Deipnosophistae

Themistocles received from the king of Persia Lampsacus, to supply him with wine; Magnesia, for bread; Myus, for meat; and Percope and Palæscepsis were to provide him with bedclothes and garments. The king moreover enjoined him to wear a cloak such as is worn by the barbarians, as he had previously bade Demaratus do; and he gave him the same presents as he had formerly given to Demaratus, and added also a robe such as is worn by the sons-in-law of the king, on condition of his never reassuming the Greek attire. And Cyrus the Great gave Pytharchus of Cyzicus, being a friend of his, seven cities, as is related by Agathocles of Babylon; namely, Pedasus, and Olympius, and Cama, and Tium, and Sceptra, and Artypsus, and Tortyra. But he, being made insolent and having his head turned by this liberality, attempted to make himself tyrant of his country, and collected an army for that purpose. On which the people of Cyzicus went out to battle against him, and attacked him eagerly, and so preserved their liberties.

Among the people of Lampsacus Priapus is held in high honour, being the same as Bacchus, and having this name Priapus only as an epithet, just as Thriambus and Dithyrambus are.

The Mitylenæans have a sweet wine which they call πρόδρομος, and others call it πρότροπος.

The Icarian wine, too, is held in high estimation, as Amphis says:—

1. Thurium gives the olive juice,
2. Lentils Gela's fields produce;
3. Icarian wine well merits praise,
4. And figs which the Cimolians raise.

the Athenian people did not like hard and sour poets, nor hard Pramnian wines, which contract the eyebrows and the stomach; but they prefer a fragrant wine, ripe, and flavoured like nectar.

But Didymus says that the Pramnian wine comes from a vine called Pramnian; and some say that the name means merely dark-coloured. But others affirm that it is a generic name for wine suitable for long keeping, as being παραμένιος, that is to say, such as can be kept. And some say that it is so called from πραΰνειν τὸ μένος, mollifying anger, because those who drink it become good-humoured.

Amphis praises also the wine which comes from the city of Acanthus, saying,—

1. A. Whence do you come, friend? speak.
2. B. From Acanthus I.
3. A. Acanthus? then I trow,
4. Since you're a countryman of wine so strong,
5. You must be fierce yourself;
6. Your country's name is thorny,[*](῎ἄκανθα is Greek for a thorn.) but I hope
7. Your manners are not quite so rough and prickly.

1. And foreign wine was there; for that from Corinth
2. Is painful drinking.

1. Drinking deep draughts of harsh Eubœan wine.

1. My spear finds corn, my spear finds wine,
2. From Ismarus; on my spear I dine,
3. And on it, when fatigued, recline.

1. The black Sciathian wine mix'd half and half,
2. Invites the traveller to halt and quaff.

1. He pledged him in a cup of Bibline wine.

1. I'll give you Lesbian, Chian wine,
2. Thasian, Mendæan, and Bibline;
3. Sweet wines, but none so strong and heady
4. As that you shall next day feel seedy.

But Epicharmus says that it is named from some mountains of a similar name. And Armenidas says that there is a district of Thrace called the Biblian, the same which was afterwards called Tisara, and Œsyma. And it was very natural for Thrace to be admired as a country producing fine wines; and indeed all the adjacent country deserves the same character.

1. Full of rich wine the ships from Lemnos came.

1. Drink wine where lees abound, since Fate has not
2. Placed you amid Anthedon's flowery plains,
3. Or in the streets of sacred Hypera,
4. Where purer wine abounds.

Aleman somewhere speaks of a wine as free from fire, and smelling of flowers, which is produced from the Five Hills, a place about seven furlongs from Sparta. And he mentions another wine which comes from Denthiades, a small fortress, and another from Œnus, and another from Onogle and Stathmi. And these places are all near Pitane. Accordingly, he says,

And wine from Œnus, or from Denthis, or from Carystus, or from Onoglæ, or from Stathmi.

free from fire

There is also a Rhodian wine, which Polyzelus calls αὐτίτης· [*](αἰτίτης, by itself, i.e. unmixed.) and another which Plato the comic writer calls καπνίας;[*](καπνίας,i.e. smoky.) and this wine is made in the greatest perfection at Beneventum, a city in Italy. But the wine Amphis is spoken of as a very poor wine by Sosicrates. The ancients used also a certain wine made of spices, which they called τρίμμα. But Theophrastus, in his History of Plants, says, that a wine is made in Heræa in Arcadia which, when it is drunk, drives men out of their senses, and makes women inclined to preg- nancy: and that around Cerunia in Achaia there is a kind of vine, from which a wine is made which has a tendency to cause abortion in pregnant women; and if they eat the grapes too, says he, they miscarry;—and the Trœzenian wine, he says, makes those who drink it barren: and at Thasos,

But concerning the manufacture of scented wine, Phanias of Eresus says,

There is infused into the wine one portion of sea-water to fifty of wine, and that becomes scented wine.

Scented wine is made stronger of young than of old vines;

Having trodden on the unripe grapes they put the wine away, and it becomes scented.

the wine at Thasos, which is given in the prytaneum, is wonderfully delicious; for it is well seasoned; for they knead up dough with honey, and put that into the earthen jars; so that the wine receives fragrance from itself, and sweetness from the honey.

If any one mixes harsh wine which has no smell with soft and fragrant wine, such, for instance, as the Heraclean wine with that of Erythræ, softness is derived from the one, and wholesomeness from the other.

1. A tasteless, dry, and foolish wine
2. I consider the myrrhine.

The bard of Ceos says—

1. 'Tis not enough to mix your wine with taste,
2. Unless sweet converse seasons the repast;
3. And Bacchus' gifts well such regard deserve,
4. That we should e'en the stones of grapes preserve.

Now of wines some are white, some yellow, and some red. The white is the thinnest in its nature, diuretic, and warm; and being a promoter of digestion it causes a heat in the head; for it is a wine which has a tendency to move upwards. But of red wine that which is not sweet is very nutritious, and is astringent; but that which is sweet (as is the case with even white and yellow wine also) is the most nutrition of all: for it softens all the ducts and passages, and thickens the fluid parts of the body, and does not at all confuse the head. For in reality the nature of sweet wine lingers about the ribs, and engenders spittle, as Diodes and Praxagoras asset. But Mnesitheus the Athenian says,

Red wine is the mot nutritious; but white is the most diuretic and the thinnest; and the

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yellow is a dry wine, and that which most assists in the digestion of the food.

Now the wines which have been very carefully prepared with sea-water never cause headaches; and they open the bowels, and sometimes gripe the stomach, and produce flatulency, and assist in the digestion of food. Of this character is the Myndian wine, and that of Halicarnassus. And so Menippus the Cynic calls Myndus

brine-drinking.

1. Oh thou my tongue, whom silence long hath bound,
2. How wilt thou bear this tale of thine t' unfold?
3. Hard is their fate to whom compulsion stern
4. Leaves no alternative; which now compels thee
5. To open what thy lord would fain conceal.

The Mareotic wine, which comes from Alexandria, had its name from a fountain in the district of Alexandria called Marea; and from a town of the same name which was close to it; which was formerly a place of great importance, but is now reduced to a petty village. And the fountain and town derived their name from Maro, who was one of the companions of Bacchus in his expedition. And there are many vines in that country, which produce grapes very good to eat when raw, and the wine which is made from them is excellent. For it is white, and sweet, and good for the breath, and digestible, and then, it never produces any ill effect on the head, and is diuretic. And still better than this is the wine called Tæniqtic. The word ταινία means a riband; and there is in that district a long narrow riband of land, the wines produced from which are of a slightly green colour, with something oily in them, which is quickly dissolved when it is mixed with water; just as the Attic honey is dissolved by the same process. This Tæniotic wine, in addition to being sweet, has something aromatic in it, of a slightly astringent character. But there are vines near the Nile in great quantities as far as the river extends; and there are many peculiarities in those vines, both a to their colour and as to their use. However, the best of all the wines made in that district is that made near the city of Antylla (which is not far from Alexandria), the revenues fro which the kings of those ages, both the Egyptian and Persian kings, used to give to their wives for pin-money. But the wine which is made in the Thebais, especially that near the city Coptos, is light, and easy of digestion, and also so great an assistant in

1. You praise yourself, as does Astydamas, woman!

Theopompus the Chian says, that the vine is found at Olympia, near the Alpheus; and that there is a place about eight furlongs from Elis where the natives at the time of the Dionysian games close up three empty brazen vessels, and seal them in the presence of all the people round about; and at a subsequent time they open them and find them full of wine. But Hellanicus says, that the vine was first discovered in Plinthina, a city of Egypt; on which account Dion, the academic philosopher, calls the Egyptians fond of wine and fond of drinking: and also, that as subsidiary to wine, in the case of those who, on account of their poverty, could not get wine, there was introduced a custom of drinking beer made of barley; and moreover, that those who drank this beer were so pleased with it that they sung and danced, and did everything like men drunk with wine. Now Aristotle says, that men who are drunk with wine show it in their faces; but that those who have drunk too much beer fall back and go to sleep; for wine is stimulating, but beer has a tendency to stupefy.

Now that the Egyptians really are fond of wine this is a proof, that they are the only people among whom it is a custom at their feasts to eat boiled cabbages before all the rest of their food; and even to this very time they do so. And many people add cabbage seed to potions which they prepare as preventives against drunkenness. And wherever a vineyard has cabbages growing in it, there the wine is weaker. On which account the citizens of Sybaris also, as Timmeus says, used to eat cabbages before drinking. And so Alexis says—

1. Last evening you were drinking deep,
2. So now your head aches. Go to sleep;
3. Take some boil'd cabbage when you wake;
4. And there's an end of your headache.

1. Wife, quick! some cabbage boil, of virtues healing,
2. That I may rid me of this seedy feeling.

1. We call it ῥάφανος, and strangers κράμβη;
2. But sure to women they must both the same be.

1. If you butter and cabbage eat,
2. All distempers you will beat,
3. Driving off all headaches horrid,
4. And clouds which hover round your forehead.

1. Instead of cabbage, acorns boil to-morrow,
2. Which equally rid you of all your sorrow.

1. When one's been drunk, the best relief I know
2. Is stern misfortune's unexpected blow;
3. For that at once all languor will dispel,
4. As sure as cabbage.

THE conversation which you reported to me did not allow me to give up a considerable portion of the day to sleep, as it was of a very varied nature.

Nicander of Colophon says that wine, οἶνος, has its name from Œneus:—

1. Œneus pour'd the juice divine
2. In hollow cups, and called it wine.

1. 'Twas Œneus, master, gave his name to wine.

Orestheus, the son of Deucalion, came to Aetolia to endeavour to obtain the kingdom; and while he was there, a bitch which he had brought forth a stalk: and he ordered it to be buried in the ground, and from it

v.1.p.58

there sprang up a vine loaded with grapes. On which account he called his son Phytius. And he had a son named Œneus, who was so called from the vines: for the ancient Greeks,

called vines οἶναι. Now Œneus was the father of Aetolus.

1. And then you will be succour'd (ὀνήσεαι) if you drink.

Now the author of the Cyprian poems, whoever he was, says—

1. No better remedies than wine there are,
2. O king, to drive away soul-eating care.

1. O Bacchus, to all wise men dear,
2. How very kind you do appear;
3. You make the lowly-hearted proud,
4. And bid the gloomy laugh aloud;
5. You fill the feeble man with daring,
6. And cowards strut and bray past bearing.

1. Good store of wine which makes men talk.

1. Laughter and wisdom and prudence and learning.

1. Youth of indomitable might,
2. With head of bull; the loveliest wight
3. Who ever rank'd as Love's esquire,
4. Filling men with strength and fire.

1. Great was the blessing, when the gods did show
2. Sweet wine to those who how to use it know;
3. But where bad men its righteous use pervert,
4. To such, I trow, it will be rather hurt.
5. For to the first it nourishment supplies,
6. Strengthens their bodies, and their minds makes wise;
7. A wholesome physic 'tis when mix'd with potions,
8. Heals wounds as well as plasters or cold lotions.
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9. Wine to our daily feasts brings cheerful laughter,
10. When mix'd with proper quantities of water;
11. Men saucy get if one-third wine they quaff;
12. While downright madness flows from half-and-half;
13. And neat wine mind and body too destroys;
14. While moderation wise secures our joys.
15. And well the oracle takes this position,
16. That Bacchus is all people's best physician.

And Eubulus introduces Bacchus as saying—

1. Let them three parts of wine all duly season
2. With nine of water, who'd preserve their reason;
3. The first gives health, the second sweet desires,
4. The third tranquillity and sleep inspires.
5. These are the wholesome draughts which wise men please,
6. Who from the banquet home return in peace.
7. From a fourth measure insolence proceeds;
8. Uproar a fifth, a sixth wild licence breeds;
9. A seventh brings black eyes and livid bruises,
10. The eighth the constable next introduces;
11. Black gall and hatred lurk the ninth beneath,
12. The tenth is madness, arms, and fearful death;
13. For too much wine pour'd in one little vessel,
14. Trips up all those who seek with it to wrestle.

1. A. Sacrifices feasts produce,
2. Drinking then from feasts proceeds.
3. B. Such rotation has its use.
4. A. Then the drinking riot breeds;
5. Then on riot and confusion
6. Follow law and prosecution;
7. Law brings sentence; sentence chains;
8. Chains bring wounds and ulcerous pains.

1. O'er the first glass the Graces three preside,
2. And with the smiling Hours the palm divide;
3. Next Bacchus, parent of the sacred vine,
4. And Venus, loveliest daughter of the brine,
5. Smile on the second cup, which cheers the heart,
6. And bids the drinker home in peace depart.
7. But the third cup is waste and sad excess,
8. Parent of wrongs, denier of redress;
9. Oh, who can tell what evils may befall
10. When Strife and Insult rage throughout the hall?
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11. Content thee, then, my friend, with glasses twain;
12. Then to your home and tender wife again;
13. While your companions, with unaching heads,
14. By your example taught, will seek their beds.
15. But riot will be bred by too much wine,
16. A mournful ending for a feast divine;
17. While, then, you live, your thirst in bounds confine.

1. For Insolence and Ruin follow it.

1. Drinking is sire of blows and violence.

And Alexis says somewhere—

1. Man's nature doth in much resemble wine:
2. For young men and new wine do both need age
3. To ripen their too warm unseason'd strength,
4. And let their violence evaporate.
5. But when the grosser portions are worked off,
6. And all the froth is skilsm'd, then both are good';
7. The wine is drinkable, the man is wise,
8. And both in future pleasant while they last.

1. Wine is like fire when 'tis to man applied,
2. Or like the storm that sweeps the Libyan tide;
3. The furious wind the lowest depths can reach,
4. And wine robs man of knowledge, sense, and speech.

1. A. Man in no one respect resembles wine:
2. For man by age is made intolerable;
3. But age improves all wine.
4. B. Yes; for old wines cheer us,
5. But old men only snarl, abuse, and jeer us.

1. Wine is like fire, an aid and sweet relief,
2. Wards off all ills, and comforts every grief;
3. Wine can of every feast the joys enhance,
4. It kindles soft desire, it leads the dance.
5. Think not then, childlike, much of solid food,
6. But stick to wine, the only real good.

1. Good wine's the gift which God has given
2. To man alone beneath the heaven;
3. Of dance and song the genial sire,
4. Of friendship gay and soft desire;
5. Yet rule it with a tighten'd rein,
6. Nor moderate wisdom's rules disdain;
7. For when uncheck'd there's nought runs faster,—
8. A useful slave, but cruel master.

Timæus of Tauromenium relates that there was a certain house at Agrigentum called the Trireme, on this account:— Some young men got drunk in it, and got so mad when excited by the wine, as to think that they were sailing in a trireme, and that they were being tossed about on the sea m a violent storm; and so completely did they lose their senses, that they threw all the furniture, and all the sofas and chairs and beds, out of window, as if they were throwing them into the sea, fancying that the captain had ordered them to lighten the ship because of the storm. And though a crowd collected round the house and began to plunder what was thrown out, even that did not cure the young men of their frenzy. And the next day, when the prætors came to the house, there were the young men still lying, sea-sick as they said; and, when the magistrates questioned them, they replied that they had been in great danger from a storm, and had consequently been compelled to lighten the ship by throwing all their superfluous cargo into the sea. Arid while the magistrates marvelled at the bewilderment of the men, one of them, who seemed to be older than the rest, said,

I, O Tritons, was so frightened that I threw myself down under the benches, and lay there as low down and as much out of sight as I could.

If we arrive in port after having escaped this terrible storm, we will erect in our own country statues of you as our saviours in a conspicuous place, along with those of the other gods of the sea, as having appeared to us at a seasonable time.

But Philochorus says that men who drink hard do not only show what sort of disposition they themselves are of, but

1. Wine and truth;[*](We find something like this in Theoc. xxix. 1. οἶνος, ὦ φίλε παῖ, λέγεται καὶ ἀλάθεα. )

1. Wine lays bare the heart of man.

they are speaking from the tripod;

1. They pour'd the water in a three-legg'd bowl,
2. Which always has its place upon the fire:

1. And seven fireless tripods.

A brazen tripod, not the Pythian one, but that which they now call a bowl. And of these bowls some were never put on the fire, and men mixed their wine in them; and the others held water for baths, and in them they warmed the water, putting them on the fire; and of these some had ears, and having their bottom supported by three feet they were called tripods.

Ephippus says somewhere or other—

1. A. That load of wine makes you a chatterer.
2. B. That's why they say that drunken men speak truth.

1. There are only two secrets a man cannot keep,
2. One when he's in love, t' other when he's drunk deep:
3. For these facts are so proved by his tongue or his eyes,
4. That we see it more plainly the more he denies.

And Philochorus relates that Amphictyon, the king of the Athenians, having learnt of Bacchus the art of mixing wine,

1. Wine sometimes than honey sweeter,
2. Sometimes more than nettles bitter.

1. Fierce bulls, their passion with their horns displaying.

Well was it then that Ariston the Chian said that that was the most agreeable drink which partook at the same time of both sweetness and fragrance; for which reason some people prepare what is called nectar about the Olympus which is in Lydia, mixing wine and honeycombs and the most fragrant flowers together. Though I am aware indeed that Anaxandrides says that nectar is not the drink, but the meat of the gods:—

1. Nectar I eat, and well do gnaw it;
2. Ambrosia drink, (you never saw it);
3. I act as cupbearer to Jove,
4. And chat to Juno—not of love;
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5. And oftentimes I sit by Venus,
6. With marplot none to come between us.

1. Nectar they eat at will.

1. The goblets rich were with ambrosia crown'd,
2. Which Hermes bore to all the gods around.

1. One fond of wine must be an honest man;
2. For Bacchus, for his double mother famed,
3. Loves not bad men, nor uninstructed clowns,

If with water you fill up your glasses,

You'll never write anything wise

But wine is the horse of Parnassus,

That carries a bard to the skies.

And this was Cratinus's thought,

Who was ne'er with one bottle content,

But stuck to his cups as he ought,

And to Bacchus his heart and voice lent.

His house all with garlands did shine,

And with ivy he circled his brow,

To show he nought worshipp'd but wine,

As, if he still lived, he'd do now.

Polemo says that in Munychia a hero is honoured of the name of Acratopotes:[*](ʼἀκρατοπότης, drinker of unmixed wine.) and that among the Spartans statues of the heroes Matton and Ceraon were erected by some cooks in the hall of the Phiditia.[*](φειδίτια was the Spartan name for the συσσίτια. Vide Smith, Diet. Ant. p. 928. b. ) And in Achaia a hero is honoured called Deipneus, having his name from δεῖπνον, a supper. But from a dry meal there arise no jokes, nor extempore poems, though, on the other hand, such an one does not cause any boasting or insolence of mind; so that it is well said—

1. Where are the empty boasts which Lemnos heard
2. When season'd dishes press'd the ample board,
3. When the rich goblets overflow'd with wine?

On which account Bacchylides says:—

1. Sweet force, from wine proceeding,
2. Now warms my soul with love,
3. And on my spirit leading,
4. With hopes my heart does move.
5. It drives dull care away,
6. And laughs at walls and towers;
7. And bids us think and say,
8. That all the world is ours.
9. The man who drinks plenty of wine,
10. Will never for wealth be wishing;
11. For his cellar's a ceaseless mine,
12. And an undisturb'd heart he is rich in.

1. Drinking is a cure for woe.

1. Fruit of the field, which makes the heart to leap.

1. Let generous food supplies of strength produce,
2. Let rising spirits flow from sprightly juice,
3. Let their warm heads with scenes of battle glow,[*](Iliad, xvii. 180.)