Deipnosophistae

And Theophrastus, in his essay on Drunkenness, says—

The unmixed wine which is given at a banquet, which they call the pledge-cup in honour of the Good Deity, they offer in small quantities, as if reminding the guests of its strength,

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and of the liberality of the god, by the mere taste. And they hand it round when men are already full, in order that there may be as little as possible drunk out of it. And having paid adoration three times, they take it from the table, as if they were entreating of the gods that nothing may be done unbecomingly, and that they may not indulge in immoderate desires for this kind of drink, and that they may derive only what is honourable and useful from it.

And Philochorus, in the second book of his Atthis, says—

And a law was made at that time, that after the solid food is removed, a taste of the unmixed wine should be served round as a sort of sample of the power of the Good Deity, but that all the rest of the wine should be previously mixed; on which account the Nymphs had the name given them of Nurses of Bacchus.

And that when the pledge-cup to the Good Deity was handed round, it was customary to remove the tables, is made plain by the wicked action of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. For there was a table of gold placed before the statue of Aesculapius at Syracuse; and so Dionysius, standing before it, and drinking a pledge-cup to the Good Deity, ordered the table to be removed.

But among the Greeks, those who sacrifice to the Sun, as Phylarchus tells us in the twelfth book of his History, make their libations of honey, as they never bring wine to the altars of the gods; saying that it is proper that the god who keeps the whole universe in order, and regulates everything, and is always going round and superintending the whole, should in no respect be connected with drunkenness.

Most writers have mentioned the Attic Scolia; and they are worthy also of being mentioned by me to you, on account of the antiquity and simple style of composition of the authors, and of those especially who gained a high reputation for that description of poetry, Alcæus and Anacreon; as Aristophanes says in his Daitaleis, where we find this line—

1. Come, then. a scolium sing to me,
2. Of old Alcæus or Anacreon.

Praxilla, the Sicyonian poetess, was also celebrated for the composition of scolia. Now they are called scolia, not because of the character of the verse in which they are written, as if it were σκολιὸς (crooked); for men call also those poems written in a laxer kind of metre σκολιά. But,

as there are three kinds of songs

(as Artemo of Cassandra says in the second book of his treatise on the Use of Books),

one or other of which comprehends everything which is sung at banquets; the first kind is that which it was usual for the whole party to sing; the second is that which the whole party indeed sang, not, however, together, but going round according to some kind of succession; the third is that which is ranked lowest of all, which was not sung by all the guests, but only by those who seemed to understand what was to be done, wherever they might happen to be sitting; on which account, as having some irregularity in it beyond what the other kinds had, in not being sung by all the guests, either together or in any definite kind of succession, but just as it might happen, it was called σκολιόν. And songs of this kind were sung when the ordinary songs, and those in which every one was bound to join, had come to an end. For then they invited all the more intelligent of the guests to sing some song worth listening to. And what they thought worth listening to were such songs as contained some exhortations and sentiments which seemed useful for the purposes of life.

And of these Deipnosophists, one quoted one scolium, and one another. And these were those which were recited—

O thou Tritonian Pallas, who from heaven above

Look'st with protecting eye

On this holy city and land,

Deign our protectress now to prove

From loss in war, from dread sedition's band,

And death's untimely blow, thou and thy father Jove.

I sing at this glad season, of the Queen,

Mother of Plutus, heavenly Ceres;

May you be ever near us,

You and your daughter Proserpine,

And ever as a friend

This citadel defend.

Latona once in Delos, as they say,

Did two great children bear,

Apollo with the golden hair,

Bright Phœbus, god of day.

And Dian, mighty huntress, virgin chaste.

On whom all women's trust is placed.

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Raise the loud shout to Pan, Arcadia's king;

Praise to the Nymphs' loved comrade sing!

Come, O Pan, and raise with me

The song in joyful ecstasy.

We have conquer'd as we would,

The gods reward us as they should,

And victory bring from Pandrosos[*](Pandrosos, according to Athenian mythology, was a daughter of Cecrops and Agraulos. She was worshipped at Athens, and had a temple near that of Minerva Polias.—Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Biog.) to Pallas.

Oh, would the gods such grace bestow,

That opening each man's breast,

One might survey his heart, and know

How true the friendship that could stand that test.

Health's the best gift to mortal given;

Beauty is next; the third great prize

Is to grow rich, free both from sin and vice;

The fourth, to pass one's youth with friends beloved by heaven.

And when this had been sung, and everybody had been delighted with it; and when it had been mentioned that even the incomparable Plato had spoken of this scolium as one most admirably written, Myrtilus said, that Anaxandrides the-comic poet had turned it into ridicule in his Treasure, speaking thus of it—

1. The man who wrote this song, whoe'er he was,
2. When he call'd health the best of all possessions,
3. Spoke well enough. But when the second place
4. He gave to beauty, and the third to riches,
5. He certainly was downright mad; for surely
6. Riches must be the next best thing to health,
7. For who would care to be a starving beauty

After that, these other scolia were sung—

'Tis well to stand upon the shore,

And look on others on the sea;

But when you once have dipp'd your oar,

By the present wind you must guided be.

A crab caught a snake in his claw,

And thus he triumphantly spake,—

'My friends must be guided by law,

Nor love crooked counsels to take.

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I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle bough,

The sword that laid the tyrant low,

When patriots, burning to be free,

To Athens gave equality.[*](It is hardly necessary to say that this beautiful translation is by Lord Denman. It is given also at p. 176 of the translation of the Greek Anthology in this series.)

Harmodius, hail! though reft of breath,

Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death,

The happy heroes' isles shall be

The bright abode allotted thee.

I'll wreathe the sword in myrtle bough,

The sword that laid Hipparchus low,

When at Minerva's adverse fane

He knelt, and never rose again.

While Freedom's name is understood,

You shall delight the wise and good;

You dared to set your country free,

And gave her laws equality.

Learn, my friend, from Admetus' story,

All worthy friends and brave to cherish;

But cowards shun when danger comes,

For they will leave you alone to perish.

Ajax of the ponderous spear mighty son of Telamon,

They call you bravest of the Greeks, next to the great Achilles,

Telamon came first, and of the Greeks the second man

Was Ajax, and with him there came invincible Achilles.

Would that I were an ivory lyre,

Struck by fair boys to great Iacchus' taste;

Or golden trinket pure from fire,

Worn by a lady fair, of spirit chaste.

Drink with me, and sport with me,

Love with me, wear crowns with me,

Be mad with me when I am moved with rage,

And modest when I yield to counsels sage.

A scorpion 'neath every stone doth lie,

And secrets usually hide treachery.

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A sow one acorn has, and wants its brother;

And I have one fair maid, and seek another.

A wanton and a bath-keeper both cherish the same fashion,

Giving the worthless and the good the self-same bath to wash in.

Give Cedon wine, O slave, and fill it up,

If you must give each worthy man a cup.

Alas! Leipsydrium, you betray

A host of gallant men,

Who for their country many a day

Have fought, and would again.

And even when they fell, their race

In their great actions you may trace.[*](This refers to the Alcmæonidæ, who, flying from the tyranny of Hippias, after the death of Hipparchus, seized on and fortified the town Leipsydrium, on Mount Parnes, and were defeated and taken by the Pisistratidæ.—See Herod. v. 62.)

The man who never will betray his friend,

Earns fame of which nor earth nor heaven shall see the end.

Some also call that a scolium which was composed by Hybrias the Cretan; and it runs thus—

I have great wealth, a sword, and spear,

And trusty shield beside me here;

With these I plough, and from the vine

Squeeze out the heart-delighting wine;

They make me lord of everything.

But they who dread the sword and spear,

And ever trusty shield to bear,

Shall fall before me on their knees,

And worship me whene'er I please,

And call me mighty lord and king.

After this, Democritus said;—But the song which was composed by that most learned writer, Aristotle, and addressed to Hermias[*](Hermias was tyrant of Atarneus and Assos, having been originally the minister of Eubulus, whom he succeeded. He entertained Aristotle at his court for many years. As he endeavoured to maintain his kingdom in independence of Persia, they sent Mentor against him, who decoyed him to an interview by a promise of safe conduct, and then seized him and sent him to Artaxerxes, by whom he was put to death.) of Atarneus, is not a pæan, as was asserted by Demophilus, who instituted a prosecution against the philosopher, on the ground of impiety (having been suborned to act

the part of accuser by Eurymedon, who was ashamed to appear himself in the business). And he rested the charge of impiety on the fact of his having been accustomed to sing at banquets a pæan addressed to Hermias. But that this song has no characteristic whatever of a paean, but is a species of scolium, I will show you plainly from its own language—

1. O virtue, never but by labour to be won,
2. First object of all human life,
3. For such a prize as thee
4. There is no toil, there is no strife,
5. Nor even death which any Greek would shun;
6. Such is the guerdon fair and free,
7. And lasting too, with which thou dost thy followers grace,—
8. Better than gold,
9. Better than sleep, or e'en the glories old
10. Of high descent and noble race.
11. For you Jove's mighty son, great Hercules,
12. Forsook a life of ease;
13. For you the Spartan brothers twain
14. Sought toil and danger, following your behests
15. With fearless and unwearied breasts.
16. Your love it was that fired and gave
17. To early grave
18. Achilles and the giant son
19. Of Salaminian Telamon.
20. And now for you Atarneus' pride,
21. Trusting in others' faith, has nobly died;
22. But yet his name
23. Shall never die, the Muses' holy train
24. Shall bear him to the skies with deathless fame,
25. Honouring Jove, the hospitable god,
26. And honest hearts, proved friendship's blest abode.

Now I don't know whether any one can detect in this any resemblance to a paean, when the author expressly states in it that Hermias is dead, when he says—

1. And now for you Atarneus' pride,
2. Trusting in others' faith, has nobly died.

Nor has the song the burden, which all paeans have, of Io Paean, as that song written on Lysander the Spartan, which really is a paean, has; a song which Duris, in his book entitled The Annals of the Samians, says is sung in Samos. That also was a pæan which was written in honour of Craterus the Macedonian, of which Alexinus the logician was the author, as Hermippus the pupil of Callimachus says in the first book of his Essay on Aritotle. And this song is sung at Delphi, with a boy playing the lyre as an accompaniment to it. The song, too, addressed to Agemon of Corinth, the father of Alcyone, which the Corinthians sang, contains the burden of the paean. And this burden, too, is even added by Polemo Periegetes to his letter addressed to Aranthius. The song also which the Rhodians sing, addressed to Ptolemy the first king of Egypt, is a paean: for it contains the burden Io Paean, as Georgus tells us in his essay on the Sacrifices at Rhodes. And Philochorus says that the Athenians sing paeans in honour of Antigonus and Demetrius, which were composed by Hermippus of Cyzicus, on an occasion when a great many poets had a contest as to which could compose the finest paean, and the victory was adjudged to Hermippus. And, indeed, Aristotle himself, in his Defence of himself from this accusation of impiety, (unless the speech is a spurious one,) says—

For if I had wished to offer sacrifice to Hermias as an immortal being, I should never have built him a tomb as a mortal; nor if I had wished to make him out to be a god, should I have honoured him with funeral obsequies like a man.

When Democritus had said this, Cynulcus said;;—Why do you remind me of those cyclic poems, to use the words of your friend Philo, when you never ought to say anything serious or important in the presence of this glutton Ulpian? For he prefers lascivious songs to dignified ones; such, for instance, as those which are called Locrian songs, which are of a debauched sort of character, such as—

1. Do you not feel some pleasure now?
2. Do not betray me, I entreat you.
3. Rise up before the man comes back,
4. Lest he should ill-treat you and me.
5. 'Tis morning now, dost thou not see
6. The daylight through the windows?

And all Phœnicia is full of songs of this kind; and he him- self, when there, used to go about playing on the flute with the men who sing colabri.[*](Colabri were a sort of song to which the armed dance called κολαβρισμὸς was danced.) And there is good authority, Ulpian, for this word κόλαβροι. For Demetrius the Scepsian, in the tenth book of his Trojan Array, speaks thus:— "Ctesiphon the Athenian, who was a composer of the songs called κόλαβροι, was made by Attalus, who succeeded Philetærus as king of Pergamus, judge of all his subjects in the Aeolian district." And the same writer, in the nineteenth book of the same work, says that Seleucus the composer of merry songs was the son of Mnesiptolemus, who was an historian, and who had great interest with that Antiochus who was surnamed the Great. And it was very much the fashion to sing this song of his—

1. I will choose a single life,
2. That is better than a wife;
3. Friends in war a man stand by,
4. While the wife stays at home to cry.