, a drachma a month
interest for each mina lent, was considered low. It was exceedingly
common, however, among the money-lenders, to exact an exorbitant rate
of interest, going even as high as a drachma every four days.—See
Smith's Dict. Ant. v. _Interest_, p. 524.
BOOK XIV.
1. MOST people, my friend Timocrates, call Bacchus frantic, because
those who drink too much unmixed wine become violent.
To copious wine this insolence we owe,
And much thy betters wine can overthrow
The great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,
Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:
Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and all
The heroes lose and dragg'd him from the hall;
His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,
And sent him sober'd home with better wit.[61]
For when the wine has penetrated down into the body, as Herodotus says,
bad and furious language is apt to rise to the surface. And Clearchus
the comic poet says in his Corinthians—
If all the men who to get drunk are apt,
Had every day a headache ere they drank
The wine, there is not one would drink a drop:
But as we now get all the pleasure first,
And then the drink, we lose the whole delight
In the sharp pain which follows.
And Xenophon represents Agesilaus as insisting that a man ought to shun
drunkenness equally with madness, and immoderate gluttony as much as
idleness. But we, as we are not of the class who drink to excess, nor
of the number of those who are in the habit of being intoxicated by
midday, have come rather to this literary entertainment; for Ulpian,
who is always finding fault, reproved some one just now who said, I
am not drunk (ἔξοινος), saying,—Where do you find that word
ἔξοινος? But he rejoined,—Why, in Alexis, who, in his play
called the New Settler, says—
He did all this when drunk (ἔξοινος).
[Sidenote: JESTERS.]
2. But as, after the discussion by us of the new topics which arise,
our liberal entertainer Laurentius is every day constantly introducing
different kinds of music, and also jesters and buffoons, let us have
a little talk about them. Although I am aware that Anacharsis the
Scythian, when on one occasion jesters were introduced in his company,
remained without moving a muscle of his countenance; but afterwards,
when a monkey was brought in, he burst out laughing, and said, "Now
this fellow is laughable by his nature, but man is only so through
practice." And Euripides, in his Melanippe in Chains, has said—
But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,
Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jesters
I hate who let loose their unbridled tongues
Against the wise and good; nor do I class them
As men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.
Meantime they live at ease, and gather up
Good store of wealth to keep within their houses.
And Parmeniscus of Metapontum, as Semus tells us in the fifth book of
his Delias, a man of the highest consideration both as to family and
in respect of his riches, having gone down to the cave of Trophonius,
after he had come up again, was not able to laugh at all. And when he
consulted the oracle on this subject, the Pythian priestess replied to
him—
You're asking me, you laughless man,
About the power to laugh again;
Your mother 'll give it you at home,
If you with reverence to her come.
So, on this, he hoped that when he returned to his country he should be
able to laugh again; but when he found that he could laugh no more now
than he could before, he considered that he had been deceived; till,
by some chance, he came to Delos; and as he was admiring everything he
saw in the island, he came into the temple of Latona, expecting to see
some very superb statue of the mother of Apollo; but when he saw only a
wooden shapeless figure, he unexpectedly burst out laughing. And then,
comparing what had happened with the oracle of the god, and being cured
of his infirmity, he honoured the goddess greatly.
3. Now Anaxandrides, in his Old-Man's Madness, says that it was
Rhadamanthus and Palamedes who invented the fashion of jesters; and his
words are these:—
And yet we labour much.
But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,
Sought those who bring no other contribution,
But say amusing things.
Xenophon also, in his Banquet, mentions jesters; introducing Philip, of
whom he speaks in the following manner:—"But Philip the jester, having
knocked at the door, told the boy who answered, to tell the guests who
he was, and that he was desirous to be admitted; and he said that he
came provided with everything which could qualify him for supping at
other people's expense. And he said, too, that his boy was in a good
deal of distress because he had brought nothing, and because he had had
no dinner." And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his epistle to Lynceus,
mentions the jesters Mandrogenes and Strato the Athenian. And at Athens
there was a great deal of this kind of cleverness. Accordingly, in the
Heracleum at Diomea[62] they assembled to the number of sixty, and they
were always spoken of in the city as amounting to that number, in such
expressions as—"The sixty said this," and, "I am come from the sixty."
And among them were Callimedon, nicknamed the Crab, and Dinias, and
also Mnasigeiton and Menæchmus, as Telephanes tells us in his treatise
on the City. And their reputation for amusing qualities was so great,
that Philip the Macedonian heard of it, and sent them a talent to
engage them to write out their witticisms and send them to him. And
the fact of this king having been a man who was very fond of jokes is
testified to us by Demosthenes the orator in his Philippics.
[Sidenote: JESTERS.]
Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very eager for anything which could
make him laugh, as Phylarchus tells us in the sixth book of his
History. And he it was who said, "that the palace of Lysimachus was
in no respect different from a comic theatre; for that there was no
one there bigger than a dissyllable;"[63] (meaning to laugh at Bithys
and Paris, who had more influence than anybody with Lysimachus, and at
some others of his friends;) "but that his friends were Peucesteses,
and Menelauses, and Oxythemises." But when Lysimachus heard this, he
said,—"I, however, never saw a prostitute on the stage in a tragedy;"
referring to Lamia the female flute-player. And when this was reported
to Demetrius, he rejoined,—"But the prostitute who is with me, lives in
a more modest manner than the Penelope who is with him."
4. And we have mentioned before this that Sylla, the general of the
Romans, was very fond of anything laughable. And Lucius Anicius, who
was also a general of the Romans, after he had subdued the Illyrians,
and brought with him Genthius the king of the Illyrians as his
prisoner, with all his children, when he was celebrating his triumphal
games at Rome, did many things of the most laughable character
possible, as Polybius relates in his thirtieth book:—"For having
sent for the most eminent artists from Greece, and having erected a
very large theatre in the circus, he first of all introduced all the
flute-players. And these were Theodorus the Bœotian, and Theopompus,
and Hermippus, surnamed Lysimachus, who were the most eminent men in
their profession. And having brought these men in front of the stage
after the chorus was over, he ordered them all to play the flute. And
as they accompanied their music with appropriate gestures, he sent to
them and said that they were not playing well, and desired them to be
more vehement. And while they were in perplexity, one of the lictors
told them that what Anicius wished was that they should turn round
so as to advance towards each other, and give a representation of a
battle. And then the flute-players, taking this hint, and adopting a
movement not unsuited to their habitual wantonness, caused a great
tumult and confusion; and turning the middle of the chorus towards
the extremities, the flute-players, all blowing unpremeditated notes,
and letting their flutes be all out of tune, rushed upon one another
in turn: and at the same time the choruses, all making a noise to
correspond to them, and coming on the stage at the same time, rushed
also upon one another, and then again retreated, advancing and
retreating alternately. But when one of the chorus-dancers tucked up
his garment, and suddenly turned round and raised his hands against
the flute-player who was coming towards him, as if he was going to box
with him, then there arose an extraordinary clapping and shouting on
the part of the spectators. And while all these men were fighting as
if in regular battle, two dancers were introduced into the orchestra
with a symphony, and four boxers mounted the stage, with trumpeters
and horn-players: and when all these men were striving together, the
spectacle was quite indescribable: and as for the tragedians," says
Polybius, "if I were to attempt to describe what took place with
respect to them, I should be thought by some people to be jesting."
5. Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing
at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about
the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether
there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for
of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus
said,—Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the
Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:—
They say that once there was a man at Athens,
A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, who
Devoted all his life to this pursuit;
And he, whenever to a hill he came,
Ran straight up to the top; but then descending
Came slowly down, and leaning on a stick.
And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian—
They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus once
Most wittily station'd in a narrow lane
A crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,
So that no one else could pass that way at all.
There was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned, by Theognetus,
in his Slave devoted to his Master—
Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα)
Save only foreigners, and those, too, such
As ne'er had heard of him: and often he,
After a drunken revel, would pour forth
All sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laugh
By his unceasing chattering.
[Sidenote: JESTERS.]
And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on
Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon:—"But Pantaleon the
πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his
sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom
he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they
afterwards went and dug together to no purpose, and then found out
that they had been all deceived."
6. And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh
by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus
subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—"Once when a man
fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the
executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a
song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him." And Myrtilus
having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got
angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible
thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an
entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus),
as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—
You begin ill, introducing τηνδεμουσαν,[64]—
ordered him to be put in a cage (γαλεάγρα) and carried about like a
wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But
if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word γαλεάγρα, it occurs
in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself.
And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon,
when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost
his kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And
the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—
The mountain was in labour; Jupiter
Was greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.
And Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, "I will
prove a lion to you." So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as
Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in
his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in
consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.
7. So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always
the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and
conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those
who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were
said. For concerning flutes, somebody said that Melanippides, in
his Marsyas, disparaging the art of playing the flute, had said very
cleverly about Minerva:—
Minerva cast away those instruments
Down from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,
"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!
Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices?"
And some one, replying to him, said,—But Telestes of Selinus, in
opposition to Melanippides, says in his Argo (and it is of Minerva that
he too is speaking):—
It seems to me a scarcely credible thing
That the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,
Should in the mountain groves have taken up
That clever instrument, and then again
Thrown it away, fearing to draw her mouth
Into an unseemly shape, to be a glory
To the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.
For how should chaste Minerva be so anxious
About her beauty, when the Fates had given her
A childless, husbandless virginity?
intimating his belief that she, as she was and always was to continue a
maid, could not be alarmed at the idea of disfiguring her beauty. And
in a subsequent passage he says—
But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,
Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelessly
Through Greece, to raise an envy and reproach
Against the wise and sacred art of music.
And after this, in an express panegyric on the art of flute-playing, he
says—
And so the happy breath of the holy goddess
Bestow'd this art divine on Bromius,
With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.
And very neatly, in his Æsculapius, has Telestes vindicated the use of
the flute, where he says—
And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forth
The notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,
Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,
Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breath
Which fills the flute with tuneful modulation.
[Sidenote: CONCERTS.]
8. And Pratinas the Phliasian says, that when some hired flute-players
and chorus-dancers were occupying the orchestra, some people were
indignant because the flute-players did not play in tune to the
choruses, as was the national custom, but the choruses instead
sang, keeping time to the flutes. And what his opinion and feelings
were towards those who did this, Pratinas declares in the following
hyporchema:—
What noise is this?
What mean these songs of dancers now?
What new unseemly fashion
Has seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,
Now echoing with various noise?
Bromius is mine! is mine!
I am the man who ought to sing,
I am the man who ought to raise the strain,
Hastening o'er the hills,
In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;
Blending a song of varied strain,
Like the sweet dying swan.
You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre sway
Of holy song:
And after you let the shrill flute resound;
For that is but the handmaid
Of revels, where men combat at the doors,
And fight with heavy fists.[65]
* * * * *
And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.
Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,
The leader of the changing choir,—
Chattering, untimely, leading on
The rhythm of the changing song.
* * * * *
King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,
Whose brow the ivy crowns,
Hear this my Doric song.
9. And of the union of flutes with the lyre (for that concert has often
been a great delight to us ourselves), Ephippus, in his Traffic, speaks
as follows:—
Clearly, O youth, the music of the flute,
And that which from the lyre comes, does suit
Well with our pastimes; for when each resound
In unison with the feelings of those present,
Then is the greatest pleasure felt by all.
And the exact meaning of the word συναυλία is shown by Semus
the Delian, in the fifth book of his Delias, where he writes—"But
as the term 'concert' (συναυλία) is not understood by many
people, we must speak of it. It is when there is a union of the flute
and of rhythm in alternation, without any words accompanying the
melody." And Antiphanes explains it very neatly in his Flute-player,
where he says—
Tell me, I pray you, what this concert (ἡ συναυλία αὕτη) was
Which he did give you. For you know; but they
Having well learnt, still played[66]....
* * * * *
A concert of sweet sounds, apart from words,
Is pleasant, and not destitute of meaning.
But the poets frequently call the flute "the Libyan flute," as Duris
remarks in the second book of his History of Agathocles, because
Seirites, who appears to have been the first inventor of the art of
flute-playing, was a Libyan, of one of the Nomad tribes; and he was the
first person who played airs on the flute in the festival of Cybele.
And the different kinds of airs which can be played on the flute (as
Tryphon tells us in the second book of his treatise on Names) have
the following names:—the Comus, the Bucoliasmus, the Gingras, the
Tetracomus, the Epiphallus, the Choreus, the Callinicus, the Martial,
the Hedycomus, the Sicynnotyrbe, the Thyrocopicum, which is the same as
the Crousithyrum (or Door-knocker), the Cnismus, the Mothon. And all
these airs on the flute, when played, were accompanied with dancing.
10. Tryphon also gives a list of the different names of songs, as
follows. He says—"There is the Himæus, which is also called the
Millstone song, which men used to sing while grinding corn, perhaps
from the word ἱμαλίς. But ἱμαλὶς is a Dorian word, signifying a return,
and also the quantity of corn which the millers gave into the bargain.
Then there is the Elinus, which is the song of the men who worked
at the loom; as Epicharmus shows us in his Atalantas. There is also
the Ioulos, sung by the women who spin. And Semus the Delian, in his
treatise on Pæans, says—"They used to call the handfuls of barley taken
separately, ἀμάλαι; but when they were collected so that a great many
were made into one sheaf, then they were called οὔλοι and ἴουλοι. And
Ceres herself was called sometimes Chloe, and sometimes Ioulo; and, as
being the inventions of this goddess, both the fruits of the ground and
also the songs addressed to the goddess were called οὖλοι and ἴουλοι:
and so, too, we have the words δημήτρουλοι and καλλίουλοι, and the line—
πλεῖστον οὖλον οὖλον ἵει, ἴουλον ἵει.
[Sidenote: SONGS.]
But others say that the Ioulis is the song of the workers in wool.
There are also the songs of nurses, which are called καταβαυκαλήσεις.
There was also a song used at the feast of Swings,[67] in honour of
Erigone, which is called Aletis. At all events, Aristotle says, in
his treatise on the Constitution of the Colophonians—"Theodoras also
himself died afterwards by a violent death. And he is said to have
been a very luxurious man, as is evident from his poetry; for even now
the women sing his songs on the festival of the Swing."
There was also a reaper's song called Lityerses; and another song
sung by hired servants when going to the fields, as Teleclides tells
us in his Amphictyons. There were songs, too, of bathing men, as we
learn from Crates in his Deeds of Daring; and a song of women baking,
as Aristophanes intimates in his Thesmophoriazusæ, and Nicochares in
his Hercules Choregus. And another song in use among those who drove
herds, and this was called the Bucoliasmus. And the man who first
invented this species of song was Diomus, a Sicilian cowherd; and it is
mentioned by Epicharmus in his Halcyon, and in his Ulysses Shipwrecked.
The song used at deaths and in mourning is called Olophyrmus; and the
songs called Iouli are used in honour of Ceres and Proserpine. The
song sung in honour of Apollo is called Philhelias, as we learn from
Telesilla; and those addressed to Diana are called Upingi.
There were also laws composed by Charondas, which were sung at Athens
at drinking parties; as Hermippus tells us in the sixth book of his
treatise on Lawgivers. And Aristophanes, in his catalogue of Attic
Expressions, says—"The Himæus is the song of people grinding; the
Hymenæus is the song used at marriage-feasts; and that employed in
lamentation is called Ialemus. But the Linus and the Ælinus are not
confined to occasions of mourning, but are in use also in good fortune,
as we may gather from Euripides."
11. But Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on matters
relating to Love, says that there was a kind of song called Nomium,
derived from Eriphanis; and his words are these:—"Eriphanis was a
lyric poetess, the mistress of Menalcas the hunter; and she, pursuing
him with her passions, hunted too. For often frequenting the mountains,
and wandering over them, she came to the different groves, equalling
in her wanderings the celebrated journeys of Io; so that not only
those men who were most remarkable for their deficiency in the tender
passion, but even the fiercest beasts, joined in weeping for her
misfortunes, perceiving the lengths to which her passionate hopes
carried her. Therefore she wrote poems; and when she had composed them,
as it is said, she roamed about the desert, shouting and singing the
kind of song called Nomium, in which the burden of the song is—
The lofty oaks, Menalcas."
And Aristoxenus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Music,
says—"Anciently the women used to sing a kind of song called Calyca.
Now, this was a poem of Stesichorus, in which a damsel of the name
of Calyca, being in love with a young man named Euathlus, prays in a
modest manner to Venus to aid her in becoming his wife. But when the
young man scorned her, she threw herself down a precipice. And this
disaster took place near Leucas. And the poet has represented the
disposition of the maiden as very modest; so that she was not willing
to live with the youth on his own terms, but prayed that, if possible,
she might become the wedded wife of Euathlus; and if that were not
possible, that she might be released from life." But, in his Brief
Memoranda, Aristoxenus says—"Iphiclus despised Harpalyce, who was in
love with him; but she died, and there has been a contest established
among the virgins of songs in her honour, and the contest is called
from her, Harpalyce." And Nymphis, in the first book of his History
of Heraclea, speaking of the Maryandyni, says—"And in the same way
it is well to notice some songs which, in compliance with a national
custom, they sing, in which they invoke some ancient person, whom they
address as Bormus. And they say that he was the son of an illustrious
and wealthy man, and that he was far superior to all his fellows in
beauty and in the vigour of youth; and as he was superintending the
cultivation of some of his own lands, and wishing to give his reapers
something to drink, he went to fetch some water, and disappeared.
Accordingly, they say that on this the natives of the country sought
him with a kind of dirge and invocation set to music, which even to
this day they are in the habit of using frequently. And a similar kind
of song is that which is in use among the Egyptians, and is called
Maneros."
[Sidenote: RHAPSODISTS.]
12. Moreover, there were rhapsodists also present at our
entertainments: for Laurentius delighted in the reciters of Homer to
an extraordinary degree; so that one might call Cassander the king of
Macedonia a trifler in comparison of him; concerning whom Carystius, in
his Historic Recollections, tells us that he was so devoted to Homer,
that he could say the greater part of his poems by heart; and he had a
copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey written out with his own hand. And
that these reciters of Homer were called Homeristæ also, Aristocles
has told us in his treatise on Choruses. But those who are now called
Homeristæ were first introduced on the stage by Demetrius Phalereus.
Now Chamæleon, in his essay on Stesichorus, says that not only the
poems of Homer, but those also of Hesiod and Archilochus, and also of
Mimnermus and Phocylides, were often recited to the accompaniment of
music; and Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures,
says—"Simonides of Zacynthus used to sit in the theatres on a lofty
chair reciting the verses of Archilochus." And Lysanias, in the first
book of his treatise on Iambic Poets, says that Mnasion the rhapsodist
used in his public recitations to deliver some of the Iambics of
Simonides. And Cleomenes the rhapsodist, at the Olympic games, recited
the Purification of Empedocles, as is asserted by Dicæarchus in his
history of Olympia. And Jason, in the third book of his treatise on the
Temples of Alexander, says that Hegesias, the comic actor, recited the
works of Herodotus in the great theatre, and that Hermophantus recited
the poems of Homer.
13. And the men called Hilarodists (whom some people at the present day
call Simodists, as Aristocles tells us in his first book on Choruses,
because Simus the Magnesian was the most celebrated of all the poets
of joyous songs,) frequently come under our notice. And Aristocles
also gives a regular list of them in his treatise on Music, where he
speaks in the following manner:—"The Magodist—but he is the same as
the Lysiodist." But Aristoxenus says that Magodus is the name given to
an actor who acts both male and female characters;[68] but that he who
acts a woman's part in combination with a man's is called a Lysiodist.
And they both sing the same songs, and in other respects they are
similar.
The Ionic dialect also supplies us with poems of Sotades, and with what
before his time were called Ionic poems, such as those of Alexander
the Ætolian, and Pyres the Milesian, and Alexas, and other poets
of the same kind; and Sotades is called κιναιδόλογος. And
Sotades the Maronite was very notorious for this kind of poetry, as
Carystius of Pergamus says in his essay on Sotades; and so was the son
of Sotades, Apollonius: and this latter also wrote an essay on his
father's poetry, from which one may easily see the unbridled licence of
language which Sotades allowed himself,—abusing Lysimachus the king
in Alexandria,—and, when at the court of Lysimachus, abusing Ptolemy
Philadelphus,—and in different cities speaking ill of different
sovereigns; on which account, at last, he met with the punishment that
he deserved: for when he had sailed from Alexandria (as Hegesander,
in his Reminiscences, relates), and thought that he had escaped all
danger, (for he had said many bitter things against Ptolemy the king,
and especially this, after he had heard that he had married his sister
Arsinoe,—
He pierced forbidden fruit with deadly sting,)
Patrocles, the general of Ptolemy, caught him in the island of Caunus,
and shut him up in a leaden vessel, and carried him into the open sea
and drowned him. And his poetry is of this kind: Philenus was the
father of Theodorus the flute-player, on whom he wrote these lines:—
And he, opening the door which leads from the back-street,
Sent forth vain thunder from a leafy cave,
Such as a mighty ploughing ox might utter.
[Sidenote: MAGODI.]
14. But the Hilarodus, as he is called, is a more respectable kind of
poet than these men are; for he is never effeminate or indecorous, but
he wears a white manly robe, and he is crowned with a golden crown: and
in former times he used to wear sandals, as Aristocles tells us; but
at the present day he wears only slippers. And some man or woman sings
an accompaniment to him, as to a person who sings to the flute. And a
crown is given to a Hilarodus, as well as to a person who sings to the
flute; but such honours are not allowed to a player on the harp or on
the flute. But the man who is called a Magodus has drums and cymbals,
and wears all kinds of woman's attire; and he behaves in an effeminate
manner, and does every sort of indecorous, indecent thing,—imitating
at one time a woman, at another an adulterer or a pimp: or sometimes
he represents a drunken man, or even a serenade offered by a reveller
to his mistress. And Aristoxenus says that the business of singing
joyous songs is a respectable one, and somewhat akin to tragedy; but
that the business of a Magodus is more like comedy. And very often it
happens that the Magodi, taking the argument of some comedy, represent
it according to their own fashion and manner. And the word μαγῳδία
was derived from the fact that those who addicted themselves to the
practice, uttered things like magical incantations, and often declared
the power of various drugs.
15. But there was among the Lacedæmonians an ancient kind of comic
diversion, as Sosibius says, not very important or serious, since
Sparta aimed at plainness even in pastimes. And the way was, that some
one, using very plain, unadorned language, imitated persons stealing
fruit, or else some foreign physician speaking in this way, as Alexis,
in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, represents one: and he says—
If any surgeon of the country says,
"Give him at early dawn a platter full
Of barley-broth," we shall at once despise him;
But if he says the same with foreign accent,
We marvel and admire him. If he call
The beet-root σεύτλιον, we disregard him;
But if he style it τεύτλιον, we listen,
And straightway, with attention fix'd, obey;
As if there were such difference between
σεύτλιον and τεύτλιον.
And those who practised this kind of sport were called among the
Lacedæmonians δικηλισταὶ, which is a term equivalent to σκευοποιοὶ or
μιμηταί.[69] There are, however, many names, varying in different
places, for this class of δικηλισταί; for the Sicyonians call them
φαλλοφόροι, and others call them αὐτοκάβδαλοι, and some call them
φλύακες, as the Italians do; but people in general call them Sophists:
and the Thebans, who are very much in the habit of giving peculiar
names to many things, call them ἐθελονταί. But that the Thebans do
introduce all kinds of innovations with respect to words, Strattis
shows us in the Phœnissæ, where he says—
You, you whole body of Theban citizens,
Know absolutely nothing; for I hear
You call the cuttle-fish not σηπία,
But ὀπισθότιλα. Then, too, you term
A cock not ἀλεκτρύων, but ὀρτάλιχος:
A physician is no longer in your mouths
ἰατρὺς—no, but σακτάς. For a bridge,
You turn γέφυρα into βλέφυρα.
Figs are not σῦκα now, but τῦκα: swallows,
κωτιλάδες, not χελιδόνες. A mouthful
With you is ἄκολος; to laugh, ἐκριδδέμεν.
A new-soled shoe you call νεοσπάτωτον.
16. Semos the Delian says in his book about Pæans—"The men who were
called αὑτοκάβδαλοι used to wear crowns of ivy, and they
would go through long poems slowly. But at a later time both they and
their poems were called Iambics. And those," he proceeds, "who are
called Ithyphalli, wear a mask representing the face of a drunken man,
and wear crowns, having gloves embroidered with flowers. And they
wear tunics shot with white; and they wear a Tarentine robe, which
covers them down to their ancles: and they enter at the stage entrance
silently, and when they have reached the middle of the orchestra, they
turn towards the spectators, and say—
Out of the way; a clear space leave
For the great mighty god:
For the god, to his ancles clad,
Will pass along the centre of the crowd.
And the Phallophori," says he, "wear no masks; but they put on a sort
of veil of wild thyme, and on that they put acanthi, and an untrimmed
garland of violets and ivy; and they clothe themselves in Caunacæ, and
so come on the stage, some at the side, and others through the centre
entrance, walking in exact musical time, and saying—
For you, O Bacchus, do we now set forth
This tuneful song; uttering in various melody
This simple rhythm.
It is a song unsuited to a virgin;
Nor are we now addressing you with hymns
Made long ago, but this our offering
Is fresh unutter'd praise.
And then, advancing, they used to ridicule with their jests whoever
they chose; and they did this standing still, but the Phallophorus
himself marched straight on, covered with soot and dirt."
[Sidenote: HARP-PLAYERS.]
17. And since we are on this subject, it is as well not to omit what
happened to Amœbeus, a harp-player of our time, and a man of great
science and skill in everything that related to music. He once came
late to one of our banquets, and when he heard from one of the servants
that we had all finished supper, he doubted what to do himself, until
Sophon the cook came to him, and with a loud voice, so that every one
might hear, recited to him these lines out of the Auge of Eubulus:—
O wretched man, why stand you at the doors?
Why don't you enter? Long ago the geese
Have all been deftly carvèd limb from limb;
Long the hot pork has had the meat cut off
From the long backbone, and the stuffing, which
Lay in the middle of his stomach, has
Been served around; and all his pettitoes,
The dainty slices of fat, well-season'd sausages,
Have all been eaten. The well-roasted cuttle-fish
Is swallow'd long ago; and nine or ten
Casks of rich wine are drain'd to the very dregs.
So if you'd like some fragments of the feast,
Hasten and enter. Don't, like hungry wolf,
Losing this feast, then run about at random.
For as that delightful writer Antiphanes says, in his Friend of the
Thebans,—
_A._ We now are well supplied with everything;
For she, the namesake of the dame within,
The rich Bœotian eel, carved in the depths
Of the ample dish, is warm, and swells, and boils,
And bubbles up, and smokes; so that a man,
E'en though equipp'd with brazen nostrils, scarcely
Could bear to leave a banquet such as this,—
So rich a fragrance does it yield his senses.
_B._ Say you the cook is living?
_A._ There is near
A cestreus, all unfed both night and day,
Scaled, wash'd, and stain'd with cochineal, and turn'd;
And as he nears his last and final turn
He cracks and hisses; while the servant bastes
The fish with vinegar: then there's Libyan silphium,
Dried in the genial rays of midday sun:—
_B._ Yet there are people found who dare to say
That sorcerers possess no sacred power;
For now I see three men their bellies filling
While you are turning this.
_A._ And the comrade squid
Bearing the form of the humpback'd cuttle-fish,
Dreadful with armed claws and sharpen'd talons,
Changing its brilliant snow-white nature under
The fiery blasts of glowing coal, adorns
Its back with golden splendour; well exciting
Hunger, the best forerunner of a feast.
So, come in—
Do not delay, but enter: when we've dined
We then can best endure what must be borne.
And so he, meeting him in this appropriate manner, replies with these
lines out of the Harper of Clearchus:—
Sup on white congers, and whatever else
Can boast a sticky nature; for by such food
The breath is strengthen'd, and the voice of man
Is render'd rich and powerful.
And as there was great applause on this, and as every one with one
accord called to him to come in, he went in and drank, and taking the
lyre, sang to us in such a manner that we all marvelled at his skill on
the harp, and at the rapidity of his execution, and at the tunefulness
of his voice; for he appeared to me to be not at all inferior to that
ancient Amœbeus, whom Aristeas, in his History of Harp-players, speaks
of as living at Athens, and dwelling near the theatre, and receiving an
Attic talent a-day every time he went out singing.
18. And while some were discussing music in this manner, and others
of the guests saying different things every day, but all praising
the pastime, Masurius, who excelled in everything, and was a man of
universal wisdom, (for as an interpreter of the laws he was inferior
to no one, and he was always devoting some of his attention to music,
for indeed he was able himself to play on some musical instruments,)
said,—My good friends, Eupolis the comic poet says—
And music is a deep and subtle science,
And always finding out some novelty
For those who're capable of comprehending it;
on which account Anaxilas, in his Hyacinthus, says—
For, by the gods I swear, music, like Libya,
Brings forth each year some novel prodigy;
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
for, my dear fellows, "Music," as the Harp-player of Theophilus says,
"is a great and lasting treasure to all who have learnt it and know
anything about it;" for it ameliorates the disposition, and softens
those who are passionate and quarrelsome in their tempers. Accordingly,
"Clinias the Pythagorean," as Chamæleon of Pontus relates, "who was
a most unimpeachable man both in his actual conduct and also in
his disposition, if ever it happened to him to get out of temper or
indignant at anything, would take up his lyre, and play upon it. And
when people asked him the reason of this conduct, he used to say, 'I am
pacifying myself.' And so, too, the Achilles of Homer was mollified by
the music of the harp, which is all that Homer allots to him out of the
spoils of Eetion,[70] as being able to check his fiery temper. And he
is the only hero in the whole Iliad who indulges in this music."
Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise
on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins
become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the
part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented
and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which
circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually
Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Alcman, and
Adon, and Telus. And in Hipponax we find Cion, and Codalus, and Babys,
from whom the proverb arose about men who play worse and worse,—"He
plays worse than Babys." But Aristoxenus ascribes the invention of this
harmony to Hyagnis the Phrygian.
19. But Heraclides of Pontus, in the third book of his treatise on
Music, says—"Now that harmony ought not to be called Phrygian, just
as it has no right either to be called Lydian. For there are three
harmonies; as there are also three different races of Greeks—Dorians,
Æolians, and Ionians: and accordingly there is no little difference
between their manners. The Lacedæmonians are of all the Dorians the
most strict in maintaining their national customs; and the Thessalians
(and these are they who were the origin of the Æolian race) have
preserved at all times very nearly the same customs and institutions;
but the population of the Ionians has been a great deal changed, and
has gone through many transitions, because they have at all times
resembled whatever nations of barbarians have from time to time been
their masters. Accordingly, that species of melody which the Dorians
composed they called the Dorian harmony, and that which the Æolians
used to sing they named the Æolian harmony, and the third they called
the Ionian, because they heard the Ionians sing it.
"Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having
nothing relaxed or merry in it, but, rather, it is stern and vehement,
not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character
of the Æolian harmony is pompous and inflated, and full of a sort of
pride; and these characteristics are very much in keeping with the
fondness for breeding horses and for entertaining strangers which the
people itself exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style
is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for
banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and
they indulge in every sort of relaxation: on which account they cherish
the style of the Sub-Dorian harmony; for that which they call the
Æolian is, says Heraclides, a sort of modification of the Dorian, and
is called ὑποδώριος. And we may collect the character of this
Æolian harmony also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn to the
Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:—
I sing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine,
The sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibœa;
Raising the heavy-sounding harmony
Of hymns Æolian.
But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by nearly
everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great
propriety that Lasus speaks of Æolian harmony. Pratinas, too, somewhere
or other says—
Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yet
At the relax'd Ionian harmony;
But draw a middle furrow through your ground,
And follow the Æolian muse in preference.
And in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly—
But to all men who wish to raise their voices,
The Æolian harmony's most suitable.
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
"Now formerly, as I have said, they used to call this the Æolian
harmony, but afterwards they gave it the name of the Sub-Dorian,
thinking, as some people say, that it was pitched lower on the flute
than the Dorian. But it appears to me that those who gave it this name,
seeing its inflated style, and the pretence to valour and virtue which
was put forth in the style of the harmony, thought it not exactly the
Dorian harmony, but to a certain extent like it: on which account they
called it ὑποδώριον, just as they call what is nearly white
ὑπόλευκον: and what is not absolutely sweet, but something
near it, we call ὑπόγλυκυ; so, too, we call what is not
thoroughly Dorian ὑπόδωριον.
20. "Next in order let us consider the character of the Milesians,
which the Ionians display, being very proud of the goodly appearance
of their persons; and full of spirit, hard to be reconciled to
their enemies, quarrelsome, displaying no philanthropic or cheerful
qualities, but rather a want of affection and friendship, and a great
moroseness of disposition: on which account the Ionian style of harmony
also is not flowery nor mirthful, but austere and harsh, and having a
sort of gravity in it, which, however, is not ignoble-looking; on which
account that tragedy has a sort of affection for that harmony. But the
manners of the Ionians of the present day are more luxurious, and the
character of their present music is very far removed from the Ionian
harmony we have been speaking of. And men say that Pythermus the Teian
wrote songs such as are called Scolia in this kind of harmony; and that
it was because he was an Ionian poet that the harmony got the name of
Ionian. This is that Pythermus whom Ananius or Hipponax mentions in his
Iambics in this way:—
Pythermus speaks of gold as though all else were nought.
And Pythermus's own words are as follows:—
All other things but gold are good for nothing.
Therefore, according to this statement, it is probable that Pythermus,
as coming from those parts, adapted the character of his melodies
to the disposition of the Ionians; on which account I suppose that
his was not actually the Ionian harmony, but that it was a harmony
adapted in some admirable manner to the purpose required. And those are
contemptible people who are unable to distinguish the characteristic
differences of these separate harmonies; but who are led away by the
sharpness or flatness of the sounds, so as to describe one harmony as
ὑμερμιξολύδιος, and then again to give a definition of some
further sort, refining on this: for I do not think that even that which
is called the ὑπερφρύγιος has a distinct character of its
own, although some people do say that they have invented a new harmony
which they call Sub-Phrygian (ὑποφρύγιος). Now every kind of
harmony ought to have some distinct species of character or of passion;
as the Locrian has, for this was a harmony used by some of those who
lived in the time of Simonides and Pindar, but subsequently it fell
into contempt.
21. "There are, then, as we have already said, three kinds of harmony,
as there are three nations of the Greek people. But the Phrygian and
Lydian harmonies, being barbaric, became known to the Greeks by means
of the Phrygians and Lydians who came over to Peloponnesus with Pelops.
For many Lydians accompanied and followed him, because Sipylus was a
town of Lydia; and many Phrygians did so too, not because they border
on the Lydians, but because their king also was Tantalus—(and you may
see all over Peloponnesus, and most especially in Lacedæmon, great
mounds, which the people there call the tombs of the Phrygians who came
over with Pelops)—and from them the Greeks learnt these harmonies: on
which account Telestes of Selinus says—
First of all, Greeks, the comrades brave of Pelops,
Sang o'er their wine, in Phrygian melody,
The praises of the mighty Mountain Mother;
But others, striking the shrill strings of the lyre,
Gave forth a Lydian hymn."
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
22. "But we must not admit," says Polybius of Megalopolis, "that
music, as Ephorus asserts, was introduced among men for the purposes
of fraud and trickery. Nor must we think that the ancient Cretans and
Lacedæmonians used flutes and songs at random to excite their military
ardour, instead of trumpets. Nor are we to imagine that the earliest
Arcadians had no reason whatever for doing so, when they introduced
music into every department of their management of the republic; so
that, though the nation in every other respect was most austere in its
manner of life, they nevertheless compelled music to be the constant
companion, not only of their boys, but even of their youths up to
thirty years of age. For the Arcadians are the only people among whom
the boys are trained from infancy to sing hymns and pæans to regular
airs, in which indeed every city celebrates their national heroes and
gods with such songs, in obedience to ancient custom.
"But after this, learning the airs of Timotheus and Philoxenus, they
every year, at the festival of Bacchus, dance in their theatres to
the music of flute-players; the boys dancing in the choruses of boys,
and the youths in those of men. And throughout the whole duration of
their lives they are addicted to music at their common entertainments;
not so much, however, employing musicians as singing in turn: and to
admit themselves ignorant of any other accomplishment is not at all
reckoned discreditable to them; but to refuse to sing is accounted a
most disgraceful thing. And they, practising marches so as to march
in order to the sound of the flute, and studying their dances also,
exhibit every year in the theatres, under public regulations and at the
public expense. These, then, are the customs which they have derived
from the ancients, not for the sake of luxury and superfluity, but
from a consideration of the austerity which each individual practised
in his private life, and of the severity of their characters, which
they contract from the cold and gloomy nature of the climate which
prevails in the greater part of their country. And it is the nature of
all men to be in some degree influenced by the climate, so as to get
some resemblance to it themselves; and it is owing to this that we find
different races of men, varying in character and figure and complexion,
in proportion as they are more or less distant from one another.
"In addition to this, they instituted public banquets and public
sacrifices, in which the men and women join; and also dances of the
maidens and boys together; endeavouring to mollify and civilize the
harshness of their natural character by the influence of education and
habit. And as the people of Cynætha neglected this system (although
they occupy by far the most inclement district of Arcadia, both as
respects the soil and the climate), they, never meeting one another
except for the purpose of giving offence and quarrelling, became at
last so utterly savage, that the very greatest impieties prevailed
among them alone of all the people of Arcadia; and at the time when
they made the great massacre, whatever Arcadian cities their emissaries
came to in their passage, the citizens of all the other cities at once
ordered them to depart by public proclamation; and the Mantineans even
made a public purification of their city after their departure, leading
victims all round their entire district."
23. Agias, the musician, said that "the styrax, which at the Dionysiac
festivals is burnt in the orchestras, presented a Phrygian odour
to those who were within reach of it." Now, formerly music was an
exhortation to courage; and accordingly Alcæus the poet, one of the
greatest musicians that ever lived, places valour and manliness before
skill in music and poetry, being himself a man warlike even beyond what
was necessary. On which account, in such verses as these, he speaks in
high-toned language, and says—
My lofty house is bright with brass,
And all my dwelling is adorn'd, in honour
Of mighty Mars, with shining helms,
O'er which white horse-hair crests superbly wave,
Choice ornament for manly brows;
And brazen greaves, on mighty pegs suspended,
Hang round the hall; fit to repel
The heavy javelin or the long-headed spear.
There, too, are breastplates of new linen,
And many a hollow shield, thrown basely down
By coward enemies in flight:
There, too, are sharp Chalcidic swords, and belts,
Short military cloaks besides,
And all things suitable for fearless war;
Which I may ne'er forget,
Since first I girt myself for the adventurous work—
although it would have been more suitable for him to have had his house
well stored with musical instruments. But the ancients considered manly
courage the greatest of all civil virtues, and they attributed the
greatest importance to that, to the exclusion of other good qualities.
Archilochus accordingly, who was a distinguished poet, boasted in the
first place of being able to partake in all political undertakings,
and in the second place he mentioned the credit he had gained by his
poetical efforts, saying,—
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
But I'm a willing servant of great Mars,
Skill'd also in the Muses' lovely art.
And, in the same spirit, Æschylus, though a man who had
acquired such great renown by his poetry, nevertheless preferred having
his valour recorded on his tomb, and composed an inscription for it, of
which the following lines are a part:—
The grove of Marathon, and the long-hair'd Medes,
Who felt his courage, well may speak of it.
24. And it is on this account that the Lacedæmonians, who are a most
valiant nation, go to war to the music of the flute, and the Cretans
to the strains of the lyre, and the Lydians to the sound of pipes and
flutes, as Herodotus relates. And, moreover, many of the barbarians
make all their public proclamations to the accompaniment of flutes
and harps, softening the souls of their enemies by these means. And
Theopompus, in the forty-sixth book of his History, says—"The Getæ
make all their proclamations while holding harps in their hands and
playing on them." And it is perhaps on this account that Homer, having
due regard to the ancient institutions and customs of the Greeks, says—
I hear, what graces every feast, the lyre;[71]
as if this art of music were welcome also to men feasting.
Now it was, as it should seem, a regular custom to introduce music,
in the first place in order that every one who might be too eager
for drunkenness or gluttony might have music as a sort of physician
and healer of his insolence and indecorum, and also because music
softens moroseness of temper; for it dissipates sadness, and produces
affability and a sort of gentlemanlike joy. From which consideration,
Homer has also, in the first book of the Iliad, represented the gods
as using music after their dissensions on the subject of Achilles; for
they continued for some time listening to it—
Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong
In feasts ambrosial and celestial song:
Apollo tuned the lyre,—the Muses round,
With voice alternate, aid the silver sound.[72]
For it was desirable that they should leave off their quarrels and
dissensions, as we have said. And most people seem to attribute the
practice of this art to banquets for the sake of setting things
right, and of the general mutual advantage. And, besides these other
occasions, the ancients also established by customs and laws that at
feasts all men should sing hymns to the gods, in order by these means
to preserve order and decency among us; for as all songs proceed
according to harmony, the consideration of the gods being added to this
harmony, elevates the feelings of each individual. And Philochorus
says that the ancients, when making their libations, did not always
use dithyrambic hymns, but "when they pour libations, they celebrate
Bacchus with wine and drunkenness, but Apollo with tranquillity and
good order." Accordingly Archilochus says—
I, all excited in my mind with wine,
Am skilful in the dithyrambic, knowing
The noble melodies of the sovereign Bacchus.
And Epicharmus, in his Philoctetes, says—
A water-drinker knows no dithyrambics.
So, that it was not merely with a view to superficial and vulgar
pleasure, as some assert, that music was originally introduced into
entertainments, is plain from what has been said above. But the
Lacedæmonians do not assert that they used to learn music as a science,
but they do profess to be able to judge well of what is done in the
art; and they say that they have already three times preserved it when
it was in danger of being lost.
[Sidenote: DANCING.]
25. Music also contributes to the proper exercising of the body and
to sharpening the intellect; on which account, every Grecian people,
and every barbarian nation too, that we are acquainted with, practise
it. And it was a good saying of Damon the Athenian, that songs and
dances must inevitably exist where the mind was excited in any
manner; and liberal, and gentlemanly, and honourable feelings of the
mind produce corresponding kinds of music, and the opposite feelings
likewise produce the opposite kinds of music. On which account, that
saying of Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was a witty one, and a sign
of a well-educated intellect. For when he saw, as it is related,[73]
one of the suitors for his daughter dancing in an unseemly manner
(it was Hippoclides the Athenian), he told him that he had danced
away his marriage, thinking, as it should seem, that the mind of the
man corresponded to the dance which he had exhibited; for in dancing
and walking decorum and good order are honourable, and disorder and
vulgarity are discreditable. And it is on this principle that the poets
originally arranged dances for freeborn men, and employed figures only
to be emblems of what was being sung, always preserving the principles
of nobleness and manliness in them; on which account it was that they
gave them the name of ὑπορχήματα (accompaniment to the dance). And if
any one, while dancing, indulged in unseemly postures or figures, and
did nothing at all corresponding to the songs sung, he was considered
blameworthy; on which account, Aristophanes or Plato, in his
Preparations (as Chamæleon quotes the play), spoke thus:—
So that if any one danced well, the sight
Was pleasing; but they now do nothing rightly,
But stand as if amazed, and roar at random.
For the kind of dancing which was at that time used in the choruses was
decorous and magnificent, and to a certain extent imitated the motions
of men under arms; on which account Socrates in his Poems says that
those men who dance best are the best in warlike exploits; and thus he
writes:—
But they who in the dance most suitably
Do honour to the Gods, are likewise best
In all the deeds of war.
For the dance is very nearly an armed exercise, and is a display not
only of good discipline in other respects, but also of the care which
the dancers bestow on their persons.
26. And Amphion the Thespiæan, in the second book of his treatise on
the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon, says that in Helicon there
are dances of boys, got up with great care, quoting this ancient
epigram:—
I both did dance, and taught the citizens
The art of music, and my flute-player
Was Anacus the Phialensian;
My name was Bacchides of Sicyon;
And this my duty to the gods perform'd
Was honourable to my country Sicyon.
And it was a good answer which was made by Caphesias the flute-player,
when one of his pupils began to play on the flute very loudly, and was
endeavouring to play as loudly as he could; on which he struck him,
and said, "Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in
goodness." There are also relics and traces of the ancient dancing in
some statues which we have, which were made by ancient statuaries;
on which account men at that time paid more attention to moving
their hands with graceful gestures; for in this particular also
they aimed at graceful and gentlemanlike motions, comprehending what
was great in what was well done. And from these motions of the hands
they transferred some figures to the dances, and from the dances to
the palæstra; for they sought to improve their manliness by music
and by paying attention to their persons. And they practised to the
accompaniment of song with reference to their movements when under
arms; and it was from this practice that the dance called the Pyrrhic
dance originated, and every other dance of this kind, and all the
others which have the same name or any similar one with a slight
change: such as the Cretan dances called ὀρσίτης and ἐπικρήδιος; and
that dance, too, which is named ἀπόκινος, (and it is mentioned
under this name by Cratinus in his Nemesis, and by Cephisodorus in
his Amazons, and by Aristophanes in his Centaur, and by several other
poets,) though afterwards it came to be called μακτρισμός; and
many women used to dance it, who, I am aware, were afterwards called
μαρκτύπιαι.
27. But the more sedate kinds of dance, both the more varied kinds
and those too whose figures are more simple, are the following:—The
Dactylus, the Iambic, the Molossian, the Emmelea, the Cordax, the
Sicinnis, the Persian, the Phrygian, the Nibatismus, the Thracian, the
Calabrismus, the Telesias (and this is a Macedonian dance which Ptolemy
was practising when he slew Alexander the brother of Philip, as Marsyas
relates in the third book of his History of Macedon). The following
dances are of a frantic kind:—The Cernophorus, and the Mongas, and
the Thermaustris. There was also a kind of dance in use among private
individuals, called the ἄνθεμα, and they used to dance this
while repeating the following form of words with a sort of mimicking
gesture, saying—
Where are my roses, and where are my violets?
Where is my beautiful parsley?
Are these then my roses, are these then my violets?
And is this my beautiful parsley?
[Sidenote: DANCES.]
Among the Syracusans there was a kind of dance called the Chitoneas,
sacred to Diana, and it is a peculiar kind of dance, accompanied
with the flute. There was also an Ionian kind of dance practised at
drinking parties. They also practised the dance called ἀγγελικὴ at
their drinking parties. And there is another kind of dance called the
Burning of the World, which Menippus the Cynic mentions in his Banquet.
There are also some dances of a ridiculous character:—the Igdis,
the Mactrismus, the Apocinus, and the Sobas; and besides these, the
Morphasmus, and the Owl, and the Lion, and the Pouring out of Meal, and
the Abolition of Debts, and the Elements, and the Pyrrhic dance. And
they also danced to the accompaniment of the flute a dance which they
called the Dance of the Master of the Ship, and the Platter Dance.
The figures used in dances are the Xiphismus, the Calathismus, the
Callabides, the Scops, and the Scopeuma. And the Scops was a figure
intended to represent people looking out from a distance, making an
arch over their brows with their hand so as to shade their eyes. And it
is mentioned by Æschylus in his Spectators:—
And all these old σκωπεύματα of yours.
And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, mentions the Callabides, when he says—
He walks as though he were dancing the Callabides.
Other figures are the Thermastris, the Hecaterides,[74] the Scopus, the
Hand-down, the Hand-up, the Dipodismus, the Taking-hold of Wood, the
Epanconismus, the Calathiscus, the Strobilus. There is also a dance
called the Telesias; and this is a martial kind of dance, deriving its
title from a man of the name of Telesias, who was the first person who
ever danced it, holding arms in his hands, as Hippagoras tells us in
the first book of his treatise on the Constitution of the Carthaginians.
28. There is also a kind of satyric dance called the Sicinnis, as
Aristocles says in the eighth book of his treatise on Dances; and the
Satyrs are called Sicinnistæ. But some say that a barbarian of the name
of Sicinnus was the inventor of it, though others say that Sicinnus
was a Cretan by birth; and certainly the Cretans are dancers, as is
mentioned by Aristoxenus. But Scamon, in the first book of his treatise
on Inventions, says that this dance is called Sicinnis, from being
shaken (ἀπὸ τοῦ σείεσθαι), and that Thersippus was the first person
who danced the Sicinnis. Now in dancing, the motion of the feet was
adopted long before any motion of the hands was considered requisite;
for the ancients exercised their feet more than their hands in games
and in hunting; and the Cretans are greatly addicted to hunting, owing
to which they are swift of foot. But there are people to be found who
assert that Sicinnis is a word formed poetically from κινησις,[75]
because in dancing it the Satyrs use most rapid movements; for this
kind of dance gives no scope for a display of the passions, on which
account also it is never slow.
Now all satyric poetry formerly consisted of choruses, as also did
tragedy, such as it existed at the same time; and that was the chief
reason why tragedy had no regular actors. And there are three kinds
of dance appropriate to dramatic poetry,—the tragic, the comic,
and the satyric; and in like manner, there are three kinds of lyric
dancing,—the pyrrhic, the gymnopædic, and the hyporchematic. And the
pyrrhic dance resembles the satyric; for they both consist of rapid
movements; but the pyrrhic appears to be a warlike kind of dance, for
it is danced by armed boys. And men in war have need of swiftness to
pursue their enemies, and also, when defeated,
To flee, and not like madmen to stand firm,
Nor be afraid to seem a short time cowards.
But the dance called Gymnopædica is like the dance in tragedy which
is called Emmelea; for in each there is seen a degree of gravity and
solemnity. But the hyporchematic dance is very nearly identical with
the comic one which is called Cordax. And they are both a sportive kind
of figure.
29. But Aristoxenus says that the Pyrrhic dance derives its name from
Pyrrhichus, who was a Lacedæmonian by birth; and that even to this day
Pyrrhichus is a Lacedæmonian name. And the dance itself, being of a
warlike character, shows that it is the invention of some Lacedæmonian;
for the Lacedæmonians are a martial race, and their sons learn military
marches which they call ἐνόπλια. And the Lacedæmonians themselves in
their wars recite the poems of Tyrtæus, and move in time to those
airs. But Philochorus asserts that the Lacedæmonians, when owing to
the generalship of Tyrtæus they had subdued the Messenians, introduced
a regular custom, in their expeditions, that whenever they were at
supper, and had sung the pæan, they should also sing one of Tyrtæus's
hymns as a solo, one after another; and that the polemarch should
be the judge, and should give a piece of meat as a prize to him who
sang best. But the Pyrrhic dance is not preserved now among any other
people of Greece; and since that has fallen into disuse, their wars
also have been brought to a conclusion; but it continues in use among
the Lacedæmonians alone, being a sort of prelude preparatory to war:
and all who are more than five years old in Sparta learn to dance the
Pyrrhic dance.
[Sidenote: DANCES.]
But the Pyrrhic dance as it exists in our time, appears to be a sort
of Bacchic dance, and a little more pacific than the old one; for the
dancers carry thyrsi instead of spears, and they point and dart canes
at one another, and carry torches. And they dance in figures having
reference to Bacchus, and to the Indians, and to the story of Pentheus:
and they require for the Pyrrhic dance the most beautiful airs, and
what are called the "stirring" tunes.
30. But the Gymnopædica resembles the dance which by the ancients
used to be called Anapale; for all the boys dance naked, performing
some kind of movement in regular time, and with gestures of the hand
like those used by wrestlers: so that the dancers exhibit a sort of
spectacle akin to the palæstra and to the pancratium, moving their feet
in regular time. And the different modes of dancing it are called the
Oschophoricus,[76] and the Bacchic, so that this kind of dance, too,
has some reference to Bacchus. But Aristoxenus says that the ancients,
after they had exercised themselves in the Gymnopædica, turned to the
Pyrrhic dance before they entered the theatre: and the Pyrrhic dance
is also called the Cheironomia. But the Hyporchematic dance is that in
which the chorus dances while singing. Accordingly Bacchylides says—
There's no room now for sitting down,
There's no room for delay.
And Pindar says—
The Lacedæmonian troop of maidens fair.
And the Lacedæmonians dance this dance in Pindar. And the
Hyporchematica is a dance of men and women. Now the best modes are
those which combine dancing with the singing; and they are these—the
Prosodiacal, the Apostolical (which last is also called παρθένιος), and
others of the same kind. And some danced to the hymn and some did not;
and some danced in accompaniment to hymns to Venus and Bacchus, and to
the Pæan, dancing at one time and resting at another. And among the
barbarians as well as among the Greeks there are respectable dances and
also indecorous ones. Now the Cordax among the Greeks is an indecorous
dance, but the Emmelea is a respectable one: as is among the Arcadians
the Cidaris, and among the Sicyonians the Aleter; and it is called
Aleter also in Ithaca, as Aristoxenus relates in the first book of his
History of Sicyon. And this appears enough to say at present on the
subject of dances.
31. Now formerly decorum was carefully attended to in music, and
everything in this art had its suitable and appropriate ornament: on
which account there were separate flutes for each separate kind of
harmony; and every flute-player had flutes adapted to each kind of
harmony in their contests. But Pronomus the Theban was the first man
who played the three different kinds of harmony already mentioned
on the same flute. But now people meddle with music in a random and
inconsiderate manner. And formerly, to be popular with the vulgar was
reckoned a certain sign of a want of real skill: on which account
Asopodorus the Phliasian, when some flute-player was once being much
applauded while he himself was remaining in the hyposcenium,[77]
said—"What is all this? the man has evidently committed some great
blunder:"—as else he could not possibly have been so much approved
of by the mob. But I am aware that some people tell this story as if
it were Antigenides who said this. But in our days artists make the
objects of their art to be the gaining the applause of the spectators
in the theatre; on which account Aristoxenus, in his book entitled
Promiscuous Banquets, says—"We act in a manner similar to the people
of Pæstum who dwell in the Tyrrhenian Gulf; for it happened to them,
though they were originally Greeks, to have become at last completely
barbarised, becoming Tyrrhenians or Romans, and to have changed their
language, and all the rest of their national habits. But one Greek
festival they do celebrate even to the present day, in which they meet
and recollect all their ancient names and customs, and bewail their
loss to one another, and then, when they have wept for them, they
go home. And so," says he, "we also, since the theatres have become
completely barbarised, and since music has become entirely ruined
and vulgar, we, being but a few, will recall to our minds, sitting
by ourselves, what music once was." And this was the discourse of
Aristoxenus.
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
32. Wherefore it seems to me that we ought to have a philosophical
conversation about music: for Pythagoras the Samian, who had such
a high reputation as a philosopher, is well known, from many
circumstances, to have been a man who had no slight or superficial
knowledge of music; for he indeed lays it down that the whole universe
is put and kept together by music. And altogether the ancient
philosophy of the Greeks appears to have been very much addicted to
music; and on this account they judged Apollo to have been the most
musical and the wisest of the gods, and Orpheus of the demi-gods. And
they called every one who devoted himself to the study of this art a
sophist, as Æschylus does in the verse where he says—
And then the sophist sweetly struck the lyre.
And that the ancients were excessively devoted to the study of music is
plain from Homer, who, because all his own poetry was adapted to music,
makes, from want of care, so many verses which are headless, and weak,
and imperfect in the tail. But Xenophanes, and Solon, and Theognis, and
Phocylides, and besides them Periander of Corinth, an elegiac poet,
and the rest of those who did not set melodies to their poems, compose
their verses with reference to number and to the arrangement of the
metres, and take great care that none of their verses shall be liable
to the charge of any of the irregularities which we just now imputed to
Homer. Now when we call a verse headless (ἀκέφαλος), we mean
such as have a mutilation or lameness at the beginning, such as—
Ἐπειδὴ νῆάς τε καὶ Ἑλλήσποντον ἵκοντο.[78]
Ἐπίτονος τετάνυστο βοὸς ἶφι κταμένοιο.[79]
Those we call weak (λαγαρὸς) which are defective in the
middle, as—
Αἶψα δ' ἄρ' Αἰνείαν υἱὸν φίλον Ἀγχίσαο.[80]
Τῶν δ' αὖθ' ἡγείσθην Ἀσκληπιοῦ δύο παῖδες.
Those again are μείουροι, which are imperfect in the tail or
end, as—
Τρῶες δ' ἐῤῥίγησαν ὅπως ἴδον αἴολον ὄφιν.[81]
Καλὴ Κασσιέπεια θεοῖς δέμας ἐοικυῖα.[82]
Τοῦ φέρον ἔμπλησας ἀσκὸν μέγαν, ἐν δὲ καὶ ἤϊα.[83]
33. But of all the Greeks, the Lacedæmonians were those who preserved
the art of music most strictly, as they applied themselves to the
practice a great deal: and there were a great many lyric poets among
them. And even to this day they preserve their ancient songs carefully,
being possessed of very varied and very accurate learning on the
subject; on which account Pratinas says—
The Lacedæmonian grasshopper sweetly sings,
Well suited to the chorus.
And on this account the poets also continually styled their odes—
President of sweetest hymns:
and—
The honey-wing'd melodies of the Muse.
For owing to the general moderation and austerity of their lives,
they betook themselves gladly to music, which has a sort of power of
soothing the understanding; so that it was natural enough that people
who hear it should be delighted. And the people whom they called
Choregi, were not, as Demetrius of Byzantium tells us in the fourth
book of his treatise on Poetry, those who have that name now, the
people, that is to say, who hire the choruses, but those who actually
led the choruses, as the name intimates: and so it happened, that the
Lacedæmonians were good musicians, and did not violate the ancient laws
of music.
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
Now in ancient times all the Greeks were fond of music; but when in
subsequent ages disorders arose, when nearly all the ancient customs
had got out of fashion and had become obsolete, this fondness for music
also wore out, and bad styles of music were introduced, which led all
the composers to aim at effeminacy rather than delicacy, and at an
enervated and dissolute rather than a modest style. And perhaps this
will still exist hereafter in a greater degree, and will extend still
further, unless some one again draws forth the national music to the
light. For formerly the subjects of their songs used to be the exploits
of heroes, and the praises of the Gods; and accordingly Homer says of
Achilles—
With this he soothes his lofty soul, and sings
Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.[84]
And of Phemius he says—
Phemius, let acts of gods and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bower have told,
Attemper'd to the lyre your voice employ,
Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.[85]
And this custom was preserved among the barbarians, as Dinon tells us
in his history of Persia. Accordingly, the poets used to celebrate the
valour of the elder Cyrus, and they foresaw the war which was going to
be waged against Astyages. "For when," says he, "Cyrus had begun his
march against the Persians, (and he had previously been the commander
of the guards, and afterwards of the heavy-armed troops there, and then
he left;) and while Astyages was sitting at a banquet with his friends,
then a man, whose name was Angares, (and he was the most illustrious
of his minstrels,) being called in, sang other things, such as were
customary, and at last he said that—
A mighty monster is let loose at last
Into the marsh, fiercer than wildest boar;
And when once master of the neighbouring ground
It soon will fight with ease 'gainst numerous hosts.
And when Astyages asked him what monster he meant, he said—'Cyrus
the Persian.' And so the king, thinking that his suspicions were well
founded, sent people to recal Cyrus, but did not succeed in doing so."
34. But I, though I could still say a good deal about music, yet, as I
hear the noise of flutes, I will check my desire for talking, and only
quote you the lines out of the Amateur of the Flute, by Philetærus—
O Jove, it were a happy thing to die
While playing on the flute. For flute-players
Are th' only men who in the shades below
Feel the soft power and taste the bliss of Venus.
But those whose coarser minds know nought of music,
Pour water always into bottomless casks.
After this there arose a discussion about the sambuca. And Masurius
said that the sambuca was a musical instrument, very shrill, and that
it was mentioned by Euphorion (who is also an Epic poet), in his book
on the Isthmian Games; for he says that it was used by the Parthians
and by the Troglodytæ, and that it had four strings. He said also that
it was mentioned by Pythagoras, in his treatise on the Red Sea. The
sambuca is also a name given to an engine used in sieges, the form and
mechanism of which is explained by Biton, in his book addressed to
Attalus on the subject of Military Engines. And Andreas of Panormus,
in the thirty-third book of his History of Sicily, detailed city by
city, says that it is borne against the walls of the enemy on two
cranes. And it is called sambuca because when it is raised up it
gives a sort of appearance of a ship and ladder joined together, and
resembles the shape of the musical instrument of the same name. But
Moschus, in the first book of his treatise on Mechanics, says that the
sambuca is originally a Roman engine, and that Heraclides of Pontus was
the original inventor of it. But Polybius, in the eighth book of his
History, says,—"Marcellus, having been a great deal inconvenienced
at that siege of Syracuse by the contrivances of Archimedes, used to
say that Archimedes had given his ships drink out of the sea; but that
his sambucæ had been buffeted and driven from the entertainment in
disgrace."
35. And when, after this, Æmilianus said,—But, my good friend
Masurius, I myself, often, being a lover of music, turn my thoughts to
the instrument which is called the magadis, and cannot decide whether
I am to think that it was a species of flute or some kind of harp. For
that sweetest of poets, Anacreon, says somewhere or other—
I hold my magadis and sing,
Striking loud the twentieth string,
Leucaspis, as the rapid hour
Leads you to youth's and beauty's flower.
But Ion of Chios, in his Omphale, speaks of it as if it were a species
of flute, in the following words—
And let the Lydian flute, the magadis,
Breathe its sweet sounds, and lead the tuneful song.
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
And Aristarchus the grammarian, (a man whom Panætius the Rhodian
philosopher used to call the Prophet, because he could so easily divine
the meanings of poems,) when explaining this verse, affirms that the
magadis was a kind of flute: though Aristoxenus does not say so either
in his treatise on the Flute-players or in that on Flutes and other
Musical Instruments; nor does Archestratus either,—and he also wrote
two books on Flute-players; nor has Pyrrhander said so in his work on
Flute-players; nor Phillis the Delian,—for he also wrote a treatise on
Flute-players, and so did Euphranor. But Tryphon, in the second book
of his essay on Names, speaks thus—"The flute called magadis." And in
another place he says—"The magadis gives a shrill and deep tone at
the same time, as Anaxandrides intimates in his Man fighting in heavy
Armour, where we find the line—
I will speak to you like a magadis,
In soft and powerful sounds at the same time.
And, my dear Masurius, there is no one else except you who can solve
this difficulty for me.
36. And Masurius replied—Didymus the grammarian, in his work entitled
Interpretations of the Plays of Ion different from the Interpretations
of others, says, my good friend Æmilianus, that by the term μάγαδις
αὐλὸς he understands the instrument which is also called κιθαριστήριος;
which is mentioned by Aristoxenus in the first book of his treatise on
the Boring of Flutes; for there he says that there are five kinds of
flutes; the parthenius, the pædicus, the citharisterius, the perfect,
and the superperfect. And he says that Ion has omitted the conjunction
τε improperly, so that we are to understand by μάγαδις αὐλὸς the flute
which accompanies the magadis; for the magadis is a stringed (ψαλτικὸν)
instrument, as Anacreon tells us, and it was invented by the Lydians,
on which account Ion, in his Omphale, calls the Lydian women ψάλτριαι,
as playing on stringed instruments, in the following lines—
But come, ye Lydian ψάλτριαι, and singing
Your ancient hymns, do honour to this stranger.
But Theophilus the comic poet, in his Neoptolemus, calls playing on the
magadis μαγαδίζειν, saying—
It may be that a worthless son may sing
His father or his mother on the magadis (μαγαδίζειν),
Sitting upon the wheel; but none of us
Shall ever play such music now as theirs.
And Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says, that the
magadis is an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was
altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca. And,
that this instrument was very much used at Mitylene, so that one of the
Muses was represented by an old statuary, whose name was Lesbothemis,
as holding one in her hand. But Menæchmus, in his treatise on Artists,
says that the πηκτὶς, which he calls identical with the magadis, was
invented by Sappho. And Aristoxenus says that the magadis and the
pectis were both played with the fingers without any plectrum; on which
account Pindar, in his Scolium addressed to Hiero, having named the
magadis, calls it a responsive harping (ψαλμὸν ἀντίφθογγον), because its
music is accompanied in all its keys by two kinds of singers, namely,
men and boys. And Phrynichus, in his Phœnician Women, has said—
Singing responsive songs on tuneful harps.
And Sophocles, in his Mysians, says—
There sounded too the Phrygian triangle,
With oft-repeated notes; to which responded
The well-struck strings of the soft Lydian pectis.
37. But some people raise a question how, as the magadis did not exist
in the time of Anacreon (for instruments with many strings were never
seen till after his time), Anacreon can possibly mention it, as he does
when he says—
I hold my magadis and sing,
Striking loud the twentieth string,
Leucaspis.
But Posidonius asserts that Anacreon mentions three kinds of melodies,
the Phrygian, the Dorian, and the Lydian; for that these were the only
melodies with which he was acquainted. And as every one of these is
executed on seven strings, he says that it was very nearly correct
of Anacreon to speak of twenty strings, as he only omits one for the
sake of speaking in round numbers. But Posidonius is ignorant that the
magadis is an ancient instrument, though Pindar says plainly enough
that Terpander invented the barbitos to correspond to, and answer the
pectis in use among the Lydians—
[Sidenote: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]
The sweet responsive lyre
Which long ago the Lesbian bard,
Terpander, did invent, sweet ornament
To the luxurious Lydian feasts, when he
Heard the high-toned pectis.
Now the pectis and the magadis are the same instrument, as Aristoxenus
tells us, and Menæchmus the Sicyonian too, in his treatise on
Artists. And this last author says that Sappho, who is more ancient
than Anacreon, was the first person to use the pectis. Now, that
Terpander is more ancient than Anacreon, is evident from the following
considerations:—Terpander was the first man who ever got the victory
at the Carnean[86] games, as Hellanicus tells us in the verses in which
he has celebrated the victors at the Carnea, and also in the formal
catalogue which he gives us of them. But the first establishment of the
Carnea took place in the twenty-sixth Olympiad, as Sosibius tells us in
his essay on Dates. But Hieronymus, in his treatise on Harp-players,
which is the subject of the fifth of his Treatises on Poets, says
that Terpander was a contemporary of Lycurgus the lawgiver, who, it
is agreed by all men, was, with Iphitus of Elis, the author of that
establishment of the Olympic games from which the first Olympiad is
reckoned. But Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says
that the instruments with many strings are altered only in their names;
but that the use of them is very ancient.
38. However, Diogenes the tragic poet represents the pectis as
differing from the magadis; for in the Semele he says—
And now I hear the turban-wearing women,
Votaries of th' Asiatic Cybele,
The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding
With drums, and rhombs, and brazen-clashing cymbals,
Their hands in concert striking on each other,
Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods.
Likewise the Lydian and the Bactrian maids
Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
Striking the clear three-corner'd pectis, and
Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,
While flutes in Persian manner neatly join'd
Accompany the chorus.
And Phillis the Delian, in the second book of his treatise on Music,
also asserts that the pectis is different from the magadis. And his
words are these—"There are the phœnices, the pectides, the magadides,
the sambucæ, the iambycæ, the triangles, the clepsiambi, the scindapsi,
the nine-string." For, he says that "the lyre to which they sang
iambics, they called the iambyca, and the instrument to which they sang
them in such a manner as to vary the metre a little, they called the
clepsiambus,[87] while the magadis was an instrument uttering a diapason
sound, and equally in tune for every portion of the singers. And
besides these there were instruments of other kinds also; for there was
the barbitos, or barmus, and many others, some with strings, and some
with sounding-boards."
39. There were also some instruments besides those which were blown
into, and those which were used with different strings, which gave
forth only sounds of a simple nature, such as the castanets (κρέμβαλα),
which are mentioned by Dicæarchus, in his essay on the Manners and
Customs of Greece, where he says, that formerly certain instruments
were in very frequent use, in order to accompany women while dancing
and singing; and when any one touched these instruments with their
fingers they uttered a shrill sound. And he says that this is plainly
shown in the hymn to Diana, which begins thus—
Diana, now my mind will have me utter
A pleasing song in honour of your deity,
While this my comrade strikes with nimble hand
The well-gilt brazen-sounding castanets.
And Hermippus, in his play called The Gods, gives the word for rattling
the castanets, κρεμβαλίζειν, saying—
And beating down the limpets from the rocks,
They make a noise like castanets (κρεμβαλίζουσι).
[Sidenote: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]
But Didymus says, that some people, instead of the lyre, are in the
habit of striking oyster-shells and cockle-shells against one another,
and by these means contrive to play a tune in time to the dancers, as
Aristophanes also intimates in his Frogs.[88]
40. But Artemon, in the first book of his treatise on the Dionysian
System, as he calls it, says that Timotheus the Milesian appears
to many men to have used an instrument of more strings than were
necessary, namely, the magadis, on which account he was chastised by
the Lacedæmonians as having corrupted the ancient music. And when
some one was going to cut away the superfluous strings from his lyre,
he showed them a little statue of Apollo which they had, which held
in its hand a lyre with an equal number of strings, and which was
tuned in the same manner; and so he was acquitted. But Douris, in his
treatise on Tragedy, says that the magadis was named after Magodis, who
was a Thracian by birth. But Apollodorus, in his Reply to the Letter
of Aristocles, says—"That which we now call ψαλτήριον is the same
instrument which was formerly called magadis; but that which used to
be called the clepsiambus, and the triangle, and the elymus, and the
nine-string, have fallen into comparative disuse." And Alcman says—
And put away the magadis.
And Sophocles, in his Thamyras, says—
And well-compacted lyres and magadides,
And other highly-polish'd instruments,
From which the Greeks do wake the sweetest sounds.
But Telestes, in his dithyrambic poem, called Hymenæus, says that
the magadis was an instrument with five strings, using the following
expressions—
And each a different strain awakens,—
One struck the loud horn-sounding magadis,
And in the fivefold number of tight strings
Moved his hand to and fro most rapidly.
I am acquainted, too, with another instrument which the Thracian kings
use in their banquets, as Nicomedes tells us in his essay on Orpheus.
Now Ephorus and Scamon, in their treatise on Inventions, say that
the instrument called the Phœnix derives its name from having been
invented by the Phœnicians. But Semus of Delos, in the first book of
the Delias, says that it is so called because its ribs are made of the
palm-tree which grows in Delos. The same writer, Semus, says that the
first person who used the sambuca was Sibylla, and that the instrument
derives its name from having been invented by a man named Sambyx.
41. And concerning the instrument called the tripod (this also is a
musical instrument) the before-mentioned Artemo writes as follows—"And
that is how it is that there are many instruments, as to which it is
even uncertain whether they ever existed; as, for instance, the tripod
of Pythagoras of Zacynthus. For as it was in fashion but a very short
time, and as, either because the fingering of it appeared exceedingly
difficult, or for some other reason, it was very soon disused, it has
escaped the notice of most writers altogether. But the instrument was
in form very like the Delphian tripod, and it derived its name from
it; but it was used like a triple harp. For its feet stood on some
pedestal which admitted of being easily turned round, just as the legs
of movable chairs are made; and along the three intermediate spaces
between the feet, strings were stretched; an arm being placed above
each, and tuning-pegs, to which the strings were attached, below. And
on the top there was the usual ornament of the vase, and of some other
ornaments which were attached to it; all which gave it a very elegant
appearance; and it emitted a very powerful sound. And Pythagoras
divided the three harmonies with reference to three countries,—the
Dorian, the Lydian, and Phrygian. And he himself sitting on a chair
made on the same principles and after the same pattern, putting out his
left hand so as to take hold of the instrument, and using the plectrum
in his other hand, moved the pedestal with his foot very easily, so
as to use whichever side of the instrument he chose to begin with;
and then again turning to the other side he went on playing, and then
he changed to the third side. And so rapidly did the easy movement of
the pedestal, when touched by the foot, bring the various sides under
his hand, and so very rapid was his fingering and execution, that if
a person had not seen what was being done, but had judged only by his
ear, he would have fancied that he was listening to three harp-players
all playing on different instruments. But this instrument, though it
was so greatly admired, after his death rapidly fell into disuse."
[Sidenote: MUSIC.]
42. Now the system of playing the harp without any vocal accompaniment,
was, as Menæchmus informs us, first introduced by Aristonicus the
Argive, who was a contemporary of Archilochus, and lived in Corcyra.
But Philochorus, in the third hook of his Atthis, says—"Lysander the
Sicyonian harp-player was the first person who ever changed the art
of pure instrumental performance, dwelling on the long tones, and
producing a very rich sound, and adding also to the harp the music of
the flute; and this last addition was first introduced by Epigonus;
and taking away the jejuneness which existed in the music of those
who played the harp alone without any vocal accompaniment, he first
introduced various beautiful modifications[89] on that instrument; and
he played on the different kinds of harp called iambus and magadis,
which is also called συριγμός. And he was the first person who
ever attempted to change his instrument while playing. And afterwards,
adding dignity to the business, he was the first person to institute
a chorus. And Menæchmus says that Dion of Chius was the first person
who ever played on the harp an ode such as is used at libations to the
honour of Bacchus. But Timomachus, in his History of Cyprus, says that
Stesander the Samian added further improvements to his art, and was
the first person who at Delphi sang to his lyre the battles narrated
in Homer, beginning with the Odyssey. But others say that the first
person who ever played amatory strains on his harp was Amiton the
Eleuthernæan, who did so in his own city, whose descendants are all
called Amitores.
But Aristoxenus says that just as some men have composed parodies on
hexameter verses, for the sake of exciting a laugh; so, too, others
have parodied the verses which were sung to the harp, in which pastime
Œnopas led the way. And he was imitated by Polyeuctus the Achæan, and
by Diocles of Cynætha. There have also been poets who have composed a
low kind of poems, concerning whom Phænias the Eresian speaks in his
writings addressed to the Sophists; where he writes thus:—"Telenicus
the Byzantian, and also Argas, being both authors of low poems, were
men who, as far as that kind of poetry could go, were accounted clever.
But they never even attempted to rival the songs of Terpander or
Phrynis." And Alexis mentions Argas, in his Man Disembarked, thus—
_A._ Here is a poet who has gained the prize
In choruses.
_B._ What is his style of poetry?
_A._ A noble kind.
_B._ How will he stand comparison
With Argas?
_A._ He's a whole days journey better.
And Anaxandrides, in his Hercules, says—
For he appears a really clever man.
How gracefully he takes the instrument,
Then plays at once....
When I have eaten my fill, I then incline
To send you off to sing a match with Argas,
That you, my friend, may thus the sophists conquer.
43. But the author of the play called the Beggars, which is attributed
to Chionides, mentions a certain man of the name of Gnesippus as a
composer of ludicrous verses, and also of merry songs; and he says—
I swear that neither now Gnesippus, nor
Cleomenes with all his nine-string'd lyre,
Could e'er have made this song endurable.
And the author of the Helots says—
He is a man who sings the ancient songs
Of Alcman, and Stesichorus, and Simonides;
(he means to say Gnesippus):
He likewise has composed songs for the night,
Well suited to adulterers, with which
They charm the women from their doors, while striking
The shrill iambyca or the triangle.
And Cratinus, in his Effeminate Persons, says—
Who, O Gnesippus, e'er saw me in love?
I am indignant; for I do think nothing
Can be so vain or foolish as a lover.
[Sidenote: LOVE SONGS.]
. . . . . . . and he ridicules him for his poems; and in his Herdsmen
he says—
A man who would not give to Sophocles
A chorus when he asked one; though he granted
That favour to Cleomachus, whom I
Should scarce think worthy of so great an honour,
At the Adonia.
And in his Hours he says—
Farewell to that great tragedian
Cleomachus, with his chorus of hair-pullers,
Plucking vile melodies in the Lydian fashion.
But Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, says that he was greatly addicted to
adultery. And Clearchus, in the second book of his Amatory Anecdotes,
says that the love-songs, and those, too, which are called the Locrian
songs, do not differ in the least from the compositions of Sappho and
Anacreon. Moreover, the poems of Archilochus, and that on fieldfares,
attributed to Homer, relate to some division or other of this passion,
describing it in metrical poetry. But the writings of Asopodorus about
love, and the whole body of amorous epistles, are a sort of amatory
poetry out of metre.
44. When Masurius had said this, the second course, as it is called,
was served up to us; which, indeed, was very often offered to us, not
only on the days of the festival of Saturn,[90] when it is the custom
of the Romans to feast their slaves, while they themselves discharge
the offices of their slaves. But this is in reality a Grecian custom.
At all events, in Crete, at the festival of Mercury, a similar thing
takes place, as Carystius tells us in his Historic Reminiscences;
for then, while the slaves are feasting, the masters wait upon them
as if they were the servants: and so they do at Trœzen in the month
Geræstius. For then there is a festival which lasts for many days,
on one of which the slaves play at dice in common with the citizens,
and the masters give a banquet to the slaves, as Carystius himself
tells us. And Berosus, in the first book of his History of Babylon,
says that on the sixteenth day of the month Lous, there is a great
festival celebrated in Babylon, which is called Sakeas; and it lasts
five days: and during those days it is the custom for the masters to
be under the orders of their slaves; and one of the slaves puts on a
robe like the king's, which is called a zoganes, and is master of the
house. And Ctesias also mentions this festival in the second book of
his History of Persia. But the Coans act in an exactly contrary manner,
as Macareus tells us in the third book of his History of Cos. For when
they sacrifice to Juno, the slaves do not come to the entertainment; on
which account Phylarchus says—
Among the Sourii, the freemen only
Assist at the holy sacrifice; none else
The temples or the altars dare approach;
And no slave may come near the sacred precincts.
45. But Baton of Sinope, the orator, in his treatise on Thessaly and
Hæmonica, distinctly asserts that the Roman Saturnalia are originally
a very Greek festival, saying that among the Thessalians it is called
Peloria. And these are his words:—"When a common festival was being
celebrated by all the Pelasgi, a man whose name was Pelorus brought
news to Pelasgus that there had been some violent earthquakes in
Hæmonia, by which the mountains called Tempe had been rent asunder,
and that the water of the lake had burst through the rent, and was
all falling into the stream of the Peneus; and that all the country
which had formerly been covered by the lake was now laid open, and
that, as the waters were now drained off, there were plains visible
of wondrous size and beauty. Accordingly, Pelasgus, on hearing this
statement, had a table loaded with every delicacy set before Pelorus;
and every one else received him with great cordiality, and brought
whatever they had that was best, and placed it on the table before the
man who had brought this news; and Pelasgus himself waited on him with
great cheerfulness, and all the rest of the nobles obeyed him as his
servants as often as any opportunity offered. On which account, they
say that after the Pelasgi occupied the district, they instituted a
festival as a sort of imitation of the feast which took place on that
occasion; and, sacrificing to Jupiter Pelor, they serve up tables
admirably furnished, and hold a very cordial and friendly assembly, so
as to receive every foreigner at the banquet, and to set free all the
prisoners, and to make their servants sit down and feast with
every sort of liberty and licence, while their masters wait on them.
And, in short, even to this day the Thessalians celebrate this as their
chief festival, and call it Peloria."
[Sidenote: SWEETMEATS.]
46. Very often, then, as I have said, when such a dessert as this is
set before us, some one of the guests who were present would say—
Certainly, second thoughts are much the best;
For what now can the table want? or what
Is there with which it is not amply loaded?
'Tis full of fish fresh from the sea, besides
Here's tender veal, and dainty dishes of goose,
Tartlets, and cheesecakes steep'd most thoroughly
In the rich honey of the golden bee;
as Euripides says in his Cretan Women: and, as Eubulus said in his Rich
Woman—
And in the same way everything is sold
Together at Athens; figs and constables,
Grapes, turnips, pears and apples, witnesses,
Roses and medlars, cheesecakes, honeycombs,
Vetches and law-suits; bee-strings of all kinds,
And myrtle-berries, and lots for offices,
Hyacinths, and lambs, and hour-glasses too,
And laws and prosecutions.
Accordingly, when Pontianus was about to say something about each
of the dishes of the second course,—We will not, said Ulpian, hear
you discuss these things until you have spoken about the sweetmeats
(ἐπιδορπίσματα). And Pontianus replied:—Cratinus says that
Philippides has given this name to the τραγήματα, in his
Miser, where he says—
Cheesecakes, ἐπιδορπίσματα, and eggs,
And sesame; and were I to endeavour
To count up every dish, the day would fail me.
And Diphilus, in his Telesias, says—
Τράγημα, myrtle-berries, cheesecakes too,
And almonds; so that with the greatest pleasure
I eat the second course (ἐπιδορπίζομαι).
And Sophilus, in his Deposit, says—
'Tis always pleasant supping with the Greeks;
They manage well; with them no one cries out—
Here, bring a stronger draught; for I must feast
With the Tanagrian; that there, lying down,
* * * * *
And Plato, in his Atlanticus, calls these sweetmeats μεταδόρπια;
saying—"And at that time the earth used to produce all sorts of
sweet-smelling things for its inhabitants; and a great deal of
cultivated fruit, and a great variety of nuts; and all the
μεταδόρπια which give pleasure when eaten."
47. But Tryphon says that formerly before the guests entered the
supper-room, each person's share was placed on the table, and that
afterwards a great many dishes of various kinds were served up in
addition; and that on this account these latter dishes were called
ἐπιφορήματα. But Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaking of
the second course, says—
Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιφορήματα.
And Archippus, in his Hercules, and Herodotus, in the first book of
his History, have both used the verb ἐπιδορπίζομαι for eating
after supper. And Archippus also, in his Hercules Marrying, uses the
word ἐπιφορήματα; where he says—
The board was loaded with rich honey-cakes
And other ἐπιφορήματα.
And Herodotus, in the first book of his History, says—"They do not
eat a great deal of meat, but a great many ἐπιφορήματα." But
as for the proverbial saying, "The ἐπιφόρημα of Abydos,"
that is a kind of tax and harbour-due; as is explained by Aristides
in the third book of his treatise on Proverbs. But Dionysius, the
son of Tryphon, says—"Formerly, before the guests came into the
banqueting-room, the portion for each individual was placed on the
table, and afterwards a great many other things were served up in
addition (ἐπιφέρεσθαι); from which custom they were called
ἐπιφορήματα." And Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaks of
what is brought in after the main part of the banquet is over, saying—
Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιτραπεζώματα.
But Plato the comic poet, in the Menelaus, calls them ἐπιτραπέζαις, as
being for eatables placed on the table (ἐμὶ ταῖς τραπέζαις), saying—
_A._ Come, tell me now,
Why are so few of the ἐπιτραπεζώματα
Remaining?
_B._ That man hated by the gods
Ate them all up.
And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says that sweetmeats
(τραγήματα) used to be called by the ancients τρωγάλια; for that they
come in as a sort of second course. But it is Pindar who said—
And τρώγαλον is nice when supper's over,
And when the guests have eaten plentifully.
[Sidenote: THE DIFFERENT COURSES AT DINNER.]
And he was quite right. For Euripides says, when one looks on what is
served up before one, one may really say—
You see how happily life passes when
A man has always a well-appointed table.
48. And that among the ancients the second course used to have a great
deal of expense and pains bestowed on it, we may learn from what Pindar
says in his Olympic Odes, where he speaks of the flesh of Pelops being
served up for food:—
And in the second course they carved
Your miserable limbs, and feasted on them;
But far from me shall be the thought profane,
That in foul feast celestials could delight.[91]
And the ancients often called this second course simply τράπεζαι, as,
for instance, Achæus in his Vulcan, which is a satyric drama, who says,—
_A._ First we will gratify you with a feast;
Lo! here it is.
_B._ But after that what means
Of pleasure will you offer me?
_A._ We'll anoint you
All over with a richly-smelling perfume.
_B._ Will you not give me first a jug of water
To wash my hands with?
_A._ Surely; the dessert (τράπεζα)
Is now being clear'd away.
And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—
Bring water for the hands; clear the dessert.[92]
And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, uses the term δεύτεραι
τράπεζαι, much as we do now; saying,—"We must therefore bear in mind
that there is a difference between τράγημα and βρῶμα, as there is
also between ἒδεσμα and τρωγάλιον. For this is a national name in use
in every part of Greece, since there is food (βρῶμα) in sweetmeats
(ἐν τραγήμασι), from which consideration the man who first used the
expression δευτέρα τράπεζα, appears to have spoken with sufficient
correctness. For the eating of sweetmeats (τραγηματισμὸς) is really an
eating after supper (ἐπιδορπισμὸς); and the sweetmeats are served up
as a second supper." But Dicæarchus, in the first book of his Descent
to the Cave of Trophonius, speaks thus: "There was also the δευτέρα
τράπεζα, which was a very expensive part of a banquet, and there were
also garlands, and perfumes, and burnt frankincense, and all the other
necessary accompaniments of these things."
49. Eggs too often formed a part of the second course, as did hares
and thrushes, which were served up with the honey-cakes; as we find
mentioned by Antiphanes in the Leptiniscus, where he says,—
_A._ Would you drink Thasian wine?
_B._ No doubt, if any one
Fills me a goblet with it.
_A._ Then what think you
Of almonds?
_B._ I feel very friendly to them,
They mingle well with honey.
_A._ If a man
Should bring you honied cheesecakes?
_B._ I should eat them,
And swallow down an egg or two besides.
And in his Things resembling one another, he says,—
Then he introduced a dance, and after that he served up
A second course, provided well with every kind of dainty.
And Amphis, in his Gynæcomania, says,—
_A._ Did you e'er hear of what they call a ground[93] life?
. . . . . . . . . . . 'tis clearly
Cheesecakes, sweet wine, eggs, cakes of sesame,
Perfumes, and crowns, and female flute-players.
_B._ Castor and Pollux! why you have gone through
The names of all the dozen gods at once.
Anaxandrides, in his Clowns, says,—
And when I had my garland on my head,
They brought in the dessert (ἡ τράπεζα), in which there were
So many dishes, that, by all the gods,
And goddesses too, I hadn't the least idea
There were so many different things i' th' house;
And never did I live so well as then.
Clearchus says in his Pandrosus,—
_A._ Have water for your hands:
_B._ By no means, thank you;
I'm very comfortable as I am.
_A._ Pray have some;
You'll be no worse at all events. Boy, water!
And put some nuts and sweetmeats on the table.
And Eubulus, in his Campylion, says,—
_A._ Now is your table loaded well with sweetmeats.
_B._ I am not always very fond of sweetmeats.
Alexis, too, says in his Polyclea, (Polyclea was the name of a
courtesan,)—
[Sidenote: DESSERT.]
He was a clever man who first invented
The use of sweetmeats; for he added thus
A pleasant lengthening to the feast, and saved men
From unfill'd mouths and idle jaws unoccupied.
And in his Female Likeness (but this same play is attributed also to
Antidotus) he says,—
_A._ I am not one, by Æsculapius!
To care excessively about my supper;
I'm fonder of dessert.
_B._ 'Tis very well.
_A._ For I do hear that sweetmeats are in fashion,
For suitors when they're following....
_B._ Their brides,—
_A._ To give them cheesecakes, hares, and thrushes too,
These are the things I like; but pickled fish
And soups and sauces I can't bear, ye gods!
But Apion and Diodorus, as Pamphilus tells us, assert that the
sweetmeats brought in after supper are also called ἐπαίκλεια.
50. Ephippus, in his Ephebi, enumerating the different dishes in
fashion for dessert, says,—
Then there were brought some groats, some rich perfumes
From Egypt, and a cask of rich palm wine
Was broach'd. Then cakes and other kinds of sweetmeats,
Cheesecakes of every sort and every name;
And a whole hecatomb of eggs. These things
We ate, and clear'd the table vigorously,
For we did e'en devour some parasites.
And in his Cydon he says,—
And after supper they served up some kernels,
Vetches, and beans, and groats, and cheese, and honey,
Sweetmeats of various kinds, and cakes of sesame,
And pyramidical rolls of wheat, and apples,
Nuts, milk, hempseed too, and shell-fish,
Syrup, the brains of Jove.
Alexis too, in his Philiscus, says,—
Now is the time to clear the table, and
To bring each guest some water for his hands,
And garlands, perfumes, and libations,
Frankincense, and a chafing-dish. Now give
Some sweetmeats, and let all some cheesecakes have.
And as Philoxenus of Cythera, in his Banquet, where he mentions the
second course, has spoken by name of many of the dishes which are
served up to us, we may as well cite his words:—
"And the beautiful vessels which come in first, were brought in again
full of every kind of delicacy, which mortals call τράπεζαι, but the
Gods call them the Horn of Amalthea. And in the middle was placed
that great delight of mortals, white marrow dressed sweet; covering
its face with a thin membrane, like a spider's web, out of modesty,
that one might not see . . . . . in the dry nets of Aristæus. . . .
And its name was amyllus . . . . . . . . . which they call Jupiter's
sweetmeats. . . . Then he distributed plates of . . . . very
delicious . . . . . . and a cheesecake compounded of cheese, and milk,
and honey . . . . . almonds with soft rind . . . . and nuts, which
boys are very fond of; and everything else which could be expected in
plentiful and costly entertainment. And drinking went on, and playing
at the cottabus, and conversation. . . . . . . . It was pronounced a
very magnificent entertainment, and every one admired and praised it."
This, then, is the description given by Philoxenus of Cythera, whom
Antiphanes praises in his Third-rate Performer, where he says—
Philoxenus now does surpass by far
All other poets. First of all he everywhere
Uses new words peculiar to himself;
And then how cleverly doth he mix his melodies
With every kind of change and modification!
Surely he is a god among weak men,
And a most thorough judge of music too.
But poets of the present day patch up
Phrases of ivy and fountains into verse,
And borrow old expressions, talking of
Melodies flying on the wings of flowers,
And interweave them with their own poor stuff.
51. There are many writers who have given lists of the different
kinds of cheesecakes, and as far as I can recollect, I will mention
them, and what they have said. I know, too, that Callimachus, in his
List of Various Books, mentions the treatises on the Art of Making
Cheesecakes, written by Ægimius, and Hegesippus, and Metrobius, and
also by Phætus. But I will communicate to you the names of cheesecakes
which I myself have been able to find to put down, not treating you as
Socrates was treated in the matter of the cheesecake which was sent to
him by Alcibiades; for Xanthippe took it and trampled upon it, on which
Socrates laughed, and said, "At all events you will not have any of it
yourself." (This story is related by Antipater, in the first book of
his essay on Passion.) But I, as I am fond of cheesecakes, should have
been very sorry to see that divine cheesecake so injuriously treated.
Accordingly, Plato the comic poet mentions cheesecakes in his play
called The Poet, where he says—
Am I alone to sacrifice without Having a taste allow'd
me of the entrails, Without a cheesecake, without
frankincense?
[Sidenote: CHEESECAKES.]
Nor do I forget that there is a village, which Demetrius the Scepsian,
in the twelfth book of his Trojan Array, tells us bears the name
of Πλακοῦς (cheesecake); and he says that it is six stadia from
Hypoplacian Thebes.[94]
Now, the word πλακοῦς ought to have a circumflex in the nominative
case; for it is contracted from πλακόεις, as τυροῦς is from τυρόεις,
and σησαμούς from σησαμόεις. And it is used as a substantive, the word
ἄρτος (bread) being understood.
Those who have lived in the place assure us that there are capital
cheesecakes to be got at Parium on the Hellespont; for it is a blunder
of Alexis, when he speaks of them as coming from the island of Paros.
And this is what he says in his play called Archilochus:—
Happy old man, who in the sea-girt isle Of happy
Paros dwell'st—a land which bears Two things in high
perfection; marble white, Fit decoration for th' immortal
gods, And cheesecakes, dainty food for mortal men.
And Sopater the farce-writer, in his Suitors of Bacchis, testifies that
the cheesecakes of Samos are extraordinarily good; saying,—
The cheesecake-making island named Samos.
52. Menander, in his False Hercules, speaks of cheesecakes made in a
mould:—
It is not now a question about candyli, Or all the
other things which you are used To mix together in one
dish—eggs, honey, And similago; for all these things
now Are out of place. The cook at present's making Baked
cheesecakes in a mould; and boiling groats, To serve up
after the salt-fish,—and grapes, And forced-meat wrapp'd
in fig-leaves. And the maid, Who makes the sweetmeats and
the common cheesecakes, Is roasting joints of meat and
plates of thrushes.
And Evangelus, in his Newly-married Woman, says—
_A._ Four tables did I mention to you of women,
And six of men; a supper, too, complete—
In no one single thing deficient;
Wishing the marriage-feast to be a splendid one.
_B._ Ask no one else; I will myself go round,
Provide for everything, and report to you.
. . . . . As many kinds of olives as you please;
For meat, you've veal, and sucking-pig, and pork,
And hares—
_A._ Hear how this cursed fellow boasts!
_B._ Forced-meat in fig-leaves, cheese, cheesecakes in moulds—
_A._ Here, Dromo!
_B._ Candyli, eggs, cakes of meal.
And then the table is three cubits high;
So that all those who sit around must rise
Whene'er they wish to help themselves to anything.
There was a kind of cheesecake called ἄμης. Antiphanes
enumerates
ἄμητες, ἄμυλοι;
and Menander, in his Supposititious Son, says—
You would be glad were any one to dress
A cheesecake (ἄμητα) for you.
But the Ionians, as Seleucus tells us in his Dialects, make the
accusative case ἄμην; and they call small cheesecakes of the
same kind ἀμητίσκοι. Teleclides says—
Thrushes flew of their own accord
Right down my throat with savoury ἀμητίσκοι.
53. There was also a kind called διακόνιον:—
He was so greedy that he ate a whole
Diaconium up, besides an amphiphon.
But the ἀμφιφῶν was a kind of cheesecake consecrated to
Diana, having figures of lighted torches round it. Philemon, in his
Beggar, or Woman of Rhodes, says—
Diana, mistress dear, I bring you now
This amphiphon, and these libations holy.
Diphilus also mentions it in his Hecate. Philochorus also mentions the
fact of its being called ἀμφιφῶν, and of its being brought
into the temples of Diana, and also to the places where three roads
meet, on the day when the moon is overtaken at its setting by the
rising of the sun; and so the heaven is ἀμφιφῶς, or all over
light.
There is the basynias too. Semus, in the second book of the Deliad,
says—"In the island of Hecate, the Delians sacrifice to Iris, offering
her the cheesecakes called basyniæ; and this is a cake of wheat-flour,
and suet, and honey, boiled up together: and what is called κόκκωρα
consists of a fig and three nuts."
[Sidenote: CHEESECAKES.]
There are also cheesecakes called strepti and neëlata. Both these kinds
are mentioned by Demosthenes the orator, in his Speech in Defence of
Ctesiphon concerning the Crown.
There are also epichyta. Nicochares, in his Handicraftsmen, says—
I've loaves, and barley-cakes, and bran, and flour,
And rolls, obelias, and honey'd cheesecakes,
Epichyti, ptisan, and common cheesecakes,
Dendalides, and fried bread.
But Pamphilus says that the ἐπίχυτος is the same kind of
cheesecake as that which is called ἀττανίτης. And Hipponax
mentions the ἀττανίτης in the following lines:—
Not eating hares or woodcocks,
Nor mingling small fried loaves with cakes of sesame,
Nor dipping attanitæ in honeycombs.
There is also the creïum. This is a kind of cheesecake which, at Argos,
is brought to the bridegroom from the bride; and it is roasted on the
coals, and the friends of the bridegroom are invited to eat it; and it
is served up with honey, as Philetas tells us in his Miscellanies.
There is also the glycinas: this is a cheesecake in fashion among the
Cretans, made, with sweet wine and oil, as Seleucus tells us in his
Dialects.
There is also the empeptas. The same author speaks of this as a
cheesecake made of wheat, hollow and well-shaped, like those which are
called κρηπῖδες; being rather a kind of paste into which they put those
cheesecakes which are really made with cheese.
54. There are cakes, also, called ἐγκρίδες. These are cakes
boiled in oil, and after that seasoned with honey; and they are
mentioned by Stesichorus in the following lines:—
Groats and encrides,
And other cakes, and fresh sweet honey.
Epicharmus, too, mentions them; and so does Nicophon, in his
Handicraftsmen. And Aristophanes, in his Danaides, speaks of a man who
made them in the following words:—
And not be a seller of encrides (ἐγκριδοπώλης).
And Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, says—
Let him take this, and then along the road
Let him seize some encrides.
There is the ἐπικύκλιος, too. This is a kind of cheesecake
in use among the Syracusans, under this name; and it is mentioned by
Epicharmus, in his Earth and Sea.
There is also the γοῦρος; and that this, too, is a kind of
cheesecake we learn from what Solon says in his Iambics:—
Some spend their time in drinking, and eating cakes,
And some eat bread, and others feast on γοῦροι
Mingled with lentils; and there is no kind
Of dainty wanting there, but all the fruits
Which the rich earth brings forth as food for men
Are present in abundance.
There are also cribanæ; and κριβάνης is a name given by Alcman
to some cheesecakes, as Apollodorus tells us. And Sosibius asserts the
same thing, in the third book of his Essay on Alcman; and he says they
are in shape like a breast, and that the Lacedæmonians use them at
the banquets of women, and that the female friends of the bride, who
follow her in a chorus, carry them about when they are going to sing an
encomium which has been prepared in her honour.
There is also the crimnites, which is a kind of cheesecake made of a
coarser sort of barley-meal (κρίμνον), as Iatrocles tells us
in his treatise on Cheesecakes.
55. Then there is the staitites; and this, too, is a species of
cheesecake made of wheaten-flour and honey. Epicharmus mentions it in
his Hebe's Wedding; but the wheaten-flour is wetted, and then put into
a frying-pan; and after that honey is sprinkled over it, and sesame,
and cheese; as Iatrocles tells us.
There is also the charisius. This is mentioned by Aristophanes in his
Daitaleis, where he says—
But I will send them in the evening
A charisian cheesecake.
And Eubulus, in his Ancylion, speaks of it as if it were plain bread:—
I only just leapt out,
While baking the charisius.
Then there is the ἐπίδαιτρον, which is a barley-cake, made
like a cheesecake, to be eaten after supper; as Philemon tells us in
his treatise on Attic Names.
There is also the nanus, which is a loaf made like a cheesecake,
prepared with cheese and oil.
There are also ψώθια, which are likewise called ψαθύρια. Pherecrates,
in the Crapatalli, says—
And in the shades below you'll get for threepence
A crapatallus, and some ψώθια.
[Sidenote: CHEESECAKES.]
But Apollodorus the Athenian, and Theodorus, in his treatise
on the Attic Dialect, say that the crumbs which are knocked off from a
loaf are called ψώθια, which some people also call ἀττάραγοι.
Then there is the ἴτριον. This is a thin cake, made of sesame
and honey; and it is mentioned by Anacreon thus:—
I broke my fast, taking a little slice
Of an ἴτριον; but I drank a cask of wine.
And Aristophanes, in his Acharnians, says—
Cheesecakes, and cakes of sesame, and ἴτρια.
And Sophocles, in his Contention, says—
But I, being hungry, look back at the ἴτρια.
There is mention made also of ἄμοραι. Philetas, in his
Miscellanies, says that cakes of honey are called ἄμοραι; and
they are made by a regular baker.
There is the ταγηνίτης, too; which is a cheesecake fried
in oil. Magnes, or whoever it was that wrote the comedies which are
attributed to him, says in the second edition of his Bacchus—
Have you ne'er seen the fresh ταγήνιαι hissing,
When you pour honey over them?
And Cratinus, in his Laws, says—
The fresh ταγηνίας, dropping morning dew.
Then there is the ἔλαφος. This is a cheesecake made on the
festival of Elaphebolia, of wheat-flour, and honey, and sesame.
The ναστὸς is a kind of cheesecake, having stuffing inside it.
56. Χόρια are cakes made up with honey and milk.
The ἀμορβίτης is a species of cheesecake in fashion among the
Sicilians. But some people call it παισά. And among the Coans
it is called πλακούντιον, as we are informed by Iatrocles.
Then there are the σησαμίδες, which are cakes made of honey,
and roasted sesame, and oil, of a round shape. Eupolis, in his
Flatterers, says—
He is all grace, he steps like a callabis-dancer,
And breathes sesamides, and smells of apples.
And Antiphanes, in his Deucalion, says—
Sesamides, or honey-cheesecakes,
Or any other dainty of the kind.
And Ephippus, in his Cydon, also mentions them in a passage which has
been already quoted.
Then there are μύλλοι. Heraclides the Syracusan, in his
treatise on Laws, says, that in Syracuse, on the principal day of the
Thesmophorian festival, cakes of a peculiar shape are made of sesame
and honey, which are called μύλλοι throughout all Sicily, and
are carried about as offerings to the goddesses. There is also the
echinus. Lynceus the Samian, in his epistle to Diagoras, comparing the
things which are considered dainties in Attica with those which are
in esteem at Rhodes, writes thus: "They have for the second course a
rival to the fame of the ἄμης in a new antagonist called the ἐχινος,
concerning which I will speak briefly; but when you come and see me,
and eat one which shall be prepared for you in the Rhodian manner, then
I will endeavour to say more about it."
There are also cheesecakes named κοτυλίσκοι. Heracleon of
Ephesus tells us that those cheesecakes have this name which are made
of the third part of a chœnix of wheat.
There are others called χοιρίναι, which are mentioned by
Iatrocles in his treatise on Cheesecakes; and he speaks also of that
which is called πυραμοῦς, which he says differs from the
πυραμίς, inasmuch as this latter is made of bruised wheat
which has been softened with honey. And these cheesecakes are in
nightly festivals given as prizes to the man who has kept awake all
night.
57. But Chrysippus of Tyana, in his book called the Art of
Making Bread, enumerates the following species and genera of
cheesecakes:—"The terentinum, the crassianum, the tutianum, the
sabellicum, the clustron, the julianum, the apicianum, the canopicum,
the pelucidum, the cappadocium, the hedybium, the maryptum, the
plicium, the guttatum, the montianum. This last," he says, "you will
soften with sour wine, and if you have a little cheese you may mash
the montianum up half with wine and half with cheese, and so it will
be more palatable. Then there is the clustrum curianum, the clustrum
tuttatum, and the clustrum tabonianum. There are also mustacia made
with mead, mustacia made with sesame, crustum purium, gosgloanium, and
paulianum.
[Sidenote: CHEESECAKES.]
"The following cakes resembling cheesecakes," he says, "are really
made with cheese:—the enchytus, the scriblites, the subityllus. There
is also another kind of subityllus made of groats. Then there is the
spira; this, too, is made with cheese.
There are, too, the lucuntli, the argyrotryphema, the libos, the
cercus, the æxaphas, the clustroplacous. There is also," says
Chrysippus, "a cheesecake made of rye. The phthois is made thus:—Take
some cheese and pound it, then put it into a brazen sieve and strain
it; then put in honey and a hemina[95] of flour made from spring wheat,
and beat the whole together into one mass.
"There is another cake, which is called by the Romans catillus ornatus,
and which is made thus:—Wash some lettuces and scrape them; then put
some wine into a mortar and pound the lettuces in it; then, squeezing
out the juice, mix up some flour from spring wheat in it, and allowing
it to settle, after a little while pound it again, adding a little
pig's fat and pepper; then pound it again, draw it out into a cake,
smoothe it, and cut it again, and cut it into shape, and boil it in hot
oil, putting all the fragments which you have cut off into a strainer.
"Other kinds of cheesecakes are the following:—the ostracites, the
attanites, the amylum, the tyrocoscinum. Make this last thus:—Pound
some cheese (τῦρον) carefully, and put it into a vessel; then place
above it a brazen sieve (κόσκινον) and strain the cheese through
it. And when you are going to serve it up, then put in above it a
sufficient quantity of honey. The cheesecakes called ὑποτυρίδες are
made thus:—Put some honey into some milk, pound them, and put them into
a vessel, and let them coagulate; then, if you have some little sieves
at hand, put what is in the vessel into them, and let the whey run off;
and when it appears to you to have coagulated thoroughly, then take up
the vessel in which it is, and transfer it to a silver dish, and the
coat, or crust, will be uppermost. But if you have no such sieves, then
use some new fans, such as those which are used to blow the fire; for
they will serve the same purpose. Then there is the coptoplacous. And
also," says he, "in Crete they make a kind of cheesecake which they
call gastris. And it is made thus:—Take some Thasian and Pontic nuts
and some almonds, and also a poppy. Roast this last with great care,
and then take the seed and pound it in a clean mortar; then, adding the
fruits which I have mentioned above, beat them up with boiled honey,
putting in plenty of pepper, and make the whole into a soft mass, (but
it will be of a black colour because of the poppy;) flatten it and make
it into a square shape; then, having pounded some white sesame, soften
that too with boiled honey, and draw it out into two cakes, placing one
beneath and the other above, so as to have the black surface in the
middle, and make it into a neat shape." These are the recipes of that
clever writer on confectionary, Chrysippus.
58. But Harpocration the Mendesian, in his treatise on Cheesecakes,
speaks of a dish which the Alexandrians call παγκαρπία. Now
this dish consists of a number of cakes mashed up together and boiled
with honey. And after they are boiled, they are made up into round
balls, and fastened round with a thin string of byblus in order to
keep them together. There is also a dish called πόλτος, which
Alcman mentions in the following terms—
And then we'll give you poltos made of beans (πυάνιος),
And snow-white wheaten groats from unripe corn,
And fruit of wax.
But the substantive πυάνιον, as Sosibius tells us, means a
collection of all kinds of seeds boiled up in sweet wine. And χῖδρος
means boiled grains of wheat. And when he speaks here of waxy
fruit, he means honey. And Epicharmus, in his Earth and Sea, speaks
thus—
To boil some morning πόλτος.
And Pherecrates mentions the cakes called μελικηρίδων in his
Deserters, speaking as follows—
As one man smells like goats, but others
Breathe from their mouths unalloy'd μελικήρας.
59. And when all this had been said, the wise Ulpian said,—Whence,
my most learned grammarians, and out of what library, have these
respectable writers, Chrysippus and Harpocration, been extracted, men
who bring the names of illustrious philosophers into disrepute by being
their namesakes? And what Greek has ever used the word ἡμίνα;
or who has ever mentioned the ἄμυλος?" And when Laurentius
answered him, and said,—Whoever the authors of the poems attributed to
Epicharmus were, they were acquainted with the ἡπίνα. And we
find the following expressions in the play entitled Chiron—
And to drink twice the quantity of cool water,—
Two full heminas.
[Sidenote: CAKES.]
And these spurious poems, attributed to Epicharmus, were, at
all events, written by eminent men. For it was Chrysogonus the
flute-player, as Aristoxenus tells us in the eighth book of his
Political Laws, who wrote the poem entitled Polity. And Philochorus,
in his treatise on Divination, says that it was a man of the name of
Axiopistos, (whether he was a Locrian or a Sicyonian is uncertain,) who
was the author of the Canon and the Sentences. And Apollodorus tells us
the same thing. And Teleclides mentions the ἄμυλος in his Rigid Men,
speaking thus—
Hot cheesecakes now are things I'm fond of,
Wild pears I do not care about;
I also like rich bits of hare
Placed on an ἄμυλος.
60. When Ulpian had heard this, he said—But, since you have also a
cake which you call κοπτὴ, and I see that there is one served
up for each of you on the table, tell us now, you epicures, what writer
of authority ever mentions this word κοπτὴ? And Democritus
replied—Dionysius of Utica, in the seventh book of his Georgics, says
that the sea leek is called κοπτὴ. And as for the honey-cake
which is now served up before each of us, Clearchus the Solensian, in
his treatise on Riddles, mentions that, saying—"If any one were to
order a number of vessels to be mentioned which resemble one another,
he might say,
A tripod, a bowl, a candlestick, a marble mortar,
A bench, a sponge, a caldron, a boat, a metal mortar,
An oil-cruse, a basket, a knife, a ladle,
A goblet, and a needle.
And after that he gives a list of the names of different dishes, thus—
Soup, lentils, salted meat, and fish, and turnips,
Garlic, fresh meat, and tunny-roe, pickles, onions,
Olives, and artichokes, capers, truffles, mushrooms.
And in the same way he gives a catalogue of cakes, and sweetmeats,
thus—
Ames, placous, entiltos, itrium,[96]
Pomegranates, eggs, vetches, and sesame;
Coptè and grapes, dried figs, and pears and peaches,
Apples and almonds."
These are the words of Clearchus. But Sopater the farce-writer, in his
drama entitled Pylæ, says—
Who was it who invented first black cakes (κοπταὶ)
Of the uncounted poppy-seed? who mix'd
The yellow compounds of delicious sweetmeats?
Here my excellent cross-examiner, Ulpian, you have authorities for
κοπτή; and so now I advise you ἀπεσθίειν some. And he, without any
delay, took and ate some. And when they all laughed, Democritus
said;—But, my fine word-catcher, I did not desire you to eat, but not
to eat; for the word ἀπεσθίω is used in the sense of abstaining from
eating by Theopompus the comic poet, in his Phineus, where he says—
Cease gambling with the dice, my boy, and now
Feed for the future more on herbs. Your stomach
Is hard with indigestion; give up eating (ἀπέσθιε)
Those fish that cling to the rocks; the lees of wine
Will make your head and senses clear, and thus
You'll find your health, and your estate too, better.
Men do, however, use ἀπεσθίω for to eat a portion of
anything, as Hermippus does, in his Soldiers—
Alas! alas! he bites me now, he bites,
And quite devours (ἀπεσθίει) my ears.
61. The Syrian being convicted by these arguments, and being a good
deal annoyed, said—But I see here on the table some pistachio nuts
(ψιττάκια); and if you can tell me what author has ever
spoken of them, I will give you, not ten golden staters, as that Pontic
trifler has it, but this goblet. And as Democritus made no reply, he
said, But since you cannot answer me, I will tell you; Nicander of
Colophon, in his Theriacans, mentions them, and says—
Pistachio nuts (ψιττάκια) upon the highest branches,
Like almonds to the sight.
The word is also written βιστάκια, in the line—
And almond-looking βιστάκια were there.
And Posidonius the Stoic, in the third book of his History, writes
thus: "But both Arabia and Syria produce the peach, and the nut which
is called βιστάκιον; which bears a fruit in bunches like bunches of
grapes, of a sort of tawny white, long shaped, like tears, and the nuts
lie on one another like berries. But the kernel is of a light green,
and it is less juicy than the pine-cone, but it has a more pleasant
smell. And the brothers who together composed the Georgics, write thus,
in the third book—"There is also the ash, and the turpentine tree,
which the Syrians call πιστάκια." And these people spell the word
πιστάκια with a π, but Nicander writes it φιττάκια, and Posidonius
βιστάκια.
[Sidenote: VEGETABLES.]
62. And when he had said this, looking round on all those who were
present, and being praised by them, he said,—But I mean also to discuss
every other dish that there is on the table, in order to make you
admire my varied learning. And first of all I will speak of those which
the Alexandrians call κόνναρα and παλίουροι. And they are mentioned
also by Agathocles of Cyzicus, in the third book of his History of
his Country; where, he says: "But after the thunderbolt had struck
the tomb, there sprung up from the monument a tree which they call
κόνναρον. And this tree is not at all inferior in size to the elm or
the fir. And it has great numbers of branches, of great length and
rather thorny; but its leaf is tender and green, and of a round shape.
And it bears fruit twice a-year, in spring and autumn. And the fruit
is very sweet, and of the size of a phaulian olive, which it resembles
both in its flesh and in its stone; but it is superior in the good
flavour of its juice. And the fruit is eaten while still green; and
when it has become dry they make it into paste, and eat it without
either bruising it or softening it with water, but taking it in very
nearly its natural state. And Euripides, in the Cyclops, speaks of—
A branch of paliurus.[97]
But Theopompus, in the twenty-first book of his History of Philip,
mentions them, and Diphilus, the physician of Siphnus, also speaks of
them, in his treatise on What may be eaten by People in Health, and by
Invalids. But I have mentioned these things first, my good friends, not
because they are before us at this moment, but because in the beautiful
city of Alexandria, I have often eaten them as part of the second
course, and as I have often heard the question as to their names raised
there, I happened to fall in with a book here in which I read what I
have now recounted to you.
63. And I will now take the pears (ἄπιον), which I see before
me, and speak of them, since it is from them that the Peloponnesus
was called Ἀπία,[98] because plants of the peartree were
abundant in the country, as Ister tells us, in his treatise on the
History of Greece. And that it was customary to bring up pears in water
at entertainments, we learn from the Breutias of Alexis, where we read
these lines—
_A._ Have you ne'er seen pears floating in deep water
Served up before some hungry men at dinner?
_B._ Indeed I have, and often; what of that?
_A._ Does not each guest choose for himself, and eat
The ripest of the fruit that swims before him?
_B._ No doubt he does.
But the fruit called ἁμαμηλίδες are not the same as pears, as
some people have fancied, but they are a different thing, sweeter, and
they have no kernel. Aristomenes, in his Bacchus, says—
Know you not how the Chian garden grows
Fine medlars?
And Æschylides too, in the third book of his Georgics, shows us that it
is a different fruit from the pear, and sweeter. For he is speaking of
the island Ceos, and he expresses himself thus,—"The island produces
the very finest pears, equal to that fruit which in Ionia is called
hamamelis; for they are free from kernels, and sweet, and delicious."
But Aethlius, in the fifth book of his Samian Annals, if the book be
genuine, calls them homomelides. And Pamphilus, in his treatise on
Dialects and Names, says, "The epimelis is a species of pear." Antipho,
in his treatise on Agriculture, says that the phocides are also a kind
of pear.
64. Then there are pomegranates. And of pomegranates some kinds are
said to be destitute of kernels, and some to have hard ones. And those
without kernels are mentioned by Aristophanes in his Farmers; and in
his Anagyrus he says—
Except wheat-flour and pomegranates.
He also speaks of them in the Gerytades; and Hermippus, in his
Cercopes, says—
Have you e'er seen the pomegranate's kernel in snow?
And we find the diminutive form ῥοίδιον, like βοίδιον.
Antiphanes also mentions the pomegranates with the hard kernels in his
Bœotia—
I bade him bring me from the farm pomegranates
Of the hard-kernell'd sort.
And Epilycus, in his Phoraliscus, says—
You are speaking of apples and pomegranates.
[Sidenote: POMEGRANATES.]
Alexis also, in his Suitors, has the line—
He took the rich pomegranates from their hands.
But Agatharchides, in the nineteenth book of his History of Europe,
tells us that the Bœotians call pomegranates not ῥοιαὶ but σίδαι,
speaking thus:—"As the Athenians were disputing with the Bœotians
about a district which they called Sidæ, Epaminondas, while engaged
in upholding the claims of the Bœotians, suddenly lifted up in his
left hand a pomegranate which he had concealed, and showed it to
the Athenians, asking them what they called it, and when they said
ῥοιὰ, 'But we,' said he, 'call it σίδη.' And the district bears
the pomegranate-tree in great abundance, from which it originally
derived its name. And Epaminondas prevailed." And Menander, in his
Heauton-Timorumenos, called them ῥοίδια, in the following lines—
And after dinner I did set before them
Almonds, and after that we ate pomegranates.
There is, however, another plant called sida, which is something like
the pomegranate, and which grows in the lake Orchomenus, in the water
itself; and the sheep eat its leaves, and the pigs feed on the young
shoots, as Theophrastus tells us, in the fourth book of his treatise on
Plants; where he says that there is another plant like it in the Nile,
which grows without any roots.
65. The next thing to be mentioned are dates. Xenophon, in the second
book of his Anabasis, says—"And there was in the district a great
deal of corn, and wine made of the dates, and also vinegar, which was
extracted from them; but the berries themselves of the date when like
what we see in Greece, were set apart for the slaves. But those which
were destined for the masters were all carefully selected, being of a
wonderful size and beauty, and their colour was like amber. And some
they dry and serve up as sweetmeats; and the wine made from the date
is sweet, but it produces headache." And Herodotus, in his first book,
speaking of Babylon, says,—"There are palm-trees there growing over
the whole plain, most of them being very fruitful; and they make bread,
and wine, and honey of them. And they manage the tree in the same way
as the fig-tree. For those palm-trees which they call the males they
take, and bind their fruit to the other palm-trees which bear dates,
in order that the insect which lives in the fruit of the male palm
may get into the date and ripen it, and so prevent the fruit of the
date-bearing palm from being spoilt. For the male palm has an insect in
each of its fruits, as the wild fig has." And Polybius of Megalopolis,
who speaks with the authority of an eye-witness, gives very nearly the
same account of the lotus, as it is called, in Libya, that Herodotus
here gives of the palm-tree; for he speaks thus of it: "And the lotus
is a tree of no great size, but rough and thorny, and its leaf is green
like that of the rhamnus, but a little thicker and broader. And the
fruit at first resembles both in colour and size the berries of the
white myrtle when full grown; but as it increases in size it becomes
of a scarlet colour, and in size about equal to the round olives; and
it has an exceedingly small stone. But when it is ripe they gather
it. And some they store for the use of the servants, bruising it and
mixing it with groats, and packing it into vessels. And that which is
preserved for freemen is treated in the same way, only that the stones
are taken out, and then they pack that fruit also in jars, and eat it
when they please. And it is a food very like the fig, and also like
the palm-date, but superior in fragrance. And when it is moistened and
pounded with water, a wine is made of it, very sweet and enjoyable to
the taste, and like fine mead; and they drink it without water; but it
will not keep more than ten days, on which account they only make it in
small quantities as they want it. They also make vinegar of the same
fruit."
66. And Melanippides the Melian, in his Danaides, calls the fruit
of the palm-tree by the name of φοίνιξ, mentioning them in this
manner:—"They had the appearance of inhabitants of the shades below,
not of human beings; nor had they voices like women; but they drove
about in chariots with seats, through the woods and groves, just as
wild beasts do, holding in their hands the sacred frankincense, and the
fragrant dates (φοίνικας), and cassia, and the delicate perfumes of
Syria."[99]
[Sidenote: FIGS.]
And Aristotle, in his treatise on Plants, speaks thus:—"The dates
(φοίνικες) without stones, which some call eunuchs and others
ἀπύρηνοι." Hellanicus has also called the fruit φοίνιξ, in his Journey
to the Temple of Ammon, if at least the book be a genuine one; and so
has Phormus the comic poet, in his Atalantæ. But concerning those that
are called the Nicolaan dates, which are imported from Syria, I can
give you this information; that they received this name from Augustus
the emperor, because he was exceedingly fond of the fruit, and because
Nicolaus of Damascus, who was his friend, was constantly sending him
presents of it. And this Nicolaus was a philosopher of the Peripatetic
School, and wrote a very voluminous history.
67. Now with respect to dried figs. Those which came from Attica
were always considered a great deal the best. Accordingly Dinon, in
his History of Persia, says—"And they used to serve up at the royal
table all the fruits which the earth produces as far as the king's
dominions extend, being brought to him from every district as a sort
of first-fruits. And the first king did not think it becoming for the
kings either to eat or drink anything which came from any foreign
country; and this idea gradually acquired the force of a law. For once,
when one of the eunuchs brought the king, among the rest of the dishes
at dessert, some Athenian dried figs, the king asked where they came
from. And when he heard that they came from Athens, he forbade those
who had bought them to buy them for him any more, until it should be in
his power to take them whenever he chose, and not to buy them. And it
is said that the eunuch did this on purpose, with a view to remind him
of the expedition against Attica." And Alexis, in his Pilot, says—
Then came in figs, the emblem of fair Athens,
And bunches of sweet thyme.
And Lynceus, in his epistle to the comic poet, Posidippus, says—"In
the delineation of the tragic passions, I do not think that Euripides
is at all superior to Sophocles, but in dried figs, I do think that
Attica is superior to every other country on earth." And in his
letter to Diagoras, he writes thus:—"But this country opposes to the
Chelidonian dried figs those which are called Brigindaridæ, which in
their name indeed are barbarous, but which in delicious flavour are not
at all less Attic than the others. And Phœnicides, in his Hated Woman,
says—
They celebrate the praise of myrtle-berries,
Of honey, of the Propylæa, and of figs;
Now these I tasted when I first arrived,
And saw the Propylæa; yet have I found nothing
Which to a woodcock can for taste compare.
In which lines we must take notice of the mention of the woodcock.
But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Names, says that "the most
excellent dried figs are those called Ægilides; and that Ægila is the
name of a borough in Attica, which derives its name from a hero called
Ægilus; but that the dried figs of a reddish black colour are called
Chelidonians." Theopompus also, in the Peace, praising the Tithrasian
figs, speaks thus—
Barley-cakes, cheesecakes, and Tithrasian figs.
But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men, (for really,
as Aristophanes says—
There's really nothing nicer than dried figs;)
that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to Antiochus,
entreating him (it is Hegesander who tells this story) to buy and send
him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a sophist; and that
Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dried figs and the sweet wine we
will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece.
The Greeks were also in the habit of eating dried figs roasted, as
Pherecrates proves by what he says in the Corianno, where we find—
But pick me out some of those roasted figs.
And a few lines later he says—
Will you not bring me here some black dried figs?
Dost understand? Among the Mariandyni,
That barbarous tribe, they call these black dried figs
Their dishes.
I am aware, too, that Pamphilus has mentioned a kind of dried figs,
which he calls προκνίδες.
68. That the word βότρυς is common for a bunch of grapes is known to
every one; and Crates, in the second book of his Attic Dialect, uses
the word σταφυλὴ, although it appears to be a word of Asiatic origin;
saying that in some of the ancient hymns the word σταφυλὴ is used for
βότρυς, as in the following line:—
Thick hanging with the dusky grapes (σταφυλῆσι) themselves.
[Sidenote: GRAPES.]
And that the word σταφυλὴ is used by Homer is known to every one. But
Plato, in the eighth book of his Laws, uses both βότρυς and σταφυλὴ,
where he says—"Whoever tastes wild fruit, whether it be grapes
(βοτρύων) or figs, before the time of the vintage arrives, which falls
at the time of the rising of Arcturus, whether it be on his own farm,
or on any one else's land, shall be fined fifty sacred drachmas to be
paid to Bacchus, if he plucked them off his own land; but a mina if
he gather them on a neighbour's estate; but if he take them from any
other place, two-thirds of a mina. But whoever chooses to gather the
grapes (τὴν σταφυλὴν), which are now called the noble grapes, or the
figs called the noble figs, if he gather them from his own trees, let
him gather them as he pleases, and when he pleases; but if he gathers
them from the trees of any one else without having obtained the leave
of the owner, then, in accordance with the law which forbids any one to
move what he has not placed, he shall be invariably punished." These
are the words of the divine Plato; but I ask now what is this noble
grape (γενναῖα), and this noble fig that he speaks of? And you may all
consider this point while I am discussing the other dishes which are on
the table. And Masurius said—
But let us not postpone this till to-morrow,
Still less till the day after.
When the philosopher says γενναῖα, he means εἰγενῆ, _generous_, as
Archilochus also uses the word—
Come hither, you are generous (γενναῖος);
or, perhaps, he means ἐπιγεγενημένα; that is to say, grafted. For
Aristotle speaks of grafted pears, and calls them ἑπεμβολάδες. And
Demosthenes, in his speech in defence of Ctesiphon, has the sentence,
"gathering figs, and grapes (βότρυς), and olives." And Xenophon, in
his Œconomics, says, "that grapes (τὰς σταφυλὰς) are ripened by the
sun." And our ancestors also have been acquainted with the practice of
steeping grapes in wine. Accordingly Eubulus, in his Catacollomenos,
says—
But take these grapes (βότρυς), and in neat wine pound them,
And pour upon them many cups of water.
Then make him eat them when well steep'd in wine.
And the poet, who is the author of the Chiron, which is generally
attributed to Pherecrates, says—
Almonds and apples, and the arbutus first,
And myrtle-berries, pastry, too, and grapes
Well steep'd in wine; and marrow.
And that every sort of autumn fruit was always plentiful at Athens,
Aristophanes testifies in his Horæ. Why, then, should that appear
strange which Aethlius the Samian asserts in the fifth book of his
Samian Annals, where he says, "The fig, and the grape, and the medlar,
and the apple, and the rose grow twice a-year?" And Lynceus, in his
letter to Diagoras, praising the Nicostratian grape, which grows in
Attica, and comparing it to the Rhodiacan, says, "As rivals of the
Nicostratian grapes they grow the Hipponian grape; which after the
month Hecatombæon (like a good servant) has constantly the same good
disposition towards its masters."
69. But as you have had frequent discussions about meats, and birds,
and pigeons, I also will tell you all that I, after a great deal of
reading, have been able to find out in addition to what has been
previously stated. Now the word περιστέριον (pigeon), may be found used
by Menander in his Concubine, where he says—
He waits a little while, and then runs up
And says—"I've bought some pigeons (περιστέρια) for you."
And so Nicostratus, in his Delicate Woman, says—
These are the things I want,—a little bird,
And then a pigeon (περιστέριον) and a paunch.
And Anaxandrides, in his Reciprocal Lover, has the line—
For bringing in some pigeons (περιστέρια) and some sparrows.
And Phrynichus, in his Tragedians, says—
Bring him a pigeon (περιστέριον) for a threepenny piece.
Now with respect to the pheasant, Ptolemy the king, in the twelfth
book of his Memorabilia, speaking of the palace which there is at
Alexandria, and of the animals which are kept in it, says, "They have
also pheasants, which they call τέταροι, which they not only used to
send for from Media, but they also used to put the eggs under broody
hens, by which means they raised a number, so as to have enough
for food; for they call it very excellent eating." Now this is the
expression of a most magnificent monarch, who confesses that he himself
has never tasted a pheasant, but who used to keep these birds as a sort
of treasure. But if he had ever seen such a sight as this, when, in
addition to all those which have been already eaten, a pheasant is also
placed before each individual, he would have added another book to the
existing twenty-four of that celebrated history, which he calls his
Memorabilia. And Aristotle or Theophrastus, in his Commentaries, says,
"In pheasants, the male is not only as much superior to the female as
is usually the case, but he is so in an infinitely greater degree."
[Sidenote: PEACOCKS.]
70. But if the before-mentioned king had seen the number of peacocks
also which exists at Rome, he would have fled to his sacred Senate,
as though he had a second time been driven out of his kingdom by his
brother. For the multitude of these birds is so great at Rome, that
Antiphanes the comic poet, in his Soldier or Tychon, may seem to have
been inspired by the spirit of prophecy, when he said—
When the first man imported to this city
A pair of peacocks, they were thought a rarity,
But now they are more numerous than quails;
So, if by searching you find one good man,
He will be sure to have five worthless sons.
And Alexis, in his Lamp, says—
That he should have devour'd so vast a sum!
Why if (by earth I swear) I fed on hares' milk
And peacocks, I could never spend so much.
And that they used to keep them tame in their houses, we learn from
Strattis, in his Pausanias, where he says—
Of equal value with your many trifles,
And peacocks, which you breed up for their feathers.
And Anaxandrides, in his Melilotus, says—
Is't not a mad idea to breed up peacocks,
When every one can buy his private ornaments?
And Anaxilaus, in his Bird Feeders, says—
Besides all this, tame peacocks, loudly croaking.
Menodotus the Samian also, in his treatise on the Treasures in the
Temple of the Samian Juno, says: "The peacocks are sacred to Juno;
and perhaps Samos may be the place where they were first produced and
reared, and from thence it was that they were scattered abroad over
foreign countries, in the same way as cocks were originally produced in
Persia, and the birds called guinea-fowl (μελεαγρίδες) in Ætolia." On
which account Antiphanes, in his Brothers by the same Father, says—
They say that in the city of the Sun
The phœnix is produced; the owl in Athens;
Cyprus breeds doves of admirable beauty:
But Juno, queen of Samos, does, they say,
Rear there a golden race of wondrous birds,
The brilliant, beautiful, conspicuous peacock.
On which account the peacock occurs on the coins of the Samians.
71. But since Menodotus has mentioned the guinea-fowl, we ourselves
also will say something on that subject. Clytus the Milesian, a pupil
of Aristotle, in the first book of his History of Miletus, writes
thus concerning them—"All around the temple of the Virgin Goddess
at Leros, there are birds called guinea-fowls. And the ground where
they are bred is marshy. And this bird is very devoid of affection
towards its young, and wholly disregards its offspring, so that the
priests are forced to take care of them. And it is about the size of a
very fine fowl of the common poultry, its head is small in proportion
to its body, having but few feathers, but on the top it has a fleshy
crest, hard and round, sticking up above the head like a peg, and of a
wooden colour. And over the jaws, instead of a beard, they have a long
piece of flesh, beginning at the mouth, redder than that of the common
poultry; but of that which exists in the common poultry on the top of
the beak, which some people call the beard, they are wholly destitute;
so that their beak is mutilated in this respect. But its beak is
sharper and larger than that of the common fowl; its neck is black,
thicker and shorter than that of common poultry. And its whole body is
spotted all over, the general colour being black, studded in every part
with thick white spots something larger than lentil seeds. And these
spots are ring-shaped, in the middle of patches of a darker hue than
the rest of the plumage: so that these patches present a variegated
kind of appearance, the black part having a sort of white tinge, and
the white seeming a good deal darkened. And their wings are all over
variegated with white, in serrated,[100] wavy lines, parallel to each
other. And their legs are destitute of spurs like those of the common
hen. And the females are very like the males, on which account the sex
of the guinea-fowls is hard to distinguish." Now this is the account
given of guinea-fowls by the Peripatetic philosopher.
72. Roasted sucking-pigs are a dish mentioned by Epicrates in his
Merchant—
On this condition I will be the cook;
Nor shall all Sicily boast that even she
Produced so great an artist as to fish,
Nor Elis either, where I've seen the flesh
Of dainty sucking-pigs well brown'd before
A rapid fire.
And Alexis, in his Wicked Woman, says—
A delicate slice of tender sucking-pig,
Bought for three obols, hot, and very juicy,
When it is set before us.
[Sidenote: PARTRIDGES.]
"But the Athenians," as Philochorus tells us, "when they sacrifice
to the Seasons, do not roast, but boil their meat, entreating the
goddesses to defend them from all excessive droughts, and heats,
and to give increase to their crops by means of moderate warmth and
seasonable rains. For they argue that roasting is a kind of cookery
which does less good to the meat, while boiling not only removes all
its crudities, but has the power also of softening the hard parts, and
of making all the rest digestible. And it makes the food more tender
and wholesome, on which account they say also, that when meat has been
once boiled, it ought not to be warmed up again by either roasting or
boiling it; for any second process removes the good done by the first
dressing, as Aristotle tells us. And roast meat is more crude and dry
than boiled meat." But roast meat is called φλογίδες. Accordingly
Strattis in his Callippides says, with reference to Hercules—
Immediately he caught up some large slices (φλογίδες)
Of smoking roasted boar, and swallow'd them.
And Archippus, in his Hercules Marrying, says—
The pettitoes of little pigs, well cook'd
In various fashion; slices, too, of bulls
With sharpen'd horns, and great long steaks of boar,
All roasted (φλογίδες).
73. But why need I say anything of partridges, when so much has
already been said by you? However, I will not omit what is related by
Hegesander in his Commentaries. For he says that the Samians, when
sailing to Sybaris, having touched at the district called Siritis, were
so alarmed at the noise made by partridges which rose up and flew away,
that they fled, and embarked on board their ships, and sailed away.
Concerning hares also Chamæleon says, in his treatise on Simonides,
that Simonides once, when supping with king Hiero, as there was no hare
set on the table in front of him as there was before all the other
guests, but as Hiero afterwards helped him to some, made this extempore
verse—
Nor, e'en though large, could he reach all this way.
But Simonides was, in fact, a very covetous man, addicted to
disgraceful gain, as we are told by Chamæleon. And accordingly in
Syracuse, as Hiero used to send him everything necessary for his daily
subsistence in great abundance, Simonides used to sell the greater part
of what was sent to him by the king, and reserve only a small portion
for his own use. And when some one asked him the reason of his doing
so, he said—"In order that both the liberality of Hiero and my economy
may be visible to every one."
The dish called udder is mentioned by Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, in
the following lines—
Being a woman, 'tis but reasonable
That I should bring an udder.
But Antidotus uses not the word οὖθαρ, but ὑπογάστριον, in his
Querulous Man.
74. Matron, in his Parodies, speaks of animals being fattened for food,
and birds also, in these lines—
Thus spake the hero, and the servants smiled,
And after brought, on silver dishes piled,
Fine fatten'd birds, clean singed around with flame,
Like cheesecakes on the back, their age the same.
And Sopater the farce-writer speaks of fattened sucking-pigs in his
Marriage of Bacchis, saying this—
If there was anywhere an oven, there
The well-fed sucking-pig did crackle, roasting.
But Æschines uses the form δελφάκιον for δέλφαξ in his Alcibiades,
saying, "Just as the women at the cookshops breed sucking-pigs
(δελφάκια)." And Antiphanes, in his Physiognomist, says—
Those women take the sucking-pigs (δελφάκια),
And fatten them by force;
And in his Persuasive Man he says—
To be fed up instead of pigs (δελφακίων).
Plato, however, has used the word δέλφαξ in the masculine
gender in his Poet, where he says—
Leanest of pigs (δέλφακα ῥαιότατον).
And Sophocles, in his play called Insolence, says—
Wishing to eat τὸν δέλφακα.
And Cratinus, in his Ulysses, has the expression—
Large pigs (δέλφακας μεγάλους).
But Nicochares uses the word as feminine, saying—
A pregnant sow (κύουσαν δέλφακα);
And Eupolis, in his Golden Age, says—
Did he not serve up at the feast a sucking-pig (δέλφακα),
Whose teeth were not yet grown, a beautiful beast (καλήν)?
And Plato, in his Io, says—
Bring hither now the head of the sucking-pig (τῆς δέλφακος).
[Sidenote: THE HELOTS.]
Theopompus, too, in his Penelope, says—
And they do sacrifice our sacred pig (τὴν ίερὰν δέλφακα).
Theopompus also speaks of fatted geese and fatted calves in the
thirteenth book of his History of Philip, and in the eleventh book of
his Affairs of Greece, where he is speaking of the temperance of the
Lacedæmonians in respect of eating, writing thus—"And the Thasians
sent to Agesilaus, when he arrived, all sorts of sheep and well-fed
oxen; and beside this, every kind of confectionery and sweetmeat. But
Agesilaus took the sheep and the oxen, but as for the confectionery and
sweetmeats, at first he did not know what they meant, for they were
covered up; but when he saw what they were, he ordered the slaves to
take them away, saying that it was not the custom of the Lacedæmonians
to eat such food as that. But as the Thasians pressed him to take them,
he said, Carry them to those men (pointing to the Helots) and give them
to them; saying that it was much better for those Helots to injure
their health by eating them, than for himself and the Lacedæmonians
whom he had with him." And that the Lacedæmonians were in the habit
of treating the Helots with great insolence, is related also by Myron
of Priene, in the second book of his History of Messene, where he
says—"They impose every kind of insulting employment on the Helots,
such as brings with it the most extreme dishonour; for they compel them
to wear caps of dogskin, and cloaks also of skins; and every year they
scourge them without their having committed any offence, in order to
prevent their ever thinking of emancipating themselves from slavery.
And besides all this, if any of them ever appear too handsome or
distinguished-looking for slaves, they impose death as the penalty, and
their masters also are fined for not checking them in their growth and
fine appearances. And they give them each a certain piece of land, and
fix a portion which they shall invariably bring them in from it."
The verb χηνίξω, to cackle like a goose (χὴν), is
used and applied to those who play on the flute. Diphilus says in his
Synoris—
Ἐχήνισας,—this noise is always made
By all the pupils of Timotheus.
75. And since there is a portion of a fore-quarter of pork which is
called πέρνα placed before each of us, let us say something about
it, if any one remembers having seen the word used anywhere. For the
best πέρναι are those from Cisalpine Gaul: those from Cibyra in Asia
are not much inferior to them, nor are those from Lycia. And Strabo
mentions them in the third book of his Geography, (and he is not a very
modern author). And he says also, in the seventh[101] book of the same
treatise, that he was acquainted with Posidonius the Stoic philosopher,
of whom we have often spoken as a friend of Scipio who took Carthage.
And these are the words of Strabo—"In Spain, in the province of
Aquitania, is the city Pompelo, which one may consider equivalent to
Pompeiopolis, where admirable πέρναι are cured, equal to the Cantabrian
hams."
The comic poet Aristomenes, in his Bacchus, speaks of meat cured by
being sprinkled with salt, saying—
I put before you now this salted meat.
And in his Jugglers he says—
The servant always ate some salted crab.
76. But since we have here "fresh cheese (τρόφαλις), the glory of fair
Sicily," let us, my friends, also say something about cheese (τυρός).
For Philemon, in his play entitled The Sicilian, says—
I once did think that Sicily could make
This one especial thing, good-flavour'd cheese;
But now I've heard this good of it besides,
That not only is the cheese of Sicily good,
But all its pigeons too: and if one speaks
Of richly-broider'd robes, they are Sicilian;
And so I think that island now supplies
All sorts of dainties and of furniture.
The Tromilican[102] cheese also has a high character, respecting which
Demetrius the Scepsian writes thus in his second book of the Trojan
Array—"Tromilea is a city of Achaia, near which a delicious cheese is
made of goat's milk, not to be compared with any other kind, and it is
called Tromilican. And Simonides mentions it in his Iambic poem, which
begins thus—
You're taking wondrous trouble beforehand,
Telembrotus:
and in this poem he says—
And there is the fine Achaian cheese,
Called the Tromilican, which I've brought with me.
[Sidenote: CHEESE.]
And Euripides, in his Cyclops, speaks of a harsh-tasted cheese, which
he calls ὀπίας τυρὸς, being curdled by the juice ὀπὸς of the fig-tree—
There is, too, τυρὸς ὀπίας, and Jove's milk.[103]
But since, by speaking in this way of all the things which are now
put on the table before us, I am making the Tromilican cheese into
the remains of the dessert, I will not continue this topic. For
Eupolis calls the relics of sweetmeats (τραγημάτων) and confectionery
ἀποτραγήματα. And ridiculing a man of the name of Didymias, he calls
him the ἀποτράγημα of a fox, either because he was little in person,
or as being cunning and mischievous, as Dorotheus of Ascalon says.
There are also thin broad cheeses, which the Cretans call females,
as Seleucus tells us, which they offer up at certain sacrifices. And
Philippides, in his play called the Flutes, speaks of some called
πυρίεφθαι (and this is a name given to those made of cream), when he
says—
Having these πυρίεφθαι, and these herbs.
And perhaps all such things are included in this Macedonian term
ἐπιδειπνίδες. For all these things are provocatives to drinking.
77. Now, while Ulpian was continuing the conversation in this way,
one of the cooks, who made some pretence to learning, came in,
and proclaimed μύμα. And when many of us were perplexed at this
proclamation, (for the rascal did not show what it was that he had,)
he said;—You seem to me, O guests, to be ignorant that Cadmus, the
grandfather of Bacchus, was a cook. And, as no one made any reply to
this, he said; Euhemerus the Coan, in the third book of his Sacred
History, relates that the Sidonians give this account, that Cadmus was
the cook of the king, and that he, having taken Harmonia, who was a
female flute-player and also a slave of the king, fled away with her.—
But shall I flee, who am a freeman born?
For no one can find any mention in any comedy of a cook being a slave,
except in a play of Posidippus. But the introduction of slaves as cooks
took place among the Macedonians first, who adopted this custom either
out of insolence, or on account of the misfortunes of some cities which
had been reduced to slavery. And the ancients used to call a cook who
was a native of the country, Mæson; but if he was a foreigner, they
called him Tettix. And Chrysippus the philosopher thinks the name
Μαίσων is derived from the verb μασάομαι, to eat; a cook being an
ignorant man, and the slave of his appetite; not knowing that Mæson was
a comic actor, a Megarian by birth, who invented the mask which was
called Μαίσων, from him; as Aristophanes of Byzantium tells us, in his
treatise on Masks, where he says that he invented a mask for a slave
and also one for a cook. So that it is a deserved compliment to him to
call the jests which suit those characters μαισωνικά.
For cooks are very frequently represented on the stage as jesting
characters; as, for instance, in the Men selecting an Arbitrator, of
Menander. And Philemon in one of his plays says—
'Tis a male sphinx, it seems, and not a cook,
That I've brought home; for, by the gods I swear,
I do not understand one single word
Of all he says; so well provided is he
With every kind of new expression.
But Polemo says, in his writings which are addressed to Timæus, that
Mæson was indeed a Megarian, but from Megara in Sicily, and not from
Nisæa. And Posidippus speaks of slaves as cooks, in his Woman Shut out,
where he says—
Thus have these matters happen'd: but just now,
While waiting on my master, a good joke
Occurr'd to me; I never will be caught
Stealing his meat.
And, in his Foster Brothers, he says—
_A._ Did you go out of doors, you who were cook?
_B._ If I remain'd within I lost my supper.
_A._ Let me then first....
_B._ Let me alone, I say;
I'm going to the forum to sacrifice:
A friend of mine, a comrade too in art,
Has hired me.
78. And there was nothing extraordinary in the ancient cooks being
experienced in sacrifices. At all events, they usually managed all
marriage-feasts and sacrifices. On which account Menander, in his
Flatterer, introduces a cook, who on the fourth day of the month had
been ministering in the festival of Aphrodite Pandemus, using the
following language—
[Sidenote: COOKS.]
Now a libation. Boy, distribute round
The entrails. Whither are you looking now?
Now a libation—quick! you Sosia, quick!
Quick! a libation. That will do; now pour.
First let us pray to the Olympian gods,
And now to all the Olympian goddesses:
Meantime address them; pray them all to give
Us safety, health, and all good things in future,
And full enjoyment of all present happiness.
Such shall be now our prayers.
And another cook, in Simonides, says—
And how I roasted, how I carved the meat,
You know: what is there that I can't do well?
And the letter of Olympias to Alexander mentions the great experience
of cooks in these matters. For, his mother having been entreated by
him to buy him a cook who had experience in sacrifices, proceeds to
say, "Accept the cook Pelignas from your mother; for he is thoroughly
acquainted with the manner in which all your ancestral sacrifices, and
all the mysterious rites, and all the sacred mysteries connected with
the worship of Bacchus are performed, and every other sacrifice which
Olympias practises he knows. Do not then disregard him, but accept him,
and send him back again to me at as early a period as possible."
79. And that in those days the cook's profession was a respectable one,
we may learn from the Heralds at Athens. "For these men used to perform
the duties of cooks and also of sacrifices of victims," as Clidemus
tells us, in the first book of his Protogony; and Homer uses the verb
ῥέζω, as we use θύω; but he uses θύω as we do θυμιάω, for burning cakes
and incense after supper. And the ancients used also to employ the verb
δράω for to sacrifice; accordingly Clidemus says, "The heralds used
to sacrifice (ἔδρων) for a long time, slaying the oxen, and preparing
them, and cutting them up, and pouring wine over them. And they were
called κήρυκες from the hero Ceryx; and there is nowhere any record of
any reward being given to a cook, but only to a herald." For Agamemnon
in Homer, although he is king, performs sacrifices himself; for the
poet says—
With that the chief the tender victims slew,
And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw;
The vital spirit issued at the wound,
And left the members quivering on the ground.[104]
And Thrasymedes the son of Nestor, having taken an axe, slays the ox
which was to be sacrificed, because Nestor himself was not able to do
so, by reason of his old age; and his other brothers assisted him; so
respectable and important was the office of a cook in those days. And
among the Romans, the Censors,—and that was the highest office in the
whole state,—clad in a purple robe, and wearing crowns, used to strike
down the victims with an axe. Nor is it a random assertion of Homer,
when he represents the heralds as bringing in the victims, and whatever
else had any bearing on the ratification of oaths, as this was a very
ancient duty of theirs, and one which was especially a part of their
office—
Two heralds now, despatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;
and again—
Talthybius hastens to the fleet, to bring
The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable king.[105]
And, in another passage, he says—
A splendid scene! Then Agamemnon rose;
The boar Talthybius held; the Grecian lord
Drew the broad cutlass, sheath'd beside his sword.[106]
80. And in the first book of the History of Attica, Clidemus says, that
there was a tribe of cooks, who were entitled to public honours; and
that it was their business to see that the sacrifices were performed
with due regularity. And it is no violation of probability in Athenion,
in his Samothracians, as Juba says, when he introduces a cook arguing
philosophically about the nature of things and men, and saying—
_A._ Dost thou not know that the cook's art contributes
More than all others to true piety?
_B._ Is it indeed so useful?
_A._ Troth it is,
You ignorant barbarian: it releases
Men from a brutal and perfidious life,
And cannibal devouring of each other,
And leads us to some order; teaching us
The regular decorum of the life
Which now we practise.
_B._ How is that?
_A._ Just listen.
Once men indulged in wicked cannibal habits,
And numerous other vices; when a man
Of better genius arose, who first
Sacrificed victims, and did roast their flesh;
And, as the meat surpass'd the flesh of man,
They then ate men no longer, but did slay
The herds and flocks, and roasted them and ate them.
And when they once had got experience
Of this most dainty pleasure, they increased
In their devotion to the cook's employment;
[Sidenote: COOKS.]
So that e'en now, remembering former days,
They roast the entrails of their victims all
Unto the gods, and put no salt thereon,
For at the first beginning they knew not
The use of salt as seasoning; but now
They have found out its virtue, so they use it
At their own meals, but in their holy offerings
They keep their ancient customs; such as were
At first the origin of safety to us:
That love of art, and various seasoning,
Which carries to perfection the cook's skill.
_B._ Why here we have a new Palæphatus.
_A._ And after this, as time advanced, a paunch,
A well-stuff'd paunch was introduced . . . .
* * * * *
Then they wrapp'd up a fish, and quite conceal'd it
In herbs, and costly sauce, and groats, and honey;
And as, persuaded by these dainty joys
Which now I mention, every one gave up
His practice vile of feeding on dead men,
Men now began to live in company,
Gathering in crowds; cities were built and settled;
All owing, as I said before, to cooks.
_B._ Hail, friend! you are well suited to my master.
_A._ We cooks are now beginning our grand rites;
We're sacrificing, and libations offering,
Because the gods are most attentive to us,
Pleased that we have found out so many things,
Tending to make men live in peace and happiness.
_B._ Well, say no more about your piety—
_A._ I beg your pardon—
_B._ But come, eat with me,
And dress with skill whate'er is in the house.
81. And Alexis, in his Caldron, shows plainly that cookery is an art
practised by freeborn men; for a cook is represented in that play as
a citizen of no mean reputation; and those who have written cookery
books, such as Heraclides and Glaucus the Locrian, say that the art
of cookery is one in which it is not even every freeborn man who can
become eminent. And the younger Cratinus, in his play called the
Giants, extols this art highly, saying—
_A._ Consider, now, how sweet the earth doth smell,
How fragrantly the smoke ascends to heaven:
There lives, I fancy, here within this cave
Some perfume-seller, or Sicilian cook.
_B._ The scent of both is equally delicious.
And Antiphanes, in his Slave hard to Sell, praises the Sicilian cooks,
and says—
And at the feast, delicious cakes,
Well season'd by Sicilian art.
And Menander, in his Spectre, says—
Do ye applaud,
If the meat's dress'd with rich and varied skill.
But Posidippus, in his Man recovering his Sight, says—
I, having had one cook, have thoroughly learnt
All the bad tricks of cooks, while they compete
With one another in their trade. One said
His rival had no nose to judge of soup
With critical taste; that other had
A vicious palate; while a third could never
(If you'd believe the rest) restrain his appetite,
Without devouring half the meat he dress'd.
This one loved salt too much, and that one vinegar;
One burnt his meat; one gorged; one could not stand
The smoke; a sixth could never bear the fire.
At last they came to blows; and one of them,
Shunning the sword, fell straight into the fire.
And Antiphanes, in his Philotis, displaying the cleverness of the
cooks, says—
_A._ Is not this, then, an owl?
_B._ Aye, such as I
Say should be dress'd in brine.
_A._ Well; and this pike?
_B._ Why roast him whole.
_A._ This shark?
_B._ Boil him in
sauce.
_A._ This eel?
_B._ Take salt, and marjoram, and water.
_A._ This conger?
_B._ The same sauce will do for him.
_A._ This ray?
_B._ Strew him with herbs.
_A._ Here is a slice
Of tunny.
_B._ Roast it.
_A._ And some venison.
_B._ Roast it.
_A._ Then here's a lot more meat.
_B._ Boil all the rest.
_A._ Here's a spleen.
_B._ Stuff it.
_A._ And a nestis.
_B._ Bah!
This man will kill me.
And Baton, in his Benefactors, gives a catalogue of celebrated cooks
and confectioners, thus—
_A._ Well, O Sibynna, we ne'er sleep at nights,
Nor waste our time in laziness: our lamp
Is always burning; in our hands a book;
And long we meditate on what is left us
By—
_B._ Whom?
_A._ By that great Actides of Chios,
Or Tyndaricus, that pride of Sicyon,
Or e'en by Zopyrinus.
_B._ Find you anything?
_A._ Aye, most important things.
_B._ But what? The dead....
[Sidenote: THE THESSALIANS.]
82. And such a food now is the μύμα, which I, my friends, am bringing
you; concerning which Artemidorus, the pupil of Aristophanes, speaks
in his Dictionary of Cookery, saying that it is prepared with meat
and blood, with the addition also of a great deal of seasoning. And
Epænetus, in his treatise on Cookery, speaks as follows:—"One must
make μύμα of every kind of animal and bird, cutting up the tender
parts of the meat into small pieces, and the bowels and entrails, and
pounding the blood, and seasoning it with vinegar, and roasted cheese,
and assafœtida, and cummin-seed, and thyme (both green and dry), and
savory, and coriander-seed (both green and dry), and leeks, and onions
(cleaned and toasted), and poppy-seed, and grapes, and honey, and the
pips of an unripe pomegranate. You may also make this μύμα of fish."
83. And when this man had thus hammered on not only this dish but our
ears also, another slave came in, bringing in a dish called ματτύη.
And when a discussion arose about this, and when Ulpian had quoted a
statement out of the Dictionary of Cookery by the before-mentioned
Artemidorus relating to it, Æmilianus said that a book had been
published by Dorotheus of Ascalon, entitled, On Antiphanes, and on the
dish called Mattya by the Poets of the New Comedy, which he says is a
Thessalian invention, and that it became naturalized at Athens during
the supremacy of the Macedonians. And the Thessalians are admitted to
be the most extravagant of all the Greeks in their manner of dressing
and living; and this was the reason why they brought the Persians down
upon the Greeks, because they were desirous to imitate their luxury
and extravagance. And Cratinus speaks of their extravagant habits in
his treatise on the Thessalian Constitution. But the dish was called
ματτύη (as Apollodorus the Athenian affirms in the first book of his
treatise on Etymologies), from the verb μασάομαι (to eat); as also are
the words μαστίχη (mastich) and μάζα (barley-cake). But our own opinion
is that the word is derived from μάττω, and that this is the verb from
which μάζα itself is derived, and also the cheese-pudding called by the
Cyprians μαγίς; and from this, too, comes the verb ὑπερμαζάω, meaning
to be extravagantly luxurious. Originally they used to call this common
ordinary food made of barley-meal μάζα, and preparing it they called
μάττω. And afterwards, varying the necessary food in a luxurious and
superfluous manner, they derived a word with a slight change from
the form μάζα, and called every very costly kind of dish ματτύη; and
preparing such dishes they called ματτυάζω, whether it were fish, or
poultry, or herbs, or beasts, or sweetmeats. And this is plain from the
testimony of Alexis, quoted by Artemidorus; for Alexis, wishing to show
the great luxuriousness of the way in which this dish was prepared,
added the verb λέπομαι. And the whole extract runs thus, being out of
a corrected edition of a play which is entitled Demetrius:—
Take, then, this meat which thus is sent to you;
Dress it, and feast, and drink the cheerful healths,
λέπεσθε, ματτυάζετε.
But the Athenians use the verb λέπομαι for wanton and unseemly
indulgence of the sensual appetites.
84. And Artemidorus, in his Dictionary of Cookery, explains ματτύη as
a common name for all kinds of costly seasonings; writing thus—"There
is also a ματτύης (he uses the word in the masculine gender) made of
birds. Let the bird be killed by thrusting a knife into the head at the
mouth; then let it be kept till the next day, like a partridge. And if
you choose, you can leave it as it is, the wings on and with its body
plucked." Then, having explained the way in which it is to be seasoned
and boiled, he proceeds to say—"Boil a fat hen of the common poultry
kind, and some young cocks just beginning to crow, if you wish to make
a dish fit to be eaten with your wine. Then taking some vegetables, put
them in a dish, and place upon them some of the meat of the fowl, and
serve it up. But in summer, instead of vinegar, put some unripe grapes
into the sauce, just as they are picked from the vine; and when it is
all boiled, then take it out before the stones fall from the grapes,
and shred in some vegetables. And this is the most delicious ματτύης
that there is."
Now, that ματτύη, or ματτύης, really is a common name for all costly
dishes is plain; and that the same name was also given to a banquet
composed of dishes of this sort, we gather from what Philemon says in
his Man carried off:—
Put now a guard on me, while naked, and
Amid my cups the ματτύης shall delight me.
And in his Homicide he says—
Let some one pour us now some wine to drink,
And make some ματτύη quick.
[Sidenote: MATTYH.]
But Alexis, in his Pyraunus, has used the word in an obscure sense:—
But when I found them all immersed in business,
I cried,—Will no one give us now a ματτύη?
as if he meant a feast here, though you might fairly refer the word
merely to a single dish. Now Machon the Sicyonian is one of the comic
poets who were contemporaries of Apollodorus of Carystus, but he did
not exhibit his comedies at Athens, but in Alexandria; and he was an
excellent poet, if ever there was one, next to those seven[107] of the
first class. On which account, Aristophanes the grammarian, when he was
a very young man, was very anxious to be much with him. And he wrote
the following lines in his play entitled Ignorance:—
There's nothing that I'm fonder of than ματτύη;
But whether 'twas the Macedonians
Who first did teach it us, or all the gods,
I know not; but it must have been a person
Of most exalted genius.
85. And that it used to be served up after all the rest of the banquet
was over, is plainly stated by Nicostratus, in his Man expelled. And it
is a cook who is relating how beautiful and well arranged the banquet
was which he prepared; and having first of all related what the dinner
and supper were composed of, and then mentioning the third meal,
proceeds to say—
Well done, my men,—extremely well! but now
I will arrange the rest, and then the ματτύη;
So that I think the man himself will never
Find fault with us again.
And in his Cook he says—
Thrium and candylus he never saw,
Or any of the things which make a ματτύη.
And some one else says—
They brought, instead of a ματτύη, some paunch,
And tender pettitoes, and tripe, perhaps.
But Dionysius, in his Man shot at with Javelins (and it is a cook who
is represented speaking), says—
So that sometimes, when I a ματτύη
Was making for them, in haste would bring
(More haste worse speed)....[108]
Philemon, also, in his Poor Woman—
When one can lay aside one's load, all day
Making and serving out rich μάττυαι.
But Molpis the Lacedæmonian says that what the Spartans call ἐπαίκλεια,
that is to say, the second course, which is served up when the main
part of the supper is over, is called μάττυαι by other tribes of
Greece. And Menippus the Cynic, in his book called Arcesilaus, writes
thus:—"There was a drinking-party formed by a certain number of
revellers, and a Lacedæmonian woman ordered the ματτύη to be served
up; and immediately some little partridges were brought in, and some
roasted geese, and some delicious cheesecakes."
But such a course as this the Athenians used to call ἐπιδόρπισμα, and
the Dorians ἐπάϊκλον; but most of the Greeks called it τὰ ἐπίδειπνα.
And when all this discussion about the ματτύη was over, they thought it
time to depart; for it was already evening. And so we parted.
FOOTNOTES.
[61] Odyss. xxi. 293.
[62] Diomea was a small village in Attica, where there was a
celebrated temple of Hercules, and where a festival was kept in his
honour: Aristophanes says—
Ὅποθ' Ἡράκλεια τὰ 'ν Διομείοισ γίγνεται.—Ranæ, 651.
[63] Because slaves (and the actors were usually slaves) had only names
of one, or at most two syllables, such as Davus, Geta, Dromo, Mus.
[64] Τήνδε μοῦσαν, this Muse; τήνδ' ἐμοῦσαν,
this woman vomiting.
[65] The text here is corrupt and hopeless.—_Schweig._
[66] This passage, again, is hopelessly corrupt. "Merum Augeæ
stabulum."—_Casaub._
[67] There is no account of what this feast of Swings was.
The Greek is ἔωραι. Some have fancied it may have had some
connexion with the images of Bacchus (oscilla) hung up in the trees.
See Virg. G. ii. 389.
[68] There is probably some corruption in this passage: it is
clearly unintelligible as it stands.
[69] Σκευοποιὸς, a maker of masks, etc. for the stage; μιμητὴς, an
actor.
[70] See Iliad, ix. 186.
Τὸν δ' εὗρον φρένα τερπόμενον φόρμιγγι λιγείῃ,
καλῇ, δαιδαλέῃ, ἐπὶ δ' ἀργύρεος ζύγος ἤεν
τὴν ἄρετ' ἐξ ἐνάρων πτόλιν Ἠετίωνος ὀλέσσας
Τῃ ὅγε θυμὸν ἔτερπεν, ἄειδε δ' ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν.
Which is translated by Pope:—
Amused at ease the godlike man they found,
Pleased with the solemn harp's harmonious sound,
(The well-wrought harp from conquer'd Thebæ came,
Of polish'd silver was its costly frame.)
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.—Iliad, ix. 245.
[71] Odyss. xvii. 262.
[72] Iliad, i. 603.
[73] This story is related by Herodotus, vi. 126.
[74] See Herodotus, i. 55.
[75] Κίνησις, motion.
[76] From ὄσχη, a vine-branch with grapes on it, and
φέρω, to bear.
[77] It is not known what part of the theatre this was.
[78] Iliad, xxiii. 2.
[79] Odyss. xii. 423.
[80] "This passage perplexes me on two accounts; first of all because I
have not been able to find such a line in Homer; and secondly because I
do not see what is faulty or weak in it; and it cannot be because it is
a spondaic verse, for of that kind there are full six hundred in Homer.
The other line comes from Iliad, ii. 731."—_Schweigh._
[81] Iliad, xii. 208.
[82] There is a difficulty again here, for there is no such
line found in Homer; the line most like it is—
Καλὴ Καστιάνειρα, δέμας εἰκυῖα θεῆσι.—Iliad, viii. 305.
In which, however, there is no incorrectness or defect at all.
[83] Odyss. ix. 212.
[84] Iliad, ix. 157.
[85] Odyss. i. 237.
[86] The Κάρνεια were a great national festival, celebrated by the
Spartans in honour of Apollo Carneius, under which name he was
worshipped in several places in Peloponnesus, especially at Amyclæ,
even before the return of the Heraclidæ. It was a warlike festival,
like the Attic Boedromia. The Carnea were celebrated also at Cyrene,
Messene, Sybaris, Sicyon, and other towns.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. _in
voc._
[87] From κλέπτω, to steal,—to injure privily.
[88]
καίτοι τί δεῖ
λύρας ἐπι τοῦτον, ποῦ 'στιν ἡ τοῖς ὀστράκοις
αὔτη κροτοῦσα; δεῦρο Μοῦσ' Εὐμιπίδου.—Ar. Ranæ, 1305.
[89] The Greek word is χρώματα: "As a technical term in Greek music,
χρῶμα was a modification of the simplest or diatonic music; but there
were also χρώματα as further modifications of all the three common
kinds (diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic)." Liddell and Scott, _in
voc._ Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant. v. _Music_, p. 625 _a_, calls
them χρόαι, and says there were six of them; one in the enharmonic
genus, often called simply ἁρμονία; two in the diatonic, 1st, διάτονον
σίντονον, or simply διάτονον, the same as the genus; 2d, διάτονον
μαλακόν: and three in the chromatic, 1st, χρῶμα τονιαῖον, or simply
χρῶμα, the same as the genus; 2d, χρῶμα ἡμιόλιον; 3d, χρῶμα μαλακόν.
_V. loc._
[90] The Saturnalia originally took place on the 19th of
December; in the time of Augustus, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th: but the
merrymaking in reality appears to have lasted seven days. Horace speaks
of the licence then permitted to the slaves:—
"Age, libertate Decembri,
Quando ita majores voluerunt, utere—narra."—Sat. ii. 7. 4.
—_Vide_ Smith, Gr. Lat. Ant.
[91] Pind. Ol. i. 80.
[92] Ar. Vespæ, 1216.
[93] Βίος ἀληλεσμένος, a civilised life, in which one uses ground corn,
and not raw fruits.—Liddell and Scott in voc. ἀλέω.
[94] This was a Thebes in Asia, so called by Homer (Iliad, vi.
397), as being at the foot of a mountain called Placia, or Placos.
[95] The ἡμίνα was equal to a κοτύλη, and held about half a pint.
[96] These are all names of different kinds of cheesecakes
which cannot be distinguished from one another in an English
translation.
[97] Eur. Cycl. 393.
[98] This is the name given to the Peloponnesus by Homer,—
ἐξ Ἀπίης γαίης—II. iii. 49,—
where Damm says the name is derived from some ancient king named Apis;
but he adds that the name Ἀπία is also used merely as meaning distant
(γῆν ἀπὸ ἀφεστῶσαν καὶ ἀλλοδάπην), as is plain from what Ulysses says
of himself to the Phæacians—
καὶ γὰρ ἔγω ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἔνθαδ' ἱκάνω
τηλόθεν ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης.—Odyss. vii. 25.
[99] This fragment is full of corruptions. I have adopted the reading
and interpretation of Casaubon.
[100] There is probably some corruption here.
[101] There is probably some great corruption here; for Posidonius was
a contemporary of Cicero.
[102] There is a dispute whether this word ought to be written
Tromilican or Stromilican. The city of Tromilea is mentioned nowhere
else.
[103] Eur. Cycl. 136.
[104] Homer, Iliad, iii. 292.
[105] Homer, Iliad, iii, 116.
[106] Homer, Iliad, xix. 250.
[107] Who these seven first-class authors were, whether tragedians or
comic poets, or both, or whether there was one selection of tragic and
another of comic poets, each classed as a sort of "Pleias Ptolemæi
Philadelphi ætate nobilitata," is quite uncertain.
[108] This passage is abandoned as corrupt by Schweighauser.
BOOK XV.
1.
E'EN should the Phrygian God enrich my tongue
With honey'd eloquence, such as erst did fall
From Nestor's or Antenor's lips,[109]
as the all-accomplished Euripides says, my good Timocrates—
I never should be able
to recapitulate to you the numerous things which were said in those
most admirable banquets, on account of the varied nature of the topics
introduced, and the novel mode in which they were continually treated.
For there were frequent discussions about the order in which the dishes
were served up, and about the things which are done after the chief
part of the supper is over, such as I can hardly recollect; and some
one of the guests quoted the following iambics from The Lacedæmonians
of Plato—
[Sidenote: THE COTTABUS.]
Now nearly all the men have done their supper;
'Tis well.—Why don't you run and clear the tables?
But I will go and straight some water get
For the guests' hands; and have the floor well swept;
And then, when I have offer'd due libations,
I'll introduce the cottabus. This girl
Ought now to have her flutes all well prepared,
Ready to play them. Quick now, slave, and bring
Egyptian ointment, extract of lilies too,
And sprinkle it around; and I myself
Will bring a garland to each guest, and give it;
Let some one mix the wine.—Lo! now it's mix'd
Put in the frankincense, and say aloud,
"Now the libation is perform'd."[110] The guests
Have deeply drunk already; and the scolium
Is sung; the cottabus, that merry sport,
Is taken out of doors: a female slave
Plays on the flute a cheerful strain, well pleasing
To the delighted guests; another strikes
The clear triangle, and, with well-tuned voice,
Accompanies it with an Ionian song.
2. And after this quotation there arose, I think, a discussion about
the cottabus and cottabus-players. Now by the term ἀποκοτταβίζοντες,
one of the physicians who were present thought those people were
meant, who, after the bath, for the sake of purging their stomach,
drink a full draught of wine and then throw it up again; and he said
that this was not an ancient custom, and that he was not aware of
any ancient author who had alluded to this mode of purging. On which
account Erasistratus of Julia, in his treatise on Universal Medicine,
reproves those who act in this way, pointing out that it is a practice
very injurious to the eyes, and having a very astringent effect on the
stomach. And Ulpian addressed him thus—
Arise, Machaon, great Charoneus calls.[111]
For it was wittily said by one of our companions, that if there were no
physicians there would be nothing more stupid than grammarians. For who
is there of us who does not know that this kind of ἀποκοτταβισμὸς was
not that of the ancients? unless you think that the cottabus-players
of Ameipsias vomited. Since, then, you are ignorant of what this is
which is the subject of our present discussion, learn from me, in the
first place, that the cottabus is a sport of Sicilian invention, the
Sicilians having been the original contrivers of it, as Critias the son
of Callæschrus tells us in his Elegies, where he says—
The cottabus comes from Sicilian lands,
And a glorious invention I think it,
Where we put up a target to shoot at with drops
From our wine-cup whenever we drink it.
And Dicæarchus the Messenian, the pupil of Aristotle, in his treatise
on Alcæus, says that the word λατάγη is also a Sicilian noun. But
λατάγη means the drops which are left in the bottom after the cup is
drained, and which the players used to throw with inverted hand into
the κοτταβεῖον. But Clitarchus, in his treatise on Words, says that the
Thessalians and Rhodians both call the κότταβος itself, or splash made
by the cups, λατάγη.
3. The prize also which was proposed for those who gained the victory
in drinking was called κότταβος, as Euripides shows us in his
Œneus, where he says—
And then with many a dart of Bacchus' juice,
They struck the old man's head. And I was set
To crown the victor with deserved reward,
And give the cottabus to such.
The vessel, too, into which they threw the drops was also called
κότταβος, as Cratinus shows in his Nemesis. But Plato the
comic poet, in his Jupiter Ill-treated, makes out that the cottabus was
a sort of drunken game, in which those who were defeated yielded up
their tools[112] to the victor. And these are his words—
_A._ I wish you all to play at cottabus
While I am here preparing you your supper.
* * * * * * * * *
Bring, too, some balls to play with, quick,—some balls,
And draw some water, and bring round some cups.
_B._ Now let us play for kisses.[113]
_A._ No; such games
I never suffer . . . .
I challenge you all to play the cottabus,
And for the prizes, here are these new slippers
Which she doth wear, and this your cotylus.
_B._ A mighty game! This is a greater contest
Than e'en the Isthmian festival can furnish.
4. There was a kind of cottabus also which they used to call κάτακτος,
that is, when lamps are lifted up and then let down again. Eubulus, in
his Bellerophon, says—
Who now will take hold of my leg below?
For I am lifted up like a κοτταβεῖον.
[Sidenote: THE COTTABUS.]
And Antiphanes, in his Birthday of Venus, says—
_A._ This now is what I mean; don't you perceive
This lamp's the cottabus: attend awhile;
The eggs, and sweetmeats, and confectionery
Are the prize of victory.
_B._ Sure you will play
For a most laughable prize. How shall you do?
_A._ I then will show you how: whoever throws
The cottabus direct against the scale (πλάστιγξ),
So as to make it fall——
_B._ What scale? Do you
Mean this small dish which here is placed above?
_A._ That is the scale—he is the conqueror.
_B._ How shall a man know this?
_A._ Why, if he throw
So as to reach it barely, it will fall
Upon the manes,[114] and there'll be great noise.
_B._ Does manes, then, watch o'er the cottabus,
As if he were a slave?
And in a subsequent passage he says—
_B._ Just take the cup and show me how 'tis done.
_A._ Now bend your fingers like a flute-player,
Pour in a little wine, and not too much,
Then throw it.
_B._ How?
_A._ Look here; throw it like this.
_B._ O mighty Neptune, what a height he throws it!
_A._ Now do the same.
_B._ Not even with a sling
Could I throw such a distance.
_A._ Well, but learn.
5. For a man must curve his hand excessively before he can throw the
cottabus elegantly, as Dicæarchus says; and Plato intimates as much in
his Jupiter Ill-treated, where some one calls out to Hercules not to
hold his hand too stiff, when he is going to play the cottabus. They
also called the very act of throwing the cottabus ἀπ' ἀγκύλης,
because they curved (ἀπαγκυλόω) the right hand in throwing it.
Though some say that ἀγκύλη, in this phrase, means a kind of
cup. And Bacchylides, in his Love Poems, says—
And when she throws ἀπ' ἀγκύλης,
Displaying to the youths her snow-white arm.
And Æschylus, in his Bone Gatherers, speaks of ἀγκυλητοὶ κότταβοι,
saying—
Eurymachus, and no one else, did heap
No slighter insults, undeserved, upon me:
For my head always was his mark at which
To throw his cottabus....[115]
Now, that he who succeeded in throwing the cottabus properly received
a prize, Antiphanes has shown us in a passage already quoted. And
the prize consisted of eggs, sweetmeats, and confectionery. And
Cephisodorus, in his Trophonius, and Callias or Diocles, in the
Cyclopes, (whichever of the two is the author,) and Eupolis, and
Hermippus, in his Iambics, prove the same thing.
Now what is called the κατακτὸς cottabus was something of this
kind. There is a high lamp, having on it what is called the Manes, on
which the dish, when thrown down, ought to fall; and from thence it
falls into the platter which lies below, and which is struck by the
cottabus. And there was room for very great dexterity in throwing the
cottabus. And Nicochares speaks of the Manes in his Lacedæmonians.
6. There is also another way of playing this game with a platter. This
platter is filled with water, and in it there are floating some empty
saucers, at which the players throw their drops out of their cups,
and endeavour to sink them. And he who has succeeded in sinking the
greatest number gains the victory. Ameipsias, in his play entitled The
Men playing at the Cottabus or Mania, says—
Bring here the cruets and the cups at once,
The foot-pan, too, but first pour in some water.
And Cratinus, in his Nemesis, says—
Now in the cottabus I challenge you,
(As is my country's mode,) to aim your blows
At the empty cruets; and he who sinks the most
Shall, in my judgment, bear the palm of victory.
And Aristophanes, in his Feasters, says—
I mean to erect a brazen figure,
That is, a cottabeum, and myrtle-berries.
And Hermippus, in his Fates, says—
Now soft cloaks are thrown away,
Every one clasps on his breastplate,
And binds his greaves around his legs,
No one for snow-white slippers cares;
Now you may see the cottabus staff
Thrown carelessly among the chaff;
The manes hears no falling drops;
And you the πλάστιγξ sad may see
Thrown on the dunghill at the garden door.
And Achæus, in his Linus, speaking of the Satyrs, says—
Throwing, and dropping, breaking, too, and naming (λέγοντες),
O Hercules, the well-thrown drop of wine!
And the poet uses λέγοντες here, because they used to utter
the names of their sweethearts as they threw the cottabi on the
saucers. On which account Sophocles, in his Inachus, called the drops
which were thrown, sacred to Venus—
[Sidenote: THE COTTABUS.]
The golden-colour'd drop of Venus
Descends on all the houses.
And Euripides, in his Pleisthenes, says—
And the loud noise o' the frequent cottabus
Awakens melodies akin to Venus
In every house.
And Callimachus says—
Many hard drinkers, lovers of Acontius,
Throw on the ground the wine-drops (λατάγας) from their cups.
7. There was also another kind of way of playing at the cottabus, in
the feasts which lasted all night, which is mentioned by Callippus in
his Festival lasting all Night, where he says—
And he who keeps awake all night shall have
A cheesecake for his prize of victory,
And kiss whoe'er he pleases of the girls
Who are at hand.
There were also sweetmeats at these nocturnal festivals, in which
the men continued awake an extraordinary time dancing. And these
sweetmeats used to be called at that time χαρίσιοι, from the
joy (χαρὰ) of those who received them. And Eubulus, in his
Ancylion, mentions them, speaking as follows—
For he has long been cooking prizes for
The victors in the cottabus.
And presently afterwards he says—
I then sprang out to cook the χαρίσιος.
But that kisses were also given as the prize Eubulus tells us in a
subsequent passage—
Come now, ye women, come and dance all night,
This is the tenth day since my son was born;
And I will give three fillets for the prize,
And five fine apples, and nine kisses too.
But that the cottabus was a sport to which the Sicilians were greatly
addicted, is plain from the fact that they had rooms built adapted
to the game; which Dicæarchus, in his treatise on Alcæus, states to
have been the case. So that it was not without reason that Callimachus
affixed the epithet of Sicilian to λάταξ. And Dionysius, who
was surnamed the Brazen, mentions both the λάταγες and the
κότταβοι in his Elegies, where he says—
Here we, unhappy in our loves, establish
This third addition to the games of Bacchus,
That the glad cottabus shall now be play'd
In honour of you, a most noble quintain—
All you who here are present twine your hands,
Holding the ball-shaped portion of your cups,
And, ere you let it go, let your eyes scan
The heaven that bends above you; watching well
How great a space your λάταγες may cover.
8. After this, Ulpian demanded a larger goblet to drink out of, quoting
these lines out of the same collection of Elegies—
Pouring forth hymns to you and me propitious,
Let us now send your ancient friend from far,
With the swift rowing of our tongues and praises,
To lofty glory while this banquet lasts;
And the quick genius of Phæacian eloquence
Commands the Muses' crew to man the benches.
For let us be guided by the younger Cratinus, who says in his Omphale—
It suits a happy man to stay at home
And drink, let others wars and labours love.
In answer to whom Cynulcus, who was always ready for a tilt at the
Syrian, and who never let the quarrel drop which he had against him,
now that there was a sort of tumult in the party, said—What is this
chorus of Syrbenians?[116] And I myself also recollect some lines of
this poetry, which I will quote, that Ulpian may not give himself
airs as being the only one who was able to extract anything about the
cottabus out of those old stores of the Homeridæ—
Come now and hear this my auspicious message,
And end the quarrels which your cups engender;
Turn your attention to these words of mine,
And learn these lessons....
which have a clear reference to the present discussion. For I see the
servants now bringing us garlands and perfumes. Why now are those who
are crowned said to be in love when their crowns are broken? For when
I was a boy, and when I used to read the Epigrams of Callimachus, in
which this is one of the topics dilated on, I was anxious to understand
this point. For the poet of Cyrene says—
And all the roses, when the leaves fell off
From the man's garlands, on the ground were thrown.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
So now it is your business, you most accomplished man, to explain this
difficulty which has occupied me these thousand years, O Democritus,
and to tell me why lovers crown the doors of their mistresses.
9. And Democritus replied—But that I may quote some of the verses
of this Brazen poet and orator Dionysius, (and he was called
Brazen because he advised the Athenians to adopt a brazen coinage;
and Callimachus mentions the oration in his list of Oratorical
Performances,) I myself will cite some lines out of his Elegies. And do
you, O Theodorus, for this is your proper name—
Receive these first-fruits of my poetry,
Given you as a pledge; and as an omen
Of happy fortune I send first to you
This offering of the Graces, deeply studied,—
Take it, requiting me with tuneful verse,
Fit ornament of feasts, and emblem of your happiness.
You ask, then, why, if the garlands of men who have been crowned are
pulled to pieces, they are said to be in love. "Is it, since love takes
away the strict regularity of manners in the case of lovers, that on
this account they think the loss of a conspicuous ornament, a sort
of beacon (as Clearchus says, in the first book of his Art of Love)
and signal, that they to whom this has happened have lost the strict
decorum of their manners? Or do men interpret this circumstance also by
divination, as they do many other things? For the ornament of a crown,
as there is nothing lasting in it, is a sort of emblem of a passion
which does not endure, but assumes a specious appearance for a while:
and such a passion is love. For no people are more careful to study
appearance than those who are in love. Unless, perhaps, nature, as a
sort of god, administering everything with justice and equity, thinks
that lovers ought not to be crowned till they have subdued their love;
that is to say, till, having prevailed upon the object of their love,
they are released from their desire. And accordingly, the loss of their
crown we make the token of their being still occupied in the fields of
love. Or perhaps Love himself, not permitting any one to be crowned in
opposition to, or to be proclaimed as victor over himself, takes their
crowns from these men, and gives the perception of this to others,
indicating that these men are subdued by him: on which account all
the rest say that these men are in love. Or is it because that cannot
be loosed which has never been bound, but love is the chain of some
who wear crowns, (for no one else who is bound is more anxious about
being crowned than a lover,) that men consider that the loosing of the
garland is a sign of love, and therefore say that these men are in
love? Or is it because very often lovers, when they have been crowned,
often out of agitation as it should seem, allow their crowns to fall to
pieces, and so we argue backwards, and attribute this passion to all
whom we see in this predicament; thinking that their crown never would
have come to pieces, if they had not been in love? Or is it because
these loosings happen only in the case of men bound or men in love; and
so, men thinking that the loosing of the garland is the loosing also
of those who are bound, consider that such men are in love? For those
in love are bound, unless you would rather say that, because those who
are in love are crowned with love, therefore their crown is not of a
lasting kind; for it is difficult to put a small and ordinary kind of
crown on a large and divine one. Men also crown the doors of the houses
of the objects of their love, either with a view to do them honour, as
they adorn with crowns the vestibule of some god to do him honour: or
perhaps the offering of the crowns is made, not to the beloved objects,
but to the god Love. For thinking the beloved object the statue, as
it were, of Love, and his house the temple of Love, they, under this
idea, adorn with crowns the vestibules of those whom they love. And for
the same reason some people even sacrifice at the doors of those whom
they love. Or shall we rather say that people who fancy that they are
deprived, or who really have been deprived of the ornament of their
soul, consecrate to those who have deprived them of it, the ornament
also of their body, being bewildered by their passion, and despoiling
themselves in order to do so? And every one who is in love does this
when the object of his love is present, but when he is not present,
then he makes this offering in the public roads. On which account
Lycophronides has represented that goatherd in love, as saying—
I consecrate this rose to you,
A beautiful idea;
This cap, and eke these sandals too,
And this good hunting-spear:
For now my mind is gone astray,
Wandering another way,
Towards that girl of lovely face,
Favourite of ev'ry Grace."
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
10. Moreover, that most divine writer Plato, in the seventh book of his
Laws, proposes a problem having reference to crowns, which it is worth
while to solve; and these are the words of the philosopher:—"Let there
be distributions of apples and crowns to a greater and a lesser number
of people, in such a way that the numbers shall always be equal." These
are the words of Plato. But what he means is something of this sort. He
wishes to find one number of such a nature that, if divided among all
who come in to the very last, it shall give an equal number of apples
or crowns to every one. I say, then, that the number sixty will fulfil
these conditions of equality in the case of six fellow-feasters; for I
am aware that at the beginning we said that a supper party ought not
to consist of more than five. But we are as numerous as the sand of
the sea. Accordingly the number sixty, when the party is completed to
the number of six guests, will begin to be divided in this manner. The
first man came into the banqueting-room, and received sixty garlands.
He gives to the second who comes in half of them; and then each of
them have thirty. Then when a third comes in they divide the whole
sixty, so that each of them may have twenty. Again, they divide them
again in like manner at the entrance of a fourth guest, so that each
has fifteen; and when a fifth comes in they all have twelve a-piece.
And when the sixth guest arrives, they divide them again, and each
individual has ten. And in this way the equal division of the garlands
is accomplished.
11. When Democritus had said this, Ulpian, looking towards Cynulcus,
said—
To what a great philosopher has Fate
Now join'd me here!
As Theognetus the comic poet says, in his Apparition,—
You wretched man, you've learnt left-handed letters,
Your reading has perverted your whole life;
Philosophising thus with earth and heaven,
Though neither care a bit for all your speeches.
For where was it that you got that idea of the Chorus of the
Syrbenians? What author worth speaking of mentions that musical chorus?
And he replied:—My good friend, I will not teach you, unless I first
receive adequate pay from you; for I do not read to pick out all the
thorns out of my books as you do, but I select only what is most useful
and best worth hearing. And at this Ulpian got indignant, and roared
out these lines out of the Suspicion of Alexis—
These things are shameful, e'en to the Triballi;
Where they do say a man who sacrifices,
Displays the feast to the invited guests,
And then next day, when they are hungry all,
Sells them what he'd invited them to see.
And the same iambics occur in the Sleep of Antiphanes. And Cynulcus
said:—Since there have already been discussions about garlands, tell
us, my good Ulpian, what is the meaning of the expression, "The garland
of Naucratis," in the beautiful poet Anacreon. For that sweet minstrel
says—
And each man three garlands had:
Two of roses fairly twined,
And the third a Naucratite.
And why also does the same poet represent some people as crowned with
osiers? for in the second book of his Odes, he says—
But now full twice five months are gone
Since kind Megisthes wore a crown
Of pliant osier, drinking wine
Whose colour did like rubies shine.
For to suppose that these crowns were really made of osiers is absurd,
for the osier is fit only for plaiting and binding. So now tell us
about these things, my friend, for they are worth understanding
correctly, and do not keep us quibbling about words.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
12. But as he made no reply, and pretended to be considering the
matter, Democritus said:—Aristarchus the grammarian, my friend, when
interpreting this passage, said that the ancients used to wear crowns
of willow. But Tenarus says that the willow or osier is the rustics'
crown. And other interpreters have said many irrelevant things on the
subject. But I, having met with a book of Menodotus of Samos, which
is entitled, A Record of the things worth noting at Samos, found
there what I was looking for; for he says that "Admete, the wife of
Eurystheus, after she had fled from Argos, came to Samos, and there,
when a vision of Juno had appeared to her, she wishing to give the
goddess a reward because she had arrived in Samos from her own home
in safety, undertook the care of the temple, which exists even to
this day, and which had been originally built by the Leleges and the
Nymphs. But the Argives hearing of this, and being indignant at it,
persuaded the Tyrrhenians by a promise of money, to employ piratical
force and to carry off the statue,—the Argives believing that if this
were done Admete would be treated with every possible severity by the
inhabitants of Samos. Accordingly the Tyrrhenians came to the port of
Juno, and having disembarked, immediately applied themselves to the
performance of their undertaking. And as the temple was at that time
without any doors, they quickly carried off the statue, and bore it
down to the seaside, and put it on board their vessel. And when they
had loosed their cables and weighed anchor, they rowed as fast as they
could, but were unable to make any progress. And then, thinking that
this was owing to divine interposition, they took the statue out of the
ship again and put it on the shore; and having made some sacrificial
cakes, and offered them to it, they departed in great fear. But when,
the first thing in the morning, Admete gave notice that the statue had
disappeared, and a search was made for it, those who were seeking it
found it on the shore. And they, like Carian barbarians, as they were,
thinking that the statue had run away of its own accord, bound it to a
fence made of osiers, and took all the longest branches on each side
and twined them round the body of the statue, so as to envelop it all
round. But Admete released the statue from these bonds, and purified
it, and placed it again on its pedestal, as it had stood before. And on
this account once every year, since that time, the statue is carried
down to the shore and hidden, and cakes are offered to it: and the
festival is called Τονεὺς, because it happened that the statue was
bound tightly (συντόνως) by those who made the first search for it.
13. "But they relate that about that time the Carians, being
overwhelmed with superstitious fears, came to the oracle of the god
at Hybla, and consulted him with reference to these occurrences; and
that Apollo told them that they must give a voluntary satisfaction to
the god of their own accord, to escape a more serious calamity,—such
as in former times Jupiter had inflicted upon Prometheus, because of
his theft of the fire, after he had released him from a most terrible
captivity. And as he was inclined to give a satisfaction which should
not cause him severe pain, this was what the god imposed upon him.
And from this circumstance the use of this kind of crown which had
been shown to Prometheus got common among the rest of mankind who had
been benefited by him by his gift of fire: on which account the god
enjoined the Carians also to adopt a similar custom,—to use osiers
as a garland, and bind their heads with the branches with which
they themselves had bound the goddess. And he ordered them also to
abandon the use of every other kind of garland except that made of the
bay-tree: and that tree he said he gave as a gift to those alone who
are employed in the service of the goddess. And he told them that,
if they obeyed the injunctions given them by the oracle, and if in
their banquets they paid the goddess the satisfaction to which she
was entitled, they should be protected from injury: on which account
the Carians, wishing to obey the commands laid on them by the oracle,
abolished the use of those garlands which they had previously been
accustomed to wear, but permitted all those who were employed in the
service of the goddess still to wear the garland of bay-tree, which
remains in use even to this day.
14. "Nicænetus also, the epic poet, appears to make some allusion to
the fashion of wearing garlands of osier in his Epigrams. And this
poet was a native of Samos, and a man who in numberless passages shows
his fondness for mentioning points connected with the history of his
country. And these are his words:—
I am not oft, O Philotherus, fond
Of feasting in the city, but prefer
The country, where the open breeze of zephyr
Freshens my heart; a simple bed
Beneath my body is enough for me,
Made of the branches of the native willow (πρόμαλος),
And osier (λύγος), ancient garland of the Carians,—
But let good wine be brought, and the sweet lyre,
Chief ornament of the Pierian sisters,
That we may drink our fill, and sing the praise
Of the all-glorious bride of mighty Jove,
The great protecting queen of this our isle.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
But in the selines Nicænetus speaks ambiguously, for it is not quite
plain whether he means that the osier is to make his bed or his
garland; though afterwards, when he calls it the ancient garland of the
Carians, he alludes clearly enough to what we are now discussing. And
this use of osiers to make into garlands, lasted in that island down to
the time of Polycrates, as we may conjecture. At all events Anacreon
says—
But now full twice five months are gone
Since kind Megisthes wore a crown
Of pliant osier, drinking wine
Whose colour did like rubies shine."
15. And the Gods know that I first found all this out in the beautiful
city of Alexandria, having got possession of the treatise of Menodotus,
in which I showed to many people the passage in Anacreon which is the
subject of discussion. But Hephæstion, who is always charging every one
else with thefts, took this solution of mine, and claimed it as his
own, and published an essay, to which he gave this title, "Concerning
the Osier Garland mentioned by Anacreon." And a copy of this essay we
lately found at Rome in the possession of the antiquary Demetrius.
And this compiler Hephæstion behaved in the same way to our excellent
friend Adrantus. For after he had published a treatise in five books,
Concerning those Matters in Theophrastus in his books on Manners,
which are open to any Dispute, either as to their Facts, or the Style
in which they are mentioned; and had added a sixth book Concerning
the Disputable Points in the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle; and in
these books had entered into a long dissertation on the mention of
Plexippus by Antipho the tragic poet, and had also said a good deal
about Antipho himself; Hephæstion, I say, appropriated all these books
to himself, and wrote another book, Concerning the Mention of Antipho
in the Memorabilia of Xenophon, not having added a single discovery or
original observation of his own, any more than he had in the discussion
on the Osier Garland. For the only thing he said that was new, was that
Phylarchus, in the seventh book of his Histories, mentioned this story
about the osier, and knew nothing of the passage of Nicænetus, nor of
that of Anacreon; and he showed that he differed in some respects from
the account that had been given by Menodotus.
But one may explain this fact of the osier garlands more simply, by
saying that Megisthes wore a garland of osier because there was a
great quantity of those trees in the place where he was feasting; and
therefore he used it to bind his temples. For the Lacedæmonians at the
festival of the Promachia, wear garlands of reeds, as Sosibius tells
us in his treatise on the Sacrificial Festivals at Lacedæmon, where
he writes thus: "On this festival the natives of the country all wear
garlands of reeds, or tiaras, but the boys who have been brought up in
the public school follow without any garland at all."
16. But Aristotle, in the second book of his treatise on Love Affairs,
and Ariston the Peripatetic, who was a native of Ceos, in the second
book of his Amatory Resemblances, say that "The ancients, on account of
the headaches which were produced by their wine-drinking, adopted the
practice of wearing garlands made of anything which came to hand, as
the binding the head tight appeared to be of service to them. But men
in later times added also some ornaments to their temples, which had a
kind of reference to their employment of drinking, and so they invented
garlands in the present fashion. But it is more reasonable to suppose
that it was because the head is the seat of all sensation that men
wore crowns upon it, than that they did so because it was desirable to
have their temples shaded and bound as a remedy against the headaches
produced by wine."
They also wore garlands over their foreheads, as the sweet Anacreon
says—
And placing on our brows fresh parsley crowns,
Let's honour Bacchus with a jovial feast.
They also wore garlands on their breasts, and anointed them with
perfume, because that is the seat of the heart. And they call the
garlands which they put round their necks ὑποθυμιάδες, as
Alcæus does in these lines—
Let every one twine round his neck
Wreathed ὑποθυμιάδες of anise.
And Sappho says—
And wreathed ὑποθυμιάδες
In numbers round their tender throats.
And Anacreon says—
They placed upon their bosoms lotus flowers
Entwined in fragrant ὑποθυμιάδες.
Æschylus also, in his Prometheus Unbound, says distinctly—
And therefore we, in honour of Prometheus,
Place garlands on our heads, a poor atonement
For the sad chains with which his limbs were bound.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And again, in the play entitled the Sphinx, he says—
Give the stranger a στέφανος (garland), the ancient στέφος,—
This is the best of chains, as we may judge
From great Prometheus.
But Sappho gives a more simple reason for our wearing garlands,
speaking as follows—
But place those garlands on thy lovely hair,
Twining the tender sprouts of anise green
With skilful hand; for offerings of flowers
Are pleasing to the gods, who hate all those
Who come before them with uncrownèd heads.
In which lines she enjoins all who offer sacrifice to wear garlands on
their heads, as they are beautiful things, and acceptable to the Gods.
Aristotle also, in his Banquet, says, "We never offer any mutilated
gift to the Gods, but only such as are perfect and entire; and what
is full is entire, and crowning anything indicates filling it in some
sort. So Homer says—
The slaves the goblets crown'd with rosy wine;[117]
And in another place he says—
But God plain forms with eloquence does crown.[118]
That is to say, eloquence in speaking makes up in the case of some men
for their personal ugliness. Now this is what the στέφανος
seems intended to do, on which account, in times of mourning, we do
exactly the contrary. For wishing to testify our sympathy for the dead,
we mutilate ourselves by cutting our hair, and by putting aside our
garlands."
17. Now Philonides the physician, in his treatise on Ointments and
Garlands, says, "After the vine was introduced into Greece from the Red
Sea, and when most people had become addicted to intemperate enjoyment,
and had learnt to drink unmixed wine, some of them became quite frantic
and out of their minds, while others got so stupified as to resemble
the dead. And once, when some men were drinking on the sea-shore, a
violent shower came on, and broke up the party, and filled the goblet,
which had a little wine left in it, with water. But when it became fine
again, the men returned to the same spot, and tasting the new mixture,
found that their enjoyment was now not only exquisite, but free from
any subsequent pain. And on this account, the Greeks invoke the good
Deity at the cup of unmixed wine, which is served round to them at
dinner, paying honour to the Deity who invented wine; and that was
Bacchus. But when the first cup of mixed wine is handed round after
dinner, they then invoke Jupiter the Saviour, thinking him the cause
of this mixture of wine which is so unattended with pain, as being the
author of rain. Now, those who suffered in their heads after drinking,
certainly stood in need of some remedy; and so the binding their heads
was what most readily occurred to them, as Nature herself led them to
this remedy. For a certain man having a headache, as Andreas says,
pressed his head, and found relief, and so invented a ligature as a
remedy for headache.
Accordingly, men using these ligatures as assistants in drinking, used
to bind their heads with whatever came in their way. And first of all,
they took garlands of ivy, which offered itself, as it were, of its own
accord, and was very plentiful, and grew everywhere, and was pleasant
to look upon, shading the forehead with its green leaves and bunches of
berries, and bearing a good deal of tension, so as to admit of being
bound tight across the brow, and imparting also a certain degree of
coolness without any stupifying smell accompanying it. And it seems to
me that this is the reason why men have agreed to consider the garland
of ivy sacred to Bacchus, implying by this that the inventor of wine
is also the defender of men from all the inconveniences which arise
from the use of it. And from thence, regarding chiefly pleasure, and
considering utility and the comfort of the relief from the effects
of drunkenness of less importance, they were influenced chiefly by
what was agreeable to the sight or to the smell. And therefore they
adopted crowns of myrtle, which has exciting properties, and which also
represses any rising of the fumes of wine; and garlands of roses, which
to a certain extent relieve headache, and also impart some degree of
coolness; and garlands also of bay leaves, which they think are not
wholly unconnected with drinking parties. But garlands of white lilies,
which have an effect on the head, and wreaths of amaracus, or of any
other flower or herb which has any tendency to produce heaviness or
torpid feelings in the head, must be avoided."
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And Apollodorus, in his treatise on Perfumes and Garlands, has said the
same thing in the very same words. And this, my friends, is enough to
say on this subject.
18. But concerning the Naucratite Crown, and what kind of flowers
that is made of, I made many investigations, and inquired a great
deal without learning anything, till at last I fell in with a book
of Polycharmus of Naucratis, entitled On Venus, in which I found the
following passage:—"But in the twenty-third Olympiad Herostratus, a
fellow-countryman of mine, who was a merchant, and as such had sailed
to a great many different countries, coming by chance to Paphos,
in Cyprus, bought an image of Venus, a span high, of very ancient
workmanship, and came away meaning to bring it to Naucratis. And as
he was sailing near the Egyptian coast, a violent storm suddenly
overtook him, and the sailors could not tell where they were, and so
they all had recourse to this image of Venus, entreating her to save
them. And the goddess, for she was kindly disposed towards the men of
Naucratis, on a sudden filled all the space near her with branches
of green myrtle, and diffused a most delicious odour over the whole
ship, when all the sailors had previously despaired of safety from
their violent sea-sickness. And after they had been all very sick, the
sun shone out, and they, seeing the landmarks, came in safety into
Naucratis. And Herostratus having disembarked from the ship with his
image, and carrying with him also the green branches of myrtle which
had so suddenly appeared to him, consecrated it and them in the temple
of Venus. And having sacrificed to the goddess, and having consecrated
the image to Venus, and invited all his relations and most intimate
friends to a banquet in the temple, he gave every one of them a garland
of these branches of myrtle, to which garlands he then gave the name
of Naucratite." This is the account given by Polycharmus; and I myself
believe the statement, and believe that the Naucratite garland is
no other than one made of myrtle, especially as in Anacreon it is
represented as worn with one made of roses. And Philonides has said
that the garland made of myrtle acts as a check upon the fumes of wine,
and that the one made of roses, in addition to its cooking qualities,
is to a certain extent a remedy for headache. And, therefore, those men
are only to be laughed at, who say that the Naucratite garland is the
wreath made of what is called by the Egyptians biblus, quoting the
statement of Theopompus, in the third book of his History of Greece,
where he says, "That when Agesilaus the Lacedæmonian arrived in Egypt,
the Egyptians sent him many presents, and among them the papyrus,
which is used for making garlands." But I do not know what pleasure or
advantage there could be in having a crown made of biblus with roses,
unless people who are enamoured of such a wreath as this should also
take a fancy to wear crowns of garlic and roses together. But I know
that a great many people say that the garland made of the sampsychon or
amaracus is the Naucratite garland; and this plant is very plentiful in
Egypt, but the myrtle in Egypt is superior in sweetness to that which
is found in any other country, as Theophrastus relates in another place.
19. While this discussion was going on, some slaves came in bringing
garlands made of such flowers as were in bloom at the time; and
Myrtilus said;—Tell me, my good friend Ulpian, the different names of
garlands. For these servants, as is said in the Centaur of Chærephon—
Make ready garlands which they give the gods,
Praying they may be heralds of good omen.
And the same poet says, in his play entitled Bacchus—
Cutting sweet garlands, messengers of good omen.
Do not, however, quote to me passages out of the Crowns of Ælius
Asclepiades, as if I were unacquainted with that work; but say
something now besides what you find there. For you cannot show me that
any one has ever spoken separately of a garland of roses, and a garland
of violets. For as for the expression in Cratinus—
ναρκισσίνους ὀλίσβους,
that is said in a joke.
And he, laughing, replied,—The word στέφανος was first used among the
Greeks, as Semos the Delian tells us in the fourth book of his Delias,
in the same sense as the word στέφος is used by us, which, however, by
some people is called στέμμα. On which account, being first crowned
with this στέφανος, afterwards we put on a garland of bay leaves; and
the word στέφανος itself is derived from the verb στέφω, to crown. But
do you, you loquacious Thessalian, think, says he, that I am going
to repeat any of those old and hacknied stories? But because of your
tongue (γλῶσσα), I will mention the ὑπογλωττὶς, which Plato speaks of
in his Jupiter Ill-treated—
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
But you wear leather tongues within your shoes,
And crown yourselves with ίπογλωττίδες,
Whenever you're engaged in drinking parties.
And when you sacrifice you speak only words
Of happy omen.
And Theodorus, in his Attic Words, as Pamphilus says in his treatise
on Names, says, that the ὑπογλωττὶς is a species of plaited
crown. Take this then from me; for, as Euripides says,
'Tis no hard work to argue on either side,
If a man's only an adept at speaking.
20. There is the Isthmiacum also, and there was a kind of crown bearing
this name, which Aristophanes has thought worthy of mention in his
Fryers, where he speaks thus—
What then are we to do? We should have taken
A white cloak each of us; and then entwining
Isthmiaca on our brows, like choruses,
Come let us sing the eulogy of our master.
But Silenus, in his Dialects, says, "The Isthmian garland." And
Philetas says, "Στέφανος. There is an ambiguity here as to
whether it refers to the head or to the main world.[119] We also use the
word ἴσθμιον, as applied to a well, or to a dagger." But
Timachidas and Simmias, who are both Rhodians, explain one word by the
other. They say, ἴσθμιον, στέφανον: and this word is also
mentioned by Callixenus, who is himself also a Rhodian, in his History
of Alexandria, where he writes as follows—
* * * * * *
21. But since I have mentioned Alexandria, I know that in that
beautiful city there is a garland called the garland of Antinous,
which is made of the lotus, which grows in those parts. And this lotus
grows in the marshes in the summer season; and it bears flowers of
two colours; one like that of the rose, and it is the garlands woven
of the flowers of this colour which are properly called the garlands
of Antinous; but the other kind is called the lotus garland, being
of a dark colour. And a man of the name of Pancrates, a native poet,
with whom we ourselves were acquainted, made a great parade of showing
a rose-coloured lotus to Adrian the emperor, when he was staying at
Alexandria, saying, that he ought to give this flower the name of the
Flower of Antinous, as having sprung from the ground where it drank in
the blood of the Mauritanian lion, which Hadrian killed when he was
out hunting in that part of Africa, near Alexandria; a monstrous beast
which had ravaged all Libya for a long time, so as to make a very great
part of the district desolate. Accordingly, Hadrian being delighted
with the utility of the invention, and also with its novelty, granted
to the poet that he should be maintained for the future in the Museum
at the public expense; and Cratinus the comic poet, in his Ulysseses,
has called the lotus στεφάνωμα, because all plants which are
full of leaf, are called στεφανώματα by the Athenians. But
Pancrates said, with a good deal of neatness, in his poem—
The crisp ground thyme, the snow-white lily too,
The purple hyacinth, and the modest leaves
Of the white celandine, and the fragrant rose,
Whose petals open to the vernal zephyrs;
For that fair flower which bears Antinous' name
The earth had not yet borne.
22. There is the word πυλέων. And this is the name given to the garland
which the Lacedæmonians place on the head of Juno, as Pamphilus relates.
I am aware, also, that there is a kind of garland, which is called
Ἰάκχας by the Sicyonians, as Timachidas mentions in his treatise on
Dialects. And Philetas writes as follows:—"Ἰάκχα—this is a name given
to a fragrant garland in the district of Sicyon—
She stood by her sire, and in her fragrant hair
She wore the beautiful Iacchian garland."
Seleucus also, in his treatise on Dialects, says, that there is a kind
of garland made of myrtle, which is called Ἐλλωτὶς, being twenty cubits
in circumference, and that it is carried in procession on the festival
of the Ellotia. And he says, that in this garland the bones of Europa,
whom they call Ellotis, are carried. And this festival of the Ellotia
is celebrated in Corinth.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
There is also the Θυρεατικός. This also is a name given to a species
of garland by the Lacedæmonians, as Sosibius tells us in his treatise
on Sacrifices, where he says, that now it is called ψίλινος, being
made of branches of the palm-tree. And he says that they are worn, as
a memorial of the victory which they gained, in Thyrea,[120] by the
leaders of the choruses, which are employed in that festival when they
celebrate the Gymnopædiæ.[121] And there are choruses, some of handsome
boys, and others of full-grown men of distinguished bravery, who all
dance naked, and who sing the songs of Thaletas and Alcman, and the
pæans of Dionysodotus the Lacedæmonian.
There are also garlands called μελιλώτινοι, which are mentioned by
Alexis in his Crateva, or the Apothecary, in the following line—
And many μελιλώτινοι garlands hanging.
There is the word too, ἐπιθυμίδες, which Seleucus explains by
"every sort of garland." But Timachidas says, "Garlands of every kind
which are worn by women are called ἐπιθυμίδες."
There are also the words ὑποθυμὶς and ὑποθυμιὰς, which are names
given to garlands by the Æolians and Ionians, and they wear such around
their necks, as one may clearly collect from the poetry of Alcæus and
Anacreon. But Philetas, in his Miscellanies, says, that the Lesbians
call a branch of myrtle ὑποθυμὶς, around which they twine violets and
other flowers.
The ὑπογλωττὶς also is a species of garland. But Theodorus, in his
Attic Words, says, that it is a particular kind of garland, and is used
in that sense by Plato the comic poet, in his Jupiter Ill-treated.
23. I find also, in the comic poets, mention made of a kind of garland
called κυλιστὸς, and I find that Archippus mentions it in his Rhinon,
in these lines—
He went away unhurt to his own house,
Having laid aside his cloak, but having on
His ἐκκύλιστος garland.
And Alexis, in his Agonis, or The Colt, says—
This third man has a κυλιστὸς garland
Of fig-leaves; but while living he delighted
In similar ornaments:
and in his Sciron he says—
Like a κυλιστὸς garland in suspense.
Antiphanes also mentions it in his Man in Love with Himself. And
Eubulus, in his Œnomaus, or Pelops, saying—
Brought into circular shape,
Like a κυλιστὸς garland.
What, then, is this κυλιστός? For I am aware that Nicander of Thyatira,
in his Attic Nouns, speaks as follows,—"Ἐκκυλίσιοι στέφανοι, and
especially those made of roses." And now I ask what species of garland
this was, O Cynulcus; and do not tell me that I am to understand the
word as meaning merely large. For you are a man who are fond of not
only picking things little known out of books, but of even digging out
such matters; like the philosophers in the Joint Deceiver of Baton the
comic poet; men whom Sophocles also mentions in his Fellow Feasters,
and who resemble you,—
You should not wear a beard thus well perfumed,
And 'tis a shame for you, of such high birth,
To be reproachèd as the son of your belly,
When you might rather be call'd your father's son.
Since, then, you are sated not only with the heads of glaucus, but
also with that evergreen herb, which that Anthedonian Deity[122] ate,
and became immortal, give us an answer now about the subject of
discussion, that we may not think that when you are dead, you will be
metamorphosed, as the divine Plato has described in his treatise on
the Soul. For he says that those who are addicted to gluttony, and
insolence, and drunkenness, and who are restrained by no modesty,
may naturally become transformed into the race of asses, and similar
animals.
24. And as he still appeared to be in doubt;—Let us now, said Ulpian,
go on to another kind of garland, which is called the στρούθιος; which
Asclepiades mentions when he quotes the following passage, out of the
Female Garland-Sellers of Eubulus—
O happy woman, in your little house
To have a στρούθιος....[123]
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And this garland is made of the flower called στρούθιον (soap-wort),
which is mentioned by Theophrastus, in the sixth book of his Natural
History, in these words—"The iris also blooms in the summer, and so
does the flower called στρούθιον, which is a very pretty flower to the
eye, but destitute of scent." Galene of Smyrna also speaks of the same
flower, under the name of στρύθιον.
There is also the πόθος. There is a certain kind of garland
with this name, as Nicander the Colophonian tells us in his treatise on
Words. And this, too, perhaps is so named as being made of the flower
called πόθος, which the same Theophrastus mentions in the
sixth book of his Natural History, where he writes thus—"There are
other flowers which bloom chiefly in the summer,—the lychnis, the
flower of Jove, the lily, the iphyum, the Phrygian amaracus, and also
the plant called pothus, of which there are two kinds, one bearing a
flower like the hyacinth, but the other produces a colourless blossom
nearly white, which men use to strew on tombs.
Eubulus also gives a list of other names of garlands—
Ægidion, carry now this garland for me,
Ingeniously wrought of divers flowers,
Most tempting, and most beautiful, by Jove!
For who'd not wish to kiss the maid who bears it?
And then in the subsequent lines he says—
_A._ Perhaps you want some garlands. Will you have them
Of ground thyme, or of myrtle, or of flowers
Such as I show you here in bloom.
_B._ I'll have
These myrtle ones. You may sell all the others,
But always keep the myrtle wreaths for me.
25. There is the philyrinus also. Xenarchus, in his Soldier, says—
For the boy wore a garland on his brow
Of delicate leafy linden (φιλύρα).
Some garlands also are called ἑλικτοὶ, as they are even to
this day among the Alexandrians. And Chæremon the tragic poet mentions
them in his Bacchus, saying—
The triple folds of the ἑλικτοὶ garlands,
Made up of ivy and narcissus.
But concerning the evergreen garlands in Egypt, Hellanicus, in his
History of Egypt, writes as follows—"There is a city on the banks
of the river, named Tindium. This is a place where many gods are
assembled, and in the middle of the city there is a sacred temple of
great size made of marble, and the doors are marble. And within the
temple there are white and black thorns, on which garlands were placed
made of the flower of the acanthus, and also of the blossoms of the
pomegranate, and of vine-leaves. And these keep green for ever. These
garlands were placed by the gods themselves in Egypt when they heard
that Babys was king, (and he is the same who is also called Typhon.)"
But Demetrius, in his History of the Things to be seen in Egypt,
says that these thorns grow about the city of Abydos, and he writes
thus—"But the lower district has a tree called the thorn, which bears
a round fruit on some round-shaped branches. And this tree blooms at
a certain season; and the flower is very beautiful and brilliant in
colour. And there is a story told by the Egyptians, that the Æthiopians
who had been sent as allies to Troy by Tithonus, when they heard that
Memnon was slain, threw down on the spot all their garlands on the
thorns. And the branches themselves on which the flower grows resemble
garlands." And the before-mentioned Hellanicus mentions also that
Amasis, who was king of Egypt, was originally a private individual of
the class of the common people; and that it was owing to the present
of a garland, which he made of the most beautiful flowers that were in
season, and sent to Patarmis, who was king of Egypt, at the time when
he was celebrating the festival of his birthday, that he afterwards
became king himself. For Patarmis, being delighted at the beauty of the
garland, invited Amasis to supper, and after this treated him as one
of his friends; and on one occasion sent him out as his general, when
the Egyptians were making war upon him. And he was made king by these
Egyptians out of their hatred to Patarmis.
26. There are also garlands called συνθηματιαῖοι,
which people make and furnish by contract. Aristophanes, in his
Thesmophoriazusæ, says—
To make up twenty συνθηματιαῖοι garlands.[124]
We find also the word χορωνόν. Apion, in his treatise on the Roman
Dialect, says that formerly a garland was called χορωνόν, from the fact
of the members of the chorus in the theatres using it; and that they
wore garlands and contended for garlands. And one may see this name
given to garlands in the Epigrams of Simonides—
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
Phœbus doth teach that song to the Tyndaridæ,
Which tuneless grasshoppers have crown'd with a χορωνός.
There are ἀκίνιοι too. There are some garlands made of the
basil thyme (ἄκινος) which are called by this name, as we are
told by Andron the physician, whose words are quoted by Parthenius the
pupil of Dionysius, in the first book of his treatise on the Words
which occur in the Historians.
27. Now Theophrastus gives the following list of flowers as suitable to
be made into garlands—"The violet, the flower of Jupiter, the iphyum,
the wallflower, the hemerocalles, or yellow lily. But he says the
earliest blooming flower is the white violet; and about the same time
that which is called the wild wallflower appears, and after them the
narcissus and the lily; and of mountain flowers, that kind of anemone
which is called the mountain anemone, and the head of the bulb-plant.
For some people twine these flowers into garlands. And next to these
there comes the œnanthe and the purple violet. And of wild flowers,
there are the helichryse, and that species of anemone called the
meadow anemone, and the gladiolus, and the hyacinth. But the rose is
the latest blooming flower of all; and it is the latest to appear and
the first to go off. But the chief summer flowers are the lychnis, and
the flower of Jupiter, and the lily, and the iphyum, and the Phrygian
amaracus, and also the flower called the pothus." And in his ninth
book the same Theophrastus says, if any one wears a garland made of
the flower of the helichryse, he is praised if he sprinkle it with
ointment. And Alcman mentions it in these lines—
And I pray to you, and bring
This chaplet of the helichryse,
And of the holy cypirus.
And Ibycus says—
Myrtle-berries with violets mix'd,
And helichryse, and apple blossoms,
And roses, and the tender daphne.
And Cratinus, in his Effeminate People, says—
With ground thyme and with crocuses,
And hyacinths, and helichryse.
But the helichryse is a flower like the lotus. And Themistagoras the
Ephesian, in his book entitled The Golden Book, says that the flower
derives its name from the nymph who first picked it, who was called
Helichrysa. There are also, says Theophrastus, such flowers as purple
lilies. But Philinus says that the lily, which he calls κρίνον, is by
some people called λείριον, and by others ἴον. The Corinthians also
call this flower ambrosia, as Nicander says in his Dictionary. And
Diocles, in his treatise on Deadly Poisons, says—"The amaracus, which
some people call the sampsychus."
28. Cratinus also speaks of the hyacinth by the name of κοσμοσάνδαλον
in his Effeminate People, where he says—
I crown my head with flowers, λείρια,
Roses, and κρίνα, and κοσμοσάνδαλα.
And Clearchus, in the second book of his Lives, says—"You may remark
the Lacedæmonians who, having invented garlands of cosmosandalum,
trampled under foot the most ancient system of polity in the world, and
utterly ruined themselves; on which account Antiphanes the comic poet
very cleverly says of them, in his Harp-player—
Did not the Lacedæmonians boast of old
As though they were invincible? but now
They wear effeminate purple head-dresses.
And Hicesius, in the second book of his treatise on Matter, says—"The
white violet is of moderately astringent properties, and has a most
delicious fragrance, and is very delightful, but only for a short time;
and the purple violet is of the same appearance, but it is far more
fragrant." And Apollodorus, in his treatise on Beasts, says—"There
is the chamæpitys, or ground pine, which some call olocyrum, but the
Athenians call it Ionia, and the Eubœans sideritis." And Nicander, in
the second book of his Georgics, (the words themselves I will quote
hereafter, when I thoroughly discuss all the flowers fit for making
into garlands,) says—"The violet (ἴον) was originally given
by some Ionian nymphs to Ion."
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And in the sixth book of his History of Plants, Theophrastus says that
the narcissus is also called λείριον; but in a subsequent passage
he speaks of the narcissus and λείριον as different plants. And
Eumachus the Corcyrean, in his treatise on Cutting Roots, says that
the narcissus is also called acacallis, and likewise crotalum. But the
flower called hemerocalles, or day-beauty, which fades at night but
blooms at sunrise, is mentioned by Cratinus in his Effeminate People,
where he says—
And the dear hemerocalles.
Concerning the ground thyme, Theophrastus says—"The people gather the
wild ground thyme on the mountains and plant it around Sicyon, and the
Athenians gather it on Hymettus; and other nations too have mountains
full of this flower, as the Thracians for instance." But Philinus
says that it is called zygis. And Amerias the Macedonian, speaking of
the lychnis in his treatise on Cutting up Roots, says that "it sprang
from the baths of Venus, when Venus bathed after having been sleeping
with Vulcan. And it is found in the greatest perfection in Cyprus and
Lemnos, and also in Stromboli and near mount Eryx, and at Cythera."
"But the iris," says Theophrastus, "blooms in the summer, and is the
only one of all the European flowers which has a sweet scent. And it
is in the highest beauty in those parts of Illyricum which are at a
distance from the sea." But Philinus says that the flowers of the
iris are called λύκοι, because they resemble the lips of the wolf
(λύκος). And Nicolaus of Damascus, in the hundred and eighth book of
his History, says that there is a lake near the Alps, many stadia in
circumference, round which there grow every year the most fragrant and
beautiful flowers, like those which are called calchæ. Alcman also
mentions the calchæ in these lines:—
Having a golden-colour'd necklace on
Of the bright calchæ, with their tender petals.
And Epicharmus, too, speaks of them in his Rustic.
29. Of roses, says Theophrastus in his sixth book, there are many
varieties. For most of them consist only of five leaves, but some
have twelve leaves; and some, near Philippi, have even as many as a
hundred leaves. For men take up the plants from Mount Pangæum, (and
they are very numerous there,) and plant them near the city. And the
inner petals are very small; for the fashion in which the flowers put
out their petals is, that some form the outer rows and some the inner
ones: but they have not much smell, nor are they of any great size.
And those with only five leaves are the most fragrant, and their lower
parts are very thorny. But the most fragrant roses are in Cyrene: on
which account the perfumes made there are the sweetest. And in this
country, too, the perfume of the violets, and of all other flowers,
is most pure and heavenly; and above all, the fragrance of the crocus
is most delicious in those parts." And Timachidas, in his Banquets,
says that the Arcadians call the rose εὐόμφαλον, meaning εὔοσμον,
or fragrant. And Apollodorus, in the fourth book of his History of
Parthia, speaks of a flower called philadelphum, as growing in the
country of the Parthians, and describes it thus:—"And there are many
kinds of myrtle,—the milax, and that which is called the philadelphum,
which has received a name corresponding to its natural character;
for when branches, which are at a distance from one another, meet
together of their own accord, they cohere with a vigorous embrace, and
become united as if they came from one root, and then growing on, they
produce fresh shoots: on which account they often make hedges of them
in well-cultivated farms; for they take the thinnest of the shoots,
and plait them in a net-like manner, and plant them all round their
gardens, and then these plants, when plaited together all round, make a
fence which it is difficult to pass through."
30. The author, too, of the Cyprian Poems gives lists of the flowers
which are suitable to be made into garlands, whether he was Hegesias,
or Stasinus, or any one else; for Demodamas, who was either a
Halicarnassian or Milesian, in his History of Halicarnassus, says that
the Cyprian Poems were the work of a citizen of Halicarnassus: however,
the author, whoever he was, in his eleventh book, speaks thus:—
Then did the Graces, and the smiling Hours,
Make themselves garments rich with various hues,
And dyed them in the varied flowers that Spring
And the sweet Seasons in their bosom bear.
In crocus, hyacinth, and blooming violet,
And the sweet petals of the peerless rose,
So fragrant, so divine; nor did they scorn
The dewy cups of the ambrosial flower
That boasts Narcissus' name. Such robes, perfumed
With the rich treasures of revolving seasons,
The golden Venus wears.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And this poet appears also to have been acquainted with the use of
garlands, when he says—
And when the smiling Venus with her train
Had woven fragrant garlands of the treasures
The flowery earth puts forth, the goddesses
All crown'd their heads with their queen's precious work,—
The Nymphs and Graces, and the golden Venus,—
And raised a tuneful song round Ida's springs.
31. Nicander also, in the second book of his Georgics, gives a regular
list of the flowers suitable to be made into garlands, and speaks as
follows concerning the Ionian nymphs and concerning roses:—
And many other flowers you may plant,
Fragrant and beauteous, of Ionian growth;
Two sorts of violets are there,—pallid one,
And like the colour of the virgin gold,
Such as th' Ionian nymphs to Ion gave,
When in the meadows of the holy Pisa
They met and loved and crown'd the modest youth.
For he had cheer'd his hounds and slain the boar,
And in the clear Alpheus bathed his limbs,
Before he visited those friendly nymphs.
Cut then the shoots from off the thorny rose,
And plant them in the trenches, leaving space
Between, two spans in width. The poets tell
That Midas first, when Asia's realms he left,
Brought roses from th' Odonian hills of Thrace,
And cultivated them in th' Emathian lands,
Blooming and fragrant with their sixty petals.
Next to th' Emathian roses those are praised
Which the Megarian Nisæa displays:
Nor is Phaselis, nor the land which worships
The chaste Diana,[125] to be lightly praised,
Made verdant by the sweet Lethæan stream.
In other trenches place the ivy cuttings,
And often e'en a branch with berries loaded
May be entrusted to the grateful ground;
* * * * *[126]
Or with well-sharpen'd knife cut off the shoots,
And plait them into baskets,
* * * * *
High on the top the calyx full of seed
Grows with white leaves, tinged in the heart with gold,
Which some call crina, others liria,
Others ambrosia, but those who love
The fittest name, do call them Venus' joy;
For in their colour they do vie with Venus,
Though far inferior to her decent form.
The iris in its roots is like th' agallis,
Or hyacinth fresh sprung from Ajax' blood;
It rises high with swallow-shaped flowers,
Blooming when summer brings the swallows back.
Thick are the leaves they from their bosom pour,
And the fresh flowers constantly succeeding,
Shine in their stooping mouths.
* * * * *
Nor is the lychnis, nor the lofty rush,
Nor the fair anthemis in light esteem,
Nor the boanthemum with towering stem,
Nor phlox whose brilliancy scarce seems to yield
To the bright splendour of the midday sun.
Plant the ground thyme where the more fertile ground
Is moisten'd by fresh-welling springs beneath,
That with long creeping branches it may spread,
Or droop in quest of some transparent spring,
The wood-nymphs' chosen draught. Throw far away
The poppy's leaves, and keep the head entire,
A sure protection from the teasing gnats;
For every kind of insect makes its seat
Upon the opening leaves; and on the head,
Like freshening dews, they feed, and much rejoice
In the rich latent honey that it bears;
But when the leaves (θρῖα) are off, the mighty flame
Soon scatters them....
(but by the word θρῖα he does not here mean the leaves of
fig-trees, but of the poppy).
Nor can they place their feet
With steady hold, nor juicy food extract;
And oft they slip, and fall upon their heads.
Swift is the growth, and early the perfection
Of the sampsychum, and of rosemary,
And of the others which the gardens
Supply to diligent men for well-earn'd garlands.
Such are the feathery fern, the boy's-love sweet,
(Like the tall poplar); such the golden crocus,
Fair flower of early spring; the gopher white,
And fragrant thyme, and all the unsown beauty
Which in moist grounds the verdant meadows bear;
The ox-eye, the sweet-smelling flower of Jove,
The chalca, and the much sung hyacinth,
And the low-growing violet, to which
Dark Proserpine a darker hue has given;
The tall panosmium, and the varied colours
Which the gladiolus puts forth in vain
To decorate the early tombs of maidens.
Then too the ever-flourishing anemones,
Tempting afar with their most vivid dyes.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
(But for ἐφελκόμεναι χροιῇσιν some copies have ἐφελκόμεναι φιλοχροιαῖς).
And above all remember to select
The elecampane and the aster bright,
And place them in the temples of the gods,
By roadside built, or hang them on their statues,
Which first do catch the eye of the visitor.
These are propitious gifts, whether you pluck
The many-hued chrysanthemum, or lilies
Which wither sadly o'er the much-wept tomb,
Or gay old-man, or long-stalk'd cyclamen,
Or rank nasturtium, whose scarlet flowers
Grim Pluto chooses for his royal garland.
32. From these lines it is plain that the chelidonium is a different
flower from the anemone (for some people have called them the same).
But Theophrastus says that there are some plants, the flowers of which
constantly follow the stars, such as the one called the heliotrope, and
the chelidonium; and this last plant is named so from its coming into
bloom at the same time as the swallows arrive. There is also a flower
spoken of under the name of ambrosia by Carystius, in his Historical
Commentaries, where he says—"Nicander says that the plant named
ambrosia grows at Cos, on the head of the statue of Alexander." But I
have already spoken of it, and mentioned that some people give this
name to the lily. And Timachidas, in the fourth book of his Banquet,
speaks also of a flower called theseum,—
The soft theseum, like the apple blossom,
The sacred blossom of Leucerea,[127]
Which the fair goddess loves above all others.
And he says that the garland of Ariadne was made of this flower.
Pherecrates also, or whoever the poet was who wrote the play of the
Persians, mentions some flowers as fit for garlands, and says—
O you who sigh like mallows soft,
Whose breath like hyacinths smells,
Who like the melilotus speak,
And smile as doth the rose,
Whose kisses are as marjoram sweet,
Whose action crisp as parsley,
* * * * *
Whose gait like cosmosandalum.
Pour rosy wine, and with loud voice
Raise the glad pæan's song,
As laws of God and man enjoin
On holy festival.
And the author of the Miners, whoever he was, (and that poem is
attributed to the same Pherecrates,) says—
Treading on soft aspalathi
Beneath the shady trees,
In lotus-bearing meadows green,
And on the dewy cypirus;
And on the fresh anthryscum, and
The modest tender violet,
And green trefoil....
But here I want to know what this trefoil is; for there is a poem
attributed to Demarete, which is called The Trefoil. And also, in the
poem which is entitled The Good Men, Pherecrates or Strattis, whichever
is the author, says—
And having bathed before the heat of day,
Some crown their head and some anoint their bodies.
And he speaks of thyme, and of cosmosandalum. And Cratinus, in his
Effeminate Persons, says—
Joyful now I crown my head
With every kind of flower;
Λείρια, roses, κρίνα too,
And cosmosandala,
And violets, and fragrant thyme,
And spring anemones,
Ground thyme, crocus, hyacinths,
And buds of helichryse,
Shoots of the vine, anthryscum too,
And lovely hemerocalles.
* * * * *
My head is likewise shaded
With evergreen melilotus;
And of its own accord there comes
The flowery cytisus.
33. Formerly the entrance of garlands and perfumes into the banqueting
rooms, used to herald the approach of the second course, as we may
learn from Nicostratus in his Pseudostigmatias, where, in the following
lines, he says—
And you too,
Be sure and have the second course quite neat;
Adorn it with all kinds of rich confections,
Perfumes, and garlands, aye, and frankincense,
And girls to play the flute.
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
But Philoxenus the Dithyrambic poet, in his poem entitled The Banquet,
represents the garland as entering into the commencement of the
banquet, using the following language:
Then water was brought in to wash the hands,
Which a delicate youth bore in a silver ewer,
Ministering to the guests; and after that
He brought us garlands of the tender myrtle,
Close woven with young richly-colour'd shoots.
And Eubulus, in his Nurses, says—
For when the old men came into the house,
At once they sate them down. Immediately
Garlands were handed round; a well-fill'd board
Was placed before them, and (how good for th' eyes!)
A closely-kneaded loaf of barley bread.
And this was the fashion also among the Egyptians, as Nicostratus says
in his Usurer; for, representing the usurer as an Egyptian, he says—
_A._ We caught the pimp and two of his companions,
When they had just had water for their hands,
And garlands.
_B._ Sure the time, O Chærophon,
Was most propitious.
But you may go on gorging yourself, O Cynulcus; and when you have
done, tell us why Cratinus has called the melilotus "the ever-watching
melilotus." However, as I see you are already a little tipsy (ἔξοινον)—
for that is the word Alexis has used for a man thoroughly drunk
(μεθύσην), in his Settler—I won't go on teasing you; but I will bid the
slaves, as Sophocles says in his Fellow Feasters,
Come, quick! let some one make the barley-cakes,
And fill the goblets deep; for this man now,
Just like a farmer's ox, can't work a bit
Till he has fill'd his belly with good food.
And there is a man of the same kind mentioned by Aristias of Phlius;
for he, too, in his play entitled The Fates, says—
The guest is either a boatman or a parasite,
A hanger-on of hell, with hungry belly,
Which nought can satisfy.
However, as he gives no answer whatever to all these things which have
been said, I order him (as it is said in the Twins of Alexis) to be
carried out of the party, crowned with χύδαιοι garlands. But the comic
poet, alluding to χύδαιοι garlands, says—
These garlands all promiscuously (χύδην) woven.
But, after this, I will not carry on this conversation any further
to-day; but will leave the discussion about perfumes to those who
choose to continue it: and only desire the boy, on account of this
lecture of mine about garlands, as Antiphanes....
To bring now hither two good garlands,
And a good lamp, with good fire brightly burning;
for then I shall wind up my speech like the conclusion of a play.
And not many days after this, as if he had been prophesying a silence
for himself [which should be eternal], he died, happily, without
suffering under any long illness, to the great affliction of us his
companions.
[Sidenote: DYES.]
34. And while the slaves were bringing round perfumes in alabaster
boxes, and in other vessels made of gold, some one, seeing Cynulcus,
anointed his face with a great deal of ointment. But he, being awakened
by it, when he recollected himself, said;—What is this? O Hercules,
will not some one come with a sponge and wipe my face, which is
thus polluted with a lot of dirt? And do not you all know that that
exquisite writer Xenophon, in his Banquet, represents Socrates as
speaking thus:—"'By Jupiter! O Callias, you entertain us superbly;
for you have not only given us a most faultless feast, but you have
furnished us also with delicious food for our eyes and ears.'—'Well,
then,' said he, 'suppose any one were to bring us perfumes, in order
that we might also banquet on sweet smells?'—'By no means,' said
Socrates; 'for as there is one sort of dress fit for women and another
for men, so there is one kind of smell fit for women and another for
men. And no man is ever anointed with perfume for the sake of men; and
as to women, especially when they are brides,—as, for instance, the
bride of this Niceratus here, and the bride of Critobulus,—how can they
want perfumes in their husbands, when they themselves are redolent of
it? But the smell of the oil in the gymnasia, when it is present, is
sweeter than perfume to women; and when it is absent, they long more
for it. For if a slave and a freeman be anointed with perfume, they
both smell alike in a moment; but those smells which are derived from
free labours, require both virtuous habits and a good deal of time if
they are to be agreeable and in character with a freeman.'" And
that admirable writer Chrysippus says that perfumes (μύρα) derive their
name from being prepared with great toil (μόρος) and useless labour.
The Lacedæmonians even expel from Sparta those who make perfumes, as
being wasters of oil; and those who dye wool, as being destroyers of
the whiteness of the wool. And Solon the philosopher, in his laws,
forbade men to be sellers of perfumes.
35. "But now, not only scents," as Clearchus says in the third book of
his Lives, "but also dyes, being full of luxury, tend to make those
men effeminate who have anything to do with them. And do you think
that effeminacy without virtue has anything desirable in it? But even
Sappho, a thorough woman, and a poetess into the bargain, was ashamed
to separate honour from elegance; and speaks thus—
But elegance I truly love;
And this my love of life has brilliancy,
And honour, too, attached to it:
making it evident to everybody that the desire of life that she
confessed had respectability and honour in it; and these things
especially belong to virtue. But Parrhasius the painter, although he
was a man beyond all measure arrogant about his art, and though he got
the credit of a liberal profession by some mere pencils and pallets,
still in words set up a claim to virtue, and put this inscription on
all his works that are at Lindus:—
This is Parrhasius' the painter's work,
A most luxurious (ἁβροδίαιτος) and virtuous man.
And a wit being indignant at this, because, I suppose, he seemed to be
a disgrace to the delicacy and beauty of virtue, having perverted the
gifts which fortune had bestowed upon him to luxury, proposed to change
the inscription into ῥαβδοδίαιτος ἀνήρ: Still, said he, the
man must be endured, since he says that he honours virtue." These are
the words of Clearchus. But Sophocles the poet, in his play called The
Judgment, represents Venus, being a sort of Goddess of Pleasure, as
anointed with perfumes, and looking in a glass; but Minerva, as being a
sort of Goddess of Intellect and Mind, and also of Virtue, as using oil
and gymnastic exercises.
36. In reply to this, Masurius said;—But, my most excellent friend,
are you not aware that it is in our brain that our senses are soothed,
and indeed reinvigorated, by sweet smells? as Alexis says in his
Wicked Woman, where he speaks thus—
The best recipe for health
Is to apply sweet scents unto the brain.
And that most valiant, and indeed warlike poet, Alcæus, says—
He shed a sweet perfume all o'er my breast.
And the wise Anacreon says somewhere—
Why fly away, now that you've well anointed
Your breast, more hollow than a flute, with unguents?
for he recommends anointing the breast with unguent, as being the seat
of the heart, and considering it an admitted point that that is soothed
with fragrant smells. And the ancients used to act thus, not only
because scents do of their own nature ascend upwards from the breast
to the seat of smelling, but also because they thought that the soul
had its abode in the heart; as Praxagoras, and Philotimus the physician
taught; and Homer, too, says—
He struck his breast, and thus reproved his heart.[128]
And again he says—
His heart within his breast did rage.[129]
And in the Iliad he says—
But Hector's heart within his bosom shook.[130]
And this they consider a proof that the most important portion of the
soul is situated in the heart; for it is as evident as possible that
the heart quivers when under the agitation of fear. And Agamemnon, in
Homer, says—
Scarce can my knees these trembling limbs sustain,
And scarce my heart support its load of pain;
With fears distracted, with no fix'd design,
And all my people's miseries are mine.[131]
And Sophocles has represented women released from fear as saying—
Now Fear's dark daughter does no more exult
Within my heart.[132]
But Anaxandrides makes a man who is struggling with fear say—
O my wretched heart!
How you alone of all my limbs or senses
Rejoice in evil; for you leap and dance
The moment that you see your lord alarm'd.
[Sidenote: PERFUMES.]
And Plato says, "that the great Architect of the universe has placed
the lungs close to the heart, by nature soft and destitute of blood,
and having cavities penetrable like sponge, that so the heart, when
it quivers, from fear of adversity or disaster, may vibrate against
a soft and yielding substance." But the garlands with which men bind
their bosoms are called ὑποθυμιάδες by the poets, from the
exhalations (ἀναθυμίασις) of the flowers, and not because the
soul (ψυχὴ) is called θυμὸς, as some people think.
37. Archilochus is the earliest author who uses the word μύρον
(perfume), where he says—
She being old would spare her perfumes (μύρα).
And in another place he says—
Displaying hair and breast perfumed (ἐσμυρισμένον);
So that a man, though old, might fall in love with her.
And the word μύρον is derived from μύῤῥα, which is
the Æolic form of σμύρνα (myrrh); for the greater portion
of unguents are made up with myrrh, and that which is called στακτὴ
is wholly composed of it. Not but what Homer was acquainted
with the fashion of using unguents and perfumes, but he calls them
ἔλαια, with the addition of some distinctive epithet, as—
Himself anointing them with dewy oil (δροσόεντι ἐλαίῳ).[133]
And in another place he speaks of an oil as perfumed[134] (τεθυωμένον).
And in his poems also, Venus anoints the dead body of Hector with
ambrosial rosy oil; and this is made of flowers. But with respect to
that which is made of spices, which they called θυώματα, he says,
speaking of Juno,—
Here first she bathes, and round her body pours
Soft oils of fragrance and ambrosial showers:
The winds perfumed, the balmy gale convey
Through heaven, through earth, and all the aërial way.
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets
The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets.[135]
38. But the choicest unguents are made in particular places, as
Apollonius of Herophila says in his treatise on Perfumes, where he
writes—"The iris is best in Elis, and at Cyzicus; the perfume made
from roses is most excellent at Phaselis, and that made at Naples and
Capua is also very fine. That made from crocuses is in the highest
perfection at Soli in Cilicia, and at Rhodes. The essence of spikenard
is best at Tarsus; and the extract of vine-leaves is made best in
Cyprus and at Adramyttium. The best perfume from marjoram and from
apples comes from Cos. Egypt bears the palm for its essence of cypirus;
and the next best is the Cyprian, and Phœnician, and after them comes
the Sidonian. The perfume called Panathenaicum is made at Athens; and
those called Metopian and Mendesian are prepared with the greatest
skill in Egypt. But the Metopian is made of oil which is extracted from
bitter almonds. Still, the superior excellence of each perfume is owing
to the purveyors and the materials and the artists, and not to the
place itself; for Ephesus formerly, as men say, had a high reputation
for the excellence of its perfumes, and especially of its megallium,
but now it has none. At one time, too, the unguents made in Alexandria
were brought to high perfection, on account of the wealth of the city,
and the attention that Arsinoe and Berenice paid to such matters; and
the finest extract of roses in the world was made at Cyrene while
the great Berenice was alive. Again, in ancient times, the extract
of vine-leaves made at Adramyttium was but poor; but afterwards it
became first-rate, owing to Stratonice, the wife of Eumenes. Formerly,
too, Syria used to make every sort of unguent admirably, especially
that extracted from fenugreek; but the case is quite altered now. And
long ago there used to be a most delicious unguent extracted from
frankincense at Pergamus, owing to the invention of a certain perfumer
of that city, for no one else had ever made it before him; but now none
is made there.
"Now, when a valuable unguent is poured on the top of one that is
inferior, it remains on the surface; but when good honey is poured on
the top of that which is inferior, it works its way to the bottom, for
it compels that which is worse to rise above it."
39. Achæus mentions Egyptian perfumes in his Prizes; and says—
They'll give you Cyprian stones, and ointments choice
From dainty Egypt, worth their weight in silver.
"And perhaps," says Didymus, "he means in this passage that which is
called στακτὴ, on account of the myrrh which is brought to
Egypt, and from thence imported into Greece."
[Sidenote: PERFUMES.]
And Hicesius says, in the second book of his treatise on Matter,—"Of
perfumes, some are rubbed on, and some are poured on. Now, the perfume
made from roses is suitable for drinking parties, and so is that made
from myrtles and from apples; and this last is good for the stomach,
and useful for lethargic people. That made from vine-leaves is good
for the stomach, and has also the effect of keeping the mind clear.
Those extracted from sampsychum and ground thyme are also well suited
to drinking parties; and so is that extract of crocus which is not
mixed with any great quantity of myrrh. The στακτὴ, also, is
well suited for drinking parties; and so is the spikenard: that made
from fenugreek is sweet and tender; while that which comes from white
violets is fragrant, and very good for the digestion."
Theophrastus, also, in his treatise on Scents, says, "that some
perfumes are made of flowers; as, for instance, from roses, and white
violets, and lilies, which last is called σούσινον. There are also
those which are extracted from mint and ground thyme, and gopper, and
the crocus; of which the best is procured in Ægina and Cilicia. Some,
again, are made of leaves, as those made from myrrh and the œnanthe;
and the wild vine grows in Cyprus, on the mountains, and is very
plentiful; but no perfume is made of that which is found in Greece,
because that has no scent. Some perfumes, again, are extracted from
roots; as is that made from the iris, and from spikenard, and from
marjoram, and from zedoary."
40. Now, that the ancients were very much addicted to the use of
perfumes, is plain from their knowing to which of our limbs each
unguent was most suitable. Accordingly, Antiphanes, in his Thoricians,
or The Digger, says—
_A._ He really bathes—
_B._ What then?
_A._ In a large gilded tub, and steeps his feet
And legs in rich Egyptian unguents;
His jaws and breasts he rubs with thick palm-oil,
And both his arms with extract sweet of mint;
His eyebrows and his hair with marjoram,
His knees and neck with essence of ground thyme.
And Cephisodorus, in his Trophonius, says—
_A._ And now that I may well anoint my body,
Buy me some unguents, I beseech you, Xanthias,
Of roses made and irises. Buy, too,
Some oil of baccaris for my legs and feet.
_B._ You stupid wretch! Shall I buy baccaris,
And waste it on your worthless feet?
Anaxandrides, too, in his Protesilaus, says—
Unguents from Peron, which but yesterday
He sold to Melanopus,—very costly,
Fresh come from Egypt; which he uses now
To anoint the feet of vile Callistratus.
And Theopompus also mentions this perfumer, Peron, in his Admetus, and
in the Hedychares. Antiphanes, too, says in his Antea—
I left the man in Peron's shop, just now,
Dealing for ointments; when he has agreed,
He'll bring you cinnamon and spikenard essence.
41. Now, there is a sort of ointment called βάκκαρις by many
of the comic poets; and Hipponax uses this name in the following line:—
I then my nose with baccaris anointed,
Redolent of crocus.
And Achæus, in his Æthon, a satyric drama, says—
Anointed o'er with baccaris, and dressing
All his front hair with cooling fans of feathers.
But Ion, in his Omphale, says—
'Tis better far to know the use of μύρα,
And βάκκαρις, and Sardian ornaments,
Than all the fashions in the Peloponnesus.
And when he speaks of Sardian ornaments, he means to include perfumes;
since the Lydians were very notorious for their luxury. And so Anacreon
uses the word Λυδοπαθὴς (Lydian-like) as equivalent to ἡδυπαθὴς
(luxurious). Sophocles also uses the word βάκκαρις; and Magnes, in his
Lydians, says—
A man should bathe, and then with baccaris
Anoint himself.
Perhaps, however, μύρον and βάκκαρις were not exactly the same thing;
for Æschylus, in his Amymone, makes a distinction between them, and
says—
Your βακκάρεις and your μύρα.
And Simonides says—
And then with μύρον, and rich spices too,
And βάκκαρις, did I anoint myself.
And Aristophanes, in his Thesmophoriazusæ, says—
[Sidenote: PERFUMES.]
O venerable Jove! with what a scent
Did that vile bag, the moment it was open'd,
O'erwhelm me, full of βάκκαρις and μύρον![136]
42. Pherecrates mentions an unguent, which he calls βρένθιον,
in his Trifles, saying—
I stood, and order'd him to pour upon us
Some brenthian unguent, that he also might
Pour it on those departing.
And Crates mentions what he calls royal unguent, in his Neighbours;
speaking as follows:—
He smelt deliciously of royal unguent.
But Sappho mentions the royal and the brenthian unguent together, as if
they were one and the same thing; saying—
βρενθεΐῳ βασιληΐῳ,
Aristophanes speaks of an unguent which he calls ψάγδης, in
his Daitaleis; saying—
Come, let me see what unguent I can give you:
Do you like ψάγδης?
And Eupolis, in his Marica, says—
All his breath smells of ψάγδης.
Eubulus, in his Female Garland-seller's, says—
She thrice anointed with Egyptian psagdas (ψάγδανι).
Polemo, in his writings addressed to Adæus, says that there is an
unguent in use among the Eleans called plangonium, from having been
invented by a man named Plangon. And Sosibius says the same in his
Similitudes; adding, that the unguent called megallium is so named
for a similar reason: for that that was invented by a Sicilian whose
name was Megallus. But some say that Megallus was an Athenian: and
Aristophanes mentions him in his Telmissians, and so does Pherecrates
in his Petale; and Strattis, in his Medea, speaks thus:—
And say that you are bringing her such unguents,
As old Megallus never did compound,
Nor Dinias, that great Egyptian, see,
Much less possess.
Amphis also, in his Ulysses, mentions the Megallian unguent in the
following passage—
_A._ Adorn the walls all round with hangings rich,
Milesian work; and then anoint them o'er
With sweet megallium, and also burn
The royal mindax.
_B._ Where did you, O master,
E'er hear the name of such a spice as that?
Anaxandrides, too, in his Tereus, says—
And like the illustrious bride, great Basilis,
She rubs her body with megallian unguent.
Menander speaks of an unguent made of spikenard, in his Cecryphalus,
and says—
_A._ This unguent, boy, is really excellent.
_B._ Of course it is, 'tis spikenard.
43. And anointing oneself with an unguent of this description, Alcæus
calls μυρίσασθαι, in his Palæstræ, speaking thus—
Having anointed her (μυρίσασα), she shut her up
In her own stead most secretly.
But Aristophanes uses not μυρίσματα, but μυρώματα, in
his Ecclesiazusæ, saying—
I who 'm anointed (μεμύρισμαι) o'er my head with unguents
(μυρώμασι).[137]
There was also an unguent called sagda, which is mentioned by Eupolis
in his Coraliscus, where he writes—
And baccaris, and sagda too.
And it is spoken of likewise by Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis; and
Eupolis in his Marica says—
And all his breath is redolent of sagda:
which expression Nicander of Thyatira understands to be meant as an
attack upon a man who is too much devoted to luxury. But Theodoras
says, that sagda is a species of spice used in fumigation.
44. Now a cotyla of unguent used to be sold for a high price at Athens,
even, as Hipparchus says in his Nocturnal Festival, for as much as
five minæ; but as Menander, in his Misogynist, states, for ten. And
Antiphanes, in his Phrearrus, where he is speaking of the unguent
called stacte, says—
The stacte at two minæ's not worth having.
Now the citizens of Sardis were not the only people addicted to the use
of unguents, as Alexis says in his Maker of Goblets—
The whole Sardian people is of unguents fond;
[Sidenote: PERFUMES.]
but the Athenians also, who have always been the leaders of every
refinement and luxury in human life, used them very much; so that among
them, as has been already mentioned, they used to fetch an enormous
price; but, nevertheless, they did not abstain from the use of them on
that account; just as we now do not deny ourselves scents which are so
expensive and exquisite that those things are mere trifles which are
spoken of in the Settler of Alexis—
For he did use no alabaster box
From which t'anoint himself; for this is but
An ordinary, and quite old-fashion'd thing.
But he let loose four doves all dipp'd in unguents,
Not of one kind, but each in a different sort;
And then they flew around, and hovering o'er us,
Besprinkled all our clothes and tablecloths.
Envy me not, ye noble chiefs of Greece;
For thus, while sacrificing, I myself
Was sprinkled o'er with unguent of the iris.
45. Just think, in God's name, my friends, what luxury, or I should
rather say, what profuse waste it was to have one's garments sprinkled
in this manner, when a man might have taken up a little unguent in
his hands, as we do now, and in that manner have anointed his whole
body, and especially his head. For Myronides says, in his treatise
on Unguents and Garlands, that "the fashion of anointing the head at
banquets arose from this:—that those men whose heads are naturally
dry, find the humours which are engendered by what they eat, rise up
into their heads; and on this account, as their bodies are inflamed
by fevers, they bedew their heads with lotions, so as to prevent
the neighbouring humours from rising into a part which is dry, and
which also has a considerable vacuum in it. And so at their banquets,
having consideration for this fact, and being afraid of the strength
of the wine rising into their heads, men have introduced the fashion
of anointing their heads, and by these means the wine, they think,
will have less effect upon them, if they make their head thoroughly
wet first. And as men are never content with what is merely useful,
but are always desirous to add to that whatever tends to pleasure and
enjoyment; in that way they have been led to adopt the use of unguents."
We ought, therefore, my good cynic Theodorus, to use at banquets
those unguents which have the least tendency to produce heaviness,
and to employ those which have astringent or cooling properties very
sparingly. But Aristotle, that man of most varied learning, raises the
question, "Why men who use unguents are more grey than others? Is it
because unguents have drying properties by reason of the spices used
in their composition, so that they who use them become dry, and the
dryness produces greyness? For whether greyness arises from a drying
of the hair, or from a want of natural heat, at all events dryness has
a withering effect. And it is on this account too that the use of hats
makes men grey more quickly; for by them the moisture which ought to
nourish the hair is taken away."
46. But when I was reading the twenty-eighth book of the History of
Posidonius, I observed, my friends, a very pleasant thing which was
said about unguents, and which is not at all foreign to our present
discussion. For the philosopher says—"In Syria, at the royal banquets,
when the garlands are given to the guests, some slaves come in, having
little bladders full of Babylonian perfumes, and going round the room
at a little distance from the guests, they bedew their garlands with
the perfumes, sprinkling nothing else." And since the discussion has
brought us to this point, I will add
A verse to Love,
as the bard of Cythera says, telling you that Janus, who is worshipped
as a great god by us, and whom we call Janus Pater, was the original
inventor of garlands. And Dracon of Corcyra tells us this in his
treatise on Precious Stones, where his words are—"But it is said that
Janus had two faces, the one looking forwards and the other backwards;
and that it is from him that the mountain Janus and the river Janus are
both named, because he used to live on the mountain. And they say that
he was the first inventor of garlands, and boats, and ships; and was
also the first person who coined brazen money. And on this account many
cities in Greece, and many in Italy and Sicily, place on their coins
a head with two faces, and on the obverse a boat, or a garland, or a
ship. And they say that he married his sister Camise, and had a son
named Æthax, and a daughter Olistene. And he, aiming at a more extended
power and renown, sailed over to Italy, and settled on a mountain near
Rome, which was called Janiculum from his name."
[Sidenote: LIBATIONS.]
47. This, now, is what was said about perfumes and some unguents.
And after this most of them asked for wine, some demanding the Cup of
the Good Deity, others that of Health, and different people invoking
different deities; and so they all fell to quoting the words of those
poets who had mentioned libations to these different deities; and I
will now recapitulate what they said, for they quoted Antiphanes, who,
in his Clowns, says—
Harmodius was invoked, the pæan sung,
Each drank a mighty cup to Jove the Saviour.
And Alexis, in his Usurer, or The Liar, says—
_A._ Fill now the cup with the libation due
To Jove the Saviour; for he surely is
Of all the gods most useful to mankind.
_B._ Your Jove the Saviour, if I were to burst,
Would nothing do for me.
_A._ Just drink, and trust him.
And Nicostratus, in his Pandrosos, says—
And so I will, my dear;
But fill him now a parting cup to Health;
Here, pour a due libation out to Health.
Another to Good Fortune. Fortune manages
All the affairs of men; but as for Prudence,—
That is a blind irregular deity.
And in the same play he mentions mixing a cup in honour of the Good
Deity, as do nearly all the poets of the old comedy; but Nicostratus
speaks thus—
Fill a cup quickly now to the Good Deity,
And take away this table from before me;
For I have eaten quite enough;—I pledge
This cup to the Good Deity;—here, quick, I say,
And take away this table from before me.
Xenarchus, too, in his Twins, says—
And now when I begin to nod my head,
The cup to the Good Deity * *
* * * *
That cup, when I had drain'd it, near upset me;
And then the next libation duly quaff'd
To Jove the Saviour, wholly wreck'd my boat,
And overwhelm'd me as you see.
And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, says—
Before he'd drunk a cup to the Good Deity,
Or to great Jove the Saviour.
48. And Theophrastus, in his essay on Drunkenness, says—"The unmixed
wine which is given at a banquet, which they call the pledge-cup
in honour of the Good Deity, they offer in small quantities, as if
reminding the guests of its strength, and of the liberality of the
god, by the mere taste. And they hand it round when men are already
full, in order that there may be as little as possible drunk out of
it. And having paid adoration three times, they take it from the
table, as if they were entreating of the gods that nothing may be done
unbecomingly, and that they may not indulge in immoderate desires for
this kind of drink, and that they may derive only what is honourable
and useful from it." And Philochorus, in the second book of his Atthis,
says—"And a law was made at that time, that after the solid food is
removed, a taste of the unmixed wine should be served round as a sort
of sample of the power of the Good Deity, but that all the rest of the
wine should be previously mixed; on which account the Nymphs had the
name given them of Nurses of Bacchus." And that when the pledge-cup to
the Good Deity was handed round, it was customary to remove the tables,
is made plain by the wicked action of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily.
For there was a table of gold placed before the statue of Æsculapius
at Syracuse; and so Dionysius, standing before it, and chinking a
pledge-cup to the Good Deity, ordered the table to be removed.
But among the Greeks, those who sacrifice to the Sun, as Phylarchus
tells us in the twelfth book of his History, make their libations of
honey, as they never bring wine to the altars of the gods; saying that
it is proper that the god who keeps the whole universe in order, and
regulates everything, and is always going round and superintending the
whole, should in no respect be connected with drunkenness.
49. Most writers have mentioned the Attic Scolia; and they are worthy
also of being mentioned by me to you, on account of the antiquity and
simple style of composition of the authors, and of those especially who
gained a high reputation for that description of poetry, Alcæus and
Anacreon; as Aristophanes says in his Daitaleis, where we find this
line—
Come, then, a scolium sing to me,
Of old Alcæus or Anacreon.
[Sidenote: SCOLIA.]
Praxilla, the Sicyonian poetess, was also celebrated for the
composition of scolia. Now they are called scolia, not because of
the character of the verse in which they are written, as if it were
σκολιὸς (crooked); for men call also those poems written in a laxer
kind of metre σκολιά. But, "as there are three kinds of songs" (as
Artemo of Cassandra says in the second book of his treatise on the
Use of Books), "one or other of which comprehends everything which
is sung at banquets; the first kind is that which it was usual for
the whole party to sing; the second is that which the whole party
indeed sang, not, however, together, but going round according to some
kind of succession; the third is that which is ranked lowest of all,
which was not sung by all the guests, but only by those who seemed
to understand what was to be done, wherever they might happen to be
sitting; on which account, as having some irregularity in it beyond
what the other kinds had, in not being sung by all the guests, either
together or in any definite kind of succession, but just as it might
happen, it was called σκολιόν. And songs of this kind were sung when
the ordinary songs, and those in which every one was bound to join,
had come to an end. For then they invited all the more intelligent of
the guests to sing some song worth listening to. And what they thought
worth listening to were such songs as contained some exhortations and
sentiments which seemed useful for the purposes of life."
50. And of these Deipnosophists, one quoted one scolium, and one
another. And these were those which were recited—
I.
O thou Tritonian Pallas, who from heaven above
Look'st with protecting eye
On this holy city and land,
Deign our protectress now to prove
From loss in war, from dread sedition's band.
And death's untimely blow, thou and thy father Jove.
II.
I sing at this glad season, of the Queen,
Mother of Plutus, heavenly Ceres;
May you be ever near us,
You and your daughter Proserpine,
And ever as a friend
This citadel defend.
III.
Latona once in Delos, as they say,
Did two great children bear,
Apollo with the golden hair,
Bright Phœbus, god of day.
And Dian, mighty huntress, virgin chaste.
On whom all women's trust is placed.
IV.
Raise the loud shout to Pan, Arcadia's king;
Praise to the Nymphs' loved comrade sing!
Come, O Pan, and raise with me
The song in joyful ecstasy.
V.
We have conquer'd as we would,
The gods reward us as they should,
And victory bring from Pandrosos[138] to Pallas.
VI.
Oh, would the gods such grace bestow,
That opening each man's breast,
One might survey his heart, and know
How true the friendship that could stand that test.
VII.
Health's the best gift to mortal given;
Beauty is next; the third great prize
Is to grow rich, free both from sin and vice;
The fourth, to pass one's youth with friends beloved by heaven.
And when this had been sung, and everybody had been delighted with it;
and when it had been mentioned that even the incomparable Plato had
spoken of this scolium as one most admirably written, Myrtilus said,
that Anaxandrides the comic poet had turned it into ridicule in his
Treasure, speaking thus of it—
The man who wrote this song, whoe'er he was,
When he call'd health the best of all possessions,
Spoke well enough. But when the second place
He gave to beauty, and the third to riches,
He certainly was downright mad; for surely
Riches must be the next best thing to health,
For who would care to be a starving beauty?
After that, these other scolia were sung—
VIII.
'Tis well to stand upon the shore,
And look on others on the sea;
But when you once have dipp'd your oar,
By the present wind you must guided be.
IX.
A crab caught a snake in his claw,
And thus he triumphantly spake,—
"My friends must be guided by law,
Nor love crooked counsels to take."
[Sidenote: SCOLIA.]
X.
I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle-bough,
The sword that laid the tyrant low,
When patriots, burning to be free,
To Athens gave equality.[139]
XI.
Harmodius, hail! though reft of breath,
Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death.
The happy heroes' isles shall be
The bright abode allotted thee.
XII.
I'll wreathe the sword in myrtle-bough,
The sword that laid Hipparchus low,
When at Minerva's adverse fane
He knelt, and never rose again.
XIII.
While Freedom's name is understood,
You shall delight the wise and good;
You dared to set your country free,
And gave her laws equality.
XIV.
Learn, my friend, from Admetus' story,
All worthy friends and brave to cherish;
But cowards shun when danger comes,
For they will leave you alone to perish,
XV.
Ajax of the ponderous spear, mighty son of Telamon,
They call you bravest of the Greeks, next to the great Achilles,
Telamon came first, and of the Greeks the second man
Was Ajax, and with him there came invincible Achilles.
XVI.
Would that I were an ivory lyre,
Struck by fair boys to great Iacchus' taste;
Or golden trinket pure from fire,
Worn by a lady fair, of spirit chaste.
XVII.
Drink with me, and sport with me,
Love with me, wear crowns with me,
Be mad with me when I am moved with rage,
And modest when I yield to counsels sage.
XVIII.
A scorpion 'neath every stone doth lie,
And secrets usually hide treachery.
XIX.
A sow one acorn has, and wants its brother;
And I have one fair maid, and seek another.
XX.
A wanton and a bath-keeper both cherish the same fashion,
Giving the worthless and the good the self-same bath to wash in.
XXI.
Give Cedon wine, O slave, and fill it up,
If you must give each worthy man a cup.
XXII.
Alas! Leipsydrium, you betray
A host of gallant men,
Who for their country many a day
Have fought, and would again.
And even when they fell, their race
In their great actions you may trace.[140]
XXIII.
The man who never will betray his friend,
Earns fame of which nor earth nor heaven shall see the end.
Some also call that a scolium which was composed by Hybrias the
Cretan; and it runs thus—
XXIV.
I have great wealth, a sword, and spear,
And trusty shield beside me here;
With these I plough, and from the vine
Squeeze out the heart-delighting wine;
They make me lord of everything.
But they who dread the sword and spear,
And ever trusty shield to bear,
Shall fall before me on their knees,
And worship me whene'er I please,
And call me mighty lord and king.
[Sidenote: SCOLIA.]
51. After this, Democritus said;—But the song which was composed by
that most learned writer, Aristotle, and addressed to Hermias[141] of
Atarneus, is not a pæan, as was asserted by Demophilus, who instituted
a prosecution against the philosopher, on the ground of impiety (having
been suborned to act the part of accuser by Eurymedon, who was ashamed
to appear himself in the business). And he rested the charge of impiety
on the fact of his having been accustomed to sing at banquets a pæan
addressed to Hermias. But that this song has no characteristic whatever
of a pæan, but is a species of scolium, I will show you plainly from
its own language—
O virtue, never but by labour to be won,
First object of all human life,
For such a prize as thee
There is no toil, there is no strife,
Nor even death which any Greek would shun;
Such is the guerdon fair and free,
And lasting too, with which thou dost thy followers grace,—
Better than gold,
Better than sleep, or e'en the glories old
Of high descent and noble race.
For you Jove's mighty son, great Hercules,
Forsook a life of ease;
For you the Spartan brothers twain
Sought toil and danger, following your behests
With fearless and unwearied breasts.
Your love it was that fired and gave
To early grave
Achilles and the giant son
Of Salaminian Telamon.
And now for you Atarneus' pride,
Trusting in others' faith, has nobly died;
But yet his name
Shall never die, the Muses' holy train
Shall bear him to the skies with deathless fame,
Honouring Jove, the hospitable god,
And honest hearts, proved friendship's blest abode.
52. Now I don't know whether any one can detect in this any resemblance
to a pæan, when the author expressly states in it that Hermias is dead,
when he says—
And now for you Atarneus' pride,
Trusting in others' faith, has nobly died.
Nor has the song the burden, which all pæans have, of Io Pæan, as that
song written on Lysander the Spartan, which really is a pæan, has; a
song which Duris, in his book entitled The Annals of the Samians, says
is sung in Samos. That also was a pæan which was written in honour of
Craterus the Macedonian, of which Alexinus the logician was the author,
as Hermippus the pupil of Callimachus says in the first book of his
Essay on Aristotle. And this song is sung at Delphi, with a boy playing
the lyre as an accompaniment to it. The song, too, addressed to Agemon
of Corinth, the father of Alcyone, which the Corinthians sang, contains
the burden of the pæan. And this burden, too, is even added by Polemo
Periegetes to his letter addressed to Aranthius. The song also which
the Rhodians sing, addressed to Ptolemy the first king of Egypt, is
a pæan: for it contains the burden Io Pæan, as Georgus tells us in
his essay on the Sacrifices at Rhodes. And Philochorus says that the
Athenians sing pæans in honour of Antigonus and Demetrius, which were
composed by Hermippus of Cyzicus, on an occasion when a great many
poets had a contest as to which could compose the finest pæan, and the
victory was adjudged to Hermippus. And, indeed, Aristotle himself,
in his Defence of himself from this accusation of impiety, (unless
the speech is a spurious one,) says—"For if I had wished to offer
sacrifice to Hermias as an immortal being, I should never have built
him a tomb as a mortal; nor if I had wished to make him out to be a
god, should I have honoured him with funeral obsequies like a man."
53. When Democritus had said this, Cynulcus said;—Why do you remind
me of those cyclic poems, to use the words of your friend Philo, when
you never ought to say anything serious or important in the presence of
this glutton Ulpian? For he prefers lascivious songs to dignified ones;
such, for instance, as those which are called Locrian songs, which are
of a debauched sort of character, such as—
Do you not feel some pleasure now?
Do not betray me, I entreat you.
Rise up before the man comes back,
Lest he should ill-treat you and me.
'Tis morning now, dost thou not see
The daylight through the windows?
[Sidenote: PARODIES.]
And all Phœnicia is full of songs of this kind; and he himself, when
there, used to go about playing on the flute with the men who sing
colabri.[142] And there is good authority, Ulpian, for this word
κόλαβροι. For Demetrius the Scepsian, in the tenth book of his Trojan
Array, speaks thus:—"Ctesiphon the Athenian, who was a composer of the
songs called κόλαβροι, was made by Attalus, who succeeded Philetærus as
king of Pergamus, judge of all his subjects in the Æolian district."
And the same writer, in the nineteenth book of the same work, says that
Seleucus the composer of merry songs was the son of Mnesiptolemus, who
was an historian, and who had great interest with that Antiochus who
was surnamed the Great. And it was very much the fashion to sing this
song of his—
I will choose a single life,
That is better than a wife;
Friends in war a man stand by,
While the wife stays at home to cry.
54. And after this, looking towards Ulpian, he said;—But since you are
out of humour with me, I will explain to you what the Syrbenæan chorus
is. And Ulpian said;—Do you think, you wretch, that I am angry at what
you say, or even that I pay the least attention to it, you shameless
hound? But since you profess to teach me something, I will make a truce
with you, not for thirty, but for a hundred years; only tell me what
the Syrbenæan chorus is. Then, said he, Clearchus, my good friend,
in the second book of his treatise on Education, writes thus—"There
remains the Syrbenæan chorus, in which every one is bound to sing
whatever he pleases, without paying the least attention to the man who
sits in the post of honour and leads the chorus. And indeed he is only
a more noisy spectator." And in the words of Matron the parodist—
For all thoe men who heroes were of old,
Eubæus, and Hermogenes, and Philip,
Are dead, and settlers in dark Pluto's realms;
But Cleonicus has a life secure
From all th' attacks of age; he's deeply skill'd
In all that bards or theatres concerns;
And even now he's dead, great Proserpine
Allows his voice still to be heard on earth.
But you, even while you are alive, ask questions about everything, but
never give information on any subject yourself. And he replied,
who . . . . ? while the truce between us lasts.
55. And Cynulcus said;—There have been many poets who have applied
themselves to the composition of parodies, my good friend; of whom the
most celebrated was Eubœus of Paros, who lived in the time of Philip;
and he is the man who attacked the Athenians a great deal. And four
books of his Parodies are preserved. And Timon also mentions him, in
the first book of his Silli. But Polemo, in the twelfth book of his
Argument against Timæus, speaking of the men who have written parodies,
writes thus—"And I should call Bœotus and Eubœus, who wrote parodies,
men of great reputation, on account of their cleverness in sportive
composition, and I consider that they surpass those ancient poets whose
followers they were. Now, the invention of this kind of poetry we must
attribute to Hipponax the Iambic poet. For he writes thus, in his
Hexameters,—
Muse, sing me now the praises of Eurymedon,
That great Charybdis of the sea, who holds
A sword within his stomach, never weary
With eating. Tell me how the votes may pass
Condemning him to death, by public judgment,
On the loud-sounding shore of the barren sea.
Epicharmus of Syracuse also uses the same kind of poetry, in a small
degree, in some of his plays; and so does Cratinus, a poet of the old
Comedy, in his Eunidæ, and so also does his contemporary, Hegemon of
Thasos, whom they used to call Lentil. For he writes thus—
And when I Thasos reach'd they took up filth,
And pelted me therewith, by which aroused
Thus a bystander spoke with pitiless heart:—
O most accursed of men, who e'er advised you
To put such dirty feet in such fine slippers?
And quickly I did this brief answer make:—
'Twas gain that moved me, though against my will,
(But I am old;) and bitter penury;
Which many Thasians also drives on shipboard,
Ill-manner'd youths, and long-ruin'd old men:
Who now sing worthless songs about the place.
Those men I join'd when fit for nothing else;
But I will not depart again for gain,
But doing nothing wrong, I'll here deposit
My lovely money among the Thasians:
Lest any of the Grecian dames at home
Should be enraged when they behold my wife
Making Greek bread, a poor and scanty meal.
Or if they see a cheesecake small, should say,—
"Philion, who sang the 'Fierce Attack' at Athens,
Got fifty drachmas, and yet this is all
That you sent home."—While I was thinking thus,
And in my mind revolving all these things,
Pallas Minerva at my side appear'd,
And touch'd me with her golden sceptre, saying,
"O miserable and ill-treated man,
Poor Lentil, haste thee to the sacred games."
Then I took heart, and sang a louder strain.
[Sidenote: PARODIES.]
56. "Hermippus also, the poet of the old Comedy, composed parodies.
But the first writer of this kind who ever descended into the arena of
theatrical contests was Hegemon, and he gained the prize at Athens for
several parodies; and among them, for his Battle of the Giants. He also
wrote a comedy in the ancient fashion, which is called Philinna. Eubœus
also was a man who exhibited a good deal of wit in his poems; as, for
instance, speaking about the Battle of the Baths, he said—
They one another smote with brazen ἐγχείῃσι,
[as if ἐγχεία, instead of meaning a spear, were derived from
ἐγχέω, to pour in.] And speaking of a barber who was being
abused by a potter on account of some woman, he said—
But seize not, valiant barber, on this prize,
Nor thou Achilles....[143]
And that these men were held in high estimation among the Sicilians, we
learn from Alexander the Ætolian, a composer of tragedies, who, in an
elegy, speaks as follows:—
The man whom fierce Agathocles did drive
An exile from his land, was nobly born
Of an old line of famous ancestors,
And from his early youth he lived among
The foreign visitors; and thoroughly learnt
The dulcet music of Mimnermus' lyre,
And follow'd his example;—and he wrote,
In imitation of great Homer's verse,
The deeds of cobblers, and base shameless thieves,
Jesting with highly-praised felicity,
Loved by the citizens of fair Syracuse.
But he who once has heard Bœotus' song,
Will find but little pleasure in Eubœus."
57. After all this discussion had been entered into on many occasions,
once when evening overtook us, one of us said,—Boy, bring a light
(λύχνειον). But some one else used the word λυχνεὼς, and a third called
it λοφνίας, saying that that was the proper name for a torch made of
bark; another called it πανός; and another φανός.—This one used the
word λυχνοῦχος, and that one λύχνος. Some one else again said ἐλάνη,
and another said ἕλαναι, insisting on it that that was the proper
name for a lamp, being derived from ἔλη, brightness; and urging that
Neanthes used this word in the first book of his History of Attalus.
Others, again, of the party made use of whatever other words they
fancied; so that there was no ordinary noise; while all were vying
with one another in adducing every sort of argument which bore upon
the question. For one man said that Silenus, the dictionary-maker,
mentioned that the Athenians call lamps φανοί. But Timachidas of Rhodes
asserts that for φανὸς, the word more properly used is δέλετρον, being
a sort of lantern which young men use when out at night, and which they
themselves call ἕλαναι. But Amerias for φανὸς uses the word γράβιον.
And this word is thus explained by Seleucus:—"Γράβιον is a stick of
ilex or common oak, which, being pounded and split, is set on fire, and
used to give light to travellers. Accordingly Theodoridas of Syracuse,
in his Centaurs, which is a dithyrambic poem, says—
The pitch dropp'd down beneath the γράβια,
As if from torches.
Strattis also, mentions the γράβια in his Phœnician Women."
58. But that what are now called φανοὶ used to be called λυχνοῦχοι, we
learn from Aristophanes, in his Æolosicon—
I see the light shining all o'er his cloak,
As from a new λυχνοῦχος.
And, in the second edition of the Niobus, having already used the word
λυχνοῦχος, he writes—
Alas, unhappy man! my λύχνιον's lost;
after which, he adds—
* * * * *
And, in his play called The Dramas, he calls the same thing λυχνίδιον,
in the following lines—
But you all lie
Fast as a candle in a candlestick (λυχνίδιον).
Plato also, in his Long Night, says—
The undertakers sure will have λυχνοῦχοι.
And Pherecrates, in his Slave Teacher, writes—
Make haste and go, for now the night descends,
And bring a lantern (λυχνοῦχον) with a candle furnish'd.
Alexis too, in his Forbidden Thing, says—
So taking out the candle from the lantern (λύχνιον),
He very nearly set himself on fire,
Carrying the light beneath his arm much nearer
His clothes than any need at all required.
[Sidenote: PARODIES.]
And Eumelus, in his Murdered Man . . . having said first—
_A._ Take now a pitchfork and a lantern (λυχνοῦχον),
adds—
_B._ But I now in my right hand hold this fork,
An iron weapon 'gainst the monsters of the sea;
And this light too, a well-lit horn lantern (λὑχνου).
And Alexis says, in his Midon—
The man who first invented the idea
Of walking out by night with such a lantern (λυχνούχου),
Was very careful not to hurt his fingers.
59. But the same Alexis says, in his Fanatic—
I think that some of those I meet will blame
For being drunk so early in the day;
But yet I pray you where's a lantern (φανὸς) equal
To the sweet light of the eternal sun?
And Anaxandrides, in his Insolence, says—
Will you take your lantern (φανόν) now, and quickly
Light me a candle (λύχνον)?
But others assert that it is a lamp which is properly called φανὸς. And
others assert that φανὸς means a bundle of matches made of
split wood. Menander says, in his Cousins—
This φανὸς is quite full of water now,
I must not shake (σείω) it, but throw it away (ἀποσείω).
And Nicostratus, in his Fellow-Countrymen, says—
For when this vintner in our neighbourhood
Sells any one some wine, or e'en a φανὸς,
Or vinegar, he always gives him water.
And Philippides, in his Women Sailing together, says—
_A._ The φανὸς did not give a bit of light.
_B._ Well, then, you wretched man, could not you blow it?
60. Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, calls what we now call λυχνία,
λυχνεῖον in this line—
_A._ Where were these λυχνεῖα made?
_B._ In Etruria.
For there were a great many manufactories in Etruria, as the Etrurians
were exceedingly fond of works of art. Aristophanes, in his Knights,
says—
Binding three long straight darts together,
We use them for a torch (λυχνείῳ).
And Diphilus, in his Ignorance, says—
We lit a candle (λύχνον), and then sought a candlestick
(λυχνεῖον).
And Euphorion, in his Historic Commentaries, says that the young
Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily dedicated, in the Prytaneum at Tarentum,
a candlestick capable of containing as great a number of candles as
there are days in a year. And Hermippus the comic poet, in his Iambics,
speaks of—
A military candlestick well put together.
And, in his play called The Grooms, he says—
Here, lamp (λυχνίδιον), show me my road on the right hand.
Now, πανὸς was a name given to wood cut into splinters and
bound together, which they used for a torch: Menander, in his Cousins,
says—
He enter'd, and cried out,
"Πανὸν, λύχνον, λυχνοῦχον any light—"
Making one into many.
And Diphilus, in his Soldier, says—
But now this πανὸς is quite full of water.
And before them Æschylus, in his Agamemnon, had used the word πανός—
* * * * *[144]
61. Alexis, too, uses the word ξυλολυχνούχου, and perhaps this is the
same thing as that which is called by Theopompus ὀβελισκολύχνιον. But
Philyllius calls λαμπάδες, δᾷδε. But the λύχνος, or candle, is not an
ancient invention; for the ancients used the light of torches and other
things made of wood. Phrynichus, however, says—
Put out the λύχνον,
* * * * *
Plato too, in his Long Night, says—
And then upon the top he'll have a candle,
Bright with two wicks.
And these candles with two wicks are mentioned also by Metagenes, in
his Man fond of Sacrificing; and by Philonides in his Buskins. But
Clitarchus, in his Dictionary, says that the Rhodians give the name of
λοφνὶς to a torch made of the bark of the vine. But Homer
calls torches δεταί—
The darts fly round him from an hundred hands,
And the red terrors of the blazing brands (δεταὶ),
Till late, reluctant, at the dawn of day,
Sour he departs, and quits th' untasted prey.[145]
[Sidenote: TORCHES.]
A torch was also called ἑλάνη, as Amerias tells us; but
Nicander of Colophon says that ἑλάνη means a bundle of
rushes. Herodotus uses the word in the neuter plural, λύχνα,
in the second book of his History.
Cephisodorus, in his Pig, uses the word λυχναψία, for what
most people call λυχνοκαυτία, the lighting of candles.
And Cynulcus, who was always attacking Ulpian, said;—But now, my fine
supper-giver, buy me some candles for a penny, that, like the good
Agathon, I may quote this line of the admirable Aristophanes—
Bring now, as Agathon says, the shining torches (πεύκας);
and when he had said this—
Putting his tail between his lion's feet,
he left the party, being very sleepy.
62. Then, when many of the guests cried out Io Pæan, Pontianus
said;—I wish, my friends, to learn from you whether Io Pæan is a
proverb, or the burden of a song, or what else it is. And Democritus
replied;—Clearchus the Solensian, inferior to none of the pupils of
the wise Aristotle, in the first book of his treatise on Proverbs,
says that "Latona, when she was taking Apollo and Diana from Chalcis
in Eubœa to Delphi, came to the cave which was called the cave of
the Python. And when the Python attacked them, Latona, holding one
of her children in her arms, got upon the stone which even now lies
at the foot of the brazen statue of Latona, which is dedicated as a
representation of what then took place near the Plane-tree at Delphi,
and cried out Ἵε, παῖ; (and Apollo happened to have his bow in hand;)
and this is the same as if she had said Ἄφιε, Ἵε, παῖ, or Βάλε, παῖ,
Shoot, boy. And from this day Ἵε, παῖ and Ἵε, παιὼν arose. But some
people, slightly altering the word, use it as a sort of proverbial
exclamation to avert evils, and say ἰη παιὼν, instead of Ἵε, παῖ. And
many also, when they have completed any undertaking, say, as a sort of
proverb, ἰὴ παιὼν; but since it is an expression that is familiar to
us it is forgotten that it is a proverb, and they who use it are not
aware that they are uttering a proverb."
But as for what Heraclides of Pontus says, that is clearly a mistake,
"That the god himself, while offering a libation, thrice cried out
ἱη παιὰν, ἵη παιών." From a belief in which statement he refers the
trimeter verse, as it is called, to the god, saying "that each of
these metres belongs to the god; because when the first two syllables
are made long, ἵη παιὰν, it becomes a heroic verse, but when they
are pronounced short it is an iambic, and thus it is plain that we
must attribute the iambic to him. And as the rest are short, if any
one makes the last two syllables of the verse long, that makes a
Hipponactean iambic.
63. And after this, when we also were about to leave the party, the
slaves came in bringing, one an incense burner, and another.... For it
was the custom for the guests to rise up and offer a libation, and then
to give the rest of the unmixed wine to the boy, who brought it to them
to drink.
Ariphron the Sicyonian composed this Pæan to Health—
O holiest Health, all other gods excelling,
May I be ever blest
With thy kind favour, and for all the rest
Of life I pray thee ne'er desert my dwelling;
For if riches pleasure bring,
Or the power of a king,
Or children smiling round the board,
Or partner honour'd and adored,
Or any other joy
Which the all-bounteous gods employ
To raise the hearts of men,
Consoling them for long laborious pain;
All their chief brightness owe, kind Health, to you;
You are the Graces' spring,
'Tis you the only real bliss can bring,
And no man's blest when you are not in view,
* * * * *
64. They know.—For Sopater the farce-writer, in his play entitled The
Lentil, speaks thus—
I can both carve and drink Etruscan wine,
In due proportion mix'd.
These things, my good Timocrates, are not, as Plato says, the sportive
conversations of Socrates in his youth and beauty, but the serious
discussions of the Deipnosophists; for, as Dionysius the Brazen says,—
What, whether you begin or end a work,
Is better than the thing you most require?
FOOTNOTES.
[109] This is one of the fragments of unknown plays of
Euripides.
[110] The original text here is very corrupt, and the meaning
uncertain.
[111] This is parodied from Homer, Iliad, iv. 204,—
Ὄρσ', Ἀσκληπιάδη, καλέει κρείων Ἀγαμέμνων.
[112] Casaubon says these tools (σκευάρια) were the κρηπῖδες (boots)
and κότυλος (small cup) mentioned in the following iambics.
[113] This line, and one or two others in this fragment, are
hopelessly corrupt.
[114] The manes was a small brazen figure.
[115] The text here is corrupt, and is printed by
Schweighauser—
Τοῦ δ' ἀγκυλητοῦ κόσσαβός ἐστι σκοπὸς
Ἐκτεμὼν ἡβῶσα χεὶρ ἀφίετο,
which is wholly unintelligible; but Schweighauser gives an emended
reading, which is that translated above.
[116] See below, c. 54.
[117] Iliad, i. 470.
[118] Odyss. viii. 170.
[119] Schweighauser confesses himself unable to guess what is
meant by these words.
[120] See the account of this battle, Herod, i. 82.
[121] The Gymnopædiæ, or "Festival of naked Youths," was
celebrated at Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Pythæus, Diana,
and Latona. And the Spartan youths danced around the statues of these
deities in the forum. The festival seems to have been connected with
the victory gained over the Argives at Thyrea, and the Spartans who had
fallen in the battle were always praised in songs on the occasion.—V.
Smith, Dict. Gr. Lat. Ant. _in voc._
[122] Glaucus.
[123] The rest of this extract is so utterly corrupt, that
Schweighauser says he despairs of it so utterly that he has not even
attempted to give a Latin version of it.
[124] Ar. Thesm. 458.
[125] Phaselis is a town in Lycia. The land which worships
Diana is the country about Ephesus and Magnesia, which last town is
built where the Lethæus falls into the Mæander; and it appears that
Diana was worshipped by the women of this district under the name of
Leucophrys, from λευκὸς, white, and ὄφρυς, an eyebrow.
[126] The text here is hopelessly corrupt, and indeed is full
of corruption for the next seven lines: I have followed the Latin
version of Dalecampius.
[127] There is some corruption in this name.
[128] Hom. Odyss. xx. 17.
[129] Ibid. 13.
[130] Hom. Iliad, vii. 216.
[131] Iliad, x. 96.
[132] This is not from any extant play.
[133] Hom. Iliad, xxiii. 186.
[134] Ibid. xiv. 172.
[135] Ibid. xiv. 170.
[136] In the Thesmophoriazusæ Secundæ that is, which has not
come down to us.
[137] Aristoph. Eccl. 1117.
[138] Pandrosos, according to Athenian mythology, was a
daughter of Cecrops and Agraulos. She was worshipped at Athens, and had
a temple near that of Minerva Polias.—Smith, Diet. Gr. and Rom. Biog.
[139] It is hardly necessary to say that this beautiful
translation is by Lord Denman. It is given also at p. 176 of the
translation of the Greek Anthology in this series.
[140] This refers to the Alcmæonidæ, who, flying from the
tyranny of Hippias, after the death of Hipparchus, seized on and
fortified the town Leipsydrium, on Mount Parnes, and were defeated and
taken by the Pisistratidæ.—See Herod, v. 62.
[141] Hermias was tyrant of Atarneus and Assos, having been
originally the minister of Eubulus, whom he succeeded. He entertained
Aristotle at his court for many years. As he endeavoured to maintain
his kingdom in independence of Persia, they sent Mentor against him,
who decoyed him to an interview by a promise of safe conduct, and then
seized him and sent him to Artaxerxes, by whom he was put to death.
[142] Colabri were a sort of song to which the armed dance
called κολαβρισμὸς was danced.
[143] This is a parody on Iliad, i. 275,—
Μήτε σὺ τόνδ' ἀγαθός περ ἐὼν, ἀποαίρεο κούρην,
where Eubœus changes κούρην, maiden, into κουρεῖ,
barber.
[144] There is a hiatus here in the text of Athenæus, but he
refers to Ag. 284,—
πέγαν δὲ πανὸν ἐκ νήσου τρίτον
ἄθωον αἶπος Ζηνὸς ἐξεδέξατο,
where Clytæmnestra is speaking of the beacon fires, which had conveyed
to her the intelligence of the fall of Troy.
[145] Iliad, xvii. 663.
POETICAL FRAGMENTS
QUOTED BY ATHENÆUS,
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
APOLLODORUS. (Book i. § 4, p. 4.)
THERE is a certain hospitable air
In a friend's house, that tells me I am welcome:
The porter opens to me with a smile;
The yard dog wags his tail, the servant runs,
Beats up the cushion, spreads the couch, and says—
"Sit down, good Sir!" e'er I can say I'm weary.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ARCHESTRATUS. (Book i. § 7, p. 7.)
I write these precepts for immortal Greece,
That round a table delicately spread,
Or three, or four, may sit in choice repast,
Or five at most. Who otherwise shall dine,
Are like a troop marauding for their prey.—D'ISRAELI.
* * * * *
ARCHILOCHUS. (Book i. § 14, p. 11.)
Faith! but you quaff
The grape's pure juice to a most merry tune,
And cram your hungry maw most rav'nously.
And pay for't—not a doit. But mark me, Sirrah!
You come not here invited, as a friend.
Your appetite is gross;—your god's your belly;—
Your mind, your very, soul, incorpsed with gluttony,
Till you have lost all shame.—J. BAILEY.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHANES. (Book i. § 55, p. 50.)
For the Athenian people neither love
Harsh crabbed bards, nor crabbed Pramnian wines,
Which pinch the face up and the belly too;
But mild, sweet-smelling, nectar-dropping cups.—WALSH.
* * * * *
DIPHILUS. (Book ii. § 2, p. 58.)
Oh! friend to the wise, to the children of song,
Take me with thee, thou wisest and sweetest, along;
To the humble, the lowly, proud thoughts dost thou bring,
For the wretch who has thee is as blythe as a king:
From the brows of the sage, in thy humorous play,
Thou dost smooth every furrow, every wrinkle away;
To the weak thou giv'st strength, to the mendicant gold,
And a slave warm'd by thee as a lion is bold.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
EUBULUS. (Book ii. § 3, p. 59.)
Three cups of wine a prudent man may take;
The first of these for constitution's sake;
The second to the girl he loves the best;
The third and last to lull him to his rest,
Then home to bed! but if a fourth he pours,
That is the cup of folly, and not ours;
Loud noisy talking on the fifth attends;
The sixth breeds feuds and falling-out of friends;
Seven beget blows and faces stain'd with gore;
Eight, and the watch-patrole breaks ope the door;
Mad with the ninth, another cup goes round,
And the swill'd sot drops senseless to the ground.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
EPICHARMUS. (Book ii. § 3, p. 59.)
_A._ After sacrifice, then came feasting.
_B._ Beautiful, by Jupiter!
_A._ After feasting drink we merrily.
_B._ Charming! I do truly think.
_A._ After drinking, follow'd revelry: after revelry, the whole hog:
After the whole hog, the justice: after that the sentence dire:
After which, chains, fetters, fines,—all that, and all that,
and all that.—J. BAILEY.
* * * * *
BACCHYLIDES. (Book ii. § 10, p. 65.)
The goblet's sweet compulsion moves
The soften'd mind to melting loves.
The hope of Venus warms the soul,
Mingling in Bacchus' gifted bowl;
And buoyant lifts in lightest air
The soaring thoughts of human care.
Who sips the grape, with single blow
Lays the city's rampire low;
Flush'd with the vision of his mind
He acts the monarch o'er mankind.
His bright'ning roofs now gleam on high,
All burnish'd gold and ivory:
Corn-freighted ships from Egypt's shore
Waft to his feet the golden ore:
Thus, while the frenzying draught he sips,
His heart is bounding to his lips.—ELTON.
_The same._
Thirsty comrade! wouldst thou know
All the raptures that do flow
From those sweet compulsive rules
Of our ancient drinking schools—
First, the precious draught shall raise
Amorous thoughts in giddy maze,
Mingling Bacchus' present treasure
With the hopes of higher pleasure.
Next, shall chase through empty air
All th' intolerant host of Care;
Give thee conquest, riches, power;
Bid thee scale the guarded tower;
Bid thee reign o'er land and sea
With unquestion'd sov'reignty.
Thou thy palace shalt behold,
Bright with ivory and gold;
While each ship that ploughs the main,
Fill'd with Egypt's choicest grain,
Shall unload her pon'drous store,
Thirsty comrade! at thy door.
* * * * *
EPHIPPOS. (Book ii. § 30, p. 79.)
How I delight
To spring upon the dainty coverlets;
Breathing the perfume of the rose, and steep'd
In tears of myrrh!—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book ii. § 44, p. 90.)
Mean my husband is, and poor,
And my blooming days are o'er.
Children have we two,—a boy,
Papa's pet and mamma's joy;
And a girl, so tight and small,
With her nurse;—that's five in all:
Yet, alas! alas! have we
Belly timber but for three!
Two must, therefore, often make
Scanty meal on barley-cake;
And sometimes, when nought appears
On the board, we sup on tears.
My good man, once so strong and hale,
On this fare grows very pale;
For our best and daintiest cheer,
Through the bright half of the year,
Is but acorns, onions, peas,
Ochros, lupines, radishes,
Vetches, wild pears nine or ten,
With a locust now and then.
As to figs, the Phrygian treat,
Fit for Jove's own guests to eat,
They, when happier moments shine,—
They, the Attic figs, are mine.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
EPICRATES. (Book ii. § 54, p. 98.)
_A._ I pray, you, Sir, (for I perceive you learn'd
In these grave matters,) let my ignorance suck
Some profit from your courtesy, and tell me
What are your wise philosophers engaged in,
Your Plato, Menedemus and Speusippus?
What mighty mysteries have they in projection?
What new discoveries may the world expect
From their profound researches? I conjure you,
By Earth, our common mother, to impart them!
_B._ Sir, you shall know at our great festival
I was myself their hearer, and so much
As I there heard will presently disclose,
So you will give it ears, for I must speak
Of things perchance surpassing your belief,
So strange they will appear; but so it happen'd,
That these most sage Academicians sate
In solemn consultation—on a cabbage.
_A._ A cabbage! what did they discover there?
_B._ Oh, Sir, your cabbage hath its sex and gender,
Its provinces, prerogatives and ranks,
And, nicely handled, breeds as many questions
As it does maggots. All the younger fry
Stood dumb with expectation and respect,
Wond'ring what this same cabbage should bring forth:
The Lecturer eyed them round, whereat a youth
Took heart, and breaking first the awful silence,
Humbly craved leave to think—that it was round:
The cause was now at issue, and a second
Opined it was an herb.—A third conceived
With due submission it might be a plant.
The difference methought was such, that each
Might keep his own opinion and be right;
But soon a bolder voice broke up the council,
And, stepping forward, a Sicilian quack
Told them their question was abuse of time,—
It was a cabbage, neither more nor less,
And they were fools to prate so much about it.
Insolent wretch! amazement seized the troop,
Clamour and wrath and tumult raged amain,
Till Plato, trembling for his own philosophy,
And calmly praying patience of the court,
Took up the cabbage and adjourn'd the cause.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
EURIPIDES. (Book ii. § 57, p. 101.)
Bright wanderer through the eternal way,
Has sight so sad as that which now
Bedims the splendour of thy ray,
E'er bid the streams of sorrow flow?
Here, side by side, in death are laid
Two darling boys, their mother's care;
And here their sister, youthful maid,
Near her who nursed and thought them fair.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
MENANDER. (Book ii. § 86, p. 119.)
A bore it is to take pot-luck, with welcome frank and hearty,
All at the board round which is placed a downright family-party.
Old daddy seizes first the cup, and so begins his story,
And lectures on, with saws and jokes—a Mentor in his glory.
The mother next, and grandam too, confound you with their babble;
And worse and worse, the grandam's sire will mump, and grunt, and
gabble;
His daughter with her toothless gums, lisps out, "The dear old
fellow!"
And round and round the dotard nods, as fast as he grows mellow.
—ANON.
_The same._
From family repasts,
Where all the guests claim kin,—nephews and uncles,
And aunts and cousins to the fifth remove!
First you've the sire, a goblet in his hand,
And he deals out his dole of admonition;—
Then comes my lady-mother, a mere homily
Reproof and exhortation!—at her heels
The aunt slips in a word of pious precept.
The grandsire last—a bass voice among trebles,
Thunder succeeding whispers, fires away.
Each pause between, his aged partner fills
With "lack-a-day!" "good sooth!" and "dearest dear!"
The dotard's head meantime for ever nods,
Encouraging her drivelling.—ANON.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHANES. (Book iii. § 7, p. 126.)
There is no kind of fig, Whether little or big, Save the Spartan, which
here does not grow; But this, though quite small, Swells with hatred
and gall, A stern foe to the Demos, I trow.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
STESICHORUS. (Book iii. § 21, p. 136.)
Many a yellow quince was there
Piled upon the regal chair,
Many a verdant myrtle-bough,
Many a rose-crown featly wreathed,
With twisted violets that grow
Where the breath of spring has breathed.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ANTIGONUS. (Book iii. § 22, p. 137.)
O where is the maiden, sweeter far
Than the ruddy fruits of Ephyrè are,
When the winds of summer have o'er them blown,
And their cheeks with autumn's gold have been strown!
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book iii. § 27, p. 140.)
_A._ 'Twould be absurd to speak of what's to eat,
As if you thought of such things; but, fair maid,
Take of these apples.
_B._ Oh, how beautiful!
_A._ They are, indeed, since hither they but lately
Have come from the great king.
_B._ By Phosphoros!
I could have thought them from the Hesperian bowers,
Where th' apples are of gold.
_A._ There are but three.
_B._ The beautiful is nowhere plentiful.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHANES. (Book iii. § 33, p. 145.)
Then every soul of them sat open-mouth'd,
Like roasted oysters gaping in a row.—J. H. FRERE.
* * * * *
ARCHESTRATUS. (Book iii. § 44, p. 154.)
For mussels you must go to Ænos; oysters
You'll find best at Abydos. Parion
Rejoices in its urchins; but if cockles
Gigantic and sweet-tasted you would eat,
A voyage must be made to Mitylene,
Or the Ambracian Gulf, where they abound
With many other dainties. At Messina,
Near to the Faro, are pelorian conchs,
Nor are those bad you find near Ephesos;
For Tethyan oysters, go to Chalcedon;
But for the Heralds, may Zeus overwhelm them
Both in the sea and in the agora!
Aye, all except my old friend Agathon,
Who in the midst of Lesbian vineyards dwells.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
DAMOXENUS. (Book iii. § 60, p. 170.)
_Master Cook._ Behold in me a pupil of the school
Of the sage Epicurus.
_Friend._ Thou a sage!
_M. C._ Ay! Epicurus too was sure a cook,
And knew the sovereign good. Nature his study,
While practice perfected his theory.
Divine philosophy alone can teach
The difference which the fish _Glociscus_ shows
In winter and in summer: how to learn
Which fish to choose, when set the Pleiades,
And at the solstice. 'Tis change of seasons
Which threats mankind, and shakes their changeful frame.
This dost thou comprehend? Know, what we use
In season, is most seasonably good!
_Friend._ Most learned cook, who can observe these canons?
_M. C._ And therefore phlegm and colics make a man
A most indecent guest. The aliment
Dress'd in my kitchen is true aliment;
Light of digestion easily it passes;
The chyle soft-blending from the juicy food
Repairs the solids.
_Friend._ Ah! the chyle! the solids!
Thou new Democritus! thou sage of medicine!
Versed in the mysteries of the Iatric art!
_M. C._ Now mark the blunders of our vulgar cooks.
See them prepare a dish of various fish,
Showering profuse the pounded Indian grain,
An overpowering vapour, gallimaufry,
A multitude confused of pothering odours!
But, know, the genius of the art consists
To make the nostrils feel each scent distinct;
And not in washing plates to free from smoke.
I never enter in my kitchen, I!
But sit apart, and in the cool direct,
Observant of what passes, scullions' toil.
_Friend._ What dost thou there?
_M. C._ I guide the mighty whole;
Explore the causes, prophesy the dish.
'Tis thus I speak: "Leave, leave that ponderous ham;
Keep up the fire, and lively play the flame
Beneath those lobster patties; patient here,
Fix'd as a statue, skim, incessant skim.
Steep well this small Glociscus in its sauce,
And boil that sea-dog in a cullender;
This eel requires more salt and marjoram;
Roast well that piece of kid on either side
Equal; that sweetbread boil not over much."
'Tis thus, my friend, I make the concert play.
_Friend._ O man of science! 'tis thy babble kills!
_M. C._ And then no useless dish my table crowds;
Harmonious ranged, and consonantly just.
_Friend._ Ha! what means this?
_M. C._ Divinest music all!
As in a concert instruments resound,
My order'd dishes in their courses chime.
So Epicurus dictated the art
Of sweet voluptuousness, and ate in order,
Musing delighted o'er the sovereign good!
Let raving Stoics in a labyrinth
Run after virtue; they shall find no end.
Thou, what is foreign to mankind, abjure.—D'ISRAELI.
* * * * *
BATO.[146] (Book iii. § 61, p. 171.)
_Father._ Thou hast destroy'd the morals of my son,
And turn'd his mind, not so disposed, to vice,
Unholy pedagogue! With morning drams,
A filthy custom, which he caught from thee,
Clean from his former practice, now he saps
His youthful vigour. Is it thus you school him?
_Sophist._ And if I did, what harms him? Why complain you?
He does but follow what the wise prescribe,
The great voluptuous law of Epicurus,
Pleasure, the best of all good things on earth;
And how but thus can pleasure be obtained?
_Father._ Virtue will give it him.
_Sophist._ And what but virtue
Is our philosophy? When have you met
One of our sect flush'd and disguised with wine?
Or one, but one of those you tax so roundly,
On whom to fix a fault?
_Father._ Not one, but all,
All, who march forth with supercilious brow
High arch'd with pride, beating the city-rounds,
Like constables in quest of rogues and outlaws,
To find that prodigy in human nature,
A wise and perfect man! What is your science
But kitchen-science? wisely to descant
Upon the choice bits of a savoury carp,
And prove by logic that his _summum bonum_
Lies in his head; there you can lecture well,
And, whilst your grey-beards wag, the gaping guest
Sits wondering with a foolish face of praise.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book iii. § 62, p. 172.)
O, what a fool is he,
Who dreams about stability, or thinks,
Good easy dolt! that aught in life's secure!
Security!—either a loan is ask'd;
Then house and all that it contains are gone
At one fell sweep—or you've a suit to meet,
And Law and Ruin ever are twin-brothers.—
Art named to a general's post? fines, penalties,
And debts upon the heels of office follow.
Do the stage-charges fall upon you? good:
The chorus must go clad in spangled robes,
Yourself may pace in rags. Far happier he
Who's named a trierarch:—he buys a halter
And wisely balks at once th' expensive office.—
Sleeping or waking, on the sea or land,
Among your menials or before your foes,
Danger and Insecurity are with you.
The very table, charged with viands, is
Mere mock'ry oft;—gives promise to the eye,
And breaks it to the lip. Is there nought safe then?
Yes, by the gods,—that which has pass'd the teeth,
And is in a state of deglutition: reckon
Yourself secure of that, and that alone:
All else is fleet, precarious, insecure.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book iii. § 86, p. 194.)
_A._ I must have all accounted for:
Item by item, charge by charge; or look ye:—
There's not a stiver to be had from me.
_B._ 'Tis but a fair demand.
_A._ What hoa! within there! [_Calls to his servant._]
My style and tablets. (_Style and tablets are brought._)
Now, Sir, to your reckoning.
_B._ To salt a herring—price—two farthings—
_A._ Good. [_Writes._]
_B._ To mussels—three—
_A._ No villany as yet. [_Writes._]
_B._ Item, to eels—one obol—
_A._ Still you're guiltless. [_Writes._]
_B._ Next came the radishes; yourselves allow'd—
_A._ And we retract not—they were delicate
And good.
_B._ For these I touch two obols.
_A._ [_Aside._] Tush!
The praise is in the bill—better our palates
Had been less riotous—onward.
_B._ To a rand
Of tunny-fish—this charge will break a sixpence.
_A._ Dealst on the square? no filching?—no purloining?—
_B._ No, not a doit—thou'rt green, good fellow, green;
And a mere novice yet in market-prices.
Why, man, the palmer-worms have fix'd their teeth
Upon the kitchen-herbs.
_A._ Ergo, salt fish
Bears twice its usual price—call you that logic?
_B._ Nay, if you've doubts—to the fishmonger straight,—
He lives and will resolve them.—To a conger-eel—
Ten obols.
_A._ I have nothing to object:
Proceed.
_B._ Item, broil'd fish—a drachma.
_A._ Fie on't!—
I was a man, and here's the fever come
With double force.
_B._ There's wine too in the bill,
Bought when my masters were well half-seas over—
Three pitchers, at ten obols to the pitcher.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
MATRON.[147] (Book iv. § 13, p. 220.)
The feast, for cookery's various cates renown'd,
By Attic host bestow'd, O Muse! resound.
There too I went, with hunger in my train,
And saw the loaves by hundreds pour'd amain,
Beauteous to view, and vast beyond compare,
Whiter than snow, and sweet as wheaten fare.
* * * * *
Then all to pot-herbs stretch'd their hands in haste,
But various viands lured my nicer taste;
Choice bulbs, asparagus, and, daintier yet,
Fat oysters help my appetite to whet.
* * * * *
Like Thetis' self, the silver-footed dame—
Great Nereus' daughter, curly cuttle came;
Illustrious fish! that sole amid the brine
With equal ease can black and white divine;
There too I saw the Tityus of the main,
Huge conger—countless plates his bulk sustain.
And o'er nine boards he rolls his cumbrous train!
* * * * *
Right up stairs, down stairs, over high and low,
The cook, with shoulder'd dishes marches slow,
And forty sable pots behind him go.
* * * * *
With these appear'd the Salaminian bands,
Thirteen fat ducklings borne by servile hands;
Proudly the cook led on the long array,
And placed them where the Athenian squadrons lay.
* * * * *
When now the rage of hunger was represt,
And the pure lymph had sprinkled every guest,
Sweet lilied unguents brought one blooming slave,
And one from left to right fresh garlands gave;
With Lesbian wine the bowl was quick supplied,
Man vied with man to drain the racy tide;
Then groan'd the second tables laden high,
Where grapes and cool pomegranates please the eye,
The lusty apple, and the juicy pear—
Yet nought I touch'd, supinely lounging there;
But when the huge round cake of golden hue,
Ceres best offspring, met my raptured view,
No more these hands their eager grasp restrain,
How should such gift celestial tempt in vain?—D. K. SANDFORD.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book iv. § 58, p. 264.)
How fertile in new tricks is Chærephon,
To sup scot-free and everywhere find welcome!
Spies he a broker's door with pots to let?
There from the earliest dawn he takes his stand,
To see whose cook arrives; from him he learns
Who 'tis that gives the feast,—flies to the house,
Watches his time, and, when the yawning door
Gapes for the guests, glides in among the first.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ANAXIPPUS. (Book iv. § 68, p. 271.)
Soup-ladle, flesh-hook, mortar, spit,
Bucket and haft, with tool to fit,
Such knives as oxen's hides explore,
Add dishes, be they three or more.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
TIMOCLES. (Book vi. § 2, p. 354.)
Nay, my good friend, but hear me! I confess
Man is the child of sorrow, and this world,
In which we breathe, hath cares enough to plague us;
But it hath means withal to soothe these cares,
And he, who meditates on other's woes,
Shall in that meditation lose his own:
Call then the tragic poet to your aid,
Hear him, and take instruction from the stage:
Let Telephus appear; behold a prince,
A spectacle of poverty and pain,
Wretched in both.—And what if you are poor?
Are you a demi-god? are you the son
Of Hercules? begone! complain no more.
Doth your mind struggle with distracting thoughts?
Do your wits wander? are you mad? Alas!
So was Alcmæon, whilst the world adored
His father as their God. Your eyes are dim;
What then? the eyes of Œdipus were dark,
Totally dark. You mourn a son; he's dead;
Turn to the tale of Niobe for comfort,
And match your loss with hers. You're lame of foot;
Compare it with the foot of Philoctetes,
And make no more complaint. But you are old,
Old and unfortunate; consult Oëneus;
Hear what a king endured, and learn content.
Sum up your miseries, number up your sighs,
The tragic stage shall give you tear for tear,
And wash out all afflictions but its own.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
_From the same._ (Book vi. § 3, p. 355.)
Bid me say anything rather than this;
But on this theme Demosthenes himself
Shall sooner check the torrent of his speech
Than I—Demosthenes! that angry orator,
That bold Briareus, whose tremendous throat,
Charged to the teeth with battering-rams and spears,
Beats down opposers; brief in speech was he,
But, crost in argument, his threat'ning eyes
Flash'd fire, whilst thunder vollied from his lips.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book vi. § 3, p. 355.)
I once believed the Gorgons fabulous:
But in the agora quickly changed my creed,
And turn'd almost to stone, the pests beholding
Standing behind the fish stalls. Forced I am
To look another way when I accost them,
Lest if I saw the fish they ask so much for,
I should at once grow marble.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
_The same._
I must confess that hitherto I deem'd
The Gorgons a mere fable, but just now
I stepp'd into the fish-market, and there
I saw, at once, the dread reality;
And I was petrified, indeed, so much,
That, to converse with them, I turn'd my back
For fear of being turn'd to stone; they ask'd
A price so high and so extravagant
For a poor despicable paltry fish.—ANON.
* * * * *
AMPHIS. (Book vi. § 5, p. 356.)
The general of an army is at least
A thousand times more easy of access,
And you may get an answer quicker too
Than from these cursed fishmongers: ask them
The price of their commodity, they hold
A wilful silence, and look down with shame,
Like Telephus; with reason good; for they
Are, one and all, without exception,
A set of precious scoundrels. Speak to one,
He'll measure you from top to toe, then look
Upon his fish, but still no answer give.
Turn o'er a polypus, and ask another
The price, he soon begins to swell and chafe,
And mutters out half-words between his teeth,
But nothing so distinct that you may learn
His real meaning—so many oboli;
But then the number you are still to guess,
The syllable is wilfully suppress'd,
Or left half utter'd. This you must endure,
And more, if you attend the fish-market.—ANON.
_The same._
Ten thousand times more easy 'tis to gain
Admission to a haughty general's tent,
And have discourse of him, than in the market
Audience to get of a cursed fishmonger.
If you draw near and say, How much, my friend,
Costs _this_ or _that_?—No answer. Deaf you think
The rogue must be, or stupid; for he heeds not
A syllable you say, but o'er his fish
Bends silently, like Telephos (and with good reason,
For his whole race he knows are cut-throats all).
Another minding not, or else not hearing,
Pulls by the legs a polypus. A third
With saucy carelessness replies: "Four oboli,
That's just the price. For this no less than eight.
Take it or leave it!"—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book vi. § 5, p. 356.)
When our victorious gen'rals knit their brows,
Assume a higher tone and loftier gait
Than common men, it scarcely moves my wonder—
Indeed 'tis natural that the commonwealth
Should give to public virtue just rewards—
They who have risk'd their lives to serve the state
Deserve its highest honours in return,
Place and precedence too above their fellows:
But I am choked with rage when I behold
These saucy fishmongers assume such airs,
Now throw their eyes disdainful down, and now
Lift their arch'd brows and wrinkle up their fronts—
"Say, at what price you sell this brace of mullets?"
"Ten oboli," they answer. "Sure you joke;
Ten oboli indeed! will you take eight?"
"Yes, if you choose but one."—"Come, come, be serious,
Nor trifle with your betters thus."—"Pass on,
And take your custom elsewhere." 'Tis enough
To move our bile to hear such insolence.—ANON.
_The same._
However, this is still endurable.
But when a paltry fishfag will look big,
Cast down his eyes affectedly, or bend
His eyebrows upwards like a full-strain'd bow,
I burst with rage. Demand what price he asks
For—say two mullets; and he answers straight
"Ten obols."—"Ten? That's dear: will you take eight?"
"Yes, if one fish will serve you."—"Friend, no jokes;
I am no subject for your mirth."—"Pass on, Sir!
And buy elsewhere."—Now tell me, is not this
Bitterer than gall?—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
DIPHILUS. (Book vi. §6, p. 356.)
I once believed the fishmongers at Athens
Were rogues beyond all others. 'Tis not so;
The tribe are all the same, go where you will,
Deceitful, avaricious, plotting knaves,
And rav'nous as wild-beasts. But we have one
Exceeds the rest in baseness, and the wretch
Pretends that he has let his hair grow long
In rev'rence to the gods. The varlet lies.
He bears the marks of justice on his forehead,
Which his locks hide, and therefore they are long.
Accost him thus—"What ask you for that pike?"
"Ten oboli," he answers—not a word
About the currency—put down the cash,
He then objects, and tells you that he meant
The money of Ægina. If there's left
A balance in his hands, he'll pay you down
In Attic oboli, and thus secures
A double profit by the exchange of both.—ANON.
_The same._
Troth, in my greener days I had some notion
That here at Athens only, rogues sold fish;
But everywhere, it seems, like wolf or fox
The race is treacherous by nature found.
However, we have one scamp in the agora
Who beats all others hollow. On his head
A most portentous fell of hair nods thick
And shades his brow. Observing your surprise,
He has his reasons pat; it grows forsooth
To form, when shorn, an offering to some god!
But that's a feint; 'tis but to hide the scars
Left by the branding-iron upon his forehead.
But, passing that, you ask perchance the price
Of a sea-wolf—"Ten oboli"—very good.
You count the money. "Oh, not those," he cries,
"Æginetan I meant." Still you comply.
But if you trust him with a larger piece,
And there be change to give; mark how the knave
Now counts in Attic coin, and thus achieves
A two-fold robbery in the same transaction!—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
XENARCHUS. (Book vi. § 6, p. 357.)
Poets indeed! I should be glad to know
Of what they have to boast. Invention—no!
They invent nothing, but they pilfer much,
Change and invert the order, and pretend
To pass it off for new. But fishmongers
Are fertile in resources, they excel
All our philosophers in ready wit
And sterling impudence. The law forbids,
And strictly too, to water their stale fish—
How do they manage to evade the fine?
Why thus—when one of them perceives the board
Begins to be offensive, and the fish
Look dry and change their colour, he begins
A preconcerted quarrel with his neighbour.
They come to blows;—he soon affects to be
Most desperately beaten, and falls down,
As if unable to support himself,
Gasping for breath;—another, who the while
(Knowing the secret) was prepared to act,
Seizes a jar of water, aptly placed,
And scatters a few drops upon his friend,
Then empties the whole vessel on the fish,
Which makes them look so fresh that you would swear
They were just taken from the sea,—ANON.
_The same._
Commend me for invention to the rogue
Who sells fish in the agora. He knows,—
In fact there's no mistaking,—that the law
Clearly and formally forbids the trick
Of reconciling stale fish to the nose
By constant watering. But if some poor wight
Detect him in the fact, forthwith he picks
A quarrel, and provokes his man to blows.
He wheels meanwhile about his fish, looks sharp
To catch the nick of time, reels, feigns a hurt:
And prostrate falls, just in the right position.
A friend placed there on purpose, snatches up
A pot of water, sprinkles a drop or two,
For form's sake, on his face, but by mistake,
As you must sure believe, pours all the rest
Full on the fish, so that almost you might
Consider them fresh caught.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book vi. § 7, p. 357.)
What miserable wretched things are fish!
They are not only doom'd to death, to be
Devour'd, and buried in the greedy maw
Of some voracious glutton, but the knaves
Who sell them leave them on their board to rot,
And perish by degrees, till having found
Some purblind customer, they pass to him
Their dead and putrid carcases; but he,
Returning home, begins to nose his bargain,
And soon disgusted, casts them out with scorn.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book vi. § 8, p. 358.)
The rich Aristonicus was a wise
And prudent governor; he made a law
To this intent, that every fishmonger,
Having once fix'd his price, if after that
He varied, or took less, he was at once
Thrown into prison, that the punishment
Due to his crimes, still hanging o'er his head,
Might be a check on his rapacity,
And make him ask a just and honest price,
And carry home his stale commodities.
This was a prudent law, and so enforced,
That youth or age might safely go to market
And bring home what was good at a fair price.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book VI. § 10, p. 359.)
I still maintain that fish do hold with men,
Living or dead, perpetual enmity.
For instance, now, a ship is overset,
As sometimes it may happen,—the poor wretches
Who might escape the dangers of the sea
Are swallow'd quick by some voracious fish.
If, on the other hand, the fishermen
Enclose the fish, and bring them safe to shore,
Dead as they are they ruin those who buy them,
For they are sold for such enormous sums
That our whole fortune hangs upon the purchase,
And he who pays the price becomes a beggar.—ANON.
_From the same._ (Book vi. § 12, p. 359.)
If one that's poor, and scarcely has withal
To clothe and feed him, shall at once buy fish,
And pay the money down upon the board,
Be sure that fellow is a rogue, and lives
By depredation and nocturnal plunder.
Let him who has been robb'd by night, attend
The fish-market at early dawn, and when
He sees a young and needy wretch appear,
Bargain with Micion for the choicest eels,
And pay the money, seize the caitiff straight,
And drag him to the prison without fear.—ANON.
_The same._
Mark you a fellow who, however scant
In all things else, hath still wherewith to purchase
Cod, eel, or anchovies, be sure i' the dark
He lies about the road in wait for travellers.
If therefore you've been robb'd o'ernight, just go
At peep of dawn to th' agora and seize
The first athletic, ragged vagabond
Who cheapens eels of Mikion. He, be sure,
And none but he's the thief: to prison with him!—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
DIPHILUS. (Book vi. § 12, p. 360.)
We have a notable good law at Corinth,
Where, if an idle fellow outruns reason,
Feasting and junketing at furious cost,
The sumptuary proctor calls upon him,
And thus begins to sift him:—You live well,
But have you well to live? You squander freely,
Have you the wherewithal? Have you the fund
For these out-goings? If you have, go on!
If you have not, we'll stop you in good time,
Before you outrun honesty; for he,
Who lives we know not how, must live by plunder;
Either he picks a purse, or robs a house,
Or is accomplice with some knavish gang,
Or thrusts himself in crowds to play th' Informer,
And put his perjured evidence to sale:
This a well-order'd city will not suffer:
Such vermin we expel.—_And you do wisely_:
_But what is this to me?_—Why, this it is:
Here we behold you every day at work,
Living forsooth! not as your neighbours live,
But richly, royally, ye gods!—Why, man,
We cannot get a fish for love or money,
You swallow the whole produce of the sea:
You've driven our citizens to browze on cabbage:
A sprig of parsley sets them all a-fighting,
As at the Isthmian games: if hare or partridge,
Or but a simple thrush comes to the market,
Quick at the word you snap him. By the gods!
Hunt Athens through, you shall not find a feather
But in your kitchen; and for wine, 'tis gold—
Not to be purchased: we may drink the ditches.—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
Wee have in Corinth this good Law in use;
If wee see any person keepe great cheere,
We make inquirie, Whether he doe worke,
Or if he have Revenues coming in?
If either, then we say no more of him.
But if the Charge exceed his Gaine or Rents,
He is forbidden to run on his course:
If he continue it, he pays a fine:
If he want wherewithal, he is at last
Taken by Sergeants and in prison cast.
For to spend much, and never to get ought,
Is cause of much disorder in the world.
One in the night-time filcheth from the flocks;
Another breaks a house or else a shop;
A third man gets a share his mouth to stop.
To beare a part in this good fellowship,
One feignes a suit his neighbor to molest,
Another must false witness beare with him:
But such a crue we utterly detest,
And banish from our citie like the pest.—MOLLE.
_The same._
Believe me, my good friend, such is the law
Long held at Corinth; when we see a man
Spending large sums upon the daintiest fish,
And living at a great expense, we ask
The means by which he can maintain the splendour.
If it appears that his possessions yield
A fund proportion'd to this costly charge,
'Tis well, he's not molested, and proceeds
T' enjoy that kind of life which he approves.
But if we find that he exceeds his means,
We first admonish him; if he persists,
We then proceed to punishment by fine.
If one who has no fortune to supply
E'en common wants, lives thus expensively,
Him we deliver to the common beadle
For corporal punishment.—ANON.
_The same._
We cannot get the smallest fish for money;
And for a bunch of parsley we must fight,
As 'twere the Isthmian games: then, should a hare
Make its appearance, 'tis at once caught up;
A partridge or a lark, by Jupiter!
We can't so much as see them on the wing,
And all on your account: then as for wine,
You've raised the price so high we cannot taste it.—ANON.
* * * * *
PHILIPPIDES. (Book vi. § 17, p. 363.)
It grieves me much to see the world so changed,
And men of worth, ingenious and well-born,
Reduced to poverty, while cunning knaves;
The very scum of the people, eat their fish,
Bought for two oboli, on plates of silver,
Weighing at least a mina; a few capers,
Not worth three pieces of brass-money, served
In lordly silver-dish, that weighs, at least,
As much as fifteen drachmas. In times past
A little cup presented to the Gods
Was thought a splendid offering; but such gifts
Are now but seldom seen,—and reason good,
For 'tis no sooner on the altar placed,
Than rogues are watching to purloin it thence.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book vi. § 28, p. 372.)
I'm ready, at the slightest call, to sup
With those who may think proper to invite me.
If there's a wedding in the neighbourhood,
I smell it out, nor scruple to be there
Sans invitation; then, indeed, I shine,
And make a full display of all my wit,
'Till the guests shake with laughter; I take care
To tickle well the master of the feast;
Should any strive to thwart my purpose, I
At once take fire, and load him with reproach
And bitter sarcasm; 'till at length, well fed,
And having drunk my fill, I stagger home.
No nimble link-boy guides my giddy steps,
But "through the palpable obscure, I grope
My uncouth way;" and if by chance I meet,
In their nocturnal rounds, the watch, I hail them
With soft and gentle speech; then thank the gods
That I've escaped so well, nor felt the weight
Of their hard fists, or their still harder staves.
At length, unhurt, I find myself at home,
And creep to my poor bed, where gentle sleep,
And pleasant dreams, inspired by generous wine,
Lock up my senses.—ANON.
* * * * *
DIPHILUS. (Book vi. § 29, p. 372.)
When I'm invited to a great man's board,
I do not feast my eyes by looking at
The costly hangings, painted ceiling, or
The rich Corinthian vases, but survey,
And watch with curious eye, the curling smoke
That rises from the kitchen. If it comes
In a strong current, straight, direct, and full,
I chuckle at the sight, and shake myself
For very joy; but if, oblique and small,
It rises slowly in a scanty volume,
I then exclaim, Sad meagre fare for me!
A lenten supper, and a bloodless meal.—ANON.
_The same._
Makes some rich squire
A banquet, and am I among the guests?
Mark me: I cast no idle eye of observation
On mouldings or on fretted roof: I deign not
With laudatory breath to ask, if hands
From Corinth form'd and fashion'd the wine-coolers:
These trouble not my cap.—I watch and note
(And with most deep intensity of vision),
What smoke the cook sends up: mounts it me full
And with alacrity and perpendicular?
All joy and transport I: I crow and clap
My wings for very ecstasy of heart!
Does it come sidelong, making wayward angles,
Embodied into no consistency?
I know the mournful signal well, and straight
Prepare me for a bloodless feast of herbs.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
EUPOLIS. (Book vi. § 30, p. 373.)
Mark now, and learn of me the thriving arts
By which we parasites contrive to live:
Fine rogues we are, my friend, (of that be sure,)
And daintily we gull mankind.—Observe!
First I provide myself a nimble thing
To be my page, a varlet of all crafts;
Next two new suits for feasts and gala-days,
Which I promote by turns, when I walk forth
To sun myself upon the public square:
There, if perchance I spy some rich dull knave,
Straight I accost him, do him reverence,
And, saunt'ring up and down, with idle chat
Hold him awhile in play; at every word
Which his wise worship utters, I stop short
And bless myself for wonder; if he ventures
On some vile joke, I blow it to the skies,
And hold my sides for laughter.—Then to supper,
With others of our brotherhood to mess
In some night-cellar on our barley-cakes,
And club invention for the next day's shift.—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
Of how we live, a sketch I'll give,
If you'll attentive be;
Of parasites, (we're thieves by rights,)
The flower and chief are we.
Now first we've all a page at call,
Of whom we're not the owners,
But who's a slave to some young brave,
Whom we flatter to be donors.
Two gala dresses each possesses,
And puts them on in turn;
As oft as he goes forth to see
Where he his meal can earn.
The Forum I choose, my nets to let loose,
It's there that I fish for my dinner;
The wealthy young fools I use as my tools,
Like a jolly good harden'd old sinner.
Whenever I see a fool suited for me,
In a trice at his side I appear,
And ne'er loose my hold, till by feeding or gold,
He has paid for my wants rather dear.
If he chance aught to speak, though stupid and weak,
Straightway it is praised to the skies;
His wit I applaud, treat him as my lord,
Win his heart by a good set of lies.
Ere comes our meal, my way I feel,
My patron's mind I study:
And as each knows, we choose all those
Whose brains are rather muddy.
We understand our host's command,
To make the table merry;
By witty jokes, satiric pokes,
To aid the juicy berry.
If we're not able, straight from the table
We're sent, elsewhere to dine;
You know poor Acastor incurr'd this disaster,
By being too free o'er his wine.
A dreadful joke scarce from him broke,
When for the slave each roars,
To come and fetch th' unhappy wretch,
And turn him out of doors.
On him was put, like any brute,
Round his throat an iron necklace;
And he was handed, to be branded,
To Œneus rough and reckless.—L. S.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book vi. § 31, p. 374.)
_A._ There are two sorts of parasites; the one
Of middle station, like ourselves, who are
Much noticed by the comic poets——
_B._ Ay,
But then the other sort, say, what of them?
_A._ They are of higher rank, and proud pretensions,
Provincial governors, who claim respect
By sober and grave conduct; and though sprung
From th' very dregs o' th' people, keep aloof,
Affect authority and state and rule,
And pride themselves on manners more severe
Than others, on whose beetling brow there sits
An awful frown, as if they would command
At least a thousand talents—all their boast!
These Nausinicus, you have seen, and judge
My meaning rightly.
_B._ I confess I do.
_A._ Yet they all move about one common centre;
Their occupations and their ends the same,
The sole contention, which shall flatter most.
But, as in human life, some are depress'd,
Whilst others stand erect on Fortune's wheel,
So fares it with these men; while some are raised
To splendid affluence, and wallow in
Luxurious indolence, their fellows starve,
Or live on scraps, and beg a scanty pittance,
To save their wretched lives.—ANON.
* * * * *
TIMOCLES. (Book vi. § 32, p. 374.)
Think you that I can hear the parasite
Abused? believe me, no; I know of none
Of greater worth, more useful to the state.
Whatever act is grateful to a friend,
Who is more ready to stand forth than he?
Are you in love, he'll stretch a point to serve you.
Whate'er you do, he's ready at your call,
To aid and to assist, as 'tis but just,
He thinks, to do such grateful service for
The patron who provides his daily meal.
And then he speaks so warmly of his friend!
You say for this he eats, and drinks scot-free;
Well, and what then? what hero or what god
Would disapprove a friend on such conditions?
But why thus linger out the day, to prove
That parasites are honour'd and esteem'd?
Is't not enough, they claim the same reward
That crowns the victor at the Olympic games,
To be supported at the public charge?
For wheresoe'er they diet at free cost,
That may be justly call'd the Prytaneum.—ANON.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book vi. § 33, p. 375.)
If duly weigh'd, this will, I think, be found
The parasite's true state and character,
The ready sharer of your life and fortunes.
It is against his nature to rejoice
At the misfortunes of his friends—his wish
Is to see all successful, and at ease;
He envies not the rich and the luxurious,
But kindly would partake of their excess,
And help them to enjoy their better fortune.
Ever a steady and a candid friend,
Not quarrelsome, morose, or petulant,
And knows to keep his passions in due bounds.
If you are cheerful, he will laugh aloud;
Be amorous, be witty, or what else
Shall suit your humour, he will be so too,
And valiant, if a dinner's the reward.—ANON.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHON. (Book vi. § 34, p. 376.)
If I'm at once forbid to eat or drink,
I'm a Tithymallus or Philippides.
If to drink water only, I'm a frog—
To feed on leaves and vegetable diet,
I am at once a very caterpillar—
Forbid the bath, I quarrel not with filth—
To spend the winter in the open air,
I am a blackbird; if to scorch all day,
And jest beneath the hot meridian sun,
Then I become a grasshopper to please you;
If neither to anoint with fragrant oil,
Or even to behold it. I am dust—
To walk with naked feet at early dawn,
See me a crane; but if forbid at night
To rest myself and sleep, I am transform'd
At once to th' wakeful night owl.—ANON.
_The same._
So gaunt they seem, that famine never made
Of lank Philippides so mere a shade:
Of salted tunny-fish their scanty dole;
Their beverage, like the frog's, a standing pool,
With now and then a cabbage, at the best
The leavings of the caterpillar's feast:
No comb approaches their dishevell'd hair,
To rout the long establish'd myriads there;
On the bare ground their bed, nor do they know
A warmer coverlid than serves the crow:
Flames the meridian sun without a cloud?
They bask like grasshoppers, and chirp as loud:
With oil they never even feast their eyes;
The luxury of stockings they despise,
But bare-foot as the crane still march along,
All night in chorus with the screech-owl's song.—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
For famishment direct, and empty fare,
I am your Tithymallus, your Philippides,
Close pictured to the life: for water-drinking,
Your very frog. To fret, and feed on leeks,
Or other garden-stuff, your caterpillar
Is a mere fool to me. Would ye have me abjure
All cleansing, all ablution? I'm your man—
The loathsom'st scab alive—nay, filth itself,
Sheer, genuine, unsophisticated filth.
To brave the winter with his nipping cold,
A houseless tenant of the open air,
See in me all the ousel. Is't my business,
In sultry summer's dry and parched season,
To dare the stifling heat, and prate the while
Mocking the noontide blaze? I am at once
The grasshopper: to abhor the mother'd oil?
I am the very dust to lick it up
And blind me to its use: to walk a-mornings
Barefoot? the crane: to sleep no wink? the bat.—BAILEY.
_The same._
In bearing hunger and in eating nothing,
I can assure you, you may reckon me
A Tithymallus or Philippides;
In drinking water I'm a very frog;
In loving thyme and greens—a caterpillar;
In hating Bagnios—a lump of dirt;
In living out of doors all winter-time—
A blackbird; in enduring sultry heat,
And chattering at noon—a grasshopper;
In neither using oil, nor seeing it—
A cloud of dust; in walking up and down
Bare-footed at the dawn of day—a crane;
In sleeping not one single jot—a bat.—WALSH.
* * * * *
EUBULUS. (Book vi. § 35, p. 376.)
He that invented first the scheme of sponging
On other men for dinner, was a sage
Of thorough democratic principles.
But may the wretch who asks a friend or stranger
To dine, and then requests he'll pay his club,
Be sent without a farthing into exile.—WALSH.
* * * * *
DIODORUS OF SINOPE. (Book vi. § 36, p. 377.)
I wish to show how highly dignified
This office of the parasite was held,
How sanction'd by the laws, of origin
Clearly divine; while other useful arts
Are but th' inventions of the human mind,
This stands preeminent the gift of gods,
For Jupiter the friend first practised it.
Whatever door was open to receive him,
Without distinction, whether rich or poor,
He enter'd without bidding; if he saw
The couch well spread, the table well supplied,
It was enough, he ate and drank his fill,
And then retired well satisfied, but paid
No reckoning to his host. Just so do I.
If the door opens, and the board is spread,
I step me in, though an unbidden guest,
Sit down with silent caution, and take care
To give no trouble to the friend that's near me;
When I have eat, and fill'd my skin with wine,
Like Jupiter the friend, I take my leave.
Thus was the office fair and honourable,
As you will freely own, by what succeeds.
Our city, which was ever used to pay
Both worship and respect to Hercules,
When sacrifices were to be prepared,
Chose certain parasites t' officiate,
In honour of the god, but did not make
This choice by lot, nor take the first that offer'd,
But from the higher ranks, and most esteem'd
Of all the citizens, they fix'd on twelve,
Of life and manners irreproachable,
Selected for this purpose. Thus at length
The rich, in imitation of these rites,
Adopted the same custom, chose them out
From th' herd of parasites, such as would suit
Their purpose best, to nourish and protect.
Unluckily, they did not fix upon
The best and most respectable, but on
Such wretches as would grossly flatter them,
Ready to say or swear to anything;
And should their patrons puff their fetid breath,
Tainted with onions, or stale horseradish,
Full in their faces, they would call't a breeze
From new-born violets, or sweet-scented roses;
And if still fouler air came from them, 'twas
A most delicious perfume, and inquiries
From whence it was procured.—Such practices
Have brought disgrace upon the name and office,
And what was honest and respectable
Is now become disgraceful and ignoble.—ANON.
_The same._
I'd have you better know this trade of ours:
'Tis a profession, sirs, to ravish admiration:
Its nursing-father is the Law; its birth
Derives from heaven. All other trades bear stamp
Of frail humanity upon them, mix'd,
I grant, with show of wisdom—but your parasite
Is sprung from Jove: and tell me, who in heaven
Is Jove's compeer? 'Tis he that under name
Of Philian, enters ev'ry mansion—own it
Who will, gentle or simple, prince or artisan:
Be't room of state or poverty's mean hovel,
He stands upon no points:—the couch is spread,
The table furnish'd—on't a goodly show
Of tempting dishes: what should he ask more?
He drops into a graceful attitude,
Calls like a lord about him, gorges greedily
The daintiest dish, washes it down with wine,
Then bilks his club, and quietly walks home.
I too am pieced with him in this respect,
And by the god my prudent course is fashion'd.
Is there a gala-day, and feast on foot,
With open door that offers invitation?
In walk I, silence for my only usher:
I fall into a chair with sweet composure,
(Why should my neighbour's peace be marr'd by noise?)
I dip my finger in whate'er's before me,
And having feasted ev'ry appetite
Up to a surfeit, I walk home with purse
Untouch'd—hath not a god done so before me?—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book vi. § 71, p. 404.)
_A._ You say you've pass'd much of your time in Cyprus.
_B._ All; for the war prevented my departure.
_A._ In what place chiefly, may I ask?
_B._ In Paphos;
Where I saw elegance in such perfection,
As almost mocks belief.
_A._ Of what kind, pray you?
_B._ Take this for one—The monarch, when he sups,
Is fann'd by living doves.
_A._ You make me curious
How this is to be done; all other questions
I will put by to be resolved in this.
_B._ There is a juice drawn from a Syrian tree,
To which your dove instinctively is wedded
With a most loving appetite; with this
The king anoints his temples, and the odour
No sooner captivates the silly birds,
Than straight they flutter round him, nay, would fly
A bolder pitch, so strong a love-charm draws them,
And perch, O horror! on his sacred crown,
If that such profanation were permitted
Of the bystanders, who, with reverend care,
Fright them away, till thus, retreating now,
And now advancing, they keep such a coil
With their broad vans, and beat the lazy air
Into so quick a stir, that in the conflict
His royal lungs are comfortably cool'd,
And thus he sups as Paphian monarchs should.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book vi. § 72, p. 405.)
I sigh'd for ease, and, weary of my lot,
Wish'd to exchange it: in this mood I stroll'd
Up to the citadel three several days;
And there I found a bevy of preceptors
For my new system, thirty in a group;
All with one voice prepared to tutor me—
Eat, drink, and revel in the joys of love!
For pleasure is the wise man's sovereign good.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES.
(Book vi. § 73, p. 405; § 33, p. 375; and § 35, p. 376.)
What art, vocation, trade or mystery,
Can match with your fine Parasite?—The Painter?
He! a mere dauber: a vile drudge the Farmer:
Their business is to labour, ours to laugh,
To jeer, to quibble, faith, Sirs! and to drink,
Aye, and to drink lustily. Is not this rare?
'Tis life, my life at least: the first of pleasures
Were to be rich myself; but next to this
I hold it best to be a Parasite,
And feed upon the rich. Now mark me right!
Set down my virtues one by one: Imprimis.
Good-will to all men—would they were all rich,
So might I gull them all: malice to none;
I envy no man's fortune, all I wish
Is but to share it: would you have a friend,
A gallant steady friend? I am your man:
No striker I, no swaggerer, no defamer,
But one to bear all these and still forbear:
If you insult, I laugh, unruffled, merry,
Invincibly good-humour'd still I laugh:
A stout good soldier I, valorous to a fault,
When once my stomach's up and supper served:
You know my humour, not one spark of pride,
Such and the same for ever to my friends:
If cudgell'd, molten iron to the hammer
Is not so malleable; but if I cudgel,
Bold as the thunder: is one to be blinded?
I am the lightning's flash: to be puff'd up?
I am the wind to blow him to the bursting:
Choked, strangled? I can do 't and save a halter:
Would you break down his doors? behold an earthquake:
Open and enter them? a battering-ram:
Will you sit down to supper? I'm your guest,
Your very _Fly_ to enter without bidding:
Would you move off? you'll move a well as soon:
I'm for all work, and though the job were stabbing,
Betraying, false-accusing, only say,
Do this! and it is done: I stick at nothing;
They call me Thunder-bolt for my despatch;
Friend of my friends am I: let actions speak me;
I'm much too modest to commend myself.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
PHERECRATES. (Book vi. §§ 96, 97, pp. 423, 424.)
The days of Plutus were the days of gold;
The season of high feeding, and good cheer:
Rivers of goodly beef and brewis ran
Boiling and bubbling through the streaming streets,
With islands of fat dumplings, cut in sops
And slippery gobbets, moulded into mouthfuls,
That dead men might have swallow'd; floating tripes,
And fleets of sausages, in luscious morsels,
Stuck to the banks like oysters: here and there,
For relishers, a salt-fish season'd high
Swam down the savoury tide: when soon behold!
The portly gammon, sailing in full state
Upon his smoking platter, heaves in sight,
Encompass'd with his bandoliers like guards,
And convoy'd by huge bowls of frumenty,
That with their generous odours scent the air.
—You stagger me to tell of these good days,
And yet to live with us on our hard fare,
When death's a deed as easy as to drink.
If your mouth waters now, what had it done,
Could you have seen our delicate fine thrushes
Hot from the spit, with myrtle-berries cramm'd,
And larded well with celandine and parsley,
Bob at your hungry lips, crying—Come eat me!
Nor was this all; for pendent over-head
The fairest choicest fruits in clusters hung;
Girls too, young girls just budding into bloom,
Clad in transparent vests, stood near at hand
To serve us with fresh roses, and full cups
Of rich and fragrant wine, of which one glass
No sooner was despatch'd, than straight behold!
Two goblets, fresh and sparkling as the first,
Provoked us to repeat the increasing draught.
Away then with your ploughs, we need them not,
Your scythes, your sickles, and your pruning-hooks!
Away with all your trumpery at once!
Seed-time and harvest-home and vintage wakes—
Your holidays are nothing worth to us.
Our rivers roll with luxury, our vats
O'erflow with nectar, which providing Jove
Showers down by cataracts; the very gutters
From our house-tops spout wine, vast forests wave,
Whose very leaves drop fatness, smoking viands
Like mountains rise.—All nature's one great feast.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
PHILEMON. (Book vii. § 32, p. 453.)
How strong is my desire 'fore earth and heaven,
To tell how daintily I cook'd his dinner
'Gainst his return! By all Athena's owls!
'Tis no unpleasant thing to hit the mark
On all occasions. What a fish had I—
And ah! how nicely fried! Not all bedevill'd
With cheese, or brown'd atop, but though well done,
Looking alive, in its rare beauty dress'd.
With skill so exquisite the fire I temper'd,
It seem'd a joke to say that it was cook'd.
And then, just fancy now you see a hen
Gobbling a morsel much too big to swallow;
With bill uplifted round and round she runs
Half-choking; while the rest are at her heels
Clucking for shares. Just so 'twas with my soldiers;
The first who touch'd the dish upstarted he
Whirling round in a circle like the hen,
Eating and running; but his jolly comrades,
Each a fish worshipper, soon join'd the dance,
Laughing and shouting, snatching some a bit,
Some missing, till like smoke the whole had vanish'd.
Yet were they merely mud-fed river dabs:
But had some splendid scaros graced my pan,
Or Attic glaucisk, or, O saviour Zeus!
Kapros from Argos, or the conger-eel,
Which old Poseidon exports to Olympus,
To be the food of gods, why then my guests
Had rivall'd those above. I have, in fact,
The power to lavish immortality
On whom I please, or, by my potent art,
To raise the dead, if they but snuff my dishes!—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
HEGESIPPUS. (Book vii. § 36, p. 455.)
_A._ I know it, my good friend, much has been said,
And many books been written, on the art
Of cookery; but tell me something new,
Something above the common, nor disturb
My brain with what I've heard so oft before.
_B._ Peace, and attend, you shall be satisfied—
For I have raised myself, by due degrees,
To the perfection of the art; nor have
I pass'd the last two years, since I have worn
The apron, with so little profit, but
Have given my mind to study all its parts,
T' apply that knowledge to its proper use;
So as to mark the different sorts of herbs;
By proper seas'ning, to give fish the best
And highest relish; and of lentils too,
To note the several sorts. But to the point:
When I am call'd to serve a funeral supper,
The mourners just return'd, silent and sad,
Clothed in funereal habits—I but raise
The cover of my pot, and every face
Assumes a smile, the tears are wash'd away;
Charm'd with the grateful flavour, they believe
They are invited to a wedding feast——
_A._ What, and give such effect, from a poor dish
Of miserable fish, and lentils?——
_B._ Ay;
But this the prelude only, not worth noting;
Let me but have the necessary means,
A kitchen amply stored, and you shall see,
That, like enchantment, I will spread around
A charm as powerful as the siren's voice;
That not a creature shall have power to move
Beyond the circle, forcibly detain'd
By the delicious odour; and should one
Attempt to draw yet nearer, he will stand
Fix'd like a statue, with his mouth wide open,
Inhaling with each breeze the precious steam,
Silent and motionless; till some good friend,
In pity to his fate, shall stop his nostrils,
And drag him thence by force——
_A._ You are indeed
A master of the art——
_B._ You know not yet
The worth of him you speak to—look on those
Whom you see seated round, not one of them
But would his fortune risk to make me his.—ANON.
* * * * *
DIPHILUS. (Book vii. § 39, p. 458.)
'Tis not my custom to engage myself,
Till first I know how I'm to be employ'd,
And whether plenty is to crown the board.
I first inquire by whom the feast is given,
Who are the guests, and what the kind of fare;
For you must know I keep a register
Of different ranks, that I may judge at once
Whom to refuse, and where to offer service.
For instance now, with the seafaring tribe.
A captain just escaped from the rough sea,
Who, fearing shipwreck, cut away his mast,
Unshipp'd his rudder, or was forced to throw
Part of his loading overboard, now comes
To sacrifice on his arrival; him
I cautiously avoid: and reason good;
No credit can be gain'd by serving him,
For he does nothing for the sake of pleasure,
But merely to comply with custom; then
His habits are so economical,
He calculates beforehand the expense.
And makes a nice division of the whole
Between himself and his ship's company,
So that each person eats but of his own.
Another, just three days arrived in port,
Without or wounded mast or shatter'd sail,
With a rich cargo from Byzantium;
He reckons on his ten or twelve per cent.
Clear profit of adventure, is all joy,
All life, all spirits, chuckles o'er his gain,
And looks abroad, like a true sailor, for
Some kind and tender-hearted wench, to share
His happy fortunes, and is soon supplied
By the vile pimps that ply about the port.
This is the man for me; him I accost,
Hang on his steps, and whisper in his ear,
"Jove the preserver," nor withdraw my suit,
Till he has fairly fix'd me in his service.
This is my practice.—If I see some youth
Up to the ears in love, who spends his time
In prodigality and wild expense,
Him I make sure of.—But the cautious man,
Who calls a meeting at a joint expense,
Collects the symbols, and deposits them
Safe in his earthen pot; he may call loud,
And pull my robe, he'll not be heard, I pay
No heed to such mean wretches, for no gain
But blows can be obtain'd by serving them;
Though you work hard to please them night and day,
If you presume to ask such fellow for
The wages you have earn'd, he frowns, and cries,
"Bring me the pot, you varlet;" then bawls out,
"The lentils wanted vinegar;"—again
Demand your money, "Wretch," he loudly cries,
"Be silent, or I'll make you an example
For future cooks to mend their manners by."
More I could tell, but I have said enough.
_B._ You need not fear the service I require,
'Tis for a set of free and easy girls,
Who live hard by, and wish to celebrate
Gaily the feast of their beloved Adonis.
She who invites is a right merry lass,
And nothing will be spared: therefore be quick,
Tuck up your robe, and come away with me.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book viii. § 15, p. 532.)
Talk not to me of schools and trim academies,
Of music or sage meetings held at Pylus—
I'll hear no more of them: mere sugar'd words
Which melt as you pronounce them. Fill your cup
And pledge your neighbour in a flowing bumper.
This sums my doctrine whole: cocker your genius—
Feast it with high delights, and mark it be not
Too sad—I know no pleasure but the belly;
'Tis kin, 'tis genealogy to me:
I own no other sire nor lady-mother.
For virtue—'tis a cheat: your embassies—
Mere toys: office and army sway—boy's rattles.
They are a sound—a dream—an empty bubble;
Our fated day is fix'd, and who may cheat it?
Nought rests in perpetuity; nor may we
Call aught our own, save what the belly gives
A local habitation: for the rest—
What's Codrus? dust. What Pericles? a clod.
And noble Cymon?—tut, my feet walk over him.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
MACHON. (Book viii. § 26, p. 538.)
Of all fish-eaters
None sure excell'd the lyric bard Philoxenus.
'Twas a prodigious twist! At Syracuse
Fate threw him on the fish call'd "Many-feet."
He purchased it and drest it; and the whole,
Bate me the head, form'd but a single swallow.
A crudity ensued—the doctor came,
And the first glance inform'd him things went wrong.
And "Friend," quoth he, "if thou hast aught to set
In order, to it straight;—pass but seven hours,
And thou and life must take a long farewell."
"I've nought to do," replied the bard: "all's right
And tight about me—nothing's in confusion—
Thanks to the gods! I leave a stock behind me
Of healthy dithyrambics, fully form'd,
A credit to their years;—not one among them
Without a graceful chaplet on his head:—
These to the Muses' keeping I bequeath,
(We long were fellow-nurslings,) and with them
Be Bacchus and fair Venus in commission.—
Thus far, Sir, for my testament:—for respite,
I look not for it, mark, at Charon's hand,
(Take me, I would be understood to mean
Timotheus' Charon,—him in the Niobe:)
I hear his voice this moment—"Hip! halloo!
To ship, to ship," he cries: the swarthy Destinies
(And who must not attend their solemn bidding?)
Unite their voices.—I were loth, howe'er,
To troop with less than all my gear about me;—
Good doctor, be my helper then to what
Remains of that same blessed Many-feet!—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
PHŒNIX. (Book viii. § 59, p. 566.)
Lords and ladies, for your ear,
We have a petitioner.
Name and lineage would you know?—
'Tis Apollo's child, the crow;
Waiting till your hands dispense
Gift of barley, bread or pence.
Be it but a lump of salt;
His is not the mouth to halt.
Nought that's proffer'd he denies;
Long experience makes him wise.
Who to-day gives salt, he knows,
Next day fig or honey throws.—
Open, open gate and door:
Mark! the moment we implore,
Comes the daughter of the squire,
With such figs as wake desire.—
Maiden, for this favour done
May thy fortunes, as they run,
Ever brighten—be thy spouse
Rich and of a noble house;
May thy sire in aged ease
Nurse a boy who calls thee mother:
And his grandam on her knees
Rock a girl who calls him brother;—
Kept as bride in reservation
For some favour'd near relation.—
But enough now: I must tread
Where my feet and eyes are led;
Dropping at each door a strain,
Let me lose my suit or gain.
Then search, worthy gentles, the cupboard's close nook:
To the lord, and still more to the lady we look:
Custom warrants the suit—let it still then bear sway;
And your crow, as in duty most bounden, shall pray.—MITCHELL.
_The same._
Good people, a handful of barley bestow
On the bearers about of the sable crow—
Apollo's daughter she—
But if the barley-heap wax low,
Still kindly let your bounty flow,
And of the yellow grains that grow
On the wheaten stalk be free.
Or a well-kneaded loaf or an obolos give,
Or what you will, for the crow must live.
If the gods have been bountiful to you to-day,
Oh, say not to her for whom we sing,
Say not, we implore you, nay,
To the bird of the cloudy wing.
A grain of salt will please her well,
And whoso this day that bestows,
May next day give (for who can tell?)
A comb from which the honey flows.
But come, come, what need we say more?
Open the door, boy, open the door,
For Plutus has heard our prayers.
And see, through the porch, a damsel, as sweet
As the winds that play round the flowery feet
Of Ida, comes the crow to meet,
And a basket of figs she bears.
Oh, may this maiden happy be,
And from care and sorrow free;
Let her all good fortune find,
And a husband rich and kind.
And when her parents have grown old,
Let her in her father's arms
Place a boy as fair as she,
With the ringlets all of gold,
And, upon her mother's knee,
A maiden deck'd with all her charms.
But I from house to house must go,
And wherever my eyes by my feet are borne,
To the muse at night and morn
For those who do or don't bestow,
The mellow words of song shall flow.
Come then, good folks, your plenty share;
O give, my prince! and maiden fair,
Be bountiful to-day.
Sooth, custom bids ye all to throw
Whole handfulls to the begging crow;
At least give something; say not, No,
And we will go our way.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
CLEOBULUS. (Book viii. § 60, p. 567.)
The swallow is come, and with her brings
A year with plenty overflowing;
Freely its rich gifts bestowing,
The loveliest of lovely springs.
She is come, she is come,
To her sunny home;
And white is her breast as a beam of light,
But her back and her wings are as black as night.
Then bring forth your store,
Bring it out to the door,
A mass of figs, or a stoop of wine,
Cheese, or meal, or what you will,
Whate'er it be we'll not take it ill:
Even an egg will not come amiss,
For the swallow's not nice
When she wishes to dine.
Come, what shall we have? Say, what shall it be?
For we will not go,
Though time doth flee,
Till thou answerest Yes, or answerest No.
But if thou art churlish we'll break down the gate,
And thy pretty wife we'll bear away;
She is small, and of no great weight.
Open, open, then we say.
Not old men, but boys are we,
And the swallow says, "Open to me."—J. A. ST. JOHN.
_The same._
The swallow, the swallow has burst on the sight,
He brings us gay seasons of vernal delight;
His back it is sable, his belly is white.
Can your pantry nought spare,
That his palate may please,
A fig—or a pear—
Or a slice of rich cheese?
Mark, he bars all delay:
At a word, my friend, say,
Is it yes,—is it nay?
Do we go?—do we stay?—
One gift and we're gone:
Refuse, and anon
On your gate and your door
All our fury we pour.
Or our strength shall be tried
On your sweet little bride:
From her seat we will tear her;
From her home we will bear her:
She is light, and will ask
But small hands to the task.—
Let your bounty then lift
A small aid to our mirth;
And whatever the gift,
Let its size speak its worth.
The swallow, the swallow
Upon you doth wait:
An almsman and suppliant
He stands at your gate:
Set open, set open
Your gate and your door;
Neither giants nor grey-beards,—
We your bounty implore.—MITCHELL.
_The same._
The swallow's come, winging
His way to us here!
Fair hours is he bringing,
And a happy new year!
White and black
Are his belly and back.
Give him welcome once more,
With figs from your store,
With wine in its flasket,
And cheese in its basket,
And eggs,—ay, and wheat if we ask it.
Shall we go or receive? yes, we'll go, if you'll give;
But, if you refuse us, we never will leave.
We'll tear up the door,
And the lintel and floor;
And your wife, if you still demur—
She is little and light—we will come to-night
And run away e'en with her.
But if you will grant
The presents we want,
Great good shall come of it,
And plenty of profit!
Come, throw open free
Your doors to the swallow!
Your children are we,
Not old beggars, who follow.—E. B. C.
* * * * *
EUPHRON. (Book ix. § 21, p. 595.)
Carian! time well thy ambidextrous part,
Nor always filch. It was but yesterday,
Blundering, they nearly caught thee in the fact;
None of thy balls had livers, and the guests,
In horror, pierced their airy emptiness.
Not even the brains were there, thou brainless hound!
If thou art hired among the middling class,
Who pay thee freely, be thou honourable!
But for this day, where now we go to cook,
E'en cut the master's throat for all I care;
"A word to th' wise," and show thyself my scholar!
There thou may'st filch and revel; all may yield
Some secret profit to thy sharking hand.
'Tis an old miser gives a sordid dinner,
And weeps o'er every sparing dish at table;
Then if I do not find thou dost devour
All thou canst touch, e'en to the very coals,
I will disown thee! Lo! old Skin-flint comes;
In his dry eyes what parsimony stares!—D'ISRAELI.
* * * * *
SOSIPATER. (Book ix. § 22, p. 595.)
_A._ If you consider well, my Demylus,
Our art is neither low nor despicable;
But since each rude and untaught blockhead dares
Present himself as cook profess'd, the art
Has sunk in estimation, nor is held
In that respect and honour as of old.—
Imagine to yourself a cook indeed,
Versed from his infancy in all the arts
And mysteries of his trade; a person, too,
Of shining talents, well instructed in
The theory and practice of his art;
From such a one you will be taught to prize
And value as you ought, this first of arts.
There are but three of any character
Now living: Boidion is one, and then
Chariades, and, to crown all, myself;
The rest, depend upon it, are beneath
Your notice.
_B._ How is that?
_A._ Believe me, truth;
We three are the supporters of the school
Of Sicyon; he, indeed, was prince of cooks,
And as a skill'd professor, taught us first
The motion of the stars, and the whole scheme
And science of astrology; he then
Inform'd us of the rules of architecture,
And next instructed us in physics, and
The laws of motion, and th' inventions rare
Of natural philosophy; this done,
He lectured in the military art.
Having obtain'd this previous knowledge, he
Began to lead us to the elements
Of cookery.
_B._ Can what you say be truth,
Or do you jest?
_A._ Most certainly 'tis true;
And while the boy is absent at the market,
I will just touch upon the subject, which,
As time shall serve hereafter, we may treat
More largely at our ease.
_B._ Apollo, lend
Thy kind assistance, for I've much to hear.
_A._ First, then, a perfect and accomplish'd cook
Should be well skill'd in meteorology;
Should know the motions of the stars, both when
They rise, and when again they set; and how
The planets move within their several orbits;
Of the sun's course, when he prolongs the day,
Or sets at early hour, and brings in night;
His place i' the Zodiac; for as these revolve
All aliments are savour'd, or to please
And gratify the taste, or to offend
And pall the appetite: he who knows this
Has but to mind the season of the year,
And he may decorate his table with
The choicest viands, of the highest relish.
But he who, ignorant of this, pretends
To give directions for a feast, must fail.
Perhaps it may excite your wonder, how
The rules of architecture should improve
The art of cookery?
_B._ I own it does.
_A._ I will convince you, then. You must agree,
That 'tis a most important point to have
The chimney fix'd just in its proper place;
That light be well diffused throughout the kitchen;
That you may see how the wind blows, and how
The smoke inclines, which, as it leans to this
Or t' other quarter, a good cook knows well
To take advantage of the circumstance,
And make it favourable to his art.
Then military tactics have their use;
And this the learn'd professor knows, and like
A prudent general, marshals out his force
In proper files, for order governs all;
He sees each dish arranged upon the board
With due decorum, in its proper place,
And borne from thence in the same order, too;
No hurry, no confusion; his quick eye
Discovers at a glance if all is right;
Knows how to suit the taste of every guest,
If such a dish should quickly be removed,
And such another occupy its place.
To one serves up his food quite smoking hot,
And to another moderately warm,
Then to a third quite cold, but all in order,
And at the moment, as he gives the word.
This knowledge is derived, as you perceive,
From strict attention to the rules of art
And martial discipline.—Would you know more?
_B._ I am quite satisfied, and so farewell.—ANON.
_The same._
Such lore, he said, was requisite
For him who _thought_ beside his spit;
And undeterr'd by noise or heat,
Could calmly con each new receipt:
_Star knowledge_ first, for _meats_ are found
With rolling months to go the round;
And, as the sunshine's short or long,
Yield flavours exquisite or strong:
_Fishes_, 'tis known, as seasons vary,
Are delicate, or quite 'contrary;'
The tribes of _air_, like those of fin,
Change with each sign the sun goes in:
So that who only knows _what_ cheer,
Not when to buy's no cook, 'tis clear.
A cook who would his kitchen show,
Must also architecture know;
And see, howe'er it blows without,
His fire, like Vesta's, ne'er goes out;
Nor soot unsightly smudge the dish,
And spoil the _vol au vent_, or fish.
Nor only to the chimney looks
Our true Mageiros, king of cooks;
Beside the chimney, that his eye
May clearly view the day's supply,
He opes his window, in that spot
Where Sol peeps in, to show what's what:
The range, the dresser, ceiling, floor,
What cupboard, shelves, and where the door
Are his to plan; and if he be
The man I mean, to each he'll see.
Lastly, to marshal in array
The long-drawn line of man and tray:
The light-arm'd first, who nimbly bear
Their glittering _lances_ through the air;
And then the hoplitic troop to goad,
Who bend beneath their _chargers'_ load,
And, empty dishes ta'en away,
Place solid flank for new assay;
While heavy tables creak and groan
Under the χῶρος λοπάδων.
All this demands such skill, as wields
The veteran chief of hard-won fields!
Who rules the roast might rule the seas,
Or _baste_ his foes with equal ease;
And cooks who're equal to a _rout_,
Might take a town, or storm redout.—W. J. B.
_The same._
_Cook._ Our art is not entirely despicable,
If you examine it, good Demylus;
But the pursuit has been run down, and all
Almost, however stupid, say they're cooks;
And by such cheats as these the art is ruin'd.
For, if you take a veritable cook,
Well brought up to his business from a boy,
And skilful in the properties of things,
And knowing all the usual sciences;
Then the affair will seem quite different.
We are the only three remaining ones—
Chariades, and Bœdion, and I.
A fico for the rest!
_Gent._ What's that you say?
_Cook._ What, _I_? 'Tis we that keep up Sicon's school,
Who was the head and founder of the art.
He used to teach us first of all astronomy;
Next after that directly, architecture;
Confining all he said to natural science.
Then, to conclude, he lectured upon tactics.
All this he made us learn before the art.
_Gent._ Dear sir, d'ye mean to worry me to death?
_Cook._ No; while the slave is coming back from market,
I'll rouse your curiosity a little
Upon the subject, that we thus may seize
This most convenient time for conversation.
_Gent._ By Phœbus, but you'll find it a hard matter!
_Cook._ Listen, good sir. Firstly, the cook must know
"Astronomy,"—the settings and the risings
Of all the stars, and when the sun comes back
Both to the longest and the shortest day,
And through what constellations he is passing.
For nearly every kind of meat and food
Deceives, they say, a varying gout within it
During the revolution of the system.
So he that knows all this, will see the season,
And use each article just as he ought;
But he that does not, will be justly thump'd.
Again, perhaps, you wonder as to "architecture,"
How it can aid the art of cookery?
_Gent._ I know it. 'Tis most strange.
_Cook._ Yet I'll explain it.
To plan the kitchen rightly and receive
As much light as you want, and see from whence
The draught is, does good service in the business.
The driving of the smoke, now here, now there,
Makes a material difference when you're boiling.
Why should I, then, go on to prove that "tactics"
Are needful to the Cook? Good order's good
In every station and in every art;
In ours, it almost is the leading point.
The serving up, and the removing all things
In order, and the seeing when's the time
Either to introduce them quick or slowly,
And how the guests may feel inclined for eating,
And, as regards the dishes too, themselves,
When is the proper time to serve some hot,
Some warm, some cooling, some completely cold,
Is all discuss'd in the Tactician's science.
_Gent._ Then, as you've pointed out to me what's needful,
Go, get you gone, and rest yourself a bit.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book ix. § 23, p. 596.)
_A._ You surely must confess that, in most arts,
The pleasure that results from the perfection
Is not enjoy'd by him alone, whose mind
The rich invention plann'd, or by whose hands
'Tis fashion'd into shape; but they who use it
Perhaps partake a larger portion still.
_B._ As I'm a stranger, pray inform me how?
_A._ For instance, to prepare a sumptuous feast,
We must provide a tolerable cook;
His work once done, his function's at an end.
Then, if the guests for whom it is prepared
Come at the proper moment, all is well,
And they enjoy a most delicious treat.
If they delay, the dishes are all cold,
And must be warm'd again; or what has been
Kept back, is now too hastily despatch'd,
And is served up ill dress'd, defrauding thus
The act itself of its due merit.—ANON.
* * * * *
EUPHRON. (Book ix. § 24, p. 597.)
I have had many pupils in my time,
But you, my Lycus, far exceed them all
In clear and solid sense, and piercing judgment.
Young as you are, with only ten months' study,
I send you forth into the world, a cook,
Complete and perfect in the rules of art.
Agis of Rhodes alone knew how to broil
A fish in due perfection; Nereus, too,
Of Chios, for stew'd congers had no equal;
For from his hands, it was a dish for th' gods.
Then for _white thrion_, no one could exceed
Chariades of Athens; for black broth,
Th' invention and perfection's justly due
To Lamprias alone; while Aponètus
Was held unrivall'd for his sausages.
For lentils, too, Euthynus beat the world;
And Aristion above all the rest
Knew how to suit each guest, with the same dish
Served up in various forms, at those repasts
Where each man paid his share to deck the board.—
After the ancient Sophists, these alone
Were justly deem'd the seven wise men of Greece.—ANON.
* * * * *
STRATO. (Book ix. § 29, p. 601.)
I've harbour'd a he-sphinx and not a cook,
For, by the gods! he talk'd to me in riddles,
And coin'd new words that pose me to interpret.
No sooner had he enter'd on his office,
Than eyeing me from head to foot, he cries—
"How many mortals hast thou bid to supper?"
Mortals! quoth I, what tell you me of mortals?
Let Jove decide on their mortality;
You're crazy sure! none by that name are bidden.
"No table usher? no one to officiate
As master of the courses?"—No such person;
Moschion and Niceratus and Philinus,
These are my guests and friends, and amongst these
You'll find no table-decker, as I take it.
"Gods! is it possible?" cried he;—Most certain,
I patiently replied: he swell'd and huff'd,
As if, forsooth! I'd done him heinous wrong,
And robb'd him of his proper dignity;
Ridiculous conceit!—"What offering mak'st thou
To Erysichthon?" he demanded: None—
"Shall not the wide-horn'd ox be fell'd?" cries he:
I sacrifice no ox—"Nor yet a wether?"
Not I, by Jove! a simple sheep perhaps:
"And what's a wether but a sheep?" cries he.
I'm a plain man, my friend, and therefore speak
Plain language:—"What! I speak as Homer does;
And sure a cook may use like privilege
And more than a blind poet."—Not with me;
I'll have no kitchen-Homers in my house!
So pray discharge yourself!—This said, we parted.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ANTHIPPUS. (Book ix. § 68, p. 637.)
I like to see the faces of my guests,
To feed them as their age and station claim.
My kitchen changes, as my guests inspire
The various spectacle; for lovers now,
Philosophers, and now for financiers,
If my young royster be a mettled spark,
Who melts an acre in a savoury dish
To charm his mistress, scuttle-fish and crabs,
And all the shelly race, with mixture due
Of cordials filter'd, exquisitely rich.
For such a host, my friend! expends much more
In oil than cotton; solely studying love!
To a philosopher, that animal,
Voracious, solid ham and bulky feet;
But to the financier, with costly niceness,
Glociscus rare, or rarity more rare.
Insensible the palate of old age,
More difficult than the soft lips of youth
To move, I put much mustard in their dish;
With quickening sauces make their stupor keen,
And lash the lazy blood that creeps within.—D'ISRAELI.
* * * * *
DIONYSIUS. (Book ix. § 69, p. 638.)
"Know then, the Cook, a dinner that's bespoke
Aspiring to prepare, with prescient zeal
Should know the tastes and humours of the guests;
For if he drudges through the common work,
Thoughtless of manner, careless what the place
And seasons claim, and what the favouring hour
Auspicious to his genius may present,
Why, standing 'midst the multitude of men,
Call we this plodding _fricasseer_ a Cook?
Oh, differing far! and one is not the other!
We call indeed the _general_ of an army
Him who is charged to lead it to the war;
But the true general is the man whose mind,
Mastering events, anticipates, combines;
Else he is but a _leader_ to his men!
With our profession thus: the first who comes
May with a humble toil, or slice, or chop,
Prepare the ingredients, and around the fire
Obsequious, him I call a fricasseer!
But ah! the cook a brighter glory crowns!
Well skill'd is he to know the place, the hour,
Him who invites, and him who is invited,
What fish in season makes the market rich,
A choice delicious rarity! I know
That all, we always find; but always all,
Charms not the palate, critically fine.
Archestratus, in culinary lore
Deep for his time, in this more learned age
Is wanting; and full oft he surely talks
Of what he never ate. Suspect his page,
Nor load thy genius with a barren precept.
Look not in books for what some idle sage
So idly raved; for cookery is an art
Comporting ill with rhetoric; 'tis an art
Still changing, and of momentary triumph!
Know on thyself thy genius must depend.
All books of cookery, all helps of art,
All critic learning, all commenting notes,
Are vain, if, void of genius, thou wouldst cook!"
The culinary sage thus spoke; his friend
Demands, "Where is the ideal cook thou paint'st?"
"Lo, I the man!" the savouring sage replied.
"Now be thine eyes the witness of my art!
This tunny drest, so odorous shall steam,
The spicy sweetness so shall steal thy sense,
That thou in a delicious reverie
Shalt slumber heavenly o'er the Attic dish!"—D'ISRAELI.
_The same._
_A._ The wretch on whom you lavish so much praise,
I swear, by all the gods, but ill deserves it—
The true professor of the art should strive
To gratify the taste of every guest;
For if he merely furnishes the table,
Sees all the dishes properly disposed,
And thinks, having done this, he has discharged
His office, he's mistaken, and deserves
To be consider'd only as a drudge,
A kitchen-drudge, without or art or skill,
And differs widely from a cook indeed,
A master of his trade.—He bears the name
Of General, 'tis true, who heads the army;
But he whose comprehensive mind surveys
The whole, who knows to turn each circumstance
Of time, and place, and action, to advantage,—
Foresees what difficulties may occur,
And how to conquer them,—this is the man
Who should be call'd the general; the other
The mere conductor of the troops, no more:
So in our art it is an easy thing
To boil, to roast, to stew, to fricassee,
To blow the bellows, or to stir the fire;
But a professor of the art regards
The time, the place, th' inviter, and the guest;
And when the market is well stored with fish,
Knows to select, and to prefer such only
As are in proper season, and, in short,
Omits no knowledge that may justly lead
To the perfection of his art. 'Tis true,
Archestratus has written on the subject,
And is allow'd by many to have left
Most choice receipts, and rare inventions
Useful and pleasing; yet in many things
He was profoundly ignorant, and speaks
Upon report, without substantial proof
Or knowledge of his own. We must not trust,
Nor give our faith to loose conjectures thus;
For in our art we only can depend
On actual practice and experiment.
Having no fix'd and settled laws by which
We may be govern'd, we must frame our own,
As time and opportunity may serve,
Which if we do not well improve, the art
Itself must suffer by our negligence.
_B._ You are indeed a most renown'd professor;
But still you have omitted to point out
The properties of that most skilful cook
Who furnish'd splendid feasts with so much ease.
_A._ Give but the word, and you shall see me dress
A _thrion_ in such style! and other dainties
To furnish out a full and rich repast,
That you may easily conceive the rest;
Nay, you will think yourself in Attica,
From the sweet fragrance, and delicious taste;
And then the whole so various, and well-dress'd,
You shall be puzzled where to fix your choice,
From the stored viands of so rich a board.—ANON.
* * * * *
MNESIMACHUS. (Book x. § 18, p. 663.)
Dost know whom thou'rt to sup with, friend?—I'll tell thee;
With gladiators, not with peaceful guests;
Instead of knives we're arm'd with naked swords,
And swallow firebrands in the place of food:
Daggers of Crete are served us for confections,
And for a plate of pease a fricassee
Of shatter'd spears: the cushions we repose on
Are shields and breastplates, at our feet a pile
Of slings and arrows, and our foreheads wreath'd
With military ensigns, not with myrtle.—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
Know'st thou with whom thou hast to deal?
On sharpen'd swords we make our meal;
The dripping torch, snapdragon-wise,
Our burning beverage supplies;
And Cretic shafts, as sweetmeats stored,
Form the dessert upon our board,
With tid-bits of split javelin:
Pillow'd on breastplates we recline;
Strew'd at our feet are slings and bows,
And crown'd with catapults our brows.—WRANGHAM.
_The same._
Herken my word: wote thou, leve brother min,
Thou shulde in certaine thys daie wyth us din.
Bright swerdes and eke browne our vittaile been;
Torches we glot for sowle, that fyerie bren.
Eftsone the page doth sette upon our bord,
Yfette fro Crete, kene arwes long and broad;
No fetches do we ete, but speres shente,
That gadred ben fro blood ydrenched bente.
The silver targe, and perced habergeon,
Been that, whan sonne is set, we lig upon.
On bowes reste our fete whan that we slepe,
With katapultes crownde, so heie hem clepe.—W. W.
* * * * *
ALCÆUS. (Book x. § 35, p. 679.)
To be bow'd by grief is folly;
Nought is gain'd by melancholy;
Better than the pain of thinking
Is to steep the sense in drinking.—BLAND.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book x. § 71, p. 709.)
_A._ A thing exists which nor immortal is,
Nor mortal, but to both belongs, and lives
As neither god nor man does. Every day
'Tis born anew and dies. No eye can see it,
And yet to all 'tis known.
_B._ A plague upon you!
You bore me with your riddles.
_A._ Still, all this
Is plain and easy.
_B._ What then can it be?
_A._ SLEEP—that puts all our cares and pains to flight.
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
_The same._
Nor mortal fate, nor yet immortal thine,
Amalgam rare of human and divine;
Still ever new thou comest, soon again
To vanish, fleeting as the phantom train;
Ever invisible to earthly eye,
Yet known to each one most familiarly.—F. METCALFE.
* * * * *
EUBULUS. (Book x. § 71, p. 710.)
_A._ What is it that, while young, is plump and heavy,
But, being full grown, is light, and wingless mounts
Upon the courier winds, and foils the sight?
_B._ The THISTLE'S BEARD; for this at first sticks fast
To the green seed, which, ripe and dry, falls off
Upon the cradling breeze, or, upwards puff'd
By playful urchins, sails along the air.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ANTIPHANES. (Book x. § 73, p. 711.)
There is a female which within her bosom
Carries her young, that, mute, in fact, yet speak,
And make their voice heard on the howling waves,
Or wildest continent. They will converse
Even with the absent, and inform the deaf.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
_The same._
Know'st thou the creature, that a tiny brood
Within her bosom keeps securely mew'd?
Though voiceless all, beyond the ocean wide
To distant realms their still small voices glide.
Far, far away, whome'er t' address they seek
Will understand, yet no one hears them speak.—F. METCALFE.
* * * * *
THEODECTES. (Book x. § 75, p. 713.)
A thing whose match, or in the depths profound
Of ocean, or on earth, can ne'er be found;
Cast in no mortal mould its growth of limb
Dame Nature orders by the strangest whim.
'Tis born, and lo! a giant form appears;
Toward middle age a smaller size it wears;
And now again, its day of life nigh o'er,
How wonderful gigantic as before.—F. METCALFE.
* * * * *
THEODECTES. (Book x. § 75, p. 713.)
We're sisters twain, one dying bears the other:
She too expires, and so brings forth her mother.—F. METCALFE.
* * * * *
XENOPHANES. (Book xi. § 7, p. 729.)
The ground is swept, and the triclinium clean,
The hands are purified, the goblets too
Well rinsed, each guest upon his forehead bears
A wreathed flow'ry crown; from slender vase
A willing youth presents to each in turn
A sweet and costly perfume; while the bowl,
Emblem of joy and social mirth, stands by,
Fill'd to the brim; another pours out wine
Of most delicious flavour, breathing round
Fragrance of flowers, and honey newly made;
So grateful to the sense, that none refuse;
While odoriferous gums fill all the room.
Water is served too, cold, and fresh, and clear;
Bread, saffron tinged, that looks like leaves of gold.
The board is gaily spread with honey pure,
And savoury cheese. The altar, too, which stands
Full in the centre, crown'd with flow'ry wreaths;
The house resounds with music and with song,
With songs of grateful praise, such as become
The wise and good to offer to the gods,
In chaste and modest phrase. They humbly ask,
Pouring their free libations, to preserve
A firm and even mind; to do no wrong,
But equal justice to dispense to all;
A task more easy, more delightful far,
Than to command, to slander, or oppress.
At such repasts each guest may safely drink
As much as suits his sober appetite,
Then unattended seek his home, unless
His feeble age requires assistance. Him
Above all others let us praise, who while
The cheerful cup goes round, shall charm the guests
With free recital of acts worthy praise,
And fit to be remember'd; that inspire
The soul to valour, and the love of fame,
The meed of virtuous action. Far from us
The war of Titans; or the bloody strife
Of the seditious Centaurs; such examples
Have neither use nor profit—wiser far
To look to brighter patterns that instruct,
And lead the mind to great and good pursuits.—ANON.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xi. § 9, p. 731.)
Do you not know that by the term call'd life,
We mean to give a softer tone to ills
That man is heir to? Whether I judge right
Or wrong in this, I'll not presume to say—
Having reflected long and seriously,
To this conclusion I am brought at last,
That universal folly governs all;
For in this little life of ours, we seem
As strangers that have left their native home.
We make our first appearance from the realms
Of death and darkness, and emerge to light,
And join th' assembly of our fellow-men—
They who enjoy themselves the most, and drink,
And laugh, and banish care, or pass the day
In the soft blandishments of love, and leave
No joy untasted, no delight untried
That innocence and virtue may approve,
And this gay festival afford, depart
Cheerful, like guests contented, to their home.—ANON.
* * * * *
SAPPHO. (Book xi. § 9, p. 731.)
Come, Venus, come!
Hither with thy golden cup,
Where nectar-floated flowerets swim!
Fill, fill the goblet up!
These laughing lips shall kiss the brim—
Come, Venus, come!—ANON.
* * * * *
PYTHEAS. (Book xi. § 14, p. 734.)
Here jolly Pytheas lies,
A right honest man, and wise,
Who of goblets had very great store,
Of amber, silver, gold,
All glorious to behold,
In number ne'er equall'd before.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
AUTHOR OF THE THEBAIS. (Book xi. § 14, p. 735.)
Then Polyneices of the golden locks,
Sprung from the gods, before his father placed
A table all of silver, which had once
Been Cadmus's, next fill'd the golden bowl
With richest wine. At this old Œdipus,
Seeing the honour'd relics of his sire
Profaned to vulgar uses, roused to anger,
Pronounced fierce imprecations, wish'd his sons
Might live no more in amity together,
But plunge in feuds and slaughters, and contend
For their inheritance: and the Furies heard.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
(Book xi. § 19, p. 738.)
Troy's lofty towers by Grecians sack'd behold!
Parrhasios' draught, by Mys engraved in gold.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
SOPATER. (Book xi. § 28, p. 742.)
'Tis sweet in early morn to cool the lips
With pure fresh water from the gushing fount,
Mingled with honey in the Baucalis,
When one o'er night has made too free with wine,
And feels sharp thirst.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xi. § 30, p. 743.)
_A._ But let me first describe the cup; 'twas round,
Old, broken-ear'd, and precious small besides,
Having indeed some letters on't.
_B._ Yes, letters;
Eleven, and all of gold, forming the name
Of Saviour Zeus.
_A._ Tush! no, some other god.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
DAMOXENUS. (Book xi. § 35, p. 747.)
_A._ If this hold not enough, see, the boy comes
Bearing the Elephant!
_B._ Immortal gods!
What thing is that?
_A._ A double-fountain'd cup,
The workmanship of Alcon; it contains
Only three gallons.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
PHERECRATES. (Book xi. § 62, p. 767.)
Remark, how wisely ancient art provides
The broad-brimm'd cup with flat expanded sides;
A cup contrived for man's discreeter use,
And sober portions of the generous juice:
But woman's more ambitious thirsty soul
Soon long'd to revel in the plenteous bowl;
Deep and capacious as the swelling hold
Of some stout bark she shaped the hollow mould,
Then turning out a vessel like a tun,
Simp'ring exclaim'd—Observe! I drink but one.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ARCHILOCHUS. (Book xi. § 66, p. 771.)
Come then, my friend, and seize the flask,
And while the deck around us rolls,
Dash we the cover from the cask,
And crown with wine our flowing bowls.
While the deep hold is tempest-tost,
We'll strain bright nectar from the lees:
For, though our freedom here be lost,
We drink no water on the seas.—C. MERIVALE.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xii. § 1, p. 818; iv. § 59, p. 265, &c.)
You, Sir, a Cyrenean, as I take you,
Look at your sect of desperate voluptuaries;
There's Diodorus—beggary is too good for him—
A vast inheritance in two short years,
Where is it? Squander'd, vanish'd, gone for ever:
So rapid was his dissipation.—Stop!
Stop! my good friend, you cry; not quite so fast!
This man went fair and softly to his ruin;
What talk you of two years? As many days,
Two little days, were long enough to finish
Young Epicharides; he had some soul,
And drove a merry pace to his undoing—
Marry! if a kind surfeit would surprise us,
Ere we sit down to earn it, such prevention
Would come most opportune to save the trouble
Of a sick stomach and an aching head:
But whilst the punishment is out of sight,
And the full chalice at our lips, we drink,
Drink all to-day, to-morrow fast and mourn,
Sick, and all o'er oppress'd with nauseous fumes;
Such is the drunkard's curse, and Hell itself
Cannot devise a greater. Oh that nature
Might quit us of this overbearing burthen,
This tyrant-god, the belly! take that from us,
With all its bestial appetites, and man,
Exonerated man, shall be all soul.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ANAXILAS. (Book xiii. § 6, p. 893.)
Whoever has been weak enough to dote,
And live in precious bondage at the feet
Of an imperious mistress, may relate
Some part of their iniquity at least.
In fact, what monster is there in the world
That bears the least comparison with them!
What frightful dragon, or chimera dire,
What Scylla, what Charybdis, can exceed them?
Nor sphinx, nor hydra, nay, no winged harpy,
Nor hungry lioness, nor poisonous adder,
In noxious qualities, is half so bad.
They are a race accursed, and stand alone
Preeminent in wickedness. For instance,
Plangon, a foul chimera; spreading flames,
And dealing out destruction far and near,
And no Bellerophon to crush the monster.
Then Sinope, a many-headed hydra,
An old and wrinkled hag—Gnathine, too,
Her neighbour—Oh! they are a precious pair.
Nanno's a barking Scylla, nothing less—
Having already privately dispatch'd
Two of her lovers, she would lure a third
To sure destruction, but the youth escaped,
Thanks to his pliant oars, and better fortune.
Phryne, like foul Charybdis, swallows up
At once the pilot and the bark. Theano,
Like a pluck'd siren, has the voice and look
Of woman, but below the waist, her limbs
Wither'd and shrunk in to the blackbird's size.
These wretched women, one and all, partake
The nature of the Theban Sphinx; they speak
In doubtful and ambiguous phrase, pretend
To love you truly, and with all their hearts,
Then whisper in your ear, some little want—
A girl to wait on them forsooth, a bed,
Or easy-chair, a brazen tripod too—
Give what you will they never are content;
And to sum up their character at once,
No beast that haunts the forest for his prey
Is half so mischievous.—ANON.
_The same._
Away, away with these female friends!
He whose embraces have encircled one,
Will own a monster has been in his arms;
Fell as a dragon is, fire-spouting like
Chimæra, like the rapid ocean-portent,
Three-headed and dog-snouted!—
Harpies are less obscene in touch than they:
The tigress robb'd of her first whelps, more merciful:
Asps, scorpions, vipers, amphisbenæ dire,
Cerastes, Ellops, Dipsas, all in one!—
But come, let's pass them in review before us,
And see how close the parallels will hold.
And first for Plangon: where in the scale place _her_?
E'en rank her with the beast whose breath is flame.
Like her she deals combustion round; and foreigners
By scores have perish'd in her conflagrations.
One only 'scaped the fair incendiary,
And that by virtue of his nimble steed.
_He_ back'd his baggage, and turn'd tail upon her.—
Have commerce with Sinope, and you'll find
That Lerna's monster was no tale; for like
The hydra she can multiply her members,
And fair Gnathæna is the present offshoot:
_Her_ morning charms for beauties in the wane
Compensate—but—the dupe pays doubly for't.
There's Nanno too:—Nanno and Scylla's pool
Bear close similitude: two swains have made
Already shipwreck in that gulf; a third
Had shared their fortunes, but the wiser boy
Plied well his oars, and boldly stood to sea-ward.
If Nanno's Scylla, Phryne is Charybdis:
Woe to the wretch who comes within her tide!
Engulf'd in whelming waves, both bark and mariner
Are suck'd into th' abyss of quick perdition!
And what's Theano? bald, and bare, and peel'd,
With whom but close-pluck'd sirens ranks she? woman
In face and voice; but in her feet—a blackbird.
But why enlarge my nomenclature? Sphinx is
A common name for all: on her enigma
Is moulded all their speech: love, fealty,
Affection,—these are terms drop clear enough
From them, but at their heels comes a request,
Wrapt up in tortuous phrase of nice perplexity.
(_Mimics._)—"A four-foot couch perchance would grace
their chamber!
Their needs forsooth require a chair—three-footed,
Or, for the nonce, two-footed—'twould content them."
He that is versed in points and tricks, like Œdipus,
Hears, and escapes perchance with purse uninjured;
The easy fool gapes, gazes, and—hey! presto!
Both purse and person's gone!—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 7, p. 894.)
What abject wretches do we make ourselves
By giving up the freedom and delights
Of single life to a capricious woman!
Then, if she brings an ample fortune too,
Her pride, and her pretensions are increased,
And what should be a benefit, becomes
A bitter curse, and grievous punishment.
The anger of a man may well be borne,
'Tis quick, and sudden, but as soon subsides;
It has a honied sweetness when compared
To that of woman. If a man receives
An injury, he may resent at first,
But he will quickly pardon. Women first
Offer the injury, then to increase
Th' offence, instead of soothing, they inflict
A deeper wound by obstinate resentment—
Neglect what's fit and proper to be done,
But eagerly pursue the thing they should not;—
And then they grow fantastical withal,
When they are perfectly in health complain
In faint and feeble tone, "they're sick, they die."—ANON.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHON. (Book xiii. § 8, p. 894.)
A man may marry once without a crime,
But cursed is he who weds a second time.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
MENANDER. (Book xiii. § 8, p. 895.)
_A._ While prudence guides, change not, at any rate,
A life of freedom for the married state:
I ventured once to play that desperate game,
And therefore warn you not to do the same.
_B._ The counsel may be sage which you advance,
But I'm resolved to take the common chance.
_A._ Mild gales attend that voyage of your life,
And waft you safely through the sea of strife:
Not the dire Libyan, nor Ægean sea,
Where out of thirty ships scarce perish three;
But that, where daring fools most dearly pay,
Where all that sail are surely cast away.—FAWKES.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 13, p. 899.)
As slowly I return'd from the Piræus,
My mind impress'd with all the various pains,
And pungent griefs, that torture human life,
I thus began to reason with myself.
The painters and the sculptors, who pretend
By cunning art to give the form of Love,
Know nothing of his nature, for in truth
He's neither male nor female, god or man,
Nor wise, nor foolish, but a compound strange,
Partaking of the qualities of each,
And an epitome of all in one.
He has the strength and prowess of a man,
The weak timidity of helpless woman;
In folly furious, yet in prudence wise
And circumspect. Mad as an untamed beast,
In strength and hardihood invincible,
Then for ambition he's a very demon.
I swear by sage Minerva and the gods,
I do not know his likeness, one whose nature
Is so endued with qualities unlike
The gentle name he bears.—ANON.
_The same._
One day as slowly sauntering from the port,
A thousand cares conflicting in my breast,
Thus I began to commune with myself—
Methinks these painters misapply their art,
And never knew the being which they draw;
For mark! their many false conceits of Love.
Love is nor male nor female, man nor god,
Nor with intelligence nor yet without it,
But a strange compound of all these, uniting
In one mix'd essence many opposites;
A manly courage with a woman's fear,
The madman's phrenzy in a reasoning mind,
The strength of steel, the fury of a beast,
The ambition of a hero—something 'tis,
But by Minerva and the gods I swear!
I know not what this nameless something is.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
EUBULUS. (Book xiii. § 13, p. 899.)
Why, foolish painter, give those wings to Love?
Love is not light, as my sad heart can prove:
Love hath no wings, or none that I can see;
If he can fly—oh! bid him fly from me!—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
THEOPHILUS. (Book xiii. § 14, p. 900.)
He who affirms that lovers are all mad,
Or fools, gives no strong proof of his own sense;
For if from human life we take the joys
And the delights of love, what is there left
That can deserve a better name than death?
For instance, now, I love a music girl,
A virgin too, and am I therefore mad?
For she's a paragon of female beauty;
Her form and figure excellent; her voice
Melodiously sweet; and then her air
Has dignity and grace. With what delight
I gaze upon her charms! More than you feel
At sight of him who for the public shows
Gives you free entrance to the theatre.—ANON.
_The same._
If love be folly, as the schools would prove,
The man must lose his wits, who falls in love;
Deny him love, you doom the wretch to death,
And then it follows he must lose his breath.
Good sooth! there is a young and dainty maid
I dearly love, a minstrel she by trade;
What then? must I defer to pedant rule,
And own that love transforms me to a fool?
Not I, so help me! By the gods I swear,
The nymph I love is fairest of the fair;
Wise, witty, dearer to her poet's sight
Than piles of money on an author's night;
Must I not love her then? Let the dull sot,
Who made the law, obey it! I will not.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ARISTOPHON. (Book xiii. § 14, p. 901.)
Love, the disturber of the peace of heaven,
And grand fomenter of Olympian feuds,
Was banish'd from the synods of the gods:
They drove him down to earth at the expense
Of us poor mortals, and curtail'd his wings
To spoil his soaring and secure themselves
From his annoyance—Selfish, hard decree!
For ever since he roams th' unquiet world,
The tyrant and despoiler of mankind.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 14, p. 901.)
The man who holds true pleasure to consist
In pampering his vile body, and defies
Love's great divinity, rashly maintains
Weak impious war with an immortal god.
The gravest master that the schools can boast
Ne'er train'd his pupils to such discipline,
As Love his votaries, unrivall'd power,
The first great deity—and where is he,
So stubborn and determinedly stiff,
But shall at some time bend the knee to Love,
And make obeisance to his mighty shrine?—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
IBYCUS. (Book xiii. § 17, p. 903.)
Sweetest flower, Euryale!
Whom the maids with tresses fair,
Sister Graces, make their care—
Thee Cythera nourish'd—thee
Pitho, with the radiant brow;
And 'mid bowers where roses blow
Led thy laughing infancy.—BLAND.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 18, p. 904.)
Dost thou see any fellow poll'd and shaven,
And askest me from whence the cause should come?
He goes unto the wars to filch and raven,
And play such pranks he cannot do at home.
Such pranks become not those that beards do weare:
And what harm is it if long beards we beare?
For so it is apparent to be scene,
That we are men, not women, by our chin.—MOLLE.
* * * * *
TIMOCLES. (Book xiii. § 22, p. 908.)
Wretch that I am,
She had my love, when a mere caper-gatherer,
And fortune's smiles as yet were wanting to her.
I never pinch'd nor spared in my expenses,
Yet now—doors closely barr'd are all the recompence
That waits on former bounties ill bestow'd.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 23, p. 908.)
They fly at all, and, as their funds increase,
With fresh recruits they still augment their stock,
Moulding the young novitiate to her trade;
Form, features, manners, everything so changed,
That not a trace of former self is left.
Is the wench short? a triple sole of cork
Exalts the pigmy to a proper size.
Is she too tall of stature? a low chair
Softens the fault, and a fine easy stoop
Lowers her to standard-pitch.—If narrow-hipt,
A handsome wadding readily supplies
What nature stints, and all beholders cry,
See what plump haunches!—Hath the nymph perchance
A high round paunch, stuft like our comic drolls,
And strutting out foreright? a good stout busk
Pushing athwart shall force the intruder back.
Hath she red brows? a little soot will cure 'em.
Is she too black? the ceruse makes her fair:
Too pale of hue? the opal comes in aid.
Hath she a beauty out of sight? disclose it!
Strip nature bare without a blush.—Fine teeth?
Let her affect one everlasting grin,
Laugh without stint—but ah! if laugh she cannot,
And her lips won't obey, take a fine twig
Of myrtle, shape it like a butcher's skewer,
And prop them open, set her on the bit
Day after day, when out of sight, till use
Grows second nature, and the pearly row,
Will she or will she not, perforce appears.—CUMBERLAND.
* * * * *
EPICRATES. (Book xiii. § 26, p. 911.)
Alas for Laïs!
A slut, a wine-bibber—her only care
Is to supply the cravings of the day,
To eat and drink—to masticate and tipple.
The eagle and herself are fittest parallels.
In the first prime and lustlihood of youth,
The mountain king ne'er quits his royal eyrie,
But lamb, or straggling sheep, or earth-couch'd hare,
Caught in his grip, repays the fierce descent:
But when old age hath sapp'd his mettle's vigour,
He sits upon the temple tops, forlorn,
In all the squalid wretchedness of famine,
And merely serves to point an augurs tale.
Just such another prodigy is Laïs!
Full teeming coffers swell'd her pride of youth:
Her person ever fresh and new, your satrap
Was more accessible than she;—but now,
That life is flagging at the goal, and like
An unstrung lute, her limbs are out of tune,
She is become so lavish of her presence,
That being daily swallow'd by men's eyes,
They surfeit at the sight.
She's grown companion to the common streets—
Want her who will, a stater, a three-obol piece,
Or a mere draught of wine brings her to hand!
Nay, place a silver stiver in your palm,
And, shocking tameness! she will stoop forthwith
To pick it out.—MITCHELL.
_The same._
Laïs herself's a lazy drunkard now,
And looks to nothing but her daily wine
And daily meat. There has befallen her
What happens to the eagle; who, when young,
Swoops from the mountain in his pride of strength,
And hurries off on high the sheep and hare;
But, when he's aged, sits him dully down
Upon some temple's top, weak, lean, and starved;
And this is thought a direful prodigy.
And Laïs would be rightly reckon'd one;
For when she was a nestling, fair and youthful,
The guineas made her fierce; and you might see
E'en Pharnabázus easier than her.
But now that her years are running four-mile heats,
And all the junctures of her frame are loose,
'Tis easy both to see and spit upon her;
And she will go to any drinking-bout;
And take a crown-piece, aye, or e'en a sixpence,
And welcome all men, be they old or young.
Nay, she's become so tame, my dearest sir,
She'll even take the money from your hand.—WALSH.
* * * * *
PLATO. (Book xiii. § 56, p. 940.)
Archianássa's my own one,
The sweet courtesan, Colophónian;
E'en from her wrinkles I feel
Love's irresistible steel!
O ye wretches, whose hunger
Was raised for her when she was younger!
Through what flames, alas,
Must she have forced you to pass!—WALSH.
* * * * *
HERMESIANAX. (Book xiii. § 71, p. 953.)
Such was the nymph, whom Orpheus led
From the dark regions of the dead,
Where Charon with his lazy boat
Ferries o'er Lethe's sedgy moat;
Th' undaunted minstrel smites the strings,
His strain through hell's vast concave rings:
Cocytus hears the plaintive theme,
And refluent turns his pitying stream;
Three-headed Cerberus, by fate
Posted at Pluto's iron gate,
Low-crouching rolls his haggard eyes
Ecstatic, and foregoes his prize;
With ears erect at hell's wide doors
Lies listening, as the songster soars:
Thus music charm'd the realms beneath,
And beauty triumph'd over death.
The bard, whom night's pale regent bore,
In secret, on the Athenian shore,
Musæus, felt the sacred flame,
And burnt for the fair Theban dame
Antiope, whom mighty Love
Made pregnant by imperial Jove;
The poet plied his amorous strain,
Press'd the fond fair, nor press'd in vain,
For Ceres, who the veil undrew,
That screen'd her mysteries from his view,
Propitious this kind truth reveal'd,
That woman close besieged will yield.
Old Hesiod too his native shade
Made vocal to th' Ascrean maid;
The bard his heav'n-directed lore
Forsook, and hymn'd the gods no more:
Soft love-sick ditties now he sung,
Love touch'd his harp, love tuned his tongue,
Silent his Heliconian lyre,
And love's put out religion's fire.
Homer, of all past bards the prime,
And wonder of all future time,
Whom Jove with wit sublimely blest,
And touch'd with purest fire his breast,
From gods and heroes turn'd away
To warble the domestic lay,
And wand'ring to the desert isle,
On whose parch'd sands no seasons smile,
In distant Ithaca was seen
Chanting the suit-repelling Queen.
Mimnermus tuned his amorous lay,
When time had turn'd his temples grey;
Love revell'd in his aged veins,
Soft was his lyre, and sweet his strains;
Frequenter of the wanton feast,
Nanno his theme, and youth his guest.
Antimachus with tender art
Pour'd forth the sorrows of his heart;
In her Dardanian grave he laid
Chryseis his beloved maid;
And thence returning, sad beside
Pactolus' melancholy tide,
To Colophon the minstrel came,
Still sighing forth the mournful name,
Till lenient time his grief appeased,
And tears by long indulgence ceased.
Alcæus strung his sounding lyre,
And smote it with a hand of fire,
To Sappho, fondest of the fair,
Chanting the loud and lofty air.
Whilst old Anacreon, wet with wine,
And crown'd with wreaths of Lesbian vine,
* * * * * *
E'en Sophocles, whose honey'd lore
Rivals the bee's delicious store,
Chorus'd the praise of wine and love,
Choicest of all the gifts of Jove.
Euripides, whose tragic breast
No yielding fair one ever press'd,
At length in his obdurate heart
Felt love's revengeful rankling dart,
* * * * * *
'Till vengeance met him in the way,
And bloodhounds made the bard their prey.
Philoxenus, by wood-nymphs bred
On famed Cythæron's sacred head,
And train'd to music, wine, and song,
'Midst orgies of the frantic throng,
When beauteous Galatea died,
His flute and thyrsus cast aside;
And wand'ring to thy pensive coast,
Sad Melos! where his love was lost,
Each night through the responsive air
Thy echoes witness'd his despair:
Still, still his plaintive harp was heard,
Soft as the nightly-singing bird.
Philetas too in Battis' praise
Sung his long-winded roundelays;
His statue in the Coan grove
Now breathes in brass perpetual love.
The mortified abstemious sage,
Deep read in learning's crabbed page,
Pythagoras, whose boundless soul
Scaled the wide globe from pole to pole,
Earth, planets, seas, and heav'n above,
Yet found no spot secure from love;
With love declines unequal war,
And trembling drags his conqueror's car;
Theano clasp'd him in her arms,
And wisdom stoop'd to beauty's charms.
E'en Socrates, whose moral mind
With truth enlighten'd all mankind,
When at Aspasia's side he sate,
Still found no end to love's debate;
For strong indeed must be that heart,
Where love finds no unguarded part.
Sage Aristippus by right rule
Of logic purged the Sophist's school,
Check'd folly in its headlong course,
And swept it down by reason's force;
'Till Venus aim'd the heart-felt blow,
And laid the mighty victor low.—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
I.
Orpheus,—Œagrus' son,—thou know'st full well,—
The Thracian harper,—how with magic skill,
Inspired by love, he struck the chorded shell,
And made the shades obedient to his will,
As from the nether gloom to light he led
His love Agriope. He to Pluto's land,
Baleful and cheerless, region of the dead,
Sail'd far away,—and sought th' infernal strand,
Where Charon, gaunt and grim, his hollow bark
(Fraught with departed souls, an airy crowd)
Steers o'er the Stygian billow dun and dark,
And with a voice of thunder bellows loud
O'er the slow pool, that scarcely creeps along
Through sedge, and weedy ooze: but nathless he,
On the lone margent, pour'd his love-sick song,
And charm'd Hell's monsters with his minstrelsy.
Cocytus scowl'd,—but grinn'd a ghastly smile,
Albeit unused to the relenting mood:
Cerb'rus, three-mouth'd, stopp'd short,—and paused the while,
Low-crouching, list'ning, (for the sounds were good)
Silent his throat of flame, his eyes of fire
Quench'd in ecstatic slumber, as he lay.
Thus Hell's stern rulers hearken'd to his lyre,
And gave the fair one back to upper day.
II.
Nor did Musæus, Luna's heav'nly child,
And high-priest of the Graces, leave unsung
The fair Antiope, in accents wild,
As fell th' impassion'd language from his tongue:
Who woo'd of many suitors, at the shrine
Of mystic Ceres, by Eleusis' brow,
Chanted the high response in strains divine,—
And oped the secret springs,—and taught to know
The heav'n-drawn truths, in holy rapture lost.
But nought avail'd her zeal;—in evil hour,
Theme of the lyre below, her hopes were cross'd:
Death cropp'd the stalk, that bore so fair a flow'r.
III.
I tell thee too, that the Bœotian bard,
Sage Hesiod, quitted the Cumæan shore,
A wand'rer not unwilling,—afterward
In Heliconian Ascra seen to soar,
Deathless upon the mighty wings of fame.
'Twas there he woo'd Eœa, peerless maid,—
And strove to achieve her love,—and with her name
Prefaced his verse, with hallow'd lore inlaid.
IV.
Enravish'd Homer, ward of Fate from Jove,
Prince of melodious numbers, toil'd his way
To barren Ithaca,—and tuned, for love
Of chaste Penelope, the am'rous lay;
Forgot his native land, and bade adieu
To wide Ionia, for the island drear,
And wail'd Icarius' house, and Sparta too,
And dropp'd himself the sympathetic tear.
V.
Mimnermus, school'd in hardship, who first taught
To breathe soft airs of elegiac song,
Fair Nanno ask'd, and had; and often sought,
As by her side he blithely trudged along,
The merry wake,—a ready piper arm'd
With mouth-piece aptly fitted: and with worse
Than deadly hate and indignation warm'd,
Hermobius and Pherecles lash'd in verse.
VI.
Antimachus, for beauteous Lyda's love,
Hied him to rich Pactolus' golden tide:
But, well-a-day! his bliss stern Fate unwove;
Short was her doom,—in Pergamus she died,—
And in her grave was laid in prime of age.
He, full of lamentation, journey'd on
To Colophon,—and on the sacred page
Enter'd his tale, and ceased, his mission done.
VII.
And well thou know'st, how famed Alcæus smote
Of his high harp the love-enliven'd strings,
And raised to Sappho's praise th' enamour'd note,
Midst noise of mirth and jocund revellings:
Ay, he did love that nightingale of song
With all a lover's fervour,—and, as he
Deftly attuned the lyre, to madness stung
The Teian bard with envious jealousy.
For her Anacreon, charming lyrist, woo'd,
And fain would win, with sweet mellifluous chime,
Encircled by her Lesbian sisterhood;—
Would often Samos leave, and many a time,
From vanquish'd Teos' viny orchards, hie
To viny Lesbos' isle,—and from the shore,
O'er the blue wave, on Lectum cast his eye,
And think on by-gone days, and times no more.
VIII.
And how, from, steep Colonus' rocky height,
On lightsome pinions borne, the Attic bee
Sail'd through the air, and wing'd her honied flight,
And sang of love and wine melodiously
In choric numbers: for ethereal Jove
Bestow'd on Sophocles Archippe's charms,
Albeit in eve of life,—and gave to love
And fold the yielding fair one in his arms.
IX.
Nay, I aver, in very sooth, that he,
Dead from his birth to love, to beauty blind,
Who, by quaint rules of cold philosophy,
Contemn'd the sex, and hated womankind,—
That he,—e'en he,—with all his stoic craft,
Cave to imperial Love unwilling way,
And, sore empierced with Cupid's tyrant shaft,
Could neither sleep by night, nor rest by day;
What time, in Archelaus' regal hall,
Ægino, graceful handmaid, viands brought
Of choicest savour, to her master's call
Obsequious, or wine's impurpled draught:
Nor didst thou cease, through streets and highways broad,
Euripides! to chase the royal slave,
Till vengeance met thee, in his angry mood,
And deep-mouth'd bloodhounds tore thee to the grave.
X.
And him too of Cythera,—foster child
Of all the Muses, train'd to love and song,—
Philoxenus,—thou knowest,—how with wild
And loud acclaim, (as late he pass'd along
Through Colophon,) and shouts of joyfulness,
The air was riv'n: for thou didst hear the tale
Of Galatea lost, fair shepherdess,
Whom e'en the firstlings of her flock bewail.
XI.
Nor is Philetas' name to thee unknown,
Than whom a sweeter minstrel never was;
Whose statue lives in his own native town,
Hallow'd to fame, and breathes in deathless brass,
Under a platane,—seeming still to praise
The nimble Bittis, in the Coan grove,
With am'rous ditties, and harmonious lays,
And all the art, and all the warmth of love.
XII.
And they of humankind, (to crown my song,)
Who, in th' austereness of their life, pursued
Knowledge abstruse, her mazy paths among,—
And sought for hidden lore,—and ceaseless woo'd
The Muse severe, couching her doctrines sage
In cogent language, marring ev'ry clog
To intellectual sense, on reason's page;—
Or, in the philosophic dialogue,
Moulded th' important truths, they meant to prove,
In milder form, and pleased and reason'd too;—
And these confess'd the mighty power of Love,
And bow'd the neck, nor could his yoke eschew.
XIII.
Pythagoras, the Samian sage, who taught
To solve the knots, perplex and intricate,
Of fair geometry, and whilom brought
Into a narrow sphere's brief compass strait
The stars of heav'n, in order absolute;
With frantic passion woo'd Theano's charms,
Infuriate,—nor ceased his am'rous suit,
Till he had clasp'd the damsel in his arms.
XIV.
And what a flame of love the Paphian queen
Lit, in her wrath, in the enamour'd breast
Of Socrates,—whom of the sons of men
Apollo named the wisest and the best!
He in Aspasia's house each lighter care
Chased from his breast, when at her side he sate
In am'rous parley,—and, still ling'ring there,
Could find no end to love, or love's debate.
XV.
Shrewd Aristippus, Cyrenean sage,
To the Corinthian Isthmus' double shore
Wended his way, his passion to assuage,—
And shunn'd the calm retreats he loved before;
Forsook the far-famed Athens,—inly moved
By Laïs' charms, by Laïs lured astray,—
And in voluptuous Eph'ra lived,—and loved,—
From Academic bowers far away.—J. BAILEY.
* * * * *
_Part of the same._ (P. 954.)
With her the sweet Anacreon stray'd,
Begirt with many a Lesbian maid;
And fled for her the Samian strand,
For her his vine-clad native land—
A bleeding country left the while
For wine and love in Sappho's isle.—ANON.
* * * * *
ANACREON. (Book xiii. § 72, p. 955.)
_Anacreon._—Spirit of love, whose tresses shine
Along the breeze in golden twine;
Come, within a fragrant cloud,
Blushing with light, thy votary shroud;
And, on those wings that sparkling play,
Waft, oh! waft me hence away!
Love! my soul is full of thee,
Alive to all thy luxury.
But she, the nymph for whom I glow,
The pretty Lesbian, mocks my woe;
Smiles at the hoar and silver'd hues
Which time upon my forehead strews.
Alas! I fear she keeps her charms
In store for younger, happier arms!
_Sappho._—Oh Muse! who sitt'st on golden throne,
Full many a hymn of dulcet tone
The Teian sage is taught by thee;
But, goddess, from thy throne of gold,
The sweetest hymn thou'st ever told,
He lately learn'd and sang for me.—THOS. MOORE.
_The same._
Pelting with a purple ball,
Bright-hair'd Cupid gives the call,
And tries his antics one and all,
My steps to her to wile;
But she—for thousands round her vie—
Casts on my tell-tale locks her eye,
And bids the grey-hair'd poet sigh—
Another wins her smile!—ANON.
* * * * *
ALCMAN. (Book xiii. § 75, p. 958.)
Again sweet Love, by Cytherea led,
Hath all my soul possest;
Again delicious rapture shed
In torrents o'er my breast.
Now Megalostrata the fair,
Of all the Virgin train
Most blessed—with her yellow floating hair—
Hath brought me to the Muses' holy fane,
To flourish there.—BLAND.
* * * * *
IBYCUS. (Book xiii. § 76, p. 958.)
What time soft Zephyrs fan the trees
In the blest gardens of th' Hesperides,
Where those bright golden apples glow,
Fed by the fruitful streams that round them flow,
And new-born clusters teem with wine
Beneath the shadowy foliage of the vine;
To me the joyous season brings
But added torture on his sunny wings.
Then Love, the tyrant of my breast,
Impetuous ravisher of joy and rest,
Bursts, furious, from his mother's arms,
And fills my trembling soul with new alarms;
Like Boreas from his Thracian plains,
Clothed in fierce lightnings, in my bosom reigns,
And rages still, the madd'ning power—
His parching flames my wither'd heart devour;
Wild Phrensy comes my senses o'er,
Sweet Peace is fled, and Reason rules no more.—BLAND.
* * * * *
CHÆREMON. (Book xiii. § 87, p. 970.)
One to the silver lustre of the moon,
In graceful, careless, attitude reclined,
Display'd her snowy bosom, full unzoned
In all its naked loveliness: another
Led up the sprightly dance; and as she moved,
Her loose robes gently floating, the light breeze
Lifted her vest, and to the enraptured eye
Uncover'd her left breast. Gods! what a sight!
What heavenly whiteness! breathing and alive,
A swelling picture!—This from eyelids dark
Beam'd forth a ray of such celestial light,
As dazzled whilst it charm'd. A fourth appear'd,
Her beauties half uncover'd, and display'd
Her delicate arm, and taper fingers, small,
And round, and white as polish'd ivory.
Another yet, with garment loosely thrown
Across her neck and shoulders; as she moved,
The am'rous zephyrs drew aside her robe,
Exposed her pliant limbs, full, round, and fair,
Such as the Paphian Goddess might have own'd.
Love smiled at my surprise, shook his light wings,
And mark'd me for his victim.—Others threw
Their careless limbs upon the bank bedeck'd
With odoriferous herbs, and blossoms rare,
Such as the earth produced from Helen's tears,
The violet with dark leaves, the crocus too,
That gave a warm tint to their flowing robes,
And marjoram sweet of Persia rear'd its head
To deck the verdant spot.—ANON.
_The same._
There one reclined apart I saw, within the moon's pale light,
With bosom through her parted robe appearing snowy white:
Another danced, and floating free her garments in the breeze,
She seem'd as buoyant as the wave that leaps o'er summer seas;
While dusky shadows all around shrunk backward from the place,
Chased by the beaming splendour shed like sunshine from her face.
Beside this living picture stood a maiden passing fair,
With soft round arms exposed: a fourth, with free and graceful air,
Like Dian when the bounding hart she tracks through morning dew,
Bared through the opening of her robes her lovely limbs to view.
And oh! the image of her charms, as clouds in heaven above,
Mirror'd by streams, left on my soul the stamp of hopeless love.
And slumbering near them others lay, on beds of sweetest flowers,
The dusky-petal'd violet, the rose of Paphian bowers,
The inula and saffron flower, which on their garments cast
And veils, such hues as deck the sky when day is ebbing fast;
While far and near tall marjoram bedeck'd the fairy ground,
Loading with sweets the vagrant winds that frolick'd all around.
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
SEMOS. (Book xiv. § 2, p. 979.)
Poor mortal unmerry, who seekest to know
What will bid thy brow soften, thy quips and cranks flow,
To the house of the mother I bid thee repair—
Thou wilt find, if she's pleased, what thy heart covets there.
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
MELANIPPIDES. (Book xiv. § 7, p. 984.)
But Athené flung away
From her pure hand those noxious instruments
It late had touch'd, and thus did say—
"Hence, ye banes of beauty, hence;
What? shall I my charms disgrace
By making such an odious face?"—BLAND.
* * * * *
PRATINAS. (Book xiv. § 8, p. 985.)
What means this tumult? Why this rage?
What thunder shakes th' Athenian stage?
'Tis frantic Bromius bids me sing,
He tunes the pipe, he smites the string;
The Dryads with their chief accord,
Submit, and hail the drama's lord.
Be still! and let distraction cease,
Nor thus profane the Muse's peace;
By sacred fiat I preside,
The minstrel's master and his guide;
He, whilst the chorus strains proceed,
Shall follow with responsive reed;
To measured notes whilst they advance,
He in wild maze shall lead the dance.
So generals in the front appear,
Whilst music echoes from the rear.
Now silence each discordant sound!
For see, with ivy chaplet crown'd,
Bacchus appears! He speaks in me—
Hear, and obey the god's decree!—CUMBERLAND.
_The same._
What revel-rout is this? What noise is here?
What barb'rous discord strikes my ear?
What jarring sounds are these, that rage
Unholy on the Bacchic stage?
'Tis mine to sing in Bromius' praise—
'Tis mine to laud the god in dithyrambic lays—
As o'er the mountain's height,
The woodland Nymphs among,
I wing my rapid flight,
And tune my varied song,
Sweet as the melody of swans,—that lave
Their rustling pennons in the silver wave.
Of the harmonious lay the Muse is sovereign still:
Then let the minstrel follow, if he will—
But not precede: whose stricter care should be,
And more appropriate aim,
To fan the lawless flame
Of fiery youths, and lead them on
To deeds of drunkenness alone,
The minister of revelry—
When doors, with many a sturdy stroke,
Fly from their bolts, to shivers broke,
And captive beauty yields, but is not won.
Down with the Phrygian pipe's discordant sound!
Crackle, ye flames! and burn the monster foul
To very ashes—in whose notes are found
Nought but what's harsh and flat,—no music for the soul,—
The work of some vile handicraft. To thee,
Great Dithyrambus! ivy-tressèd king!
I stretch my hand—'tis here—and rapidly
My feet in airy mazes fling.
Listen my Doric lay; to thee, to thee I sing.—J. BAILEY.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xiv. § 15, p. 991.)
Now if a native
Doctor prescribe, "Give him a porringer
Of ptisan in the morning," we despise him.
But in some _brogue_ disguised 'tis admirable.
Thus he who speaks of _Beet_ is slighted, while
We prick our ears if he but mention _Bate_,
As if _Bate_ knew some virtue not in _Beet_.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
SEMOS. (Book xiv. § 16, p. 992.)
Make way there, a wide space
Yield to the god;
For Dionysos has a mind to walk
Bolt upright through your midst.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
SEMOS. (Book xiv. § 16, p. 992.)
Bacchus, to thee our muse belongs,
Of simple chant, and varied lays;
Nor fit for virgin ears our songs,
Nor handed down from ancient days:
Fresh flows the strain we pour to thee,
Patron of joy and minstrelsy!—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ALCÆUS. (Book xiv. § 23, p. 1000.)
Glitters with brass my mansion wide;
The roof is deck'd on every side
In martial pride,
With helmets ranged in order bright
And plumes of horse-hair nodding white,
A gallant sight—
—Fit ornament for warrior's brow—
And round the walk, in goodly row,
Refulgent glow
Stout greaves of brass like burnish'd gold,
And corslets there, in many a fold
Of linen roll'd;
And shields that in the battle fray
The routed losers of the day
Have cast away;
Eubœan falchions too are seen,
With rich embroider'd belts between
Of dazzing sheen:
And gaudy surcoats piled around,
The spoils of chiefs in war renown'd,
May there be found.
These, and all else that here you see,
Are fruits of glorious victory
Achieved by me.—BLAND.
* * * * *
(Book xiv. § 27, p. 1004.)
Where is my lovely parsley, say?
My violets, roses, where are they?
My parsley, roses, violets fair,
Where are my flowers? Tell me where.—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
PHILETÆRUS. (Book xiv. § 34, p. 1011.)
O Zeus! how glorious 'tis to die while piercing flutes are near,
Pouring their stirring melodies into the faltering ear;
On these alone doth Eros smile, within whose realms of night,
Where vulgar ghosts in shivering bands, all strangers to delight,
In leaky tub from Styx's flood the icy waters bear,
Condemn'd, for woman's lovely voice, its moaning sounds to hear.
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ATHENION. (Book xiv. § 80, p. 1056.)
_A._ What! know you not that cookery has much
Contributed to piety? attend,
And I will tell you how. This art at first
Made the fierce cannibal a man; impress'd
Upon his rugged nature the desire
Of better food than his own flesh; prescribed
Order and rule in all his actions; gave him
That polish and respect for social life
Which now makes up his sum of happiness.
_B._ Say by what means.
_A._ Attend and you shall hear.
Time was that men, like rude and savage beasts,
Prey'd on each other. From such bloody feasts
A flood of evils burst upon the world;
Till one arose, much wiser than the rest,
And chose a tender victim from his flock
For sacrifice; roasting the flesh, he found
The savoury morsel good, and better far
Than human carcass, from which time roast meat
Became the general food, approved by all.
In order to create variety
Of the same dish, the art of cookery
Began t' invent new modes of dressing it.
In off'rings to the gods we still preserve
The ancient custom, and abstain from salt;
For in those early days salt was not used,
Though now we have it in abundance; still,
In solemn sacrifices, we conform
To usage of old times: in private meals
He who can season best is the best cook,
And the desire of savoury meat inspires
The invention of new sauces, which conduce
To bring the art of cookery to perfection.
_B._ You are, indeed, a new Palæphatus.
_A._ Use gave experience, and experience skill.
As cooks acquired more knowledge, they prepared
The delicate tripe, with nice ingredients mix'd,
To give it a new relish; follow'd soon
The tender kid, sew'd up between two covers,
Stew'd delicately down, and smoking hot,
That melted in the mouth; the savoury hash
Came next, and that disguised with so much art,
And season'd with fresh herbs, and pungent sauce,
That you would think it most delicious fish.
Then salted meats, with store of vegetables,
And fragrant honey, till the pamper'd taste,
High fed with luscious dainties, grew too nice
To feed on human garbage, and mankind
Began to feel the joys of social life;
The scatter'd tribes unite; towns soon were built
And peopled with industrious citizens.
These and a thousand other benefits
Were the result of cookery alone.
_B._ Oh, rare! where will this end?
_A._ To us you owe
The costly sacrifice, we slay the victims,
We pour the free libations, and to us
The gods themselves lend a propitious ear,
And for our special merits scatter blessings
On all the human race; because from us
And from our art, mankind were first induced
To live the life of reason, and the gods
Received due honour.
_B._ Prithee rest awhile,
And leave religion out.—ANON.
_The same._
The art of cookery drew us gently forth
From that ferocious life, when void of faith
The Anthropophaginian ate his brother!
To cookery we owe well-order'd states,
Assembling men in dear society.
Wild was the earth, man feasting upon man,
When one of nobler sense and milder heart
First sacrificed an animal; the flesh
Was sweet; and man then ceased to feed on man!
And something of the rudeness of those times
The priest commemorates; for to this day
He roasts the victim's entrails without salt.
In those dark times, beneath the earth lay hid
The precious salt, that gold of cookery!
But when its particles the palate thrill'd,
The source of seasonings, charm of cookery! came.
They served a paunch with rich ingredients stored;
And tender kid, within two covering plates,
Warm melted in the mouth. So art improved!
At length a miracle not yet perform'd,
They minced the meat, which roll'd in herbage soft,
Nor meat nor herbage seem'd, but to the eye,
And to the taste, the counterfeited dish
Mimick'd some curious fish; invention rare!
Then every dish was season'd more and more,
Salted, or sour, or sweet, and mingled oft
Oatmeal and honey. To enjoy the meal
Men congregated in the populous towns,
And cities flourish'd, which we cooks adorn'd
With all the pleasures of domestic life.—D'ISRAELI.
_The same._
_Cook._ Do you not know that cookery has brought
More aids to piety than aught besides?
_Slave._ What? is the matter thus?
_Cook._ Yes, you Barbarian!
It freed us from a beast-like, faithless life,
And hateful cannibalism, and introduced us
To order, and enclosed us in the world
Where we now live.
_Slave._ How?
_Cook._ Listen, and I'll tell you.
When cannibalism and many other crimes
Were rife, a certain man, who was no fool,
Slaughter'd a victim and then roasted it.
So, when they found its flesh nicer than man's flesh,
They did not eat each other any longer,
But sacrificed their beasts and roasted them.
And when they once had tasted of this pleasure,
And a beginning had been made, they carried
To greater heights the art of cookery.
Hence, from remembrance of the past, men roast
E'en to the present day the gods' meat-offerings
Without employing salt; for in olden times
It had not yet been used for such a purpose;
So when their taste changed afterwards, they ate
Salt also with their meat, still strictly keeping
Their fathers' custom in the rites prescribed them.
All which new ingenuity, and raising
To greater heights the art of cookery,
By means of sauces, has alone become
The cause of safety unto all of us.
_Slave._ This fellow is a fresh Palæphatus!
_Cook._ Then, after this, as time was now advancing,
One person introduced a season'd haggis;
Another stew'd a kid right exquisitely,
Or made some mince-meat, or slipp'd in a fish
Disguised so quaintly that no eye observed it,
Or greens, or pickled fish, or wheat, or honey.
When through the pleasures that I'm now explaining,
Each man was far removed from ever wishing
To eat a portion of a human corpse;
They all agreed to live with one another—
A populace collected—towns were built—
All through the cooking art, as I have shown.
_Slave._ Good-bye; you fit your master to a wrinkle.
_Cook._ It is we cooks who clip the victim's hair,
And sacrifice, and offer up libations,
Because the gods attend to us especially,
As it was we who made these great discoveries,
Which tend especially towards holy living.
_Slave._ Pray leave off talking about piety!
_Cook._ I beg your pardon. Come and take a snack
Along with me, and get the things prepared.—ANON.
* * * * *
CRATINUS. (Book xiv. § 81, p. 1057.)
On the light wring of Zephyr that thitherward blows,
What a dainty perfume has invaded my nose;
And sure in yon copse, if we carefully look,
Dwells a dealer in scents, or Sicilian cook!—W. J. B.
* * * * *
BATO. (Book xiv. § 81, p. 1058.)
Good, good, Sibynna!
Ours is no art for sluggards to acquire,
Nor should the hour of deepest midnight see
Us and our volumes parted:—still our lamp
Upon its oil is feeding, and the page
Of ancient lore before us:—What, what hath
The Sicyonian deduced?—What school-points
Have we from him of Chios? sagest Actides
And Zopyrinus, what are their traditions?—
Thus grapple we with mighty tomes of wisdom,
Sifting and weighing and digesting all.—ANON.
* * * * *
AMPHIS. (Book xv. § 42, p. 1103.)
_A._ Milesian hangings line your walls, you scent
Your limbs with sweetest perfume, royal myndax
Piled on the burning censer fills the air
With costly fragrance.
_B._ Mark you that, my friend!
Knew you before of such a fumigation?—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ALEXIS. (Book xv. § 44, p. 1105.)
Nor fell
His perfumes from a box of alabaster;
That were too trite a fancy, and had savour'd
O' the elder time—but ever and anon
He slipp'd four doves, whose wings were saturate
With scents, all different in kind—each bird
Bearing its own appropriate sweets:—these doves,
Wheeling in circles round, let fall upon us
A shower of sweet perfumery, drenching, bathing
Both clothes and furniture—and lordlings all—
I deprecate your envy, when I add,
That on myself fell floods of violet odours.—MITCHELL.
* * * * *
SIMONIDES. (Book xv. § 50, p. 1110.)
Oh! Health, it is the choicest boon Heaven can send us,
And Beauty's arms, bright and keen, deck and defend us;
Next follows honest Wealth—riches abounding—
And Youth's pleasant holidays—friendship surrounding.
—D. K. SANDFORD.
* * * * *
(Book xv. § 50, p. 1110.)
With his claw the snake surprising,
Thus the crab kept moralizing:—
"Out on sidelong turns and graces,
Straight's the word for honest paces!"—D. K. SANDFORD.
* * * * *
CALLISTRATUS. (Book xv. § 50, p. 1111.)
Wreathed with myrtles be my glaive.
Like the falchion of the brave,
Death to Athens' lord that gave.
Death to tyranny!
Yes! let myrtle wreaths be round
Such as then the falchion bound,
When with deeds the feast was crown'd
Done for liberty!
Voiced by Fame eternally,
Noble pair! your names shall be,
For the stroke that made us free,
When the tyrant fell.
Death, Harmodius! came not near thee,
Isles of bliss and brightness cheer thee,
There heroic breasts revere thee,
There the mighty dwell!—D. K. SANDFORD.
_The same._
With myrtle-wreathed I'll wear my sword,
As when ye slew the tyrant lord,
And made Athenian freedom brighten;
Harmodius and Aristogiton!
Thou art not dead—it is confess'd—
But haunt'st the Islands of the Blest,—
Beloved Harmodius!—where Pelides,
The swift-heel'd, dwells, and brave Tydides.
With myrtle-wreathed I'll wear my sword,
As when ye slew the tyrant lord
Hipparchus, Pallas' festal night on;
Harmodius and Aristogiton!
Because ye slew the tyrant, and
Gave Athens freedom, through the land
Your flashing fame shall ever lighten;
Harmodius and Aristogiton!—WALSH.
_The same._
I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle-bough,
The sword that laid the tyrant low,
When patriots, burning to be free,
To Athens gave equality.
Harmodius, hail! though 'reft of breath,
Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death;
The heroes' happy isles shall be
The bright abode allotted thee.
I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle-bough,
The sword that laid Hipparchus low,
When at Athena's adverse fane
He knelt, and never rose again.
While Freedom's name is understood,
You shall delight the wise and good;
You dared to set your country free,
And gave her laws equality.—BLAND.
_The same._
In myrtle my sword will I wreathe,
Like our patriots the noble and brave,
Who devoted the tyrant to death,
And to Athens equality gave.
Loved Harmodius, thou never shalt die!
The poets exultingly tell
That thine is the fulness of joy
Where Achilles and Diomed dwell.
In myrtle my sword will I wreathe,
Like our patriots the noble and brave,
Who devoted Hipparchus to death,
And buried his pride in the grave.
At the altar the tyrant they seized,
While Athena he vainly implored.
And the Goddess of Wisdom was pleased
With the victim of Liberty's sword.
May your bliss be immortal on high.
Among men as your glory shall be!
Ye doom'd the usurper to die,
And bade our dear country be free.—D.
_The same._
In myrtles veil'd will I the falchion wear;
For thus the patriot sword
Harmodius and Aristogeiton bare,
When they the tyrant's bosom gored;
And bade the men of Athens be
Regenerate in equality.
Oh, beloved Harmodius! never
Shall death be thine, who liv'st for ever!
Thy shade, as men have told, inherits
The islands of the blessed spirits;
Where deathless live the glorious dead;
Achilles fleet of foot, and Diomed.
In myrtles veil'd will I the falchion wear;
For thus the patriot sword
Harmodius and Aristogeiton bare,
When they the tyrant's bosom gored
When, in Minerva's festal rite,
They closed Hipparchus' eyes in night.
Harmodius' praise, Aristogeiton's name,
Shall bloom on earth with undecaying fame;
Who, with the myrtle-wreathed sword,
The tyrant's bosom gored;
And bade the men of Athens be
Regenerate in equality.—ELTON.
* * * * *
HYBRIAS. (Book xv. § 50, p. 1112.)
My wealth is here—the sword, the spear, the
breast-defending shield;
With this I plough, with this I sow, with this I reap the field;
With this I tread the luscious grape, and drink the blood-red
wine;
And slaves around in order wait, and all are counted mine!
But he that will not rear the lance upon the battle-field,
Nor sway the sword, nor stand behind the breast-defending shield,
On lowly knee must worship me, with servile kiss adored,
And peal the cry of homage high, and hail me mighty Lord!
—D. K. SANDFORD.
_The same._
My riches are the arms I wield,
The spear, the sword, the shaggy shield,
My bulwark in the battle-field:
With this I plough the furrow'd soil,
With this I share the reaper's toil,
With this I press the generous juice
That rich and sunny vines produce;
With these, of rule and high command
I bear the mandate in my hand;
For while the slave and coward fear
To wield the buckler, sword, and spear,
They bend the supplicating knee,
And own my just supremacy.—MERIVALE.
_The same._
Great riches have I in my spear and sword,
And hairy shield, like a rampart thrown
Before me in war; for by these I am lord
Of the fields where the golden harvests are grown;
And by these I press forth the red red wine,
While the Mnotæ around salute me king;
Approaching, trembling, these knees of mine,
With the dread which the spear and the falchion bring.
—J. A. ST. JOHN.
* * * * *
ARISTOTLE. (Book xv. § 51, p. 1113.)
O sought with toil and mortal strife
By those of human birth,
Virtue, thou noblest end of life,
Thou goodliest gain on earth!
Thee, Maid, to win, our youth would bear,
Unwearied, fiery pains; and dare
Death for thy beauty's worth;
So bright thy proffer'd honours shine,
Like clusters of a fruit divine,
Sweeter than slumber's boasted joys,
And more desired than gold,
Dearer than nature's dearest ties:—
For thee those heroes old,
Herculean son of highest Jove,
And the twin-birth of Leda, strove
By perils manifold:
Pelides' son with like desire,
And Ajax, sought the Stygian fire.
The bard shall crown with lasting bay,
And age immortal make
Atarna's sovereign, 'reft of day
For thy dear beauty's sake:
Him therefore the recording Nine
In songs extol to heights divine,
And every chord awake;
Promoting still, with reverence due,
The meed of friendship, tried and true.—BLAND.
_The same._
Oh! danger-seeking Glory, through the span
Of life the best and highest aim of man:
Say, have not Greeks, to win thy love, in fight
Braved hottest perils, found in death delight?
E'en Leda's twins, when felt thy dart than death
Keener, than gold more potent, than the breath
Of balmy sleep more grateful, with hearts fix'd
By glory's charms, undaunted and untired
To honour march'd? Nor with less eager pace
Alcides battled on in glory's race;
For love of thee Achilles sought his doom;
For love of thee, 'round Ajax came the gloom
Of madness and of death; for thee, of light
Th' Atarnean's eyeballs widow'd sunk in night,
Him, therefore, shall the muse, by poet's power,
Though mortal make immortal. Glory's hour
Flits not from such: who hand and heart have given
To crown, with honours due, the child of heaven.—G. BURGES.
* * * * *
ARIPHRON. (Book xv. § 63, p. 1122.)
Health! supreme of heavenly powers,
Let my verse our fortunes tell—
Mine with thee to spend the hours,
Thine with me in league to dwell.
If bright gold be worth a prayer,
If the pledge of love we prize,
If the regal crown and chair
Match celestial destinies—
If sweet joys and stolen treasures
Venus' furtive nets enclose,
If divinely-granted pleasures
Yield a breathing-space from woes—
Thine the glory, thine the zest!
Thine the Spring's eternal bloom!
Man has all, of thee possest,
Dark, without thee, lowers his doom.—D. K. SANDFORD.
_The same._
Health, brightest visitant from Heaven,
Grant me with thee to rest!
For the short term by nature given,
Be thou my constant guest!
For all the pride that wealth bestows,
The pleasure that from children flows,
Whate'er we court in regal state
That makes men covet to be great;
Whatever sweet we hope to find
In love's delightful snares,
Whatever good by Heaven assign'd,
Whatever pause from cares,—
All flourish at thy smile divine;
The spring of loveliness is thine,
And every joy that warms our hearts
With thee approaches and departs.—BLAND.
_The same._
Oh! holiest Health, all other gods excelling,
May I be ever blest
With thy kind favour, and in life's poor dwelling
Be thou, I pray, my constant guest.
If aught of charm or grace to mortal lingers
Round wealth or kingly sway,
Or children's happy faces in their play,
Or those sweet bands, which Aphrodite's fingers
Weave round the trusting heart,
Or whatsoever joy or breathing-space
Kind Heaven hath given to worn humanity—
Thine is the charm, to thee they owe the grace.
Life's chaplet blossoms only where _thou_ art,
And pleasure's year attains its sunny spring;
And where thy smile is not, our joy is but a sigh.—E. B. C.
* * * * *
ADDENDA.
PHILEMON. (Book vii. § 32, p. 453.)
_Cook._ A longing seizes me to come and tell
To earth and heaven, how I dress'd the dinner.
By Pallas, but 'tis pleasant to succeed
In every point! How tender was my fish!
How nice I served it up, not drugg'd with cheese,
Nor brown'd above! It look'd the same exactly,
When roasted, as it did when still alive.
So delicate and mild a fire I gave it
To cook it, that you'll scarcely credit me.
Just as a hen, when she has seized on something
Too large to swallow at a single mouthful,
Runs round and round, and holds it tight, and longs
To gulp it down, while others follow her;
So the first guest that felt my fish's flavour
Leapt from his couch, and fled around the room,
Holding the dish, while others chased a-stern.
One might have raised the sacred cry, as if
It was a miracle; for some of them
Snatch'd something, others nothing, others all.
Yet they had only given me to dress
Some paltry river-fish that feed on mud.
If I had had a sea-char, or a turbot
From Athens—Zeus the Saver!—or a boar-fish
From Argos, or from darling Sicyon
That fish which Neptune carries up to Heaven
To feast the Immortals with—the conger-eel;
Then all who ate it would have turn'd to gods.
I have discover'd the _elixir vitæ_;
Those who are dead already, when they've smelt
One of my dishes, come to life again.—ANON.
HEGESANDER. (Book vii. § 36, p. 455.)
_Pupil._ Good master, many men have written largely
On cookery; so either prove you're saying
Something original, or else don't tease me.
_Cook._ No, Syrus; think that I'm the only person
Who've found and know the gastronomic object.
I did not learn it in a brace of years,
Wearing the apron just by way of sport;
But have investigated and examined
The art by portions during my whole life—
How many kinds of greens, and sorts of sprats—
The manifold varieties of lentils:—
To sum up all—when I've officiated
During a funeral feast, as soon as ever
The company return'd from the procession,
All in their mourning robes, by merely lifting
My saucepan's lid I've made the weepers laugh,
Such titillations ran throughout their bodies,
As if it was a merry marriage-banquet.
_Pupil._ What? just by serving them with sprats and lentils?
_Cook._ Pshaw! this is play-work merely! If I get
All I require, and once fit up my kitchen,
You'll see the very thing take place again
That happen'd in the times of the old Sirens.
The smell will be so sweet, that not a man
Will have the power to walk right through this alley;
But every passer-by will stand directly
Close to my door, lock-jaw'd, and nail'd to it,
And speechless, till some friend of his run up,
With nose well plugg'd, and drag the wretch away.
_Pupil._ You're a great artist!
_Cook._ Yes, you do not know
To whom you're prating. There are very many
That I can spy amongst the audience there,
Who through my means have eat up their estates.—ANON.
FOOTNOTES.
[146] According to some, Plato.
[147] The lines are versions of parts of the long poem as found
in Athenæus.
INDEX.
ABATES, a Cilician wine, 54.
Abrotonum, a courtesan, mother of Themistocles, 921.
Abydenes, profligacy of the, 841.
Academicians, bad character of some of the, 814.
Acanthias, or thorny shark, 461.
Acanthus, wine of, 50.
Acatia, a kind of drinking cup, 740.
Accipesius, question as to what fish intended, 462.
Acesias cited, 828.
Acestius cited, 828.
Achæinas, a kind of loaf, 181.
Achæus the Eretrian cited, 51, 104, 277, 420, 425, 435, 579, 592,
593, 653, 654, 673, 712, 743, 767, 796, 1025, 1066, 1100, 1102.
Acharnus, a fish, 449.
Achillean fountain, the, 71.
Acorns, sea, 151.
Acorns of Jupiter, 87.
Acratopotes, a hero honoured in Munychia, 64.
Adæus, surnamed the cock, defeated and killed by Chares, 853.
Adæus of Mitylene cited, 751, 967.
Adespoti, freedmen among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Admete of Argos, story of, 1072.
Adonis, a kind of fish, 525.
Adramyttes, king of Lydia, 826.
Adrian, wine so called, 54.
Æacis, a kind of drinking cup, 739.
Ægimius cited, 1028.
Æginetans, their numerous slaves, 428.
Ælius Asclepiades cited, 1080.
Æmilianus of Mauritania, the grammarian, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Æolian harmony, its character, 996;
called afterwards Sub-Dorian, 997.
Æolus, a kind of fish, 503.
Æschines, his bad character, according to Lysias, 975;
cited, 349, 536, 915.
Æschylides cited, 1040.
Æschylus, invented scenic dresses, and arrayed the choruses of his
plays, 35;
his appeal to posterity, 548;
accused of intemperance, 676;
cited, 18, 28, 62, 84, 111, 112, 120, 143, 145, 165, 265, 282,
475, 497, 547, 571, 588, 592, 620, 634, 664, 669, 706, 739, 748,
759, 764, 783, 784, 789, 797, 805, 916, 957, 958, 961, 1001,
1005, 1009, 1050, 1065, 1076, 1102, 1120.
Æschylus the Alexandrian cited, 956.
Æthlius cited, 1040, 1045.
Ætolians involved in debt by extravagance, 844.
Affection of various animals for man, 967.
Agallis of Corcyra wrote on grammar, 23.
Agatharchides cited, 46, 250, 270, 387, 395, 428, 466, 609, 844, 845,
862, 880, 881, 1041.
Agatho cited, 336, 703, 931.
Agathocles, a favourite of Philip, 407.
Agathocles of Atracia wrote on fishing, 21.
Agathocles of Babylon cited, 49, 592, 825.
Agathocles of Cyzicus cited, 1039.
Agathon cited, 287, 717, 846.
Agelæi, a kind of loaves, 183.
Agelochus cited, 87.
Agen, a satyric drama, question as to its author, 83.
Agias cited, 1000.
Agiastos cited, 144.
Agis cited, 827.
Aglais, the female trumpeter, her voracity, 654.
Aglaosthenes cited, 131.
Agnocles the Rhodian cited, 567.
Agnon the Academic cited, 961.
Agron, king of the Illyrians, kills himself with drinking, 695.
Alban wine, two kinds of, 43, 54.
Alcæus the Mitylenean, fond of drinking, 679;
cited, 37, 63, 123, 178, 182, 497, 584, 628, 630, 644, 669, 670,
678, 679, (poetic version, 1180,) 726, 767, 1000, (1211,) 1076,
1083, 1098, 1104, 1108.
Alcetas the Macedonian, a great drinker, 689.
Alcibiades, character of, 855;
his triumphant return to Athens, 856;
attached to courtesans, 916;
his death, 917.
Alcidamas cited, 945.
Alcides of Alexandria, a Deipnosophist, 3.
Alcimus cited, 506, 696, 830.
Alciphron cited, 52.
Alcisthenes of Sybaris, his rich garment, 865.
Alcman, recorded by himself as a great eater, 656;
cited, 52, 64, 136, 137, 183, 190, 227, 588, 614, 656, 797, 958,
(poetic version, 1206,) 995, 1017, 1036, 1087, 1089.
Aleison, a kind of drinking cup, 740.
Alexamenus cited, 808.
Alexander the Great, death of, 686;
his drunkenness, 687;
his debauchery, 961;
his luxury and extravagance, 860;
gross flattery offered to him, 861;
his letter to Philoxenus cited, 36, 70;
his letter to the satraps of Asia cited, 742;
his Agen cited, 935.
Alexander, king of Egypt, 880.
Alexander, king of Syria, 335.
Alexander the Ætolian cited, 273, 444, 465, 650, 1117.
Alexander the Myndian cited, 94, 107, 351, 610, 611, 613, 615, 616,
617, 618, 619, 620, 622, 623, 628.
Alexandrides cited, 94.
Alexarchus, his strange letter, 164.
Alexinus the logician cited, 1113.
Alexis the comic poet, an epicure in fish, 543;
cited, 30, 34, 42, 47, 51, 56, 60, 64, 66, 75, 77, 81, 90,
(poetic version, 1126,) 95, 99, 105, 110, 111, 125, 126, 128,
157, 158, 159, 167, 173, 177, 178, 180, 183, 189, 193, 194,
(1133,) 198, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 209, 218, 219, 220, 222,
259, 263, 264, (1136,) 265, 271, 272, 274, 354, 355, 356, (1139,)
357, 358, (1142,) 359, (1143,) 362, 363, 372, (1146,) 374, (1150,)
378, 379, 380, 381, 384, 389, 390, 399, 400, 405, (1156, 1157,)
406, 452, 460, 472, 475, 482, 494, 510, 514, 532, (1163,) 535,
536, 537, 558, 562, 571, 575, 576, 579, 582, 596, (1174,) 599,
603, 605, 607, 622, 623, 658, 660, 663, 664, 665, 672, 678, 680,
681, 697, 700, 701, 705, 709, (1180,) 731, (1183,) 743, (1185,)
749, 751, 752, 754, 768, 772, 792, 797, 800, 803, 804, 805, 818,
(1186,) 828, 865, 871, 884, 885, 894, (1190,) 899, (1191,) 901,
(1193,) 904, (1194,) 907, 908, (1194,) 915, 918, 935, 936, 942,
950, 966, 974, 978, 991, (1210,) 1020, 1026, 1027, 1029, 1040,
1041, 1043, 1047, 1048, 1057, 1059, 1060, 1072, 1083, 1095, 1098,
1104, 1105, (1217,) 1107, 1118, 1119, 1120.
Alexis cited, 660.
Alexis the Samian cited, 916.
Alexon cited, 283.
Almonds, 85;
various kinds, 85.
Alphesticus, a fish, 442.
Alps, the, or Rhipæan mountains, 468.
Amalthea, horn of, a grove so called, 867;
a drinking cup, 741.
Amaranthus cited, 542, 653.
Amasis, the Egyptian king, how he obtained the throne, 1086;
fond of mirth, 409;
a great drinker, 692.
Ambrosia nine times sweeter than honey, 64;
a flower so called, 1093.
Ameipsias cited, 12, 103, 113, 426, 482, 497, 516, 580, 644, 673,
705, 754, 1066.
Amerias cited, 129, 189, 281, 282, 420, 581, 670, 741, 774, 1089,
1118, 1121.
Amiæ, or tunnies, 436.
Amiton the Eleuthernæan, a harp-player, 1019.
Ammonius cited, 907.
Amœbius the harp-player, 993.
Amphicrates cited, 921.
Amphictyon, king of the Athenians, honours paid to Bacchus by, 63.
Amphilochus, advice to, 823.
Amphion the Thespæan, cited, 1003.
Amphis the comic writer, cited, 12, 50, 57, 71, 78, 83, 93, 110,
114, 167, 279, 356, (poetic version, 1138,) 435, 463, 531, 608,
663, 666, 671, 707, 894, 901, 908, 944, 1026, 1103, (1216.)
Amphis, a wine so called, 52.
Amusements, fondness of the Greeks for, 31.
Amyntas cited, 110, 698, 800, 848.
Anacharsis the Scythian, his satire on drunkenness, 691.
Anacreon, a sober and virtuous man, 677;
cited, 18, 34, 282, 283, 362, 625, 673, 680, 685, 705, 726, 730,
738, 753, 757, 758, 796, 854, 903, 955, (poetic version, 1205,)
957, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1015, 1030, 1072, 1075, 1076, 1083,
1098, 1102, 1108.
Ananius cited, 132, 443, 583, 997.
Anaxagoras cited, 94, 119, 120.
Anaxandrides destroys his unsuccessful plays, 589;
cited, 47, 57, 78, 112, 158, 175, 214, 266, 281, 283, 352,
359, 381, 382, 389, 400, 410, 413, 463, 470, 483, 520, 589,
720, 727, 731, 768, 769, 803, 886, 912, 980, 1013, 1020, 1026,
1046, 1047, 1098, 1102, 1104, 1110, 1119.
Anaxarchus the philosopher, his mode of life, 877.
Anaxilas, or Anaxilaus, cited, 104, 113, 158, 205, 275, 284, 355,
399, 482, 540, 590, 607, 656, 672, 742, 877, 893, (poetic version,
1187,) 914, 994, 1047.
Anaximander cited, 796.
Anaximenes of Lampsacus cited, 365, 851, 944.
Anaxippus cited, 271, (poetic version, 1136,) 656, 776, 974.
Anchiale and Tarsus built in one day by Sardanapalus, 848.
Anchimolus, a water-drinker, 72.
Anchovies, 447;
mode of cooking, 448.
Ancona, wine of, 44.
Ancyla, a kind of drinking cup, 739.
Andreas of Panormus, cited, 1012.
Andreas the physician cited, 191, 490, 491.
Andriscus cited, 131.
Androcottus the Lydian, luxury of, 849.
Androcydes cited, 404.
Andron of Alexandria cited, 285, 1087.
Androsthenes cited, 155.
Androtion cited, 126, 137, 591.
Anicetus cited, 741.
Anicius, Lucius, his burlesque triumph, 981.
Animals, fondness of the Sybarites for, 832.
Annarus the Persian, luxury of, 849.
Antagoras, the poet, repartee of, 538.
Antalcidas the Lacedæmonian, favoured by the king of Persia, 79.
Antelopes, 625.
Antheas the Lindian, 702.
Anthias, the, 442;
why called a sacred fish, 443.
Anthippus cited, 637, (poetic version, 1176.)
Anticlides cited, 254, 605, 735, 754.
Antidotus cited, 181, 378, 1027, 1050.
Antigenides, witticism ascribed to, 1008.
Antigonus the Carystian cited, 73, 137, (poetic version, 1129,) 146,
466, 475, 544, 661, 691, 876, 901, 904, 962, 969.
Antimachus cited, 471, 478, 745, 746, 748, 757, 758, 770, 775.
Antinous, garland of, 1081.
Antiochus of Alexandria cited, 769.
Antiochus the Great, his favour for players and dancers, 31;
his drunkenness, 692, 694.
Antiochus Epiphanes, games celebrated by, 310;
a great drinker, 692.
Antiochus Grypus, his magnificent entertainment, 864.
Antiochus Theos banishes the philosophers, 875.
Antipater, the king, his plain mode of life, 878;
a check on the disorderly conduct of Philip, 687.
Antipater of Tarsus cited, 546, 1028.
Antiphanes, his remark to king Alexander, 888;
cited, 4, 5, 7, 12, 17, 24, 29, 37, 45, 46, 47, 62, 65, 70, 71,
77, 78, 93, 96, 99, 100, 104, 108, 109, 110, 112, 119, 125, 126,
130, 140, (poetic version, 1129,) 157, 160, 165, 167, 172,
(1133,) 179, 186, 195, 198, 202, 203, 206, 207, 209, 214, 231,
252, 255, 258, 259, 260, 271, 272, 273, 276, 279, 353, 354, 355,
(1137,) 357, (1142,) 358, 364, 375, (1151,) 376, 389, 404, (1156,)
405, 411, 452, 462, 463, 469, 471, 474, 476, 482, 486, 491, 492,
507, 508, 520, 535, 536, 537, 541, 542, 565, 577, 579, 583, 599,
618, 624, 625, 626, 633, 634, 635, 645, 666, 667, 697, 701, 703,
704, 708, 710, 711, (1181,) 720, 724, 737, 751, 756, 774, 776,
777, 778, 789, 800, 805, 806, 843, 872, 885, 886, 895, 905, 908,
914, 915, 934, 936, 937, 986, 993, 1026, 1028, 1030, 1033, 1047,
1050, 1057, 1058, 1064, 1065, 1072, 1084, 1088, 1096, 1101, 1102,
1104, 1107.
Antiphanes the orator, cited, 626.
Antiphon cited, 666, 841, 1040.
Antisthenes cited, 343, 344, 350, 822.
Antony, Marc, assumes the style of Bacchus, 239.
Antylla, revenues of, the pin money of Egyptian and Persian queens,
55.
Anytus, a friend of Alcibiades, 856.
Aotus, a kind of drinking cup, 740.
Apanthracis, a kind of loaf, 182.
Apellas cited, 104, 581.
Aphetæ, freedmen among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Aphritis, a kind of anchovy, 447.
Apicius, an epicure, 10.
Apion cited, 802, 1027, 1086.
Apollo the fish-eater, 545.
Apollocrates, a drunkard, 688.
Apollodorus of Adramyttium cited, 1090.
Apollodorus the arithmetician cited, 660.
Apollodorus of Athens cited, 104, 108, 137, 148, 276, 442, 486,
512, 770, 774, 795, 801, 907, 913, 930, 935, 943, 1017, 1032,
1037, 1059, 1088.
Apollodorus of Carystus cited, 57, 127, 440, 441, 480.
Apollodorus the comic poet cited, 4, (poetic version, 1123.)
Apollodorus the Cyrenean cited, 777.
Apollodorus of Gela cited, 206, 752.
Apollodorus, son of Pasion, cited, 916.
Apollodorus the physician cited, 1078.
Apollonius cited, 162.
Apollonius of Herophila cited, 1099.
Apollonius Rhodius cited, 445, 712.
Apollophanes cited, 190, 745, 775.
Apopyrias, 185.
Apopyris, the, a fish, 529.
Apparatus, the cook's, 271.
Appian the grammarian, 402.
Apples, 135;
various kinds, 136;
battle of apples, 435.
Aracis, a drinking cup, 803.
Arææ, islands, why so called, 412.
Araros cited, 77, 144, 159, 175, 281, 374, 751, 899.
Aratus cited, 781, 782, 786.
Arbaces, the Mede, his interview with Sardanapalus, 847.
Arbutus, the, 82, 83.
Arcadians, cultivation of music by the, 999.
Arcadion, epitaph on, 689.
Arcesilaus, ready wit of, 662.
Archagathus cited, 254.
Archaianassa, the mistress of Plato, his song on her, 940;
(poetical version, 1197.)
Archedicus cited, 459, 460, 745.
Archelaus of the Chersonese cited, 615, 888.
Archemachus cited, 414.
Archestratus the soothsayer, weighed only one obol, 884.
Archestratus the Syracusan cited, 7, (poetic version, 1123,) 48,
92, 105, 154, (1130,) 168, 169, 174, 185, 193, 196, 260, 262,
437, 447, 449, 450, 452, 460, 461, 462, 468, 471, 473, 476, 477,
479, 480, 482, 487, 489, 491, 494, 496, 501, 502, 503, 505, 506,
507, 510, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 520, 604, 630, 1013.
Archidamas, king, fined for marrying a rich instead of a beautiful
wife, 905.
Archilochus the Parian poet, cited, 11, (poetic version, 1123,) 51,
86, 128, 143, 184, 201, 296, 468, 612, 654, 685, 706, 771, (1186,)
838, 839, 841, 1000, 1002, 1021, 1045, 1099.
Archimelus cited, 333.
Archippus cited, 144, 151, 159, 359, 436, 482, 489, 495, 506, 517,
519, 524, 541, 668, 671, 798, 1024, 1049, 1083.
Archonides the Argive, never thirsty, 72.
Archytas, his kindness to his slaves, 832;
cited, 137, 286, 828.
Arctinus the Corinthian cited, 36, 436.
Areopagus, persons cited before the, for extravagant living, 268.
Arethusa, fountain of, 69.
Argas, a parodist, 1024.
Argyraspides, or Macedonian body-guard, 863.
Argyris, a drinking cup, 742.
Ariphron cited, 1122, (poetic version, 1222.)
Aristagoras cited, 913.
Aristarchus the grammarian, 65, 86, 295, 297, 301, 797, 801, 1012.
Aristarchus the tragic poet cited, 978.
Aristeas cited, 994.
Aristias cited, 99, 1095.
Aristides cited, 1024.
Aristippus, his retort on Plato, 541;
given to luxury, 870;
bears the practical jokes of Dionysius, 871;
justifies his conduct, 871, 939.
Aristobulus of Cassandra cited, 71, 394, 686, 849.
Aristocles cited, 227, 278, 989.
Aristocrates cited, 138.
Aristodemus cited, 384, 387, 534, 544, 792.
Aristogeiton cited, 944.
Aristomenes cited, 17, 190, 451, 605, 1040, 1052.
Ariston the Chian cited, 63, 660, 902.
Aristonicus cited, 33.
Aristonicus the ball-player, statue to, 31.
Aristonymus the harp-player, 715;
his riddles, 715;
cited, 145, 447, 448, 451.
Aristophanes cited, 35, 50, 68, 79, 81, 83, 86, 92, 93, 94, 103,
107, 109, 111, 126, (poetic version, 1129,) 129, 130, 134, 144,
145, (1130,) 149, 150, 151, 157, 159, 160, 173, 178, 181, 182,
183, 184, 186, 189, 193, 195, 197, 209, 214, 218, 226, 249, 251,
255, 260, 271, 273, 274, 276, 277, 285, 286, 293, 362, 434, 448,
450, 452, 469, 471, 472, 474, 483, 485, 488, 489, 494, 495, 497,
505, 509, 510, 512, 518, 519, 541, 545, 575, 577, 578, 579, 585,
586, 587, 589, 590, 591, 599, 606, 607, 608, 610, 611, 619, 623,
624, 627, 628, 629, 630, 645, 646, 659, 666, 668, 669, 702, 705,
726, 727, 742, 744, 762, 763, 764, 771, 773, 774, 778, 789, 790,
792, 803, 841, 845, 882, 907, 911, 945, 987, 1003, 1004, 1017,
1025, 1031, 1032, 1033, 1040, 1044, 1045, 1066, 1081, 1086, 1102,
1103, 1104, 1108, 1118, 1119, 1121.
Aristophanes the grammarian cited, 138, 143, 361, 451, 591, 604,
644, 797, 930, 987, 1054.
Aristophon cited, 104, 375, 376, (poetic version, 1151,) 475, 752,
884, 895, (1190,) 901, (1193,) 902.
Aristos the Salaminan cited, 689.
Aristotle wrote drinking songs, 5;
criticisms on his Natural History, 555;
cited, 40, 52, 56, 66, 72, 104, 107, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151,
154, 174, 277, 288, 293, 372, 428, 436, 442, 443, 447, 449,
450, 461, 464, 467, 469, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, 477, 479,
480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 487, 490, 491, 492, 494, 495, 496,
497, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 506, 509, 510, 513, 514, 516, 517,
518, 520, 524, 531, 548, 609, 611, 612, 615, 616, 617, 618, 620,
621, 622, 626, 679, 686, 687, 706, 732, 794, 798, 808, 813, 834,
838, 839, 849, 865, 889, 890, 891, 902, 920, 987, 1024, 1025,
1042, 1045, 1046, 1049, 1076, 1077, 1106, 1113, 1114, (poetic
version, 1221.)
Aristoxenus, a luxurious philosopher, 11;
cited, 76, 278, 279, 283, 286, 660, 744, 872, 889, 988, 989, 991,
995, 1005, 1006, 1007, 1008, 1013, 1014, 1015, 1019, 1037.
Armenidas cited, 51.
Arnexias cited, 85.
Aroclum, a kind of drinking cup, 740.
Artaxerxes, his favour for Timagoras, 79.
Artemidorus, (the false Aristophanes,) collected savings on cookery,
7;
cited, 184, 609.
Artemidorus the Aristophanian, 283, 609, 775, 1058, 1059, 1060.
Artemidorus of Ephesus cited, 184, 527.
Artemon becomes suddenly rich, 854;
Anacreonic verses on him, 854.
Artemon cited, 826, 1017, 1018, 1109.
Artichokes, 116.
Artus, king of the Messapians, 180.
Aryasian wine, 54.
Aryballus, a drinking cup, 741,
Arycandians involved in debt through their extravagance, 845.
Arystichus, a drinking cup, 742.
Asclepiades of Myrlea cited, 82, 740, 756, 760, 778, 779, 780,
797, 801, 802, 806, 908, 1084.
Asclepiades and Menedemus, 269.
Asclepiades Tragilenses cited, 720.
Asius of Samos cited, 206, 842.
Asopodorus, his remark on popular applause, 1008;
cited, 1021.
Asparagus, 103.
Aspasia, the mistress of Pericles, 854;
fills Greece with courtesans, 911;
accused of impiety, and defended by Pericles, 940;
cited, 348, 349.
Astaci, 174.
Asteropæus, Laurentius likened to, 4.
Astydamas the athlete, strength and voracity of, 651.
Astydamas, the tragic poet, 56;
cited, 65, 648, 793.
Astypalæa, island of, overrun with hares, 631.
Atergatis, her love of fish, 546.
Athanis cited, 164.
Athenæus, author of the Deipnosophists, 1;
cited, 335.
Athenian flattery, 397;
loaves, 186;
law for the protection of slaves, 419;
banquets, 733;
courtesans, 916, 930.
Athenion cited, 1056, (poetic version, 1212.)
Athenion becomes tyrant of Athens, 336.
Athenocles the artist, 738.
Athenocles the Cyzicene cited, 291.
Athenodorus cited, 832.
Athens, large number of slaves in, 428.
Athletes, censure of, 651.
Attic banquet, description of an, 220;
form of certain words, 627.
Attitudes of guests, 307.
Aurelius, Marcus, the emperor, 3.
Autoclees wastes his fortune, and commits suicide, 859.
Autocrates cited, 622, 726.
Autocratic wines, 54.
Autopyritæ, 183.
Axiochus, a companion of Alcibiades, 856.
Axionicus cited, 158, 266, 280, 377, 384,
539, 698.
Axiopistos cited, 1037.
BABYLON, wine from, called nectar, 53.
Bacchides, inscription on his tomb, 531.
Bacchus, likened to a bull, and to a leopard, 63.
Bacchylides cited, 33, 59, (poetic version, 1125,) 291, 739, 799,
1065.
Bacchylus, 185.
Bachelors, how treated in Sparta, 889.
Bæton cited, 698.
Bagoas the eunuch, 962.
Baiæ, bad water at, 70.
Balani, or sea-acorns, 151.
Ball-play said to be invented by the Lacedæmonians, 23;
various kinds, 24.
Ball-player, statue erected to a, 31.
Bambradon, a fish, 451.
Banishment and death of philosophers, 875, 975.
Banquets, posture at, 29;
dancing at, 219;
an Attic banquet, 220;
Lacedæmonian, 224;
Cretan, 231;
Persian, 233;
Cleopatra's, 239;
Phigalean, 240;
Arcadian, 241;
at Naucratis, 241;
Egyptian, 242;
Thracian, 243;
Celtic, 245;
Parthian, 246;
Roman, 247;
philosophic banquets, 288;
described by Homer, 289, 300;
by Epicurus, 298;
by Xenophon, 299;
dole-basket, 575;
public, on occasion of victory, 853.
Barbine wine, 44.
Bards, the old Grecian, modest and orderly, 22.
Barley-cakes, 189.
Basilus cited, 614.
Bathanati, gold proscribed by the, 369.
Baths, their injurious character, 29;
various kinds, 40;
recommended by Homer, 292.
Bathyllus of Alexandria, the introducer of tragic dancing, 33.
Batiacium, a drinking cup, 742.
Baton cited, 171, (poetic version, 1132,) 262, 395, 689, 1022, 1058,
(1216,) 1084.
Baucalis, a drinking cup, 742.
Beans, the Egyptian, 121.
Bean-soup, 643.
Beauty, prizes for, 905, 972.
Beef, the Greek chiefs fed on, 13.
Beer, an Egyptian drink, 56.
Beet-root, 584.
Belone, the, a fish, 502.
Bembras, a kind of anchovy, 451.
Berosus cited, 1021.
Bessa, a drinking cup, 742.
Bibline wine, 51.
Bicus, a drinking cup, 743.
Bill of fare at entertainments, 81.
Bion cited, 74.
Bion the Borysthenite cited, 261, 664.
Bion of Soli cited, 906.
Birds, traps and nets for catching, 41.
Bisaltæ, their device for conquering the Cardians, 834.
Bithynians enslaved by the Byzantines, 426.
Biton cited, 1012.
Blackbirds eaten, 108.
Blackcap, the, 107.
Blæsus cited, 184, 777.
Blema, a kind of bread, 189.
Blennus, a fish, 452.
Blepsias cited, 188.
Boar, the wild, 632.
Boaxes, or boeces, 450, 491;
origin of the name, 550.
Bœotian, reply of a, 466.
Bœotians, gluttony of the, 657.
Bœotus, a parodist, 1116.
Boiled meats, 41; why preferred to roast, 1049; boiled wines, 52;
boiled water, 201.
Boius cited, 620.
Boletinus, a kind of bread, 189.
Bombylius, a drinking cup, 743.
Book, a great, a great evil, 121.
Bormus, dirge for, 988.
Boscades, a species of duck, 623.
Boys, love of, 902, 959.
Brain of the palm, 118.
Brains, the word thought ill-omened, 108.
Bread, 179; various kinds, 180, 188; modes of making, 186;
wholesomeness or unwholesomeness, 190.
Breakfasts in the Homeric times, 17.
Brizo, a goddess, 529.
Bromias, a drinking cup, 743.
Buffoons and mimics, 32.
Buglossus, a shell-fish, 452.
Bustard, the, 614.
Buxentine wine, 44.
Byzantines addicted to drunkenness, 698; luxury of the, 844.
CABBAGE, a preventive of drunkenness, 56; various kinds, 582; oaths by
the, 583.
Cactus, the, 117.
Cadiscus, a kind of cup, 754.
Cadmus, the grandfather of Bacchus, said to be a cook, 1053.
Cadus, a kind of vessel, 753; doubtful whether a cup, 754.
Cæcuban wine, 44.
Cæcilius the orator, cited, 429, 735.
Cæcilius of Argos, a writer on fishing, 20.
Caius Caligula called young Bacchus, 239.
Cakes, various, 1037.
Calamaules, a musical instrument, 281.
Calanus the Indian philosopher, death of, 690.
Calenian wine, 44.
Calliades cited, 632.
Callias, his extravagance, 859.
Callias, his Grammatical Tragedy, 433; cited, 93, 143, 227, 282,
433, 448, 449, 480, 543, 707, 715, 777, 840, 841, 867, 1066.
Callicrates the artist, 738.
Callicthys, or anthias, 442; perhaps different fish, 444.
Callimachus cited, 3, 92, 114, 121, 159, 383, 396, 446, 500,
513, 518, 519, 611, 612, 621, 624, 699, 760, 793, 913, 933,
1028, 1067, 1068, 1069.
Callimedon, surnamed the Crab, 173; a fish-eater, 536, 537.
Calliphanes, his store of quotations, 6.
Callippus, death of, 814; cited, 1067.
Callipyge, Venus, 887.
Callisthenes the historian, cited, 120, 713, 889.
Callistion, a drunken woman, 775.
Callistium, a courtesan, 933.
Callistratus censures slovenliness of dress, 34;
cited, 206, 413, 791, 944, 1111;
(poetic version, 1217.)
Callixene, a Thessalian courtesan, 687.
Callixenus the Rhodian cited, 313, 324, 333, 334, 609,
756, 772, 1081.
Calpinum, or scaphinum, a kind of drinking cup, 757.
Calyca, song so called, 988.
Calydonian boar, questions regarding the, 632.
Camasenes, a generic name for fish, 528.
Cambles, king of Lydia, a great glutton, 654;
eats his wife, 654.
Cambyses induced to invade Egypt by a woman, 896.
Candaulus, a Lydian dish, 828.
Candles and candlesticks, 1118.
Cantharus cited, 17, 113, 136, 490, 493.
Cantharus, a kind of drinking cup, 754;
also a boat, 755;
other meanings, 755, 756.
Cantibaris the Persian, his voracity, 655.
Capito cited, 552, 670.
Cappadocian loaves, 187.
Capping verses, 723.
Capua, luxury and fate of, 846;
wine of, 44.
Carabi, 174.
Caranus, marriage-feast of, 210.
Carbina overthrown by the Tarentines, 837.
Carcharias, the, 481, 486.
Carchesium, a kind of drinking cup, 756.
Carcinus cited, 302, 895.
Cardians, how conquered by the Bisaltæ, 834.
Carides, 174.
Carrot, the, 584.
Caruca, a kind of sauce, 827.
Carvers of goblets, celebrated, 738.
Carystian wine, 52.
Carystius of Pergamos cited, 372, 687, 811, 814, 868, 878, 922,
923, 962, 974, 989, 990, 1021, 1093.
Castanets, a musical instrument, 1016.
Castorion the Solensian cited, 718.
Castration of women first practised by the Lydians, 826.
Cato censures the luxury of Lucullus and others, 432.
Catonocophori, slaves among the Sicyonians, 427.
Caucalus cited, 649.
Caucine wine, 44.
Caul, the, 176.
Cebes of Cyzicus, feast of, 252.
Celebe, a kind of drinking cup, 757;
a vessel of another kind, 757, 758.
Celts, their banquets, 245;
single combats, 248;
love of boys, 961.
Cephalus cited, 945.
Cephari, a kind of fish, 481.
Cephisodorus cited, 100, 197, 201, 545, 725, 878, 885, 1004,
1065, 1104.
Ceraon, a hero honoured in Sparta, 64.
Cercidas of Megalopolis cited, 547, 880.
Cercops of Miletus cited, 806.
Cernus, an earthenware vessel, 760.
Ceryx, a shell-fish, 144.
Cestreus, the, 481;
why called the Faster, 483.
Chabrias the Athenian, his intemperance, 852.
Chæreas cited, 53.
Chæremon cited, 58, 70, 900, 970, (poetic version, 1207,) 971,
1085.
Chærephon, a dinner hunter, 264.
Chærephon cited, 383, 1080.
Chærippus, a great eater, 654.
Chalcedonians, luxury of the, 844.
Chalcidic goblets, 803.
Chalcis, the, a fish, 517.
Chalydonian wine, 46.
Chamæleon cited, 35, 36, 286, 429, 534, 548, 589, 592, 614, 641,
673, 677, 679, 727, 854, 916, 955, 958, 974, 989, 994, 1003,
1049.
Channa, the, a fish, 516.
Char, the, 503;
said never to sleep, 503;
two kinds, 503.
Chares of Athens, his intemperate life, 852.
Chares of Mitylene cited, 45, 155, 205, 274, 435, 686, 690, 825,
861, 919.
Charicleides cited, 512.
Charicles cited, 551.
Charidemus of Oreum, his intemperance, 689.
Charilas said to be a great eater, 654.
Chariton and Melanippus, 960.
Charmus cited, 972.
Charmus the Syracusan, his dinner wit, 6.
Charon the Chalcidian, 962.
Charon of Lampsacus cited, 622, 757, 834.
Cheese, 1052;
various kinds, 1052.
Cheesecakes, 207;
Apician, 10;
Philoxenian, 8;
treatises on the art of making, 1028;
various kinds of, 1029.
Chelidonium, not the same as the anemone, 1093.
Chelidonizein, institution of the, 567;
(poetical version, 1166.)
Chellones, a kind of fish, 481.
Chemæ, shell-fish, 150.
Chenalopex, a bird, 623.
Cherries, 82;
brought to Italy by Lucullus, 83.
Chestnuts, 89.
Chian wine, 54, 55.
Chians, the first planters of the vine, 43;
their tyrants, 407;
the first slave purchasers, 416.
Chionides cited, 197, 223, 1020.
Chios, tyrants of, 407.
Chœrilus, a great fish-eater, 544;
cited, 732, 848.
Chonni, drinking cups, 803.
Chromis, the, a fish, 517.
Chrysippus, 961.
Chrysippus the Solensian cited, 8, 12, 29, 111, 148, 172, 223, 255,
256, 370, 419, 437, 448, 530, 531, 532, 587, 732, 904, 982, 983,
1054, 1097.
Chrysippus of Tyana cited, 186, 1034.
Chrysocolla, 183.
Chrysogonus cited, 1037.
Chrysophrys, the, a fish, 446, 517.
Chutrides, drinking cups, 804.
Ciboria, or Egyptian beans, 121.
Ciborium, a drinking cup, 761.
Cilician loaves, 183;
wine, 54.
Cimon, his liberality, 853.
Cindon, a fish-eater, 544.
Cinesias, a very tall and thin man, 882;
accused of impiety, 883.
Cissybium, a drinking cup, 760, 768.
Citron, 139;
an antidote, 141.
Clarotæ, the, Cretan slaves, 414.
Cleanthes the Tarentine, spoke in metres, 6.
Clearchus the Peripatetic cited, 47, 71, 81, 95, 253, 401, 433,
448, 494, 498, 499, 525, 526, 532, 543, 545, 548, 551, 613,
619, 625, 629, 655, 707, 714, 715, 718, 719, 722, 723, 745,
750, 775, 824, 826, 830, 837, 839, 840, 848, 849, 854, 862,
865, 866, 869, 877, 878, 886, 889, 902, 916, 940, 942, 952,
966, 967, 975, 987, 939, 1021, 1037, 1088, 1097, 1115, 1121.
Clearchus the comic poet, 6, 7, 9;
cited, 671, 978, 993, 1026.
Clearchus of Solensium cited, 192.
Cleidemus cited, 646, 671, 972, 1055, 1056.
Cleisophus, the parasite, 390.
Cleo, a drunken woman, 696.
Cleobulina of Lindus cited, 707.
Cleobulus the Lindian institutes the chelidonizein, 567.
Cleomenes cited, 619.
Cleomenes of Rhegium cited, 634.
Cleomenes I. of Sparta, goes mad through drunkenness, 673, 689.
Cleomenes III. of Sparta, his entertainments, 230.
Cleon, surnamed Mimaulus, 715.
Cleon the singer, statue and inscription to, 31.
Cleonymus accused of gluttony, 654.
Cleopatra, her sumptuous banquets, 239.
Clepsiambus, a musical instrument, 1016.
Clibanites, 182.
Clidemus cited, 371.
Clisophus the Salymbrian, folly of, 966.
Clisthenes of Sicyon, witty saying of, 1002
Clitarchus cited, 115, 240, 419, 446, 471, 745, 754, 757, 760, 763,
791, 849, 921 935, 1064, 1120.
Clitomachus the Carthaginian cited, 634.
Clytus cited, 864, 1047.
Cnidian wines, 54.
Cnopus, death of, 406.
Coan wine, 54.
Cobites, a kind of anchovy, 447.
Cock, the, 616;
Aristotle's statement, 616.
Cockles, 145.
Cod, differs from the hake, 496.
Cold water, expedient for procuring, 204.
Colophonians, luxury of the, 843.
Collabi, 183.
Collection of money, pretexts for, 566, 568.
Collix, 186.
Collyra, 184.
Comedy, invention of, 65.
Commodus, the emperor, 860.
Concubines tolerated by wives, 890.
Condu, an Asiatic cup, 761.
Congers, 453.
Cononius, a drinking cup, 762.
Cookery, writers on, 827.
Cooks prepare sham anchovies, 11;
praises of their art, 170;
their apparatus, 271;
their conceit and arrogance, 453, 455;
some celebrated ones, 459;
cleverness of, 593, 1058;
learned cooks, 597, 601;
boasts of cooks, 637, 1056;
highly honoured by the Sybarites, 832;
formerly freemen, 1053, 1057;
jesters, 1054;
experienced in sacrifices, 1054;
their profession respectable, 1055;
a tribe entitled to public honours, 1056.
Cook-shops, frequenting, reckoned discreditable, 907.
Coot, the, 623.
Copis, a Lacedæmonian entertainment, 225.
Coptos, wine of, 155.
Coracini, Coracinus, a kind of fish, 484.
Corcyrean wine, 54.
Cordax, a lascivious dance, 635.
Cordistæ, a tribe of Gauls, gold proscribed by the, 369.
Cordylis and cordylus, fish, 480.
Corinth, vast number of slaves in, 428.
Corinthian wine, 51.
Corœbus, the victor at the Olympic games, a cook, 601.
Coronistæ, and coronismata, 567.
Coryphæna, a kind of fish, 477.
Cothon, a kind of fish, 485;
a drinking cup, 770.
Cotta cited, 429.
Cottabus, throwing the, 674, 739, 764, 1063.
Cotyle, a drinking cup, 763.
Cotylisca or cotylus, a drinking cup, 764.
Cotys, king of Thrace, his luxury and madness, 851.
Couches, kinds of, 78;
scented, 79.
Courides. See Carides.
Courtesans, rapacity of, 893;
writers on, 907;
plays named from, 907;
their artifices, 908;
list of, 912;
the Abydene, 915;
the Athenian, 916;
the Corinthian, 916;
courtesans of kings, 921, 924;
witty sayings of, 923;
literature cultivated by, 931.
Coverlets, 79;
mentioned by Homer, 79.
Crabs, 173.
Cranes, fable of their origin, 620.
Craneums, a kind of drinking cup, 765.
Crates, the artist, 738.
Crates cited, 83, 186, 193, 197, 254, 371, 390, 421, 581, 619,
625, 659, 763, 783, 791, 795, 987, 1044, 1103.
Cratanium, a drinking cup, 765.
Cratinus cited, 11, 37, 48, 76, 80, 93, 103, 111, 112, 113, 114,
144, 154, 157, 166, 185, 196, 224, 264, 274, 282, 420, 469,
476, 478, 495, 513, 543, 588, 589, 590, 591, 604, 606, 624, 647,
668, 672, 704, 739, 789, 802, 803, 886, 907, 951, 1004, 1020,
1021, 1023, 1033, 1050, 1059, 1064, 1080, 1082, 1087, 1088, 1089,
1094, 1095, 1116.
Cratinus, epigram on, 64.
Cratinus the younger cited, 379, 727, 748, 1057, 1068.
Cratinus the Athenian, 960.
Crawfish, 537.
Cremys, a kind of fish, 479.
Creophylus cited, 569, (poetic version, 1216.)
Cretan banquets, 231;
dances, 296;
music, 1001.
Cribanites, a kind of loaf, 181.
Crissæan war, caused by women, 896.
Critias cited, 46, 683, 684, 731, 770, 776, 792, 844, 957, 1063.
Criton cited, 277, 828.
Crobylus cited, 89, 178, 181, 390, 405, 575, 604, 701.
Cromylus the comic writer cited, 8.
Crotonians overcome the Sybarites, 834;
dress of their chief magistrate, 836.
Crounea, a drinking cup, 765.
Crowns, 1072.
Crumbs of bread used to wipe the hands, 645.
Ctesias the Cindian cited, 73, 110, 237, 686, 698, 732, 847,
849, 896, 1022.
Ctesibius the Chalcidean cited, 261.
Ctesicles cited, 428, 703.
Cubi, a kind of loaves, 188.
Cuckoo-fish, 486;
how to cook them, 486.
Cucumbers, 113, 123, 586;
various kinds, 124.
Culix, a kind of drinking cup, 766.
Cumæ, luxury of the people of, 846.
Cup-bearers, 669;
female, 941.
Cupellum, a kind of drinking cup, 770.
Cups, drinking, 727;
pledges, 731.
Curetes, derive their name from their luxurious habits, 846.
Cuttlefish, 179, 509.
Cyathis, a kind of drinking cup, 765.
Cybium, a kind of fish, 195.
Cydonian apples, 136.
Cyllastis, a kind of loaf, 189.
Cymbium, a kind of drinking cup, 768;
also a boat, 769.
Cynætha, people of, averse to music, and utterly savage, 999.
Cynic philosophers imitate only the bad qualities of the dog, 975.
Cynulcus the Cynic, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Cyprian figs, 129;
loaves, 186.
Cyprinus, or carp, 485.
Cyrus the Great, his liberality, 49.
Cyrus the younger, his courtesans, 921.
DACTYLEUS, a kind of fish, 481.
Dactylotos, a drinking cup, 746.
Damascus, famed for its plums, 81.
Damophilus the Sicilian, his debauchery and death, 867.
Damoxenus cited, 170, (poetic version, 1130,) 747, (1185.)
Danæ, a courtesan, saves the life of Sophron, 946.
Dancers at banquets, 22.
Dances, 23;
originally arranged for freeborn men, 1003;
various kinds, 1004;
figures, 1005;
satyric, 1005;
Pyrrhic, 1006;
indecorous, 1008;
of the Thracians, 25;
of other barbarous nations, 1008.
Dancing, writers on, 33.
Daphnus the Ephesian, a Deipnosophist, 3.
Daratus, a kind of loaf, 188.
Dardanians, their numerous slaves, 428.
Dates, 1041;
dates without stones, 1042.
Decelean vinegar, 111.
Deinias, a kind of drinking cup, 750.
Deinon cited, 110.
Deinus, a dance, 745.
Deinus, a kind of drinking cup, 744.
Deipnosophists, list of the, 2.
Deipnus, a hero honoured in Achaia, 64.
Delphians, the, 277.
Demades, a debauchee, 73;
cited, 166.
Demaratus, liberality of the Persian king to, 49.
Demarete cited, 1004.
Demetrius cited, 1086.
Demetrius of Athens, 268.
Demetrius of Byzantium cited, 714, 878, 1010.
Demetrius the comic poet cited, 639.
Demetrius Ixion cited, 82, 84, 124, 619.
Demetrius the Magnesian cited, 975.
Demetrius Phalereus, his luxury, 867;
cited, 368, 889.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, 409.
Demetrius the Scepsian cited, 73, 91, 134, 152, 229, 250, 278, 373,
545, 670, 1029, 1052, 1114, 1115.
Demetrius of Trœzene cited, 225.
Democedes the Crotonian, 836.
Demochares cited, 340, 397, 398, 814, 974.
Democlides cited, 279.
Democritus of Abdea, his death, 76;
cited, 120, 269.
Democritus the Ephesian cited, 841.
Democritus of Nicomedia, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Demodemas cited, 1090.
Demonax the Mantinean, invention of gladiatorial combats ascribed
to, 249.
Demonicus cited, 647.
Demophilus cited, 367.
Demosthenes, his debauchery, 946;
for some time a water-drinker, 73;
cited, 73, 266, 288, 381, 419, 542, 768, 778, 794,
803, 916, 934, 945, 948, 1031, 1045.
Demoxenus cited, 24.
Demus and his peacocks, 626.
Demylus, a fish-eater, 544.
Deoxippus cited, 752.
Depas, a kind of drinking cup, 740.
Depastron, a drinking cup, 745.
Dercylus cited, 144.
Desire likened to thirst, 203.
Desposionautæ, freedmen among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Dessert, dishes for the, 1027.
Dexicrates cited, 204.
Dicæarchus cited, 23, 143, 727, 764, 892, 949, 962, 989, 1016,
1025, 1063, 1065, 1067.
Dicæocles of Cnidus cited, 814.
Dice, game with, 27.
Didymus cited, 50, 92, 111, 116, 225, 579, 585, 619, 746, 761,
768, 773, 777, 778, 779, 802, 1013, 1016, 1100.
Dieuchidas cited, 412.
Dinias, the perfumer, 885.
Dinners, provision for, 635;
different courses at, 1025.
Dinon cited, 237, 806, 971, 1011, 1043.
Dinus, harbour and grove of, 527.
Dinus, a drinking cup, 805.
Diocles, a writer on cookery, 828.
Diocles, the comic poet, cited, 227, 480, 482, 672, 840, 907.
Diocles the epicure, 542.
Diocles of Carystus cited, 53, 75, 87, 90, 94, 97, 100, 113,
124, 144, 174, 182, 193, 198, 478, 497, 504, 511, 520, 585,
1066, 1088.
Diocles of Cynætha, a parodist, 1020.
Diocles of Peparethus, a water-drinker, 73.
Diodorus cited, 1027.
Diodorus the Aristophanian cited, 296, 762, 763, 764, 777.
Diodorus Periegetes cited, 944.
Diodorus Siculus cited, 867.
Diodorus of Sinope cited, 372, 376, (poetic version, 1153,) 681.
Diodotus the Erythræan cited, 686.
Diogenes, the tragic poet, 1015.
Diogenes the Babylonian cited, 270, 843.
Diogenes the Cynic cited, 256, 399.
Diogenes the Epicurean, 335.
Diomnestus becomes master of a great treasure, 859.
Dion the Academic cited, 56.
Dion of Chios, a harp-player, 1019.
Dionysioclides, a Deipnosophist, 160.
Dionysius cited, 513.
Dionysius the Brazen, why so called, 1069;
cited, 700, 960, 1067, 1068, 1122.
Dionysius of Heraclea, the Turncoat, 691;
his gluttony and obesity, 879.
Dionysius the Iambic cited, 446.
Dionysius the Leathern-armed, 826.
Dionysius of Samos cited, 761, 768.
Dionysius of Sinope cited, 600, 638, (poetic version, 1177,)
744, 794, 982, 1061.
Dionysius the Slender cited, 758.
Dionysius the Thracian cited, 785, 801, 802.
Dionysius, the son of Tryphon, cited, 401, 805, 1024.
Dionysius, the tyrant, cited, 633, 874.
Dionysius of Utica cited, 1037.
Dionysius the younger, a drunkard, 688;
his infamous conduct to the Locrians, 866;
his death, 866.
Dioscorides cited, 13, 227, 228.
Diotimus cited, 962.
Diotimus the Funnel, a drunkard, 689.
Dioxippus cited, 168, 752, 794, 804.
Diphilus cited, 58, (poetic version, 1124,) 76, 82, 83, 84,
86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 97, 101, 103, 105, 111, 114,
115, 116, 118, 122, 125, 134, 135, 138, 149, 150, 152, 176,
190, 199, 200, 205, 217, 219, 251, 253, 265, 269, 302, 353,
356, (1140,) 358, 360, (1144,) 364, 372, (1147,) 376, 388,
389, 400, 406, 411, 458, (1161,) 483, 498, 559, 584, 603, 632,
658, 664, 665, 668, 704, 712, 773, 777, 793, 794, 798, 956,
1023, 1030, 1039, 1051, 1119, 1120.
Diphilus of Laodicæa cited, 494.
Diphilus the Siphnian cited, 581, 582, 583, 584, 585.
Dipyrus, a kind of loaf, 182.
Diyllus the Athenian cited, 249, 947.
Dog-brier, the, 116.
Dog-killing festival at Argos, 166.
Dole-basket banquets, 575.
Dolphins, sacred fish, 444;
affection of, for men, 967.
Dorian harmony, character of the, 996.
Doricha, a courtesan, epigram on, 952.
Dorieus cited, 650.
Dorion, witticisms of, 533;
cited, 131, 195, 443, 444, 447, 451, 461, 466, 471, 477, 478,
479, 481, 485, 486, 490, 491, 492, 495, 496, 502, 504, 505,
507, 508, 516, 517, 518, 520.
Dorotheus of Ascalon cited, 520, 646, 768, 795, 1053, 1059.
Dosiades cited, 231, 414.
Douris cited, 1017.
Doves, 621.
Dracon of Corcyra cited, 1106.
Dramice, a kind of loaf, 188.
Dress, attention to, 34.
Drimacus, story of, 417.
Drinking cups, 727.
Drinking matches, 690.
Drinking, occasional, recommended, 772;
rules for the regulation of, 59;
evils of, 675, 701.
Dromeas the Coan, his riddles, 714.
Dromon cited, 378, 646.
Drunkards, fate of, 16;
a party of, 61;
catalogues of, 688, 692, 695.
Ducks, 623;
various kinds, 623
Dures, or Duris, cited, 29, 32, 250, 268, 286, 365, 390, 398, 686,
842, 853, 857, 867, 874, 966, 967, 986, 1113.
Dwarfs and mannikins among the Sybarites, 831.
EATERS, Hercules, and other great, 648.
Echemenes cited, 959.
Ecphantides cited, 160.
Eels, conger, great size of, 454;
other eels, 466, 491.
Eggs, 94;
why Helen was said to be born from an egg, 95.
Egyptian beans, 121;
wines, 55.
Egyptians, their deities ridiculed, 470;
great eaters of bread, 659.
Elecatenes, or spindle fish, 473.
Elephant, affection of a, for a child, 968;
a drinking cup, so called, 747.
Elephantine pickle, 193.
Ellops, a fish, 471.
Elpinice, the sister of Cimon, 941.
Embroidered girdles worn by the people of Siris, 838.
Empedocles cited, 528, 576, 668, 818.
Enalus, legend of, 736.
Encrasicholi, a kind of fish, 471.
Encris, a kind of loaf, 182.
Encryphias, a kind of loaf, 182.
Enigmas, 707.
Enigmatic presents, 528;
sayings, 714.
Entimus the Gortinian, favour of the king of Persia for, 79.
Epænetus cited, 95, 147, 461, 466, 477, 479, 491, 518, 585, 609, 624,
827, 1058.
Eparchides cited, 50, 100.
Epeunacti, among the Lacedæmonians, 126.
Ephebus, a drinking cup, 747.
Ephesians, luxury of the, 842.
Ephesus, legend of its foundation, 569.
Ephippus, cited, 47, 48, 62, 79, (poetic version, 1126,) 94, 95, 100,
108, 186, 198, 237, 507, 546, 547, 565, 566, 572, 575, 583, 599,
667, 680, 685, 769, 815, 856, 861, 913, 914, 915, 985, 1027.
Ephorus cited, 175, 249, 367, 414, 489, 555, 800, 826, 839, 1017.
Epicharmus cited, 7, 51, 59, (poetic version, 1124,) 80, 85, 91,
94, 96, 98, 100, 104, 107, 114, 116, 117, 128, 142, 143, 151,
154, 157, 174, 176, 177, 182, 196, 197, 198, 200, 225, 255, 258,
284, 286, 334, 372, 436, 442, 443, 444, 447, 449, 450, 451, 452,
453, 462, 466, 477, 479, 480, 484, 486, 490, 491, 492, 496, 501,
502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 511, 513, 516, 517, 520,
535, 570, 571, 576, 577, 583, 590, 612, 616, 628, 631, 643, 648,
669, 764, 797, 986, 987, 1002, 1031, 1032, 1036, 1089, 1116.
Epiclees wastes his fortune, and commits suicide, 859.
Epicrates cited, 98, (poetic version, 1127,) 412, 666, 740, 911,
(1195,) 966, 1048.
Epicures censured, 438;
catalogue of, 540.
Epicurus advocates sensual pleasures, 875;
his sect banished from Rome, 875;
cited, 289, 298, 438, 439, 558, 800, 875, 938.
Epigenes cited, 126, 604, 645, 746, 747, 753, 755, 765, 775,
797, 804.
Epigonus, a harp-player, 1019.
Epilycus cited, 47, 218, 226, 1040.
Epimelis, doubtful what, 138.
Epimenides the Cretan cited, 444.
Epinicus cited, 683, 747, 794.
Erasistratus cited, 75, 510, 827, 1063.
Erasixenus, epitaph on, 689.
Eratosthenes cited, 226, 248, 302, 433, 441, 446, 593, 769,
799, 938, 802.
Erbulian wine, 44.
Ergias the Rhodian cited, 568.
Erinna cited, 445.
Eriphus cited, 95, 141, 219, 223, 474, 1107.
Eritimi, the, or sardines, 518.
Erotidia, or festivals of love, 898.
Erxias cited, 899.
Erythræan goblets, 757.
Erythrinus, or red mullet, 471.
Escharites, a kind of loaf, 181.
Ethanion, a kind of drinking cup, 749.
Etruscan banquets, 247.
Euagon of Lampsacus attempts to seize the city, 814.
Eualces cited, 916.
Euangelus cited, 1029.
Euanthes cited, 464.
Eubœan wine, 51.
Eubœus of Paros, a parodist, 1115;
cited, 1117.
Eubulides cited, 691.
Eubulus the comic writer, cited, 12, 37, 42, 46, 47, 48, 56, 59,
(poetic version, 1124,) 70, 71, 77, 78, 80, 85, 105, 107, 108,
109, 134, 166, 168, 175, 178, 179, 186, 188, 272, 361, 376,
(1153,) 388, 390, 408, 463, 470, 471, 472, 474, 483, 489, 521,
537, 547, 582, 585, 599, 624, 626, 657, 658, 665, 668, 699, 709,
710, (1181,) 727, 744, 751, 754, 762, 790, 800, 831, 885, 892, 894,
899, (1192,) 907, 908, 909, 914, 993, 1023, 1026, 1032, 1045,
1064, 1067, 1084, 1085, 1095, 1103.
Eucrates cited, 184.
Eudemus the Athenian cited, 582.
Eudoxus cited, 453, 618.
Euenor cited, 76.
Euhemerus the Coan cited, 1053.
Eumachus the Corcyrean cited, 922, 1088.
Eumæus cited, 797.
Eumelus cited, 1119.
Eumelus the Corinthian cited, 36, 436.
Eumenes the Cardian cited, 686.
Eumolpus cited, 760, 770.
Eunicus cited, 144, 907, 936.
Eunuchs, male and female, 825, 826.
Euphantus cited, 395.
Euphorion the Chaldean cited, 73, 137, 248, 283, 285, 413, 758,
1012, 1014, 1015, 1119.
Euphræus, death of, 814.
Euphranor, an epicure, 544;
cited, 286, 1013.
Euphron, the comic writer, cited, 11, 167, 482, 541, 594, (poetic
version, 1168,) 597, (1174,) 629.
Euphronius cited, 791.
Eupolis cited, 4, 28, 37, 77, 85, 86, 93, 112, 149, 157, 167, 175,
203, 225, 273, 285, 373, (poetic version, 1148,) 419, 449, 472,
497, 513, 517, 518, 580, 583, 588, 591, 599, 604, 618, 626, 627,
631, 640, 643, 644, 670, 673, 803, 856, 994, 1005, 1033, 1050,
1053, 1103, 1104.
Euripides cited, 60, 63, 65, 100, (poetic version, 1128,) 109, 120,
128, 161, 201, 255, 256, 265, 415, 571, 580, 644, 651, 664, 674,
717, 734, 760, 792, 796, 806, 807, 838, 897, 898, 900, 905, 956,
957, 971, 979, 1023, 1025, 1039, 1053, 1062, 1064, 1067, 1081.
Eurydice, her war with Olympias, 897.
Eurypilus cited, 814.
Euthias cited, 944.
Euthycles cited, 205.
Euthydemus the Athenian cited, 96, 124, 192, 195, 481, 484,
496, 518, 827.
Euthymenes the Massiliote cited, 120.
Euxenus of Phocæa, his marriage with Petta, 921.
Euxitheus cited, 253.
Evenus the Parian cited, 578, 673.
Evergreen garlands of Egypt, 1085.
Ewers, 643.
Exocœtus, the, a fish, 525.
Extravagance in individuals, instances of, 269.
FALERNIAN wine, two kinds of, 43, 44, 54.
Fannian law, its provisions, 431.
Families ruined on account of women, 896.
Fattening animals for food, 1050.
Favourites, boy, 959.
Feasts, writers on, 7;
Athenian, 223;
different sorts of, 571.
Feet, anointing the, 886.
Female cup-bearers, 941;
flatterers, 402;
flute-players, 969;
guards, 824.
Festivals, 570;
their decency in ancient times, 572;
abused in after days, 573.
Fig, the, 125;
various kinds, 126‒129;
its praises, 131;
dried figs, 1043.
Fig-pecker, the, 107.
Finches, 107.
Fish, discourse on, 434;
esteemed a great luxury, 449, 462;
salt fish, 193, 434;
cartilaginous, 450;
fossil, 524;
singing, 524;
subterranean, 525;
rain fishes, 526;
of prophesying from, 524, 527;
qualities of, as food, 559.
Fishermen, proud of their skill, 359.
Fishing, writers on, 21.
Fishmongers, churlishness of, 356;
frauds, 357.
Flatterers. _See_ Parasites.
Flowers, love of, 887;
suitable for garlands, 1087, 1090.
Flute, various kinds of, 1013;
playing on the, 984;
names of various airs for the, 986.
Flute-players, female, 969.
Food, kinds of, mentioned by Homer, 13, 20, 40.
Formian wine, 43.
Fossil fish, 524.
Fox-shark, the, 449.
Freedmen, among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Frogs, rain of, 526.
Fruits, mentioned by Homer, 40;
names of, 81;
plentiful at Athens, 1045.
Frugal meals recommended, 660.
Fundan wine, 44.
GALENE of Smyrna cited, 1085.
Galenus of Pergamos, a Deipnosophist, 3;
cited, 43.
Galeus, a kind of shark, 461;
how brought to table among the Romans, 461.
Gallerides, a fish, 497.
Games, 27.
Ganymede, 959.
Garlands, discussion on, 1069.
Gauran wine, 43.
Geese, livers of, 604.
Gelaria, 496.
Genthion, king of the Illyrians, his drunkenness, 695.
Georgus cited, 1114.
Gerana, her transformation, 620.
Gladiatorial combats, 249.
Glaucias cited, 115.
Glaucides cited, 135, 136.
Glaucion, a kind of duck, 623.
Glaucon, a water-drinker, 72.
Glaucon cited, 767.
Glaucus the Locrian cited, 510, 581, 827, 1057.
Glaucus, a sea deity, 464.
Glaucus, a fish, 462;
how to cook, 463.
Gluttons, many celebrated, 653.
Gluttony, temples to, 655.
Glycera, a courtesan, witty sayings of, 931.
Glycera, the mistress of Harpalus, 935.
Gnathæna, a courtesan, witty sayings of, 926, 931.
Gnathenium, a courtesan, witty sayings of, 927.
Gnesippus, a composer of ludicrous verses, 1024.
Goat's flesh, 634;
supposed to give great strength, 634.
Gold proscribed by the Bathanati, 369.
Gold plate, rarity of, 365;
trinkets, 367.
Golden trinkets proscribed by Lycurgus and by Plato, 367.
Golden water, 825.
Gorgias, the Leontine, his orderly life, 878;
his remark on Plato, 809;
cited, 907, 930, 952.
Gorgons, 351.
Gorgos, the keeper of the armoury, his pretended present to Alexander,
861.
Gourds, 96, 586;
various kinds, 97;
philosophic discussion on, 98.
Grammatical Science, plot of the play so called, 715.
Grapes, 1044.
Grayling, the sea, 463.
Greeks, simplicity of their lives, according to Homer, 13;
fondness for amusements, 31.
Griphi, 707;
examples of, 708.
Groats, 207.
Grouse, the, 628.
Guests, reception of, 16;
attitudes of, 307;
presents to, 208.
Guinea-fowl, the, 1047.
Gyala, a kind of drinking cup, 744.
Gyges the Lydian builds a monument to his courtesan, 916.
Gymnastic exercises, invention of, ascribed to the Lacedæmonians, 23.
Gymnopædiæ, festival of, 1083.
Gynæconomi, their office, 385.
HAIR, attention paid to the, among certain nations, 846.
Hake, the, a fish, 496.
Halicarnassus, wine of, 54.
Hanging, playing at, among the Thracians, 250.
Hare, the, 630, 1049;
scarce in Attica, 630;
its fecundity, 632.
Harmodius of Lepreum cited, 240, 698, 734, 764.
Harmodius and Aristogiton, 960.
Harmony, invention of, ascribed to the Phrygians, 995;
disputed, 995;
three kinds, 995.
Harpalyce, songs in honour of, 988.
Harp-fish, the, 479.
Harp-players, high payment of, 994.
Harpalus, his profligacy, 935, 950;
his monument to his mistress, 949.
Harpocration the Mendesian cited, 1036.
Healths, mode of drinking, 22.
Hearth-loaf, 181.
Hecatæus of Miletus cited, 57, 116, 189, 240, 647, 659, 706.
Hedyle cited, 466.
Hedylus cited, 281, 465, 544, 753, 775, 795.
Hedypotides, drinking cups so called, 747.
Hegemon of Thasos wrote on feasts, 7;
nicknamed the Lentil, 641;
his conduct in the theatre, 641;
protected by Alcibiades, 642;
cited, 126, 1116.
Hegesander cited, 29, 72, 103, 145, 178, 217, 260, 268, 278,
334, 362, 391, 393, 394, 408, 455, (poetic version, 1160, 1225,)
512, 529, 538, 541, 542, 576, 631, 661, 681, 682, 702, 761,
764, 811, 871, 902, 915, 933, 945, 1044, 1049.
Hegesianax recites his poems, 250;
cited, 620.
Hegesias cited, 1090.
Hegesilochus the Rhodian, his infamous life, 702.
Hegesippus cited, 439, 639, 827, 1028.
Hegesippus the Tarentine cited, 828.
Helen, Poor, a courtesan, 933.
Helena, a gluttonous woman, 653.
Helichryse, an Egyptian flower, 1087.
Heliodorus cited, 74, 362, 640.
Hellanicus cited, 647, 648, 655, 729, 749, 1015, 1042, 1085, 1086.
Helots, the, 415, 427;
conduct of the Lacedæmonians to, 1051.
Hemerocalles, or day-beauty, a flower, 1088.
Heminerus, or half-pickled fish, 196.
Hemitomus, a kind of drinking cup, 749.
Heniochus cited, 426, 625, 643, 771.
Hepatos, the, 178, 472.
Hephæstion cited, 1075.
Hepsetus, or boiled fish, 471.
Heracleon the Ephesian cited, 475, 485, 805.
Heraclides the comic poet cited, 853.
Heraclides the Cumean cited, 79, 235, 824, 829.
Heraclides Lembus cited, 164, 526, 905, 924.
Heraclides the Mopseatian cited, 370.
Heraclides of Pontus cited, 719, 820, 836, 839, 842, 854,
859, 885, 888, 960, 995, 1121.
Heraclides the Syracusan cited, 95, 518, 827, 1034, 1051.
Heraclides of Tarentum cited, 87, 105, 106, 111, 124, 133,
174, 188, 198.
Heraclitus cited, 764.
Heraclitus the comic poet cited, 653.
Heraclitus of Ephesus cited, 293, 973.
Heralds employed as cup-bearers, 670;
in sacrifices, 1055.
Hercules, voracity of, 648;
receives a cup from the Sun, 749;
poetic fables about, 822.
Herculeum, a drinking cup, 748.
Hermeas cited, 241, 692, 901, 967.
Hermes, a drink so called, 53.
Hermesianax of Colophon cited, 953, (poetic version, 1197.)
Hermias of Atarneus, death of, 1112.
Hermippus cited, 30, 34, 45, 48, 96, 97, 128, 129, 197, 204,
249, 261, 340, 396, 448, 540, 543, 659, 666, 699, 712, 713,
(poetic version, 1182,) 728, 759, 762, 763, 767, 775, 778,
803, 841, 881, 882, 889, 940, 942, 945, 987, 1016, 1038, 1040,
1066, 1113, 1117, 1120.
Hermippus of Smyrna cited, 513.
Hermon cited, 137, 420.
Hermonax cited, 87, 129, 803.
Herodes Atticus cited, 166.
Herodian of Alexandria cited, 86.
Herodicus the Babylonian cited, 352.
Herodicus the Cratetian cited, 341, 348, 370, 538, 934, 944.
Herodorus of Heraclea cited, 95, 365, 648, 756, 807.
Herodorus, the Megarian trumpeter, his strength and skill, 653.
Herodotus cited, 31, 71, 73, 121, 132, 182, 189, 197, 224, 233, 236,
237, 240, 365, 409, 418, 625, 629, 631, 633, 647, 673, 692, 754,
776, 804, 828, 869, 951, 952, 1001, 1024, 1041, 1121.
Herodotus the logomime, 31.
Herodotus the Lycian cited, 127, 131.
Herondas cited, 143.
Heropythus cited, 466.
Hesiod cited, 66, 68, 96, 104, 167, 190, 192, 289, 296, 574, 672, 675,
738, 782, 784, 796, 806, 891, 972.
Hetæra, 913.
Hetæridia, festivals, 915.
Hicesius cited, 1088, 1101.
Hiero, ship of, 329.
Hieronymus cited, 78, 1015.
Hieronymus the Rhodian cited, 670, 687, 799, 890, 892, 960, 965.
Hilarodists, 989.
Hippagoras cited, 1005.
Hipparchus cited, 168, 619, 761, 773, 1104.
Hippasus cited, 23.
Hippias the Erythræan cited, 406.
Hippias the Rhegian cited, 51.
Hippias the Sophist cited, 971.
Hippidion, a kind of fish, 477.
Hippocrates cited, 74, 75, 94, 629.
Hippolochus cited, 208, 210, 634, 980.
Hippon the atheist cited, 973.
Hipponax, a very little man, but strong, 884;
cited, 81, 131, 477, 510, 582, 591, 610, 767, 791, 995, 997, 1031,
1116.
Hippotes drives out the tyrants of Chios, 407.
Hippuris, or horse-tail, a fish, 477.
Holmus, a kind of drinking cup, 789.
Homer cited, 13‒31, 36, 40‒42, 58, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 79, 89,
101, 107, 109, 123, 129, 143, 202, 223, 277, 287, 289‒308, 361,
373, 404, 415, 446, 468, 493, 496, 531, 571, 572, 573, 587, 588,
604, 615, 616, 625, 631, 643, 644, 649, 650, 667, 671, 684, 723,
724, 726, 734, 736, 737, 740, 746, 757, 760, 761, 766, 768, 778,
779, 781, 784, 785, 786, 787, 788, 791, 796, 797, 799, 801, 812,
819, 821, 822, 823, 838, 874, 890, 891, 902, 906, 978, 995, 1001,
1009, 1010, 1011, 1021, 1044, 1055, 1056, 1077, 1098, 1099, 1120.
Homorus, a kind of loaf, 182.
Honey, use of, said to contribute to longevity, 76.
Horæa, a kind of fish, 193.
Horn for drinking, 758;
large size, 759.
Horse, a fish so called, 477.
Horses taught to dance, 834.
Hospitality and liberality, examples of, 5.
Hyacinthia, festival called, 226.
Hybrias the Cretan cited, 1112, (poetic version, 1220.)
Hyces, sacred fish, 515.
Hycena, or plaice, 515.
Hydraulic organ, the, 278.
Hyperides, a glutton and gambler, 539;
cited, 198, 419, 669, 772, 884, 907, 935, 936, 937, 942, 983.
Hyperochus cited, 846.
Hystiacum, a kind of drinking cup, 800.
IACCHIAN garland, the, 1082.
Iambyca, a musical instrument, 1016.
Iapygians, luxury of the, 838.
Iatrocles cited, 512, 1032, 1033, 1034.
Ibycus cited, 95, 115, 143, 276, 611, 903, (poetic version, 1194,)
958, (1206,) 962, 1087.
Icarian wine, 49.
Icarium, comedy and tragedy, first introduced at, 65.
Icesias the Erasistratean cited, 145, 195, 437, 443, 447, 467,
477, 485, 488, 490, 492, 493, 496, 504, 508, 516, 517.
Idomeneus cited, 853, 854, 921, 942, 946, 975.
Illyrians, their drinking customs, 699.
Immunities granted to cooks among the Sybarites, 835;
to other trades, 835.
Indian gourd, the, 97.
Interest of money, rate of, 976.
Io Pæan explained, 1121.
Ion cited, 34, 58, 112, 152, 154, 177, 286, 406, 420, 501,
648, 672, 706, 712, 730, 746, 762, 791, 793, 797, 802, 963,
1012, 1013, 1102.
Ionian harmony, its character, 997.
Ionians, luxury of the, censured, 840;
their austere character, 997.
Iopis, a fish, 519.
Iotaline wine, 44.
Ioulis, or coulus, a fish, 479.
Iphiclus becomes possessed of Achaia by stratagem, 568.
Iphicrates, supper of, 214.
Iphicratis, a kind of drinking cup, 750.
Ipnites, the, a kind of loaf, 180.
Isanthes, a Thracian king, his luxury, 858.
Isidorus the Characene cited, 155.
Isis, the, 1089.
Isistrus cited, 125.
Isocrates cited, 907.
Ister, or Istrus, cited, 428, 544, 762, 891, 1040.
Isthmian cup, the, 753.
Isthmian garland, the, 1081.
Italian dance, its inventor, 33.
Italian wines, qualities of the different, 43.
Ithyphalli, 992.
JACKDAW, collecting money for the, 566;
how caught, 619.
Janus, inventions ascribed to, 1106.
Jason cited, 989.
Jesters, monkeys preferred to, by Anacharsis the Scythian, 979;
favoured by Philip of Macedon, 980;
their jokes resented, 983.
Juba the Mauritanian cited, 163, 273, 280, 282, 283, 284, 362, 542.
Jugglers and mimics, 32.
Julius Cæsar, 429.
KID, flesh of the, 634.
Kidney-beans used by the Lacedæmonians as sweetmeats, 91.
King chosen for his beauty, 906.
King of the Persians, his luxury, 823, 873;
administers justice, 829.
LABICAN wine, 43.
Labionius, a kind of drinking cup, 742, 773.
Labyzus, a sweet-smelling plant, 824.
Lacedæmonians invent ball-play and gymnastic exercises, 23;
banquets, 224;
their simple diet, 831;
discourage luxury, 881;
afterwards adopt it, 229;
their marriages, 889;
music among them, 1001;
their conduct to the Helots, 1051.
Lacena, a kind of drinking cup, 773.
Laches cited, 123.
Lacydes and Timon at a drinking match, 691.
Laganium, a kind of loaf, 182.
Lagis, a courtesan, 945.
Lagynophoria, the, a festival, 434.
Lais the courtesan, 912, 938.
Lamia, the courtesan of Demetrius Poliorcetes, 923.
Lampon, an epicure, 543.
Lamprey, the, 490;
said to breed with the viper, 490.
Lamprocles cited, 784.
Lamprus the musician, a water-drinker, 72.
Lamps and lanterns, 1118.
Laodice murders her husband, 947.
Lasthenea, a pupil of Plato, 874.
Lasus of Hermione, sportive sayings of, 534;
cited, 719, 996.
Lathyporphyrides, 611.
Latus, a fish, 489.
Laurentus, a wealthy Roman, 1;
his liberality and learning, 3.
Leæna, a courtesan, her wit, 923.
Leek, the, 585.
Legumes, 640.
Leiobatus, a kind of shark, 490.
Leleges, slaves to the Carians, 426.
Lentils, discourse on, 254.
Leogoras, a gourmand, 608.
Leonidas, a general, his expedient to prevent the desertion of
his troops, 698.
Leonidas of Byzantium wrote on fishing, 21.
Leonidas of Elis, the grammarian, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Leontium, a courtesan, 933, 953.
Lepaste, a kind of drinking cup, 773.
Lepreus, his contests with Hercules, 649.
Lesbian wine, 47, 54, 55;
praise of, 48.
Lesbium, a kind of drinking cup, 775.
Lettered cups, 743.
Lettuces, 114;
their qualities, 115.
Leucadian wine, 54.
Leucisci, a general name for fish, 481.
Leucomænis, or white sprat, 492.
Leucon cited, 541.
Leucus, a sacred fish, 446.
Libations, 21, 48, 1107.
Libraries, great, enumerated, 4.
Licymnius the Chian cited, 902, 962.
Limpets, 143.
Lityerses, a glutton, 654.
Liver, 178;
why called modest, 178.
Loaves, different kinds of, 180, 190.
Locrian harmony, 998.
Loins, a dish called, 629.
Loisasium, a kind of cup, 775.
Lotus, the, 1042;
its uses, 1042.
Love honoured as a deity, 898;
catalogue of things relating to, 953;
writers on, 956.
Lucullus introduced the cherry from Pontus, 83;
brought habits of luxury to Rome, 432, 869.
Lupins, 90;
saying of Zeno, 91.
Lusitania, its abundance, 523.
Luterium, a kind of drinking cup, 775.
Luxury, Cato's complaints against, 432.
Lyceas of Naucratis, cited, 983.
Lychnis, the, 1089.
Lyciurges, what, 776.
Lycon the Peripatetic, his mode of life, 876.
Lycophron of Chalcis cited, 90, 226, 437, 662, 775, 802, 889.
Lycophronides cited, 1070.
Lycurgus cited, 367.
Lycurgus the orator cited, 419, 759, 936.
Lycus cited, 76.
Lydian harmony, 998.
Lydians, luxury of the, 826;
their profligacy, 827.
Lyernius the Celt, banquets of, 246.
Lynceus the Samian cited, 102, 127, 168, 169, 181, 216, 242,
360, 380, 381, 390, 448, 449, 462, 492, 520, 533, 534, 568,
633, 686, 747, 794, 798, 931, 932, 1034, 1043, 1045.
Lysander, question as to his mode of life, 869.
Lysander of Sicyon, the harp-player, 1019.
Lysanias the Cyrenean cited, 477, 807, 989.
Lysias cited, 112, 334, 349, 350, 365, 575, 643, 856, 883, 935, 936,
945, 946, 975, 976.
Lysimachus cited, 255.
Lysippus cited, 543.
Lysippus the statuary designs a new drinking cup for Cassander, 742.
MACAREUS cited, 411, 1022.
Macedonians addicted to drunkenness, 199.
Machon the comic poet, inscription on his tomb, 380;
cited, 72, 380, 383, 387, 533, 538, (poetic version, 1163,) 539,
545, 549, 923, 930, 1060.
Maconidæ, a kind of loaf, 183.
Made dishes, 607.
Madness, luxury of, 888.
Mæandrius cited, 717.
Mænis, or sprat, 491.
Magadis, a musical instrument, 1013, 1017.
Magas, king of Cyrene, choked with fat, 881.
Magnes cited, 579, 1033, 1102.
Magnesians, the, undone by luxury, 841.
Magnus. See Myrtilus.
Mago, his abstinence, 72.
Magodus, the, 991.
Malacus cited, 419.
Mallows, 96.
Maltese dogs, 831.
Mamertine wine, 44.
Manes, a kind of drinking cup, 777.
Mania, a courtesan, why so called, 924;
her wit, 925.
Manius Curius, his reply to the Sabines, 660.
Mantineans, single combat invented by the, 249.
Mareotic wine, the, 55.
Marriage-feast of Alexander and his companions, 861;
of Caranus, 210.
Marriages, Lacedæmonian, 889.
Marseilles, wine of, 44.
Marsic wine, 44.
Marsyas cited, 1004.
Marsyas the priest of Hercules cited, 744, 760, 764.
Marsyas the younger cited, 115.
Maryandini become subject to the Heracleans, 413.
Masinissa, king, his joke on the Sybarites, 831;
his fondness for children, 831.
Massilians, luxury of the, 838.
Mastus, a kind of drinking cup, 777.
Masyrius, a lawyer, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Mathalides, a kind of drinking cup, 777.
Matreas, the strolling player, 31.
Matris cited, 649.
Matris the Athenian, a water-drinker, 72.
Matron cited, 102, 106, 125, 220, (poetic version, 1135,) 284, 540,
1050, 1115.
Mattya, a dish so called, 1059.
Meal mixed with wine, 683.
Meals, names of, 18;
fashions at, 21.
Medes, luxury borrowed from, by the Persians, 825.
Megacles cited, 660.
Megaclides cited, 822, 823.
Megasthenes cited, 247.
Melampus invented mixing wine and water, 74.
Melanippides of Melos cited, 57, 677, 984, (poetic version, 1209,)
1042.
Melanippus and Chariton, 960.
Melanthias killed by gluttony, 878.
Melanthius cited, 512.
Melamorus, the, a fish, 492.
Mele, a kind of drinking cup, 776.
Meleager the Cynic cited, 804.
Melissa, a courtesan, 253.
Melophori, or Immortals, the Persian body-guard, 824, 863.
Membras, a kind of anchovy, 451.
Memphis the dancer, 33.
Menæchmus cited, 107, 427, 1014, 1015, 1019.
Menander cited, 119, (poetic version, 1128, 1129,) 156, 166,
190, 197, 217, 266, 274, 275, 276, 302, 364, 380, 382, 385,
389, 390, 425,472, 473, 475, 486, 493, 574, 575, 576, 588,
603, 606, 644, 672, 681, 686, 698, 699, 705, 737, 752, 755,
761, 773, 800, 804, 806, 819, 828, 879, 884, 895, (1190,) 907,
914, 937, 949, 1029, 1030, 1041, 1046, 1054, 1058, 1104,
1119, 1120.
Menecles of Barca cited, 285.
Menecrates, the Syracusan, arrogance and folly of, 454.
Menedemus and Asclepiades, 269.
Menedemus, frugal banquets of, 661.
Menesthenes cited, 789.
Menetor cited, 946.
Menippus the Cynic cited, 54, 1005, 1062.
Menocles cited, 614.
Menodorus cited, 97.
Menodotus the Samian cited, 1047, 1072.
Mensitheus cited, 58.
Messenians, the, banish the Epicureans, 875.
Metaceras, what, 204.
Metagenes cited, 361, 424, 426, 516, 559, 606, 725, 913, 1120.
Metaniptrum, a kind of drinking cup, 776.
Metanira, a courtesan, 945.
Metreas of Pitane wrote on feasts, 7.
Metrobius cited, 1028.
Metrodorus the Chian cited, 285, 616.
Metrodorus the Scepsian cited, 884.
Midas the Lydian, effeminacy of, 827.
Milesians, their luxury, 839.
Milo, the athlete, his voracity, 650.
Mimnermus cited, 748.
Minos of Crete and Ganymede, 959.
Minstrels and dancers at banquets, 22.
Misgolas, his fondness for harp-players, 535.
Mithæcus the Locrian, cited, 186, 442, 513, 827.
Mithridates, voracity of, 655.
Mitylenæan wine, 49.
Mixing wine and water, 667;
various proportions, 667, 672, 679.
Mnasalces the Sicyonian cited, 262.
Mnaseas the Locrian cited, 506.
Mnaseas of Patra cited, 255, 464, 473, 524, 546, 849.
Mnason the Phocian, his numerous slaves, 428.
Mnesimachus cited, 473, 507, 519, 534, 566, 609, 635, 658,
659, 663, (poetic version, 1179.)
Mnesiptolemus cited, 682.
Mnesitheus, the Athenian, cited, 37, 88, 94, 97, 134, 135,
153, 160, 176, 191, 200, 562, 772.
Mochus cited, 207, 775.
Modesty, praise of, 973.
Molpis cited, 227, 1061.
Monaulos, a musical instrument, 280.
Monophagein, meaning of, 12.
Monositon, meaning of, 77.
Mormylus, or mormyrus, a fish, 492.
Moron, or mulberry, the, 84;
the modern blackberry, 84.
Moschion cited, 328.
Moschion, a water-drinker, 72.
Moschus, a water-drinker, 72.
Moschus cited, 1012.
Mothaces, among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Mullets, 195, 510;
have different names according to their sizes, 195;
sacred fish, 512.
Mushrooms, 99;
poisonous sorts, 100.
Music, drinking to, 741;
horses taught to dance to, 834;
everything regulated by, among the Tyrrhenians, 830;
praise of, 994;
harmony, 995;
cultivated by the Arcadians, 999;
an incentive to courage, 1000;
among the Lacedæmonians and Cretans, 1001;
among barbarous nations, 1001;
at banquets, 1001;
its effect on body and mind, 1002;
decline of the art, 1008.
Musical instruments, 278;
the hydraulic organ, 278;
flutes, 279, 282;
nablus, 280;
triangle, 280;
monaulos, 280;
calamaules, 281;
stringed instruments, 284;
wind instruments, 285.
Mussels, 145.
Mycerinus the Egyptian, his drunkenness, 692.
Myconians said to be sordid and covetous, 11.
Myma, what, 1058.
Myndian wine, 54.
Myrmecides the artist, 738.
Myro the Byzantian cited, 783, 784.
Myron of Priene cited, 427, 1051.
Myronides cited, 1105.
Myrrhina, a Samian courtesan, 946
Myrsilus cited, 973.
Myrtile, or Myrrhine wine, 53.
Myrtilus the poet, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Myrtle, the, 1090.
Myrus, a kind of eel, 491.
Mys the artist, 738.
Mysta, the courtesan of Seleucus, sold for a slave, 947.
Myxini, a kind of fish, 481.
NABLUS, a musical instrument, 280.
Nannium, a courtesan, 908, 937.
Nanus, king in Gaul, marriage-feast of his daughter, 921.
Narcissus, the, 1088.
Nastus, a kind of loaf, 184.
Nations addicted to drunkenness, 698.
Nauclides threatened with banishment for his luxury, 881.
Naucrates cited, 630.
Naucratite crown, the, 1079.
Naucratis, pottery of, 766.
Nausiclides cited, 103.
Nausicrates cited, 464, 513, 521.
Nautilus, the, 500;
epigram of Callimachus on, 500.
Naxian wine, 51.
Neodamodes, freedmen among the Lacedæmonians, 427.
Neanthes of Cyzicus cited, 184, 280, 592, 921, 960, 1118.
Nectar, wine from Babylon, so called, 53;
whether the food or drink of the gods, 63.
Neocles of Crotona cited, 95.
Neoptolemus the Parian cited, 138, 718, 760.
Nestor, a drunkard, 684;
his cup, 778.
Nestor of Tarsus, cited, 653.
Nettles, 103.
New words, coiners of, 164.
Nicænetus cited, 1074.
Nicander the Chalcedonian cited, 793.
Nicander the Colophonian cited, 57, 81, 84, 86, 87, 89, 106,
110, 114, 118, 121, 122, 136, 137, 153, 165, 174, 183, 185,
189, 207, 444, 453, 465, 479, 481, 577, 581, 582, 584, 585,
587, 617, 623, 740, 757, 760, 770, 775, 910, 967, 1038, 1085,
1088, 1091, 1121.
Nicander of Thyatira cited, 189, 503, 728, 764, 768, 775, 805,
1084, 1088, 1104.
Nicanor the Cyrenæan cited, 465.
Nicias, his numerous slaves, 428.
Nicias of Nicæa cited, 261, 430, 808, 810, 944, 972.
Nicium, a courtesan, 253.
Nicobula cited, 686.
Nicochares cited, 57, 518, 672, 987, 1031, 1050, 1066.
Nicocles cited, 227, 228.
Nicocles of Cyprus, his contest in luxury with Straton, 851.
Nicolaus of Damascus cited, 247, 391, 396, 397, 410, 418,
432, 526, 655, 869, 946, 1043, 1089.
Nicomachus cited, 95, 456, 574, 737, 762.
Nicomedes cited, 1017.
Nicon cited, 777.
Nicophon cited, 134, 208, 424, 508, 579, 612.
Nicostratus cited, 108, 179, 182, 184, 196, 218, 364, 389,
472, 755, 777, 798, 828, 937, 982, 1046, 1061, 1094, 1095,
1107, 1119.
Nilænetus cited, 941.
Nile, ascent of the, 119;
mouths of the, 121;
water of the, highly esteemed for drinking, 73.
Ninus, his epitaph, 850.
Ninyas, given to luxury, 847.
Nitetis induces Cambyses to invade Egypt, 896.
Noisy trades prohibited in the city of the Sybarites, 831.
Nomentum, wine of, 44.
Nomium, song so called, 988.
Numerius the Heraclean wrote on facts, 7;
on fishing, 20;
cited, 442, 450, 451, 462, 477, 478, 480, 484, 485, 486,
492, 495, 504, 505, 507, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 584.
Nuts, 85;
question as to their wholesomeness, 87.
Nymphis of Heraclea cited, 857, 878, 988.
Nymphodorus cited, 416, 506, 524, 939, 972.
Nymphs, the nurses of Bacchus, 63.
Nysæus, the tyrant, a drunkard, 688.
OATHS, strange, 583.
Obelias, a kind of loaf, 184.
Ochus, advice of, to his son, 878.
Ocimum, a courtesan, 937.
Odates and Zariadres, story of, 919.
Œnas, a species of pigeon, 620.
Œnopas, a parodist, 1020.
Œnopides the Chian cited, 121.
Œnoptæ, their office, 670.
Oidos, a drinking cup, 806.
Oils, 110.
Oinisteria, a kind of drinking cup, 790.
Ointments, use of, 885.
Olbian mountains or Alps, 368.
Olives, 92;
various sorts, 92.
Ollix, a kind of drinking cup, 790.
Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, 687, 892;
her war with Eurydice, 897.
Omartes, king of the Marathi, story of his daughter, 919.
Omotaricum, 200.
Omphale, the Lydian tyrant, 827.
Onaris the Bisaltian, 834;
conquers the Cardians, 834.
Onias, a kind of fish, 503.
Onions, 40, 104;
various kinds, 106.
Oon, a drinking cup, 806.
Ooscyphia, a drinking cup, 806.
Ophelion cited, 109, 175, 176.
Oppianus the Cilician wrote on fishing, 20.
Opsarion, 606.
Opson, meaning of, 434.
Orcynus, a fish, 495.
Orindes, a kind of loaf, 183.
Orphos, the, a fish, 495;
question as to accent, 495.
Ortyges, the tyrant of Chios, 407.
Osier, or willow, garlands of, 1072, 1074.
Oxen fed on fish by the Thracians, 545.
Oxybaphum, a kind of drinking cup, 789.
Oysters, 140, 154;
mentioned by Homer, 143;
pearl oysters, 154;
marvellous production of, 526.
PÆANS, 1113.
Pagurus, the, 501.
Palaces of Homer's kings, 301.
Palm, brain of the, 118.
Pamphilus of Alexandria cited, 86, 87, 103, 115, 129, 138,
142, 148, 200, 274, 495, 512, 567, 609, 740, 749, 750,
753, 757, 762, 764, 777, 790, 791, 792, 803, 915, 1027,
1031, 1040, 1044, 1081, 1082.
Pamphilus the Sicilian, his dinner verses, 6.
Panætius the Rhodian cited, 89.
Panaretus, a thin philosopher, 884.
Panathenaicum, a kind of drinking cup, 790.
Pancrates of Alexandria cited, 1082.
Pancrates the Arcadian wrote on fishing, 20;
cited, 444, 479, 506, 762.
Pandorus, a musical instrument, 281.
Pan loaves, 181.
Pantaleon the jester, his mock bequests, 982.
Pantica of Cyprus, a beautiful but licentious woman, 972.
Panyasis cited, 59, 60, 276, 748, 796.
Paphian king and his flatterers, 401, 403.
Parasites, 370;
early meaning of the term, 370;
later meaning, 372;
anecdotes of, 379.
Parastatæ, a dish so called, 624.
Parian figs, 127.
Parilia, a Roman festival, 570.
Parmenio cited, 737, 970.
Parmeniscus of Metapontum, how cured of melancholy, 979.
Parmeniscus cited, 252, 979.
Parmeno the Byzantine cited, 127, 324, 351, 799.
Parmeno the Rhodian cited, 485.
Parodists, 284, 1115.
Paropsis, discussion on the word, 578.
Parrhasius, given to luxury, 869;
his inscription on his works, 1097.
Parthanius cited, 84.
Parthenius cited, 740, 744, 801, 1087.
Parthians, kings of the, their summer and winter residences, 824.
Partridge, the, 611, 1049.
Passum, a drink of the Roman women, 696.
Pathymias the Egyptian, 79.
Paunches, 161, 167.
Pausanias the Spartan, 224;
his luxury, 857.
Paxamus cited, 593.
Peacock, the, 626, 1047.
Pearls, 155.
Pears, 1040.
Peas, 640.
Pectis, a musical instrument, 1015.
Pelamydes, a kind of fish, 193.
Pelamys, the, 501.
Pelica, a kind of drinking cup, 791.
Pelignas the cook, 1055.
Pella, or pellis, a kind of drinking cup, 791.
Pelleter, a kind of drinking cup, 792.
Peloponnesian wars, how occasioned, 911.
Peloria, a festival, 1022.
Peloris, or giant mussel, 154.
Pelting with stones, 641.
Penelope, at dice, 27.
Penestæ, their condition, 414.
Penny loaves, 184.
Pentaploa, a kind of drinking cup, 792.
Peparethian wine, 48.
Pepper, 109.
Perch, the, 502.
Perfumes, 645;
known to Homer, 28;
used by the Carmani, 75;
condemned by Socrates, 1096.
Pericles the Olympian, loose conduct of, 854, 940.
Peripatetic school, duties of the chief of the, 876.
Periwinkles, 143.
Persæus of Citium, 261;
cited, 227, 228, 261, 968.
Persian couches, 79;
banquets, 233.
Persians, fond of dancing, 686;
their luxury, 823, 873.
Petachnum, a kind of drinking cup, 792.
Petelia, fortitude of the inhabitants of, 846.
Petta, her marriage with Euxenus, 921.
Phæacians, luxury of the, 14, 26;
dances, 24.
Phædimus cited, 797.
Phædo, his remark on Plato, 809.
Phænias cited, 89, 102, 106, 113, 117, 141, 150, 526, 555,
585, 640, 692, 1020.
Phæninda, a game at ball, 24.
Phæstians, a witty people, 410.
Phætus cited, 1028.
Phagesia, the, 433.
Phagrus, the, a fish, 515;
a stone so called, 516.
Phalæcus cited, 696.
Phalanthus outwitted by Iphiclus, 568.
Phalaris, incredible barbarity ascribed to, 625.
Phallophori, 992.
Phanias cited, 10, 27, 49, 53, 84, 96, 366.
Phanocritus cited, 435.
Phanodemus cited, 189, 269, 618, 690, 733.
Phaps, a species of pigeon, 620.
Pharax the Lacedæmonian, abandons the Spartan mode of living, 858;
his death, 858.
Pharsalia, a dancing-woman, torn to pieces for sacrilege, 965.
Phascades, a bird, 623.
Phayllus, a great fish-eater, 535.
Pheasants, 608, 1046.
Pherecrates cited, 90, 93, 111, 126, 131, 134, 149, 158,
159, 184, 197, 202, 257, 274, 361, 388, 390, 411, 413,
422, 423, (poetic version, 1158,) 480, 485, 498, 529,
541, 574, 575, 577, 579, 606, 612, 623, 624, 654, 668,
680, 726, 733, 749, 756, 764, 765, 767, (1186,) 774, 775,
802, 856, 976, 1031, 1032, 1036, 1044, 1045, 1093, 1094,
1103, 1118, 1119.
Pherecydes cited, 891.
Pherenicus cited, 131.
Phiale, a drinking vessel, 801;
golden, 803.
Phiditia, banquet of the, 228.
Philadelphus of Ptolemais, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Philænis not the author of the book ascribed to her, 530.
Philetærus cited, 34, 108, 176, 179, 196, 440, 539, 656, 659, 680,
756, 777, 894, 912, 915, 937, 1011, (poetic version, 1212.)
Philemon cited, 17, 86, 92, 106, 129, 136, 189, 204, 218, 273,
280, 364, 411, 453, (poetic version, 1159, 1224,) 483, 538,
606, 746, 747, 768, 770, 795, 828, 910, 911, 941, 950, 966,
1030, 1032, 1044, 1052, 1054, 1060, 1061.
Philemon, junior, cited, 457.
Philetas, a very lean man, 884;
how starved to death, 633;
inscription on his tomb, 633;
cited, 117, 189, 740, 741, 744, 745, 770, 792, 793, 795,
1031, 1033, 1081, 1082, 1083.
Philinus lived wholly on milk, 72.
Philinus the orator cited, 670.
Philinus the physician, 1088, 1089.
Philip of Macedon and his companions, 267, 409;
ridicules Menecrates, 454;
his drunkenness, 687;
his many marriages, 892.
Philippides, a thin and insignificant man, 884;
cited, 149, 363, (poetic version, 1146,) 411, 605, 737,
1023, 1053, 1119.
Philippus cited, 126.
Philippus of Theangela cited, 426.
Philistion the Locrian cited, 191.
Phillis the Delian cited, 1013, 1016.
Philo cited, 506, 974.
Philochorus cited, 14, 61, 62, 269, 302, 372, 384, 591, 620,
733, 792, 1002, 1006, 1019, 1030, 1037, 1049, 1108, 1114.
Philocles cited, 109.
Philocrates cited, 12, 414.
Philodemus cited, 702.
Philomnestus cited, 125.
Philonides cited, 77, 111, 361, 389, 1077, 1120.
Philosophers, Cynic, 975;
Epicurean, 438;
other sects, 439;
Pythagorean, 263;
at a drinking match, 691;
disorderly life of some, 874, 876, 877, 969;
other faults of, 349, 975.
Philostephanus cited, 459, 467, 524, 526.
Philotesia, a kind of drinking cup, 803.
Philotimus cited, 88, 132, 135, 138, 485, 1098.
Philoxenus of Alexandria cited, 86.
Philoxenus of Cythera and the mullets, 10;
a great fish-eater, 538;
cited, 237, 645, 759, 777, 903, 1027, 1095.
Philoxenus of Leucadia, an epicure, 8;
cheesecakes named after him, 8;
his love for hot dishes, 8.
Philoxenus the Solenist, 150.
Philyllius cited, 51, 85, 104, 144, 154, 173, 183, 226, 275, 599,
644, 774, 907, 936, 1024, 1120.
Philyrinus, a kind of garland, 1085.
Phocus, his intemperate life, 270.
Phocylides cited, 675.
Phœnician wine, praise of, 48.
Phœnicides cited, 654, 1043.
Phœnix the Colophonian cited, 566, 664, (poetic version, 1164,
1165,) 792, 849.
Phœnix, a musical instrument, 1018.
Pholades, 146.
Phorbas, sacrifice of, 412.
Phormus cited, 1042.
Phrygian harmony, 995, 998.
Phryne, when accused, how defended by Hyperides, 942;
serves as a model to Apelles and Praxiteles, 943;
her statue, 943;
two of the name, 943.
Phrynichus cited, 78, 85, 86, 97, 124, 145, 182, 190, 265, 286,
361, 390, 395, 451, 501, 585, 612, 669, 755, 903, 963, 1014,
1046, 1120.
Phthoïs, a kind of drinking cup, 803.
Phuromachus, epigram on his voracity, 653.
Phycis, the, 502.
Phylarchus cited, 30, 71, 72, 95, 122, 136, 229, 243, 392, 409,
426, 427, 526, 528, 650, 692, 698, 835, 842, 846, 858, 862,
863, 947, 967, 968, 971, 972, 974, 980, 1022, 1075, 1108.
Pickle, 111, 192, 199.
Pig, the, 590;
why held sacred among the Cretans, 592;
one half roasted, half boiled, 593.
Pig's feet, 159.
Pigeon, the, 620, 1046.
Pike, the, 487;
those of Miletus greatly esteemed, 488.
Pindar cited, 4, 36, 42, 45, 67, 68, 249, 296, 299, 306, 365, 390,
456, 674, 708, 719, 739, 744, 759, 766, 783, 821, 897, 903, 917,
918, 959, 1014, 1024, 1025.
Pine-cones, 94.
Pinna and its guard, 148, 156.
Pirene, fountain of, 70.
Pisander, accused of gluttony, 654;
cited, 741, 748.
Pisistratidæ, banquets given by the, 853.
Pisistratus, moderation of, 853;
his oppression, 854.
Pistachio nuts, 1038.
Pithyllus, an epicure, 9.
Placite loaves, 182.
Plaice, the, 515.
Plangon, a Milesian courtesan, 948.
Plataces, a kind of fish, 485.
Plate, gold and silver, 362.
Plato, his rivalry with Xenophon, 808;
his ill-nature, 810;
his dislike to the pupils of Socrates, 812;
bad character of his own followers, 814;
cited, 34, 58, 78, 154, 157, 161, 165, 186, 203, 223, 251, 278,
283, 289, 291, 292, 294, 295, 298, 306, 342‒351, 367, 388, 399,
415, 493, 669, 682, 685, 695, 714, 820, 845, 940,
(poetic version, 1197,) 1023, 1044, 1045, 1071, 1084, 1099, 1110,
1122.
Plato, the comic writer, cited, 7, 52, 78, 93, 111, 113, 129, 171,
196, 237, 273, 363, 438, 483, 490, 493, 495, 497, 511, 543, 578,
580, 591, 599, 606, 608, 666, 668, 697, 701, 705, 720, 741, 762,
1003, 1024, 1029, 1050, 1062, 1064, 1065, 1081, 1083, 1118, 1120.
Pleasure, love of, 818;
various opinions on, 820.
Pledging healths, 731.
Pleiades, the, represented on Nestor's cup, 781;
variation of the name, 783.
Plemochoe, a kind of drinking cup, 792.
Plistonichus cited, 74.
Plutarch of Chæronea cited, 86, 614.
Plutarchus, the grammarian, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Poets, censured for loose morality, 201.
Polemarchus cited, 184.
Polemo, a water-drinker, 73;
cited, 31, 64, 91, 116, 137, 180, 224, 227, 334, 370,
482, 585, 611, 645, 647, 655, 689, 699, 729, 752, 755,
762, 765, 771, 772, 776, 795, 866, 884, 907, 918, 923,
937, 938, 940, 961, 967, 1054, 1103, 1114, 1116.
Poliochus cited, 99, 492.
Pollian wine, probably the same as Bibline, 51.
Pollis, king of Syracuse, 51.
Polyarchus defends sensual pleasures, 872.
Polybius cited, 26, 73, 132, 158, 309, 395, 396, 427, 429, 432,
474, 523, 524, 632, 658, 669, 671, 693, 694, 695, 696, 703,
844, 846, 922, 981, 998, 1012, 1042.
Polycharmus cited, 527, 1079.
Polycletus of Larissa cited, 862.
Polycrates cited, 226, 530.
Polycrates the Achæan, a parodist, 1020.
Polycrates of Samos, luxury of, 864.
Polypus, the, 496;
various species, 501.
Polyzelus cited, 52, 569, 584.
Pomegranates, 1040.
Pompilus, fish so called, 444;
originally a man, 445.
Pontianus cited, 898.
Pontianus of Nicomedia, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Pontic pickles, 196.
Poor Helen, a courtesan, 933.
Porphyrion, Porphyris, the, a bird, 611.
Posidippus cited, 53, 146, 156, 195, 249, 472, 500, 593,
650, 653, 654, 784, 944, 952, 1054, 1058.
Posidonius the Corinthian, wrote onfishing, 20.
Posidonius the Stoic cited, 46, 74, 244, 246, 247, 248, 270, 281,
334, 335, 336, 368, 369, 387, 396, 413, 418, 428, 429, 430,
432, 439, 527, 581, 632, 694, 790, 845, 864, 867, 879, 880, 949,
1014, 1038, 1106.
Possis cited, 854.
Pothos, a kind of garland, 1085.
Potters of Athens, 46;
of Naucratis, 766.
Poultry, names for, 587.
Præneste, wine of, 44.
Pramnian wine, praise of, 50.
Pratinas the Phliasian cited, 728, 984, (poetic version, 1209,)
1010.
Praxagoras cited, 53, 67, 75, 136, 1098.
Praxilla the Sicyonian cited, 961, 1108.
Praxiteles, his inscription on a statue of Cupid, 943.
Premnas, a kind of tunny, 518.
Priapus, the same as Bacchus with the people of Lampsacus, 49.
Pristis, a kind of drinking cup, 742, 793.
Privernum, wine of, 43.
Proaron, a kind of drinking cup, 790.
Prochytes, a kind of drinking cup, 793.
Prodromi, or precocious figs, 129.
Profligates who have committed suicide, 859.
Promathidas of Heraclea cited, 464, 780.
Pronomus the Theban, a celebrated flute-player, 1008.
Prophesying from fish, 527.
Propis the Rhodian harp-player, 548.
Proponia, what, 95.
Prostitutes of Athens, books on the, 907.
Protagoras, originally a porter, 558;
cited, 205.
Protagorides cited, 242, 260, 281, 285.
Proteas the Macedonian, a great drinker, 685.
Proxenus cited, 420.
Proxenus, office of, 963.
Prusias, king of Bithynia, cup named from him, 793.
Psamathis, or sacred fish, 515.
Psithian wine, 47.
Psomocolaces, a kind of flatterers, 411.
Psorus or psyrus, a fish, 492.
Psygeus, or psycter, a drinking cup, 804.
Ptolemy, son of Agesarchus, cited, 387, 671, 923.
Ptolemy Euergetes, his luxury, 879;
cited, 101, 118, 362, 592, 609, 692, 831, 880, 922, 1046.
Ptolemy Philadelphus, his magnificent procession, 313;
his luxury, 858;
his courtesans, 922.
Ptolemy Philopator, large ship built by, 324.
Puns on words, 162.
Purple-fish, 147.
Pylades wrote on dancing, 33.
Pyramus, a kind of loaf, 188.
Pyrgion cited, 232.
Pyrrhander cited, 1013.
Pyrrho the Elean cited, 661.
Pythænetus cited, 941.
Pythagoras, temperance of, 660;
enigmatic sayings of, 714;
his musical performance, 1018;
cited, 285, 1012.
Pythagoreans, the early, dressed handsomely, 263.
Pytharchus of Cyzicus receives seven cities from Cyrus the
Great, 49.
Pytheas, his inscription for his tomb, 734;
(poetic version, 1184.)
Pythermus of Ephesus cited, 72, 85, 455, 997.
Pythionica, her lovers, 536;
her splendid funeral and monument, 949.
Python of Byzantium, the orator, his odd exhortation to unanimity,
881.
Python of Catana cited, 935, 950.
QUAILS, 617;
how caught, 619.
Quinces, 97.
RABBIT, how distinguished from the hare, 632.
Radishes, 93;
various kinds, 93.
Rain of fishes and frogs, 526.
Ray, the, 449.
Rhapsodists, 989;
poems recited by, 989.
Rhegian wine, 43.
Rheonta, a kind of drinking cup, 793.
Rhianus cited, 137, 798.
Rhinè, the, a fish, 502.
Rhinthon cited, 184, 800.
Rhipæan mountains, or Alps, 368.
Rhodian bread, 181;
wine, 52.
Rhodias, a kind of drinking cup, 793.
Rhoduntia, a dish so called, 636;
how prepared, 640.
Rhombus, or sea-sparrow, 521.
Rhysis, a kind of drinking cup, 793.
Rhytum, a kind of drinking cup, 794.
Riddles, 712;
examples, 713.
Roach, the, or sea-frog, 449.
Roasting, why less wholesome than boiling, 1049.
Robbery recommended, rather than to go without fish, 449, 462.
Rolls, 183.
Roman banquets, 247;
single combats, 248.
Romans, early simplicity of their lives, 431;
luxury introduced, 432;
wisely selected desirable customs from the nations they subdued,
430;
their slaves, 429.
Rome, eulogium on, 32.
Roses, variety of, 1089.
Royal nut, the, 88.
Rufinus of Mylæa, a Deipnosophist, 3.
Rutilius Rufus cited, 431, 869.
SABINE wine, 44.
Sabrias, a drinking vessel, 411.
Sacadas the Argive cited, 973.
Sacred band, among the Thebans, 898.
Sacred fish, what, 444, 512, 515.
Sacred war, caused by a woman, 896.
Sacrifices, performed by kings in person, 1055.
Sagaus, king of the Maryandini, his laziness, 849.
Sakeus, a Babylonian festival, 1022.
Salmonius cited, 84.
Salpe, a Lesbian woman, 506.
Salpe, the, a fish, 506.
Samagorian wine, its strength, 678.
Sambuca, the, a musical instrument, 1012, 1018;
also an instrument of war, 1012.
Samians, luxury of the, 842.
Sannacra, a kind of drinking cup, 795.
Sannyrion, a very thin man, 882;
cited, 411, 449, 882.
Saperda, a kind of fish, 484.
Sappho, a courtesan, of Eresus, 952;
not cotemporary with Anacreon, 955;
cited, 34, 64, 89, 94, 283, 306, 617, 647, 670, 727, 731,
(poetic version, 1184,) 756, 886, 903, 913, 951, 1076, 1077,
1097, 1103.
Sardanapalus, luxurious life of, 847;
inscription on his tomb, 531, 848;
proposed alteration by Chrysippus, 532.
Sardines, 518.
Sardinian acorns, 89.
Sargus, the, a fish, 492, 505.
Saturnalia, the, 1021;
similar festivals, 1021.
Satyric dance, its inventor, 33.
Satyrus cited, 269, 390, 391, 394, 855, 866, 889, 931.
Saucepan of Telemachus, 642.
Saurus, or lizard, 507;
termed a fish, 507.
Scallium, a kind of drinking cup, 795.
Scamon cited, 1005, 1017.
Scaphinum, a kind of drinking cup, 757.
Scari, a kind of fish, 503.
Scarus, or char, the, 503;
two kinds of, 503.
Scented wines, 53.
Scepinus, the, 508.
Sciadeus, or sciæna, the, a fish, 508.
Sciathus, wine of, 51.
Scipio Africanus, his modest retinue, 429.
Sciras cited, 634.
Scolia of Pindar and others, 674;
examples, 1109.
Scolium, what, 917.
Scomber, or tunny, the, 505.
Scorpion, the, a fish, 504.
Screech-owl, the, 615.
Scylax cited, 116.
Scyphus, a kind of drinking cup, 795.
Scythian draught, what, 673.
Scythians, luxury and tyranny of the, 840.
Scythinus the Teian cited, 728.
Sea-blackbird, the, 478.
Sea-boar, the, 478.
Sea-goat, the, 517.
Sea-grayling, the, 462.
Sea-nettle, the, 149.
Sea-pig, the, 514.
Sea-sparrow, the, 520.
Sea-thrush, the, 478.
Sea-torpedo, the, 493.
Sea-urchins, 151, 152.
Sea-water mixed with wine, 54.
Seasonings, 112;
Philoxenus a master of, 9.
Seleucis, a kind of drinking cup, 795.
Seleucus of Alexandria cited, 66, 81, 85, 129, 130, 188,
189, 250, 276, 420, 577, 627, 679, 745, 777, 791, 799,
1030, 1053, 1082, 1118.
Seleucus of Tarsus wrote on fishing, 21;
cited, 503.
Semaristus cited, 624, 629.
Semiramis, mother of Ninyas, 847.
Semus the Delian cited, 50, 62, 181, 203, 524, 529, 747, 979,
(poetic version, 1208,) 985, 986, 992, 1018, 1030, 1031.
Servile war, its origin, 867.
Setine wine, 43.
Sharks, various kinds of, 449, 461, 490.
Shaving the head, date of its introduction, 904.
Shell-fish, 143, 146, 173.
Ship, large, of Hiero, 329;
of Ptolemy Philopator, 324.
Sicilians, luxury of the, 830.
Sicyonian gourds, 97.
Sida, a plant resembling the pomegranate, 1041.
Signine wine, 44.
Silenus cited, 740, 745, 757, 763, 770, 867, 1081, 1118.
Silver plate, use of, 363.
Simaristus cited, 166, 763, 770, 793.
Simmias cited, 516, 753, 764, 784, 1081.
Simonides cited, 94, 165, 176, 206, 276, 334, 469, 501, 590,
625, 668, 706, 721, 726, 766, 783, 797, 821, 917, 964, 1052,
1055, 1086, 1102.
Simus the Magnesian, 989.
Siris, luxury of, 838.
Siromen the Solensian cited, 868.
Sittius, a luxurious Roman, 869.
Slavery, various kinds of, 419.
Slaves forbidden to approach certain festivals, 411;
the Maryandini, 413;
the Clarotæ, 414;
the Penestæ, 414;
the Chian slaves, 416;
the Athenian, 419;
the Roman, 428.
Smaris, the, a fish, 491.
Smindyrides the Sybarite, his vast retinue of slaves, 429, 866.
Smoothing the whole body practised by the Tarentines and
others, 830, 837.
Snails, 104;
various names for, 104.
Snow used to cool drinks, 205.
Soap, 645.
Socrates fond of dancing, 34;
his conduct in war discussed, 343;
Plato's account, 345;
cited, 256, 426.
Socrates cited, 610, 1003.
Socrates of Cos cited, 184.
Socrates the Rhodian cited, 238, 743.
Solens, 150;
various kinds, 150;
Philoxenus the tyrant, originally a solen-catcher, 150.
Solon cited, 961, 1032.
Songs, list of many, 986.
Sopater the Paphian cited, 117, 143, 168, 181, 196, 255,
257, 258, 280, 281, 284, 539, 742, (poetic version, 1185,)
1029, 1037, 1050, 1122.
Sophilus cited, 167, 204, 207, 254, 306, 680, 1023.
Sophocles, a skilful dancer and ball-player, 33;
his intemperance, 963;
cited, 28, 35, 55, 65, 103, 108, 112, 116, 128, 144, 157,
166, 183, 197, 201, 202, 263, 280, 282, 285, 302, 435, 436,
440, 502, 588, 591, 612, 631, 633, 645, 647, 675, 685, 706,
718, 735, 742, 757, 759, 769, 778, 823, 876, 902, 936, 944,
958, 961, 1014, 1017, 1033, 1050, 1066, 1084, 1095, 1097,
1098, 1102.
Sophron, governor of Ephesus, his life saved by Danae, 946.
Sophron of Syracuse cited, 72, 79, 144, 145, 176, 182, 363, 450, 451,
452, 475, 480, 481, 485, 490, 508, 511, 512, 570, 593, 599, 621,
644, 764, 765.
Soroadeus, an Indian deity, 45.
Sosias the Thracian hires slaves from Nicias, 428.
Sosibius, his explanation of Homer, 780;
ridiculed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 788;
cited, 131, 137, 190, 788, 991, 1032, 1036, 1076, 1082, 1103.
Sosicrates cited, 52, 263, 410, 414, 665, 755, 941.
Sosinomus the banker, 976.
Sosipater cited, 595, (poetic version, 1169.)
Sosippus cited, 219.
Sositheus cited, 654.
Sostratus cited, 475, 491.
Sotades, a libellous poet, put to death, 990;
cited, 459, 579, 990.
Sotion the Alexandrian cited, 263, 532, 541, 808.
Spaniards, rich dress of the, 72, 838;
their abstemious habits, 72.
Sparamizus the eunuch, 847.
Spare livers, 259.
Sparrow, the, 617.
Spartacus the gladiator, 429.
Spartan living, 831;
not relished by some, 858.
Sparus, the, 504.
Spatangi, 151.
Speusippus wrote drinking songs, 5;
taunted by Dionysius for his impure life, 874;
cited, 101, 114, 144, 174, 218, 471, 472, 476, 484, 491, 501,
502, 508, 509, 511, 513, 520, 581, 609, 616.
Sphærus, his remark on probability, 559;
cited, 229, 559.
Spheneus, a kind of fish, 481.
Sphodrias the Cynic cited, 260.
Sphuræna, or hammer fish, 508;
properly cestra, 508.
Spiced wines, 52.
Spoletum, wine of, 44.
Spoons, golden, given to guests, 208.
Squid, the said to be the same as the cuttle-fish, 510.
Staphylus cited, 74.
Stasinus cited, 528, 1090.
Statites, a kind of loaf, 182.
Stephanus, a writer on cookery, 828.
Stephanus the comic poet cited, 747.
Stesander the Samian, a harp-player, 1019.
Stesichorus cited, 136, (poetic version, 1129,) 158, 249, 276,
712, 721, 748, 797, 799, 822, 973, 988, 1031.
Stesimbrotus the Thasian cited, 941.
Sthenelus cited, 675.
Stilpon, his quarrel with a courtesan, 931;
cited, 261, 665.
Strabo cited, 199, 1052.
Straton cited, 601, (poetic version, 1175.)
Straton, king of Sidon, his contest of luxury with Nicocles, 850.
Stratonicus the artist, 738.
Stratonicus the harp-player, 548;
his witticisms, 549;
his death, 555.
Strattis cited, 51, 114, 128, 205, 209, 258, 271, 390, 469,
474, 477, 508, 516, 589, 624, 629, 654, 745, 754, 804, 882,
940, 945, 991, 1047, 1049, 1094, 1103, 1118.
Strepticias, a kind of bread, 187.
Stromateus, the, a fish, 506.
Strouthias, a kind of garland, 1084.
Sturgeon, the, 462.
Sub-Dorian, or Æolian harmony, 997.
Sub-Phrygian harmony, 998.
Sucking-pigs, 624, 1048.
Suitors, Penelope's, their amusements, 27.
Supper of Iphicrates, 215.
Surrentine wine, 43, 44.
Swallow, song of the, 567.
Swan, the, 619;
its death-song doubted, 620, 1023.
Sweetmeats, 77;
Lacedæmonian, 91.
Swine's brains, 108.
Swordfish, the, 494.
Syagris, a fish, 508.
Syagrus, a general, 633.
Sybarites, the, their luxury and effeminacy, 831.
Sylla the Roman general, fond of buffoons and mimics, 410;
wrote satiric comedies, 410.
Synagris, a fish, 507.
Synodon, a fish, 507.
Syracusans, luxury of the, 845;
restraints on women among them, 835.
Syrbenians, chorus of the, 1068, 1072, 1115.
Syrians, averse to fish, 546;
their luxury, 845.
TABAITAS, a kind of drinking cup, 800.
Table-setters, 273.
Tables, names for, 80.
Tabyrites, a kind of loaf, 181.
Tænia, the, 513.
Tæniotic wine, 55.
Tanagra, whale of, 881.
Tantalus, his devotion to pleasure, 449.
Tarentine wine, 44.
Tarentines, luxury of the, 267, 837.
Tasters, 274.
Tattooing, practised by the Scythian on the Thracian women, 840;
how converted into an ornament, 840.
Taulopias, the, a fish, 513.
Teleclides cited, 92, 107, 126, 137, 145, 273, 421, 444, 529,
543, 582, 629, 689, 775, 886, 987, 1021, 1030, 1037, 1050.
Telenicus the Byzantian, a parodist, 1024.
Telephanes cited, 980.
Telesilla cited, 745, 987.
Telestagoras of Naxos, 548.
Telestes, or Telesis, the dancing master, 35.
Telestes of Selinus cited, 802, 984, 998, 1017.
Tellinæ, 150.
Temperance, praise of, 663.
Tenarus cited, 1072.
Tench, the, 485;
white and black, 485.
Teneus cited, 803.
Terpsicles cited, 512, 617.
Terpsion cited, 533.
Teucer cited, 720.
Teuthis and teuthus, the difference between, 514;
a cake called teuthis, 514.
Thais, a courtesan, causes the destruction of Persepolis, 922;
marries Ptolemy, king of Egypt, 922.
Thales the Milesian cited, 119.
Thamneus, hospitality of, 412.
Thargelus, a kind of loaf, 188.
Thasian brine, 519;
wine, 47, 53.
Theagenes the athlete, voracity of, 650.
Thearion the baker, 186.
Thebais, wine of the, 55;
passage from the poem so called, 735, (poetic version, 1184.)
Themiso cited, 371.
Themiso the Cyprian, 455.
Themistagoras the Ephesian cited, 1087.
Themistocles, his life in Persia, 49;
luxury of, 854.
Theocles cited, 794.
Theocritus the Chian cited, 864.
Theocritus the Syracusan cited, 81, 138, 445, 446, 758.
Theodectes of Phaselus cited, 712, 717.
Theodoridas cited, 474, 758, 1118.
Theodorus cited, 201, 1032, 1081, 1083, 1104.
Theodorus of Hierapolis cited, 650, 651, 793.
Theodorus the Larissean, a water-drinker, 72.
Theodote, a courtesan, buries Alcibiades, 919.
Theognetus cited, 173, 982, 1071.
Theognis cited, 487, 498, 676, 722, 823, 895.
Theolytus cited, 464, 749.
Theophilus cited, 9.
Theophilus the comic writer cited, 158, 537, 657, 753, 896, 900,
(poetic version, 1192,) 938, 994, 1013.
Theophrastus cited, 30, 36, 52, 53, 57, 68, 72, 82, 83, 89,
91, 93, 97, 101, 102, 104, 106, 110, 112, 115, 117, 118, 122,
124, 129, 130, 137, 138, 139, 154, 174, 234, 278, 399, 429,
473, 490, 493, 499, 500, 524, 525, 548, 581, 582, 609, 614,
617, 632, 668, 669, 674, 677, 687, 683, 730, 733, 738, 750,
795, 843, 870, 900, 907, 967, 973, 995, 1041, 1046, 1084, 1085,
1087, 1088, 1089, 1093, 1101, 1107.
Theopompus the Athenian cited, 285, 414, 483, 510, 580, 589,
629, 630, 666, 768, 771, 774, 775, 1038, 1044, 1051.
Theopompus the Chian cited, 43, 56, 74, 83, 113, 130, 137, 142,
234, 235, 241, 254, 265, 267, 340, 364, 366, 391, 392, 395,
397, 399, 400, 407, 408, 410, 416, 426, 427, 432, 474, 604,
654, 687, 688, 689, 699, 702, 746, 750, 759, 802, 813, 829,
843, 844, 850, 851, 852, 853, 858, 869, 916, 949, 950, 965,
971, 983, 1001, 1039, 1051, 1080, 1120.
Theopompus the Colophonian cited, 284.
Thericlean cup, 749;
distinguished from the carchesian, 752, 756, 803.
Thericles of Corinth, 750.
Thermopotis, a kind of drinking cup, 757.
Theseus, enigmatic description of the letters forming the word, 717.
Thesmophorius of Trœzene cited, 48.
Thessalians, notorious gluttons, 223, 408, 659;
extravagant, 844, 1059.
Thin people, list of, 882.
Thracians, dances of the, 25;
banquets, 243, 250;
tattooing, how introduced among the women, 840.
Thrasylaus, pleasant madness of, 888.
Thrasyllus, conduct of Alcibiades to, 856.
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon cited, 655.
Thratta, the, a sea-fish, 519.
Thrissa, the, a fish, 518.
Thronus, a kind of loaf, 184.
Thrushes, 107.
Thucydides cited, 37, 180, 299, 302, 763.
Thunnis and thunnus distinguished, 476.
Thursio, what, 487.
Thys, the Paphlagonian king, a great eater, 654.
Tibur, wine of, 43.
Tilphossa, fountain of, 66.
Timachidas the Rhodian cited, 52, 87, 138, 189, 445, 581, 739,
1081, 1082, 1090, 1093, 1118.
Timæus cited, 56, 61, 263, 297, 393, 415, 427, 428, 513, 540, 690,
751, 829, 831, 836, 837, 838, 866, 916, 940, 961.
Timæus of Cyzicus, his history, 814.
Timagoras the Athenian offers adoration to the king of Persia, 79.
Timagoras the Cretan, his favour with Artaxerxes, 79.
Timarchus cited, 802.
Timea, wife of Agis of Sparta, seduced by Alcibiades, 856.
Timocles cited, 180, 198, 266, 353, (poetic version, 1136,) 355,
(1137,) 374, (1150,) 378, 379, 382, 385, 387, 462, 470, 501, 536,
539, 605, 642, 680, 720, 908, (1194,) 940.
Timocrates, a friend of Athenæus, 1.
Timocreon the Rhodian, his epitaph, 655.
Timolaus the Theban, his intemperance, 688.
Timomachus cited, 1019.
Timon the Phliasian cited, 36, 254, 257, 258, 262, 394, 439,
442, 532, 641, 668, 703, 831, 938, 959, 973, 1115.
Timon and Lacydes at a drinking match, 691.
Timotheus of Athens, the son of a courtesan, 922.
Timotheus of Miletus cited, 202, 382, 734;
accused of corrupting the ancient music, 1017.
Tinachidas of Rhodes wrote on feasts, 7.
Tindium, temple of, in Egypt, 1085.
Tirynthians, the, incapable of serious business, 410.
Tithenidia, festival of, 225.
Titormus, a great eater, 650.
Torches, 1119.
Torpedo, the, 493.
Towels, 647.
Trachurus, the, 513.
Tragedy, invention of, 65.
Tragelaphus, a drinking cup, 742, 800.
Trebellian wine, 44.
Trefoils, 1094.
Trichias, or trichis, a fish, said to be attracted by music, 518.
Trifoline wine, 43.
Trinkets, golden, proscribed by Lycurgus and by Plato, 367.
Tripe, 157.
Tripod, the cup of Bacchus, 62;
a musical instrument, 1018.
Trireme, house at Agrigentum, why so called, 61;
a kind of drinking cup, 800.
Trœzenian wine, 52.
Trojan war, its cause, 896.
Tromilican cheese, 1052.
Truffles, 102.
Trumpeter, Herodorus, the, 653.
Tryphon cited, 86, 131, 180, 188, 189, 279, 283, 468, 627,
630, 806, 986, 1024.
Tunnies, 436, 473, 518;
thunnis and thunnus distinguished, 576.
Turnips, 581;
the food of Manius Cronus, 660.
Turtle-doves, 620, 622.
Tyron bread, 182.
Tyrrhenians, luxury of the, 829.
UDDER, a dish made of, 629, 1050.
Ulban wine, 44.
Ulysses, voracity of, 649;
his love of pleasure, 822.
Umbrians, the, given to luxury, 844.
Unguents, where the best are brought from, 1099;
prices of some, 1104;
supposed to produce grey hair, 1106.
Unmarried men, how treated in Sparta, 889.
Unmixed wines, 673, 1107.
Uppianus the Tyrian, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Uria, a bird, 623.
VARRO cited, 258.
Veliternian wine, 44.
Venafrum, wine of, 44.
Venus Callipyge, temple dedicated to, 887.
Venus Hetæra, 913.
Venus the Prostitute, 915.
Vetches, 89;
how used, 90.
Vinegar, 111.
Voracity ascribed to Hercules, 648.
WALNUTS, 138.
Wars, the greatest, occur on account of women, 896, 911.
Washing hands, 644;
use of perfumes, 645.
Water and water-drinkers, 66;
various kinds of water, 68;
weight of water, 70, 75;
boiled water, 201.
Water-drinkers, list of, 73.
Willow, or osier, garlands of, 1072, 1074.
Wine, origin of the name, 57;
praises of, 65;
different kinds, 43 to 57;
Homer dissuades from the free use of, 16;
evils of drunkenness, 672;
pure wine only to be used for religious purposes, 1107;
mixed wine, 667;
unmixed wine, 673;
sweet wine, 207;
scented wine, 53;
spiced wine, 52.
Wives, doubtful whether Socrates had two, 889;
concubines tolerated by, 890;
many wives of Hercules and of Theseus, 891;
of Philip, 892;
complaints against, 894.
Women said to be fond of drinking, 696;
wine forbidden to them by the Romans, 696;
restraints on, in Syracuse, 835;
liberty of, among the Sybarites, 835;
among the Tyrrhenians, 829;
infamous treatment of, 702, 826, 827, 840, 849, 866;
ruin of states attributed to, 896;
many beautiful, mentioned, 971.
Woodcocks, 611.
Words, dissertations on the use of particular, 605, 633,
705, 785.
XANTHUS the Lydian cited, 546, 654, 822, 826.
Xenarchus cited, 105, 356, (poetic version, 1141,)
501, 578, 059, 671, 680, 696, 697, 755, 894, 910,
1085, 1107.
Xenarchus the Rhodian, a drunkard, 689.
Xenocrates cited, 288.
Xenocrates the Chalcedonian, his laziness, 849.
Xenophanes of Chalcedon wrote drinking songs, 5.
Xenophanes of Colophon cited, 89, 580, 652, 669, 729, (poetic
version, 1182,) 737, 843.
Xenophon cited, 25, 34, 37, 48, 80, 118, 157, 200, 205, 224,
233, 234, 254, 274, 275, 279, 289, 299, 344, 346, 347, 350,
395, 428, 436, 579, 580, 588, 614, 626, 630, 631, 647, 663,
668, 675, 685, 734, 743, 759, 770, 793, 807, 818, 825, 871,
939, 978, 980, 1041, 1045, 1096.
YOUNG wives, caution against marrying, 895.
ZACYNTHIAN wine, 54.
Zacynthians, the, inexperienced in war, 846.
Zaleucus, his law against drunkenness, 677.
Zariadres and Odatis, story of, 919.
Zeneus, or Zenis, cited, 960.
Zeno the Citiæan, his excuse for bad temper, 91;
his reproof of gluttony, 544;
cited, 254, 261, 367.
Zenodotus cited, 19, 20, 159, 513, 649.
Zenophanes cited, 921.
Zoïlus the grammarian, a Deipnosophist, 2.
Zopyra, a drunken woman, 697.
THE END.
R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES.
1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
errors.
2. The Index includes all three volumes.
3. Rows of asterisks represent either an ellipsis in a poetry
quotation or a place where the original Greek text was too
corrupt to be read by the translator. Other ellipses match the
original.
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