Deipnosophistae

1. But a wise poet should behave
2. Like one who gives a splendid feast;
3. And so if he is wise should he
4. Seek the spectators to delight,
5. So that each one, when he departs,
6. May think that he has drunk and eaten
7. Exactly what he'd most have wish'd;
8. Not that there should have been but one
9. Dish for all sorts of appetites,
10. Or but one kind of writing for all tastes.

These, my good friend Timocrates, are the words of Astydamas the tragedian, in his satyric drama of Hercules. Come, let us now proceed to mention what is consistent with what we have said before, to show how great an eater Hercules was. And this is a point in his character mentioned by nearly all poets and historians. Epicharmus, in his Busiris, says—

1. For if you were to see him eat, you would
2. Be frighten'd e'en to death; his jaws do creak,
3. His throat with long deep-sounding thunder rolls,
4. His large teeth rattle, and his dog-teeth crash,
5. His nostrils hiss, his ears with hunger tremble.

1. And then, excited by th' applause, he rose
2. And swallow'd all the logs and burning coals.

And Hercules is represented as having entered into a contest with Lepreus in respect of their mutual powers of eating, Lepreus having been the challenger: however, Hercules gained the victory. But Zenodotus, in the second book of his Epitomes, says that Lepreus was the son of Caucon, who was the son of Neptune and Astydamia; and that he ordered Hercules to be thrown into prison, when he demanded of Augeas the reward which was due to him for his labours. But Hercules, when he had completed his labours, came to the house of Caucon, and at the entreaty of Astydamia, he became reconciled to Lepreus. And after this Lepreus contended with Hercules in throwing the quoit, and in drawing water, and also as to which would eat a bull with the greatest rapidity; and in all these things he was defeated. And after that he armed himself, and challenged Hercules to single combat, and was slain in the battle. But Matris, in his panegyric on Hercules, says, that Hercules was also challenged by Lepreus to a contest as to who could drink most, and that Lepreus was again defeated. And the Chian orator, Caucalus, the brother of Theopompus the historian, relates the same story in his panegyric on Hercules.

Homer, too, represents Ulysses as a great eater, and a very voracious man, when he says—

1. What histories of toil I could declare,
2. But still long-wearied nature wants repair.[*](The passage from Pindar is hopelessly corrupt.)
3. Spent with fatigue and shrunk with pining fast,
4. My craving bowels still require repast;
5. Howe'er the noble suffering mind may grieve
6. Its load of anguish, and disdain to live,
7. Necessity demands our daily bread;
8. Hunger is insolent and will be fed.

1. For all my mind is overwhelm'd with care,
2. But hunger is the worst of griefs to bear;
3. Still does my stomach bid me eat and drink,
4. Lest on my sorrows I too deeply think.
5. Food makes me all my sufferings forget,
6. And fear not those which may surround me yet.

1. Voraciously he endless dishes ate,
2. And quaff'd unceasing cups of wine. . .

But Theagenes of Thasos, the athlete, ate a bull single-handed, as Posidippus tells us in his Epigrams.

1. And as I'd undertaken, I did eat
2. A Thracian bull. My own poor native land
3. Of Thasos could not have purvey'd a meal
4. Sufficient for the hunger of Theagenes.
5. I ate all I could get, then ask'd for more.
6. And, therefore, here you see, I stand in brass,
7. Holding my right hand forth; put something in it.

1. Milo could lift enormous weights from earth,
2. A heifer four years old, at Jove's high feast,
3. And on his shoulders the huge beast he bore,
4. As it had been a young and little lamb,
5. All round the wondering crowd of standers by.
6. But he did still a greater feat than this,
v.2.p.651
7. Before the altar of Olympian Jove;
8. For there he bore aloft an untamed bull
9. In the procession, then he cut it up,
10. And by himself ate every bit of it.

And there is nothing unnatural in such men as those being very voracious; for all the men who practise athletic exercises, learn with these gymnastic exercises also to eat a great deal. On which account Euripides says, in the first edition of his Autolycus—

1. For when there are ten thousand ills in Greece,
2. There's none that's worse than the whole race of athletes.
3. For, first of all, they learn not to live well,
4. Nor could they do so; for could any man
5. Being a slave to his own jaws and appetite
6. Acquire wealth beyond his father's riches
7. How could a man like that increase his substance?
8. Nor yet can they put up with poverty,
9. Or e'er accommodate themselves to fortune;
10. And so being unaccustom'd to good habits,
11. They quickly fall into severe distress.—
12. In youth they walk about in fine attire,
13. And think themselves a credit to the city;
14. But when old age in all its bitterness
15. O'ertakes their steps, they roam about the streets,
16. Like ragged cloaks whose nap is all worn off.
17. And much I blame the present fashions, too,
18. Which now in Greece prevail; where many a feast
19. Is made to pay great honour to such men,
20. And to show false respect to vain amusements.
21. For though a man may wrestle well, or run,
22. Or throw a quoit, or strike a heavy blow,
23. Still where's the good his country can expect
24. From all his victories and crowns and prizes?
25. Will they fight with their country's enemies
v.2.p.652
26. With quoit in hand? Or will their speed assist
27. To make the hostile bands retreat before them?
28. When men stand face to face with th' hostile sword
29. They think no more of all these fooleries.
30. 'Twere better to adorn good men and wise
31. With these victorious wreaths; they are the due
32. Of those who govern states with wisdom sound,
33. And practise justice, faith, and temperance;
34. Who by their prudent language ward off evils,
35. Banishing wars and factions. These are the men,
36. Who're not alone a grace and ornament
37. To their own land, but to the whole of Greece.

Now Euripides took all this from the Elegies of Xenophanes the Colophonian, who has spoken in this way—

1. But if a man, in speed of foot victorious,
2. Or in the contests of the pentathlum,
3. Where is the sacred grove of Jupiter,
4. Near to the sacred streamlets of Olympia;
5. Or as a wrestler, or exchanging blows
6. And painful struggles as a hardy boxer,
7. Or in the terrible pancratium,
8. He surely is a noble citizen,
9. And well he does deserve the honours due
10. Of a front seat at games and festivals,
11. And at the public cost to be maintain'd;
12. And to receive a public gift of honour,
13. Which shall become an heirloom to his children.
14. And such shall be his honours, even if
15. He wins by horses, not by his own strength.
16. And still I think he does not equal me;
17. For wisdom far exceeds in real value
18. The bodily strength of man, or horses' speed;
19. But the mob judges of such things at random;
20. Though 'tis not right to prefer strength to sense:
21. For though a man may a good boxer be,
22. Or pentathlete, or never-conquer'd wrestler,
23. Or if he vanquish all in speed of foot—
24. Which is the most important of all contests—
25. Still for all this his city will enjoy
26. No better laws through his great strength or speed;
27. And 'tis small cause for any lasting joy,
28. That one of all her citizens should gain
29. A prize on Pisa's banks: for such achievements
30. Fill not the country's granaries with corn.

And Xenophanes contends at great length, and with great earnestness and variety of argument, in favour of the superior advantage of his own wisdom, running down athletic exercises as useless and unprofitable. And Achæus the Eretrian, speaking of the good constitution of the athletes, says—

1. For naked they did wave their glistening arms,
2. And move along exulting in their youth,
3. Their valiant shoulders swelling in their prime
4. Of health and strength; while they anoint with oil
5. Their chests and feet and limbs abundantly,
6. As being used to luxury at home.

But Heraclitus, in his Entertainer of Stangers, says that there was a woman named Helena, who ate more than any other woman ever did. And Posidippus, in his Epigrams, says that Phuromachus was a great eater, on whom he wrote this epigram:—

1. This lowly ditch now holds Phuromachus,
2. Who used to swallow everything he saw,
3. Like a fierce carrion crow who roams all night.
4. Now here he lies wrapp'd in a ragged cloak.
5. But, O Athenian, whoe'er you are,
6. Anoint this tomb and crown it with a wreath,
7. If ever in old times he feasted with you.
8. At last he came sans teeth, with eyes worn out,
9. And livid swollen eyelids; clothed in skins,
10. With but one single cruse, and that scarce full;
11. For from the gay Lenæan games he came,
12. Descending humbly to Calliope.

There was, besides, a man of the name of Lityerses, a bastard son of Midas, the king of Celænæ in Phrygia, a man of a savage and fierce aspect, and an enormous glutton; and he is mentioned by Sositheus the tragic poet, in his play called Daphnis or Lityersa; where he says—

1. He'll eat three asses' panniers, freight and all,
2. Three times in one brief day; and what he calls
3. A measure of wine is a ten-amphoræ cask;
4. And this he drinks all at a single draught.

1. A. I scarcely in one day, unless I'm forced,
2. Can eat two bushels and a half of food.
3. B. A most unhappy man! how have you lost
4. Your appetite, so as now to be content
5. With the scant rations of one ship of war?

And Xanthus, in his Account of Lydia, says that Cambles, who was the king of the Lydians, was a great eater and drinker, and also an exceeding epicure; and accordingly, that he one night cut up his own wife into joints and ate her; and then, in the morning, finding the hand of his wife still sticking in his mouth, he slew himself, as his act began to get notorious. And we have already mentioned Thys, the king of the Paphlagonians, saying that he too was a man of vast appetite, quoting Theopompus, who speaks of him in the thirty-fifth book of his History; and Archilochus, in his Te- trameters, has accused Charilas of the same fault, as the comic poets have attacked Cleonymus and Pisander. And Phœni- cides mentions Chærippus in his Phylarchus in the following terms—

1. And next to them I place Chærippus third;
2. He, as you know, will without ceasing eat
3. As long as any one will give him food,
4. Or till he bursts,—such stowage vast has he,
5. Like any house.

And Nicolaus the Peripatetic, in the hundred and third book of his History, says that Mithridates, the king of Pontus, once proposed a contest in great eating and great drinking (and the prize was a talent of silver), and that he himself gained the victory in both; but he yielded the prize to the man who was judged to be second to him, namely, Calomodrys, the athlete of Cyzicus. And Timocreon te Rhodian a poet, and an athlete who had gained the vcitory in the pentathlum, ate and drank a great deal, as the epigram on his tomb shows—

1. Much did I eat, much did I drink, and much
2. Did I abuse all men; now here I lie;—
3. My name Timocreon, my country Rhodes.

And Alcman the poet records himself to have been a great eater, in his third book of Odes, when he says—

1. And presently I will bestow
2. On you a large round dish well fill'd;
3. And even now 'tis on the fire,
4. Full of pulse-broth, which e'en the glutton
5. Alcman would like to feast on warm,
6. After the wintry solstice sets in;
7. For he for dainties does not care,
8. But loves the common people's dishes,
9. As long as they are full enough.

1. God has bestow'd on man three various seasons,
2. The summer, and the winter, and the autumn;
3. And a fourth too, the spring, when men can dance,
4. But scarce are able to get much to eat.

And Anaxilas the comic poet, speaking in his play called Chrysochous of a man named Ctesias, says—

1. You now have nearly all things, save the art
2. Of Ctesias himself; for wise men say,
3. That he does recognise nought but the beginning
4. Of a rich banquet, and denies the end.

1. A. Others may also burst when fed too well
2. Not Ctesias alone.-
3. B. What should hinder it?
4. A. For he, as wise men say, loves the beginning
5. Of any feast, but ne'er can make an end of it.

1. Men do not come and ask at random now,
2. Does Cranaus eat less than Ctesias?
3. Or do they both keep constantly devouring?

1. If it were needful, I could run more stadia
2. Than e'er were run by Sotades; I surpass
3. E'en Taureas himself in these my labours;
4. And out-run Ctesias himself in eating.

1. A. For now I see Damippus here approaching
2. From the palaestra.
3. B. What! that man of stone?
v.2.p.657
4. Him whom your friends e'en now, from his great strength,
5. Surname the Thunderbolt?
6. A. Most probably;
7. For I think he will overturn all tables
8. Which he once strikes with his consuming jaw.

1. There was a Mantinean centurion,
2. Atrestides his name; who of all men
3. That ever lived could eat the greatest quantity.

1. A. Of boil'd meat about three mine weight.
2. B. Now mention something else.
3. A. A fine pig's face;
4. A ham; four pettitoes;—
5. B. Oh, Hercules!
6. A. Three calves' feet, and one hen.
7. B. Oh, Phœbus, oh!
8. What else?
9. A. Two minæ weight of figs: that's all.
10. B. And how much did you drink?
11. A. Twelve measures only
12. Of unmix'd wine.
13. B. Oh, Bacchus! oh, Sabazius!

And whole nations also have been ridiculed by the comic poets for their gluttony; as the Bœotians, for instance. Accordingly, Eubulus says, in his Antiopa—

1. We are courageous men to toil and eat,
2. And to endure sharp pain; the Attic race
3. Is quick and eloquent, and they eat little;
4. But the Bœotians eat enormously.

1. Go now and build up the Bœotian city,'
2. Where the men eat all day and never tire.

1. He is so thorough a Bœotian
2. In all his manners, that, like them, 'tis said
3. He's never tired nor content with eating.

1. And after that I came to Thebes, where men
2. Spend the whole night in feasts and revelry;
3. And each man has a privy at his doors,
4. Which is a great boon to an o'er-fed man;
v.2.p.658
5. For men who have got a long way to go,
6. And who eat much and bite their weary lips,
7. Are some of the most ludicrous of sights.

1. You leaving, as you say, the Theban plain,
2. Where valiant men sit eating all the day,
3. Being all throat, and close beside the privy.

1. That man can eat, beginning before dawn,
2. Or come again and eat till the following day.

1. . . . . . . . For I am a Bœotian,
2. Who do not eat much else, except these things.

1. And now that you may not be found out thus,
2. And spoken of as men of Bœotia,
3. By those whose wont it is to run you down,
4. As men unequali'd in creating noise,
5. And knowing nothing else save how to eat
6. And drink unceasingly the whole night long;
7. Strip yourselves quick, and all prepare for action.

1. A. Are you now speaking to the spectators here,
2. Or to the body of competitors?
3. B. To those who eat much, as men training do.
4. A. Whence do the strangers come from?
5. B. They're Bœotians.

And very likely it is because of all this that Eratosthenes, in his Epistles, says, that Pempelus, when he was asked,

What sort of people the Bœotians appeared to him?

That they only spoke just as vessels might be expected to speak, if they had a voice, of how much each of them could hold.

The people of Pharsalus also are ridiculed by the comic poets as being enormous eaters; accordingly Mnesimachus, in his Philip, says—

1. A. Has any man of the Pharsalians come,
2. That he may eat up e'en our very tables?
3. B. There's no one come at all.
4. A. So much the better;
5. Perhaps they have all gone somewhere else to eat
6. Some city of Achaīa ready roasted.

1. Great words three cubits long,
2. Cut into huge Thessalian slices thus:—

1. And a huge piece of pork, enough to break
2. One's arm, cut in the coarse Thessalian fashion.

1. But Jupiter, considering nought of this,
2. Wink'd, and made up a huge Thessalian mouthful.

1. What is all this
2. To the great Lydian and Thessalian banquets?

1. More splendid (καπανικώτερα) far than the Thessalian;

1. A. They kept to seven Capanæ for the games
2. At Pisa.
3. B. What do you mean?
4. A. In Thessaly
5. They call their carts Capanæ.
6. B. I understand.

And Hecatæus says that the Egyptians were great bread-eaters, eating loaves of rye, called κυλλήστιες, and

1. When the illustrious Pythagoras
2. Discover'd that renowned problem which
3. He celebrated with a hecatomb.

And there are many people who approve of moderate meals, as Alexis tells us in his Woman in Love—

1. But I am content with what is necessary,
2. And hate superfluous things; for in excess
3. There is not pleasure, but extravagance.

1. I hate excess; for those who practise it
2. Have only more expense, but not more pleasure.

1. How sweet all kinds of moderation are!
2. I now am going away, not empty, but
3. In a most comfortable state,—for wise
4. Mnesitheus tells us that 'tis always right'
5. T' avoid extravagance in everything.

And Ariston the philosopher, in the second book of his Amatory Similitudes, says that Polemo, the Academic philosopher, used to exhort those who were going to a supper, to consider how they might make their party pleasant, not only for the present evening, but also for the morrow. And Timotheus, the son of Conon, being once taken by Plato from

You, O Plato, sup well, more with reference to the next day than to the present one!

I will for the future not come to you if you receive me in this manner; that I may avoid being grieved by seeing you go to a great expense for which there is no necessity, and that you, too, may not come to distress by being overwhelmed by such expenses; for it is much better for us to delight one another by our mutual companionship and conversation, than by the great variety of dishes which we set before one another, of which our servants consume the greater part.

But Antigonus of Carystus, in his Life of Menedemus, relating the way in which the banquets of that philosopher are managed, says, that he used to dine with one or two companions at most; and that all the rest of his guests used to come after they had supped. For in fact, Menedemus's supper and dinner were only one meal, and after that was over they called in all who chose to come; and if any of them, as would be the case, came before the time, they would walk up and down before the doors, and inquire of the servants who came out what was being now served up, and how far on the dinner had proceeded. And if they heard that it was only the vegetables or the cured fish that was being served up, they went away; but if they were told that the meat was put on the table, then they went into the room which had been prepared for that purpose. And in the summer a rush mat was spread over each couch, and in the winter a fleece. But every one was expected to bring his own pillow; and the cup, which was brought round to each person, did not hold more than one cotyla. And the dessert was lupins or beans as a general rule; but sometimes some fruits, such as ere in season, were brought in; in summer, pears or pomegranates; and in spring, pulse; and in winter, figs. And we have a witness as to these things, Lycophron the Chalcidian, who

1. O cursed sons of a most excellent father,
2. I, as you see, have quite a fancy for you:
3. For, by the gods I swear, that not in Caria,
4. Nor in fair Rhodes, nor royal Lydia,
5. Have I e'er eaten so superb a supper;
6. Phœbus Apollo! what a feast it was.

1. And the boy brought us round a scanty cup
2. Of wine that might be worth five pence a bottle-
3. Awfully flat; and then that cursed thing,
4. That hang-dog lupin, danced upon the board,
5. A fitting meal for parasites and beggars.

1. And for dessert,
2. We had some learned conversation.

the bird which calls the morn still caught them talking, and they were not yet satisfied.

But Arcesilaus, when giving a supper to some people, when the bread fell short, and his slave made him a sign that there were no loaves left, burst out laughing, and clapped his hands; and said,

What a feast we have here, my friends! We forgot to buy loaves enough; run now, my boy:

But I told a man to strain the wine who has never seen anything good any more than I myself have; so do you now get up, Aridices; and do you go away and tap the casks that are outside.

But those of the present day who give entertainments, especially the inhabitants of the beautiful Alexandria, cry out,

1. And now then let us hasten to the feast,
2. That we may plan the movements of the war;—

1. Is redolent of frankincense,
2. And pæans too, and groans at the same time.

1. For a frugal supper breeds no drunkenness,

1. For many a banquet which endures too long,
2. And many and daily feasts, are wont t' engender
3. Insult and mockery; and those kind of jests
4. Give far more pain than they do raise amusement.
5. For such are the first ground of evil-speaking;
6. And if you once begin t' attack your neighbour,
7. You quickly do receive back all you bring,
8. And then abuse and quarrels surely follow;
9. Then blows and drunken riot. For this is
10. The natural course of things, and needs no prophet.

And Mnesimachus, in his Philip, on account of the immoderate indulgence in suppers of people of his time, introduces an entertainment which professes to be a preparation for war, and which really is what that admirable writer Xenophon calls a workshop of war. And he speaks thus—

1. Know you now with what men you must fight?
2. With us, who sup upon well-sharpen'd swords,
3. And swallow lighted firebrands for dainties:
4. And then, for our dessert, our slaves bring in,
5. After the first course, Cretan bows and arrows;
v.2.p.664
6. And, 'stead of vetches, broken heads of spears,
7. And fragments of well-batter'd shields and breastplates;
8. And at our feet lie slings, and stones, and bows,
9. And on our heads are wreaths of catapults.

1. A cask of wine shall be our sword-a cup
2. Shall be our spear-our hair shall arrows be;
3. Goblets shall be our enemies-wine our horses-
4. Ointments and perfumes our war-cry fierce.

1. And all the younger men do call him parasite,
2. Using a gentler name; but he cares not.
3. And Telephus in speechless silence sits,
4. Making but signs to those who ask him questions;
5. So that the inviter often offers prayers
6. To the great Samothracian gods o' the sea,
7. To cease their blowing, and to grant a calm;
8. For that young man's a storm to all his friends.

1. Do you not now behold me drunk and merry,
2. Well fill'd with wine, and all inflamed with anger?
3. Have not I just devour'd a dozen cakes,
4. Every one larger than a good-sized shield?

A man ought not to derive his pleasures from the table, but from meditation;

1. I pleased my palate with a frugal meal;

1. And many a most deceitful meal they snatch'd
2. Away from hungry jaws, in haste t' enjoy
3. The first delight of the too eager palate.

1. A life at sea is a much troubled life,
2. Not reinforced with pleasures of the table,
3. But like a stable on the shore. The sea itself
4. Is a moist mother, not a nurse on land;
5. 'Tis her we plough; from this our food, procured
6. With nets and traps, comes daily home to us.

For the belly is a great evil to man; concerning which Alexis speaks, in his Men Dying together—

1. And hence you well may see how great an evil
2. The belly is to man; what lessons strange
3. It teaches, and what deeds it forces on us.
4. If there were any power which could take
5. This part alone from out our bodies, then
6. No one would any more do injury
7. Or insult to his neighbour. But from this
8. Flow all the ills that harass human life.

1. Well did that wise Euripides oft speak,
2. And this does seem his wisest word of all—

3. But want compels me and my wretched belly;

4. For there is nought more wretched than the belly:
5. And into that you pour whate'er you have,
6. Which you do not in any other vessel.
7. Loaves you perhaps may in a wallet carry,—
8. Not soup, or else you'll spoil it. So again,
9. You put cakes in a basket, but not pulse;
10. And wine into a bladder, but not crabs:
11. But into this accursed belly, men
12. Put every sort of inconsistent thing.
13. I add no more; since it is plain enough
14. That all men's errors are produced by it.'

I wish,

that the fountains bore bread.

O Stilpo, do you, though you are a philosopher, transgress the Law?

Do you give me something better to eat, and I will not eat garlic.

After this, Ulpian said,—Since we have feasted (δεδείπναμεν) . . . .And Alexis, in his Curis, has used this expression, where he says—

1. Since we have long since supp'd (δεδείπναμεν);

1. But we have not yet supp'd (δεδείπναμεν);

1. A man who ought long since to have had supper (δεδειπναναι).

1. He will be here before we've finish'd supper (δεδειπνάναι).

1. It's time for me to go now to my master,
2. For by this time I think they all have supp'd (δεδειπνάναι).

1. You now are insulting me in a drunken manner
2. Before you've supp'd (δεδειπνάναι).

1. For these men seem to me to have had their supper (δεδειπνάναι)
2. In capital season.

1. We've drank our fill, my men, and well have dined (ἠπίσταμεν).

1. To dine (ἀριστάναι), and come to this man's house.

1. We've dined (ἠρίσταμεν);—for I must this discourse cut short.

1. When any one has all consumed in dinners (κατηρίστηκεν)
2. His own estate, and that of all his family.

1. The boys who long ago have lost their dinner (παραδεδειπνημένοι).