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previous: III.94C‑106E This webpage reproduces a section of The Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus published in Vol. II of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1928 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: III.116A‑127D

(Vol. II) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

Book III
(Part 4 of 5)

 p3  (106E) The next dish to be brought in was fried liver wrapped in "fold-over," the so‑called epiplus, which Philetaerus in Tereus​1 calls epiploon. After gazing upon it Cynulcus said, "Tell us, learned Ulpian, whether liver thus encased is mentioned anywhere." FHe answered, "Show us first in what author epiplus is used of the fatty caul." Thereupon Myrtilus took up their challenge and said: "The word epiplus for 'caul' occurs in The Bacchants of Epicharmus:​2 107 'The leader he hid in a caul'; also in his Envoys:​3 'round the loin and the caul. So, too, Ion of Chios in his Sojournings:​4 'hiding it in the caul.' You are reserving the caul my dear Ulpian, against the time when you shall be wrapped in it and consumed,​5 and so rid us all of your questionings. But it is only fair that you should cite testimony about liver dressed in this way, since you said a while ago,​6 when we were  p5 discussing ears and feet, that Alexis mentions it in Crateias or The Apothecary. BThe entire passage is valuable as illustrating a number of things, and since your memory at present is not equal to it, I will recite it at length myself. The comedian says:​7 'First, then, I spied oysters, wrapped in seaweed, in the shop of an Old Man of the Sea, and sea-urchins too. I grabbed them; for they are the prelude to a daintily ordered dinner. Next, I came upon some little fish, all trembling for fear of what was to happen to them. But I bade them have no fears so far as I was concerned, promising that I wouldn't harm a single one, and bought a large greyfish. CThen I took an electric ray-fish, being mindful that when a lady lays tender fingers upon it she must not suffer any hurt from its thorny touch. For the frying-pan I got some wrasse, sole, shrimp, jack hake, gudgeon, perch, and sea-bream, and made the dish gayer than a peacock. Then came some meats — feet, snouts, and swine'sº ears, and liver wrapped in caul; Dfor it is ashamed of its own livid colour. No professional cook shall come near these, or even look upon them. He will rue it, let me tell you. Rather, I shall myself act as steward, so cleverly, so smoothly, and elegantly (yes, I shall make the dish myself), that I shall cause the feasters now and then to push their teeth into the plates for very joy.​8 The preparation and composition of all these foods I am ready to disclose, proclaim, Eand teach for nothing if anybody wishes to learn.'

 p7  "Further to show that it was customary to wrap livers in caul, Hegesander of Delphi, in his Commentaries,​9 says of Metaneira the courtesan that she found a lung in a dish of cased livers, and when, on removing the fat, she discovered it, she cried out, 'I am lost! My enfolding garments have been my undoing.'10

"Perhaps the comic poet Crobylus may be added to those who, like Alexis, speak of liver so prepared as 'feeling ashamed'; for in The False Substitute​11 he says: F'And verily he added a stout polyp's claw and to this again the shamed liver of a dung-eating boar.' Liver is mentioned also by Aristophanes in Masters of the Frying-pan,​12 by Alcaeus in The Wrestling-school,​13 and by Eubulus in Deucalion.​14 The word should be pronounced with rough breathing;​15 for elision before it in Archilochus is effected with an aspirate. He says namely,​16 'You have no bile attaching to your liver (eph hepati).'

108 "But there is also a fish (hepatos) named from the liver, of which the same Eubulus, in The Laconians or Leda,​17 says that it has no gall: 'So you didn't think I had any gall, you talked to me as if I were a liver-fish? But I would have you know I am still a  p9 fierce fighter.'​18 Hegesander, in his Commentaries,​19 says that the liver-fish has two stones in its head similar in lustre and colour to those found in oysters, but rhomboid in shape.

"Fish for frying are mentioned by Alexis in his Demetrius​20 as well as in the play cited above. BCompare Eubulus in Orthannes:​21 'Every pretty woman who is in love resorts thither, as well as the runty lads who are nurslings of the frying-pan — wild Mohawks lounging in the cake-shops. In the same company, too, the squid and the maid of Phalerum,​22 wedded to lambs' entrails, skip and dance like a colt let loose from the yoke. The fan stirs up the watch-dogs of Hephaestus, rousing them to fury with the hot vapour from the pan, and the savour thus provoked leaps to the nostrils. CThe kneaded roll, Demeter's daughter, draws its hollow cleft along, made by the pressure of the finger to look like a trireme's ram — the best introduction to a dinner.'

"They used also to eat fried cuttle-fish. Nicostratus (or Philaeterus) says, in Antyllus:​23 'Never again shall I venture alone to eat cuttle-fish from the pan.' And Hegemon, in Philinna, represents persons eating small fry also out of the pan in these verses:​24 'Nay,  p11 but go quickly and buy me a polyp, and let me eat small fry even from the pan.' "

DWhereupon Ulpian, not pleased at this, but in some vexation, glanced sharply at us and recited these iambics from the Orthannes of Eubulus:​25 " 'How glad I am that that god-detested fellow — Myrtilus — has come to shipwreck on a frying-pan;' for I am sure that he never bought or ate any of these things, because one of his own slaves once recited to me these verses from Eubulus's Pimp:​26 'I am kept by a cruel brute from Thessaly, a rich but avaricious sinner; Ea gourmand he, who spends as much as sixpence on a dinner.' The lad had a fine education, which he had got not in Myrtilus's house, of course, but when he lived with some other master. So I asked him how he had come to fall into Myrtilus's hands. He answered me in these lines from The Chick of Antiphanes:​27 'When a child I was brought by a trader here to Athens with my sister. I am a Syrian. Put up at auction, this skinflint happened upon us and bought us — a fellow unsurpassed for villainy, the kind that won't bring anything but thyme​28 into the house, Fnot even one of the things​29 the thrice-sainted Pythagoras permitted to be eaten.' "

While Ulpian was still jesting in this way, Cynulcus bawled, "We want bread (artos), and I don't mean  p13 the Artos who was king of the Messapii in Iapygia, concerning whom there is a tract by Polemon.​30 He is mentioned by Thucydides also in Book VII,​31 and by the comic poet Demetrius in the play entitled Sicily:​32 109 'A. From there, with the wind in the south, we crossed the main to Italy and the country of the Messapii. And Artos received and entertained us nobly. — B. Ay, a pleasant host. — A. Large was he in that country, and white.'​33 On the present occasion, it wasn't Artos (Bread) that was wanted, but the loaves invented by Demeter, our Lady of the Grain and of Abundance. For with these titles the goddess is honoured in Syracuse, as the same Polemon remarks in his work on Morychus.​34 And in Book I of his Reply to Timaeus he says that in the Boeotian town of Scolus Bthere are images enshrined of Megalartus and Megalomazus."35

When, presently loaves of bread were brought in and there was, in addition, an abundance of all sorts of food, he looked at them and said, " 'How many traps to catch bread do unhappy mortals set,' " quoting Alexis in the comedy called Into the Well.​36 "Suppose we, then, talk about Bread."

But Pontianus anticipated him and said: "Tryphon of Alexandria, in Plant Life,​37 names the different sorts of bread, if I remember rightly, as follows: raised bread, unleavened bread, bread made with fine flour, with groats, with unbolted meal C(the last, he  p15 declares, is more laxative than that made of refined flour), bread made of rye, of spelt, and of millet. The groat bread, he says, is made of rice-wheat, for it cannot be made of barley. 'Oven-bread' is so named from being baked; it is mentioned by Timocles in Sham Robbers​38 thus: 'Seeing that a dough-pan fresh from the fire was lying there, I ate some of the oven-bread piping hot.' Brazier-bread​39 is mentioned by Antidotus in The Premier Danseur:​40 'He took some hot brazier-bread — why not? — and folding it over he dipped it into sweet wine.' DAlso by Crobylus in The Suicide:​41 'taking a dough-pan full of fine brazier-bread.' Further, Lynceus of Samos, in his letter to Diagoras, compares the food used in Athens with that of Rhodes, and says: 'Besides, the bread sold in their market is famous, and they bring it in at the beginning and the middle of a banquet without stint. And when they are tired and sated with eating, Ethey then introduce a most delightful allurement in what is called smeared brazier-bread. It is a soft and delectable compound dipped in sweet wine, with such harmonious effect that a marvellous result comes to one whether he will or no; for just as the drunken man often becomes sober again, so the eater of it grows hungry again with its delicious flavour.'

"Another kind listed by Tryphon is Atabyrite bread. Sopater mentions it in The Woman of Cnidus:​42 'And there was an Atabyrite loaf to stuff the jaws.'

 p17  "Achaenae loaves.​43 — This bread is mentioned by Semos in the eighth book of the Delias.​44 He says that it is made in honour of Demeter and Korê. They are large loaves and a festival called Megalartia is celebrated Fby persons who contribute it reciting the words, 'a goat​45 full of lard for our Lady of Sorrows.'

"Oven bread. — Aristophanes mentions this in Old Age.​46 There he introduces a bread-woman whose loaves have been torn to bits by the animals which cast off their old skin. She says: 'What does this mean?' — One answers: 'Give us some hot rolls, daughter.' She: 'But you must be mad!' — 'Fresh from the oven, daughter.' — She: 'What do you mean, fresh from the oven?' — 'And very white, daughter.'

110 "Bread baked in ashes.​47 — This is mentioned by Nicostratus in The High Priest,​48 and by that great artist of cookery, Archestratus, whose testimony I will cite in the proper place.49

"The biscuit.​50 — Eubulus mentions it in Ganymede, as does Alcaeus in his Ganymede:​51 'A. Hot biscuits, too. — B. And what are biscuits? — B. They are voluptuous loaves.'

"Wafer bread. — This is both light and thin, and the so‑called epanthrakis​52 is even more so. The first (laganon) is mentioned by Aristophanes in the Ecclesiazusae​53 in the words 'Wafers are baking';  p19 the second, the apanthrakis, Bby Diocles of Carystus in Book I of his Hygiene. He says: 'The apanthrakis is baked over charcoal, like the ash-bread of the Athenians; the Alexandrians, moreover, consecrate it to Cronus and set it forth in the temple of Cronus for anyone to eat.

"Epicharmus, however, in The Marriage of Hebe and in The Muses​54 — this latter play being a revision of the former — sets forth various kinds of bread thus: oven, neighbour, suet, honey-and‑oil, lard-bread, and half-loaf. These are also mentioned by Sophron in his Mimes of Women,​55 as follows: C'A dinner for the goddesses — oven-bread, neighbour-cake, and a half-loaf to Hecate.'

"I know, my friends, that in Attic Greek the words for oven, kribanos and kribanitês, are pronounced with the letter r, whereas Herodotus, in the second book of his History​56 has a 'red-hot klibanos.' And so wrote Sophron:​57 'Who is baking suet-bread or oven-bread (klibanitae) or half-loaves?' The same writer mentions also a kind of bread named plakitês ('flat') in the Mimes of Women:​58 'She promised she would treat me in the evening to some griddle-cakes.' Cheese-bread, too, is mentioned by Sophron in the mime entitled Mother-in‑Law,​59 thus: D'I advise you to snatch a bite; for someone has sent cheese-bread for the children.'

"Nicander of Colophon, in his Glossary,​60 calls unleavened bread daratos. Plato (the comic poet) in  p21 A Long Night​61 calls the large and dirty loaves 'Cilician' in these lines: 'And then he bought and sent us some loaves; don't think they were the clean, tidy kind; they were large Cilicians.' And in the play entitled Menelaus​62 he calls certain loaves agelaioi.​63 EBread of unbolted wheat is mentioned by Alexis in The Man from Cyprus:​64 'He has just eaten a whole loaf of whole-wheat bread.' These are called autopyritae by Phrynichus in The Weeders:​65 'With loaves of unbolted wheat and oily olive-cakes.'

"Sophocles in Triptolemus​66 mentions orindes bread, i.e. the bread which is made with rice, a seed which grows in Aethiopia and resembles sesame. FA form of roll called kollabos is mentioned by Aristophanes in Masters of the Frying-pan,​67 'Each of you take a roll;' and again, 'Or fetch me the paunch of a sucking-pig killed in the autumn, with some hot rolls.' These rolls are made of new wheat, as Philyllius makes clear in Augê:​68 'Here I come in person, bringing the fruit of wheat three months in the growing, hot rolls as white as milk.' Bread sprinkled with poppy-seed is mentioned by Alcman in Book V​69 as follows:  p23 111'Couches seven, and as many tables laden with poppy-bread, and bread with flax and sesame seed; and in cups . . . golden sweets.' This is a confection made of honey and flaxseed.

"Another form of bread is the so‑called kollyra, mentioned by Aristophanes in the Peace:​70 'A mighty roll and a box on the ears as a relish to go with it.' Also in the Merchantmen:​71 'And a roll for the veterans, because of the trophy they raised at Marathon.'

B"Obelias bread is so named because it is sold for an obol, as in Alexandria, or because it used to be baked on a spit.​72 Aristophanes in The Farmers:​73 'Then there is a man who haply is baking a loaf on the spit.' Pherecrates in The Forgetful Man:​74 'Fall greedily on the spitted bread and heed not the loaf.' Obeliaphoroi was the name also given to those who carried these loaves on their shoulders in processions. Socrates in the sixth book of Epithets says that Dionysus invented spitted bread in his campaigns.

"Pulse bread is the same as that which is called lekithitas, according to Eucrates. CPanos is 'bread' in Messapian. Hence abundance is called panía, and things that satisfy pánia, by Blaesus in Half-Worn, Deinolochus in Telephus,​75 and Rhinthon in Amphitryon. The Romans, also, call bread panis.

 p25 "Nastos is the name given to a large loaf of leavened bread, according to Polemarchus and Artemidorus; but Heracleon says it is a kind of round, flat cake. Nicostratus has the word in The Couch:​76 'There was a cake, my master, as big as this, and white; it was so thick that it bulged from the basket, and when the cover was taken off, Dan odour and a steam mingled with honey rose upward to the nostrils; for it was still hot.' 'Grated' bread is a variety in use in Ionia, as Artemidorus of Ephesus says in Ionian Notes.

"Throne is also the name of a bread. Neanthes of Cyzicus, in Book II of his History of Greece,​77 writes as follows: 'Codrus received a slice of bread, the so‑called throne — also meat, and they apportion it to the eldest.'

E"There is also an ash-baked bread in Elis called bacchylos, as Nicander records in Book II of his Glossary.​78 Diphilus, too, mentions it thus in The Mistaken Lady:​79 'Carry round ash-baked bread of finely-sifted flour.' Another variety of bread also is the so‑called apopyrias ('toasted')' it is baked directly over the coals. This is called a yeast bread by some, as Cratinus in Mollycoddles:​80 'First, I have here some toasted leavened bread — none of your stuff filled with cudweed.'

Archestratus in his Gastronomy​81 expounds thus the subject of barley-meal and bread: F'First, then, dear Moschus, I will call to mind the gifts of fair-haired Demeter, and do thou lay it to heart. The  p27 best that one may get, ay, the finest in the world, all cleanly sifted from the rich fruit of barley, grows where the crest​82 of glorious Eresus in Lesbos is washed by the waves. It is whiter than snow from the sky. If it so be that the gods eat barley-meal, 112 Hermes must go and buy it for them there. In seven-gated Thebes, too, there is good barley, in Thasos, also, and in some other towns; but theirs seem like grape-stones compared with the Lesbian. Grasp that with understanding sure. Supply yourself also with the round roll of Thessaly, well twisted in the maker's hand, which Thessalians call krimnitas, Bbut the rest of the world calls chondrinos.​83 Next, I recommend the scion of Tegea's fine wheat, baked in ashes. Very fine, too, is the wheat loaf made for the market which glorious Athens supplies to mortals; and the loaf which comes white from the oven in Erythrae, where grapes grow richly, and abounds in all the luxurious daintiness of the Seasons, will delight you at the feast.' Following this description, the chef Archestratus advises that the bread-maker be a Phoenician or a Lydian; Che did not know that the Cappadocian bakers are the best. He says:​84 'Be sure that you have in the house a man from Phoenicia or Lydia who knows how to make daily every kind of bread, no matter what you order.'

"The excellence of Athenian bread is called to mind in the following passage from the Omphalê​85 of Antiphanes; 'How could a man of gentle breeding ever leave this roof, Dwhen he sees these white-bodied  p29 loaves crowding the furnace in close ranks, and when he sees, too, how they have changed their shape in the oven — deft imitations​86 made by Attic skill, which Thearion taught his countrymen?' This Thearion is the baker whom Plato mentions in the Gorgias,​87 coupling him with Mithaecus thus: 'When I asked you what men have been or are good at caring for men's bodies, Eyou answered me with the utmost seriousness, Thearion the baker, Mithaecus, who wrote the treatise on Sicilian cookery, and Sarambus the wine-merchant; because they have proved themselves marvellous caretakers of the body, the first by making wonderful bread, the second relishes for meat, and the third by furnishing wine.' Aristophanes, also, speaks of Thearion in Gerytades again in Aeolosicon​88 in these lines: 'I am come from the bakehouse of Thearion, where are the ovens' abodes.'

"But the bread of Cyprus also is mentioned for its excellence by Eubulus in these verses of Orthannes:​89 F'Hard it is to see Cyprian loaves and ride by; like a magnet they draw the hungry to them.' And as for the buns called kollikia — they are the same as the kollaboi​90 — Ephippus mentions them thus in Artemis:​91 'From Alexander, from bun-eating Thessaly, comes an oven full of loaves.' And Aristophanes in The Acharnians:​92 'Good-morning, you little bun-eating Boeotian.' "

113At the end of this recital​93 one of the learned men  p31 present, Arrian by name, spoke up: "all this 'breadstuff,' comrades, is getting stale. For we have no interest either in barley (since the town is full of wheat bread), or in the list of these kinds of bread. For I have come across another treatise, beside those cited, by Chrysippus of Tyana, entitled Bread-making, and have made the acquaintance of all the terms here mentioned by many of our friends, and so I shall proceed to say something on my own account about bread. The bread called artopticeus​94 differs from that baked in ovens and furnaces. BIf now, you make it with hard yeast, it will be white and good to eat dry; but if with dissolved yeast, it will be light but not so white. Bread baked in the oven and furnace requires a softer yeast. The Greeks have a bread called 'soft,' which is made with a little milk and oil and sufficient salt;​95 the dough must be quite soft. This bread is called Cappadocian, since it is chiefly in Cappadocia that 'soft' bread is made. CSuch bread is called lachma by the Syrians and is found to be very serviceable in Syria, because it may be eaten when very warm. It also resembles a flower.96

"There is also a 'boletus' bread, so‑called, shaped like a mushroom. The kneading-trough is greased and sprinkled with poppy-seed, on which the dough is spread, and so it does not stick to the trough during the rising. When it is placed in the oven, some coarse meal is sprinkled over the earthenware pan, after which the loaf is laid upon it and takes on a delightful colour, like that of smoked cheese.

 p33  D"Twist bread is prepared with the admixture of a little milk; there is added also a little pepper and oil or lard. But in making the so‑called artolaganon ('wheat-wafer'),​97 a little wine, pepper, and milk are introduced, along with a small quantity of oil or lard. Similarly into kapyria, called by the Romans tracta, are put mixtures as into the wheat-wafer."

When the great Roman scholar had expounded his lore, worthy of Aristarchus, Cynulcus said: "In the name of Demeter, what learning! It's no wonder Eour admirable Bright-eyes has disciples by the hundreds, and has won so much wealth by this splendid erudition, surpassing Gorgias and Protagoras. Wherefore I swear by the goddesses​98 that I am in doubt what to say. Can it be that he himself cannot see, or have they who entrust themselves to him as pupils only one eye among them,​99 so that they can scarcely see because of their number? Happy, then, I should call them, or rather, they have passed on to the happy state,​100 since their teachers give them disquisitions like this." To him answered Magnus, a bon vivant who extravagantly admired the industrious zeal Fof this scholar: " 'You, there,' to quote the words the comic poet Eubulus,​101 'live in the air with feet unwashed, sleeping on poor pallets of straw, foul gullets, which slyly feed on others' stores.' Did not your progenitor Diogenes once greedily eat up a whole cake at dinner, and in reply to a question say that he was eating some very good bread? And  p35 you yourselves, 'greedy dish-lickers of white tunny steaks' — to quote Eubulus once more — never yield place to others, but keep up your din, 114 and refuse to be quiet until somebody tosses you a bit of bread or bone as he would to a pack of dogs. How should you know that dice, not the kind you always use, are square-shaped loaves seasoned with anise, cheese, and oil, as Heracleides says in his Art of Cookery? Our Bright-eyes has over­looked this variety, as also the thargelos, called by some thalysios;​102 for Crates, in Book II of his Attic Dialect,​103 says that thargelos is the name given to the first bread made after the harvest. He has also over­looked sesame bread, and has not even noticed the anastatos, so‑called, which is prepared for the Arrephoroi.​104 BThen there is also the pyramous,​105 baked with sesame seed and possibly the same as sesame bread. Tryphon mentions all these varieties in Book I of his Plant Life,​106 as well as those denominated thiagones, which are loaves baked in honour of the gods in Aetolia. Dramikes also and dramês are names given to certain kinds of loaves by the Athamanians.

The compilers of glossaries, also, list the names of bread. Thus Seleucus has dramis, name of a loaf among the Macedonians, but called duratos by Thessalians. Etnitas, he says, is a bread made of pulse, while erikitas is the name given to a loaf made of coarsely cracked, unsifted wheat. CAmerias, again, calls the bread of unbolted wheat​107 'dry-wheat bread,' as Timachidas does also. Nicander​108 says the  p37 thiagones is the name given by Aetolians to loaves baked in honour of the gods. Egyptians call their sourish bread kyllastis. Aristophanes mentions it in The Daughters of Danaus:​109 'Sing, too, of sour bread and Master Petosiris.' Others who mention it are Hecataeus,​110 Herodotus,​111 and Phanodemus in the seventh book of his Attic History.​112 Further, Nicander of Thyateira says Dthat bread made of barley is called kyllastis by the Egyptians. The dirty loaves Alexis named 'grey-bread' in The Man from Cyprus:​113 'A. Then how did you get here? — B. At considerable pains I got some loaves while in the baking. — A. The devil take you! However, how many have you brought? — B. Sixteen. — A. Fetch them here. . . . — B. There are eight of the white, and as many of the grey.' A shot, says Seleucus, is the name given to bread when hot and sopped in wine. Philemon, in Complete List of Sacrifices, Book I, says that bread made of unsifted wheat and containing all the elements of the grain Eis called pyrnon; loaves having incisions, he says, which the Romans call 'squares,' are named blomiaioi, while bread made of bran is called brattimê, or (by Amerias and Timachidas) eukonos. Moreover, Philitas, in The Unruly,​114 speaks of a kind of bread named spoleus, which he says was eaten only within the family circle.

"As for barley-cakes, one may find them also recorded in Tryphon​115 and several other authors as well. FAmong the Athenians, to be sure, is the sort called phystê, in which the meal is not ground very fine;  p39 but there are, besides, the 'cress' cake, the berex,​116 the 'clews, and the Achilleum; this last is probably made of 'Achilles,' or very fine barley.​117 There are likewise sandwich bread,​118 wine biscuit, honeycake, and lily loaf. . . . (A dance figure for choruses under the name of 'lily' is mentioned by Apollophanes in The Bride.)​119 The thridakiskai mentioned in Alcman are the same as the Attic sandwich bread. Alcman has it thus:​120 'Heaping up sandwich bread and muffins.' 115 Sosibius, in the third book of his commentary on Alcman, says that kribana is the name given to certain breast-shaped cheese-cakes. Health is the name of the barley-cakes distributed at festivals for all to taste. Hesiod​121 calls another kind of barley-cake amolgaia, 'a hearty barley-cake and milk from goats just running dry,' meaning the shepherd's cake full of strength; for amolgos refers to the height of vigour. But I must be excused from enumerating — since, in fact, I am not so fortunate as to remember — all the cakes and confections set forth by Aristomenes of Athens in the third book of Articles pertaining to Ceremonial. BEven I, though younger, came to know this man, who was our senior. He was an actor of Old Comedy, a freedman of the highly cultivated emperor Hadrian, who called him his 'Attic partridge.' "

Then Ulpian said: " 'Freedman' — where is that term found?" Someone replied that there was a play by Phrynichus entitled Freedmen, and that  p41 Menander in She Who Got Slapped​122 also speaks of a "freedwoman"; he added other instances as well. Whereupon Ulpian again asked, "How does apeleutheros ('freedman') differ from exeleutheros?"​123 It was decided, however, to postpone this question for the present.

CJust as we were on the point of attacking our bread, Galen said: "We shall not dine until you have heard from us also what the sons of the Asclepiadae have to say about bread and cake and meal as well. First Diphilus of Siphnos, in the treatise on Diet for Sick and Well, declares that bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of merit, the bread made of refined flour comes first, after that bread of ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted. DThese are accepted as the more nourishing. Again, Philistion of Locris says that bread made of highly refined flour tends to promote bodily vigour more than bread made of the coarse; but he rates the latter second, and after that the bread of ordinary wheat flour. Nevertheless, bread of the finest meal has a poorer flavour and less nourishment. All fresh bread is more digestible than bread that has dried up, besides being more nourishing and more juicy; further, it encourages pneumatic action​124 and is easily assimilated. Dry bread, on the other hand, is surfeiting and hard to digest, and bread that is very old and dry has less nourishment, acts as an astringent in the bowels, and has a poor taste. EBread baked in the ashes is heavy and hard to digest because the  p43 baking is uneven. That which comes from a small oven or stove causes dyspepsia and is hard to digest. But bread made over a brazier or in a pan, owing to the admixture of oil, is easier to excrete, but steam from the drying makes it rather unwholesome. Bread baked in large ovens, however, excels in all good qualities, for it is well-flavoured, good for the stomach, easily digested, and very readily assimilated; it neither binds nor distends the bowels. The physician Andreas says that Fthere is a kind of bread in Syria made with mulberries, the eating of which causes loss of hair. Mnesitheus declares that wheat bread is more digestible than barley-cake, and that bread made of one-seeded wheat affords more adequate nourishment, since it is digested with little trouble. But bread made of rice-wheat, if eaten too abundantly, is heavy and causes dyspepsia; wherefore they who eat it are not healthy. 116 You must understand, too, that breadstuffs which have not been parched or ground produce winds, torpor, cramps, and headache."

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The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Kock II.235.

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2 Kaibel 94.

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3 Ibid. 105.

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4 F. H. G. II.47.

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5 i.e. involved and confused in the discussion.

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6 Above, 95A.

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7 Kock II.335; cf. Athen. 314D.

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8 Cf. 169D.

❦

9 F. H. G. IV.419. The text is defective; αὐτὴ is not intelligible as it now stands. Since the lung was the reputed seat of love, the exclamation may mean that her love was smothered, as Heracles was killed by the poisoned coat.

❦

10 An unidentified line, T. G. F.2 857.

❦

11 Kock III.381.

❦

12 Kock I.522, cited 96C.

❦

13 Kock I.762.

❦

14 Kock II.173, cited 100E.

❦

15 hepar; when the preposition (e.g. ἐπί) before it is elided, its consonant is aspirated (ἐφ’).

❦

16 P. L. G.4 131.

❦

17 Kock II.185.

❦

18 lit. "one of the black-bottoms," slang for "brave men."

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19 F. H. G. IV.420.

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20 Kock II.315.

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21 Kock II.190.

❦

22 the anchovy.

❦

23 Kock II.221.

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24 Kock I.700; 285B.

❦

25 Kock II.192.

❦

26 Kock II.194; the last line is ironical.

❦

27 Kock II.79.

❦

28 food of the poor; cf. Aristoph. Plut. 253.

❦

29 i.e. vegetables (but not beans!) allowed by the Pythagorean regimen, which excluded meat.

❦

30 Frag. 89 Preller.

❦

31 ch. 33 (Artas).

❦

32 Kock I.795.

❦

33 The epithets apply equally well to a generous host and a generous loaf.

❦

34 Frag. 74 Preller.

❦

35 Big Loaf and Barley-cake.

❦

36 Kock II.319.

❦

37 Frag. 117 Velsen. The sentence in parenthesis may be from Tryphon's medical authority, Diocles.

❦

38 Kock II.465.

❦

39 The ἐσχάρα was an open brazier, not an oven.

❦

40 Kock II.411.

❦

41 Kock III.379.

❦

42 Kaibel 194.

❦

43 Cf. Demeter Achaia, mater dolorosa.

❦

44 History of Delos, F. H. G. IV.494.

❦

45 Dough was often moulded in animal forms.

❦

46 Kock I.422. For the scene cf. Vesp. 1387, Pac. 336, Ran. 346.

❦

47 Cf. the American hoe-cake.

❦

48 Kock II.223.

❦

49 Below, 111F.

❦

50 Cf. "rusk," and German "Zwieback."

❦

51 Kock I.757. See critical note.

❦

52 Rolled out and baked directly over the coals; another form of the word is apanthrakis. Cf. the apopyrias, 111E, and the Jewish matzoth which, however, is unleavened.

❦

53 l. 843.

❦

54 Kaibel 100.

❦

55 Ibid. 158.

❦

56 Ch. 92.

❦

57 Kaibel 159.

❦

58 Ibid. 159.

❦

59 Ibid. 156.

❦

60 Frag. 184 Schneider. See Dittenberger, Sylloge 438, where this ceremonial bread is offered at Delphi in behalf of brides and children newly introduced into their husbands' or parents' phratry. Cf. 114B.

❦

61 Kock I.624; cf. the gritty bread of modern Crete. The Long Night was that in which Heracles was born, cf. Plautus's Amphitryo.

❦

62 Kock I.622.

❦

63 Herded together like rolls in a pan.

❦

64 Kock II.340. The comic jingle in ἄρτον ἀρτίως should be noted.

❦

65 Kock I.380.

❦

66 T. G. F.2 265.

❦

67 Kock I.520, 522; cf. 96C.

❦

68 Kock I.782.

❦

69 P. L. G.4 frag. 74B.

❦

70 l. 122.

❦

71 Kock I.499.

❦

72 ὀβολός, obol, twopence; ὀβελός or ὀβελίσκος, a spit.

❦

73 Kock I.417.

❦

74 Kock I.160. See critical note.

❦

75 Kaibel 150.

❦

76 Kock II.223.

❦

77 F. H. G. III.3. The quotation is corrupt.

❦

78 Frag. 121 Schneider; apparently the bacchylus was connected with some Bacchic rite.

❦

79 Kock II.548.

❦

80 Kock I.45; see critical note.

❦

81 Frag. 3 Ribbeck, 4 Brandt.

❦

82 lit. "breast," referring to the shape of the hill.

❦

83 Both words refer to the coarser barley used.

❦

84 Frag. 4 Ribbeck, 5 Brandt.

❦

85 Kock II.83.

❦

86 of animal forms, cf. 108C, 109F, 646E.

❦

87 518B. The quotation should have begun with ἐμοῦ ἐρωτῶντος, translated above.

❦

88 Kock I.392; cf. Eur. Hecuba 1.

❦

89 Kock II.192.

❦

90 110F.

❦

91 Kock II.250.

❦

92 l. 872.

❦

93 By Pontianus.

❦

94 Pliny XVIII.105.

❦

95 For leaven; cf. American "salt-rising bread."

❦

96 See critical note.

❦

97 Cf. above, 110A.

❦

98 Demeter and Korê.

❦

99 Like the Phorcides (Aesch. Prom. 794), the three Gorgons who had but one eye and one tooth among them.

❦

100 Of the dead, often called μακαρῖται.

❦

101 Kock II.212.

❦

102 Both terms refer to the first fruits of wheat harvested in early summer.

❦

103 p63 Wachsmuth.

❦

104 Two girls chosen for the festival Arrephoria to carry sacred objects in the procession in honour of Athena Polias.

❦

105 Honey-cake.

❦

106 Frag. 116 Velsen.

❦

107 Cf. 110E.

❦

108 Frag. 136 Schneider; so Tryphon, 114B.

❦

109 Kock I.457.

❦

110 F. H. G. I.20; cf. 418E.

❦

111 II.77.

❦

112 F. H. G. I.367.

❦

113 Kock II.340; cf. 110D.

❦

114 Frag. 55 Bach. The reference, apparently, is to a bread eaten by the Persian kings and members of the royal family. Cf. τὸ συγγενικὸν ἄριστον 48E.

❦

115 Frag. 118 Velsen.

❦

116 Hesychius s.v. Βήρηκες says that these are large barley-cakes, with projections on top called "horns." The "clews-bread" was moulded to resemble a clew of yarn.

❦

117 Theophrastus VIII.4.2; Aristoph. Eq. 819.

❦

118 Eaten with lettuce, θριδακίνη.

❦

119 Kock I.797.

❦

120 P. L. G.4 frag. 20.

❦

121 Op. 590. The word ἀμολγαία refers either to the milk or to the fine quality of the meal used.

❦

122 Kock III.126.

❦

123 There is no difference; ἀπελεύθερος is commoner. Cf. Eustath. 1751.2.

❦

124 Apparently alluding to theories of the Pneumatici, a school of physicians who explained all physiological processes by the action of the breath. Wellmann 113.

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