Deipnosophistae

And Chares the Mitylenæan, in his History of Alexander, speaking of Calanus the Indian philosopher, and saying that he threw himself on a funeral pile that had been raised, and so died, says also that Alexander instituted some gymnastic games at his tomb, and also a musical contest of panegyrics on him.—

And he instituted,

because of the great fondness of the Indians for wine, a contest as to who should drink the greatest quantity of unmixed wine; and the prize was a talent for the first, and thirty mince for the second, and ten mince for the third. And of those who entered for the prize and drank the wine, thirty-five died at once by reason of the cold; and a little afterwards six more died in their tents. And he who drank the greatest quantity and won the prize, drank four choes of unmixed wine, and received the talent; and he lived four days after it; and he was called the Champion.

Dionysius the tyrant gave, at the festival of the Choes, to the first man who should drink a choeus, a golden crown as a prize:

Xenocrates the philosopher was the first person who drank it; and that he, taking the golden crown, and departing, offered it up to the Mercury who was placed in his vestibule, on which statue he was always accustomed on every occasion to offer up the garlands of flowers which he had, every evening as he returned home; and he was much admired for this conduct.

1. You're acting like a sophist now, you wretch,
2. And long for the pay-giving feast of Choes.

But Antigonus the Carystian, in his essay on the Life of Dionysius of Heraclea, who was called the Turncoat, says that Dionysius, when he was feasting with his slaves at the festival of the Choes, and was not able, by reason of his old age, to avail himself of the courtesan whom they brought him, turned round and said to those who were feasting with him—

1. I cannot now, so let another take her.

1. Now have we gain'd immortal praise and fame,
2. Since we have slain great Hector.

1. Wretched are they who dare encounter me.

And Herodotus, in his second book, relates that Myce- rinus the Egyptian, having been told by the soothsayers that he was fated to live but a short time, used to light a great number of lamps when night arrived, and spend all his time in drinking and luxury, relaxing neither by day nor by night; and when he withdrew into the marshes and into the groves, or wherever he heard that there were meetings of young people to amuse themselves, he always got drunk. And Herodotus tells us that Amasis also, who was another of the Egyptian kings, was a very hard drinker indeed. And Hermeas the Methymnæan, in the third book of his History of Sicily, says that Nicoteles the Corinthian was a man greatly addicted to drinking. And Phænias the Eresian, in the book entitled, The Slaying of Tyrants out of Revenge, says that Scopas the son of Creon, and the grandson of the former Scopas, was throughout his whole life very fond of drinking; and that he used to return from banquets at which he had been present, sitting on a throne, and carried by four palanquin-bearers, and in that way he used to enter his house. And Phylarchus, in the sixth book of his Histories, says that Antiochus the king was a man very fond of wine; and that he used to get drunk, and then go to sleep for a long time, and then, as evening came on, he would wake up, and drink again. And it was very seldom, says he, that he transacted the affairs of his kingdom when he was sober, but much more frequently when he was drunk; on which account there were two men about him who managed all the real business of the state as they pleased, namely Aristos and Themiso, Cyprians by birth, and brothers; and they were both on terms of the greatest intimacy with Antiochus.

And Antiochus the king, who was surnamed Epiphanes, was also a great drinker,—the one, I mean, who had been a hostage among the Romans, whom Ptolemy Euergetes mentions in the third book of his Commentaries, and also in the fifth; saying that he turned to Indian revellings and drunkenness, and spent a vast quantity of money in those practices; and for the rest of the money which he had at hand, he spent

Let whoever chance gives it to, take it:

You are a happy man, O king; you smell in a most costly manner:

I will give you as much as you can desire of this perfume.

But Polybius, in the twenty-sixth book of his Histories, calls this man Epimanes (mad), and not Epiphanes (illustrious), on account of his actions.

For he not only used to go to entertainments of the common citizens, but he also would drink with any strangers who happened to be sojourning in the city, and even with those of the meanest class. And if,

he heard that any of the younger men were making a feast anywhere whatever, he would come with an earthen bowl, and with music, so that the greater part of the feasters fled away alarmed at his unexpected appearance. And very often he would put off his royal robes, and take a common cloak, and in that dress go round the market.

And in the thirty-first book of his Histories, the same Polybius tells us

that when Antiochus was celebrating some public games at Antioch, he invited all the Greeks and any of the multitude who chose to come to the spectacle. And when a great many people came, he anointed them all in the gymnasia with ointment of saffron, and cinnamon, and nard, and amaracus, and lilies, out of golden vessels: and then, inviting them all to a feast, he filled sometimes a thousand and sometimes fifteen hundred triclinia with the most

v.2.p.694

expensive preparations; and he himself personally attended to waiting on the guests. For, standing at the entrance, he introduced some, and others he placed upon the couches; and he himself marshalled the servants who brought in the different courses; and, walking about among the guests, at times he sat down in one place, and at times he lay down in another. And sometimes he would put down what he was eating, and at other times he would lay down his cup, and jump up, and change his place, and go all round the party, standing up himself, and pledging different people at different times; and then, mingling with the musicians, he would be brought in by the actors, entirely covered up, and laid down on the ground, as if he had been one of the actors himself; and then, when the music gave the signal, the king would leap up, and dance and sport among the actors, so that they were all ashamed. To such absurdities does a want of education, when joined with drunkenness, reduce miserable men.

But the Antiochus who was surnamed the Great, who was subdued by the Romans (as Polybius relates in his twentieth book), having arrived at Chalcis, in Euboea, celebrated a marriage when he was fifty years of age; and after he had undertaken two most enormous and important affairs, namely, the liberation of the Greeks (as he himself professed) and the war against the Romans. At all events, he, being smitten with love for a damsel of Chalcis, was very anxious to marry her at the very time that he was engaged in this war, being a man very fond of drinking and delighting in drunkenness. And she was the daughter of Cleophanes, one of the nobles, and superior to all the maidens of her country in beauty. Accordingly, he celebrated his marriage in Chalcis, and remained there all the winter, not once giving the smallest thought to the important affairs which he had in hand. And he gave the damsel the name of Eubœa. Accordingly, being defeated

On which account, that divinest of writers, Plato, lays down admirable laws in his second book—

That boys, till they are eighteen years of age, should absolutely never taste wine at all; for that it is not well to heap fire on fire: that men up to thirty years of age may drink wine in moderation; and that the young man should wholly abstain from much wine and from drunkenness. But that a man, when he arrives at forty years of age, may feast in large banquets, and invoke the other gods, and especially Bacchus, to the feasts and amusements of the older men; since he it is who has given men this means of indulgence, as an ally against the austerity of old age, for which wine was the best medicine; so that, owing to it, we grow young again, and forget our moroseness.

But there is a report and story told that this god was once deprived of his mind and senses by his mother-in-law, Juno; on which account he sent Bacchic frenzy, and all sorts of frantic rage, among men, out of revenge for the treatment which he had experienced; on which account also he gave wine to men.

But Phalæcus, in his Epigrams, makes mention of a woman, whose name was Cleo, as having been a very hard drinker—

1. Cleo bestow'd this splendid gift on Bacchus,
2. The tunic, fringed with gold and saffron hues,
3. Which long she wore herself; so great she was
4. At feasts and revelry: there was no man
5. Who could at all contend with her in drinking.

1. May it be granted me to pass from life
2. Drinking abundant draughts of wine, while you,
3. My darling daughter, live and prosper here.

And Alcimus the Sicilian, in that book of his which is entitled the Italian History, says that all the women in Italy avoid drinking wine on this account:

When Hercules was in the district of the Crotoniatæ, he one day was very thirsty, and came to a certain house by the wayside and asked for something to drink; and it happened that the wife of the master of the house had privily opened a cask of wine, and therefore she said to her husband that it would be a shameful thing for him to open this cask for a stranger; and so she bade him give Hercules some water. But Hercules, who was standing at the door, and heard all this, praised her husband very much, but advised him to go indoors himself and look at the cask. And when he had gone in, he found that the cask had become petrified. And this fact is proved by the conduct of the women of the country, among whom it is reckoned disgraceful, to this day, to drink wine, on account of the above-mentioned reason.

And what sort of women those among the Greeks are who get drunk, Antiphanes tells us, in his Female Darter; where he says—

1. There is a certain neighbouring victualler,
2. And he, whenever I arrive, being thirsty,
3. Is th' only man who knows the proper way
4. In which to mix my wine; and makes it not
5. Too full of water, nor too strong and heady:
6. I recollect that once when I was drinking . . . .

1. A. Would you now like, my dearest friend, to drink?
2. B. No doubt I should.
3. A. Well come, then, take a cup;
4. For they do say the first three cups one takes
5. All tend to th' honour of the heavenly gods.

1. A. But women are quite sure to be content
2. If they have only wine enough to drink.
3. B. But, by the heavenly twins, we now shall have
4. As much as we can wish; and it shall be
5. Sweet, and not griping,—rich, well-season'd wine,
6. Exceeding old.
7. A. I like this aged sphinx;
8. For hear how now she talks to me in riddles.

1. Zopyra, that wine-cask.

1. I write a woman's oath in mighty wine.

Plato, in his Phaon, relating how many things happen to women because of wine, says—

1. Come now, ye women, long ago have I
2. Pray'd that this wine may thus become your folly;
3. For you don't think, as the old proverb goes,
4. That there is any wisdom at a vintner's.
5. For if you now desire to see Phaon,
6. You first must all these solemn rites perform.
7. First, as the nurse of youths, I must receive
8. A vigorous cheesecake, and a pregnant mealcake,
9. And sixteen thrushes whole, well smear'd with honey,
v.2.p.698
10. Twelve hares, all taken when the moon was full;
11. But all the other things may be got cheaply.
12. Now listen. Three half-measures of fine onions;
13. These for Orthanna. For Conisalus
14. And his two mates, a plate of myrtleberries,
15. Pluck'd with the hand: for the great Gods above
16. Dislike the smell of lamps . . . . . . . .
17. . . . . . . . for the dogs and huntsmen.
18. A drachma for Lordon; for Cybdasus,
19. Three obols; for the mighty hero Celes,
20. Some hides and incense. Now if you bring
21. These things, you'll certainly obtain admittance;
22. But if you don't, you'll knock in vain, and long
23. In vain to enter, and get nothing by it.

1. Just trust a woman to drink only water.

And whole nations are mentioned as addicted to drunkenness. Accordingly, Bæton, the measurer of distances for Alexander, in his book which is entitled Stations of the March of Alexander, and Amyntas also, in his Stations, says that the nation of the Tapyri is so fond of wine that they never use any other unguent than that. And Ctesias tells the same story, in his book Concerning the Revenues in Asia. And he says that they are a most just people. And Harmodius of Lepreum, in his treatise on the Laws in force among the people of Phigalea, says that the Phigaleans are addicted to drinking, being neighbours of the Messenians, and being also a people much accustomed to travelling. And Phylarchus, in his sixth book, says that the Byzantians are so exceedingly fond of wine, that they live in the wine-shops and let out their own houses and their wives also to strangers: and that they cannot bear to hear the sound of a trumpet even in their sleep. On which account once, when they were attacked by the enemy, and could not endure the labour of defending their walls, Leonidas, their general, ordered the innkeepers' booths to be erected as tents upon the walls, and even then it was with difficulty that they were stopped from deserting, as Damon tells us, in his book on Byzantium. But Menander, in his play called the Woman carrying the Mysterious sacred Vessels of Minerva, or the Female Flute-player, says—

1. Byzantium makes all the merchants drunk.
2. On your account we drank the whole night long,
3. And right strong wine too, as it seems to me,—
4. At least I got up with four heads, I think.

1. A. For how in the name of all the gods at once,
2. Do you not know me, the Tirynthian Argive?
3. That race fights all its battles when 'tis drunk.
4. B. And that is why they always run away.

1. Elis is always drunk, and always lying:
2. As is each single house, so is the city.

And Theopompus, in his twenty-second book, speaking of the Chalcidians in Thrace, says: "For they disregarded all the most excellent habits, rushing readily with great eagerness to drinking and laziness, and every sort of intemperance. And all the Thracians are addicted to drinking; on which account Callimachus says—

1. For he could hardly bear the Thracian way
2. Of drinking monstrous goblets at one draught;
3. And always did prefer a smaller cup."

And they live on the more sumptuous kind of food, lying down and drinking—and never doing anything at all worthy of the expense that they went to. So Cleomenes the tyrant stopped all this; he who also ordered the female pimps, who were accustomed to seduce free-born women, and also three or four of the most nobly born of those who had been induced to prostitute themselves, to be sewn in sacks and thrown into the sea.

The Illyrians both eat and drink in a sitting posture; and they take their wives to their entertainments; and it is reckoned a decorous custom for the women to pledge the guests who are present. And they lead home their husbands from their drinking parties; and they all live plainly, and when they drink, they girdle their s stomach with broad girdles, and at first they do so moderately; but when they drink more vehemently, then they keep contracting

v.2.p.700

their belt. And the Ariæans,

have three hundred thousand slaves whom they call prospelatæ, and who correspond to the Helots; and they get drunk every day, and make large entertainments, and are very intemperate in their eating and drinking. On which account the Celtæ when making war upon them, knowing their intemperance, ordered all the soldiers to prepare as superb a feast as possible in the tent, and to put in the food some medicinal herbs which had the power to gripe and purge the bowels exceedingly. And when this had been done . . . .And so some of them were taken by the Celtæ and put to death, and some threw themselves into the rivers, being unable to endure the pains which they were suffering in their stomachs.

Now, after Democritus had uttered all this long uninterrupted discourse, Pontianus said that wine was the metropolis of all these evils; and it was owing to this that drunkenness, and madness, and all sorts of debauchery took place; and that those people who were too much addicted to it were not unappropriately called rowers of cups, by that Dionysius who is surnamed the Brazen, in his Elegies, where he says—

1. And those who bring their wine in Bacchus' rowing,
2. Sailors through feasts, and rowers of large cups.

1. This then my son is such in disposition
2. As you have just beheld him. An Œnopion,
3. Or Maron, or Capelus, or Timoclees,
4. For he's a drunkard, nothing more nor less.
5. And for the other, what can I call him?
6. A lump of earth, a plough, an earth-born man.

1. Are you then full of such a quantity
2. Of unmix'd wine, and yet avoid to vomit?

1. Is not, then, drunkenness the greatest evil,
2. And most injurious to the human race?

1. For much wine is the cause of many crimes.

1. What pleasure, prithee tell me, can there be
2. In getting always drunk? in, while still living,
3. Yourself depriving thus of all your senses;
4. The greatest good which nature e'er has given?

A city which has been governed by a democracy,

when it has thirsted for freedom, if it meets with bad cupbearers to help it, and if, drinking of the desired draught too deeply, it becomes intoxicated, then punishes its magistrates if they are not very gentle indeed, and if they do not allow it a great deal of licence, blaming them as wicked and oligarchical; and those people who obey the magistrates it insults.

A city ought to be like a well-mixed goblet, in which the wine which is poured in rages; but being restrained by the opposite and sober deity, enters into a good partnership with it, and so produces a good and moderate drink.

For profligate debauchery is engendered by drunkenness. On which account Antiphanes, in his Arcadia, says—

1. For it, O father, never can become
2. A sober man to seek debauchery,
3. Nor yet to serious cares to give his mind,
4. When it is rather time to drink and feast.
5. But he that cherishes superhuman thoughts,
6. Trusting to small and miserable riches,
7. Shall at some future time himself discover
8. That he is only like his fellow-men,
9. If he looks, like a doctor, at the tokens,
10. And sees which way his veins go, up or down,
11. On which the life of mortal man depends.

1. Macareus, when smitten with unholy love
2. For one of his own sisters, for a while
3. Repress'd the evil thought, and check'd himself;
4. But after some short time he wine admitted
5. To be his general, under whose sole lead
6. Audacity takes the place of prudent counsel,
7. And so by night his purpose he accomplish'd.

1. And wine, the milk of Venus, sweet to drink;

But Hegesander the Delphian speaks of some men as ἔξοινοι; by which term he means, overtaken with wine; speaking thus:—

Comeon and Rhodophon being two of the ministers who managed the affairs of Rhodes, were both drunk; and Comeon attacking Rhodophon as a gambler, said—

1. O you old man, the crew of youthful gamblers
2. Beyond a doubt are pressing hard upon you.

And Rhodophon reproached him with his passion for women, and with his incontinence, abstaining from no sort of abuse.

When Hegesilochus had become perfectly useless, partly from drunkenness and gambling, and when he had utterly lost all credit among the Rhodians, and when instead his whole course of life was found fault with by his own companions and by the rest of the citizens.

And they violated a great number of nobly-born women, wives of the first men in the state; and they corrupted no small number of boys and young men; and they carried their profligacy to such a height that they even ventured to play with one another at dice for the free-born women, and they made a bargain which of the nobly-born matrons he who threw the lowest number on the dice should bring to the winner for the purpose of being ravished; allowing no exception at all; but the loser was bound to bring her to the place appointed, in whatever way he could, using persuasion, or even force if that was necessary. And some of the other Rhodians also played at dice in this fashion; but the most frequent and open of all the players in this way was Hegesilochus, who aspired to become the governor of the city.

And Antheas the Lindian, who claimed to be considered a relation of Cleobulus the philosopher, as Philodemus reports, in his treatise on the Sminthians in Rhodes, being an oldish man, and very rich, and being also an accomplished poet,

When Ulpian had heard all this he said,—Tell me, my good Pontianus, says he, in what author does the word πάροινος occur? And he replied—

1. You will undo me with your questions..

1. . . . . and your new fashion,
2. Always talking at an unseasonable time.

1. A Colchian man drunken and quarrelsome (πάροινος).

1. Or that great ox-goad, harder than Lycurgus's,
2. Who smote the ἀῤῥυθμόποται of Bacchus,
3. And threw their cups and brimming ladles down.

Anacharsis, you have married an ugly woman.

Indeed I think so too, but however now, give me, O boy, a cup of stronger wine, that I may make her out beautiful.

After this Ulpian, pledging one of his companions, said,—But, my dear friend, according to Antiphanes, who says, in his Countryman—

1. A. Shut now your eyes, and drink it all at once.
2. B. 'Tis a great undertaking.
3. A. Not for one
4. Who has experience in mighty draughts.

1. A. Let us not always drink

1. Full cups, but let some reason and discussion
2. Come in between, and some short pretty songs;
3. Let some sweet strophes sound. There is no work,
4. Or only one at least, I tell you true,
5. In which some variation is not pleasant.
6. B. Give me, then, now at once, I beg you, wine,
7. Strengthening the limbs (ἀρκεσίγυιον), as says Euripides—
8. A. Aye, did Euripides use such a word?
9. B. No doubt—who else?
10. A. It may have been Philoxenus,
11. 'Tis all the same; my friend, you now convict me,
12. Or seek to do so, for one syllable.

1. Take now this cup, and when you've taken, drink it (πῖθι),
2. And then ask me my name.

1. A. Still drink (πῖθι), I bid you.
2. B. I'll obey you, then,
3. For certainly a goblet's figure is
4. A most seductive shape, and fairly worthy
5. The glory of a festival. We have—
6. Have not we? (for it is not long ago)—
7. Drunk out of cruets of vile earthenware.
8. May the Gods now, my child, give happiness
9. And all good fortune to the clever workman
10. For the fair shape that he bestow'd on thee.

And Diphilus, in his Bath, says—

1. Fill the cup full, and hide the mortal part,
2. The goblet made by man, with godlike wine:
3. Drink (πῖθι); these are gifts, my father, given us
4. By the good Jove, who thus protects companionship.

1. When you have stirr'd the sea-hare, take and drink (πῖθι).

1. Away with you; have you ne'er drunk, O Sosilas?
2. Drink (πῖθι) now, I beg, for you are wondrous mad.

And in the future tense of πίνω, we should not read πιοῦμαι, but πιόμαι without the υ, lengthening the ι. And this is the way the future is formed in that line of Homer—

1. (πιόμενʼ ἐκ βοτάνης) Drank after feeding.

1. He ne'er shall drink (πίεται) of the same cup with me:

1. Thou shalt this day drink (πίει) the most bitter wine;

1. Nor he who drinks up (ἐκπίεται) all her property:

1. A. Drink (πῖε).
2. B. I will compel this wretch,
3. This sacrilegious wretch, to drink (πιεῖν) it first:

1. Pledge you (πρόπιθι) this man, that he may pledge another.

1. And do not chatter like the wave
2. Of the loud brawling sea, with that
3. Ever-loquacious Gastrodora,
4. Drinking the cup ἐπίστιος.

But do not you be afraid to drink; nor will you be in

1. Wine, the brave router of all melancholy,

But there is a peculiarity in the effects of the drink made from barley, which they call πῖνος, for they who get drunk on other intoxicating liquors fall on all parts of their body; they fall on the left side, on the right side, on their faces, and on their backs. But it is only those who get drunk on beer who fall on their backs, and lie with their faces upwards.

1. And not to drink the earthy beer (βρύτον).

1. And she did vomit wine as any Thracian
2. Might vomit beer (βρύτον), and played the wanton stooping.

1. And after this he drank his beer (βρύτον), and much
2. And loudly bragg'd in that most valiant house.

But they drink beer (βρύτον) made of roots, as the Thracians drink it made of barley.

They bruise barley so as to make a drink of it.

the Pæonians drink beer made of barley, and a liquor called παραβίη, made of millet and conyza. And they anoint themselves,

with oil made of milk.

1. But in our time dear to the thyrsus-bearers
2. Is rosy wine, and greatest of all gods
3. Is Bacchus.

1. For this is pretext fit for many a song;
2. The great assemblies of th' united Greeks,
3. The feasts of kings, do from this gift proceed,
4. Since first the vine, with hoary bunches laden,
5. Push'd from beneath the ground its fertile shoots,
6. Clasping the poplar in its firm embrace,
7. And from its buds burst forth a numerous race,

1. Crashing, as one upon the other press'd;
2. But when the noise has ceased they yield their juice,
3. Divinest nectar, which to mortal men
4. Is ever the sole remedy for care,
5. And common cause of joy and cheerfulness.
6. Parent of feasts, and laughter, and the dance,
7. Wine shows the disposition of the good,
8. And strengthens all their noble qualities.
9. Hail! then, O Bacchus, president of feasts,
10. Dear to all men who love the wreathed flowers;
11. Give us, kind God, an age of happiness,
12. To drink, and play, and cherish just designs.

But Amphis, in his Philadelphi, praising the life of those who are fond of drinking, says:—

1. For many causes do I think our life,
2. The life of those who drink, a happy one;
3. And happier far than yours, whose wisdom all
4. Lies in a stern and solemn-looking brow.
5. For that slow prudence which is always busy
6. In settling small affairs, which with minuteness,
7. And vain solicitude, keeps hunting trifles,
8. Fears boldly to advance in things of weight;
9. But our mind, not too fond of scrutinising
10. Th' exact result of every trifling measure,
11. Is ever for prompt deeds of spirit ready.