LacusCurtius • Athenaeus — Deipnosophistae, Book X: 429f‑440b

p447 (429F)When Democritus had finished these remarks,1 he took a drink and continued: "If anyone can gainsay these facts, let him come forward. He shall hear, indeed, as Evenus puts it:2 'To you these things may seem so to be, but to me they seem otherwise.' But since my talk on the mixtures of wine in old times caused me to digress, I will resume my main topic, recalling to mind the lines written by the lyric poet Alcaeus. 430For he says somewhere:3 'Pour it out, mixing it one and two.' In these words, to be sure, some authorities think that he is not speaking of the mixture of the wine, but that, being given to sobriety, he drank unmixed wine only at the rate of a single, and again a double, half-pint each time.4 This is the way in which Chamaeleon of Pontus takes it, but he is ignorant of Alcaeus's bibulousness. For this poet, we discover, p449 drinks at all times and in all circumstances; in winter, for instance, as these lines show:5 'Zeus sends rain, and from the sky comes a mighty storm, and the streams of water are frozen. . . . BBeat down the winter, piling high the fire, and mixing the while sweet wine unsparingly, placing round your brow the soft flock of wool.'6 And in summer:7 'Moisten your lungs with wine, for the Dog Star riseth; the weather is severe, and all things are athirst with the heat.' In springtime:8 'I have felt the flowery spring approaching.' Then he proceeds: 'Mix ye with all speed a bowl of the honey-sweet.' Again, in the midst of disasters:9 'It is not meet to give over the spirit to misfortune. For we shall profit nothing through grieving, Bycchis; Cthe best cure is to have wine brought and get drunk.' Or in happy times:10 'Now 'tis meet to get drunk, ay, one should drink e'en against his will, since Myrsilus is dead.' And in general he gives this advice:11 'Plant no other tree than the vine.' How then is it p451 likely that he who was so fond of drinking should be given to sobriety, and drink only one or two cups at a time? The poem itself, at any rate, says Seleucus, testifies against those who take the line in this meaning. For the poet says:12 D'Let us drink! Why wait we for the lamps? Daylight hath but a finger's breadth. Boy, take down the large painted cups; for the son of Semele and Zeus gave wine to men to banish care. Pour it out, mixing it one and two, full to the brim;13 ay, let one cup thrust the other out of the way.' Here he expressly orders one cup of wine to be mixed with two of water. Yet Anacreon requires it still stronger in the lines where he says:14 'Let it be poured out, five and three, in a clean cup.' But Philetaerus in Tereus has two parts of water to three of neat wine. He says:15 'He seems to have drunk the mixture made at the rate of two parts water to three of neat wine.' EPherecrates in Corianno has three of water to four of wine, when he says:16 'A. It's undrinkable, Glyce. B. What, did she pour it out too watery for you? What have you done? How, you confounded idiot, did you pour it. GLYCE. Two parts of water, mammy. B. How much wine? GLYCE. Four parts. B. (incredulously) p453 Be off to the devil! You should have been cup-bearer to frogs.' FEphippus in Circe has the proportion three to four:17 'A. It's much safer for you to drink wine well diluted. B. No, by Mother Earth! rather three and four. A. Are you going to drink it so strong? Tell me. B. What have you to say to that?' Timocles in Conizalus makes it half and half:18 'I'll whack you into telling the whole truth19 with large cups of half and half.' 431So Alexis in Dorcis, or The Woman who Smacks:20 'I drink your health in three brimming love-cups, mixed half and half.' And Xenarchus (or Timocles) in The Purple-shell:s21 'No, by the god of wine, which you swill half and half.' Sophilus in The Dagger:22 'Strong wine was offered them continually, mixed half and half. Again they called for the larger cup.' Alexis in The Usurer, or Falsifier:23 'A. Don't give it to him absolutely watery, do you take me? Mix it half and half. BTRYPHE. All right. B. That drink is fine! Where does that wine24 come from, Tryphe? TRYPHE. It's Thasian. B. Equal and fair it is that foreigners sed drink foreign wine, while the natives drink the wine of the country.' p455 and in Suppositions:25 'I drained it without stopping to take a breath, with all the pleasure that one could have, mixed half and half.' Menander in Brothers:26 'Someone kept bawling out to pour eight cups and twelve, until in eager competition he utterly floored the others.' CNow the word 'to floor'27 was said of persons proposing toasts at drinking-bouts, the figure being borrowed from those who shake down fruits. Alexis says, in Cut Loose:28 'Really, Chaereas was no toast-master, but rather a public executioner; for he proposed twenty cups.' And Diodorus of Sinope in The Flute-girl:29 'Whenever a man has drunk ten cups, Crito, Dwith every cup that he drinks continuously thereafter, he always spews up his powers of reason. Think that over and apply it to yourself.' Not inelegantly did the Spartiate Lysander, according to Hegesander in his Commentaries,30 when the hucksters were selling watery wine in the camp, order them to sell it as already mixed, because he wanted them to buy it stronger. Alexis also says the like in Aesop:31 'A. This, at least, is an ingenious custom with you Ein Athens, Solon, and cleverly invented. SOLON. And what is that? A. In your symposia you don't drink unmixed wine. SOLON. No, for it isn't easy; they p457 sell it from their carts already mixed, not to make a profit but with forethought for the purchasers, that they may have sound heads after a drunken bout. This, you see, is the Greek way of drinking; by using cup sin moderation, they can talk and fool with each other pleasantly. FFor the other way, drinking from coolers and casks, is a bath, not a drinking-bout. A. It's death, rather!'

"Plato says in the sixth book of The Laws:32 'To drink to the point of intoxication is not proper to any other occasion except the festivals in honour of the god who gave the wine, and it is not safe; neither is it appropriate at the time when one is seriously engaged in the business of marriage, wherein, more than at any other time, bride and groom ought to be in their sound senses, since they are undergoing no little change in their lives; and at the same time, because their offspring ought in all cases to be born of sound-minded parents. 432For it is well-nigh impossible to say what night or what day will generate it.' And in the first book of The Laws33 he says: '(I am speaking) of intoxication itself, as practised by Lydians, Persians, Carthaginians, Celts, Iberians, Thracians, and such tribes; while you, Lacedaemonians, utterly abstain from it. Now the Scythians and Thracians drink nothing but unmixed wine, their wives as well as all the men; they pour it over their clothes and think that they practise a noble and happy custom. The Persians also indulge excessively in all other kinds of luxury which you reject, although in more orderly fashion than the peoples I have mentioned.' p459 BMany used to drink with barley-meal sprinkled upon their wine, as Hegesander of Delphi says.34 Mnesiptolemus, at any rate, once gave a reading of his Histories,35 in which it was recorded that Seleucus sprinkled barley-meal on wine, and Epinicus wrote a play called Mnesiptolemus in which he ridiculed him, and employing the terms used by Mnesiptolemus concerning drinking, represented him as saying:36 'One summer I saw CKing Seleucus eagerly drinking his wine with barley; so I have recorded it and have shown the public that, however ordinary or trivial a little deed may be, this power of mine can make it important. Said the king: "Thasian wine, well aged, and the sweet cell of the irascible bee from Attic land, have I turbinated37 in a bowl of fused stone, bridging o'er the whole wavy surface with Demeter's grain;38 thus did I consume the drink, a relief from the heat." ' Hegesander records also that in the Therad islands the people drink wine with pulse instead of barley-meal sprinkled on it, Dand it is said (so he asserts) that this drink is better than that made from barley.

"It was not the custom of the Spartans to practise the drinking of toasts which occur in banquets, nor to institute by these means loving-cups pledged to one. Critias makes this clear in his Elegies:39 'This also is a custom at Sparta and a set practice, to drink from the same40 wine-bearing cup, and not p461 to give toasts, pledging them by name, Enor send them round in the circle of the party from left hand to right.41 (But among the Athenians it is different.) Bowls they have, which a Lydian hand, Asiatic-born, invented; toasts, too, they pass from left to right, and they challenge by name him whom one wishes to pledge.42 Then, after draughts of this kind they loosen their tongues to tell scandalous stories, and they enfeeble their bodies; upon their eyes a dark mist settles, and oblivion melts away memory from their wits; reason wanders completely away; the slaves have undisciplined habits; Fextravagance that wastes the household store descends upon them. But the warriors of Sparta drink only enough to lead the spirits of all into joyous hope, the tongue to kindliness and moderate laughter. Such drinking is good for the body, mind, and estate; well is it suited to acts of love, too, 433and to further sleep, that haven from toil; to invite, too, Hygieia, most delightsome of gods to mortals, and Sobriety, the neighbour of Reverence.' Again he says in continuation: 'For the pledging of cups beyond the proper measure, though they delight for the moment, brings pain for all time. BBut the Spartan mode of living is ordered equably, — eating and drinking in measure, they have power p463 to think and labour; no day is set apart to intoxicate the body with immoderate potations.'

"A 'Philoinois' (wine-lover) is one who is ever ready for wine, a 'philopotës' (drink-lover) is ready for drinking-bouts, a 'kothonist' (copper-addict) is one who drinks to intoxication. Of the Homeric heroes the triply-aged Nestor drank most. He himself made no secret of being more devoted to wine than the others, even more than Agamemnon himself, whom Achilles assails as a drink-lover.43 But Nestor, even when the most important battle was as its height, did not abstain from drinking. CAt least Homer says:44 'But the cry of battle did not escape Nestor, although he was drinking.' And among all the heroes his cup only is described,45 like the shield of Achilles.46 For he went on the expedition with it as he did with his shield, the fame of which, Hector says,47 had reached even to Heaven. One would make no mistake if he called Nestor's cup 'the saucer of Ares,'48 as Antiphanes does in Caeneus, wherein it is said:49 'Then give me forthwith the saucer of Ares, as Timotheus calls it,50 and polished dart.' DWhat is more, Nestor, because of his love of drinking, receives another cup from Achilles as a present, on the occasion of the games celebrated in honour of Patroclus;51 not that Achilles gave a cup to a beaten man, since Nestor had not entered the contest (victory, indeed, is not apt to attend drink-lovers on account of their lethargy); p465 or else Achilles gave it because boxers are chiefly beaten by their thirst, since they become fatigued by the constant tension of their arms. Eumelus received a breastplate52 as an instrument of safety because he had run a race with great danger, and had been hurt.53

E"No desire is more insistent than the desire to drink. Hence the Poet called Argos 'very thirsty,' that is, 'much desired,' on account of the long lapse of time.54 For thirst causes in everyone a powerful desire for abundant satisfaction. Hence also Sophocles says:55 'Though you offered a thirst man all sorts of wise conceits, you could not give him greater joy than by giving him a drink.' And Archilochus:56 'As one thirsting for a drink, so I desire a fight with you.' FAnd one of the tragic poets has said:57 'I bid you stay the hand that thirsts for blood.' And Anacreon:58 'For you are a kindly woman toward strangers; let me, who am athirst, drink.' Xenophon, in the third book of his Education, makes Cyrus say:59 'I thirst to do you favours.' Plato in The Republic:60 'Whenever, I fancy, a democratic state, in its thirst for liberty, has the bad luck to get evil wine-pourers as its leaders, and has become too intoxicated with strong wine.'61 434Proteas of Macedon, also, drank a very great p467 deal, as Ephippus says in his work On the Funeral of Alexander and Hephaestion,62 and enjoyed a sturdy physique throughout his life, although he was completely devoted to the practice of drinking. Alexander, for example, once called for a six-quart cup and after a drink proposed the health of Proteas. He took the cup, and when he had sung the king's praises he drank, to the applause of everybody. A little while afterwards Proteas demanded the same cup, and again drinking, pledged the king. BAlexander took it and pulled at it bravely, but could not hollowed out; on the contrary, he sank back on his cushion and let the cup drop from his hands. As a result, he fell ill and died, because, as Ephippus says Dionysus was angry at him for besieging his native city, Thebes. Alexander also drank a very great deal, so that after the spree he would sleep continuously for two days and two nights. This is revealed in his Journals, written by Eumenes of Cardia and Diodotus of Erythrae.63 Menander says in The Flatterer:64 C'BIAS. In Cappadocia, Struthias, I drank up three times a golden beaker65 holding ten half-pints. STRUTHIAS. Then you have drunk more than King Alexander. B. Not less, that's certain, by Athena! S. It's a good deal, to be sure.' and Nicobulê, or whoever ascribed to her the compilations, says66 that when Alexander was dining with Medeius of Thessaly he pledged the health of everyone at the dinner, there being Tarentum in all, and accepted the same number of toasts from p469 all; he then left the party and soon after went to sleep. D °But the sophist Callisthenes, according to lynceus of Samos in his Reminiscences and Aristobulus and Chares in their Histories,67 pushed aside the cup of unmixed win when it came to him at Alexander's symposium, and when somebody said to him, 'Why don't you drink?' he replied, 'I don't want to be in need of one of Asclepius's cups68 after drinking from one of Alexander's.'

"Darius, the destroyer of the Magi,69 had an inscription written on his tomb: 'I could drink much wine and yet carry it well.'a Ctesias says70 that in India it is not permitted the king to get drunk. EBut among the Persians the king is allowed to get drunk on one day, that on which they sacrifice to Mithra. On this point Duris, in the seventh book of his Histories, writes as follows:71 'In only one of the festivals celebrated by the Persians, that to Mithra, the king gets drunk and dances "the Persian"; no one else throughout Asia does this, but everyone abstains on this day from the dance. For Persians learn to dance just as they learn to ride horseback; Fand they think the motion incident to this practice72 is very suitable for getting exercise to develop bodily strength.' Alexander carried his carousing to such a point, according to Carystius of Pergamum in Historical Notes,73 that he even went revelling in a chariot drawn by asses; the Persian kings did this too, Carystius says; perhaps, therefore, it was for this reason that he had no appetite p471 for sexual indulgence; for Aristotle, in his Physical Problems, says74 that the semen of such persons becomes watery; 435so Hieronymus, in his Epistles,75 quotes Theophrastus as saying that Alexander was not in good condition for sexual commerce. Olympias, Aristotle, and Philip were aware of this, and actually caused the Thessalian courtesan Callixeina, who was a very beautiful woman, to lie with him; for they feared he might prove to be a womanish man, and Olympias often begged him to have intercourse with Callixeina.

"Philip, Alexander's father, was another drink-lover, as Theopompus records in the twenty-sixth book of his Histories.76 BAnd in another part of the story he writes:77 'Philip was a madcap and inclined to rush headlong into danger, partly by nature and partly because of drink; for he was a deep drinker, and was often drunk when he sallied into battle. And in the fifty-third book, after relating the events at Chaeroneia, and telling how Philip had invited to dinner the Athenian ambassadors who had arrived, Theopompus continues:78 'When they had withdrawn, Philip immediately sent for some of his boon companions, and told them to summon the flute-girls, Aristonicus the harp-singer, Dorion the flute-player, Cand all the rest of the crowd accustomed to drink with him; for Philip took such persons with him everywhere,79 and he was always equipped for many tools for a drinking-bout and a party. Being, in fact, a drink-lover and quite dissolute in character, he also had many coarse fellows in his train, as well p473 as many who were versed in music or who could say funny things. And so, after drinking the whole night through, and getting very drunk and committing every folly, he dismissed all the rest of the company and made them withdraw, while he, as dawn was coming on, went to revel with the Athenian ambassadors.' DSo Carystius in his Historical Notes says:80 'When Philip made up his mind to get drunk, he used to say, "Now we must drink; for it is enough that Antipater is sober." And once when he was throwing dice, and someone announced that Antipater had arrived, he debated for a while and then pushed the gaming -board under the couch.'

"Theopompus gives a list of drink-lovers and sots, including Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of Sicily, who, he says, ruined his eyesight with wine. ESo Aristotle, in The Constitution of Syracuse, says81 that sometimes Dionysius was drunk continuously for ninety days; hence his eyesight became rather dimmed. And Theophrastus says that his companions, in their flattery of his autocratic rule, pretended not to be able to see, and had their hands guided by Dionysius himself, pretending to see neither the food set before them nor the wine-cups;82 hence they were called Dionysius-flatterers.' Nysaeus, also, who assumed tyrannical rule over Syracuse, drank a very great deal, a did Apollocrates; Fthey were sons of the first Dionysius, as Theopompus records in the fortieth and following books of his Histories.83 He writes thus concerning Nysaeus: 'Nysaeus, who later became tyrant of Syracuse, as though he had been p475 apprehended on a capital charge and foresaw that he had only a few months more to live, spent his time in stuffing his belly and getting drunk. 436And in the thirty-ninth book Theopompus says:84a 'Apollocrates, the son of the tyrant Dionysius, was dissolute and drink-loving; and some of his flatterers tricked him into the utmost possible hostile attitude toward his father.' He also says that Hipparinus, the son of Dionysius, was assassinated because he ruled in drunkenness. Concerning Nysaeus he writes further:84b 'When Nysaeus, the son of the first Dionysius, had become master of Syracusan affairs, he caused to be made a four-horse chariot and assumed gaily-embroidered garments; Bfurther, he took to luxurious eating and guzzling, the outraging of young boys and of women, and the practice of all other indulgences which naturally contribute to these, and lived his life accordingly.' In the forty-fifth book Theopompus again says, speaking of Timolaus of Thebes:85 'Not a few persons, indeed, have before this proved licentious in their daily lives and in their drinking-habits; but I think that and of one in political power has ever been more dissipated, more greedy, or more enslaved by his pleasures than Timolaus, as I have said.' And in the twenty-third book, when telling the story of Charidemus of Oreus, to whom the Athenians granted citizenship, he says:86 C'It was plainly seen that he carried on his daily life licentiously, making it such that he was always p477 drinking and getting drunk, and he even dared to seduce free-born women; he went so far in dissipation that he ventured to demand of the Council of Olynthus a lad who was comely and graceful, and who had happened to be taken prisoner along with Derdas of Macedonia.' DArcadion too (it is uncertain whether he was the Arcadion who was at sword's points with Philip)87 drank very deeply. This is shown by an epigram copied by Polemon in Epigrams compiled City by City:88 'This monument to Arcadion, the hero of many cups, was reared beside the path leading to the city here by his sons, Dorcon and Charmylus. The man died, O stranger, of drinking neat wine from a too capacious cup.' Again, there was a ceremony Erasixenus who drank very deeply, Eas the epigram to him declares:89 'The Cup of unmixed wine, twice pledged in quick succession, carried off Erasixenus, that deep wine-drinker.' Alcetas of Macedonia also drank a great deal, according to Aristus of Salamis;90 so, too, Diotimus of Athens. The latter had the nickname of Funnel; for he would insert a funnel in his mouth and drink unceasingly while the wine poured in; hence his nickname of Funnel, as Polemon declares. That Cleomenes of Lacedaemon was another drinker of unmixed wine has already been stated;91 Fand that he slashed himself to death with a knife in a fit of intoxication92 is recorded by Herodotus.93 p479 again, the poet Alcaeus was a drink-lover, as I have said before.94 Baton of Sinope, in his work On Ion the Poet, says95 that Ion was a drink-lover and very much given to love affairs. In fact, Ion himself in his Elegies confesses96 that he was in love with Chrysilla of Corinth, daughter of Teleas; she was also the woman with whom the Olympian Pericles was in love, as Telecleides says in The Hesiods.97 Xenarchus of Rhodes had the nickname of Tunbelly98 on account of his capacity for drink; the epic poet Euphorion mentions him in his Chiliads.99

"Chares of Mitylene, in his Tales of Alexander, 437describes100 how the Indian philosopher Calanus threw himself on a funeral pyre which he had built, and so died, and he says that at his then Alexander got up a contest in athletic games and in a musical recital of his praises. 'He,' Chares says, 'because of the love of drinking on the part of the Indians, also instituted a contest in the drinking of unmixed wine, Band the present for the winner was a talent, for the second-best thirty minas,101 for the third ten minas. Out of those who drank the wine, thirty-five died immediately of a chill, and six others shortly after in their tents. The man who drank the most and came off victor drank twelve quarts and received the talent, but he lived only four days more; he was called Champion.' Timaeus says102 that 'Dionysius the Tyrant at the Feast of Pitchers offered a present of a golden crown to the one who first drank out his p481 pitcher;103 and the first to drink it out was the philosopher Xenocrates, who took the golden crown, and leaving the company placed it on the head of the statue of Hermes which was set up in the court, and upon which he was in the habit of placing the crowns of flowers he went home at evening. And for this act he was admired.' CAs for the Feast of Pitchers celebrated at Athens,104 Phanodemus says105 that King Demophon instituted it106 when he desired to entertain Orestes on his arrival at Athens. Since Demophon did not wish Orestes to be admitted to the holy rites,107 or share in the libations when he had not as yet been tried,108 Demophon ordered the sacred utensils to be locked up, and a pitcher of wine to be set before each participant, saying that a flat-cake would be given to the one who drank out his pitcher first. DHe also ordered that after they had finished the drinking they should not place the wreaths they had been wearing near the sacred images,109 since they had been under the same roof with Orestes, but that everyone should twine his wreath round his own pitcher and the priestess should carry away the wreaths to the sacred precinct in the Marshes, and then complete the sacrifice in the temple. Since that time the festival has been called the 'Pitchers.' At the festival of the Pitchers it is customary at Athens to send presents as well as their fees to the sophists, who also themselves called together their disciples for hospitality. This we have on the p483 authority of the dialectician110 Eubulides in a play, The Revellers:111 'You itch to be a sophist, foul wretch, and you desire the fees and presents of the Pitchers, Enot lacking a dinner in your luxury.'112

"Antigonus of Carystus, in his work On the Life of Dionysius — he was a native of Heracleia with the nickname of Shifty113 — says114 that Dionysius was once feasting with his servants at the festival of the Pitchers, and being unable, on account of old age, to make use of the courtesan whom they had called in he turned and said to the other members of the party:115 'I cannot stretch the bow, let another take it.' Now Dionysius, as Nicias of Nicaea says in his Successions,116 had from boyhood a mad proneness to lustfulness, and used to visit common street-walkers without discrimination. FOnce he was walking with some disciples and came opposite to the brothel where he had been the day before and where he owed some coppers; as he happened to have them at that time he stretched out his hand in the sight of all and paid the debt. Anacharsis the Scythian was at the court of Periander 438when a prize was offered for drinking; and he demanded the present because he was the first among the men present to get drunk; for he said that getting drunk was the goal and constituted the victory in a drinking-bout, precisely like the goal of victory in running.117 The philosophers Lacydes and Timon were once invited to the house of one of their disciples for two days; wishing to adapt themselves p485 to the customs of the others there they drank heartily. On the first day Lacydes came away first, since the wine was too much for his stomach, and Timon, seeing him going away, cried out:118 'We have won great glory, we have slain godlike Hector.' But the next day, when Timon was the first to leave because he could not drink out the cup that had been pledged to him, BLacydes saw him withdrawing and said:119 'Unhappy they whose children face my might!'

"Herodotus, in the course of the second book,120 relates that Mycerinus the Egyptian learned from his soothsayers that he was to live only a short time; so he caused many lamps to be lighted whenever night came on, and drank and made merry without stopping day or night; he even roamed into the swamps and woods and wherever, besides, he learned there were gatherings of young people, and there got drunk. Of Amasis, too, who was also king of Egypt, CHerodotus says that he drank a great deal. Hermeias of Methymna, in the third book of his History of Sicily, says121 that Nicoteles of Corinth was a drink-lover, and Phaenias of Eresus, in the work entitled Tyrants cloud in Revenge, says122 that Scopas, the son of Creon and grandson of the elder Scopas, spent his life in drinking and returned from drinking-bouts seated on a chair of state, and carried aloft by four men he made his homeward journey in that way. Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his Histories, says123 that King Antiochus became a wine-lover and got drunk and slept for a long time; then when p487 evening came he would wake again and drink some more. D'He did very little business when sober,' says Phylarchus, 'but most when he was drunk. Hence he had two men about him to administer the affairs of the kingdom, Aristus and Themison; they were natives of Cyprus and brothers, and both were favours of Antiochus.' Another drink-lover was Antiochus, the king who was called Epiphanes and became a hostage in Rome, as Ptolemy Euergetes records in the third book of his Commentaries, as also in the fifth book,124 Esaying that after he had adopted Indian revels and carouses he spent large sums. What was left over of the money he would sometimes pour out in mid-day revelling, while at other times he would stand in the public streets and say, 'Let him take to whom Fortune gives.' Then he would toss the money and be off. And often he had a wreath plaited of roses on his head, and wearing a toga woven of gold he would roam about all alone with stones under his arm, which he threw at private citizens who followed him. He also used to bathe in the public baths, smearing himself with perfumes; Fat which time even a private citizen who caught sight of him would call out, 'How fortunate you are, sire; you smell expensive!'125 With delight he would reply, "I will glut you with it.' Then he ordered a jar which contained more than six quarts of greasy scent to be showered over the man's head, so that the crowd of loafers126 rolled headlong together in the mess. It was so slippery that Antiochus himself p489 fell down with a loud laugh, and most of the bathers suffered the same fate. 439Polybius, in the twenty-sixth book of his Histories, calls127 him Epimanes ('Insane') and not Epiphanes ('Illustrious') because of his acts: 'Not only did he descend to intercourse with the common people, but he also drank in company with foreigners who were in town; and if (Polybius says) he learned that any young men were feasting together, no matter where, he would appear with hornpipe and symphony;128 the result was that most of the party got up and fled at the unexpected apparition. And often he would lay aside his royal robes, Band putting on a toga he would walk about the market-place.' Again, in the thirty-first book, Polybius says129 also that when he carried on the games at Antioch, he invited all Greeks, and any others who wanted to come, to see the spectacle. A very large number was present in the gymnasia, and he anointed all persons there with saffron oil from golden basins, and also with oil of cinnamon, nard, marjoram, and orris. Inviting them all to a banquet on one occasion, he filled up a thousand triclinia, Con another occasion fifteen hundred, and all with the most extravagant appointments. The management of the service was undertaken by him personally; for he stood at the entrance introducing some, assigning couches to others; and he himself brought in the servants who carried in the courses served. p491 And going round he would seat himself in one place, or throw himself down in another. At one moment he would throw aside a morsel or a cup just as he had put them to his lips, and jumping up suddenly he would change his place or walk round among the drinkers, receiving toasts while he stood sometimes by one, sometimes by another, at the same time joining in the buffoonery of the players. DHe was even brought in by the mime-performers entirely wrapped up, and deposited in on the ground as though he were one of the performers; when the symphony sounded the challenge, the king would leap up and dance naked and joke with the mimers, so that everyone felt ashamed of him. Such is the effect produced on miserable men by want of refinement in drinking. Still another drink-lover was the like-named Antiochus, Ethe one who went to war against Arsaces in Media, as Poseidonius of Apameia records in the sixteenth book of his Histories.130 At any rate when he was killed and Arsaces was burying his body he said: 'Your rashness and drunkenness, Antiochus, have caused your overthrow; for you expected to drink out the kingdom of Arsaces in huge cups.' And Antioch, surnamed the Great, who was conquered by the Romans, as Polybius records in the twentieth book,131 went over to Chalcis in Euboea and celebrated his nuptials when he was fifty years old and had undertaken two most important tasks, the liberation of Greece, according to his own profession, and the war against the Romans. FFalling in love with a girl of Chalcis at a critical period of the war, he conceived a strong desire to marry her, he being a wine-bibber p493 and delighting in carouses; this girl was the daughter of Cleoptolemus, one of the nobles, and she excelled all in beauty; so he wasted the winter in Chalcis celebrating his nuptials there, making no provision whatever for the dangers that threatened. He also gave the name Euboea to the girl. When, then, he was defeated in the war, he fled to Ephesus with the young bride. 440In the second book Polybius also records132 that Agron, the king of Illyria, was so delighted with having defeated the proud Aetolians that, since he was a hearty drinker, he betook himself to carousing and feasting; he then caught the pleurisy and died. Again, in the twenty-ninth book,133 Polybius says that Genthion, the king of Illyria, committed many licentious acts in his lifetime because of his addiction to wine, continually getting drunk both night and day. He killed his brother Pleuratus when he was on the point of marrying the daughter of Monunius and married her himself, and he treated his subjects with savage cruelty. BAnd Polybius also says, in the thirty-third book,134 that Demetrius, the one who escaped from durance as a hostage in Rome and became king of Syria, was also a wine-bibber and spent most of the day in intoxication. So, too, Orophernes, who was king of Cappadocia for a brief period and who spurned the ways of his ancestors, introduced the Ionian135 and ingenious forms of prodigality, as Polybius says in the thirty-second book.136

The Editor's Notes:

16 Kock I.164: a maidservant (Glyce), a nurse, and another servant are tippling.

19 On the principle of in vino veritas; Athen. 37E and note b. πατάσσω seems to have been a slang word used in cookery of preparing any dish quickly; cf. παίειν ἐφ’ ἁλὶ τὰν μαδδαν, "hit up your barley-cake au sel, Aristoph. Acharn. 835.

33 637D; the Athenian is talking to the Lacedaemonian stranger. But the text here is sadly garbled.

37 He uses a ridiculous word, συγκυρκανήσας, found only here, for "mingled" or "stirred together." Aristophanes and Hippocrates have the uncompounded κυρκανῶ once each.

42 Theocrit. XIV.18 ἐπιχεῖσθαι ἄκρατον ὧτινος ἤθελ’ ἕκαστος, "to have neat wine poured out in honour of whomsoever each desired."

54 Strabo, p370, gives this epithet the same interpretation, "much thirsted after," since the Argives had been away from home ten years.

55 T. G. F.2 296; but see Kock III.609, and cf. Eur. Med. 299 σκαιοῖσι μὲν γὰρ καινὰ προσφέρων σοφὰ δόξεις ἀχρεῖος, "to the stupid, though you offer new conceits, you will appear futile."

61 The sequel is: "It becomes enraged at those leaders who would check its desires"; below, 444A.

64 Kock III.83, Allinson 394; cf. Athen. 477F. The name of the first speaker is given by Plutarch, Mor. 57A.

88 Frag. 79 Preller. This work, cited again at 442E, was a compilation of epigrams arranged according to their provenience.

97 Kock I.214. This play was produced twice; see Dittmer, Fragments of Athenian Comic Didascaliae found in Rome, p33.

98 The μετρητής equalled in capacity the amphora, holding nearly ten gallons

107 The expression τὰ ἱερά has a wide meaning, comprehending the sacred places, images, and vessels used in the rites.

108 Before the Areopagus for the murder of his mother. Eur. Iph. Taur. 940 ff. follows this tradition concerning the origin of the festival. See Vol. III p240.

110 Since this title seems inappropriate to a poet, Kaibel thought that Eubulides was a character in the play, the poet's name (Philip?) being lost.

126 The comparative degree of the adjective ἀγοραῖος (idler in the market-place) is matched by "lewd fellows of the baser sort." See critical note 6.

130 F. H. G.3.259; cf. Athen. 153A (vol. II p196). Antiochus VII Sidetes is meant: his defeat and death occurred in 129 B.C.

135 On the luxury of the Ionians, which passed into a proverb ("mollities Ionum"), see Athen. 523F‑526D.

136 Chap. 20. Cf. the humorous account of Holophernes in Judith xii.20 καὶ ἔπιεν οἶνον πολὺν σφόδρα ὅσον οὐκ ἔπιε πώποτε ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ ἀφ’ οὗ ἐγεννήθη. But the identity of Holophernes in the Judith-romance with the Orophernes here mentioned cannot, of course, be established.

Thayer's Note:

a There is nothing quite like that on Darius' tomb, of course. His tomb is extant (see Livius on Naqš-i‑Rustam), and its two inscriptions breathe a different tone altogether (Inscriptions DNa and DNb): my friend Jona, whose pages those are, points out though that the sentiment expressed in Athenaeus is not unrelated to a passage in the second of the inscriptions:

I am not hot-tempered. What things develop in my anger, I hold firmly under control by my thinking power. I rule firmly over my own impulses.

(Vol. IV) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

Book X
(Part 3 of 5)

The Editor's Notes:

Thayer's Note:

(Vol. IV) Athenaeus Deipnosophistae

Book X (Part 3 of 5)

The Editor's Notes:

Thayer's Note:

(Vol. IV) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

Book X
(Part 3 of 5)