Quaestiones Graecae

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.

Question 19. What is the Anthedon of which Pythia speaks,

Drink wine on th’ lees, Anthedon’s not thy home?
For Anthedon in Boeotia did not produce much wine.

Solution. Of old they called Calauria Irene from a woman Irene, which they fable to be the daughter of Neptune and Melanthea, the daughter of Alpheus. Afterwards, when the people of Anthes and Hyperes planted there, they called the island Anthedonia and Hyperia. The oracle, as Aristotle saith, was this:

  • Drink wine on th’ lees, Anthedon’s not thy home,
  • Nor sacred Hypera where thou drank’st pure wine.
    • Thus Aristotle; but Mnasigeiton saith that Anthus, who was brother to Hypera, was lost when he was an infant, and Hypera rambling about to find him, came at Pherae to Acastus (or Adrastus), where by chance he found Anthus serving as a wine-drawer. There while they were feasting, the boy bringing a cup of wine to his sister, he knew her, and said to her softly,
    Drink wine on th’ lees, Anthedon’s not thy home.

    Question 20. What is that darkness at the oak, spoken of in Priene?

    Solution. The Samians and Prienians waging war with each other, as at other times they sufficiently injured each other, so at a certain great fight the Prienians slew a thousand of the Samians. Seven years after, fighting with the Milesians at the said oak, they lost all the principal and chief of their citizens together, at the time when Bias the Wise (who was sent ambassador from Priene to Samos) was famous. This grievous and sad calamity befalling the women, there was established an execration and oath—to be taken about matters of the greatest concern—by the Darkness at the Oak, because their children, fathers, and husbands were there slain.