Deipnosophistae

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

and make a noise, and curse the cup-bearer, the steward, and cook; and the slaves are all crying, being beaten with fists and driven about in every direction. And not only do the guests who are invited sup with great discomfort and annoyance, but even if there is any sacrifice going on, the god himself would veil his face and go away, leaving not only the house, but even the entire city, in which such things take place. For it is absurd for a man, proclaiming that people should all confine themselves to words of good omen, to curse his wife and his children; and such a man as that would say to the guests—

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

for such a man's house—

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

Now, when all this had been said, one of the guests who were present said,—We ought, then, when we consider these things, to guard against indulging our appetites too much;

1. For a frugal supper breeds no drunkenness,

as Amphis says, in his Pan: nor does it produce insolence or insulting conduct; as Alexis testifies in his Ulysses Weaving, where he says—

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.

And Phœnix the Colophonian says—

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.

And in the Parasite, Alexis, speaking of some very voracious person, says—

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.

And Diphilus, in his Hercules, speaking of some similar kind of person, says—

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?

On which account, Bion of the Borysthenes said, cleverly enough, that

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

and Euripides says—

1. I pleased my palate with a frugal meal;

signifying that the pleasure derived from eating and drinking is chiefly limited to the mouth. And Aeschylus, in his Phineus, says—

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.

And in his Sthenebœa, Euripides speaks of frugality thus—

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.

And Diphilus, in his Parasite, says—

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.'

And Crates the Cynic, as Sosicrates tells us in his Successions, reproached Demetrius Phalereus for sending him a wallet of bread with a flagon of wine.

I wish,

said he,

that the fountains bore bread.

And Stilpo did not think himself guilty of intemperance when, having eaten garlic, he went to sleep in the temple of the Mother of the Gods; but all who eat of that food were forbidden even to enter into it. But when the goddess appeared to him in his sleep, and said,

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

he thought that he made answer to her (still being asleep),

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);

and so has Eubulus, in his Procris—

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

and in another passage he says—

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

And Antiphanes, in his Leonidas, says—

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

And Aristophanes, in his Proagon, says—

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).

And in his Danaides he says—

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

And Plato, in his Sophist, and Epicrates of Ambracia (and this last is a poet of the middle comedy), in his Amazons, says—

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

And, on the same principle, Aristophanes has given us the form ἠρίσταμεν, in his Men Frying—

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

And Hermippus, in his Soldiers, says—

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

And Theopompus, in his Callæschrus, says—

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

But, in his Politician, Antipho has used the word καταριστᾶν, saying—

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

And Amphis has used the word παραδεδειπνημένος, in his Vagabond, saying—

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

Let us, then, now,

as Plato says in his Philebus,

pray to the gods, and pour libations to them, whether it be Bacchus, or Vulcan, or whoever else of the gods it may be, who has had the honour of having our cups mixed for his sake. For there are two fountains by us, as if we were cupbearers to mix the wine: and a person might compare a fountain of pleasure to honey; but the fountain of wisdom, which is a sober and wine-eschewing spring, to that of some hard but wholesome water, which we must be very earnest to mix as well as possible.

It is, then, time for us now to drink wine; and let some one of the slaves bring us goblets from the sideboard, for I see here a great variety of beautiful and variously-ornamented drinking-cups. Accordingly, when a large cup had been given to him, he said,—But, O boy, draw out and pour into my cup a liquor with not quite so much water in it; not like the man in the comic poet Antiphanes, who, in the Twins, says—

1. He took and brought me an enormous cup,
2. And I pour'd into it unmixed wine,
3. Not to the honour of a boy, but all
4. My cups, and they were numberless, I quaff'd
5. To all the gods and goddesses of heaven.
6. Then, after them, I drank twice as much more
7. To the great goddess and the noble king.

So do you now, O boy, pour me out something stronger; for I do not prescribe to you the exact number of cyathi.[*](The cyathus held the twelfth part of a sextarius, which was about a pint; and the Romans who wished to preserve a character for moderation used to mix their wine in the proportion of nine cyathi of water to three of wine. Poets, who, according to Horace, were good for nothing till they were inebriated, reversed these proportions:— Tribus aut novemMiscentur cyathis pocula commodis.Qui Musas amat impares,Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petitVates. Tres prohibet supraRìxarum metuens tangere Gratia,Nudis juncta sororibus.—Hor. iii. 19. 11. ) But I will show you that the words κύαθος and ἀκρατέστερον (wine with less water in it) are both used: and then, too, I will give you a lecture about cupbearers.

But, first of all, I will speak about the habit of drinking strong drinks, with reference to which we find the word ζωρότερον. Antiphanes, in his Milanion, says—

1. I think this man does drink the cup of health,
2. Making his cupbearer shun too much water (ζωροτέρῳ χρώμενον οἰνοχόῳ).

And in his Lampon he says—

1. My friend Iapyx, mix it somewhat stronger (εὐζωρέστερον).

And Ephippus, in his Ephebi, says—

1. He gave him in each hand a brimming flagon,
2. Mixing in strong wine (ζωρότερον), in Homer's fashion.

And you find some people say that the expression in Homer—

1. Take care and give less water (ζωρότερον κέραιρε),

does not mean that there is to be less water, but that the draught is to be hot; urging that ζωρὸς is derived from ζωτικὸς (giving life), and from ζέσις (boiling);—for that, as there were companions present, it would have been absurd to begin mixing the cups of wine over again. But some say that the word is to be understood as equivalent to εὔκρατον (well-mixed); just as we find the form δεξιτερὸν used instead of δεξιόν. And some say that, since the year is called ὧρος, and since the particle ζα indicates magnitude or number, ζῶρος means merely what has been made many years. And Diphilus, in his Pederastæ, says—

1. Pour me now out a cup of wine to drink;
2. Give it, by Jove! εὐζωρότερον than that;
3. For wat'ry things are ruinous to the stomach.

And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says that ζωρότερον means mixed; quoting the following lines of Empedocles;—

1. And soon the things which formerly they learnt
2. Immortal were, did mortal now become,
3. And things unmix'd before became now mix'd (ζωρὰ,)
4. Changing their previous ways and habits all.

And Plato has used the word κύαθος in the sense of a ladle, in his Phaon, where he says—

1. Taking up thus the ladle (κύαθος) in their mouths.

And in his Ambassadors he says—

1. He stole the ladles (κύαθοι) every time he could.

And Archippus, in his Fishes, says—

1. I bought a ladle (κύαθος) there from Dæsias.

And there is a similar use of the word in the Peace of Aristophanes:—

1. All having fought till they had got black eyes,
2. Lying all on the ground around the κύαθοι;

for black eyes are reduced by having κύαθοι (cupping glasses) applied to them. Xenophon also speaks of the κύαθος in the first book of his Cyropædia; and so does Cratinus; and, besides, so does Aristophanes in many places, and Eubulus in his Orthanna; and Pherecrates, in his Triflers, has spoken of a κύαθος made of silver. But Timon, in the second book of his History of the Silli, has called κύαθοι, ἀρύσαναι; speaking thus:—

1. And ἀρύσαναι, hard to fill with wine;

naming them so from the verb ἀρύομαι, to draw. And they are called also ἀρυστῆρες and ἀρίστιχοι. Simonides says—

1. And no one gave me even one ἀρυστὴρ
2. Of the mere dregs and lees.

And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—

1. For I had these ἀρύστιχοι near me.

And Phrynichus, in his Weeding Women, says—

1. (A cup) κύλικʼ ἀρύστιχον·

and from this comes the word ἀρύταινα. They also called this vessel ἔφηβος, as Xenophanes did in his Relationship; and Polybius, in the ninth book of his Histories, says that there is a certain river called the Cyathus, near Arsinoe, a city in Aetolia.

But the word ἀκρατέστερον, meaning the same as ζωρότερον, is used by Hyperides in his oration against Demosthenes; where he writes thus—

If any one drank any wine of much strength (ἀκρατέστερον), it grieved you.

And a similar form is ἀνιαρέστερον, and also the expression in the Heliades of Aeschylus—

1. ἀφθονέστερον λίβα.

And Epicharmus, in his Pyrrha, has the word εὐωνέστερον (cheaper); and Hyperides, in his Oration against Demades, has used the expression—

1. ῥαδιεστέραν τὴν πόλιν.

And as for the word κεραννύω (to mix), that is used by Plato in his Philebus—

Let us, O Protarchus, pray to the gods, and mingle cups (κεραννύωμεν) to pour libations to them.

And Alcæus, in his Sacred Marriage, says—

1. They mix the cups (κεραννύουσιν) and drink them.

And Hyperides, in his Delian Oration, says—

And the Greeks mix (κεραννύουσι) the Panionian goblet all together.

And among the ancients they were the most nobly born youths who acted as cupbearers; as, for instance, the son of Menelaus:—

1. And the king's noble son pour'd out the wine.

And Euripides the poet, when he was a boy, acted s cupbearer. Accordingly, Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says—

But I hear that Euripides the poet also acted as a cupbearer at Athens, among those who are called the dancers.: and these men were they who used to dance around the temple of the Delian Apollo, being some of the noblest of the Athenians, and they were clothed in garments

v.2.p.670

of the Theræans. And this is that Apollo in whose honour they celebrate the Thargelian festival; and a writing concerning them is kept at Phylæ, in the Daphnephorium.

And Hieronymus the Rhodian gives the same account, who was a disciple of Aristotle, and that too in a book of his entitled a Treatise on Drunkenness. And the beautiful Sappho often praises her brother Larichus, as having acted as cupbearer to the Mitylenæans in the Prytaneum. And among the Romans, the most nobly born of the youths perform this office in the public sacrifices, imitating the Aeolians in everything, as even in the tones of their voices.