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III.116A‑127D

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,
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IV.138B‑148F

(Vol. II) Athenaeus
Deipnosophistae

 p91  Book IV
(Part 1 of 5)

128Hippolochus the Macedonian, friend Timocrates, was a contemporary of the Samians Lynceus and Duris, who were disciples of Theophrastus of Eresus; and he had made this agreement with Lynceus — as we may learn from his letters — that he should without fail describe to him any sumptuous banquet at which he might be present, Lynceus pledging him the same in return. Accordingly there are extant "banquet letters" of both writers, Lynceus describing a dinner given at Athens Bin honour of King Demetrius, surnamed Poliorcetes, by the Athenian flute-player Lamia, who was the mistress of Demetrius; while Hippolochus describes the nuptials of Caranus the Macedonian. And there are other letters also of Lynceus which we have seen, written to the same Hippolochus, one describing the banquet of King Antigonus when he celebrated the festival of aphrodite at Athens, another the banquet of King Ptolemy. We will give you the letters just as they are; Cand since that of Hippolochus is rarely encountered, I will run through its contents for your present amusement and entertainment.

In Macedonia, as I have already said,​1 Caranus celebrated his marriage with a banquet at which the number of men invited to gather was twenty;​2 no  p93 sooner had they taken their places on the couches, than they were presented with silver cups, one for each, to keep as their own. Each guest, also, had been crowned before he entered with a gold tiara, worth, every one of them, five gold staters.​3 DAnd after they had emptied their cups, they were each given a bronze platter of Corinthian manufacture, containing a loaf as wide as the platter; also chickens and ducks, and ringdoves, too, and a goose, and an abundance of suchlike viands piled high; and each guest took his portion, platter and all, and distributed it among the slaves who stood behind him. Many other things to eat were handed round in great variety, following which came a second platter of silver, on which again lay a huge loaf, and geese, hares, young goats, and curiously moulded cakes besides, pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges, and other fowl in plenty. E"This all," he says, "we presented to the slaves in addition, and when we had had enough of food we washed our hands. Then numerous chaplets were brought in, made of all kinds of flowers, and in addition to them all were gold tiaras, equal in weight to the first chaplet."

129On top of these viands, Hippolochus says that Proteas, descendant of that Proteas who was the son of Lanicê — the same who had been the nurse of King Alexander — drank a great deal (for he was given to drinking, like his grandfather Proteas, Alexander's comrade), and toasted everybody. Hippolochus then continues with the following: "When we had at last pleasantly taken leave of all sobriety, there entered flute-girls and singers and  p95 some Rhodian sambuca-players.​4 To me these girls looked quite naked, but some said that they had on tunics. And after a prelude they withdrew. Then came in other girls carrying each two jars fastened together with a gold band and containing perfume; Bone jar was silver, the other gold, and held half a pint. These also they gave to each guest. After that there was brought in a fortune rather than a dinner, namely a silver platter gilded all over to no little thickness, and large enough to hold the whole of a roast pig — a big one, too — which lay on its back upon it; the belly, seen from above, disclosed that it was full of many bounties. CFor, roasted inside it, were thrushes, ducks, and warblers in unlimited number, pease purée poured over eggs, oysters, and scallops; all of which, towering high, was presented to each guest, platters and all. After this we drank, and then received a kid, piping hot, again upon another platter as large as the last, with spoons of gold.​5 Seeing, therefore, our embarrassment, Caranus ordered baskets and bread-racks made of plaited ivory strips to be given us, at which we applauded the bridegroom with delight for having rescued our gifts. Then more crowns again, and a double-jar of gold and silver Dcontaining perfume, equal in weight to the first. Quiet being restored, there trooped in men who would have graced even the religious observances at the Athenian Feast of Pots.​6 After them entered ithyphallic dancers, clowns, and some naked female jugglers who performed tumbling acts among swords, and blew fire from their mouths. After  p97 we had finished with them, our attention was next engrossed in a warm and almost neat drink,​7 the wines at our disposal being Thasian, Mendaean, and Lesbian; and very large gold cups were handed to each guest. After this draught we were all presented with a crystal platter about two cubits in diameter, Elying in a silver receptacle and full of a collection of all kinds of baked fish; also a silver bread-rack containing Cappadocian loaves, of which we ate some and gave the rest to the slaves. Then we washed our hands and put on crowns, again receiving gold tiaras twice the size of those we had before, and another double-jar of perfume.

"When all was quiet, Proteas jumped up from his couch and demanded a six-pint bowl, and filling it with Thasian wine Fwith just a dash of water he drank it all saying, 'He that drinks most shall have least sorrow.'​8 And Caranus said, 'Since you have been the first to drink, be the first also to receive the bowl as a gift; and this shall be the meed of all the others who drink.' At these words 'all the nine rose up'​9 and seized a bowl, each striving to get ahead of the other. But one unfortunate, who of all our companions was unable to drink, sat up and wept at his bowlless state, until Caranus made have a present of the cup unfilled. 130 After this a chorus of one hundred men entered singing tunefully a wedding hymn; then came in dancing-girls, some attired as Nereids, others as Nymphs. While then our merrymaking was proceeding, and the late hour was beginning to bring darkness, they threw open  p99 the room, which had been curtained all about with white linen; and when this was drawn back, the barriers being let down by a hidden contrivance, there rose to our view torches: Cupids and Dianas, Pans and Hermae and many similar figures held the lights in silver brackets. While we were admiring this artistic device, veritable Erymanthian​10 boars were served to each guest, Bon square platters rimmed with gold; they were skewered with silver spears. The wonderful thing about it was, that though relaxed and heavy with wine, as soon as we saw any of these things introduced we all became sober enough to stand on our feet, as the saying is.11

"Well, the slaves began to stuff our happy baskets full until the customary signal for concluding the banquet was sounded on the trumpet; for this, as you know, is the Macedonian practice at dinners attended by many guests. CThen Caranus, leading off the drinking in small cups, ordered the slaves to circulate them quickly. We, therefore, sipped them gently as an antidote to the drinking of unmixed wine which had gone before. Meanwhile, the clown Mandrogenes had come in, a descendant, so they say, of the celebrated Athenian clown Straton. He caused many a loud laugh among us by his jokes, and afterwards danced with his wife, who was over eighty years old. And last there came in the concluding courses; that is, dessert in ivory baskets, and flat cakes of every variety, DCretan and your own Samian, friend Lynceus, and Attic, were given to all as a present along with the boxes in which they were separately packed. So, after this, we  p101 arose and took our leave, quite sober — the gods be my witness! — because we were apprehensive for the safety of the wealth we took with us. But you, staying in Athens, think it happiness rather to listen to the precepts of Theophrastus, eating wild thyme and rocket-seed and your esteemed rolls while you attend the festivals of the Lenaea and the Pots! We, however, have carried away a fortune from Caranus's banquet instead of trifling portions, and are now looking for houses or lands or slaves to buy."

EWith this example before our eyes, friend Timocrates, what Greek banquet can you compare with the symposium just described? Why, even Antiphanes, the comic poet, once said disparagingly in the Oenomaüs (or Pelops):​12 "But what could leaf-chewing Greeks, scant of table, accomplish? Among them you can get only four little pieces of meat for a ha'penny. But among our ancestors they used to roast Fwhole oxen, swine, deer, and lambs. Lately our cook roasted a monster entire and served the Great King with a — hot camel." So, too, Aristophanes in The Acharnians13 dilates on the magnificence of the Persians: "Envoy: And then he entertained us, serving us 131 with whole oxen from the oven. — Dicaeopolis: And who ever saw oven-roasted oxen? What humbug! — Envoy: Yes, I swear it by Zeus, he also set before us a fowl three times as big as Cleonymus; and its name was Cheat."​14 And Anaxandrides, ridiculing in Protesilaus the symposium at Iphicrates' wedding, when he  p103 married the daughter of the Thracian king Cotys, says:​15 "And if you do that as I tell you, we will entertain you with a brilliant banquet, quite unlike that of Iphicrates in Thrace; and yet they say Bthat was a grand swagger? Over the market-place were spread purple rugs down to where his pinnace lay. At the dinner were your butter-eating gentry, with unkempt hair and in countless numbers. The kettles were bronze and bigger than cellars containing a dozen beds. Cotys himself had an apron on, and brought the soup in a gold pitcher; and what with tasting the wine in the mixing-bowls he got drunk before the guests did. Flute music was furnished them by Antigeneidas, singing by Argas, harp music by Cephisodotus of Acharnae; Cand in their lays they celebrated, now Sparta with its broad acres, now Thebes again, the seven-gated, interchanging their themes. And the groom, 'twas said, received as dower two droves of chestnut mares, a herd of goats, a golden sack and a wastrel​16 cup, a pitcher of snow, a pot of millet, a bin of bulbs,​17 twelve cubits deep, and a hecatomb of octopuses. In this  p105 wise, they say, Cotys made a marriage for Iphicrates in Thrace. But in our master's house the feast shall be far more imposing and brilliant than that. DFor what does our house lack, what good things fail? Surely not perfumes from Syrian myrrh, the breath of frankincense, visions of tender-flaked barley cakes, wheat bread, fine meal cakes, octopuses, entrails, suet, sausages, soup, beets, stuffed fig-leaves,​18 pease porridge, garlic, anchovies, mackerel, wine sops, barley gruel, Egyptian groats, beans, vetch, pulse, kidney-beans, honey, cheese, haggis, beestings, walnuts, groats, broiled crawfish, boiled mullet, boiled cuttle-fish, a murry boiled, gobios boiled, Ebaked roe-tunny, boiled wrasse, angler-fish, perch, dentet, hake, ray, sole, dogfish, piper, shad, skate, electric-ray, monk-fish steaks, honeycomb, grapes, figs, flat-cakes, apples, cornel-nuts, pomegranates, thyme, poppy, pears, sour thistle, olives, olive-cake, milk-cakes, leeks, horn-onions, onions, raised barley-bread, bulbs, cauliflowers, silphium, vinegar, fennel, eggs, lentils, grasshoppers, rennet, cress, sesame, tritons, salt, pinnas, limpets, mussels, oysters, scallops, tunny; and besides all this, fowls in  p107 number too great to tell: Fducks, pigeons, geese, sparrows, thrushes, larks, jays, swans, pelican, wagtails,​19 crane — B. May she give a good push through the tail and the ribs of this gaping fool and crack his skull! A. But there are wines for you — white, sweet, native, of mild bouquet or smoky."

Lynceus, also ridiculing Athenian dinners in The Centaur,​20 says: "I say, cook! He who is to offer sacrifice and entertain me is a Rhodian, while I, who am the guest, come from Perinthus. Neither of us likes an Athenian dinner. There is a revolting quality in things Attic as in things foreign. 132 For the cook sets before you a large tray on which are five small plates. One of these holds garlic, another a pair of sea-urchins, another a sweet wine-sop, another ten cockles, the last a small piece of sturgeon. While I am eating this, another is eating that; and while he is eating that, I have made away with this. What I want, good sir, is both the one and the other, but my wish is impossible. BFor I have neither five mouths nor five right hands. Such a lay-out as that seems to offer variety, but is nothing at all to satisfy the belly. For simply bespatter my lips, I don't fill them. What, then, have you? — The cook. A lot of oysters. — A. You shall serve me a plate of them, all by itself, and not a small one, either. Have you sea-urchins? — Cook. Yes, of these you shall have a second course. For I bought them myself, fourpence worth. — A. This then is the one  p109 dish you shall serve by itself, that all may eat it alike — not I one thing, my companion another."

CHegesander of Delphi narrates​21 that the parasite Dromeas, when asked by someone whether he got better dinners in town​22 or in Chalcis, replied that the prelude to a dinner in Chalcis was more delightful than the entire lay-out of a town dinner, meaning by prelude the great quantity and variety of shell-fish. And Diphilus, in The Woman who left her Husband,​23 introduces a cook whom he represents as saying: "How many guests, sir, are invited to the wedding? DAre they all Athenians, or are there also foreign merchants? — B. How does that concern you, who are the cook? — A. That is the chief part of my art, master, to know beforehand what mouths are going to eat. Suppose you have invited Rhodians: no sooner have they entered, than you must give them the largest sheat-fish or 'lebias'​24 to enjoy, served piping hot. They will like that better than if you poured scented water over their hands. — EB. Ay, their sheat-eating is a nice custom. — A. Or suppose they are Byzantians, soak all you serve to them in bitters, with quantities of salt and garlic. For they have so many fish in their part of the world that they are clammy and full of phlegm." So Menander in Trophonius:​25 "The dinner is in honour of a stranger. — B. Who? Where does he come from? For that makes a difference to the cook. These little island strangers, for example, are brought up  p111 on all kinds of fish just out of the water, Fand so they are not at all attracted by preserved fish; if they take it at all, they do without zest, and welcome more gladly forcemeats and highly seasoned dishes. Your Arcadian, on the other hand, living far from the sea, is caught by oyster-bait, while the Ionian, bloated with wealth, makes his chief dish​26 of pilaf,​27 and foods that provoke desire."

For the ancients employed dishes to whet the appetite, 133 such as olives in brine, which they call kolymbades ("divers").​28 Aristophanes, at any rate, says in Old Age:​29 "Do you, master, love the ladies who are over-ripe or the virginal ones with bodies firm as olives steeped in brine?" And Philemon in The Pursuer, or Soupy:​30 "How did the boiled fish look to you? — B. 'Twas small, do you understand? And there was brine, white and thick beyond belief, and no smell of pan or condiments. BAnd all cried out, 'What a good pickle you make!' " They used to eat even grasshoppers and cicadas as an incentive to appetite. Thus Aristophanes in Anagyrus:​31 "Good Heavens, how I yearn to eat a grasshopper and a cicada (cercopê) caught on a thin reed." Now the cercopê is an animal like a cicada, or titigonion, as Speusippus describes them in the  p113 second book of his Similars. Epilycus mentions them in Coraliscus.​32 Alexis in Thrason33 says: C"Never have I seen such a chatterbox as you, woman, be it cicada or magpie, nightingale or swallow, turtle-dove or grasshopper." And Nicostratus in The Pet:​34 "The first platter, leading the main courses, will contain a sea-urchin, some raw smoked fish, capers, a wine-sop, a slice of meat, and a bulb in sour sauce."

But they also ate as an appetizer turnips done in vinegar and mustard, Das Nicander plainly shows in the second book of the Georgics;​35 for he says: "Of turnip and cabbage, in truth, two families appear in our gardens, long and solid. The latter you wash and dry in the north wind, and they are welcome in winter even to the idle stay-at‑homes; for soaked in warm water they come to life again. But the other, the turnip roots, you cut in thin slices, gently cleaning away the undried outer skin, and after drying them in the sun a little, either dip a quantity of them in boiling water and soak them in strong brine; Eor again, put equal parts of white must and vinegar in a jar together, then plunge the slices in it, having dried them off with salt. Often, too, you may pound raisins and biting mustard-seeds with a pestle and add it to them. When cream of tartar forms, and the top grows more and more bitter, then 'tis time to draw off the pickle for those  p115 who seek their dinner." FDiphilus (or Sosippus) says in The Woman who left her Husband:​36A. "Have you got sharp vinegar in the house? — B. I fancy so, slave, and we have bought rennet. All this will I squeeze thick together in a nice dish for them, and the salad with sour dressing shall be served for all. For such condiments must speedily rouse the sensory organs of men when they are old, dispel the sloth and bluntness of their desire, and make them glad to eat."

134 Alexis in The Tarentines37 says that the Athenians have but to take a sip of wine at the symposia to make them dance: "Yes, you must know that that is the native custom in fair Athens. They all begin to dance the moment they glimpse​38 the smell of wine. You'd say you were looking upon some strange mishap should you suddenly join the company. Now for the young, perhaps, there is some grace in it; but when I see that charlatan Theodotus, or the foul parasite, frisking Band rolling the whites of his eyes the while, I'd gladly take and nail him to the gallows." Possibly Antiphanes also, in The Carians,​39 may be referring to the Athenian custom of dancing when he ridicules a sophist for dancing during dinner in these words: "Don't you see that reprobate dancing with his arms?​40 No shame feels he, the expounder of Heracleitus, the sole discoverer of the art of Theodectas, Cand the author of a compendium of Euripides." To this quotation one might  p117 add not inappropriately these words of Eriphus the comic poet in Aeolus:​41 "For there is an ancient proverb not untrue: they say that wine, my father, persuades old men to dance against their will." And Alexis in the play entitled Fair Measure42 says: "At a subscription-dinner they were drinking with an eye only for the dancing and nothing else; and they took the names Dof dainties and foods — Relish, Prawn, Gudgeon, and Wheat-flour."

"An Attic dinner," said Plutarch, "is described not unwittily by Matron, the writer of parodies, and because of its rarity I shall not hesitate, my friends, to quote it for you:​43 'Sing, Muse,​44 of the dinners, many and plenteous, which Xenocles the orator offered us in Athens. EFor even thither I went, and great hunger came with me.​45 There I beheld fair, large loaves whiter than snow, like finest meal cakes to the taste.​46 For them also did Boreas yearn when they were baking.​47 And Xenocles himself went in review through the ranks of the heroes,​48 but stood still when he came to the threshold.​49 And near him was the parasite Chaerephon, like unto a hungry sea-gull;​50 Fempty he was, but well acquainted with dinners furnished by others.​51 Thereupon the cooks filled the tables and brought them in — the cooks to whose rule the mighty Heaven of Kitchens is committed,​52 either to hasten the hour of dinner or retard  p119 it. Thereupon, all the others laid hands on the green herbs,​53 but I did not follow them; rather, I ate of all solid viands — 135 bulbs and asparagus and meaty oysters,​54 avoiding raw smoked fish, that dish for Phoenicians.​55 And forth I dashed down​56 sea-urchins with head-dress of streaming spines, which resounded as they rolled among the slaves' feet​57 in an open space, where the waves surged upon the beach,​58 and many were the spines I pulled by the roots from their heads.​59 Then came the Phaleric anchovy, darling of Triton, holding her soiled veil before her face​60 . . . Band they were loved of the Cyclops and grew on the mountains. Then came one bringing pinnas, in ringing bowls,​61 which the white foaming waters nurture on a rock streaming with sea-weed. A sole with thick cartilage, and a red-cheeked​62 mullet came too; and upon it I was among the first to lay a hand with strong nail.​63 But I was not quick enough to wound it, for Phoebus Apollo did me a hurt. But when I saw Stratocles, stern master of the rout,​64 Cholding the head of the horse-taming mullet in his hands,​65 then did I quickly seize it with joy, and tore open its insatiable throat. And there came the daughter of Nereus, silver-footed Thetis, the fair-tressed cuttle, dread goddess with voice of mortal,​66 who of all fish alone knows the difference between black and white.​67 I saw Tityus, too, glorious conger-eel of the marshy lake,68  p121 lying in the casseroles; and its length covered nine tables. In its tracks followed the white-armed goddess-fish,​69 the eel, Dwho boasted that she had lain in Zeus' embrace,​70 from the Copaic Lake whence comes the race of wild eels.​71 Of mighty size was she, and two men who contend for prizes,​72 such as Astyanax and Antenor were, could not have lifted her easily from the ground into a cart.​73 For they measured nine cubits and three spans​74 in width, and they were nine fathoms long.​75 Oft did the cook go back and forth throughout the room,​76 balancing on right shoulder the platters covered with dainties,​77 Eand forty black kettles followed him close,​78 while from Euboea there marched in close array as many casseroles.​79 Came, too, the windswift messenger Iris, the fleet squid,​80 and the flower-dotted perch and plebeian black-tail, which, mortal though he was, was companion of fishes immortal.​81 But alone and apart, wroth at the loss of his armour, stood the head of the tunny, son of Lurkhole;​82 and the gods had made it a bane to men.​83 FThe monk-fish, which carpenters​84 love extravagantly, was there — the rough but kindly nourisher of the young; I shall never behold anything sweeter than its flesh.​85 There entered, too, that doughty knight,​86 baked mullet, yet not alone; for a dozen sargs followed in close company.87  p123 After them came a mighty blue-skinned bonito, which knows the depths of every sea, Poseidon's henchman.​88 136 And prawns there were, theme of Olympian Zeus's song, which were crooked with age, but good to eat.​89 The gilt-head was there, the fairest fish amid all others,​90 the crawfish too, and the lobster eager to arm for the fray​91 at the feasts of the Blessed. Upon them the feasters laid hands and put them to their mouths, pulling them this way and that.​92 Their leader was the lordly elops, glorious in battle,​93 Bfor which sated though I was, I stretched forth a lusty hand, eager​94 to taste of it; and it seemed to me as ambrosia, on which feast the blessed gods that live for ever.​95 Then the cook brought and added to our store a murry which covered the table,​96 and the girdle which she wore with pride about her neck,​97 what time she wed the high-souled son of Dracon. CSandals,​98 again he placed beside us, everliving offspring of immortal goddesses, and a sole, which dwelt in the roaring brine;​99 then lusty wrasse in order, high-flying,​100 which feed among rocks, and watery piglings.​101 And mingled with all were sargs and horse-tails and sheats, and opposite a sea bream, a hake and a sargus. These the cook  p125 brought in and placed​102 steaming beside us, and filled all the house with their savour. On them he urged us to feast; but to me, at least, they seemed to be food for womenfolk, and soon I was borne on to other kinds. DNow there lay a dish, which none at the dinner had touched, where in an open space​103 rose to view the place of the saucepans. . . . Next came a blackbird for me, who sat ready to eat it; nor, to be sure, was it untouched, for others yearned for it too. And a ham I saw, and no sooner saw than I trembled;​104 and near it lay the sweetened mustard, yellow as gold, but forbidding one to take too much. And when I had tasted I wept​105 that on the morrow I should not see it again, but must content myself with cheese and the faithful barley-cake.

E" 'But my belly could not hold out, for it was overcome with pains;​106 the black broth over­powered it, and the boiled pigs' feet as well. But a slave brought from Salamis thirteen fat ducks​107 from the sacred lake, which the cook​108 took and placed where the Athenian phalanxes were posted.​109 And Chaerephon, directing his mind forward and back,​110 recognized the birds, and perceived that they were auspicious for eating.​111 FSo he ate like a lion,​112 but in his fist he kept a lamb's leg, that he might have wherewith to sup at evening when he went home.​113 And there was a gruel of pleasant aspect which Hephaestus had laboured to boil,​114 cooking it in an Attic bowl for thirteen months.​115 Then when they had banished desire for the delicious supper,​116 and  p127 had laved their hands in the streams of Ocean,​117 a lovely boy entered and brought to them sweet unguent of orris-root; 137 another, again, gave chaplets to all from left to right, which were intertwined with the rose and variously adorned.​118 And a bowl of the Bromian god was mixed, and Lesbian wine was drunk, man vying with man to drink the most of it. Anon the "second tables" were loaded to the full, Band upon them were pears and luscious apples,​119 pomegranates and grapes, nurses of the Bromian god, and that freshly gathered grape which they call "vine-bower."​120 But of them I ate nothing at all, for I lay back, too full. Yet, when I saw the brown, sweet, mighty, round, well-grown child of Demeter enter, a baked flat-cake, Chow could I abstain from that divine flat-cake?​121 . . . But nay; not if I had ten hands and ten mouths,​122 belly that could not burst, and a heart of bronze within me. Then there entered two trick girls, filles de joie, driven like swift birds by Stratocles.' "123

Alexis, by way of ridiculing Attic dinners, in Running-Mates:​124 "I want to hire two cooks, Dthe cleverest that I can find in all the town. For I intend to feast a man from Thessaly, not in any Attic fashion; and I must not stretch the gentleman on the rack of famine by stingily setting before him each little dish separately, but (I will serve it  p129 all together) in the grand style." Thessalians, on the other hand, do set really luxurious tables, as Eriphus declares in The Peltast125 in these words: "Such dainties, O Syrian, not Corinth nor Laïs ever served, nor are they even the fare set on bounteous tables of Thessalian hosts, of which this hand of mine has often had its share." EWhoever wrote Beggars, generally attributed to Chionides,​126 says that when the Athenians set before the Dioscuri a collation​127 in the town-hall, they place upon the tables "cheese and a barley-puff, ripe olives, and leeks," in memory of their ancient discipline. Solon prescribes that a barley-cake be served to all who dine at the town-hall, but that a wheat loaf may be added on feast days, thus following Homer. For the latter, when he gathers the nobles before Agamemnon, says that "barley-meal was mixed."​128 FAnd so Chrysippus, in the fourth book of the treatise On Pleasure and the Good says: "It is recorded that at Athens two banquets of not very ancient date were celebrated in the Lyceum and in the Academy. Once, at the Academy feast, a fancy cook brought in a casserole intended for another use, whereupon the sacrificants broke the dish because an act of smuggling had been committed not tolerated by the city, it being obligatory to abstain from such far-fetched importations. At the Lyceum, again, the cook who had brought in some salt meat which he had made over in imitation of salt-fish was flogged for playing the impostor with his over-refinement." 138 And Plato, in the second book of the Republic,​129 thus portrays his new citizens at dinner when he writes: " 'It  p131 would appear,' he said, 'that you represent your men as feasting without any relish.' 'Quite true," I said; 'I forgot that they will have a relish also, such as salt, of course, and olives, and cheese; and they will cook bulbs and green vegetables, the sort of which they make boiled dishes in the country. And we will set before them dessert, I suppose, figs and chick-peas and beans, and they will toast myrtle-berries and beech-nuts before the fire, sipping their wine in moderation the while. BThus will they spend their lives, peacefully and healthily, and in all probability will die in old age and transmit a similar mode of life to their offspring.' "


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 Athen. 126E.

2 See critical note (p92).

Thayer's Note: the critical note to the Greek, ἦσαν εἴκοσιν, reads:

ἦσαν ρ′ καὶ εἴκοσιν, "one hundred and twenty," Casaubon.

3 Over five guineas, or $27.00.

Thayer's Note: 1928 figures (notice the pound at $4.80); taking the dollar amount, the equivalent in 2010 would be about $340.

4 The sambuca was a triangular instrument with four strings.

Thayer's Note: See the article Sambuca in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

5 126E.

6 Referring to the mummers at the Anthesteria, a festival of Dionysus.

7 "A cup of hot wine, with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't," Coriolanus, II.i.52.

8 Euripides, T. G. F.2 541.

9 Iliad VII.161.

10 i.e. as huge as the one which Heracles overcame on Mt. Erymanthus.

11 Cf. Iliad XXIV.11.

12 Kock II.81.

13 1.85.

14 Probably an ostrich is meant.

15 Kock II.151.

16 Cf. Athen. 485A.

17 See 63D, note.

18 θρῖον, a dish often mentioned by the comic poets, consisting of eggs, milk, flour, honey, cheese, and lard in a wrapping of fig leaves. Cf. the modern Greek dish dolmades, made with grape leaves.

19 Or, dabchicks?

20 Kock III.274.

21 F. H. G. IV.415.

22 Athens.

23 Kock II.545.

24 An unidentified fish. Cf. 118B, 301C.

25 Kock III.132, Allinson 438 cf. 9C.

26 The pièce de résistance, what is called in Cape Cod dialect, "the main hearty."

27 κάνδαυλος, a Lydian dish of several varieties.

28 Cf. 56B.

29 Kock I.426.

30 Kock II.488. The second title appears to be the name of a parasite.

31 Kock I.404. A parody of Euripides, Hippolytus 219: "Good heavens, how I yearn to course with the hounds, and hurl the Thessalian javelin, poising in hand my barbed missile beside my yellow locks of hair."

32 Kock I.804.

33 Kock II.326.

34 Kock II.219. This fragment refers to the use of hors-d'oeuvre in general.

35 Frag. 70 Schneider: Athen. 369B.

36 Kock II.546.

37 Kock II.379.

38 A comic locution.

39 Kock II.55.

40 "If you have pretty arms, dance," says Ovid.

Thayer's Note: Ars Am.I.595; see also the opening paragraph of the article Saltatio in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

41 Kock II.428.

42 Kock II.328; cf. 127D.

43 60 Brandt.

44 Cf. Od. I.1.

45 Od. VI.164.

46 Il. X.436‑7. Cf. Athen. 64C.

47 Il. XX.223.

48 Il. III.196.

49 Od. XX.128.

50 Od. V.51.

51 Od. V.250.

52 Iliad V.750.

53 Od. IX.288.

54 Od. IX.293.

55 Cf. above, 117A.

56 i.e. on the ground, in order to break them.

57 Il. XVI.794.

58 Il. XXIII.61.

59 Il. X.15.

60 Od. I.334.

61 Od. IV.72. See critical note.

Thayer's Note: the critical note to the Greek, κατὰ τρύβλια ἠχήεντα, reads:

κατὰ τρύβλια Wachsmuth: κατὰ δώματα Meineke: καὶ ἄμυλα AC.

62 Od. IX.125.

63 Od. XVII.410?

64 Il. XII.39.

65 Il. XXIV.724.

66 Od. X.136.

67 Referring to the inky fluid (sepia) which the cuttle-fish emits to blind pursuers.

68 Od. XI.576.

69 Od. III.30; Il. I.55.

70 Od. XI.267.

71 Il. II.852.

72 Il. XII.447.

73 Il. XII.448.

74 Od. XI.311.

75 Od. XI.312.

76 Il. XXIII.116.

77 Il. V.46.

78 Il. II.534.

79 Il. II.516. Cf. below, 169EF.

80 Il. II.786.

81 Il. XVI.154.

82 Od. XI.543 and 557. The angry tunny-head in the parody is a fusion of Ajax defrauded of his armour (which in the case of the fish is his scale-covered body) and the sulking Achilles, whose surname "son of Peleus" sounded in Greek somewhat like "son of Lurkhole."

83 Od. XI.555.

84 Il. VI.315.

85 Od. IX.27.

86 Il. II.336.

87 Il. III.143.

88 Od. IV.385‑6.

89 Od. II.16. Cf. Athen. 64C.

90 Il. XXII.318.

91 Od. XX.27.

92 Od. XI.385.

93 Il. II.645; the ἔλοψ or ἔλλοψ was it seems a sturgeon.

94 Od. X.555.

95 Od. V.7.

96 Od. XVII.333.

97 Il. IV.137.

98 A fish like the flounder.

99 Il. VI.396.

100 The epithet, of course, is appropriate to κίχλαι only in its normal sense, "thrushes."

101 The Hyades portend rain.

102 Od. XVII.333.

103 Il. X.199.

104 Il. XIV.294, cf. Theocr. II.82.

105 Od. XII.309.

106 Il. XVI.102.

107 Il. II.557.

108 Il. V.710.

109 Il. II.558.

110 Il. I.343.

111 Od. II.159.

112 Od. IX.292; I.104.

113 Od. IX.234.

114 Il. II.101.

115 Il. V.387.

116 Od. XXIV.489.

117 Il. XIX.1.

118 Od. IX.157.

119 Od. IX.217; μῆλα, when modified by πίονα, properly means "fat sheep," cf. Athen. 27F.

120 Od. V.273.

121 Il. X.243.

122 Il. II.490.

123 Il. II.764.

124 Kock II.375: the text and meaning are uncertain.

125 Light-armed infantry-man. Kock II.430.

126 Kock I.5.

127 See 82E, note c, 237E.

128 Not in the Iliad.

129 372C.


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