Deipnosophistae

But Homer, though he was well acquainted with the nature of perfume, has never introduced any of his heroes as perfumed except Paris; when he says,

glittering with beauty,

as in another place he says that Venus—

1. With every beauty every feature arms,
2. Bids her cheeks glow, and lights up all her charms.[*](Odyss. xviii. 191.)

Nor does he ever represent them as wearing crowns, although by some of his similes and metaphors he shows that he knew of garlands. At all events he speaks of

1. That lovely isle crown'd by the foaming waves,[*](Ib. x. 195.)

And again he says—

1. For all around the crown of battle swells.[*](Iliad, xiii. 736.)

We must remark, too, that in the Odyssey he represents his characters as washing their hands before they partake of food. But in the Iliad there is no trace of such a custom. For the life described in the Odyssey is that of men living easily and luxuriously owing to the peace; on which account the men of that time indulged their bodies with baths and washings. And that is the reason why in that state of things they play at dice, and dance, and play ball. But Herodotus is mistaken when he says that those sports were invented in he time of Atys to amuse the people during the famine. For the heroic times are older than Atys. And the men living in the time of the Iliad are almost constantly crying out—

1. Raise the battle cry so clear,
2. Prelude to the warlike spear.

Now to go back to what we were saying before. The Athenians made Aristonicus the Carystian, who used to play at ball with Alexander the king, a freeman of their city on account of his skill, and they erected a statue to him. And even in later times the Greeks considered all handicraft trades of much less importance than inventions which had any reference to amusement. And the people of Histiæa, and of Oreum, erected in their theatre a brazen statue holding a die in its hand to Theodorus the juggler. And on the same principle the Milesians erected one to Archelaus the harp- player. But at Thebes there is no statue to Pindar, though there is one to Cleon the singer, on which there is the inscription—

1. Stranger, thou seest Pytheas' tuneful son,
2. While living oft with victory's garlands crown'd,
3. Sweet singer, though on earth his race is run,
4. E'en the high heavens with his name resound.

Polemo relates that when Alexander razed Thebes to the ground, one man who escaped hid some gold in the garments of this statue, as they were hollow; and then when the city was restored he returned and recovered his money after a lapse of thirty years. But Herodotus, the logomime as he was called, and Archelaus the dancer, according! to Hegesander, were more honoured by Antiochus the king than any others of his friends. And Antiochus his father made the sons of Sostratus the flute-player his body guards.

And Matreas, the strolling player of Alexandria, was admired by both Greeks and Romans; and he said that he was cherishing a beast which was eating itself. So that even now it is disputed what that beast of Matreas's was. He used to propose ridiculous questions in parody of the doubt raised by Aristotle, and then he read them in public; as

Why is the

v.1.p.32

sun said to set, and not to dive?

why are sponges said to suck up, and not to drink?

and

why do we say of a tetra-drachm that it καταλλάττεται, [*](This is a pun which cannot be rendered in English,καταλλάσσομαι meaning to be changed, of money; and to be reconciled, of enemies.) when we never speak of its getting in a passion?

And the Athenians gave Pothimos the puppet-master the use of the very stage on which Euripides had exhibited his noble dramas. And they also erected a statue of Euripides in the theatre next to the statue of Aeschylus. Xenophon the conjuror, too, was very popular among them, who left behind him a pupil of the name of Cratisthenes, a citizen of Phlias; a man who used to make fire spout up of its own accord, and who contrived many other extraordinary sights, so as almost to make men discredit the evidence of their own senses. And Nymphodorus the conjuror was another such; a man who having quarrelled with the people of Rhegium, as Duris relates, was the first man who turned them into ridicule as cowards. And Eudicus the buffoon gained great credit by imitating wrestlers and boxers, as Aristoxenus relates. Straton of Tarentum, also, had many admirers; he was a mimic of the dithyrambic poets; and so had Aenonas the Italian, who mimicked the harp-players; and who gave representations of the Cyclops trying to sing, and of Ulysses when shipwrecked, speaking in a clownish fashion. And Diopeithes the Locrian, according to the account of Phanodemus, when he came to Thebes, fastened round his waist bladders full of wine and milk, and then, squeezing them, pretended that he was drawing up those liquids out of his mouth. And Noëmon gained a great reputation for the same sort of tricks.

There were also in Alexander's court the following jugglers, who had all a great name. Scymnus of Tarentum, and Philistides of Syracuse, and Heraclitus of Mitylene. And there were too some strolling players of high repute, such as Cephisodorus and Pantaleon. And Xenophon makes mention also of Philip the buffoon.