The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece Volume II (of 3)

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Title: The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece Volume II (of 3)
Author: St. John, James Augustus
Language: English
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AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT GREECE VOLUME II (OF 3) ***

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THE HISTORY
OF THE
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF
ANCIENT GREECE.

BY J. A. ST. JOHN.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
=Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.=
1842.

LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

CONTENTS
OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

-------

BOOK III.

CHAPTER PAGE

IV. Marriage Ceremonies 1
V. Condition of Married Women 28
VI. Toilette, Dress, and Ornaments 50

BOOK IV.

I. Private Dwellings 75
II. Household Furniture 97
III. Food of Homeric Times—Meat, Fish, &c. 125
IV. Poultry, Fruit, Wine, &c. 150
V. Entertainments 170
VI. Entertainments (_continued_) 197
VII. The Theatre 220
VIII. The Theatre (_continued_) 248

BOOK V.

RURAL LIFE.

I. The Villa and the Farmyard 269
II. Garden and Orchard 301
III. Vineyards, Vintage, &c. 335
IV. Studies of the Farmer 362
V. The Various Processes of Agriculture 381
VI. Pastoral Life 401

THE HISTORY
OF THE
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF
ANCIENT GREECE.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER IV.
MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.

When marriage was determined on, whether love or interest prompted to
it, the business part of the transaction, which in all countries is
exceedingly unromantic, was delegated, as in China, to a female
matchmaker,[1] whose professional duties appear to have been considered
important. She carried the lovers proposals to the family of his
mistress, or rather, perhaps, broke the ice and paved the way for him.
In the earlier ages men, no doubt, performed this delicate office
themselves, or entrusted it to their parents; as in Homer we find
Achilles declaring, that his father Peleus shall choose a wife for him.
Earlier still, if we may credit certain prevalent traditions, men
dispensed altogether with such preliminaries and lived “more pecudum”
with the first females who came in their way; a state of barbarism from
which it is said they were reclaimed by Cecrops.[2] But, to whomsoever
this fable may trace its origin, it is evidently unworthy of the
slightest credit. Of times sunk in such an abyss of ignorance no record
could remain, or even of many succeeding revolutions of manners touching
close upon the orbit of civilisation. If, however, the tradition arose
originally out of any real innovation in manners, it may refer to the
partial abolition of polygamy, which, whether made by Cecrops or not,
was an important step in the progress of the Greeks towards polished
life.

-----

Footnote 1:

Προμνηστρία. Aristoph. Nub. 41. et Schol. Poll. iii. 41.

Footnote 2:

Athen. xiii. 2. Mr. Mitford defers too much to “the traditions
received in the polished ages” when, upon the authority of such
traditions and of such writers as Justin (ii. 6.), he appears to
conclude that, before the time of Cecrops, the people of Attica were
in knowledge and civilisation inferior to the wildest savages. Hist,
of Greece, i. 58. Upon legends and authors of this description no
reliance can be placed. If society existed, everything “indispensable”
to society also existed; therefore, if marriage be so, it could not be
unknown. Besides, how happens it that this same Cecrops who instituted
marriage did not likewise teach them to sow corn, which, if Egypt was,
when he left it, a civilised country, must have been as familiar to
him as matrimony? This most necessary acquisition, however, they were
left to make many ages afterwards, during the reign of Erechtheus.
Justin, ii. 6.

-----

But if Cecrops ever lived, and should not be regarded as a mere
mythological creation, we must still reject the comparatively modern
tradition which fetches him from Egypt. Coming from the East, he would
more probably have instituted polygamy than the contrary. In every point
of view the tradition is absurd; for it at once represents the people of
Attica as savages, and as having made considerable advances in the
science of civil government. They have already emerged from the state of
patriarchal rule, not by any means the lowest, and have arrived at the
monarchical period in the history of society—for Cecrops marries the
daughter of king Actæos—yet have not made the first step in
refinement,[3] have not passed the barrier dividing the rudest savage
from even the barbarian,—had not made the discovery that, for the
preservation of society, children must be cared for and maintained,
which is impossible until they have other fathers than the community. We
must, therefore, reject this Cecropian legend, and acknowledge that,
from the earliest times of which any record remains, the people of
Hellas married and were given in marriage.

-----

Footnote 3:

Cf. Goguet, Origine des Lois. iv. 394, where the learned author
contends most chivalrously for the received theory. Apollodorus,
however, represents Cecrops as an Autochthon, συμφύες ἔχων σῶμα ἀνδρὸς
καὶ δράκοντος. iii. 14. 1.—The reason why he was thus said to partake
of two natures—half-man and half-snake—has been very variously and
very fantastically explained. Diodorus Siculus, (i. p. 17,) derives
his title to be considered half a man and half a beast, from his
being, by choice a Greek, by nature a barbarian. Yet he conceives that
it was the beast that civilised the man. Others explain διφυὴς
somewhat differently to mean that he was of gigantic stature and
understood two languages: διὰ μῆκος σώματος οὑτω καλούμενος, ὅς φήσιν
ὁ Φιλόχορος, ἢ ὅτι Αἰγυπτίων τὰς δύο γλώσσας ἠπίστατο.—Euseb. No.
460.—Eustathius, familiar with the fables of the mythology, turns the
tables upon Cecrops, and conceives that he may have civilised himself,
not the Athenians, by settling in Attica. He supposes him ἀπὸ ὄφεως
εἰς ἀνθρωπὸν ἐλθειν, ἐπειδὴ ἐκεῖνος ἐλθὼν εἰς Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὸν βάρβαρον
Αἰγυπτιασμὸν ἀφεις, χρηστοὺς ἀναλάβετο τρόπους πολιτικοὺς.—In Dionys.
Peneg. p. 56.

-----

Whatever the original practice of the Greeks may have been, traces of
polygamy long continued discernible in their manners. Heracles
maintained a seraglio worthy of an Ottoman sultan. His wives, indeed,
like those of a wandering Brahmin, were scattered at convenient points
over the country, that, whithersoever he roamed, he might find lodging
and entertainment; but, as rumours of his different establishments
travelled about, the jealousy of the ladies was at last excited and
proved fatal to him. Ægeus, too, and his brother Pallas, old Priam,
Agamemnon, Theseus, and nearly every public man in the heroic times, are
represented as possessing a harem. Indeed, to judge by the practice of
princes, it would seem as if polygamy were the law of every land; so
habitual is it with them to transgress, in this point, against public
opinion. A report, still current among certain writers, represents
Socrates with two wives, the gentle nature of Xantippe encouraging him,
perhaps, to venture on a second! But even that diligent retailer of
scandal, Athenæus,[4] rejects this story, which, no doubt, originated
with some sophist, who owed the philosopher a grudge. If not in the son
of Sophroniscos, however, at least in Philip of Macedon, the kings of
heroic times found an exact imitator. This Pellæan fox, though he did
not, like the Persian monarch, lead about with him an army of concubines
in his military expeditions, yet, from policy or other motives,
contracted numerous marriages, as many, perhaps, as Heracles. Satyros
has bequeathed to us a curious account of his majesty’s matrimonial
exploits. During his long reign, of from twenty to four-and-twenty
years, the dishes of one nuptial feast had scarcely time to cool before
a new one was in preparation. It was nothing but truffles and rich soup
from June till June. I am unable to furnish a list of all the ladies who
claimed, through Philip’s diffusive love, to be queens of Macedon; but
it may be proper to name a few, to show how the morals of his subjects
must have been improved by his example. The first lady whose landed
attractions won Philip’s heart was _Andatè_, an Illyrian, by whom he had
a daughter, called Cynna. To her succeeded _Phila_, sister of Derda and
Macatè. His next wives were two Thessalian women, _Pherè_ of
Nikesipolis, mother of Thessalonia, and _Philinna_ of Larissa, mother of
Aridæos. Had he sought merely the women these might have sufficed; but
Philip had other views, and, finding marriage a still more expeditious
method of extending his dominions even than conquest, he forthwith added
to the list _Olympias_, who brought him the kingdom of Molossia in
dowry, and, as every one knows, was mother of Alexander. Had the crafty
prince stopped here, posterity, overlooking his immorality, might have
applauded his prudence. But, elated by success, he proceeded to augment
the number of his queens. To Olympias succeeded _Meda_, daughter of
Cithalas, king of Thrace; and, lastly, _Cleopatra_, sister of
Hippostratos, and niece of Attalos. By this time he was somewhat
advanced in years, for Alexander, son of Olympias, approached manhood.
At the feast given in honour of this new marriage, when the wine had
circulated, as was customary among Macedonians, Attalos, who had
probably drunk deep, observed, “At length we shall have legitimate
princes, not bastards!” Alexander, who was present, in resentment of the
affront, threw his goblet in the face of Attalos, who saluted him in the
same way. Upon this, perceiving how matters were likely to proceed,
Olympias fled to Molossia, Alexander into Illyria. Philip lived to have
by Cleopatra one daughter, Europa; but, shortly afterwards, at the
instigation, it is supposed of Olympias and Alexander, was murdered by
Pausanias.[5]

-----

Footnote 4:

Deipnosoph. xiii. 2.—Compare the account in Diogenes Laertius, ii. 5.
10.—The conduct of Socrates, who married Xantippe to prove the
goodness of his temper, was imitated, we are told, by a Christian
lady, who “desired of St. Athanasius to procure for her, out of the
widows fed from the ecclesiastical corban, an old woman morose,
peevish, and impatient, that she might by the society of so ungentle a
person have often occasion to exercise her patience, her forgiveness,
and charity.”—Jeremy Taylor’s Life of Christ, i. 384.

Footnote 5:

Athen. xiii. 5.

-----

Ordinary individuals, however, were restrained from the commission of
such immoralities by the laws, more particularly at Athens, where
marriage was contemplated with all the reverence due to the great
palladium of civilisation. As a necessary consequence, celibacy could be
no other than disreputable, so that, to a man ambitious of public
honour, the possession of a wife and children was no less indispensable
than the means of living.[6] Among the Spartans, bachelors were
delivered over to the tender mercies of the women, and subjected to very
heavy penalties. During the celebration of certain festivals they were
seized by a crowd of petulant viragoes, each able to strangle an ox,[7]
and dragged in derision round the altars of the gods, receiving from the
fists of their gentle tormentors such blows as the regular practice of
boxing had taught the young ladies to inflict.[8]

“And ladies sometimes hit exceeding hard.”

-----

Footnote 6:

Dinarch. in Demosth. § 11. Cf. Poll. viii. 40. Comm. p. 644.

Footnote 7:

Aristoph. Lysistrat. 78, seq.

Footnote 8:

Athen. xiii. 2.

-----

But we shall be the less inclined to judge uncharitably of this somewhat
unfeminine custom, if we consider that, in the ancient world, no less
than in the modern, unmarried and childless women were held but in
slight esteem. And this feeling, which never for a moment slumbers in
society, teaches better than the cant of a thousand sentimentalists what
the true origin of love is.

Of the impediments to marriage arising, among ancient nations, from
relationship or consanguinity, very little is with certainty known. In
the heroic ages, all unions excepting those of parents with their
children appear to have been lawful; for, in the Odyssey, we find the
six sons of Æolos joined in marriage with their six sisters, the manners
of the olden times, abandoned on earth, still lingering among the gods.

Iphidamos has to wife his mother’s sister,[9] and Alcinoös, by no means
a profligate or immoral prince, is united with his brother’s
daughter;[10] Deiphobos, after Paris’s death, takes possession of
Helen,[11] and Helenos, the seer, is united in wedlock with Andromache,
the widow of his brother Hector.[12] But without alleging any further
examples, we may, from the practice imputed to the gods, among whom
scarcely any degree of relationship was a bar to marriage, infer that,
in very early ages, few scruples were entertained upon the subject.
Later mythologists have even imputed to Zeus an illicit amour with his
daughter Aphrodite,[13] but libellously, and in contradiction to the
best ancient authorities.[14] Nature, indeed, has so peremptorily
prohibited the union of parents with their own children, that positive
laws forbidding connexions so nefarious, have in all ages been nearly
unnecessary, though the superstition of the Magi[15] in ancient, and the
profligacy of popes and princes in modern times, have been accused of
transgressing these natural boundaries.

-----

Footnote 9:

Hom. Il. λ. 221, seq.

Footnote 10:

Hom. Odyss. η. 55, seq.

Footnote 11:

Keightley, Mythology, p. 490.

Footnote 12:

Serv. ad Virg. Æn. iii. 297.

Footnote 13:

Virg. Cir. 133.

Sed malus ille puer, quem nec sua flectere mater,
Iratum potuit, quem nec pater, atque avus idem
Jupiter.

Footnote 14:

For Valckernaer’s correction of Eurip. Hippol. 536, where for ὁ Δίος
παῖς, he reads ὄλιγος παῖς, should, I think, be adopted. Diatrib. in
Eurip. Perd. Dram. xv. p. 159, c. His whole defence of Zeus on this
_count_ is triumphant. Still the notes of Monk, Beck, Musgrave, and
the Classical Journal, vi. 80, should be compared.

Footnote 15:

Diog. Laert. Proœm. § 6. To this practice Euripides probably alludes
in the Andromache, v. 173, sqq., where Hermione describes, with scorn,
the profligate manners of the barbarians. Catullus, inveighing against
the impious depravity of a contemporary, observes—

“Nam Magus ex matre et gnato gignatur oportet,
Si vera est Persarum _impia religio_.”

Epig. lxxxiii. 3, seq. Pope Alexander VI. and the Emperor Shah Jehan
have, in modern times, been accused of similar crimes. Bayle, Dict.
Hist. et Crit. Art. Alexandre VI. and Bernier, Voyages, t. i. On the
prohibited degrees of consanguinity, see Sepulveda, de Ritu Nupt. et
Dispens. i. § 20, where he says, that the Pope could authorize all
unions, save those between parents and children. “Et ideo hodiè non
ligant, nisi quatenus ab ecclesia sunt assumptæ; ac propterea Papa
dispensare potest cum omnibus personis, nisi cum matre et patre, ut
matrimonium contrahant.” Card. Cajetan. ap. Sepulved. ub. sup.

-----

Could we credit the sophist of Naucratis, there was likewise one
distinguished person[16] among the Athenians who coveted the reputation
of equal guilt.

-----

Footnote 16:

Alcibiades. Athen. xii. 48. xiii. 34. Lysias, fr. p. 640.

-----

The marriage of brothers with their own sisters was, in later ages,
considered illegal; not so with respect to half sisters by the fathers’s
side, whom no law forbade men to marry.[17] Still the recorded examples
of those who availed themselves of this privilege are few; but among
them we find the great Cimon, son of Miltiades, who, from affection,
observes Cornelius Nepos, and in perfect conformity with the manners of
his country, took to wife his sister Elpinice.[18] Plutarch, too, speaks
of the union as public and legal, but Athenæus[19] characteristically
insinuates that Elpinice was merely her brother’s mistress. The Spartan
law took a different view of what constitutes sisterhood. Here the
father was everything, and therefore with an uterine sister, as no near
relation, marriage might be contracted.[20] All connexions in the direct
line of ascent or descent were prohibited; but the prohibition extended
not to the collateral branches,[21] uncles being permitted to take to
wife their nieces, and nephews their aunts.

-----

Footnote 17:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1353.

Footnote 18:

Corn. Nep. Vit. Cim. i. Plut. Cim. § 4, where we find this lady
accused of an amour with the painter Polygnotos, who introduced her
portrait among the Trojan ladies in the Stoa Pœcile.

Footnote 19:

Deipnosophist. xiii. 56. Muretus, Var. Lect. vii. i. discusses the
question, but without throwing much new light upon it.—Andocides cont.
Alcibiad. § 9, assigns Cimon’s amour with Elpinice as the cause of his
banishment. We find, however, Archeptolis, son of Themistocles,
marrying his half-sister Mnesiptolema. Plut. Themistocl. § 32.

Footnote 20:

Meurs. Themis Attica. i. 14. Philo. De Leg. Spec. ii. Eurip. Orest.
545. sqq.

Footnote 21:

Cf. Herod. v. 39. Pausan. iii. 3, 9.

-----

The precise age at which an Athenian citizen might legally take upon him
the burden of a family, is said, without proof, though not altogether
without probability, to have been determined by Solon; for such matters
were in those ages supposed to come within the legitimate scope of
legislation.[22] They attributed to the season of youth a much greater
duration than comports with our notions. It was, in fact, thought to
extend to the age of thirty-five or thirty-seven, more or less: when
entering upon the less flowery domain of manhood, men would need the aid
and consolation of a helpmate. But if there ever existed such a law it
was often broken,[23] for early marriages, though less common perhaps
than in modern times, are constantly alluded to both by historians and
poets. Apprehensions of the too great increase of population already led
philosophers, even in those early ages, vainly to apply themselves to
the discovery of checks, which the irresistible impulses of nature
always render nugatory; and viewing in that light the regulation
attributed to Solon,[24] they, with some variation, adopt it in their
political works. Plato,[25] in accordance with Hesiod’s notion, fixes
for the male, the marriageable age at thirty; but Aristotle, who chose
on most points to differ from his master, allows his citizens seven
years more of liberty. For women the proper age, he thought, is about
eighteen. His reasons are, that the husband and wife will thus flourish
and decay together; and, their offspring inheriting the bloom and
highest vigour of their parents, be at once[26] healthy in body and
energetic in mind.

-----

Footnote 22:

Censor. de Die Natal. 14.

Footnote 23:

Thus Mantitheos, in Demosthenes, marries at the age of eighteen, in
obedience to his father’s wishes.—Contr. Bœot. ii. § 1.

Footnote 24:

Aristot. Polit. ii. 7. vii. 14. Gœttling.—Cf. Malthus on Population,
i. 9, 10.

Footnote 25:

Repub. v. t. vi. p. 237. De Legg. vi. t. vii. p. 452. Hesiod, Opp. et
Dies, 696. Gœttling.

Footnote 26:

Polit. vii. 16. Hist. Anim. vii. 5, 6. Cf. Tac. de Mor. Germ. 20.
Just. Instit. t. x. Brisson. de Jur. Nupt. p. 99.

-----

Winter, more particularly the month of January, thence called Gamelion,
or the “Nuptial Month,” was regarded as the fittest season[27] of the
year for the celebration of marriage; and if the north wind happened to
blow, as at that time of the year it often does, the circumstance was
supposed to be peculiarly auspicious. For this notion several
physiological reasons are assigned; as that, during the prevalence of
that wind, the human frame is peculiarly nervous and full of energy;
that the spirits are consequently light, and the temper and disposition
sweet, cheerful, and flexible. Lingering sparks of ancient superstition
may also have had their share in establishing this persuasion: towards
that quarter of the heavens, as towards an universal _Kebleh_, all the
civilised nations of antiquity turned as the home of their gods; in that
direction point all the openings of the Egyptian pyramids; thither to
the present moment turn the Chinese and Brahmins when they pray, and in
the holy tabernacle of the Jews the Table of Shewbread[28] likewise
faced the north. Attention, too, was paid to the lunar influences; for,
no other circumstance preventing it, it was usual to fix on the full of
the moon, when the festival denominated _Theogamia_, or “Nuptials of the
Gods” was celebrated, in order that religion itself, by its august and
venerable ceremonies, might appear to sanctify the union of mortals
effected under its auspices.

-----

Footnote 27:

Olympiod. in Meteor. c. 6. Meurs. Grec. Fer. v. 240.

Footnote 28:

Exod. xl. 22.

-----

To this practice there are several allusions in ancient writers.
Agamemnon, in Euripides, when questioned by his wife respecting the time
of Iphigenia’s marriage, replies, that it shall take place

“When the blest moon its silvery circle fills.”[29]

And Themis, adjudging Thetis to Peleus, to terminate the contentions of
the gods, selects the same season for the solemnization of the nuptial
rites.

“But when next that solemn eve
Duly doth the moon divide,
For the chieftain let her leave
Her lovely virgin zone aside.”[30]

-----

Footnote 29:

Iphigen. in Aul. 717.

Footnote 30:

Pindar, Isth. Od. viii. 41, seq. Dissen.—Rev. H. F. Cary’s
translation, admirable for its closeness and spirit, p. 212.

-----

Most ancient nations, as the Hebrews, Indians, Thracians, Germans, and
Gauls, regarded women as a marketable commodity; and, in this respect,
the Greeks of early times perfectly agreed with them, buying and selling
their females like cattle.[31] But, by degrees, as manners grew more
polished, this barbarous custom was discontinued, though, in remembrance
of it, presents were still made both to the father and the bride, even
in the most civilised periods. We must, nevertheless, beware that we
infer not too much from these gifts; for equally primitive and prevalent
was the custom imposing upon fathers the necessity of dowrying their
daughters.[32] In the case, too, of the husband’s death this matrimonial
portion devolved to the children, so that if the widow chose,—as widows
sometimes will,[33]—to embark a second time on the connubial sea, her
father was called upon to furnish a fresh outfit. But, if the husband
grew tired of his better half, and would insist on a divorce, or if,
after his death, the sons were sufficiently unnatural to chase their
mother from the paternal roof, the right over the entire dowry reverted
to her.[34]

-----

Footnote 31:

Aristot. Polit. ii. 6. Tacit. de Mor. Germ. 18. Heracl. Pont. v.
Θρακων. Leg. Salic. Art. 46. Hist. Gen. des Voy. vi. 144. Cf. Goguet,
Orig. des Loix, i. 53.

Footnote 32:

In cases where the fathers were unable to dowry them, we find
daughters growing old in the paternal mansion. Demosth. in Steph. i. §
20. Dowries were frequently considerable, amounting sometimes to a
hundred minæ. § 18.

Footnote 33:

On their anxiety to discover the designs of the Fates in this respect,
see Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 597.

Footnote 34:

Goguet, Orig. des Loix, iii. 127, sqq.

-----

Parties were usually betrothed before marriage by their parents. And
young women, whose parents no longer survived, were settled in marriage
by their brothers, grandfathers, or guardians. Husbands on their
deathbeds sometimes disposed of the hands of their wives, as in the case
of Demosthenes’ father, who bequeathed Cleobula to Aphobos, whom he
likewise appointed guardian of his children. In this instance, the widow
had better have chosen for herself. Aphobos possessed himself of the
dowry, and consented to fulfil the office of guardian, that he might
plunder the children; but the marriage he declined. Another example
occurs in the case of Phormio who, having been slave[35] to an opulent
citizen, and conducted himself with zeal and fidelity, received at once
his freedom and the widow of his master. In all serious matters the
Athenians were a very methodical people, and conducted everything, even
to the betrothing or marrying of a wife, with an attention to form
worthy the quaintest citizen of our own great city.

-----

Footnote 35:

Demosth. pro Phorm. § 8–10.

-----

Potter observes, with great naïveté, that, before men married, it was
customary to provide themselves with a house to live in. The custom was
a good one, and the thrifty old poet of Ascra, undertaking to enlighten
his countrymen in economics, is explicit on the point—

“First build your house and let the wife succeed:”[36]

which, no doubt, is better advice than if he had said “first marry a
wife and next consider where you shall put her.” And we find that, even
among pastoral, young ladies who, in modern poets, make their meat and
drink of love, and hang up a rag or two of it to preserve them from the
elements, in antiquity posed their lovers with interrogations about
comforts. “You are very pressing, my dear Daphnis, and swear you love
me; but that is not just now the question. Have you a house and harem to
take me to?”[37]

-----

Footnote 36:

Opera et Dies, 405.

Footnote 37:

Theocrit. Eidyll. xxvii. 36.

-----

But prudent as they may be considered, the Athenians were still more
pious than thrifty. Before the virgin quitted her childhood’s home, and
passed from the state she had tried, and in most cases, perhaps, found
happy, to enter into one altogether unknown to her, custom demanded the
performance, on the day before the marriage, of several religious
ceremonies eminently significant and beautiful. Hitherto, in the
poetical recesses of their thalamoi, they had been reckoned as so many
nymphs attached to the train of the virgin goddess of the woods. About
to become members of a noviciate more conformable to nature than that of
the Catholic church, they deemed it incumbent on them to implore their
Divinity’s permission to transfer their worship from her to Hymen; and,
the more readily to obtain it, they approached her, in the simplicity of
their hearts, with baskets full of offerings such as it became them to
present and her to receive.[38] Nor was Artemis the only deity sought,
on this occasion, to be rendered auspicious by sacrifice and prayer.
Offerings were likewise made to the Nymphs, those lovely creations with
which the fancy of the Greeks peopled the streams and fountains of their
native land.[39] These rites performed, the future bride was conducted
in pomp to the citadel, where solemn sacrifice was offered up to Athena,
the tutelar goddess of the state, with prayers for happiness, peculiarly
the gift of supreme wisdom.[40] To Hera, also, and the Fates,[41] as to
the goddesses that watched over the connubial state and rigidly punished
those who transgressed its sacred laws, were gifts presented, and vows
preferred; and on one or all of their several altars did the maiden
deposit a lock of her own hair, in remoter ages, perhaps, the whole of
it, to intimate that, having obtained a husband, she must preserve him
by other means than beauty, and the arts of the toilette.[42] At Megara
the young women devoted their severed locks to Iphinoë. Those of Delos
to Hecaerga and Ops,[43] while, like the Athenians, the maidens of Argos
performed this rite in honour of Athena.[44]

-----

Footnote 38:

Theocrit. Eidyll. ii. 66, ibique Schol.

Footnote 39:

Schol. Pind. Pyth. iv. ap. Meurs. Græc. Fer. p. 238.

Footnote 40:

Suid. v. προτέλεια. t. ii. p. 629. v. Æschyl. Eumen. 799. Cf. Cœl.
Rhodig. xxviii. 24.

Footnote 41:

Poll. iii. 38. Schol. Pind. Pyth. x. 31. Aristoph. Thesmoph. 982.
Kust.

Footnote 42:

Poll. iii. 38. ibique Comm. p. 529, seq. Cf. Spanh. Observ. in Callim.
149, 507. The youth usually cut off their hair on reaching the age of
puberty. Athen. xiii. 83.

Footnote 43:

Pausan. i. 43. 4. Callim. in Del. 292. Spanh. Observat. t. ii. p. 503,
sqq.

Footnote 44:

Stat. Theb. ii. 255, with the ancient commentary of Lutatius.

-----

Having, by the performance of the above rites and others of similar
significance, discharged their instant duties to the gods, and impressed
on their own minds a deep sense of the sacred engagements they were
about to contract, they proceeded to perform the nuptial ceremonies
themselves, still intermingling the offices of religion with every
portion of the transaction. An auspicious day having been fixed upon,
the relations and friends of both parties assembled in magnificent
apparel, at the house of the bride’s father, where all the ladies of the
family were busily engaged in the recitation of prayers and presentation
of offerings. These domestic ceremonies concluded, the bride,
accompanied by her paranymph or bridesmaid, was led forth into the
street by the bridegroom and one of his most intimate friends,[45] who
placed her between them in an open carriage.[46] Their dresses, as was
fitting, were of the richest and most splendid kind. Those of the
bridegroom full, flowing, and of the gayest and brightest colours,[47]
glittered with golden ornaments, and diffused around, as he moved, a
cloud of perfume. The bride herself, gifted with that unerring taste
which distinguished her nation, appeared in a costume at once simple and
magnificent—simple in its contour, its masses, its folds, magnificent
from the brilliance of its hues and the superb and costly style of its
ornaments. She was not, like some modern court dame, a blaze of precious
stones tastelessly heaped upon each other; but through the snowy gauze
of her veil flashed the jewelled fillet and coronet-like sphendone
which, with a chaplet of flowers,[48] adorned her dark tresses; and
between the folds of her robe of gold-embroidered purple, appeared her
gloveless fingers, with many rings glittering with gems. Strings of Red
Sea pearls encircled her neck and arms; pendants, variously wrought and
dropped with Indian jewels, twinkled in her ears; and her feet, partly
concealed by the falling robe, displayed a portion of the golden thonged
sandal, crusted with emeralds, rubies, or pearls. But all these
ornaments often failed to distract the eye from those which she owed to
nature. Her luxuriant hair, which in Eastern women often reaches the
ground:

Her hair in hyacinthine flow,
When left to roll its folds below,
As ’midst her maidens in the ball
She stood superior to them all,
Hath swept the marble, where her feet
Gleamed whiter than the mountain sleet,
Ere from the cloud that gave it birth
It fell and caught one stain of earth;

her hair, I say, perfumed with delicate unguents,[49] such as nard from
Tarsos, œranthe from Cypros, essence of roses from Cyrene, of lilies
from Ægina or Cilicia, fell loosely in a profusion of ringlets over her
shoulders, while in front it was confined by the fillet and grasshoppers
of gold.[50] More perishable ornaments, in the shape of crowns of
myrtle, wild thyme,[51] poppy, white sesame, with other flowers and
plants sacred to Aphrodite, adorned the heads of both bride and
bridegroom.[52]

-----

Footnote 45:

Πάροχος. Suid. v. Ζεῦγος ἡμιονικὸν. t. i. p. 1123, b. Eurip. Helen.
722, sqq.

Footnote 46:

This was the usual practice. When the bride was led home on foot she
was called χαμαίπους a term of disrespect not far removed in meaning
from our word _tramper_. Poll. iii. 40.

Footnote 47:

Aristoph. Plut. 529, et Schol. Suid. v. βαπτά. t. i. p. 533, b.

Footnote 48:

Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 905. This chaplet was placed on the bride’s head
by her mother. Hopfn. in loc.—In Locrensibus usu erat, ut matronæ ex
lectis floribus nectant coronas. Nam emptagestare serta, vitio
dabatur. Alex. ab Alexand. p. 58. b.

Footnote 49:

Aristoph. Plut. 529. id. Pac. 862.

Footnote 50:

Thucyd. i. 60.

Footnote 51:

Σισυμβρία. Dioscor. ii. 155.

Footnote 52:

Schol. Aristoph. Av. 160. In Bœotia the bride was crowned with a reed
of wild asparagus, a prickly but sweet plant. Plut. Conjug. Præcept.
2. Bion. Epitaph. Adon. 88. On Nuptial Crowns vide Paschal. De
Coronis, lib. ii. c. 16. p. 126, sqq.

-----

The relations and friends followed, forming, in most cases, a long and
stately procession, which, in the midst of crowds of spectators, moved
slowly towards the temple, thousands strewing flowers or scattering
perfume in their path, and in loud exclamations comparing the happy pair
to the most impassioned and beautiful of their nymphs and gods.[53]
Meanwhile, a number of the bride’s friends, scattered among the
multitude, were looking out anxiously for favourable omens, and
desirous, in conjunction with every person present, to avert all such as
superstition taught them to consider inauspicious. A crow appearing
singly was supposed to betoken sorrow or separation, whereas, a couple
of crows,[54] issuing from the proper quarter of the heavens, presaged
perfect union and happiness. A pair of turtle doves, of all omens, was
esteemed the best.[55]

-----

Footnote 53:

Charit. Char. et Callir. Amor. iii. 44.

Footnote 54:

Orus Apollo Hieroglyph. viii. p. 6. b.

Footnote 55:

Meziriac sur les Epitres d’Ovide, p. 190, sqq. Ælian de Animal. Nat.
iii. 9. Alex. ab Alexand. ii. 5, p. 57, b.

-----

On reaching the temple, the bride and bridegroom were received at the
door by a priest, who presented them with a small branch of ivy, as an
emblem of the close ties by which they were about to be united for ever.
They were then conducted to the altar,[56] where the ceremonies
commenced with the sacrifice of a heifer,[57] after which Artemis,
Athena, and other virgin goddesses, were solemnly invoked. Prayers were
then addressed to Zeus and his consort, the supreme divinities of
Olympos;[58] nor, on this occasion, would they overlook the ancient
gods, Ouranos and Gaia, whose union produces fertility and
abundance,[59]—the Graces, whose smile shed upon life its sweetest
charm, and the Fates, who shorten or extend it at their pleasure, were
next in order adored; and, lastly, Aphrodite, the mother of Love, and of
all the host of Heaven, the most beautiful and beneficent to
mortals.[60] The victim having been opened, the gall was taken out and
significantly cast behind the altar.[61] Soothsayers skilled in
divination then inspected the entrails, and if their appearance was
alarming the nuptials were broken off, or deferred. When favourable, the
rites proceeded as if hallowed by the smile of the gods. The bride now
cut off one of her tresses, which, twisting round a spindle, she placed
as an offering on the altar of Athena, while, in imitation of Theseus,
the bridegroom made a similar oblation to Apollo, bound, as an emblem of
his out-door life, round a handful of grass or herbs.[62] All the other
gods, protectors of marriage, were then, by the parents or friends,
invoked in succession, and the rites thus completed, the virgin’s
father, placing the hand of the bridegroom in that of the bride, said,
“I bestow on thee my daughter, that thine eyes may be gladdened by
legitimate offspring.”[63] The oath of inviolable fidelity was now taken
by both, and the ceremony concluded with fresh sacrifices.

-----

Footnote 56:

Theod. Prodrom. de Rhodanth. et Dosicl. Amor. ix.

Footnote 57:

Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 1113.

Footnote 58:

Poll. iii. 38.

Footnote 59:

Procl. in Tim. t. v, Meziriac. p. 155.

Footnote 60:

Etym. Mag. 220, 53. sqq. Cf. Plut. Conj. Præcept. proœm. t. i. p. 321.
Tauchnitz.

Footnote 61:

Plut. Conj. Precept. 27. Cœl. Rhodig. xxviii. 21.

Footnote 62:

Meurs. Lect. Att. iii. 6, 106, sqq. Herod. iv. 34.

Footnote 63:

Menand. ap. Clem. Alexand. Stromat. ii. p. 421, a. Heins.

-----

The performance of rites so numerous generally consumed the whole day,
so that the shades of evening were falling before the bride could be
conducted to her future home. This hour, indeed, according to some, was
chosen to conceal the blushes of the youthful wife.[64] And now
commenced the secular portion of the ceremony. Numerous attendants,
bearing lighted torches,[65] ran in front of the procession, while bands
of merry youths dancing, singing, or playing on musical instruments,
surrounded the nuptial car. Similar in this respect was the practice
throughout Greece, even so early as the time of Homer, who thus, in his
description of the Shield, calls up before our imagination the lively
picture of an heroic nuptial procession:

“Here sacred pomp and genial feasts delight,
And solemn dance and Hymeneal rite.
Along the streets the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed.
The youthful dancers in a circle bound
To the soft flute and cittern’s silver sound.[66]
Through the fair streets the matrons, in a row,
Stand in their porches and enjoy the show.”[67]

-----

Footnote 64:

Potter, Arch. Græc. ii. 281.

Footnote 65:

Eurip. Helen. 722. Hesiod, Scut. Heracl. 275, seq. where the torches
are said to be borne by Dmoës.

Footnote 66:

In Hesiod a troop of blooming virgins, playing on the phorminx, lead
the procession. αἱ δ᾽ ὑπὸ φορμίγγων ἄναγον χορὸν ἱμερόεντα. A band of
youths follow, playing on the syrinx. See the note of Gœttling on
Scut. Heracl. 274, p. 117, sqq.

Footnote 67:

Iliad, σ. 490, sqq. Pope’s Translation.

The song on this occasion sung received the name of the “Carriage
Melody,” from the carriage in which the married pair rode while it was
chaunted.[68]

Footnote 68:

Ἁρμάτειον μέλος. Leisner, in his notes on Bos (Antiq. Græc. Pars. iv.
c. ii. § 4.), observes, that in Suidas, Hesychius, and Eustathius (ad
Il. χ. p. 1380. 5), these words have a different meaning from that
which, with Bos and Potter (Antiq. Græc. ii. 282), I have adopted. But
in the passage quoted by Henri de Valois (ad Harpocrat. p. 222), they
would seem to bear the signification above given them.

-----

The house of the bridegroom, diligently prepared for their reception,
was decorated profusely with garlands, and brilliantly lighted up. When,
among the Bœotians, the lady, accompanied by her husband, had descended
from the carriage, its axletree was burnt, to intimate that having found
a home she would have no further use for it.[69] The celebration of
nuptial rites generally puts people in good temper, at least for the
first day; and new-married women at Athens stood in full need of all
they could muster to assist them through the crowd of ceremonies which
beset the entrances to the houses of their husbands. Symbols of domestic
labours, pestles, sieves,[70] and so on, met the young wife’s eye on all
sides. She herself, in all her pomp of dress, bore in her hands an
earthen barley-parcher.[71] But, to comfort her, very nice cakes of
sesamum,[72] with wine and fruit and other dainties innumerable,
accompanied by gleeful and welcoming faces, appeared in the background
beyond the sieves and pestles. The hymeneal lay,[73] with sundry other
songs, all redolent of “joy and youth,” resounded through halls now her
own. Mirth and delight ushered her into the banqueting-room, where
appeared a boy covered with thorn branches, and oaken boughs laden with
acorns, who, when the epithalamium chaunters had ceased, recited an
ancient hymn beginning with the words, “I have escaped the worse and
found the better.”[74] This hymn, constituting a portion of the divine
service performed by the Athenians during a festival instituted in
commemoration of the discovery of corn, by which men were delivered from
acorn-eating, they introduced among the nuptial ceremonies to intimate,
that wedlock is as much superior to celibacy as wheat is to mast. At the
close of the recitation, there entered a troop of dancing girls crowned
with myrtle-wreaths, and habited in light tunics reaching very little
below the knee, just as we still behold them on antique gems and vases,
who, by their varied, free, and somewhat wanton, movements, vividly
represented all the warmth and energy of passion.

-----

Footnote 69:

Plut. Quæst. Roman. xx. 19. Valckenaer ad Herodot. iv. 114.

Footnote 70:

Poll. iii. 37.

Footnote 71:

Poll. i. 246.

Footnote 72:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 834.

Footnote 73:

Athen. xiv. 10. Anac. Od. xviii. Schol. Hom. Il. σ. 493. Pind. Pyth.
iii. 17. Dissen. Schol. ad v. 27.

Footnote 74:

Suid. v. ἔφυγον κακὸν. t. i. p. 1113, d.

-----

The feast which now ensued was, at Athens, to prevent useless
extravagance, made liable to the inspection of certain magistrates. Both
sexes partook of it; but, in conformity with the general spirit of their
manners and institutions, the ladies, as in Egypt, sat at separate
tables.[75] At these entertainments we may infer that, among other good
things, great quantities of sweetmeats were consumed, since the woman
employed in kneading and preparing them, and in officiating at the
nuptial sacrifices, was deemed of sufficient importance to possess a
distinct appellation, (δημιουργὸς,)[76] while the bride-cake, which
doubtless was the crowning achievement of her art, received the name of
Gamelios. The general arrangement of the banquet, however, they
entrusted to the care of a sort of major-domo, who received the
appellation of Trapezopoios.[77]

-----

Footnote 75:

Luc. Conviv. § 8. In the sepulchral grottoes of Eilithyia, in the
Thebaid, we find a rough fresco representing a marriage-feast, at
which the men and women sit as described in the text.

Footnote 76:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 421. Poll. iii. 41. The water of the bath used
on this occasion by the bride was, according to ancient custom,
brought from the fountain of Enneakrounos. Etym. Mag. 568, 57, seq.

Footnote 77:

Poll. iv. 41.

-----

Among the princes and grandees of Macedonia the nuptial banquet differed
very widely, as might be expected, from the frugal entertainments of the
Athenians; but as it may assist us in comprehending the changes
introduced into Hellenic manners by the conquests of Alexander and his
successors, I shall crave the reader’s permission to lay before him a
description, bequeathed to us by antiquity, of the magnificent
banquet[78] given at the marriage of Caranos.

-----

Footnote 78:

Athen. iv. 2, seq.

-----

The guests, twenty in number, immediately on entering the mansion of the
bridegroom, were crowned by his order with golden stlengides,[79] each
valued at five pieces of gold. They were then introduced into the
banqueting-hall, where the first article set before them on taking their
places at the board was, no doubt, exceedingly agreeable, consisting of
a silver beaker presented to each as a gift, which, when they had
drained off, they delivered to their attendant slaves, who, according to
the custom of the country, stood behind their seats with large baskets
intended to contain the presents to be bestowed on them by the master of
the feast.[80] There was then placed before every member of the company
a bronze salver, of Corinthian workmanship, completely covered by a
cake, on which were piled roast fowls and ducks and woodcocks, and a
goose, together with other dainties in great abundance. These, likewise,
followed the beakers into the corbels of the slaves, and were succeeded
by numerous dishes, of which the guests were expected to partake on the
spot. Next was brought in a capacious silver tray, also covered by a
cake, whereon were heaped up geese, hares, kids, other cakes curiously
wrought, pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges, with a variety of similar
game, which, likewise, after they had been tasted, I presume, were
handed to the servants.[81]

-----

Footnote 79:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 578. Ἔστι τι στλεγγὶς, δέρμα κεχρυσωμένον, ὁ
περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν φοροῦσι.—Poll. vii. 179.

Footnote 80:

When the host happened to be less rich or generous, people sometimes,
in the corruption of later ages, endeavoured to steal what they could
not obtain as a gift. Thus the sophist Dionysodoros is detected in
Lucian with a cup stuffed into the breast of his mantle.—Conviv. seu
Lapith. § 46.

Footnote 81:

This singular kind of liberality continued in fashion down to a very
late period:—καὶ ἃμα εἰς ἐκικόμιστο ἡμῖν τὸ ἐντελὲς ὀνομαζόμενον
δεῖπνον, μία ὄρνις ἑκάστω, καὶ κρέας ὑὸς, καὶ λαγῶα, καὶ ἰχθὺς ἐν
ταγήνου, καὶ σησαμοῦντες, καὶ ὅσα ἐν τραγεῖν, καὶ ἐζῆν ἀποφέρεσθαι
ταῦτα. Luc. Conviv. § 38.

-----

When the rage of hunger had been appeased, as it must soon have been,
they washed their hands, after which crowns, wreathed from every kind of
flower, were brought in, and along with them other golden stlengides,
equal in weight to the former, were placed, for form’s sake, on the
heads of the company, before they found their way to the baskets in the
rear.

While they were still in a sort of delirium of joy, occasioned by the
munificence of the bridegroom, there entered to them a troop of female
flute players, singers, and Rhodian performers on the Sambukè,[82] naked
in the opinion of some, though others reported them to have worn a
slight tunic. When these performers had given them a sufficient taste of
their art, they retired to make way for other female slaves, bearing
each a pair of perfume vases, containing the measure of a cotyla, the
one of gold, the other of silver, and bound together by a golden thong.
Of these every guest received a pair. In fact, the princely bridegroom,
in order, as we suppose, that his friends might share with him the joy
of his nuptials, bestowed upon every one of them a fortune instead of a
supper; for immediately upon the heels of the gift above described came
a number of silver dishes, each of sufficient dimensions to contain a
large roast pig, laid upon its back, with its paunch thrown open, and
stuffed with all sorts of delicacies which had been roasted with it,
such as thrushes, metræ, and becaficoes, with the yolk of eggs poured
around them, and oysters and cockles. Of these dishes every person
present received one, with its contents, and, immediately afterwards,
such another dish containing a kid hissing hot. Upon this, Caranos
observing that their corbils were crammed, caused to be presented to
them wicker panniers, and elegant bread-baskets, plaited with slips of
ivory.[83] Delighted by his generosity, the company loudly applauded the
bridegroom, testifying their approbation by clapping their hands. Then
followed other gifts, and perfume vases of gold and silver, presented to
the company in pairs as before. The bustle having subsided, there
suddenly rushed in a troop of performers worthy to have figured in the
feast of the Chytræ,[84] at Athens, and along with them ithyphalli,
jugglers, and naked female wonder-workers, who danced upon their heads
in circles of swords, and spouted fire from their mouths. These
performances ended, they set themselves more earnestly and hotly to
drink, from capacious golden goblets, their wines, now less mixed than
before, being the Thasian, the Mendian, and the Lesbian. A glass dish,
three feet in diameter, was next brought in upon a silver stand, on
which were piled all kinds of fried fish. This was accompanied by silver
bread-baskets, filled with Cappadocian rolls, some of which they ate,
and delivered the rest to their slaves. They then washed their hands,
and were crowned with golden crowns, double the weight of the former,
and presented with a third pair of gold and silver vases filled with
perfume. They by this time had become quite delirious with wine, and
began a truly Macedonian contest, in which the winner was he who
swallowed most; Proteas, grandson of him who was boon companion to
Alexander the Great, drinking upwards of a gallon at a draught, and
exclaiming—

“Most joy is in his soul
Who drains the largest bowl.”

-----

Footnote 82:

The Sambukè was a stringed instrument of triangular form, invented by
the poet Ibycos. It was sometimes called Iambukè, because used by
chaunters of Iambic verse.—Suid. in v. t. ii. p. 709, c. d. Poll. iv.
59.

Footnote 83:

Casaubon is particular in his explanation of this passage, lest any
one should fall into the singular mistake of supposing these nuptial
bread-baskets to have been made with plaited thongs of elephant’s
hide: “_Lora elephantina_ fortasse aliquis capiat de _corio
elephanti_: sed ἱμάντας arbitror appellare Hippolochum _virgas
subtiles ex ebore_, quibus ceu vimine utebantur in contexendis
panariis istis.”—Animadv. in Athen. t. vii. p. 392.

Footnote 84:

Vid. Animadv. in Athen. t. vii. p. 393. Meurs. Græcia Feriata. i. p.
30, seq.

-----

The immense goblet was then given him by Caranos, who declared, that
every man should reckon as his own property the bowl whose contents he
could despatch. Upon this, nine valiant bacchanals started up at once,
and sought each to empty the goblet before the others, while one unhappy
wight among the company, envying them their good fortune, sat down and
burst into tears because he should go cupless away. The master of the
house, however, unwilling that any should be dissatisfied, presented him
with an empty bowl.[85]

-----

Footnote 85:

In like manner, Alexander, son of Philip, when he entertained nine
thousand persons at a marriage feast at Susa, presented each of them
with a golden goblet, and paid all their debts, amounting to nearly
ten thousand talents.—Plut. Alexand. § 70.

-----

A chorus of a hundred men now entered to chaunt the epithalamium; and
after them dancing girls, dressed in the character of nymphs and
nereids.

The drinking still proceeding, and the darkness of evening coming on,
the circle of the hall appeared suddenly to dilate, a succession of
white curtains, which had extended all round, and disguised its
dimensions, being drawn up, while from numerous recesses in the wall,
thrown open by concealed machinery, a blaze of torches flashed upon the
guests, seeming to be borne by a troop of gods and goddesses, Hermes,
Pan, Artemis, and the Loves, with numerous other divinities, each
holding a flambeau and administering light to the assembled mortals.

While every person was expressing his admiration of this contrivance,
wild boars of true Erymanthean dimensions, transfixed with silver
javelins, were brought in on square trays with golden rims, one of which
was presented to each of the company. To the _bon vivants_ themselves
nothing appeared so worthy of commendation, as that, when anything
wonderful was exhibited, they should all have been able to get upon
their legs, and preserve the perpendicular, notwithstanding they were so
top-heavy with wine.

“Our slaves,” says one of the guests, “piled all the gifts we had
received in our baskets; and the trumpet, according to the custom of the
Macedonians, at length announced the termination of the repast.” Caranos
next began that part of the potations in which small cups alone figured,
and commanded the slaves to circulate the wine briskly; what they drank
in this second bout being regarded as an antidote against that which
they had swallowed before.

They were now, as might be supposed, in the right trim to be amused, and
there entered to them the buffoon Mandrogenes, a descendant, it was
said, of Strato the Athenian. This professional gentleman for a long
time shook their sides with laughter, and terminated his performances by
dancing with his wife, an old woman, upwards of eighty.[86] This fit of
merriment would appear to have restored the edge of their appetites, and
made them ready for those supplementary dainties which closed the
achievements of the day. These consisted of a variety of sweetmeats,
rendered more tempting by the little ivory-plaited corbels in which they
nestled, delicate cakes from Crete, and Samos, and Attica, in the boxes
in which they were imported.

-----

Footnote 86:

If octogenarian dancers were held in admiration in England, it would,
according to Lord Bacon, be easy to form an army of them; since “there
is, he says, scarce a village with us, if it be any whit populous, but
it affords some man or woman of fourscore years of age; nay, a few
years since there was, in the county of Hereford, a May-game, or
morrice-dance, consisting of eight men, whose age computed together,
made up eight hundred years, inasmuch as what some of them wanted of
an hundred, others exceeded as much.” History of Life and Death, p.
20.

-----

Hippolochos, to whose enthusiasm for descriptions of good cheer, the
reader is indebted for the above picturesque details, concludes his
important narrative by observing, that, when they rose to depart, their
anxiety respecting the wealth they had acquired sobered them completely.
He then adds, addressing himself to his correspondent Lynceus,
“Meanwhile you, my friend, remaining all alone at Athens, enjoy the
lectures of Theophrastus with your thyme, rocket and delicate twists,
mingling in the revels of the Linnean and Chytrean festivals. For our
own part we are looking out, some for houses, others for estates, others
for slaves, to be purchased by the riches which dropped into our baskets
at the supper of Caranos.”

The marriage feast having been thus concluded, the bride was conducted
to the harem by the light of flambeaux, round one of which,
pre-eminently denominated the “Hymeneal Torch,” her mother, who was
principal among the torch-bearers, twisted her hair-lace,[87] unbound at
the moment from her head. On retiring to the nuptial chamber the bride,
in obedience to the laws, ate a quince, together with the bridegroom, to
signify, we are told, that their first conversation should be full of
sweetness and harmony.[88] The guests continued their revels with music,
dancing, and song, until far in the night.[89]

-----

Footnote 87:

Senec. Thebais, Act. iv. 2, 505.

Footnote 88:

Plut. Conjug. Præcept. i. t. i. p. 321. Meurs. Them. Att. i. 14, p.
39. Petit. Legg. Att. vi. i. p. 449.

Footnote 89:

See Douglas, Essay on certain points of resemblance between the
ancient and modern Greeks, p. 114, and Chandler, Travels, ii. 152.

-----

At daybreak on the following morning their friends re-assembled and
saluted them with a new epithalamium, exhorting them to descend from
their bower to enjoy the beauties of the dawn,[90] which in that warm
and genial climate are even in January equal to those of a May morning
with us. On appearing in the presence of their congratulators, the wife,
as a mark of affection, presented her husband with a rich woollen
cloak,[91] in part, at least, the production of her own fair hands. On
the same occasion the father of the bride sent a number of costly gifts
to the house of his son-in-law, consisting of cups, goblets, or vases of
alabaster or gold, beds, couches, candelabra, or boxes for perfumes or
cosmetics, combs, jewel-cases, costly sandals, or other articles of use
or luxury. And, that so striking an instance of his wealth and
generosity might not escape public observation, the whole was conveyed
to the bridegroom’s house in great pomp by female slaves, before whom
marched a boy clothed in white, and bearing a torch in his hand,
accompanied by a youthful basket-bearer habited like a canephora in the
sacred processions.[92] Customs in spirit exactly similar still survive
among the primitive mountaineers of Wales, where the newly-married
couple, in the middle and lower ranks of life, have their houses
completely furnished by the free-will offerings, not only of their
parents but of their friends. It is, however, incumbent on the
recipients to make proof in their turn of equal generosity when any
member of the donor’s family ventures on the hazards of housekeeping.

-----

Footnote 90:

Theocrit, Eidyll. xviii. 9.

Footnote 91:

Ἀπαυλιστηρία. Poll. iii. 40.

Footnote 92:

Etymol. Mag. 354. 1. sqq. Suid. v. ἐπαυλία, t. i. p. 964, e. sqq.

-----

CHAPTER V.
CONDITION OF MARRIED WOMEN.

From the spirit pervading the foregoing ceremonies it will be seen, that
married women enjoyed at Athens numerous external tokens of respect. We
must now enter the harem, and observe how they lived there. Most,
perhaps, of the misapprehensions which prevail on this subject arise out
of one very obvious omission,—a neglect to distinguish between the
exaggeration and satire of the comic poets, much of which, in all
countries, has been levelled at women, and the sober truth of history,
less startling, and therefore, less palatable. To comprehend the
Athenians, however, we must be content to view them as they were, with
many virtues and many vices, often sinning against their women, but
never as a general rule treating them harshly. Indeed, according to no
despicable testimony, their errors when they erred would appear to have
lain in the contrary direction.[93]

-----

Footnote 93:

For example, public opinion regarded it as more atrocious to kill a
woman than a man.—Arist. Prob. xxix. 11.

-----

Certainly the mistress of a family at Athens was not placed above the
necessity of extending her solicitude to the government of her
household, though too many even there neglected it, degenerating into
the resemblance of those mawkish, insipid, useless things, without heart
or head, who often in our times fill fashionable drawing-rooms, and have
their reputations translated to Doctors’ Commons. Of female education I
have already spoken, together with the several acts and ceremonies,
which conducted an Athenian woman to the highest and most honourable
station her sex can fill on earth. In this new relation she shares with
her husband that domestic patriarchal sovereignty, pictures of which
abound in the Scriptures. How great soever might be the establishment,
she was queen of every thing within doors. All the slaves, male and
female, came under her control.[94] To every one she distributed his
task, and issued her commands; and when there were no children who
required her care, she might often be seen sitting in the recesses of
the harem, at the loom, encircled, like an Homeric princess, by her
maids,[95] laughing, chatting, or, along with them, exercising her sweet
voice in songs,[96] those natural bursts of melody which came
spontaneously to the lips of a people whose every-day speech resembled
the music of the nightingale.

-----

Footnote 94:

She wakes them in the morning.—Aristoph. Lysist. 18. This comic poet
gives a concise sketch of an Athenian woman’s morning work, which
rendered their going out difficult at such an hour:—Χαλεπή τε γυναικῶν
ἔξοδος· ἠ μὲν γὰρ ἡμῶν περὶ τὸν ἀνδρ’ ἐκύπτασεν· ἠ δ᾽ οἰκέτην ἤγειρεν·
ἡ δὲ παιδίον κατέκλινεν· ἡ δ᾽ ἐλουσεν· ἠ δ᾽ ἐψώμισεν.—Lysist. 16, sqq.

Footnote 95:

Precisely the same picture is presented in the interior of Jason’s
palace at Pheræ, where we find the tyrant’s mother at work in the
midst of her handmaidens.—Polyæn. Stratag. vi. i. 5.

Footnote 96:

Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 36.—Among the Thracians, and many other
people, women were employed in agriculture, as they are in England and
France, as herdswomen and shepherds, and every other laborious
employment, like men.—Id. ib.

-----

Xenophon, in that interesting work, the Œconomics, introduces an
Athenian gentleman laying open to Socrates the internal regulations of
his family. In this picture, the wife occupies an important position in
the foreground. She is, indeed, the principal figure around which the
various circumstances of the composition are grouped with infinite
delicacy and effect. Young and beautiful she comes forth hesitating and
blushing at being detected in some slight economical blunders. The
husband takes her by the hand; they converse in our presence, and while
the interior arrangements of a Greek house are unreservedly laid open,
we discover the exact footing on which husband and wife lived at Athens,
and a state of more complete confidence, of greater mutual affection, of
more considerate tenderness on the one side, or feminine reliance and
love on the other, it would be difficult to conceive.

Ischomachos, I admit, is to be regarded as a favourable specimen; he
unites in his character the qualities of an enterprising and enlightened
country gentleman, with those of a politician and orator of no mean
order, and his probity as a citizen infuses an air of mingled grandeur
and sweetness into his domestic manners. Describing a conversation
which, soon after their marriage, took place between him and his
youthful wife, he observes:—“When we had together taken a view of our
possessions I remarked to her that, without her constant care and
superintendence, nothing of all she had seen would greatly profit us.
And taking my illustration from the science of politics, I showed that,
in well-regulated states, it is not deemed sufficient that good laws are
enacted, but that proper persons are chosen to be guardians of those
laws, who not only reward with praise such as yield them due obedience,
but visit also their infraction with punishment. Now, my love,” said I,
“you must consider yourself the guardian of our domestic commonwealth,
and dispose of all its resources as the commander of a garrison disposes
of the soldiers under his orders. With you it entirely rests to
determine respecting the conduct of every individual in the household,
and, like a queen, to bestow praise and reward on the dutiful and
obedient, while you keep in check the refractory by punishment and
reproof. Nor should this high charge appear burdensome to you; for
though the duties of your station may seem to involve deeper solicitude
and necessity for greater exertion than we require even from a domestic,
these greater cares are rewarded by greater enjoyments; since, whatever
ability they may display in the improving or protecting of their
master’s property, the measure of their advantages still depends upon
his will, while you, as its joint owner, enjoy the right of applying it
to whatever use you please. It follows, therefore, that as the person
most interested in its preservation you should cheerfully encounter
superior difficulties.”

Having listened attentively to the somewhat quaint discourse of the
Economist, Socrates felt anxious, as well he might, to learn the result;
for the lady, expected thus wisely “to queen it,” was as yet but
fifteen. His faith, however, in womanhood was great; and Xenophon, who
but reflects from a less brilliant mirror the Socratic wisdom, delivers,
under the mask of Ischomachos, the mingled convictions both of the
master and the pupil. The moral beauty of the dialogue, and its truth to
nature, would have been lost had the lady at all shrunk from the duties
of her high office. But her ambition was at once awakened. The obscurity
to which, in the time of Pericles, women were, by the manners of the
country, condemned, now no longer seemed desirable, and the love of fame
was urged upon her as a motive to extraordinary exertions.[97] Her reply
is highly characteristic. Running, with the unerring tact of her sex,
even in advance of her husband, she desired him to believe that he would
have formed an extremely erroneous opinion of her character, had he for
a moment supposed that the care of their common property could ever have
proved burdensome to her: on the contrary, the really grievous thing
would have been to require her to be neglectful of it!

-----

Footnote 97:

That this passion led women to interfere too frequently with politics
may be inferred from the remark of Theophrastus, that to be versed in
the science of domestic economy was more honourable to them.—Stob. 85.
7. Gaisf.

-----

Men always conceive they are complimenting a woman when they attribute
to her a masculine understanding, and they thus, in fact, do place her
on the highest intellectual level known to them. Socrates adopted this
style of compliment in speaking of the wife of Ischomachos. And I may
here remark, that we need no other proof of how differently the
Athenians felt on the subject of women from the Orientals with whom they
have been compared, than the mere circumstance of their conversing
openly with strangers respecting their wives. In the East, a greater
affront could scarcely be offered a man than to inquire about his female
establishment. The most an old friend does is to say, “Is your house
well?”—whereas at Athens, women formed a never-failing theme in all
companies; which proves them to have been there contemplated in a
different light. In fact, the sentiments of Ischomachos, every way
worthy the most chivalrous people of antiquity, could only have sprung
up in a society where just and exalted notions of female virtue
prevailed; for, under the word “high-mindedness,” we find him grouping
every refined and estimable quality which a gentlewoman can possess.

But, perhaps, the reader will not be displeased if we introduce
dramatically upon the scene an Athenian married pair discussing in his
presence a question closely connected with domestic happiness. There is
little risk of exaggeration. The picture is by Xenophon, a writer whose
subdued and sober colouring is calculated rather to diminish than
otherwise the poetical features of his subject.

By Heaven! exclaimed Socrates, according to this account, your wife’s
understanding must be of a highly masculine character.

Nay, but suffer me, answered the husband, to place before you a
convincing proof of her high-mindedness, by showing how, on a single
representation, she yielded to me on a subject extremely important.

Proceed, cried the philosopher, (who had not found Xantippe thus
manageable,) proceed; for, believe me, friend, I experience much greater
delight in contemplating the active virtues of a living woman, than the
most exquisite female form by the pencil of Zeuxis would afford me.

Observing, said Ischomachos, that my wife sought by cosmetics[98] and
other arts of the toilette to render herself fairer and ruddier than she
had issued from the hands of Nature, and that she wore high-heeled shoes
in order to add to her stature,—Tell me, wife,[99] I began, would you
now esteem me to be a worthy participator of your fortunes if,
concealing the true state of my affairs, I aimed at appearing richer
than I am, by exhibiting to you heaps of false money, necklaces of
gilded wood for gold, and wardrobes of spurious for genuine purple?

-----

Footnote 98:

Xen. Œcon. x. ii. 60. Among the Orientals we find there existed a
peculiar collyrium for the white of the eye. Bochart, Hieroz, Pt. ii.
p. 120.

Footnote 99:

Γύναι, a term of greatest endearment among the Greeks, as with the
French “ma femme.” On this point our language is more sophisticated.
The practice reprehended by Ischomachos, in the text, was generally
prevalent in Greece, where certain classes of the community, who could
afford nothing better, used, when they had painted the rest of their
skin white, to dye the cheeks with mulberry-juice, and paint the
eyelids black at the edge. In hot weather, therefore, dusky streamlets
sometimes flowed from the corners of their eyes; and the roses melted
from their cheeks, and dropped into their bosoms. They imitated old
age, too, by covering their hair with white powder. (Athen. xiii. 6.)
It was likewise, at one time, the fashion to bring forward their curls
so as to conceal the forehead, as was the practice in France and
England during a part of the eighteenth century.—Lucian, Dial. Meret.
i. t. iv. p. 123.

-----

Nay, exclaimed my wife, interrupting me, put not the injurious
supposition: it is what you could not be guilty of. For, were such your
character I could never love you from my soul.

Well, by entering together into the bonds of marriage are we not
mutually invested with a property in each other’s persons?

People say so.

They say truly: and since this is the case shall I not more sincerely
evince my esteem for you by watching sedulously over my own health and
well-being, and displaying to your gaze the natural hues of a manly
complexion, than if, neglecting these, I presented myself with rouged
cheeks, eyes encircled by paint, and my whole exterior false and hollow?

Indeed, she replied, I prefer the native colour of your cheeks to any
artificial bloom, and could never gaze with so much delight into any
eyes as into yours—bright and sparkling with health.

Then believe no less of me, said I; but be well persuaded that, in my
judgment, there are no tints so beautiful as those with which nature has
adorned your cheeks. The same rule indeed holds universally. For, even
in the inferior creation, every living thing delights most in
individuals of its own species. And so it is with man whom nothing so
truly pleases as to behold the image of his own nature mirrored in
another and a fairer form of humanity. Besides, false beauties, though
they may deceive the incurious glance of strangers,[100] must inevitably
be detected by persons living always together. Women necessarily appear
undisguised when first rising in the morning, before they have undergone
the renovation of the toilette; and perspiration, or tears, or the
waters of the bath, will even at other times float away their artificial
complexions.

-----

Footnote 100:

Cf. Lucian, Amor. § 42. Aristoph. Nub. 49.

-----

And what, in the name of all the gods, did she say to that? inquired
Socrates.

What? replied the husband. Why, that for the future she would abjure all
meretricious ornaments, and consent to appear decked with that simple
grace and beauty which she owed to nature.

At Sparta married persons, as in France, occupied separate beds; but
among the Athenians and in other parts of Greece a different custom
prevailed. The same remark may be applied to the Heroic Ages. Odysseus
and Penelope, Alcinoös and Arete, Paris and Helen, occupy the same
chamber and the same couch. The women in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes
appealed to this circumstance in justification of their late appearance
at the female assembly held before day, and Euphiletos in the oration of
Lysias on Eratosthenes’ murder, who admits us freely into the recesses
of the harem, confirms this fact, except, that when the mother suckled
her own child she usually slept with it in a separate bed. At Byzantium
also the same practice prevailed, as we learn from a very amusing
anecdote. Python an orator of that city who, like Falstaff, seems to
have been somewhere about two yards in the waist, once quelled an
insurrection by a jocular allusion to this part of domestic economy. “My
dear fellow-citizens,” cried he to the enraged multitude, “you see how
fat I am. Well! my wife is still fatter than I, yet when we agree one
small bed will contain us both; but, if we once begin to quarrel, the
whole house is too little to hold us.”[101]

-----

Footnote 101:

Athen. xii. 74.

-----

We have seen above how absolute was the authority of women over their
household, and this authority likewise extended to their children. The
father no doubt could exercise, when he chose, considerable influence;
but as most of his time was spent abroad, in business or politics, the
chief charge of their early education, the first training of their
intellect, the first rooting of their morals and shaping of their
principles devolved upon the mother.[102] There have been writers,
indeed, to whom this has seemed a circumstance to be lamented. But their
judgment probably was warped by theory. In the original discipline of
the mind, great attainments and experience of the world are less needed
than tact to discern, and patience to apply, those minute incentives to
action which women discover with a truer sagacity than we do. In this
task, ever pleasing to a true mother, the aid of nurses, however, was
usually obtained; nor are we, as Cramer observes, on this account to
blame the Athenian ladies, so long as they did not, as in after times
was too much the fashion, consider their whole duty performed when they
had delivered their children to the nurse.

-----

Footnote 102:

Xenoph. Œcon. vii. 12. 24. Cf. A. Cramer. de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. 9.
This writer acutely remarks, (p. 13,) that the words καὶ αὐτος ὁ πατὴρ
in Plat. Protag. p. 325. d. show that it was seldom the father meddled
with the matter. The mother, therefore, from early habit, was held in
greater love and reverence than the father. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char.
p. 187.

-----

It will be evident from what has been said, that an Athenian lady who
conscientiously discharged her duties was very little exposed to ennui.
She arose in the morning with the lark, roused her slaves, distributed
to all their tasks,[103] superintended the operations of the nursery,
and, on days frequently recurring, went abroad in the performance of
rites specially allotted to her sex. But, one effect of democracy is to
confer undue influence upon women.[104] And this influence, where by
education or otherwise they happen to be luxurious or vain, must
infallibly prove pernicious to the state. At Athens, the number of this
class of women, extremely limited in the beginning, augmented rapidly
during the decline of the republic, and the comic poets substituting a
part for the whole, invest their countrywomen generally with the
qualities belonging exclusively to these.—But, the success of such
writers depending generally on ingenious extravagance and exaggeration,
we must be on our guard against their insinuations. Their faith in the
existence of virtue, male or female, has, in all ages, if we are to
judge by their works, been very lanksided. In their view, if there has
been one good woman since the world began, it is as much as there has.
Accordingly when these lively caricaturists describe the female _demos_
as addicted extravagantly to wine[105] and pawning their wardrobe to
purchase it—as compelling the men by their intemperance to keep their
cellars under lock and key, and still defeating them by manufacturing
false ones—as forming illicit connexions, and having recourse to the
boldest stratagems in furtherance of their intrigues, we must
necessarily suppose them to have amused themselves at the expense of
truth; though that, among the Athenians, there were examples enough of
women of whom all this might be said, it would be absurd to deny.

-----

Footnote 103:

Aristoph. Lysist. 18. Plato, who admired the practice, requires his
airy female citizens to go and do likewise. Καὶ δὴ καὶ δέσποιναν ἐν
οἰκίᾳ ὑπὸ θεραπαινίδων ἐγείρεσθαί τινων καὶ μὴ πρώτην αὐτὴν ἐγείρειν
τὰς ἄλλας, αἰσχρὸν λέγειν χρὴ πρὸς αὑτοὺς δοῦλον τε καὶ δούλην καὶ
παῖδα, καὶ εἴ πως ἦν οἷον τε, ὅλην καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκίαν. De Legg. vii.
t. viii. p. 40. Bekk.

Footnote 104:

Cf. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 102.

Footnote 105:

Arist. Lysist. 113, seq. 205.

-----

We know that where the minds of married dames are fixed chiefly upon
dress and show their anxiety has often very little reference to their
husbands. And if it be their object to excite admiration out of doors,
it is simply as a means to an end, which end, in too many cases, is
intrigue. Proofs exist that among the Athenian ladies there were numbers
whose idle lives and luxurious habits produced their natural
results—loose principles and dissolute manners. The beauty of Alcibiades
drew them after him in crowds,[106] though we do not read that, like
another very handsome personage in a modern republic, the son of
Cleinias found it necessary to carry about a club to defend himself from
their importunities. They went abroad elaborately habited and adorned
merely to attract the gaze of men,[107] and having thus sown the first
seeds of intrigue, they took care to cultivate and bring them to
maturity. The felicitous invention of Falstaff’s friends, which got him
safe out of Ford’s house in a buck-basket, was not so new as Shakspeare,
perhaps, imagined. His predecessors on the Athenian stage had already
discovered stratagems equally happy among their countrywomen, whose
lovers we find made their way into the harem wrapped up in straw, like
carp—or crept through holes made purposely by fair hands in the eaves—or
scaled the envious walls by the help of those vulgar contrivances called
ladders.[108]

-----

Footnote 106:

Xenoph. Memor. i. 2. 24. Ἀλκιβιάδης δ᾽ αὖ διὰ μὲν κάλλος ὑπὸ πολλῶν
καὶ σεμνῶν γυναικῶν θηρώμενος. κ. τ. λ.

Footnote 107:

Aristoph. Nub. 60. Married ladies occasionally rode out in carriages
with their husbands. Demosth. cont. Mid. § 44. Even at Sparta we find
young ladies possessed of their carriages called Canathra, resembling
in form griffins, or goat-stags, in which they rode abroad during
religious processions. Plut. Ages. § 19. Cf. Xenoph. Ages. p. 73.
Hutchin. cum not. et add. p. 89. Athen. iv. 16, cum annot. p. 449.
Scheffer, de Re Vehic. i. 7. p. 68. The same custom prevailed in
Thessaly and elsewhere. Athen. xii. 37. Luxurious ladies at Athens
used to perfume even the soles of their feet. Their lapdogs lived in
great state, and slept on carpets of Miletos. Athen. xii. 78.

Footnote 108:

Xenarch. ap. Athen. xiii. 24.

-----

The laws of Athens, however, were more modest than its women. For, from
the very interference of the laws, it is evident, that the example of
the Spartan ladies, who enjoyed the privilege of exposing themselves
indecently, found numerous imitators among the female democracy. To
repress this unbecoming taste, it was enacted, that any woman detected
in the streets in indecorous deshabille[109] should be fined a thousand
drachmæ, and, to add disgrace to pecuniary considerations, the name of
the offender, with the amount of the fine, was inscribed on a tablet and
suspended on a certain platane tree in the Cerameicos. However, what
constituted _indecorous deshabille_ in the opinion of Philippides, who
procured the enactment of the law, it might be difficult to determine.
Possibly it may have consisted in the too great exposure of the bosom,
for the covering of which ladies in remoter ages appear to have depended
very much on their veils. Thus in the interview of Helen with Aphrodite
she saw, says the poet, her beautiful neck, desire-inflaming bosom, and
eyes bright with liquid splendour. Her garments concealed the rest.[110]
Now, as it was customary for ladies to appear veiled in public, the
object of the law of Philippides may simply have been to enforce the
observance of this ancient practice. The magistrates who presided over
this very delicate part of Athenian police were denominated “Regulators
of the women,”[111] an office which Sultan Mahmood in our day took upon
himself. They were chosen by the twenty from among the wealthiest and
most virtuous of the citizens, and in their office resembled the Roman
Censors and similar magistrates in several other states.[112]

-----

Footnote 109:

Ἀκοσμοῦσαι. Harpocrat. v. ὅτι χίλιας. κ. τ. λ. Potter, Arch. Græc. ii.
309, understands his law to have meant, women who literally appeared
_laconically_ in the streets. “Undressed,” is his word. But will
ἀκοσμοῦσαι which Meursius, Lect. Att. ii. 5, 62, renders by
“inornatius,” bear such a signification? Κόσμος γυναικῶν does not, as
Kühn observes, signify _ornamentum mulierum_, nor ἀκοσμοῦσαι
_inornatius prodeuntes feminæ_; but κόσμος is εὐταξία and ἀκοσμοῦσαι
means ἀτακτοῦσαι, that is, women who acted in any way whatever
contrary to decorum and good manners, which persons appearing
indecently dressed in public unquestionably do.—Ad. Poll. viii. 112.
p. 763. On the manners of the Tyrrhenian women, Cf. Athen. xii. 14.
sqq.

Footnote 110:

Il. γ. 396. sqq. Cf. 141.

Footnote 111:

Γυναικόσμοι. Poll. viii. 112.

Footnote 112:

Cf. Arist. Pol. iv. 15. 120.

-----

The evil influence of women of this description,[113] who, as Milton
expresses it, would fain at any rate ride in their coach and six, was
perceived and lamented by the philosophers. To their vain and frivolous
notions might be traced, in part at least, the love of power, of
trifling distinctions, of unmanly pleasures, which infected the
Athenians towards the decline of their republic. By them the springs of
education were poisoned, and the seeds sown of those inordinate
artificial desires which convulse and overthrow states. In vain did
philosophers inculcate temperance and moderation, while the youth were
imbued with different opinions by their mothers. The lessons of the
Academy were overgrown and checked in the harem. Such dames no doubt
would grieve to find their husbands content with little[114] (as was the
case with Xantippe) and not numbered with the rulers, since their
consequence among their own sex was thus lessened. They would have had
them keen worshipers of Mammon, eagerly squabbling and wrangling in the
law-courts or the ecclesiæ, not cultivators of domestic habits or
philosophical tranquillity and content: and in conversing with their
sons would be careful to recommend maxims the reverse of the father’s,
with all the cant familiar to women of their character.[115]

-----

Footnote 113:

On the luxurious manners of the Syracusan women see Athen. xii. 20. In
such disorders may be discovered the first germs of the decay of
states; on which account prudent statesmen even in oligarchies have
sought to restrain the licentious manners of women. Thus Fra Paolo:
“Let the women be kept chaste, and in order to that, let them live
retired from the world; it being certain that all open lewedness has
had its first rise from a salutation, from a smile.”—i. § 20. To this
let us add the opinion of the female Pythagorician Phintys: ἴδια δὲ
γυναικὸς, τὸ οἰκουρὲν, καὶ ἔνδον μένεν καὶ ἐκδέχεσθαι καὶ θεραπεύεν
τὸν ἄνδρα. Stob. Florileg., 74. 61. Both the philosophical lady,
however, and the Venetian monk have their views corroborated by the
authority of Pericles: τῆς τε γὰρ ὑπαρχούσης φύσεως μὴ χείροσι
γενέσθαι, ὑμῖν μεγάλη ἡ δόξα, καὶ οἷς ἂν ἐπ’ ἄρσεσι κλέος ᾖ. Thucyd.
ii. 45. Besides leading a retired life, ladies were likewise expected
to cultivate the virtue of silence. Soph. Ajax, 293. Hom. Il. ζ. 410.

Footnote 114:

Which, according to Plato, well-educated men generally are. De Repub.
t. vi. p. 173.

Footnote 115:

Plat. De Repub. viii. 5. t. ii. p. 182. Stallb.

-----

Our review of female society at Athens would be incomplete were we to
overlook the Hetairæ who exerted so powerful an influence over the
morals and destinies of the state. They occupied much the same position
which the same class of females still do in modern communities,
cultivated in mind, polished and elegant in manners, but scarcely
deserving as a body to be viewed in the light in which a very
distinguished historian has placed them.[116] Their position, however,
was anomalous, resembling rather that of kings’ mistresses in modern
times, whose vices are tolerated on account of their rank, than that of
plebeian sinners whose deficiencies in birth and fortune exclude them
from good society. There is much difficulty in rightly apprehending the
notions of the ancients on the subject of these women. At first sight we
are shocked to find that, during one festival, they were permitted to
enter the temples in company with modest ladies. But in what Christian
country are they excluded from church?[117] Again, behold in our
theatres the matron and the courtezan in the same box, while at Athens
even foreign women were not suffered to approach the space set apart for
the female citizens. Nevertheless, though on this point so rigid, they
were in their own houses permitted occasionally to visit them[118] and
receive instructions from their lips, as in Turkish harems ladies do
from the Almè.

-----

Footnote 116:

Mitford, Hist, of Greece, iii. 4. sqq. It appears not to have been
common for these women to rear the children they bore, more
particularly when they were girls. They flew to the practice of
infanticide that they might remain at liberty. Lucian, Hetair. Diall.
ii. 5. iv. 124.

Footnote 117:

Besides, from a passage in Lucian it appears that the ladies and the
hetairæ frequented together the public baths.—Diall. Hetair. xii. 4.

Footnote 118:

Cf. Antiphon. Nec. Venef. § 5.

-----

It is not permitted here to lift the curtain from the manners of these
ladies. But their position, pregnant with evil to the state through its
contaminating influences on the minds of youth, must be comprehensively
explained before a correct idea can be formed of the internal structure
of the Athenian commonwealth, of the germs of dissolution which it
concealed within its own bosom, or the premature blight which an
unspiritual system of morals was mainly instrumental in producing. No
doubt the question whether the existence of such a class of persons
should be tolerated at all, is environed by difficulties almost
insurmountable. They have always existed and therefore, perhaps, it is
allowable to infer that they always will exist; but this does not seem
to justify Solon for sanctioning, by legislative enactments, a
modification of moral turpitude debasing to the individual, and
consequently detrimental to the state. To do evil that good may come, is
as much a solecism in politics as in ethics. On this point I miss the
habitual wisdom of the Athenian legislator. Lycurgus himself could have
enacted nothing more at variance with just principles, or more
subversive of heroic sentiments.

The Hetairæ,[119] recognised by law and scarcely proscribed by public
opinion, may be said to have constituted a sort of monarchical leaven in
the very heart of the republic; they shared with the sophists, whom I
have already depicted, the affections of the lax ambitious youths,
panting at once for pleasure and distinction, fostered expensive tastes
and luxurious habits, increased consequently their aptitude to indulge
in peculation, shared with the unprincipled the spoils of the state, and
vigorously paved the way for the battle of Chæronea. But if their
existence was hurtful to the community, so was it often full of
bitterness to themselves. In youth, no doubt, when beauty breathed its
spell around them, they were puffed up and intoxicated with the incense
of flattery[120]—their conversation at once sprightly and learned seemed
full of charms—their houses spacious as palaces and splendidly adorned
were the resort of the gay, the witty, the powerful, nay, even of the
wise—for Socrates did not disdain to converse with Theodota or to imbibe
the maxims of eloquence from Aspasia. But when old age came on, what
were they? It then appeared, that the lively repartees and grotesque
extravagancies which had pleased when proceeding from beautiful lips,
seemed vapid and poor from an old woman. The wrinkles which deformed
their features were equally fatal to their wisdom that flitted from
their dwellings, and became domiciliated with the last beautiful
importation from Ionia. Thus deserted, the most celebrated Hetairæ
became a butt for the satire even of the most clownish. The wit wont to
set the table in a roar scarcely served to defend them against the jests
of the agora.

-----

Footnote 119:

Vice is generally superstitious; and these ladies accordingly when
they lost a lover, instead of attributing it to the superior beauty or
accomplishments of their rivals, or the common love of novelty of
mankind, always supposed that enchantments had been employed.—Luc.
Diall. Hetair. i. t. iv. 124.

Footnote 120:

Statues, for example, were sometimes erected in their honour—Winkelm.
iv. 3. 7. They were generally well educated, and there were none
probably who could not read.—Drosè, in Lucian, complaining of the
philosopher who kept away her lover, observes that his slave came in
the evening bearing a note from his young master.—Diall. Hetair. x. 2.
3.

-----

“How do you sell your beef?” said Laïs to a young butcher in the
flesh-market.

“Three obels the _Hag_,” answered the coxcomb.

“And how dare you, said the faded beauty, here in Athens pretend to make
use of barbarian weights?”

The word in the original signifying an old woman and a Carian weight, it
suited her purpose to understand him in the latter sense.[121]

-----

Footnote 121:

Athen. xiii. 43. where the word is κύβδα.—The Turkish practice of
drowning female delinquents in sacks, is merely an imitation of what
was performed by a tyrant of old, who disposed of wicked old women in
this manner.—Idem. x. 60. In France likewise formerly it was customary
to avoid the scandal of a public trial, for noblemen and gentlemen to
be examined privately by the king who, when he could satisfy his
conscience that they were guilty, ordered them to be “without any
fashion of judgment put in a sack and in the night season, by the
Marshall’s servants, hurled into a river and so drowned.” Fortescue,
Laud, Legg. Angl. chap. 35. p. 82. b.

-----

Worshiped and slighted alternately they adopted narrow and interested
principles in self-defence. Besides, generally barbarians by birth, they
brought along with them from their original homes the creed best suited
to their calling—“Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die.” They were
often the lumber of Asia and hence known under the appellation of
“strange women,” though it is very certain, that many female citizens
were from time to time enrolled among their ranks, some through the
pressure of adversity, others from a preference for that kind of life.
Their education it must be conceded, however, was far more masculine
than that of other women. They cultivated all the sciences but that of
morals, and concealed their lack of modesty by the dazzling splendour of
their wit. Hence among a people with whom intellect was almost
everything their company was much sought after and highly valued, not
habitually perhaps by statesmen, but by wits, poets, sophists, and young
men of fashion.

Many of the _bons mots_ uttered by those ladies have been preserved. One
day at table Stilpo the philosopher accused Glycera of corrupting the
manners of youth.

“My friend,” said she, “we are both to blame; for you, in your turn,
corrupt their minds by innumerable forms of sophistry and error. And if
men be rendered unhappy, what signifies it whether a philosopher or a
courtezan be the cause?”

It is to her that a joke, somewhat hackneyed but seldom attributed to
its real author, was originally due. A gentleman presenting her with a
very small jar of wine sought to enhance its value by pretending it was
sixteen years old. “Then,” replied she, “it is extremely little for its
age.” Gnathena too, another member of the sisterhood, sprinkled her
conversation with sparkling wit, but too redolent of the profession to
be retailed. Some of her sayings, however, will bear transplantation,
though they must suffer by it. To stop the mouth of a babbler who
observed that he had just arrived from the Hellespont—“And yet,” she
remarked, “it is clear to me that you know nothing of one of its
principal cities!” “Which city is that?”—“Sigeion,”[122] (in which there
appears to be a reference to the word Silence) answered Gnathena.
Several noisy gallants, who being in her debt sought to terrify her by
menaces, once saying they would pull her house down, and had pickaxes
and mattocks ready, “I disbelieve it,” she replied, “for if you had, you
would have pledged them to pay what you owe me.” A comic poet remarking
to one of these ladies that the water of her cistern was delightfully
cold—“It has always been so,” she replied, “since we have got into the
habit of throwing your plays into it.” The repartee of Melitta to a
conceited person who was said to have fled ignominiously from the field
of battle is exceedingly keen. Happening to be eating of a hare which
she seemed much to enjoy, our soldier, desirous of directing attention
to her, inquired if she knew what was the fleetest animal in the world.
“The runaway,” replied Melitta.

-----

Footnote 122:

Athen. xiii. 47.

-----

The same taste which induces many persons of rank in our own day to
marry opera dancers and actresses, in antiquity favoured the ambition of
the Hetairæ, many of whom rose from their state of humiliation to be the
wives of satraps and princes. This was the case with Glycera, whom after
the death of Pythionica, Harpalos sent for from Athens, and domiciliated
within his royal palace at Tarsos. He required her to be saluted and
considered as his queen, and refused to be crowned unless in conjunction
with her. Nay, he had even the hardihood to erect in the city of Rossos,
a brazen statue to her, beside his own.[123] Herpyllis, one of the same
sisterhood, won the heart of Aristotle, and was the mother of
Nicomachos. She survived the philosopher, and was carefully provided for
by his will.[124] Even Plato, whose genius and virtue are still the
admiration of mankind, succumbed to the charms of Archæanassa, an
Hetaira of Colophon, whose beauty, which long survived her youth, he
celebrated in an epigram still extant.[125]

-----

Footnote 123:

Athen. xiii. 50.

Footnote 124:

Athen. xiii. 56.—Diog. Laert. v. 12.

Footnote 125:

Diog. Laert. iii. 31.

-----

Of all these ladies, however, not even excepting Phryne, or the Sicilian
Laïs,[126] Aspasia[127] has obtained the most widely extended fame. This
illustrious woman, endowed by nature with a mind still more beautiful
than her beautiful form, exercised over the fortunes of Athens an
influence beyond the reach of the greatest queen. Her genius, unobserved
for some time, by degrees drew around her all those whom the love of
letters or ambition induced to cultivate their minds. Her house became a
sort of club-room, where eloquence, politics, philosophy, mixed with
badinage, were daily discussed, and whither even ladies of the highest
rank resorted to acquire from Aspasia those accomplishments which were
already beginning to be in fashion. From her Socrates professed to have
in part acquired his knowledge of rhetoric, and it is extremely probable
that he could trace to the habit of conversing with one so gifted by
nature, so polished by rare society, something of that exquisite
facility and lightness of manner which characterize his familiar
dialectics. No doubt, we may attribute something of the reputation she
acquired to the desire to disparage Pericles. It was thought that by
appropriating many of his harangues to her they could bring him down
nearer their own level. She was, in influence and celebrity, the Madame
Roland of Athens, though living in times somewhat less troubled.

-----

Footnote 126:

She was a native of Hyccara, but taken prisoner in childhood, and
carried to Corinth, whence that city has generally the honor of being
regarded as her birthplace.—Athen. xiii. 54.—Cf. Thucyd. vi. 62. Sch.
Aristoph. Lysist. 179.

Footnote 127:

Of the younger Aspasia, who had the reputation of being the loveliest
woman of her time, we have the following sketch in Ælian:—“Her hair
was auburn, and fell in slightly waving ringlets. She had large full
eyes, a nose inclined to aquiline, (ἐπίγρυπος) and small delicate
ears. Nothing could be softer than her skin, and her complexion was
fresh as the rose; on which account the Phoceans called her Milto, or
‘the Blooming’. Her ruddy lips, opening, disclosed teeth whiter than
snow. She, moreover, possessed the charm on which Homer so often
dwells in his descriptions of beautiful women, of small, well-formed
ankles. Her voice was so full of music and sweetness, that those to
whom she spoke imagined they heard the songs of the Seirens. To crown
all she was like Horace’s Pyrrha, simplex munditiis, abhorring
superfluous pomp of ornament.”—Hist. Var. xii. 1. Some persons,
however, would not have admired the nose of Milto:—thus, the youth in
Terence (Heauton, v. 5. 17. seq.) “What? must I marry”

“Rufamne illam virginem
Cæsiam, sparso ore, adunco naso?
Non possum, pater.”

Aristotle (Rhet. i. 2) does not undervalue the slightly aquiline nose;
and Plato appears rather to have admired it in men.—Repub. v. § 19. t.
i. p. 392.—Stallb. where the philosopher calls it the Royal Nose.

-----

The name of Phryne, though not so celebrated, is still familiar to every
one, partly, perhaps, through the accusation brought against her in the
court of Heliæa,[128] by Euthios. She was a native of Thespiæ, but
established at Athens, and beloved by the orator Hyperides, who
undertook her defence. His pleading, it may therefore be presumed, was
eloquent. Perceiving, however, he could make but little impression on
the judges, he had her called into court, and, as if by accident, bared
her bosom,[129] the fairness and beauty of which heaving with anguish
and terror—for it was a matter of life and death—so wrought upon the
august judges that her acquittal immediately followed. The Heliasts,
renowned for their upright decisions, were suspected on this occasion of
undue commiseration, though the charge was probably grounded on some
frivolous pretence of impiety; and, to prevent the recurrence of similar
partiality in future, a decree was passed, rendering it illegal thus to
extort the pity of the court, or, on any account, to introduce the
accused, whether man or woman, into the presence of the judges. It was
on her figure that Apelles chiefly relied in painting his Aphrodite
rising from the sea, as Phryne herself rose before all Greece on the
beach at Eleusis; and Praxiteles also wrought from the same model his
Cnidean Aphrodite.[130] This sculptor, who was the rival of Hyperides,
and, indeed, of all Athens, in the affections of Phryne, permitted her
one day to make choice for herself from two statues of his own
workmanship—the Eros and the Satyr. Discovering, by a stratagem, that he
himself preferred the former, she was guided by his judgment, and
dedicated the winged god in a temple of her native city. In admiration
of her beauty, a number of gentlemen erected, by subscription, in her
honour, a golden statue at Delphi. It was the work of Praxiteles, and
stood on a pillar of white marble of Pentelicos, between the statues of
Archidamos, king of Sparta, and Philip, son of Amyntas. The inscription
ran simply thus:—

“Phryne, of Thespiæ, daughter of Epicles.”

-----

Footnote 128:

Poseidip. ap. Athen. xiii. 60.

Footnote 129:

Honest old Burton, whom few anecdotes of this description escaped,
imagines this artifice to have been the only defence he made.—Anatomy
of Melancholy, ii. 222.

Footnote 130:

Athen. xiii. 59. seq.

-----

On seeing this statue, Crates, the cynic, exclaimed, “Behold a trophy of
Hellenic wantonness!”

It is not, of course, among women of this class, that we should expect
to discover proofs of female truth or enduring attachment. But the human
heart sometimes triumphs over adverse circumstances.[131] History has
preserved the memory of more than one act of heroism performed by an
Hetaira, to show that woman doth not always put off her other virtues,
though habitually trampling on the one which constitutes for her the
boundary between honour and infamy.

-----

Footnote 131:

Athen. xiii. 59.—In the apprehension of Lucian, too, they were
anything but mercenary; and stripped themselves cheerfully of all
their personal ornaments to bestow them, like so many sisters, on the
person they loved.—Diall. Hetair. vii. 1.

-----

Ptolemy, son of Philadelphos, while commanding the garrison of Ephesos,
had along with him the courtezan, Irene, who, when his Thracian
mercenaries rose in revolt, fled along with him to the temple of
Artemis, where they fell together, sprinkling the altar with their
blood.[132] Alcibiades, too, of all his friends, found none adhere to
him in his adversity but an Hetaira, who cheerfully exposed her life for
his sake; and, when the assassins of Pharnabazos had achieved their
task, performed, like another Antigone, the last duties over the ashes
of the man she loved.[133] Other anecdotes might be added equally
honourable to their feelings and fidelity, but these will sufficiently
illustrate their character and the estimation in which they were
generally held.

-----

Footnote 132:

Athen. xiii. 64.

Footnote 133:

Plut. Alcib. § 39.

-----

CHAPTER VI.
TOILETTE, DRESS, AND ORNAMENTS.

Having now described the condition and influence of women, it will be
necessary to institute some inquiry into one of the principal means by
which they achieved and maintained their empire. At first sight,
perhaps, the disquisition may appear scarcely to deserve all the pains I
have bestowed upon it; but, as the dress of the ancients is connected on
the one hand with the progress of the useful arts, as spinning, weaving,
dyeing, &c., and on the other with the forms and developement of
sculpture, it can scarcely, when well considered, be reckoned among
matters of trifling moment. Besides, the costume and ornaments of a
people often afford important aid towards comprehending the national
character, constituting, in fact, a sort of practical commentary on the
mental habits, and tone and principles of morals, prevailing at any
given period among them.

The raiment of the Grecian women, of which the public generally obtain
some idea from the remaining monuments of ancient art, may be said to
have been regulated by the same laws of taste which presided over the
developement of the national genius in sculpture and painting. Every
article of their habiliment appeared to harmonise exactly with the rest.
Nothing of that grotesque extravagance which in some of the fleeting
vagaries of fashion transforms our modern ladies, with their inflated
balloon sleeves and painfully deformed waists, into so many whalebone
and muslin hobgoblins, was ever allowed to disfigure the rich contour of
a Greek woman. As she proceeded lovely from the hands of nature, her
pride was to preserve that loveliness. Her garments, accordingly, were
not fashioned with a view to disguise or conceal her form, but by
graceful folds, flowing curves, ornaments rich and tastefully disposed,
to afford as many indications of its matchless symmetry and perfection
as might be compatible with her sex’s delicacy and the severity of
public morals. Consequently the art of dress, like every other
conversant with taste and beauty, reached in Greece its highest
perfection. A woman draped according to the prevalent fashion in the
best ages of the Athenian commonwealth, was an object not to be equalled
for elegance or grace. From the snow white veil which probably shaded
her countenance and ringlets of auburn or hyacinth, to the sandals of
white satin and gold that ornamented her small ankle, the eye could
detect nothing gaudy, affected, or out of keeping. There was
magnificence without ostentation, brilliance of colours, but a
brilliance that harmonised with whatever was brought in contact with it;
the splendour of numerous jewels and trinkets of gold, but no appearance
of display, or of a wish to dazzle. Everything appeared to stand where
it did, because it was its proper place.

But in Sparta where there existed little tendency towards art or
refinement,[134] a costume the antipodes of all this prevailed. That of
the virgins differed in some respects from that of the matrons, and the
difference arose out of a peculiar feature of manners, in which, if in
nothing else, they resembled the English. In several Ionic countries, as
at present on the continent, girls were previously to marriage guarded
with much strictness. At Sparta, on the contrary, and among the Dorians
generally,[135] they were permitted, as in England, to walk abroad in
company with young men, and, of course, to form attachments at their own
discretion. In this, too, as in their dress, they only preserved the
customs of antiquity; for in Homer we find the Trojan ladies making
anxious inquiries of Hector respecting their relations and friends in
the field, and going forth from their houses attended only by their
maids. The married women led more retired lives, and when they went
abroad fashion required that they should be veiled, as we learn from the
following apophthegm of Charillos, who being asked why the maidens went
abroad uncovered while the matrons concealed their faces, replied:
“Because it is incumbent on the former to find themselves husbands, on
the latter only to keep those they have.”[136]

-----

Footnote 134:

Cf. Montaigne, Essais, t. iv. p. 214, seq.

Footnote 135:

See above, chapter ii.

Footnote 136:

Plut. Apophtheg. Lacon. Charill. 2. t. i. p. 161.

-----

The principal, or, rather, the sole garment of the Dorian maidens was
the chiton, or himation,[137] made of woollen stuff, and without
sleeves, but fastened on either shoulder by a large clasp, and gathered
on the breast by a kind of brooch. This sleeveless robe, which seldom
reached more than half way to the knee, was moreover left open up to a
certain point on both sides,[138] so that the skirts or wings, flying
open as they walked, entirely exposed their limbs, closely resembling
the shift of the Bedouin women,[139] slit up to the arm-pit, but
gathered tight by a girdle about the waist. When the girdle was removed
it reached to the calves of the legs,[140] and would then, but for the
side-slits, have been quite as becoming as the blue chemise of the
modern Egyptian women, which is open in front from the neck to the
waist.[141] When dressed in this single robe, their whole form breathing
health, and modesty in their countenance, there was no doubt a simple
elegance in their appearance, little less attractive, perhaps, than the
exquisite and elaborate _mise_ of an Ionian or an Attic girl. In this
costume Melissa, daughter of Procles, of Epidaurus, was habited when, as
she poured out wine to her father’s labourers, Periander, the
Corinthian,[142] beheld and loved her. The married women, however, did
not make their appearance in public _en chemise_, but when going abroad
donned a second garment which seems to have resembled pretty closely
their husbands’ himatia.[143]

-----

Footnote 137:

Herod. v. 87. Duris. ap. Schol. Eurip. Hecub. 922. Æl. Dionys. ap.
Eustath. ad Il. p. 963. 17. ed. Basil. Æl. Var. Hist. i. 18. Cf.
Spanh. Observ. in Hymn. in Apoll. 32. t. ii. p. 63. Schol. Pind. Nem.
i. 74.

Footnote 138:

Poll. vii. 54. seq. Mus. Chiaramont. pl. 35. Antich. di Ercol. t. iv.
tav. 24.

Footnote 139:

Castellan, Mœurs des Ottomans, vi. 47.

Footnote 140:

Schol. Eurip. Hecub. 922.

Footnote 141:

Suidas, however, supposes these garments to have been less becoming
when the girdle was removed, and adds ἐν Σπαρτῇ δὲ καὶ τάς κόρας
γυμνὰς φαίνεσθαι.—v. δωριάζειν. t. i. p. 772. Montaigne observes, that
the ancient Gauls made little use of clothing; and that the same thing
might be said of the Irish of his time, t. iv. p. 214.—The French
ladies, also, of his own day, affected a costume in no respect less
indelicate than that of the Spartan girls: “nos dames, ainsi molles et
delicates qu’elles sont, elles s’en vont tantôt entre ouvertes jusques
au nombril.”—Essais, II. xii. t. iv. p. 213.

Footnote 142:

Athen. xiii. 56.

Footnote 143:

Cf. Il. ε. 425.—In the life of Pyrrhus, the difference between the
dress of married women and that of the virgins is distinctly pointed
out:—ἀρχομένοις δὲ ταῦτα πράττειν, ἧκον αὐτοις τῶν παρθενῶν καὶ
γυναικῶν, αἱ μὲν ἐν ἱματίοις, καταζωσάμεναι τοὺς χιτωνίσκους, αἱ δὲ
μονοχίτωνες, συναργασόμεναι τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις. Plut. Pyrrh. § 27.

-----

Of the simple wardrobe of a Doric lady, which in ancient times was that
of all women of Hellenic race, exceedingly little can be said. It is
altogether different with respect to that of the gentlewomen of Attica,
where, though inferior in personal beauty to none, the women exhibited
so much fertility in the matter of dress, that they appeared to depend
on that alone for the establishment of their empire. For this reason it
would be vain to pretend to describe all their vestments and ornaments,
or the arts of the toilette by which they were adapted to their
purposes. To do so properly would, in fact, require a volume. But all
that can be crowded into one short chapter shall be given, since I am
not deterred by any such scruples as formerly arrested the pen of a very
learned writer, who apprehended that, if he proceeded, he might be
supposed to have been rummaging the boudoir notes of an Athenian
lady![144]

-----

Footnote 144:

Taylor ad Demosth.

-----

The primary garment,[145] answering to the _chemise_ of the moderns, was
a white tunic reaching to the ground,[146] in some instances sleeveless,
and fastened on the shoulders with buttons, in others furnished with
loose hanging sleeves descending to the wrist, and brought together at
intervals upon the arm by silver or golden agraffes.[147] It was
gathered into close folds under the bosom by a girdle,[148] or riband,
sometimes fastened in front by a knot, sometimes by a clasp.[149] This
inner robe, made in the earlier ages of fine linen,[150] manufactured in
Attica, or imported from Tyre, Egypt, or Sidon, came, in after times, to
be of muslin from Tarentum, or woven at home from Egyptian cotton. The
use of linen, however, for this purpose was not wholly superseded. A
very beautiful kind, from the island of Amorgos,[151] one of the
Cyclades, was often substituted down to a very late period in place of
the byssos, or fine muslin of Egypt; and this insular fabric,[152]
whether snow-white or purple, would have rivalled the finest cambric,
being of the most delicate texture and semi-transparent,[153] like the
Tarentine and Coan vests of the Roman ladies, the sandyx-coloured Lydian
robe, or the silken chemises of the Turkish sultanas, described by Lady
Montague.[154] It is in a tunic of this linen that Lysistrata, in
Aristophanes, advises the Athenian ladies to appear before their
husbands in order to give full effect to the splendour of their
charms.[155]

-----

Footnote 145:

Athen. xii. 5. 29. Boeckh. i. 141. Aristoph. Lysist. 43. sqq.

Footnote 146:

Ἐκ δὲ λίνου, λινοῦς χιτὼν, ὃν Ἀθηναῖοι ἔφορουν ποδήρη.—Poll. vii. 71.

Footnote 147:

Ælian. V. H. i. 8.

Footnote 148:

On the ζῶνη, Cf. Il. ξ. 181. Odyss. τ. 231. Damm. 988. On the Cestus
Il. ξ. 214. Aristoph. Lysist. 72. βαθυχζώνοι. Æschyl. Pers. 155. et
Schol.—Bœttig. Les Furies, p. 34.

Footnote 149:

Achilles Tatius. ii. cap. xi. p. 33, seq. Jacobs.

Footnote 150:

Thucyd. i. 6.

Footnote 151:

Aristoph. Lysist. 150. 735, et Schol.

Footnote 152:

Poll. vii. 75.

Footnote 153:

Aristoph. Lysist. 48. Poll. vii. 57. 74.

Footnote 154:

Works, ii. 191.

Footnote 155:

Aristoph. Lysist. 48.

-----

Because the Amorginean linen was often, perhaps commonly, dyed purple,
it has been inferred, that none purely white was produced; but this, as
Bochart[156] observes, is, probably, a mistake. At all events, it was of
extraordinary fineness, superior, in the opinion of Suidas,[157] even to
the byssos and carbasos, or lawn of Cyprus, and appears to have been of
a thin, gauze-like texture, like the drapery of “woven air” which
Petronius[158] throws around his female characters.

-----

Footnote 156:

Chanaan. I. 14. p. 449.

Footnote 157:

Corrected by Bochart, who reads ἔστι δὲ σφόδρα λεπτὸν ὑπὲρ τὴν βύσσον
ἢ τὴν κάρπασον. Cf. Suid. v. Ἀμοργ. t. i. p. 204. c. Etym. Mag. 85.
15.

Footnote 158:

Satyricon. cap. 55. p. 273. Burmann.

-----

Over the chiton was worn a shorter robe not reaching below the knee, and
confined above the loins by a broad riband. This also was, in some
instances, furnished with sleeves, and of a rich purple or saffron
colour, generally ornamented, like the chiton, with a broad border of
variegated embroidery. To these, in order to complete the walking-dress,
was added a magnificent mantle, generally purple, embroidered with gold,
which, being thrown negligently over the shoulders,[159] floated airily
about the person, discovering the under garments exquisitely disposed
for the purpose of displaying all the contours of the form, particularly
of the waist and bosom. The Athenian ladies being, like our own,
peculiarly jealous of possessing the reputation of a fine figure, and
nature sometimes failing them, had recourse to art, and wore what, among
milliners, I believe, are called _bustles_.[160] I am sorry to be
obliged to add, that there were, also, mothers at Athens who anticipated
us in the absurdity of tight lacing, and invented corsets for the
purpose of compressing the abdomen and otherwise reducing the figures of
their daughters to some artificial standard which they had already begun
to set up in defiance of nature.[161] Some women, too, when apprehensive
of growing fat, would collect on fine wool a quantity of summer dew,
which they afterwards squeezed out and drank, this liquid having been
supposed to be possessed of deleterious qualities, more particularly the
ascending dew.[162]

-----

Footnote 159:

We find, from ancient monuments, that persons likewise wore over their
shoulders an article of dress exactly resembling the modern cape or
tippet.—Mus. Cortonens. tab. 58.

Footnote 160:

Athen. xiii. 23. Alex. Frag. v. 13, seq.

Footnote 161:

Victor. Var. Lect. ii. 6. 32.

Footnote 162:

Plut. Quæst. Nat. § 6. t. v. p. 321.—Coray sur Hippocrate, t. II. p.
82, seq.

-----

Like the eastern ladies of the present day, they seldom went abroad
without their veil, which was a light fabric of transparent texture,
white or purple, from Cos, or Laconia. It was thrown tastefully over the
head, raised in front on the point of the sphendone,[163] as in modern
Italy by the comb, and hung waving on the shoulders and down the back in
glittering folds. But this was not the only covering they made use of
for their head. Those modern writers who have so thought are mistaken,
since it is clear, both from contemporary testimony and numerous works
of art still remaining, that very frequently they wore caps or bonnets.
Several examples occur in Mr. Hope’s work, on the Costumes of the
Ancients;[164] and Mnesilochos, in Aristophanes, when putting on the
disguise of a woman for the purpose of being present at the Festival of
Demeter, like Clodius at that of the Bona Dea, desires to borrow from
Agathon a net or mitre for the head. “Will you have my night-cap?”
inquires the poet. “Exactly,” replies Euripides, “that is just what we
want.”[165]

-----

Footnote 163:

See an exact representation of it in the Mus. Chiaramont. pl. 8, where
we likewise find an example of the sleeves closed with agraffes.—Cf.
pl. 16.

Footnote 164:

Plates. Nos. 98. 108. 131. 162. 172.

Footnote 165:

Aristoph. Thesmoph. 256.

-----

But we have hitherto scarcely entered upon the list of their wardrobe,
in enumerating some of the articles of which, I must crave the reader’s
permission to employ the original terms, our language, in most cases,
furnishing us with no equivalent. And, first, following the order of
Pollux, who observes no principle of classification, we have the
_Epomis_, a robe with sleeves, opposed to the _Exomis_, which had none.
The _Diploïdion_, an ample cloak, or mantle, capacious enough to be worn
double. The _Hemidiploïdion_, a more scanty mantle; the _Katastiktos_,
adorned with flowers or figures of animals, or richly marked with spots,
the _Katagogis_, the _Epiblema_, or cloak, and the _Peplos_,[166] a word
of very equivocal character, used to signify a veil or mantle, a
sofa-carpet, or a covering for a chariot. Generally, it seems to have
designated a garment of double the necessary size, that, at pleasure, it
might be put on, or cast, like a cloak, over the whole body, as appears
from the Peplos of Athena.[167] That the word sometimes was used to
signify a tunic appears from Xenophon, who says “the peplos being rent
above, the bosom appeared.”[168] He, however, considers it to have
formed part of the male costume.

-----

Footnote 166:

Poll. vii. 49, seq.—The _peploma_ of Pindar (Pyth. ix. 219) is now
paploma. Wordsworth, Athens and Attica, p. 32. Cf. Iliad. ε. 315.—The
peplos was sometimes embroidered with figures.—Il. ζ. 289–295.

Footnote 167:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 564. Poll. vii. 50.

Footnote 168:

Poll. vii. 50. Cf. Cyrop. iii. 1. 13.-3. 67. In Homer, Iliad, γ. 385,
&c. the word, ἑανὸς, signifying a richly-wrought vest or robe, is
synonymous, as Pollux remarks, with πέπλος vii. 51. This is, likewise,
the opinion of Buttmann, who, however, supposes it to mean a “flexibly
soft garment.”—Lexil. Art. 41. Others draw a distinction between ἑανὸς
and πέπλος, the former, they say, being employed to signify a veil
unwrought and purely white, the latter, one which was variegated with
colours and embroidery. Passow considers it to be a mere adjective
signifying “clear, light,” and says, that εἷμα or ἱμάτιον is always
understood with it.

-----

Another article of female dress was the _Zoma_, a short vest fitting
close to the shape, and adorned at the bottom with fringe, as appears
from a fragment of Æschylus in the Onomasticon. A character of Menander,
too, exclaims,—“Don’t you perceive the nurse habited in her Zoma?”—for,
adds Pollux, it was generally worn by old women. An elegant woollen
dress, called _Parapechu_, white, but with purple sleeves, was imported
from Corinth, and would appear to have been much worn by the
Hetairæ.[169] Other garments seem to have been affected by the middle
class of citizens, who, being unable to dress in purple,[170] the
distinguishing colour of the wealthy and the noble, brought into fashion
the _Paruphes_ and _Paralourges_, robes adorned on either side with a
purple stripe. As much dignity is supposed to belong to ample drapery,
our citizen ladies took care not to be sparing of stuff, their dresses
trailing to the ground, and displaying numerous folds, produced
purposely at the extremity by a band passing round the edge. These
garments were generally of linen; but when a lady, in Homer, is said to
be wrapped in her shining mantle, the poet[171] is supposed to intend a
fine, light, woollen cloak, like the white burnooses of the Tunisian and
Egyptian ladies.[172]

-----

Footnote 169:

Poll. vii. 53. Jam παράπηχυ λήδιον vel ἱμάτιον, collatis Hesychii et
Pollucis interpretationibus, intelligi videtur dictam fuisse vestem
albam cui manicæ adpositæ essent purpureæ.—Schweig. ad Athen. xiii.
45. t. xii. p. 146.

Footnote 170:

Athen. xiii. 45. Poll. _ubi supra_.

Footnote 171:

Iliad, γ. 141.

Footnote 172:

Poll. vii. 54.

-----

Several sorts of dresses obtained their appellation from their colours;
as the _Crocotos_, a saffron robe of ceremony, the _Crocotion_, a
diminutive of the same; the _Omphakinon_, of the colour of unripe
grapes, which, though prescriptively appropriated to women, was much
affected by Alexander the Great. Modern ladies have delighted in
flea-coloured dresses, and, in like manner, the ancients had theirs of
asinine hue, called _Killios_, from a Doric name for the ass, and
afterwards _Onagrinos_,[173] which, if they really resembled the wild
ass in hue, must have been exceedingly beautiful. There was a scarlet
robe, with the appellation of _Coccobaphes_, the _Sisys_, a thick heavy
cloak, likewise called _Hyphandron Himation_, resembling the
_Amphimallos_, which had a double warp, and was hairy on both
sides.[174]

-----

Footnote 173:

Among the Dorians the ass (ὄνος) was called κίλλος, and an ass-driver
(ὀνηλάτης) κιλλακτὴρ. Poll. vii. 56.

Footnote 174:

Poll. vii. 56, seq.

-----

Not to extend this list of dresses beyond the patience of a milliner, we
will now pass on to the principal ornaments for the head,[175] in which
the Greek ladies evinced extraordinary taste and invention.[176] Among
these one of the most elegant was the _Ampyx_, a fillet by which they
confined their hair in front. It sometimes consisted of a piece of gold
embroidery, the place of which was often supplied by a thin plate of
pure gold, studded with jewels. Another Homeric ornament, the
_Kekruphalos_,[177] can only be alluded to as a critical puzzle which
has baffled all the commentators, in which predicament the _Plekte
anadesme_[178] also stands; all that we know being, that it found its
place in the female head-dress, though whether as a mitre or a diadem
Apollonios is unable to determine. It may possibly have been, under
another appellation, that graceful wreath or garland, consisting of
fragrant flowers interwoven or bound together by their stems, described
among female ornaments by Pollux.[179]

-----

Footnote 175:

Cf. Winkelmann, iv. 2. 76. Alex. Pædag. ii. 12.

Footnote 176:

Theoc. Eidyll. i. 33. Æmil. Port. Lex. Dor. in voce.

Footnote 177:

Iliad. χ. 469. Heyne in loc. Pollux. v. 95, enumerates the ἄμπυξ among
female ornaments, but without giving any description of it. Cf. Pind.
Olymp. vii. 118. Dissen. Comm. ad v. 64. Bœttiger. Pictur. Vascul. i.
87.—The κεκρύφαλος, or κροκύφαντος,, which occurs once in the Iliad,
was a female ornament for the head, unknown to the later Greeks. The
scholiast describes it as κόσμος τὶς περὶ κεφαλήν; and Damm observes
that, it was “redimiculam _vel_ reticulam quo mulieres crines
coërcent.”—1158. Heyne is equally unsatisfactory. The commentators on
Pollux. v. 95, avoid the subject altogether. Cf. Foës. Œcon. Hippoc.
p. 202.

Footnote 178:

Iliad, χ. 469. Πλεκτὴ ἀναδέσμη· οἱ μὲν διάδημα, says Apollonios, οἱ δὲ
μίτραν. Πλὴν κοσμου εἶδος περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν. This is the basis of
Hesychius’ article. The Leyden scholia say:—ἀναδέσμη λέγεται, σειρὰ,
ἥν περὶ τοὺς κροτάφους ἀναδοῦνται· καλεῖται δ᾽ ὑπ’ ἑνίων καλανδάκη.
(In which Heyne imagines we may detect _calantica_, “a hood, hurlet,
or coif.”) Κρήδεμνον δὲ πάλιν τὸ μαφόριον.

Footnote 179:

Poll. v. 96. Iliad. σ. 595. In Homer the epithet, however, is not
πλεκτὴ but καλὴ. Hemsterhuis ad Poll. t. iv. p. 998.

-----

Another article of the same ambiguous character was the _Pylæon_,
supposed to have derived its name from φύλον, _a leaf_. Athenæus,[180]
on a subject of this kind, perhaps, one of the best authorities,
describes it as the crown which, during certain festivals, the Spartans
placed upon the head of Hera. Doubtless, however, the most tasteful and
elegant of this class of female ornaments was the _Kalyx_, a golden
syrinx or reed, passed like a ring over each several tress to keep it
separate.[181] Eustathius describes it as a ring resembling a
full-blown, but not expanded, rose; and this explanation will not be
inconsistent with that of Hesychius, if we suppose the golden tubes to
have terminated in the form of that flower. The _Strophion_ was a band
or fillet[182] with which women confined their hair, as we discover from
many ancient statues. Parrhasios the artist, who used to bind his
luxuriant locks with a white strophion, was therefore accused of
effeminacy.[183] The name, however, appears to have been applied to any
kind of band, even to the broad belt worn to support the bosom: “My
strophion being untied the walnuts fell out,” says the girl in
Aristophanes.[184] There was also an ornament of the same name worn by
priests.[185]

-----

Footnote 180:

Deipnosoph. xv. 22. Cf. Poll. v. 96.

Footnote 181:

Cœl. Rhodig. xxvii. 27, imagines it to mean a female head-dress, or a
parasol. Jungermann. ad Poll. v. 96. Eustath. ad Iliad. β. 401.

Footnote 182:

On a mask, engraved among the Gemm. Antich. of Agostini, we find an
exact representation of the modern feronet, pl. 24.

Footnote 183:

Athen. xii. 62. Pollux. v. 96.

Footnote 184:

Poll. vii. 67. 95.

Footnote 185:

Plut. Arat. § 58.

-----

The _Opisthosphendone_,[186] one of the female ornaments enumerated in a
fragment of Aristophanes, was worn only on the stage. Its proper name
_sphendone_ it derived from its resemblance to a sling, being broad and
elevated in front,[187] and terminating in narrow points at the back of
the head where it was tied. On the comic stage it was sometimes worn for
sport with the fore part behind.[188] The _Anadesma_[189] was a gilded
fillet or diadem of gold, used like the _strophion_ for encircling the
forehead. What was the precise use or form of the _Xanion_, another
golden ornament fashionable in remote antiquity, could not be
ascertained in the age of Pollux, who says that many writers supposed it
to have been a comb. Of this number are Hesychius, Suidas,[190] and
Phavorinus. But a learned modern conjectures with more probability, that
it was some talismanic idol worn as a spell against the evil eye.[191]
In fact it is expressly observed in the Etymologicon Magnum,[192] that
the Hellenic women reckoned it among their phylacteries.

-----

Footnote 186:

Clem. Alexand. Pædag. ii. 12. Winkelmann, Histoire de l’Art. iv. 2.
75. note 6, and i. 2. 18. See also Cabinet Pio Clement, t. i. pl. 2,
with the observations of Visconti.

Footnote 187:

Cf. Mus. Chiaramont, pl. 20.

Footnote 188:

Poll. v. 96. vii. 95. Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg, v. 7. Comment. ad
Poll. iv. 999. On the κάλαμος, named but not described by Pollux, v.
96, see Eustath. ad Il. τ. p. 1248. Phavor. et Hesych. _in voce_
καλαμις. What the ἔντροπον was, Jungermann confesses he does not know;
nor do I, though it appears probable that it may have been the golden
or gilt ornament with which the hair when gathered on the top of the
head was bound together.

Footnote 189:

Damm. 444. Aristoph. Plut. 589. Poll. v. 96.

Footnote 190:

This lexicographer speaks of it as follows:—κτένιον. ὁ φοροῦσιν αἱ
γυναῖκες ἐν τοῖς ἀναδέμασιν, οἷς κόσμος χρυσοῦς ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς. t. ii. p.
252. b.

Footnote 191:

612, 23, seq.

Footnote 192:

Hemsterhuis. ad Poll. t. iv. p. 1000.

-----

Of the ear-rings worn by Grecian women the variety was very great. The
most ancient kind were called _Hermata_, of which mention occurs both in
the Iliad and the Odyssey.[193] They were usually adorned with three
emerald drops,[194] for which reason they were by the Athenians
denominated _Triopia_ or _Triopides_,[195] and by the other Greeks
_Triopthalma_ or “the triple eye.” By this word, as an ancient
grammarian informs us, some understood an animal like the beetle,
supposed to have three eyes, whence a necklace with three hyaline or
crystal eyes, depending from it in front, was likewise called by the
same name. Pollux[196] supposed the earrings of Hera to have been
adorned with three diminutive figures in precious stones, or gold,
probably of goddesses. The _Diopos_ seems to have been an earring with
two drops. The _Helix_ appears in Homer[197] rather to mean an earring
than an armlet, and to have received its name from its circular shape or
curvature; but the spiral gold rings round the walking-stick of
Parrhasios are also called _Helices_ by Athenæus.[198] Another name for
this sort of earring was _Heliktes_.[199] In the Æolic dialect earrings
were called _Siglai_, in the Doric _Artiala_. A particular kind
denominated _Enclastridia_ and _Strobelia_, by the comic poets, had gold
drops in the form of a pine cone.[200] Two very curious kinds of
earrings were the _Caryatides_, and the _Hippocampia_, the former
representing in miniature the architectural figures, so called, the
latter little horses with tails ending in a fish. There were earrings,
likewise, with drops in the forms of centaurs and other fantastic
creations.[201]

-----

Footnote 193:

Il. ξ. 182. Odys. σ. 296. Ælian. Var. Hist. i. 18.

Footnote 194:

Fabri. Thes. v. auris.

Footnote 195:

Damm. 2195, reads τριότταια, and τριοττίδες, in the passage of
Eustathius, which forms the basis of my text; but Kuhn and Jungermann
ad Poll. t. iv. p. 1003, correct as above.

Footnote 196:

Onomast. v. 97.

Footnote 197:

Il. σ. 401. Cf. Eustath. ad Odyss. ω. 49.

Footnote 198:

Deipnosoph. xii. 62.

Footnote 199:

Poll. v. 97.

Footnote 200:

Jungermann ad Poll. t. iv. 1001.

Footnote 201:

Poll. v. 95.

-----

The names and figures of necklaces were scarcely less numerous.[202] A
jewelled collar fitting tight to the throat formed, under the name of
_Peritrachelion_, the principal of these ornaments, of which another was
the _Perideraion_.[203] The _Hypoderaion_ was as its name imports a
necklace that hung low on the bosom, and the same was the case with the
_Hormos_.[204] On the _Tantheuristos Hormos_ little information can be
obtained, for which reason the commentators would alter the text; but
the most probable conjecture is, that it obtained its appellation from
the flashing and glancing of the jewels depending from it upon the
breast.[205] The _Triopis_ was a species of necklace distinguished for
having three stars or eye-like gems depending from it as drops. This
being the most fashionable necklace was known under a variety of names,
as the _Kathema_, and _Katheter_, and _Mannos_ or _Monnos_, among the
Dorians.[206]

-----

Footnote 202:

Odyss. σ. 290. Hymn, in Ven. ii. 11, seq. Necklaces of gilded wood.
Xen. Œcon. x. 3. 61.

Footnote 203:

Plut. Mar. § 17. Bulenger, De Spoliis Bellicis, c. 12.

Footnote 204:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 677.

Footnote 205:

Comment. ad Poll. v. 98 p. 1003.

Footnote 206:

Theocrit. xi. 41. Casaub. Lect. Theocrit. c. 13.

-----

Of armlets and bracelets there was likewise a great variety. Some worn
above the elbow were denominated _Brachionia_, others called
_Pericarpia_, or _Echinoi_ encircled the wrists and were often in the
form of twisted snakes of gold, which the woman-hater in Lucian would
have converted into real serpents.[207] The _Psellia_ or chain bracelets
were much worn; the _Clidones_ adorned the rich and luxurious only. As
stockings were not in common use, and shoes and sandals frequently
dispensed with when within doors, fashion required that the feet and
ankles should not remain unadorned. Ancient writers, accordingly,
enumerate several kinds of anklets, or bangles, all of gold, and varying
only in form, the distinction between which I have been unable to
discover. The _Ægle,_ the _Pede_ and the _Periscelides_ were so many
ornaments for the instep or ankle.[208]

-----

Footnote 207:

Amor. § 41.

Footnote 208:

Poll. v. 100. Golden periscelides are enumerated by Longus l. i. among
the possessions of the young Lesbian girl; and Horace, Epist. i. xvii.
56, speaks of the periscelis being snatched away from a courtezan.
Here Dr. Bentley understands the word to mean _tibialia_, and
observes,—“delicatulæ fasciolis involvebant sibi crura et femora.” But
Gesner ad Horat. p. 503, seq. rather supposes “compedes mulierum,” to
be intended, and he is probably right. Cf. Petron. Sat. c. 67.

-----

Among the ornaments for the bosom we find the _Ægis_, evidently like the
ægis of Athena, a sort of rich covering with two hemispherical caps to
receive the breasts, such as we find worn by the Bayadères of the
Dekkan. Extending from this on either side, or passing over its lower
edge was the _Maschalister_, a broad belt which covered the armpits,
though in Herodotus the word merely signifies a sword-belt.[209]

Like all other delicate and luxurious women, the Grecian ladies
displayed upon their fingers a profusion of rings, of which some were
set with signets, others with jewels remarkable for their colour and
brilliance. To each of these their copious language supplied a distinct
name.[210] Other female ornaments are spoken of by the comic poets; but
in their descriptions it is difficult to distinguish satire from
information. Among these were the _Leroi_, golden drops attached to the
tunic; the _Ochthoiboi_, which seem to have been a sort of rich tassels;
the _Helleboroi_, ornaments shaped perhaps like the leaves or flowers of
that plant; and the _Pompholuges_, which, though left unexplained by the
commentators, probably signified a large clear kind of bead, as the word
originally meant a “water-bubble,” which a transparent bead
resembles.[211]

-----

Footnote 209:

Cf. Mus. Chiaram. pl. 14. pl. 18.

Footnote 210:

Poll. v. 101. Rhodig. vi. 12.

Footnote 211:

Poll. v. 101. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 249. Bergler ad loc. renders
it by _bulla_, which, among the Romans, signified “a golden ornament
worn about the neck, or at the breast of children, fashioned like a
heart, and hollow within, which they wore until they were fourteen
years old, and then hung up to the household gods.”—Porphyr. in Horat.
vid. et Fab. Thes. in v.

-----

The Athenian ladies, likewise, displayed their taste for luxury and
splendour in their shoes and sandals.[212] Like our own fashionable
dames, they seldom contented themselves with articles of home
manufacture, but imported whatever was considered most elegant or
tasteful from the neighbouring countries. Sometimes, perhaps, the
fashion only and the name were imported, as in the case of the Persian
half-boot, fitting tight to the ankle.[213] The same thing may probably
be said of the Sicyonian slipper. But there was an elegant sandal,
ornamented with gold, which, down to a very late period, continued to be
imported from Patara, in Lycia.[214] Snow-white slippers of fine linen,
flowered with needlework, were occasionally worn; and from many ancient
statues it would seem, that something very like stockings had been
already introduced. Short women, desirous of adding, if not a cubit, at
least a few inches to their stature, adopted the use of _baukides_ with
high cork heels, and soles of great thickness.[215]

-----

Footnote 212:

Diog. Laert. ii. 37. c. Sch. Aristoph. Lysist. 417. Wooden shoes were
worn in Thessaly. With these the women killed Lais in the temple of
Aphrodite—Athen. xiii. 55. There was a species of shoes peculiar to
female slaves called peribarides.—Poll. vii. 87. Aristoph. Lysist. 47.

Footnote 213:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 152. See in Antich. di Ercol. t. vi. p. 11, a
representation of half-boots open in front.

Footnote 214:

Lucian, Diall. Meret. xiv. 3. ἐκ Πατάρων σανδάλια ἐπίχρυσα.

Footnote 215:

Athen. xiii. 23. Poll. vii. 94.

-----

An Athenian beauty usually spent the whole morning in the important
business of the toilette.[216] The crowd of maids who attended on these
occasions appears to have exceeded in number the assistants at similar
rites in a modern dressing-room, the principle of the division of labour
having been pushed to its greatest extent. Like Hera, who was said by
mythologists to renew her virgin charms as often as she bathed in the
fountain of Canathos,[217] the Attic lady appeared to undergo diurnal
rejuvenescence under the hands of her maids.[218] Her lovely face grew
tenfold more lovely by their arts. Clustering in interesting groups
around her, some held the silver basin and ewer, others the boxes of
tooth-powder, or black paint for the eyebrows, the rouge pots or the
blanching varnish, the essence-bottles or the powder for the head, the
jewel-cases or the mirrors.[219] But on nothing was so much care
bestowed as on the hair.[220] Auburn, the colour of Aphrodite’s
tresses[221] in Homer, being considered most beautiful,[222] drugs were
invented in which the hair being dipped, and exposed to the noon-day
sun, it acquired the coveted hue, and fell in golden curls over their
shoulders.[223] Others, contented with their own black hair, exhausted
their ingenuity in augmenting its rich gloss, steeping it in oils and
essences, till all the fragrance of Arabia seemed to breathe around
them. Those waving ringlets which we admire in their sculpture were
often the creation of art, being produced by curling-irons heated in
ashes;[224] after which, by the aid of jewelled fillets and golden pins,
they were brought forward over the smooth white forehead,[225] which
they sometimes shaded to the eyebrows, leaving a small ivory space in
the centre, while behind they floated in shining profusion down the
back. When decked in this manner, and dressed for the harem[226] in
their light flowered sandals and semi-transparent robes already
described, they were scarcely farther removed from the state of nature
than the Spartan maids themselves.

-----

Footnote 216:

Their perfumes and essences were kept in alabaster boxes from
Phœnicia, some of which cost no more than two drachmæ.—Lucian, Diall.
Meret. xiv. 2.

Footnote 217:

Paus. ii. 37, 38.

Footnote 218:

Aristoph. Concion. 732, et Schol.

Footnote 219:

Pignor. de Serv. p. 195.

Footnote 220:

Cf. Suid. v. κομᾷ. t. i. p. 1489. b.

Footnote 221:

See Pashley, i. 247. Pignor. de Serv. 193.

Footnote 222:

“The beautiful colour we call auburn, and which the ancients expressed
by the term golden, is the most common among the Greeks; and they have
gilt wire and various other ornaments (among which might yet perhaps
be recognised the Athenian grasshopper) in ringlets, which they allow
to float over their shoulders, or bind their hair in long tresses that
hang upon the back.”—Douglas, Essay, &c. p. 147, seq.

Footnote 223:

This is beautifully described by Lucian:—Γυναικὶ δὲ ἀεὶ πάσῃ ἡ τοῦ
δαψιλεῖς μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν βοστρύχων τῆς κεφαλῆς ἕλικες, ὑακίνθοις τὸ καλὸν
ἀνθοῦσιν ὅμοια πορφύροντες· οἱ μὲν, ἐπινώτιοι κέχυνται μεταφρένων
κόσμος, οἱ δε παρ’ ὦτα καὶ κροτάφους, πολὺ τῶν ἐν λειμῶνι οὐλότερον
σελίνων· τὸ δ᾽ ἄλλο σῶμα, μηδ᾽ ἀκαρῆ τριχὸς αὐταῖς ὑποφυομένης
ἠλέκτρου, φάσιν, ἢ Σιδωνίας ὑέλου διαφεγγέστιρον ἀπαστραπται.—Amor. §
26.

Footnote 224:

Pignor. de Serv. 194, seq.

Footnote 225:

The young lady, in Lucian, describes thin hair drawn back so as to
expose the forehead as a great deformity.—Diall. Meret. i.

Footnote 226:

A taste not greatly dissimilar presides over the in-door dress of the
modern Greek women. “In the gynecæum,” says Chandler, “the girl, like
Thetis, treading on a soft carpet, has her white and delicate feet
naked; the nails tinged with red. Her trowsers, which in winter are of
red cloth, and in summer of fine calico or thin gauze, descend from
the hip to the ankle, hanging loosely about her limbs, the lower
portion embroidered with flowers, and appearing beneath the shift,
which has the sleeves wide and open, and the seams and edges curiously
adorned with needlework. Her vest is of silk, exactly fitted to the
form of the bosom and the shape of the body, which it rather covers
than conceals, and is shorter than the shift. The sleeves button
occasionally to the hand, and are lined with red or yellow satin. A
rich zone encompasses her waist, and is fastened before by clasps of
silver gilded, or of gold, set with precious stones. Over the vest is
a robe, in summer lined with ermine, and in cold weather with fur. The
head-dress is a skull-cap, red or green, with pearls; a stay under the
chin, and a yellow fore-head cloth, She has bracelets of gold on her
wrists; and, like Aurora, is rosy-fingered, the tips being stained.
Her necklace is a string of zechins, a species of gold coin, or of the
pieces called Byzantines. At her cheeks is a lock of hair made to curl
toward the face; and down her back falls a profusion of tresses,
spreading over her shoulders.”—ii. 140.

-----

Contrary to the fashion prevalent in modern times the bosom, however,
was always closely covered, because being extremely full shaped it began
very early to lose its firmness and beauty.[227] Earrings, set with
Red-Sea pearls of great price, depended from their ears, and an
orbicular crown studded with Indian jewels surmounted and contrasted
strikingly with their dark locks. Add to these the jewelled throat
bands, and costly and glittering necklaces. Their cheeks though
sometimes pale by nature, blushed with rouge,[228] and they even
possessed the art to superinduce over this artificial complexion that
peach-like purple bloom which belongs to the very earliest, dewiest dawn
of beauty. To the tint of the rose they could likewise add that of the
lily. White paint was in common use,[229] not merely among unmarried
women, and ladies of equivocal reputation, but with matrons the chastest
and most prudent in Athens, for we find that pattern of an Attic
gentlewoman, the wife of Ischomachos, practising after marriage every
delusive art of the toilette.[230]

-----

Footnote 227:

Lucian. Amor. § 41. Homer in numerous passages celebrates the deep
bosoms of his country women, and Anacreon, also, touches more than
once on the same topic.

Footnote 228:

Anchusa. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 8. 3. Dion. Chrysost. i. 262. Poll.
vii. 95. Aristoph. Lysist. 46. et Schol. Muret. Not. in Xen. Cyrop. p.
743, seq. Xen. Cyrop. i. 3. 2.

Footnote 229:

Poll. v. 101, vii. 95.

Footnote 230:

Xenoph. Œconom. x. 2, 60.

-----

It by no means follows that all this attention[231] to dress had any
other object than to please their husbands; for the Turkish Sultanas who
pass their lives in the most rigid seclusion are no less sumptuous in
their apparel; but we know that at Athens, as in London, much of this
care was designed to excite admiration out of doors. For it is highly
erroneous to transfer to Athens the ideas of female seclusion acquired
from travellers in the East, where no such rigid seclusion was ever
known. Husbands, indeed, who had cause, or supposed they had, to be
jealous, might be put on the rack by beholding the crowds of admirers
who flocked around their wives the moment they issued into the streets.
But there was no remedy. The laws and customs of the country often
forced the women abroad to assist at processions and perform their
devotions at the shrines of various goddesses.[232]

-----

Footnote 231:

Cf. Xen. de Vect. iv. 8.

Footnote 232:

Luc. Amor. § 41, seq. Cf. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 339. Aristoph.
Plut. 1015, et schol. Plut. Vit. x. Orat. Lycurg. In the country, too,
women went often abroad, and evidently led a very comfortable life;
their habits, in fact, greatly resembled those of English country
ladies; the wives of men whose estates lay contiguous freely visiting
and gossiping with each other. Thus in the action on the damage caused
by the torrent, we find the wife of Tisias and the mother of Callicles
discussing the spoiling of the barley and the barley meal, and
meeting, evidently, as often as they thought proper. In fact, before
the quarrel, the footpath across the field was clearly well
worn.—Demosth. in Call. § 7.

-----

The dress of men included many of the garments worn by women; for
example, the chiton of which there were several kinds, some with and
some without sleeves. Among the latter was the _Exomis_,[233] a short
tunic worn by aged men and slaves, but the name was sometimes applied to
a garment thrown loosely round the body, and to the chiton with one
sleeve.[234] Over this in Homeric times was worn as a defence against
the cold, the _Chlaina_[235] a cloak strongly resembling a highlander’s
tartan, or the burnoose of the Bedouin Arab. It was, in fact, a square
piece of cloth, occasionally with the corners rounded off, which,
passing over the left shoulder, and under the right arm, was again
thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the spear arm free.[236] This is
what the poet means where he terms the _Chlaina_ double. It was wrapped
twice round the breast, and fastened over the left shoulder by a
brooch.[237] Even this, however, was not deemed sufficient in very cold
weather, and a cloak of skins sown together with thongs was wrapped
about the body as a defence against the rain or snow. Some persons
appear to have worn skin-cloaks all the year round, for we find
Anaxagoras, in the midst of summer at Olympia, putting on his when he
foresaw there would be rain.[238] Rustics also appear to have considered
a tunic and skin-cloak necessary to complete their costume.[239]

-----

Footnote 233:

Aristoph. Lysist. 662.

Footnote 234:

Poll. vii. 49.

Footnote 235:

If the appearance of a ghost can be regarded as good testimony, it may
be concluded that the Thessalians wore the chlamys, since Achilles
when called up by Apollonios of Tyana, presented himself in that
garment.—Philost. Vit. Apoll. iv. 16.

Footnote 236:

Müll. Dor. ii. 283. Diog. Laert. ii. 47. Clothes were suspended in the
house on pegs.—Odyss. α. 440.

Footnote 237:

Il. ω. 230. Poll. vii. 49.

Footnote 238:

Diog. Laert. ii. iii. 5. Cum not. Menag. t. ii. p. 49.

Footnote 239:

Dion, Chrysost. i. 231. Reiske. On the dress of the Arcadians, Polyæn.
Stratagem. iv. 14.

-----

The Dorian style of dress formed the point of transition from the simple
elegance of the Homeric period to the elaborate splendour of the
historic age at Athens. In this mode of clothing, a modern author
remarks, a peculiar taste was displayed, an antique simplicity “equally
removed from the splendour of Asiatics, and the uncleanliness of
barbarians.”[240] They preserved the use of the Homeric chiton, or
woollen shirt, and over this wore also the _Chlaina_ or _Himation_, in
the manner described above. To these was added the _Chlamys_, which, as
the Spartan laws prohibited dyeing, was universally white, and
denominated _Hololeukos_.[241]

-----

Footnote 240:

Müller. Hist. Dor. ii. 277. See the picturesque description which
Hesiod gives of the rustic winter costume of Bœotia. Opp. et Dies,
534, sqq. Goettl.

Footnote 241:

Poll. vii. 46.

-----

It was of Thessalian or Macedonian origin, of an oblong form, the points
meeting on the right shoulder, where they were fastened with a clasp.
This garment was not in use in the heroic ages, and the earliest mention
of it occurs in Sappho;[242] but when once introduced, it quickly grew
fashionable, at first among the young men, afterwards as a military
cloak. At Athens it was regarded as a mark of effeminacy, and was
fastened with a gold or jewelled brooch on the breast.[243]

-----

Footnote 242:

Σαπφὼ πρώτη γὰρ μέμνηται τῆς χλαμύδος.—Ammonius, p. 147. Valcken.

Footnote 243:

Heliodor. i. and ii.

-----

The men of Sparta, though less thinly clad than the women, still went
abroad very scantily covered. Their _Tribon_, a variety of the
himation,[244] like the cloak of the poor Spanish gentleman, was clipped
so close that it would barely enclose their persons, like a case, but
was thick and heavy, and calculated to last. Accordingly, the youth were
allowed only one of these per annum, so that, in warm weather, it is
probable that, with an eye to saving it for winter, they exchanged it
for that more lasting coat with which nature had furnished them.[245] In
the towns, however, and as often as they thought proper to put on the
appearance of extreme modesty, the young Spartans drew close their
cloaks around them so as to conceal their hands,[246] the exhibiting of
which has always been regarded as a mark of vulgarity. Hence the use of
gloves, and the affectation of soft white hands in modern times. The
same notions prevail even among the Turks, who, like Laertes in Homer,
wear long sleeves to their pelisses for the purpose of defending the
hand, to have which white and well-shaped is among them a mark of noble
blood.

-----

Footnote 244:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 415. Cf. Vesp. 116, 475.

-----

The Spartans had the good taste to suffer their beards and hair to grow
long, and were at much pains to render them glossy and shining. Even in
the field, contrary to the practice at Athens, they preserved this
natural ornament of their heads, and we find them busy in combing and
putting it in order on the very eve of battle.[247] It was usually
parted at the top, and was, in fact, the most becoming covering
imaginable. But they set little value on cleanliness, and bathed and
perfumed themselves seldom, being evidently of opinion,[248] that a
brave man ought not to be too spruce. However, having no object to gain
by aping the exterior of mendicants, they eschewed the wearing of ragged
cloaks, which, indeed, was forbidden by law.

-----

Footnote 245:

Plut. Lyc. § 16. Inst. Lac. § 5.

Footnote 246:

Xenoph. de Rep. Laced. iii. 4. Of Phocion, an imitator of Spartan
manners, the same thing is related.—Plut Phoc. § 4.

Footnote 247:

Herod. vii. 208, with the notes of Valckenaar and Wesseling.

Footnote 248:

Plut. Instit. Lacon. § 5.

-----

But the Athenians ran into the opposite extreme. Wealthy, and fond of
show, they delighted in a style of dress in the highest degree curious
and magnificent, appearing abroad in flowing robes of the finest linen,
dyed with purple and other brilliant colours.[249] Beneath these they
wore tunics of various kinds, which, though the fashion afterwards
changed, were at first sleeveless, since we find the women, in
Aristophanes, suffering the hair to grow under their arm-pits to avoid
being discovered when, disguised as their husbands, they should hold up
their hands to vote in the assembly.[250]

-----

Footnote 249:

Thucyd. i. 6. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 167. Tim. Lex. 188. Aristoph.
Eccles. 332. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 879. Lucian. Amor. § 3.

Footnote 250:

Aristoph. Concion. 60, et Schol.

-----

Like the women, they affected much variety and splendour in their rings,
which were sometimes set with a stone with the portrait engraved thereon
of some friend or benefactor, as Athenion wore on one of his the
portrait of Mithridates.[251]

-----

Footnote 251:

Athen. v. 49.—Even slaves were in the habit of wearing rings set with
precious stones, sometimes of three colours, of which several
specimens are found in the British Museum. Thus, in Lucian, we find
Parmenon, the servant of Polemon, with a ring of this kind on his
little finger.—Diall. Meret. ix. 2. Cf. Hemster. ad Poll. ix. 96. t.
vi. p. 1193.

-----

In his girdle and shoes,[252] too, the Athenian betrayed his love of
splendour. The hair worn long like that of the ladies,[253] was curled
or braided and built up in glossy masses on the crown of the head, or
arranged artfully along the forehead by golden grasshoppers.[254] But as
all this pile of ringlets could not be thrust into the helmet, it was
customary in time of war to cut the hair short, which the fashionable
young men reckoned among its most serious hardships. Hats[255] were not
habitually worn, though on journeys or promenades undertaken during hot
weather they formed a necessary part of the costume. Above all things
the Athenian citizen affected extreme cleanliness and neatness in his
person, and the same taste descended even to the slaves who in the
streets could scarcely be distinguished by dress, hair, or ornaments,
from their masters.[256]

-----

Footnote 252:

Poll. vii. 92, seq.

Footnote 253:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 329.

Footnote 254:

Athen. xii. 5. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 1328. Nub. 971.

Footnote 255:

It is very clear from a passage in Demosthenes (De Fals. Leg. § 72),
that hats or caps were sometimes worn in the city. There are those
indeed who suppose the word to mean a wig; but Brodæus disposes of
this by inquiring whether sick persons would be likely to go to bed
with their wigs on as men did with their πιλίδια. Miscell. i. 13.
However, I must confess their wearing hats in bed is still less
likely. The Bœotians appeared in winter with caps which covered the
ears. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 545. On the form of which, see Theoph.
Hist. Plant. iii. 9. 6, with the note of Schneid. t. iii. p. 191.

Footnote 256:

Xenoph. de Rep. Athen. i. 10.

-----

Even the philosophers, after holding out a long time, yielded to the
influence of fashion, and, lest their profession should suffer, became
exquisites in its defence. Your truly wise man, says an unexceptionable
witness in a matter of this kind, has his hair closely shaved, (this was
an eastern innovation,) but suffers his magnificent beard to fall in
wavy curls over his breast. His shoes, fitting tight as wax, are
supported by a net-work of thongs, disposed at equal distances up the
small of the leg. A chlamys puffed out effeminately at the breast
conceals his figure, and like a foreigner he leans contemplatively upon
his staff.[257]

-----

Footnote 257:

Athen. xi. 120. On the gorgeous dress of the painter Parrhasios. xii.
62.

-----

But the art of dress appears to have received its greatest improvements
in Ionia, where, according to Democritos, the Ephesian, both the
garments, at one time in fashion, and the stuffs of which they
consisted, were varied with a skill and fertility of invention worthy of
a polished people. Some persons, he says, appeared in robes of a violet,
others of a purple, others of a saffron colour, sprinkled with dusky
lozenges. As at Athens, much attention was bestowed on the hair, which
they adorned with small ornamental figures. Their vests were yellow,
like a ripe quince, or purple, or crimson, or pure white. Even their
tunics, imported from Corinth, were of the finest texture, and of the
richest dyes, hyacinthine or violet, flame-coloured or deep sea-green.
Others adopted the Persian _calasiris_,[258] of all tunics the most
superb, and there were those among the opulent who even affected the
Persian _actœa_, a shawl-mantle of the costliest and most gorgeous
appearance. It was formed of a close-woven, but light stuff, bedropped
with golden beads in the form of millet-seed, which were connected with
the tissue by slender eyes passing through the stuff and fastened by a
purple thread.[259]

-----

Footnote 258:

We find mention made of Persian dresses variegated with the figures of
animals. Philost. Icon. ii. 32.

Footnote 259:

Athen. xii. 29.

-----

Duris, on the authority of the poet Asios, draws a scarcely less
extravagant picture of the luxury and magnificence of the Samians, who,
on certain festivals, appeared in public adorned, like women, with
glittering bracelets, their hair floating on their shoulders, skilfully
braided into tresses. The words of Asios preserved in the Deipnosophist
are as follow: “Thus proceed they to the fane of Hera, clothed in
magnificent robes, with snowy pelisses, trailing behind them on the
ground. Glistening ornaments of gold, like grasshoppers, surmount the
crown of their heads, while their luxuriant tresses float behind in the
wind, intermingled with golden chains. Bracelets of variegated
workmanship adorn their arms, as the warrior is adorned by his shield
thongs.”[260] This excess of effeminate luxury, attended as everywhere
else by enervating vices, terminated in the ruin of Samos. Similar
manners in the Colophonians drew upon them a similar fate, and so in
every other Grecian community; for men never learn wisdom by the example
of others, but hurry on in the career of indulgence as if in the hope
that Providence might overlook them, or set aside, in their favour, its
eternal laws.

-----

Footnote 260:

Athen. xii. 30.

-----

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.
PRIVATE DWELLINGS.

The opinion appears to prevail among certain writers, that the private
dwellings of the Hellenes, or at least of the Athenians, were always
mean and insignificant.[261] This imaginary fact they account for by
supposing, that nobles and opulent citizens were deterred from indulging
in the luxuries of architecture by the form of government and the
envious jealousy of the common people. But such a view of the matter is
inconsistent with the testimony of history. At Athens, as everywhere
else, things followed their natural course. In the early ages of the
commonwealth, when manners were simple, the houses of the greatest men
in the state differed very little from those of their neighbours. As
wealth, however, and luxury increased, together with the developement of
the democratic principle, individuals erected themselves mansions vying
in extent and splendour with the public edifices of the state;[262] and
as the polity degenerated more and more into ochlocracy, the dwellings
of the rich[263] increased in size and grandeur, until they at length
outstripped the very temples of the gods. A similar process took place
at Sparta, where shortly after the Peloponnesian war, the more
distinguished citizens possessed suburban villas, which seem to have
been of spacious dimensions and filled with costly furniture.[264]

-----

Footnote 261:

But even from a fragment of Bacchylides we may infer the magnificence
of Grecian houses; for the poor man who drinks wine, he says, sees his
house blazing with gold and ivory:

χρυσῷ δ᾽ ἐλεφαντί τε
μαρμαίρουσιν οἶκοι.
Athen. ii. 10.

Men had by this time advanced considerably from the state in which
they are supposed to have built their huts in imitation of the
swallow’s nest. Vitruv. ii. 1.

Footnote 262:

Plat. Repub. iv. t. vi. p. 165. Dion Chrysost. i. 262. ii. 459. Dem.
cont. Mid. § 44.—Lucian. Amor. § 34.

Footnote 263:

Dem. Olynth. iii. § 9. De Rep. Ord. § 10.

Footnote 264:

Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 5. 27.

-----

Upon these points, however, I dwell, not from any belief that they are
honourable to the Greek character, but because they are true. It would
have been more satisfactory to find them preserving, in every period of
their history, the stern and lofty simplicity of republican manners, far
outshining in the eyes of the philosopher the palaces of Oriental kings
glittering with gold and ivory and jewels, insomuch that the cottage of
Socrates, erected in the humblest style of Athenian domestic
architecture, would be an object, were it still in existence, of far
deeper interest to the genuine lover of antiquity than the mansions of
Meidias or Callias, or even than the imperial abodes of Semiramis,
Darius, and Artaxerxes.

Nevertheless, wherever there exists opulence, it will exhibit itself in
the erection of stately dwellings; and accordingly we find that, prior
even to the Trojan war,[265] commerce and increasing luxury had already
inspired the Greeks with a taste for splendour and magnificence, which
displayed itself especially in the architecture and ornaments of their
palaces and houses of the great.[266]

-----

Footnote 265:

Cf. Athen. i. 28.

Footnote 266:

Cf. Müll. Dor. ii. 272.

-----

Homer, minute and graphic in his descriptions, delineates a very
flattering picture of Greek domestic architecture in his time, when the
chiefs and nobles had already begun to enshrine themselves in spacious
edifices, elaborately ornamented with, and surrounded by, all the
circumstances of pomp known to their age.[267]

-----

Footnote 267:

Il. β. 657, sqq.

-----

In those days the greatest men did not disdain to apply themselves to
agriculture, to have their dwellings surrounded by the signs and
implements of the pursuit in which they were engaged.[268] And as in
southern Italy the ancient nobles erected shops in front of their
palaces or villas, in which the produce of their land was disposed of,
so in the Homeric houses the same space was occupied by the farm-yard
enclosed by strong and lofty walls, surrounded by battlements, within
which were their heaps of manure, harrows, ploughs, carts, and waggons,
and stacks of hay and corn;[269] and hither, too, in the evening were
driven in their numerous flocks and herds, to protect them from the
nightly marauders. The great entrance gates were in the heroic ages
guarded by ban dogs,[270] which afterwards made way for porters,[271]
and in still later times were succeeded by eunuchs.[272]

-----

Footnote 268:

A similar taste prevailed among the Merovingian princes of France:
“The mansion of the long-haired kings was surrounded with convenient
yards and stables for the cattle and the poultry; the garden was
planted with useful vegetables; the various trades, the labours of
agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing were exercised
by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign; his magazines
were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or consumption, and
the whole administration was conducted by the strictest maxims of
private economy.”—Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ii.
356.

Footnote 269:

Hesych. v. αὐλῆς.

Footnote 270:

Feith. Antiq. Hom. iii. 10. p. 242.

Footnote 271:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 145.

Footnote 272:

Plat. Protag. t. i. p. 159. Cf. Aristid. t. i. p. 518. Jebb.

-----

Occasionally for the canine doorkeepers were substituted in commercial
states gold and silver representations, more likely to attract than
repel thieves; for example, at the entrance to Alcinoös’s palace were
groups of this description, attributed to the wonder-working
Hephæstos.[273] A coarse imitation of this practice prevailed among the
Romans, for we find in Petronius that Trimalchio had his court guarded
by a painted mastiff, over which in good square characters were the
words “Beware of the dog.”[274]

-----

Footnote 273:

Odyss. η. 93.

Footnote 274:

Satyr, c. 29. p. 74. Hellenop.

-----

Along the walls of this enclosure the cattle-sheds would in remoter ages
appear to have been ranged, where afterwards stood suites of chambers
for the domestics, or piazzas, or colonades, to serve as covered walks
in extremely hot or bad weather. Within, on either side the
gateway,[275] chiefly among the Dorians, rose a pillar of conical shape,
sometimes an obelisk, in honour of Apollo or of Dionysos, or, according
to others, of both, while in the centre was an altar of Zeus Herceios,
on which family sacrifices were offered up.[276] At its inner extremity
you beheld a spacious portico, adjoining the entrance to the house,
where in warm weather the young men often slept. From the descriptions
of the poet, however, it would appear to have been something more than a
common portico, resembling rather the porches of our old English houses,
roofed over and extending like a recess into the body of the house
itself. In the dwellings of the great, this part of the building,
adorned with numerous statues, was probably of marble finely polished if
not sculptured, and being merely a chamber open in front could not in
those fine climates be by any means an unpleasant bedroom, particularly
as it usually faced the south and caught the early rays of the sun. Here
Odysseus[277] slept during his stay with Alcinoös, as did likewise Priam
and the Trojan Herald while guests of Achilles in his military hut.[278]

-----

Footnote 275:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 875. Here the Romans sacrificed to Janus, the
Greeks to Apollo. Macrob. Saturn. l. i. c. 9. Poll. iv. 123. Comm. p.
790.

Footnote 276:

Eustath ad Od. χ. 376. p. 790. Cf. Poll. i. 22, seq. Muret. in Plat.
de Rep. p. 635. Soph. Œdip. Tyr. 16.

Footnote 277:

Odyss. η. 345. Cf. Il. ζ. 243. Hesych. v. πρόδομος.

Footnote 278:

Il. ω. 673, sqq. Cf. Feith. Antiq. Hom. iii. 10. p. 244.

-----

In this porch were seats of handsome polished stone, as in the palace of
Nestor at Pylos, which, to render them more shining, would appear to
have been rubbed with oil.[279] Similar seats are found to this day
before the houses of the wealthy at Cairo and other cities of the East,
where in the cool of the evening old men habitually take their station,
and are joined for the purpose of gossip by their neighbours. In the
larger towns of Nubia an open space planted with dates, palms, or the
Egyptian fig-tree, more shady and spreading than the oak, and furnished
with wooden seats, collects together the elders, who there enjoy what
the Englishman seeks in his club, and the Greek found in his lesche—the
pleasure of comparing his opinions with those of his neighbours.

When, in after times, this plain porch had been succeeded by a
magnificent peristyle or colonnade, the primitive custom of sleeping in
the open air was abandoned; but here the master of the house with his
guests took their early walk to enjoy the morning sun. It was customary
among all ranks at Athens to rise betimes, as it generally is still in
the warm countries of the South. Socrates and his young friend, the
sophist-hunter,[280] coming to the house of Callias, soon after
day-break, find its owner taking the air with several of his guests in
the colonnade, the young men moving in the train of their elders, and
making way for them as they turn round to retrace their steps. There was
usually at Athens a similar peristyle on both sides of the house—one for
summer the other for winter, and a door generally opened from the
women’s apartment into that communicating with the garden, where the
ladies enjoyed the cool air in the midst of laurel copses, fountains,
and patches of green sward,[281] interspersed with rose-trees,
violet-beds, and other sweet shrubs and flowers.

-----

Footnote 279:

Odyss. γ. 406, sqq. Cf. π. 343, seq.

Footnote 280:

Plat. Protag. t. i. p. 160.

Footnote 281:

Plat. Epist. t. viii. p. 403. Athen. v. 25. Poll. ix. 466.

-----

The town-houses of Homeric times had generally no aulè, but the porch
opened directly into the street, since it is here that, in the
description of the shield, we find the women standing to behold the
dancers and enjoy the music of the nuptial procession.[282] Afterwards,
as the taste for magnificence advanced, the whole façade of the corps de
logis[283] was richly ornamented, while the outer gates were purposely
left open, that the passers-by might witness the splendour of the owner.
Occasionally, likewise, the great door, leading from the portico into
the house, was concealed by costly purple hangings,[284] which, being
passed, you entered a broad passage, having on either side, doors[285]
leading into the apartments on the ground floor, and conducting to an
inner court, surrounded by a peristyle, where the gynæconitis,[286] or
harem, commenced.

-----

Footnote 282:

Il. σ. 496. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 93.

Footnote 283:

Hesych. v. ἐνώπια. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 380. Compare the whole
character of the “Vain Man,” pp. 57–59. Etym. Mag. 346. 10.

Footnote 284:

Athen. v. 25. Hesych. v. αυλεία. Suid. in v. t. i. p. 491. d.

Footnote 285:

“The doors (at Tanjeers) are richly carved, and placed in arches
shaped like an ace of spades, a form so completely oriental, that
there is no mistaking its origin; these, when they opened on the
verandah, were further ornamented with curtains of rich crimson
silk.”—Napier, Excursions along the Shores of the Mediterranean, i. p.
264.

Footnote 286:

Hesych. v. γυναικωνίτις.

-----

The apartments of palaces displayed, even in very early times, the taste
of the Greeks for splendour and magnificence. The walls were covered
with wainscoting inlaid with gold and ivory, as we still find in the
East whole chambers lined with mother-of-pearl.[287] At first, the gold
was laid on in thin plates, which, in process of time, led to the idea
of gilding.[288] Even Phocion, who affected great simplicity and
plainness, had the walls of his house adorned with laminæ of
copper,[289] probably in the same style as that subterraneous chamber
discovered, during the last century, in the excavations made at Rome. It
appears, too, that, occasionally, the walls of the apartments at Athens,
as at Herculaneum and Pompeii were decorated with paintings in bright
colours,[290] probably in the same style, though as much superior in
beauty and delicacy of execution, as art, in the age of Pericles, was
superior to art in the days of Nero. Still the paintings discovered in
the excavated Italian cities,—sometimes[291] grotesque and extravagant,
as where we behold the pigmies making war upon the cranes, winged
geniuses at work in a carpenter’s or shoemaker’s shop, or an ass laden
with hampers of wine, rushing forward to engage a crocodile, whilst his
master pulls him back by the tail—sometimes rural and elegant,
consisting of a series of wild landscapes, mountains dotted with
cottages, sea-shores, harbours, and baths, Nymphs and Cupids angling on
the borders of lakes, beneath trees of the softest and most exquisite
foliage,—may enable us to form some conception of the landscapes with
which Agelarcos[292] adorned the house of Alcibiades.

-----

Footnote 287:

Lady Montague’s Works, ii. 234.

Footnote 288:

Plin. xxxiii. 18. Cf. Dion. Chrysost. t. i. p. 262. t. ii. p. 259.
Pignor. de Serv. p. 214.

Footnote 289:

Plut. Phoc. § 18.

Footnote 290:

As, _minium_, Dioscor. v. 109.

Footnote 291:

Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 34. p. 181. tav. 35. p. 187. tav. 36. p.
191. tav. 48. pp. 253, 257. t. ii. tav. 39. p. 273. Cf. Poll. x. 34.

Footnote 292:

Andocid. cont. Alcib. § 7.

-----

The halls and saloons on the ground-floor were paved with marble or
mosaic work,[293] which often, if we may judge from the specimens left
us by their imitators, represented pictures of the greatest elegance,
containing, among other things, likenesses of the loveliest divinities
of Olympos.[294] These mosaics were wrought with minute shards of
precious marbles of various colours, interspersed with pieces of
amber,[295] and, probably, also, of glass, as was the fashion in Italy,
where whole hyaline floors have been found consisting either of one
piece or of squares so finely joined together, that the sutures were
invisible to the naked eye. No mention, I believe, is made in Greek
authors of lining the walls of apartments with glass, or even of glass
windows,[296] which, however, were common in the cities of Magna Græcia
in the age immediately succeeding that of our Saviour. It is extremely
probable, however, that as the Greeks were as well acquainted as the
Romans with the properties of the lapis specularis;[297] they likewise
made use of thin plates of this stone, or talc, or gypsum, as they still
do in Egypt for window-panes. So much, indeed, seems inferable from a
passage of Plutarch,[298] as, also, that transparent squares of horn
were employed for the same purpose, as oyster-shells and oiled paper
still are in China. Previously, however, the windows[299] (sometimes
square and situated high in the wall, sometimes reaching from the
ceiling to the floor) were closed with lattice-work[300] in iron,
bronze, or wood, over which, in bad weather, blinds of hair-cloth or
prepared leather were usually drawn.

-----

Footnote 293:

Plin. xxxvi. 60. Poll. vii. 121. Cf. Sir W. Hamilton, Acc. of Discov.
at Pomp. p. 7, seq. pl. 5.

Footnote 294:

Galen, in Protrept, § 8. t. i. p. 19.

Footnote 295:

Hom. Eires. 10. p. 199. Franke.

Footnote 296:

See the authorities collected by Nixon, Phil. Trans, t. i. p. 126,
sqq. Seneca speaks of glass windows as a new invention, Epist. 90. Sir
William Hamilton, however, in his Account of Discoveries made at
Pompeii, observes:—“Below stairs is a room with a large bow-window;
fragments of large panes of glass were found here, shewing that the
ancients knew well the use of glass for windows.”—p. 13. Cf. Caylus,
Rec. d’Ant. t. 2. p. 293. Mazois, Pal. de Scaur. p. 97. Castell.
Villas of the Ancients, p. 4. Vitruv. vii. 3.

Footnote 297:

In lieu of the lapis specularis, they make use in Persia of thin slabs
of Tabreez marble for the windows of baths, and other buildings
requiring a soft subdued light.—See Fowler, Three Years in Persia,
where the growth of this stone is curiously described.—i. 228, sqq.

Footnote 298:

De Plac, Phil. iii. 5, ed. Corsin. Flor. 1750, p. 81. Cf. Plin. Hist.
Nat. xi. 37.

Footnote 299:

Sir W. Hamilt. Acc. of Discov. at Pomp. p. 7, seq. Antich. di
Ercolano. t. i. tav. i. p. 1. tav. 3. p. 11. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq.
996.

Footnote 300:

Mazois, Pal. de Scaur. p. 98.

-----

The ceilings at first consisted merely of the beams, rafters, and
planks, forming the roof, and supporting the layers of earth or straw
that covered it; but, by degrees, the wood-work was carefully painted,
and arranged so as to form a succession of coffers and deep sunken
panels. Sometimes the whole ceiling consisted of chamfered, or fretted
cedar work,[301] or of cypress wood, or was covered with paintings in
blue and gold, and supported on columns[302] lofty and deeply fluted for
the purpose, as has been ingeniously conjectured,[303] of receiving
spears into the semi-cylindrical cavities thus formed. If this idea be
well founded, we have a very satisfactory reason of the origin of
fluting columns, and it appears to be perfectly consistent with Homer’s
account of Odysseus’s chamber, where a number of lances are spoken of
standing round a pillar.[304]

-----

Footnote 301:

Athen. ix. 67. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 353. Cf. Gog. Origine des Loix,
t. v. p. 443. Poll. Onom. x. 84. Comm. p. 1552. Maz. Pal. de Scau. p.
102. Tibull. iii. 3. 16. Luc. de Dea Syr. § 30. Cynic, § 9. Eurip.
Orest. 1361.

Footnote 302:

Odyss. δ. 45, seq. Luc. Somn. seu Gall. § 29.

Footnote 303:

By Payne Knight, Prolegg. ad Hom. § 47. Cf. Feith. Antiq. Homer, iii.
11. 6.

Footnote 304:

Odyss. α. 127, seq.

-----

The principal apartments, according to the fashion still prevailing in
the East, were furnished with divans,[305] or broad immovable seats,
running along the walls, which are now stuffed soft atop with cotton,
and covered with scarlet or purple, bordered by gold fringe a foot deep.
In the Homeric age they would appear to have been of carved wood, inlaid
with ivory and gold, and studded with silver nails.[306] For these
divans they had a variety of coverings, sometimes skins, at others
purple carpets, in addition to which they, as now, piled up, as a rest
for the back or elbow, heaps of cushions, purple above, and of white
linen beneath.[307] By degrees, these seats became movable and were
converted into couches or sofas, manufactured of bronze, or silver, or
precious woods, veneered with tortoiseshell.[308] In the palaces of
oriental sultans they are sometimes made of alabaster, encrusted with
jewels. Somewhere in the more retired parts of the Domos were the
picture-gallery and library, of neither of which have we any exact
description. The former, however, faced the north, and the latter the
west. If the libraries of the Greeks at all resembled in form and
dimensions those found at Pompeii, they were by no means spacious;
neither, in fact, was a great deal of room necessary, as the manuscripts
of the ancients stowed away much closer than our modern books,[309] and
were sometimes kept in circular boxes, of elegant form, with covers of
turned wood. The volumes consisted of rolls of parchment, sometimes
purple at the back,[310] or papyrus, about twelve or fourteen inches in
breadth, and as many feet long as the subject required. The pages formed
a number of transverse compartments, commencing at the left, and
proceeding in order to the other extremity, and the reader, holding in
either hand one end of the manuscript, unrolled and rolled it up[311] as
he read. Occasionally these books were placed on shelves, in piles, with
the ends outwards, adorned with golden bosses,[312] the titles of the
various treatises being written on pendant labels.

-----

Footnote 305:

Id. η. 95, seq.

Footnote 306:

Id. θ. 65. π. 32.

Footnote 307:

Id. κ. 352, seq.

Footnote 308:

Lucian, Luc. siv. Asin. § 53.

Footnote 309:

Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. tav. 2. p. 13.—Books were preserved from the
moth by cedar-oil.—Geopon. v. 9.

Footnote 310:

Luc. de Merced. Conduct. § 41.

Footnote 311:

Luc. Imag. § 9.

Footnote 312:

Luc. de Merced. Conduct. 41.

-----

If we proceed now to the court[313] dividing the Domos from the Thalamos
we shall perceive, on both sides of the door leading out of the Andron,
flights of steps ascending to the upper chambers where, in the heroic
ages, the young men and strangers of distinction usually slept. Thus, in
the palace of Ithaca, Telemachos had a bed-chamber on the second story,
whence the poet is careful to observe he enjoyed a good prospect.[314]
In later times, however, there were, on the ground floor, suites of
apartments, denominated Xenon, appropriated to the use of guests, who
there lived freely and at ease as in their own houses.

-----

Footnote 313:

Similar courts in the houses of Magna Græcia are described as having
had in the middle a square tank where the rain-water was collected,
and ran into a reservoir beneath.—Sir W. Hamilt. Acc. of Discov. at
Pomp. p. 13.

Footnote 314:

Odyss. α. 425. seq.

-----

At the further extremity of the interior court a steep flight of steps
led to an elevated basement and doorway, which formed the entrance into
the thalamos.[315] This part of the house would appear to have been laid
out in a peculiar manner, consisting, first, of a lofty and spacious
apartment,[316] where all the females of the family usually sat while
engaged in embroidery or other needlework.[317] It likewise formed the
nursery, and, at its inner extremity, in a deep recess, the bed of the
mistress of the family appears to have stood, on either side of which
were doors leading to flights of steps into the garden, set apart for
the use of the women.

-----

Footnote 315:

Eustath. ad Odyss. χ. p. 776.—These female apartments were sometimes
hired out and inhabited by men.—Antiph. Nec. Venef. § 3.—Mr.
Fosbroke’s account is curious:—“The thalamos was an apartment where
the _mothers of families_ worked in embroidery, in tapestry, and other
works, _with their wives_, or their friends.”—Encyclop. of Ant. i. 50.

Footnote 316:

Sometimes, at least, roofed with cypress-wood, as we learn from
Mnesimachos, in his Horsebreeder: βαίν’ ἐκ θαλάμων κυπαρισσορόφων ἔξω,
Μάνη.—Athen. ix. 67.

Footnote 317:

We find ladies, however, sometimes dining with their children in the
Aulè.—Demosth. in Ev. et Mnes. § 16.

-----

It has by many been supposed, that the Thalamos was a chamber
particularly appropriated to the use of young unmarried ladies; but,
since we find Helen and Penelope inhabiting the Thalamos, it may be
presumed that it was common to all the females of the house. Hector, in
his visit to Paris, finds him in the Thalamos, turning about and
polishing his arms, as if he meant to use them, while, close at hand,
are Helen and her maids engaged in weaving or embroidery. The word was
often used in the same signification as Gynæconitis,[318] or “the
harem;” and, therefore, when Theocritus[319] speaks of a “maiden from
the Thalamus,” and Phocylides, with the suspicious caution of a more
vicious age, advises that young women be kept in “well-locked Thalamoi,”
it is clear that the female apartments generally are meant. These were,
in Sparta, called οα̈ (which, as is well known, in the common language
of Greece, signifies eggs), whence, according to Clearchos,[320] the
fable which describes Helen proceeding from an egg, because born and
educated in the chambers so called. Throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey
we find the poet speaking of this part of the house as inhabited by
women. Here lived Penelope,[321] far from the brawls of the suitors who
crowded the halls of the Domos; and here Ares pressed his suit with
success to Astyoche and Polymela, who both became the mothers of valiant
sons.[322] From which, among many other circumstances, it is manifest
that, in those ages, the sexes met easily, even the entrance to the
harem not being impracticable to a lover.

-----

Footnote 318:

Hesych, v. γυναίκ. p. 866. Cyrill. Lex. Ms. Bren. Bret. ad Hesych. l.
c.

Footnote 319:

Eidyll. ii. 136. Phocyl. v. 198.

Footnote 320:

Athen. ii. 50. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 68.

Footnote 321:

Odyss. ο. 516.

Footnote 322:

Il. β. 514. π. 184.

-----

The bedchambers of the young unmarried women appear to have flanked the
great central hall of the Thalamos, and here the female slaves likewise
slept, apparently in recesses, near the chamber-doors of their
mistresses, as we find particularly remarked in the case of Nausicaa and
her maids. At Athens, the door of communication between the Andron[323]
and the Gynæconitis was kept carefully barred and locked to prevent all
intercourse between the male and female slaves, the keys being entrusted
solely to the mistress of the house.

-----

Footnote 323:

Cf. Poll. vi. 7. Cœl. Rhodig. xvii. 24.

-----

As these apartments were less exposed than any other portion of the
building, and far more carefully guarded, it became customary, as in the
East it still is, to lay up in the Thalamos, more especially in the dark
basement story, much valuable property, such as arms, gold, silver, the
wardrobe of both sexes, and even oil and wine. Among the Romans, or,
indeed, among the Greeks, of a later age,[324] this step would scarcely
have been taken, lest the ladies should have grown too assiduous in
their attention to the skins. But in remoter ages these sordid fears had
no existence. Accordingly, we find the prudent Odysseus, who
apprehended, perhaps, the tricks of his domestics, stowing away his
casks of choice old wine in the Thalamos, doubtless, considering it
safer there, under the keeping of Euryclea, than it would have been
anywhere else in the palace.[325]

-----

Footnote 324:

Plut. Paral. Vit. § 3.

Footnote 325:

Odyss. β. 337, 345. χ. 442. Schol. 459. 466. Poll. vii. 397.

-----

In later and more civilized ages, the Thalamos was still used for the
same purposes; for, in the establishment of Ischomachos, a pattern of
Attic economy, we find that the more valuable portion of the family
wardrobe, with the plate and other costly utensils, was there deposited.
Corn, according to the suggestions of common sense, they laid up in the
driest rooms, wine in the coolest. The apartments into which most
sunshine found its way were appropriated to such employments and to the
display of such furniture as required much light.[326] Their
dining-rooms, where, also, the men usually sat when at home, they
carefully contrived so as to be cool in summer and warm in winter,
though, in severe weather, a good fire was often found necessary.[327]
The same judicious principle commonly regulated the erection of their
habitations, which were divided into two sets of apartments, suited to
the two great divisions of the year. As we have already remarked, the
principal front looked towards the south, that it might catch the rays
of the wintry sun, whose more vertical summer beams were excluded by
broad verandahs, or colonnades.

-----

Footnote 326:

Xen. Memorab. iii. 8, 9.

Footnote 327:

Anaxand. ap. Athen. ii. 29.—So also thought Socrates, who observes,
that in winter every one will have a fire who can get wood. And,
though he himself wore the same garments all the year round, he
considered it, apparently, a judicious practice in others to put on
warm clothing.—Xen. Œcon. xvii. 3. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 716. When
the dining-room was not furnished with a chimney, braziers were
kindled outside the door, and carried in when the worst fumes of the
charcoal had evaporated.—Plut. Symp. vi. 7.

-----

In what part of the edifice stood the bathing-room (βαλανεῖον, so called
from its having, in remoter ages, been heated with acorns, βάλανοι)[328]
I have been unable to discover, though it appears certain that, even so
far back as the heroic ages, a chamber was always set apart for the
bath. At first, doubtless, they were content with cold water; but that
this was soon succeeded by warm water[329] may be conjectured from the
tradition ascribing the first use of it to Heracles, whence warm baths
were ever afterwards called the Baths of Heracles.

-----

Footnote 328:

Etym. Mag. 186, 8. Athen. i. 18. Phot. Bib. 60. b. Hesiod. Frag. 53.
Baths, at Sparta, were common to both sexes.—Goguet, v. 428. Cf.
Pashley, Travels. i. 183.

Footnote 329:

Baccius, de Thermis, p. 365. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1034.

-----

The form of the Puelos,[330] or vessel in which they bathed, appears
occasionally to have resembled an Egyptian sarcophagus, and to have been
sometimes round, and constructed of white or green marble, or glass, or
bronze, or common stone, or wood,[331] in which case it would seem to
have been portable. In the baths of Pompeii the marble basins, whether
parallelogramatic or circular, were of spacious dimensions, and raised
two or three feet above the pavement. A step for the convenience of the
bathers extends round it on the inside, and at the bottom are marble
cushions upon which they rested. In the labra of the Grecian female
baths rose a smooth cippus in the form of a truncated cone, denominated
omphalos, on which the ladies sat while chatting with their female
companions.[332]

-----

Footnote 330:

Cf. Etymol. Mag. 151, 52, seq. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1055.

Footnote 331:

Baccius, de Therm. p. 399.

Footnote 332:

Athen. xi. 104.

-----

When once the warm bath came into use, people employed it to excess,
bathing as frequently as five or six times a day, and in water so hot as
to half scald themselves.[333] Immediately afterwards, to prevent the
skin from chapping, they anointed their bodies with oils and perfumed
unguents.[334] Occasionally, instead of plunging into the water, they
sat upright, as is still the custom in the hammāms of the East, while
the water was poured with a sort of ladle on their head and shoulders.

-----

Footnote 333:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1034.

Footnote 334:

Plut. Alexand. § 40.

-----

The public baths, of which no full description referring to very ancient
times remains, were numerous in all Hellenic cities, more particularly
at Athens, where they were surmounted with domes,[335] and received
their light from above. These establishments were frequented by all
classes of women who could afford to pay for such luxury, rich, poor,
honourable, and dishonourable.

-----

Footnote 335:

Athen. xi. 104.

-----

The attendants, in later and more corrupt times at least, were men,
whose sole clothing consisted of a leathern apron about the loins, while
the ladies, who undressed in the Apodyterion, went through the various
processes of the bath in the same primitive clothing. It was, however,
customary for them to enter the water together in crowds,[336] so that
they kept each other in countenance. Here the matrons who had sons to
marry studied the form and character of the young ladies who frequented
the baths; and as all the defects both of person and features were
necessarily revealed, it was next to impossible for any lady, not
sufficiently opulent to keep up a bathing establishment in her own
house, to retain for any length of time an undeserved celebrity for
beauty. In the baths of the East, the bodies of the bathers are cleansed
by small bags of camel-hair, woven rough, and passed over the hand of
the attendant; or with a handful of the fine fibres of the Mekka
palm-tree combed soft, and filled with fragrant and saponaceous earths,
which are rubbed on the skin till the whole body is covered with froth.
Similar means were employed in the baths of Greece, and the whole was
afterwards cleansed off the skin by gold or silver stlengides, or blunt
scrapers somewhat curved towards the point.[337]

-----

Footnote 336:

Victor. ad Aristot. Ethic. p. 214. There was a set of vicious fellows,
called τρίβαλλοι, who passed their lives disorderly in the
baths.—Etym. Mag. 765. 55. Aristophanes bestows the name on certain
barbarian divinities.—Aves. 1528.

Footnote 337:

Xenoph. Anab. i. 2. 10. See one of these stlengides in Zoëga, Bassi
Rilievi, tav. 29.

-----

The architectural arrangements of these baths,[338] if we may draw any
analogy from similar establishments in a later age, were nearly as
follows:—Entering the building by a lofty and spacious portico, you
found yourself in a large hall, paved with marble and adorned with
columns, from which, through a side-door, you passed into the
Apodyterion, or undressing-room; next, into a chamber where was the cold
water in basins of porphyry or green jasper; immediately contiguous lay
the Tepidarium, to which succeeded the Sudarium, a vaulted apartment
furnished with basins of warm water, and where the heat was excessive;
from this, moving forward, you successively traversed saloons of various
degrees of temperature and dimensions, until you found yourself in the
dressing-room, whither your garments had been carried by your domestic,
or the attendants on the baths.[339] These establishments were likewise
provided with water-closets,[340] placed in a retired part of the
building, and furnished with wooden seats, basin and water-pipe, as in
modern times.

-----

Footnote 338:

Cf. Etymol. Mag. 384. 10. Poll. vii. 166, and Plut. Alexand. § 20,
where he describes the luxurious baths of Darius.

Footnote 339:

Lucian. Hippias. § 5, sqq.

Footnote 340:

Sir W. Hamilton’s Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 41. Cf. Casaub. ad
Theoph. Char. p. 269.

-----

To diminish the chances of being robbed, stealing from a bath was at
Athens made a capital offence;[341] so that the persons who frequented
them ran very little risk. The price was usually moderate, though in
some cities, as for example at Phaselis, they were in the habit of
doubling their charges to foreigners, which drew from a witty sophist a
very cutting remark; for his slave disputing with the keeper of the
bath, and contending that his master ought not to be charged more than
other persons, the sophist, who overheard the dispute, exclaimed,
“Wretch, would you make me a ‘Phaselitan for a farthing?’”[342]

-----

Footnote 341:

Aristot. Problem. xix. 14. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 215.

Footnote 342:

Athen. viii. 45.

-----

The roofs of the more ancient Greek houses were generally flat,[343] not
sloping upwards to a point, as was afterwards the fashion.[344] In Egypt
and Syria, and almost throughout the East, the same taste still obtains;
and as palm trees, loftier than the buildings, often grow beside the
walls, and extend their beautiful pendulous branches over a great part
of the roof, nothing can be more delightful on a mild serene evening
than to sit aloft on those breezy eminences sipping coffee, gazing over
the green rice fields, or watching the stars as they put forth their
golden lamps through the violet skirts of day. But there a parapet
usually preserves him who enjoys the scene from falling. It was
otherwise of old in Greece. The roof consisted simply of a number of
beams laid close together and covered with cement, so that, as was
proved by the fate of Elpenor,[345] the practice of sleeping there in
warm weather, quite common throughout the country, was not wholly
without danger.

-----

Footnote 343:

Æsch. Agam. 3, sqq. We find, however, an allusion to the pointed roof
in Iliad. ψ. 712, seq.

Footnote 344:

Antich. di Erc. tav. 3, p. 11.

Footnote 345:

Odyss. κ. 559. Eustath. ad loc. p. 1669, l. 15. Feith. Ant. Hom. iii.
10, p. 249.

-----

On the construction of the kitchen,[346] which in Greek houses was
sometimes a separate little building erected in the court-yard, our
information is extremely imperfect. It is certain, however, contrary to
the common opinion, that it was furnished with a chimney,[347] and that
the smoke was not permitted to find its way through an aperture in the
roof. Thus much might be inferred from a passage in the Wasps, when the
old dicast, in love with the courts of law, is endeavouring to escape
from the restraint imposed on him by his son, by climbing out through
the chimney. It is clear that he has got into some aperture, where he is
hidden from sight, for hearing a noise in the wall, his son Bdelycleon,
cries out, “What is that?” upon which the old man replies, “I am only
the smoke.” It is plain, that he would not, like a Hindù Yoghi, be
balancing himself in the air, otherwise the young man must have beheld
him sailing up towards the roof. But the matter is set entirely at rest
by the Scholiast, who observes, that the καπνοδόχη was a narrow channel
like a pipe through which the smoke ascended from the kitchen. This
explanation has been confirmed by the discoveries of Colonel Leake,[348]
who on the rocky slopes of the hill of the Museion and Pnyx, found the
remains of a house partly excavated in the rock, in which the chimney
still remained.

-----

Footnote 346:

Cf. Athen. ix. 22. iii. 60.

Footnote 347:

Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 91. Vesp. 139, 147.

Footnote 348:

Topog. of Athens, p. 361.

-----

The same convenience, also, existed in the Roman kitchens,[349] though
they would appear to have been unskilfully constructed in both
countries, since the cooks complain of the smoke being borne hither and
thither by the wind, and interfering with their operations. However,
this may have arisen from the numerous small furnaces which, as in
France, were ranged along the wall for the purpose of cooking several
dishes at once. The chimneys having been perpendicular, as in our old
farm-houses, were furnished with stoppers to keep out the rain in bad
weather.[350]

-----

Footnote 349:

Cf. Perrault, sur Vitruv. vi. 9. Mazois, Pal. de Scaur. p. 178. On the
interior of a Roman house, see Pet. Bellori, Frag. Vet. Rom. p. 31.

Footnote 350:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 148.

-----

That the kitchens were sometimes not sufficiently airy and comfortable
may be inferred from the practice of a philosophical cook in Damoxenos,
who used to take his station immediately outside the door, and from
thence give his orders to the inferior operatives. Great care was
nevertheless taken that it should be well lighted, and that the door
should be so situated as to be as little exposed as possible to whirling
gusts of wind.[351] From a passage in the Scholiast on the Wasps, and
the existence of drains in the excavations on the hill of the Museion,
it is clear that the Athenian houses were furnished with sinks,[352]
though in the Italian kitchens there seem merely to have been little
channels running along the walls to carry off the water. The floor, too,
was constructed in both countries with a view at once to dryness and
elegance,[353] being formed of several layers of various materials all
porous though binding, so that it allowed whatever water was spilt to
sink through instantaneously. The upper layer, about six inches thick,
consisted of a cement composed of lime, sand, and pounded charcoal or
ashes, the surface of which, being polished with pumice-stone, presented
to the eye the appearance of a fine black marble. The roof in early
times was no doubt of wood,[354] though afterwards it came to be vaulted
or run up in the form of a cupola. The walls were sometimes decorated
with rude paintings.[355]

-----

Footnote 351:

Athen. iii. 60 ix. 22.

Footnote 352:

Leake, Topog. of Ath. p. 361. Yet we find them sometimes throwing the
water out of the window, crying, Stand out of the way. Schol.
Aristoph. Acharn. 592.

Footnote 353:

Vitruv. viii. 4.

Footnote 354:

Mazois, Palais de Scaurus, p. 177.

Footnote 355:

Representing, for example, a sacrifice to Fornax. Mazois, p. 177.

-----

The street-door of a Grecian house, usually, when single, opened
outwards, but when there were folding doors they opened inwards as with
us.[356] In the former case it was customary when any one happened to be
going forth, to knock, or call, or ring a bell, in order to warn
passengers to make way.[357] These doors were constructed of various
materials,[358] according to the taste and circumstances of the owner,
sometimes of oak, or fir, or maple, or elm; and afterwards as luxury
advanced they were made of cedar, cyprus, or even of citron wood, inlaid
as in the East, with plates of brass or gold.[359] Mention is likewise
made of doors entirely composed of the precious metals; of iron also,
and bronze and ivory.

-----

Footnote 356:

Cf. Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 34. pp. 175, 181. Sagittar. de Januis
Veterum. p. 23.

Footnote 357:

Plut. Poplic. § 20.

Footnote 358:

Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 152, seq. Plin. xvi. 40. Theoph. Hist. Plant.
v. 4. 2. iii. 14. 1. Martial. xiv. 89, ii. 43. Lucian. l. ix. Tertull.
de Pall. c. 5. Plin. xiii. 15. Ovid. Metamorph. iv. 487.

Footnote 359:

Aristoph. Acharn. 1072.

-----

The jambs were generally of wood;[360] but likewise sometimes of brass
or marble. The doors were fastened at first by long bars passing into
the wall on both sides;[361] and by degrees smaller bolts, hasps,
latches, and locks and keys succeeded. For example the outer door of the
Thalamos in Homer was secured by a silver hasp, and a leathern thong
passed round the handle and tied, perhaps, in a curious knot.[362] Doors
were not usually suspended on hinges, but turned, as they still do in
the East, upon pivots inserted above into the lintel and below into the
threshhold.[363] In many houses there were in addition small half-doors
of open wood-work,[364] which alone were commonly closed by day, in
order to keep the children from running out, or dogs or pigs from
entering. The doors usually consisted of a frame-work, with four or six
sunken panels, as with us; but at Sparta, so long as the laws of
Lycurgus prevailed, they were made of simple planks fashioned with the
hatchet.[365] In the great Dorian capital the custom was for persons
desirous of entering a house to shout aloud at the door,[366] which, at
Athens,[367] was always furnished with an elegant knocker.[368]
Door-handles, too, of costly materials and curious workmanship,[369]
bespoke even in that trifling matter the taste of the Greeks.

-----

Footnote 360:

Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 29, sqq.

Footnote 361:

Sagitt. de Jan. p. 67.

Footnote 362:

Odyss. α. 441. Schol. et Eustath. ad loc.—δ. 862. ρ. 186. Cf. Schol.
Aristoph. Vesp. 155.

Footnote 363:

Sagitt. de Jan. Vet. p. 41.

Footnote 364:

Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 3. p. 11. It should perhaps be remarked,
that when houses were built on a solid basement the door was sometimes
approached by a movable pair of steps. Id. ibid. tav. 8. p. 39. tav.
43. p. 228.

Footnote 365:

Plut. Lycurg. § 13. Agesil. § 19.

Footnote 366:

Plut. Inst. Lac. § 30. Cf. Theocrit. Eidyll. xxix. 39.

Footnote 367:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 133.

Footnote 368:

Sometimes in form of a crow. Poll. i. 77.

Footnote 369:

See Donaldson’s Collection of Doorways, pl. 8.

-----

The materials commonly used in the erection of a house were stones and
bricks. In the manufacture of the latter[370] the ancients exhibited
more skill and care than we; they had bricks of a very large size, and
half bricks for filling up spaces, which prevented the necessity of
shortening them with the trowel. Of these some were simply dried in the
sun, used chiefly in building the dwellings of the poor.[371] At Utica
in Africa there were public inspectors of brick-kilns,[372] to prevent
any from being used which had not been made five years. In several
cities on the Mediterranean bricks were manufactured of a porous earth,
which when baked and painted, as it may be conjectured, on the outside,
were so light that they would swim in water.[373] To diminish the weight
of bricks, straw was introduced into them in Syria and Egypt, which was
altogether consumed in the baking. In roofing such of their houses as
were not terraced they employed slates, tiles, and reed-thatch.[374]
Possibly, also, the wealthy may have tiled their houses with those
elegant thin flakes of marble, with which the roofs of temples were
occasionally covered.

-----

Footnote 370:

Winkelm. Hist. de l’Art. ii. 544. Cf. Xen. Memor. iii. 17. Cyropæd.
vi. 3. 25. Plin. xxxv. 14. Polyb. x. 22. Plat. de Repub. t. vi. p. 15.

Footnote 371:

Sanchon. ap. Euseb. Præp. Evang. i. 10. p. 35.

Footnote 372:

Vitruv. ii. 3.

Footnote 373:

Id. ibid. 3. In lieu of these light bricks, pumice stones are now
frequently used on the shores of the Mediterranean, more particularly
in turning arches. They are, consequently, cut into parallelopipeds,
and exported in great quantities from the Lipari islands.—Spallanzani,
Travels in the Two Sicilies, &c. vol. ii. pp. 298, 302, sqq.

Footnote 374:

Poll. x. 170. Luc. Contemplant. § 6. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 174.

-----

CHAPTER II.
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE.

The movables in a Grecian house were divided into classes after a very
characteristic manner. First, as a mark of the national piety,
everything used in domestic sacrifices was set apart. The second
division, placing women immediately after the gods, comprehended the
whole apparatus of female ornaments[375] worn on solemn festivals. Next
were classed the sacred robes and military uniforms of the men; then
came the hangings, bed-furniture, and ornaments of the harem; afterwards
those of the men’s apartments. Another division consisted of the shoes,
sandals, slippers, &c., of the family, from which we pass to the arms
and implements of war, mixed up familiarly in a Greek house with looms,
cards, spinning-wheels, and embroidery-frames, just, as Homer describes
them in the Thalamos of Paris at Troy. Even yet we have not reached the
end of our inventory in mere classification. The baking, cooking,
washing, and bathing vessels formed a separate class, and so did the
breakfast and dinner services, the porcelain, the plate of silver and
gold, the mirrors, the candelabra, and all those curious articles made
use of in the toilette of the ladies.[376]

-----

Footnote 375:

This profusion of wearing apparel was laid up in trunks and
_mallekins_ of wickerwork. The former were called κιβωτοὶ, the latter
κίσται.—Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 233. Clem. Alexand. Pæd. iii.
Hesych. v. v. κιβωτὸς—κίστη. Mention is also made of presses.—Mazois,
Pal. de Scaur. p. 120.

Footnote 376:

Xenoph. Œconom. ix. 6, sqq. Aristot. Œconom. i. 6.

-----

In well-regulated families a second division took place, a separation
being made of such articles as might be required for daily use, from
those brought forward only when routs and large parties were given. The
movables of all kinds having been thus arranged in their classes, the
next step was to deposit every thing in its proper place.[377] The more
ordinary utensils were generally laid up in a spacious store-room,
called _tholos_,[378] a circular building detached from the house, and
usually terminating in a pointed roof, whence in after ages a
sharp-crowned hat obtained among the people the name of Tholos. When a
gentleman first commenced housekeeping, or got a new set of domestics,
he delivered into the care of the proper individuals his kneading
troughs, his kitchen utensils, his cards, looms, spinning wheels, and so
on; and, pointing out the places where all these, when not in use,
should be placed, committed them to their custody.

-----

Footnote 377:

Cicero ap. Columell. De Re Rust. xii. 3.

Footnote 378:

Odysseus had a storehouse of this kind in his palace at Ithaca.—Odyss.
χ. 442, 459, 466.

-----

Of the holiday, or show articles, more account was made. These, being
brought forward only on solemn festivals, or in honour of some foreign
guest, were entrusted to the immediate care of the housekeeper, a
complete list of everything having first been taken; and it was part of
her duty, when she delivered any of these articles to the inferior
domestics, to make a note of what she gave out, and take care they were
duly returned into her keeping.[379]

-----

Footnote 379:

Xen. Œconom. ix. 10. 57.

-----

But the above comprehensive glance over the articles of furniture made
use of in an Athenian gentleman’s establishment, though it may give some
notion of the careful and economical habits of the people, affords no
conception of the splendour and magnificence often found in a Grecian
house: for, as we have already seen, their opinions are highly erroneous
who imagine that in the Attic democracy the rich were by any prudential
or political considerations restrained from indulging their love of
ostentation by the utmost display they could make of wealth.[380] In
fact, not content with outstripping their neighbours in the grandeur of
their dwellings, furniture, and dress, these persons had often the
ludicrous vanity, when they gave a large party, to excite the envy of
such dinnerless rogues as might pass, by throwing out the feathers of
game and poultry before their doors.[381] Indeed, since the Athenians
exactly resembled other men, the exhibition of magnificence tended but
too strongly to dazzle them; so that, among the arts of designing
politicians, one generally was, to create a popular persuasion that they
possessed the means of conferring important favours on all who obliged
them.

Footnote 380:

That the sycophants were sometimes troublesome, however, is certain;
that is to say, in later ages. Speaking of the time of his youth,
Isocrates says:—Οὐδεὶς οὔτ᾽ ἀπεκρύπτετο τὴν οὐσίαν οὔτ᾽ ὤκνει
συμβάλλειν. κ. τ. λ.—Areop. § 12. Cf. Bergmann. in loc. p. 362. But
their persecution must always have been confined to a very few
individuals, as people generally continued to display whatever they
possessed down to the final overthrow of the state.

Footnote 381:

Aristoph. Acharn. 398.—_Mitchell._ The learned editor fails to remark
how little this custom harmonizes with the fears which he imagines
rich people felt at Athens.

-----

To proceed, however, with the furniture. Though the principal value of
many articles arose from the exquisite taste displayed in the design and
workmanship, the materials themselves, too, were often extremely rare
and costly. Porcelain, glass, crystal, ivory, amber,[382] gold, silver,
and bronze, with numerous varieties of precious woods, were wrought up
with inimitable taste and fancy into various articles of use or luxury.
Among the decorations of the dining-room was the side-board, which,
though sometimes of iron, was more frequently of carved wood, bronze, or
wrought silver, ornamented with the heads of satyrs and oxen.[383] Their
tables, in the Homeric age, were generally of wood, of variegated
colours, finely polished, and with ornamented feet. Myrleanos, an
obscure writer in Athenæus, imagines[384] they were round, that they
might resemble the disc of the sun and moon; but from the passage in the
Odyssey,[385] and the interpretation of Eustathius, they may be inferred
to have been narrow parallelograms,[386] like our own dining-tables. The
luxury of table-cloths being unknown, the wine spilled, &c., was
cleansed away with sponges.[387] But the poet had witnessed a superior
degree of magnificence, for he already, in the Odyssey,[388] makes
mention of tables of silver. The poor were, of course, content with the
commonest wood. But as civilisation proceeded, the tables of the wealthy
became more and more costly in materials, and more elegant in form.

-----

Footnote 382:

On the attractive power of this substance, see Plat. Tim. t. vii. p.
118.

Footnote 383:

Athen. v. 45. Lys. Frag. 46. Orat. Att. t. ii. p. 647.

Footnote 384:

Deipnosoph. xi. 78.

Footnote 385:

α. 111. 138.

Footnote 386:

This is also the opinion of Potter, ii. 376, 377; and Damm. in v.
τράπεζα, col. 1822.

Footnote 387:

Odyss. τ. 259. Pind. Olymp. i. 26.

Footnote 388:

κ. 354, seq. 361, seq. In the letters attributed to Plato we find
mention made of silver tables. t. viii. p. 397. Sometimes, also, of
brass. Athen. ix. 75.

-----

It grew to be an object of commerce, to import from foreign countries
the most curious kinds of wood,[389] to be wrought into tables, which
originally supported on four legs, rested afterwards on three,
fancifully formed, or on a pillar and claws of ivory, or silver, as with
us. There was a celebrated species of table manufactured in the island
of Rhenea;[390] the great, among the Persians, delighted in maple tables
with ivory feet, and, in fact, the knotted maple appears at one time to
have been regarded as the most rare and beautiful of woods.[391] But the
rage for sumptuous articles of furniture of this kind did not reach its
full height until Roman times, when a single table of citron wood

(Gorgeous feasts
On citron tables or Atlantic stone)[392]

sometimes cost six or seven thousand pounds sterling. Already, however,
in the best ages of Greece, their tables were inlaid with silver, brass,
or ivory, with feet in the form of lions, leopards, or other wild
beasts.[393]

-----

Footnote 389:

Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. 27.

Footnote 390:

Athen. xi. 27.

Footnote 391:

Athen. ii. 31.

Footnote 392:

Paradise Regained, iv. 114, seq. where see Mitford’s curious and
learned note. ii. 350, seq. and cf. Plin. v. 1. t. ii. p. 259. Hard.
not. a. 261. xiii. 29. t. iv. p. 746, sqq. Petronius speaks of the
“citrea mensa,” p. 157. Erhard. Symbol. ad Petron. 709, seq. shows
that Numidian marble was in use at Rome.

Footnote 393:

Potter, ii. 377.

-----

In more early times, before the effeminate Oriental habit of reclining
at meals obtained,[394] the Greeks made use of chairs which were of
various kinds, some being formed of more, others of less costly
materials, but all beautiful and elegant in form, as we may judge from
those which adorn our own drawing-rooms, entirely fashioned after
Grecian models. The thrones of the gods represented in works of art,
however richly ornamented, are simply arm-chairs with upright backs, an
example of which occurs in a carnelian in the Orleans Collection,[395]
where Apollo is represented playing on the seven-stringed lyre. This
chair has four legs with tigers’ feet, a very high upright back, and is
ornamented with a sculptured car and horses. They had no Epicurean
notions of their deities, and never presented them to the eye of the
public lounging in an easy chair, which would have suggested the idea of
infirmity. On the contrary, they are full of force and energy, and sit
erect on their thrones, as ready to succour their worshipers at a
moment’s warning. In the Homeric age these were richly carved, like the
divans, adorned with silver studs, and so high that they required a
footstool.[396] The throne of the Persian kings was of massive gold, and
stood beneath a purple canopy, supported by four slender golden columns
thickly crusted with jewels.

-----

Footnote 394:

In the Antichita di Ercolano, we have the representation of a very
handsome armed chair, with upright back, beautifully turned legs, and
thick and soft cushions, with low footstool, t. i. tav. 29. p. 155.
Athen. xi. 72.

Footnote 395:

Pierres Gravées, du Cabinet du Duc d’Orleans, t. i. No. 46. Cf. No. 7,
representing Zeus thus seated.

Footnote 396:

Odyss. η. 162. Il. σ. 390, 422.

-----

Bedsteads were generally of common wood such as deal,[397] bottomed
sometimes with planks, pierced to admit air, sometimes with ox-hide
thongs,[398] which in traversing each other left numerous open spaces
between them. Odysseus’s bedstead, which the hero was sufficient joiner
to manufacture with his own hands, was made of olive-wood, inlaid with
silver, gold, and ivory. Sometimes the bed was supported by a sort of
netting of strong cord, stretched across the bedstead, and made fast all
round.[399] Later ages witnessed far greater luxury,—bedsteads of solid
silver,[400] or ivory embossed with figures wrought with infinite art
and delicacy,[401] or of precious woods carved, with feet of ivory or
amber.[402] Occasionally, also, they were veneered with Indian
tortoiseshell, inlaid with gold.[403] This taste would appear to have
flowed from the East, where among the kings of Persia still greater
magnificence was witnessed even in very early times. Thus, speaking of
the royal feast celebrated at Susa, the Scripture says, there were in
the court of the garden of the king’s palace “white, green, and blue
hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings,
and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement
of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” A similar style of
grandeur is attributed by Hellenic writers to the Persian king, who,
according to Chares,[404] reclined in his palace on a couch shaded by a
spreading golden vine, the grape clusters of which were imitated by
jewels of various colours.

-----

Footnote 397:

Athen. xi. 48. i. 60. ii. 29. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 468. Cf. Xenoph.
Memor. ii. 1, 30.

Footnote 398:

This bedstead was called δέμνιον; (Odyss. η. 336, seq.) when heaped
with soft mattresses it was πυκινὸν λέχος (345); εὐνὴ was the term
applied to the whole, bed and bedstead. Iliad. ω. 644. Odyss. δ. 297,
&c. Pind. Nem. i. 3.

Footnote 399:

Odyss. ψ. 189, seq. Schol. ad Il. γ. 448.

Footnote 400:

Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 397.

Footnote 401:

Athen. vi. 67. ii. 30.

Footnote 402:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 530.

Footnote 403:

Lucian. Luc., sive Asin. § 53. Bedsteads of solid gold are spoken of
in scripture.—Esther i. 6. Bochart. Geog. Sac. i. 6. 30.

Footnote 404:

Athen. xii. 9, 55.

-----

Four-post bedsteads were in use in remoter ages, as appears from a white
sardonyx in the Orleans Collection,[405] representing the surprisal of
Ares and Aphrodite, by Hephæstos. There is a low floating vallance
fastened up in festoons, the tester is roof-shaped, and the pillars
terminate in fanciful capitals. The figure of an eagle adorns the
corners of the bedstead below. From a painting on the walls of Pompeii
we discover, that the peculiar sort of bedstead at present found almost
universally in France was likewise familiar to the ancients, made
exactly after the same fashion, and raised about the same height above
the floor. With regard to the beds themselves they were at different
times manufactured from very different materials, and those of some
parts of Greece enjoyed a peculiar reputation. From a phrase in
Homer,[406] it would appear that, in his times, beds were stuffed in
Thessaly with very fine grass. Those of Chios and Miletos were
famous[407] throughout Greece. In other parts of the country, persons of
peculiar effeminacy slept on beds of sponge.[408] Sicily was famous for
its pillows, as were also several other Doric countries. At Athens the
rich were accustomed to sleep upon very soft beds, placed on bedsteads
considerably above the floor;[409] and sometimes, it has been supposed,
adorned with coverlets of dressed peacocks’ skins with the feathers
on.[410]

-----

Footnote 405:

No. 34.

Footnote 406:

Il. β. 697. δ. 383.

Footnote 407:

Athen. xi. 72.

Footnote 408:

Athen. i. 32.

Footnote 409:

Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 30.

Footnote 410:

Palm. Exercit. in Auct. Græc. p. 191. We find mention in ancient
authors of certain tribes who went clad in garments covered with the
feathers of birds. Senec. Epist. 90.

-----

But the Greeks appear to have consulted their ease, and sunk more
completely into softness and effeminacy, in proportion as they
approached the East. Among the Peloponnesians most persons lived hard
and lay hard; greater refinement and luxury prevailed in Attica; but in
Ionia and many of the Ægæan isles the great—although there were
exceptions as in the case of Attalos—fell little short in
self-indulgence of Median or Persian satraps. Some idea may be formed of
their habits in this respect from the description of a Paphian prince’s
bed by Clearchos of Soli.[411] Over the soft mattresses supported by a
silver-footed bedstead, was flung a short grained Sardian carpet of the
most expensive kind. A coverlet of downy texture succeeded, and upon
this was cast a costly counterpane of Amorginian purple. Cushions,
striped or variegated with the richest purple, supported his head, while
two soft Dorian pillows[412] of pale pink gently raised his feet. In
this manner habited in a milk-white chlamys the prince reclined. Their
bolsters in form resembled our own;[413] but the pillows were usually
square, as in France, though occasionally rounded off at both ends, and
covered with richly chequered or variegated muslins. To prevent the fine
wool or whatever else they were stuffed with from getting into heaps,
mattresses were sewn through as now, and carefully tufted that the
packthread might not break through the ticking.[414]

-----

Footnote 411:

Athen. vi. 37.

Footnote 412:

Athen. ii. 29, sqq.

Footnote 413:

Gitone, Nozze di Ulisse è Penelope, Il Costume, &c. tav. 67.

Footnote 414:

See the mattress on which the statue of Hermaphroditos reclines in the
Louvre.

-----

Among the Orientals it is common at present for persons to sleep in
their day apparel; but even in the heroic ages it was already customary
in Greece to undress on going to bed. When Agamemnon is roused before
dawn by the delusive dream, the whole process of the morning toilette is
described. First, says the poet, he donned his soft chiton which was new
and very handsome; next his pelisse; after which he bound on his elegant
sandals and suspended his silver-hilted sword from his shoulder. Thus
accoutred he issued forth, sceptre in hand, towards the ships.[415]

-----

Footnote 415:

Il. β. 42, seq.

-----

In Syria, children luxuriously educated are said to have been rocked in
their cradles wrapped in coverlets of Milesian wool.[416] The sheep of
Miletos were, in fact, the Merinos of antiquity; and their wool being
celebrated for its fineness and softness, it was not only employed in
manufacturing the best cloths, but also in stuffing the mattresses of
kings and other great personages who thought much of their ease. And as
the vulgar imagine they become great by habiting themselves in garments
similar to those of their princes, like the honest man who sought wisdom
through reading by Epictetus’ lamp, the stuffs, couches, and coverlets
of Miletos got into great vogue among the ancients. Virgil, Cicero,
Servius, Columella, and many other writers speak accordingly of their
excellence, and their testimonies have, with wonderful industry, been
collected by the learned Bochart.[417]

-----

Footnote 416:

Esther i. 6. Lament, iv. 5. Bochart. Geograph. Sac. i. 6. 30.

Footnote 417:

Geog. Sac. i. 6. 28, seq.

-----

But though Miletos had a reputation for this kind of manufacture, it by
no means enjoyed a monopoly. The scarlet coverings of Sardis, and the
variegated stuffs of Cyprus, produced by the famous weaver Akesas and
his son Helicon,[418] appear in many instances to have obtained a
preference over all others. Pathymias, too, the Egyptian, distinguished
himself in the same line.[419]

-----

Footnote 418:

Eustath. ad Odyss. α. p. 32. 30.

Footnote 419:

Athen. ii. 30.

-----

All these bed-coverings were commonly perfumed with fragrant
essences,[420] for which reason the voluptuous poets of antiquity dwell
with a sort of rapture on the pleasure of rolling about in bed. Ephippos
exclaims:—

“How I delight
To spring upon the dainty coverlets;
Breathing the perfume of the rose, and steeped
In tears of myrrh!”

-----

Footnote 420:

In old times the whole bedroom was sometimes perfumed.—Iliad, γ. 382.

-----

Aristophanes, likewise, and Sophron, the mimographer, make mention of
these fragrant counterpanes, which were extremely costly, and inwrought,
according to the latter, with figures of birds.[421] Elsewhere Athenæus
relates that the Persian carpets contained representations of men,
animals, and monsters.[422] Their blankets, like our own, were plain
white; but even so far back as the heroic ages, the upper coverings, as
being partly designed for show, were of rich and various colours.[423]

-----

Footnote 421:

Athen. ii. 30. Aristoph. Frag. incert. 2. Brunck.

Footnote 422:

Deipnosoph. xi. 55. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 172.

Footnote 423:

Feith. Antiq. Homer, iii. 8. 4.

-----

There seems to be good ground for believing, that if the Greeks did not
borrow their philosophy from the East, they at least derived from them
many of the vain and luxurious habits which at length rendered that
philosophy of none effect. No one appears to have paid a single visit to
Persia, or Syria, or Egypt, without bringing back along with him some
pestilent new freak in the matter of dress or furniture, wholly at
variance with republican simplicity. We might adduce numerous anecdotes
in proof of this. For the present we confine ourselves to the following.
Among the Persians, renowned in all ages for sensual indulgences, it was
judged of so much importance to enjoy soft and elegantly arranged beds,
that in great houses persons were employed who attended only to this. An
anecdote in illustration has been preserved by Athenæus. Timagoras, or,
according to Phanias, Entimos of Gortyna, envying Themistocles his
reception at the court of Persia, undertook himself a toad-eating
expedition to that country. Artaxerxes, whose ear could tolerate more
flatterers than one, took the Cretan into favour, and made him a present
of a superb marquee, a silver-footed bedstead, with costly furniture,
and, along with them, sent a slave, as a Turkish pasha would send a cook
or a pipe-lighter, because, in his opinion, the Greeks who prepared
sleeping-places for so many Persians at Marathon and Platæa, understood
nothing of bed-making.

Entimos evidently excelled the great Athenian in the arts of a courtier.
In fact, he was the very prototype of Hajji Baba, and enjoyed even still
greater influence over the Shah than the illustrious barber’s son of
Ispahan. Charmed by his cajolery, Artaxerxes invited him to his private
table, where, usually, none but princes of the blood were admitted,[424]
an honour, as Phanias assures us, which no other Greek ever enjoyed.
For, though Timagoras of Athens performed _kou-tou_ before the
throne,[425] whereby he obtained great consideration among a nation of
slaves, and was hanged when he got home, he was not invited to
hob-and-nob with his majesty, but only enjoyed the distinction of having
certain dishes sent him from the king’s table. To Antalcidas, the
Spartan, Artaxerxes sent his crown dipped in liquid perfume, an
agreeable compliment, but which he more than once paid to Entimos, whose
extraordinary favour at court in the long run, however, awakened the
envy of the Persians. The canopy of the marquee presented to this Cretan
was spangled with bright flowers, and, among the other articles of which
the imperial gift consisted, were a throne of massive silver, a gilded
parasol, several golden cups crusted with jewels, a hundred maple-tables
with ivory feet, a hundred goblets of silver, several vases of the same
precious metal, a hundred female slaves, an equal number of youths, with
six thousand pieces of gold, besides what was furnished him for his
daily expenditure.[426]

-----

Footnote 424:

Very nearly the same customs prevail in Persia at the present day,
except that the rules of etiquette seem to be still more rigidly
observed. “It is a general custom with the kings of Persia to eat in
solitary grandeur. The late Shah, however, would sometimes have select
portions of his family to breakfast with him.” On which occasion,
“they used to squat round him in the form of a crescent, of which he
was the centre, and were all placed scrupulously according to
rank.”—Fowler, i. 48.

Footnote 425:

Athen. vi. 58. Vales. not. in Maussac. p. 282, where he corrects the
old reading of the text. Cf. Xenoph. Hellen. vii. 1. 38. Plut. Pelop.
§ 30. Artax. § 22. Valer. Max. vi. 3. extern. 2. Demosth. de Fals.
Leg. § 42, where the orator accuses Timagoras of having received a
bribe of forty talents.

Footnote 426:

Athen. ii. 31.

-----

A gentleman travelling in Ireland witnessed the ingenuity of that
ready-witted people in applying the same thing to various uses: first,
he saw the tablecloth, on which he had eaten a good supper, transferred
as a sheet to his bed, and, next morning, his kind hostess, offering her
services to put him in the right way, converted the same article into a
mantle, which she wrapped about her shoulders. The Greeks were almost
equally ingenious. With them what was a cloak by day became sometimes a
counterpane at night,[427] in addition, perhaps, to the ordinary
bed-clothes; for it is clear they loved to be warm, from the somewhat
reproachful allusion of Strepsiades in the “Clouds” to the five
_sisyræ_,[428] rolled snugly up in which, his son, Pheidippides, could
sleep while thoughts of his debts bit the old man like so many bugs, and
roused him hours before day to consult his ledgers. All kinds of
stromata were, in Plato’s time, divided into two classes, first,
coverings for the body, such as cloaks, mantles, and so on; secondly,
bed-clothes, properly so called.

-----

Footnote 427:

Xen. Anab. i. 5. 5.

Footnote 428:

Nub. 10. Cf. Av. 122. Concionat. 838. ibique not. Pollux, vii. 382,
seq. x. 542.

-----

The walls of their chambers were frequently hung with Milesian tapestry,
a custom to which Amphis alludes in his Odysseus:

A. Milesian hangings line your walls, you scent
Your limbs with sweetest perfume, royal myndax[429]
Piled on the burning censor, fills the air
With costly fragrance.

B. Mark you that, my friend!
Knew you before of such a fumigation?[430]

Mention is likewise made among the ancients of purple tapestry,
inwrought with pearls and gold.[431]

-----

Footnote 429:

Cf. Poll. vi. 105.

Footnote 430:

Athen. xv. 42. Cf. Meineke. Curæ Crit. in Com. Frag. p. 7.

-----

Carthage enjoyed celebrity for its manufacture of carpets and variegated
pillows,[432] a piece of luxury which, as we have seen above, had
already been introduced in the heroic ages; for Homer, in innumerable
passages, speaks of rare and costly carpets, and these were not only
spread over couches and seats, but over the floor likewise.[433] Rolled
up, they would occasionally appear to have served for pillows. The
manufacture of carpets had, moreover, been carried to considerable
perfection, for the poet speaks of some with a soft pile on both sides,
which were evidently very splendid.[434] Theocritus,[435] too, in his
Adoniazusæ, enumerates, among the luxuries of the youthful God,

Carpets of purple, _softer far than sleep_,[436]
Woven in Milesian looms.

-----

Footnote 431:

Mazois, Pal. de Scaur, p. 103. Tibull. iii. 3, 17, seq. Athen. iv. 29.

Footnote 432:

Athen. i. 49.

Footnote 433:

Il. ι. 200.—The use of mats first prevailed, (Festus, in v. Scirpus.)
but, as luxury increased, superb carpets were substituted.—Æschyl.
Agam. 842. Tryphiod. Ἅλωσις Ἴλιου. 343, seq. Hemster. Comm. in Poll.
viii. 133. p. 287. Cf. Klausen. Comm. in Æschyl. Agam. p. 197, sqq.

Footnote 434:

Il. π. 224. Poll. vi. 2. Synes. Epist. 61.

Footnote 435:

Eidyll, xv. 125.

Footnote 436:

A beautiful simile, which Virgil has imitated—

“Muscosi fontes, et _somno mollior herba_.”—Eclog. vii. 45.

Shakespeare, too, has, without imitation, struck upon a similar
thought, where the amorous Troilus thus describes himself:—

“But I am weaker than a woman’s tear,
_Tamer than sleep_, fonder than ignorance.”
Troilus & Cressida, i. 1.

-----

But in nothing did the Greeks display a more gorgeous or costly taste
than in what may be termed their _plate_, which was not only fabricated
of the rarest materials, but wrought likewise with all the elaborateness
and delicacy and richness of design within the reach of art. Among the
Macedonians, after their Eastern conquests, gold plate appears not to
have been uncommon; for at the grand supper described by Hippolochos in
his letter to Lynceus, every guest is said to have used it.[437] The
predilection for this sort of magnificence they acquired in Asia, where,
at a banquet given to Alexander, the whole dessert was brought in
tastefully covered with gold-leaf.[438] In the reign of his father,
Philip, the precious metals were rare in Macedonia. Indeed, that crafty
old monarch, possessing but one gold cup in the world, had so good an
opinion of his courtiers that, to prevent their thieving it, he slept
every night with it under his pillow.[439] Gold was, more early,
plentiful in Attica. Alcibiades, with tastes and habits unsuited to a
democracy, carried so far his love of display as to make use of
thuribles, or censers, and wash-hand basins of pure gold.[440] But the
ostentatious son of Clinias, though extravagant, was in this respect
only a type of his nation. Every rich citizen of Athens aimed at the
same degree of splendour; and, in describing his town-house or favourite
villa, might, with little alteration, have adopted the language of the
poet:—

——“My house within the city
Is richly furnished with plate and gold,
Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands:
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry.
In ivory coffers have I stuffed my crowns;
In cypress chests my arras, counterpanes,
Costly apparel, tents, and canopies,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions bossed with pearl,
Vallance of Venice, gold in needle-work,
Pewter and brass, and all things that belong
To house or housekeeping.”

-----

Footnote 437:

Athen. iv. 2, sqq. Cf. iii. 100.

Footnote 438:

Athen. iv. 42.

Footnote 439:

Deipnosoph. _ut sup._

Footnote 440:

Athen. ix. 75.

-----

Socrates, in the Republic, speaking of what the prevailing fashion
required to be found in a city, makes out a list of good things, not
much inferior upon the whole to Shakspeare’s,—beds, tables, and other
furniture; dainties of all kinds; perfumes, unguents, sauces, &c.; to
which the philosopher adds apparel, shoes, pictures, tapestry, ivory,
and gold:[441] and these rare materials, as farther on he observes, were
wrought into utensils for domestic purposes.

-----

Footnote 441:

Plat. De Rep. i. t. vi. p. 86. Cf. Tim. t. vii. p. 77.

-----

One of the most plentifully furnished departments of a Greek house was
the _Kulikeion_, or “cupboard,” usually closed in front with a
curtain,[442] where they kept their goblets, cups, and drinking-horns,
under the protection of a statue of Hermes, who, as god of thieves,
would, it was supposed, be respected by his children. The form and
workmanship of these materials varied, no doubt, according to the taste
and means of the possessor; but they were in general distinguished for
the elegance of their outline, the grace and originality of the
sculpture, the fineness, delicacy, and minute finish of the execution.
It is well known, as an able antiquarian[443] has remarked, to what an
excess the luxury of the table was carried among the ancients, and how
much they surpassed us in the dimensions, the massiveness, the
workmanship, the quality, and the variety of their drinking apparatus.

-----

Footnote 442:

Athen. xi. 3. Poll. x. 122.

Footnote 443:

Le Comte de Caylus, Mem. de l’Acad. des Inscrip, t. xxiii. p. 353.

-----

Many persons, however, seem chiefly to have valued their plate as a mark
of their wealth and magnificence; among whom may be reckoned Pythias of
Phigaleia, who, when dying, commanded the following epitaph to be
inscribed upon his tomb:—

Here jolly Pythias 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 equalled before.[444]

-----

Footnote 444:

Athen. xi. 14. Among the Egyptians were vases of papyrus. Bochart.
Geog. Sac. i. 240.

-----

Amber goblets not being, I believe, in fashion among the modern nations
of Europe, some doubt may be experienced respecting the veracity of our
friend of Phigaleia; but the ancients had other gobletary legends to
bring forward in support of it. Helen,[445] it is said, justly proud of
her beautiful bosom, dedicated in one of the temples of Rhodes, as a
votive offering, an amber goblet, exactly of the size and shape of one
of her breasts, which, had it come down to posterity, might have
furnished artists with a perfect model of that part of the female form.
However this may be, the ancients, in remote ages, set a great value on
their cups, particularly such as were considered heir-looms in the
family, and laid apart to be used only on extraordinary occasions. Hence
Œdipos, in the old Cyclic poet, is seized with fierce anger at his son,
who had, contrary to his will, brought forth his old hereditary goblets
to be used at an ordinary entertainment.

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 filled the golden bowl
With richest wine. At this old Œdipos,
Seeing the honoured relics of his sire
Profaned to vulgar uses, roused to anger,
Pronounced fierce imprecations, wished his sons
Might live no more in amity together,
But plunge in feuds and slaughters, and contend
For their inheritance: and the Furies heard.[446]

-----

Footnote 445:

Bruyerin, De Re Cibaria, l. iii. c. 9. This goblet could by no means
have been a diminutive one, if Helen resembled her countrywomen
generally, who were celebrated for their large bosoms:
βαθύκολποι.—Anacr. v. 14. Bruyerin’s authority is Plin. Hist. Nat.
xxxii. 23. “Minervæ templum habet Lindos, insula Rhodiorum, in quo
Helena sacravit calycem ex electro. Adjicit historia, mammæ suæ
mensura.” This, I suppose, is what Rousseau calls “Cette coupe célèbre
à qui le plus beau sein du monde servit de moule.”—Nouv. Heloise,
1^{re} partie. Lett. 23. t. i. p. 144,—though, I confess, I am not
acquainted with the authors by whom it has been celebrated. Several
votive offerings, representing the female breast, may be seen in the
British Museum, among the Elgin Marbles. But the most curious relic of
the ancient female form is mentioned in the following passage: “In the
street just out of the gate of this villa I lately saw a skeleton dug
out; and by desiring the labourers to remove the skull and bones
gently, I perceived distinctly the perfect mould of every feature of
the face, and that the eyes had been shut. I also saw distinctly the
impression of the large folds of the drapery of the toga, and some of
the cloth itself sticking to the earth. The city was first covered by
a shower of hot pumice-stones and ashes, and then by a shower of small
ashes mixed with water. It was in the latter stratum that the skeleton
above described was found. In the Museum at Portici a piece of this
sort of hardened mud is preserved; it is stamped with the impression
of the breast of a woman, with a thin drapery over it. The skeleton I
saw dug out was not above five feet from the surface. It is very
extraordinary that the impression of the body and face should have
remained from the year 79 to this day, especially as I found the earth
so little hardened that it separated upon the least touch.”—Sir W.
Hamilton, Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 15.

Footnote 446:

Athen. xi. 14.

-----

Agathocles, tyrant of Sicily, appears to have been an amateur of cups,
and would sometimes while exhibiting his collection to his friends make
a good-humoured allusion to his original occupation. “These golden
vessels,” said he, “have been made out of those earthenware ones which I
formerly manufactured.”[447] Drinking-bowls in fact made no
inconsiderable figure in ancient times. They were bestowed as the prizes
in gymnastic contests, and in Greece men boxed and wrestled for the cup
as horses run for it in England. Parasites, like the jester of Louis
XIV., used sometimes to carry home the cups and dishes set before them
at dinner; but the tables were often turned when the subject gave and
the prince pocketed the dole.

-----

Footnote 447:

Athen. xi. 15. Polyb. xii. 15. 6. xv. 35. 2.

-----

A curious legend has been preserved to us connected with the subject of
cups. Several princes uniting, in remote times, to send a colony to
Lesbos, were commanded by an oracle to cast a virgin, during their
voyage, into the sea, as a sacrifice to Poseidon. Obedience, in those
superstitious ages, was seldom refused to such injunctions. The maiden
was precipitated into the waves, but Enallos, one of the chiefs, in whom
love had quenched the reverence for oracles, immediately plunged in to
save her. Neither the chief, however, nor the virgin appeared again, and
the fleet proceeded. The remainder of the tradition may be illustrated
by an event said to have taken place in the Tonga islands.[448] They
were probably near some uninhabited isle, and instead of rising to the
surface of the sea, emerged into a cavern elevated considerably above
its level, and opening perhaps upon the land. “God tempers the wind to
the shorn lamb,” says a modern writer, and so Enallos found it. By means
unrevealed in the ancient narrative, the hero and his bride continued to
subsist on the rock, and many years afterwards, when the colony was
already flourishing, he one day presented himself before his old friends
at Methymna, and entertained them with a very romantic account of his
residence among the Nereids at the bottom of the sea, where he was
honoured with the care of Poseidon’s horses when sent out to grass. At
length, however, getting on the back of a large wave it bore him upwards
and he escaped from the deep, bearing in his hand a golden cup, the
metal of which was so marvellously beautiful that in comparison ordinary
gold appeared no better than brass.[449]

-----

Footnote 448:

See ariner’s Account, chap. 9.

Footnote 449:

Athen. xi. 15.

-----

Even the loftiest and least worldly-minded of the Homeric heroes,
Achilles, set great value on a favourite drinking-cup, which he
preserved for his own particular use, and for pouring out libations to
Zeus alone. Priam[450] was careful to include a rare goblet in the
ransom of Hector’s body, and a similar gift aided in alluring Alcmena
from the paths of virtue.[451] But the most famous bowl of antiquity was
that of Heracles, which, more capacious than the barber’s basin in Don
Quixote, served its illustrious owner in the double capacity of a
drinking-cup and a canoe; for when he had quenched his thirst, he could
set his bowl afloat, and, leaping into it, steer to any part of the
world he pleased. Some, indeed, speak of it as a borrowed article,
belonging originally to the Sun, and in which the god used nightly to
traverse the ocean from West to East.[452]

-----

Footnote 450:

Iliad. ω. 234.

Footnote 451:

Athen. xi. 16.

Footnote 452:

Bentley, Dissert. on Phal. i. 175, sqq.

-----

To pass, however, over the goblets of mythology. It was fashionable to
possess plate of this kind finely sculptured with historical arguments;
and history has preserved the names of Cimon and Athenocles, two artists
who excelled in this style of engraving. These cups were sometimes of
silver gilt, sometimes of massive gold crusted with jewels.[453] In
addition to the two artists named above, we may enumerate Crates,
Stratonicos, Myrmecides of Miletos, Callicrates the Lacedemonian, and
Mys, whose “Cup of Heracles,” celebrated in antiquity, had represented
upon it the storming of Ilion, with this inscription,

Troy’s lofty towers by Grecians sacked behold!
Parrhasios’ draught, by Mys engraved in gold.[454]

The names by which the ancients distinguished their several kinds of
goblets are too numerous to be here given. Some were curious—“Amalthea’s
Horn,” “The Year,” &c. Rustics made use of two-handled wooden bowls in
which, when thirsty, they drew fresh milk from the cow in the
fields.[455] There was a big-bellied cup with a narrow neck which being
shaped like a purse, participated with this very necessary article in
the name of Aryballos.[456]

-----

Footnote 453:

Plin. xxxiii. 2. Juven. v. 42. Athen. iv. 29.

Footnote 454:

Athen. xi. 19.

Footnote 455:

Athen. xi. 25, states this from Philetas: but Kayser, in his edition
of that author’s fragments, seems to have overlooked this passage.

Footnote 456:

Athen. xi. 36. On the Cantharos, see § 48.

-----

Glass cups of much beauty were manufactured in great abundance at
Alexandria. Among these was the _Baucalis_, mentioned by Sopater the
parodist, who says:—

’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.[457]

-----

Footnote 457:

Athen. xi. 28.

-----

The glass-workers of Alexandria procured earthenware vessels from all
parts of the world, which they used as models for their cups. Even the
great sculptor Lysippos did not disdain to employ his genius in the
invention of a new kind of vase. Having made a collection of vessels of
many various shapes, and diligently studied the whole, he hit upon a
form entirely new, and presented the model to Cassander, who having just
then founded the city of Cassandria, was ambitious of originating an
invention of this kind. He was desirous, perhaps, of recommending by the
elegance of his drinking-cups the Mendæan wine exported in great
quantities from his city.[458]

-----

Footnote 458:

Athen. xi. 28.

-----

There was a peculiar kind of cup called Grammateion, from the letters of
gold chased upon its exterior.[459] Alexis mentions one of this sort in
the following lines:

A. But let me first describe the cup; ’twas round,
Old, broken-eared, 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.[460]

-----

Footnote 459:

We find in Winkelmann, Hist. de l’Art t. i. p. 23, the representation
of a glass grammateion, on which are the words: Bibe Vivas Multis
Annis. See a detailed description of this vase by the Marquis
Trivulsi, p. 46.

Footnote 460:

Athen. xi. 30.

-----

A very handsome sort of cup was imported from Sidon. It had two handles,
and was ornamented with small figures in relief. Drinking-vases were
also formed from the large horns of the Molossian and Pœonian oxen; and
these articles were commonly rimmed with silver or gold.[461] Small cups
were made little account of. There was even one kind of bowl which, for
its enormous capacity, was called the Elephant.

A. If this hold not enough, see the boy comes
Bearing the Elephant!

B. Immortal gods!
What thing is that?

A. A double-fountained cup,
The workmanship of Alcon; it contains
Only three gallons.[462]

-----

Footnote 461:

Theopomp. ap. Athen. xi. 34. 51.

Footnote 462:

Athen. xi. 35.

-----

A very celebrated cup among the Athenians was the Thericlean,[463]
originally invented by Thericles, a Corinthian potter, contemporary with
Aristophanes. This ware was black, highly varnished, with gilt
edges;[464] but the name came afterwards to be applied to any vessel of
the same form from whatever materials manufactured. There were
accordingly Thericlea of gold with wooden stands. The cups of this kind,
made at Athens, being very expensive, an inferior sort, in imitation,
was produced at Rhodes, which, as far more economical, had a great run
among the humbler classes. The Thericlean was a species of deep chalice
with two handles, and bulging but little at the sides. Theophrastus[465]
speaks of Thericlea turned from the Syrian Turpentine tree, the wood of
which being black and taking a fine polish, it was impossible at a
glance to distinguish them from those of earthenware. The paintings on
these utensils appear to have been various. Sometimes a single wreath of
ivy encircled them immediately beneath the golden rim; but it seems
occasionally to have been covered with representations of animals, which
gave rise to a forced and false etymology of the name.[466]

-----

Footnote 463:

Cf. Bentley on the Epist. of Phalaris i. 169–189.

Footnote 464:

Alexis, ap. Athen. xi. 42.

Footnote 465:

Hist. Plant. v. 4. 2. cum not. Schnei. t. iii. p. 426.

Footnote 466:

Athen. xi. 41. ἄλλοι δὲ ἱστοροῦσι, θηρίκλειον ὀνομασθῆναι τὸ ποτήριον
διὰ τὸ δορὰς θηρίων αὐτῷ ἐντετυπῶσθαι.

-----

We have already observed, that the use of drinking-horns[467] was not
unknown to the ancients. In fact, it seems, in very remote ages, to have
been customary to convert bulls’ horns into cups with very little
preparation; and the practice of quaffing wine from this rude kind of
goblet had by some been supposed to have suggested the idea to artists
of representing Bacchos with horns, and to poets the epithet of the Bull
Dionysos. He was moreover worshiped at Cyzicos under the form of a bull.
Afterwards, as taste and luxury advanced, these simple vessels were
exchanged for horns of silver, which Pindar attributes to the
Centaurs.[468] Xenophon[469] found drinking-horns among the
Paphlagonians, and afterwards even in the palace of the Thracian king
Seuthes. Æschylus speaks of silver horns, with lids of gold, in use
among the Perrhæbians, and Sophocles, in his Pandora, makes mention of
drinking-horns of massive gold. Philip of Macedon was accustomed among
his friends to drink from the common horn. Golden horns were found among
the inhabitants of Cythera. Horns of silver were in use at Athens; and,
among the articles enumerated as sold at a public auction, mention is
made of one of these vessels of a twisted form.

-----

Footnote 467:

Bœckh. Pub. Econ. of Athens, ii. 254.

Footnote 468:

Pind. Frag. Incert. 44. i. 244. Dissen. Comm. ii. 659. Jacob. Anthol.
vii. 336. Athen. xi. 51. Cf. Damm. v. κέρας.

Footnote 469:

Anab. vi. 1. 4. vii. 3. 24, seq.

-----

Mirrors constituted another article of Hellenic luxury. These were
sometimes of brass,[470] whence the proverb:

As forms by brass, so minds by wine are mirrored.[471]

-----

Footnote 470:

Xen. Conv. vii. 4. They were sometimes square and washed with silver.
Caylus, Rec. d’Antiq. t. vi. p. 398. Cf. Cœl. Rhodig. xv. 12, 13.
Plat. Tim. t. vii. 52, seq. 61. Lucian. Amor. § 39. Ter. Adelph. ii.
3. 61. Cicero in Pison. c. 29. Poll. vii. 95. x. 126, 164.

Footnote 471:

Athen. x. 31.

-----

The best, however, until those of glass came into use, were made of
silver or of a mixed metal, the exact composition of which is not now
known. Another kind was fashioned from a species of carbuncle found near
the city of Orchomenos,[472] in Arcadia. Glass mirrors[473] also came
early into use, chiefly manufactured, at the outset, by the Phœnicians
of Sidon. The hand-mirrors were usually circular,[474] and set in costly
frames. To prevent their being speedily tarnished they were, when not in
use, carefully enclosed in cases.[475]

-----

Footnote 472:

Theoph. de Lapid. §. 33.

Footnote 473:

It is to be observed, that before the application of quicksilver in
the construction of these glasses (which I presume is of no great
antiquity) the reflection of images by such specula must have been
effected by their being besmeared behind, or tinged through with some
dark colour, especially black, which would obstruct the refraction of
the rays of light. Nixon in Philosoph. Trans, t. iv. p. 602. Cf. Plin.
xxxvi. 26. § 67.

Footnote 474:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 742.

Footnote 475:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 741.

-----

There were mirrors, too, of polished silver, fashioned so as to magnify
immensely the objects they reflected.[476] They invented also large cups
containing within many diminutive mirrors, so that when any one looked
into them, his eye was met by a multitude of faces all resembling his
own.[477] In a temple of Hera in Arcadia, was a mirror fixed in the
wall, wherein the spectator could at first scarcely, if at all, discern
his own image, while the throne of the goddess and the statues of the
other deities ranged around were most brilliantly reflected.[478] Many
sorts of mirrors appear to have been made for the purpose of playing off
practical jokes. For example, looking in one of these, a handsome woman
would find her visage transformed into that of a Gorgon, so as to appear
terrible even to herself. Others again were so very flattering, that a
half-starved barber, viewing his figure therein, appeared to be gifted
with the thewes of a Heracles. Another sort distorted the countenance,
or inverted it, or showed merely the half.

-----

Footnote 476:

Plaut. in Mostell. i. 3. 101.

Footnote 477:

Plin. xxxiii. 45. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 4.

Footnote 478:

Paus. viii. 37. 7.

-----

Religion was the nurse of the fine arts, and first gave rise, not only
to sculpture and painting, but also to those private collections of
statues and pictures[479] in which we discover the germs of our modern
galleries[480] and museums. The first step was made towards these when
the Greek set up the images of his household gods upon his hearth.
Thence, step by step, he proceeded, improving the appearance, enriching
the materials, increasing the number of his domestic deities, with which
niche after niche was filled, till his private dwelling became in some
sort a temple. The religious feeling, no doubt, made way, in many cases,
for a passion for show, or a nascent taste for the beautiful; so that
rude figures in terra-cotta, wood, or stone, were gradually replaced by
exquisite statues in ivory, gold, or silver,[481] or the fairest marble,
breathing beauty and life, with eyes of gems, and clothed with majesty
as with a garment. Hence flowed the passion for mimetic representations
and all the plastic arts. The gods were transferred from the fireside to
the temple, to the agora, to the senate-house, to the innumerable
porticoes everywhere abounding in Greece.[482]

-----

Footnote 479:

Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 86. Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 39. xxxv. 36.
xxxiii. 56.

Footnote 480:

Athen. xi. 3. Menage, Observat. in Diog. Laert. vi. 32. p. 138. a. b.

Footnote 481:

Poll. i. 28.

Footnote 482:

Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 86.

-----

On their superb candelabra,[483] &c., matter for a curious volume might
be collected. The lamps in common use,[484] though sometimes very
beautiful in shape, were of course fictile,[485] such as we find in
great numbers among the ruins of Greek cities, both in the
mother-country, and in their Egyptian and other colonies. Sometimes,
however, they were of bronze, silver, or massive gold. A very beautiful
specimen in this last metal was found, by Lord Belmore, among the ruins
of an Egyptian temple, a short time before my visit to the Nile. In many
houses were magnificent chandeliers, suspended from the ceiling, with
numerous branches, which filled the apartments[486] with a flood of
light. The most remarkable article of this kind which I remember was
that set up as a votive offering to Hestia, in the Prytaneion of
Tarentum, by Dionysios the Younger, which held as many lamps as there
are days in the year.[487] Among people of humble condition wooden
chandeliers, or candlesticks, were in use.[488] In remoter ages they
burned slips of pine-branches, the bark of various trees, &c., instead
of lamps. They were acquainted with the use of horn and wicker
lanterns.[489]

-----

Footnote 483:

An elegant candelabrum, ornamented with the figure of a twisted
serpent, and a flight of birds resting here and there on the branches,
is found in the Mus. Cortonens. tab. 80.—They were sometimes of gilt
wood.—Winkelmann, i. 34.

Footnote 484:

Poll. ii. 72. vi. 103. x. 115. Soph. Ajax. 285, sqq.

Footnote 485:

Poll. x. 192.—On the brazen ladle (ἀρύταινα) for filling lamps with
oil, see Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 1087.

Footnote 486:

Athen. xi. 48.

Footnote 487:

Id. xv. 60.

Footnote 488:

Id xv. 61.

Footnote 489:

Id. xv. 59.

-----

Another kind of decoration of Greek houses we must not overlook,—their
armour and implements of war,[490] with which the poet Alcæos[491] loved
to adorn his chambers, though, like Paris, he cared little to make any
other use of them. “My spacious mansion,” exclaims he, “gleams
throughout with brazen arms. Even along the ceiling are ranged the
ornaments of Ares, glittering helmets, surmounted by white nodding
plumes; greaves of polished brass are suspended on the walls, with
cuirasses of linen, while, here and there, about my apartments, are
scattered hollow shields. Elsewhere, you behold scimitars of Chalcis,
and baldricks, and the short vest which we wear beneath our
armour.”[492] Besides the articles enumerated by the poet, there were
shield-cases, sheaths for their spears, quivers curiously adorned,
feathered arrows, and bows of polished horn, tipped at either end with
gold.

-----

Footnote 490:

The custom, also, in Lydia. Herod. i. 34.

Footnote 491:

Alcæi Frag. vi. p. 95. Anacr. ed. Glasg.

Footnote 492:

Κύπασσις of which Pollux furnishes us with an exact description: ὁ δὲ
κύπασσις, λίνου πεποίητο, σμικρὸς χιτωνίσκος, ἄχρι μέσου μηροῦ, ὡς Ἴων
φησὶ, βραχὺς λίνου κύπασσις, ἐς μηρὸν μέσον ἐσταλμένος. (vii. 60) That
is, “the _kupassis_ is a small linen chiton, reaching mid-thigh,
according to Ion, who says, ‘a short linen kupassis, descending to the
middle of the thigh.’”

-----

From these gorgeous and costly commodities the reader, we fear, will be
reluctant to accompany us into the kitchen, where we must pick our way
among kneading-troughs, pots and pans, Delphian cutlery[493] and
honey-jars.[494] But as without these the warriors, as Homer himself
acknowledges, could make but little use of their weapons, it is
absolutely necessary we should inquire into their cooking conveniences.
To commence, however, we must allow[495] Clearchos of Soli, to enumerate
a few of the articles found among the furniture of this important part
of the house. There was, first, says he, a three-legged table, then a
chytra, or earthen pot, which, as in France, was always preferred for
making soup. It was not, however, of coarse brown ware, as with us; for,
Socrates, in his conversation with Hippias on the Beautiful, observes
that, when properly made, round, smooth, and well-baked, the chytra was
very handsome, particularly that large sort which contained upwards of
seven gallons. It had two handles, and was evidently glazed.[496] In
stirring the chytra while boiling, the Attic cook made choice of a ladle
turned from the wood of the fig-tree, which, it is said, communicated an
agreeable flavour to the soup, and, in Socrates’s opinion, was
preferable to one of gold which, being very weighty, might chance to
crack the pot, spill the broth, and extinguish the fire.[497]

-----

Footnote 493:

Hesych. v. Δελφικὴ μάχαιρα.

Footnote 494:

Athen. xi. 50, ὀξίνη, a vinegar cruet.—Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 1301. ὑρχη,
a pickle-jar.—Vesp. 676.

Footnote 495:

Athen. xiv. 60.

Footnote 496:

Plat. Hipp. Maj. t. v. p. 425, sqq.

Footnote 497:

Plat. Opp. t. v. p. 429. seq. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 244.

-----

There was used in the kitchen a sort of candelabrum, or lamp-stand,
which Clearchos merely names. Then followed the mortar, the stool, the
sponge, the cauldron, the kneading-trough, the mug, the oil-flask, the
rush-basket, the large knife, the cleaver,[498] the wooden platter, the
bowl, and the larding-pin.[499] Pollux, who had, doubtless, served an
apprenticeship to Marcus Aurelius’s cook, gives a formidable list of
culinary utensils, from which we must be content to select the most
remarkable. First, however, we shall show how important a piece of
sponge was to an Athenian cook. It often saved him his dinner; for, if
any of his stewpans, crocks, or kettles, had suffered from the embraces
of Hephæstos, in other words, had got a hole burnt in them, a bit of
sponge was drawn into the aperture, and on went the cooking operations
as before.[500] In some houses culinary utensils were regarded as a
nuisance, the presence of which was not to be constantly endured, and,
accordingly, when the master desired to treat his friends, cookey was
despatched early in the morning to hire pots and kettles of a broker. To
this custom Alexis alludes in his Exile:

How fertile in new tricks is Chæriphon,
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.[501]

-----

Footnote 498:

See a figure, probably, of that instrument in Mus. Chiaramont. tav.
21.

Footnote 499:

Athen. xiv. 60. Poll. x. 95, sqq.—We find mention, also, of the
cheese-rasp.—Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 251.

Footnote 500:

Aristoph. Acharn. 439. Brunck is vastly scandalised at the idea of the
Scholiast, that any man should have been so poor in Attica as to be
driven to mend his pots in the way commemorated in the text; but a
German commentator, who had looked more into kitchens, is satisfied
that the practice prevailed, and was perfectly rational. In fact,
similar contrivances are still resorted to, even in England.

Footnote 501:

Athen. iv. 58.

-----

But we must not pass over the Pyreion or Trypanon,[502] the clumsy
contrivance which supplied the place of our lucifers, phosphorus, and
tinder-boxes. This was a hollow piece of wood, in which another piece
was turned rapidly till sparks of fire flew out.[503] Soldiers carried
these fire-kindlers along with them as a necessary part of their kit.

Footnote 502:

Theoph. Histor. Plant. v. 9. 7.

Footnote 503:

Plat. de Rep. iv. t. vi. p. 194. Pollux. x. 146. vii. 113.

-----

The ordinary fuel of the Greeks consisted chiefly of wood and
charcoal,[504] (kept in rush or wicker baskets,) though the use of
mineral coal was not altogether unknown to them.[505] In Attica,
where wood was always scarce, they economically made use of
vine-cuttings,[506] and even the green branches of the fig tree with
the leaves on.[507] The charcoal of Acharnæ, the best probably in
the country, was sometimes prepared from the scarlet oak.[508] To
prevent the wood, used in their saloons, halls, and drawing-rooms
from smoking, it was often boiled[509] in water or steeped in dregs
of oil. The use of the bellows[510] was known in Hellas from the
remotest antiquity. They had likewise a kind of osier flap, with a
handle, and shaped like a fan, which at times supplied the place of
a pair of bellows.

-----

Footnote 504:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 34, 302, 314. Plat. de Legg. t. viii.
116.

Footnote 505:

Theoph. de Lap. § 16.

Footnote 506:

Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 308.

Footnote 507:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 312. Cf. Schol. Vesp. 145, 326.

Footnote 508:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 587.

Footnote 509:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xv. 8.

Footnote 510:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 853. Athen. ii. 71.

-----

There were chopping-blocks[511] both of wood and stone, mortars,[512]
fish-kettles, frying-pans, and spits of all dimensions,[513] some being
so diminutive that thrushes and other small birds could be roasted on
them. Their ends in the heroic ages rested on stone hobs, but afterwards
andirons were invented, probably of fanciful shape as in modern France.
Occasionally they would appear to have been manufactured of lead. To
these we may add the ovens, the bean and barley-roasters, the sieves of
bronze and other materials, the wine-strainers in the form of colanders,
the crate for earthern-ware, and the chafing-dish.[514]

-----

Footnote 511:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 319. Vesp. 238. κρεάγρα a flesh-hook. Sch.
Eq. 769.

Footnote 512:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 924.

Footnote 513:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 179.

Footnote 514:

Aristoph. Acharn. 34. Cooks’ tables were made of wicker-work or
olive-wood. Etym. Mag. 298. 36, seq.

-----

CHAPTER III.
FOOD OF HOMERIC TIMES—MEAT, FISH, ETC.

Having described the implements with which a Greek meal was prepared,
let us next inquire of what materials it consisted, and how it was
eaten. There will be no occasion in pursuing this investigation to
adhere to any very strict method. It will probably be sufficient to make
a few broad divisions and a flexible outline which we can fill up as the
materials fall in our way.

What the original inhabitants of Hellas ate might no doubt be
satisfactorily inferred from the accounts we possess of nations still
existing in the same state of civilisation. But it is nevertheless
curious to examine their traditions relating to the subject. Ælian, who
has preserved many notices of remote antiquity, gives a list of various
kinds of food, which, as he would appear to think, constituted the
chief, if not the whole, sustenance of several ancient nations. The
Arcadians lived, he says, upon acorns; the Argives upon pears, the
Athenians upon figs;[515] the wild pear-tree furnished the Tirynthians
with their favourite food; a sort of cane was the chief dainty of the
Indians; of the Karamanians[516] the date; millet of the Mæotæ and
Sauromatæ; while the Persians[517] delighted chiefly in cardamums and
pistachio nuts.[518]

-----

Footnote 515:

Cf. Plut. Quæst. Græc. 51.

Footnote 516:

Cf. Dion. Perieg. 1082.

Footnote 517:

These people were great eaters, and held none in estimation but those
who resembled them. Aristoph. Acharn. 74. sqq.

Footnote 518:

Ælian. Var. Hist. iii. 39. Perizonius in his note on this passage
observes, that ἄπιος and ἀχράς are but different names for the same
thing, both signifying “the pear,” the former term prevailing among
the Argives, the latter among the Tirynthians and Laconians. By the
other Greeks both words were used promiscuously, though ἄπιος was the
more common. This able commentator objects to the assertion of his
author, that the Hindoos lived on cane, since they also ate millet,
rice, &c. But Ælian could really have intended nothing more than that
the articles he enumerates were in common use among the nations spoken
of. Otherwise the whole must be regarded as a mere fable. The canes,
mentioned by Ælian, are those from which sugar has been from very
remote antiquity extracted.

Quique bibunt tenerâ dulces ab arundine succos.
Lucan. Pharsal. iii. 237.

-----

The tradition that while some degree of civilisation already existed in
the East, many tribes of Hellas still subsisted upon acorns, has given
rise to much curious disquisition. It is abundantly clear, however, that
the fruit of our English oak is not what is meant; for, upon this, no
one who has made the experiment will for one moment imagine that man
could subsist; but every kind of production comprehended by the Greeks
under the term “acorn,” (βάλανος). Gerard, an old English botanist,
enumerates chestnuts among acorns, and Xenophon calls dates “the acorns
of the palm-tree.” The mast, however, of a tree common in Greece, would,
as Mitford thinks, afford a not unwholesome nourishment, though he is
quite right in supposing that it could not have been a favourite food in
more civilised times.[519] While upon the subject of acorns, this
ingenious and able writer appears disposed to make somewhat merry with a
certain project of Socrates. If we rightly comprehend him, which very
possibly we do not, he means to accuse the philosopher of reducing the
citizens of his airy republic to very short commons indeed,[520] nothing
but a little beech-mast, and a few myrtle-berries. This borders strongly
on the notion of the comic writer, who describes the Athenians as living
on air and hope. But though abstemious enough, Socrates was not so
unreasonable as to require even his Utopians to fight and philosophise
upon a diet so scanty. Before he comes to the mast and the
myrtle-berries, we find him enumerating wheaten and barley bread, salt,
olives, cheese, and truffles, together with pulse and all such herbs as
the fields spontaneously produce. For a dessert he would indulge them
with figs, chickpeas, and beans, myrtle-berries, and beech-mast, or
chestnuts roasted in the fire. Plato was aware how the luxurious wits of
his time would turn up their noses at such primitive diet, and therefore
brings in Glaucon inquiring,—“If you were founding a polity of swine,
what other food would you provide for them?”[521] Pausanias remarks,
however, that acorns long continued to be a common article of food in
Arcadia,[522] but only those of the fagus.[523]

-----

Footnote 519:

See Goguet, i. 160, seq.

Footnote 520:

Hist. of Greece, i. 9, note. Cf. Anab. ii. 3.

Footnote 521:

Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 85.

Footnote 522:

Cf. Polluc. i. 234.

Footnote 523:

Paus. viii. 1. 6. Pliny observes that the fruit of the fagus is sweet
“dulcissima omnium glans fagi.” Hist. Nat. xvii. 6. Cf. Lucian. Amor.
§ 33. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 8, 2. This Arcadian dainty is
still eaten in Spain. “In some parts (of Navarre) the mountains are
girt at their base by forests of chestnut trees or of the Spanish oak
called _encina_, whose acorn roasted, is as palatable as the
chestnut.” (A Campaign with Zumalacarregui, i. 40.) The same writer
observes, that the fruit of the ever-green arbutus, in shape like a
cherry, though insipid and intoxicating in its effects, is also eaten
by the omniverous Spaniards, p. 51. See also Laborde’s Itinerary of
Spain, iv. 80, and Capell Brooke’s Travels, ii. 72.

-----

If we may credit some writers the ancient inhabitants of Hellas made use
of food much more revolting than acorns, having been, in fact, cannibals
who devoured each other. There, no doubt, existed among the Greeks of
later times traditions of a state of society in which human flesh was
eaten by certain fierce and lawless individuals, such as Polyphemos, but
nothing in their literature can authorise us to infer that the practice
was ever general. Superstition seems on very extraordinary occasions to
have impelled them into the guilt of human sacrifice, when the
officiating priests, and, perhaps, some few others, probably tasted of
the entrails, and Galen had conversed with individuals who had been led
by mere curiosity to sup on man’s flesh, and found its flavour to
resemble that of tender beef.[524] But instances of this kind prove
nothing; for how often does it not happen that mariners are even now
driven by distressful circumstances to slaughter and eat their
companions at sea! And yet shall we on this account pass for
anthropophagi with posterity?

-----

Footnote 524:

See Bochart. Geog. Sac. i. 309.

-----

The Greeks, however, were not content with one set of traditions, or
upon the whole inclined to give currency to the most gloomy. On the
contrary, their poets casting backward the light of their imagination,
and kindling up the landscapes of the far past, called up the vision of
the golden age, when neither the domestic hearth[525] nor the altars of
the gods were stained with blood, and the fruits of the field,—milk,
honey, cheese, and butter sufficed to sustain life. But we must escape
from these shadowy times, and come down to the age of beef and mutton.

-----

Footnote 525:

Cf. Plat. De Legg. vi. t. vii. p. 471.

-----

Food is, with great precision, divided by Aristotle into moist and dry,
that is, into meat and drink.[526] A classification, the credit of
which, as Feith contends, belongs to Homer.[527] In this poet, bread
(σίτος), the principal article of provision, is made indiscriminately
both from wheat and barley, though the latter grain is thought to have
been first in use.[528] Herodotus found, in the matter of bread, a
peculiar taste among the Egyptians; barley and wheat they despised,
though in no country are finer produced than in Egypt; giving, very
strangely, the preference to the _olyra_, by some supposed to be the
spelt, but more probably Syrian _dhourra_, ears of which I observed
sculptured on the interior of the pronaos of Leto’s temple at Esneh.
Bread, in the Homeric age, was brought to table in a reed basket, the
use of silver bread-baskets, or trays, not having been then, as Donatus
thinks, introduced. But in this the learned commentator is mistaken; or,
if they had no silver trays, at least they had them of brass and gold,
to match their tables of massive silver.[529]

-----

Footnote 526:

Problem. x. 56, 58.

Footnote 527:

Iliad. α. 496. β. 432, seq.

Footnote 528:

Iliad. ε. 196, et 341. The scholiast on this verse, observes that,
before the invention of mills, men used to eat the raw grain. (Cf. on
Iliad. α. 449, and Etym. Magn. v. οὐλόχυται, 641, 29.) But this is
merely an absurd conjecture; for they could, at least, have roasted
the young ear as in the East they still do, while it is full of juice,
and have eaten it thus with salt, when it is both pleasant and
nutritive. Besides, some means of reducing the grain to meal appears
to have been known almost from the beginning.

Footnote 529:

Iliad. λ. 629. Odyss. κ. 355. See, too, Theocrit. Eidyll. xxiv. 135,
sqq. Virgil. Æneid. i. 705.

-----

Next to bread, flesh, in the heroic ages, was the greatest stay-stomach,
particularly beef, kid, mutton, and pork. They had not, however, as yet
discovered many ways of cooking it. Nearly all their culinary ingenuity
reduced itself in fact to roasting and boiling, a circumstance which led
Athenæus,[530] and the president Goguet to look back with great pity and
concern on these unhappy ages when even princes, generally gourmands,
were deprived of the supreme felicity of dining on ragouts, soups, and
boiled brains. Servius,[531] too, and Varro are inclined to participate
in this feeling of commiseration, and the latter observes, that among
their own ancestors people were originally compelled to dine on roast
meat, though in the course of time the arts of boiling and soup-making
were introduced.[532] With regard to Homer’s heroes, however, our
sympathies are somewhat relieved by finding, that learned men have
overrated the extent of their misfortunes. They were not altogether
ignorant of the art of boiling, as Athenæus himself admits, where he
mentions the boiled shin of beef which one of the drunken suitors flung
at Odysseus’s head.

-----

Footnote 530:

Deipnosoph. i. 15. Origine des Loix, ii. 306. “J’ai dit que la
simplicité faisoit le caractère distinctif de ses premiers âges. La
manière dont on se nourissoit alors en fait preuve. On ne voit
paroître ni sauce ni ragoût, ni même de gibier, dans la description
que l’Ecriture fait du repas donné par Abraham aux trois anges qui lui
apparurent dans la vallée de Membré. Ce Patriarche leur sert un veau
roti, ou, pour mieux dire, grillé; du lait de beurre, et du pain frais
cuit sous la cendre. Voilà tout le festin. Ce fait montre que les
repas alors étoient plus solides que délicats. Abraham avoit
certainement intention de traiter ses hôtes du mieux qu’il lui étoit
possible, et il faut observer que ce Patriarche possédoit de
très-grandes richesses en or, en argent, en troupeaux et en esclaves.
On peut donc regarder le repas qu’il donne aux trois anges, comme le
modèle d’un festin magnifique, et juger en conséquence quelle étoit de
son tems la manière de traiter splendidement.”

Footnote 531:

Comm. ad Æneid. i. 710.

-----

The flesh of young animals was not habitually eaten in those early ages,
so that in denominating them public devourers of kids and lambs, Priam
accuses his sons of scandalous luxury.[533] In fact, with the design of
preventing a scarcity of animal food, a law was enacted at Athens
prohibiting the slaughter of an unshorn lamb, and from the same motive
the Emperor Valens forbade the use of veal.[534]

-----

Footnote 532:

Feith, Antiq. Homer, iii. 1, 3.

Footnote 533:

Il. ω. 262.

Footnote 534:

Hieron adv. Jovian. ii. 75. a. Diosc. ap. Athen. ix. 17. Eustath. ad
Il. ω. p. 1481. 12. Schweigh, Animad. in Athen. t. vi. p. 96, seq.

-----

But there was nothing beyond the difficulty of catching it, to prevent
the Homeric heroes from making free with game, such as venison, and the
flesh of the wild goat;[535] and from a passage in the Iliad, Feith
infers, that even birds were not spared.[536] We trust, however, that
they feathered and cooked them, and did not devour them _au naturel_, as
certain Hindùs do their sheep, wool and all. The Egyptians had a very
peculiar taste in ornithophagy, and actually ate some kinds of birds
quite raw, as they likewise did several species of fish; and this not in
those early ages when Isis and Osiris had not reclaimed the bogs of the
Nile, but in times quite modern, when Herodotus travelled in their
country, and heard their vain priests lay claim to having civilised
Hellas. Both birds and fish, indeed, underwent a certain sort of
preparation. Of the latter some were dried in the sun, others preserved
in pickle, and the same process was applied to ducks, quails, and many
other species of birds, after which they were eaten raw. We recommend
the practice to our gourmands, and have no doubt they would find a
pickled owl or jackdaw, devoured in the Egyptian style, altogether as
wholesome as diseased goose’s liver. It must not, however, be
dissembled, that many critics, concerned for the gastronomic reputation
of the Egyptians, contend that, by the word which we translate “to
pickle,”[537] Herodotus must have meant some kind of cookery; to which
Wesseling replies, that, without designing to impugn the taste of those
gentlemen, he must yet refuse to accept of their interpretation, since
by observing that they roasted or boiled all other species of birds and
fish, such as were sacred excepted, the historian evidently intends to
say, that these were eaten raw. The learned editor might have added,
that Herodotus uses the same term in treating of the process of
embalming,[538] and we nowhere learn that the mummies were cooked before
they were deposited in the tombs.

-----

Footnote 535:

Od. ι. 185. κ. 180.

Footnote 536:

Iliad. ψ. 852, seq.

Footnote 537:

Προταριχεύειν. Herod. ii. 77, edit. Wessel.

Footnote 538:

Herod. i. 77, seq. ii. 15. ix. 80.

-----

But to return to the Homeric warriors; it seems extremely[539] probable,
notwithstanding the opinions of several writers of great authority, both
ancient and modern, that the demi-gods, and heroes before Troy, admitted
that effeminate dainty called _fish_ to their warlike tables. At all
events the common people understood the value of this kind of food,[540]
and it may safely be inferred that their betters, never slow in
appropriating delicacies to their own use, soon perceived that fish is
no bad eating. Hunger would at least reconcile them to the flavour of
broiled salmon, as we find by the example of Odysseus’s companions, who
devoured both fish and fowl.[541] This is acknowledged by Athenæus;[542]
but Plutarch contends, that they could have been driven to it only by
extreme necessity. At all other times he imagines they temperately
abstained from food of so exciting a kind,[543] though Homer describes
the Hellespont as abounding in fish,[544] and more than once alludes to
the practice of drawing it thence with hook and line.[545] Thus we find
that angling can trace back its pedigree to the heroic ages; and the
disciple of the rod as he trudges with Izaak in his pocket through bog
and mire in search of a good bite, may solace his imagination with
reminiscences of Troy and the Hellespont. But the good people of those
days did not wholly rely for a supply of fish on this very tedious and
inefficient process; they had discovered the use of nets, which Homer
describes the fisherman casting on the sea shore.[546] Though the poet,
however, had omitted all allusion to this kind of food, its use might,
nevertheless, have been confidently inferred, as may that of milk,
common to all nations, though Homer mentions it only, I believe, in the
case of the Hippomolgians,[547] and the cannibal Polyphemus, who
understood also the luxury of cheese.[548] Circe, too, who being a
goddess may be supposed to have been a connoisseur in dainties, presents
her paramour Odysseus with a curious mixture, consisting of cheese,
honey, flour, and wine,[549] very savoury, no doubt, and by old Nestor
considered of salutary nature, since Hecamedè, at his order, prepares a
plentiful supply of it for the wounded Machaon. Along with this posset,
garlic was eaten as a relish.[550]

-----

Footnote 539:

Plato, among others, remarks that, in the military messes of his
heroes, Homer introduces neither fish nor boiled meat. De Rep. iii. t.
vi. p. 141.

Footnote 540:

Odyss. τ. 113.

Footnote 541:

Odyss. μ. 330. sqq.

Footnote 542:

Deipnosoph. i. 47.

Footnote 543:

Plut. Sympos. viii. 8.

Footnote 544:

Il. ι. 360.

Footnote 545:

Il. π. 407.

Footnote 546:

Od. χ. 364, sqq. Eustathius, however, on this passage observes, that
though nets are spoken of in the Iliad, (ε. 487,) this is the only
place where the poet distinctly mentions their being used in taking
fish.

Footnote 547:

Il. ο. 6.

Footnote 548:

Od. ι. 236, 246. Theoc. Eidyll. xi. 35.

Footnote 549:

Od. κ. 234, seq.

Footnote 550:

Il. λ. 623, sqq. This mixture called κυκεὼν, is more than once
mentioned by Plato—De Rep. iii. t. vi. p. 148.

-----

Fruits and potherbs, as may be supposed, were already in use.[551]
Garlic we have mentioned above; and Odysseus, after all his wars and
wanderings, recalls to mind with a quite natural pleasure the apple and
pear trees which his father, Laertes, had given him when a boy.[552]
Alcinoös possessed a fine orchard, where, though the process of grafting
is supposed to have been then unknown, we find a variety of beautiful
fruits, as pears, apples, pomegranates, delicious figs, olives, and
grapes; and in his kitchen-garden were all kinds of vegetables.[553] And
the shadowy boughs of a similar orchard, covered with golden fruit, wave
over Tantalos in Hades, but are blown back by the wind whenever the
wretched old sinner stretches forth his hand towards them.[554] From
this circumstance Athenæus, with much ingenuity, infers that fruit was
actually in use before the Trojan war! Apples seem then, as now, to have
constituted a favourite portion of the dessert, though among the Homeric
warriors they seem sometimes to have formed a principal part of the
meal; for Servius[555] describes the primitive repasts as consisting of
two courses, of which the first was animal food, and apples the second.

-----

Footnote 551:

Cf. Hom. Il. λ. 629, seq.

Footnote 552:

Od. ω. 339.

Footnote 553:

Od. η. 115, sqq. Plut. Sympos. v. 8.

Footnote 554:

Od. λ. 587, sqq.

Footnote 555:

Ad Æneid. i. 727.

Footnote 556:

Il. ι. 214. In later times it was customary to bruise thyme small, and
mingle it with salt to give it a finer flavour. Aristoph. Acharn. 772.
Suid. v. θυμιτίδων ἁλῶν. t. i. p. 1336. b.

-----

Salt was in great use in the Homeric age, and by the poet sometimes
called divine.[556] Plato, also, in the Timæos,[557] speaks of salt as a
thing acceptable to the gods, an expression which Plutarch quotes with
manifest approbation in a passage where he grows quite eloquent in
praise of this article, which he denominates the condiment of
condiments, adding, that of some it was numbered among the Graces.[558]
By the most ancient Greeks salt was, for this reason, always spoken of
in conjunction with the table, as in the old proverb, where men were
advised “never to pass by salt or a table,” that is, not to neglect a
good dinner.[559] Poor men, who probably had no other seasoning for
their food, were contemptuously denominated “salt-lickers.”[560] But, in
Homer’s time, there existed certain Hellenic tribes who had not yet
arrived at a knowledge of this luxury; among whom, accordingly, even the
most aristocratic personages were compelled to go without salt to their
porridge.[561] The poet has, indeed, omitted to mention their names; but
Pausanias supposes him to have alluded to the more inland clans of
Epeirots, many of which had not yet, in those ages, acquired a knowledge
of salt, or even of the sea.[562]

-----

Footnote 557:

Opera, t. vii. p. 80.

Footnote 558:

Sympos. v. 9.

Footnote 559:

Erasm. Adag. Chil. i. Cent. vi. Adag. 10.

Footnote 560:

Ἅλα λείχειν. Erasm. Adag. iii. vi. 33, or, as Persius expresses it,
“digito terebrare salinum.” Sat. v. 138.

Footnote 561:

Od. λ. 122.

Footnote 562:

Paus. i. 1. 12.

-----

It appears to be agreed on all hands, that the primitive races of men
were mere water-drinkers. Accordingly they had neither poets nor
inn-keepers, nor excisemen,—three classes of persons who never flourish
but where wine, or at least beer, is found. Homer more than once alludes
to this vicious habit of the old world, where, with a sly insinuation of
contempt,—for he was himself partial to the blood-red wine,—he tells us
that this or that nation drank, like so many oxen or crocodiles, of the
waters of such or such a river. Thus, when enumerating the allies of
Ilion, he describes the Zeleians as those who sipped the black waters of
the Æsepos.[563] Pindar, too, in the hope of obtaining a reputation for
sobriety, says, he was accustomed to drink the waters of Thebes, which,
in his opinion, were very delicious,[564] though Hippocrates would
unquestionably have been of a totally different way of thinking. The
Persian, and afterwards the Parthian kings, appear in many cases to have
entertained a temperate predilection for the water of certain streams,
of which Milton has given eternal celebrity to one:—

“Choaspes, amber stream,
The drink of none but kings.”[565]

But evidently through mistake; for though historians pretend that the
Parthian monarchs would drink of no water save that of the Choaspes, to
which Pliny[566] adds the Eulæus, it is by no means said that they
enjoyed a monopoly of those streams. Perhaps our great poet confounded
the Choaspes with those Golden Waters which, in Athenæus, are said to
have been wholly reserved for the use of the king and his eldest
son.[567]

-----

Footnote 563:

Il. β. 824, seq.

Footnote 564:

Pind. Olymp. vi. 85.

Footnote 565:

Paradise Regained, iii. 288, seq.

Footnote 566:

Hist. Nat. xxxi. 21. “Parthorum reges,” says this writer, “ex Choaspe
et Eulæo tantum bibunt; et eæ quamvis in longinqua comitatur eos.”
Hence Tibullus has the following verses in his Panegyric of Messala,
iv. 1. 142:

“Nec quâ vel Nilus vel _regia lympha_ Choaspes
Profluit.”

Herod. i. 188. Æl. Var. Hist. xii. 40. Cf. Strabo. 1. xv. c. 3. t.
iii. p. 318.

Footnote 567:

Athen. xii. 9. Ἀγαθοκλῆς δ᾽, ἐν τρίτῳ Περὶ Κυζίκου, ἐν Πέρσαις φησὶν
εἶναι καὶ χρυσοῦν καλούμενον ὕδωρ. εἶναι δὲ τοῦτο λιβάδας ἑβδομήκοντα,
καὶ μηδὲνα πίνειν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἢ μόνον βασιλέα, καὶ τὸν πρεσβύτατον αὐτοῦ
τῶν παίδων. τῶν δ᾽ ἄλλων ἐάν τις πίῃ, θάνατος ἡ ζημία.

-----

Wine, however, was invented very early in the history of the world; and
the virtue of sobriety was born along with it; for, until then, it had
been no merit to be sober. With whomsoever its use began, wine was well
known to Homer’s heroes, one of whom speaks of it, in conjunction with
bread, as the chief root of man’s strength and vigour.[568] Yet the
warriors of those ages by no means exhibited that selfish parsimony
which led the Romans to debar their matrons the use of wine.[569] In
Homer we find women, even while very young, permitted the enjoyment of
it: for example, Nausicaa and her companions, who, in setting forth on
their washing excursion, are furnished by the queen herself with a
plentiful supply of provisions, and a skin of wine.[570] Boys, likewise,
in the heroic ages, met with similar indulgence; for Phœnix is
represented permitting Achilles to join him in his potations before the
little urchin knew how to drink without spilling it over himself.[571]
This practice, however, is very properly condemned by Plato, who
considered that no person under eighteen should be allowed to taste of
wine, and even then but sparingly.[572] After thirty, more discretion
might, he thought, be granted them; though he recommended sobriety at
all times, save, perhaps, on the anniversary festival of Dionysos, and
certain other divinities, when a merry bowl was judged in keeping with
the other ceremonies of the day.[573]

-----

Footnote 568:

Iliad, ι. 702. τ. 161.

Footnote 569:

Athen. x. 33.

Footnote 570:

Od. ζ. 77, seq.

Footnote 571:

Iliad. ι. 487.

Footnote 572:

Montaigne, whom few things of this kind had escaped, reads _forty_,
and thinks that men might lawfully get drunk after that age. Essais,
ii. 2. t. iii. p. 278.

Footnote 573:

De Legg. ii. t. vii. p. 258, sqq.

-----

We shall now pass from the primitive aliments of the heroic times to
those almost infinite varieties of good things which the ingenuity of
later ages brought into use. The reader, not already familiar with the
gastronomic fragments of ancient literature, will probably be surprised
at the omniverous character of the Greeks, to whom nothing seems to have
come amiss, from the nettle-top to the peach, from the sow’s metra to
the most delicate bird, from the shark to the small semi-transparent
aphyæ, caught along the shores of Attica.[574] Through this ocean of
dainties we shall endeavour to make our way on the following
plan:—first, it will be our “hint to speak” of the more solid kinds of
food, as beef, mutton, pork, veal; we shall then make a transition to
the soups, fowls, and fish; next the fruit will claim our attention;
and, lastly, the several varieties of wines.

Footnote 574:

Ass’s flesh was commonly eaten by the Athenians. Poll. ix. 48, et
Comment. t. vi. p. 938, seq. Their neighbours the Persians, however,
enjoyed one dainty not known, I believe, to the Greeks; that is to
say, a camel, which, we are told, they sometimes roasted whole. Herod.
i. 123. Athen. iv. 6. In the opinion of Aristotle the flesh of this
animal was singularly good: ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὰ κρέα καὶ τὸ γάλα ἥδιστα
πάντων.—Hist. Anim. vi. 26. It was this passage, perhaps, that first
induced Heliogabalus to try a camel’s foot, which he appears
afterwards to have much affected. Lamprid. Vit. Anton. Heliogab. § 19.
Hist. Aug. Script. p. 195. The same emperor also tried the taste of an
ostrich, whose eggs anciently constituted an article of food among
certain nations of Africa. Lucian. de Dipsad. § 7.

-----

It has already been observed, that in the earliest ages men wholly
abstained from animal food.[575] Afterwards when they began to cast
“wolfish eyes” upon their mute companions on the globe, the hog is said
to have been the first creature whose character emboldened them to make
free with him. They saw it endued with less intelligence than other
animals; and, from its stupidity, inferred that it ought to be eaten,
its soul merely serving during life, as salt, to keep the flesh from
putrefying.[576] The determining reason, however, appears to have been,
that they could make no other use of him, since he would neither plough
like the ox, nor be saddled and mounted like the horse or ass, nor
become a pleasant companion, or guard the house, like the dog.

-----

Footnote 575:

Plato, De Legg. vi. t. vii. p. 471.

Footnote 576:

Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 64. Dion. Chrysost. i. 280, cum not.
Reisk.

-----

It was long before men in any country slew the ox for food; his great
utility was his protection, and in some parts of the East the
well-meaning priesthood at length compassed him round with the armour of
superstition, which outlasted the occasion, and in India has come down
in nearly all its strength to our own day. It was otherwise in Greece.
There common sense quickly dissipated the illusion, which, while it was
necessary, had guarded the ox, and beef became the favourite food of its
hardy and active inhabitants, who likewise fed indiscriminately on
sheep, goats, deer, hares, and almost every other animal, wild or tame.

It has been seen that in remote ages fish did not constitute any great
part of the sustenance of the Greeks. But public opinion afterwards
underwent a very considerable change. From having been held in so little
estimation as to be left chiefly to the use of the poor, in the
historical ages it became their greatest luxury.[577] And there arose
among gourmands, those ancient St. Simonians, whose god was their belly,
a kind of enthusiastic rivalry as to who should be first in the morning
at the fish-market, and bear away, as in triumph, the largest Copaic
eels, the finest pair of soles, or the freshest _anthias_.[578] On this
subject, therefore, our details must be somewhat more elaborate than on
beef and mutton. And first, we shall take the reader along with us to
the market, whither it will be advisable that he carry as little money
as possible, since, according to the comic poets, your Athenian
fishmonger, not content with being a mere rogue, dealt a little also in
the assassin’s trade.[579]

-----

Footnote 577:

The Pythagoreans, however, must be excluded from this category since
they abstained from fish because they kept perpetual silence like
themselves.—Athen. vii. 80. Another and a better reason, perhaps, may
be discovered in a passage of Archestratos, who, observing that the
sea-dog is delicious eating, proceeds to dispose of the objection that
it feeds on human flesh, by saying, that all fish do the same. Id.
vii. 85. From this fact the Pythagoreans esteemed fish-eaters no
better than cannibals at second-hand.

Footnote 578:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 525.

Footnote 579:

Amphis ap. Athen. vi. 5.

-----

The first thing which a rich gourmand inquired in the morning was, which
way the wind blew. If from the north, and there was anything like a sea,
he remained sullenly at home, for no fishing smacks could in that case
make the Peiræeus;[580] but if the wind sat in any other quarter, out he
went eagerly and stealthily with a slave and basket[581] at his heels,
casting about anxious looks to discover whether any other impassioned
fish-eater had got the start of him on his way to the Agora, who might
clear the stalls of the best anthias or thunny before he could reach the
spot.

-----

Footnote 580:

Athen. viii. 81. Cf. Xenoph. Hellen. v. i. 23.

Footnote 581:

This basket was usually of rushes, in form like a basin, and with a
handle passing over the top.—Antich. di Ercol. tav. 21. tom. i. p.
111.

-----

The unmoneyed rogue, however, whose ambitious taste soared to these
expensive dainties, approached the market with a rueful countenance.
Thus we find a poor fellow describing, in Antiphanes, his morning’s
pilgrimage in search of a pair of soles:

I once believed the Gorgons fabulous:
But in the agora quickly changed my creed,
And turned 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.[582]

-----

Footnote 582:

Athen. vi. 4.

-----

Amphis, another comic poet, supplies us with further details respecting
the hardships encountered by those who had to deal with fishmongers at
Athens. Much of his wit is, I fear, intransferable, depending in a great
measure on the vernacular clipping of Greek common in the market-place.
But the sense, at least, may perhaps be given:

“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.[583] A third
With saucy carelessness replies, ‘Four oboli,
That’s just the price. For this no less than eight.
Take it or leave it!’”[584]

-----

Footnote 583:

Cf. Chandler, ii. 143. Plin. Hist. Nat. ix. 45, seq.

Footnote 584:

Athen. vi. 5.

-----

Alexis, too, that most comic of comic writers, seems to have imagined,
that the humour of his pieces would be incomplete without a spice of the
fishmonger. Commencing, like Amphis, with an allusion to the haughty
airs of military men, he glides into his subject as follows:—

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 fullstrained 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?[585]

-----

Footnote 585:

Athen. vi. 5.

-----

But if the reader should be disposed to infer from these testimonies
that the fishmongering race were saucy only at Athens, he will be in
danger of falling into error. Throughout the ancient world they were the
same, and we fear that should any poor devil from Grub-street, or the
_Quartier Latin_, presume to dispute respecting the price of salmon with
one of their cockney or Parisian descendants, he would meet with little
more politeness. At all events their manners had not improved in the
Eternal city,[586] for it is _a propos_ of the Roman fishfags that
Athenæus brings forward his examples of like insolence elsewhere. The
poet Diphilos would appear, like Archestratos, to have travelled in
search of good fish and civil fishmongers, but his labours were
fruitless; he might as well have peregrinated the world in the hope of
finding that island where soles are caught ready-fried in the sea. Such
at least is the tenour of his own complaint:

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![587]

-----

Footnote 586:

Deipnosoph. vi. 4.

Footnote 587:

Athen. vi. 6.

-----

Xenarchos paints a little scene of ingenious roguery with a comic
extravagance altogether Shakespearian, and incidentally throws light on
a curious law of Athens, enacted to protect the citizens against
stinking fish.[588] The power of invention, he observes—willing to kill
two birds with one stone—had totally deserted the poets in order to take
up with the fishmongers; for while the former merely hashed up old
ideas, the latter were always hitting upon new contrivances to poison
the Demos:

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.[589]

-----

Footnote 588:

The longer to preserve fish fresh, the Orientals sometimes cover them
with a coating of wax. Mullets, caught at Damietta, are sent, thus
preserved, throughout the Turkish Empire, as well as to different
parts of Europe. Pococke’s Description of the East.

Footnote 589:

Our readers will probably remember the good old Italian marchioness,
who having, perhaps, been cajoled, by the blarney of some Hibernian
peripatetic, into the purchase of a pair of strong-odoured soles,
recommended to our magistrates the adoption of an ordinance passed, as
she affirmed, by his grace of Tuscany. In that prince’s territories,
she assured their worships, the man who has fish to sell, must
transact business standing on one leg in a bucket of hot water, a
practice undoubtedly calculated to induce despatch and prevent
haggling. This Tuscan enactment might evidently have been adopted with
great advantage at Athens, where, however, legislation proceeded on
exactly the same principles, and attained in this point an almost
equal degree of perfection.

-----

By a law passed at the instance of the wealthy Aristonicos, himself no
doubt an ichthyophagos, the penalty of imprisonment was decreed against
all those who, having named a price for their fish, should take less, in
order that they might at once demand what was just and no more. In
consequence of this enactment, an old woman or a child might be sent to
the fish-market, without danger of being cheated. According to another
provision of this Golden Law, as it is termed by Alexis, fishmongers
were compelled to stand at their stalls and not to sit as had previously
been the custom. The comic poet, in the fulness of his charity,
expresses a hope that they might be all _suspended_ aloft on the
following year, by which means, he says, they would get a quicker sight
of their customers, and carry on their dealings with mankind from a
machine like the gods of tragedy.[590]

-----

Footnote 590:

Athen. vi. 8.

-----

In consequence no doubt of the perpetually increasing demand, fish was
extremely dear at Athens. Accordingly Diphilos, addressing himself to
Poseidon, who, as god of the sea, was god also of its inhabitants,
informs him that, could he but secure the tithe of fish, he would soon
become the wealthiest divinity in Olympos. Among those who distinguished
themselves in this business in the agora, and apparently became rich, it
is probable that many were metoiki, such as Hermæos, the Egyptian, and
Mikion, who, though his country is not mentioned, was probably not an
Athenian. In proportion as they grew opulent, the gourmands on whom they
preyed became poor, and doubtless there was too much truth in the satire
which represented men dissipating their whole fortunes in the
frying-pan. There were those also it seems who spent their evenings on
the highway, in order to furnish their daily table with such dainties.
For this fact we have the satisfactory testimony of Alexis in his
Heiress:

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 robbed 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![591]

-----

Footnote 591:

Athen. vi. 10. 12.

-----

They had at Corinth a pretty strict police regulation on this subject.
When any person was observed habitually to purchase fish, he was
interrogated by the authorities respecting his means. If found to be a
man of property they suffered him to do what he pleased with his own;
but, in the contrary event, he received a gentle hint that the state had
its eye upon him. The neglect of this admonition was followed, in the
first place, by a fine, and ultimately, if persevered in, by a
punishment equivalent to the treadmill.[592] These matters were in
Athens submitted to the cognizance of two or three magistrates, called
Opsonomoi, nominated by the Senate.[593] With respect to the purchase of
this class of viands, everywhere attended with peculiar difficulties, it
may be said, that the ancients had considerably the advantage of us;
since in Lynceus of Samos’s “Fish-buyer’s Manual,” they possessed a sure
guide through all the intricacies of bargaining in the agora.

-----

Footnote 592:

Diphilos apud Athen. vi. 12.

Footnote 593:

Athen. vi. 72.

-----

But before we proceed further with this part of our subject, we will
demand permission of Lynceus to hear what Hesiod has to say of saltfish,
on which Euthydemos, the Athenian, composed a separate treatise.
According to this poet, who boldly speaks of cities erected long after
his death, immense quantities of fish were salted on the Bosporos,
sometimes entire, as in modern times,[594] sometimes cut into gobbets of
a moderate size. Among these were the oxyrinchos whose taste proved
often fatal, the thunny, and the mackerel. The little city of Parion
furnished the best kolias (a kind of mackerel), and the Tarentine
merchants brought to Athens pickled orcynos from Cadiz, cut into small
triangular pieces, in jars.[595] Physicians, indeed, inveighed against
these relishes; but the gourmands would consult only their palates and
preferred a short life with pickled thunny to that of Saturn himself on
beef and mutton.

-----

Footnote 594:

Herod. iv. 53.

Footnote 595:

Athen. iii. 84.

-----

But the Hesiod of Euthydemos (a creation probably of his own) is but
very poor authority compared with Archestratos, who made the pilgrimage
of the world in search of good cheer, and afterwards, for the benefit of
posterity, treasured up his experience in a grand culinary epic. In his
opinion a slice of Sicilian thunny was a rare delicacy, while the
saperda, though brought from the Pontos Euxinos, he held as cheap as
those who boasted of it.[596] The scombros, by some supposed to be a
species of thunny, though others understand by it the common mackerel,
stood high in the estimation of this connoisseur. He directs that it be
left in salt three days, and eaten before it begins to melt into
brine.[597] In his estimation the horaion[598] of Byzantium was likewise
a great delicacy, which he advises the traveller, who might pass through
that city, to taste by all means. It seems to have been there what
macaroni is at Naples.

-----

Footnote 596:

Athen. iii. 85.

Footnote 597:

Athen. iii. 85. The Scomber Pelamys or mackerel of Pallas, caught in
the Black Sea, is pickled in casks and not eaten for a twelvemonth.
Travels in Southern Russia, iv. 242.

Footnote 598:

Poterant ὡραῖα nominari, ut _vere_ vel initio æstatis salita, quo
tempore minus pinguis totus piscis esset. Schweigh. Animadv. in Athen.
iii. 85. t. vii. 313. Cf. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxii. 53. Gesner, De
Salsamentis.

-----

Alexis, in one of his comedies, introduces the Symposiarch of an Eranos
(president of a picnic) accounting with one of the subscribers who comes
to demand back his ring, and in the course of the dialogue, where
something like Falstaff’s tavern-bill is discussed, we find the prices
of several kinds of salt-fish. An omotarichos (shoulder piece of thunny)
is charged at five chalci; a dish of sea-mussels, seven chalci, of
sea-urchins, an obol, a slice of kybion, three obols, a conger eel, ten,
and another plate of broiled fish, a drachma. This comic writer[599]
rates the fish of the Nile very low, and he is quite right, for they are
generally muddy and ill-tasted, though the Copts, who have considerable
experience during Lent, contrive, by the application of much
Archestratic skill, to render some kinds of them palatable. Sophocles,
in a fragment of his lost drama of Phineus, speaks of salt-fish embalmed
like an Egyptian mummy.[600] Stock-fish, as I know to my cost, is still
a fashionable dish in the Mediterranean, especially on board ship, and
from a proverb preserved by Athenæus we find it was likewise in use
among the Athenians.[601]

-----

Footnote 599:

Ap. Athen. iii. 86. Cf. Herod. ii. 77.

Footnote 600:

Athen. iii. 86.

Footnote 601:

Deipnosoph. iii. 89.

-----

The passion of this refined people for salt-fish furnished them with an
occasion of showing their gratitude publicly. They bestowed the rights
of citizenship on the sons of Chæriphilos, a metoikos who first
introduced among them a knowledge of this sort of food.[602] A similar
feeling prompted the Dutch to erect a statue to G. Bukel, the man who
taught them to salt herrings.[603]

-----

Footnote 602:

Athen. iii. 90.

Footnote 603:

Goguet, Origine des Loix, i. 254.

-----

Without enumerating a tenth part of the other species eaten among the
Greeks, we pass to the shell-fish, of which they were likewise great
amateurs. Epicharmos, in his marriage of Hebe, supplies a curious list,
which, however, might be extended almost ad infinitum. Among these were
immense limpets, the buccinum, the cecibalos, the tethynakion, the
sea-acorn, the purple fish, oysters hard to open but easy to swallow,
mussels, sea-snails or periwinkles, skiphydria sweet to taste but
prickly to touch, large shelled razor-fish, the black conch, and the
amathitis. The conch was also called tellinè as the same poet in his
Muses observes. Alcæos wrote a song to the limpet beginning with

“Child of the rock and hoary sea.”[604]

-----

Footnote 604:

Athen. iii. 30, 31. Cf. Scheigh. Animadv. t. vii. p. 68, sqq.

-----

Boys used to make a sort of whistle of tortoise and mussel shells. These
mussels were usually broiled on the coals, and Aristophanes, very
ingenious in his similes, compares a gaping silly fellow to a mussel in
the act of being cooked.[605]

-----

Footnote 605:

Fragm. Babylon. 2. Brunck. Athen. iii. 33.

-----

Like the sepia, of which excellent pilaus are made at Alexandria, the
porphyra or purple fish was very good eating, and thickened the liquor
in which it was boiled.[606] There was a small delicate shell-fish
caught on the island of Pharos and adjacent coasts of Egypt, which they
called Aphrodite’s ear,[607] and there is still found on the same coast
near Canopos a diminutive and beautiful rose-coloured conch called
Venus’s nipple. On the same shore, about the rise of the Nile, that
species of mussel called tellinè was caught in great abundance, but the
best-tasted were said to be found in the river itself. A still finer
kind were in season about autumn in the vicinity of Ephesos. The
echinos, or sea-chestnut,[608] cooked with oxymel, parsley, and mint,
was esteemed good and wholesome eating. Those caught about Cephalonia,
Icaria, and Achaia were bitterish, those of Sicily laxative; the best
were the red and the quince coloured. A laughable anecdote is told of a
Spartan, who being invited to dine where sea-chestnuts were brought to
table, took one upon his plate, and not knowing how they were eaten put
it into his mouth, shell and all. Finding it exceedingly unmanageable,
he turned it about for some time, seeking slowly and cautiously to
discover the knack of eating it. But the rough and prickly shell still
resisting his efforts, his temper grew ruffled: crunching it fiercely he
exclaimed, “Detestable beast! Well! I will not let thee go now, after
having thus ground thee to pieces; but assuredly I will never touch thee
again.”

-----

Footnote 606:

Athen. iii. 30. During their long fasts the modern Greeks also eat the
cuttle-fish, snails, &c. Chandler, ii. 143.

Footnote 607:

Athen. iii. 35.

Footnote 608:

Athen. iii. 40. The taking of this fish at Sunium is thus described by
Chandler: “Meanwhile our sailors, except two or three who accompanied
us, stripped to their drawers to bathe, all of them swimming and
diving remarkably well; some running about on the sharp rocks with
their naked feet, as if devoid of feeling, and some examining the
bottom of the clear water for the Echinus or sea-chestnut, a species
of shell-fish common on this coast, and now in perfection, the moon
being nearly at the full.” Vol. ii. p. 8.

-----

Oysters were esteemed good when boiled with mallows, or monks’
rhubarb.[609] In general, however, the physicians of antiquity
considered them hard of digestion. But lest the shelled-fish should
usurp more space than is their due, we shall conclude with Archestratos’
list, in which he couples with each the name of the place where the best
were caught:

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,[610] 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.[611]

-----

Footnote 609:

Demet. Scep. ap. Athen. iii. 41.

Footnote 610:

The κήρυξ, ceryx, so called because the Heralds (κήρυκες) used its
shell instead of a trumpet, when making proclamation of any decree in
the agora.

Footnote 611:

Athen. iii. 44. Cf. Polluc. vi. 47. The ancients made the most of
their fish in every way. They were hawked about the streets in
rush-baskets, as with us.—Athen. vii. 72.

-----

We have already mentioned the magnificent eels of Lake Copais,[612] in
Bœotia, a longing for which appears to have been Aristophanes’s chief
motive for desiring an end to the Peloponnesian war. Next in excellence
were those caught in the river Strymon, and the Faro of Messina.[613]
The ellops, by some supposed to be the sword-fish,[614] was found in
greatest perfection near Syracuse; at least, in the opinion of
Archestratos; but Varro and Pliny give the preference to that of Rhodes,
and others to that of the Pamphylian sea.[615] The red mullet, the
hepsetos, the hepatos, the elacaten, the thunny, the hippouros, the
hippos, or sea-horse, found in perfection on the shores[616] of
Phœnicia, the ioulis, the kichlè, or sea-thrush, the sea-boar, the
citharos, the kordylos, the river cray-fish, the shark, which was eaten
when young, the mullet, the coracinos, the carp, the gudgeon, the
sea-cuckoo, the sea-wolf, the latos, the leobatos, or smooth ray, the
lamprey,[617] the myræna, the anchovy,[618] the black tail, the torpedo,
the mormyros, the orphos, the onos, the polypus, the crab, the
sea-perch, the physa, or sea-tench, the raphis, the sea-dog,[619] the
scaros, the sparos, the scorpios, the salpe, or stock-fish, the synodon,
the sauros, the scepinos, or halibut, the sciaina, the syagris, the
sphyræna, the sepia, the tœnia, the skate, the cuttle-fish, the hyca,
the phagros, the perca cabrilla, the chromis, the gilthead, the
trichidon, the thratta, and the turbot;[620] such is a list of the fish
in common use among the Greeks. The species it will be seen has not in
many cases been ascertained.

-----

Footnote 612:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 845. Lysist. 36. There were in the fountain at
Arethusa, as we are told by the philosophical Plutarch, eels that
understood their own names.—Solert. Anim. § 23.

Footnote 613:

Archestratos gives the preference over all other eels to those caught
in the Faro of Messina. Athen. vii. 53. Very excellent and large eels
are taken in the lake of Korion, in Crete, according to the testimony
of Buondelmonte. Pashley, i. 72.

Footnote 614:

On the sword-fish fishery in the Strait of Messina, see Spallanzani’s
Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 331, sqq.

Footnote 615:

Athen. vii. 57. Animadv. t. ix. p. 220.

Footnote 616:

The finest prawns were taken at Minturnæ, on the coast of Campania,
exceeding in size those of Smyrna, and the crabs (ἀστακοὶ) of
Alexandria.—Athen. i. 12.

Footnote 617:

See on Crassus’s lamprey. Plut. Solert. Animal. § 23.

Footnote 618:

Esteemed a delicacy cooked with leeks. Aristoph. Vesp. 494. Cf.
Acharn. 901. Av. 76.

Footnote 619:

See Spallanzani’s Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 343, sqq.

Footnote 620:

Athen. vii. 16–39. Aristot. Hist. Anim. iv. 2–6. viii. 3, 4, 5, 16.

-----

CHAPTER IV.
POULTRY, FRUIT, WINE, ETC.

The reader by this time will, probably, be willing to escape from fish,
though it would be easy to treat him to many new kinds, and along with
us take a slice of Greek pheasant, or the breast of an Egyptian quail.
In other words, he will hear what we have to say on Hellenic poultry.
Chrysippos, in his treatise on things desirable in themselves, appears
to have reckoned Athenian cocks and hens among the number, and
reprehends the people of Attica for importing, at great expense,
barn-door fowls from the shores of the Adriatic, though of smaller size,
and much inferior to their own; while the inhabitants of those
countries, on the other hand, were anxious to possess Attic
poultry.[621] Matron, the parodist, who furnishes an amusing description
of an Athenian repast, observes, that excellent wild ducks were brought
to town from Salamis, where they grew fat in great numbers on the
borders of the sacred Lake.[622]

-----

Footnote 621:

Athen. vii. 23.

Footnote 622:

Athen. iv. 23.

-----

The thrush,[623] reckoned among the greatest delicacies of the ancients,
generally at grand entertainments formed part of the propoma, or first
course, and was eaten with little cakes, called ametiskoi. If we may
credit Epicharmos, a decided preference was given to such as fed on the
olive. Aristotle divides the thrush into three species, the first and
largest of which he denominates Ixophagos, or the “mistletoe-eater;” it
was of the size of a magpie. The second, equal in bigness to the black
bird, he calls Trichas,[624] and the third, and smallest kind, which was
named Ilas or Tulas, according to Alexander, the Myndian, went in
flocks, and built its nest like the swallow.[625] Next in excellence to
the thrush was a bird known by a variety of names, elaios, pirias,
sycalis,[626] the beccafico of the moderns, which was thought to be in
season when the figs were ripe. They likewise ate the turtle and the
ringdove,[627] which are excellent in Egypt; the chaffinch, to whose
qualities I cannot bear testimony; and the blackbird. Nor did they spare
the starling, the jackdaw, or the strouthanion, a small bird for which
modern languages cannot afford a name. Brains were thought by the
ancient philosophers an odious and cannibal-like food, because they are
the fountain of all sensation; but this did not prevent the gourmands
from converting pigs’ brains into a dainty dish,[628] and their taste
has maintained its ground in Italy. Partridges, wood-pigeons, geese,
quails, jays, are also enumerated among the materials of an Hellenic
banquet.

-----

Footnote 623:

The solitary sparrow inhabits the cliffs of Delphi, and the
song-thrush is heard in the pine woods of Parnassus. Above these, when
the heights of the mountain are covered with snow, is seen the
Emberiza Nivalis, inhabitant alike of the frozen Spitzbergen, and of
the Grecian Alp.—Sibthorpe in Walp. Mem. i. 76, seq. Homer is said to
have written a poem called Ἐπικιχλίδες, because when he sung it to the
boys they rewarded him with thrushes. In consequence of the estimation
in which these birds were held κιχλίζω “to feed on thrushes,” came to
signify “to live luxuriously.”—Payne Knight, Prolegg. ad Hom. p. 8.

Footnote 624:

The red-winged thrush, well known to sportsmen in hard weather.

Footnote 625:

Athen. ii. 68.

Footnote 626:

Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 3. p. 221. ix. 49. p. 305. Bekk.

Footnote 627:

The turtle and the wood-pigeon are found in the woods and thickets.
Among the larks, I observed the crested lark to be the most frequent
species, with a small sort, probably the alauda campestris of Linnæus.
Blackbirds frequent the olive grounds of Pendeli.—Sibth. in Walp. Mem.
i. 76.

Footnote 628:

Athen. ii. 69–72.

-----

Goose’s liver was in extreme request both at Rome and Athens.[629]
Another dainty was a cock served up with a rich sauce, containing much
vinegar. Aristophanes speaks of the pheasant in his comedy of the Birds;
and, again, in the Clouds, Athenæus rightly supposes him to mean this
bird, where others imagine he alludes to the horses of the Phasis.
Mnesilochos, a writer of the middle comedy, classes a plucked pheasant
with _hen’s milk_, among things equally difficult to be met with, which
shows that the bird had not then become common. It obtained its name
from being found in immense numbers about the embouchure of the Phasis,
and the bird was evidently propagated very slowly in Greece and Egypt,
since we find Ptolemy Philadelphos, in a grand public festival at
Alexandria, exhibiting it, among other rarities, such as parroquets,
peacocks, guinea-fowl, and Ethiopian birds in cages.[630]

-----

Footnote 629:

See the fragment of Eubulos’s Garland-Seller, in Athen. ix. 33.

Footnote 630:

Athen. ix. 38.

-----

Among the favourite game of the Athenian gourmands was the Attagas,[631]
or francolin, a little larger than the partridge, variegated with
numerous spots, and of common tile colour, somewhat inclining to red. It
is said to have been introduced from Lydia into Greece, and was found in
extraordinary abundance in the Megaris. Another of their favourites was
the porphyrion, a bird which might with great advantage be introduced
into many countries of modern Europe, since it was exceedingly domestic,
and kept strict watch over the married women, whose _faux pas_ it
immediately detected and revealed to their husbands, after which,
knowing the revengeful spirit of ladies so situated, it very prudently
hung itself. It is no wonder, therefore, that the breed has long been
extinct, or that the remnant surviving has taken refuge in some remote
region, where wives require no such vigilant guardians. In the matter of
eating it agreed exactly with Lord Byron, loving to feast alone, and in
retired nooks, where none could observe. Aristotle describes this half
fabulous bird as unwebfooted, of blue colour, with long legs, and red
beak. The porphyrion was about the size of a cock, and originally a
native of Libya, where it was esteemed sacred.[632]

-----

Footnote 631:

No bird appears to have puzzled commentators more than the _attagas_,
some supposing it to be the _francolin_, or grouse, which is
Schneider’s opinion; others, as Passow, the _hazel-hen_; others,
again, as Ainsworth, consider it to have been a delicious bird,
resembling our wood-cock, or snipe. Mr. Mitchell’s edit. of the
Acharnæ of Aristophanes, 783.—This learned writer professes not to
understand what Schneider means by _francolin_. The word in Italian is
_francolino_, as appears from Bellon. v. 6: Les Italiens ont nommé cet
oiseau Francolin, que parcequ’il est franc dans ce pays, c’est-à-dire,
qu’il est defendu au peuple d’en tuer: il n’y a que les princes qui
aient cette prérogative.—Valmont de Bomare, ii. 739.—Hardouin thinks,
that the Attagas is the _gallina rustica_, or _gelinotte de bois_,
which Laveaux explains to be a sort of partridge.—Cf. Dict. Franç. in
voce, and Plin. Hist. Nat. xi. 68. ed. Franz. Cf. Schol. Aristoph.
Vesp. 257. This bird was plentiful about Marathon, Pac. 249.

Footnote 632:

Athen. ix. 40. Aristoph. Hist. Anim. i. 17. viii. 6.

-----

Another bird common in Greece, but now no longer known, was the
porphyris, by some confounded with the foregoing. Of the partridge,
common throughout Europe, we need merely remark, that both the gray and
the red (the _bartavelle_ of the French) were common in Greece.

If we pass from the poultry to puddings and soups,[633] we shall find
that the Athenians were not ill-provided with these dainties. They even
converted gruel into a delicacy,[634] and it is said, that the best was
made at Megara. They had bean soup, flour soup, ptisans made with
pearl-barley or groats.[635] We hear, also, of a delicately-powdered
dish or soup which was sprinkled over with fine flour and olives. The
polphos, evidently _soupe à la julienne_, is said, by some, to have been
composed of scraped roots, vegetables, and flour. Others take it to mean
a sort of made-dish, resembling macaroni or vermicelli. Another kind of
soup was the _kidron_, which, according to Pollux,[636] they made of
green wheat, roasted and reduced to powder.

-----

Footnote 633:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 103.

Footnote 634:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 803.—It was thought, also, to deserve a place
among the offerings to Asclepios, especially by pious old women, who,
having lost their teeth, could eat nothing else. In lieu of the
classical name of ἀθάρα, this gruel obtained, in the dialect of the
common people, the more homely designation of κουρκούτη. Schol. Plut.
673.

Footnote 635:

Athen. iii. 101. iv. 30.

Footnote 636:

Onomast. vi. 62.—Made usually from panic seed in Caria.—Schol.
Aristoph. Pac. 580, et Eq. 803. Cf. Goguet, Origine des Loix, i. 212.

-----

There was one dish fashionable among the ancient Greeks mistaken by our
neighbours, the French, for plum-pudding, which is still found in
perfection in the Levant, where I have many times eaten of it. Julius
Pollux[637] has preserved the recipe for making it, and we can assure
our gourmands, that nothing more exquisite was ever tasted, even in the
best café of the Palais Royal. They took a certain quantity of the
finest clarified lard, and, mixing it up with milk until it was quite
thick, added an equal portion of new cheese, yolks of eggs, and the
finest flour. The whole rolled up tight in a fragrant fig-leaf, was then
cooked in chicken-broth, or soup made with kid’s flesh. When they
considered it well done, the leaf was removed and the pudding soused in
boiling honey. It was then served up hissing-hot. All the ingredients
were used in equal proportions, excepting the yolks of eggs, of which
there was somewhat more than of anything else, in order to give firmness
and consistency to the whole.[638]

-----

Footnote 637:

Onomast. i. 237. vi. 57, 69.

Footnote 638:

Vid. Schol. Arist. Eq. 949. Acharn. 1066.

-----

Black puddings, made with blood, suet, and the other materials now used
were also common at Athens.[639] Mushrooms and snails were great
favourites; and Poliochos speaks of going out in the dewy mornings in
search of these luxuries.[640] In spring, before the arrival of the
swallow, the nettle was collected and eaten, it being then young and
tender.[641] Leeks, onions, garlic, were in much request, the last
particularly, which grew in great plenty in the Megarean territory, and
hence, perhaps, the inhabitants were accounted hot and quarrelsome,
garlic being supposed to inspire game, even in fighting cocks, to which
it was accordingly given in great quantities.[642]

-----

Footnote 639:

Aristoph. Eq. 208.

Footnote 640:

Athen. ii. 19.

Footnote 641:

Aristoph. Eq. 422. Brunck.

Footnote 642:

Aristoph. Pac. 503.

-----

Among the herbs eaten by his countrymen, Hesiod enumerates the
mallow,[643] and the asphodel, which are likewise said by Aristophanes
to have constituted a great part of the food of the early Greeks.
Gœttling, therefore, not without reason, wonders that Pythagoras should
have prohibited the use of the mallow. Lupines, pomegranates,
horse-radish, the dregs of grapes and olives, all of which entered into
the material of an Attic entertainment, were commonly cried about the
streets of Athens.[644] But these edible lupines, (θέρμοι) still eaten
by the Egyptian peasantry and the poor generally throughout the Levant,
must be distinguished from the common species. An anecdote of Zeno, of
Cittion, will illustrate the character of this kind of pulse, with which
the philosopher was evidently familiar. Being one day asked why, though
naturally morose, he became quite affable when half-seas-over: “I am
like the lupine,” he replied, “which, when dry, is very bitter, but
perfectly sweet and agreeable after it has been well soaked.”[645]
Kidney-beans, too, were in much request, and pickled olives, slightly
flavoured with fennel.

-----

Footnote 643:

Cf. Lucian. Amor. § 33.

Footnote 644:

Cf. Arist. Acharn. 166. Eq. 493. Athen. xiii. 22.

Footnote 645:

This is as good as the reply of an English labourer who, being
reproached for babbling in his drink, replied, “Sir, I am like a
hedgehog—when I’m wet I open.”

-----

The radish[646] was esteemed a great delicacy, particularly that of
Thasos and Bœotia. And the seeds of the ground-pine,[647] still eaten as
a dessert in Italy, entered, in Greece, also into the list of edible
fruits.[648] The tree, I am informed, has been introduced into England,
but I have nowhere seen its fruit brought among pears, walnuts, and
apples, to table. Hen’s milk has already been spoken of among the good
things of Hellas;[649] but lest the reader should suspect us of amusing
him with fables, it should be explained, that the white of an egg was so
called by Anaxagoras.[650] Eggs of all kinds were much esteemed.
Sometimes they were boiled hard, and cut in two with a hair; but, many
writers, confounding ὄα, the berries of the service-tree, with ὠὰ, eggs,
have imagined that the Athenians, in the capriciousness of their
culinary taste, actually ate pickled eggs, an idea which stirs to the
bottom the erudite bile of David Ruhnken.[651] Generally, eggs were
eaten soft, as with us, or swallowed quite raw. Those of the pea-hen
were considered the most delicate; next to these, the eggs of the
chenalopex bergander, or Egyptian goose, and, lastly, those of the hen.
This, at least, is the opinion of Epicrates and Heracleides, of
Syracuse, in their treatises on cookery.[652]

-----

Footnote 646:

Hesiod. Oper. et Dies, 41. ed. Gœttling. Aristoph. Plut. 543.
Brunck.—Lobeck. Aglaoph. p. 899.

Footnote 647:

The kernels of the stone-pine are brought to table in Turkey. They are
very common in the kitchens of Aleppo.—Russell ap. Walp. Mem. i. 236.

Footnote 648:

Tim. Lex. Platon. v. στέμφυλα, p. 239. Ruhnken. Athen. ii. 45.

Footnote 649:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 505.

Footnote 650:

Athen. ix. 37.

Footnote 651:

Not. ad Timæi Lex. Plat. p. 189. Cf. Platon. Conviv. Oper. iv. 404.
Bekk. Athen. ii. 50.

Footnote 652:

Athen. ii. 50.

-----

As when an entertainment was given the host necessarily expected his
guests to make a good dinner, they usually commenced the business of the
day with an antecœnium or whet, consisting of herbs of the sharpest
taste. At Athens, the articles which generally composed this course were
colewort, eggs, oysters, œnomel—a mixture of honey and wine—all supposed
to create appetite.[653] To these even in later times were added the
mallow and the asphodel, king’s-spear or day-lily, gourds,[654] melons,
cucumbers. The melons of Greece are still delicious, and famous as ever
in the Levant. Antioch was celebrated for its cucumbers, Smyrna for its
lettuces. Mushrooms were always a favourite dish;[655] and they had
receipts for producing them, which even now, perhaps, may not be wholly
unworthy of attention.

-----

Footnote 653:

Potter, Archæol. Græc. iv. 20. Stuck. Antiq. Conviv. iii. 11. Petron.
Satyr. § 31. 33.

Footnote 654:

The σίκυα or long Indian gourd, so called because the seed was first
brought from India to Greece. Athen. ii. 53.

Footnote 655:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 189. 191. Eccles. 1092. Theoph. Hist. Plant.
vii. 13. 8. Dioscor. ii. 200, seq. Athen. xii. 44. 70. Plin. Hist.
Nat. xix. 11.

-----

The use, however, of this kind of food was always attended with great
danger, there being comparatively few species that could be safely
eaten. Persons were frequently poisoned by them, and a pretty epigram of
Euripides has been preserved, commemorating a mother and three children
who had been thus cut off, in the island of Icaros:

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.[656]

-----

Footnote 656:

Athen. ii. 57.

-----

Diodes, of Carystos, enumerates among wholesome vegetables the red beet,
the mallow, the dock, the nettle, orach, the bolbos, or truffle, and the
mushroom, of which the best kinds were supposed to grow at the foot of
elm and pine trees.[657]

-----

Footnote 657:

Athen. ii. 57. 59.

-----

The sion[658] (sium latifolium), another of their vegetables, is a plant
found in marshes and meadows, with the smallage.[659]

-----

Footnote 658:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 11. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 191. 199.

Footnote 659:

Dioscorid. ii. 154.

-----

Another plant, of far greater celebrity, was the Silphion,[660] once
extremely plentiful in Cyrenaica, as also, though of an inferior
quality, in Syria, Armenia, and Media, but afterwards so rare as to be
thought extinct. Besides being used in seasoning soups and sauces, and
mixed with salt for giving a superior flavour to meat, its juice
occupied a high place among the materia medica.[661] A single plant was
discovered in the reign of Nero, and sent to Rome as a present to the
Emperor. Its seed, according to Pollux,[662] was called magudaris, its
root silphion, the stem caulos, and the leaf maspeton. Be this as it
may, it communicated to the sauces in which it was infused a pungent and
somewhat bitter taste, and was in no favour with Archestratos.[663]

-----

Footnote 660:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 891.

Footnote 661:

It is called _laser_, Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 15. Hard. But Philoxenos,
in his Glossary, writes λάσαριον. Idem. See Dioscorid. iii. 76; and
Strabo, xi. 13. t. ii. p. 452. Cf. Ezek. Spanh. Diss. iv. De Usu et
Præstant. Numism. p. 253, sqq. Brotier, in his notes on Pliny,
observes, on the authority of Le Maire, that the Silphion is still
found in the neighbourhood of Derné, where it is called _cefie_ or
_zerra_.

Footnote 662:

Onomast. vi. 67.

Footnote 663:

Ap. Athen. ii. 64.

-----

We come now to the fruit,[664] and shall begin with that which was the
pride of Attica, the fig.[665] According to traditions fully credited in
Athens, figs were first produced on a spot near the city, on the road to
Eleusis, thence called _Hiera Sukè_, “the sacred fig-tree.”[666] Like
its men, the figs of Attica were esteemed the best in the world, and to
secure an abundant supply for the use of the inhabitants it was
forbidden to export them. As might have been expected, however, this
decree was habitually contravened, and the informers against the
delinquents were called sycophants, that is, “revealers of figs,”[667] a
word which has been adopted by most modern languages to signify
mean-souled, dastardly persons, such as informers always are. The
fig-tree of Laconia was a dwarfed species, and its fruit, according to
Aristophanes,[668] savoured of hatred and tyranny, like the people
themselves.

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.[669]

Aristophanes, in Athenæus, speaking of fruit, couples myrtle-berries
with Phibaleian figs.[670]

-----

Footnote 664:

Plat. Tim. t. vii. p. 119. Bruyerin. de Re Cib. 1. xi. p. 447, sqq.

Footnote 665:

At present the green fig is esteemed insipid in Greece. Hobhouse,
Travels, i. 227.

Footnote 666:

Athen. iii. 6. Meurs. Lect. Att. v. 16. p. 274.

Footnote 667:

Athen. iii. 6.

Footnote 668:

Fragm. Γεωργ. iv. t. ii. p. 268. Bekk.

Footnote 669:

Athen. iii. 7.

Footnote 670:

See Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 707.

-----

According to the ancients, there were certain sorts of fig-trees that
bore twice, thrice, and even four times, in the year. Sosibios, the
Laconian, attributing the discovery of the fig to Bacchos, observes,
that for this reason the god was, at Sparta, worshiped under the name of
_Sukites_. Andriscos, however, and Agasthenes, relate that this divinity
obtained the name of Meilichios, “the gracious,” among the Naxians
because he taught them the use of figs. To eat figs at noon was regarded
as unwholesome; and they were at all times supposed to be highly
prejudicial to the voice, for which reason singers should carefully
eschew them.[671]

-----

Footnote 671:

Athen. iii. 19.

-----

The apples of Delphi enjoyed great celebrity, and probably, therefore,
were mild, since these were thought superior, or at least more
wholesome, than sharp ones. Quinces they esteemed still more salubrious
than apples, and, during certain public rejoicings, this fruit, handfuls
of myrtle-leaves, crowns of roses and violets, were cast before the cars
of their princes and other great men.[672] The Greeks loved to connect
something of the marvellous with whatever they admired. To the quince
they attributed the honour of being a powerful antidote, observing that
even the Phariac poison, though of extremely rapid operation, lost its
virulence if poured into any vessel which had held quinces and retained
their odour.[673] According to Hermon, in his Cretic Glossaries, the
quince was called Kodumala, in Crete. Sidoüs, a village of Corinthia,
was famous for its fine apples; and even Corinth itself, the “windy
Ephyrè” of Homer, produced them in great perfection.

“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!”[674]

-----

Footnote 672:

Stesich. ap. Athen. iii. 20.

Footnote 673:

Athen. iii. 21.

Footnote 674:

Antigonos Carystios, ap. Athen. iii. 22.

-----

Another favourite fruit was the peach, introduced from Persia into
Greece.[675] The citron, too, though supposed by some not to have been
known to the ancient inhabitants of Hellas, perfumed in later ages the
tables of the Greeks with its delicious fragrance. This is the fruit
which, according to King Juba, was called in Africa “the apple of the
Hesperides,” a name bestowed by Timachidas on a rich and fragrant kind
of pear called _epimelis_. The oldest Greek writer who has described the
citron tree is Theophrastus,[676] who says it was found in Persia and
Media. Its leaf, he observes, resembled that of the laurel, the
strawberry tree, or the walnut. Like the wild pear tree, and the
oxyacanthos, it has sharp, smooth, and very strong prickles. The fruit
is not eaten, but together with the leaves exhales a sweet odour, and
laid with cloths in coffers protects them from the moth. The citron
tree, is always covered with fruit, some ripe and fit to be gathered,
others green, with patches of gold; and, in the midst of these, are
other branches covered thick with blossoms. It now forms the fairest
ornaments of the gardens of Heliopolis, where it shades the Fountain of
the Sun.

-----

Footnote 675:

Vict. Var. Lect. p. 892.

Footnote 676:

Hist. Plantarum, iv. 4. 2. The orange attains great perfection in
Crete. Mr. Pashley speaks of twelve different kinds, and nearly as
many sorts of lemons. Travels, i. 96, seq.

-----

Antiphanes observes, in his Bœotian, that it had only recently been
introduced into Attica:

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 no where plentiful.[677]

-----

Footnote 677:

Ap. Athen. iii. 27. Mitford, Hist. Greece, i. 154, note 59, misled by
Barthelemy (Anacharsis, ch. 59) confounds Antiphanes, the comic poet,
born B. C. 407 (Clinton, Fast. Hellen. ii. 81) with Antiphon, the
master of Thucydides, born B. C. 479, and who died in the year 411,
four years before the birth of Antiphanes.—Clinton, ii. 31, 37.

-----

Athenæus, after quoting the testimony of poets, relates a curious
anecdote _à propos_ of citrons, which I shall here repeat: it has,
probably, some reference to the secret of the Psylli. An opinion, it
seems, prevailed in Egypt, that a citron eaten the first thing in the
morning was an antidote against all kinds of poison, whether taken into
the stomach, or introduced by puncture into the blood, and the notion
arose out of the following circumstance. A governor of Egypt, in the
time of the Emperors, had condemned two criminals to be executed, in
obedience to custom, by the bite of an asp. They were, accordingly, led
in the morning towards the place of execution, and on the way the
landlady of an inn, who happened to be eating citrons, compassionating
their condition, gave them some which they ate. Shortly afterwards they
were exposed to the hungry serpents, which immediately bit them, but
instead of exhibiting the usual symptoms followed by death, they
remained uninjured. At this the governor marvelled much, and at length
demanded of the soldier who guarded them, whether they had taken
anything previously to their arrival. Learning what had happened he put
off the execution to the following day, and ordering a citron to be
given to one and not to the other, they were once more exposed to the
bite of the asp. The wretch who had eaten nothing died soon after he was
bitten, but the other experienced no inconvenience. Similar experiments
were several times afterwards made by others, until it was at length
ascertained that this exquisite fruit is really an antidote against
poisons.[678]

-----

Footnote 678:

Athen. iii. 28.

-----

Another fruit of which great use was made, was the damascene plum,
sometimes confounded with the brabylon. The cherry,[679] introduced into
Italy by Lucullus, was known to the Greeks[680] at a much earlier
period, and is described by Theophrastus. The wild service berry,[681]
the dwarf cherry, the arbutus fruit, and the mulberry, formed part of
their dessert. Even the blackberry, when perfectly ripe, was not
disdained.[682] In fact, both the mulberry and blackberry were esteemed
a preventive of gout, and an ancient writer relates, that this kind of
fruit having failed during a period of twenty years, that disease
prevailed like an epidemic, attacking persons of both sexes and all
ages, and extending its ravages even to the sheep and cattle.

-----

Footnote 679:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 13, 1.

Footnote 680:

It was spoken of by Xenophanes in his treatise περὶ φύσεως. Poll. vi.
46. Now this philosopher was born about the 40th Olympiad, 620 B.
C.—Clinton, Fast. Hellen. ii. sub an. 477.

Footnote 681:

The berry of the cedar, about the same size as that of the myrtle, had
a pleasant taste, and was commonly eaten.—Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii.
12. 3.

Footnote 682:

Athen. ii. 33–37. A dainty of a very peculiar character is sometimes
seen on the tables of the modern Greeks. “We were served also with
some φασκομῆλια, or sage apples, the inflated tumours formed upon a
species of sage, and the effect of the puncture of a cynops.”—Sibth.
in Walp. Mem. t. i. p. 62. Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 15.

-----

Filberts, walnuts, and almonds,[683] deservedly held a high place in the
estimation of the ancients. Of almonds, the island of Naxos had the
reputation of producing very excellent ones, and those of Cypros also
enjoyed considerable reputation. These latter were longer in form than
the former; like pickled olives they were eaten at the commencement of a
repast, for the purpose of producing thirst; and bitter almonds were
considered a preservative against intoxication, as we learn from an
anecdote of Tiberius’s physician, who could encounter three bottles when
thus fortified, but easily succumbed if deprived of his almonds. This
fruit being extremely common in Greece, they had their almond-crackers,
as we have our nut-crackers, which at Sparta were called _moucerobatos_
but _amygdalocatactes_ in the rest of Greece.[684]

-----

Footnote 683:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 11. 2.

Footnote 684:

Athen. ii. 40.

-----

The larger kind of chestnut, sometimes denominated the “acorns of Zeus,”
appears to have been introduced into Greece from the countries round the
Pontos Euxinos, where they were produced in great abundance,
particularly in the environs of Heraclea. There was, likewise, a sort of
chestnut imported from Persia, and another from the neighbourhood of
Sardes, in Lydia. Both these and the walnut were considered
indigestible; but not so the almond, of which it was thought great
quantities might be eaten with impunity.[685] The best kinds were
produced in Thasos and Cypros, and, when freshly gathered, the almonds
of the south are, undoubtedly, of all fruit, the most delicate. The
walnuts and chestnuts of Eubœa, in the opinion of Mnestheos, were
difficult of digestion, but fattening; and no one can have frequented
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean without observing what an
important article of food, and how nourishing, they are.[686] The
pistachio nut, produced from a tree resembling the almond-tree, was
imported from Syria and Arabia.[687] The _persea_, now no longer known,
but supposed to be represented on the walls of the Memnonium,[688] at
Thebes, is, also, said, by Poseidonios, the stoic, to have grown in
Arabia and Syria, and I brought home a quantity of leaves, preserved in
an Egyptian coffin, which are, probably, those of this tree. Pears,
which were brought to table floating in water,[689] and service-berries,
were grown in great perfection in the island of Ceos, and Bœotia was
famous for its pomegranates.[690]

-----

Footnote 685:

Dioscorid. i. 176. Athen. ii. 42. Cf. Hippocrat. de Morb. ii. p. 484.
Foës.

Footnote 686:

Athen. ii. 43.

Footnote 687:

Athen. xiv. 61.

Footnote 688:

We find that the Persea grew, likewise, in the island of Rhodes, but
there, though flowers came, it produced no fruit.—Theoph. Hist. Plant.
iii. 3, 5. For a full description of the tree see iv. 2, 5, and Cf.
Caus. Plant. ii. 3, 7.—In its original country, Persia, the fruit of
this tree is said to have been poisonous, for which reason the
companions of Cambyses carried along with them numerous young trees,
which they planted in various parts of Egypt, that the inhabitants,
eating of the fruit, might perish. But, through the influence of soil
and climate, the nature of the Persea was wholly changed, and, instead
of a harsh and fatal berry, produced delicious fruit.—Ælian. de Nat.
Animal. ap. Schneid. ad Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2, 5. t. iii. p.
284.—Cf. Athen. xiv. 61.—Schweigh. Animadv. t. xii. p. 585. Plin. xv.
13. xvi. 46.

Footnote 689:

Athen. xiv. 63.

Footnote 690:

The best pomegranates, however, were grown in Egypt and
Cilicia.—Theoph. Caus. Plant. ii. 13. 4.

-----

Speaking of this fruit, which the Bœotians call _sidè_, Agatharchides
relates the following anecdote: A dispute arising between the Athenians
and Bœotians, respecting a spot called _Sidè_, situated on the
borders, Epaminondas, in order to decide the question, took out a
pomegranate from under his robe, and demanded of the Athenians, what
they called it. “_Rhoa_” they replied. “Very good,” said Epaminondas;
“but we call it _Sidè_, and, as the place derives its name from the
fruit which grows there in abundance, it is clear the land must belong
to us.” And it was decided in favour of the Bœotians.[691]

-----

Footnote 691:

Athen. xiv. 64.

-----

We have already observed, that the palm-tree flourished and produced
dates in Greece, particularly in Attica and Delos;[692] but it is clear,
from a remark of Xenophon, that these dates were small and of an
inferior quality; for, speaking of the productions of Mesopotamia, he
says, that they set aside for the slaves such dates as resembled those
produced in Greece, while the larger and finer kinds,[693] which were
like amber in colour, they selected for their own use. They were also
dried, as they still are in the East, to be eaten as a dessert, at other
seasons of the year. From which we learn, that the black date, which is
larger and finer than the yellow, was not then cultivated in Persia. But
neither dates, nor any other fruit, could compare with the grape, which
is found in perfection in almost every part of Greece, where, as in
Burgundy and, I presume, in the rest of France, the law regulated the
period of the vintage, prohibiting individuals from gathering their
grapes earlier under a heavy penalty.[694] The best kind of grape in
Attica, like that of the _Clos Vougeot_ in Burgundy, was the
_Nikostrateios_, supposed to be unrivalled for excellence, though the
Rhodians pretended, in their _Hipponion_, to possess its equal.[695]

-----

Footnote 692:

Theoph. Char. pp. 33, 233. Casaub. A very fine palm-tree is at present
growing in one of the principal streets of Athens.—Blackwood’s
Magazine, April, 1838.

Footnote 693:

Pollux, i. 73. Herod. i. 28, 172, 193. ii. 156. iv. 172, 183.

Footnote 694:

Plato de Legg. t. viii. p. 106. Bekk. Athen. xiv. 68.

Footnote 695:

Athen. xiv. 68. Cf. Bruyerin. de Re Cibaria, xi. 447, sqq.

-----

From the grape we pass naturally to wine, which has of itself formed the
subject of many treatises. It will not, therefore, be expected that we
should enter into very minute details; though, if we are sparing, it
will certainly not be for want of materials. D’Herbelot[696] relates an
oriental tradition which attributes the invention of wine to the ancient
Persian monarch Giamshid; and Bochart, with some show of ingenuity,
attributes to Bacchos, the Grecian inventor and god of wine, an origin
which would confound him with the founder of Babylon.[697] A very
celebrated wine, called _nectar_, is said to have been produced in the
neighbourhood of that city.[698] But, according to Theopompos, it was
the inhabitants of Chios who first planted and cultivated the vine, and
from them the knowledge was transmitted to the other Greeks.[699]

-----

Footnote 696:

Biliothèque Orientale, Article Giamschid.

Footnote 697:

Geog. Sacr. I. ii. 13.

Footnote 698:

Chæreas. ap. Athen. i. 58.

Footnote 699:

Athen. i. 47.

-----

Theophrastus[700] relates that, in the territory of Heraclea, in
Arcadia, there was a wine which rendered men insane and women
prolific.[701] In the environs of Cerynia, in Achaia, grew a vine, the
wine of which blasted the fruit of the womb, nay, the very grapes were
said to possess a similar quality.[702] At Thasos were two kinds of
wine, of which the one caused stupefaction, while the other was in the
highest degree exhilarating.[703] The wine called anthosmias,[704]
according to Phanias of Eresos, was produced by mixing one part of
salt-water with fifty parts of wine, and it was considered best when
made with the grapes of young vines. The comic poets are eloquent in
praise of the wines of Thasos, particularly of that mixed sort, of most
agreeable flavour, which was drunk in their Prytaneion.
Theophrastus[705] gives the recipe for making it. They threw, he says,
into the jars, a small quantity of flour kneaded with honey, the latter
to impart a sweet odour to the wine, the former mildness. A similar
effect was produced by mixing up hard inodorous wine with one which was
oily and fragrant.[706]

-----

Footnote 700:

Hist. Plant. ix. 18. 10, seq. In Athenæus, instead of Heraclea, we
find Heræa, i. 57. Cf. Ælian. Var. Hist. xiii. 6.

Footnote 701:

The same effect was attributed to the waters of a fountain flowing
near a temple of Aphrodite upon Mount Hymettos.—Chandler, ii. 164.

Footnote 702:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 18.

Footnote 703:

Athen. i. 57.

Footnote 704:

Ὁ ἀνθέων ὀσμὴν ἔχων οἶνος.—Etym. Mag. 108. 41. Cf. Suid. v. ἀνθοσμίας.
t. i. p. 289. b. Aristoph. Plut. 808. Ran. 1181.

Footnote 705:

De Odor. 51.

Footnote 706:

Athen. i. 56.—Cydonia, in Crete, is conjectured, by Mr. Pashley, to
have produced a good wine.—Travels in Crete, i. 23, seq.

-----

The wines of Cos, Myndos, and Halicarnassos, being thought to temper the
crudity of rain and well-water, were, therefore, like all others
containing a quantity of salt-water, in great request at Athens and
Sicyon, where the springs were harsh. The Mareotic wine[707] was made
from vineyards on the banks of the lake Mareotis, where the present
Pasha has his gardens, in the vicinity of Marea, once a place of
considerable importance, but now a small village. Attempts, however,
have been made by M. Abro, an Armenian, once more to cover the ancient
sites with vineyards, several acres of ground being planted with
cuttings imported from the great nursery grounds at Chambéry, in Savoy.

-----

Footnote 707:

Athen. i. 59.

-----

The town of Marea derived its name, according to tradition, from
Maron,[708] a person who accompanied Bacchos in his military expedition,
and, in honour of its founder, surrounded itself with the fruit-tree
most agreeable to that god. The grapes here produced were delicious, and
the wine, slightly astringent and aromatic, had an exquisite flavour.
The Mareotic was white, of delicate taste, light, sparkling, and by no
means heady. The best sort was the Tæniotic, so called from the _tænia_,
“sandy eminences,” on which the vineyards were situated. This wine, in
its pure state, had a greenish tinge, like the Johanisberg, and was rich
and unctuous; but, mingled with water, it assumed the colour of Attic
honey. By degrees the vine grew to be cultivated along the whole course
of the Nile,[709] but its produce differed greatly in different places,
both in colour and quality. Among the best was that of Antylla, a city
near Alexandria, the revenues arising from which the ancient kings of
Egypt, and afterwards those of Persia, settled on their queens for their
girdle. The wines of the Thebaid, particularly those made about Koptos,
were so extremely light as to be given even in fevers, as, moreover,
they passed quickly, and greatly promoted digestion.[710]

-----

Footnote 708:

Idem, i. 60. Horat. Carm. i. 37. 14.

Footnote 709:

The cultivation of the vine appears to have flourished in Egypt down
to the reign of the Caliph Beamrillah, who commanded all the vineyards
both in the valley of the Nile and in Syria to be utterly destroyed.
Maured Allatafet Jemaleddini, p. 7.

Footnote 710:

Athen. i. 60.

-----

According to Nicander of Colophon, the word οἶνος, “wine,” was derived
from the name of _Oineus_, who having squeezed out the juice of the
grape into vases, called it, after his own name, _wine_. Diphilos,[711]
the comic poet, gives us, however, something better than etymologies in
that burst of Bacchic enthusiasm in which, in verses fragrant as
Burgundy, he celebrates the praises of the gift of Dionysos:

“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 warmed by thee as a lion is bold.”

-----

Footnote 711:

Idem, ii. 1, where are collected many other etymologies and curious
fables.

-----

Nectar, the poetical drink of the gods, was a sort of wine made near
Olympos in Lydia, by mingling with the juice of the grape a little pure
honey and flowers of delicate fragrance. Anaxandrides, indeed, regards
the nectar as the food of the immortals, and ambrosia as their wine; in
which opinion he is upheld by Alcman and Sappho. But Homer and Ibycos
take an opposite view of the matter.[712]

-----

Footnote 712:

Athen. ii. 8.

-----

Alexis speaks of those who are half-seas-over as much addicted to
reasoning. Nicænetus[713] considers wine as the Pegasus of a poet,
mounted on the wings of which like Trygæos on his beetle he soars “to
the bright heaven of invention.” At the port of Munychia, too, good wine
was held in high estimation; indeed, the honest folks of this borough,
with small respect for the water nymphs, paid particular honour to the
hero _Acratopotes_, that is, in plain English, “one who drinks unmixed
wine.” Even among the Spartans,[714] in spite of their cothons, and
black broth, certain culinary artistes set up in the Phydition, or
common dining-hall, statues in honour of the heroes _Matton_ and
_Keraon_, that is, the genii of eating and drinking. In Achaia, too,
much reverence was paid to _Deipneus_, or the god who presides over good
suppers.[715]

-----

Footnote 713:

Or Nicarchos. Anthol. Græc. xiii. 29. Athen. ii. 9.

Footnote 714:

Athen. ii. 9.

Footnote 715:

Athen. ii. 9. Cf. x. 9.

-----

As the Greeks had a marvellous respect for wine they, like the German
paper enthusiast, almost appeared to imagine it could be made out of a
stone. They had, accordingly, fig wine,[716] root wine, palm wine, and
so on; and their made or mixed wines were without number. There was
scarcely an island or city in the Mediterranean that did not export its
wines to Athens: they had the Lesbian, the Eubœan, the Peparethian,
the Chalybonian, the Thasian, the Pramnian, and the Port wine. We have
already observed, that wine was drunk mixed with flour,[717] and in the
island of Theræ it was thickened with the yolk of an egg. In the Megaris
they prepared with raisins or dried grapes[718] a wine called _passon_,
in taste resembling the Ægosthenic sweet wine, or the Cretan malmsey.
But, however exquisite the wines themselves, it was not thought enough
in the summer months unless they were brought to table cooled with ice
or snow,[719] which was accordingly the practice.

-----

Footnote 716:

Damm. 2224. βρύτον. Athen. x. 67. Plato de Rep. t. vi. p. 144. Xenoph.
Anab. p. 54. 138. Cyrop. p. 522. Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 4. Diod. Sic.
ii. 136. On the οἶνος συκίτης vid. Foës. Œcon. Hip. in v. Dioscorid.
v. 40. Lotus wine. Theoph. Hist. Plant, iv. 3. 1. Herod, iv. 177.
Athen. vii. 9–13.

Footnote 717:

Plato de Repub. t. vi. p. 144. Bekk. Athen. viii. 1. On the Pramnian
cf. Athen. 1, 17.

Footnote 718:

Athen. x. 41.

Footnote 719:

Athen. x. 56.

-----

CHAPTER V.
ENTERTAINMENTS.

Having now gone rapidly through the materials of which Grecian repasts
consisted, it will next be necessary to describe the manner in which all
these good things were disposed of, first to maintain the energy of the
frame, and secondly, for mere pleasure and pastime. Locke, with many
other modern philosophers, erroneously supposes the Greeks of remote
antiquity to have been so abstemious as to content themselves with one
meal per diem. But experience appears to have led all mankind on this
point to much the same conclusion; viz., that health and comfort require
men to eat at least thrice in the day,[720] which accordingly was the
practice of the ancient Greeks, though Philemon and others enumerate
four repasts. Our own ancestors, before the introduction of tea and
coffee, appear to have been very well content with beer or ale for their
morning’s meal, so that we could not pity the Greeks even though it
should be found that they had nothing better[721] than hot rolls,
muffins, or crumpets, with strawberries, grapes, pears, and a flask of
Chian or Falernian. But they soon found the necessity of some warm
beverage; and though it does not appear how it was prepared, they had a
substitute for tea,[722] in use at Athens, in Eubœa, in Crete, and, no
doubt, in all other parts of Greece. This meal, of whatever it
consisted, was called _acratisma_, or _ariston_, and eaten at break of
day.[723] Homer’s heroes, whose business was fighting, just snatched a
hasty meal, and hurried to the field; but at Athens, where people had
other employments, they breakfasted early, to allow themselves ample
time for despatching their affairs in the city, if they had any, and
afterwards at their neighbouring farms or villas.[724] The second
repast, _deipnon_, or dinner, seems to have been eaten about eleven or
twelve o’clock: the _hesperisma_,[725] equivalent to our tea, late in
the afternoon, and the _dorpon_, or supper, the last thing in the
evening. But of these meals two only were serious affairs, and the
_hesperisma_ was often dispensed with altogether. In fact, Athenæus, a
great authority on this subject, considers it perfectly absurd to
suppose, that the frugal ancients could have thought of eating so often
as three times in one day.[726]

-----

Footnote 720:

Æschyl. Palamed. fr. 168. Klausen. Comm. in Agamemnon. p. 136.

Footnote 721:

In modern times a breakfast in the Troad often consists of grapes,
figs, white honey in the comb, and coffee.—Chandler, i. p. 37.

Footnote 722:

Athen. xi. 26, 50. Pollux, ix. 67, sqq. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 643.
Cf. Bœckh. Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 140.

Footnote 723:

Which we may infer from a passage of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. vi. 8.
where describing the habits of birds, he says, τῶν δὲ φαβῶν ἡ μὲν
θήλεια ἀπὸ δείλης ἀρξαμένη τὴν τε νύχθ᾽ ὅλην ἐπῳάζει καὶ ἕως
ἀκρατίσματος ὥρας, ὁ δ᾽ ἄῤῥην τὸ λοιπὸν τοῦ χρόνου.—One of the Homeric
scholiasts is more explicit:—καὶ τὴν μὲν πρώτην ἐκάλουν ἄριστον, ἣν
ἐλάμβανον πρωΐας σχεδὸν ἔτι σκοτίας οὔσης.—In Iliad β. 381. Cf. Athen.
i. 19.

Footnote 724:

Xenoph. Œcon. xi. 14.

Footnote 725:

Philemon, ap. Athen. i. 19. Suid. v. δεῖπνον t. i. p. 671. a. b.

Footnote 726:

Deipnosoph v. 20.—τρισὶ δὲ οὐδέποτε οὔτε μνηστῆρες οὔτε μὴν κύκλωψ
ἐχρῶντο τροφαῖς.—Schol. Il. β. 381. Yet Athenæus i. 19. speaks in one
place of a fourth repast in Homeric times.—τῆς δὲ τετάρτης τροφῆς
οὔτως Ὅμηρος μέμνηται—“σὺ δ᾽ ἔρχεο δειελιήσας.” ὁ καλοῦσι τινες
δειλινὸν, ὁ ἐστι μεταξὺ τοῦ ὑφ’ ἡμῶν λεγομένου ἀρίστου καὶ δείπνου.

-----

As the greater includes the less, instead of confining ourselves to the
ordinary daily dinner of a Greek, we shall in preference describe their
grand entertainments, introducing remarks on the former by the way.
These repasts were divided into three classes, the public dinner, the
pic-nic, and the marriage feast. The last, so far as it had any peculiar
features, has been described among the circumstances attending
matrimony. We have, therefore, for the present, to do with two only;
and, as the Greek contrived to throw much of his ingenuity into all
matters connected with feasting and merry-making, the discussion of this
part of our subject should savour strongly of mirth and jollity.

The grand dinner,[727] which they called _eilapinè_, was generally given
at the expense of an individual, and its sumptuousness knew no limit but
the means of the host. Other kinds of feasts there were at which all the
members of a tribe, a borough, or a fraternity, were entertained, not to
speak for the present of the common tables of the Cretans, Spartans, or
Prytanes of Athens. We now confine ourselves to those jovial assemblages
of private citizens whose object in meeting was not so much the dinner,
though that was not overlooked, as the elevation of animal spirits and
flow of soul produced by the union of a thousand different
circumstances.

-----

Footnote 727:

On the subject of dining see Pollux, vi. 9, seq. with the notes of
Jungermann, Kuhn, Hemsterhuis. &c.

-----

When a rich man desired to see his friends around him at his board, he
delivered to his _deipnocletor_[728] a domestic kept for this purpose, a
tablet, or as we should say, a card, whereon the names of the persons to
be invited, with the day and hour fixed upon for the banquet, were
inscribed. With brothers and other very near relations this ceremony was
thought unnecessary.[729] They came without invitation. So likewise did
another class of men, who, living at large upon the public and lighting
unbidden upon any sport to which they were attracted by the savour of a
good dinner, were denominated[730] FLIES, and occasionally SHADES or
PARASITES. There was at one time a law at Athens, which a good deal
nonplussed these gentlemen. It was decreed, that not more than thirty
persons should meet at a marriage feast, and a wealthy citizen, desirous
of “going the whole hog,” had invited the full complement. An honest
Fly, however, who respected no law that interfered with his stomach,
contrived to introduce himself, and took his station at the lower end of
the table. Presently the magistrate appointed for the purpose, entered,
and espying his man at a glance, began counting the guests, commencing
on the other side and ending with the parasite. “Friend,” said he, “you
must retire. I find there is one person more than the law allows.” “It
is quite a mistake, sir,” replied the Fly, “as you will find if you will
have the goodness to count again, beginning _on this side_.”[731] Among
the Egyptians, who shrouded all their poetry in hieroglyphics, _a fly_
was the emblem of impudence, which necessarily formed the principal
qualification of a Parasite, and in Hume’s[732] opinion is no bad
possession to any man who would make his way in the world.

-----

Footnote 728:

Athen. iv. 70. Aristoph. Concion. 648, et Schol.

Footnote 729:

For a further account of the persons usually invited, see Athen. v. 4.

Footnote 730:

Plut. Sympos. vii. 6. Each guest was also followed by a footman who
stood behind his master’s chair and waited on him. Casaub. ad Theoph.
Char. p. 219. To persons of this description the guests delivered the
presents that were made them, or if they happened to be bad
characters, what they stole. Athen. iv. 2. Plut. Anton. § 28. Lucian.
Conviv. seu Lapith. § 46. Rich men then as now were usually haunted by
flatterers who would pluck off the burrs from their cloaks or the
chaff which the wind wafted into their beards, and try to screw a joke
out of the circumstance by saying, they were grown grey! Theoph. Char.
c. ii. p. 7. If the patron joked, they would stuff their chlamys into
their mouths as if they were dying of laughter. In the street they
would say to the person they met, “Stand aside, friend, and allow this
gentleman to pass!” They would bring apples and pears in their pocket
for his little ones and be sure to give them in his sight, with great
praise both of father and children.

Footnote 731:

Athen. vi. 45, seq.

Footnote 732:

Nothing, says this philosopher, carries a man through the world like a
true genuine natural impudence. Essays, p. 9, quarto.

-----

Archbishop Potter,[733] in his account of Grecian entertainments,
observes, upon the authority of Cicero and Cornelius Nepos, that women
were never invited with the men.[734] But in this, as has been shown in
the proper place, he was misled by those learned Romans; for, in many
cities and colonies of Greece, no banquet was given at which they were
not present. Even at Athens, where women of character thought it
unbecoming to mingle in the convivial revelries of the men,[735] in
which wine constantly overleaps the boundaries of decorum, their place
was supplied by hetairæ, whose polished manners, ready wit, and enlarged
and enlightened understandings, recommended them to their companions,
and caused the laxity of their morals to be forgotten.[736] To proceed,
however, with our feast: it will readily be supposed, that gentlemen
invited out to dinner were careful to apparel themselves elegantly, to
shave clean, and arrange their beards and moustachios after the most
approved fashion of the day. Even Socrates, who cared as little as most
people for external appearances, bathed, put on a pair of new shoes,
brushed his chlamys, and otherwise spruced himself up when going to sup
at Agathon’s with Phædros, Aristophanes, Eryximachos, and other
exquisites. Even in Homeric times the bath was among the preliminaries
to dinner, and guests arriving from a distance were attended through all
the operations of the toilette by female slaves.[737] But this general
ablution was not considered sufficient. On sitting down to table water
was again presented to every guest in silver[738] lavers or ewers of
gold. And since they ate with their fingers, as still is the practice in
the Levant, it was moreover customary to wash the hands between every
course,[739] and wipe them,[740] in remoter ages, with soft bread, which
was thrown to the dogs, and in aftertimes with napkins. The Arcadians,
however, about whose mountains all the old superstitions of Hellas clung
like bats, found a very different use for the cakes with which they
wiped their fingers. They supposed them to acquire some mystic powers by
the operation, and preserved them as a charm against ghosts.[741]

-----

Footnote 733:

Antiq. iv. 19.

Footnote 734:

Plato giving directions for a marriage feast, observes, that five male
and five female friends should be invited; along with these, five male
and five female relations, who with the bride and bridegroom, with
their parents, grandfathers, &c., would amount to 28. De Legg. vi. t.
vii. Schweigh. ad Athen. t. vi. p. 60. Among the ancient Etruscans,
who, if not Greeks, had many Greek customs, the women reclined at
table with the men, under the same cover. Athen. i. 42.

Footnote 735:

Isæus, De Pyrrh. Hered. § 2. That among the more simple and
old-fashioned citizens of Athens, however, men and women, when of the
same family or clan, dined together, we have the testimony of Menander
to prove. He introduces one of his characters, apparently a fop,
observing that it was a bore to be at a family party, where the
father, holding the goblet in his hand, first made a speech, abounding
with exhortations: the mother followed, and then the grandmother
prated a little. Afterwards stood up her father, hoarse with age, and
his wife, calling him her dearest; while he mean time nodded to all
present. Athen. ii. 86.

Footnote 736:

Athen. v. 6.

Footnote 737:

Odyss. δ. 48, sqq.

Footnote 738:

Athen. ix. 27. In some luxurious houses wine mingled with spices was
presented to the guests in lavers for the purpose of washing their
feet. Plut. Phoc. § 20. In the palace of Trimalchio we find Egyptian
servants pouring water, cooled with snow, on the hands of the guests.
Petron. Satyr. p. 76.

Footnote 739:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 412.

Footnote 740:

Rich purple napkins were sometimes used. Sappho in Deipnosoph. ix. 79.
These articles are still in the Levant elaborately embroidered.

Footnote 741:

Athen. iv. 31.

-----

But we are proceeding too fast, for the guests are scarcely within
doors, and our imagination has jumped to the conclusion. To return then.
Immediately on entering, and when the host had welcomed and shaken hands
with all, such gentlemen as possessed beards[742] had them perfumed over
burning censers of frankincense, as ladies have their tresses on
visiting a Turkish harem. The hands, too, after each lavation, were
scented.[743] Before sitting down to table, and while the cooks were
peppering the soup, frying the fish, or giving the roast-meat another
turn, politeness required the guests to take a stroll[744] in the
picture-gallery and admire the exquisite taste of their entertainer in
articles of _virtu_.[745] Here while the scent of the savoury viands
found its way through every apartment, and set the bowels of the hungry
parasites croaking, the rogues who had lunched well at home leisurely
discussed the merits of Zeuxis or Parrhasios, of Pheidias or Polygnotos,
or opened wide their eyes at the microscopic creations of that Spartan
artist whose chisel produced a chariot and four that could be hidden
under the wing of a fly. At length, however, the connoisseurs were
interrupted in their learned disquisitions by the entrance of Xanthos,
Davos, or Lydos, with the welcome intelligence that dinner was on the
table.

-----

Footnote 742:

Hom. Odyss. γ. 33, seq. Athen. xv. 23. Similar customs still prevail
in the Levant: “When we visited the Turks we were received with
cordiality and treated with distinction. Sweet gums were burned in the
middle of the room to scent the air, or scattered on coals before us
while sitting on the sofa, to perfume our moustachios and garments,
and at the door, at our departure, we were sprinkled with rose-water.”
Chandler, ii. 150.

Footnote 743:

Athen. ix. 77.

Footnote 744:

Cf. Hom. Odyss. δ. 43, sqq.

Footnote 745:

Aristoph. Vesp. 1208. Athen. v. 6, where the splendid roofs and
ornaments of the court are mentioned. These ornaments, κρεκάδια,
whatever they were, must have been worth looking at. See the note of
Casaubon, Animadv. in Athen. t. viii. p. 27, seq. Consult likewise the
note on Aristophanes in Bekker’s edition, t. iii. p. 606.

-----

But the appetites of the gourmands had still to encounter another
trial.[746] The Greeks were above all things a pious people, and
regarded every banquet, nay, every meal, in the light of a sacrifice, at
which the first and best portion should be offered as an oblation to the
gods,[747] with invocations and prayer, after which it was considered
lawful to attend to their own appetites. An altar, accordingly, of Zeus
stood in the midst of every dining-room, on which these ceremonies were
performed, and libations of pure wine poured.[748] This done, the guests
took their places, in the earlier ages on chairs, but afterwards, when
they had become familiar with the East, on rich sofas, arranged round
the board.[749] Occasionally, however, even so late as the age of
Alexander,[750] princes and other great men chose to adopt the ancient
custom, and, on one occasion, that conqueror himself entertained four
hundred of his officers, when seats of wrought silver, covered with
purple carpets, were provided for all.

-----

Footnote 746:

Athen. v. 7. Cf. Plat. Symp. t. iv. p. 376, et Xenoph. Conviv. ii. 1.
Schweigh. Animadv. in Athen. viii. p. 26, seq.

Footnote 747:

Casaubon mentions this as a thing _nota eruditis_. Ad Theoph. Charact.
p. 232; but we must not on that account pass it over. Alexis
poetically deplores the miseries of the half-hour before dinner.
Athen. i. 42.

Footnote 748:

There was in great houses a person whose duty it was to assign each
guest his place at table, ὀνομακλήτωρ, or nomenclator. Athen. ii. 29.

Footnote 749:

Plin. xxxiii. 51. xxxiv. 8.

Footnote 750:

At most sumptuous entertainments _tasters_ were employed who, as in
the East, made trial of the dishes before the guests, lest they should
be poisoned. These persons were called ἐδέατροι and προτένθαι. Athen.
iv. 71.

-----

The manner of reclining on the divans was not a little ludicrous. For,
at the outset, while the appetite was keen, they stretched themselves
flat upon their stomachs, in order, I presume, to command the use of
both hands, and putting forward their mouths towards the table looked
like so many sparrows with their open bills projecting over the nest.
But this they could conveniently do only when they had a large space to
themselves. When packed close, as usually they were, one man, the chief
in dignity, throwing off his shoes,[751] placed himself on the upper end
of the divan, that is, next the host, reclining on one elbow supported
by soft cushions. The head of the next man reached nearly to his
breast,—whence in Scripture, the beloved disciple is said to recline on
the bosom of Christ,[752]—while the feet of the first extended down
behind him. The third guest occupied the same position with respect to
the second, and so on until five individuals sometimes crowded each
other on the same sofa.

-----

Footnote 751:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 825.

Footnote 752:

John, xiii. 23. On the cushions, of which there was a great variety,
see Pollux, vi. 9, where he reckons among them the ὑπηρέσιον, which
Mitford confounds with the ἄσκωμα, or leathern bags which closed the
row-port of war-galleys round the oar, to prevent the influx of
sea-water.

-----

As the heaven of the poets was but a colossal picture of earth, we may,
from the practice of the gods, infer what took place among mortals, even
where supported by no direct testimony. Now, in Homer, we find gods and
goddesses mingling freely together at the feast. Zeus takes the head of
the table, next him sits his daughter Athena, while the imperial Hera,
as Queen of Heaven, takes precedence of all the she Olympians, by
placing herself at the head of the secondary divinities, directly
opposite her husband. On one occasion we find Athena, the type of
hospitality and politeness, yielding up her seat of honour to Thetis,
because, as an Oceanid, she was somewhat of a stranger in Olympos.[753]
Potter has discussed, with more learning than perspicuity, the question
of precedence at table. To render the matter perfectly intelligible
would require a plan of the dining-room; but wanting this, it may be
observed, that in Persia the king, or host of whatever rank, sat in the
middle, while the guests ranged themselves equally on both sides of him.

-----

Footnote 753:

Iliad, ω. 100.

-----

In Greece, the bottom of the table was the end next the door. Here no
one sat, it being left open for the servants to bring in and remove the
dishes. From this point, on either side, the seats augmented in value,
and consequently the post of greatest honour was the middle of the other
extremity.[754] There were those, however, who made no account of these
matters, but suffered their guests to seat themselves as they pleased.
This was the case with Timon, who, having invited a very miscellaneous
party, would not be at the pains to settle the question of precedence
between them; but a pompous individual of aristocratic pretensions,
dressed like an actor, arriving late with a large retinue, and surveying
the company from the door, went away again, observing, there was no fit
place left for him. Upon which the guests, who, as Plutarch remarks,
were far gone in their cups, burst into shouts of laughter, and bade him
make the best of his way home.[755]

-----

Footnote 754:

Cf. Plut. Conv. Quæst. i. 3. Pet. Ciacon, De Triclin. p. 44.

Footnote 755:

Sympos. i. 2. 1.

-----

Some persons observed a very different order in arranging their guests,
grouping those together whom they considered suited by age or temper to
each other, in order by this contrivance to produce general harmony,—the
vehement and impetuous being placed beside the meek and gentle, the
silent beside the talkative, the ripe and full and expansive minds
beside those who were ready to receive instruction. But very often, as
at Agathon’s, those sat next each other, who were most intimately
acquainted or united together by friendship; for thus the greatest
freedom of intercourse with the brightest sallies of convivial wit were
likely to be produced.

At length, however, we must imagine the guests in their places and every
thing in proper train. The servants bring in first one well-covered
table, then a second, then a third, till the whole room is filled with
dainties. Brilliant lamps and chandeliers poured a flood of light over
the crowned heads of the guests, over the piled sweetmeats, over the
shining dishes, and all the baits with which the appetite is caught.
Then, on silver pateræ, cakes whiter than snow were served round. To
these succeeded eggs, pungent herbs, oysters, and thrushes.[756] Next
several dishes of rich eels, brown and crisp, sprinkled thickly with
salt, followed by a delicious conger dressed with every rare device of
cookery, calculated to delight the palate of the gods. Then came the
belly of a large ray, round as a hoop; dishes, containing, one some
slices of a sea-dog, another garnished with a sparos, a third with a
cuttle-fish, or smoking polypus whose legs were tender as a chicken.
While the sight of these dainties was feasting the eyes of the guests,
the noses of the experienced informed them of the approach of a
synodon,[757] which perfumed the passages all the way from the kitchen,
and, flanked with calamaries, covered the whole table. Shrimps too were
there in their yellow cuirasses, sweet in flavour as honey, with
delicious varieties of puff pastry bordered with fresh green
foliage.[758] The teeth of the parasites watered at the sight. But while
deeply engaged in the discussion of these good things, in came some
smoking slices of broiled thunny, a mullet fresh from the fish-kettle,
with the teats of a young sow cooked _en ragoût_.

-----

Footnote 756:

Probably also the myttotos, a dish flavoured with garlic and rich
spices, formed a part of this course. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 173.
Vesp. 62.

Footnote 757:

Athen. i. 8. vii. 46. 68. 119. Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 5.

Footnote 758:

Pollux, vi. 77.

-----

Pleasure of all kinds being supposed to promote digestion, female
singers, flute-players and dancers, were meanwhile exercising their
several arts for the entertainment of the guests. But as they paid very
little attention to them till the rage of hunger was appeased, we shall
imitate their example, and proceed with the gourmandize. One of the
greatest accomplishments a boon companion could possess, was the power
to seize with the fingers, and swallow hissing-hot, slices of grilled
fish or morsels of lamb or veal broiled like kabobs, so as to be
slightly burnt and cracking externally, while all the juice and flavour
of the meat remained within. And the acquirement being highly important,
great pains were taken to become masters of it. For this purpose some
accustomed themselves daily to play with hot pokers, others
case-hardened their fingers by repeatedly dipping them in water as hot
as they could bear, and gargled their throats with the same, while one
famous gourmand, more inventive than the rest, hit upon the ingenious
device of wearing metallic fingerlings with which he could have seized a
kabob even from the gridiron. These proficients in the art of eating, an
art practised indeed by all, but possessed in perfection by very few,
enjoyed great advantages over the ignorant and uninitiated. And
accordingly, when invited out, they generally succeeded in bribing the
cook to send in all his dishes hot as Phlegethon, that, while the more
modest and inexperienced guests sat gazing on, they might secure the
best cuts, and come again before the others could venture on a mouthful.

Among the articles served up in this scorching state were calf’s pluck,
pig’s harslet, with the chine, the kidneys, and a variety of small
hors-d’œuvre. To these may be added the head of a sucking-kid which had
tasted nothing but milk, baked between two dishes well luted together;
giblets boiled; small, delicate hams with their white sward unbroken;
pigs’ snouts and feet swimming in white sauce, which the gourmand
Philoxenos thought a rare invention. Roast kid and lamb’s chitterlings,
or the same viands boiled, formed a supplement to the dishes above
enumerated, and were usually done so exactly to a turn, that even the
gods, Bacchos for example, and Hermes, the parasites of Olympos, might
have descended expressly to wag their beards over them. But the
Levantines have always been enamoured of variety in cookery. Lady
Wortley Montague counted fifty dishes served up in succession at the
Sultana Hafiten’s table; and this she-barbarian, with all her wealth,
could never rival the variety of invention of an ancient Eleian or
Sicilian cook, who usually closed the list of his dainties with hare,
chickens roasted to the gold-colour celebrated by Aristophanes,
partridges, pheasants, wood-pigeons or turtle-doves, which your true
gourmand should eat in the Thebaid, immediately after the close of
harvest. But the dinner was not yet over. There still remained the
dessert to be disposed of, consisting of pure honey from the district of
the silver mines, curdled cream, cheese-tarts, and all that profusion of
southern fruit of which we have already spoken.[759]

-----

Footnote 759:

Athen. iv. 28. There was a kind of cheese, apparently much in use,
imported from Gythion, in Laconia. Lucian. Diall. Hetair. xiv. 2.

-----

It is a well-known rule among modern gourmands, that no man should utter
a syllable at table till the first course is removed, and precisely the
same regulation prevailed among the ancients. Silence, however, was
sometimes interrupted by the arrival of some wandering buffoon, who,
after long roaming about in search of a dinner, happened, perhaps, to be
attracted thither by the wings and feathers ostentatiously scattered
before the door. This sort of gentry required no introduction: they had
only to knock and announce themselves to ensure a ready welcome; for
most men would willingly part with a share of their supper to be made
merry over the remainder. The Athenian demos was pre-eminently of this
humour. No king, in fact, ever kept up so large an establishment of
fools by profession, or, which is much the same thing, of wits,—fellows
who grind their understandings into pointed jests to tickle the risible
muscles and expand the mouths of sleek junketters, who esteem nothing
beyond eating and grinning.

At a feast given by Callias, the famous jester, Philip, a-kin in spirit,
I trow, to him of Macedon, presented himself in this way, and, on being
admitted,—“Gentlemen,” said he, “you know my profession and its
privileges, relying on which I am come uninvited, being a foe to all
ceremony, and desiring to spare you the trouble of a formal
invitation.”—“Take your place,” replied the host; “your company was much
needed, for our friends appear to be plunged up to the chin in gravity,
and would be greatly benefited by a hearty laugh.”[760]

-----

Footnote 760:

Xenoph. Conv. i. 13, 14.

-----

In fact, the heads of the honest people were filled with very serious
meditations, being all in love, and endeavouring to discover how each
might excel the other in absurdity. Philip began to fear, therefore,
that he had carried his jests to a bad market, and, in reality, made
many vain attempts to kindle the spirit of mirth, and call home the
imaginations of persons who had evidently suffered them to stray as far
as the clouds. Aware that success on this point was indispensable to his
subsistence, the jester grew piqued at the indifference of his hearers,
and breaking off in the midst of his supper, wrapped up his head in his
chlamys, and lay down like one about to die. “What, now!” cried Callias.
“Has any sudden panic seized on thee, friend?”—“The worst possible, by
Zeus!” replied Philip; “for, since laughter, like justice, has taken its
leave of earth, my occupation is gone. Hitherto I have enjoyed some
celebrity in this way, living at the public expense, like the guests of
the Prytaneion, because my drollery was effective, and could set the
table in a roar. But it is all over, I see, with me now, for I might as
soon hope to render myself immortal as acquire serious habits.” All this
he uttered in a pouting, desponding tone, as if about to shed tears. The
company, to humour the joke, undertook to comfort him, and the effect of
their mock condolences, and assurances that they would laugh if he
continued his supper, was so irresistibly ludicrous, that Autolychos, a
youthful friend of Callias, was at length unable to restrain his
merriment; upon which the jester took courage, and apostrophising his
soul, informed it very gravely, that there would be no necessity for
them to part company yet.[761]

-----

Footnote 761:

Xenoph. Conviv. i. 15. 16.

-----

The Greeks had, properly speaking, no drawing-rooms, so that, instead of
retreating to another part of the house, they had the tables themselves
removed immediately after dinner. Libations were then poured out to Zeus
Teleios, and having sung a hymn to Phœbos Apollo, the amusements of the
evening commenced. Professional singers and musicians were always hired
on these occasions. They were female slaves, selected in childhood for
their beauty and budding talents, and carefully educated by their
owners.[762] When not already engaged, they stood in blooming bevies in
the agora, waiting, like the Labourers of Scripture, until some one
should hire them, upon which they proceeded, dressed and ornamented with
great elegance, to the house of feasting. But, besides these, there were
other _artistes_ who contributed to the entertainment of the demos,
persons that, like our Indian jugglers, performed wonderful feats by way
of interlude between the regular exhibitions of the damsels from the
agora.[763]

-----

Footnote 762:

Cf. Luc. Amor. § 10. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 1058.

Footnote 763:

The Indian jugglers themselves became known to the Greeks in the age
of Alexander. Ælian. Var. Hist. viii. 7.

-----

Xenophon introduces into that living picture of Greek manners called the
Banquet, a company of this kind. Finding Philip’s jokes dull things, he
brings upon the scene a strolling Syracusan, with a beautiful female
flute-player, a dancing girl who could perform surpassing feats of
activity, and a handsome boy, who, besides performing on the cithara,
was likewise able, on occasion, to sport the toe like his female
companions.

But, where philosophers were present, amusements of this kind were not
allowed to occupy their whole attention. Every thing that occurred was
made a handle for conversation, so that discussions, more or less
lively, according to the temperament or ability of the interlocutors,
formed the solid ground-work upon which the flowers of gaiety and
laughter were spread. It was usual, immediately after supper, to perfume
the guests, and great was the variety of unguents, essences, and odorous
oils, made use of by the rich and vain upon these occasions; but when
Callias proposed conforming to the mode in this particular, Socrates
objected, observing, that the odour of honourable toil was perfume
enough for a man.[764] Women, indeed, to whom every thing sweet and
beautiful naturally belongs, might, he admitted, make use of perfume,
and they did so most lavishly as we have already shown, when we entered
their dressing-room and assisted at their toilette.

-----

Footnote 764:

Xen. Conv. ii. 4.

-----

The Greeks, however, were careful not to convert their pleasure-parties
into a mere arena for the exhibition of dialectic power. They from time
to time glanced at philosophy, but only by the way, in the moments of
transition from one variety of recreation to another. Their conversation
was now and then brought to a pause by the rising of dancing girls,[765]
robed elegantly, as we behold them still on vases and on bas-reliefs, in
drapery adapted to display all the beauty of their forms. Hoops were
brought them, and while musicians of their own sex called forth
thrilling harmonies from the flute, they executed a variety of graceful
movements, in part pantomimic,—now casting up the hoops, now catching
them as they fell, keeping time exactly with the cadences of the flute.
Their skill in this accomplishment was so great, that many were enabled
to keep up twelve hoops in the air at the same time, while others made
use of poniards.[766]

-----

Footnote 765:

Lucian. Amor. § 10.

Footnote 766:

Artemid. Oneirocrit. i. 68. Xen. Conviv. ii. 8.

-----

When the novelty of this exhibition was worn off a little, other
different feats followed. A hoop stuck all round with upright swords was
placed in the midst of the apartment, into which one of the dancing
girls threw herself head foremost, and while standing on her head
balanced the lower part of her body round over the naked points, to the
infinite terror of the spectators. She would then dart forth between the
swords, and, with a single bound, regain her footing without the
circle.[767] To add to the entertainment of the company, some
parasitical buffoon would at times undertake to exhibit his awkwardness
as a foil to the grace of the dancers, frisking about with the clumsy
heaviness of a bear, and exaggerating his own ignorance of orchestics to
excite a laugh. Sometimes the female dancer, like our own fair tumblers,
would throw back her head till it reached her heels, and then putting
herself in motion, roll about the room like a hoop.[768] To these, as a
relief and a change, would succeed, perhaps, a youth with fine rich
voice, who accompanied himself on the lyre with a song.

-----

Footnote 767:

Poll. iii. 134.

Footnote 768:

Xen. Conviv. ii. 22.

-----

But nothing could entirely restrain the Greeks from indulging in the
pleasure of listening to their own voices. The buzz of conversation
would soon be heard in different parts of the room, which, when Socrates
was present, sometimes provoked from him a sarcastic reproof. For
example, at Callias’s dinner, observing the company broken up into
knots, each labouring at some particular question in dialectics, and
filling the apartment with a babel of confused murmurs; “As we talk all
at once,” said he, “we may as well sing all at once;” and without
further ceremony he pitched his voice and began a song.[769]

-----

Footnote 769:

Xen. Conviv. vii. 1.

But when professed jugglers happened to be present, gentlemen were not
long abandoned to their own resources for amusement. Trick followed
trick in rapid succession. To the pantomimic dances, and the sword
circle, succeeded the exhibition of the potter’s wheel, in which a young
girl seated on this machine, like a little Nubian at a cow’s-tail in a
_sakia_, was whirled round with great velocity,[770] but retained so
much self-possession as to be able both to write and to read. These,
however, were merely sources of momentary wonder. Other amusements
succeeded capable of exciting superior delight, such for example, as the
mimetic dance, which, like that of the ghawazi, could tell a whole story
of love, of adventure, of war, of religious frenzy and enthusiasm,
transporting by vivid representations the fancy of the spectators to
warmer or wilder scenes, calling up images and reminiscences of times
long past, or steeping the thoughts in poetical dreams, filled with the
caverned nymphs, the merry Seileni, the frisking satyrs, Bacchos, Pan,
the Hours, the Graces, sporting by moonlit fountains, through antique
woods, or on the shelled and sand-ribbed margin of the ocean.[771]

-----

Footnote 770:

Xen. Conviv. vii. 3.

Footnote 771:

Plat. de Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 55. Bekk. Xen. Conv. vii. 5.

-----

On some occasions a slight dramatic scene was represented. Clearing the
centre of the banqueting hall, the guests ranged themselves in order as
at the theatre. A throne was then set up in the open space, and a female
actor, representing Ariadne, entering, took her seat upon it, decked and
habited like a bride, and supposed to be in her Thalamos at Naxos.
Dionysos, who has been dining with Zeus, comes flushed with Olympian
nectar into the harem to the sound of the Bacchic flute, while the nymph
who has heard his approaching footsteps makes it manifest by her
behaviour that her soul is filled with joy, though she neither advances
nor rises to meet him, but restrains her feelings with difficulty, and
remains apparently tranquil. The god, drawing near with impassioned
looks, and dancing all the while, now seats himself, and places the fair
one on his knee. Then, in imitation of mortal lovers, he embraces and
kisses her, nothing loth; for, though she hangs down her head, and would
wish to appear out of countenance, her arms find their way round his
neck and return his embrace. At this the company, we may be sure,
clapped and shouted. The god, encouraged by their plaudits, then stood
up with his bride, and going through the whole pantomime of courtship,
not coldly and insipidly, but as one whose heart was touched, at length
demanded of Ariadne if in truth she loved him. Sometimes the mimic scene
concealed beneath it all the reality of passion. From personating
enamoured characters, the youthful actor and his partner learned in
reality to love; and what was amusement to others contained a deep and
serious meaning for them. This, Xenophon says, was the case with the
youth and maiden who enlivened the banquet of Callias. Absorbed in the
earnestness of their feelings, they seem to have forgotten the presence
of spectators, and instead of a stage representation, gave them a scene
from real life, where every impassioned look and gesture were genuine,
and every fiery glance was kindled at the heart.[772]

This, however, may be considered a serious amusement, and something like
broad farce was necessary to awaken the guests from the reverie into
which the love scene had plunged them. Jesters were, therefore, put in
requisition; and, as even they sometimes failed to raise a laugh, their
more humorous brethren the wits and jesters of the forests, or, in the
language of mortals, monkeys were called upon to dissipate the clouds of
seriousness. These were the favourite buffoons of the Scythian
Anacharsis,—not the Abbé Barthélemy’s,—who said, he could laugh at a
monkey’s tricks, because his tricks were natural, but that he found no
amusement in a man who made a trade of it.[773] Nor could Euripides at
all relish punsters and manufacturers of jokes, whom he considered, with
some reason, as a species of animal distinct from mankind.

Many there be who exercise their wits
In giving birth, by cutting jests, to laughter.
I hate the knaves whose rude unbridled tongues
Sport with the wise; and cannot for my life
Think they are men, though laughter doth become them,
And they have houses filled with treasured stores
From distant lands.[774]

-----

Footnote 772:

Xen. Conviv. ix. 1–7.

Footnote 773:

Athen. xiv. 2.

Footnote 774:

Eurip. Fragm. Melanipp. 20.

-----

But if Euripides found nothing desirable in laughter, there were those
who had a clean contrary creed, and lamented nothing so much as the loss
of their risible faculties. On this subject Semos has a story quite _à
propos_. Parmeniscos, the Metapontine, having descended, he says, into
the cave of Trophonios, became so extremely grave, that with all the
appliances, and means to boot, furnished by wealth, and they were not a
few, he thereafter found himself quite unable to screw up his muscles
into a smile; which taking much to heart, as was natural, he made a
pilgrimage to Delphi, to inquire by what means he might rid himself of
the blue devils. Somewhat puzzled at the strangeness of the inquiry, the
Pythoness replied,—

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.

Upon this, Parmeniscos hastened homeward, hoping soon to enjoy a good
laugh as the reward of his industry; but, finding his features remain
fixed as cast-iron, he began to suspect the oracle had deceived him.
Some time after, being at Delos, he beheld with admiration the several
wonders of the island, and, lastly, proceeded to the temple of Leto,
expecting to find in the mother of Apollo something worthy of so great a
divinity. But, on entering and perceiving, instead, a grotesque and
smoky old figure in wood, he burst into an immoderate fit of laughter,
whereupon the response of the oracle recurred to his mind, and he
understood it; and, being thus delivered from his infirmity, he ever
after held the goddess in extremest reverence.[775]

-----

Footnote 775:

Athen. xiv. 2.

-----

Even from this story, therefore, it will be seen how highly “broad
grins” were estimated in antiquity, particularly at Athens, where there
was a regular “Wits’ Club,” consisting of threescore members, who
assembled during the Diomeia,[776] in the temple of Heracles. The names
of several of these jovial mortals have come down to us; Mandrogenes,
for example, and Strato, Callimedon, who, for some particular quality of
mind or body, obtained the _sobriquet_ of the _Lobster_, Deinias,
Mnasigeiton, and Menæchmos. The reputation of these gentlemen spread
rapidly through the city, and, when a good thing had a run among the
small wits, it was remarked, that “the Sixty had said _that_.” Or, if a
man of talent were asked, whence he came, he would answer, “From the
Sixty.” This was in the time of Demosthenes, when, unhappily, jesters
were in more request in Athens than soldiers; and Philip of Macedon,
himself no mean buffoon, learning the excellent quality of their _bon
mots_, sent them a present of a talent of gold, with a request that, as
public business prevented his joining the sittings of the club, they
would make for his use a collection in writing of all their smart
sayings, which was, probably, the first step towards those repositories
for stray wit, called “Joe Millers,” that form so indispensable a
portion of a bon vivant’s library.[777]

-----

Footnote 776:

Eustath. ad Iliad. δ. p. 337. 53. Etym. Mag. 277. 24. Meurs. Græc.
Feriat. ii. 96.

Footnote 777:

Athen. xiv. 3.

-----

But we are all this while detaining the company from their wine, and
those other recreations which the fertile genius of the Greeks invented
to make the wheels of life move smoothly. Though the tables, according
to the fashion of the times, were removed with the solid viands, others
were brought in to replace them, on which the censers, the goblets, the
silver or golden ladles for filling the smaller cups, were arranged in
order.[778] The chairman, or, as he was then called, the king of the
feast,[779] enjoyed absolute power over his subjects, and could
determine better than their own palates, how much and how often each man
should drink. This important functionary was not always identical with
the entertainer, but sometimes his substitute, sometimes a person chosen
by lot.[780] Capacious bowls of wine,[781] mingled with water, were
placed on a sideboard, whence cup-bearers, sometimes of one, sometimes
of the other sex, but always selected for their youth and beauty,
filled, with ladles,[782] the goblets of the guests, which, when the
froth rose above the brim, were, by an obvious metaphor, said to be
crowned.[783] Among the Doric Greeks, female cup-bearers seem to have
been always preferred; the Ptolemies of Egypt cherished the same taste;
and the people of Tarentum, themselves of Doric race, passing
successively through every stage of luxury, came, at length, to be
served at table by beautiful young women without a vestige of clothing.
In most cases, these maidens were slaves, but, in some countries, and
everywhere, in remoter ages, the performance of such offices was not
regarded as any way derogatory to persons of noble or princely blood.
But, whatever might be their birth, beauty of form and countenance
constituted their chief recommendation. For there is a language in looks
and gestures, there is a fountain of joy and delight concealed deep in
the physical structure, and its waters laugh to the eye of intellect,
and reflect into the hearts of those who behold it a sunniness and
exhilaration greater than we derive from gazing on the summer sea.
Hence, Hebe and Ganymede were chosen to minister at the tables of the
gods, even Zeus himself[784] not disdaining to taste of the pleasures to
be derived from basking in the irradiations of beauty.

-----

Footnote 778:

Among the Etruscans these ladles were of bronze, and of extremely
elegant form, the point ending in a swan’s or duck’s head.

Footnote 779:

The proceedings of this person were governed by a code of laws, the
making and reformation of which employed the wits of no less
personages than Xenophanes, Spensippos, and Aristotle. Athen. i. 5.

Footnote 780:

Horat. Od. ii. 7. 25.

Footnote 781:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1183. Vesp. 1005.

Footnote 782:

Eustath. ad Iliad, γ. p. 333. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 855.—A specimen
of these ladles (ἀρύταιναι) occurs in Mus. Chiaramont. pl. 2.

Footnote 783:

Virgil actually wreaths the bowls with garlands.—Æneid. iii.
525.—Homer, however, crowns his bowls only with wine.-Il. ε. 471.

Footnote 784:

Homer. Iliad. δ. 2. γ. 232. β. 813. Odyss. ο. 327. Juven. Sat. v. 60.
Cf. Philo. Jud. de Vit. Contempl. t. ii. p. 479. Mangey.

-----

When the goblets were all crowned with the nectar of earth, the Master
of the Feast[785] set the example of good-fellowship by drinking to his
guests, beginning with the most distinguished.[786] Originally, custom
required him who drank to the health of another to drain off his cup
while his comrade did the same; but, in after ages, they sipped only a
portion of the wine, and, as they still do in the East, presented the
remainder to their friend. The latter, by the rules of politeness, was
bound to finish the goblet, or, where the antique fashion prevailed, to
drink one of equal size.[787] The Macedonians, who, probably, excelled
the Greeks in drinking, if in nothing else, disdained small cups as
supplying a very roundabout way to intoxication, and plunged into Lethe
at once by the aid of most capacious bowls. It was customary, when the
practice of passing round the goblet had been introduced, for the king
of the feast to drink to the next man on his right hand, who, in his
turn, drank to the next, and so on till the bowl had circulated round
the board. But different customs prevailed in the different parts of
Greece. At Athens, small cups, like our wine-glasses, were in use; among
the Chians, Thracians, and Thessalians, nations more prone to sensual
indulgences, the goblets were of larger dimensions; but, at Sparta,
where sobriety and frugality long flourished, the practice was to drink
from diminutive vessels, which, as often as required, were replenished
by the attendants.[788]

-----

Footnote 785:

There were certain barbarians, who, to cement their friendships, drank
wine tinged with each other’s blood.—Athen. xv. 47.

Footnote 786:

Plut. Symp. i. 2. 2. The first cup was drunk to the
Agathodemon.—Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 85. Athen. xv. 47.

Footnote 787:

Athen. v. 20.

Footnote 788:

Athen. x. 39. Plut. Cleom. § 13.

-----

Isocrates, in his exhortation to Demonicos, marks the distinction
between the true and false friend, by observing, that, while the latter
thinks only of those around him, the former remembers the absent, and
makes his affection triumph over time and distance. And the Greeks
generally had this merit. Amid the enjoyments of the festive board, they
recalled to mind the friends of other days; and, having first performed
libations to the gods, those best and purest of friends, drank to the
health and prosperity of former associates, now far removed by
circumstances,[789] and this they did not in the mixed beverage which
formed their habitual potations, but in pure wine.[790] There was
something extremely delicate in this idea, for tacitly it intimated,
that their love placed the objects of it almost on a level with their
divinities, in whose honour, also, on these occasions, a small portion
of the wine was spilt in libations[791] upon the earth. The young, in
whose hearts a mistress held the first place,[792] drank deeply in
honour of their beloved, sometimes equalling the number of cups to that
of the letters forming her name,[793] which, if the custom prevailed so
early, would account for Ægisthos’s being a sot. Sometimes, however,
taking the hint from the number of the Graces, they were satisfied with
three goblets; but, when an excuse for drinking “pottle deep” was
sought, they chose the Muses for their patrons, and honoured their
mistresses’ names with three times three.[794] This is the number of
cheers with which favourite political toasts are received at our public
dinners, though every one who fills his bumper, and cries “hip, hip,
hip, hurrah!” on these occasions, is, probably, not conscious that he is
keeping up an old pagan custom in honour of the Muses.

-----

Footnote 789:

Theoc. Eidyll. vii. 69.

Footnote 790:

Cicero in Verr. Act. ii. Orat. i. § 26, and Ascon. Pedan. in loc.

Footnote 791:

Antiphon. Acc. Nec. Ven. § 3.—The third libation was in honour of
Zeus.—Scol. Pind. Isth. vi. 22.

Footnote 792:

Theocrit. Eidyll. xiv. 18, et Schol.

Footnote 793:

Mart. Epig. i. 78.

Footnote 794:

Horat. Od. iii. 19. 11, sqq. Lambinus in loc. p. 143.

-----

The number four was in no favour at the drinking-table, not because it
was an even number, for they sometimes drank ten, but because some old
superstition had brought discredit on it. Our very fox-hunters, however,
exhibit an inferior capacity to many of the ancients in affairs of the
bottle, though when it is the poets who perform the feat, we may safely
consider them to be simply regaling their fancies on “air-drawn”
goblets, which cost nothing, and leave no head-aches behind them. On
this subject there is a very pretty song in the Anthology, which Potter,
following some old edition, completely misrepresents.[795] It deserves
to be well translated, and I would translate it well if I could. The
following at least preserves the meaning:

Pour out ten cups of the purple wine,
To crown Lycidicè’s charms divine;
One for Euphrantè, young and fair,
With the sparkling eye and the raven hair.
Then I love Lycidicè more, you say?
By this foaming goblet I say ye nay.
More valued than ten is Euphrantè to me,
For, as when the heavens unclouded be,
And the stars are crowding far and nigh
On the deep deep blue of the midnight sky,
The moon is still brighter and lovelier far
Than the loveliest planet or brightest star;
So, ’mid the stars of this earthly sphere,
None are so lovely or half so dear
As to me is Euphrantè young and fair,
With the sparkling eye and the raven hair.[796]

-----

Footnote 795:

Antiq. ii. 394, seq.

Footnote 796:

Marc. Argent. ap. Anthol. Græc. v. 110.

-----

But the Macedonians entertained no respect for poetical goblets: they
loved to scent their moustachios with the aroma of the real rosy wine
when it sparkled in the cup,—when it moved itself aright, as the wise
king of Judah expresses it. Plutarch describes briefly one of their
drinking-bouts which took place on the evening of the day wherein old
Kalanos, the Hindù Yoghi, burnt himself alive to escape the colic.
Alexander, on returning from the funeral pile, invited a number of his
friends and generals to sup with him, and, proposing a drinking contest,
appointed a crown for the victor. Prodigious efforts were made by all
present to achieve so enviable a triumph; but the man who proved himself
to possess the most capacious interior was Promachos, who is said to
have swallowed upwards of two gallons. He obtained the prize, which was
a golden crown, valued at a talent, but died within three days.[797]
Chares, the Mitylenian, relates the matter somewhat differently.
According to him, Alexander celebrated funeral games in honour of
Kalanos, at his barrow, where horseraces and gymnastic contests took
place,[798] and a poetical encomium was pronounced upon the Yoghi, who,
like the rest of his countrymen, was, doubtless, a great toper, and
thence the drinking-match instituted in the evening. Chares says there
were three prizes; the first, in value, a talent; the second, thirty
minæ, or about a hundred and twenty pounds sterling; the third, three
minæ. The number of aspirants is not stated, but thirty-five (Plutarch
says forty-one) perished in cold shiverings on the spot, and six more
died shortly after in the tents.[799]

-----

Footnote 797:

Plut. Alexand. Magn. §§ 69, 70.

Footnote 798:

Ælian. Var. Hist. ii. 41. Periz.

Footnote 799:

Athen. x. 49.

-----

Numbers have celebrated the military genius of Alexander; but Athenæus
alone has given him due credit for his truly royal power of drinking.
Like his father, Philip, who, in his jolly humour, ruffled the Athenian
dead at Chæronea, where he could safely beard the fallen republicans,
Alexander delighted to spend his evenings among drunken roysterers,
whose chief ambition consisted in making a butt of their bowels. One of
these worthies was Proteas, the Macedonian mentioned by Ephippos, in his
work on the sepulture of Alexander and Hephæstion. He was a man of iron
constitution, on which wine, whatever quantity he drank, appeared to
make no impression. Alexander, knowing this, loved to pledge him in huge
bowls, such as none, perhaps, but themselves could cope with. This he
did even at Babylon, where the climate suffers few excesses to be
indulged in with impunity. Taking a goblet more like a pail than a
drinking-cup, Alexander caused it to be crowned with wine, which, having
tasted, he presented the bowl to Proteas. The veteran immediately
drained it off, to the great amusement of the company, and presently
afterwards, desiring to pledge the king, he filled it up again, and
sipping a little, according to custom, passed the bowl to Alexander,
who, not to be outdone by a subject, forthwith drank the whole. But if
he possessed the courage, he wanted the physical strength of Proteas:
the goblet dropped from his hand, his head sank on a pillow, and a fever
ensued of which the conqueror of Persia, and the rival of Proteas in
drinking, died in a few days.[800]

-----

Footnote 800:

Athen. x. 44.

-----

But to return from these barbarians: as the presence of sober persons
must always be felt by hard drinkers to be a tacit reproach, it was one
of the rules of good fellowship, that all such as joined not in the
common potations should depart. “Drink, or begone!” said the law, and a
good one in Cicero’s opinion it was, for if men experienced no
disposition to join in the mirth and enjoyment of the company, what had
they to do there?[801]

-----

Footnote 801:

Tuscul. Quæst. ii. 41.

-----

From the existence of these rules, however, an inference has been drawn
unfavourable to the Greek character, as if, because some were merry, the
nation generally must of necessity have been wine-bibbers.[802] But this
is scarcely more logical than the reasoning of a writer, who, because
the comic poets speak chiefly of the mirth and lighter enjoyments of the
Athenians, very gravely concludes that they busied themselves about
little else. The truth is, that like all ardent and energetic people,
they threw their whole souls into the affair, whether serious or
otherwise, in which they happened to be engaged; and besides, while the
careful and industrious applied themselves to business, there was always
an abundance of light and trifling people to whom eating and drinking
constituted a serious occupation.

-----

Footnote 802:

Potter, ii. 396.

-----

CHAPTER VI.
ENTERTAINMENTS.

The man upon the creations of whose art the principal enjoyments of
Greek gourmands were based was the cook,[803] whose character and
achievements ought not perhaps to be entirely passed over. We are,
indeed, chiefly indebted for our information to the comic poets; but, in
spite of some little exaggeration, the likeness they have bequeathed to
us is probably upon the whole pretty exact.

-----

Footnote 803:

On famous Cooks see Max. Tyr. Dissert. v. 60. 83. Pollux, vi. 70, seq.
Athen. iii. 60.

-----

The Athenian cook was a singularly heterogeneous being, something
between the parasite and the professed jester; he was usually a poor
citizen, with all the pride of autochthoneïty about him, who considered
it indispensable to acquire, besides his culinary lore, a smattering of
many other kinds of knowledge, not only for the purpose of improving his
soups or ragouts, but in order, by the orations he pronounced in praise
of himself, to dazzle and allure such persons as came to the agora in
search of an artist of his class. Of course the principal source of his
oratory lay among pots and frying-pans, and the wonders effected by his
art. Philemon hits off with great felicity one of these worthies, who
desires to convey a lofty opinion of himself,—

“How strong is my desire ’fore earth and heaven,
To tell how daintily I cooked 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 bedevilled
With cheese, or browned atop, but though well done,
Looking alive, in its rare beauty dressed.
With skill so exquisite the fire I tempered,
It seemed a joke to say that it was cooked.
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 touched the dish upstarted he
Whirling round in a circle like the hen,
Eating and running; but his jolly comrades,
Each a fish worshiper, soon joined the dance,
Laughing and shouting, snatching some a bit,
Some missing, till like smoke the whole had vanished.
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 Olympos,
To be the food of gods, why then my guests
Had rivalled 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!”[804]

-----

Footnote 804:

Athen. vii. 32.

-----

This honest fellow, in the opinion of Athenæus, exceeded in boasting
even that Menecrates of Syracuse, who for his pride obtained the surname
of Zeus; he was a physician, and used vauntingly to call himself the
arbiter of life to mankind. He is supposed to have possessed some
specific against epilepsy; but being afflicted with a vanity at least
equal to his skill, he would undertake no one’s cure unless he first
entered into an agreement to follow him round the country ever after as
his slave, which great numbers actually did. Nicostratos, of Argos, one
of the persons so restored, travelled in his train habited and equipped
like Heracles; others personated Asclepios, and Apollo, while Menecrates
himself enacted in this fantastic masquerade the part of Zeus; and, as
the actors say, he dressed the character well, wearing a purple robe, a
golden crown upon his head, sandals of the most magnificent description,
and bearing a sceptre in his hand.[805]

-----

Footnote 805:

Athen. vii. 33.

-----

But whatever might have been the conceit of our Syracusan physician,
there were those among the cooking race, who certainly lagged not far
behind him. They usually stunned such as came to hire them with reciting
their own praises, laying claim to as much science and philosophy as
would have sufficed to set up two or three sophists. In fact, to take
them at their word, there was nothing which they did not know, nothing
which they could not do. Painting they professed to comprehend as
profound connoisseurs, and, no doubt, the soles they fried tasted all
the better for the accomplishment. In astronomy, medicine, and geometry,
they appear to have made a still greater proficiency than Hudibras,
notwithstanding that—

“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater;
For he by geometric scale
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Discern by sines and tangents strait
If bread and butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o’ the day
The clock does strike by algebra.”

In all this he was a fool to the Athenian cooks; for, by the help of
astronomy, they could tell when mackerel was in season, and at what time
of the year a haddock is better than a salmon. From geometry they
borrowed the art of laying out a kitchen to the best advantage, and how
to hang up the gridiron in one place, and the porridge-pot in another.
To medicine it is easy to see how deeply they must have been indebted,
since it not only taught them what meats are wholesome, and what not,
but also enabled them by some sleight of art to diminish the appetite of
those voracious parasites, who when they dined out appeared to have
stomachs equal in capacity to the great tun of Heidelberg.[806]

-----

Footnote 806:

Athen. vii. 37.

-----

Many individuals, half guests, half parasites, used to extract
considerable matter for merriment out of the dinner materials, that they
might render themselves agreeable, and be invited again. Thus Charmos,
the Syracusan, used to convert every dish served at table into an
occasion for reciting poetical quotations or old proverbs, and
sometimes, perhaps, suffered the fish to cool while he was displaying
his erudition. He had always civil things to say both to shell-fish and
tripe, so that a person fond of flattery might have coveted to be
roasted, in order that his shade might be soothed with this kind of
incense, which even Socrates allowed was not an illiberal enjoyment. It
was, however, a common custom among parasites to make extracts from the
poets and carry them in portfolios to the tables of their patrons, where
they recited all such as appeared to be _à propos_. In this way the
above Charmos obtained among the people of Messina the reputation of a
learned man, and Calliphanes,[807] son of Parabrycon,[808] succeeded no
less ingeniously by copying out the first verses of various poems, and
reciting them, so that it might be supposed he knew the whole.

-----

Footnote 807:

Suidas in v. t. i. p. 1361. c.

Footnote 808:

Athen. i. 6. “Sic ut παράσιτος, et παραμασήτης vel παραμασύντης
convivam denotat invocatum, qui absque symbola ad convivium venit; sic
nomen παραβρύκων (à verbo βρύκω, mordeo, rodo, deglutio) eumdem habet
significatum.”—Scheigh. Animadv. t. vi. p. 54.

-----

Cleanthes, of Tarentum, always spoke at table in verse, so likewise did
the Sicilian Pamphilos; and these parasites, travelling about with
wallets of poetry on their backs, were everywhere welcomed and
entertained, which might with great propriety have been adduced by
Ilgen[809] among his other proofs of the imaginative character of the
Greeks.

-----

Footnote 809:

De Scol. Poes. p. 8.

-----

Archestratos, the Syracusan, belonged no doubt to this class. He
composed an epic poem on good eating, which commenced with recommending
that no company, assembled for convivial enjoyment, should ever exceed
four,[810] or at most five, otherwise he said they would rather resemble
a troop of banditti than gentlemen. It had probably escaped him, that
there were twenty-eight guests at Plato’s banquet. Antiphanes, after
observing that the parasites had lynx’s eyes to discover a good dinner
though never invited, immediately adds, that the republic ought to get
up an entertainment for them, upon the same principle that during the
games an ox[811] was slaughtered some distance from the course at
Olympia, to feast the flies, and prevent them from devouring the
spectators.

-----

Footnote 810:

Athen. i. 7.

Footnote 811:

Athen. i. 7. This ox was sacrificed to Zeus the Fly-Chaser, in order
to prevail on him to drive the swarms of insects, by which the
spectators were incommoded, beyond the Alpheios. Cf. Plin. Nat. Hist.
x. 40. ix. 34. Pausan. v. 14. i. viii. 26. 7. Ælian. De Nat. Animal.
v. 17. xi. 8.

-----

Besides Archestratos, there were several other celebrated gastronomers
among the ancients. Of these the principal were Timachidas, of Rhodes,
who wrote a poem in eleven books on good eating,[812] Noumenios, of
Heraclea, pupil to the physician Dieuches, Metreas, of Pitana, the
parodist Hegemon, of Thasos, surnamed the _Lentil_, by some reckoned
among the poets of the old comedy, Philoxenos, of Leucadia, and a second
Philoxenos, of Cythera, who composed his work in hexameter verse. The
former, after chaunting the eulogium of the kettle, comes nevertheless
to the conclusion at last, that superior merit belongs to the
frying-pan. He earnestly recommended truffles to lovers, but would not
have them touch the barbel. His anger burst forth with great vehemence
against those who cut in pieces fish which should be served up whole;
and, though he admits that a polypus may occasionally be boiled, it was
much better, he says, to fry it. From this man the Philoxenian cakes
derived their name; and he it is whom Chrysippos reproaches with half
scalding his fingers in the warm bath and gargling his throat with hot
water, in order that he might be able to swallow kabobs hissing from the
coals.[813] He likewise used, at the houses of his friends, to bribe the
cooks to bring up everything fiery hot, that he might help himself
before any one else could touch them. A kindred gourmand, in the poet
Krobylos, exclaims: “My fingers are insensible to fire like the Dactyls
of Mount Ida. And ah! how delightful it is to refresh my throat with the
crackling flakes of broiled fish! Oh I am in fact an oven, not a man!”

-----

Footnote 812:

Athen. i. 8. Suidas. v. Τιμαχίδας. t. i. p. 899, seq.

Footnote 813:

Athen. i. 9.

-----

According to Clearchos it was this same Philoxenos, who used to maraud
about rich men’s houses, followed by a number of slaves laden with wine,
vinegar, oil, and other seasonings. Wherever he smelled the best dinner
he dropped in unasked, and slipping slily among the cooks, obtained
their permission to season the dishes they were preparing, after which
he took his place among the guests where he fed like a Cyclops. Arriving
once at Ephesos, by sea, he found, upon inquiry in the market, that all
the best fish had been secured for a wedding feast. Forthwith he bathed,
and repairing to the house of the bridegroom, demanded permission to
sing the Epithalamium. Every one was delighted; they could do no less
than invite him to dinner. And “Will you come again to-morrow?” inquired
the generous host. “If there be no fish in the market,” replied
Philoxenos. It was this gourmand who wished nature had bestowed on man
the neck of the crane that the pleasure of swallowing might be
prolonged.[814]

-----

Footnote 814:

Suid. in v. Φιλοξ. t. ii. p. 1058. c. Athen. i. 10.

-----

Pithyllos, another parasite, surnamed “the Dainty,” not content with the
membrane which nature has spread over the tongue, superinduced
artificially a sort of mucous covering, which retained for a
considerable time the flavour of what he ate.[815] To prolong his
luxurious enjoyment as much as possible, he afterwards scraped away this
curious coating with a fish. Of all ancient gourmands he alone is said
to have made use of artificial finger-points, that he might be enabled
to seize upon the hottest morsels. An anecdote so good as to have given
rise to many modern imitations, is related of Philoxenos, of Cythera.
Dining one day with Dionysios, of Syracuse, he observed a large barbel
served up to the prince, while a very diminutive one was placed before
him. Upon this, taking up the little fish, he held it to his ear and
appeared to be listening attentively. Dionysios, expecting some humorous
extravagance, made a point of inquiring the meaning of this movement,
and Philoxenos replied, that happening just then to think of his
Galatea,[816] he was questioning the barbel respecting her. But as it
makes no answer, said he, I imagine they have taken him too young and
that he does not understand me. I am persuaded, however, that the old
fellow they have placed before your majesty must know all about it. The
king, amused by his ingenuity, immediately sent him the larger fish
which he soon questioned effectually.[817]

-----

Footnote 815:

Athen. i. 10. Suid. v. Πιθυλλ. t. ii. p. 526. c.

Footnote 816:

Making allusion perhaps to his love for Galatea, the mistress of
Dionysios. Athen. i. 11. Ælian. Var. Hist. xii. 44. Schol. Aristoph.
Plut. 290.

Footnote 817:

Athen. i. 11. See another anecdote of this gourmand in Ælian. Var.
Hist. x. 9.

-----

But the Athenians were not reduced to depend for amusement at table upon
the invention of these humble companions. They knew how, when occasion
required, to entertain themselves, and, in the exuberance of their
hilarity, descended for this purpose to contrivances almost infantine.
They posed each other with charades, enigmas, conundrums, and,
sometimes, in the lower classes of society, related stories of witches,
lamias, mormos, and other hobgoblins believed in by the vulgar of all
nations. Among persons engaged in public affairs the excitement of
political discussion was often, of course, intermingled with their more
quiet pleasures.[818] But with this we have, just now, nothing to do,
nor with the enigmas which we shall describe anon. There was another and
more elegant practice observed by the Greeks at convivial meetings,
which, though not peculiar to them, has nowhere else, perhaps, prevailed
to the same extent,—I mean the introduction of music and the singing of
songs,[819] light, graceful, and instinct with wit and gaiety, to the
barbitos or the lyre.

-----

Footnote 818:

Aristoph. Aves. 1189, sqq.

Footnote 819:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 403.

-----

Among the Greeks, generally, the love of music and poetry seemed to be a
spontaneous impulse of nature. Almost every act of life was accompanied
by a song,—the weaver at his loom, the baker at his kneading-trough, the
reaper, the “spinners and the knitters in the sun,” the drawer of water,
even the hard-working wight who toiled at the mill, had his peculiar
song, by the chaunting of which he lightened his labour. The mariner,
too, like the Venetian gondolier, sang at the oar, and the shepherd and
the herdsman, the day-labourer and the swineherd, the vintager and the
husbandman, the attendant in the baths, and the nurse beside the cradle.
It might, in fact, be said, that from an Hellenic village music arose as
from a brake in spring. Their sensibilities were tremblingly alive to
pleasure. There was elasticity, there was balm in their atmosphere, and
joy and freedom in their souls.—How could they do other than sing?

But, if music and poetry thus diffused their delights over the industry
of the laborious, it was quite natural that where men met solely for
enjoyment, these best handmaids of enjoyment should not be absent.
Accordingly, we find that while the goblet circulated, kindling the
imagination, and unbending the mind, the lyre was brought in and a song
called for. Nor was the custom of recent date. It prevailed equally in
the heroic ages, and, like many other features of Greek manners, derived
its origin from religion. For, in early times, men rarely met at a
numerous banquet, except on occasion of some sacrifice, when hymns in
honour of the gods constituted an important part of the ceremonies. Thus
Homer, describing the grand expiatory rites by which the Achæan host
sought to avert the wrath of Apollo, observes, that they made great
feasts, and celebrated the praises of the god amid their flowing
goblets.[820]

-----

Footnote 820:

Iliad, α. 492, sqq. Ilgen, Disq. de Scol. Poes. p. 55.

-----

Yet, though the theme of those primitive songs may have been at first
serious, it was, probably, not long before topics better adapted to
festive meetings obtained the preference. At all events, they soon came
to be in fashion. The first step appears to have been from the gods to
the heroes, whose achievements, being sometimes tinged with the
ludicrous, opened the door to much gay and lively description. And these
convivial pleasures,[821] so highly valued on earth, were, with great
consistency, transferred to Olympos, where the immortals themselves were
thought to heighten their enjoyments by songs and merriment.

-----

Footnote 821:

Conf. Odyss. θ 72, sqq. α. 154. 350.

-----

In the ages following, the art of enhancing thus the delights of social
intercourse, so far from falling into neglect, grew to be more than ever
cultivated. Even the greatest men, beginning from the Homeric Achilles,
disdained not to sing. They did not, says a judicious and learned
writer, consider it sufficient to perform deeds worthy of immortality,
or to be the theme of poets and musicians, or so far to cultivate their
minds as to be able to relish and appreciate the songs of others, but
included music within the circle of their own studies, as an
accomplishment without which no man could pretend to be liberally
educated. For this reason it was objected by Stesimbrotos, as a reproach
to Cimon, that he was ignorant of music, and every other gentlemanly
accomplishment held in estimation among the Greeks;[822] and even
Themistocles himself incurred the charge of rusticity, because, when
challenged at a party, he refused to play on the cithara.[823]

-----

Footnote 822:

Plut. Cim. § 4. Afterwards, however, we find Cimon represented as
singing with great skill. § 9.

Footnote 823:

Cicero, Tuscul. Quæst. i. 2. Cf. Ilgen. De Scol. Poes. p. 62.

-----

A different theory of manners prevailed among the Romans, who, like the
modern Turks, considered it unbecoming a gentleman to sing. But to the
Greeks, a people replete with gaiety and ardour, and whose amusements
always partook largely of poetry, music presented itself under a wholly
different aspect, and was so far from appearing a mean or sordid study,
that no branch of education was held in higher honour, or esteemed more
efficacious in promoting tranquillity of mind, or polish and refinement
of manners. The lyre is accordingly said, by Homer, to be a divine gift,
designed to be the companion and friend of feasts, where it proved the
source of numerous advantages. In the first place, persons too much
addicted to the bottle found in this instrument an ally against their
own failing, for, whether playing or listening, a cessation from
drinking was necessarily effected. Rudeness also and violence, and that
unbridled audacity commonly inspired by wine, were checked by music,
which, in their stead, inspired a pleasing exaltation of mind, and joy
free from all admixture of passion.[824]

-----

Footnote 824:

Athen. xiv. 24. Ilgen, Disq. De Scol. Poes. p. 64.

-----

It has already been observed that the convivial song soon divested
itself of its religious and sombre character; for, as parties are made
up of persons differing extremely in taste and temperament, it
necessarily happened that when each was required to sing, much variety
would be found in the lays, which generally assumed a festive and jocund
air. Hymns in honour of the gods were more sparingly introduced,[825]
nor was much stress laid on the praises of heroes;[826] the spirit of
joviality moulded itself into

Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles;
Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles.

-----

Footnote 825:

The hymn, for example, in honour of Pallas was, in all ages, sung.
Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 954.

Footnote 826:

Of Harmodios, for example, and Aristogeiton. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn.
942. See Ilgen, Disq. de Scol. Poes. p. 69.

-----

Every one poured forth what the whim of the moment inspired,—jokes,
love-songs, or biting satires, with the freedom and fertility of an
improvisatore.[827]

These convivial songs were divided by the ancients into several kinds,
with reference sometimes to their nature, sometimes to the manner in
which they were chaunted: the most remarkable they denominated Scolia,
or zig-zag songs,[828] for a reason somewhat difficult of explanation.
Several of the later Greek writers appear to have been greatly at a loss
to account for the appellation, which is, no doubt, a singular one; but
the learning and diligence of Ilgen[829] may be said to have fully
resolved this curious question. After determining the antiquity of the
Scolion, which Pindar[830] supposes to have been an invention of
Terpander, or, at least, the verses of the song, but which Ilgen dates
as far back as the heroic period, he observes, that the name itself was
known in very remote ages, since they formed a separate class among the
works of Pindar, and are mentioned by Aristophanes and Plato,[831] and
that, like the Cyclic chorus, it arose out of the circumstances under
which it was sung. For as this chorus was called Cyclic, or circular,
because chaunted by persons moving in a circle round the altar of
Bacchos, so the Scolion, or zig-zag song,[832] received its name from
the myrtle branch, or the cithara, to which it was sung, being passed
from one guest to another in a zig-zag[833] fashion, just as those who
possessed the requisite skill happened to sit at table.

-----

Footnote 827:

Conf. Hom. Hymn. in Herm. 52, sqq. Pind. Olymp. i. 24.

Footnote 828:

Poll. vi. 108, with the notes of Seber and Jungermann, t. v. p. 142.

Footnote 829:

Who has published a collection of these songs, accompanied by very
interesting and instructive notes. Σκολια· hoc est, Carmina Convivalia
Græcorum. Jenæ, 1798.

Footnote 830:

Apud Plut. de Musica, § 28.

Footnote 831:

Pind. Fragm. Dissen. t. i. p. 234, with the Commentary, t. ii. p.639,
sqq. Aristoph. Vesp. 1222, 1240. Acharn. 532. Pac. 1302. Plat. Gorg.
t. iii. p. 13. Bekk.

Footnote 832:

Suidas, v. σκολίον, t. ii. p. 759, e. sqq. Etym. Mag. 718, 35, sqq.
Eustath. ad Odyss. η. 276, 49.

Footnote 833:

Mr. Müller, however, disapproves of this etymology. “It is much more
likely,” he says, “that in the melody to which the scolia were sung,
certain liberties and irregularities were permitted, by which the
extempore execution of the song was facilitated.”—History of Greek
Literature, pt. i. chap. xiii. § 16, seq.

-----

To render this explanation perfectly intelligible, it will, perhaps, be
necessary to describe succinctly the whole process of singing in
company. At first, it has been conjectured, when manners were rude, and
the language still in its infancy, singing, like dancing, required no
great art, and was little more than those wild bursts of melody still
common among the improvisatori of Arabia and other Eastern countries,
but that from these humble beginnings lyrical poetry took its rise,
preserving still the freedom of its original state, and rising,
unshackled by the rigid laws of metre, to heights of sublimity and
grandeur beyond which no human composition ever soared. By degrees some
complex forms of verse obtained the preference,—such, for example, as
those of Sappho and Alcæos,—and fixed and definite laws of metre were
established.

The Scolion, however, always preserved something of its original
spontaneous character, at least in appearance, and the same thing may be
predicated of all their festive lays. But before they gave loose to
their gaiety, the deep religious sentiment which pervaded the whole
nation required a pæan, or hymn, to be sung in honour of the gods, and
in this every person present joined.[834] While thus engaged, each
guest, it is supposed, held in his hand a branch of laurel, the tree
sacred to Apollo.[835] To the pæan succeeded another air, which all
present sang in their turn, holding this time a branch of myrtle,[836]
which, like the laurel bough mentioned above, was called æsakos, or the
“branch of song.”[837] The singing commenced with the principal guest,
to whom the symposiarch or host delivered the Cithara[838] and æsakos,
demanding a song, which, according to the laws of the table, no one
could refuse. Having performed his part, the singer was, in turn,
entitled to call upon his neighbour, beginning on the right hand, and
delivering to him the Cithara and the myrtle branch. The second, when he
had sung, handed it then to the third, the third to the fourth, and so
on until the whole circle of the company had been made. It sometimes
happened, though not often, that among the guests an individual,
unskilled in instrumental music, was found, and, in this case, he sang
without accompaniment, holding the æsakos in his hand.[839]

-----

Footnote 834:

Plut. Symp. i. 1. Athen. xiv. 24.

Footnote 835:

Hesych. v. ᾄσακος, ap. Ilgen. De Scol. Poes. p. 154.

Footnote 836:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1339, 1346.

Footnote 837:

Potter, Antiq. ii. 403.

Footnote 838:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1337, seq.

Footnote 839:

Ilgen, De Scol. Poes. p. 156.

-----

The poets who had the honour thus to cheer the convivial hours of the
Greeks were, in remoter times, Simonides and Stesichoros, and, probably,
Anacreon, with others of the same grade;[840] and, if we may credit
Aristophanes, songs were also selected from the plays of Æschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, as among ourselves from Shakespeare, Beaumont
and Fletcher, or Ben Jonson. It may even be inferred that passages from
Homer himself[841] were sung on these occasions; or, if not sung, they
were certainly recited by rhapsodists introduced for the purpose into
the assembly, who, holding a laurel branch while thus engaged, probably
gave rise to the practice of passing round the myrtle bough. This
branch, therefore, whether of myrtle or laurel,[842] constituted a part
of a singer’s apparatus. The latter was originally chosen as sacred to
Apollo, the patron of music, and because it was also believed to be
endowed with something of prophetic power, the Pythoness eating its
leaves before she ascended the tripod, while it was the symbol of
ever-during song. Instead of the laurel, myrtle was afterwards
introduced, on account, probably, of its being sacred to Aphrodite,
whose praises were celebrated in those amatory songs common at feasts.
It may, likewise, have been considered an emblem of republican virtue,
since Harmodios and Aristogeiton concealed their swords in a myrtle
wreath.[843]

-----

Footnote 840:

Aristoph. Nub. 1358. Conf. Schol. ad Vesp. 1222.

Footnote 841:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 1367.

Footnote 842:

Dresig. de Rhapsodis. p. 7. sqq. ap. Ilgen, De Scol. Poes. p. 157.
Pind. Isthm. iv. 63.

Footnote 843:

Ilgen, De Scol. Poes. p. 159.

-----

To proceed, however, with the Scolia. These lays, like the rest, made
the circle of the company, though not by passing in an unbroken series
from man to man, but, as has already been said, from one skilful singer
to another. In fact, the chanting of the scolia was a kind of contest
which took place when all the other songs were concluded.[844] The
person who occupied the seat of honour chanted to the Cithara a song
containing the praises of some mortal or immortal, or the developement
of some moral precept or erotic subject, which was comprehended in a
small number of verses. When he had finished, he handed the Cithara and
myrtle, at his own discretion, to some other among the guests, and the
person thus challenged, who could not refuse without passing for an
illiterate clown, must at once take up the same subject, and, without
delay or premeditation, break forth into a song in the same metre and
number of verses, if possible; and if unfamiliar with the Cithara, he
could sing to the myrtle. The second singer now exercised his privilege
and called upon a third, who was expected to do as he had done; so that
very often the same idea underwent five or six transformations in the
course of the evening. When the first argument had thus made the circle
of the company, he who concluded had the right to start a new theme,
which received the same treatment as the first; so that sometimes, when
people were in a singing humour, air followed air, until eight or ten
subjects had received all the poetical ornaments which the invention of
those present could bestow upon them.

-----

Footnote 844:

Athen. xv. 49.

-----

But to sing without wine would have been insipid. I have said the
chanting of the scolia was a sort of contest, and, as he who contends
and obtains the victory looks naturally for a reward, so the successful
performer aspired to his, which, it must be owned, was not
inappropriate, consisting of a brimming bowl, called _odos_, or the “cup
of song,” at once a mark of honour and a reward of skill.[845] All these
particulars are inferable from the examples of the scolion, which still
remain; and Aristophanes in the “Wasps,” presents something like an
outline, though dim and obscure, both of the argument and the mode of
execution. He imagines a company of jolly fellows,[846] such as Theoros,
Æschines, Phanos, Cleon, Acestor, and a foreigner of the same kidney,
and represents them as engaged in performing certain scolia for their
own entertainment.

-----

Footnote 845:

Athen. xi. 110.

Footnote 846:

Vesp. 1220.

-----

But the idea we should form of this kind of song from the very comic
passage in the “Wasps” differs materially from the theoretic view of
Ilgen, since Philocleon constantly interrupts his son, terminating each
sentence for him in a manner wholly unexpected, and of course calculated
to excite laughter.

But though musical, the Greeks would not imitate the grasshoppers,[847]
who are said to sing till they starve; but, having accomplished the
circle above-mentioned, proceeded to other amusements which, though too
numerous to be described at length, must not be altogether passed over.
In the heroic ages the discovery had not been made that rest after meals
is necessary to digestion, which in later times was a received maxim,
and accordingly we find from the practice of the Phæacians,[848] who, if
an after-dinner nap had been customary, would certainly have taken it,
that the men of those times, instead of indulging in indolent repose out
of compliment to their stomachs, sallied forth to leap, to run, to
wrestle, and engage in other athletic sports, which by no means appear
to have impaired their health or their prowess. As civilisation
advances, however, excuses are found for laying aside the habits of
violent exercise. Science, in too many cases, fosters indolence and
pronounces what is fashionable to be wise. But to the race-course and
the wrestling-ring, sedentary, or at least indoor, pastimes succeed,
and, instead of overthrowing their antagonists on the palæstra-floor or
the greensward, men seek to subdue them at Kottabos, or on the
chess-board, or to ruin them at the card-table or in the billiard-room.

-----

Footnote 847:

Plato Phædr. t. i. p. 65.

Footnote 848:

Homer. Odyss. θ. 97, sqq. Eustath. p. 295, 43.

-----

The play of Kottabos,[849] invented in Sicily, soon propagated itself,
as such inventions do, throughout the whole of Greece, and got into
great vogue at Athens, where the lively temperament of the people
inclined them to indulge immoderately in whatever was convivial and gay.
The most usual form of the game was this,—a piece of wood like the
upright of a balance having been fixed in the floor or upon a stable
basis, a small cross-beam was placed on the top of it with a shallow
vessel like the basin of a pair of scales, at either end.

-----

Footnote 849:

Athen. xv. 2, sqq. xi. 22, 58, 75.—Suidas, v. κοταβίζειν. t. i. p.
1504, b. seq. Etym. Mag. 538. 13, sqq.

-----

Under each of these vessels stood a broad-mouthed vase, filled with
water, with a gilt bronze statue, called Manes, fixed upright in its
centre. The persons who played at the game, standing at some little
distance, cast, in turn, their wine, from a drinking-cup into one of the
pensile basins, which descending with the weight, struck against the
head of the statue, which resounded with the blow. The victor was he who
spilled least wine during the throw, and elicited most noise from the
brazen head. It was, in fact, in its origin a species of divination, the
object being to discover by the greater or less success obtained, the
place occupied by the player in his mistress’s affections. By an
onomatopœa the sound created by the wine in its projection was called
_latax_, and the wine itself _latagè_. Both the act of throwing and the
cup used were called _ankula_, from the word which expresses the
dexterous turn of the hand with which the skilful player cast his wine
into the scales.[850]

-----

Footnote 850:

Potter, ii. 405, 406.

-----

Our learned Archbishop Potter, who has not unskilfully abridged the
account of Athenæus, confounds the above with the _kottabos katactos_,
another form of the game described both by Pollux and Athenæus.[851] In
this the apparatus was suspended like a chandelier from the roof. It was
formed of brass, and a brazen vessel, called the skiff, was placed
beneath it. The player, standing at a little distance, with a long wand,
struck one end of the kottabos, which descending came in contact with
the skiff, or rather the manes within, and produced a hollow sound.
Occasionally the small vessels at the extremity of the kottabos were
brought down, as in the former game, by having wine cast into them.
Another variety required the skiff to be filled with water, upon which
floated a ball, an instrument like the tongue of a balance, a manes,
three myrtle boughs, and as many phials. In this the great art consisted
in striking some one of these with the kottabos, and whoever could sink
most of them won the game. The prize, on these occasions, was usually
one of those cakes called _pyramos_[852] or something similar; but
instead of these it was sometimes agreed, when women were present, that
the prize should be a kiss, as in our game of forfeits. Another kind of
kottabos, chiefly practised on those occasions which resembled our
christenings, when on the tenth day the child received its name, was a
contention of wakefulness, when the person who longest resisted sleep,
won the prize. Properly, however, kottabos was the amusement first
described; and so fashionable did it become, that persons erected
circular rooms expressly for the purpose, in order that the players
might take their stand at equal distances from the apparatus which stood
in the centre.[853]

-----

Footnote 851:

Pollux. vi. 100, sqq. Athen. xv. 4. Cf. Flor. Christian ad Aristoph.
Pac. 343.

Footnote 852:

Pollux. vi. 101.

Footnote 853:

Athen. xv. 7.

-----

It might, without any authority, be presumed that when people met
together for enjoyment they would derive the greater portion of it from
conversation, which would, of course, vary and slide

“From grave to gay, from lively to severe,”

according to the character or fluctuating humour of the company. The
Spartans, like all military people, were grievously addicted to jokes,
which among them supplied the place of that elegant badinage,
alternating with profound or impassioned discourse, familiar to the more
intellectual Athenians. The latter, however, though free from the
coarseness, possessed more than the mirthfulness of the Dorians, and in
the midst of their habits of business and application to philosophy,
knew better than any people how, amidst wine and good-eating, to unbend
and enjoy the luxury of careless trifling and an unwrinkled brow. While
some therefore retired to the kottabos-room, which occupied the place of
our billiard-room, others still sat clustered round the table,
extracting amusement from each other. Among these of course would be
found all such as excelled in the art of small talk, who could tell a
good story or anecdote, scatter around showers of witticisms, or give
birth to a pun. Some, like the Spartans, had a Welsh passion for
genealogies, and loved to run back over the history of the “Landed
Gentry” of old Hellas, to the time of Deucalion or higher; others coined
their wisdom and experience into fables, for which they exhibited an
almost Oriental fondness; while the greater number, like the princes in
the Arabian Nights, exercised their wits in propounding and resolving
difficult questions, enigmas, charades, anagrams, and conundrums.

But the principal classes into which these contrivances were divided
were two: _enigmas_ and _griphoi_,[854] the former comprehending all
those terminating in mere pleasure, the latter such questions and
riddles as involved within themselves the kernel of wisdom or
knowledge,[855] supposed to have been a dull and serious affair.
Casaubon,[856] however, vindicates it stoutly from this charge,
affirming that in the griphos the _utile_ was mingled with the _dulce_
in due proportion; so that it must, according to Horace’s opinion, have
borne away the palm from most literary inventions. In point of
antiquity, too, the riddle may justly boast; for, if to be old is to be
noble, it has “more of birth and better blood” even than the hungry
Dorians of the Peloponnesos, whom Mr. Mitchell prefers, on this account,
before all nations of Ionic race. Like everything good also it comes
from the East. The earliest mention of the riddle occurs in the book of
Judges,[857] where Samson, during his marriage-feast at Timnath,
perplexes his guests with the following riddle:

“Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness;”

-----

Footnote 854:

Vid. Clem. Alexan. Protrep. i. 1. Diog. Laert. ii. 33.

Footnote 855:

Pollux. vi. 107.

Footnote 856:

Animadv. in Athen. x. 15. Cf. Scaliger, Poet. iii. 84, where the
distinction made by Pollux is explained.

Footnote 857:

Chap. xiv. vv. 14. 18. Chytræus, in his note on this passage, has
several excellent and learned remarks on the subject. Vid. Seber. ad
Poll. t. v. p. 141.

-----

To which they, being instructed by his wife, replied:

“What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?”

The word griphos, in its original acceptation, signified a fishing-net,
and hence by translation was employed to describe a captious or
cunningly contrived question, in which the wits of people were
entangled.[858] As the ancients delighted in this sort of intellectual
trifling they were at the pains to be very methodical about it, dividing
the riddle into several kinds, which Clearchos of Soli[859] made the
subject of a separate work. This writer, a sort of Greek D’Israeli,
defines the griphos to mean “a sportive problem proposed for solution on
condition, that the discovery of the sense should be attended by a
reward, and failure with punishment.” His description of the seven
classes could scarcely be rendered intelligible, and certainly not
interesting to the modern reader. It will be more to the purpose to
introduce two or three specimens, prefacing them by a few remarks.

-----

Footnote 858:

Pollux. vi. 108. Scalig. Poet. iii. 84.

Footnote 859:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 20. Athen. x. 69.

-----

It has been above observed, that philosophical truths were often wrapped
up in these sportive problems, which purposely obscured, so as to afford
but dim and distant glimpses of the forms within, necessarily exercised
and sharpened the wit and induced keen and persevering habits of
investigation. The reward also and the penalty had the same tendency. A
crown, an extra junket, and the applause of the company, cheered the
successful Œdipos, while the lackwit who beat about the bush without
catching the owl, had to make wry faces over a cup of brine or pickle.
Theodectes, the sophist, a man distinguished for the excellence of his
memory, obtained reputation as a riddle-solver, and denominated such
questions the “springs of memory.”[860] But whatever the interrogatories
themselves may have been, the reward, to which their solution often led,
was rather a source of forgetfulness, consisting of a goblet of wine
which, when no interpreter could be found, passed to the
propounder.[861]

-----

Footnote 860:

Pollux. vi. 108.

Footnote 861:

Etym. Mag. 341, 35, sqq. Suidas. v. γρῖφος, t. i. p. 628, seq.

-----

The riddle was of course a mine of wealth to the comic poets, who could
not be supposed to forego the use of so admirable a contrivance to raise
expectation and beget surprise. But it is clear, from the examples still
preserved, that they oftener missed than hit. Antiphanes’s griphoi on
“bringing and not bringing;” on the “porridge-pot;” on a “tart,” &c.,
are poor things; but the following from the “Dream” of Alexis is good:

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.[862]

-----

Footnote 862:

Athen. x. 71.

-----

The following from Eubulos is not amiss:

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 puffed
By playful urchins, sails along the air.

Antiphanes, in his Sappho, introduces a very ingenious riddle, partly
for the purpose of offering a sarcastic explanation directed against the
orators:

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.[863]

-----

Footnote 863:

Athen. x. 73.

-----

The poet introduces the “Lesbian maid,” explaining the riddle, and this
passage of the Athenian comic writer may be regarded as the original of
those fine lines in Ovid, which Pope has so elegantly translated:

Heaven first taught LETTERS for some wretch’s aid,
Some banish’d lover, or some captive maid,
They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires,
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires,
The virgin’s wish without her fears impart,
Excuse the blush and pour out all the heart,
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.

By this time, however, the reader will probably be of opinion, that we
have lingered long enough about the dinner-table and its attendant
pastimes. We shall therefore hasten the departure of the guests, who
after burning the tongues of the animals that had been sacrificed, to
intimate that whatever had been uttered was to be kept secret, offered
libations to Zeus, Hermes, and other gods, and took their leave, in
ancient times before sunset; but afterwards, as luxury and extravagance
increased, the morning sun often enabled them to dispense with
link-boys. Examples, indeed, of similar perversions of the night occur
in Homer and Virgil, but always among the reckless or effeminate in the
palaces of princes, whence, in all ages, the stream of immorality has
flowed downward upon society to disturb and pollute it. The company
assembled at Agathon’s, also, sit up all night in Plato; and
Aristophanes represents drunken men reeling home through the agora by
daylight.

CHAPTER VII.
THE THEATRE.

It is far from being my purpose to repeat the information which may be
obtained from a hundred authors on the rise and progress of scenic
representation in Greece. I shall, on the contrary, confine myself
chiefly to those parts of the subject which others have either
altogether neglected, or treated in a concise and unsatisfactory manner.
It would, nevertheless, be beside my purpose to attempt the clearing up
of all such difficulties as occur in the accounts transmitted to us of
the Hellenic drama; and, in fact, notwithstanding the laborious
investigations into which I have been compelled to enter, I feel that
there are many points upon which I can throw no new light, and which
appear likely for ever to baffle the ingenuity of architects and
scholars.

Dionysos, being a deity connected with agriculture, his worship
naturally took its rise, and for a long time prevailed chiefly, in the
country. His festivals were celebrated with merriment; and, the power of
mimicry being natural to man, the rustics, when congregated to set forth
the praise of their tutelar god, easily glided into the enactment of a
farcical show. And dramatic exhibitions at the outset were little
superior to the feats of Punch, though, so great was their suitableness
to the national character, that, in the course of time, every town of
note had its own theatre, as it had of old its own dithyrambic
bard;[864] and dramatic writers were multiplied incomparably beyond what
they have been in any other country.

-----

Footnote 864:

Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1404.

-----

Both tragedy and comedy,[865] properly so called, took their rise in
Attica, and there only, in the ancient world, flourished and grew up to
perfection. The theatre, in fact, formed at length a part of the
constitution, and, probably, the worst part, its tendency being to
foster personal enmities, to stir the sources of malice, and, while
pretending to purge off the dross of the passions by the channels of
sorrow and mirth, to induce habits of idleness and political apathy, by
affording in the brilliant recesses of a mock world a facile refuge from
the toils and duties of the real one. Nevertheless, it may be curious to
open up a view into that universe of shadows wherein the vast creations
of Æschylus, of Sophocles, of Euripides, of Aristophanes, and Menander
displayed themselves before the eyes of the Athenians, with a costly
grandeur and magnificence never equalled save in imperial Rome.

-----

Footnote 865:

See Bentley, Dissert. on Phal. i. 251.

-----

It has been already remarked, that to the Dionysiac theatre of Athens
the architectural speculations of Vitruvius on dramatic edifices apply,
this building having constituted the model on which similar structures
were afterwards erected.[866] By carefully studying its details,
therefore, we shall be enabled to form a tolerably just conception of
all the theatres once found in Greece, though each, perhaps, may have
been slightly modified in plan, general arrangement, and decorations, by
the peculiarities of the site, and the science or taste of its
architect.

-----

Footnote 866:

On the form and construction of ancient theatres, see Chandler,
Travels, &c., who describes the ruins of the theatre of Teos. i. 110;
of Ephesos, 138; of Miletos, (457 feet in length,) 168; of Myos, 191;
of Stratonica, 222; of Nysa, built with a blue-veined marble, 245; of
Laodicea, 262; of Ægina, ii. 16; of Athens, 113; of Eleusis, 215; on
the theatre of Syracuse, see Antiq. of Athens, &c. Supplementary to
Stuart, by Cockerel, Donaldson, &c. p. 38.—See a plan of the theatre
in the grove of Asclepios at Epidauros, pl. 1. p. 53, and another of
that of Dramysos, near Joannina, pl. 3.—(Compare on the Dionysiac
Theatre, Leake, Topog. of Athens, p. 53, sqq.)

-----

The great theatre of Bacchos, partly scooped out of the rock on the face
of the hill at the south-eastern angle of the Acropolis, stretched
forth, on solid piers of masonry, a considerable distance into the
plain, and was capable of containing upwards of thirty thousand people.
The diameter, accordingly, if it did not exceed, could have fallen
little short of five hundred feet.[867] For we are not to suppose that,
while Sparta,[868] and Argos, and Megalopolis, cities comparatively
insignificant, possessed theatres of such dimensions, Athens,
incomparably the largest and most beautiful of Hellenic capitals, would
have been content with one of inferior magnitude.[869]

-----

Footnote 867:

Even a provincial theatre is compared by the rustic in Dion Chrysostom
to a large hollow valley, i. 229; what then could the Abbé Dubos be
thinking of when he wrote, “Il étoit impossible que les altérations du
visage que le masque cache furent aperçûes distinctment des
spectateurs, dont plusieurs étoient éloignes _de plus de douze toises_
du comédien qui récitoit!”—Reflex. Crit. i. 609.

Footnote 868:

Scalig. Poet. i. 21.

Footnote 869:

Colonel Leake, Topog. of Ath. p. 59. Cf. Wordsworth’s Athens and
Attica, p. 29. The conjecture of Hemsterhuis on the passage of
Dicæarchos cannot be adopted. The words must apply to the theatre; for
he says the Parthenon charmed the spectators. But this could not apply
to the Odeion, which was roofed.

-----

To determine accurately the various parts of the theatre, and thus affix
a distinct meaning to every term connected with it, has exercised the
ingenuity of critics and architects for the last three hundred years,
still leaving many difficulties to be overcome. I can scarcely hope in
every case to succeed where they have failed. But the following
explanation may, perhaps, convey of its interior an idea sufficiently
exact for all practical purposes.

Supposing ourselves to be standing at the foot of the Katatomè,[870] a
smooth wall of rock, rising perpendicularly from the back of the theatre
to the superimpending fortifications of the Acropolis, we behold on
either hand, surmounted by porticoes, lofty piers of masonry projecting
like horns down the rocky slope into the plain and united at their
extremities by a wall of equal height, running in a straight line from
one point of the horseshoe to the other. The space thus enclosed is
divided into three principal parts,—the amphitheatre for the spectators,
the orchestra,[871] filling all the space occupied by the modern pit,
for the chorus, and the stage, properly so called, for the actors. Each
of these parts was again subdivided. Looking down still from the
Katatomè, we behold the benches of white marble, sweeping round the
whole semicircle of the theatre, descend like steps to the level of the
orchestra, and intersected at intervals by narrow straight passages
converging towards a point below.[872] A number of the upper seats, cut
off, by an open space extending round the whole semicircle, from the
rest, was set apart for the women. Other divisions were appropriated to
other classes of the population, as the tier of seats immediately
overlooking the orchestra to the senators, or dicasts, another portion
to the youth, another to foreigners and the guests of the state, while
the remainder was occupied by the dense mass of citizens of all
ages,[873] with crowns of flowers on their heads.

-----

Footnote 870:

Poll. iv. 123.

Footnote 871:

Tim. Lex. Platon. in v. ὀρχήστρα. p. 104. Poll. iv. 123.

Footnote 872:

Poll. iv. 123.—The Cunei, for greater convenience, had particular
marks, numbers, or names to distinguish them: the podium of the
diazoma of the theatre at Syracuse has an inscription cut on the
fascia of the cornice to each cuneus.—Antiq. of Ath. &c. Supplem. to
Stuart, &c., by Cockerel, Kinnaird, Donaldson, &c., p. 38.

Footnote 873:

For the children, see Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 128. Athen. xi. 13. Cf.
Aristid. t. i. p. 505. Jebb.

-----

Above the level of the most elevated range of seats, and stretching
round the whole sweep of the edifice,[874] arose a spacious
portico,[875] designed to afford shelter to the spectators during the
continuance of a sudden shower. Another range of porticoes extended
along the small lawn or grove within the limits of the theatre, at the
back of the stage, so that there was little necessity for the Athenian
people to take refuge, as some have imagined, from the weather in the
public buildings, sacred or civil, in the vicinity.

-----

Footnote 874:

Vitruv. v. 9. Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. 139.

Footnote 875:

Among the Romans it was customary to carry along with them, as a
defence against rain, thick cloaks, rockets, or mandilions. Buleng. de
Theat. i. 15.—The theatre of Regilla, built by Herodes Atticus in
honour of his wife, was roofed with cedar.—Philost. Vit. Sophist. ii.
1. 5.—In later ages a velarium appears to have been extended over the
great Dionysiac theatre, as was the custom at Rome.—Wordsworth, Athens
and Attica, p. 90. Cf. Dion. Cass. xliii. p. 226. a. Hanov. 1606.

-----

It would appear from an expression in Pollux,[876] that the lower seats
of the theatre, appropriated to persons of distinction, were covered
with wood,[877] notwithstanding which, it was usual, in the later ages
of the commonwealth, for rich persons to have cushions brought for them
to the theatre by their domestics,[878] together with purple carpets for
their feet. Theophrastus, accordingly, whom few striking traits of
manners escaped, represents his flatterer snatching this theatrical
cushion from the slave, and adjusting and obsequiously smoothing it for
his patron.[879] To render their devotion to Dionysos still less
irksome, it was customary to hand round cakes and wine during the
representation, though, like Homer’s heroes, they were careful to
fortify themselves with a good meal before they ventured abroad. We are
informed, moreover, that when the actors were bad there was a greater
consumption of confectionary, the good people being determined to make
up in one kind of enjoyment what they lost in another. Full cups,
moreover, were habitually drained on the entrance and exit of the
chorus.[880]

-----

Footnote 876:

Onomast. iv. 122.—To kick the seats with the heel was called
πτερνοκοπεῖν, which they did when they wanted to drive away an actor,
id. ibid. Cf. Diog. Laert. ii. 8. 4.

Footnote 877:

On the old wooden theatre see Hesych. v. ἰκρία. Suid. v. ἰκρία, t. i.
p. 1234. d. Sch. Aristoph. Thesm. 395.—This theatre fell down whilst a
play of Pratinas was acting.—Suid. v. Πρατίνας, t. ii. 585. d.

Footnote 878:

Upon this practice Dr. Chandler has an ingenious conjecture. After
attentively viewing the seats of several ancient theatres, and
“considering their height, width, and manner of arrangement, I am
inclined to believe that the ancient Asiatics sate at their plays and
public spectacles, like the modern, with under them, and, it is
probable, upon carpets.”—Travels, &c. i. 269.

Footnote 879:

Charact. c. ii. p. 10. Casaub.

Footnote 880:

Philoch. Frag. Sieb. p. 85. Aristot. Ethic. Nic. 5. Athen. xi. 13.

-----

The orchestra, being considerably below the level of the stage, had in
the middle of it a small square platform, called the Thymele,[881]
sometimes regarded as a bema on which the leader of the chorus mounted
when engaged in dialogue with the actors; sometimes as an altar on
which sacrifice was offered up to Dionysos. That part of the orchestra
which lay between the Thymele and the stage was denominated the
Dromos, while the name of Parodoi was bestowed on those two spacious
side-passages,[882] the one from the east, the other from the west, at
the extremities of the tiers of seats which afforded the chorus ample
room for marching in and out in rank and file, in the quadrangular
form it usually affected.

-----

Footnote 881:

Etym. Mag. 653. 7. Cf. 458. 30. 743. 30. et Suid. v. σκηνὴ t. ii. p.
753, seq. Cf. Thom. Magist. in v. θυμέλη, p. 458, seq. Blancard.
Scalig. Poet. i. 21. Poll. iv. 123.

Footnote 882:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 8. Cf. Vesp. 270.

-----

At the extremity of the orchestra a pier of masonry called the
Hyposcenion, adorned with columns and statues, rose to the level of the
stage, where a most intricate system of machinery and decoration
represented all that was tangible to sense in the creations of the poet.
The stage was divided into two parts; first, the Ocribas or
Logeion,[883] floored with boards, and hollow beneath, for the purpose
of reverberating the voice; second, the Proscenion,[884] a broader
parallelogram of solid stonework, necessary to support the vast
apparatus of machinery and decoration required by the character of the
Grecian drama. The descent from the stage[885] into the orchestra was by
two flights of steps situated at either extremity of the Logeion, at the
point where the Parodoi touched upon the Dromos. Beyond the Proscenion
arose the Scene,[886] properly so called, the aspect of which was
constantly varied, to suit the requirements of each successive piece. In
most cases, however, it represented the front of three different
edifices, of which the central one, communicating with the stage by a
broad and lofty portal, was generally a palace. Sometimes, as in the
Philoctetes, this portal was converted into the mouth of a cavern,[887]
opening upon the view, amid the rocks and solitudes of Lemnos, while in
other plays it formed the entrance to the mansion of some private person
of distinction, but was always appropriated to the principal actor. The
building on the right assumed in comedy the appearance of an inn,
through the door of which the second actor issued upon the stage, while
the portal on the left led into a ruined temple, or uninhabited house.
In tragedy the right hand entrance was appropriated to strangers, while
on the left was that of the female apartments, or of a prison.[888]

-----

Footnote 883:

Plat. Conviv. t. iv. 411. Tim. Lex. v. ὀκρίβας, p. 102. Etym. Mag.
620. 52. Poll. iv. 123.

Footnote 884:

Poll. iv. 123.

Footnote 885:

It is impossible to adopt Genelli’s idea on these flights of steps, by
the injudicious position of which in his plan, he entirely breaks up
and destroys the beauty of the Hyposcenion, especially as the
Scholiast on Aristophanes positively states, that they led from the
Parodoi to the Logeion.—Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 149.

Footnote 886:

On the stage and scenery, see Casalius.—De Trag. et Com. c. i. ap.
Gronov. Thesaur. t. viii. p. 1603.

Footnote 887:

Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Av. i.

Footnote 888:

Vid. Scalig. de Art. Poet. i. 21.

-----

Upon the stage, in front of the doors, stood an altar of Apollo Aguieus,
and a table covered with cakes and confectionary,[889] which appears
sometimes to have been regarded as the representative of that ancient
table, on which, in the simplicity of Prothespian times, the solitary
actor mounted when engaged in dialogue with the chorus.

-----

Footnote 889:

Poll. iv. 123. Vid. Spanh. ad Callim. t. ii. p. 228, seq.

-----

When the stage was fitted up for the performance of comedy, there stood
near the house a painted scene representing a large cattle-shed, with
capacious double gates, for the admission of waggons and sumpter oxen,
with herds and droves of asses, when returning from the field. In the
Akestriæ of Antiphanes,[890] this rustic building was converted into a
workshop. Beyond each of the side-doors on the right and left were two
machines,[891] one on either hand, upon which the extremity of the
periactoi abutted. The scene on the right represented rural landscapes,
that on the left prospects in the environs of the city, particularly
views of the harbour. On these periactoi,[892] were represented the
marine deities riding on the waves, and generally all such objects as
could not be introduced by machinery. By turning the periactoi on the
right, the situation was changed, but when both were turned a wholly new
landscape was placed before the eye. Of the parodoi, or side-passages,
that on the right led from the fields, from the harbour, or from the
city, as the necessities of the play required, while those arriving on
foot from any other part entered by the opposite passage, and,
traversing a portion of the orchestra, ascended the stage by the flights
of steps before mentioned.

-----

Footnote 890:

Scalig. reads Antipho. De Art. Poet. i. 21.

Footnote 891:

Μηχαναὶ for μία. Cf. Annot. Poll. iv. 126.

Footnote 892:

Poll. iv. 126, 130, seq.

-----

The machinery[893] by which the dumb economy of the play was developed
consisted of numerous parts, highly complicated and curious. To avoid
labour, and, perhaps, some tediousness, these might be passed over with
such a remark as the above, but this would be to escape from
difficulties not to diminish them. I shall descend to particulars.

-----

Footnote 893:

Vid. Buleng. De Theat. c. 21.

-----

First, and most remarkable, was that machine called an Eccyclema,[894]
much used by the ancients when scenes within-doors were to be brought to
view. It consisted of a wooden structure, moved on wheels, and
represented the interior of an apartment. In order to pass forth through
the doors, it was formed less deep than broad, and rolled forth
sideways, turning round afterwards, and concealing the front of the
building from which it had issued. The channels in the floor, which were
traversed by the wheels, doubtless concealed beneath the lofty basis,
received the name of Eiscyclema.[895] Sometimes, as in the Agamemnon, it
presented to view “the royal bathing apartment with the silver laver,
the corpse enveloped in the fatal garment, and Clytemnestra, besprinkled
with blood, and holding in her hand the reeking weapon, still standing
with haughty mien over her murdered victim.”[896] On other occasions a
throne, a corpse, the interior of a tent, the summit of a building, were
exhibited; and in the Clouds of Aristophanes the interior of Socrates’
house was laid open to the spectators, containing a number of masks,
gaunt and pale, the natural fruit of philosophy.[897] It should be
remarked that the Eccyclema issued through any of the doors, as the
piece required the cells of a prison, the halls of a palace, or the
chambers of an inn, to be placed before the eyes of the audience.

-----

Footnote 894:

Poll. iv. 127, seq.

Footnote 895:

Poll. iv. 128.

Footnote 896:

Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenid. p. 91.

Footnote 897:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 185.

-----

That peculiar machine in which the gods made their appearance,[898] or
such heroes as enjoyed the privilege of travelling through the
air,—Bellerophon, for example, and Perseus,—stood near the left
side-entrance, and, in height, exceeded the stone skreen at the back of
the stage. This, in tragedy, was denominated Mechanè, and Kradè in
comedy,[899]—in this case resembling a fig-tree, which the Athenians
called Kradè. The watch-tower, the battlements, and the turret, were
constructed for the use of those watchmen, such as the old man in the
Agamemnon, who looked out for signals, or indications of the coming foe.
The Phructorion[900] was a pharos, or beacon-tower. Another portion of
the stage was the Distegia, a building two stories high in palaces, from
the top of which, in the Phœnissœ of Euripides,[901] Antigone beholds
the army. It was roofed with tiles, (and thence called Keramos,) which
they sometimes cast down upon the enemy. In comedy, libertines and old
women, or ladies of equivocal character, were represented prying into
the street for prey from such buildings.

-----

Footnote 898:

Ξενοκλῆς ὁ Καρκίνου δοκεῖ μηχανὰς καὶ τερατείας εἰσάγειν ν τοῖς
δράμασι. Πλάτων Σοφισταῖς· Ξενοκλῆς ὁ δωδεκαμήχανος ὁ Καρκίνου παῖς
τοῦ θαλαττίου· μηχανοδίφας δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοὺς, ἐπειδὴ πολλάκις ὡς
τραγῳδοὶ μηχανὰς προσέφερον, ἡνίκα Θεοὺς ἐμιμοῦντο ἀνερχομένους ἢ
κατερχομένους ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἢ ἄλλοτι τοιοῦτον. Schol. Aristoph. Pac.
769.

Footnote 899:

Poll. iv. 129. Etym. Mag. 465. 56. 534. 39.

Footnote 900:

Aristoph. Av. 1161, et Schol. Cf. Herod. ap. Const. in v. φρυκτώριον.
Poll. iv. 127.

Footnote 901:

Phæn. 688, cum not. et Schol. Bekk. Poll. iv. 127, 129.

-----

The Keraunoskopeion[902] was a lofty triangular column, which appears to
have been hollow, and furnished with narrow fissures, extending in right
lines from top to bottom. Within seem to have been a number of lamps, on
stationary bases, from which, as the periactos whirled round, sheets of
mimic lightning flashed upon the stage from behind the scenes.

-----

Footnote 902:

Poll. iv. 127, 130.

-----

The construction of the Bronteion,[903] or thunder magazine, I imagine
to have been nearly as follows:—a number of brazen plates, arranged one
below another, like stairs, descended through a steep, vaulted passage
behind the scene, into the bottom of a tower, terminating in a vast
brazen caldron. From the edge of this, a series of metallic
apertures,[904] probably spiral, pierced the tower wall, and opened
without in funnels, like the mouths of trumpets.

-----

Footnote 903:

Idem, Ibid.

Footnote 904:

These were called ἠχεῖα. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 292.

-----

When some deity was required to descend to earth in the midst of
lightning and sudden thunder, the Keraunoskopeion was instantaneously
put in motion, and showers of pebbles from the sea-shore were hurled
down the mouth of the Bronteion, and, rolling over the brazen
receptacles, produced a terrific crash, which, with innumerable
reverberations, was poured forth by the Echeia upon the theatre.[905]

-----

Footnote 905:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 292, 294.

-----

In a lofty gallery called the Theologeion, extending over the marble
skreen at the back of the stage, appeared the gods, when the drama
required their presence; and hence, I imagine, the Hebrew colony which
makes its appearance nightly near the roof of our own theatres have
obtained the name of gods. Here Zeus, and the other deities of Olympos,
were assembled in that very extraordinary drama of Æschylus, the
Psychostasia, or weighing in the balance the souls of Achilles and
Hector.

They employed in the theatre the machine called a Crane,[906] the point
of which being lowered, snatched up whatever it was designed to bear
aloft into the air. By means of this contrivance, Eos, goddess of the
dawn, descended and bore away the body of Memnon, slain by Achilles
before Troy. At other times strong cords, so disposed as to resemble
swings, were let down from the roof, to support the gods or heroes who
seemed to be borne through the air.

-----

Footnote 906:

Poll. iv. 130.

-----

Though by turning the Periactoi three changes of scene could be
produced, many more were sometimes required, and, when this was the
case, new landscapes were dropped, like hangings, or slided in frames in
front of those painted columns. These usually represented views of the
sea, or mountain scenery, or the course of some river winding along
through solitary vales, or other prospects of similar character,
according to the spirit of the drama.

The position of the Hemicycle is more difficult to comprehend. It
appears to have been a retreating semicircular scene, placed facing the
orchestra, and masking the marble buildings at the back of the stage,
when a view was to be opened up into some distant part of the city, or
shipwrecked mariners were to be exhibited buffeting with the waves. Not
very dissimilar was the Stropheion,[907] which brought to view heroes
translated to Olympos, or on the ocean, or in battle slain, where change
of position with respect to the spectator was produced by the rotatory
motion of the machine.

-----

Footnote 907:

Poll. iv. 131.

-----

The position of the Charonian staircase,[908] by which spectres and
apparitions ascended from the nether world, is exceedingly difficult to
be determined; but that it was somewhere on the stage appears to me
certain, notwithstanding the seeming testimony of Pollux to the
contrary. The hypothesis which makes the ghosts issue from a door
immediately beneath the seats of the spectators, and rush along the
whole depth of the orchestra, among the chorus and musicians, is, at any
rate, absurd. It must have been somewhere towards the back of the stage,
near the altar of Loxios, the table of shew-bread and those sacred and
antique images which in certain dramas were there exhibited. Here,
likewise, was the trap-door, through which river-gods issued from the
earth, while the other trap-door, appropriated to the Furies, seems to
have been situated in the boards of the Logeion, near one of the flights
of steps leading down into the orchestra.

-----

Footnote 908:

Id. iv. 132.

-----

The above synopsis of the machinery and decorations employed by the
Greeks in their theatrical shows may, possibly, from its imperfection,
suggest the idea of a rude and clumsy apparatus. But, as the arts of
poetry, sculpture, painting, and architecture reached in Greece the
highest perfection, and, as this perfection was coëtaneous with the
flourishing state of the drama, it is impossible to escape the
conviction, that the art of scene-painting and the manufacturing of
stage machinery, likewise, underwent all the improvements of which by
their nature they are susceptible. For, in the first place, it is not
easy to suppose, that a people, so fastidious as were the Athenians,
would have tolerated in the theatre displays of ignorance and want of
skill which everywhere else they are known to have overwhelmed with
contempt and derision; more especially as, in the first place, the
landscapes and objects represented were usually those with which they
were most familiar, though the fancy of the poet sometimes ventured to
transport them to the most elevated and inaccessible recesses of Mount
Caucasus, to the summit of the celestial Olympos, to the palaces and
harems of Persia, to the wilds of the Tauric Chersonese,[909] or even to
the dim and dreary regions of the dead. The names, nevertheless, of few
scene-painters, besides Agatharchos,[910] have come down to us, though
it is known, that, in their own day, they sometimes divided with the
poet the admiration of the audience, and, on other occasions, enabled
poets of inferior merit to bear away the prize from their betters.

-----

Footnote 909:

Cf. Æsch. Prom. 2.

Footnote 910:

Vitruv. Præfat. lib. vii. Plut. Alcib. § 16.

-----

The character, however, of stage-scenery differed very widely in
tragedy, comedy, and satyric pieces,[911] usually consisting, in the
first, of façades of palaces, with colonnades, architraves, cornices,
niches, statues, &c.; in comedy, of the fronts or courts of ordinary
houses, with windows, balconies, porticoes, &c.; while, in the satyric
drama, the fancy of the painter and decorator was allowed to develope
before the audience scenes of rural beauty remote from cities, as the
hollows of mountains shaded with forests, winding valleys, plains,
rivers, caverns, and sacred groves.

-----

Footnote 911:

Vitruv. v. 8. Etym. Mag. 763. 27.

-----

Of the Grecian actors,[912] whose business and profession next require
to be noticed, too little by far is known, considering the curious
interest of the subject. Their art, however, would appear to have sprung
from that of the rhapsodists, who chanted in temples, during religious
festivals, and afterwards in the theatres, the heroic lays of Greece. To
a certain extent, indeed, the rhapsodist was himself an actor. His art
required him to enter deeply into the spirit of the poetry he recited,
to suit to the passion brought into play the modulations and inflexions
of his voice, his tone, his looks, his gesture, so as vividly to paint
to the imagination the picture designed by the poet, and sway the whole
theatre by the powerful wand of sympathy through all the gradations of
sorrow, indignation, and joy.[913] By some writers, accordingly, the
rhapsodist is apparently confounded with the actor, that is, he is
considered an actor of epics,[914] though in reality his imitations of
character were partial and imperfect.

-----

Footnote 912:

Vid. Casal. c. 2.

Footnote 913:

Plat. Ion. t. ii. p. 183, seq. Wolf. Proleg. p. 95. Cf. S. F. Dresig.
Comment. Lips. 1734. Gillies, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. c. 6.

Footnote 914:

Diod. Sic. xiv. 109. xv. 7.

-----

Actors formed at Athens part of a guild, or company, called the
Dionysiac artificers,[915] among whom were also comprehended
rhapsodists, citharœdi, citharistæ, musicians, jugglers, and other
individuals[916] connected with the theatre. These persons, though for
the most part held in little estimation, were yet somewhat more
respectable than at Rome, where to appear on the stage was
infamous.[917] Like the rhapsodists, they generally led a wandering
life, sometimes appearing at Athens,[918] sometimes at Corinth, or
Sicyon, or Epidauros, or Thebes, after the fashion approved among the
strollers of our own day. In the course of these wanderings they now and
then fell in with rare adventures, as in the case of that company of
comedians which, on returning from Messenia towards the Isthmus, was met
by king Cleomenes and the Spartan army near Megalopolis.[919] To exhibit
the superiority of his power and his contempt for the enemy, Cleomenes
threw up, probably with turf and boards, a temporary theatre, where he
and his army sat all day enjoying the jokes and wild merriment of the
stage, after which, he bestowed, as a prize, upon the principal
performers, the sum of forty minæ, or about one hundred and sixty pounds
sterling.

-----

Footnote 915:

Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 16. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. v. 7. Vandale, Dissert.
380, seq.

Footnote 916:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 121. Athen. v. 49. Animadv. t. viii. p.
196.

Footnote 917:

Vandale. Dissert, v. p. 383.

Footnote 918:

Plat. de Rep. viii. t. ii. p. 229, seq. Athen. xiii. 44. In Roman
times we find an actor travelling from the capital to Seville in
Spain, where with his lofty cothurni, strange dress, and gaping mask,
he frightened the natives out of the theatre.—Philost. Vit. Apoll.
Tyan. v. 9. Cf. Luc. de Saltat. § 27. A taste for the amusements of
the Grecian stage was diffused far and wide through the ancient world,
so that we find the princes of Persia and Armenia not only enjoying
the representation of Greek tragedies, but themselves, likewise, in
some instances, aspiring to rival the dramatic poets of Hellas. Thus
Artavasdes, the Armenian prince, is said to have written tragedies, as
well as histories and orations, some of which still existed in the age
of Plutarch. The Parthian court was engaged in beholding the Bacchæ of
Euripides, in which Jason of Tralles was the principal performer, when
Sillaces brought in the head of Marcus Crassus, upon which both king
and nobles delivered themselves up to immoderate joy, and the actor,
seizing upon the Roman’s head, exchanged the part of Pentheus for that
of his mother, who appears upon the stage bearing a bleeding head upon
her thyrsus; for this he received a present of a talent from the
king.—Plut. Crass. § 33. Polyæan. vii. 41. 1.

Footnote 919:

Plut. Cleom. § 12.

-----

About this period, however, it was usual for the armies of Greece,
republican as well as royal, to be followed by companies of strollers,
jugglers, dancing girls, and musicians.[920] Even in the army of
Alexander, when proceeding on the Persian expedition, the “flatterers of
Dionysos”[921] were not forgotten; in fact, the son of Philip set a high
value upon the performances of these gentlemen, and with truly royal
munificence allowed them to enjoy their full share of the plunder of the
East. Thus, when Nicocreon, king of Salamis, and Pasicrates, king of
Soli,[922] played the part of Choregi in Cyprus, in getting up certain
tragedies there performed for the amusement of Alexander, and the
actors, Thessalos, and Athenodoros the Athenian, contended for the
prize; he was piqued at the victory of the Athenian, and, though he
commended the judges for bestowing the prize on him whom they regarded
as the best performer, said, he would have given a part of his kingdom
rather than have beheld Thessalos overcome by a rival.

-----

Footnote 920:

Plut. ubi supra.

Footnote 921:

Διονυσοκόλακες. Athen. vi. 56.

Footnote 922:

Plut. Alex. § 29.

-----

Afterwards, when Athenodoros was fined by his countrymen for absenting
himself from Athens during the Dionysiac festival, evidently contrary to
the statutes in that case made and provided, Alexander paid the fine for
his humble friend, though he refused to make application to the people
for its remission.

An anecdote related of Lycon of Scarphe, also shows the high value set
by the Macedonian prince upon the amusements of the stage, and the
influence exercised over his mind by the Dionysiac artificers, though,
according to Antiphanes, he wanted the taste to discriminate between a
good play and a bad one. The Scarpheote being one day in want of money,
as actors sometimes are, introduced into the piece he was performing a
line of his own making, beseeching the conqueror to bestow on him ten
talents; Alexander, amused by his extravagance, or captivated perhaps,
by the flattery which accompanied it, at once granted his request, and
thus upwards of two thousand four hundred pounds of the public money
were expended for the momentary gratification of a prince.[923]

-----

Footnote 923:

Plut. Alex. § 29.

-----

The philosophers, almost of necessity, thought and spoke of these
wandering performers with extreme contempt. Plato observes, that they
went about from city to city collecting together thoughtless crowds,
and, by their beautiful, sonorous, and persuasive voices, converting
republics into tyrannies and aristocracies. Aristotle endeavoured to
account for their evil character and agency.[924] They were worthless,
he says, because of all men they profited least by the lessons of reason
and philosophy, their whole lives being consumed by the study of their
professional arts, or passed in intemperance and difficulties.

-----

Footnote 924:

Prob. xxx. 10. They were likewise corrupted by their profession,
since, in female parts, they frequently indulged in immodest gestures,
as is particularly related of Callipedes. Id. Poet. v. 2. Cf. Macrob.
Saturnal. l. ii. c. 10.

-----

Nevertheless, even among them there were different grades, some aiming
at the higher walks of tragedy and comedy; while others were content to
declaim rude, low songs, seated on waggons like mountebanks during the
Lenæan festival.[925] Nor must this fashion be at all regarded as
Prothespian, since it prevailed down to a very late period. And as in
every thing the Greeks aimed at excellence and distinction, so even here
we find that there was a contest between the poets who wrote the comic
songs sung by these humble performers from their waggons.[926]

-----

Footnote 925:

Occasionally, as among ourselves, jugglers were introduced upon the
stage, swallowing swords and performing other fantastic tricks.—Plut.
Lycurg. § 19.

Footnote 926:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 545.

-----

The various classes of actors known to the ancients were numerous. Among
the lower grades were the Magodos, and the Lysiodos,[927] who though
confounded by some, appear clearly to have been distinct; the former
personating both male and female characters; the latter female
characters only, though disguised in male costume. But the songs, and
every other characteristic of their performances, were the same. The
spirit of the coarse satirical farces they acted forbids my explaining
their nature fully.

-----

Footnote 927:

Athen. iv. 80. v. 47. vi. 61. Cf. Eustath. ad Odyss. ψ. p. 106, sub
fin.

-----

There were even several authors who attained a “bad eminence” in this
department of literature, which especially affected the Ionic dialect,
as Alexander, the Ætolian,[928] Pyretos of Miletos, a city noted for its
dissolute characters, and Alexos, who obtained on this account an
opprobrious sobriquet. The most remarkable, however, of this vicious
brood would appear to have been Sotades[929] the Maronite, and his son
Apollonios who wrote a work on his father’s poems. Sotades was probably
the original imitated by Pietro Aretino, who obtained in modern times a
like reputation, though timely penitence may have snatched him from a
similar end. The ancient libeller, enacting the part of Thersites,
fastened with peculiar delight on the vices of princes, not from
aversion to their manners, but because such scandal paved the way to
notoriety. Thus at Alexandria, he covered Lysimachos with obloquy,
which, when at the court of Lysimachos, he heaped upon Ptolemy
Philadelphos. His punishment, however, exceeded the measure of his
offences. Being overtaken in the island of Caunos by Patrocles, one of
Ptolemy’s generals, the obsequious mercenary caused him to be enclosed
in a leaden box and cast into the sea.[930]

-----

Footnote 928:

Suid. v. φλύακες, t. ii. p. 1073. b.

Footnote 929:

Cf. Fabric. Bib. Græc. ii. p. 495, seq.

Footnote 930:

Athen. xiv. 13.

-----

The Magodos, then, was a wandering farce actor, not unlike the tumbling
mountebanks one sometimes sees in France and southern Europe. He
travelled about with an apparatus of drums, cymbals, and female
disguises, sometimes impersonating women, sometimes adulterers or the
mean servants of vice; and the style of his dancing and performances
corresponded with the low walk he selected, being wholly destitute of
beauty or decorum. It seems necessary, therefore, to adopt the opinion
of Aristoxenos, who considered the art of the Hilarodos as a serious
imitation of tragedy; that of the Magodos as a comic parody, brought
down to the level of the grossly vulgar. The latter art would appear to
have derived its name from the charms, spells, or magical songs chanted
by the mountebanks who likewise pretended to develope the secrets of
pharmaceutics.

Superior in every way to the Magodos and Lysiodos was the
Hilarodos,[931] who, though a wandering singer like the Italians and
Savoyards of modern Europe, affected no little state, and was evidently
treated with some respect. His costume, in conformity with the popular
taste, displayed considerable magnificence, consisting of a golden
crown, white stole and costly sandals, though in earlier ages he
appeared in shoes. He was usually accompanied by a youth or maiden who
touched the lyre as he sung. The style of his performances was decorous
and manly. When a crown was given him in token of approbation by the
audience, it was bestowed on the Hilarodos himself, not on the musician.

-----

Footnote 931:

Cf. Athen. iv. 57. Salm. Exercit. Plin. p. 76. Voss. Institut. Poet.
ii. 21. Rhinthon was the inventor of the Hilaro-tragœdi. i. e.
Tragi-comedy. Suid. v. Ῥίνθων, t. ii. p. 685. b.

-----

A class of actors existed, also from very remote times, among the
Spartans. They were called Deikelistæ,[932] and their style of
performing showed the little value set upon the drama at Sparta. The
poetry of the piece, if poetry it could be called, was extempore and of
the rudest description, and the characters were altogether conformable.
Sometimes the interest of the play turned upon a man robbing an orchard,
or on the broken Greek of an outlandish physician, whom people respected
for his gibberish. This weakness, prevalent of course at Athens also, is
wittily satirised by Alexis in his Female Opium Eater.

“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_.”[933]

-----

Footnote 932:

Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 746. Plut. Ages. 21. Athen. xiv. 15. Etym. Mag.
260. 42.

Footnote 933:

I have substituted this joke, à la Smollett, “for the miserable joke
in the original.” Beet, Atticé σευτλίον, became τεύτλιον in the Doric
brogue. Athen. xiv. 15.

-----

The Deikelistæ, however, were not confined to Laconia, but, under
various names were known in most other parts of Greece. Thus, at Sicyon,
they obtained the appellation of Phallophori, elsewhere they were called
Autocabdali, or Improvisator; while in Italy, (that is, among the Greek
colonists,[934]) they were known by the name of Phlyakes.[935] By the
common people they were called the wise men (σοφίσται), upon the same
principle that actors in France are known by the name of _artistes_. The
Thebans, renowned for the havoc they made in the language of Greece,
denominated them the Voluntaries, alluding proleptically perhaps to the
“voluntary principle.” Semos, the Delian, draws an amusing picture of
these Improvisatori. Those performers, he says, who are called
Autocabdali made their appearance on the stage, crowned with ivy, and
poured forth their verse extempore. The name of Iambi was afterwards
bestowed, both on them and their poems. Another class who were called
Ithyphalli,[936] wore those masks, which on the stage were appropriated
to drunkards, with crowns of ivy and flowered gloves upon their hands.
Their chitons were striped with white, and over these, bound by a girdle
at the loins, they wore a Tarentine pelisse descending to the ankle.
They entered upon the stage by the great door appropriated to royal
personages, and, advancing in silence across the stage, turned towards
the audience and exclaimed,—

“Make way there, a wide space
Yield to the god;
For Dionysos has a mind to walk
Bolt upright through your midst.”

-----

Footnote 934:

Among the mimics of this part of Italy, the most celebrated was Cleon,
surnamed the Mimaulos, who dispensed with the use of a mask.—Athen. x.
78.

Footnote 935:

Athen. xiv. 15. Cf. Suid. in φλύακες, t. ii. p. 1073. b.

Footnote 936:

Vid. Harpocrat. in v. ἰθύφαλλοι. Mauss. p. 152.

-----

The Phallophori made their appearance unmasked, shading their face with
a drooping garland of wild thyme, intermingled with acanthus-leaves, and
surmounted by an ample crown of ivy, with violets appearing between its
glossy dark foliage. Their costume was the caunacè. Of these actors,
some entered through the side-passages, others through the central door,
advancing with measured tread, and saying,—

“Bacchos, 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!”

After which, skipping forward, they made a halt and showered their
sarcasms indiscriminately on whomsoever they pleased, while the leader
of the troop moved slowly about, his face bedaubed with soot.[937]

-----

Footnote 937:

Athen. xiv. 16.

-----

The superior classes of performers, whether actors or musicians, seem to
have been held in much estimation, and to have been still more
extravagantly paid than in our own day. Thus Amœbæos, the Citharœdos,
who lived near the Odeion at Athens, received, but at what period of the
republic is not known, an Attic talent a day, as often as he played in
public.[938] Music, however, was always in high estimation in Greece,
where the greatest men, though they did not seek to rival regular
professors in skill, yet learned to amuse their leisure with it. Thus
the Homeric Achilles plays on the lyre, the sounds of which could not
only cure diseases of the mind but of the body. A similar belief existed
among the Israelites, as we learn from the example of Saul.

-----

Footnote 938:

Athen. xiv. 17.

-----

Though talent must have been always respected in an actor, it appears to
me that anciently they made comparatively little figure, while there
were great poets to excite admiration. But, afterwards, when dramatic
literature had sunk very low, the actor usurped the consideration due to
the poet, as has long been the case in this country. They then contended
for the prize in the tragic contests,[939] and began to entertain a high
opinion of their own merits. In fact, the ignorant being better
calculated to feel than to judge, the actors often obtained the first
prizes in the games, and were held in higher estimation than the poets
themselves.[940]

-----

Footnote 939:

Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. iii. 4.

Footnote 940:

Aristot. Rhet. iii. 1.

-----

Thus persuaded of their own importance, they gradually exercised over
the poor devils who composed plays for them, much the same tyranny as
that in our own age complained of by the poetical servants of the
theatre. That is, they despotically interfered with the framing of the
plot, with the succession of the scenes, and procured episodes to be
introduced, in order that they might show off their peculiar abilities.
This is evident from a passage in Aristotle’s Politics,[941] where he
observes that the celebrated actor Theodoros would allow no inferior
performer to appear before him on the stage, knowing the force of first
impressions; from which it is evident that the author was compelled to
yield to his caprice.

-----

Footnote 941:

Polit. vii. 17.

-----

Antiquity has preserved the names of many celebrated actors, of whom
several played a conspicuous though sometimes a dishonourable part in
the great theatre of the world. Thus Aristodemos, who performed the
first character alternately with Theodoros, became afterwards a traitor
and betrayed the state to Philip. Such too was the case with Philocrates
and Æschines, both actors,[942] and both rogues. Satyros, a comedian of
the same period, appears to have been a man of high character and
honour, who in consequence obtained the friendship of Demosthenes. But
the Garrick of that age seems to have been Theocrines,[943] who by many,
however, is supposed to have afterwards degenerated into a sycophant.
Callipedes is chiefly known to us from the anecdote which describes the
check his vanity received from Agesilaos. Having acquired great
reputation as a tragic actor, he appears to have considered himself as
equal at least to any king, and therefore, meeting one day with
Agesilaos, he ostentatiously put himself forward, mingled with the
courtiers and took much pains to attract his notice. Finding all these
efforts useless, his pride was wounded, and going up directly to the
Spartan, he said,

“Dost thou not know me, king?”

“Why,” replied Agesilaos, “art thou not Callipedes, the
stage-buffoon?”[944]

-----

Footnote 942:

Dem. de Fal. Leg. § 58.

Footnote 943:

Dem. de Coron. § 97.

Footnote 944:

Δεικηλίκτας. Plut. Ages. § 21. Apothegm. Lac. Ages. 57.

-----

The account transmitted to us of Æsopos is somewhat puzzling; he is
described as one of the actors[945] who performed in the tragedies of
Æschylus, but is said to have been at the same time a fellow of infinite
merriment who turned everything into a jest, a sort I suppose of comic
Macbeth. Œagros obtained celebrity in the part of Niobe,[946] in the
tragedy of Æschylus or Sophocles; and Aristophanes enumerates among the
pleasures of Dicasts the power, should such an actor appear before them
in a court of justice, of requiring him by way of pleading his own
cause, to give them a few choice speeches of his favourite tragic queen.

-----

Footnote 945:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 566. Flor. Christ. ad loc. In Plato’s time there
were few or no actors who excelled at the same time in tragedy and
comedy. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 123.

Footnote 946:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 579.

-----

Among the most celebrated actors of antiquity was Polos, a native of
Ægina, who studied the art of stage-declamation under Archias, known in
his own age by the infamous surname of Phugadotheras, or the “Exile
Hunter.”[947] This miscreant it was, who, under the orders of Antipater,
pursued Demosthenes to the temple of Poseidon in Calauria, where, to
escape the cruelty of the Macedonians, the orator put a period to his
own life.

-----

Footnote 947:

Plut. Dem. § 28. Vit. x. Orat. 8. Another actor obtained the name of
the Partridge. Athen. iii. 82.

-----

Polos appears to have risen speedily to that eminence which he
maintained to the last. A striking anecdote is related of the means by
which he worked upon his own feelings, in order the more vehemently to
stir those of his audience. On one occasion,[948] having to perform the
part of Electra, he took along with him to the theatre an urn containing
the ashes of a beloved son, whom he had recently lost, and thus, instead
of shedding, under the mask of the heroic princess, feigned tears over
the supposed remains of Orestes, he sprinkled the urn which he bore upon
the stage with the dews of genuine and deep sorrow. He eclipsed in
reputation all the actors of his time, and was in tragedy what
Theocrines, in the preceding age, had been in comedy. His salary,
accordingly, was very great, amounting at one time to half a talent per
day, out of which, to be sure, he was required to pay the third actor.

-----

Footnote 948:

Aulus Gellius, vii. 5.

-----

He must have led, moreover, a life of much temperance, otherwise he
would scarcely have been able to accomplish what is related of him by
Philochoros, who says, that, at seventy years of age, a little before
his death, he performed the principal parts of eight tragedies in four
days. His devotion to his art did not, however, carry him so far as that
of the comic poets, Philemon and Alexis, who breathed their last upon
the stage at the moment that the crown of victory was placed upon their
heads, and so were literally dismissed for the last time from the scene
amidst the shouts and acclamations of the admiring multitude.[949] But
the passion of the Greeks for the arts of imitation did not confine
itself to the enacting of human character and human feelings. Every
species of mimicry found its patrons among them. There were, for
example, persons who, by whistling, could imitate the notes of the
nightingale; and Agesilaos, being once invited to witness the
performances of one of these artists, replied somewhat contemptuously,
“I have heard the nightingale herself.”[950] Others, as Parmenion, could
counterfeit to perfection the grunt of a pig,[951] though it is
probable, that actors of smaller dimensions were called upon to perform
in the comedy of Aristophanes, where the Megarean[952] brings on the
stage his daughters in a sack, and disposes of them as porkers, having
first carefully instructed them in the proper style of squeaking. Other
actors obtained celebrity[953] through their power of imitating by their
voice the grating or rumbling of wheels, the creaking of axletrees, the
whistling of winds, the blasts of trumpets, the modulations of flutes,
or pipes, or the sounds of other instruments. It was customary, too,
among this class of performers, to mimic, doubtless, in pastoral scenes,
the bleating of sheep, and the bark of the shepherd’s dog, the neighing
of horses, and the deep bellowing of bulls. They could imitate,
moreover, but by what means is uncertain, the pattering of hail-storms,
the dash and breaking of water in rivers or seas, with other natural
phenomena. It was customary, likewise, as in modern times, to introduce
boats and galleys rowed along the mimic waters of the stage, an example
of which occurs on an Etruscan Chalcidone, where we behold a little
vessel of extraordinary form, with a mariner at bow and stern, paddled
along a bank adorned with flowers, while on a platform, occupying the
boat’s waist, two naked dancers are exhibiting their saltatorial
powers.[954]

-----

Footnote 949:

Plut. An. Seni. § 3.

Footnote 950:

Plut. Ages. § 21.

Footnote 951:

Etym. Mag. 607. 25.

Footnote 952:

Acharn. 834.

Footnote 953:

Plut. de Aud. Poet. § 3. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. pp. 125–127. This
philosopher, it is clear, entertained a less elevated idea of art than
some modern writers, who define it as follows: “Art is a
representation (μίμησις), i. e. an energy by means of which a subject
becomes an object,”—(Müller, cited by Mr. Donaldson, Theatre of the
Greeks, p. 4,)—in other words, by which a nominative becomes an
accusative.

Footnote 954:

Mus. Cortonens. tab. 60.

-----

Very singular figures were also introduced upon the stage, as wasps,
frogs, and birds, of sufficiently large dimensions to be enacted by men;
and still stranger personages occasionally made their appearance, as
where, in a kind of practical parody of the story of Andromeda,[955] a
whale emerges on the sea beach to snap off an old woman. In another
drama the transformation of Argos was represented, after which this
luckless male duenna strutted like a peacock before the audience. Io,
moreover, was changed into a cow, and Euippe, in Euripides, into a mare.
What there was peculiar in the appearance of Amymone it is not easy to
conjecture; but she was, possibly, represented in the act of withdrawing
the trident of Poseidon from the rock, from which gushed forth three
fountains. The rivers, and mountains, and cities introduced[956] were,
doubtless, personifications, such as we still find in many works of art.
The giants were simply, in all probability, huge figures of men, made to
stalk about the stage, like elephants, with an actor in each leg; and
the Indians, Tritons, Gorgons, Centaurs, with other personages of
terrible or fantastic aspect, owed their existence, perhaps, to masks,
if we may so speak, representing the whole figures.

-----

Footnote 955:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 548.

Footnote 956:

See the figure of Alexandria in the Gemme Antiche Figurate of
Agostini.

-----

In what form the Seasons, the Pleiades,[957] or the nymphs of Mithakos,
made their appearance on the stage, we are, I believe, nowhere told,
though we possess some information respecting the costume and figure of
those other strange persons of the drama, the Clouds,[958] which came
floating in through the Parodoi, enveloped, some in masses of white
fleecy gauze, like vapour, others in azure, or many-tinted robes, or in
drapery like piled-up flocks of wool, to represent the various aspects
of the skies; while a hazy atmosphere was probably diffused around them,
as around the other gods, by the smoke of styrax or frankincense, burnt
in profusion on the altars of the theatre. Here and there, through these
piles of drapery, a mask with ruddy pendant nose, like the tail of a
lobster, peered forth, and a human voice was heard chanting in richest
cadence and modulation the lively anapæsts of the chorus.

-----

Footnote 957:

Poll. iv. 142.

Footnote 958:

Vid. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 289. 343. 442.

-----

In the tragedy of Alcestis, the grim, spectral figure of Death was
beheld gliding to and fro through the darkness, in front of the palace
of Admetos, while personifications still, if possible, more strange and
wild, made their appearance in other dramas,—as Justice, Madness,
Frenzy, Strength, Violence, Deceit, Drunkenness, Laziness, Envy.[959]

-----

Footnote 959:

Poll. iv. 141, seq.

-----

Plato, who entertained peculiar notions[960] respecting the dignity of
human nature, banished the theatre from his Republic, because he thought
it unbecoming a brave man, who had political rights to watch over and
defend, to demean himself by low stage impersonations; and, from his
account of what he would not have his citizens do, we learn what by
others was done. Sometimes, he observes, the actor was required to
imitate a woman, (though this task often devolved upon eunuchs,) whether
young or old, reviling her husband, railing at and expressing contempt
for the gods, either puffed up by the supposed stableness of her
felicity, or stung to desperation by the severity of her misfortunes and
sorrows. Other female characters were to be represented, toiling, or in
love, or in the pangs of labour; which shows that there was scarcely an
act or passage in human life not occasionally imitated on the stage.

-----

Footnote 960:

De Rep. t. vi. p. 125.

-----

Slaves of course performed an important part in the mimic world of the
theatre; and with these, Plato, by some unaccountable association of
ideas, classes smiths, and madmen, and vagabonds, and low artificers of
every kind, and the rowers of galleys, and rogues, and cowards, below
which his imagination could discover nothing in human nature.

But it was these very characters, with their low wit, buffoonery, and
appropriate actions, that constituted the most effective materials of
the comic poet, whose creed was, that

Les fous sont ici-bas pour nos menus plaisirs.

They accordingly hesitated at no degree of grotesque buffoonery and
extravagance, introducing not only low sausage-sellers with their trays
of black-puddings and chitterlings suspended on their paunches,[961] and
drunkards lisping, hiccuping, and reeling about the stage,[962] but even
libertines and profligates carrying on their intrigues in the view of
the spectators. An example of this kind of scene occurs on an Etruscan
bronze seal dug up near Cortona, which represents an adulterer in
conference with his mistress, together with the Leno who brought them
together.[963]

-----

Footnote 961:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 150.

Footnote 962:

Athen. x. 33.

Footnote 963:

Mus. Cortonens. tabb. 18, 19. Cf. p. 26, seq. 1750. Rom.

-----

CHAPTER VIII.
THEATRE (_continued_).

Into the various questions which have been raised respecting the origin
and constitution of the chorus it is not my intention to enter. It
undoubtedly appears, however, to have arisen amid the festivities of the
vintage, when, after the grapes were brought home and pressed and the
principal labours of the season concluded,[964] the rustics delivered
themselves up to wild joy and merriment, chanting hymns and performing
dances in honour of Dionysos, the protecting god of the vine. At first
the number of the persons engaged in these dances could not have been
fixed, since it is probable that all the vintagers, both male and
female, joined in the sports, as they had previously joined in the
labour. And this free and unformal character the Dithyrambic or
Dionysiac chorus must have preserved, as long as it remained a mere
village pastime. But when afterwards, advancing from one step to
another, it assumed something of an artificial form and several
chorusses arose which contended with each other for a prize, the
performers must have undergone some kind of training,[965] both in
singing and dancing, and then the number of the individuals constituting
the chorus was possibly fixed. There appears to be some reason for
thinking, that these exhibitions were more ancient than the congregation
of the Athenians in one city, and that originally every tribe had its
own chorus,[966] since we find that afterwards, when all the inhabitants
of Attica came to regard themselves as one people, the Choreutæ were
chosen from every tribe five.

-----

Footnote 964:

Cf. Ficorini, Degli Masch. Scen. p. 15.

Footnote 965:

On the importance afterwards attached to the training of the chorus,
see the substance of an inscription in Chandler, ii. 72.

Footnote 966:

Sch. Aristoph. Av. 1404. Schneid. de Orig. Trag. Græc. c. i. p. 2. The
Dithyrambic ode was said to have been invented by Arion at Corinth.
Schol. Pind. Olymp. xiii. 25, seq. The first choral songs were
improvisations. Max. Tyr. Dissert. xxi. p. 249.

-----

By what gradations, however, the village chorus was transformed into the
Dithyrambic, the Dithyrambic into the Satyric, and the Satyric again
into the Tragic, it now appears impossible to ascertain; but it seems to
be quite clear,[967] that in many ancient tragedies the number of the
chorus was fifty,[968] as, for example, in the “Judgment of the Arms,”
by Æschylus, in which silver-footed Thetis appeared upon the stage
accompanied by a train of fifty Nereids.[969] Again, according to
certain ancient authors,[970] in the Eumenides of Æschylus, the chorus
of Furies at first amounted to fifty, which, rushing tumultuously, with
frightful gestures and horrid masks,[971] into the orchestra, struck so
great a terror into the people, particularly the women[972] and
children, that their number was afterwards reduced by law. I am aware
that several distinguished scholars think very differently on this
subject; some maintaining, that the chorus of Furies always consisted of
fifteen, while others reduce their number to three. But, though both
these opinions have been supported with much learning and ingenuity, it
seems difficult to admit either the one or the other. In the first
place, since every thing connected with the stage was in a state of
perpetual fluctuation, since the masks and costume were repeatedly
altered, since the number of the actors was augmented, since almost
every arrangement of the theatre, and every characteristic of the
poetry, underwent numerous modifications; the chorus, also, it is
probable, submitted to the same alterations or reforms till it settled
in that tetragonal figure[973] and determinate number which it
afterwards preserved, as long as the legitimate drama existed in Greece.

-----

Footnote 967:

Poll. iv. 108. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 210.

Footnote 968:

Cf. Schol. ad Æschin. Tim. Orator. Att. t. xii. p. 376. Tzetz. ad
Lycoph. p. 251, sqq. See also Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenides of
Æschylus, p. 54. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 587.—“Nous savons que sur les
Théâtres Grecs les femmes dansaient dans les chœurs.”—Winkel. Mon.
Ined. iii. p. 86. I have found no proof in any ancient author that
this was the practice among the Greeks.

Footnote 969:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 848.

Footnote 970:

Vit. Æschyl. p. vi.

Footnote 971:

Bœttiger, Furies, p. 2. Poll. iv. 110. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 298. Eq.
586.

Footnote 972:

According to Mr. Bœttiger, however, “chez les anciens Atheniens les
femmes n’ont jamais assisté aux représentations théatrales.”—Furies,
p. 3, note. But, in addition to the proofs of the contrary,
accumulated in the preceding book, the reader may consult the
testimony of Aristides, who severely blames his countrymen for
allowing their wives and children to frequent the theatres, t. i. p.
518, cf. p. 507.—Jebb. He speaks, indeed, more particularly of the
Smyrniotes; but Smyrna was an Ionian colony.—Herod. i. 149.

Footnote 973:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 209.

-----

In one point of view the history of the chorus is extremely remarkable.
At first, and for some time, it constituted in itself the whole of the
spectacle exhibited at the Dionysiac festivals, where its songs and
dances, accompanied by such rude music as the times afforded, satisfied
the demands of the popular taste, and were consequently supposed to be
everything that the god required. By degrees, as experience suggested
improvements either in the music, in the manner of dancing, or in the
materials and composition of the odes, the movements, singing, and
appearance of the Chorus, assumed a more artificial form, which was
necessarily carried forward many steps in the career of amelioration by
the institution of rival bodies of Choreutæ, who, from the natural
principle of emulation, endeavoured to excel each other. Next, a
detached member of its own body, mounted on a table, enacted the part of
a stranger or messenger come to announce something which it imported the
servants of Dionysos to know. This table was doubtless placed directly
in front of the altar of Bacchos, on the steps of which the leader of
the chorus was probably mounted in after ages, to hold communication
with the stranger; and, as this altar ripened through many gradations
into the Thymele, so the aforesaid table rose through innumerable
changes into the Logeion. It may be remarked, moreover, that the slope
of a hill,[974] when any such existed near the village, would naturally
be chosen on such occasions to afford the peasants an opportunity of
standing behind each other on ascending levels, and thus, without
inconvenience, beholding the show; and where such natural aid did not
present itself, they probably threw up embankments of turf in the
semicircular form, which experience proved to be most convenient, and,
out of this rude contrivance, grew those vast and magnificent
structures, which afterwards constituted one of the noblest ornaments of
Greece.

-----

Footnote 974:

Cf. Scalig. Poet, i. 21. Leroy, Ruines des plus beaux Monumens de la
Grèce, p. 14.

-----

The single actor, detached in the manner we have said from the Chorus,
speedily acquired greater importance, and the aid of poetry was called
in to frame and adorn his recitals; and as, during the songs and dances
of the Chorus, he necessarily remained idle, the idea soon suggested
itself that a second actor[975] would be an improvement, upon which
dialogue and the regular drama sprang into existence.

-----

Footnote 975:

Cf. Hesych. v. νέμησις ὑποκριτῶν.

-----

Among the principal duties of the Chorus was the performance of certain
dances, simple enough at the outset, but, in process of time, refined
and rendered so intricate by art, that it required no little learning
and ability to execute all their varied movements with dignity and
grace. Somewhat to assist the eye and memory, the whole pattern, as it
were, of the dance seems to have been chalked out on the floor of the
orchestra;[976] while the greatest possible pains were taken in drilling
the Choreutæ to open, file off, and wheel through their labyrinthine
evolutions, without confusion. The manner in which these persons usually
entered the orchestra, that is to say, ranged in a square body, three in
front and five deep, or five in front and three deep, has suggested to
some the notion that they represented a military Lochos;[977] but
besides that this is inconsistent with their Dionysiac origin, they did
not always preserve this arrangement, but, on some occasions, came
rushing in confusedly, while on others they traversed the Parodos in
Indian file.

-----

Footnote 976:

This, however, I merely conjecture from the practice of marking with
lines the station of the chorus. Hesych. v. γραμμαί.

Footnote 977:

When making their exit, it is said they were preceded by a
flute-player. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 582. These musicians wore, while
playing, straps of leather called φορβείαι, bound over their mouth in
order to regulate the quantity of air transmitted into the pipe. Id.
ibid. See Burney, Hist. of Music, i. 279.

-----

The musicians,[978] in the Greek theatre, took their station upon and
about the steps of the Thymele, which answers as nearly as possible to
the position of the orchestra in our own theatres. Here, also, stood the
Rhabduchi,[979] or vergers of the theatre, whose business it was to see
that order was preserved among the spectators.

-----

Footnote 978:

Cf. Torrent. in Suet. Domit. Com. p. 390. a. The best auletæ were
those of Thebes. Dion Chrysost. i. 263.

Footnote 979:

Suidas, v. ῥαβδοῦχοι, t. ii. p. 672. f. Scalig. Poet. i. 21.

-----

With respect to the dances[980] performed by the Chorus, they were so
numerous, long, and intricate, that it would be here impossible to
enumerate and describe the whole. They appear to have conceived the idea
of representing almost every passion and action in human life by that
combination of movements and gestures which the term pantomime, borrowed
from their own language, expresses much better than our word
dancing.[981] A taste, in some respects similar, still prevails among
the Orientals, whose Ghawazi and Bayadères, though relying rather upon
routine and impulse than on the resources of art, perform at festivals
and marriages, and before the ladies of the harem, little love-pieces
and pastoral scenes, which evidently belong to the class of mimetic
dances described by ancient authors.

-----

Footnote 980:

See Cahusac, Traité Historique de la Dance, ii. i. t. i. p. 61, sqq.

Footnote 981:

It is said that certain ancient poets were called orchestic,—as
Thespis, Phrynichos, Pratinas, Carcinos,—not only because they adapted
the subjects of their pieces to the dances of the chorusses, but,
also, because they instructed in dancing the chorusses of other
dramatic writers. Athen. i. 39. The above poet, Carcinos, was likewise
celebrated for being the father of three sons who danced in the tragic
chorusses, and, from their extremely diminutive stature, obtained the
name of Quails. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 761.

-----

In tragedy, such as it existed in the polished ages of Greece, the
movements were slow and solemn, and, no doubt, full of dignity. The
spirit of comedy required brisk and lively, and frequently tolerated,
audaciously wanton dances; while the Chorus of the Satyric Drama would
appear to have been rude and clownish rather than indecent, indulging in
grotesque movements, ludicrous and extravagant gestures, and that rustic
and farcical style of mimicry which may be supposed to have prevailed
among the rough peasantry of Hellas.

In classing the various dances, it will, perhaps, be sufficient if we
divide them into lively and serious,[982] joining with the latter all
such as attempted to embody a symbol or an allegory.

-----

Footnote 982:

Hesych. v. ἐμμέλεια. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 532. Poll. iv. 99. Athen.
xiv. 27, seq. Luc. de Saltat. § 22. 26. Plut. Symposiac. ix. 15. 1.

-----

In certain dramas of Phrynichos the Chorus represented a company of
wrestlers,[983] who contrived by the quick, flexible, and varied
movements of the dance, to imitate all the accidents of the palæstra.
Sometimes they personated a party of scouts in the active look-out for
the enemy, each with his right hand curved above the brow: this was one
form of the Scops.[984] On other occasions the dancer mimicked the
habits of the Scops, or mocking-owl, twirling about the head, and
appearing to be absorbed in an ecstasy of imitation, until taken by the
fowler. The performance of a piece like this, by a numerous Chorus,
sometimes breaking off into a brisk gallopade, sometimes maintaining the
same position, jigging, pirouetting, and ducking the crest, must, no
doubt, have appeared infinitely comic; and yet it could have been
nothing in comparison with the Morphasmos,[985] in which, not the
characteristic peculiarities of a single owl, but those of the whole
animal creation were “taken off.” Thus we may suppose that the Hegemon
of the Chorus started as a baboon, his next-door neighbour as a hog, a
third as a lion, a fourth as an ass, and so on, each man accommodating
his voice to the character he had, pro tempore, assumed, and gibbering,
grunting, roaring, braying, as he leaped, or gamboled, or bounded, or
scampered about the orchestra. Anon the frisky foresters were
transformed into slaves, who would seem to have been introduced to the
audience pounding something, perhaps onions and garlick, in a mortar.

-----

Footnote 983:

Suid. v. Φρυνίχου πάλαισμα, t. ii. p. 1092. b. c. d.

Footnote 984:

Poll. iv. 103. Athen. xiv. 27.

Footnote 985:

Poll. iv. 103. Cf. Xenoph. Conviv. vi. 4.

-----

The Oclasma,[986] a dance borrowed from the Persians, reminds one
strongly of the performances of the negroes in the interior of Africa,
the whole Chorus alternately crouching upon its heels, and springing
aloft, like the frogs of Aristophanes about the fens of Acheron. Not,
perhaps, un-akin to this, were those three frenzied dances, alluded to
rather than described by the ancients,—that is to say, the
Thermaustris,[987] which seems to have consisted of a series of violent
bounds, like the performances of the Hurons and Iroquois;[988] the
Mongas, which, from the name, probably represented the friskings and
caracollings of a jackass; and the Kernophoros,[989] or dance of the
first-fruits, wherein the Chorus appeared upon the stage, some bearing
censers, others fruit-baskets, evidently in a character resembling that
of Bacchanals.

-----

Footnote 986:

Poll. vi. 99.

Footnote 987:

Pfeiffer. Antiq. Græc. ii. 58. p. 382.

Footnote 988:

Cf. Dodwell, Classical Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 133, seq.

Footnote 989:

Athen. xiv. 27. Poll. iv. 104.

-----

To this species of dance belonged, also, the Hecaterides, in which the
performer interpreted his desires or passion by furious gestures of the
hands. The Eclactisma was a female dance,[990] requiring the exertion of
great force and agility, its characteristics consisting in flinging the
heels backwards above the level of the shoulders. Corresponding, in some
measure, to the Eclactisma, was the Skistas,[991] in which the dancer
bounded aloft, crossing his legs several times while in the air. There
was a dance, evidently of a very extraordinary description, which they
performed to an air called Thyrocopicon,[992] or “knocking at doors,”
possibly representing the frolics of such wild youths as anticipated the
scape-graces of our own day. The Mothon was a loose dance, common among
sailors; the Baukismos, Bactriasmos, Apokinos, Aposeisis, and
Sobas,[993] were laughable, but lewd dances,[994] resembling the Bolero
and Fandango of the Spaniards.[995]

-----

Footnote 990:

Poll. iv. 10. 2. Aristoph. Vesp. 1492. 1495, et Schol.

Footnote 991:

Poll. iv. 105. See, in the Mus. Cortonens. tab. 60, the representation
of a group of dancers on a platform in a boat, on the margin of the
sea.

Footnote 992:

Athen. xiv. 9.

Footnote 993:

Athen. xiv. 27.

Footnote 994:

On the character of the old comedy, which tolerated these dances, see
Plut. Lucull. § 39. Demet. § 12. Pericl. § 5.

Footnote 995:

Poll. iv. 99.

-----

The Heducomos was a dance expressive of the outbreaks of joy, and the
Knismos,[996] represented the pinching, struggling, and quarrels of
lovers. The Deimalea was a Laconian dance performed by Satyrs and
Seileni, skipping and jumping about in a circle.[997] Another Spartan
dance[998] was the Bryallika, of a ludicrous and licentious character,
performed by women in grotesque masks, whence a courtezan at Sparta was
denominated, Bryallika. The name of Hypogypones,[999] was bestowed on
certain performers who imitated old men, flourishing their sticks about
the stage, as we are informed they did in the play of Simermnos.[1000]
Akin in spirit to these were the Gypones,[1001] who made their
appearance in transparent Tarentine robes, and mounted on stilts
probably in the form of goats’ feet, to give them a resemblance to the
Ægipanes, worshipped as gods of the woods. A peculiar dance in honour of
Artemis took its rise in the village of Carya in Laconia, where its
invention was attributed to Castor and Polydeukes. No description of it,
so far as I know, has come down to us; but the maidens by whom it was
performed probably bore, and steadied with one hand, a basket of flowers
on their heads, thus forming the model of those architectural figures,
still from them called Caryatides.[1002] The representation of this
performance was, doubtless, a favourite subject among Spartan artists or
such as were employed by the Spartans, as may perhaps be fairly inferred
from the circumstance, that the device on the ring, which, in return for
a comb, was presented by Clearchus to Ctesias to be shown to his friends
at Lacedæmon, was a dance of Caryatides.[1003]

-----

Footnote 996:

Id. ib.

Footnote 997:

Poll. iv. 104.

Footnote 998:

See Müller. ii. 354.

Footnote 999:

Poll. iv. 104.

Footnote 1000:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 534.

Footnote 1001:

Poll. iv. 104.

Footnote 1002:

Vitruv. i. 1.—Poll. iv. 104.

Footnote 1003:

Plut. Artaxerx. § 18.

-----

Amid the laxity of morals which prevailed in the later ages of Greece,
the Pyrrhic,[1004] once supposed to be peculiar to warriors, degenerated
into a dance of Bacchanals, with thyrsi instead of spears, or carrying
torches in one hand, while with the other they sportively cast light
reeds at one another. The story told in this mimetic performance
referred to remote antiquity, and was both curiously and elaborately
intricate, comprehending all the adventures of Bacchos and his merry
crew during the Indian expedition, and assuming towards the conclusion a
tragical form, developing the sad story of Pentheus.[1005]

-----

Footnote 1004:

Duport. ad Theoph. Char. c. 6. p. 305, sqq. Poll. iv. 99.—Athen. xiv.
29. On the Cretan warlike dances Orsites and Epicredios, id. xiv.
26.—Luc. de Saltat. § 9.

Footnote 1005:

Athen xiv. 29.

-----

Among the dances of a grave character are enumerated the Gingra
performed like the Podismos to slow and solemn music, the Lion and the
Tetracomos,[1006] a warlike measure performed in honour of Heracles and
supposed in its origin to have had some connexion with the Tetracomoi of
Attica, that is, the Peiræeus, Phaleron, Oxypeteones, and
Thymotadæ.[1007] We read, moreover, of dances in which the performers
represented certain historic or mythological personages, such as
Rhodope, Phædra, or Parthenope.[1008]

-----

Footnote 1006:

Poll. iv. 99.

Footnote 1007:

Poll. iv. 105.

Footnote 1008:

Luc. de Saltat. § 2.

-----

The Anthema,[1009] or Flower-dance, appears to have been chiefly
performed in private parties by women, who acted certain characters and
chanted, as they moved, the following verses:

Where is my lovely parsley, say?
My violets, roses, where are they?
My parsley, roses, violets fair,
are my flowers? Tell me where.

-----

Footnote 1009:

Athen. xiv. 27.

-----

The Athenians, however, seem to have imagined that there was nothing in
nature which might not be imitated in the dance, by the turns and mazes
of which they accordingly sought to represent the movements of the
stars.[1010] A similar fancy, if Lucian may be credited, possessed the
Indian Yoghis, who every morning and evening before their doors saluted
the sun, at his rising and setting, with a dance resembling his
own,[1011] which, as that luminary no otherwise dances than by turning
on its axis, must have been a performance resembling that of the
whirling derwishes, whose broad symbolical petticoats are meant, I
presume, to represent the disk of the sun. But the dance most difficult
of comprehension is that upon which they bestowed the name of κόσμου
εκπύρωσις,[1012] or the “Conflagration of the World.” Of the figure and
character of this performance antiquity, I believe, has left us no
account, though it probably represented, by a train of allegorical
personages and movements, the principal events which, according to the
Stoics, are to precede the delivering up of the Universe to fire.[1013]
Scaliger,[1014] who does not attempt to explain this strange exhibition,
observes, however, pertinently, that it was a dance in which Nero might
have figured, his burning of Rome deserving in some sort to be regarded
as a rehearsal of this piece.

-----

Footnote 1010:

It may possibly have been in this dance that Eumelos or Arctinos, an
old Corinthian poet, introduced Zeus himself sporting the toe:—

Μέσσοισιν δ᾽ ὠρχεῖτο πατὴρ ἀνδοῶν τε θεῶν τε. Athen. i. 40.

Cf. Plut. Sympos. ix. 15.

Footnote 1011:

Luc. de Saltat. § 17.

Footnote 1012:

Athen. xiv. 27.

Footnote 1013:

Cf. Lips. Physiolog. Stoic. ii. 22. t. iv. p. 955.

Footnote 1014:

De Poet. i. 18.

-----

There existed among the Spartans[1015] an elegant dance denominated
Hormos, or the Necklace, performed by a chorus of youths and virgins who
moved through the requisite evolutions in a row. The line was headed by
a young man who executed his part in the firm and vigorous steps proper
to his age, and which he would afterwards be expected to preserve in the
field of battle. A maiden immediately followed, but, instead of
imitating his masculine manner, confined herself to the modest graceful
paces and gestures of her sex, and this alternation and interweaving, as
it were, of force and beauty, suggesting the idea of a necklace composed
of many coloured gems, gave rise to the appellation.

-----

Footnote 1015:

Luc. de Saltat. § 12.

-----

The dance of the Crane,[1016] among the Athenians, in some respects
resembled the above. It was, according to tradition, first invented by
Theseus, who landing at Delos on his return from Crete, offered
sacrifice to Apollo and dedicated the statue of Aphrodite which he had
received from Ariadne, after which he joined the young men and women
whom he had delivered, in performing a joyous dance[1017] about the
altar of Horns erected by Apollo, from the spoils of his sister’s bow.
The Choreutæ, engaged in executing the Geranos, or Crane, formed
themselves into one long line with a leader in van and rear, and then,
guided by the design on the floor of the orchestra, described by their
movements the various mazes and involutions of the Cretan labyrinth,
until, having traversed all its intricate passages, they emerged at
once, like their great countryman and his companions, into light and
safety. Other dances there were, which, however curious they may have
been, cannot now be described from the scanty materials left us: such
were the dance of Heralds, or Messengers, the dance of the Lily,[1018]
the Chitonea, the Pinakides, the dance of the Graces,[1019] and that of
the Hours, in which the performers floated about with a circle of light
drapery held over the head by both hands.[1020]

-----

Footnote 1016:

Poll. iv. 101. Spanh. ad Callim. t. ii. p. 513. Plut. Thes. § 21. Cf.
Douglas, Essay on some points of Resemblance, &c., p. 123.

“One of the dances still performed by the Athenians has been supposed
that which was called the Crane, and was said to have been invented by
Theseus, after his escape from the labyrinth of Crete. The peasants
perform it yearly in the street of the Frank convent at the conclusion
of the vintage; joining hands and preceding their mules and asses,
which are laden with grapes in panniers, in a very curved and
intricate figure; the leader waving a handkerchief, which has been
imagined to denote the clue given by Ariadne.” Chandler, ii. 151.

Footnote 1017:

Like the Cyclic Chorus. Vid. Izetzes ad Lycoph. i. p. 251, sqq. Sch.
Aristoph. Nub. 311.

Footnote 1018:

Athen. iii. 82. xiv. 27.

Footnote 1019:

Poll. iv. 93. Xenoph. Conviv. vii. 5. Plat. De Legg. vii. t. viii. p.
55. Cf. Herm. Comment. ad Arist. Poet. xxvii. 3. p. 190, sqq.

Footnote 1020:

Scalig. Poet. i. 18.

-----

If from the dances we now pass to the Choreutæ,[1021] by whom they were
performed, we shall find that they generally made their appearance in
the orchestra with golden crowns upon their heads, and habited in
gorgeous raiment, frequently interwoven or embroidered with gold.[1022]
The Chorus, however, like the actors, must have constantly varied its
costume, to suit the exigencies of the drama; sometimes to perform the
part of senators, sometimes of Nereids, sometimes of female suppliants,
sometimes of urn-bearers, sometimes of clouds, or wasps, or birds. When
in the tragedy of Æschylus they were required to personate the Furies,
their exterior was the most frightful that can well be imagined,—their
long but scanty robes consisting, as has been conjectured, of black
lamb-skins, slit up below and exposing their tawny withered limbs to
sight, while their blood-stained eyes, livid tongue hanging out, and
hair like a mass of knotted serpents, easily accredited the belief of
their being infernal existences. Thus habited, with fingers terminating
in black claws,[1023] and grasping a burning torch, they burst upon the
view of the spectators, like so many hideous phantoms conjured up by an
imagination diseased with terror.

-----

Footnote 1021:

Cf. Buleng. de Theat. c. 55.

Footnote 1022:

Dem. cont. Mid. § 7, seq. Athen. iii. 62. Animadv. t. vii. p. 215.

Footnote 1023:

Bœttiger, Furies, p. 28, sqq. and pl. ii. Casaub. ad Athen. xii. 2.
Aristoph. Plut. 423.

-----

The costume of the actors,[1024] which some modern writers suppose to
have been extremely monotonous,[1025] was in reality, however, as rich,
varied, and characteristic as the masks of which we shall presently have
to speak. Gods, heroes, kings, chiefs, soothsayers, heralds, rustics,
the hetairæ, and their mothers; gay youths, flatterers, libertines,
procurers, cooks, satyrs, slaves, &c., had each and all their
appropriate dresses and ornaments, modified, no doubt, from time to time
by the change in public taste, and the fancy of the poets. The
divinities had almost to be wholly framed by the Dionysiac artificers.
Conceived to be of superhuman stature, it was necessary that the actors
who represented them should, in the first place, be lifted up on
Cothurni,[1026] or half-boots, the soles of which were many inches
high,[1027] their limbs and bodies were enlarged by padding, their arms
lengthened by gloves, while their countenances, which might be ignoble
or even ugly, were concealed by masks of exquisite ideal beauty, rising
above the stately forehead in a mass of curls, which at once
corresponded with the nobleness of their features and augmented their
colossal height: add to all this robes of purple, or scarlet, or azure,
or saffron, or cloth of gold, floating about the person in graceful
folds, and training along the floor, and we have some faint idea of the
celestial personages who with gemmed sceptres and glittering crowns made
their appearance on the Grecian stage.

-----

Footnote 1024:

On the actors’ wardrobe, see Poll. iv. 113, sqq.

Footnote 1025:

Müller, Dissert. on the Eumenides, p. 100. Mr. Donaldson, Theatre of
the Greeks, p. 132, adopts this opinion.

Footnote 1026:

Luc. Jup. Tragœd. § 41. Cf. Xen. Cyrop. viii. 8, 17. Poll. ii. 151.
vii. 62.

Footnote 1027:

See Winkel. Monum. Ined. t. iii. p. 84. c. ix. § 1. Les extrémités des
Cothurnes étoient ronds et quelquefois un peu aigues; mais on n’en vit
jamais de carrés, comme aux gravés sur l’estampe, de Vasali. p. 85.
Cf. Luc. de Saltat. § 27. Their height depended first upon the stature
of the actor, second, upon that of the character represented.
Sometimes they were satisfied with attributing four cubits even to the
heroes.—Aristoph. Ran. 1046. Cf. Athen. v. 27. But the ghost of
Achilles when it appeared to Apollonios of Tyana, rose five cubits in
height, and, no doubt, the spectre was careful to accommodate itself
to public opinion.—Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. iv. 16. Aul. Gell. iii.
10. See, also, Scalig. Poet. i. 13. Scaliger relates _à propos_ of the
Cothurnus a facetious remark of his father: “Italas mulieres
altissimis soccis usas vidimus; quamvis diminutiva dicant voce
Socculos. Patris mei perfacetum dictum memini. Ejusmodi uxorum dimidio
tantùm in lectis frui maritos, alter dimidio cum soccis deposito,” p.
53.

-----

The queens and heroes,[1028] who were constantly beheld grouped in
converse, or in action, with these sublime dwellers of Olympos, were
clad in a costume scarcely less majestic; the former, for example, in
times of prosperity, issued forth from their palaces in white garments,
with loose sleeves reaching to the elbow, and closed on the upper part
of the arm by a succession of jewelled agraffes,[1029] their tresses
confined in front by a golden sphendone, or fillet, crusted with gems,
while their robes terminated below in long sweeping trains of
purple.[1030] But when their houses were visited by misfortune, the
milk-white pelisse was exchanged for one quince-coloured or blue, while
the purple train was converted into black. The costume of the
kings,[1031] likewise varied by circumstances, consisted usually of an
ample robe of purple, or scarlet, or dark green, descending to the feet,
a rich cloak of cloth of gold, or of some delicate colour, adorned with
gold embroidery, and a lofty mitre on the head.[1032] When any of these
characters, as Tydeus or Meleager, was engaged in hunting or war, he
wore the scarlet or purple mantle called Ephaptis,[1033] which in action
was wrapped about the left arm. Athenæus, in describing the horsemen of
Antiochos, observes, that these Ephaptides[1034] were embroidered with
gold and adorned with the figures of animals. Bacchanals and
soothsayers, like Teiresias, generally appeared upon the stage in an
extraordinary garment, denominated Agrenon,[1035] formed of a reticular
fabric of wool of various colours. Dionysos himself,[1036] in whose
honour the theatre with all its shows was created, descended from
Olympos in a saffron-coloured robe compressed below the bosom by a broad
flowered belt, and bearing a thyrsus in his hand.[1037] This girdle, in
the case of other gods, or heroes, was sometimes replaced by one of
gold.[1038] Persons overtaken by calamity, especially exiles, wore
garments dirty-white, or sad-coloured, or black, or quince-coloured, or
bluish. The costume of Philoctetes, Telephos, Œneus, Phœnix,
Bellerophontes, was ragged. The Seileni appeared in a shaggy Chiton, and
the other personages of the Satyric drama in the skins of fawns, or
goats, or sheep, or pards, and, sometimes, in the Theraion or Dionysiac
garment, and a flowered cloak and a scarlet Himation. Old men were
distinguished by the Exomis,[1039] a white Chiton of mean appearance,
having no seam or arm-hole on the left side—young men by the
Campulè,[1040] a scarlet or deep purple Himation,—the parasites by
bearing the Stlengis and flask (as country people by the Lagobalon) and
by black or sad-coloured robes, except in the play of the Sicyonians,
where a person of this class, being about to be married, sported a white
garment,—the cook by an Himation double and unfulled,—priestesses by
white robes,—comic old women by such as were quince-coloured or dusky,
like a cloudy morning sky in autumn,—the mothers of the hetairæ wore a
purple fillet about the head,—the dresses of young women were white and
delicate,—of heiresses the same with fringes. Pornoboski wore garments
of various colours, with flowered cloaks, and carried a straight wand,
called ἀρéσκος.[1041] There were, likewise, female characters which wore
the Parapechu and the Symmetria, a chiton reaching to the feet, with a
border of marine purple.

-----

Footnote 1028:

Poll. iv. 119.

Footnote 1029:

Cf. Mus. Chiaramont. tavv. 3. 7. 16.

Footnote 1030:

Poll. vii. 60. Bœttiger, Furies, p. 32. Luc. Jup. Tragoed. § 41.

Footnote 1031:

On voit parmi les plus belles peintures d’Herculaneum un de ces
premiers acteurs, ou protagonistes, avec une large ceinture de couleur
d’or, une sceptre dans une main, et l’épée au côté.—Winkelmann. Monum.
Ined. t. iii. p. 84. Pitt. Ercol. i. 4. i. 41.—Plutarch observes,
that, together with their royal garments, actors assumed the very
strut of kings.—Vit. Demet. § 18.—Demetrius moreover, is said to have
resembled a tragic actor, because he went clad in cloth of purple and
gold, and wore sandals of purple and gold tissue. § 41.

Footnote 1032:

Aristoph. Av. 512, et Schol. Nub. 70. Poll. iv. 115. Suid. v. Ξυστὶς.
t. ii. p. 264. e.—The actor who personated Heracles made his
appearance with club and lion’s skin.—Luc. de Saltat. § 27.

Footnote 1033:

Poll. iv. 116, 117. Aristoph. Nub. 71, et Schol. Lysist. 1189.

Footnote 1034:

Deipnosoph. v. 22.

Footnote 1035:

Poll. iv. 117. Hesych. v. ἀγρηνὸν.

Footnote 1036:

Poll. iv. 118.

Footnote 1037:

It behoved the actors, however, to take care of their gold and jewels,
since it would appear that thieves found their way even to the
stage.—Aristoph. Acharn. 258.

Footnote 1038:

Poll. iv. 118.

Footnote 1039:

Dion. Chrysost. i. 231. Scalig. Poet. i. 13.

Footnote 1040:

Poll. iv. 119, sqq.

Footnote 1041:

Scalig. Poet. i. 13.

-----

We now come to the masks,[1042] a subject upon which much has been
written, though very little has been explained. The primary difficulty
connected with them is, to determine whether they were so constructed as
to resemble a speaking-trumpet,[1043] which, by narrowing the stream,
and compressing, as it were, the particles of the voice, cast it forth
condensed and corroborated upon the theatre,[1044] which it was thus
enabled to penetrate and fill, even to its utmost extremities. My own
opinion, after bestowing much attention upon the subject, is, that the
mask was in reality so constructed as to communicate additional force
and intensity to the voice; but whether by roofing or encircling the
artificial mouth by metallic plates, or thin laminæ of the stone called
Chalcophonos,[1045] it is now scarcely possible to determine. Be this,
however, as it may, there existed in some theatres other contrivances
for conveying and augmenting the volume of the actor’s voice; these were
the Echeia,[1046] vases generally of metal, finely toned, and arranged
according to the musical scale, in a succession of domed cells,[1047]
running in diverging lines up the hollow face of the theatre. They
rested with one edge upon a smooth and polished pavement, the mouth
outward, and the external edge reposing on the summit of a small, blunt
obelisk,[1048] while a low opening in each cell enabled the resonances,
or echoes, thus created, to issue forth, and fill the air with
sound,[1049] which, however the fact may be accounted for, produced no
isolated reverberations, no confusion.

-----

Footnote 1042:

When actors displeased the audience they were sometimes compelled to
take off their masks and face those who hissed them, which was
regarded as a serious punishment. Duport. ad Theoph. Char. p. 308. We
ought, perhaps, to understand Lucian _cum grano_, when he informs us
that actors who performed their parts ill were scourged. Piscator, §
33. On the derivation of the word _persona_, Aul. Gell. v. 7. Cf.
Aristoph. Poet. c. 5. Scalig. Poet. i. 13, on the derivation of
πρόσωπον. Etym. Mag. 691. 1.

Footnote 1043:

Vid. Cassiod. iv. 51. Plin. xlvii. 10. Solin. cxxxvii. Lucian. de
Saltat. § 27. De Gymnast. § 23. A tragic poet, Hieronymos, exposed
himself to ridicule by introducing into one of his pieces a mask of
frightful aspect. Aristoph. Acharn. 390.

Footnote 1044:

Cf. Suid. v. φλοιός. t. ii. p. 1073. Diog. Laert. iv. p. 27.

Footnote 1045:

Plin. xxxvii. 56.

Footnote 1046:

See Burney’s Hist. of Music, i. 153. sqq. Scalig. Poet. i. 21. Antiq.
of Athens, &c., Supplementary to Stuart, by Cockerell, Kinnaird,
Donaldson, &c. p. 39.

Footnote 1047:

Vitruv. v. 6. Antiq. of Ath. by Cockerell, Donaldson, &c. p. 39.
Tectum porticus quod est in summa gradatione, respondet Sienæ
altitudinem, ut vox crescens æqualiter ad summas gradationes et tectum
perveniat. Buleng. de Theat. c. 17.

Footnote 1048:

Marinus’s edition of Vitruv. t. iv. tab. 81.

Footnote 1049:

Empty pots were built into the walls of certain public edifices to
augment the sound of the voice. Aristot. Prob. xi. 8. i. 1. v. 5. The
orchestra was sometimes strewed with chaff, which was found to deaden
the voice. 25. Plin. ii. 51.

-----

The materials wherewith the masks were constructed varied, no doubt,
considerably in different ages;[1050] but that they were ever
manufactured of bronze or copper is scarcely credible, if we reflect
upon the weight of so voluminous an apparatus, covering the entire head
and neck, composed of either of those metals. Such metallic specimens as
have come down to us are to be regarded simply as model-masks, or as
works of art, designed by the statuary as ornaments. The intention, at
first, of this disguise being to give additional boldness and
self-confidence to the actor, by concealing from his neighbours the
shamefacedness which a raw performer would sometimes naturally feel
while strutting about in imperial robes, and pouring forth the
_sesquipedalia verba_ of Pelias and Telephos, they were contented to
cover the face with a piece of linen, having openings for the eyes and a
breathing-place.[1051] To this appears to have succeeded a mask
manufactured from the flexible bark of certain trees,[1052] shaped, of
course, and coloured to resemble the human countenance. The next step
was to employ wood, some kinds of which, while possessing the advantage
of extreme lightness, might be wrought with all the delicacy and
fineness of a statue, while, better than any other material, it would
receive that smooth and polished enamel by which were represented the
texture[1053] and complexion of the skin. Specimens of masks of this
kind have been found among nations in a very rude state; among the
inhabitants, for example, of Nootka Sound, whose dress, we are
told,[1054] “is accompanied by a mask representing the head of some
animal: it is made of wood, with the eyes, teeth, &c., and is a work of
considerable ingenuity. Of these masks they have a great variety, which
are applicable to certain circumstances and occasions. Those, for
example, which represent the head of the otter or any other marine
animals, are used only when they go to hunt them. In their war
expeditions, but at no other time, they cover the whole of their dress
with large bear-skins.”

-----

Footnote 1050:

Scalig. Poet. i. 14. Poll. iv. 143.

Footnote 1051:

Suid. in θέσπις, p. 1315. d. Poll. x. 167.

Footnote 1052:

Virg. Georg. ii. 387.

Footnote 1053:

Vid. Horat. de Art. Poet. 278. Athen. xiv. 77. Suid. v. χοιρίλλος, t.
ii. p. 1160. f. Etym. Mag. 376. 47. Poll. iv. 133, sqq. Schol. Soph.
Œdip. Tyr. 80.

Footnote 1054:

Meare’s Voyage, p. 254.

-----

But while the above improvements were going on in the national
theatre,[1055] the rustic drama continued to preserve its original
simplicity, the actors to prevent their being recognised, shading their
brows with thick projecting crowns of leaves, and daubing their
faces[1056] with lees of wine. Thus disguised they chanted their songs
upon the public roads, sitting in a waggon,[1057] whence the proverb,
“he speaks as from the waggon,” _i. e._ he is shamelessly abusive, which
was in fact the case with the comic poets.

-----

Footnote 1055:

On the Roman Stage the actors appeared in hats up to the age of Livius
Andronicus. Roscius Gallus was the first who put on a mask, which he
did on account of his squinting. Ficorini, Masch. Scen. p. 15. On the
origin of the Mask see Paccichelli De Larvis, Capillamentis, et
Chirothecis. Neap. 1693.

Footnote 1056:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 29. Scalig. Poet. i. 13.

Footnote 1057:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 545. Nub. 29.—Demosth. De Coron. § 37. Ulp. in. §
5.

-----

The masks were divided into three kinds, the Tragic, the Comic, and the
Satyric. Those belonging to Tragedy were again subdivided into numerous
classes, representing every marked variety of character, and every stage
of human life from childhood to extreme old age. In the highly varied
range of countenances thus brought into play, the mask-maker enjoyed
abundant opportunities of exhibiting his skill. The hair, of course, was
real and adjusted on the mask like a wig,[1058] differently fashioned
and coloured according to the age, habits, and complexion of the wearer.
In some cases it was gathered together and piled up on the
forehead,[1059] in a triangular figure,[1060] adding many inches to the
actor’s stature; at other times it was combed smoothly downwards, from
the crown, twisted round a fillet and disposed like a wreath about the
head as we sometimes find it in the figures of Asclepios and the
philosopher Archytas. Some characters were represented wholly bald, with
a garland of vine-leaves or ivy wreathed about the brow,[1061] others
were simply bald in front, while a third class exhibited a bushy fell of
hair, something like a lion’s mane. Young ladies displayed a profusion
of pendant curls, kept in order by the fillet or sphendone, or gathered
up in nets, or twisted about the head in braided tresses. In
representing certain characters the eye-sockets were left open, so that
the actor’s eyes could be seen moving and flashing within;[1062] but on
other occasions, when the part of a squinter was to be acted by a
performer who did not squint or vice versa, as in the case of Roscius
Gallus, the mask-maker must have represented the eyes by glass or some
other transparent substance, through which the actor could see his way.
This was necessarily the case in the part of the poet Thamyris,[1063]
who, like our own Chatterton, had eyes of different colours, one blue,
the other black, which, as Aristotle informs us, was common among the
horses of Greece.

-----

Footnote 1058:

Scalig. Poet. i. 13.—Poll. iv. 133, sqq.

Footnote 1059:

Cf. Thucyd. i. 6, et Schol. Ælian. Var. Hist. iv. 22.

Footnote 1060:

See a beautiful head of Aphrodite with a pole of curls. (ὄγκος) Mus.
Chiaramont. tav. 27. Cf. a tragic female mask, with the hair bound by
a fillet, in the Cabinet d’ Orleans, pl. 52.

Footnote 1061:

It may be remarked that persons ridiculed upon the stage were
introduced with masks exactly resembling their countenances. They
seized, however, upon the ludicrous features, which any one happened
to possess, as the eyebrows of Chærephon, and the baldness of
Socrates. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 147, 224. This applies to living
characters. The dead were protected from ridicule by the laws. Sch.
Pac. 631. The Comic mask was said to have been invented by Mason.
Athen. xiv. 77. The Comte de Caylus, however, attributes the invention
of masks to the Etruscans. Recueil d’ Antiq. i. 147, seq.

Footnote 1062:

Cic. de Orat. ii. 46. See in Agostini Gemme Antiche, pl. 17, a
representation of one of these masks. For examples of hideous masks
see Mus. Florent. t. i. pp. 45–51.

Footnote 1063:

Poll. iv. 141. Dubos, Reflex. Crit. sur la Poes. et sur la Peint. i.
603.

-----

The time of acting, as is well-known, was during the Dionysiac and
Lenæan festivals, in the spring and autumn.[1064] The theatres being
national establishments, in the proper sense of the word, were therefore
open, free of expense, to all the citizens, who were not called together
as with us by playbills,[1065] but for the most part knew nothing of
what they were going to see till they were seated in the theatre, and
the herald[1066] commanded the chorus of such and such a poet to
advance. Previously to the commencement of the performance the theatre
was purified by the sacrifice of a young hog, the blood of which was
sprinkled on the earth.[1067]

-----

Footnote 1064:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 545. Acharn. 336. Cf. Dem. cont. Mid. § 4, et
annot. Plut. Vit. x. Rhet. Lycurg.

Footnote 1065:

Winkelmann, however, supposes they had a kind of playbill, Monum.
Ined. iii. p. 86, founding his opinion upon a misinterpretation of
Pollux, iv. 131.

Footnote 1066:

Aristoph. Acharn. 10, sqq.

Footnote 1067:

Sch. Æschin. Tim. p. 17. Orator. Att. t. xiii. p. 377. Vales. ad
Harpoc. 99, 296. Suid. v. καθάρσιον, t. i. p. 1346. a. Poll. viii.
104.

-----

BOOK V.
RURAL LIFE.

CHAPTER I.
THE VILLA AND THE FARMYARD.

If we now, for a moment, quit the city and its amusements, and observe
the tone and character of Hellenic rural life, we shall find, perhaps,
that there existed in antiquity a still greater contrast between town
and country than in modern times. From the poetry of Athens, rife with
sylvan imagery, we, no less than from its history, discover how deeply
they loved the sunshine and calm and quiet of their fields. The rustic
population confined to the city during the Peleponnesian war almost
perished of nostalgia within sight of their village homes. Half the
metaphors in their language are of country growth. The bee murmurs, the
partridge whirrs, the lark, the nightingale, the thrush, pour their
music through the channels of verse and prose. The odours of ripe fruit,
of new wine “purple and gushing,” the fresh invigorating morning breeze
from harvest fields, from clover meadows dotted with kine, the scent of
milk-pails, of honey, and the honey-comb, still breathe sweetly over the
Attic page, and prove how smitten with home delights the Athenian people
were,

“With plesaunce of the breathing fields yfed.”

This their manly and healthful taste, however, constantly, in time of
war, exposed them to the malice of their enemies. For the valleys and
grassy uplands of Attica, being thickly covered with villas and
farmhouses,[1068] the first act of an invading army was to lay all those
beautiful homesteads in ashes. Thus the Persians, in their two
invasions, destroyed the whole with fire and sword. But the gentlemen,
immediately on their return, rebuilt their dwellings[1069] with greater
taste and magnificence, so that, before the breaking out of the
Peloponnesian war, it is probable that, as a scene of unambitious
affluence, taste, high cultivation, and rustic contentment, nothing was
ever beheld to compare with Attica. Here and there, throughout the land,
perched on rocks, or shaded by trees, were small rustic chapels
dedicated to the nymphs, or rural gods.[1070] On the mountains, and in
solitary glens, and wherever springs gushed from the cliffs, caverns
were scooped out by the hands of the leisurely shepherds,[1071] and
consecrated by association with mythology. Fountains, also, and
water-courses, altars, statues,[1072] and sacred groves,[1073] protected
at once by religion and the laws,[1074] imprinted on the landscape
features of poetry and elegance.

-----

Footnote 1068:

Demosth. in Ev. et Mnes. § 15.

Footnote 1069:

Thucyd. ii. 65.

Footnote 1070:

In the neighbourhood of the Isthmus the shepherds of the present day
often pass the winter months in mountain caverns.—Chandler, ii. p.
261.

Footnote 1071:

Theocrit. i. 143, seq.

Footnote 1072:

Cf. Iliad. β. 305, seq.

Footnote 1073:

On the wild olive and other trees, of which these groves were
composed, the eye of the passenger usually beheld suspended a number
of votive offerings.—Sch. Aristoph. Ran. 943.

Footnote 1074:

Cf. Plat. Phæd. t. i. p. 9.

-----

Another cause which, in the eyes of the Athenians, imparted sanctity to
their lands, was the practice of burying in them their dead. The spot
selected for this sacred purpose seems usually to have been the orchard,
where, amid fig-trees and trailing vines,[1075] often near the
boundaries of the estate, might be seen the ancient and venerable
monuments of the dead. All Attica, therefore, in their eyes, appeared
holy as a sepulchre; and, as every one guarded his own ancestral ashes,
to sell a farm cost a man’s feelings more than in countries where people
inter those they love in public cemeteries; and this circumstance with
many would operate like a law of entail.[1076]

-----

Footnote 1075:

Eurip. Bacch. 10, seq. Cf. Kirch. de Funer. Rom. iii. 17.

Footnote 1076:

Demosth. in Callicl. § 4.

-----

But it is easy thus to present to the imagination a general picture of
the country. What we want is to thrust aside the impediments, to
dissipate the obscurity of two thousand years, and lift the latch of a
Greek farmhouse, such as it existed in the days of Pericles.

In the first place it was common in Attica to erect country-houses in
the midst of a grove of silver firs,[1077] which in winter protect from
cold, and in summer attract the breezes that imitate in their branches
the sound of trickling runnels, or the distant murmur of the sea.
Towards the centre of the grove, with a spacious court in front and a
garden behind, stood the house,[1078] sometimes with flat, sometimes
with pointed roof, ornamented with a picturesque porch, and surrounded
with verandahs or colonnades. Occasionally opulent persons had on the
south front of their houses large citron trees,[1079] growing in pots,
on either side the door, where they were well watered and carefully
covered during winter.[1080] In the plainer class of dwellings, numerous
outhouses, as stables, sheds for cattle,[1081] henroosts, pigstyes, &c.,
extended round the court, while the back-front, generally in the East
the principal, opened upon the garden or orchard.

-----

Footnote 1077:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 406. On the music of the pine-groves, the Schol.
on Theocritus, i. 1, has an amusing passage: ἡ πίτυς ἐκείνη, ἡδὺ τι
μελουργεῖ, κατὰ τὸ ψιθύρισμα. κ. τ. λ.

Footnote 1078:

Called in Latin pagus from πηγὴ, a fountain. Serv. ad Virg. Georg.
182. See also the note of Gibbon, t. iii. p. 410.

Footnote 1079:

Geop. x. 7. 11. These pots, like those in which the palm-tree was
cultivated, were pierced at the bottom like our own. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. iv. 4. 3.

Footnote 1080:

As the orange-tree is still in Lemnos. Walp. Mem. i. 280.

Footnote 1081:

The stalls for cattle were built as often as convenient, near the
kitchen and facing the east, because when exposed to light and heat
they became smooth-coated. Vitruv. vi. 9. Cf. Varro. i. 13.

-----

Much pains was usually taken in selecting the site of a farmhouse,[1082]
though opinions of course varied according to the peculiar range of
experience on which they were based. In general such positions were
considered most favourable as neighboured the sea, or occupied the
summits or the slopes of mountains,[1083] more especially if looking
towards the north.[1084] The vicinity of swamps and marshes, and as much
as possible of rivers, was avoided, together with coombs, or hollow
valleys, and declivities facing the south or the setting sun. If
necessitated by the nature of the ground to build near the banks of a
stream, the front of the dwelling was carefully turned away from it,
inasmuch as its waters communicated an additional rigour to the winds in
winter, and in summer filled the atmosphere with unwholesome vapours.
The favourite exposure was towards the east whence the most salubrious
breezes were supposed to blow, while the cheerful beams of the sun, as
soon as they streamed above the horizon, dissipated the dank fogs and
murkiness of the air. Notwithstanding the warmth of the climate,
moreover, they loved such situations as were all day long illuminated by
the sun, whilst every care was taken to fence out the sirocco, a moist
and pestilential wind, blowing across the Mediterranean from the deserts
of Africa. In Italy, nevertheless, the farmer often selected for the
site of his mansion the southern roots of mountains, further defended
from Alpine blasts by a sweep of lofty woods.

-----

Footnote 1082:

Geop. ii. 3. Cf. Vitruv. i. 4.

Footnote 1083:

Petatur igitur aer calore et frigore temperatus, quem fere medius
obtinet collis, quod neque depressus hieme pruinis torpet, aut torret
æstute vaporibus, neque elatus in summa montium perexiguis ventorum
motibus, aut pluviis omni tempore anni sævit. Columell. De Re Rust. i.
4.

Footnote 1084:

The same opinion is held by Hippocrates, De Morbo Sacro. cap. 7. p.
308, ed. Foes. Ὁ Βορέης ὑγιεινότατος ἐστι τῶν ἀνέμων. Cf. Plin. ii.
48. Varro. i. 12.

-----

According to the fashion prevailing in antiquity, farmhouses were built
high, large, and roomy, though Cato[1085] shrewdly advises, that their
magnitude should bear some relation to that of the domain, lest the
villa should have to seek for the farm, or the farm for the villa.

-----

Footnote 1085:

De Re Rust. 3. “Ita ædifices, ne villa fundum quærat, neve fundus
villam.” Cf. Colum. De Re Rust. i. 4. It may here by the way be
observed that, during the flourishing periods of Roman agriculture,
farms were generally rather small than large. Plin. Hist. Nat. viii.
21. Schulz. Antiq. Rustic. § vii.

-----

Much, however, would depend upon the taste of the individual; but in a
plain farmhouse more attention appears to have been paid to substantial
comfort, and something like rough John-Bullism, than to that cold
finical elegance which certain persons are fond of associating with
whatever is classical. An Attic farmer of the true old republican school
was anything but a fine gentleman. He scorned none of the occupations or
productions by which he lived. On entering his dwelling you found no
small difficulty in steering between bags of corn,[1086] piles of
cheeses, hurdles of dried figs[1087] or raisins, while the racks groaned
with hams[1088] and bacon flitches. If they resembled their
descendants,[1089] too, even their bedchambers were invaded by some
species of provisions, for there in the present day you often behold
long strings of melons suspended like festoons from the rafters. In one
corner of the ground-floor stood a corbel filled with olive-dregs,
recently pressed, in another a wool-sack or a pile of dressed
skins.[1090] Yonder in the room looking into the garden, with the
honey-suckle twining about the open lattice, were madam’s loom and
spinning-wheel, and carding apparatus, and work-baskets; and there with
the lark[1091] might you see her, serene and happy, suckling her young
democrat, and rocking the cradle of a second with her foot, thriftily
giving directions the while to Thratta, Xanthia or “the neat-handed”
Phillis.[1092]

-----

Footnote 1086:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 45.

Footnote 1087:

Philost. Icon. ii. 26. p. 851.

Footnote 1088:

Cf. Athen. iv. 38.

Footnote 1089:

Walp. Mem. i. 281.

Footnote 1090:

Aristoph. Nub. 45, seq. et Schol.—Schol. Eq. 803.

Footnote 1091:

Plat. De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 40. Aristoph. Lysist. 18, sqq.

Footnote 1092:

Aristoph. Acharn. 272. Vesp. 824. Pac. 1138. Thesm. 286, seq. Suid. v.
Θρᾶττα. t. p. 1330. a.

-----

The kitchen must sometimes have been in fine disorder; geese and ducks
waddling across the floor, picking up the spilled grain, or snatching
away the piece of bread and honey which my young master had just put
down on the stool to play at a game of romps with Thratta. Up in the
dusky corner there, behind a huge armchair or settle, you may discern a
very suspicious looking enclosure, from which, at intervals, issues a
suppressed grunt; it is the pigsty.[1093] But be not offended; the
practice is classical; and pigs, in my apprehension, are as pleasant
company as geese and many other animals. Now, that geese were fed even
about palaces, we have the testimony of Homer, whose Penelope, the _beau
idéal_ of a good housewife, says—

“Full twenty geese have we at home, that feed
On wheat in water steeped.”[1094]

-----

Footnote 1093:

Ἐπὶ τῆς ἑστίας τρέφουσι χοίρους.—Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 844. Lysist.
1073, Poll. ix. 16.

Footnote 1094:

Odyss. τ. 536.

Footnote 1095:

Cf. Vict. Var. Lect. p. 891.

-----

But the whole economy of geese-feeding[1095] has been transmitted to us;
in the first place, the birds usually preferred were those most
remarkable for their size and whiteness.[1096] The ancients esteemed the
variegated, or spotted, as of inferior value. The same rule applied to
fowls. The chenoboscion,[1097] or enclosure in which the geese were
kept, was commonly situated near ponds or freshes,[1098] abounding with
rich grass and aquatic plants. Geese, it was observed, are not nice in
the article of food, but devour eagerly nearly all kinds of plants,
though the chick-pea, and the couch-grass, the laurel and the
laurel-rose,[1099] were by the ancients supposed to be hurtful to them.
Of their eggs some were hatched by hens, but such as were designed to be
sitten on by the goose herself, (who, during the period of
incubation[1100] was fed on barley steeped in water,) were marked by
writing or otherwise, to distinguish them from the eggs of their
neighbours, which it was thought she would not be at the pains to hatch.
For the first ten days after they had broken the shell the young
goslings were kept within-doors, where they were fed on wheat steeped in
water, _polenta_ a preparation of barley-meal dried at the fire, and
chopped cresses. This period over, they were driven out to feed and
afterwards to water; they who tended them taking great care that they
should not be stung by nettles, or pricked by thorns, or swallow the
hair[1101] of pigs or kids, which they imagined to be fatal to them.

-----

Footnote 1096:

Geop. xiv. 22. Varro. iii. 10. Colum. viii. 14.

Footnote 1097:

Poll. ix. 16. Heresbach. De Re Rust. lib. iv. p. 285. a.

Footnote 1098:

Cf. Pallad. i. 30. Plin. x. 79. Plaut. Trucul. ii. 1. 41.

Footnote 1099:

Ælian. De Nat. Anim. v. 29. This ingenious writer, anxious to remove
from geese the reputation of folly, relates that, when traversing
Mount Taurus, conscious of their disposition to cackling, they carry
stones in their bills, and thus frequently escape the eagles which
inhabit that lofty ridge of mountains. This the poet Phile undertakes
to confirm in verse:—

Λίθον δὲ τῷ στόματι μὴ κλάγξῃ στέγων
Ὅνπερ καλοῦσι Ταῦρον, ἀμείβει πάγον
Τοὺς ἀετοὺς γὰρ φασὶ τοὺς χηνοσκόπους,
Ἐκεῖσε δεινῶς ἐλλοχᾷν πρὸ τοῦ ψύχους.

Iamb. De Animal. Proprietat. c. 15. p. 62.

Footnote 1100:

Which according to Aristotle was thirty days.—-Hist. Anim. vii. 6.

Footnote 1101:

Pallad. i. 30. Cavendum est etiam, ne pulli eorum setas glutiant.

-----

When full-grown geese were intended to be fattened, the custom was, to
confine them in dark and extremely warm cells.[1102] Their food was
scientifically varied and regulated, proceeding from less to more
nutritious, until they were judged fit for the table. At first their
diet consisted of a preparation composed of two parts _polenta_, and
four parts bran boiled in water. Of this they were permitted to eat as
much as they pleased three times a day, and once again at midnight,
while water was furnished them in abundance. When they had continued on
this regimen for some time, they were indulged with a more luxurious
table,—nothing less than the most exquisite dried figs, which, being
chopped small, and dissolved in water, were served up as a sort of jelly
for twenty days, after which the pampered animal itself was ready for
the spit.

-----

Footnote 1102:

The Quintilian Brothers, ap. Geop. xiv. 22. For the fate of these
illustrious authors, Maximus and Condianus, see Gibbon, i. 142. “Sint
calido et tenebroso loco: quæres ad creandas adipes multum conferunt.”
Colum. viii. 14.

-----

Occasionally that delicate and humane device, for the practice of which
Germany has, in modern times, obtained so enviable a celebrity, of
enlarging preternaturally the dimensions of the liver, was resorted to
by the ancients,[1103] whose mode of proceeding was as follows: during
five-and-twenty days, being cooped up as before in a place of high
temperature, the geese were fed with wheat and barley steeped in water,
the former of which fattened, while the latter rendered their flesh
delicately white. For the next five days certain cakes or balls,
denominated collyria,[1104] the composition of which is not exactly
known, were given them at the rate of seven per day, after which the
number was gradually augmented to fifteen, which constituted their whole
allowance for other twenty days. To this succeeded the most
extraordinary dish of all, consisting of bolusses of leavened dough,
steeped in a warm decoction of mallows, by which they were puffed up for
four days. Their drink, meanwhile, was still more delicious than their
food, being nothing less than hydromel,[1105] or water mingled with
honey. During the last six days dried figs, chopped fine, were added to
their leaven, and the process being thus brought to a conclusion, the
gourmands for whom they were intended, feasted on the tenderest geese
and the largest livers in the world. It should be added, however, that
before being cooked the liver was thrown into a basin of warm water,
which the _artistes_ several times changed. Geese, adds the ingenious
gastronomer to whom we are indebted for these details, are, both for
flesh and liver, much inferior to ganders. The Greeks did not, however,
like the Romans and the moderns, select young geese for this species of
culinary apotheosis, but birds of a mature age and of the largest size,
from two to four years old, which only proves the superior strength and
keenness of their teeth.

-----

Footnote 1103:

Eupolis, ap. Athen. ix. 32.

Footnote 1104:

Cf. Suid. v. κολλύρα. t. i. p. 1489. a. Poll. i. 248. Etym. Mag. 526.
26. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 122.

Footnote 1105:

Cf. Dioscor. v. 30.

-----

Ducks were kept in ponds, carefully enclosed, and, perhaps, covered over
that they might not fly away. In the centre were certain green
islets,[1106] planted with couch-grass, which the ancients considered as
beneficial to ducks as it was hurtful to geese. Their usual food, which
was cast in the water encircling the islets, consisted of wheat, millet,
barley, sometimes mixed with grape-stones and grape-skins. Occasionally
they were indulged with locusts, prawns, shrimps,[1107] and whatever
else aquatic birds habitually feed on. Persons desirous of possessing
tame ducks were accustomed to beat about the lakes and marshes[1108] for
the nest of the wild bird. Giving the eggs to a hen to sit on, they
obtained a brood of ducklings perfectly domesticated.[1109] Wild ducks
were sometimes caught by pouring red wine, or the lees of wine, into the
springs whither they came to drink.

-----

Footnote 1106:

Geop. xiv. 23. Varro, iii. 11. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. v. 33. Aristot. De
Hist. Anim. viii. 3. Athen. ix. 52. Phile, De Anim. Proprietat. c. 14.
p. 59.

Footnote 1107:

Athen. iii. 64. Κουρίδες· καρίδες, ἢ τὰς μικρ`ας ἐγχλώρας, τὰς δὲ
ἐρυθρὰς καμμάρους. Hesych.

Footnote 1108:

Cf. Philost. Icon. i. 9. p. 776.

Footnote 1109:

Colum. viii. 15. Heresbach. De Re Rust. lib. iv. p. 288. a.

-----

With respect to barn-door fowl, originally introduced from India and
Media into Greece, the greatest care appears to have been taken to vary
and improve the breeds. For this purpose cocks and hens were
imported[1110] from the shores of the Adriatic, from Italy, Sicily,
Numidia, and Egypt, while those of Attica were occasionally exported to
other countries. There appears to have been a prejudice against keeping
more than fifty fowls[1111] about one farmyard, some traces of which may
also be discovered in the practice of the Arabs.[1112] The fowl-house
furnished with roosts,[1113] as with us, was so contrived and situated
as to receive from the kitchen a tolerable supply of smoke, which was
supposed to be agreeable to these Median strangers. The food of
fowls[1114] being much the same all the world over, it is unnecessary to
observe more than that the green leaves of the Cytisus were supposed to
render them prolific. To preserve them from vermin, the juice of rue, by
way I suppose of charm, was sprinkled over their feathers.[1115] The
proportion of male birds was one to six. Hens were usually put to sit
about the vernal equinox, during the first quarter of the moon, in nests
carefully constructed of boards, and strewed with fresh clean straw,
into which, as a sort of talisman against thunder, they threw an iron
nail, heads of garlic, and sprigs of laurel.[1116] During the period of
incubation, the eggs which had previously been kept in bran were turned
every day.

-----

Footnote 1110:

Athen. vii. 23. Of these birds the black were esteemed less than the
white. ix. 15. On the fighting cocks. Plin. x. 24. Æsch. Eum. 864,
869. Schol. ad Æsch. Tim. Orat. Attic. t. xii. p. 379. Schol.
Aristoph. Eq. 492.

Footnote 1111:

Geop. xiv. 7, 9.

Footnote 1112:

Arabian Nights, Story of the Ass, the Ox, and the Labourer, vol. 1. p.
23.

Footnote 1113:

Ταῤῥοὶ. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 227.

Footnote 1114:

Beans, however, were eschewed as they were supposed to prevent them
from laying.—Geoponic. ii. 35. But cocks were suffered to feed on
them, at least when they belonged to poor men.—Luc. Mycill. § 4.

Footnote 1115:

Dioscor. iii. 52.

Footnote 1116:

Geop. xiv. 7. 11. Colum. viii. 5.

-----

The other inhabitants of the farmyard were peacocks,[1117] commonly
confined in beautiful artificial islands provided with elegant sheds;
pheasants[1118] from the shores of the Black Sea;[1119] guinea-fowls
from Numidia,[1120] though according to other authors they were
originally found in Ætolia;[1121] partridges, quails, and the attagas.
Thrushes were bred in warm rooms with slight perches projecting from the
walls, and laurel boughs or other evergreens fixed in the corners.[1122]
Over the clean floor was strewed their food, dried figs, which had been
steeped in water, and mixed with flour or barley meal, together with the
berries of the myrtle; the lentiscus, the ivy, the laurel, and the
olive. They were fattened with millet, panic, and pure water.[1123]
Other still smaller birds were reared, and fattened in like manner.
Every farmhouse had, moreover, its columbary and dove-cotes,[1124]
sometimes so large as to contain five thousand birds. They usually
consisted of spacious buildings,[1125] roofed over and furnished with
windows closed by lattice work, made so close that neither a lizard nor
a mouse could creep through them. In the floor were channels and basins
of water, in which these delicate birds[1126] might wash and plume
themselves, and adjoining was a chamber into which such as were required
for sale, or the table, were enticed. Even jackdaws were kept about
farmyards, and like common fowls had perches set up for them.[1127]

-----

Footnote 1117:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 63. Petit. Leg. Att. p. 277. Geop. xiv. 18.
1. Athen. xiv. 70. See the poetical description of this bird by Phile:
De Animal. Proprietat. c. 8. p. 32, sqq.

Footnote 1118:

Geop. xiv. 19. Colum. viii. 12. Pallad. i. 28. Athen. ix. 37, seq.
Suid. v. φασιανοὶ. t. i. p. 1083. a. b. Aristoph. Nub. 109.

Footnote 1119:

According to Diogenes Laertius, (i. iv. 51) both pheasants and
peacocks were familiar to the Greeks in the days of Solon.

Footnote 1120:

Athen. xiv. 71. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. v. 27. Aristot. Hist. Anim. vi.
2. A number of these birds were kept on the Acropolis of Athens.—Suid.
v. μελεαγρίδες. t. ii. p. 122. a.

Footnote 1121:

Within the enclosure for these birds pellitory of the wall was
probably planted, as they loved to roll in and pluck it up.—Theoph.
Hist. Plant. i. 6. 11.

Footnote 1122:

Cf. Pollux. ii. 24.

Footnote 1123:

Geop. xiv. 24. 5, seq.

Footnote 1124:

The king of Tuban, in Java, had formerly his bed surrounded by cages
of turtle-doves, which roosted on perches of various coloured
glass.—Voyage de La Compagnie des Indes, i. 533.

Footnote 1125:

Varro. iii. 7. Columell. viii. 8. Pallad. i. 24.

Footnote 1126:

For the food with which they were supplied, see Geopon. xiv. 1. 5.
Occasionally when the birds were permitted to fly abroad, their owners
sprinkled them with unguents, or gave them cumin seed to eat, in order
that they might attract and bring back with them flights of doves or
wild pigeons to their cells.—Id. xiv. 3. 1. So also Palladius:
Inducunt alias, si cumino pascantur assidue, vel hirci alarum balsami
liquore tangantur, i. 24. Cf. Plin. x. 52.

Footnote 1127:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 129.

-----

Much pains was taken by the ancients to improve the breed of
animals.[1128] Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, introduced into that island
the Molossian and Spartan dogs, goats from Scyros and Naxos, and sheep
from Attica and Miletos.[1129] The fineness and beauty of Merinos were
also known to the ancients, who purchased from Spain rams for breeding
at a talent each, that is, about two hundred and forty-one pounds
sterling.[1130]

-----

Footnote 1128:

Cf. Arist. Hist. Anim. vii. 6. 5.

Footnote 1129:

Athen. xii. 57.

Footnote 1130:

Strab. iii. 2. t. i. p. 231.

-----

Horses were at all times few, and, consequently, dear in Greece; they
were, therefore, seldom employed in agriculture, but bred and kept
chiefly for the army, for religious pomps and processions, and for the
chariot races at Olympia. Originally, no doubt, the horse was introduced
from Asia, and, up to a very late period, chargers of great beauty and
spirit, continued to be imported from the shores of the Black Sea.[1131]
Princes, in the Homeric age, appear to have obtained celebrity for the
beauty of their steeds, as Laomedon, Tros, and Rhesos; and it was
customary for them to possess studs of brood mares in the rich pasture
lands on the sea-shore. That of Priam, for example, lay at Abydos, on
the Hellespont.[1132]

-----

Footnote 1131:

Aristoph. Nub. 109. Suid. v. φασιανοὶ. t. ii. p. 1033. b. Thom.
Magist. v. φασιανοὶ. p. 885. Blancard. Of the commentators on
Aristophanes, however, some by the word φασιανοὶ understand horses,
and some pheasants. The probability is, that they imported both, and
that the poet means to play upon the word.

Footnote 1132:

Iliad. δ. 500.

-----

The high estimation in which horses[1133] were held in remote antiquity,
may be gathered from the numerous fables invented respecting them,—as
that of the centaurs in Thessaly, of the winged courser of
Bellerophontes, and the Muses, and of the marvellous steeds presented by
Poseidon to Peleus on his marriage with Thetis. They were reckoned,
likewise, among the most precious victims offered in sacrifice to the
gods. Thus we find the Trojans plunging live horses into the whirlpool
of the Scamander[1134] to deprecate the anger of that divinity. The
Romans, likewise, in later times, sacrificed horses to the ocean;[1135]
and, in many parts of Asia, it appears to have been customary in nearly
all ages, to offer up, as anciently in Laconia,[1136] this magnificent
animal on the altars of the sun.[1137] Thus, among the Armenians, whose
breed, though smaller than that of the Persians, was far more spirited,
this practice prevailed as it still does in Northern India, and
Xenophon,[1138] a religious man, observes in the Anabasis, that he gave
his steed, worn down with the fatigues of the march, to be fed and
offered up by the Komarch, with whom he had been for some days a guest.
From Homer’s account of Pandarus we may infer, that the possessors of
fine horses often submitted to great personal inconvenience rather than
hazard the well-being of their favourites. For this wealthy
prince,[1139] who possessed eleven carriages and twenty-two steeds, came
on foot to the assistance of Priam, lest they should not find a
plentiful supply of provender at Troy.

-----

Footnote 1133:

See also Iliad, ε. 358. Wolf. Proleg. 80, seq.

Footnote 1134:

Iliad φ. 132.

Footnote 1135:

Fest. v. October, t. ii. p. 521, seq. v. Panibus, p. 555. Lomeier, de
Lustrat. cap. 23. p. 292, seq. Propert. iv. i. 20, with the note of
Frid. Jacob, in whose edition it is, v. i. 20.

Footnote 1136:

Pausan. iii. 20. 4. Fest. v. October, t. ii. p. 520, tells us that
this horse was sacrificed to the winds.

Footnote 1137:

Herod. i. 216. Brisson. de Regn. Pers. ii. 5. The reason why the horse
was selected as a victim to the sun, was that its swiftness appeared
to resemble that of the god:—ὡς τακύτατον τῷ τακύτατω. Bochart.
Hierozoic. pt. i. l. ii. c. 10. Olear. in Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan.
i. 31. p. 29. Justin. i. 10. Suid. v. μίθρου. t. ii. p. 162, f. This
practice is likewise mentioned by Ovid, (Fast. i. 385, seq.)

Placat equo Persis radiis Hyperiona cinctum,
Ne detur celeri victima tarda deo.

Cf. Vigenere, Images des Philostrates, p. 773. Par. 1627.

Footnote 1138:

Anab. iv. 5. 35.

Footnote 1139:

Iliad. ε. 192, seq.

-----

Several countries were famous[1140] for their breed of horses, as
Cyrene, Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, and the Phasis.[1141] Thessaly, too,
particularly the neighbourhood of Triccæ, abounded in barbs, as did
likewise Bœotia. But one of the most remarkable races was that produced
in Nisæon,[1142] a district of Media, which seems to have been white, or
of a bright cream colour,[1143] and of extraordinary size and swiftness.
On one of these Masistios[1144] was mounted during the expedition into
Greece. Apollo, in an oracle is said to have spoken of the beauty of
mares, alluding, perhaps, to those of Elis, which were remarkable for
their lightness and elegance of form; and Aristotle celebrates a
particular mare of Pharsatis, called Dicæa, which was famous for
bringing colts resembling their sires.[1145] Among the Homeric chiefs,
Achilles and Eumelos boasted the noblest coursers, as we learn from a
picturesque and striking passage in the Catalogue:[1146] “And now, O
Muse, declare, which of the leaders and their horses were most
illustrious. Excepting those of Achilles, the finest steeds before Troy
were those of Eumelos from Pheræ, swift as birds, alike in mane, in age,
and so equal in size, that a rule would stand level on their backs. They
were both bred by Apollo in Pieria, both mares, and they bore with them
the dread of battle. Noblest of all, however, were the coursers of
Achilles. But he, in his lunar-prowed, sea-passing ships remains
incensed against Atreides, the shepherd of his people; his myrmidons
amuse themselves on the sea-shore with pitching the quoit, launching the
javelin, and drawing the bow; their horses, standing beside the
chariots, feed upon lotus, trefoil and marsh parsley; and the chariots
themselves, well covered with hangings, are drawn up in the tents of the
chiefs, while the soldiers, sighing for the leading of their impetuous
general, stroll carelessly through the camp without joining in the war.”

-----

Footnote 1140:

Sch. Pind. Pyth. iv. 1.

Footnote 1141:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 110.

Footnote 1142:

Strab. xi. 13. p. 453. Τούς δὲ Νησαίους ἵππους, οἷς ἐχρῶντο οἱ
βασιλεῖς ἀρίστοις οὖσι καὶ μεγίστοις. Cf. Herod. i. 189, on the sacred
horses of Persia.

Footnote 1143:

Suid. v. ἱππος Νισαῖος. t. i. p. 1271. d. who relates that, according
to some, the breed was found near the Erythrean Sea.

Footnote 1144:

Herod. ix. 20. Cf. Il. ε. 583. δ. 142, seq. In Philostratus we find
mention made of a black Nisæan mare with white feet, large patch of
white on the breast, and white nostrils.—Icon. ii. 5. p. 816.

Footnote 1145:

Hist. Anim. vii. 6.

Footnote 1146:

Il. β. 760, sqq.

-----

The food of the Homeric horses,[1147] was little inferior to that of
their masters, since, besides the natural delicacies of the meadows,
they were indulged with sifted barley and the finest wheat.[1148] The
halter with which, while feeding, they were tied to the manger seems
usually to have been of leather. Aristotle,[1149] remarks, that horses
are fattened less by their food than by what they drink, and that, like
the camel,[1150] they delight in muddy water, on which account they
usually trouble the stream before they taste it.

-----

Footnote 1147:

Iliad. θ. 560. Cf. ι. 123, seq. 265, 407. κ. 565, seq.

Footnote 1148:

Il. ε. 196. On an ancient crystal engraved in Buonaroti a man with cap
and short breeches is represented feeding an ass with corn. Osserv.
Istorich. sop. alc. Medagl. Antich. p. 345.

Footnote 1149:

Hist. Anim. viii. 10.

Footnote 1150:

Phile applies the same observation to the elephant:

Ὕδωρ δὲ πίνει πλῆθος ἄφθονον πάνυ·
Πλὴν οὐ καθαρὸν, καὶ διειδὲς οὐ θέλει,
Ἀλλ’ οὖν ῥυπαρὸν καὶ κατεσπιλωμένον.

Iamb. de Animal. Proprietat. c. 39. p. 56, 165, seq.

-----

The Greek conception of equine beauty[1151] differed but little from our
own, since they chiefly loved horses of those colours which are still
the objects of admiration: as snow-white, with black eyes like those of
Rhesos, which Plato thought the most beautiful; cream-coloured, light
bay, chestnut, and smoky grey. They judged of the breeding of a horse by
the shortness of its coat and the dusky prominence of its veins. As a
fine large mane greatly augments the magnificent appearance of this
animal, they were careful after washing to comb and oil it[1152] while
they gathered up the forelock in a band of gilded leather.[1153] The
floors of their stables were commonly pitched with round pebbles bound
tight together by curbs of iron.[1154]

-----

Footnote 1151:

Geop. xvi. 2. Philost. Icon. i. 28. p. 804. Notwithstanding the
admiration of the Greeks for horses we do not find that they made any
attempt to naturalize among them those Shetlands of the ancient world
which, according to a very grave naturalist, were no larger than rams.
These diminutive steeds were found in India:—Παρά γε τοῖς ψύλλοις
καλουμένοις τῶν Ἰνδῶν, εἱσὶ γὰρ καὶ Λιβύων ἕτεροι, ἵπποι γίνονται τῶν
κριῶν οὐ μείζους. Ælian. de Animal. xvi. 37. Modern writers relate the
same thing of a certain breed of oxen in India: “Naturalists speak of
a diminutive breed of oxen in Ceylon, and the neighbourhood of Surat,
no larger than a Newfoundland dog, which, though fierce of aspect, are
trained to draw children in their little carts.” Hindoos, i. 23.

Footnote 1152:

Iliad, χ. 281, seq.

Footnote 1153:

Il. ε. 358.

Footnote 1154:

Xenoph. de Re Equest. iv. 4.

-----

Horses were usually broken[1155] by professed grooms, who entered into a
written agreement with the owners implicitly to follow their
directions.[1156] The process was sufficiently simple. They began with
the year-and-a-half colts,[1157] on which they put a halter when
feeding, while a bridle was hung up close to the manger, that they might
be accustomed to the touch of it, and not take fright at the jingling of
the bit.[1158] The next step was to lead them into the midst of noisy
and tumultuous crowds in order to discover whether or not they were bold
enough to be employed in war.[1159] The operation was not completely
finished till they were three years old. When, on the course or
elsewhere, horses had been well sweated,[1160] they were led into a
place set apart for the purpose, and, in order to dry themselves, made
to roll in the sand. It was customary for owners to mark their horses
with the Koppa,[1161] or other letter of the alphabet, whence they were
sometimes called Koppatias, Samphoras, &c.

-----

Footnote 1155:

Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 158.

Footnote 1156:

Xenoph. de Re Equest. ii. 2. Cf. Œconom. iii. 11. xiii. 7.

Footnote 1157:

Geop. xvi. i. 11.

Footnote 1158:

Xen. de Re Equest. 10. 6. Poll. viii. 184.

Footnote 1159:

The swimming powers of the war-horse were probably augmented by
exercise, since we find them passing by swimming from Rhegium to
Sicily. Plut. Timol. § 19. This feat, however, was nothing to that of
the stags which swam from Syria to Cyprus! Ælian. De Nat. Anim. v. 56.

Footnote 1160:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 32. Cf. 25, 28.

Footnote 1161:

Aristoph. Eq. 601. Nub. 25. Spanh. in loc. Athen. xi. 30.

-----

The mule and the ass were much employed in rural labours, the former
both at the cart and the plough, the latter in drawing small tumbrils,
and in bearing wood[1162] or other produce of the farm to the
city.[1163] The wild ass[1164] was sometimes resorted to for improving
the breed of mules, which, in the Homeric age, were found in a state of
nature among the mountains of Paphlagonia.[1165]

-----

Footnote 1162:

In carting wood from Mount Ida in the Troad oxen are at present
substituted for asses, and the bodies of the vehicles they draw, in
form resembling ancient cars, are constructed of wickerwork. Chandler,
i. 47.

Footnote 1163:

Lucian. Luc. siv. Asin. § 43. Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 12. p. 97.

Footnote 1164:

Geop. xvi. 21. Varro ii. 6. 3. To account for this care it may be
observed, that rich men sometimes rode, as they still do in the East,
on asses superbly caparisoned and adorned with bells. Lucian. Luc.
sive Asin. § 48.

Footnote 1165:

Il. β. 852.

-----

But their cares extended even to swine, which, if King Ptolemy may be
credited, were sometimes distinguished in Greece for their great size
and beauty. He, in fact, observes in his Memoirs, that in the city of
Assos he saw a milk-white hog two cubits and a half in length, and of
equal height; and adds, that King Eumenes had given four thousand
drachmæ, or nearly two hundred pounds sterling, for a boar of this
enormous size, to improve the breed of pigs in his country.[1166] So
that we perceive those great generals, whom posterity usually
contemplates only in the cabinet or in the battle-field, were, at the
same time, in their domestic policy, the rivals of the Earls Spencer and
Leicester. Superstition, among the Cretans, prevented the improvement of
bacon; for as a sow was said to have suckled the infant Jupiter, and
defended his helpless infancy, they, in gratitude,[1167] abstained from
hog’s flesh.

-----

Footnote 1166:

Athen. ix. 17. Cf. Steph. De Urb. 184. e.

Footnote 1167:

Athen. ix. 18.

-----

In all farms the care of cattle necessarily formed a principal
employment. The oxen[1168] were used in ploughing, treading out the
corn, drawing manure to the fields, and bringing home the produce of the
harvest. To prevent their being overcome by fatigue while engaged in
their labours, the husbandmen of Greece had recourse to certain
expedients, one of which was, to smear their hoofs with a composition of
oil and terebinth, or wax, or warm pitch:[1169] while, to protect them
from flies, their coats were anointed with their own saliva, or with a
decoction of bruised laurel berries and oil.[1170] Their milch cows, in
the selection of which much judgment was displayed,[1171] were commonly
fed on cytisus and clover; and, still further to increase their milk,
bunches of the herb dittany were sometimes tied about their flanks. The
usual milking-times[1172] were, in the morning immediately after the
breaking-up of the dawn, and in the evening about the close of twilight;
though, occasionally, both cows, sheep, and goats were milked several
times during the day. In weaning calves they made use of a species of
muzzle,[1173] as the Arabs do in the case of young camels. Their pails,
like our own, were of wood,[1174] but somewhat differently shaped, being
narrow above, and spreading towards the bottom. When conveyed into the
dairy the milk was poured into pans,[1175] on the form of which I have
hitherto found no information.[1176] That they skimmed their milk is
evident (whatever they may have done with the cream), from the mention
of that thin pellicle which is found on it only when skimmed, whether
scalded or not. “Here, drink this!” said Glycera to Menander, when he
had returned one day in exceeding ill-humour from the theatre. “I don’t
like the wrinkled skin,” replied the poet to the lady, whose beauty, it
must be remembered, was at this time on the wane. “Blow it off,” replied
she, immediately comprehending his meaning, “and take what is
beneath.”[1177] Milk, in those warm latitudes, grows sour more rapidly
than with us; but the ancients observed that it would keep three days
when it had been scalded, and stirred until cold with a reed or
ferula.[1178]

-----

Footnote 1168:

Scheffer, De Re Vehic. p. 80; et vid. Dickenson, Delph. Phænicizant.
c. 10. p. 116, seq. Heresbach. De Re Rust. p. 236, sqq.

Footnote 1169:

Geop. xvii. 9, with the note of Niclas. Aristoph. Hist. Anim. viii. 7.
23. Cato. De Re Rust. 72. Plin. xxviii. 81.

Footnote 1170:

African. ap. Geop. xvii. 11.

Footnote 1171:

Geop. xvii. 2. 8.

Footnote 1172:

Buttm. Lexil. p. 86.

Footnote 1173:

Hesych. v. πύσσαχος.

Footnote 1174:

Eustath. ad Odyss. ε. p. 219. Their milk-cups were sometimes of ivy.
Eurip. Fragm. Androm. 27. Athen. xi. 53. Macrob. Sat. v. 21. Cf. on
the milk-pans and cheese-vats, Poll. x. 130; Theocrit. Eidyll. v. 87.
Milk-pails were sometimes called πέλλαι, ἀμολγοὶ, γαλακτοδόκα, and out
of these they sometimes drank. Schol. i. 25.

Footnote 1175:

Cf. Il. π. 642, et Schol. Venet. Etym. Mag. 659. 41. Athen. xi. 91.

Footnote 1176:

Even Philostratus, while mentioning these vessels, filled to the brim
with milk, on which the cream lies rich and shining, omits to furnish
any hint of their form:—ψυκτῆρες γάλακτος, οὐ λευκοῦ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ
στιλπνοῦ· καὶ γὰρ στίβειν ἔοικεν, ὑπὸ τῆς ἐπιπολαζούσης αὐτῷ πιμελῆς.
Icon. i. 31. p. 809.

Footnote 1177:

Athen. xiii. 49.

Footnote 1178:

Geop. xviii. 19. 4.

-----

The Greeks of classical times appear to have made no use of
butter,[1179] though so early as the age of Hippocrates they were well
enough acquainted with its existence and properties.[1180] Even in the
present day butter is much less used in Greece than in most European
countries, its place being supplied by fine olive oil. For cheese,
however, they seem to have entertained a partiality, though it is
probable that the best they could manufacture would have lost very
considerably in comparison with good Stilton or Cheshire, not to mention
Parmasan. It was a favourite food, however, among soldiers in Attica,
who during war used to supply themselves both with cheese and
meal.[1181] Their cheese-lope or rennet in most cases resembled our own,
consisting of the liquid substance found in the ruen of new-born
animals, as calves, kids, or hares, which was considered superior to
lamb’s rennet.[1182] Occasionally they employed for the same purpose
burnt salt or vinegar, fowl’s crop or pepper, the flowers of bastard
saffron, or the threads which grow on the head of the artichoke. For
these again, was sometimes substituted the juice of the fig-tree;[1183]
or a branch freshly cut[1184] was used in stirring the milk while
warming on the fire. This cheese would seem, for the most part, to have
been eaten while fresh and soft,[1185] like that of Neufchatel, though
they were acquainted with various means of preserving it for a
considerable space of time. Acidulated curds were kept soft by being
wrapped in the leaves of the terebinth tree, or plunged in oil, or
sprinkled with salt. When desirous of preserving their cheese for any
length of time, they washed it in pure water, and, after drying it in
the sun, laid it upon earthen jars with thyme and summer savory. Some
other kinds were kept in a sort of pickle, composed of sweet vinegar or
oxymel or sea-water, which was poured into the jars until it entirely
penetrated and covered the whole mass. When they wished to communicate a
peculiar whiteness to the cheese, they laid it up in brine. Dry cheese
was rendered more solid and sharp-tasted by being placed within reach of
the smoke. If from age it were hard or bitter, it was thrown into a
preparation of barley-meal, then soaked in water, and what rose to the
top was skimmed off.[1186]

-----

Footnote 1179:

See Beckman. Hist. of Inv. i. 372, seq. Butter is made at present in
Greece by filling a skin with cream and treading on it. Chandler, ii.
245.

Footnote 1180:

Foes, Œconom. Hippoc. v. πικέριον, p. 306.

Footnote 1181:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 394.

Footnote 1182:

Varro. De Re Rust. ii. 11. 4. Colum. vii. 8. Eustath ad Il. ε. p. 472.
Hesych. v. ὀπὸς.—Mœris: ὀπὸς Ἀττικοὶ, πυτία Ἕλληνες. p. 205. Cf.
Aristot. Hist. Anim. iv. 21.

Footnote 1183:

The cheese made in this manner was called ὀπίας. Eurip. Cyclop. 136.
Athen. xiv. 76. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 353. Dioscor. i. 183. Plin.
xxiii. 63. Plut. Sympos. vi. 10.

Footnote 1184:

Geop. xviii. 12. These cheeses were sometimes made in box-wood moulds.
Colum. vii. 8.

Footnote 1185:

Philostratus describes one of these delicate little cheeses freshly
made and quivering like a slice of blanc-manger:—καὶ τρυφαλὶς ἐφ᾽
ἑτέρου φύλλου νεοπαγὴς, καὶ σαλέυουσα. Icon. i. 31. p. 809.

Footnote 1186:

Geop. xviii. 19.

-----

That the milk-women in Greece understood all the arts of their
profession may be gathered from the instructions which have been left us
on the best methods of detecting the presence of water in milk. If you
dip a sharp rush into milk, says Berytios, and it run off easily, there
is water in it. And again, if you pour a few drops upon your thumb-nail,
the pure milk will maintain its position, while the adulterated will
immediately glide away![1187]

-----

Footnote 1187:

Geop. xviii. 20.

-----

Their mode of fattening cattle[1188] was as follows: first they fed them
on cabbage chopped small and steeped in vinegar, to which succeeded
chaff and gurgions during five days. This diet was then exchanged for
barley, of which for nearly a week they were allowed four cotylæ a-day,
the quantity being then gradually augmented for six other days. As of
necessity the hinds were stirring early, the cattle began even in winter
to be fed at cock-crowing; a second quantity of food was given them
about dawn, when they were watered, and their remaining allowance
towards evening. In summer their first meal commenced at day-break, the
second at mid-day, and the third about sunset. They were at this time of
the year suffered to drink at noon and night of water rendered somewhat
tepid; in winter it was considerably warmer.

-----

Footnote 1188:

Geop. xvii. 12. Heresbach. p. 233. a.

-----

About Mossynos, in Thrace, cattle were sometimes fed upon fish, which
was likewise given to horses, and even to sheep. Herodotus, who mentions
a similar fact, calls food of this description χόρτος, “fodder,”[1189]
though hay or dried straw was, doubtless, its original meaning. The
provender of cattle in the district about Ænia appears to have been so
wholesome, that the herds which fed upon it were never afflicted by the
mange.[1190]

-----

Footnote 1189:

Herod. v. 16. Athen. vii. 72. Ælian. de Nat. Anim. v. 25. Cf. Sch.
Aristoph. Pac. 891.

Footnote 1190:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 14. 3.

-----

Among the animals domesticated and rendered useful by the Greeks we
must, doubtless, reckon bees,[1191] which, in the heroic ages, had not
yet been confined in hives. For, whenever Homer describes them, it is
either where they are streaming forth from a rock,[1192] or settling in
bands and clusters on the spring flowers. So, likewise, in Virgil, they

Hunt the golden dew;
In summer time on tops of lilies feed,
And creep within their bells to suck the balmy seed.

-----

Footnote 1191:

Athen. iii. 59. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 107.

Footnote 1192:

Il. β. 87. μ. 67. Odyss. ν. 106.

-----

In that Bœotian old savage, Hesiod,[1193] however, we undoubtedly find
mention of the hive where he is uncourteously comparing women to drones—

As when within their well-roofed hives the bees
Maintain the mischief-working drones at ease,
Their task pursuing till the golden sun
Down to the western wave his course hath run,
Filling their shining combs, while snug within
Their fragrant cells, the drones, with idle din,
As princes revel o’er their unpaid bowls,
On others’ labours cheer their worthless souls.

-----

Footnote 1193:

Theogon. 594, seq.—Pro σίμβλοισι, quod præbet R. S., cæteri Mss.
σμήνεσσι. Schæferus tamen malebat σίμβλοισιν ἐπηρεφέεσι. Gœttling. But
Goguet, who has considered this passage, does not think that “hives”
are meant; because, if their use had been known in the times of
Hesiod, he would not have failed to leave us some directions on the
subject. Origine des Loix, t. iii. p. 399. Wolff, following in the
footsteps of Heyne, gets easily over the difficulty by pronouncing the
whole passage, v. 590–612, spurious. Gœttling, p. 55. Cf. Schol.
Aristoph. Nub. 937. Phile, de Animal. Proprietat. c. 28. p. 87, seq.

-----

As the honey of Attica constantly, in antiquity, enjoyed the reputation
of being the finest in the world,[1194] the management of bees naturally
formed in that country an important branch of rural economy. The natural
history, moreover, of the bee was studied with singlar enthusiam by the
Greeks in general. Aristomachos of Soli, devoted to it fifty-eight
years, and Philiscos, the Thasian, who passed his life among bees in a
desert, obtained on that account the name of the Wild Man. Both wrote on
the subject.[1195]

-----

Footnote 1194:

The pasturage of Hymettos, however, was, by Pausanias, regarded as
second to that of the Alazones on the river Halys, where the bees were
tame, and worked in common in the fields. i. 32. 1.

Footnote 1195:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xi. 9.

-----

This branch of rural economy was carried to very great perfection in
Attica. The vocabulary[1196] connected with it was extensive, as every
separate operation had its technical term, by the study of which,
chiefly, an insight into their practice is obtained. Thus, from certain
expressions employed by Aristotle[1197] and Pollux, it seems clear that
bee-managers, whom we may occasionally call melitturgi, constituted a
separate division among the industrious classes; and these, instructed
by constant experience, probably anticipated most of the improvements
imagined in modern times. For example, instead of destroying the
valuable and industrious little insects for the purpose of obtaining
possession of their spoils, they in some cases compelled them by smoke
to retire temporarily from the hive, whence their treasures were to be
taken; and in the mining districts about Laureion they understood the
art, concerning which, however, no particulars are known, of procuring
the virgin honey pure and unsmoked.[1198]

-----

Footnote 1196:

Poll. i. 254. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 22. p. 109.

Footnote 1197:

Hist. Anim. v. 22. ix. 40. Etym. Mag. 458. 44.

Footnote 1198:

Τοῦ δὲ μέλιτος, ἀρίστου ὄντος τῶν πάντων τοῦ Ἀττικοῦ, πολὺ βέλτιστὸν
φάσι τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἀργυρέοις, ὁ καὶ ἀκαπνίστον καλοῦσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ τρόποῦ
τῆς σκευασίας. Strab. ix. 2. t. ii. p. 246.—Wheler describes the
modern method observed by the Athenians in taking honey without
destroying the bee, but in a style so lengthy and uncouth, that I must
content myself with a reference to his travels. Book vi. p. 412, seq.

-----

The grounds of a melitturgos or bee-keeper were chosen and laid out with
peculiar care.[1199] In a sheltered spot, generally on the thymy slope
of a hill, the hives were arranged in the midst of flowers and
odoriferous shrubs. And if the necessary kinds had not by nature been
scattered there, they were planted by the gardener. Experience soon
taught them what blossoms and flowers yielded the best honey,[1200] and
were most agreeable to the bees. These, in Attica, were supposed to be
the wild pear-tree, the bean, clover, a pale-coloured vetch, the syria,
myrtle, wild poppy, wild thyme, and the almond-tree.[1201] To which may
be added the rose, balm gentle, the galingale or odoriferous rush, basil
royal, and above all the cytisus,[1202] which begins to flower about the
vernal equinox, and continues in bloom to the end of September.[1203] Of
all the plants, however, affected by the bee, none is so grateful to it
as the thyme, which so extensively abounds in Attica and Messenia[1204]
as to perfume the whole atmosphere. In Sicily too, all the slopes and
crests of its beautiful hills, from Palermo to Syracuse, are invested
with a mantle of thyme,[1205] and other odoriferous shrubs, which,
according to Varro, gives the superior flavour to the Sicilian honey.
Box-wood abounded on mount Cytoros, in Galatia, and in the island of
Corsica, on which account the honey of the latter country was
bitter.[1206]

-----

Footnote 1199:

On the management of bees in Circassia and other countries on the
Black Sea, see Pallas, Travels in Southern Russia, ii. p. 204.

Footnote 1200:

On the coast of the Black Sea bees sucked honey from the grape. Geop.
v. 2.

Footnote 1201:

Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 26, 27.

Footnote 1202:

Geop. xv. 2. 6.

Footnote 1203:

Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 16.

Footnote 1204:

Sibthorpe in Walpole’s Memoirs, t. ii. p. 62. Geop. xv. 2. 5. Speaking
of Hymettos, Chandler observes, that it produces a succession of
aromatic plants, herbs, and flowers, calculated to supply the bee with
nourishment both in winter and summer, ii. p. 143. “Les montagnes (des
îles) sont couvertes de thym et de lavande. Les abeilles, qui y volent
par nuées, en tirent un miel qui est aussi transparent que notre
gelée.” Della Rocca, Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i. 6.

Footnote 1205:

This plant in Greece flowers about midsummer, and those who kept bees
conjectured whether honey would be plentiful or not, according as it
was more or less luxuriant. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 2, 3. The wild
thyme of Greece was a creeping plant which was sometimes trained on
poles or hedges, or even in pits, the sides of which it speedily
covered. Id. vi. 7. 5.

Footnote 1206:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 15. 5. The honey of modern Crete is esteemed
of a good quality. Pashley, Travels, vol. i. p. 56.

-----

In selecting a spot for hives, the ancients observed a rule which I do
not recollect to have been mentioned by modern bee-keepers, and that was
to avoid the neighbourhood of an echo,[1207] which by repeating their
own buzzing and murmuring suggested the idea perhaps of invisible
rivals. Place them not, says Virgil,[1208]

Near hollow rocks that render back the sound,
And doubled images of voice rebound.

-----

Footnote 1207:

Echo, in the mythology, is said to have been beloved of Pan, by which
she seems tacitly to be connected with the generation of Panic Terrors
Polyæn. Stratagem. i. 2. 1. Offensive smells are often reckoned among
the aversions of bees, but I fear without good reason. At least they
have sometimes been found to select strange places wherein to deposit
their treasures of sweets. In the book of Judges, chap. xiv. ver. 8,
seq., it is related that, when Samson, on his way to Timnath, turned
aside to view the carcass of a young lion which he had a short time
previously slain, “behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the
carcass of the lion, and he took thereof in his hands and went on
eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them and they
did eat, but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the
carcass of the lion.” Upon this passage the following may serve as a
note:—“Among this pretty collection of natural curiosities, (in the
cemetery of Algesiras,) one in particular attracted our attention;
this was the contents of a small uncovered coffin in which lay a
child, the cavity of the chest exposed and tenanted by an industrious
colony of bees. The comb was rapidly progressing, and I suppose,
according to the adage of the poet, they were adding sweets to the
sweet, if not perfume to the violet.” Napier, Excursions on the Shores
of the Mediterranean, v. i. 127.

Footnote 1208:

Georg. iv. 50, with the commentaries of Servius and Philargyrius; and
Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 16.

-----

Care was taken to conduct near the hives small runnels of the purest
water, not exceeding two or three inches in depth with shells or pebbles
rising dry above the surface, whereon the bees might alight to
drink.[1209] When of necessity the apiary was situated on the margin of
lakes or larger streams other contrivances were had recourse to for the
convenience of the airy labourers.

Then o’er the running stream or standing lake
A passage for thy weary people make,
With osier floats the standing water strow,
Of massy stones make bridges if it flow,
That basking in the sun thy bees may lie
And resting there their flaggy pinions dry,
When late returning home the laden host
By raging winds is wrecked upon the coast.

-----

Footnote 1209:

Cf. Geop. xv. 2, 3, 4.

-----

Their hives were of various kinds and shapes. Some, like the modern
Circassians, they made with fine wicker-work, of a round form and
carefully plastered on the inside with clay.[1210] Other hives were
constructed of bark, especially that of the cork-tree, others of fig,
oxya, beech, and pine-wood,[1211] others, as now in Spain, of the trunk
of a hollow tree, others of earthenware, as is the practice in Russia;
and others again of plaited cane of a square shape, three feet in length
and about one in breadth, but so contrived that, should the honey
materials prove scanty, they might be contracted, lest the bees should
lose courage if surrounded by a large empty space. The wicker-hives were
occasionally plastered both inside and outside with cow-dung to fill up
the cavities and smooth the surface.[1212] A more beautiful species of
hive was sometimes made with the lapis specularis,[1213] which, being
almost as transparent as glass, enabled the curious owner to contemplate
the movements and works of the bees.[1214] When finished, they were
placed on projecting slabs, so as not to touch or be easily shaken.
There were generally three rows of hives rising above each other like
Egyptian tombs on the face of the wall, and there was a prejudice
against adding a fourth.

-----

Footnote 1210:

Vir. Georg. iv. 34, seq. Varro, iii. 16. Colum. ix. 2–7. Sch.
Aristoph. Nub. 295. Vesp. 241. Callim. Hymn. i. 50. Cf. Wheler,
Travels into Greece. Book vi. p. 411.

Footnote 1211:

Geop. xv. 2. 7. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 10. 1.

Footnote 1212:

Geop. xv. 2. 8. Varro, iii. 16. Colum. ix. 14. Pallad. vii. 8. Cato.
81.

Footnote 1213:

Plin. xxi. 47.

Footnote 1214:

At present the hives, we are told, are set on the ground in rows
enclosed within a low wall. Chandler, ii. 143.

-----

The fences of apiaries were made high and strong to protect the inmates
from the inroads of the bears,[1215] which would otherwise have
overthrown the hives and devoured all the combs.[1216] Another enemy of
the bee was the Merops,[1217] which makes its appearance about Hymettos
towards the end of summer.[1218]

-----

Footnote 1215:

Phile gives a long list of the bees’ foes, which begins as follows:

Ὄφις, δὲ καὶ σφὴξ, καὶ χελιδὼν, καὶ φρύνος,
Μύρμηξ τε, καὶ σὴς, αἰγιθαλὴς, καὶ φάλαγξ,
Καὶ σαῦρος ὦχρὸς, καὶ φαγεῖν δεινὸς μέροψ,
Σμήνει μελισσῶν δυσμενεῖς ὁδοστάται.

Iamb. De Animal. Proprietat. c. 30, p. 104, seq.

Footnote 1216:

Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 5. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 54.

Footnote 1217:

Besides this enemy the bees of America have another still more
audacious, that is to say, the monkey, which either carries off their
combs or crushes them for the purpose of dipping his tail in the
honey, which he afterwards sucks at his leisure. Schneider, Observ.
sur Ulloa, t. ii. p. 199.—See a very amusing chapter on the enemies of
the bee in Della Rocca, iii. 219, sqq.

Footnote 1218:

Sibthorpe in Walp. Mem. i. 75. The practice, moreover, of stealing
hives was not unknown to the ancients. Plat. De Legg. t. viii. p. 104.

-----

There were, in ancient times, two entrances, one on either hand, and on
the top a lid, which the Melitturgos could remove when he desired to
take the honey, or inspect the condition of the bees. The best of these
lids were made of bark, the worst of earthenware, which were cold in
winter, and in summer exceedingly hot.[1219] It was considered necessary
during spring and the succeeding season for the bee-keeper to inspect
the hives thrice a month, to fumigate them slightly, and remove all
filth and vermin. He was careful, likewise, to destroy the usurpers if
there were more than one queen,[1220] since, in Varro’s[1221] opinion,
they gave rise to sedition; but Aristotle thinks there ought to be
several, lest one should die, and the hive along with it. Of the queen
bees there are three kinds, the black, the ruddy, and the variegated;
though Menecrates, who is good authority, speaks only of the black and
variegated.[1222] Aristotle, however, describes the reddish queen bee as
the best. Even among the working insects there are two kinds, the
smaller, in form round, and variegated in colour, the larger, which is
the tame bee, less active and beautiful. The former, or wild bee,[1223]
frequents the mountains, forests, and other solitary places, labours
indefatigably, and collects honey in great quantities; the latter, which
feeds among gardens, and in man’s neighbourhood, fills its hive more
slowly.[1224] With respect to the drones, or males, which the working
bees generally expel at a certain time of the year, the Attic melitturgi
got rid of them in a very ingenious manner. It was observed, that these
gentlemen though no way inclined to work, would yet occasionally, on
very fine days, go abroad for exercise, rushing forth in squadrons,
mounting aloft into the air, and there wheeling, and sporting, and
manœuvring in the sun.[1225] Taking advantage of their absence, they
spread a fine net over the hive-entrance, the meshes of which, large
enough to admit the bee, would exclude the drone. On returning,
therefore, they found themselves, according to the old saying, “on the
smooth side of the door,” and were compelled to seek fresh
lodgings.[1226]

-----

Footnote 1219:

Colum. ix. 6. Della Rocca, however, considers this kind as equal to
any other, except that it is more fragile. t. ii. p. 17.

Footnote 1220:

Geop. xv. 2. 15.

Footnote 1221:

De Re Rust. iii. 16, 18. Colum. ix. 9. 6. Hist. Anim. v. 19, 22.
Xenoph. Œconom. vii. 32.

Footnote 1222:

Cf. Geop. xv. 2, 6.

Footnote 1223:

On the humble bee, see Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 831.

Footnote 1224:

Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 16.

Footnote 1225:

Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 27.

Footnote 1226:

Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 21. Cf. Xenoph. Œcon. xvii. 14, seq.

-----

In late springs, or when there is a drought or blight, the bees breed
very little, but make a great deal of honey, whereas in wet seasons they
keep more at home, and attend to breeding. Swarms in Greece[1227]
appeared about the ripening of the olive. Aristotle is of opinion, that
honey is not manufactured by the bee, but falls perfectly formed from
the atmosphere, more especially at the heliacal rising or setting of
certain stars, and when the rainbow appears. He observes, too, that no
honey is found before the rising of the Pleiades,[1228] which happens
about the thirteenth of May.[1229] This opinion is in exact conformity
with the fact, that at certain seasons of the year what is called the
honey dew descends, covering thick the leaves of the oak, and several
other trees, which at such times literally drop with honey. On these
occasions the bees find little to do beyond the labour of conveying it
to their cells, and, accordingly, have been known to fill the hive in
one or two days. It has been observed, moreover, that autumn flowers,
which yield very little fragrance, yield, also, little or no honey. In
the kingdom of Pontos there was a race of white bees which made honey
twice a month; and at Themiscyra there were those which built their
combs both in hives and in the earth, producing very little wax, but a
great deal of honey.[1230]

-----

Footnote 1227:

Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 425. In the island of Cuba, where the tame
bee was originally introduced by the English, it has been found to
swarm and multiply with incredible rapidity, each hive sometimes
sending forth two swarms per month, so that the mountains are
absolutely filled with them. This rapid increase seems to have taken
place chiefly in the neighbourhood of the sugar plantations, which
they were long since supposed to deteriorate by extracting too much
honey from the cane. Don Ulloa, Memoires Philosophiques, &c., t. i. p.
185. In North America where bees are known among the natives by the
name of the “English Flies,” they betray an invariable tendency for
migrating southward. Kalm. t. ii. 427. Schneider, Observ. sur Ulloa,
ii. 198.

Footnote 1228:

Hist. Anim. v. 22. Orion rises on the 9th of July, Gœttling ad Hesiod.
Opp. et Dies, 598. Arcturus, 18th September. Id. 610.

Footnote 1229:

A similar opinion has been sometimes maintained also by the
moderns:—“I have heard,” observes Lord Bacon, “from one that was
industrious in husbandry, that the labour of the bee is about the wax,
and that he hath known in the beginning of May, honey combs empty of
honey, and within a fortnight when the sweet dews fall filled like a
cellar.”—Sylva Sylvarum, 612.

Footnote 1230:

Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 22. In the Crimea wild bees are found in great
abundance in the clefts and caverns of the mountains.—Pallas, Travels
in Southern Russia, iii. 324. Among the numerous species of wild bees
found in America there is one which pre-eminently deserves to be
introduced into Europe and brought under the dominion of man. This bee
does not, like the ordinary kind, deposit its honey in combs but in
separate waxen cells about the size and shape of a pigeon’s egg. As
the honey of this bee is of an excellent quality, many persons in
South America have been at the pains to tame its maker, whose labours
have proved extremely profitable.—Schneider, Observ. sur Ulloa, ii.
200.

-----

When the time of year arrived for robbing the bee, some hives were found
to produce five, others ten, others fifteen quarts of honey, still
leaving sufficient for winter consumption.[1231] And in determining what
quantity would suffice great judgment was required; for if too much
remained the labourers grew indolent, if too little they lost their
spirits. However, in this latter case the bee-keepers, having
ascertained that they were in need of food, introduced a number of sweet
figs, and other similar fruit into the hive, as now we do moist sugar in
a split cane. Elsewhere the practice was to boil a number of rich figs
in water[1232] till they were reduced to a jelly, which was then formed
into cakes and set near the hive. Together with this, some bee-keepers
placed honey-water, wherein they threw locks of purple wool, on which
the bees might stand to drink.[1233] Certain melitturgi, desirous of
distinguishing their own bees[1234] when spread over the meadows,
sprinkled them with fine flour. Mention is made of a person who obtained
five thousand pounds’ weight of honey annually; and Varro[1235] speaks
of two soldiers who, with a small country house, and an acre of ground
left them by their father, realised an independent fortune.

-----

Footnote 1231:

Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 27. 24. In Attica, the honey was taken about
the summer solstice; at Rome about the festival of Vulcan, in the
month of August.—Winkelmann. Hist. de l’Art, i. 65. But commentators
are not at all agreed respecting the meaning of Pliny, whom this
writer relies upon. xi. 15. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 797.

Footnote 1232:

Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 27. 19. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 752. Cf. Meurs.
Græc. Ludib. p. 13.

Footnote 1233:

Varro, de Re Rust. iii. 16.

Footnote 1234:

A gentleman in Surrey desirous of knowing his own bees, when he should
chance to meet them in the fields, touched their wings with vermilion
as they were issuing from the hive. Being one fine day in summer on a
visit at Hampstead, he found them thickly scattered among the wild
flowers on the heath.

Footnote 1235:

De Re Rust. iii. 16.

-----

Theophrastus, in a fragment[1236] of one of his lost works, speaks of
three different kinds of honey, one collected from flowers, another
which, according to his philosophy, descended pure from heaven, and a
third produced from canes. This last, which was sometimes denominated
Indian honey, is the sugar of modern times. There appear, likewise, to
have been other kinds of sugar manufactured from different substances,
as Tamarisk and Wheat.[1237] The honey-dew, on the production of which
the ancients[1238] held many extraordinary opinions, was supposed to be
superior to the nectar of the bee.

-----

Footnote 1236:

Preserved by Photius. Biblioth. cod. 278. p. 529. b.

Footnote 1237:

Herod. vii. 31. Cf. iv. 194.

Footnote 1238:

On the origin of the honeydew, see the Quarterly Journal of
Agriculture, No. XLIV. p. 499, sqq.

-----

Amyntas, in his Stations of Asia, cited by Athenæus, gives a curious
account of this sort of honey which was collected in various parts of
the East, particularly in Syria. In some cases they gathered the leaves
of the tree, chiefly the linden and the oak, on which the dew was most
abundantly[1239] found, and pressed them together like those masses of
Syrian figs, which were called _palathè_. Others allowed it to drop from
the leaves and harden into globules, which, when desirous of using, they
broke, and, having poured water thereon in wooden bowls called
_tabaitas_, drank the mixture. In the districts of Mount Lebanon[1240]
the honey-dew fell plentifully several times during the year, and was
collected by spreading skins under the trees, and shaking into them the
liquid honey from the leaves; they then filled therewith numerous
vessels, in which it was preserved for use. On these occasions, the
peasants used to exclaim, “Zeus has been raining honey!”

-----

Footnote 1239:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 7. 6. Cf. Hes. Opp. et Dies, 232. seq. Cf.
Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum. 496.

Footnote 1240:

Schneid. Comm. ad Theoph. Frag. t. iv. p. 822.

-----

CHAPTER II.
GARDEN AND ORCHARD.

Lord Bacon, who loved to be surrounded by plants and trees and flowers,
delivers it as his opinion, that the scientific culture of gardens
affords a surer mark of the advance of civilisation than any improvement
in the science of architecture, since men, he observes, enjoyed the
luxury of magnificent palaces before that of picturesque and
well-ordered garden-grounds. This, likewise, was the conviction of the
ancient Greeks,[1241] in whose literature we everywhere discover
vestiges of a passion for that voluptuous solitude which men taste in
artificial and secluded plantations, amid flower-beds and arbours and
hanging vines and fountains and smooth shady walks. No full description,
however, of an Hellenic garden has survived; even the poets have
contented themselves with affording us glimpses of their “studious walks
and shades.” We must, therefore, endeavour, by the aid of scattered
hints, chance expressions, fragments, and a careful study of the natural
and invariable productions of the country, to work out for ourselves a
picture of what the gardens of Peisistratos, or Cimon, or Pericles, or
Epicurus, whom Pliny[1242] denominates the _magister hortorum_, or any
other Grecian gentleman, must in the best ages have been.

-----

Footnote 1241:

But see Dr. Nolan on the Grecian Rose, Trans. Roy. Soc. ii. p. 330,
and Poll. i. 229.

Footnote 1242:

Hist. Nat. xix. 4. Dr. Nolan, p. 330. Nic. Caussin. De Eloquent. xi.
p. 727, seq. Cic. De Senect. § 17. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. xiii. 18, has
a brief but interesting description of the garden of the Indian kings,
with its evergreen groves, fish-ponds, and flights of peacocks,
pheasants, and parrots, reckoned sacred by the Brahmins. Cf. Xenoph.
Œconom. iv. 13, where he celebrates the fondness of the Persian kings
for gardens.

-----

That portion of the ground[1243] which was devoted to the culture of
sweet-smelling shrubs and flowers, usually approached and projected
inwards between the back wings of the house, so that from the windows
the eye might alight upon the rich and variegated tints of the
parterres[1244] intermingled with verdure, while the evening and morning
breeze wafted clouds of fragrance into the apartments.[1245] The lawns,
shrubberies, bosquets, thickets, arcades, and avenues, were, in most
cases, laid out in a picturesque though artificial manner, the principal
object appearing to have been to combine use with magnificence, and to
enjoy all the blended hues and odours which the plants and trees
acclimated in Hellas could afford. Protection, in summer, from the sun’s
rays, is, in those southern latitudes, an almost necessary ingredient of
pleasure, and, therefore, numerous trees, as the cedar,[1246] the
cypress, the black and white poplar,[1247] the ash, the linden, the elm,
and the platane, rose here and there in the grounds, in some places
singly, elsewhere in clumps, uniting their branches above, and affording
a cool and dense shade. Beneath these umbrageous arches the air was
further refrigerated by splashing fountains,[1248] whose waters, through
numerous fair channels, straight or winding, as the use demanded of them
required,[1249] spread themselves over the whole garden, refreshing the
eye and keeping up a perpetual verdure. Copses of myrtles, of roses, of
agnus-castus,[1250] and other odoriferous shrubs intermingled,
clustering round a pomegranate-tree, were usually placed on elevated
spots,[1251] that, being thus exposed to the winds, they might the more
freely diffuse their sweetness. The spaces between trees were sometimes
planted with roses,[1252] and lilies, and violets, and golden
crocuses;[1253] and sometimes presented a breadth of smooth, close,
green sward, sprinkled with wild-flowers, as the violet and the blue
veronica,[1254] the pink, and the pale primrose, the golden motherwort,
the cowslip, the daisy, the pimpernel, and the periwinkle. In many
gardens the custom was, to plant each kind of tree in separate groups,
and each species of flower-bed also had, as now in Holland,[1255] a
distinct space assigned to it; so that there were beds of white
violets,[1256] of irises, of the golden cynosure,[1257] of hyacinths, of
ranunculuses, of the blue campanula, or Canterbury bells, of white
gilliflowers, carnations, and the branchy asphodel.

-----

Footnote 1243:

Here sometimes were grown both vegetables, as lettuces, radishes,
parsley, &c., and flowering shrubs, as the wild or rose-laurel, which
was supposed to be a deadly poison to horses and asses. Lucian. Luc.
siv. Asin. § 17.

Footnote 1244:

Luc. Piscat. § 6.

Footnote 1245:

Geop. x. 1. 1. xii. 2.

Footnote 1246:

The cedar still grows wild on the promontory of Sunium. Chandler, ii.
8.

Footnote 1247:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 4.

Footnote 1248:

Plato describes, though not in a garden, a fountain and a plane-tree,
in language so picturesque and harmonious, that it has captivated the
imagination of all succeeding writers, many of whom have sought to
express their admiration by imitating it in their own style:—Ἥ τε γὰρ
πλάτανος αὕτη μάλ’ ἀμφιλαφής τε καὶ ὑψηλή, τοῦ τε ἄγνου τὸ ὕψος καὶ τὸ
σύσκιον πάγκαλον, καὶ ὡς ἀγμὴν ἔχει τῆς ἀνθης, ὡς ἄν εὐωδέστατον
παρέχοι τὸν τόπον· ἥ τε αὖ πηγὴ χαριεστάτη ὑπο τῆς πλατάνου ῥεῖ μάλα
ψυχροῦ ὕδατος, ὥς τε γε τῷ ποδὶ τεκμήρασθαι· νυμφῶν τε τινων καὶ
Ἀχελώου ἱερὸν ἀπὸ τῶν κορῶν τε καὶ ἀγαλμάτων ἔοικεν εἶναι· εἰ δ᾽ αὖ
βούλει, τὸ εὔπνουν τοῦ τόπου ὡς ἀγαπητὸν καὶ σφόδρα ἡδὺ· θερινόν τε
καὶ λιγυρὸν ὑπηχεῖ τῷ τῶν τεττίγων χορῷ, πάντων δὲ κομψότατον τὸ τῆς
πόας ὅτι ἐν ἠρέμα προσάντει ἱκανὴ πέφυκε κατακλινέντι τὴν κεφαλὴν
παγκάλως ἔχειν. Phæd. t. i. p. 8, seq. The prevailing image in this
passage is thus expressed by Cicero: “Cur non imitamur Socratem illum,
qui est in Phædro Platonis; nam me hæc tua platanus admonuit, quæ non
minus ad opacandum hunc locum patulis est diffusa ramis, quam illa
cujus umbram secutus est Socrates quæ mihi videtur non tam ipsa
aquula, quæ describitur, quam Platonis oratione crevisse.” De Orat. i.
7. The picture is slightly varied by Aristinætos, who introduces it
into a garden:—Ἡ δὲ πηγὴ χαριεστάτη ὑπὸ τῇ πλατάνῳ ῥεῖ ὕδατος εὖ μάλα
ψυχροῦ, ὥς γε τῷ ποδὶ τεκμήρασθαι, καὶ διαφανοῦς τοσοῦτον, ὥστε
συνεπινηχομένων καὶ διὰ διαυγὲς ὑδάτιον διαπλεκομένων ἐπαφροδίτως
ἀλλήλοις, ἅπαν ἡμῶν φανερῶς ἀποκαταφαίνεσθαι μέλος. Epist. Lib.i.
Epist. 3. p. 14. On the epithet ἀμφιλαφὴς, which Ruhnken (ad Tim. Lex.
p. 24) observes was almost exclusively appropriated by the ancients to
the Plane tree, see Apollon. Rhod. ii. 733. Wellauer. et schol.

Footnote 1249:

Where running water was not to be obtained, they constructed two
gardens, the one for winter, which depended on the showers, the other
on a northern exposure, where a fresh, cool air was preserved
throughout the summer. Geop. xii. 5.

Footnote 1250:

Used by rustics in crowns. Athen. xv. 12. Prometheus was crowned with
agnus-castus. 13.

Footnote 1251:

Geop. xi. 7. Plin. xv. 18.

Footnote 1252:

Geop. x. 1. 3.

Footnote 1253:

Which delighted particularly in the edges of paths and trodden places.
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6.1.

Footnote 1254:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 5, sqq.

Footnote 1255:

Laing, Notes of a Traveller, p. 6.

Footnote 1256:

Geop. xi. 21, 23, sqq.

Footnote 1257:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 79. pl. 203. pl. 334, &c.

-----

One of the principal causes which induced the Greeks to attend to the
culture of ornamental shrubs and flowers, was the perpetual use made of
them in crowns and garlands.[1258] Nearly all their ceremonies, whether
civil or religious, were performed by individuals wearing certain
wreaths about their brow. Thus the Spartans, during the Promachian
festival,[1259] shaded their foreheads with plaited tufts of
reeds—priests and priestesses, soothsayers,[1260] prophets, and
enchanters, appeared in their several capacities before the gods in
temples or sacred groves with symbolical crowns encircling their heads,
as the priests of Hera, at Samos, with laurel,[1261] and those of
Aphrodite with myrtle,[1262] while the statues of the divinities
themselves were often crowned with circlets of these “earthly stars.” In
the festival of Europa, at Corinth, a crown of myrtle, thirty feet in
circumference, was borne in procession through the city.[1263] The
actors, dancers, and spectators of the theatre usually appeared crowned
with flowers,[1264] as did every guest at an entertainment, while lovers
suspended a profusion of garlands on the doors of their mistresses, as
did the devout on the temples and altars of the gods.[1265]

-----

Footnote 1258:

Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἀφ’ ὧν ζῶσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ταῦτα ἡ γῆ φέρει
ἐργαζομένοις· καὶ ἀφ’ ὧν τοίνυν ἡδυπαθοῦσι προσεπιφέρει.—Ἔπειτα δὲ ὅσα
κοσμοῦσι βωμοὺς και ἀγάλματα, καὶ οἷς αὐτοὶ κοσμοῦνται, καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ
ἡδίστων ὀσμῶν καὶ θεαμάτων παρέχει. κ. τ. λ. Xenoph. Œconom. v. 2,
seq.

Pliny has a curious passage on the use of crowns among the Romans,
which Holland has thus translated: “Now when these garlands of flowers
were taken up and received commonly in all places for a certain time,
there came soon after into request those chaplets which are named
Egyptian; and after them, winter coronets, to wit, when the earth
affordeth no flowers to make them, and these consisted of horn
shavings dyed into sundry colours. And so in process of time, by
little and little crept into Rome, also the name of corolla, or as one
would say, petty garlands; for that these winter chaplets at first
were so pretty and small: and not long after them, the costly coronets
and others, corollaries, namely, when they are made of thin leaves and
plates and latten, either gilded or silvered over, or else set out
with golden and silvered spangles, and so presented.” xxi. 2. Pollux
affords a list of the principal flowers used in crowns by the Greeks:
τὰ δὲ ἐν τοῖς στεφάνοις ἄνθη, ῥόδα, ἴα, κρίνα, σισύμθρια, ἀνεμῶναι,
ἕρπυλος, κρόκος, ὑάκινθος, ἑλίχρυσος, ἡμεροκαλὲς, ἑλένειον, θρυαλὶς,
ἀνθρίσκος, νάρκισσος, μελίλωτον, ἀνθεμὶς, παρθενὶς, καὶ τἄλλα ὅσα τοῖς
ὀφθαλμοῖς τέρψιν, ἠῥισὶν ἡδεῖαν ὄσφρησιν ἔχει. Cratinus enumerates
among garland flowers, those of the smilax and the cosmosandalon.
Onomast. vi. 106. Athen. xv. 32. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 1. 2–6.
4. Persons returning from a voyage were sometimes crowned with
flowers. Plut. Thes. § 22. Soldiers also going to battle. Ages. § 19.
Cf Philost. Icon. i. 24. p. 799. Plut. Sympos. iii. 1.

Footnote 1259:

Athen. xv. 15.

Footnote 1260:

Id. xv. 16.

Footnote 1261:

Id. xv. 13.

Footnote 1262:

Id. xv. 18.

Footnote 1263:

Id. xv. 22.

Footnote 1264:

Id. xv. 26.

Footnote 1265:

Athen. xv. 9.

-----

Most of the flowers cultivated, moreover, suggested poetical or
mythological associations; for the religion of Greece combined itself
with nearly every object in nature, more particularly with the
beautiful, so that the Greek, as he strolled through his garden, had
perpetually before his fancy a succession of fables connected with
nymphs and goddesses and the old hereditary traditions of his county.
Thus the laurel recalled the tale and transformation of Daphnè,[1266]
the object of Apollo’s love—the cypresses or graces of the vegetable
kingdom,[1267] were the everlasting representatives of Eteocles’
daughters, visited by death because they dared to rival the goddesses in
dancing—the myrtle[1268] was a most beautiful maiden of Attica, fairer
than all her countrywomen, swifter and more patient of toil than the
youth, who therefore slew her through envy—the pine[1269] was the tall
and graceful mistress of Pan and Boreas—the mint that of Pluto—while the
rose-campion sprung from the bath of Aphrodite, and the humble cabbage
from the tears of Lycurgus, the enemy of Dionysos.[1270]

-----

Footnote 1266:

Geop. xi. 2. Ovid. Metam. 550.

Footnote 1267:

Geop. xi. 4.

Footnote 1268:

Geop. xi. 6.

Footnote 1269:

Geop. xi. 10. Cf. Plut. Sympos. vol. iii. 1, where he assigns the
reason why the pine was sacred to Poseidon and Dionysos. The foliage
of the pine-forests was so dense in Bœotia as to permit neither snow
nor rain to penetrate through. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 9. 6. The
shade of such trees, therefore, would be more especially coveted.

Footnote 1270:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 537. Geop. xii. 17. 16.

-----

It has sometimes been supposed,[1271] that the flower which constitutes
the greatest ornament of gardens was wholly unknown in the early ages of
Greece. But this theory, imagined for the purpose of destroying the
claims of the Anacreontic fragments to be considered genuine,[1272] is
entirely overthrown by the testimony of several ancient writers, more
particularly Herodotus,[1273] who speaks of the rose of sixty leaves, as
found in the gardens of Midas in Thrace, at the foot of the snowy
Bermios. Elswhere, too, he compares the flower of the red Niliac
lotus[1274] to the rose; and Stesichoros,[1275] an older poet than
Anacreon, distinctly mentions chaplets composed of this flower.

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.

-----

Footnote 1271:

By Dr. Nolan. See his paper on the Grecian Rose. Trans. Roy. Soc. of
Lit. ii. 327, sqq.

Footnote 1272:

Cf. Athen. xv. 11.

Footnote 1273:

Οἱ δὲ, ἀπικόμενοι ἐς ἄλλην γῆν τῆς Μακεδόνιης, οἴκησαν πέλας τῶν κήπων
τῶν λεγομένων εἶναι Μίδεω τοῦ Γορδίεω. ἐν τοῖσι φύεται αὐτόματα ῥόδα,
ἕν ἕκαστον ἔχον ἑξήκοντα φύλλα ὀδμῆ δὲ ὑπερφέροντα τῶν ἀλλων· ἐν
τούτοισι καὶ ὁ Σιληνὸς τοῖσι κήποισι ἥλω, ὡς λέγεται ὑπὸ Μακεδόνων.
ὑπὲρ δὲ τῶν κήτων οὖρος κέεται, Βέρμιον οὔνομα, ἄβατον ὑπὸ χειμῶνος.
viii. 138. On the arts and manners of this Midas, who, together with
Orpheus and Eumolpos was the founder of the Hellenic religion, see J.
G. Voss. de Idololat. i. 24, and Bouhier, Dissert. sur Herod. ch. 80.

Footnote 1274:

Cf. Theop. Hist. Plant. iv. 87.

Footnote 1275:

Athen. iii. 21. Stesichoros lived before Christ about 632. Clint.
Fast. Hellen. ii. 5. Crowns of roses are mentioned by Cratinus who was
born 519 B. C. which shows that roses must have been largely
cultivated in his time. Athen. xv. 27.

-----

Homer,[1276] too, it is evident, was familiar with the rose, to whose
fragrant petals he compares the fingers of the morning, and not, as has
been imagined, to the blood-red flower of the wild pomegranate
tree.[1277]

-----

Footnote 1276:

Il. α. 477. ι. 703. Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 610. To place the matter
beyond dispute, Homer speaks of oils rendered fragrant by the perfume
of the rose:—ῥοδόεντι δὲ χρῖεν ἐλαίῳ. Il. ψ. 186.

Footnote 1277:

Dioscor. i. 154.

-----

According, moreover, to a tradition preserved to later times, the
seasons of the year, which in remote antiquity were but three, they
symbolically represented by a rose, an ear of corn, and an apple.[1278]
This division is thought to have been borrowed from the Egyptians, in
whose country, however, the apple was never sufficiently naturalised to
be taken as an emblem of one of the seasons of the year.

-----

Footnote 1278:

“Les Egyptiens, selon le département de leur Roy Horus, n’en mettaient
que trois (saisons): le printemps, l’esté, et l’automne: leur
attribuans quatre mois à chacune, et les figurans par une rose, une
espy, et une pomme, ou raisin.” Les Images de Platte Peinture des deux
Philostrates, par Vigenère, Paris, fol. 1627, p. 555.

-----

But, at whatever period the rose began to be cultivated, it evidently,
as soon as known, shared with the violet the admiration of the Athenian
people, whose extensive plantations of this most fragrant shrub recall
to mind the rose gardens of the Fayoum, or Serinaghur. The secret,
moreover, was early discovered of hastening or retarding their maturity,
so as to obtain an abundant supply through every month in the
year.[1279] Occasionally, too, numbers of rosebuds were laid among green
barleystalks, plucked up by the roots, in unglazed amphoræ, to be
brought forth and made to blow when wanted. Others deposited them
between layers of the same material on the ground, or dipped them in the
liquid dregs of olives. Another mode of preserving the rose was
exceedingly curious,—cutting off the top of a large standing reed, and
splitting it down a little way, they inserted a number of rosebuds in
the hollow, and then bound it softly round and atop with papyrus in
order to prevent their fragrance from exhaling.[1280] How many varieties
of this flower[1281] were possessed by the ancients it is now, perhaps,
impossible to determine; but they were acquainted with the common, the
white, and the moss rose, the last, in Aristotle’s[1282] opinion, the
sweetest, together with the rose of a hundred leaves,[1283] celebrated
by the Persian poets. Even the wild rose was not wholly inodorous in
Greece.[1284] Roses were artificially blanched by being exposed while
unfolding to powerful and repeated fumigations with sulphur.[1285] The
roses which grew on a dry soil were supposed to be the sweetest, while
their fragrance was augmented by planting garlic near the root.[1286] To
cause them to bloom in January, or in early spring (for even in the most
southern parts of Greece the rose season only commences in April)[1287]
various means were resorted to; sometimes, the bushes were watered twice
a-day during the whole summer; on other occasions, a shallow trench was
dug at a distance of about eighteen inches round the bush, into which
warm water was poured morning and evening;[1288] while a third, and,
perhaps, the surest, method was to plant them in pots, or baskets,
which, during the winter months, were placed in sheltered sunny spots by
day,[1289] and carried into the house at night; afterwards, when the
season was sufficiently advanced, these portable gardens were buried in
the earth.

-----

Footnote 1279:

Geop. xi. 18. A species of perpetual rose is said to have been
recently discovered in France, where “A Parisian florist, we are told,
has succeeded in producing a new hybrid rose from the Bourbon rose and
Gloire de Rosomène, the flowers of which he had fertilised with the
pollen of some Damask and hybrid China roses. The plant is extremely
beautiful, the colour bright crimson shaded with Maroon purple, and is
further enriched with a powerful fragrance.” TIMES, March 24th, 1841.

Footnote 1280:

Geop. xi. 18. 12.

Footnote 1281:

Plinius varia genera commemorat, Milesia ardentissimo colore,
Alabandica albicantibus foliis, Spermonia vilissima, Damascenæ albæ
distillandis aquis usurpantur. Differunt foliorum multitudine,
asperitate, lævore, colore, odore.—Heresbachius, de Re Rustica, lib.
ii. p. 121. a.

Footnote 1282:

Problem. xii. 8. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 5.

Footnote 1283:

Athen. xv. 29. Plin. xxi. 10. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 4.

Footnote 1284:

As Dr. Nolan seems to suppose. On the Grecian Rose. Transact. Roy.
Soc. ii. 328. Though Theophrastus states the contrary very distinctly.
Hist. Plant. vi. 2. 1—6. 4—7. 5. The white rose appears at present to
be commonly cultivated in Attica.—Chandler, ii. 181.

Footnote 1285:

Geop. xi. 18. 13.

Footnote 1286:

Geop. xi. 18. 1.

Footnote 1287:

Pashley, Trav. i. 8, who observes, that the rose is common in February
at Malta.

Footnote 1288:

Geop. xi. 18. 5. Plin. xxi. 4. Pallad. iii. 21. 2.

Footnote 1289:

Geop. xi. 18. 4. Cf. xii. 19. 3.

-----

Another favorite denizen of Hellenic gardens was the lily, which,
probably, introduced from Suza or from Egypt, beheld the virginal snow
of its bells compelled, by art, to put on various hues, as deep red and
purple,[1290]—the former, by infusing, before planting, cinnabar into
the bulb,—the latter, by steeping it in the lees of purple wine. This
flower naturally begins to bloom[1291] just as the roses are fading;
but, to produce a succession of lilies at different seasons, some were
set near the surface, which grew up and blossomed immediately, while
others were buried at different depths, according to the times at which
they were required to flower.

Along with these, about the dank borders of streams or fountains, grew
the favourite flower of the Athenian people, purple, double, white, and
gold,[1292]

“The violet dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes,
Or Cytherea’s breath;”[1293]

the pansy,[1294] “freaked with jet;” the purple cyperus, the iris, the
water-mint,[1295] and hyacinth,[1296] and the narcissus,[1297] and the
willow-herb, and the blue speedwell, and the marsh-marigold, or, brave
bassinet, and the jacinth, and early daffodil,

“That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”

-----

Footnote 1290:

Geop. xi. 20. Heresbach. de Re Rust. p. 122. b. Theoph. Hist. Plant.
vi. 6. 4, 8.

Footnote 1291:

Plin. xxi. 13.

Footnote 1292:

Colum. De Cultu Hortorum, x. 102.

Footnote 1293:

Winter’s Tale, iv. 5.

Footnote 1294:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 222, tab. 318. Schol. Aristoph. Eq.
1320. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 4. The finest violets, crocusses,
&c., in the ancient world, were supposed to be found in Cyrene. Id.
vi. 6. 5.

Footnote 1295:

Dioscor. ii. 155.

Footnote 1296:

On the birth of the Hyacinth, see Eudocia in the Anecdota Græca, i.
408.

Footnote 1297:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 9. 8. 2. This flower flourishes after the
setting of Arcturus, about the autumnal equinox.—“We were ferried over
a narrow stream fringed with Agnus-Castus, into a garden belonging to
the convent. A number of vernal flowers now blossomed on its banks;
the garden anemone was crimsoned with an extraordinary glow of
colouring. The soil which was a sandy loam, was further enlivened with
the Ixia, the grass-leaved Iris, and the enamel-blue of a species of
speedwell, not noticed by the Swedish Naturalist.” Sibth. Walp. Mem.
i. 282, seq.

-----

A netting of wild thyme[1298] tufted with sweet mint, and
marjoram,[1299] which, when crushed by the foot, yielded the most
delicious fragrance, embraced the sunny hillocks, while here and there
singly, or in beds, grew a profusion of other herbs and flowers, some
prized for their medicinal virtues, others for their beauty, others for
their delicate odour, as the geranium, the spike-lavender, the
rosemary,[1300] with its purple and white flowers, the basil,[1301] the
flower-gentle, the hyssop, the white privet, the cytisus, the sweet
marjoram, the rose-campion, or columbine,[1302] the yellow amaryllis,
and the celandine. Here, too,

“Their gem-like eyes
The Phrygian melilots disclose,”[1303]

with the balm-gentle, the red, the purple, and the coronal
anemone,[1304] the convolvulus, yellow, white, pale pink, and blue,
together with our Lady’s-gloves, the flower of the Trinity,
southernwood,[1305] and summer-savory,[1306] œnanthe,[1307] gith, the
silver sage,[1308] Saint Mary’s thistle, and the amaranth, while high
above all rose the dark pyramidal masses of the rhododendron,[1309] with
its gigantic clusters of purple flowers.

-----

Footnote 1298:

This plant was brought from Mount Hymettos, to be cultivated in the
gardens of Athens. The Sicyonians, likewise, transplanted it to their
gardens from the mountains of Peloponnesos.—Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi.
7. 2.

Footnote 1299:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 7. 4.

Footnote 1300:

Dioscor. iii. 89. Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 14, tab. 192, seq.
tab. 310, tab. 518, tab. 549. Column. x. De Cult. Hort. 96, sqq.

Footnote 1301:

The basil-gentle was watered at noon, other plants morning and
evening.—Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 5. 2.

Footnote 1302:

Dioscor. iii. 114.

Footnote 1303:

Colum. x. 399, seq. Engl. Trans.

Footnote 1304:

The anemone among other flowers beautifies the fields of Attica, so
early as the month of February.—Chandler, ii. 211. “Les campagnes et
les collines sont rouges d’anémones.”—Della Rocca, Traité sur les
Abeilles, t. i. p. 5.

Footnote 1305:

Cultivated usually in pots, resembling the gardens of Adonis. Theoph.
Hist. Plant. vi. 7. 3. Thickets of this shrub constitute one of the
greatest beauties of the islands of the Archipelago. “Les lauriers
roses, que l’on conserve en France avec tant de soin, viennent à
l’aventure dans les prairies, et le long des ruisseaux qui en sont
bordés. Rien n’est plus agréable que de voir ces beaux arbres, de la
hauteur de douze à quinze pieds, variés de fleurs rouges et blanches,
se croiser par les branches d’en haut, sur un ruisseau ou sur le lit
d’une fontaine, et faire un berceau qui dure quelquefois un grand
quart de lieue.” Della Rocca, Traité Complet sur les Abeilles, t. i.
p. 6.

Footnote 1306:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 253.

Footnote 1307:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 8. 2.

Footnote 1308:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 27.

Footnote 1309:

Known also by the names of νηρίον and ῥοδοδάφνη.—Dioscor. iv. 82.
Geop. ii. 42. 1.

-----

How many of the lovely evergreens[1310] that abound in Greece were
usually cultivated in a single garden, we possess no means of
ascertaining, though all appear occasionally to have been called in to
diversify the picture. The myrtle,[1311] whose deep blue berries were
esteemed a delicacy,[1312] in some places rose into a tree, while
elsewhere it was planted thick, and bent and fashioned into
bowers,[1313] which, when sprinkled with its snowy blossoms, combined,
perhaps, with those of the jasmine, the eglantine, and the yellow tufts
of the broad-leaved philyrea,[1314] constituted some of the most
beautiful objects in a Greek paradise. Thickets of the tamarisk,[1315]
the strawberry-tree,[1316] the juniper, the box, the bay, the styrax,
the andrachne, and the white-flowered laurel, in whose dark leaves the
morning dew collects and glistens in the sun like so many tiny mirrors
of burnished silver, varied the surface of the lawn, connecting the
bowers, and the copses, and the flower beds, and the grassy slopes with
those loftier piles of verdure, consisting of the pine tree, the smilax,
the cedar, the carob, the maple,[1317] the ash, the elm tree, the
platane,[1318] and the evergreen oak which here and there towered in the
grounds. In many places the vine shot up among the ranges of elms or
platanes, and stretched its long twisted arm from trunk to trunk, like
so many festoons of intermingled leaves and tendrils, and massive
clusters of golden or purple grapes.[1319] Alternating, perhaps, with
the lovely favourite of Dionysos, the blue and yellow clematis[1320]
suspended their living garlands around the stems, or along the boughs of
the trees, in union or contrast with the dodder, or the honeysuckle, or
the delicate and slender briony. And, if perchance a silver fir, with
its bright yellow flowers,[1321] formed part of the group, large pendant
clusters of mistletoe, the food sometimes of the labouring ox,[1322]
might frequently be seen swinging thick among its branches. In some
grounds was probably cultivated the quercus suber,[1323] or cork tree,
with bark four or five inches thick, triennially stripped off,[1324]
after which it grows again with renewed vigour. Occasionally, where
streams and rivulets[1325] found their way through the grounds, the
black and white poplar, the willow, and the lentiscus, with a variety of
tufted reeds, crowded about the margin, here and there shading and
concealing the waters.

-----

Footnote 1310:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 9. 3.

Footnote 1311:

Cf. Clus. Hist. Rar. Plant. i. 43. p. 65.

Footnote 1312:

Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 85. The berry, both of the myrtle and the
laurel, assumed, we are told, a black colour in the garden of
Antandros.—Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 6.

Footnote 1313:

Hemsterhuis, Annot. ad Poll. ix. 49. p. 943. Cf. Dion. Chrysost. i.
273.

Footnote 1314:

Sibthorp. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 2, tab. 367, tab. 374, seq.

Footnote 1315:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 9. 3.

Footnote 1316:

The strawberry-tree is found flourishing in great beauty and
perfection on Mount Helicon, and its fruit is said to be exceedingly
sweet.—Chandler, ii. 290.

Footnote 1317:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 361.

Footnote 1318:

Ἔνθα πλάτανος μὲν ἀμφιλαφής τε καὶ σύσκιος, πνεῦμα δὲ μέτριον, καὶ πόα
μαλθακὴ, ὥρα θέρους ἐπανθεῖν εἰωθυῖα. Aristænet. Epist. lib. i. Epist.
3. p. 13. There was, according to Varro, an evergreen platane tree in
Crete, i. 7. The same platane is mentioned by Theophrastus, who
informs us, that it grew beside a fountain in the Gortynian territory
where Zeus first reclined on landing from the sea with Europa, i. 9.
5. Near the city of Sybaris, there is said to have grown a common oak
which enjoyed the privilege of being undeciduous. Ibid.

Footnote 1319:

Ἄμπελοι δὲ παμμήκεις σφόδρα τε ὑψηλαὶ περιελίττονται κυπαρίττους ὡς
ἀνακλᾷν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ πολὺ τὸν αὐχενα πρὸς θέαν τῶν κύκλῳ συναιωρουμένων
βοτρών, ὧν οἱ μὲν ὀργῶσιν, οἱ δὲ περκάζουσιν οἱ δὲ ὄμφακες, οἱ δὲ
οἰνάνθαι δοκοῦσιν.—Aristænet. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 3. p. 13, seq.

Footnote 1320:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 516.

Footnote 1321:

Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 13. 1.

Footnote 1322:

Dodwell, ii. 455. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 283. There was a species of
mistletoe called the Cretan, which found equally congenial the
climates of Achaia and Media. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 1. 3.

Footnote 1323:

That is to say at a late period, for in the time of Theophrastus it
would seem not to have been common in Greece, if it had been at all
introduced. Hist. Plant. iii. 17. 1.

Footnote 1324:

Dodwell, ii. 455.

Footnote 1325:

Even the platane, also, delights in humid places. Theoph. Hist. Plant.
i. 4. 2. The black poplar was said to bear fruit in several parts of
Crete. iii. 3. 5.

-----

Proceeding now into the orchard we find, that, instead of walls, it was,
sometimes at least, if it touched on the confines of another man’s
grounds, surrounded by hedges[1326] of black and white thorn, brambles,
and barberry bushes, as at present[1327] by impenetrable fences of the
Indian cactus.[1328] On the banks of these hedges, both inside and out,
were found, peculiar tribes of plants and wild flowers, in some places
enamelling the smooth close turf, elsewhere flourishing thickly in dank
masses of verdure, or climbing upwards and interlacing themselves with
the lofty and projecting thorns, such as the enchanter’s nightshade, the
euphorbia, the iris tuberosa, the red-flowered valerian, the
ground-ivy,[1329] the physalis somnifera, with its coral red seeds in
their inflated calyces,[1330] the globularia, the creeping heliotrope,
the penny-cress,[1331] the bright yellow scorpion-flower, and the
broad-leaved cyclamen or our Lady’s-seal, with pink flower, light green
leaf, veined with white and yellow beneath. The ancient Parthians
surrounded their gardens with hedges of a fragrant, creeping shrub
denominated philadelphos or love-brother,[1332] whose long suckers they
interwove into a kind of network forming a sufficient protection against
man and beast. In mountainous districts, where rain-floods were to be
guarded against, the enclosures frequently consisted of walls of loose
stones,[1333] as is still the case in Savoy on the edge of mountain
torrents.

-----

Footnote 1326:

Geop. v. 44. Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 24. p. 112.

Footnote 1327:

Walp. Mem. i. 60.

Footnote 1328:

The cactus, as most travellers will have remarked, flourishes
luxuriantly in Sicily even among the beds of lava where little else
will grow; it appears, however, to delight in a volcanic soil.
Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies, “i. 209. In the Æolian
Islands it thrives so well that it usually grows to the height of ten,
twelve, and sometimes fifteen feet, with a stem a foot or more in
diameter. The fruits, which are nearly as large as turkeys’ eggs, are
sweet and extremely agreeable to the palate. It is well-known that the
fruits grow at the edges of the leaves, the number on each leaf is not
constant, but they are frequently numerous, as I have counted two and
twenty on a single leaf.” iv. 97.

Footnote 1329:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 29. tab. 157. tab. 185.

Footnote 1330:

Sibth. in Walp. Trav. p. 73, seq. On the seasons of these wild flowers
see Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 9. 2.

Footnote 1331:

Dioscor. ii. 186.

Footnote 1332:

Athen. xv. 29.

Footnote 1333:

Demosth. in Callicl. § 1. 3, seq.

-----

It was moreover the custom, both in Greece and Italy, to plant, on the
boundary line of estates, rows of olives or other trees,[1334] which not
only served to mark the limits of a man’s territory, but shed an air of
beauty over the whole country. A proof of this practice prevailing in
Attica, has with much ingenuity[1335] been brought forward from the
“Frogs,” where Bacchos, addressing the poet Æschylus in the shades,
observes “It will be all right provided your anger does not transport
you beyond the olives.” It may likewise be remarked that in
olive-grounds,[1336] the trees, excepting the sacred ones called
_moriæ_, were always planted in straight lines, from twenty-five to
thirty feet[1337] apart, because, in order to ripen the fruit,[1338] it
is necessary that the wind should be able freely to play upon it from
all sides. And further because they delight in a warm dry air like that
of Libya, Cilicia,[1339] and Attica, the best olive-grounds were
generally supposed to be those which occupied the rapid slopes of hills
where the soil is naturally stony and light. The oil of the plains was
commonly coarse and thick.

-----

Footnote 1334:

Cf. Varro. i. 15. Magii Miscellan. lib. iv. p. 187. b. As the
cotton-tree in modern times has been supposed not to thrive at a much
greater distance than twenty miles from the sea; so, among the
ancients, the olive was supposed not to flourish at a greater distance
than three hundred stadia. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 2. 4. Both
opinions are probably erroneous, as the olive-tree is found in
perfection in the Fayoum, and the cotton-plant in Upper Egypt.

Footnote 1335:

Vict. Var. Lect. p. 874. But the Scholiast (Aristoph. Ran. 1026) gives
a different though less probable interpretation to the passage.

Footnote 1336:

Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 3.

Footnote 1337:

Cato. De Re Rusticâ 6. They were sometimes also grafted, we are told,
on lentiscus stocks. Plut. Sympos. ii. 6. 1.

Footnote 1338:

In Syria and some other warm countries the olive was said to produce
fruit in clusters. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 11. 4. And when this
fruit was found chiefly on the upper branches, they augured a
productive year. id. i. 14. 2. Geop. ix. 2. 4. The ancients
entertained extraordinary ideas concerning the purity of the olive,
which they imagined bore more freely when cultivated by persons of
chaste minds. Thus the olive-grounds of Anazarbos, in Cilicia, were
thought to owe their extraordinary fertility to the reserved and
modest manners of the youths who cultivated them. Id. ix. 2. 6.

Footnote 1339:

Geop. ix. 3. 1. Virg. Georg. ii. 179. The heads of olive-stocks when
freshly planted were covered with clay, which was protected from the
wet by a shell. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 14. The pits for the planting of
the olive and other fruit-trees were of considerable depth and dug
long beforehand. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 1.

-----

Among these olive grounds in summer, the song of the tettix[1340] is
commonly heard; for this musical insect loves the olive, which, like the
sant of the Arabian desert, yields but a thin and warm shade.[1341] The
tettix, in fact, though never found in an unwooded country, as in the
plains about Cyrene, equally avoids the dense shade of the woods.[1342]
Here likewise[1343] are found the blackbird, the roller, and three
distinct species of butcher-bird—the small grey, the ash-coloured, and
the redheaded.

-----

Footnote 1340:

Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 582, seq.

Footnote 1341:

Οὐ γίνονται δὲ τέττιγες ὅπου μὴ δένδρα ἐστιν· διὸ καὶ ἐν Κυρήνη οὐ
γίνονται ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ, περὶ δὲ τὴν πόλιν πολλοί, μόλιστα δ᾽ οὗ ἐλαῖαι·
οὐ γὰρ γίνονται παλίν σκίοι. Aristot. Hist. Anim. v. 30. Cf. Phile, de
Animal. Proprietat. c. 25. p. 81.

Footnote 1342:

In Spain, however, these insects exhibit a somewhat different taste,
being there found amid the foliage of the most leafy trees. “Every oak
in the cork-wood near Gibraltar was the abode if not of harmony, at
least of noise, and the concert kept up amidst the foliage by the
numerous grass or rather tree-hoppers was quite deafening.” Napier,
Excursions on the shores of the Mediterranean, ii. p. 2.

Footnote 1343:

Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 75.

-----

In an Attic orchard were most of the trees reared in England, together
with many which will not stand the rigour of our climate.—The
apple,[1344] cultivated with peculiar care in the environs of Delphi and
Corinth; the pear,[1345] the cherry from Cerasos on the southern shore
of the Black Sea,[1346] which sometimes grew to the height of nearly
forty feet,[1347] the damascene,[1348] and the common plum. Along with
these were likewise to be found the quince,[1349] the apricot, the
peach, the nectarine, the walnut, the chestnut, the filbert, introduced
from Pontos,[1350] the hazel nut, the medlar, and the mulberry, which,
according to Menander, is the earliest fruit of the year.[1351] With
these were intermingled the fig, white, purple, and red, the
pomegranate,[1352] from the northern shores of Africa, the orange,[1353]
still planted under artificial shelter at Lemnos, the citron, the
lemon,[1354] the date-palm,[1355] the pistachio, the almond, the
service, and the cornel-tree.

-----

Footnote 1344:

On the cultivation of the apple see Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 3.
Geop. xviii. 18.

Footnote 1345:

Athen. xiv. 63. Etym. Mag. 122. 20.

Footnote 1346:

Geop. x. 41. Plin. xv. 25. Athen. ii. 35.

Footnote 1347:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 13. 1.

Footnote 1348:

Etym. Mag. 211. 4, sqq.

Footnote 1349:

Geop. x. 3. 73.

Footnote 1350:

Geop. xiii. 19. Athen. ii. 38.

Footnote 1351:

Athen. ii. 12. Vid. Cœl. Rhodigin. vii. 15. Bochart, Geog. Sac. col.
629.

Footnote 1352:

Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 3. The fruit of the pomegranate-tree
lost much of its acidity in Egypt. Id. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 7.

Footnote 1353:

In Greece the orange-tree and the lemon blossom in June, Chandler, ii.
238.

Footnote 1354:

Cf. Chandler, ii. 250.

Footnote 1355:

In Babylonia the palm-tree was by some thought to be propagated by
off-shoots. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 2. In Greece, the fruit
seldom ripened completely. iii. 3. 5.

-----

As these gardens were arranged with a view no less to pleasure than to
profit, the trees were planted in lines, which, when sufficiently close,
formed a series of umbrageous avenues, opening here into the lawn and
there into the vineyard, which generally formed part of a Greek
gentleman’s grounds. And such an orchard decked in its summer pride with
foliage of emerald and fruit, ruddy, purple, and gold, the notes of the
thrush, the nightingale,[1356] the tettix, with the “amorous thrill of
the green-finch,”[1357] floating through its boughs, and the perfume of
the agnus-castus, the myrtle, the rose, and the violet, wafting richly
on all sides, was a very paradise.

-----

Footnote 1356:

Ἔτι δὲ τὸ ἔμπνουν τῆς αὔρας λιγυρὸν ὑπηχεῖ τῷ μουσικῷ τῶν τεττίγων
χορῷ δι᾽ ἥν καὶ τὸ πνίγος τῆς μεσημβρίας ἠπιῶτερον ἐγεγόνει ἡδὺ καὶ
ἀηδόνει, περὶ πετόμεναι τὰ νάματα, μελωδοῦσιν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἡδὺ
φώνῶν κατηκούομεν ὀρνίθων, ὥσπερ ἐμμελῶς ὁμιλούντων ανθρώποις.
Aristænet. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 3. p. 17.

Footnote 1357:

“The amorous thrill of the green-finch was now heard distinctly. The
little owl hooted frequently round the walls of the convent. In the
river below, otters were frequently taken. On the sides of the banks
were the holes of the river-crabs; and the green-backed lizard was
sporting among the grass.” Sibth. in Walp. Trav. p. 76.

-----

Not unfrequently, common foot-paths traversed these orchards and
vineyards, in which case the passers-by were customarily, if not by law,
permitted to pick and eat the fruit,[1358] which seems also from the
account of our Saviour to have been the practice in Judæa. The contrary
is the case in modern Europe. In Burgundy and Switzerland, where
pathways traverse vineyards, it is not uncommon to see the grapes
smeared with something resembling white lime which children are assured
is a deadly poison. This, while in the country, I regarded as a mere
stratagem, intended to protect the vineyards from depredation, though
there seems after all to be too much reason to believe the nefarious
practice to exist in several localities. At least two children were
recently killed at Foix by eating poisoned grapes on the way-side.

-----

Footnote 1358:

Plat. De Legg. t. viii. p. 107.

-----

The Greeks placed much of their happiness in spots like those we have
been describing, as may be inferred from such of their fabulous
traditions,[1359] as relate to the garden of the Hesperides,[1360] the
gardens of Midas, with their magnificent roses, and those of
Alcinoös,[1361] which still shed their fragrance over the pages of the
Odyssey. From the East, no doubt, they obtained, along with their
noblest fruit-trees, the art of cultivating them, and, perhaps, that
sacred tradition of the Garden of Eden, preserved in the Scriptures,
formed the basis of many a Hellenic legend.[1362] The Syrians acquired
much celebrity among the ancients for their knowledge of gardening, in
which, according to modern travellers, they still excel. Of the manner
of cultivating fruit-trees in the earlier ages very little is known. No
doubt they soon discovered that some will thrive better in certain soils
and situations than in others, and profited by the discovery; but the
art of properly training and grafting trees is comparatively
modern.[1363]

-----

Footnote 1359:

Eudoc. Ionia. 434.

Footnote 1360:

Plin. xix. 19. Athen. xi. 39.

Footnote 1361:

Bœttig. Fragm. sur les Jar. des Anciens, in Magaz. Encycloped. Ann.
vii. t. i. p. 337. Cardinal Quirini, Primordia Corcyræ, c. vii. p. 60,
sqq.

Footnote 1362:

See in Xenophon a brief description of the gardens of Cyrus. Œconom.
iv. 21. Upon this passage our countryman, Sir Thomas Browne, has
written an elaborate treatise.

Footnote 1363:

On the various methods of propagating trees see Theophrast. Hist.
Plant. ii. 1. 2.

-----

No mention of it occurs in the Pentateuch, though Moses there gives
directions how to manage an orchard. For the first three years the
blossoms were not to be suffered to ripen into fruit, and even in the
fourth all that came was sacred to the Lord. From the fifth year,
onward, they might do with it what they pleased. Of these regulations
the intention was to prevent the early exhaustion of the trees. Homer,
also, is silent on the practice of grafting, nor does any mention of it
occur in the extant works of Hesiod, though Manilius[1364] refers to his
poems in proof of the antiquity of the practice. By degrees, however, it
got into use;[1365] and, in the age of Aristotle,[1366] was already
common, as at present almost everywhere, save in Greece,[1367] since no
fruit was esteemed excellent unless the tree had been grafted. Some few
of the rules they observed in this process may be briefly noticed.[1368]
Trees with a thick rind were grafted in the ordinary way, and sometimes
by inserting the graft between the bark and the wood, which was called
infoliation.[1369] Inoculation, also, or introducing the bud of one tree
into the rind of another, was common among Greek gardeners.[1370] They
were extremely particular in their choice of stocks.[1371] Thus the fig
was grafted only on the platane[1372] and the mulberry; the mulberry on
the chestnut,[1373] the beech, the apple, the terebinth, the wild pear,
the elm, and the white poplar, (whence white mulberries;) the pear on
the pomegranate, the quince, the mulberry, (whence red pears,) the
almond, and the terebinth; apples[1374] on all sorts of wild pears and
quinces, (whence the finest apples called by the Athenians
Melimela,)[1375] on damascenes, also, and _vice versâ_, and on the
platane, (whence red apples.)[1376] Another method of communicating a
blush to this fruit was to plant rose-bushes round the root of the
tree.[1377] The walnut was grafted on the strawberry-tree only;[1378]
the pomegranate on the myrtle[1379] and the willow; the laurel on the
cherry[1380] and the ash; the white peach on the damascene and the
almond; the damascene on the wild pear, the quince, and the apple;
chestnuts on the walnut, the beech, and the oak;[1381] the cherry on the
terebinth, and the peach; the quince on the oxyacanthus; the myrtle on
the willow; and the apricot on the damascene, and the Thasian
almond-tree. The vine, also, was grafted on a cherry and a myrtle-stock,
which produced, in the first case, grapes in spring,[1382] in the
second, a mixed fruit, between the myrtle-berry and the grape.[1383]
When the gardener desired to obtain black citrons, he inserted a
citron-graft into an apple-stock, and, if red, into a mulberry-stock.

-----

Footnote 1364:

Astronomicon, ii. p. 30. l. 4. Scalig. et not. p. 67.

Footnote 1365:

Cf. Athen. xiv. 68.

Footnote 1366:

De Plantis, ii. 6.

Footnote 1367:

Hobhouse, Travels, i. 227. Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce, t. i. p.
297.

Footnote 1368:

Geop. iii. 3. 9. Clem. Alexand. Stromat. l. vi. Opera, t. ii. p. 800.
Venet. 1657.

Footnote 1369:

Geop. xii. 75. x. 75. 19.

Footnote 1370:

Geop. x. 77. Colum. v. 11. 1. Pallad. vii. 5. 2. Plin. xvii. 26. Cato.
42. Virg. Georg. ii. 73, sqq.

Footnote 1371:

Geop. x. 76.

Footnote 1372:

Introduced by Dionysios the elder into Rhegium, where it attained,
however, no great size. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 5. 6. The same
naturalist speaks of two plane trees, the one at Delphi, the other at
Caphyæ in Arcadia, said to have been planted by the hand of Agamemnon,
which were still flourishing in his own days, iv. 13. 2. This tree
attains a prodigious size in Peloponnesos. Chandler, Travels, ii. 308.
Our traveller was prevented from measuring the stem by the fear of
certain Albanian soldiers who lay asleep under it; but Theophrastus
gives us the dimensions of a large platane, at Antandros, whose trunk,
he says, could scarcely be embraced by four men, while its height
before the springing forth of the boughs was fifteen feet. Having
described the dimensions of the tree, he relates a very extraordinary
fact in natural history, namely, that this platane, having been blown
down by the winds and lightened of its branches by the axe, rose again
spontaneously during the night, put forth fresh boughs, and flourished
as before. The same thing is related of a white poplar in the museum
at Stagira, and of a large willow at Philippi. In this last city a
soothsayer counselled the inhabitants to offer sacrifice, and set a
guard about the tree, as a thing of auspicious omen. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. iv. 16. 2, seq. Cf. Plin. xvi. 57. In corroboration of the
narrative of Theophrastus, Palmerius relates, that, during the winter
of 1624–25, while Breda was besieged by Ambrosio Spinola, he himself
saw in Brabant an oak twenty-five feet high, and three feet in
circumference, overthrown by the wind, and recovering itself exactly
in the manner described by the great naturalist. The vulgar, who
regarded it as a miracle, preserved portions of its bark or branches
as amulets.—Excercitationes, p. 598.

Footnote 1373:

Plut. Sympos. ii. 6. 7.

Footnote 1374:

“It is reported,” observes Lord Bacon, “that, in the low countries,
they will graft an apple scion upon the stock of a colewort, and it
will bear a great flaggy apple, the kernel of which, if it be set,
will be a colewort and not an apple.” Sylva Sylvarum, 453.

Footnote 1375:

Geop. x. 20. 1. Varro. i. 59. Mustea (mala) a celeritate mitescendi:
quæ nunc melimela dicuntur, a sapore melleo.—Plin. xv. 15. Dioscor. i.
161.

Footnote 1376:

Plut. Sympos. ii. 6. 1.

Footnote 1377:

Geop. x. 19. 15, cum not. Niclas.

Footnote 1378:

Inseritur vero ex fœtu uncis arbutus horrida. Virg. Georg. ii. 69,
with the note of Servius.

Footnote 1379:

Plut. Sympos. ii. 6. 1.

Footnote 1380:

Plin. xvii. 14.

Footnote 1381:

Castanea inseritur in se, et in salice, sed ex salice tardius maturat,
et fit asperior in sapore. Pallad. xii. 7. 22. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii.
71. Plutarch speaks of certain gardens on the banks of the Cephissos,
in Bœotia, in which he beheld pears growing on an oak-stock: ἦσαν δὲ
καὶ δρύες ἀπίους ἀγαθὰς ἐκφέρουσαι. Sympos. ii. 6. 1.

Footnote 1382:

Geop. x. 41. 3. iv. 12. 5.

Footnote 1383:

Geop. iv. 4.

-----

Citrons were likewise occasionally grafted on the pomegranate-tree. In
the present day, the almond, the chestnut, the fig, the orange, and the
citron, with many other species of fruit-trees, are no longer thought to
require grafting.[1384]

-----

Footnote 1384:

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce, t. i. p. 298.

-----

In illustration of the prolific virtue of the Hellenic soil it may be
mentioned, that young branchless pear-trees, transplanted from Malta to
the neighbourhood of Athens, in the autumn of 1830, were the next year
covered thick with fruit, which hung even upon the trunk like hanks of
onions.[1385]

-----

Footnote 1385:

Idem. t. i. p. 288. Speaking of the fertility of the islands, Della
Rocca remarks: “Le terroir y est si bon, et les arbres y viennent si
vîte, que j’ai vu à Naxie des pépins d’orange de Portugal pousser en
moins de huit ans de grands orangers, dont les fruits étoient les plus
délicieux du monde, et la tige de l’arbre si haute, qu’il falloit une
longue échelle pour y monter.”—Traité Complet des Abeilles, t. i. p.
6.

-----

Notwithstanding the early season of the year at which Gaia distributes
her gifts in Greece, numerous arts were resorted to for anticipating the
productions of summer,[1386] though of most of them the nature is
unknown. It is certain, however, that they possessed the means of
ripening fruits throughout the winter, either by hothouses or other
contrivances equally efficacious.[1387] During the festival celebrated
in honour of the lover of Aphrodite, the seeds of flowers were sown in
those silver pots, or baskets, called the gardens of Adonis,[1388] and
with artificial heat and constant irrigation compelled to bloom in eight
days. Among the modern Hindus corn is still forced to spring up in a few
days, by a similar process, during the festival of Gouri.[1389] To
produce rathe figs,[1390] a manure, composed of dove’s dung and pepper
and oil, was laid about the roots of the tree. Another method was that
which is still employed under the name of caprification, alluded to by
Sophocles.[1391] For this purpose care was taken to rear, close at hand,
several wild fig-trees, from which might be obtained the flies made use
of in this process,[1392] performed by cutting off bunches of wild figs
and suspending them amid the branches of the cultivated species,[1393]
when a fly issuing from the former pricked the slowly ripening fruit and
accelerated its maturity.[1394] In growing the various kinds of fig they
were careful to plant the Chelidonian, the Erinean, or wild fig, the
Leukerinean, and the Phibaleian[1395] on plains. The autumn-royals would
grow anywhere. Each sort has its peculiar excellence. The following were
the best: the colouroi, or truncated, the forminion, the diforoi, the
Megaric, and the Laconian, which would bear abundantly if
well-watered.[1396] Rhodes was famous for its excellent figs, which were
even thought worthy to be compared with those of Attica.[1397] Athenæus,
however, pretends that the best figs in the world were found at Rome.
There were figs with a ruddy bloom in the island of Paros, the same in
kind as the Lydian fig.[1398] The Leukerinean produced the white
fig.[1399]

-----

Footnote 1386:

On the artificial ripening of dates, Theoph. ii. 8. 4.

Footnote 1387:

Athen. iii. 19. Plut. Phoc. § 3. Xenoph. Vectigal. i. 3.

Footnote 1388:

Ὁ νοῦν ἔχων γεωργός, ὧν σπερμάτων κήδοιτο καὶ ἔγκαρπα βούλοιτο
γενέσθαι, πότερα σπονδῇ ἂν θέρους εἰς ᾿Αδώνιδος κήπους ἀρῶν χαίροι
θεωρῶν καλοὺς ἐν ἡμέραισιν ὀκτὼ γιγνομένους.—Plat. Phœd. t. i. p.
99. Suid. v. Ἀδώνιδ. κῆπ. t. i. p. 84. b. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7.
3. Caus. Plant. i. 12. 2. Eustath. ad Odyss. λ. p. 459. 4.

Footnote 1389:

Tod, Annals of Rajast’han, vol. i. p. 570.

Footnote 1390:

Cf. Athen. iii. 12. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 3. The fruit of the
Egyptian sycamore, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, was eaten in antiquity as
now. Athenæus, who was a native of the Delta, says they used to rip
open the skin of the fruit with an iron claw, and leave it thus upon
the tree for three days. On the fourth it was eatable, and exhaled a
very agreeable odour. Deipnosoph. ii. 36. Theophrastus adds, that a
little oil was likewise poured on the fruit when opened by the iron.
De Caus. Plant. i. 17. 9. ii. 8. 4. In Malta figs are still sometimes
ripened by introducing a little olive oil into the eye of the fruit,
or by puncturing it with a straw or feather dipped in oil. Napier,
Excursions along the Shores of the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 144. Cf.
Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 446.

Footnote 1391:

Ap. Athen. iii. 10. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 8. 1.

Footnote 1392:

Aristot. de Gen. Anim. t. i.

Footnote 1393:

Suid. v. ερινεὸς. t. i. p. 1038. d.

Footnote 1394:

Cf. Tournefort, t. ii. p. 23.

Footnote 1395:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 767

Footnote 1396:

Athen. iii. 7. The Laconian fig-tree was not commonly planted in
Attica. Frag. Aristoph. Georg. 4. Brunck. This kind of fig requires
much watering, which was found to deteriorate the flavour of other
kinds. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 7. 1.

Footnote 1397:

Athen. iii. 8.

Footnote 1398:

Athen. iii. 9. In the fig-tree orchards of Asia Minor the spaces
between the trees are sown, as in vineyards, with corn, and the bushes
are often filled with nightingales.—Chandler, i. 244.

Footnote 1399:

Athen. iii. 10. There was, also, a species which received its name
from resembling the crow in colour. Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 611. Philost.
Icon. i. 31. p. 809, where figs are enumerated in his elegant
description of the Xenia. Cf. Pausan. i. 37. Vitruv.

-----

The fancy of Hellenic gardeners amused itself with effecting numerous
fantastic changes in the appearance and nature of fruit. Thus citrons,
lemons, &c., were made, by the application of a clay mould, to assume
the form of the human face, of birds and other animals.[1400]
Occasionally, too, they were introduced, when small, into the neck of a
bottle provided with breathing holes, the figure of which they assumed
as they projected their growth into all its dimensions. We are assured,
moreover, that, by a very simple process, they could produce peaches,
almonds,[1401] &c., covered, as though by magic, with written
characters. The mode of operation was this,—steeping the stone of the
fruit in water for several days, they then carefully divided it, and
taking out the kernel inscribed upon it with a brazen pen whatever words
or letters they thought proper. This done, they again closed the stone
over the kernel, bound it round with papyrus, and planted it; and the
peaches or almonds which afterwards grew on that tree bore every one of
them, _mirabile dictu!_ the legend inscribed upon the kernel. By similar
arts[1402] they created stoneless peaches, walnuts without husks, figs
white one side, and black the other, and converted bitter almonds into
sweet.[1403]

-----

Footnote 1400:

Geop. x. 9. Clus. Rar. Plant. Hist. i. 4.

Footnote 1401:

Geop. x. 14. 60. Pallad. ii. 15. 13.

Footnote 1402:

Geop. x. 16. 53. 76.

Footnote 1403:

Geop. x. 59. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 8. 1. Caus. Plant. i. 9. 1.
Plin. xvii. 43. Pallad. ii. 15. 1l.

-----

The rules observed in the planting of fruit-trees were numerous.[1404]
Some, they were of opinion, were best propagated by seed, others by
suckers wrenched from the root of the parent stock,[1405] others, again,
by branches selected from among the new wood on the topmost boughs. A
rude practice, too, common enough in our own rural districts, appears to
have been in much favour among them,—bending some long pendant bough to
the ground, they covered a part of it with heavy clods, allowing,
however, the extremity to appear above the earth. When it had taken root
it was severed from the tree and transplanted to some proper situation.
At other times, the points of boughs were drawn down and fixed in the
ground, which even thus took root, and sent the juices backwards, after
which the bough was cut off and a new stock produced. Trees generated by
this method, as well as those planted during the waning moon,[1406] were
supposed to spread and grow branchy, while those set during the waxing
moon attained, though weaker, to a much greater height. It ought,
perhaps, to be further added, that all seeds and plants were put into
the ground while the moon was below the horizon.[1407] Those trees which
it was customary to renew by seed were the pistachio, the filbert, the
almond, the chestnut, the white peach, the damascene, the pine-tree, and
the edible pine, the palm, the cypress, the laurel, the ash, the maple,
and the fig. The apple,[1408] the cherry, the rhamnus jujuba, the common
nut, the dwarf laurel, the myrtle, and the medlar, were propagated by
suckers; while the quicker and surer mode of raising trees from boughs
was frequently adopted in the case of the almond, the pear, the
mulberry, the citron,[1409] the apple, the olive, the quince,[1410] the
black and white poplar, the ivy, the jujube-tree, the myrtle, the
chestnut, the vine, the willow, the box, and the cytisus.

-----

Footnote 1404:

Geop. x. 3. Cf. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 3.

Footnote 1405:

Plin. xvii. 13. When a tree was barren, or had lost its strength in
blooming, they split it at the root, and put a stone into the fissure
to keep it open, after which it was said to bear well. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. ii. 7. 6. It was customary, moreover, to wound the trunks of
almond, pear, and other trees, as the service-tree in Arcadia, in
order to render them fertile. 1d. ii. 7. 7. The berries of the cornel
and service-trees were sweeter and ripened earlier wild than when
cultivated, iii. 2. 1.

Footnote 1406:

The ancients believed that the moon ripens fruit, promotes digestion,
and causes putrefaction in wood, and animal substances. Athen. vii. 3.
Cf. Plut. Sympos. iii. 10.

Footnote 1407:

Geop. x. 2. 13.

Footnote 1408:

Cf. Vigenère, Images des Philostrates, p. 48.

Footnote 1409:

“Les orangers et les citronniers perfument l’air par la quantité
prodigieuse des fleurs dont ils sont chargés, et qui s’épanouissent
aux premières chaleurs.”—Della Rocca, Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i.
p. 5.

Footnote 1410:

Originally of Crete. Pashley, i. 27. κοδύμαλον in the ancient dialect
of the country. Athen. iii. 2.

-----

But the thrifty people of Hellas seldom devoted the orchard-ground
entirely to fruit-trees. The custom seems to have been to lay out the
whole in beds and borders for the cultivation of vegetables, and to
plant trees, at intervals, along the edges and at the corners. These
beds, moreover, were often, as with us, edged with parsley and rue;
whence the proverb,—“You have not proceeded beyond the rue,” for “You
know nothing of the matter.”[1411]

-----

Footnote 1411:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 480. Geop. xii. 1. 2.

-----

The rustics of antiquity, who put generally great faith in spells and
talismans, possessed an extraordinary charm for ensuring unfailing
fertility to their gardens; they buried an ass’s head deep in the middle
of them, and sprinkled the ground with the juice of fenugreek and
lotus.[1412] Somewhat greater efficacy, however, may be attributed to
their laborious methods of manuring and irrigation.[1413]

-----

Footnote 1412:

Geop. xii. 6. Pallad. i. 35. 16.

Footnote 1413:

Lucian. Luc. siv. Asin. § 43.

-----

The aspect of such a garden differed very little, except perhaps in
luxuriance, from a similar plot of ground in Kent or Middlesex. Here you
perceived beds of turnips, or cabbages, or onions; there, lettuces, or
endive, or succory,[1414] in the process of blanching, or the delicate
heads of asparagus, or broad-beans, or lentils, or peas, or
kidney-beans, or artichokes. In the most sunny spots were ranges of
boxes or baskets for forcing cucumbers.[1415] Near the brooks, where
such existed, were patches of watermelons,[1416] the finest in the
world; and here and there, clasping round the trunks of trees,[1417]
and, suspending its huge leaves and spheres from among the branches, you
might behold the gourd,[1418] as I have often seen it in the palm-groves
of Nubia. It may be added, that the pumpkin, or common gourd, was eaten
by the Greeks,[1419] as it is still in France and Asia Minor.[1420]

-----

Footnote 1414:

Geop. ii. 37. 40.

Footnote 1415:

These were covered with plates of the lapis specularis, and furnished
with wheels, that they might the more easily be moved in and out from
under cover. Colum. De Re Rust. xi. 3. p. 461: see also Castell,
Villas of the Ancients, p. 4.

Footnote 1416:

These are found growing at present even in the cemeteries. “Des melons
d’eau qui végètent çà et là sur ces tombes abandonnées, resemblent,
par leur forme et leur pâleur, à des crânes humains qu’on ne s’est pas
donné la peine d’ensèvelir.” Chateaub. Itin. i. 27. These fruit are
considered so innocent in the Levant as to be given to the sick in
fevers. Chandler, i. p. 77.

Footnote 1417:

Colum. De Cult. Hortor. 234.

Footnote 1418:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 494.

Footnote 1419:

Athen. iii. 1.

Footnote 1420:

Chandler, i. 317.

-----

Lettuces[1421] were blanched by being tied a-top, or being buried up to
a certain point in sand.[1422] They were, moreover, supposed to be
rendered more rich and delicate by being watered with a mixture of wine
and honey, as was the practice of the gourmand Aristoxenos, who having
done so over-night, used next morning to cut them, and say they were so
many green cakes sent him by mother Earth.[1423]

-----

Footnote 1421:

See Strattis’s Invocation to the Caterpillar. Athen. ii. 79. Theoph.
Hist. Plant. vii. 2. 4. 5. 4.

Footnote 1422:

Geop. xii. 13. 3. Pallad. ii. 14. 2.

Footnote 1423:

Athen. i. 12.

-----

The Greek gardeners appear to have delighted exceedingly in the
production of monstrous vegetables. Thus, in the case of the cucumber,
their principal object appears to have been to produce it without seed,
or of some extraordinary shape.[1424] In the first case they diligently
watched the appearance of the plant above ground, and then covering it
over with fresh earth, and repeating the same operation three times, the
cucumbers it bore were found to be seedless. The same effect was
produced by steeping the seeds in sesamum-oil for three days before they
were sown. They were made to grow to a great length by having vessels of
water[1425] placed daily within a few inches of their points, which,
exciting by attraction a sort of nisus in the fruit, drew them forward
as far as the gardener thought necessary.[1426] They were made,
likewise, to assume all sorts of forms by the use of light, fictile
moulds,[1427] as in the case of the citron. Another method was, to take
a large reed,[1428] split it, and clear out the pith; then introducing
the young cucumber into the hollow, the sections of the reed were bound
together, and the fruit projected itself through the tube until it
acquired an enormous length. It is observed by Theophrastus, that if you
steep the seeds of cucumbers in milk, or an infusion of honey, it will
improve their flavour.[1429] They were, moreover, believed to expand in
size at the full of the moon, like the sea-hedgehog.[1430] A fragrant
smell was supposed to be communicated to melons[1431] by constantly
keeping the seed in dry rose-leaves. To preserve the seed for any length
of time, it was sprinkled with the juice of house-leek.

-----

Footnote 1424:

Geop. xii. 19. 1, sqq. Pallad. iv. 9. 8.

Footnote 1425:

Plin. xix. 23. Pallad. iv. 9. 8.

At qui sub trichila manantem repit ad undam,
Labentemque sequens nimio tenuatur amore,
Candidus, effœtæ tremebundior ubere porcæ.

Colum. x. De Cult. Hortor. 394.

Footnote 1426:

Lord Bacon, having noticed this fact, adds the following sage remark:
“If you set a stake or prop at a certain distance from it (the vine),
it will grow that way, which is far stranger than the other: for that
water may work by a sympathy of attraction; but this of the stake
seemeth to be a reasonable discourse.” Sylva Sylvarum, 462.

Footnote 1427:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 3. 5. Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 24.

Footnote 1428:

Plin. xix. 23.

Footnote 1429:

Cf. Athen. iii. 5.

Footnote 1430:

Athen. iii. 2.

Footnote 1431:

The best melons at present known in Greece are those of Cephalonia,
which lose their flavour if transplanted. Hobhouse, Trav. &c., i. 227.
Cf. Chandler, i. p. 14.

-----

The Megaréans, in whose country melons, gourds,[1432] and cucumbers were
plentiful, were accustomed to heap dust about their roots during the
prevalence of the Etesian winds, and found this answer of
irrigation.[1433] It appears from the following proverb,—“The end of
cucumbers and the beginning of pompions,”—that the former went out of
season as the latter came in.[1434]

-----

Footnote 1432:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 494.

Footnote 1433:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 7. 5.

Footnote 1434:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 966.

-----

To procure a plentiful crop of asparagus, they used to bury the shavings
of a wild ram’s horn, and well water them.[1435] By banking up the
stalks, moreover, immediately after cutting the heads, they caused new
shoots to spring forth, and thus enjoyed a fresh supply throughout the
year. This plant was probably obtained from Libya,[1436] where it was
said to attain, in its wild state, the height of twelve, and sometimes
even of thirty cubits;[1437] and on the slopes of Lebanon, in Syria, it
has in our own clay been seen from twelve to fifteen feet high.

Footnote 1435:

Geop. xii. 18. 2. Plin. xix. 42. Dioscor. ii. 152. The physician,
however, modestly professes his unbelief: ἔνιοι δὲ ἱστόρησαν, ὅτι ἐάν
τις κριοῦ κέρατα συγκόψας κατορύξῃ, φύεται ἀσπάραγος · ἐμοὶ δὲ
ἀπίθανον.

Footnote 1436:

The asparagus, however, has been found, in modern times, growing wild
among the ruins of Epidauros. Chandler, ii. 249.

Footnote 1437:

Athen. ii. 62.

-----

That kind of cabbage which we call savoys was supposed to flourish best
in saline spots, on which account the gardeners used to sift pounded
nitre[1438] over the beds where it was sown, as was the practice also in
Egypt. In and about Alexandria,[1439] however, there was said to be some
peculiar quality in the earth which communicated a bitter taste to the
cabbage. To prevent this they imported cabbage-seed from the island of
Rhodes, which produced good plants the first year, but experienced in
the second the acrid influence of the soil.[1440] Kumè was celebrated
for its fine cabbages, which, when full-grown, were of a yellowish green
colour, like the new leather sole of a sandal. Broccoli and sea-kale and
cauliflowers would appear to have been commonly cultivated in the
gardens of the ancients. There was, likewise, among them a sort of
cabbage supposed to have some connexion with the gift of prophecy;[1441]
and by this, probably, it was, that certain comic personages used to
swear, as Socrates by the dog, and Zeno by the caper-bush.

-----

Footnote 1438:

Geop. ii. 41.

Footnote 1439:

Athen. ix. 9. Suid. v. κράμβη. t. i. p. 1518. b. Cf. Foës. Œconom.
Hippoc. v. κραμβίων. p. 214. Dioscorid. ii. 146.

Footnote 1440:

Cf. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. p. 488. b.

Footnote 1441:

Cf. Casaub. Animadv. in Athen. ix. 9. t. x. p. 24.

-----

Radishes[1442] were rendered sweet by steeping the seeds in wine and
honey, or the fresh juice of grapes: Nicander speaks of preserved
turnips.[1443] Parsley-seed was put into the earth in an old rag, or a
wisp of straw,[1444] surrounded with manure, and well-watered, which
made the plant grow large. Rue they sowed in warm and sunny spots,
without manure.[1445] It was defended from the cold of winter by being
surrounded with heaps of ashes,[1446] and was sometimes planted in pots,
probably to be kept in apartments for the sake of its bright yellow
flowers,[1447] and because, when smelt, it was said to cure the
head-ache. The juice of wild rue, mixed with woman’s milk, sharpened the
sight, in the opinion of the ancients.[1448] The juice of sweet mint,
which was a garden herb, squeezed into milk,[1449] was supposed to
prevent coagulation, even should rennet be afterwards thrown into it.

-----

Footnote 1442:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 1. 3.

Footnote 1443:

Athen. iv. 11.

Footnote 1444:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 2. 6. 4. Aristoph. Concion. 355, et
schol.

Footnote 1445:

Geop. xii. 1.

Footnote 1446:

Geop. xii. 25. 1.

Footnote 1447:

Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 368.

Footnote 1448:

Dioscor. iii. 53. Geop. xii. 25. 4.

Footnote 1449:

Geop. xii. 24.

-----

Both the root and bean of the nymphæa nelumbo or red lotus,[1450] were
eaten in Egypt,[1451] where its crimson flowers were woven into crowns
which diffused an agreeable odour, and were considered exceedingly
refreshing in the heat of summer.[1452] This plant was by the Greeks of
Naucratis denominated the melilotus, to distinguish it from the lotus
with white flowers. Theophrastus[1453] observes, that it grows in the
marshes to the height of four cubits, and has a striped root and stem.
This lotus was also anciently found in Syria and Cilicia, but did not
there ripen. In the environs of Toronè in Chalcidice,[1454] however, it
was found in perfection in a small marsh.

-----

Footnote 1450:

The rose-coloured lotus was said by the poet Pancrates to have been
produced from the blood of the lion slain by the Emperor Adrian.
Athen. xv. 21.

Footnote 1451:

Athen. iii. 1.

Footnote 1452:

Nicander in Georgicis ap. Athen. iii. 1.

Σπείρειας κύαμον Αἰγύπτιον, ὄφρα θερείης
Ἅνθεα μὲν στεφάνους ἀνύῃς· τὰ δὲ πεπτηῶτα
Ἀκμαίου καρποῖο κιβώρια δαινυμένοισιν
Ἐς χέρας ἠΐθεοισι, πάλαι ποθέουσιν, ὀρέξης
Ῥίζας δ᾽ ἐν θοίνῃσιν ἀφεψήσας προτίθημι.

See the note of Schweighæuser, t. vii. 10.

Footnote 1453:

Histor. Plant. iv. 10.

Footnote 1454:

It was also found in Thesprotia. Athen. iii. 3.

-----

The lupin,[1455] and the caper-bush, probably cultivated for the beauty
of its delicate white flowers,[1456] deteriorated in gardens,[1457] as
did likewise the mallows,[1458] which, together with the beet, were said
to acquire in gardens the height of a small tree.[1459] The stem of the
mallows was sometimes used as a walking stick. Its large pale red flower
which

Follows with its bending head the sun,[1460]

constituted one of the ornaments of the garden.

-----

Footnote 1455:

Geop. ii. 39. Apuleius relates that the lupin-flower turned round with
the sun, even in cloudy weather, so that it served as a sort of rural
clock. Cf. Plin. xviii. 67.

Footnote 1456:

The caper-bush blossoms in June. Chandler, ii. 275.

Footnote 1457:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 6. Cf. Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 488.

Footnote 1458:

Athen. ii. 52.

Footnote 1459:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 9. 2. Cf. vii. 3, 3. Hesiod reckons the mallow
and the asphodel among edible plants. Opp. et Dies, 41. Gœttling,
therefore, (in loc.) wonders Pythagoras should have prohibited the
mallow. Cf. Aristoph. Plut. 543. Suid. v. θύμος. t. 1. p. 1336. e.
Horat. Od. i. 32. 16.

Footnote 1460:

Colum. de Cult. Hortor. 253. Cardan in his treatise De Subtilitate
having undertaken to assign the cause why certain flowers bend towards
the sun, his antagonist, J. C. Scaliger, remarks upon his philosophy
as follows:—“De floribus, qui ad Solem convertuntur non pessime ais:
tenue humidum ad Solis calorem, se habere, ut corii ad ignem. Cæterum
adhuc integra restat quæstio. Rosis enim tenuissimum esse humidum
testantur omnia. Non convertuntur tamen. Platonici flores quosdam
etiam Lunæ dicunt esse familiares: qui sane huic Sideri, sicut illi
suo canant hymnos, sed mortalibus ignotos auribus.” Exercit. 170, § 2.
“The cause (of the bowing of the heliotrope) is somewhat obscure; but
I take it to be no other, but that the part against which the sun
heateth, waxeth more faint and flaccid in the stalk, and thereby less
able to support the flower.” Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum § 493.

-----

Besides these the ancients usually cultivated in their grounds two
species of cistus, one with pale red flowers now called the long rose,
the other which about midsummer has on its leaves a sort of fatty dew,
of which laudanum is made;[1461] together with the blue eringo,[1462]
rocket, cresses, (which were planted in ridges,) bastard parsley,
penny-royal, anis,[1463] water-mint, sea-onions, monk’s rhubarb,
purslain, a leaf of which placed under the tongue quenched thirst,
garden coriander, hellebore, yellow, red, and white, bush origany,[1464]
with its pink cones, flame-coloured fox-glove, brank-ursine, or bear’s
foot, admired for its vast pyramid of white flowers, chervil, skirwort,
the mournful elecampane, giant fennel, dill, mustard and wake-robin,
which was sown,

Soon as the punic tree, whose numerous grains,
When thoroughly ripe, a bright red covering hides,
Itself did with its bloody blossoms clothe.[1465]

-----

Footnote 1461:

Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. 1. tab. 258, seq.

Footnote 1462:

Colum. x. de Cult. Hortor. 230, sqq. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 235.

Footnote 1463:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 72. 2.

Footnote 1464:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 826, 837.

Footnote 1465:

Colum. x. De Cult. Hortor. 374. English Translation. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. vii. 12. 1.

-----

Other garden herbs were the cumin, the seed of which was sown with abuse
and curses,[1466] the sperage-berry, the dittander, or pepperwort,
turnips,[1467] and parsnips, (found wild in Dalmatia,)[1468] with
onions, garlic, and leeks.[1469] For these last Megara was famous, as
Attica was for honey, which suggested to the Athenians an occasion of
compliment to themselves,[1470] it having been a saying among them, that
they were as superior to the Megareans as honey is to garlic and leeks.

-----

Footnote 1466:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 3. 3. Cf. Dioscor. iii. 68, seq.

Footnote 1467:

Athen. iv. 11.

Footnote 1468:

Athen. ix. 8.

Footnote 1469:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 7, 10, 11. Aristoph. Plut. 283, et schol.
Eq. 675. 494. Vesp. 680. Acharn. 166, 500. Plut. 283.

Footnote 1470:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 246. 252.

-----

The cultivation of that species of leek called gethyllis was carried to
great perfection at Delphi,[1471] where it was an established custom,
evidently with a view to the improvement of gardening, that the person
who, on the day of the Theoxenia,[1472] presented the largest vegetable
of this kind to Leto should receive a portion from the holy table.[1473]
Polemo, who relates this circumstance says, that he had seen on these
occasions leeks nearly as large as turnips. The cause of this ceremony
was said to be, that Leto when great with Apollo longed for a leek.

-----

Footnote 1471:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 675.

Footnote 1472:

This passage has escaped the diligence of Meursius, Græc. Feriat. p.
150.

Footnote 1473:

Athen. ix. 13.

-----

Mushrooms[1474] were sedulously cultivated by the ancients, among whose
methods of producing them were the following. They felled a
poplar-tree[1475] and laying its trunk in the earth to rot, watered it
assiduously, after which mushrooms, at the proper time sprung up.
Another method was to irrigate the trunk of the fig-tree after having
covered it all round with dung, though the best kind in the opinion of
others were such as grew at the foot of elm and pine-trees.[1476] Those
springing from the upper roots were reckoned of no value.

-----

Footnote 1474:

Dioscor. ii. 200, seq. Plin. xix. 11.

Footnote 1475:

Athen. ii. 57. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 189, 191. Eccles. 1092. Geop.
xii. 36.

Footnote 1476:

A similar observation is made in France respecting the truffles, the
best of which are supposed to grow about the roots and under the
shadow of the oak. Trollope’s Summer in Western France, ii. 352.

-----

On other occasions[1477] they chose a light sandy soil accustomed to
produce reeds, then burning brushwood, &c., when the air was in a state
indicating rain, this ambiguous species of vegetable started forth from
the earth with the first shower. The same effect was produced by
watering the ground thus prepared, though this species was supposed to
be inferior. In France, the most delicate sort of mushrooms are said to
proceed from the decayed root of the Eryngium.

-----

Footnote 1477:

Geop. xii. 41. 2.

-----

This vegetable appears to have been a favourite dish among the ancients,
together with the truffle,[1478] eaten both cooked and raw;[1479] and
the morrille.[1480] That particular kind, called geranion, is the modern
crane’s bill. The Misu, another sort of truffle,[1481] grew chiefly in
the sandy plains about Cyrene, and, as well as the Iton,[1482] found in
the lofty downs of Thrace, was said to exhale an agreeable odour
resembling that of animal food. These fanciful luxuries, which were
produced among the rains and thunders[1483] of autumn, continued to
flourish in the earth during a whole year, but were thought to be in
season in spring. Truffle-seed was usually imported from Megara, Lycia,
and Getulia; but in Mytelene the inhabitants were spared this expense,
their sandy shores being annually sown from the neighbouring coast by
the winds and showers. It has been remarked, that neither truffles nor
wild onions were found near the Hellespont.[1484]

-----

Footnote 1478:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 189.

Footnote 1479:

This was more particularly the case on the Tauric Chersonese.—Theoph.
Hist. Plant. vii. 13. 8.

Footnote 1480:

Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 10. 7.

Footnote 1481:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.

Footnote 1482:

Athen. ii. 62.

Footnote 1483:

Plut. Sympos. iv. 2. 1. who relates that the ὕδνα attained to a very
large size in Elis.

Footnote 1484:

Vid. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.

-----

What methods the ancients employed for discovering the truffle, which
grows without stem or leaf in a small cell beneath the surface of the
earth, I have nowhere seen explained. At present[1485] their existence
is said to be detected in Greece, not by the truffle hound, but by the
divining rod. On the dry sandy downs of the Limousin, Gascogne,
Angoumois, and Perigord, as well as in several parts of Italy,[1486]
they are collected by the swineherds; for the hogs being extremely fond
of them utter grunts of joy, and begin to turn up the earth as soon as
they scent their odour, upon which the herdsmen beat the animals away,
and carefully preserve the delicacy for the tables of the rich. At other
times they are discovered in the following manner: the herdsmen stooping
down, and looking horizontally along the surface of the Landes, observe
here and there, on spots bare of grass and full of fissures, clouds of
very diminutive flies hatched in the truffle, and still regaling
themselves with its perfume. In some parts of Savoy they have been found
two pounds in weight.

-----

Footnote 1485:

Walp. Mem. i. 284.

Footnote 1486:

Valmont de Bomare, Dict. D’Hist. Nat. t. ii. p. 21, seq.

-----

CHAPTER III.
VINEYARD, VINTAGE, ETC.

One of the principal branches of husbandry[1487] in Greece was the
culture of the vine, probably introduced from Phœnicia.[1488] Long
before the historical age, however, it had spread itself through the
whole country, together with several parts of Asia Minor, as may be
inferred from the language of Homer,[1489] who frequently enumerates
vineyards among the possessions of his heroes. Like most things the
origin of which was unknown, the vine furnished the poets and common
people with the subjects of numerous fables, some of which were reckoned
of sufficient importance to be treasured up and transmitted to
posterity. Thus, among the Ozolian Locrians, it was said[1490] to have
sprung from a small piece of wood, brought forth in lieu of whelps by a
bitch. Others supposed a spot near Olympia[1491] to have given birth to
the vine, in proof of which the inhabitants affirmed a miracle was
wrought annually among them during the Dionysiac festival. They took
three empty brazen vessels, and having closely covered and sealed them
in the presence of witnesses, again opened them after some interval of
time, not stated, when they were found full of wine. According to other
authorities, the environs of Plinthinè, in Egypt, had the honour of
being the cradle of Dionysos, on which account the ancient Egyptians
were by some accused of inebriety, though in the age of Herodotus[1492]
there would appear to have been no vineyards in the whole valley of the
Nile. In reality,[1493] the vine appears to be a native of all temperate
climates, both in the old world and the new, and will even
flourish[1494] and produce fine grapes in various situations within the
tropics, where clusters in different stages of ripeness may be observed
upon its branches at all seasons of the year.

-----

Footnote 1487:

The importance of this branch of cultivation in some countries may be
perceived from the fact, that in France it is said to afford
employment to 2,200,000 families, comprising a population of
6,000,000, or nearly one-fifth of the population of the entire
kingdom. TIMES, Aug. 3, 1838. The quantity of land devoted to the
culture of the vine was estimated in 1823, at 4,270,000 acres, the
produce of which amounted to 920,721,088 gallons, 22,516,220_l._
15_s._ sterling. Redding, Hist. of Modern Wines, chap. iv. p. 56. In
the Greek Budget of 1836, the tax on cattle produced 2,100,000
drachmas, on bees 35,000, olive-grounds 64,776, and on vineyards and
currant-grounds 58,269.—Parish, Diplomatic History of the Monarchy of
Greece, p. 175.

Footnote 1488:

Or according to Athenæus, from the shores of the Red Sea. Deipnosoph.
xv. 17.

Footnote 1489:

Iliad. β. 561. γ. 184. ι. 152, 294. Cf. Pind. Isth. viii. 108.

Footnote 1490:

Paus. x. 38. 1.

Footnote 1491:

Athen. i. 61.

Footnote 1492:

ii. 77.

Footnote 1493:

Cf. Redding History of Modern Wines, chap. i. p. 2. An interesting and
able work.

Footnote 1494:

Nienhoff in Churchill’s Collection, ii. 264. Barbot. iii. 13. Ulloa,
Memoires Philosophiques, t. ii. p. 15. Voyages, t. i. p. 487, 491.

-----

The opinions of Grecian writers respecting the soil best suited to the
cultivation of the vine, having been founded on experience, generally
agree with those which prevail in modern times.[1495] They preferred for
their vineyards the gentle acclivities of hills,[1496] where the soil
was good, though light and porous, and abounding in springs at no great
depth from the surface.[1497] A considerable degree of moisture was
always supposed to be indispensable, on which account, in arid
situations, large hollow sea-shells, and fragments of sandstone[1498]
were buried in the soil, these being regarded as so many reservoirs of
humidity.

-----

Footnote 1495:

Virg. Georg. ii. 276.

Footnote 1496:

“Quòd colles Bacchus amaret.” Manil. Astronom. ii. p. 31. 6. Scalig.

Footnote 1497:

Geop. v. 1.

Footnote 1498:

Geop. v. 9. 8. Virg. Georg. ii. 348.

-----

By some the vine was even thought to delight in the rich alluvial soil
of plains, such as is found in Egypt,[1499] where, in later times, the
banks of the Nile, from Elephantinè to the sea, seem to have presented
one vast succession of vineyards.[1500] But superior vines were produced
on a few spots only, as at Koptos, and in the neighbourhood of Lake
Mareotis, where showers of sand, pouring in from the desert or the
sea-shore, diminished the fatness of the ground. With respect to Koptos,
we possess, however, no precise information,[1501] but are expressly
told, that the Mareotic vineyards covered a series of sandy swells,
stretching eastward from the lake towards Rosetta.[1502] On the southern
confines of Egypt, in the rocky and picturesque island of Elephantinè,
the vine was said[1503] never to shed its leaves; but as none grow there
at present, the traveller has no opportunity of deciding this question.
In Greece the vineyards of the plains were generally appropriated to the
production of the green grape, the purple being supposed to prefer the
sides of hills, or even of mountains, provided it were not exposed to
the furious winds upon their summits. Several sorts of white grape,
also, as the Psillian, Corcyrean, and the Chlorian, delighted in
elevated vineyards,[1504] though it was often judged necessary to
reverse these rules, and compel the hill-nurslings to descend to the
plains, while those of the plains were in their turn exposed to the
climate of the mountains.

-----

Footnote 1499:

Καλλίστη δὲ γῆ καὶ ἑ ὑπὸ τῶν ῥεόντων ποταμῶν χωσθεῖσα, ὅθεν καὶ τὴν
Αἴγυπτον ἐπαινοῦμεν.—Florent. ap. Geop. v. 1. 4.

Footnote 1500:

Jemaleddin. Maured Allatafet, p. 7. All these vines it will be
remembered were cut down by order of the Caliph Beamrillah, even in
the province of the Fayoum. Some vestiges, however, of vineyards were
here discovered by Pococke. “I observed,” says he, “about this lake
(Mœris) several roots in the ground, that seemed to me to be the
remains of vines, for which the country about the lake was formerly
famous. Where there is little moisture in the air, and it rains so
seldom, wood may remain sound a great while, though it is not known
how long these vineyards have been destroyed.” Vol. i. p. 65.

Footnote 1501:

Though with regard to the nature of the wine itself we are told, that
it was so light as to be given to persons in fevers,—ὁ δὲ κατὰ τὴν
Θηβαΐδα, καὶ μάλιστα ὁ κατὰ τὴν Κόπτον πόλιν, οὕτως ἐστὶ λεπτὸς, καὶ
εὐανάδοτος, καὶ ταχέως πεπτικὸς, ὡς τοῖς πυρεταίνουσι διδόμενος μὴ
βλάπτειν. Athen. i. 60.

Footnote 1502:

Athen. i. 60. Horat. Od. i. 37. 14. Strab. xvii. 1. t. iii. p. 425.

Footnote 1503:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 5. Varro, i. 7.

Footnote 1504:

Geop. v. 1. 15. Cf. Geop. iii. 2. “The shifting of ground is a means
to better the tree and fruit, but with this caution, that all things
do prosper best when they are advanced to the better.” Bacon, “Sylva
Sylvarum,” 439.

-----

Much judgment was thought to be required in selecting the site of a
vineyard, though almost everything depended on the climate and general
configuration of the district in which it was situated. Thus in warm
countries, as in the Pentapolis of Cyrene, the vineyards sloped towards
the north; in Laconia, they occupied the eastern face of Mount Taygetos,
while in Attica and the islands, the hills often appear to have been
encircled with vines. Upon the whole, however, those were most esteemed
which looked towards the rising sun and enjoyed, without obstruction,
the first rays of the morning.[1505] And this also is the case in the
Côte d’Or, where the best wines, as the Chambertin, the Vin de Beaune,
and that of the Clos Vougeot, are grown on eastern declivities. In some
parts of Greece, the vine was strongly affected by the prevalence of
certain winds, as those of the east and the west in Thessaly, which in
the forty cold days of winter were attended by frost that killed its
upper extremities, and sometimes the whole trunk. At Chalcis, in Eubœa
likewise, the Olympias, a western wind, parched and shrivelled, or, as
the Greeks express it, burnt up the leaves, sometimes completely
destroying the shrub itself.[1506] In such situations it was accordingly
found necessary to protect it by a covering[1507] during the prevalence
of cold winds. At Methana, in Argolis, when the south-east in spring
blew up the Saronic gulf,[1508] the inhabitants, to defend them from it,
spread over their vines the invisible teguments of a spell; which was
effected in the following manner: taking a milk-white cock, and cutting
it in halves, two men seized each a part, and then, standing back to
back, started off in opposite directions, made the tour of the vineyard,
and, returning whence they had set out, buried the cock’s remains in the
earth. After this the Libs might blow as it listed, since it possessed
no power to injure any man’s property within the consecrated
circle.[1509] The prevalence of the north wind during autumn was
considered auspicious, as they supposed it to hasten the ripening of the
fruit.

-----

Footnote 1505:

Geop. v. 4.1.

Footnote 1506:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 12. 5. Cf. Hist. Plant. iv. 14. 11. And yet
the neighbourhood of the sea was considered propitious to the vine.
Geop. v. 5.

Footnote 1507:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 12. 5.

Footnote 1508:

On the prevalence of these winds in winter and spring, together with
the causes of the phenomenon, see Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 16.

Footnote 1509:

Paus. ii. 34. 2. Chandler, Travels, ii. 248.

-----

When the husbandman had resolved on the formation of a new vineyard, he
first, of course, encircled the spot with a hedge[1510] which was made
both thick and strong for the purpose of repelling the flocks and herds,
which, as well as goats, foxes, and soldiers, loved to prey upon the
vine.[1511] His next care was to root up the hazel bush and the
oleaster, the roots of the former being supposed to be inimical to the
Dionysiac tree, while the oily bark of the latter rendered it peculiarly
susceptible of taking fire, by which means vineyards would often appear
to have been reduced to ashes. So at least says Virgil.[1512]

Root up wild olives from thy laboured lands,
For sparkling fire from hinds’ unwary hands
Is often scattered o’er their unctuous rinds,
And often spread abroad by raging winds;
For first the smouldering flame the trunk receives,
Ascending thence it crackles in the leaves;
At length victorious to the top aspires,
Involving all the wood in smoky fires.
But most when driven by winds the flaming storm
Of the long files destroys the beauteous form;
In ashes then the unhappy vineyard lies,
Nor will the blasted plants from ruin rise,
Nor will the withered stock be green again,
But the wild olive shoots, and shades th’ ungrateful plain.

-----

Footnote 1510:

Virg. Georg. ii. 371, sqq.

Footnote 1511:

Aristoph. Eq. 1073, seq. Küst.

Footnote 1512:

Georg. ii. 299, sqq. Dryden’s Translation.

-----

The next operation[1513] was to trench the ground and throw it into
lofty ridges, which, by the operation of the summer sun, and the rain
and winds and frosts of winter, were rendered mellow and genial.
Occasionally a species of manure, composed[1514] of pounded acorns,
lentils, and other vegetable substances, was dug in for the purpose of
giving to the soil the warmth and fertility required by the vine.

-----

Footnote 1513:

Geop. iii. 4. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 259, seq. et Serv. ad loc.

Footnote 1514:

Geop. v. 24.

-----

The ground having remained in this state during a whole year, its
surface was levelled, and a series of shallow furrows traced for the
slips by line, rather close, on rich alluvial plains, but diverging more
and more[1515] in proportion to the elevation of the site. Generally the
vine was propagated by slips of moderate length, planted sometimes
upright or à l’aiguille,[1516] as the phrase is in Languedoc, sometimes
obliquely,[1517] which was generally supposed to be the better fashion.
Along with the slip a handfull of grape-stones was usually cast into the
furrow,[1518] those of the green grape with the purple vine, and those
of the purple with the green, in order to cause it the sooner to take
root. With some the practice was always to set two slips together, so
that if one missed the other might take, and when both grew, the weaker
was cut off or removed. Several stones,[1519] about the size of the
fist, were placed round the slip above whatever manure was used, the
belief being, that they would aid in preventing the root from being
scorched by the sun in the heats of summer.[1520] Some touched the lower
point of the slip with cedar oil which prevented it from decaying, and
likewise by its odour repelled vermin.

-----

Footnote 1515:

Virg. Georg. ii. 274, seq.

Footnote 1516:

Skippon in Churchill, Collection of Voyages, vi. 730.

Footnote 1517:

Πότερα δὲ ὅλον τὸ κλῆμα ὀρθὸν τιθεὶς πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν βλέπον ἡγῇ
μάλλον ἂν ῥιζοῦσθαι αὐτὸ, ἢ καὶ πλάγιόν τι ὑπὸ τῇ ὑποβεβλημένη γῇ
θείης ἂν, ὥστε κεῖσθαι ὥσπερ γάμμα ὕπτιον; οὕτω νὴ Δία· πλείονες γὰρ
ἂν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ κατὰ γῆς εἶεν· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἄνω ὁρῶ
βλαστάνοντα τὰ φυτὰ. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 9, seq.

Footnote 1518:

Geop. v. 9. This practice is noticed by Lord Bacon who advises
gardeners to extend the experiment by laying “good store” of other
kernels about the roots of trees of the same kind. Sylva Sylvarum, i.
35.

Footnote 1519:

Virg. Georg. ii. 348.

Footnote 1520:

A similar remark is made by Lord Bacon: “It is an assured experience,”
he says, “that an heap of flint or stone laid about the bottom of a
wild tree, as an oak, elm, ash, &c., upon the first planting, doth
make it prosper double as much as without it. The cause is for that it
retaineth the moisture which falleth at any time upon the tree and
suffereth it not to be exhaled by the sun.” Sylva Sylvarum, 422.

-----

To produce grapes without stones the lower end of the slip was split,
and the pith carefully extracted with an ear-pick.[1521] It was then
bound round with a papyrus leaf, thrust into a sea-onion and thus
planted. Vines producing medicinal grapes were created by withdrawing
the pith from the lower part of the slip, but without splitting, and
introducing certain drugs into the hollow,[1522] closing up the
extremity with papyrus and thus setting it in the earth. The wine, the
grape, the leaves, and even the ashes of such a vine were thought to be
a remedy against the bite of serpents and dogs, though no security
against hydrophobia. Another mode of producing stoneless grapes was to
cut short all the branches of a vine already growing, extract the pith
from the ends of them, and fill up the cavity once a-week with the juice
of sylphion,[1523] binding them carefully to props that the liquor might
not escape. A method was also in use of producing green and purple
grapes on the same cluster.[1524] This was to take two slips as nearly
as possible of the same size, the one of the white, the other of the
black grape, and, having split them down the middle, carefully to fit
the halves to their opposites, so that the buds, when divided, should
exactly meet. They were then bound tight together with papyrus thread,
and placed in the earth in a sea-onion,[1525] whose glutinous juice
aided the growing together of the severed parts. Sometimes instead of
slips, offshoots removed from the trunk of a large vine, with roots
attached to them, were used. On other occasions the vine was grafted,
like any other fruit-tree, on a variety of stocks,[1526] each modifying
the quality and flavour of the grape. Thus a vine grafted on a
myrtle-stock,[1527] produced fruit partaking of the character of the
myrtle-berry. Grafted on a cherry-tree, its grapes underwent a different
change, and ripened, like cherries, in the spring. As the clay
encircling the junctures of these grafts grew dry, and somewhat cracked
in hot summers, it was customary for gardeners to moisten them every
evening with a sponge dipped in water.[1528]

-----

Footnote 1521:

Geop. iv. 7. Mention of the stoneless grapes of Persia occurs in many
travellers, and, by Mr. Fowler, one of the most recent, are enumerated
under the name of _kismis_, among the choicest fruits of that country.
Three Years in Persia, vol. i. p. 323. It may here be remarked, that
certain sorts of vines, among others the Capneion, produced sometimes
white clusters, sometimes purple. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ii. 3. 2.
Cf. de Caus. Plant. v. 3. 1. κ. τ. λ.

Footnote 1522:

Geop. iv. 8.

Footnote 1523:

Geop. iv. 7.

Footnote 1524:

Geop. iv. 14.

Footnote 1525:

It has been remarked also by ancient naturalists that a fig-tree
planted in a sea-onion, grows quicker and is more free from vermin.
Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 5. 5.

Footnote 1526:

Colum. v. 11.

—Adultâ vitium propagine
Altas maritat populos,
Inutilesque falce ramos amputans
Feliciores inserit.
Horat. Epod. ii. 9, seq.

Footnote 1527:

Geop. iv. 4, seq.

Footnote 1528:

Geop. iv. 12.

-----

The husbandmen of antiquity were often somewhat fanciful in their
practices. In order, when forming a nursery,[1529] to coax the young
plants to grow, the beds to which they were transferred, were formed of
a stratum of earth brought from the vineyard whence they also were
taken. Another nicety was to take care, that they occupied precisely the
same position with respect to the quarters of the heavens[1530] as when
growing on the parent stock.[1531]

“Besides to plant it as it was they mark
The heaven’s four quarters on the tender bark,
And to the north or south restore the side
Which at their birth did heat or cold abide,
So strong is custom; such effects can use
In tender souls of pliant plants produce.”

-----

Footnote 1529:

Virg. Georg. ii. 265, seq.

Footnote 1530:

Lord Bacon gives this experiment a place in his philosophy, observing,
that “in all trees when they be removed (especially fruit-trees) care
ought to be taken that the sides of the trees be coasted (north and
south) and as they stood before.” Sylva Sylvarum, 471.

Footnote 1531:

Virg. Georg. ii. 270, seq.

-----

When desirous of extending the plantation in an old vineyard, instead of
the methods above described, they had recourse to another, which was to
bend down[1532] the vine branch, and bury it up to the point in the
earth, where it would take root, and send forth a new vine, and in this
way a long series of leafy arcades[1533] may sometimes have been formed.
At the foot of their vines some cultivators were in the habit of burying
three goats’ horns[1534] with their points downwards, and the other end
appearing above the soil. These they regarded as so many receptacles for
receiving and gradually conveying water to the roots, and, consequently,
an active cause of the vines’ fertility.

-----

Footnote 1532:

An analogous practice is observed in the pepper gardens of
Sumatra:—“When the vines originally planted to any of the chinkareens
(or props) are observed to fail or miss; instead of replacing them
with new plants, they frequently conduct one of the shoots, or
suckers, from a neighbouring vine, to the spot, through a trench made
in the ground, and there suffer it to rise up anew, often at the
distance of twelve or fourteen feet from the parent stock.” Marsden,
History of Sumatra, p. 111.

Footnote 1533:

Virg. Georg. ii. 26. Serv. ad loc.

Footnote 1534:

Geop. iv. 2. The nymphs are said to have been the nurses of Bacchos,
because water supplied moisture to the vine. The explanation of
Athenæus is forced and cold. ii. 2.

-----

Respecting the seasons of planting,[1535] opinions were divided, some
preferring the close of autumn, immediately after the fall of the leaf,
when the sap had forsaken the branches, and descended to the roots;
others chose, for the time of this operation, the early spring, just
before the sap mounted; while a third class delayed it until the buds
began to swell, and the tokens of spring were evident. To these
varieties of practice Virgil makes allusion,—

When winter frosts constrain the field with cold,
The fainty root can take no steady hold;
But when the golden spring reveals the year,
And the white bird returns whom serpents fear,
That season deem the best to plant thy vines;
Next that, is when autumnal warmth declines,
Ere heat is quite decayed, or cold begun,
Or Capricorn admits the winter sun.

-----

Footnote 1535:

Geop. v. 7, seq. Virg. Georg. ii. 323, sqq.

-----

But the above were not the only rules observed; for, besides the general
march of the seasons, they took note of the phases of the moon,[1536]
whose influence over vegetation all antiquity believed to be very
powerful. Some planted during the four days immediately succeeding the
birth of the new moon, while others extended their labours through the
first two quarters. The act of pruning[1537] was performed when that
planet was in its wane.

-----

Footnote 1536:

Geop. v. 10.

Footnote 1537:

Geop. iii. 1.

-----

There were in Greece[1538] three remarkable varieties of the vine,
created by difference in the mode of cultivation.[1539] The first
consisted of plants always kept short, and supported on props, as in
France; the second of tree-climbers, thence called Anadendrades; the
third sort enjoyed neither of these advantages,[1540] but being grown
chiefly in steep and stony places, spread their branches over the earth,
as is still the fashion in Syra[1541] and other islands of the
Archipelago.

-----

Footnote 1538:

Cf. Theoph. Caus. Plant. iv. 3. 6.

Footnote 1539:

The low vines of Asia Minor are now pruned in a very particular
manner. “As we approached Vourla the little valleys were all green
with corn, or filled with naked vine-stocks in orderly arrangement,
about a foot and a half high. The people were working, many in a row,
turning the earth, or encircling the trunks with tar, to secure the
buds from grubs and worms. The shoots which bear the fruit are cut
down again in winter.” Chandler, i. 98.

Footnote 1540:

On the cultivation of the Corinth grape, see Chandler, ii. 339.

Footnote 1541:

Abbé Della Rocca, Traité Complet des Abeilles, i. 203. Lord Bacon, who
had heard of this manner of cultivating the vine, observes, that in
this state it was supposed to produce grapes of superior magnitude,
and advises to extend the practice to hops, ivy, woodbine, &c. Sylva
Sylvarum, 623.

-----

Vine-props[1542] appear to have commonly consisted of short reeds,
which, accordingly, were extensively cultivated both in Hellas and its
colonies of Northern Africa, where the musical cicada, whose excessive
multiplication betokened a sickly year, bored through the rind, and laid
its eggs in the hollow within.[1543] From an inconvenience attending the
use of this kind of support came the rustic proverb, “The prop has
defrauded the vine;”[1544] for these reeds sometimes took root, outgrew
their clients, and monopolized the moisture of the soil.

-----

Footnote 1542:

Geop. v. 22. 27. Reeds delight in sunny spots, and are nourished by
the rain. They were cultivated for props, and, if thoroughly smoked,
the insects called ἶπες were killed, which would otherwise breed in
them, to the great injury of the vine, v. 53. Plin. xviii. 78. Cf.
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 1140. 983. Varro, i. 8. In the island of
Pandataria the vineyard was filled with traps, to protect the grapes
from the mice. Id. ib.

Footnote 1543:

Aristoph. Hist. Anim. v. 24. 3.

Footnote 1544:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 1282. Cf. Thom. Magist. v. χάραξ. p. 911, seq.
Blancard. cum not. Stieber. et Oudendorp. Ammon. v. χάραξ. p. 145,
with the note of Valckenaer. Liban. Epist. 218. p. 104 seq. Wolf.

-----

In rich and level lands,[1545] particularly where the Aminian vine[1546]
was cultivated, the props often rose to the height of five or six feet;
but in hill-vineyards, where the soil was lighter and less nutritive,
they were not suffered to exceed that of three feet. Where reeds were
not procurable, ash-props[1547] were substituted, but they were always
carefully barked, to prevent cantharides, and other insects hurtful to
the vine, from making nests in them. Their price would appear to have
been considerable, since we find a husbandman speaking of having laid
out a hundred drachma in vine-props.[1548] To prevent their speedily
decaying they were smeared a-top with pitch, and carefully, after the
vintage, collected and laid up within doors.[1549]

-----

Footnote 1545:

Geop. v. 27.

Footnote 1546:

Cf. Geop. iv. 1. Dioscor. v. 6. Virg. Georg. ii. 97. Servius, on the
authority of Aristotle, relates that the Aminian vines were
transplanted from Thessaly into Italy. Cf. Pier. ad loc.

Footnote 1547:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 1116. Acharn. 1177. In the Æolian islands the
vines are supported on a frame-work of poles and trees, over which
they spread themselves with extraordinary luxuriance. Spallanzani, iv.
99.

Footnote 1548:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 1262.

Footnote 1549:

Virg. Georg. 408, seq.

-----

A vineyard, consisting wholly of Anadendrades,[1550] most common in
Attica, presented, in spring and summer, a very picturesque appearance,
especially when situated on the sharp declivity of a hill.[1551] The
trees designed for the support of the vines,[1552] planted in straight
lines, and rising behind each other, terrace above terrace, at intervals
of three or four and twenty feet, were beautiful in form and varied in
feature, consisting generally of the black poplar, the ash, the maple,
the elm,[1553] and probably, also, the platane, which is still employed
for this purpose in Crete.[1554] Though kept low in some situations,
where the soil was scanty, they were, in others, allowed to run to
thirty or forty, and sometimes, as in Bithynia, even to sixty feet in
height.

-----

Footnote 1550:

Which were pruned in January (Geop. iii. 1), and esteemed the most
useful, iv. 1. The solidest and hardest vines were thought to bear the
least fruit. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 4. 1. Cf. Chandler, i. 98.

Footnote 1551:

Dem. in Nicostrat. § 5.

Footnote 1552:

“Vitem viduas ducit ad arbores.”
Hor. Carm. iv. 5. 30.

Footnote 1553:

Virg. Georg. ii. 361, seq. An amictâ vitibus ulmo. Hor. Epist. i. 16.
3.

Footnote 1554:

Pashley, Travels, ii. 22. The oak is now used for the same purpose in
Asia Minor. Chandler, i. 114.

-----

The face of the tree along which the vine climbed was cut down sheer
like a wall, against which the purple or golden clusters hung thickly
suspended, while the young branches crept along the boughs, or over
bridges of reeds,[1555] uniting tree with tree, and, when touched with
the rich tints of autumn, delighting the eye by an extraordinary variety
of foliage. As the lower boughs of these noble trees were carefully
lopped away, a series of lofty arches was created, beneath which the
breezes could freely play, abundant currents of pure air being regarded
as no less essential to the perfect maturing of the grape[1556] than
constant sunshine. Sometimes the vine, in its ascent, was suffered to
wind round the trunk of its supporter, which, however, by the most
judicious husbandmen, was considered prejudicial, since the profusion of
ligatures which it threw out in its passage upwards was thought to
exhaust too much of its strength, to prevent which wooden wedges[1557]
were here and there inserted between the vine stem and the tree. In
trailing the branches, moreover, along the boughs, care was taken to
keep them as much as possible on the upper side, that they might enjoy a
greater amount of sunshine, and be the more exposed to be agitated by
the winds.

-----

Footnote 1555:

Gœttling ad Hesiod. Scut. Heracl. 298.

Footnote 1556:

Another means of augmenting the fertility of the vine is noticed by
Lord Bacon, whose diligent study of antiquity was at least as
remarkable as his superior intellect. “It is strange, which is
observed by some of the ancients, that dust helpeth the fruitfulness
of trees and of vines by name; insomuch as they cast dust upon them of
purpose. It should seem that powdring when a shower cometh maketh a
kind of soiling to the tree, being earth and water finely laid on. And
they note that countries where the fields and waies are dusty bear the
best vines.” Sylva Sylvarum, 666.

Footnote 1557:

Geop. iv. 1. 16.

-----

These Anadendrades,[1558] which were supposed to produce the best and
most lasting wines, probably, as at present, ripened their produce much
later than the other sorts of vines on account of the trees by which
they were shaded. In modern Crete,[1559] where, however, they are never
pruned, their grapes seldom ripen before November, and sometimes they
furnish the bazaar of Khania with fresh supplies till Christmas. The
same is the case also in Egypt.

-----

Footnote 1558:

These vines were likewise called ἁμαμάξυες. Aristoph. Vesp. 325, et
Schol. The rustics engaged in pruning them, feeling themselves secure
in their lofty station, used to pour their rough raillery and
invectives on the passers-by. Horace, Satir. i. 7. 29, seq.

-----

Occasionally, too, more especially in Cypros, the Anadendrades grew to
an enormous size. At Populonium, in Etruria, there was a statue of
Jupiter carved from a single vine; the pillars of the temple of Hera, at
Metapontum, consisted of so many vines; and the whole staircase leading
to the roof of the fane of Artemis, at Ephesos, was constructed with the
timber of a single vine from Cypros. To render these things credible, we
are informed, that, at Arambys, in Africa,[1560] there was a vine twelve
feet in circumference, and modern travellers have found them of equal
dimensions in other parts of the world.[1561] In France, for example,
the celebrated Anne, Duc de Montmorenci, had a table made with a single
slab of vinewood, which, two hundred years afterwards, Brotier[1562] saw
preserved at the town of Ecouen.

-----

Footnote 1559:

On the vines of this island cf. Meurs. Cret. c. 9. p. 103.

Footnote 1560:

Bochart. Geog. Sac. Pars Alt. l. i. c. 37. p. 712. Cf. Plin. Hist.
Nat. v. i.

Footnote 1561:

Tozzeli, Viaggi. t. iv. p. 208.

Footnote 1562:

Not. ad Plin. xiv. i. 1.

-----

To return, however: the wide spaces between the trees were not in this
class of vineyards allowed to remain entirely idle, having been
sometimes sown[1563] with corn, or planted with beans, and gourds, and
cucumbers, and lentils.[1564] The cabbage[1565] was carefully
excluded,[1566] as an enemy to Dionysos. In other cases these intervals
were given up to the cultivation of fruit-trees, such as the
pomegranate, the apple, the quince, and the olive. The fig-tree was
regarded as pernicious, though often planted in rows on the outside of
the vineyard.

-----

Footnote 1563:

Geop. iv. 1. v. 7, seq.

Footnote 1564:

Barley and other grain are still in modern times sown between the
vines in Asia Minor. Chandler, i. 114. The same practice has been
partially introduced into the Æolian islands. Spallanzani, iv. 100.

Footnote 1565:

Suid. v. κράμβη, t. i. p. 1518. b.—παρὰ ἀμπέλω οὐ φυέται Etym. Mag.
534. 47.

Footnote 1566:

So was the laurel. Theoph. Caus. Plant. ii. 18. 4.

-----

Respecting those vines which were cultivated without the aid of
props,[1567] or trees, we possess little information, except that there
were such. But, as they are still found in the country, it is probable,
that the mode of dressing them now prevailing nearly resembles that of
antiquity. They are generally, in Syria, planted along the steep sides
of mountains, where they spread and rest upon the stones, and have their
fruit early ripened by the heat reflected from the earth. Frequently,
also, they are planted on more level ground, in which case, as soon as
the grapes acquire any size, the husbandman passes through the vineyard
with an armful of forked wooden props which he skilfully introduces
beneath the branches and fixes firmly so as to keep the clusters from
touching the mould. The reason for adopting this method is the furious
winds which at certain seasons of the year prevail in many of the
Grecian islands, preventing the growth of woods and prostrating the fig
and every other fruit-tree to the earth. The spaces between the lines
are turned up annually by a peculiar sort of plough[1568] drawn by oxen,
in front of which a man advances, lifting up the vines and holding them
aside while they pass. This destroys the weeds, and, at the same time,
all the upper roots of the vine, which compels it to descend deeper into
the earth, where it finds a cooler and more abundant nourishment. In
this respect the practice of the Syrotes closely resembles that of their
ancestors. Some husbandmen were careful, likewise, while weeding,[1569]
to remove the larger stones, though they are often supposed, by
preserving moisture, to do more good than harm.

-----

Footnote 1567:

This creeping vine, cultivated _sine ridicis_, was common in Spain.
Varro, i. 8.

Footnote 1568:

Della Rocca, Traité Complet sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 203, sqq. Cf.
Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce, t. i. p. 288. 296. Damm. Nov. Lex.
Græc. Etym. 1122.

Footnote 1569:

Geop. v. 19.

-----

It is a peculiar feature in the character of the ancients that they
loved to attribute to the inferior animals the first hints of various
useful practices. Thus they maintained it was the ass that, by browsing
on the extremities of the vine, which only made it bear the more
luxuriantly, taught them the art of pruning as well perhaps as that of
feeding on the tendrils and tender branches,[1570] which among them were
esteemed a delicacy. To manifest their gratitude for this piece of
instruction they erected at Nauplia,[1571] a marble statue in honour of
this ill-used quadruped, who has seldom, I fear, from that day to this,
been so well treated. The rules observed in pruning[1572] resembling
those still in use, it is unnecessary to repeat them, though it may be
worth mentioning, that the husbandman, who coveted an abundant vintage,
was careful to lop his vines[1573] with his brows shaded by an ivy
crown. They esteemed it a sign of a fruitful year when the fig-tree and
the white vine put forth luxuriantly in spring,[1574] after which they
had only to petition the gods against too much rain, or too much
drought,[1575] and those terrible hailstorms which sometimes devastate
whole districts. Against this calamity, however, they had a
preservative, which was to bind an amulet in the shape of a thong of
seal-hide or eagle’s wing, about one of the stocks,[1576] after which
the whole vineyard was supposed to be secure from injury. The same
effect was produced by striking a chalezite stone with a piece of iron
on the approach of a storm, and by hanging up in the vineyard a picture
of a bunch of grapes at the setting of the constellation of the
Lyre.[1577] To repel the ascent of vermin along the trunk it was smeared
with a thick coat of bitumen,[1578] imported from Cilicia, while to
preserve the branches from wasps a little olive-oil was blown over
them.[1579]

-----

Footnote 1570:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. vi. 12. 9. After the vintage the goat and the
camel, among the modern Asiatics, are sometimes let into the vineyard
to browse upon the vine. Chandler, i. 163.

Footnote 1571:

Paus. ii. 38. 3. See, however, another interpretation of the passage
in the Tale of a Tub, where the author gravely insists, that, by Ass,
we are to understand a critic. Sect. iii. p. 96.

Footnote 1572:

Cf. Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 53. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 166. See an exact
representation of the pruninghook in the hand of Vertumnus. Mus.
Cortonens. pl. 36. This instrument was usually put into requisition
about the vespertinal rising of Arcturus. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 566,
sqq.

Footnote 1573:

Geop. v. 24.

Footnote 1574:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. i. 20. 5.

Footnote 1575:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1117. Küst.

Footnote 1576:

Geop. i. 14. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1109. Husbandmen were accustomed
to nail the heads and feet of animals to the trunks of trees to
prevent their being withered by the operation of the evil eye. Sch.
Ran. 943.

Footnote 1577:

Geop. ii. 14.

Footnote 1578:

Theoph. De Lapid. § 49. Schneid. Cf. Sir John Hill, notes, p. 200. It
was likewise obtained from Seleucia Pieria in Syria. Strab. vii. 5. t.
ii. p. 106.

Footnote 1579:

Geop. iv. 10.

-----

While the grapes were growing, the ancients, following in the track of
nature, supposed them to need shade, since the leaves at that time put
forth most abundantly, to screen the young fruit from the scorching sun;
but when they began to don their gold or purple hues, observing the
foliage shrivel and shrink from about them, in order to admit the warm
rays to penetrate and pervade the fruit they then stripped the branches
and hastened the vintage,[1580] plucking moreover the clusters as they
ripened, lest they should drop off and be lost. But this partial
gathering of the grapes could only take place in their gardens, or where
the vine was trained about the house; for in the regular vineyards the
season of the vintage was regulated by law,[1581] as in Burgundy and the
south of France, in order to protect the public against the pernicious
frauds which would otherwise be practised. This, in Attica, usually
coincided with the heliacal rising of the constellation Arcturus.[1582]

-----

Footnote 1580:

Xenoph. Œcon. xix. 9.

Footnote 1581:

Plat. De Legg. t. viii. 106. Geop. v. 45.

Footnote 1582:

Cf. Geop. i. 9. 9.

-----

When the magistrate had declared that the season of the vintage[1583]
was come, the servants of Bacchos hurried forth to the vine-clad hills,
converting their labours into a pretext for superabundant mirth and
revelry. The troops of vintagers, composed of youths and maidens, with
crowns of ivy on their heads, and accompanied by rural performers on the
flute or phorminx, moved forward with shout, and dance, and song, to the
sacred enclosures of Dionysos, surrounded with plaited hedgerows, and
blue streamlets.[1584] Here, where

“——the showering grapes
In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth
Purple and gushing,”

they at once commenced their joyous task. With sharp pruning-hooks[1585]
they separated the luxuriant clusters, gold or purple, from the vine,
and piling them in plaited baskets of osier or reed, bore them on their
shoulders to the wine-press. In this operation, as I have said, both men
and women joined; but the press was trodden by men only,[1586] who, half
intoxicated by pleasure,[1587] and the fumes of the young wine, chanted
loudly their ancient national lays in praise of Bacchos.

-----

Footnote 1583:

Cf. Plut. Thes. § 22.

Footnote 1584:

Il. σ. 561, sqq.

Footnote 1585:

Scut. Heracl. 291, seq. On the modern modes of gathering the grapes,
see Redding Hist. of Modern Wines, chap. ii. 26, et seq.

Footnote 1586:

The practice is still the same in the Levant:—“The vintage was now
begun, the black grapes being spread on the ground in beds exposed to
the sun to dry for raisins; while in another part, the juice was
expressed for wine, a man with feet and legs bare, treading the fruit
in a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a
vessel beneath it to receive the liquor.” Chandler, ii. p. 2.

-----

The wine-press, which stood under cover, sometimes consisted of two
upright, and many cross beams,[1588] which, descending with great weight
upon the grapes squeezed forth all their juices, and these falling
through a species of strainer,[1589] upon an inclined slab, were poured
through a small channel formed for the purpose, into a broad open vessel
communicating with the vat. Into the process of wine-making[1590] it is
unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient, perhaps, to say that, when
made, it was laid up in skins or large earthen jars until required for
use. The wines of modern Attica and the Morea[1591] are preserved from
becoming acid by a large infusion of resin.[1592]

-----

Footnote 1587:

Anacreon, Od. 52. See a representation of the whole process in the
Mus. Cortonens, pl. 9, where the vintagers are clad in skins; and Cf.
Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 26.

Footnote 1588:

Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 35, p. 187.

Footnote 1589:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 527.

Footnote 1590:

For the making of the sweet wine (Βίβλινος οἶνος) which resembled,
perhaps, our Constantia or Malaga, and enjoyed extraordinary favour
among the ancients Hesiod gives particular directions. Opp. et Dies,
611, sqq. Colum. xii. 39. Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 8. Pallad. xi. 19.

Footnote 1591:

Sibth. in Walp. Mem. ii. 235. Chandler, ii. 251.

Footnote 1592:

A few drops of the oil which ran from olives without pressing were
supposed by the ancients to render the wine stronger and more
lasting.—Geop. vii. 12. 20. On the boiled wine, σίραιον. Cf. Sch.
Aristoph. Vesp. 878.

-----

The sports,[1593] which took place during the vintage, were loud and
frolicsome, and distinguished sometimes for their excessive licence.
They brought forth a number of wine skins, filled tight, to the village
green, and there smearing them liberally with oil the staggering rustics
sought, each in his turn, to leap and stand upon one of them with his
naked foot.[1594] The missing, slipping, and falling, the awkward figure
they sometimes made upon the ground, the jokes, and shouts, and laughter
of the bystanders, mingled with the twanging of rustic instruments, and
the roar of Bacchanalian songs, constituted the charm of the rural
Dionysia, out of which, through many changes and gradations, arose, as
we have seen, the Greek drama. In order without shame to give the freer
licence to their tongues, they sometimes covered their faces with masks,
formed with the bark of trees, which, there can be no doubt, led to
those afterwards employed in the theatre. Sometimes a sort of
farce[1595] was acted, representing the search of the Athenians for the
bodies of Icarios and Erygone. The former, according to tradition, was
the person who taught the inhabitants of Attica the use of wine, with
which on a certain occasion he regaled a number of shepherds. These
demi-savages, observing their strength and their reason fail, imagined
themselves to have been poisoned, and falling, in revenge, upon the
donor, put him to death. His dog Mœra escaped, and leading Erygone to
the spot where her father had been murdered, she immediately hung
herself on the discovery of the corpse. Upon this they were all
transported to the skies, and changed into so many constellations,
namely Boötes,[1596] the Dog, and the Virgin, by whose brilliancy we are
still rejoiced nightly. Soon afterwards the maidens of Attica were
seized with madness and hung themselves in great numbers, upon which the
oracle being consulted, commanded the Athenians to make search for the
bodies of Icarios and Erygone. Being able to discover them nowhere on
earth, they suspended ropes from the branches of lofty trees, by
swinging to and fro on which they appeared to be conducting their search
in the air; but many of these adventurous explorers receiving severe
falls, they were afterwards contented with suspending to the ropes
little images after their own likeness, which they sent hither and
thither in the air as their substitutes.

-----

Footnote 1593:

Virg. Georg. ii. 580, sqq. Hes. Scut. Heracl. 291, sqq. Cf. Schol.
Theocrit. i. 48.

Footnote 1594:

See Book ii. chapter 3.

Footnote 1595:

Serv. ad Virg. Georg. ii. 389.

Footnote 1596:

Æl. de Anim. vi. 25.

-----

But all the produce of the vineyards was not appropriated to the making
of wine, great quantities of grapes[1597] being preserved for the table,
or converted into raisins.[1598] The latter were sometimes made by being
carefully gathered after the full moon, and put out to dry in the sun,
about ten o’clock in the morning, when all the dew was evaporated. For
this purpose, there was in every vineyard, garden, and orchard, a place
called Theilopedon,[1599] which would seem to have been a smooth raised
terrace, where not grapes only, but myrtle-berries, and every other kind
of fruit, were exposed to the sun on fine hurdles. Here, likewise, the
berries of the Palma Christi[1600] were prepared for the making of
castor oil. Another method was to twist the stem of the cluster[1601]
and allow the grapes to dry on the vine. They were then laid up in
vessels among vine leaves, dried also in the sun, covered close with a
stopper, and deposited in a cold room free from smoke.

-----

Footnote 1597:

Geop. iv. 15. Cato, 7. Colum. xii. 39. Pallad. 11. 22.

Footnote 1598:

In the warm climate of Asia Minor grapes were sometimes turned into
raisins, on the stalk, by the sun.—Chandler, i. 77.

Footnote 1599:

Eustath. ad Odyss. η. p. 276. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 51. κρεμάθρα.
fruit-baskets, 219.

Footnote 1600:

Dioscor. i. 38.

Footnote 1601:

Geop. v. 52. This we find is still the practice in the islands of the
Archipelago, for the purpose of making sweet wine. M. l’ Abbé della
Rocca, who mentions it, enumerates at the same time the most delicious
sorts of grapes now cultivated in Greece—“On peut juger si les vins y
sont exquis, et si les anciens eurent raison d’appeller Naxie l’île de
Bacchus. Les raisins y sont monstrueux, et il arrive souvent que dans
un repas, on n’en sert qu’un seul pour le fruit; mais aussi
couvre-t-il toute la profondeur d’un grand bassin: les grains en sont
gros comme nos damas noirs. Il y a dans les îles des raisins de plus
de vingt sortes: les muscats de Ténédos et de Samos l’emportent sur
tous les autres; ceux de Ténédos sont plus ambrés; ceux de Samos, plus
délicats. Les Sentorinois, pour donner une saveur plus exquise à leurs
raisins, leur tordent la queue lorsqu’ils commencent à mûrir; après
quelques jours d’un soleil ardent, les raisins deviennent à demi
flétris, ce qui fait un vin dont ceux de la Cieutat et de
Saint-Laurent n’approchent pas. Les autres sortes de raisins sont
_l’aïdhoni_, petit raisin blanc qu’on mange vers la mi-juillet; le
_samia,_ gros raisin blanc qu’on fait sécher; le siriqui, ainsi nommé
parce qu’il a le goût de la cerise; _l’ætonychi_, qui a la figure de
l’ongle d’un aigle, et qui est très savoureux; le malvoisie, le muscat
violet, le corinthe, et plusieurs autres dont les noms me sont
échappés.” Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 6, seq. Speaking of the
prodigious productiveness of vines, Columella mentions one which bore
upwards of two thousand clusters, De Re Rust. iii. 3. A vine producing
a fifth of this quantity has been thought extraordinary in modern
Egypt: “Il n’est pas croyable combien rapporte un seul pied de vigne.
Il y en a un dans la maison Consulaire de France, qui a porté 436
grosses grappes de raisin, et qui en donne ordinairement 300.”—De
Maillet, Description de l’Egypte, p. 17.* In the Grecian Archipelago,
however, the vine has been known to yield still more abundantly than
in Egypt: “On a compté pendant trois ans consécutifs, cent
trente-quatre grappes de raisin sur une souche; et sur un autre cep de
vigne planté dans un terrain très-gras, on a compté jusqu’à quatre
cent quatre-vingts grappes; et l’intendant de l’évêché de notre île
m’a plus d’une fois assuré qu’on avoit fait soixante-quinze bouteilles
de vin, avec le raisin d’un seul cep.” Della Rocca, t. i. p. 65.

-----

To preserve the grapes fresh some cut off with a sharp pruninghook the
clusters separately, others the branches on which they grew, after
which, dipping the stem into pitch and removing the damaged grapes with
a pair of scissors, they spread them in cool and shady rooms, on layers
of pulse-halm, or hay, or straw.[1602] The halm of lentils was usually
preferred, because it is hard and dry, and repels mice. On other
occasions, the branches were kept suspended, having sometimes been
previously dipped in sweet wine. Grapes were likewise preserved in
pitched coffers, immersed in dry saw-dust of the pitch tree, or the
silver fir, or the black poplar, or even in millet flour. Others plunged
the bunches in boiling sea-water, or if this were not at hand, into a
preparation of wine, salt, and water, and then laid them up in barley
straw. Others boiled the ashes of the fig-tree, or the vine, with which
they sprinkled the bunches. Others preserved grapes by suspending them
in granaries, where the grain beneath was occasionally moved, for the
dust rising from the corn settled on the outside of the clusters, and
protected them from the air. Another method was to boil rain-water to a
third, and then, after cooling it in the open air, and pouring it into a
pitched vessel, to fill it with clusters perfectly cleansed. The vessel
was then covered, luted with gypsum, and laid by in a cold place. The
grapes in this way remained quite fresh, and the water itself acquiring
a vinous taste was administered to sick persons in lieu of wine.
Occasionally, also, grapes as well as apples were kept in honey.

-----

Footnote 1602:

Geop. iv. 15. 4.

-----

The most extraordinary, and perhaps the most effectual
contrivance,[1603] however, was to dig near the vine a pit three feet
deep, the bottom of which was covered with a layer of sand. A few short
stakes were then fixed upright in it, and to these a number of vine
branches laden with clusters were bent down and made fast. The whole was
then closely roofed over so as completely to keep out the rain, and in
this way the grapes would remain fresh till spring.

-----

Footnote 1603:

Geop. iv. 11. Pallad. xii. 12.

-----

The labours of the vintage being concluded, the husbandman next turned
his attention to olive gathering and the making of oil. This, in Greece,
was a matter of great importance. The olives, therefore,[1604] for all
the better sorts of oil, were picked by hand, and not, as in Italy,
suffered to fall. When as many were gathered as could conveniently be
pressed during the following night and day, they were spread loosely on
fine hurdles, and not heaped up lest they should heat and lose the
delicacy of their flavour. They were, likewise, cleansed carefully from
leaves and every particle of wood, these substances, it was supposed,
impairing the quality and durability of the oil. Towards evening a
little salt was sprinkled over the olives, which were then put into a
clean mill,[1605] and so arranged that they could be bruised without
crushing the stones, from the juice of which the oil contracted a bad
taste. Having been sufficiently bruised, they were conveyed in small
vessels to the press, where they were covered with hurdles of green
willows, upon which, at first, was placed a moderate weight,—for that
which flows from slight pressure is the sweetest and purest oil, on
which account it was drawn off in clean leaden vessels,[1606] and
preserved apart. Greater weight was then added, and the mass having been
well writhen, the second runnings were laid up in separate vessels. The
next step was to cause the precipitation of the lees, which was effected
by mingling with the crude oil a little salt and nitre. It was then
stirred with a piece of olive-wood, and left to settle, when the amurca
or watery part sank to the bottom. The pure oil was then skimmed off
with a shell, and laid up in glass vases, this substance having been
preferred on account of its cold nature. In default of these,
pickle-jars, glazed with gypsum, were used, which were deposited in cool
cellars facing the north.[1607]

-----

Footnote 1604:

Geop. ix. 19. 2.

Footnote 1605:

The fruit of the terebinth was ground, like the olive, in a mill, for
the making of oil. The kernels were used in feeding pigs, or for fuel.
Geop. ix. 18.

Footnote 1606:

Cf. Cato, De Re Rust. 66. This clear pure oil, sometimes rendered
odoriferous by perfumes, (Il. ψ. 186,) was chiefly employed in
lubricating the body. Thus we find the virgin in Hesiod anointing her
limbs with olive-oil to defend herself from the winter’s cold. Opp. et
Dies, 519, sqq.

Footnote 1607:

Vitruv. vi. 9.

-----

The Greeks had a variety of other oils besides that procured from the
olive,[1608] as walnut-oil, oil of terebinth, oil of sesamum, oil of
violets, oil of almonds, oil of Palma Christi, or castor-oil, oil of
saffron, oil of Cnidian laurel, oil of datura, oil of lentisk, oil of
mastic, oil of myrtle, and oil of mustard. They had, likewise,[1609] the
green and wild-olive oil, and the double-refined oil of Sicyon, together
with imitations of the Spanish and Italian oils.

-----

Footnote 1608:

Geop. ix. 18.

Footnote 1609:

Geop. ix. 19, seq. iii. 13. Dioscor. i. 140.

-----

As fruit of all kinds was in great request among the Greeks, they had
recourse to numerous contrivances[1610] for ensuring an unfailing supply
throughout the year. At many of these our gardeners may, perhaps, smile,
but they were, nevertheless, most of them ingenious, and, probably,
effectual, though the fruit thus preserved may have been dear when
brought to market. Into the details of all their methods it will be
unnecessary to enter: the following were the principal and most curious.
Walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, &c., were gathered and kept in the
ordinary way. They understood the art of blanching almonds, which were
afterwards dried in the sun. Medlars, service-berries, winter-apples,
and the like, having been gathered carefully, were simply laid up in
straw, whether on the loft-floor or in baskets. This, likewise, was
sometimes the case with quinces, which, together with apples and pears,
were, on other occasions, deposited in dry fig-leaves. For these, in the
case of pears and apples, walnut-leaves were often substituted,
sometimes piled under and over them in heaps, at other times wrapped and
tied about the fruit, the hues and odours of which they were supposed
greatly to improve.

-----

Footnote 1610:

Geop. x. 10–70. Cf. Mazois, Pal. de Scaurus, p. 182, seq.

-----

Citrons,[1611] pomegranates,[1612] apples, quinces, and pears, were
preserved in heaps of sand, grapestones, oak, poplar, deal, or cedar
sawdust, sometimes sprinkled with vinegar, chopped straw, wheat, or
barley, or the seeds of plants, all of which sufficed equally to exclude
the external air. Another method with apples[1613] was to lay them up
surrounded with sea-weed in unbaked jars, which were then deposited in
an upper room free from smoke and all bad smells. When sea-weed was not
procurable they put each apple into a small separate jar closely covered
up and luted. These apple-jars were often lined with a coating of wax.
Figs were, in like manner, preserved green[1614] by being enclosed in so
many small gourds. Citrons and pomegranates were often suffered to
remain throughout the winter on the tree, defended from wet and wind by
being capped with little fictile vases bound tightly to the branches to
keep them steady. Others enclosed these fruits, as well as apples, in a
thick coating of gypsum, preventing their falling off by binding the
stem to the branches with packthread. Nor was it unusual, even when
gathered, to envelope apples, quinces, and citrons, in a covering of the
same material, or potter’s clay, or argillaceous earth, mixed with hair,
sometimes interposing between the fruit and this crust a layer of
fig-leaves, after which they were dried in the sun. When at the end,
perhaps, of a whole year the above crust was broken and removed the
fruit came forth perfect as when plucked from the bough. It is possible,
therefore, that, in a similar manner, mangoes, mangusteens, and other
frail and delicate fruit of the tropics, might be brought fresh to
Europe, and that, too, in such abundance as to make them accessible to
most persons. To render pears and pomegranates durable, their stems were
dipped in pitch, after which they were hung up. In the case of the
latter the fruit itself was sometimes thus dipped; and, at other times,
immersed in hot sea-water, after which it was dried in the sun. One mode
of preserving figs was to plunge them in honey so as neither to touch
each other, nor the vessel in which they were contained; another, to
cover a pile of them with an inverted vase of glass, or other pellucid
substance, closely luted to the slab on which it stood. Cherries were
gathered before sunrise, and put, with summer savory above and below,
into a jar, or the hollow of a reed, which was then filled with sweet
vinegar, and closely covered. Mulberries were preserved in their own
juice, apples and quinces in pitched coffers, wrapped in clean locks of
wool, pears by being placed in salt[1615] for five days, and afterwards
dried in the sun, as were also figs, which were strung by the stalks to
a piece of cord or willow twig, like so many hanks of onions[1616] as
they are sold in modern times. Elsewhere they were preserved, as dates
in Egypt, by being pressed together in square masses, like bricks.[1617]
Damascenes were kept in must or sweet wine, as were also pears, adding
sometimes a little salt and jujubes, with leaves, above and below. The
same course was pursued with apples and quinces, which communicated to
the liquor additional durability and the most exquisite fragrance.
Quinces, whose sharp effluvia prevented their being placed with other
fruit, were often put into closely-covered jars, and kept floating in
wine to which they imparted a delicious perfume. The same custom was
observed with respect to figs, which were cut off on the bearing branch
a little before they were ripe, and hung, so as not to touch each other,
in a square earthen jar. Upon the same principle apples were preserved
in jars hermetically sealed, which, for the sake of coolness, were
plunged in cisterns or deep wells.[1618]

-----

Footnote 1611:

Palladius, iv. 10.

Footnote 1612:

We find mention in modern times of a species of pomegranate, the
kernels of which are without stones, peculiar apparently to the island
of Scio. “It is usual to bring them to table, in a plate, sprinkled
with rose-water.” Chandler, i. 58.

Footnote 1613:

Cf. Philost. Icon. t. 31. p. 809. ii. 2. p. 812.

Footnote 1614:

Ficus virides servari possunt vel in melle ordinatæ, ne se invicem
tangant, vel singulæ intra viridem cucurbitam clausæ, locis unicuique
cavatis, et item tessera, quæ secatur, inclusis, suspensa ea
cucurbita, ubi non sit ignis vel fumus. Pallad. iv. 10.

Footnote 1615:

Cato, 7. Varro. i. 59. Colum. xii. 14.

Footnote 1616:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 755. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. ii. 61.

Footnote 1617:

Phot. ap. Brunckh. ad Aristoph. Pac. 574.

Footnote 1618:

Pallad. iii. 25.

-----

It may, perhaps, be worth while to mention, in passing, that, like
ourselves, the ancients possessed the art of extracting perry and
cider[1619] from their pears and apples; and from pomegranates a species
of wine which is said to have been of an extremely delicate flavour. The
Egyptians, also, made wine from the fruit of the lotos.[1620]

-----

Footnote 1619:

Pallad. iii. 25. Colum. xii. 45.

Footnote 1620:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 3. i.

-----

CHAPTER IV.
STUDIES OF THE FARMER.

In other branches of rural economy the country gentlemen of Attica
exhibited no less enthusiasm or skill. Indeed, throughout Greece, there
prevailed a similar taste. Every one was eager to instruct and be
instructed; and so great in consequence was the demand for treatises on
husbandry, theoretical and practical, that numerous writers, the names
of fifty of whom are preserved by Varro,[1621] made it the object of
their study. Others without committing the result of their experience to
writing, devoted themselves wholly to its practical improvement. They
purchased waste or ill-cultivated lands, and, by investigating the
nature of the soil, skilfully adapting their crops to it, manuring,
irrigating, and draining, converted a comparative desert into a
productive estate.[1622] We can possibly, as Dr. Johnson insists,
improve very little our knowledge of agriculture by erudite researches
into the methods of the ancients; though Milton was of opinion, that
even here some useful hints might be obtained. In describing, however,
what the Greeks did, I am not pretending to enlighten the present age,
but to enable it to enjoy its superiority by instituting a comparison
with the ruder practices of antiquity.

-----

Footnote 1621:

De Re Rusticâ, i. 1. Cf. Colum. i. 1.

Footnote 1622:

Xenoph. Œconom. xx. 22, sqq.

-----

Already in those times the men of experience and routine,[1623] had
begun to vent their sneers against philosophers for their profound
researches into the nature of soils,[1624] in which, however, they by no
means designed to engage the husbandman, but only to present him, in
brief and intelligible maxims, with the fruit of their labours.
Nevertheless the practical husbandman went to work a shorter way. He
observed his neighbour’s grounds,[1625] saw what throve in this soil,
what in the other, what was bettered by irrigation, what in this respect
might safely be left to the care of Heaven; and thus, in a brief space,
acquired a rough theory wherewith to commence operations. An
agriculturist, the Athenians thought, required no recondite erudition,
though to his complete success the exercise of much good sense and
careful observation was necessary. Every man would, doubtless, know in
what seasons of the year he must plough and sow and reap, that lands
exhausted by cultivation must be suffered to lie fallow, that change of
crops is beneficial to the soil, and so on. But the great art consists
in nicely adapting each operation to the varying march of the seasons,
in converting accidents to use, in rendering the winds, the showers, the
sunshine, subservient to your purposes, in mastering the signs of the
weather, and guarding as far as possible against the injuries sustained
from storms of rain or hail.

-----

Footnote 1623:

Cf. Plat. De Legg. t. vii. p. 111. t. viii. p. 103.

Footnote 1624:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 1, sqq.

Footnote 1625:

The sight of a rich and thriving neighbour operated likewise as a spur
to his industry:—

Εἰς ἕτερον γάρ τίς τε ἰδὼν ἔργοιο χατίζων
Πλούσιον ὅς σπεύδει μέν ἀρόμμεναι ἠδὲ φυτεύειν,
Οἶκον τ᾽ εὖ θέσθαι· ζηλοῖ δὲ τε γείτονα γείτων
Εἰς ἄφενον σπεύδοντ᾽ ἀγαθὴ δ᾽
Ἔρις ἥδε βροτοῖσι.
Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 21, sqq.

-----

There was in circulation among the Greeks a small body of precepts,
addressed more especially to husbandmen, designed to promote the real
object of civilisation. Quaint, no doubt, and ineffably commonplace,
they will now appear, but they served, nevertheless, in early and rude
times, to soften the manners and regulate the conduct of the rustic
Hellenes. Who first began to collect and preserve them is, of course,
unknown; they are thickly sprinkled through the works of Hesiod,[1626]
and impart to them an air of moral dignity which relieves the monotony
that would otherwise result from a mere string of agricultural maxims.
The chief aim of the poet seems to be, to promote peace and good
neighbourhood, to multiply among the inhabitants of the fields occasions
of joining the “rough right hand,”[1627] to apply the sharp spur to
industry, and thus to augment the stores, and, along with them, the
contentment, of his native land. Be industrious, exclaims the poet, for
famine is the companion of the idle. Labour confers fertility on flocks
and herds, and is the parent of opulence. He who toils is beloved by
gods[1628] and men, while the idle hand is the object of their aversion.
The slothful man envies the prosperity of his neighbour; but glory is
the reward of virtue. Prudence heaps up that which profligacy
dissipates. Be hospitable to the stranger, for he who repels the
suppliant from his door is no less guilty than the adulterer, than the
despoiler of the orphan, or the wretch who blasphemes his aged parent on
the brink of the grave: of such men the end is miserable, when Zeus
rains down vengeance upon them in recompense for their evil actions. Be
mindful that thou offer up victims to the gods with pure hands and holy
thoughts,—to pour libations in their temples, adorn their altars, and
render them propitious to thee in all things. When about to ascend thy
couch to enjoy sweet sleep, and when the sacred light of the day-spring
first appears, omit not to demand of heaven a pure heart and a cheerful
mind, with the means of extending thy possessions, and protection from
loss. When thou makest a feast, invite thy friends and thy neighbours,
and in times of trouble they will run to thy assistance half-clad, while
thy relations will tarry to buckle on their girdles. Borrow of thy
neighbour, but, in repaying him, exceed rather than fall short of what
is his due. Rise betimes. Every little makes a mickle. Store is no sore.
Housed corn breaks no sleep. Drink largely the top and the bottom of the
jar; be sparing of the middle:[1629] it is niggardly to stint your
friends when the wine runs low. Do unto others as they do unto
you.—These seeds of morality are simple, as I have said, and far from
recondite; but they produced the warriors of Marathon and Platæa, and
preserved for ages the freedom and the independence of Greece.

-----

Footnote 1626:

Opp. et Dies, 298, sqq.

Footnote 1627:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 190.

Footnote 1628:

Καὶ τ᾽ ἐργαζόμενος πολὺ φίλτερος ἀθανάτοισιν.
Ἔσσεαι ἠδὲ βροτοῖς· μάλα γὰρ στυγέουσιν ἀεργούς.
Opp. et Dies. 309, seq.

Footnote 1629:

Cf. Plut. Sympos. vii. 3.

-----

The other branches of an Hellenic farmer’s studies comprehended
something like the elements of natural philosophy,—the influence of the
sun and moon, the rising and setting of the stars, the motion of the
winds, the generation and effects of dews, clouds, meteors, showers and
tempests, the origin of springs and fountains, and the migrations and
habits of birds and other animals. In addition to these things, it was
necessary that he should be acquainted with certain practices, prevalent
from time immemorial in his country, and, probably, deriving their
origin from ages beyond the utmost reach of tradition. The source of
these we usually denominate superstition, though it would, perhaps, be
more proper to regard them as the offspring of that lively and plastic
fancy which gave birth to poetry and art, and inclined its possessors to
create a sort of minor religion, based on a praiseworthy principle, but
developing itself chiefly in observances almost always minute and
trifling, and sometimes ridiculous. To describe all these at length
would be beside my present purpose, which only requires that I mention
by the way the more remarkable of those connected especially with
agriculture.

The knowledge of soil was called into play both in purchasing estates
and in appropriating their several parts to different kinds of culture.
According to their notions, which appear to have been founded on long
experience, and in most points, I believe, agree with those which still
prevail, a rich black mould, deep, friable, and porous,[1630] which
would resist equally the effects of rain and drought, was, for all
purposes, the best. Next to this they esteemed a yellow alluvial soil,
and that sweet warm ground which best suited vines, corn, and trees. The
red earth, also, they highly valued, except for timber.

Their rules for detecting the character and qualities of the soil appear
to have been judicious. Good land, they thought, might be known even
from its appearance, since in drought it cracks not too much, and during
heavy and continued showers becomes not miry, but suffers all the rain
to sink into its bosom. That earth they considered inferior which in
cold weather becomes baked, and is covered on the surface by a
shell-like incrustation. They judged, likewise, of the virtue of the
soil by the luxuriant or stunted character of its natural
productions:[1631] thus they augured favourably of those tracts of
country which were covered by vast and lofty timber-trees, while such as
produced only a dwarfed vegetation, consisting of meagre bushes,
scattered thickets, and hungry grass, they reckoned almost worthless.

-----

Footnote 1630:

Geop. ii. 9. In these rich loams, particularly on the banks of the
Stymphalian and Copaic lakes, wheat has been known to yield a return
of fifty-fold. Thiersch, Etat Act. de la Grèce. t. ii. p. 17.

Other spots, again, return thirty-fold. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 60.

Footnote 1631:

The pitch-pine indicated a light and hungry soil; the cypress, a
clayey soil. Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

-----

Not content with the testimony of the eye, some husbandmen were
accustomed to consult both the smell and the taste; for, digging a pit
of some depth, they took thence a small quantity of earth, from the
odour of which they drew an opinion favourable or otherwise. But to
render surety doubly sure, they then threw it into a vase, and poured on
it a quantity of potable water, which they afterwards tasted, inferring
from the flavour the fertility or barrenness of the soil. This was the
experiment most relied on; though many considered that soil sweet which
produced the basket-rush, the reed, the lotos, and the bramble. On some
occasions they employed another method, which was, to make a small
excavation, and then, throwing back the earth into the opening whence it
had been drawn, to observe whether or not it filled the whole
cavity:[1632] if it did so, or left a surplus, the soil was judged to be
excellent; if not, they regarded it as of little value. Soils possessing
saline qualities were shunned by the ancients, who carefully avoided
mingling salt with their manure, though lands of this description were
rightly thought to be well adapted to the cultivation of
palm-trees,[1633] which they produce in the greatest perfection,[1634]
as in Phœnicia, Egypt, and the country round Babylon.[1635]

-----

Footnote 1632:

Geop. ii. 11.

Footnote 1633:

The Grecian husbandman, therefore, when planting palm-trees in any
other than a sandy soil, sprinkled salt on the earth immediately
around. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 2.

Footnote 1634:

Geop. ii. 10.

Footnote 1635:

Xenoph. Anab. ii. 3. 16. The doom-palm, generally, I believe, supposed
to be peculiar to Upper Egypt and the countries beyond the cataract,
was anciently cultivated also in Crete. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 3.

-----

Another art in which the condition of the husbandman required him to be
well versed was that of discovering the signs of latent springs,[1636]
the existence of which it was necessary to ascertain before laying the
foundation of a new farm. The investigation was complicated, and carried
on in a variety of ways. First, and most obvious, was the inference
drawn from plants and the nature of the soil itself; for those grounds,
they thought, were intersected below by veins of water which bore upon
their surface certain tribes of grasses and herbs and bushes, as the
couch-grass, the broad-leaved plantain, the heliotrope, the red-grass,
the agnus-castus, the bramble, the horse-tail, or shave-grass, ivy,
bush-calamint, soft and slender reeds,[1637] maiden-hair, the melilot,
ditch-dock, cinquefoil, or five leaf-grass, broad-leaved bloodwort, the
rush, nightshade, mil-foil, colt’s-foot or foal’s-foot, trefoil or
pond-weed, and the black thistle. Spring-heads were always supposed to
lurk beneath fat and black loam, as, likewise, in a stony soil,
especially where the rocks are dark and of a ferruginous colour. But in
argillaceous districts, particularly where potter’s-clay abounds, or
where there are many pebbles and pumice-stones,[1638] they are of rare
occurrence.

-----

Footnote 1636:

Geop. ii. 4, sqq.

Footnote 1637:

Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

Footnote 1638:

Spallanzani, in his scientific Travels in the Two Sicilies, describes
and explains the cause of the rarity of springs in volcanic countries.
In some districts among the roots of Ætna the female peasants are
compelled to travel ten miles, at certain seasons of the year, in
search of water, a jar of which costs, consequently, almost a day’s
journey. vol. i. p. 299, sqq. In another part of the same work he
investigates the origin of springs in the Æolian isles, which he
illustrates by the example of Stromboli. iv. 128. In this island there
are two fountains, one of slightly tepid water, at the foot of the
mountain, the other on its slope. “Je recontrai,” observes Monsieur
Dolomieu, “à moitié hauteur une source d’eau froide, douce, légère et
très bonne à boire, qui ne tarit jamais et qui est l’unique ressourse
des habitans lorsque leurs cîternes sont épuisées et lorsque les
chaleurs ont desséché une seconde source qui est au pied de la
montagne ce qui arrive tous les étés.” He then adds with reason:
“Cette petite fontaine dans ce lieu très élevé au milieu des cendres
volcaniques, est très remarquable, elle ne peut avoir son réservoir
que dans une pointe de montagne isolée, toute de sable et de pierres
poreuses, matières qui ne peuvent point retenir l’eau, puisqu’elles
sont perméables à la fumée.” Voyage aux Iles de Lipari, t. i. p. 120.
He then endeavours to account for its existence by evaporation. In the
island of Saline, among the same Æolian group, there is another
never-failing spring, which, as some years no rain falls in these
islands during the space of nine months, has greatly perplexed the
theories of naturalists. Spallanzani conceives, however, that the
phenomenon may be explained in the usual way: “It appears to me,” he
says, “extremely probable, that in the internal parts of an island
which, like this, is the work of fire, there may be immense caverns
that may be filled with water by the rains; and that in some of these
which are placed above the spring, the water may always continue at
nearly the same height.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 136.

-----

To the above indications they were in most cases careful to add others.
Ascending ere sunrise to a higher level than the spot under examination,
they observed by the first rays and before the light thickened, whether
they could detect the presence of any exhalations, which were held
unerringly to indicate the presence of springs below. Sometimes
inquisition was made during the bright and clear noon, when the
subterraneous retreats of the Naiads were supposed in summer to be
betrayed by cloudlets of thin silvery vapour, and in the winter season
by curling threads of steam. In this way the natives of southern Africa
discover the existence of hidden fountains in the desert.[1639] Swarms
of gnats flitting hither and thither, or whirling round and ascending in
a column, were regarded as another sign.

-----

Footnote 1639:

Le Vaillant, t. viii. p. 162. Even in the southern provinces of
France, the discovery of hidden springs is an art of no mean
importance; and the persons who possess it are regarded as public
benefactors. Thus, as I learn from my friend M. Louis Froment, of the
department of the Lot, M. Paramelle, a curé having a living in that
part of the country, is held in high estimation on account of the
power he possesses of discovering the lurking retreats of
spring-heads. He is able, from a certain distance, and without the
least hesitation, to point out the source of living water, determine
the depth at which it is to be found, say, without ever falling into
error, what is the quantity and what the quality of the water. Without
seeking to penetrate the plan, of which he keeps the secret, his
countrymen avail themselves of the advantages offered to them; and the
inhabitants of one village, situated on a calcareous tableland, have
discovered, by the assistance of M. Paramelle, a source in their
market-place, whilst before they were compelled to seek water at a
distance of five miles.

-----

When not entirely satisfied by any of the above means, they had recourse
to the following experiment:[1640] sinking a pit to the depth of about
four feet and a half, they took a hemispherical pan or lead basin, and
having anointed it with oil, and fastened with wax a long flake of wool
to the bottom, placed it inverted in the pit. It was then covered with
earth about a foot deep, and left undisturbed during a whole night. On
its being taken forth in the morning, if the inside of the vessel were
covered thickly with globules, and the wool were dripping wet, it was
concluded there were springs beneath, the depth of which they calculated
from the scantiness or profusion of the moisture. A similar trial was
made with a sponge covered with reeds.

-----

Footnote 1640:

Geop. ii. 4.

-----

Since most streams and rivers take their rise in lofty table-lands or
mountains, which by the ancients were supposed to be richer in springs
in proportion to the number of their peaks, it would seem to follow,
that scarcely any country in Europe should be better supplied with water
than Greece. Experience, however, shows, that this in modern times is
not the fact, several rivers supposed to have been of great volume in
antiquity, having now dwindled into mere brooks, and innumerable
streamlets and fountains become altogether dry; on which account the
credit of Greek writers is often impugned, it being supposed that the
natural characteristics of the country must necessarily be invariable.
But this is an error. For the existence of springs and rivulets depends
less perhaps on the presence of mountains than on the prevalence of
forests, as Democritos[1641] long ago observed. Now, from a variety of
causes, still in active operation, the ridges and hills and lower
eminences of modern Greece have been almost completely denuded of trees,
along with which have necessarily disappeared the well-springs, and
runnels, and cascades, and rills, and mountain tarns, which anciently
shed beauty and fertility over the face of Hellas, whose highlands were
once so densely clad with woods[1642] that the peasants requiring a
short cut from one valley to another, were compelled to clear themselves
a pathway with the axe.[1643] To restore to Greece, therefore, its
waters, and the beauty and riches depending on them, the mountains must
be again forested, and severe restraint put on the wantonness of those
vagrant shepherds who constantly expose vast woods to the risk of entire
destruction for the sake of procuring more delicate grass for their
flocks.[1644]

-----

Footnote 1641:

Geop. ii. 6.

Footnote 1642:

Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 233, where he speaks of swarms of wild bees
on the slopes of the mountains.

In another passage this poet describes the ravages and devastation of
a hurricane amid the fountain forests:

Μῆνα δὲ Ληναιῶνα, κάκ᾽ ἤματα, βουδόρα πάντα,
τοῦτον ἀλεύασθαι, καὶ πηγάδας, αἵτ ἐπὶ γαῖαν
πνεύσαντος Βορέαο δυσηλεγέες τελέθουσιν,
ὅστε διὰ Θρῄκης ἱπποτρόφου ἐυρέϊ πόντῳ
ἐμπνεύσας ὤρινε· μέμυκε δὲ γαῖα καὶ ὕλη.
πολλὰς δὲ δρῦς ὑψικόμους ἐλάτας τε παχείας
οὔρεος ἐν βήσσῃς πιλνᾷ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ
ἐμπίπτων, καὶ πᾶσα βοᾷ τότε νήριτος ὕλη.
Opp. et Dies, 504, sqq.

The pine and pitch trees, it is related by Theophrastus, were often
uprooted by the winds in Arcadia. Hist. Plant. iii. 6. 4.

Footnote 1643:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 3. 7. In all countries, small and great, the
progress of civilisation has been inimical to forests. Thus in the
little island of Stromboli, containing about a thousand inhabitants,
attempts were made towards the end of the eighteenth century to
enlarge the cultivable ground by clearing away the woods. Spallanzani,
Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 126, seq. The difficulty of
extirpating trees is illustrated by Theophrastus who relates that, in
a spot near Pheneon in Arcadia, a well-wooded tract was overflowed by
the water and the trees destroyed. Next year, when the flood had
subsided and the mud dried, each kind of tree appeared in the
situation which it had formerly occupied. The willow, the elm, the
pine, and the fir, growing in its own place, doubtless from the roots
of the former trees. Hist. Plant. iii. 1. 2. Again: the Nessos, in the
territory of the Abderites, constantly changed its bed, and in the old
channels trees sprung up so rapidly that, in three years, they were so
many strips of forest. Id. iii. 1. 5.

Footnote 1644:

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce. t. i. p. 276. It is remarked by
Theophrastus, however, that pine forests, being destroyed by fire,
shot up again, as happened in Lesbos, on a mountain near Pyrrha. Hist.
Plant. iii. 9. 4.

-----

In Attica,[1645] both fields and gardens were chiefly irrigated by means
of wells which, sometimes, in extremely long and dry summers, failed
entirely, thus causing a scarcity of vegetables.[1646] The water, we
find, was drawn up by precisely the same machinery as is still employed
for the purpose. The invention of these conveniences of primary
necessity having preceded the birth of tradition, has, by some writers,
been attributed to Danaos, who is supposed to have emigrated from Egypt
into Greece. Arriving, we are told, at Argos, he, upon the failure of
spontaneous fountains, taught the inhabitants to dig wells, in
consequence of which he was elected chief. But where was Danaos himself
to have learned this art? He is said to have been an Egyptian, and Egypt
is a country so entirely without springs, that two only exist within its
limits, and of these but one was known to the ancients. Of wells they
had none. Danaos could, therefore, if he was an Egyptian, have known
nothing of springs or wells; and, if he had such knowledge, he must have
come from some other land.[1647]

-----

Footnote 1645:

Cf. Chandler, i. p. 261. The apparatus now used in irrigation by the
Sciots exactly resembles that of the Egyptian Arabs. Id. i. 315.

Footnote 1646:

Demosth. Adv. Polycl. § 16. On the supply of water to Athens we
possess little positive information, though we cannot doubt that all
possible advantage was taken of those pure sources which are still
found in its neighbourhood. “In no country necessity was more likely
to have created the hydragogic art than in Attica; and we have
evidence of the attention bestowed by the Athenians upon their canals
and fountains in the time of Themistocles, as well as in that of
Alexander the Great.” Col. Leake, on some disputed points in the
Topography of Athens. Trans. Lit. Soc. iii. 189. Cf. Aristoph. Av.
Schol. 998. Plut. Themist. § 31. Arist. Polit. vi. 8. vii. 12. We
find, from Theophrastus, that there was in his time, an aqueduct in
the Lyceum with a number of plane trees growing near it. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. i. 7. 1.

Footnote 1647:

Mitford, i. 33, seq. In Bœotia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Cyrenaica,
the dew served instead of rain. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 4. 6.

-----

Where there existed neither wells nor fountains, people were compelled
to depend on rain-water, collected and preserved in cisterns.[1648] For
this purpose troughs were in some farm-houses run along the eaves both
of the stables, barns, and sheep-cotes, as well as of the dwelling of
the family, while others used only that which ran from the last, the
roof of which was kept scrupulously clean. The water was conveyed
through wooden pipes[1649] to the cisterns, which appear to have been
frequently situated in the front court.[1650] Bad water they purified in
several ways: by casting into it a little coral powder,[1651] small
linen bags of bruised barley, or a quantity of laurel leaves, or by
pouring it into broad tubs and exposing it for a considerable time to
the action of the sun and air. When there happened to be about the farms
ponds of any magnitude, they introduced into them a number of eels or
river crabs, which opened the veins of the earth and destroyed leeches.

-----

Footnote 1648:

Λακκοὶ. Machon. ap. Athen. xiii. 43.

Footnote 1649:

Geop. ii. 7.

Footnote 1650:

Sir W. Hamilton, Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 13.

Footnote 1651:

Water was cooled by being suspended in vessels over the mouths of
wells; and sometimes boiled previously to render the process more
complete. For, according to the Peripatetics, πᾶν ὕδωρ προθερμανθὲν
ψύχεται μᾶλλον, ὥσπερ τὸ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι παρασκευαζόμενον, ὅταν ἑψηθῇ
μέχρι ζέσεως, περισωρεύουσι τῷ ἀγγείῳ χιόνα πολλὴν, καὶ γίνεται
ψυχρότερον. Plut. Sympos. vi. 4. 1.

-----

A scarcely less important branch of the farmer’s studies was that which
related to the weather and the general march of the seasons.[1652] Above
all things, it behoved him to observe diligently the rising and setting
of the sun and moon. He was, likewise, carefully to note the state of
the atmosphere at the disappearance of the Pleiades, since it was
expected to continue the same until the winter solstice, after which a
change sometimes immediately supervened, otherwise there was usually no
alteration till the vernal equinox.[1653] Another variation then took
place in the character of the weather, which afterwards remained fixed
till the rising of the Pleiades, undergoing successively fresh mutations
at the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. According to their
observations, moreover, a rainy winter[1654] was followed by a dry and
raw spring, and the contrary; and a snowy winter by a year of abundance.
But as nature by no means steadily follows this course, exhibiting many
sudden and abrupt fluctuations, it was found necessary to subject her
restless phenomena to a more rigid scrutiny, in order that rules might
be obtained for foretelling the approach of rain, or tempests, or
droughts, or a continuance of fair weather. Of these some, possibly,
were founded on imperfect observation or casual coincidences, or a
fanciful linking of causes and effects; while others, we cannot doubt,
sprang from a practical familiarity with the subtler and more shifting
elements of natural philosophy.

-----

Footnote 1652:

Geop. i. 2–4. 11. Theophrast. De Signis Pluviarum et de Ventis,
_passim_. Our own agriculturists, also, were formerly much addicted to
these studies. Thus, “The oke apples, if broken in sunder about the
time of their withering, do foreshewe the sequel of the yeare, as the
expert Kentish husbandmen have observed, by the living things found in
them: as, if they find an ant, they foretell plentie of graine to
insue; if a whole worm, like a gentill or maggot, then they
prognosticate murren of beasts and cattle; if a spider, then (saie
they) we shall have a pestilence or some such like sickness to followe
amongst men. These things the learned, also, have observed and noted:
for Mathiolus, writing upon Dioscorides saith, that before they have
an hole through them, they conteine in them either a flie, a spider,
or a worme; if a flie, then warre insueth; if a creeping worme, then
scarcitie of victuals; if a running spider, then followeth great
sickness and mortalitie.” Gerrard, Herball, Third Book, c. 29. p.
1158. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 561.

Footnote 1653:

Cf. Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 486, seq.

Footnote 1654:

Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 675. 812.

-----

As nothing more obviously interests the husbandman than the seasonable
arrival and departure of rains, everything connected with them, however
remotely, was observed and treasured up with scrupulous accuracy. Of all
the circumstances pre-signifying their approach the most certain was
supposed to be the aspect of the morning; for if, before sunrise, beds
of purpurescent clouds[1655] stretched along the verge of the horizon,
rain was expected that day, or the day after the morrow. The same augury
they drew, though with less confidence, from the appearance of the
setting sun,[1656] especially if in winter or spring it went down
through an accumulation of clouds or with masses of dusky rack on the
left. Again, if, on rising, the sun looked pale, dull red, or
spotted;[1657] or, if, previously, its rays were seen streaming
upwards;[1658] or, if, immediately afterwards, a long band of clouds
extended beneath it, intersecting its descending beams; or if the orient
wore a sombre hue; or if piles of sable vapour towered into the welkin;
or if the clouds were scattered loosely over the sky like fleeces of
wool;[1659] or came waving up from the south in long sinuous streaks—the
“mares’ tails” of our nautical vocabulary—the husbandman reckoned with
certainty upon rain, floods, and tempestuous winds. Among the signs of
showers peculiar to the site of Athens may be reckoned these following:
if a rampart of white ground-fogs begirt at night the basis of Hymettos;
or, if its summits were capped with vapour;[1660] or, if troops of mists
settled in the hollow of the smaller mount, called the Springless; or,
if a single cloud rested on the fane of Zeus at Ægina.[1661] The violent
roaring of the sea upon the beach was the forerunner of a gale, and they
were enabled to conjecture from what quarter it was to blow, by the
movements of the waters, which retreated from the shore before a north
wind; while, at the approach of the sirocco, they were piled up higher
than usual against the cliffs. Elsewhere, in Attica, they supposed wet
weather to be foretold by the summits of Eubœa rising clear, sharp, and
unusually elevated through a dense floor of exhalations, which, when
they mounted and gathered in blowing weather about the peaks of
Caphareus,[1662] on the eastern shores of the island, presaged an
impending storm of five days’ continuance. But here these signs
concerned rather the mariner than the husbandman, since the cliffs that
stretched along this coast are rugged and precipitous, and the
approaches so dangerous that few vessels which are driven on it escape.
Scarcely are the crews able to save themselves, unless their bark happen
to be extremely light. Another portent of foul weather was the
apparition of a circle about the moon, while, by the double reflection
of its orb north and south, that luminary appeared to be multiplied into
three. At night, also, if the nubecula,[1663] called the Manger, in the
constellation of the Crab, shone less luminously, it betokened a similar
state of the atmosphere. A like inference[1664] was drawn when the moon
at three days old rose dusky; or, with blunt horns; or, with its rim, or
whole disk, red; or blotted with black spots; or encircled by two
halos.[1665]

-----

Footnote 1655:

Cf. Arato. Prognost. 102, sqq. But, on the other hand, “purus oriens,
atque non fervens, serenum diem nuntiat.” Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78.
Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 8.

Footnote 1656:

The sun-sets of the Mediterranean exhibit, as most travellers will
have observed, a variety of gorgeous phenomena, which, as betokening
certain states of the atmosphere serve as so many admonitions to the
husbandman. The sun before going down “assumed,” observes Dr.
Chandler, “a variety of fantastic shapes. It was surrounded, first,
with a golden glory of great extent, and flamed upon the surface of
the sea in a long column of fire. The lower half of the orb soon after
emerged in the horizon, the other portion remaining very large and
red, with half of a smaller orb beneath it, and separate, but in the
same direction, the circular rim approaching the line of its diameter.
These two, by degrees, united, and then changed rapidly into different
figures, until the resemblance was that of a capacious punch-bowl
inverted. The rim of the bottom extending upward, and the body
lengthening below it, became a mushroom on a stalk with a round head.
It was next metamorphosed into a flaming caldron, of which the lid,
rising up, swelled nearly into an orb and vanished. The other portion
put on several uncircular forms, and, after many twinklings and faint
glimmerings, slowly disappeared, quite red, leaving the clouds hanging
over the dark rocks on the Barbary shore finely tinged with a vivid
bloody hue.” Travels, i. p. 4. Appearances similar, though of inferior
brilliance and variety, are sometimes witnessed in the Western
Hemisphere. Describing the beauties of an evening on the Canadian
shore, Sir R. H. Bonnycastle observes: “First, there was a double sun
by reflection, each disk equally distinct; afterwards, when the orb
reached the mark x, a solid body of light, equal in breadth with the
sun itself, but of great length from the shore, shot down on the sea,
and remained like a broad fiery golden column, or bar, until the black
high land hid the luminary itself.” The Canadas in 1841. v. i. p. 34.

Footnote 1657:

Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum
Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe;
Suspecti tibi sint imbres.
Virg. Georg. i. 441, sqq.

Footnote 1658:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78. Aratus, Prognost. 137, sqq.

Footnote 1659:

Cf. Plin. xviii. 82. “Si nubes ut vellera lanæ spargentur multæ ab
oriente, aquam in triduum præsagient;” and Virg. Georg, i. 397:

Tenuia nec lanæ per cœlum vellera ferri.

Footnote 1660:

If the Mounts Parnes and Brylessus appeared enveloped in clouds, the
circumstance was thought to foretel a tempest. Theoph. de Sign. Pluv.
iii. 6. Cf. Strabo. ix. 11. t. ii. p. 253.

Footnote 1661:

Pausan. ii. 30. 3. Pind. Nem. v. 10. Dissen.—Müll. Æginetica, § 5. p.
19.

Footnote 1662:

Dion. Chrysost. i. 222. Cf. Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 1.

Footnote 1663:

This is explained by Lord Bacon. “The upper regions of the air,” he
observes, “perceive the collection of the matter of tempest and wind
before the air here below. And, therefore, the observing of the
smaller stars is a sign of tempests following.” Sylva Sylvarum, 812.

Footnote 1664:

Similar observations have been made in most countries, as we find from
the signs of the weather collected by Erra Pater, and translated by
Lilly, Part iv. § 3–5.

Footnote 1665:

Cf. Seneca. Quæst. Nat. i. c. 2.

-----

The phenomena of thunder and lightning, likewise, instructed the
husbandman who was studious in the language of the heavens: thus, when
thunder was heard in winter or in the morning, it betokened wind; in the
evening or at noon, in summer, rain; when it lightened from every part
of the heavens, both. Falling stars[1666] likewise denoted wind or rain,
originating in that part of the heavens where they appeared.

Among our own rustics the whole philosophy of rainbows has been
compressed into a couple of distichs:

A rainbow at night
Is the shepherd’s delight.
A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd’s warning.

-----

Footnote 1666:

Aristot. Problem, xxvi. 24. Alexand. Aphrodis. Problem. i. 72. Plin.
xviii. 80. Virg. Georg. i. 365, sqq.

Sæpe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis
Præcipites cœlo labi, noctisque per umbram
Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus.

-----

And upon this subject,[1667] the peasants of Hellas had little more to
say; their opinion having been that, in proportion to the number of
rainbows, would be the fury and continuance of the showers with which
they were threatened.

-----

Footnote 1667:

On the effects of the rainbow the ancients held a curious opinion,
which Lord Bacon thus expounds:—“It hath been observed by the
ancients, that where a rainbow seemeth to hang over or to touch, there
breathed forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happeneth
but in certain matters which have in themselves some sweetness, which
the gentle dew of the rainbow doth draw forth, and the like to soft
showers, for they also make the ground sweet, but none are so delicate
as the dew of the rainbow where it falleth.” Sylva Sylvarum. 832. His
Lordship here, as in many other places, adopts the explanation of the
Peripatetics while he seems to be himself assigning the cause of the
phenomenon. Aristotle (Problem. 12. 3) enters fully into the subject,
which appears to have been brought under the notice of philosophers by
the shepherds who had observed that when certain thickets had been
laid in ashes the passing of a rainbow over the spot caused a sweet
odour to exhale from it. The same fact is noticed by Theophrastus, De
Caus. Plant. 6. 17. 7. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. 12. 52. 21. 18. 2. 60. To
many among the older philosophers that comparatively rare phenomenon,
the lunar rainbow, was unknown. (Arist. Meteor. iii. 2: νύκτωρ δ᾽ ἀπὸ
σελήνης ὡς μὲν οἱ ἀρχαῖοι ᾢοντο οὐκ ἐγίγνετο·) but in the time of
Aristotle it had been observed, and the cause of its pearly whiteness
investigated. Cf. Meteorol. iii. 4. 5. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 2, sqq.

-----

Other signs of mutation in the atmosphere they discovered in almost
every part of nature; for example, when bubbles rose on the surface of a
river they looked for a fall of rain; as also when small land-birds were
seen drenching their plumage; when the crow was beheld washing his head
upon the rocky beach,[1668] or the raven flapping his wings, while with
his voice he imitated amidst his croaking the pattering of drops of
rain; when the peasant was awakened in the morning by the cry of the
passing crane,[1669] or the shrill note of the chaffinch within his
dwelling. Flights of island birds flocking to the continent,[1670]
preceded drought; as a number of jackdaws and ravens flying up and down,
and imitating the scream of the hawk, did rain. The incessant shrieks of
the screech-owl and the vehement cawing of the crow, heard during a
serene night, foretold the approach of storms. The barn-door fowl and
the house-dog also played the part of soothsayers, teaching their master
to dread impending storms by rolling themselves in the dust. Of similar
import was the flocking of geese with noise to their food, or the
skimming of swallows along the surface of the water.[1671] Again, when
troops of dolphins were seen rolling near the shore, or oxen licking
their fore-hoofs, or looking southwards, or, with a suspicious air,
snuffing the elements,[1672] or going bellowing to their stalls; when
wolves approached the homesteads; when flies bit sharp,[1673] or frogs
croaked vociferously, or the ruddock, or land-toad, crept into the
water; when the salamander lizard appeared, and the note of the
green-frog was heard in the trees, the rustic donned his capote, and
prepared, like Anaxagoras at Olympia,[1674] for a shower. The flight of
the storm-birds, kepphoi,[1675] was supposed to indicate a tempest from
the point of the heavens towards which they flew. When in bright and
windless weather clouds of cobwebs,[1676] floated through the air, the
husbandman anticipated a drenching for his fields, as also when earthen
pots and brass pans emitted sparks; when lamps spat; when the wick made
mushrooms;[1677] when a halo encircled its flame,[1678] or when the
flame itself was dusky. The housewife was forewarned of coming
hail-storms, generally from the north, by a profusion of bright sparks
appearing on the surface of her charcoal fire; when her feet swelled she
knew that the wind would blow from the south.[1679] Heaps of clouds like
burnished copper rising after rain in the west portended fine weather;
as did likewise the tops of lofty mountains, as Athos, Ossa, and
Olympos, appearing sharply defined against the sky; while an apparent
augmentation in the height of promontories and the number of islands
foreshowed wind.

-----

Footnote 1668:

Cf. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7.

Footnote 1669:

Φράζεσθαι δ᾽, εὖτ᾽ ἂν γεράνου φωνὴν ἐπακούσῃς
ὑψόθεν ἐκ νεφέων ἐνιαύσια κεκληγυίης·
ἥτ᾽ ἀρότοιο τε σῆμα φέρει, καὶ χείματος ὥρην
δεικνύει ομβρηροῦ· κραδίην δ᾽ ἔδακ’ ἀνδρὸς ἀβούτεω.
Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 448, sqq.

To the same purpose, Homer:—Il. γ. 3, sqq.

Ἠΰτε περ κλαγγὴ γεράνων πέλει οὐρανόθι πρὸ,
αἵτ᾽ ἐπεὶ οὖν χειμῶνα φύγον καὶ ἀθέσφατον ὄμβρον,
κλαγγῇ ταίγε πέτονται ἐπ’ Ὠκεανοῖο ῥοάων.

And Aristophanes:—(Av. 710, sqq.)

Πρῶτα μὲν ὥρας φαίνομεν ἡμεῖς ἦρος, χειμῶνος, ὀπώρας ·
Σπείρειν μὲν, ὅταν γέρανος κρώζουσ᾽ ἐς τὴν Λιβύην μεταχωρῇ,
καὶ πηδάλιον τότε ναυκλήρῳ φράζει κρεμάσαντι καθεύδειν.

Footnote 1670:

All birds which frequent the sea, more particularly those which fly
high, are observed to seek terra firma at the approach of foul
weather:—Ἀριστοτέλους ἀκούω λέγοντος, ὅτι ἄρα γέρανοι ἐκ τοὺς πελάγους
εἰς τὴν γῆν πετόμενοι, χειμῶνος ἀπειλὴν ἰσχουραὶ ὑποσημαίνουσι τῷ
συνιέντι. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7. Before the great earthquake of
1783, which shook the whole of Calabria and destroyed the city of
Messina, the mews and other aquatic birds were observed to forsake the
sea and take refuge in the mountains. Spallanzani, Travels in the Two
Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 158.

Footnote 1671:

Aut arguta lacus circumvolitat hirundo. Virg. Georg. i. 377. “Hirundo
tam juxta aquam volitans, ut penna sæpe percutiat.” Plin. xviii. 87.

Footnote 1672:

Plin. xviii. 88. Virg. Georg. i. 375.—Ælian, De Nat. Anim. vii. 8,
describes the ox before rain snuffing the earth, and adds: πρόβατα δὲ
ἐρυττοντα ταῖς ὁπλαῖς τὴν γῆν, ἔοικε σημαίνειν χιεμῶνα.

Footnote 1673:

Cf. Ælian De Nat. Anim. viii. 8.

Footnote 1674:

Diog. Laert. i. 3. 5. Ælian (De Nat. Anim. vii. 8) relates a curious
anecdote of Hipparchos who, from some change in the goatskin cloak he
wore, likewise foretold a rain storm to the great admiration of Nero.

Footnote 1675:

Probably the storm-finch observed frequently on the wing flying along
the Ægean sea, particularly when it is troubled. Sibth. in Walp. Mem.
i. 76.

Footnote 1676:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvii. 63, where he investigates the causes of
the phenomenon; and Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 28.

Footnote 1677:

Vid. Aristoph. Vesp. 262. The Scholiast entertains a somewhat
different notion:—φασὶν ὅτι ὑετοῦ μέλλοντος γενέσθαι οἱ περὶ τὴν
θρυαλλίδα τοῦ λύχνου σπινθῆρες ἀποπηδῶσιν, οὓς μύκητας νῦν λέγει, ὡς
τοῦ λύχνου ἐναντιουμένου τῷ νοτερῷ ἀέρι· καὶ Ἄρατος “ἢ λύχνοιο μύκητες
ἐγείρονται περὶ μύξαν, νύκτα κατὰ νοτίην.”

Footnote 1678:

Aristot. Meteorol. iii. 4. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. 2.

Footnote 1679:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 17.

-----

CHAPTER V.
THE VARIOUS PROCESSES OF AGRICULTURE.

If we now pass to the actual labours of the farm, and the implements by
which they were usually carried on, we shall find that the Grecian
husbandman was no way deficient in invention, or in that ingenuity by
which men have in all countries sought to diminish their toils. For the
purpose of procuring at a cheap rate whatever was wanted for the use of
the establishment,[1680] smiths, carpenters, and potters, were kept upon
the land or in its immediate neighbourhood; by which means also the
necessity was avoided of often sending the farm-servants to the
neighbouring town, where it was observed they contracted bad habits, and
were rendered more vicious and slothful.[1681] Waggons, therefore, and
carts, and ploughs, and harrows, were constructed on the spot, though it
was sometimes necessary perhaps to obtain from a distance the timber
used for these implements, which was generally cut in winter-time. They
exhibited much nicety in their choice of wood. Thus they would have the
poplar or mulberry-tree for the felloes of their wheels; the ash, the
ilex, and the oxya, for the axle-tree, and fine close-grained maple for
the yokes of their oxen,[1682] sometimes carved in the form of serpents
which seemed to wind round the necks of the animals, and project their
heads on either side.[1683] Their harrows, it is probable, were formed
like our own. The construction of the plough,[1684] always continued to
be extremely simple. In the age of Hesiod[1685] it consisted of four
parts, the handle, the socket, the coulter, and the beam; and very
little alteration seems afterwards to have been made in its form or
structure, till the introduction of the wheel-plough, which did not, it
is believed, occur until after the age of Virgil. The more primitive
instrument, however, would seem to have consisted originally of two
parts only, one serving the purpose of handle, socket, and share, the
other being the beam by which it was fastened to the yoke. In the
antique implement[1686] the beam was sometimes made of laurel or elm,
the socket of oak, and the handle of ilex.

-----

Footnote 1680:

Geop. ii. 49. Illustrating the wretched condition of a tyrant dwelling
in the midst of a nation that abhors him, Plato draws the picture of a
man being in a remote part of the country with his wife and children,
surrounded by a gang of fifty or sixty slaves, with scarcely a free
neighbour at hand to whom, in case of necessity, he might fly. In what
terror, he says, must this man live, lest his slaves should set upon
and murder him, with all his family! De Repub. t. vi. p. 439.

Footnote 1681:

Carts were sometimes roofed with skins. Scheffer, De Re Vehic. p. 246,
seq. Justin, ii. 2.

Footnote 1682:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 6.

Footnote 1683:

Scheffer, De Re Vehic. p. 114.

Footnote 1684:

Pollux, x. 128. Goguet, Orig. des Lois, i. 189, seq. Pallad. i. 43.
Colum. ii. 2.

Footnote 1685:

Opp. et Dies, 467, seq. Vid. Gœttl. ad v. 431. Etym. Mag. 173, 16.
Poll. i. 252. The Syrians used a small plough, with which they turned
up extremely shallow furrows. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 6. 3.

Footnote 1686:

Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 435, seq.

-----

Before mills were invented, the instrument by which they reduced corn
into flour was a large mortar, scooped out of the trunk of a tree,
furnished with a pestle upwards of four feet in length, exactly
resembling that still in use among the Egyptian Arabs. To give the
pestle greater effect it was fixed above in a cross-bar, seven feet
long, and worked by two individuals.[1687] By this rude contrivance, it
is possible to produce flour as fine as that proceeding from the most
perfect boulting machine. In addition to these they possessed winnowing
fans, scythes, sickles, pruning-hooks, fern or braken-scythes, saws and
hand-saws, used in pruning and grafting, spades, shovels, rakes,
pick-axes, hoes, mattocks,—one, two, and three pronged,—dibbles,
fork-dibbles, and grubbing-axes.[1688] When rustics were clearing away
underwood or cutting down brakes, they went clad in hooded skin-cloaks,
leather gaiters, and long gloves.[1689]

-----

Footnote 1687:

Idem, 423, seq.

Footnote 1688:

Poll. x. 129. Pallad. i. 51. Brunckh. not. ad Aristoph. Pac. 567. Cf.
Eurip. Bacch. 344. Sch. Aristoph. Pac, 558, seq. 620. Plat. de Repub.
t. vi. p. 81. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 24. p. 111. Lutet.

Footnote 1689:

Pallad. i. 43. Colum. i. 8.

-----

On the subject of manure[1690] the Greeks appear to have entertained
very just notions, and have left behind them numerous rules for using
and preparing it. In lean lands which required most the help of art,
they were still careful to avoid excess in the employment of manure,
spreading it frequently rather than copiously; for as, left to
themselves, they would have been too cold, so, when over enriched by
art, their prolific virtue was thought to be consumed by heat. In
applying it to plants, they were careful to interpose a layer of earth
lest their roots should be scorched. Of all kinds of manure they
considered that of birds the best,[1691] except the aquatic species,
which, when mixed, however, was not rejected. Most husbandmen set a
peculiar value on the sweepings of dovecotes,[1692] which, in small
quantities, were frequently scattered over the fields with the seed.

-----

Footnote 1690:

Geop. ii. 21, seq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 5. 1. i. 7. 4. To
exemplify the importance of manure, it is remarked by this writer,
that manured corn ripens twenty days earlier than that which wants
this advantage, viii. 7. 7.

Footnote 1691:

Geop. ii. 21. 4. From a speech of the Earl of Radnor, in the House of
Lords, May 25, 1841, we learn that our own farmers have begun to make
experiments with this kind of manure on the lands of Great Britain,
and that ship-loads of bird’s dung have been imported for the purpose
from the Pacific. The rocks and smaller islands along the American
coast are sometimes white with this substance. Keppel, Life of Lord
Keppel, i. 48.

Footnote 1692:

Geop. xii. 4. 3. v. 26. 3.

-----

On the preparation of manure-pits they bestowed much attention.[1693]
Having sunk them sufficiently deep in places abundantly supplied with
water, they cast therein large quantities of weeds, with all
descriptions of manure, among which they reckoned even earth itself,
when completely impregnated with humidity. When they had lain long
enough to be entirely decayed, they were fit for use. To the above were
sometimes added wood-ashes, the refuse of leather-dressers, the
cleansing of stables, and cow-houses, with stubble, brambles, and thorns
reduced to ashes. In maritime situations sea-weed,[1694] also, having
been well washed in fresh water, was mingled in large proportion with
other materials, and, where possible, a channel was made conducting the
muck and puddle[1695] of the neighbouring road into the pit, which at
once accelerated the putrescence of the manure and augmented it. The
Attic husbandmen had a mode of enriching their lands[1696] somewhat
expensive, and, as far as I know, peculiar to themselves; having sown a
field, they allowed the corn to spring up and the blade to reach a
considerable height, upon which they again ploughed it in as a kind of
sacrifice to the earth. A practice, not altogether unlike, still
prevails in the kingdom of Naples, where the husbandmen sometimes bury
their beans and lupins, just before flowering, for manure.[1697]

-----

Footnote 1693:

Xenoph. Œconom. xx. 10. Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 26. p. 114.

Footnote 1694:

Geopon. ii. 22.

Footnote 1695:

The practice of mingling water with the manure was in great use among
the ancients, particularly in the island of Rhodes, in the cultivation
of the palm-trees. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 3.

Footnote 1696:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvii. 10. Cf. Earl of Aberdeen, Walp. Mem. i. 2.50. In
such lands the farmers suffered their cattle to eat down the young
corn to prevent its too great luxuriance. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii.
7. 3.

Footnote 1697:

Swinburne, Letters from the Courts of Europe, i. 144.

-----

In ploughing there was great variety of practice, and in small farms,
where the soil was light, they had recourse to what may be denominated
spade husbandry. Most lands were ploughed thrice; first, immediately
after the removal of the preceding crop; secondly, at a convenient
interval of time; and, thirdly,[1698] in the sowing season, when the
ploughman scattered the grain in the furrows as they were laid open
while a lad followed at his heels with a hoe breaking the clods and
covering the seed that it might not be devoured by the birds.[1699]
Occasionally, in very hot weather, and in certain situations, the farmer
ploughed all night;[1700] first, out of consideration to the oxen, whose
health would have suffered from the sun; secondly, to preserve the
moisture and richness of the soil; and, thirdly, by the aid of the dew,
to render it more pliable. On these occasions, it was customary to
employ two pair of oxen and a heavier share in order to produce the
deeper furrows, and turn up the hidden fat of the earth. In choosing a
ploughman they took care that he should be tall and powerful,[1701] that
he might be able to thrust the share deeper into the ground and wield it
generally with facility: and yet they would not, if possible, that he
should be under forty years of age, lest, instead of attending to his
duties, his eye should be glancing hither and thither, and his mind be
roving after his companions.[1702] When in particular haste to complete
his task, the ploughman often carried a long loaf under his arm, which,
like the French peasants, he ate as he went along.[1703] In this
department of rural labour it may be observed, mules were sometimes
employed as well as oxen.[1704] Both were directed and kept in order by
a sharp goad.[1705]

-----

Footnote 1698:

Cf. Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 10, seq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 5. 1.

Footnote 1699:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 469, seq.

Footnote 1700:

Geop. ii. 28.

Footnote 1701:

Geop. ii. 2.

Footnote 1702:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 443, sqq.

Footnote 1703:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 442. “Vide Athenæum, quem Lanzius laudavit, iii.
p. 114. e. hæc ex Philemone referentem: βλωμιλίους ἄρτους ὀνομάζεσθαι
λέγει τοὺς ἔχοντας ἐντομάς, οὓς Ῥωμαῖοι, καδράτους λέγουσι. ὀκτάβλωμον
Spohnius intelligit de servo celeriter edente. Minime verò. Panes
rustici incisuras suas habent, ut servis omnibus æquas partes
frangendo possis dirimere. v. Philostrat. Imagg. p. 95. 16. Jacobs.”
Gœttling in loc. p. 173.

Footnote 1704:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 46. Dickinson. Delphi Phœnicizantes, c. 10. p.
101, sqq.

Footnote 1705:

Scheffer. de Re Vehic. 186, seq. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 449. The necks
of these animals, when galled by the yoke, were cured by the leaves of
black briony steeped in wine. Dioscor. iv. 185.

-----

As the Greeks well understood the practice of fallowing, their lands
were then, as now, suffered to regain their strength by lying for a time
idle;[1706] and it seems to have been as much their custom as it is
still of their descendants,[1707] for the poor, at least, to roam over
these fallow grounds, collecting nettles,[1708] mallows, the sow-thistle
or jagged lettuce,[1709] dandelions, sea-purslain, stoches, hartwort,
briony sprouts, gentle-rocket, usually found in the environs of towns,
and about the courts of houses, gardens, and ruins, with other wild
herbs for salads, or to be eaten as vegetables.

-----

Footnote 1706:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 13, seq. Cf. Schulz. Antiquitat. Rustic. § 7.

Footnote 1707:

Sibthorpe, in Walp. Mem. v. i. p. 144.

Footnote 1708:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 420. Hesiod alludes to this diet where he
celebrates the inferiority of the half to the whole:—

Νήπιοι, οὐδὲ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός,
Οὐδ᾽ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῄ τε καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μεγ’ ὄνειαρ.
Opp. et Dies, 40, seq.

Cf. on the proverb in the first verse, Diog. Laert. i. 4. 2. Aristot.
Ethic. Nicom. i. 7. Ovid. Fast. v. 718.

Footnote 1709:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 4. 8.

-----

The rules observed in sowing were numerous, and, in many instances, not
a little curious. As a matter of course, they were careful to adapt the
grain to the soil:[1710] thus rich plains were appropriated to wheat,
and in the intervals cropped with vegetables; middling grounds to
barley;[1711] while poor and hungry spots were given up to lentils,
vetches, lupins, and such other pulse as were cultivated on a large
scale. Beans and peas, however, were supposed to thrive best in fat and
level lands. The principal sowing-time[1712] was in autumn; for, as soon
as the equinoctial rains had moistened the earth, the sower immediately
went forth to sow, committing to the ground the hopes of the future
year. The best time for scattering wheat they placed somewhere in
November, about the setting of the constellation called the Crown. They
were careful in this operation to avoid the time when the south
wind[1713] blew, and, generally, all cold and raw weather, as it
rendered the earth ungenial, and little apt to fructify that which was
entrusted to it. Great skill was supposed to be required in scattering
the seed: in the first place, that it should be equally distributed;
and, secondly, that none should fall between the horns of the oxen,
superstition having taught them the belief that such grain, which they
denominated Kerasbolos,[1714] if it sprang up at all, would produce corn
which could neither be baked nor eaten. A favourite sowing sieve was
made of wolf’s-hide, pierced with thirty holes as large as the tips of
the fingers. In later ages much virtue was supposed to reside in the
barbarous term Phriel,[1715] which they accordingly wrote on the plough.
The choice of grains for sowing necessarily afforded much exercise[1716]
to their ingenuity: seed wheat, they thought, should be of a rich gold
colour, full, smooth, and solid; barley, white and heavy; both not
exceeding one year old, for they quickly deteriorated, and, after the
third year, would not they supposed grow. This, however, was an error,
since barley has been known to preserve its vitality upwards of two
thousand years.

-----

Footnote 1710:

Geop. ii. 12.

Footnote 1711:

A fine kind of barley was cultivated on the plain of Marathon, which
obtained the name of Achillean, on account, as Dr. Chandler
conjectures, of its tallness. ii. 184. Attica, in fact, produced the
best barley known to the ancients. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 8. 2.

Footnote 1712:

Geop. ii. 14.—Ἐπειδὰν ὁ μετοπωρινὸς χρόνος ἔλθῃ, πάντες που οἱ
ἄνθρωποι πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀποβλέπουσιν, ὁπότε βρέξας τὴν γὴν ἀφήσει
αὐτοὺς σπείρειν. Xenoph. Œconom. xvii. 2. There was a second
sowing-time in the spring, and a third in summer for millet and
sesame. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 1. 2, sqq. In Phocis, and other
cold parts of Greece, they sowed early, that the corn might be strong
before the winter came on. § 7. In ancient Italy corn was chiefly
committed to the ground in September and October; though in mild
seasons the work of sowing went on throughout the winter. Schulze,
Antiquitates Rusticæ, § 4. p. 6.

Footnote 1713:

Cf. Aristot. Problem, xxvi. 3.

Footnote 1714:

Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 119. Tim. Lex. Plat. p. 85. Ruhnk. Plut.
Sympos. vii. 2.

Footnote 1715:

Geop. ii. 19.

Footnote 1716:

Geop. ii. 16.

-----

It was customary often to renew seed by sowing the produce of mountains
on plains; of dry places in moist, and the contrary.[1717] To try the
comparative value of different qualities of grain[1718] they took a
sample of each, and sowed the whole in separate patches of the same bed,
a little before the rising of the Dog-star. If the produce of any of
these samples withered, through the influence they supposed of Syrius,
the wheat which it represented was rejected. As corn when committed to
the earth is exposed to numerous enemies, they had recourse to a variety
of contrivances for its preservation: to protect it from birds, mice,
and ants,[1719] they steeped it in the juice of houseleeks, or mixed it
with hellebore and cypress leaves, and scattered it out of a circle, or
sprinkled it with water into which river crabs had been thrown for eight
days, or with powdered hartshorn or ivory. Not satisfied with these
precautions, they had likewise recourse to scarecrows,[1720] fixing up
long reeds here and there in the fields, with dead birds suspended to
them by the feet. This long list of contrivances they closed by a spell:
taking a live toad, they carried it round the field by night, after
which they shut it up carefully in a jar, which they buried in the
middle of the grounds.

-----

Footnote 1717:

Geop. ii. 17.

Footnote 1718:

Geop. ii. 15.

Footnote 1719:

Geop. ii. 18. “The bunting, the yellow-hammer, and a species of
Emberiza, nearly related to it, frequent the low bushes in the
neighbourhood of corn-fields.” Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 77.

Footnote 1720:

Among the husbandmen of Asia Minor people are employed to drive away
the birds as the corn ripens. Chandler, i. 100.

-----

When the corn began to spring up it was diligently weeded[1721] a first
and a second time. They would not trust entirely, however, to the
industry of their hands, but called in to their aid certain
characteristic enchantments, some two or three of which may be worth
describing. First, to subdue the growth of choke-weed they planted
sprigs of rose-laurel, at the corner and in the middle of their fields,
or set up a number of potsherds, upon which had been drawn with chalk
the figure of Heracles strangling the lion. But the most effectual of
all spells, was for a young woman, naked and with dishevelled hair, to
take a live cock in her hands and bear him round the fields, upon which,
not only would the choke-weed and the restharrow vanish,[1722] but all
the produce of the land would turn out of a superior quality.[1723]

-----

Footnote 1721:

Geop. ii. 24. Cf. Xen. Œconom. xv. 1. 13, seq.

Footnote 1722:

Cf. Schulz. Antiquit. Rustic. § vii.

Footnote 1723:

Geop. ii. 42. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 5. 3.

-----

As the ancients well understood the value of hay, they took much pains
in the formation and management of meadows. In the first place, all
stones, stumps, bushes, and brambles,[1724] were diligently removed,
together with whatever else might interrupt the free play of the scythe
in mowing. They avoided, moreover, letting into them their droves of
hogs, which were found to turn up the soil and destroy the roots of the
young grass. In moist lands, too, even the larger cattle were excluded,
as the holes made by their hoofs[1725] in sinking broke up the fine
level of the turf. Old hay fields, in districts where much rain fell,
grew in time to be clothed with a coating of moss,[1726] which some
farmers sought to remove by manuring the ground with ashes; but the more
scientific agriculturists ploughed them up, and took precisely the same
steps as in the formation of a new meadow, that is, they sowed the
ground with beans, turnips, or rape-seed, which, in the second year,
were succeeded by wheat; on the third it was thoroughly cleared out, and
sown with hay-seed, mingled with vetches, after which the whole field
was finely levelled by the harrow.

-----

Footnote 1724:

Colum. ii. 18. Varro, i. 49.

Footnote 1725:

Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 489.

Footnote 1726:

Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 539.

-----

The rules observed by them in the regulation of their hay harvest[1727]
were, first, to mow before the grass or clover was withered, when it
became less rich and nutritive; second, to beware in making the ricks,
that it was neither too dry nor too damp, since in the former case it
was little better than straw, and in the latter was liable to
spontaneous combustion.[1728] It may be observed further, that
clover[1729] was usually sown in March or April, and though commonly
mown six, or at least five, times in the twelve months, did not require
to be renewed in less than ten years.[1730]

-----

Footnote 1727:

Much hay was laid up in Eubœa for consumption during the winter
months.—Dion Chrysost. i. 225.

Footnote 1728:

Colum. ii. 19.

Footnote 1729:

Καὶ τὴν βοτάνην δὲ, τὴν μάλιστα τρέφουσαν τοὺς ἵππους ἀπὸ τοῦ
πλεονάζειν ἐνταῦθα ἰδίως Μηνδικὴν καλοῦμεν. Strab. xi. 13. t. ii. p.
453.

Footnote 1730:

Pallad. v. 1. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 604.

-----

Harvest usually commenced in Greece about the rising of the
Pleiades,[1731] when the corn had already acquired a deep gold colour,
though not yet so ripe as to fall from the ear, which in barley happens
earlier than in wheat, the grain having no hose.[1732] Among the Romans
operations were preceded by the sacrifice[1733] of a young sow to Ceres,
with libations of wine, the burning of frankincense, and the offering of
a cake to Jove, Juno, and Janus. They, at the same time, addressed their
prayers to the last-mentioned gods, nearly in the following words:—“O
father Janus or Jupiter, in making an oblation of this cake I offer up
my prayers that thou wouldst be propitious to me and my children, my
house, and my family!”[1734]

-----

Footnote 1731:

Geop. ii. 25. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 383. xiv. cal. June. Cf. Plin.
Hist. Nat. xviii. 69.

Footnote 1732:

Pallad. vii. 2.

Footnote 1733:

The custom with which the modern Greeks hail the approach of summer is
picturesque and beautiful: “On the first of May at Athens, there is
not a door that is not crowned with a garland, and the youths of both
sexes, with the elasticity of spirits so characteristic of a Greek,
forget or brave their Turkish masters, while with guitars in their
hands, and crowns upon their heads,

‘They lead the dance in honour of the May.’”

Douglas, p. 64.

Footnote 1734:

Cato, 134.

-----

At Athens, as soon as the season for reaping[1735] had come round, those
hardy citizens who lived by letting out their strength for hire,[1736]
ranged themselves in bands in the agora, whither the farmers of the
neighbourhood resorted in search of harvesters. They then, in
consequence of the hot weather, proceeded half-naked[1737] to the
fields, where, taking the sickle in hand, and separating into two
divisions, they stationed themselves at either end of the piece of corn
to be reaped, and began their work with vigour and emulation, each party
striving to reach the centre of the field before their rivals.[1738] On
other occasions they took advantage of the wind,[1739] moving along with
it, whereby they were supposed to benefit considerably, avoiding the
beard or chaff which it might have blown into their eyes, and having by
its action the tall straw bent to their hand.

-----

Footnote 1735:

The harvest began earlier in Salamis than in the neighbourhood of
Athens. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 2. 11. Chandler, vol. ii. p. 230.
In Egypt barley was reaped on the sixth month after sowing, and wheat
on the seventh. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 2. 7. In Greece, barley
required seven or eight months to ripen; wheat still more. This latter
grain came to maturity more speedily in Sicily, and returned
thirty-fold. § 8. In a district in the island of Rhodes they reaped
barley twice in the year. § 9. Harvest was thirty days earlier in
Attica than in the Hellespont. 8. 10. There was a kind of wheat in
Eubœa which ripened very early; and there was introduced from Sicily
into Achaia another kind which was fit for the sickle in two months.
Id. viii. 4. 4. Wheat returned in Babylonia, even to negligent
husbandmen, fifty-fold, and to such as properly cultivated their
lands, a hundred-fold. Id. viii. 7. 4.

Footnote 1736:

Dem. De Cor. § 16.

Footnote 1737:

Or perhaps wholly so when they happened to be inhabitants of the warm
lowlands on the sea-shore and valleys. At least this is the opinion of
Hesiod who counsels the husbandman, γυμνὸν σπείρειν, γυμνὸν δὲ
βοωτεῖν, γυμνὸν δ᾽ ἀμάαν, εἴ χ’ ὥρια πάντ᾽ ἐθέλησθα ἔργα κομίζεσθαι
Δημήτερος. Opp. et Dies, 391, sqq.

Aristophanes alludes to the same custom. Lysist. 1175.

Ἥδη γεωργεῖν γυμνὸς, ἀποδὺς βούλομαι. And Virgil. “Nudus ara, sere
nudus,” Georg, i. 299, upon which Servius remarks: “Non dicit nudum
esse debere, quasi aliter non oporteat aut possit; sed sub tanta
serenitate dicit hæc agenda, ut et amictus possit contemni.” Be this,
however, as it may, the precept of Hesiod and Virgil is literally
observed in Egypt, where the rustics often perform their labour stark
naked.

Footnote 1738:

Il. λ. 67, seq.

Footnote 1739:

Πότερα οὖν τέμνεις, ἔφη, στὰς ἔνθα πνεῖ ἄνεμος, ἢ ἀντίος· οὐκ ἀντίος,
ἔφην, ἔγωγε· χαλεπὸν γὰρ, οἶμαι, καὶ τοῖς ὄμμασι καὶ ταῖς χερσὶ
γίγνεται, ἀντιον ἀχύρων καὶ ἀθέρων θερίζειν. Xenoph. Œconom. xviii. 1.

-----

In many parts of Greece, though the practice was not general, the women
joined in these labours. The reapers, as they advanced, laid the corn
behind them in long lines upon the stubble, and were followed by two
other classes of harvesters, one of whom bound it into sheaves which the
others bore back and piled up into mows. Of the whole of these
operations, together with the plenteous feast which interrupted or
terminated their toils, Homer has left us a graphic picture in the
Iliad:[1740]

There in a field ’mid lofty corn, the lusty reapers stand,
Plying their task right joyously, with sickle each in hand.
Some strew in lines, as on they press, the handfuls thick behind,
While at their heels the heavy sheaves their merry comrades bind.
These to the mows a troop of boys next bear in haste away,
Piling upon the golden glebe the triumphs of the day.
Among them wrapped in silent joy, their sceptered king appears,
Beholding, in the swelling heaps, the stores of future years.
A mighty ox beneath an oak the busy heralds slay,
With grateful sacrifice to close the labours of the day.
While near, the husbandman’s repast the rustic maids prepare,
Sprinkling with flour the broiling cates whose savour fills the air.

-----

Footnote 1740:

σ. 550, seq.

-----

In these remote and unsettled times it behoved the rustic to keep a
sharp look-out on the sheaves left behind him on the field, as there
were usually prowlers,[1741] lurking amid the neighbouring woods and
thickets, ready to pounce upon and carry off whatever they saw
unguarded.

-----

Footnote 1741:

Ἡμερόκοιτοὶ ἀνδρες, an elegant euphonism for “thieves”. Hesiod. Opp.
et Dies, 605. Cf. the note of Gœttling on verse 375.

-----

The implement used in cutting wheat seems always to have been the
sickle, while in the case of barley and other inferior grains, the
scythe was commonly employed. In some parts of ancient Gaul, where no
value was set upon the straw, corn was reaped by a sort of cart,[1742]
armed in front with scythes, having the edges inclined upwards, which,
as it was driven along by an ox, harnessed behind, cut off the ears of
corn, which were received into the tumbril. In this manner the produce
of a whole field might be got in easily in a day. Reaping among the
ancient inhabitants of Italy[1743] was performed in three ways: first
they reaped close, as in Umbria, and laid the handfuls carefully on the
ground, after which the ears were separated from the straw, and borne in
baskets to the threshing-floor. Elsewhere, as in Picenum, they made use
of a ripple or serrated hook, having a long handle with which the ears
only were cut off, leaving the straw standing to be afterwards collected
and raked up into mows.

-----

Footnote 1742:

Pallad. vii. 2.

Footnote 1743:

Varro. i. 50.

-----

In the neighbourhood of Rome they reaped with the common sickle, holding
the upper part of the straw in their left hand, and cutting it off in
the middle. This tall stubble was afterwards mown and carried off to be
used as fodder or bedding for cattle. In Upper Egypt and Nubia, the
dhoura stalks are left about two feet in height to support the crop of
kidney-beans which succeeds next in order. Among the Athenians[1744]
when the corn grew tall the stubble was suffered to remain to be burned
for manure; but, when short, the value of the straw led them to reap
close.

Footnote 1744:

Καὶ ἀκροτομοίης δ᾽ἂν, ἔφη, ἢ παρὰ γῆν τέμνοις; ἢν μὲν βραχὺς ἦ ὁ
κάλαμος τοῦ σίτου, ἔγωγ’, ἔφην, κάτωθεν ἂν τέμνοιμι, ἵνα ἱκανὰ τὰ
ἄχυρα μᾶλλον γίγνηται. Ἐὰν δὲ ὑψηλὸς ᾖ, νομίζω ὀρθῶς ἂν ποιεῖν
μεσοτομῶν, ἵνα μήτε οἱ ἁλοῶντες μοχθῶσι περιττὸν πόνον, μήτε οἱ
λικμῶντες, ὧν οὐδὲν προσδέονται. Τὸ δὲ ἐv τῇ γῇ λειφθὲν ἡγοῦμαι καὶ
κατακαυθὲν συνωφελεῖν ἂν τὴν γῆν καὶ εις κοπρον ἐμβληθὲν τὴν κόπρον
συμπληθύνειν. Xenoph. Œconom. xviii. 2.

-----

In separating the grain from the straw the ancients made use of horses,
oxen, and mules, which, passing round and round over the
threshing-floor, trod out the corn. All the labourer had to do was to
guide the movements of the cattle, and take care that no part of the
sheaf remained untrodden.[1745] From a very humane law in the Old
Testament we learn, that among some nations it was customary to tie up
the mouths of such animals as they employed in this labour, which was
forbidden the Israelites: “Thou shalt not,” says the Scripture, “muzzle
the ox that treadeth out the corn.” Nor was it practised among the
Greeks in the age of Homer,[1746] whom we find describing the oxen
bellowing as they made their unwearied round. The threshing-floor, which
was of a circular form,[1747] stood on a breezy eminence, in the open
field, where, as at present, in modern Greece, and in the Crimea,[1748]
a high pole was set up in the centre, to which the cattle were tied by a
cord determining the extent of the circle they had to describe.[1749]
The end being nailed, every turn made by the cattle coiled the rope
about the pole and diminished their range, until, at length, they were
brought quite close to the centre, after which, their heads were turned
about, and by moving in an opposite direction the cord was unwound.
Great pains were taken in the construction of this threshing-floor,
which was somewhat elevated about the centre, in order, as Varro
observes, that what rain fell might speedily run off. It was sometimes
paved with stone, or pitched with flints, but more commonly coated with
stucco, made level by a roller, and well soaked with the lees of oil
which at once prevented the growth of weeds and grass, preserved it from
cracking, and repelled the approach of mice, ants, and moles, to which
oil-lees are destructive.[1750] Though some authorities advise that it
should be situated under the master’s, or at least the steward’s, eye,
it was generally thought advisable to keep it at a distance from the
house and gardens, since the finer particles of chaff, borne thickly
through the air, caused ophthalmia, and often blindness,[1751] and
proved exceedingly injurious to all plants and pulpy fruits, more
particularly grapes. In some parts of the ancient world, exposed to the
chances of summer rains, the threshing-floor was covered; and, even in
Italy, an umbracula,[1752] or shed, was always constructed close at
hand, into which the corn could be removed in case of bad weather. But
this in the sunnier climate of Greece was judged unnecessary. In
obedience to a notion prevalent among Hellenic farmers, the sheaves were
piled up with the straw towards the south, by which means they believed
the grain was enlarged and loosened from the hose. When the farmer
happened to be scant of cattle he made use of a threshing-machine,[1753]
which consisted of a kind of heavy sledge, toothed below with sharp
stones or iron. Occasionally, too, the flail[1754] was used, especially
in the case of such corn as was laid up in the barn and threshed during
winter.

-----

Footnote 1745:

Xenoph. Œconom. xviii. 4. The same custom still prevails in Southern
Europe and in the East. “Corn is trodden out in Granada in
circular-formed threshing-floors, in the open fields; the animals
employed are mules or oxen.” Napier, Excursions, &c., i. 156. Again,
in the Troad, “The oxen or horses being harnessed to a sort of sledge,
the bottom part of which is armed with sharp flints, are driven over
the corn, the person who guides the cattle balancing him or herself
with great dexterity whilst rapidly drawn round in revolving circles.”
Id. ii. 171. Cf. Fowler, Three Years in Persia, i. 173, and Chandler,
i. 320. ii. 234.

Footnote 1746:

Iliad, υ. 495, seq. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 599.

Footnote 1747:

Suid. v. ἁλωὰ t. i. p. 186. c. Philoch. Frag. Siebel. p. 86. Etym.
Mag. 73. 56, seq. Colum. ii. 20. Geop. ii. 26. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i.
2.

Footnote 1748:

Earl of Aberdeen in Walp. Mem. i. 150. Pallas, Trav. in South. Russia,
vol. iv. p. 148, seq.

Footnote 1749:

Schneid. ad Xenoph, Œcon. xviii. 8.

Footnote 1750:

Varro. de Re Rust. i. 51.

Footnote 1751:

Geop. ii. 26.

Footnote 1752:

Varro. i. 51. Pallad. i. 36.

Footnote 1753:

Mathem. Vett. p. 85. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 8.

Footnote 1754:

Colum. ii. 21.

-----

In winnowing,[1755] when the breeze served, they simply threw the grain
up into the air with a scoop, until the wind had completely cleared away
the chaff. In serene days they had recourse to a winnowing machine,
which, though turned by the hand, was of great power, as we may judge
from its being employed in cleansing vetches, and even beans.[1756] To
receive the chaff, which was too valuable to be lost, pits appear to
have been sunk all round the threshing-floor, which, for the passage of
the men and cattle, would appear to have been covered, save in the
direction of the wind.[1757] When the corn was designed for immediate
use, one winnowing was deemed sufficient; but that which was intended to
be laid up in the granary[1758] underwent the operation a second time.

-----

Footnote 1755:

Plat. Tim. t. vii. p. 65. Xenoph. Œconom. xviii. 8.

Footnote 1756:

Il. ν. 588.

Footnote 1757:

Il. ε. 562.

Footnote 1758:

See on the vessels in which the produce of the harvest was received,
Pollux. x. 129.

-----

On the building and preparation of granaries[1759] the ancients bestowed
great pains. Every means which could communicate to grain firmness and
durability appears to have been tried by them; and their success was
answerable to their diligence, for, in their granaries, wheat was
preserved in perfection fifty, and millet a hundred years.[1760] Their
methods, however, were various; some laid up their grain in hollow rocks
and caves, as in Thrace and Cappadocia; others sank deep pits in the
earth[1761] where they found it to be perfectly free from humidity, as
in Farther Spain, while others, as in Hither Spain, Apulia, and
Greece,[1762] erected their granaries on lofty basements fronting the
East, and with openings towards the north and west winds.[1763] There
was usually a range of numerous diminutive windows near the roof, to
supply free vent for the heated air, while the floor, in many cases,
contained small apertures for the admission of the cool breezes beneath.
The walls were built with suitable solidity, and having, together with
the floor, been plastered with rough mortar,[1764] made commonly with
hair, for which chaff was sometimes substituted, received a coat of fine
stucco, on the preparation of which much care was bestowed. It was
generally composed of lime, sand, and powdered marble, moistened with
the lees of oil, the peculiar flavour and odour of which were supposed
effectually to repel the approaches of mice,[1765] weevils, and ants.
Instead of this a common stucco, formed of clay, was often used.
Occasionally the grain was packed up in baskets or large jars,[1766]
such, it may be presumed, as those still employed for the purpose in
Africa, where they are commonly kept in a corner outside the door. Beans
and other pulse were preserved in oil-jars rubbed with ashes.[1767]

-----

Footnote 1759:

Cf. Pallad. l. 19. Colum. i. 6. A granary, commonly σιτοφυλακεῖον,
was, by Menander, in his Eunuch, denominated σιτοβόλιον; among the
Siciliotes and Greek colonists of Italy ῥογος; as in the Busiris of
Epicharmos. Poll. ix. 45.

Footnote 1760:

Varro. i. 57.

Footnote 1761:

The same practice is still found in several of the Grecian islands.
“Ils font dans les champs un trou proportionné à la quantité de bled
qu’ils y veulent serrer; il est ordinairement de cinq pieds de
diamètre, sur deux ou trois de profondeur. On en tapisse l’intérieur
d’environ un demi-pied de paille brisée sous les pieds des bœufs;
on y serre ensuite le grain, de manière qu’il s’élève par dessus la
terre, à une hauteur à-peu-près égale à la profondeur du trou; on le
couvre avec un demi-pied de paille, sur laquelle on met trois ou
quatre pouces de terre.” Della Rocca, Traité Complet sur les Abeilles,
t. i. p. 198, seq.

Footnote 1762:

Geop. ii. 27.

Footnote 1763:

Cf. Lord Bacon. Hist. Life and Death, p. 5.

Footnote 1764:

But, according to Theophrastus, corn kept best in granaries
unplastered with lime. Hist. Plant. viii. 10. 1. In a certain part of
Cappadocia called Petra, corn would keep fit for sowing forty years,
and for food sixty or seventy, although in that district cloths and
other articles decay rapidly. Id. viii. 10. 5.

Footnote 1765:

Among tame animals designed to protect the farmstead from vermin, the
weasel was sometimes used. Hom. Batrachom. 52. Ovid. Met. ix. 323.
Luc. Timon. § 21. Perizon. ad Ælian. Var. Hist. xiv. 4. Muncker, ad
Anton. Liber. 29. Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 16. Welcker. ad Simon. Amorg.
p. 43.

Footnote 1766:

From which they carefully cleansed the spider’s webs: ἐκ δ᾽ ἀγγέων
ἐλάσειας ἀράχνια. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 475. Cf. 600. A similar method
still prevails in the islands of the Archipelago when the grain is
intended for the market: “Ceux qui veulent porter leurs grains à la
ville, les mettent dans des vases de terre cuite, qu’ils remplissent à
deux ou trois pouces près; ensuite ils étendent par dessus quelques
feuilles de figuier sauvage, appelé _orni_, et en Latin _caprificus_;
enfin ils achèvent de remplir les vases avec de la cendre, et les
couvrent d’une espèce d’ardoise, mais plus forte et plus épaisse que
celle dont on se sert en France pour couvrir les maisons.” Della
Rocca, Traité Complet sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 200.

Footnote 1767:

Varro. i. 57.

-----

Before the produce of the new year was carried in, the granaries, having
been carefully swept, were smeared all over with oil-lees. Various other
precautions were, likewise, taken to protect the sacred gifts of Demeter
from depredation, such as drawing on the floor broad lines of
chalk,[1768] or strewing handfuls of wild origany round the heaps, or
sprinkling them with the ashes of oaken twigs or dry cow’s dung, or
sprigs of wormwood and southernwood, or, in greater quantity, the leaves
of the everlasting. Instead of these, in some cases, they made use of
powdered clay[1769] or dry pomegranate leaves, rubbed small, and passed
through a sieve, a chœnix of which was sprinkled over a bushel of corn.
The favourite plan, however, seems to have been, to spread a layer of
half-withered fleabane over the floor, on which were poured about ten
bushels of wheat, then a layer of fleabane, and so on, until the granary
was full.[1770] Wheat thus layed up was supposed not only to last many
years, but also to preserve its weight in breadmaking. To render barley
durable, they strewed over it laurel leaves, or the ashes of laurel
wood, as, likewise, everlasting, calaminth, and gypsum, or placed a
tightly-corked bottle of vinegar,[1771] in the middle of the heap. To
communicate greater plumpness to all kinds of grain, they sprinkled over
the piles a mixture composed of nitre,[1772] spume of nitre, and fine
earth, which, likewise, acted as a preservative. To render flour more
durable, they thrust into it small maple branches, stripped of their
leaves, or little cakes of salt and cumin.[1773]

-----

Footnote 1768:

Geop. ii. 29.

Footnote 1769:

This substance was brought from Olynthos and Cerinthos, in Eubœa. It
is said to have improved the appearance of the wheat, though it
deteriorated its quality as an article of food. Theoph. viii. 10. 7.

Footnote 1770:

The granaries of the island of Syra, with the contrivance by which
corn is there preserved at the present day, are thus described by
Della Rocca:—“Les granges, appelées en Grec θεμονέα, ont communément
une vingtaine de pieds de long, sur huit à dix de hauteur et de
largeur. On les remplit jusqu’à la moitié de leur hauteur, de paille
bien foulée: on pratique un espace de trois ou quatre pieds, que l’on
remplit de grain. A côté on en forme un autre, que l’on remplit de
même, et ainsi de suite, selon l’étendue de la grange, et la quantité
de grain que l’on a; cela fait, par des ouvertures pratiquées dans la
couverture, on recouvre de paille tout le bled, jusqu’à ce que la
grange soit exactement remplie. Quand on veut en faire usage, on
commence par le tas le plus voisin de la porte; on enlève d’abord la
paille avec beaucoup de précaution: plus on approche, plus cette
précaution augmente; enfin, pour ôter les derniers brins de paille, on
se sert d’un balai de millepertuis ou d’autres plantes que l’on fait
sécher; et si malgré tous ces soins, la surface du monceau de grain
n’est pas bien nette, on achève d’en enlever toutes les menues pailles
en la vannant avec un chapeau car les paysans de nos îles portent
comme ici, dans les champs, des chapeaux ronds de feutre; ils en
portent aussi de paille, que l’on travaille avec beaucoup de
délicatesse à Sifanto.” Traité Complet sur les Abeilles. t. i. p. 199,
seq. Among the tribes of Northern Africa a more complete system of
preserving grain prevails. “The Arabs, in lieu of granaries, preserve
all their grain in pits: forty or fifty of these are made, each to
contain about a thousand bushels: the spot selected is a dry, sandy
soil, the hole being formed in the shape of a large earthen jug, the
sides are plastered with mortar about a foot in thickness, and the
wheat or grain filled up to the mouth, which is left just large enough
for a man to get in at, and is about three feet below the surface of
the ground; this is now plastered over also, and filled with the soil
around to the same level as the surrounding country. The earth taken
out in forming the pits is removed to a distance, and being scattered
abroad, in a month or two the grass grows over the surface, and no
one, unless those who have buried this treasure, would imagine that
there was anything beneath their feet. The grain thus buried preserves
for many years. I have eaten bread at the Esmailla made from wheat as
old as the Sultan, having been buried the year of his birth, and it
was as good as that made of flour from this year’s crop.” Colonel
Scott, Journal of a Residence in the Esmailla of Abd-el-Kader. p. 155,
seq. Mandelslo (lib. ii. c. iii.) found corn-vaults of similar
construction in the Azores; and most travellers who have visited the
island of Malta will have observed in the fortifications of Valetta
that series of curious and beautiful granaries excavated in the form
of a bottle in the solid rock.

Footnote 1771:

Geop. ii. 30, seq.

Footnote 1772:

Geop. ii. 28.

Footnote 1773:

Geop. ii. 30.

-----

The fruits of the earth having been thus safely lodged within doors, the
grateful husbandmen celebrated in honour of their rural gods, Demeter
and Dionysos, a festival which may, perhaps, be denominated that of the
Harvest Home. In Attica it took place in the great temple at Eleusis,
and continued during several days. No bloody sacrifices were on this
occasion offered up; but, in lieu of them, oblations of cakes and fruit
with other rustic offerings, designed at once to express their gratitude
for past blessings, and to render the gods propitious to them in future.
The first loaf made from the new corn was probably eaten or offered up
on this day, since it received the name of Thargelos, or Thalusios, from
Thalusia, the denomination of the festival.[1774]

-----

Footnote 1774:

Vid. Theoc. Eidyll. vii. 3. Etym. Mag. 444. 13. Athen. xiii. 65. iii.
80. Meurs. Græc. Fer. p. 15. p. 142. Dem. adv. Neær. § 27, with the
authorities collected by Taylor.

-----

Before we quit the farm, it may be observed, that the ancients kept a
number of slaves, constituting a kind of rural police, whose occupation
wholly consisted in guarding the boundaries of estates.[1775] These,
among the Romans, were denominated rangers, or foresters. There were
others to whom the care of the fruit was entrusted; and both these
classes of persons were probably elderly men, remarkable for their
diligence and fidelity, who were rewarded, by appointment to this more
easy duty, for their honest discharge in youth of such as were more
painful and laborious. Boys were sometimes set to keep watch over
vineyards,[1776] as we may see in the first Eidyll of Theocritus, where
he gives us a lively sketch of such a guardian plotted against by two
foxes.

-----

Footnote 1775:

Such of these as had charge of the timber may be denominated
wood-reeves, a term which answers very well the Latin Saltuarius. The
slave-guards of forests, in Crete, were called Ergatones. Hesych. ap.
Meurs. Cret. p. 190.

Footnote 1776:

Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 223, seq. Theocrit. Eidyll. xxv. 27. Cf.
Feith. Antiq. Hom. iv. i. 276, sqq. Vineyards in Athens still require
guards. Speaking of his approach to Athens from the Peiræeus, Chandler
observes:—“In a tree was a kind of couch, sheltered with boughs,
belonging to a man employed to watch there during the vintage.” ii.
27.

-----

CHAPTER VI.
PASTORAL LIFE.

But within the circle of Hellenic country life[1777] there was a kind of
parenthetical existence, a remnant of the old nomadic habits, once
common, perhaps, to the whole race,—I mean the pastoral life, of which
we obtain so many glimpses through the leafy glades and grassy avenues
of Greek poetry. No doubt, the fancy of imaginative men, thirsting for a
degree of simplicity and happiness greater than they find around them in
cities or villages, is apt to kindle and shed too glorious a light on
approaching the tranquil solitudes, the pine forests, the mountain
glens, the hidden lakes, the umbrageous streams that leap and frolic
down the wild rocks of a country so rife with beauty as Greece.
Nevertheless, adhering strictly to truth and reality, there is, in such
regions, much about the pastoral life to delight the mind. In the first
place, the occupations of an ancient shepherd left him great leisure,
and he was generally, by habit no less than by inclination, led to prize
that “dolce far niente” which, in all southern climates, constitutes the
chief enjoyment of existence.

-----

Footnote 1777:

The charm of that repose and freedom from care supposed to be tasted
in the seclusion of the country, appears in all ages to have led to
the belief, that there is something more natural in fields and forests
than in cities, though it be quite as necessary that man should have
dwellings as that he should cultivate the ground. The paradox,
however, is thus expressed by Varro: Divina natura dedit agros, ars
humana ædificavit urbes. De Re Rust. iii. 1, which Cowper,
unconsciously perhaps, has thus translated,

God gave the country, but man made the town.

-----

And indeed all the world over, repose, both of mind and body, is sweet.
But not entire repose. Accordingly the Grecian shepherd, whose flocks
fed tranquilly, whose condition, assured, and pinched by no necessities,
left him at liberty to consult his own tastes in his recreations, took
refuge from idleness in music and song.[1778] At first, and perhaps
always, their lays were rude; but nature, their only teacher, infused
into them originality and passion, such as we find in the only poet of
antiquity, save Homer, in whose verses the fragrance of the woods still
breathes. Whether like Paris and Anchises they kept their own flocks or
undertook the care for others, they were still on the mountains
perfectly free. Their education was peculiar. Abroad much after
dark,[1779] in a climate where the summer nights are soft and balmy
beyond expression, and where the stars seem lovingly to crowd closer
about the earth, they necessarily grew romantic and superstitious.[1780]
Events occurring early in their own lives or handed down to them by
tradition, long meditated on, were in the end invested with supernatural
attributes. Under similar circumstances their national religion had
probably been first formed. They in the same way, in every canton,
created a local religion.[1781] Their very creed was poetry. Tree, rock,
mountain, spring, every thing was instinct with divinity, not
mystically, as in certain philosophical systems, but literally; and, as
they believed, the immortal race, their invisible companions at all
hours, could when they pleased put on visibility, or rather remove from
their eyes the film which prevented their habitually beholding them.

-----

Footnote 1778:

Travellers find among the modern shepherds of the East much the same
tastes and habits. “The hills,” observed Dr. Chandler, speaking of
Lydia, “were enlivened by flocks of sheep and goats, and resounded
with the rude music of the lyre and of the pipe; the former a stringed
instrument resembling a guitar, and held much in the same manner, but
usually played on with a bow.” Chandler, i. p. 85. Cf. Theocrit.
Eidyll. i. 7. viii. 9.

Footnote 1779:

The same habits still prevail: “We could discern fires on Lesbos as
before on several islands and capes, made chiefly by fishermen and
shepherds, who live much abroad in the air, to burn the strong stalks
of the Turkey wheat and the dry herbage on the mountains.” Chandler,
i. 11. Cf. p. 320.

Footnote 1780:

Among other things we find them putting the strongest faith in
dreams—at least we may suppose the fishermen in Theocritus, who lay so
much stress on the visions of the night, to hold a creed pretty nearly
akin to that of shepherds. Eidyll. 21. v. 29. sqq.

Footnote 1781:

The gods they principally worshiped were Pan, the Muses, and the
Nymphs. To the Nymphs and Pan they sacrificed as to gods presiding
over mountains, where they themselves usually wandered. Pan, moreover,
was skilled in the pipe, the instrument of their race. The Muses they
adored as the goddesses of poetry and music. Schol. Theoc. i. 6. In
verse 12 of the same Eidyll. the Nymphs are spoken of where the office
of the Muses is in contemplation, which may easily be explained. For
the Muses are properly the Nymphs of those fountains which inspire
poets with their lays. Cf. Voss. ad Virg. Eclog. iii. 84. By the
Lydians the Muses were denominated Nymphs. Schol. Theoc. Eidyll. vii.
92. Cf. Eidyll. v. 140. Lyc. Cassand. 274. ibique Schol. et Potter.
Kiessl. ad Theocrit.

-----

It is well known that, in the present day, among the nomadic nations of
Asia, the sons of the chiefs still follow their flocks in the
wilderness. And this in the heroic ages was likewise the case in
Greece,[1782] where youths of the noblest families watched over their
fathers’ sheep and cattle. Thus Bucolion, son of Laomedon, led to
pasture the flocks of his sire, and, in the solitudes of the Phrygian
mountains, was met and loved by a nymph.[1783] Two sons also of Priam
pursued the same occupation;[1784] and thus among the Hebrews, David,
the son of Jesse, passes his youth in the sheepfold, and his manhood on
a throne. In this secluded and solitary life the sights and sounds of
nature became familiar to them, the voice of sudden torrents rushing
from the mountains,[1785] the roar of lions springing on their folds, or
the sweet moonlight silvering both mountain and valley. It is with the
shepherd’s life that Homer connects that noble description of the night
which Chapman has thus translated:

As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind,[1786]
And stars shine clear,[1787] to whose sweet beams high prospects and the
brows
Of all steep hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for shows,
And even the lonely valleys joy to glitter in their sight,
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
And all the signs in heaven are seen, that glad the shepherd’s heart.

The glimpses of pastoral life, albeit too few, are still frequent in
Homer, who loves, whenever possible, to illustrate his subject by
bringing before our minds the image of a shepherd. Thus Hector, lifting
a large rock, is compared to a shepherd bearing a ram’s fleece.[1788]

As when the fleece, though large yet light, the careful shepherd rears,
With both hands plunged within its folds, so he the rock uptears.

Footnote 1782:

Lycoph. Cassand. 91, seq. in common with Homer and the other ancient
poets, represent princes as shepherds. The guarding of flocks was
then, in fact, a regal occupation. Didymos, ad Odyss. ν. 223,
observes, that τὸ παλαιὸν καὶ οἱ τῶν βασιλέων παίδες πανάπαλοι (l.
παναίπολοι) ἐκαλοῦντο, καὶ ἐποίμαινον. Meurs. ad Lycoph. p. 1181.
Varr. De Re Rust. ii. 1.

Footnote 1783:

Il. ζ. 25. Odyss. ο. 385, seq.

Footnote 1784:

Il. δ. 106.

Footnote 1785:

Iliad. δ. 452, seq. ε. 137. θ, 555.

Footnote 1786:

The following picture by Milton almost seems to be designed to form a
contrast to the above:

As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o’erspread
Heaven’s cheerful face, the lowring element
Scowls o’er the darken’d landscape snow or shower;
If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
Parad. Lost, ii. 488, sqq.

Iliad θ. 559, sqq. Here _shepherd_, observes the Scholiast, is used
for _herdsman_. Ποιμήν εἶπεν ἀντὶ τοῦ βουκόλος διὰ νυκτὸς γὰρ αἱ βόες
νέμονται, in loc. i. 238.

Footnote 1787:

On this passage Ἀρίσταρχος τὴν κατὰ φύσιν λαμπρὰν λέγει κἂν μὴ
πλήθουσα ᾖ εἰ γὰρ πληροσέληνος ἦν, ἐκέκρυπτο ἄν μᾶλλον τὰ ἄστρα.
Schol. Bekker. t. i. 238. Cf. Eustath. in Iliad. θ. t. i. p. 621.

Footnote 1788:

Iliad, μ. 451, seq.

-----

Again, the Trojan forces following their leader, Æneas, suggest to his
mind the idea of innumerable flocks bounding after a ram to drink.[1789]

The people followed, as the flock the shaggy ram succeeds,
Who to the cooling streamlet’s bank the woolly nation leads
(While swells the shepherd’s heart with joy) from pasture on the meads.

Elsewhere, he describes a troop of hungry wolves attacking the flocks on
the mountains:—[1790]

As when the hungry wolves, on folds forsaken by the watch,
Descend, the kids and tender lambs by thievish force to snatch;
Or when the timid browsing crew are scattered far and wide,
And seized, by witless shepherds left upon the mountain side.

But, in another place, they are represented contending with a lion by
night for the body of one of their flock.[1791]

Thus the night-watching shepherds strive, but vainly, to repel
The angry lion, whom the stings of want and rage impel,
Upon the carcase fastens he: his heart no fear can quell.

Where the number of the flock required the care of several men a chief
shepherd ἐπιποιμὴν was appointed to overlook the rest.[1792] Among the
ancients twenty sheep were thought to require the attention of a man and
a boy;[1793] but, in modern times, three men and a boy, with four or
five dogs, are sometimes entrusted with a flock of five hundred, of
which two-thirds are ewes.[1794] The proportion of rams to ewes is at
present as four to a hundred.

-----

Footnote 1789:

Iliad, ν. 491, sqq.

Footnote 1790:

Iliad. π. 354, sqq.

Footnote 1791:

Iliad. σ. 161, seq.

Footnote 1792:

Odyss. μ. 131. The duties of this servant are described by Varro, who
likewise states the physical qualities required to be found in
shepherds. Contra, pernoctare ad suum quemque gregem esse omnes sub
uno magistro pecoris cum esse majorem natu potius quàm alios et
peritiorem quàm reliquos, quod iis qui ætate, et scientia præstant
animo æquiore reliquis parent. Ita tamen oportet ætate præstare ut ne
propter senectutem minus sustinere possit labores. Neque enim senes,
neque pueri callium difficultatem, ac montium arduitatem, atque
asperitatem facile ferunt: quod patiendum illis qui greges sequuntur
præsertim armenticios, ac caprinos quibus rupes ac silvæ ad pabulandi
cordi. De Re Rust, ii. 10. Cf. Colum. ii. 1.

Footnote 1793:

Geop. xviii. 1. Yet we find mention in Demosthenes of a shepherd with
a flock of fifty sheep under his care. In Everg. et Mnes. § 15.

Footnote 1794:

Leake, Travels in the Morea, vol. i. p. 17.

-----

From very remote ages shepherds had learned to avail themselves of the
aid of dogs,[1795] which in farms were usually furnished with wooden
collars.[1796] The breed generally employed in this service, in later
ages at least, was the Molossian,[1797] which, though exceedingly
powerful and fierce towards strangers, was by its masters found
sufficiently gentle and tractable. The shepherd’s pipe,[1798] frequently
made of the donax, or common river-reed,[1799] likewise used in
thatching cottages, formed a no less necessary accompaniment. Another of
their instruments of music was the flute crooked at the top, finely
polished and rubbed with bees’ wax.[1800]

-----

Footnote 1795:

Plat. de Rep. iv. t. vi. p. 204. Columella describes with poetical
enthusiasm the character and qualities of the shepherd’s dog, which he
refuses to class among dumb animals, its bark being, according to him,
full of meaning: “Canis falso dicitur mutus custos nam quis hominum
clarius, aut tanta vociferatione bestiam vel furem prædicat quam iste
latratu? quis famulus amantior domini? quis fidelior comes? quis
custos incorruptior? quis excubitor inveniri potest vigilantior? quis
denique ultor aut vindex constantior? Quare vel in primis hoc animal
mercari tuerique debet agricola, quod et villam et fructus
familiamque, at pecora custodit.” De Re Rusticâ, 7. 12.

Footnote 1796:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 897.

Footnote 1797:

Aristot. Hist. Animal. ix. 1.

Footnote 1798:

Luc. Bis Accus. § 11.

Footnote 1799:

Plat. Rep. iii. § 10. Stalb.

Footnote 1800:

Theocrit. i. 129. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 132. Mosch. Eidyll. iii. 54.

-----

As the Arcadians, descendants of the Pelasgians, derived one of their
principal delights from music,[1801] it is reasonable to infer that the
ancestral nation, preëminently pastoral, was likewise addicted to this
science. The feeding of herds and flocks constituted the principal
occupation of the Proselenoi,[1802] who were little devoted to
agriculture, as may be inferred from their acorn-eating habits; for no
nation ever continued to feed on mast after they could obtain bread. A
report prevailed in the ancient world that the Arcadians were of a
poetical temperament, to which Virgil alludes in the well-known verses—

Arcades ambo,
Et cantare pares et respondere parati.

And as improvisatori they may possibly have excelled, though Greece knew
nothing of an Arcadian literature. However, chiefly after the example of
Virgil, the poets of modern times have always delighted to convert
Arcadia into a kind of pastoral Utopia, which is done by Sannazaro,
Tasso, Guarini, Sir Philip Sydney, Daniel, and many others. Palmerius à
Grentmesnil[1803] discovers something like the descendants of the
Arcadians among the Irish, whose pastoral taste for music he conceives
to be commemorated by the triangular harp in the national insignia.

-----

Footnote 1801:

Athen. xiv. 22.

Footnote 1802:

Etym. Mag. 690. 11.

Footnote 1803:

“Sic et hodie audio Hibernos, qui pecuariam exercent, musicæ deditos,
et triangulari cithara (quam vocamus _harpe_) plerumque se oblectare
solere, unde aiunt insignia regni Hiberniæ fuisse olim et esse adhuc
tale musicum instrumentum.” Desc. Græc. Ant. p. 61.

-----

Their usual clothing consisted of diptheræ, or dressed sheepskins,[1804]
just as at the present day among the Nubian shepherds, whom one may see
thus clad, roaming through the sandy hollows of the Lybian desert. On
the inside of these skins the traitor Hermion wrote the letters which
betrayed the designs of his countrymen to the enemy in Laconia.[1805]
Others wore goatskin cloaks, which they likewise used as a coverlet at
night.[1806] Euripides introduces his chorus of satyrs complaining of
this miserable costume.[1807]

“Much loved Bacchos where dost thou
Lonely dwell afar,
Shaking thy gold locks at eve
Like a blazing star?
While I thy minister am fain
To serve this one-eyed Cyclop swain,
A slave borne down by fortune’s stroke
In a wretched goatskin cloak.”

-----

Footnote 1804:

Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 73. Cf. Vesp. 442. Küst.—Eq. 398. Bekk. Luc.
Tim. § 8. We find mention also made of a cloak of wolfskin.
Philostrat. Vit. Sophist. ii. 6.

Footnote 1805:

Suidas. v. διφθέρα. t. i. p. 757. e.

Footnote 1806:

Harless. ad Theocrit. v. 2.

Footnote 1807:

Cyclop. 79, seq.

-----

And thus simple was ever their appearance in the East. But, as I have
hinted above, their very great leisure,[1808] the accidents of their
occupation, and the grand and regular march of natural phenomena in
those countries, often ripened their intellects beyond what the
condition of a modern heath-trotter renders credible. Thus, in the
mountains of Chaldæa, astronomy and all its parasitical sciences took
birth among the shepherd race. From temperament and circumstances, the
inhabitants of thinly-peopled tracts, if unvexed by wars, are profoundly
meditative. What they behold in serene indistraction gradually rouses
their thoughts, and presenting itself again and again, attended always,
as the phenomena of the heavens are, by the same accidents, compels them
to study.[1809]

-----

Footnote 1808:

Lord Bacon considers the pastoral state preferable in some respects to
the agricultural:—“The two simplest and most primitive trades of life;
that of the shepherd (who by reason of his leisure, rests in a place,
and living in view of heaven, is a lively image of a contemplative
life) and that of the husbandman; where we see the favour of God went
to the shepherd and not to the tiller of the ground.”—Advancement of
Learning, p. 64. Shepherds made libations of milk to the Muses.
Theocrit. i. 143, seq.

Footnote 1809:

Even yet we find the shepherds of Greece retain some smack of
classical learning: “After dinner I walked out with a shepherd’s boy
to herbarise; my pastoral botanist surprised me not a little with his
nomenclature; I traced the names of Dioscorides, and Theophrastus,
corrupted, indeed, in some degree by pronunciation, and by the long
_series annorum_, which had elapsed since the time of these
philosophers, but many of them were unmutilated, and their virtues
faithfully handed down in the oral traditions of the country. My
shepherd boy returned to his fold not less satisfied with some paras
that I had given him, than I was in finding in such a rustic a
repository of ancient science.”—Sibth. in Walp. i. 66, seq. There is
in Sir John Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, translated by Robert
Mulcaster, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a passage describing the
pastoral habits of our ancestors, and the intellectual superiority
they engendered, which appears to me so excellent, that I cannot
resist the temptation to introduce it here:—“England is so fertile and
fruitefull, that comparing quantity to quantity it surmounteth all
other landes in fruitefulnesse. Yea, it bringeth forth fruite of
itselfe, scant provoked by mann’s industrie and labour. For there the
landes, the fieldes, the groves, and the woodes, doe so aboundantlye
springe, that the same untilled doe commonly yield to their owners
more profite then tilled, though else they bee most fruitefull of
corne and graine. There also are fieldes of pasture inclosed with
hedges and ditches, with trees planted and growing uppon the same,
which are a defence to their heardes of sheepe and cattell, against
stormes and heate of the sunne; and the pastures are commonly watered,
so that cattell shutte and closed therein have no neede of keeping
neither by day, nor by night. For there bee no wolves, nor beares, nor
lyons, wherefore their sheepe lye by night in the fields, unkept
within their foldes wherewith their land is manured. By the meanes
whereof, the men of that countrie are scant troubled with any
painefull labour, wherefore they live more spiritually, as did the
ancient fathers, which did rather choose to keepe and feede cattell,
than to disturbe the quietnesse of the minde with care of husbandrie.
And heereof it cometh, that menne of this countrie are more apte and
fitte to discerne in doubtfull causes of great examination and triall,
than are menne whollye given to moyling in the ground; in whom that
rurall exercise engendereth rudeness of witte and minde.” chap. 29.

-----

But solitude is less surely the nurse of science than of superstition.
The leaven, which in populous cities scarcely swells visibly in the
breast, ferments unrestrainedly in the depths of woods, in the
high-piled recesses of mountains, in the gloom of caverns, where nature
invests itself with attributes which address themselves powerfully to
the heart, and appears almost to hold communion with its offspring.
Hence the wild mythologies of Nomadic races, which are not loose-hanging
creeds, to be put off and on like a cloak, but a belief inwrought into
their souls, a part of themselves, and perhaps the best part, since it
is from this that springs the whole dignity and poetry of their lives.
In all countries fables rise in the fields, to flow into and be lost in
the cities. Observe the wild picture which Plato, in his Academic Dream,
presents to us of a group of Lydian shepherds. It has all the poetical
elements of an Arabian tale.

Tradition, he says, represented Gyges the ancestor of Crœsus as a hired
shepherd, who with many others guarded the imperial flocks in the
remoter districts of the country. At this time happened a great
earthquake, attended by floods of rain, which, in the parts where they
were, opened up a vast chasm in the earth. Gyges arriving alone at the
mouth of the gap stood amazed at its depth and magnitude, but observing
a practicable descent went down, and roamed through its subterraneous
passages. Many marvellous things, according to the mythos, did he there
see, and among the rest a hollow brazen horse, with doors in its side,
through which looking in, he beheld a colossal naked corpse, with a
jewelled ring on its hand. Transferring this to his own finger Gyges
departed.

Shortly afterwards, still wearing the signet, he went to the assembly of
shepherds, which met monthly, for the purpose of selecting a person to
bear the usual report of the flocks to the king. Sitting down among the
rest he happened to turn the beavil of his ring towards himself, upon
which he became invisible to his companions,[1810] as he clearly
discovered from their discourse, which proceeded as if about an absent
man. Smitten with much wonder he returned the gem to its former position
and again became visible. He made the experiment over and over and
always with success; upon which, like another Macbeth, a vast scheme of
ambition darkly shadowed itself upon his mind, and a crown tinged
slightly with blood swam before him. It does not, however, appear that
like the Thane of Cawdor he was perplexed with scruples. He does not
say,—

“Why do I yield to that suggestion,
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present facts
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought whose murder’s yet but phantasy,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is,
But what is not.”

-----

Footnote 1810:

The reader will in this place perhaps remember the dream of Rousseau,
on the enjoyment which the possession of such a ring would have
afforded him; when after pushing his speculations as far as they could
go he determines that he was much better without it.—Rêveries du
Promeneur Solitaire, iii. 137.

-----

Gyges, with the ruthless resolution of an Oriental, forms his plan at
once, and coolly works it out. He procures himself to be elected one of
the mission to the king, and on arriving at the capital, dishonours the
queen, murders his master, and ascends the throne.[1811]

-----

Footnote 1811:

Plat. Rep. ii. § 3. Cf. x. § 12. Stallb. Among the gods similar powers
were attributed to the helmet of Hades. Thus, in Homer, Athena is
concealed from Mars by the effect of this enchanted piece of
armour.—Iliad, ε. 845. Apollod. ii. 4. 2.

-----

This may be regarded as a specimen of the shepherds’ tales.[1812] But
they moved for the most part in an atmosphere of superstition, had
ceremonies of their own, a mythology of their own, and of the whole the
pervading spirit was love. In communities highly civilised, this passion
commonly degenerates into a plaything, despised when weak, and
mischievous when strong. It is otherwise in the early stages of society.
There, in proportion to their freedom from the aspirations and anxieties
of ambition, men seek happiness in the cultivation of the affections.
The society of women is to them all in all. And the evils that infest
them, disturb their quiet, and engender crime, spring, too, from the
same bitter-sweet fountain, which flows with honey or gall according to
the temper of those who drink of it. Consequently, in contemplating the
pastoral life of Greece, we must beware not to overlook the
shepherdesses,[1813] those heroines of Bucolic poetry, whose freshness
and nature still survive in Theocritus, and other fragments of
antiquity, and may operate as an antidote to that insipid spawn whose
loves and lamentations affect us like ipecacuanha in modern pastorals.

-----

Footnote 1812:

To the same class belongs that tradition of a brazen tablet thrown up
by a fountain in Lycia foretelling the overthrow of the Persian
monarchy by the Greeks.—Plut. Alexand. § 17.

Footnote 1813:

Cf. Varr. De Re Rust. ii. 10.

-----

In these latitudes of society, at least, women enjoyed their freedom,
and the glimpses presented to us of them as they there existed may be
regarded among the chief charms of Greek poetry. Only, for example,
observe the picture which Chæremon the Flower Poet, has delineated of a
bevy of beautiful virgins sporting by moonlight:

“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 seemed 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,
Mirrored by streams, left on my soul the stamp of hopeless love.
And slumbering near them others lay, on beds of sweetest flowers,
The dusky petaled 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 bedecked the fairy ground,
Loading with sweets the vagrant winds that frolicked all around.”[1814]

-----

Footnote 1814:

Athen. xiii. 87.

-----

In the ordinary bucolic poets women to be sure are sketched with a rude
pencil, though coquettish as queens, of which we have an exemplification
in the picture on the shepherd’s cup:[1815]

And there, by ivy shaded, sits a maid divinely wrought,
With veil and circlet on her brows, by two fond lovers sought.
Both beautiful with flowing hair, both sueing to be heard,
On this side one, the other there, but neither is preferred.
For now on this, on that anon, she pours her witching smile,
Like sunshine on the buds of hope, in falsehood all and guile,
Though ceaselessly, with swelling eyes, they seek her heart to move,
By every soft and touching art that wins a maiden’s love.[1816]

-----

Footnote 1815:

This was the κισσύβιον, a goblet or cup turned of ivy wood. It was
usually rubbed with wax and polished, for the purpose of bringing out
the beautiful carving which adorned it. Cf. Etym. Mag. 515. 33.

Footnote 1816:

Theocrit. i. 32, sqq.

-----

There is here no straining after the ideal. Like Titian’s beauties,
these shepherdesses are all creatures of this earth, filled with robust
health, dark-eyed, warm, impassioned, and somewhat deficient in reserve.
They understand well how to act their part in a dialogue. For every bolt
shot at them they can return another as keen. Each bower and bosky
bourne seems redolent of their smiles; their laughter awakens the
echoes; their ruddy lips and pearly teeth hang like a vision over every
bubbling spring and love-hiding thicket which they were wont to
frequent. Hence the charm of Theocritus. And a still stronger charm
perhaps would have belonged to the pages of him who should have painted
the shepherd’s life of a remoter age,[1817] when none were above such an
occupation, which therefore united at once all the dignity of lofty
independence with the careless freedom of manners and unapprehensive
enjoyment in which consists the secret source of all the pleasure which
rustic pictures afford. Most of his creations, though not all, are in
this respect wanting. Ideas of penury[1818] slip in, and, in the midst
of rich poetry, check the developement of pleasurable feelings. For the
musical swains, though apparently ambitious of nought but the reputation
of song, permit us to discover, that they are but hirelings tending
flocks not their own. The contrast between persons of this class and
those who are owners of the sheep they tend, is forcibly pointed out in
the sacred language of Christ: “I am the good shepherd: the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling and
not the shepherd and whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming,
and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and
scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling, and
careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and
am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father;
and I lay down my life for the sheep.”[1819] The same affectionate
tenderness is attributed to shepherds in the prophetic writings: “he
shall feed his flocks like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that
are with young.”[1820]

-----

Footnote 1817:

Though even here we detect the presence of hirelings; for Homer
observes, that, among the Læstrigons, such shepherds as could do with
little sleep received double wages. Odyss. κ. 84, seq.

Footnote 1818:

In fact black slaves, from Africa, were sometimes employed as
shepherds, at least in Sicily. Theoc. i. 24.

Footnote 1819:

John, x. 11, sqq.

Footnote 1820:

Isaiah, xl. 11.

-----

In the matter of virtues and vices, the shepherds of antiquity were very
much, no doubt, like other men. Their habits were such as grew naturally
out of their position. Towards whatever their feelings led them they
proceeded vehemently, and with that singleness of purpose which belongs
to men of simple and decided character.[1821] They were too commonly
creatures of mere impulse. From the peculiar form of their communion
with nature, which, like the masses of Egyptian architecture, was
continued and monotonous, they acquired a peculiarity of mental
temperament, warm, as it were, in parts, and cold in parts. Every
circumstance around them tended to rouse, pique, and inflame the passion
of desire and its concomitants; the pairing of their flocks, of the
birds, of the very wild beasts whose courage or ferocity they dreaded;
their own leisure combined with the excess of health, the influence of
climate, the solicitations of opportunity, impelled them into excess;
and, accordingly, their morals in this respect sank to a low standard,
and rendered them any thing but models of the golden age. The intellect
of course was comparatively little cultivated; and there being no other
check upon the feelings, suicides, murders of jealousy, and other
evidences of ill-regulated passion would often occur.[1822]

-----

Footnote 1821:

It has been observed by Gibbon, who had diligently studied the
pastoral nations of Asia in their general habits and characteristics,
that ambition and the spirit of conquest are powerfully excited by the
shepherd’s manner of life. “The thrones of Asia have been repeatedly
overturned by the shepherds of the north, and their arms have spread
terror and devastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of
Europe. On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober
historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision and is compelled
with some reluctance to confess, that the pastoral manners which have
been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence are
much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military
life.” Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, iv. 348. Hippocrates in
his brief but vigorous manner has presented us with a picture of the
Scythian shepherd’s life in ancient times, (De Aër. et Loc. § 92,
sqq.) and from modern travellers we find that it differed very little
from that which they lead at the present day. See the travels of
Rubriquis in Hakluyt, i. 101, sqq. See also the notes of Coray on
Hippocrates, t. ii. 280, seq.

Footnote 1822:

Theocritus describes Daphnis dying for love. Eidyll. i. 135.

-----

But, in proportion as we pierce further back into antiquity, these
tragical incidents become fewer: not merely because our knowledge of
those ages is more scanty, but that in ruder times morality is
comparatively lax, and men’s taste less fastidious. The rigid laws of
marriage were then little observed. Women passed from husband to husband
without losing character or caste; and when they produced illegitimate
offspring attributed the paternity to some god, and scarcely considered
the circumstance a misfortune. Half the princes of the Homeric age were
illegitimate; for this is what is always meant by saying they were
descended from the gods. Æneas was the son of some young woman whom
Anchises met on the mountains, where he pastured his father’s flocks and
pretended to have been loved by Aphrodite.[1823] Persons so
circumstanced were, doubtless, capable of much romance. Nymphs and
goddesses peopled their imagination, and their imagination let loose its
brood upon the woods. Poets afterwards, able to infuse a soul into these
rustic traditions, gave a local habitation and a name to every beautiful
legend they could collect. Hence that sunny picture, the interview of
Aphrodite and Anchises amid the lofty recesses, the grassy slopes, the
sparkling leaping brooks, and old umbrageous forests of Mount Ida.
Already, however, the force of dress was known, which Montaigne
afterwards celebrated; for the Homeric bard, about to record an
interview between the goddess and her shepherd-lover, instead of
supposing her to have been

“When unadorned, adorned the most,”

describes all the arts of a luxurious toilette.

-----

Footnote 1823:

Hom. Hymn. ad Ven. 54, sqq.

-----

The picture, however, of pastoral life which he suggests rather than
describes, is worked out with strokes of great simplicity. All the other
herdsmen disperse in the execution of their several duties, leaving
Anchises alone in the cattle-sheds,[1824] spacious in dimensions, and
tastefully erected, where he amuses his solitary leisure with the music
of the cithara. While thus engaged he beholds the approach of the
goddess,[1825] and is at once struck with her beauty and the splendour
of her raiment. At the unearthly vision his love is kindled; but the
poet, skilled in the mysteries of the heart, chastens his passion by
overmastering feelings of reverence, such as necessarily belong to
unsophisticated youth. Anchises constitutes, indeed, the _beau idéal_ of
an heroic shepherd, simple, high-minded, ingenuous, venturous and
fearless in contests with man or beast, but in his intercourse with
woman gentle, reverent,

“And of his port as meek as is a maid.”

In fact, the gallant knights of romance seem rather to have been
modelled after the heroic warriors of Greece, than from any realities
supplied by the chivalrous ages. The author of the Hymn is careful in
describing the shepherd’s couch, to insinuate with how great strength
and courage he was endowed. He reclines, we are told, on skins of bears
and lions slain by his own hand, though over these there were cast, for
show, garments of the softest texture.[1826]

-----

Footnote 1824:

Compare Trollope, Notes on St. John, x. i.

Footnote 1825:

Aleuas, the Thessalian, is said to have been favoured with the visits
of a very different mistress as he pastured his herds on Mount Ossa,
near the Hæmonian spring; for a dragon of enormous size, becoming
enamoured of his beauty and golden hair, frequently approached the
shepherd with presents of game of her own catching. Having laid her
gifts at his feet, she would kiss his locks and lick his face with her
tongue, which, as the fountain was so near it, may be hoped was a work
of supererogation. Ælian. De Nat. Animal. viii. 11.

Footnote 1826:

Hymn. ad Vener. 158, sqq.

-----

Throughout this work it has been seen how the influence of climate and
position concurred in the formation of the Greek character. We may
ourselves put the doctrine to the proof by observing the effect upon our
minds of those reflections of landscapes which appear in language; rude
Boreal scenes exciting the spirit of contention and energy; while the
soft valleys, groves, and odoriferous gardens of the South produce a
calm upon our thoughts favourable to the more benevolent emotions.
Hellenic shepherds, therefore, no other causes preventing, may upon the
whole be supposed to have been humane.

Indeed, the very curious adventures of a sophist,[1827] in the mountains
of Eubœa, preserved among the literary wrecks of antiquity, open up to
our view a picture of pastoral life which, in spite of much rudeness and
indigence, exhibits the Greek character in its original roughness and
simplicity, full of kindness, full of gentleness, full of hospitable
propensities, which would do honour to the noblest Arab Sheikh. And the
material scene itself, in every feature Grecian, harmonises exactly with
the moral landscape.

-----

Footnote 1827:

Dion Chrysostom. Orat. vii. t. i. p. 219, sqq. Phot. 166. a. 24.

-----

The eastern shores of the island of Negropont, beetled over by Mount
Caphareus,[1828] and indented by no creeks or harbours, were in
antiquity infamous for shipwrecks, notwithstanding that they formed the
principal station of the purple fishers.[1829] Cast away on this coast,
the sophist Dion, for his eloquence surnamed of the golden-mouth, fell
in with a pastoral hunter who, entertaining him generously, furnished at
the same time a complete idea of the rude herdsman, who preserved in the
vicinity of the highest civilisation known to the old world the
simplicity of the Homeric Abantes.[1830] Nay, this wild sportsman,
pursuing with his huge dogs a stag along the cliffs, powerful in limb,
hale in colour, and with long hair streaming over his shoulders,
appeared to be the natural descendant of those Heroic warriors.[1831]
Armed with his hunting-knife, he flays and cuts up the stag upon the
spot, and taking along with him the skin and choicest pieces of venison
abandons the remainder on the beach. As they go along he displays the
knowledge wherewith experience stores the rustic mind. He understands
the signs of the weather, and from the clouds which cap the summits of
Caphareus foretells how long the sea will continue unnavigable.[1832]

-----

Footnote 1828:

On this mountain and the mythological legends attached to it, see
Virg. Æn. xi. 260, with the note of Servius. Ovid. Metamorph. xiv.
472. Cf. Propert. v. 115, sqq. Jacobs. Plin. iv. 21. An ancient
scholiast, quoted by Morell, thus relates the revenge of Nauplios:
Ναύπλιος τοῦ υἱέος δὴ τοῦ Παλαμήδους τοῦ φόνου ἀμυνόμενος τοὺς Ἕλλήνας
τοῦ ἀνέμου αὐτοῖς ἐνστάντος· ἐπεὶ τοῦτον διὰ θαλάττης ἐγέλων. αὐτὸς
οὗτος τὸν Καφηρέα καταλαβὼν εἶτα νυκτὸς πυρσεύων ἀπὸ τῶν ἐκεῖσε
πετρωδῶν πάγων, ἠπάτα προσχεῖν, ὡς δή τινι εὐπροσόδῳ ἀκτῆ τοῖς
ἀποτόμοις κρημνοῖς εἰς βάθος ἐῤῥιζωμένοις καὶ χοιράσι διειλημμένοις.
καὶ οὕτως ἀπρόοπτως ἀπωλόντο. Schediasm. &c., in Dion. t. ii. p. 580,
seq. Cf. Strab. viii. 6. t ii. p. 195. Apollodor. ii. i. 5. Orph.
Argonaut. 204, sqq.

Footnote 1829:

On the purple fisheries of Eubœa, cf. Feder. Morell. Schediasm. &c.,
in Dion. ii. 576. Reiske. and Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 15.

Footnote 1830:

A life equally simple is led by the Albanian shepherds of the present
day. “They live on the mountains, in the vale or the plain, as the
varying seasons require, under arbours, or sheds, covered with boughs,
tending their flocks abroad, or milking the ewes and she-goats at the
fold, and making cheese and butter to supply the city.” Chandler, ii.
p. 135.

Footnote 1831:

Iliad. β. 541. δ. 464. The long hair of these ancient warriors is thus
mentioned by the Homeric Scholiast: τὰ ὀπίσω μέρη τῆς κεφαλῆς κομῶντες
ἀνδρείας χάριν. ἴδιον δὲ τοῦτο τῆς τῶν Εὐβοέων κουρᾶς, τὸ ὄπισθεν τὰς
τρίχας βαθείας ἔχειν. t. i. p. 83. Bekker.

Footnote 1832:

Cf. Theoph. De Sign. Pluv. i. 22.

-----

Rude as an American backwoodsman, he was precipitated, by the rare luck
of meeting with a stranger, into equal inquisitiveness and garrulity. He
put questions without waiting for an answer. He gossipped of his own
concerns; explained without being asked the whole economy of his life;
and exhibited all that enthusiasm of beneficence which belongs to human
nature when uncorrupted by the thirst of gold. There is a rare truth in
the description; far too much ever to have graced a sophist’s tale,
unless nature had supplied the model.

“There are two of us,” says he, “who inhabit together the same rude
nook, having married sisters, by whom we have both sons and daughters.
We derive our subsistence principally from the chase, paying but little
attention to agriculture, since we have no land of our own. Nor were our
fathers better off in this respect than ourselves; for, though freeborn
citizens, they were poor, and by their condition constrained to tend the
herds of another, a man of great property, owning vast droves of cattle,
numerous horses and sheep, several beautiful estates, with many other
possessions, and all these mountains as far as you can see. This
opulence, however, became his ruin. For the emperor, casting a covetous
eye upon his domains, put him to death, that he might have a pretext for
seizing on them. Our few beasts went along with our master’s, and the
wages due to us there was no one to pay.

“Here, therefore, of necessity we remained[1833] where two or three huts
were left us, with a slight wooden shed in which the calves had been
housed in the summer nights.[1834] For, during winter, we had been used
to descend for pasture to the plains where, in the proper season, stores
of hay were also laid up; but with the re-appearance of summer we
returned again to the mountains. The spot which had formed our principal
station now became our fixed dwelling. Branching off on either hand is a
deep and shady valley, having in the middle a rivulet so shallow as to
be easily traversed, both by cattle and their young. This stream,
flowing from a spring hard by, is pure and perennial and cooled by the
summer wind blowing perpetually up the ravine. The encircling forests of
oak stretch forth their boughs far above, over a carpet of soft verdure,
which descends with a gentle slope into the stream, giving birth to a
few gad-flies,[1835] or any other insect hurtful to herds. Extending
around are numerous lovely meadows, dotted with lofty trees, where the
grass is green and luxuriant throughout the year.”

-----

Footnote 1833:

Had Bernardin de St. Pierre read this when he wrote his Indian
Cottage?

Footnote 1834:

An equal degree of contentment to that which in this recital we find
exhibited by the Eubœan herdsmen, is still in our own times displayed
by the rough peasants of the Lipari islands, in the midst of far
greater privations:—“It is incredible at the same time how contented
these islanders are amid all their poverty. Ulysses perhaps cherished
not a greater love for his Ithaca than they bear to their Eolian rocks
which, wretched as they may appear, they would not exchange for the
Fortunate islands. Frequently have I entered their huts which seem
like the nests of birds hung to the cliffs. They are framed of pieces
of lava ill-joined together, equally destitute of ornament within and
without, and scarcely admitting a feeble uncertain light, like some
gloomy cavern.” Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 147.

Footnote 1835:

The absence of these tormentors of cattle was considered a matter of
great importance by the ancients. Virgil, where he is giving
directions respecting the best pastures suited to the youthful mothers
of the herds, celebrates the exploits of the gadfly:

Saltibus in vacuis pascant, et plena secundum
Flumina: muscus ubi, et viridissima gramine ripa,
Speluncæque tegant, et saxea procubet umbra.
Est lucos Silari circa, ilicibusque virentem
Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo
Romanum est, œstrum Graii vertere vocantes:
Asper, acerba sonans: quo tota exterrita sylvis
Diffugiunt armenta; furit mugitibus æther
Concussus, sylvæque et sicci ripa Tanagri.
Georg. iii. 143, sqq.

See the note of Philargyrius in loc. Aristot. Hist. Animal, iv. 4. v.
19.

-----

The eloquence of this description, I mean in the original, is not
unworthy to be compared with that in the Phædrus[1836] which has given
eternal bloom to the platane-tree and agnus castus on the banks of the
Ilissos.

-----

Footnote 1836:

Plat. Opp. t. i. p. 9. To protect from pollution spots shaded by noble
trees they were accustomed to consecrate them to some god, and to
erect beneath the overhanging branches statues and altars. Id. ib. In
Crete the fountains are often shaded still by majestic plane-trees.
Pashley, ii. 31.

-----

The conversion of these herdsmen into hunters is narrated by Dion with a
patient simplicity worthy of Defoe. An air of solitude, snatched from
Robinson Crusoe’s island, seems to breathe at his bidding over Eubœa.
The same education operates strange changes both in man and dog; and
bringing them into hostile contact with wolves, wild boars, stags, and
other large animals, gives the latter a taste for blood, and renders him
fierce and destructive. Subsisting by the chase, they pursued it summer
and winter, following both hares and fallow-deer by their tracks in the
snow. In their intervals of leisure they strengthened and beautified
their dwellings, saw their children intermarry and grow up to succeed
them, without even once approaching any city or even village.

The style of hospitality prevalent among such men in antiquity differs
very little from that which one would now find in the hut of a
good-natured Albanian.[1837] Their industry rendered them independent,
and their independence rendered them generous. By degrees their rustic
cottages were surrounded by a garden and fruit-trees, their court was
walled in, and luxuriant vines hung their foliage and purple fruit over
windows and porch. On the arrival of a stranger, the wife takes her
station at table beside her husband. Their marriageable daughter, in the
bloom and beauty of youth, aids her brothers in waiting at table, where
host and guest recline on highly raised divans of leaves covered with
the skins of beasts. The young maiden, like a rustic Hebe, pours out the
wine, dark and fragrant, while the youths served up the dishes and then
laid out a table for themselves and dined together. And the sophist,
versed in the courts of satraps and kings, conceived these rude hunters
of the mountains the happiest and most enviable of mankind.

-----

Footnote 1837:

Or even in the shed of a Turkish shepherd in Asia Minor. Dr. Chandler
has a passage illustrative of the hospitality of pastoral tribes,
which is at once so picturesque and concise that I am tempted to
transcribe it: “About two in the morning our whole attention was fixed
by the barking of dogs, which, as we advanced, became exceedingly
furious. Deceived by the light of the moon we now fancied we could see
a village, and were much mortified to find only a station of poor
goatherds without even a shed, and nothing for our horses to eat. They
were lying wrapped in their thick capotes or loose-coats by some
glimmering embers, among the bushes in a dale under a spreading tree
by the fold. They received us hospitably, heaping on fresh fuel and
producing caimac or sour curds and coarse bread which they toasted for
us on the coals. We made a scanty meal, sitting on the ground lighted
by the fire and by the moon, after which sleep suddenly overpowered
me. On waking I found my companions by my side, sharing in the
comfortable cover of the Janizary’s cloak which he had carefully
spread over us. I was now much struck with the wild appearance of the
spot. The tree was hung with rustic utensils, the she-goats in a pen
sneezed and bleated and rustled to and fro; the shrubs, by which our
horses stood, were leafless, and the earth bare; a black cauldron with
milk was simmering over the fire, and a figure more than gaunt or
savage close by us was struggling on the ground with a kid whose ears
he had slit, and was endeavouring to cauterise with a piece of red-hot
iron.” Chandler, vol. i. 180, seq.

-----

But a pastoral picture is incomplete without love. The youthful beauty
of Caphareus, hidden, like another Nouronihar[1838] from the world, is
accordingly beloved by her cousin, an adventurous hunter like her sire,
who joins the family circle in the evening, accompanied by his father,
bringing in his hand a hare as a present to his mistress. The old man
salutes the guest, the youth offers his present with a kiss, and
immediately undertakes the office of the girl, who thereupon resumes her
place beside her mother.

-----

Footnote 1838:

History of the Caliph Vathek. p. 102.

-----

Observing this arrangement, the stranger inquires whether she is not
soon to be married to some wealthy peasant, who might benefit the
family, upon which the youth and maiden blush, and her father replies,

“Nay, but she will take a husband, humble in rank, and like ourselves a
hunter,” glancing at the same time at the lover.

“How is it then that you wait?” inquired the stranger. “Do you expect
him from the village?”

“No,” answered the father, “he is not far off; and so soon as we can fix
upon a fortunate day the nuptials will be celebrated.”

“And by what do you judge of a fortunate day?”

“The moon must be approaching the full, the weather fair, and the
atmosphere transparent.”

“And is the youth in reality an able hunter?”

“I am,” said the young man, answering for himself, “in the chase of the
stag or boar, as you yourself, if you please, shall judge to-morrow.”

“And did you take this hare, my friend?”

“I did,” replied he with a smile, “having set a gin for him by
night;[1839] the weather being surpassing beautiful, and the moon larger
than it ever was before.”

-----

Footnote 1839:

Cf. Philost. Icon. ii. 26, p. 851.

-----

Upon this both the old men laughed, and the lover abashed held his
peace.

“But,” observed the father of the maiden, “it is no fault of mine that
the solemnity is deferred; we only wait at your father’s desire, till a
victim can be purchased; for a sacrifice must be offered to the gods.”

“With respect to the victim,” interposed the maiden’s younger brother,
“he has long provided one, and a noble one too, which is now feeding
behind the cottage.”

“And is it truly so?” demanded the old man.

“It is,” replied the lad.

“And where,” addressing the youth, “did you procure it?” inquired they.

“When we took the wild sow,[1840] which was followed by her litter,”
answered he, “and the greater number, swifter than hares, made their
escape; I hit one with a stone, and my companions coming up threw a skin
over him. This I secured, and exchanged in the village for a young
domestic pig which has been fatted in a sty behind the house.”

-----

Footnote 1840:

The wild hog is still one of the most common animals in the forests of
Greece and Asia Minor. Chandler, i. 77. Even wild bulls occasionally
make their appearance in the latter country. 176.

-----

“I now understand,” exclaimed the father, “the cause of your mother’s
mirth when I would wonder what that grunting could be, and how the
barley was disappearing so fast.”

“Nevertheless,” observed the young man, “to be properly fatted our
Eubœan swine require acorns.[1841] However, if you will just step this
way I will show her to you.”

-----

Footnote 1841:

To this best and most economical food for hogs, Homer makes allusion
where he introduces the goddess Circe attending to her sty, which she
had filled with the transformed companions of Odysseus:

τοῖσι δε Κίρκη
Πὰρ ῥ’ ἄκυλον, βάλανον τ᾽ ἔβαλεν, καρπόν τε κρανείης
Ἔδμεναι, οἷα σύες χαμαιευνάδες αἰὲν ἔδουσιν.
Od. κ. 241, sqq. Cf. ν. 409.

Ælian de Nat. Animal. v. 45, celebrates these Homeric dainties as the
food of the hog to which he elsewhere adds the fruit of the ash. viii.
9.

-----

Upon which off they went, the boys quite at a run, and in vast glee.

In the meantime, the maiden going into the other cottage, brought forth
a quantity of split service-berries,[1842] medlars,[1843] and winter
apples, and bunches of superb grapes, bursting ripe,[1844] and, brushing
down the table, she spread them out there upon a layer of clean fern.
Next moment the lads returned bringing in the pig, with much joking and
shouts of laughter. Then came, too, the young man’s mother, with two of
his little brothers, and they brought along with them nice white loaves,
with boiled eggs in wooden salvers, with a quantity of parched peas.
Having embraced her brother, with his wife and daughter, she sat down
beside her husband, and said,

“Behold the victim, which my son has long fed for his marriage, and the
other things also are ready; both the barley-meal and the flour. A
little wine, perhaps, may be wanting, but even this we can easily
procure from the village.”

And her son standing near her, fixed his eyes wistfully upon his
father-in-law.

The latter smilingly observed,—

“All delay now is on the lover’s part, who, perhaps, is anxious to
fatten his pig.”

“As to her,” said the youth, “she is bursting with fat.”

Upon this the sophist, willing to aid the lover, interposed, and
remarked,—

“But you must take care lest while the pig is fattening he himself grow
thin.”

“The stranger’s remark is just,” said his mother; “for already he is
more meagre than he used to be; and I have of late observed him to be
wakeful at night, and to go forth from the cottage.”

“Oh! that,” said he, “was when the dogs barked, and I stepped out to see
what was the matter.”

“Not you!” said his mother,—“but went moping about. Let us, therefore,”
continued she, “put him to no further trial.”

And throwing her arms about her sister, the maiden’s mother, she kissed
her; whereupon the latter, addressing her husband, said,—

“Let us grant them their desire.”

To which he agreed; and it was resolved, that the marriage should be
solemnized in three days, the stranger being invited to remain and
witness it, which he did.

-----

Footnote 1842:

Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 10. ii. 7. 7—iii. 6. 5—vi. 3. 11.

Ὄα, ἀκροδρύων εἶδος μήλοις μικροῖς ἐμφερές

Tim. Lec. Platon. in voce with the note of Ruhnken.

Footnote 1843:

On the three kinds of medlars, Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 12. 5.

Footnote 1844:

Philost. Icon. i. 31, p. 809. ii. 26, p. 851.

-----

The above picture of an obscure herdsman’s life in its naked simplicity,
void of all embellishment, will probably be thought more trustworthy
than the elaborate descriptions of the poets, notwithstanding that, even
in these, it is easy to separate the real from the fictitious.

In the estimation of the Greeks the herdsman[1845] commonly ranked
before the shepherd, and the latter before the goatherd,—for the dream
of rank pursues mankind even amid the quiet of the fields,—and their
manners are supposed to have corresponded. Pollux,[1846] however,
reckons the goatherd next after the herdsman, and again inverts the
order. Varro, on the other hand, gives precedence to the shepherd as the
most ancient, the sheep, in his opinion, having been the animal earliest
tamed.

-----

Footnote 1845:

Robust persons, with loud voices, were ordinarily chosen for herdsmen,
while goatherds were selected for their lightness and agility. Geop.
ii. 1. Shepherds obtained among the Greeks the name of ποιμένες; while
the keepers of other flocks and herds were termed αἰπόλοι. Schol.
Theoc. i. 6.

Footnote 1846:

Onomast. i. 249.

-----

In point of utility the goat, in some parts of the ancient world,
rivalled the sheep, producing fine hair which was shorn like wool.[1847]
I may remark, too, in passing, that the large-tailed sheep still common
in Asia Minor, as well as at the Cape, were anciently plentiful in
Syria, where, according to the great naturalist,[1848] their tails
attained a cubit in breadth. In some parts of Arabia another more
curious breed was found, with tails three cubits in length, to carry
which they were supplied by the ingenuity of the shepherds with wooden
carriages.[1849]

-----

Footnote 1847:

Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 27. 3. Things manufactured from the hair of
this animal were called κιλίκια. Etym. Mag. 513. 41.

Footnote 1848:

Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 27. 3. Speaking of the neighbourhood of
Smyrna,—The “sheep,” observed Dr. Chandler, “have broad tails, hanging
down like an apron, some weighing eight, ten, or more pounds. These
are eaten as a dainty, and the fat, before they are full-grown,
accounted as delicious as marrow.” Travels, i. 77. Of the broad-tailed
sheep mentioned by the ancients the most remarkable were those of
India, where, according to Ctesios, of veracious memory, both they and
the goats were larger than asses:—τὰ πρόβατα τῶν Ἰνδῶν καὶ αἱ αἶγες
μείζους ὄνων εἰσί, καὶ τίκτουσιν ἀνὰ τεσσάρων καὶ ἓξ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ,
ἔχουσι δὲ οὐρὰς μεγάλας · διὸ τῶν τοκάδων ἀποτέμνουσιν ἵνα δύνωνται
ὀχεύεσθαι. Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 72. p. 46. b. Bekker. Ælian. de Nat.
Animal, iv. 32, relates, without any symptoms of incredulity,
precisely the same fact; and then adds a circumstance which may keep
in countenance the Abyssinian story of Bruce respecting the carving of
a rump-steak from a live cow,—for the Indians, observes Ælian, were in
the habit of cutting open the tails of the rams, extracting all the
fat, and then sowing them up again so dexterously that in a short time
no trace of the incision remained visible.

Footnote 1849:

Herod. iii. 113. Ælian. Hist. Anim. x. 4.

-----

In most parts of Greece, as well as in the East, it was customary to
bring home the sheep from pasture towards evening, and shut them up for
the night in warm and roomy cotes, which were surrounded by wattled
fences,[1850] strong and high, both to prevent them from leaping over,
and to exclude the wild beasts which, in remoter ages, abounded in the
mountains. They were carefully roofed over, and every other precaution
was taken to render them perfectly dry, the floor being usually pitched
with stones, and slightly inclined. Their bedding[1851] consisted of
calaminth and asphodel and pennyroyal and polion (a sort of herb whose
leaves appear white in the morning, of a purple colour at noon, and blue
when the sun sets[1852]) and fleabane and southernwood and
origany,[1853] all which repel vermin. The more completely to effect the
same purpose, they were, likewise, in the habit of fumigating the cotes
from time to time, by burning in them several locks of some
shepherdess’s hair,[1854] together with gum ammoniac, hartshorn, the
hoofs or hair of goats, bitumen, cassia, fleabane, or calaminth, for the
smell of which serpents were thought to have a peculiar aversion.[1855]
Their ordinary food, while in the folds, consisted of green clover and
cytisus, fenugreek, oaten and barley straw, and vegetable stalks,[1856]
which were supposed to be improved if sprinkled on the threshing-floor
with brine, figs blown down by the wind, and dry leaves.

-----

Footnote 1850:

Bound together, probably, by wild succory or cneoron, as in modern
times by the withe-wind. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 11. 3. vi. 2. 2.

Footnote 1851:

Geop. xviii. 2.

Footnote 1852:

Plin. xxi. 7.

Footnote 1853:

Dioscor. iii. 32.

Footnote 1854:

Geop. xviii. 2.

Footnote 1855:

Aristoph. Eccles. 644. Geop. xviii. 2.4.

Footnote 1856:

Geop. xviii. 2. Apropos of Cytisus, it is observed by Æschylides, in
Ælian. de Nat. Animal. xvi. 32, that the rustics of Cios, on account
of the aridity of the island, possessed few flocks. Those they had,
however, were fed entirely on the leaves of the cytisus, the fig-tree,
and the olive, mingled occasionally with the straw and halm of
vegetables. The lambs reared on this island were of singular beauty,
and sold at a higher price than those of most other parts. In Lydia
and Macedonia sheep were sometimes fattened upon fish, which must have
given the mutton of those countries a somewhat unsavoury odour. Ælian.
De Nat. Animal. xv. 5. Another favourite food of sheep was the leaves
of the white nymphæa, the tender shoots of which were eaten by swine,
while men themselves fed upon the fruit. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 10.
7. Children, too, it is said, regarded as a delicacy the stalks of the
phleos, the typha, and the butomos. The roots of this fruit were given
as food to cattle. Id. ibid.

-----

In the short and sharp days of winter,[1857] they were not led forth to
pasture till both the dew and the hoar frost had disappeared; but in
summer the shepherds were careful to be a-field with the dawn while the
dew was still heavy on the grass. In Attica[1858] and the environs of
Miletus, where was produced the finest and costliest wool in the ancient
world, the sheep[1859] were protected from rain and dust and brambles
and whatever else could damage their fleeces[1860] by housings of purple
leather.[1861] The same practice prevailed also in the Megaris, where
Diogenes beholding a flock of sheep[1862] thus clad, while the children,
like those of the Egyptian peasants were suffered to run about naked,
said, “It is better to be a Megarean’s ram than his son.” Ælian[1863]
alludes to this saying for the purpose of noticing the ignorance and
want of education prevalent among the Megareans. We find likewise in
Plutarch[1864] another version of the anecdote taxing these Dorians with
avarice and meanness. Augustus imitated the saying of Diogenes and
applied it to Herod, hearing of whose cruelty to his family, he said,
“It were better to be Herod’s hog than his son.”[1865] But if the
Megareans lived poorly they built grandly: so that of them it was said,
that they ate as if they were to die to-morrow, and built as if they
were to live for ever.[1866]

-----

Footnote 1857:

Geop. xviii. 2.

Footnote 1858:

Cf. Athen, v. 60. Hom. Il. β. 305, sqq.

Footnote 1859:

Those of the neighbouring country of Bœotia are now, however, more
highly valued. “Flocks of sheep whose fleeces were of a remarkable
blackness were feeding on the plain; the breed was considerably
superior in beauty and size to that of Attica.” Sibth. in Walp. i. 65.
To dream of sheep of this colour was regarded by the ancients as
unlucky. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 12. p. 96. The finest black sheep in
the ancient world were found in a district of Phrygia in the
neighbourhood of the cities of Colossè and Laodicea, the wool of which
not only exceeded that of Miletos in softness, but was of a glossy jet
colour like that of the raven’s wing. Φέρει δ᾽ ὁ περὶ τὴν Λαοδίκειαν
τόπος προβάτων ἀρετὰς, οὐκ εἰς μαλακότητας μόνον τῶν ἐρίων, ᾗ καὶ τῶν
Μιλησίων διαφέρει, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὶς τὴν κοραξὴν χρόαν ὥστε καὶ
προσοδεύονται χρόαν ὥστε καὶ προσοδεύονται λαμπρῶς ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν· ὥσπερ
καὶ οἱ Κολοσσηνοὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁμωνύμου χρώματος πλησίον οἰκοῦντες. Strab.
xii. 8. t. iii. p. 74. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 73. Cf. Chandler,
Travels in Greece and Asia Minor, i. 262. The country round Abydos
also was celebrated for its black flocks among which not a single
white sheep was to be discovered. Ælian de Nat. Animal. 3. 32.

Footnote 1860:

Varro. de Re Rust. ii. 2.

Footnote 1861:

Horace speaks of the “pellites oves Galesi.” Od. ii. 6. 10.

Footnote 1862:

Diog. Laert. vi. 41. The practice is noticed also by Pliny who
says,—“Ovium summa genera duo, tectum et colonicum; illiud mollius,
hoc in pascuo delicatius, quippe quum tectum rubis vescatur.
Operimenta ei ex Arabicis præcipua.” Nat. Hist. viii. 72. Columella
also mentions these coverings:—“Molle vero pecus, etiam velamen quo
protegitur, amittit atque id non parvo sumptu reparatur.” vii. 3, seq.

Footnote 1863:

Var. Hist. xii. 56.

Footnote 1864:

De Cupiditate. § 7.

Footnote 1865:

Macrob. Sat. ii. 4.

Footnote 1866:

Tertull. in Apolog. ap. Menag. ad Laert. vi. 41. t. ii. p. 141. b. c.

-----

Sheep, as most persons familiar with the country will probably have
observed, are wont in hot summer days to retire during the prevalence of
the sun’s greatest heat beneath the shade of spreading trees,[1867] at
which time a green sweep of uplands dotted with antique oaks or
beeches,[1868] each with its stem encircled by some portion of the flock
reposing upon their own fleeces, presents a picture of singular beauty
and tranquillity. The picturesque features of the scene were in old
times enhanced by the addition of several accompaniments now nowhere to
be found, consisting of statues, altars, or chapels, erected in honour
of the rural gods or nymphs.[1869] Fountains, moreover, of limpid
water[1870] in many places gushed forth from beneath the trees, where
there were usually a number of seats for the accommodation of the
shepherds and shepherdesses. In these retreats they generally passed the
sultry hours of the day, playing on the pastoral flute or the syrinx,
chanting their wild lays, or amusing each other by the relation of those
strange legends which inhabited the woods and lonely mountains of
Greece.[1871] There prevailed among them a superstition against
disturbing by their music or otherwise that hushed stillness which most
persons must have observed to characterise the summer noon. At this hour
of the day the God Pan,[1872] in the opinion of Greek shepherds, took
his rest after the toils of the chase, reclining under a tree in the
solitary forest;[1873] and, as he was held to be of a hasty choleric
disposition, they abstained at that time from piping through fear of
provoking his anger. The other Gods likewise were believed to enjoy a
short sleep at this time, as we find in the case of the nymph Aura, in
the Dionysiacs.[1874]

-----

Footnote 1867:

Geop. xviii. 2.

Footnote 1868:

Nor in Asia Minor is the shade of trees always deemed sufficient. “We
came,” says Dr. Chandler, “to a shed formed with boughs round a tree,
to shelter the flocks and herds from the sun at noon.” Travels, i. 25.

Footnote 1869:

Schol. Theoc. i. 21. Cf. Plat. Phædr. t. i. p. 9.

Footnote 1870:

I cannot resist the temptation to introduce in this place the picture
in miniature of a Greek landscape from the picturesque and beautiful
journal of Dr. Sibthorpe: “We dined under a rock, from whose side
descended a purling spring among violets, primroses, and the starry
hyacinth, mixed with black Silyrium and different coloured orches. The
flowering ash hung from the sides of the mountain, under the shade of
which bloomed saxifrages, and the snowy Isopyrum, with the Campanula
Pyramidalis; this latter plant is now called χαρισονη; it yields
abundance of a sweet milky fluid, and was said to promote a secretion
of milk, a quality first attributed to it under the doctrine of
signatures. Our guide made nose-gays of the fragrant leaves of the
Fraxinella; the common nettle was not forgotten as a pot-herb, but the
Imperatoria seemed to be the favourite salad. Among the shrubs I
noticed our gooseberry-tree, and the Cellis Australis grew wild among
the rocks.” Walp. Mem. i. 63.

Footnote 1871:

See Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 582, sqq.

Footnote 1872:

To dream of this god was considered auspicious by shepherds. Artemid.
Oneirocrit. ii. 42. p. 133.

Footnote 1873:

Schol. Theoc. i. 15. Cal. Hymn. in. Lav. Poll. 72. ibique interp. Nem.
Eclog. iii. 3. Cf. Hom. Il. τ. 13. Od. ι. 9. The shepherd in the
Anthology (Jacob. t. ii. no. 227. p. 694) is not so religious as
Theocritus’ goatherd, for he boldly pipes in the morn and at noon χὡ
ποιμὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι μεσαμβρινὸν ἀγχόθι παγᾶς συρίσδων. Kiessling. ad
Theoc. i. 15.

Footnote 1874:

Nonn. xlviii. 258, sqq. Cf. Philost. Icon. ii. 11. et J. B. Carpzov.
Disp. Phil. De Quiete Dei, p. 16, sqq.

-----

From a passage in St. John’s gospel it would appear, that the practice
prevailed among the Oriental shepherds of distinguishing the several
members of their flocks by separate names: “The sheep hear his voice,
and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he
putteth forth his own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice.” We likewise find traces of the same
custom in Sicily, Crete, and various other parts of Greece, where goats,
and heifers, and sheep, enjoyed the privilege of a name, as Cynœtha,
Amalthea, and others. In later times it was judged preferable, that the
flock should follow their shepherds by the eye, for which reason they
were accustomed to stuff their ears with wool.[1875] To prevent rams
from butting, they used to bore a hole[1876] through their horns near
the roots. Sheep were generally shorn[1877] during the month of May, and
after the wool had been clipped, they were commonly anointed with wine,
oil, and the juice of bitter lupins.[1878] In remoter ages the practice
prevailed of plucking off the wool instead of shearing it; and this
barbarous method, at once so painful to the sheep and so laborious to
the shepherd, had not been entirely abandoned in the age of Pliny.[1879]
It was a rule among the pastoral tribes, that the number of their flocks
should be uneven.[1880] The shepherds of Greece bestowed the name of
Sekitai,[1881] (from σηκος an enclosure) upon lambs taken early from the
ewes, and fed by hand. They were usually kept in a cote apart from the
other sheep.

-----

Footnote 1875:

Geop. xviii. 4.

Footnote 1876:

Ferocia ejus cohibetur cornu juxta aurem terebrato. Plin. Nat. Hist.
vii. 72. Cf. Geopon. viii. 5. To the same purpose writes also
Columella:—Epicharmus Syracusanus qui pecudum medicinas diligentissime
conscripsit affirmat pugnacem arietem mitigari terebra secundum
auriculas foratis cornibus qua curvantur in flexu. Columell. vii. 3.

Footnote 1877:

It is observed by the ancients that long lank wool indicated strength
in the sheep, curly wool the contrary. Geop. xviii. 1, seq.

Footnote 1878:

Geop. xviii. 8.

Footnote 1879:

Duerat quibusdam in locis vellendi mos. Plin. Nat. Hist, vii. 73.
Veliæ unde essent plures accepi caussas inquies quod ibi pastores
palatim ex ovibus ante tonsuram inventam vellere lanam sint soliti, ex
quo vellera dicuntur. Varr. de Ling. Lat. iv. Cf. De Re Rust. ii. 11.
Isidor. xix. 27.

Footnote 1880:

Geop. xviii. 2.

Footnote 1881:

Schol. Theoc. i. 9.

-----

As flocks, in most parts of Greece, were exposed to the rapacity of the
wolf,[1882] the shepherds had recourse to an extraordinary contrivance,
to destroy this fierce animal; kindling large charcoal fires in open
spaces in the woods, they cast thereon the powder of certain diminutive
fish, caught in great numbers along the grassy shores of Greece,
together with small slices of lamb and kid. Attracted by the savour
which they could snuff from a distance, the wolves flocked in great
numbers towards the fires, round which they prowled with loud howlings,
in expectation of sharing the prey, the odour of which had drawn them
thither. Stupified at length by the fumes of the charcoal, they would
drop upon the earth in a lethargic sleep, when the shepherds coming up
knocked them on the head.[1883]

-----

Footnote 1882:

From the relations of travellers it would appear that the method
observed by the ancient Greeks in ridding themselves of the wolf is no
longer known to their descendants, though the apprehension of their
destructiveness and ferocity be as great as ever. Solon, it is well
known set a price in his laws on the head of a wolf, which appears to
have varied in different ages; (cf. Plut. Solon. § 23. Schol.
Aristoph. Av. 369;) but could never have amounted to the sum of two
talents. Whatever the ancient price may have been, however, it was
paid by the magistrates; but “the peasant now produces the skins in
the bazaar or market, and is recompensed by voluntary contributions.”
Chandler, ii. p. 145. Close by a khan on mount Parnes, which is
covered with pine trees, Sir George Wheler saw a very curious
fountain, to which the wolves, bears, and wild boars commonly descend
to drink. Id. p. 197.

Footnote 1883:

Geop. xviii. 14. Nevertheless, when a wolf bit a sheep without killing
it, the flesh was supposed to be rendered more tender and delicate, an
effect which Plutarch attributes to the hot and fiery breath of the
beast. Sympos. ii. 9.

-----

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber’s Note

The printer employed the cursive forms of beta (ϐ) and theta (ϑ),
sometimes in the same passage with the standard β and θ. These have been
replaced with the standard forms.

Hyphenated words sometimes also appear without hyphenation, e.g. ‘olive
grounds’ and ‘olive-grounds’. Where there is a clear preponderance, the
hyphen has either been retained or removed to following the preference.
When there was none, they are left as printed.

Comments

91.10 The original quotation marks (“Wretch, would you make
me a “Phaselitan for a farthing?”) have been properly
nested.

355.n3.64 The asterisk seems to serve no purpose. It might have
referred to an internal footnote that was never
printed. It was retained, nonetheless.

Minor punctation errors and inconsistencies in the footnote apparatus
have been corrected with no further mention here.

Those errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected,
and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the
original. Corrections within notes are denoted with ‘n’ and the original
note number.

36.n1 καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ο[ἴκι]/ἰκίαν Replaced.
61.15 to have been a comb[.] Added.
63.31 The _Ægle[,]_ the _Pede_ and Added.
65.11 in Lycia[,/.] Replaced.
71.29 ran into the opposite extreme[,/.] Replaced.
86.7 signi[ni]fies eggs) Removed.
119.20 were most brilliantly reflected[,/.] Replaced.
133.8 recal[l]s to mind Inserted.
134.n3 Ἅλα[ ]λείχειν Space added.
135.n3.10 Profluit.[”] Added.
139.30 How much [my,/, my] friend, Transposed.
163.31 The walnuts a[u/n]d chestnuts Inverted.
164.20 [“]but we call it Added.
185.37 roll about the room like a hoop[,/.] Replaced.
201.31 to the frying[-]pan Inserted.
209.n5.1 Sc[ol/h\. Aristoph. Nub. 1337, seq. Replaced.
209.n6.1 Ilgen, De Sc[h]ol. Poes. p. 156. Removed.
242.1 the friendship of Demosthenes[.] Added.
242.34 the “Exile Hunter.[”] Added.
249.n7.2 [‘/“]chez les anciens Atheniens Replaced.
257.n5 Μ[ε/έ]σσοισιν Replaced.
274.18 whose Penelope, the[ the] _beau idéal_ Removed.
286.n8 and out [out ]of these they sometimes Repetition.
drank.
290.n4 following in the foo[t]steps of Heyne Inserted.
328.16 found this answer of[ of] irrigation. Removed.
355.n3.38 le _samia_[,] gros raisin Added.
385.15 hey would not, if po[s]ssible, Removed.
423.38 shall judge to-morrow[.]” Added.
429.n6.14 non parvo sumptu reparatur.[”] Added.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece Volume II (of 3)" ***

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