Deipnosophistae

Callias was also the first man who taught the elements of learning by iambics, in a licentious sort of language, described in the following manner—

1. For I'm in labour, ladies; but from shame,
2. I will, my dear, in separate lines and letters,
3. Tell you the name of the child. There is a line
4. Upright and long; and from the middle of it
5. There juts forth on each side a little one,
6. With upward look: and next a circle comes,
7. On two short feet supported.

And afterwards, following this example, as any one may suspect, Mæandrius the prose writer, turning away a little from the usual pronunciation in his descriptions, wrote those things which are found in his Precepts, in a less polished style than the above-mentioned Callias. And Euripides appears to have followed the same model when he composed those verses, in his Theseus, in which the elements of writing are described. But the character is an illiterate shepherd, who is showing that the name of Theseus is inscribed in the place in this way—

1. For I indeed do nothing know of letters,
2. But I will tell you all their shapes, and give
3. Clear indications by which you may judge.
4. There is a circle, round as though 't had been
5. Work'd in a lathe, and in its centre space
6. It has a visible sign. Then the second
7. Has first of all two lines, and these are parted
8. By one which cuts them both across the middle.
9. The third's a curly figure, wreathed round.
10. The fourth contains one line which mounts right up,
11. And in a transverse course three others hang
12. From its right side. The letter which cones fifth
13. Admits of no such easy explanation;
14. For there are two diverging lines above,
15. Which meet in one united line below.
16. The letter which comes last is like the third.

[So as to make θ η ς ε υ ς.]

And Agathon the tragic poet has composed a similar passage, in his Telephus; for there also some illiterate man explains the way of spelling Theseus thus:—

1. The letter which comes first is like a circle,
2. Divided by a navel in the middle;
3. Then come two upright lines well-join'd together;
4. The third is something like a Scythian bow:
5. Next comes a trident placed upon its side;
6. And two lines branching from one lower stem:
7. The last again the same is as the third.

And Theodectes of Phaselus introduces an illiterate clown, who also represents the name of Theseus in his own way—

1. The letter which comes first a circle is,
2. With one soft eye; then come two upright lines
3. Of equal and exact proportions,
4. United by one middle transverse line;
5. The third is like a wreathed curl of hair;
6. The next a trident lying on its side;
7. The fifth two lines of equal length above,
8. Which below join together in one base;
9. The sixth, as I have said before, a curl.

And Sophocles has said something like this, in his Amphiaraus, which is a satyric drama, where he introduces an actor dancing in unison with his explanation of the letters.

But Neoptolemus the Parian, in his treatise on Inscriptions, says that this inscription is engraved on the tomb of Thrasymachus the sophist at Chalcedon—

1. My name is Theta, ro, alpha, and san,
2. Upsilon, mu, alpha, chi, ou, san again:
3. Chalcedon was my home, wisdom my trade.

And there is a poem of this kind upon Pan, by Castorion the Solensian, as Clearchus says: every foot[*](There is probably some corruption in the text here.) consists of one entire word, and so every line has its feet in pairs, so that they may either precede or follow each other; as for instance—

1. σὲ τὸν βόλοις νιφοκτύποις δυσχείμερον
2. ναίονθʼ ἕδος, θηρονόμε πὰν, χθόνʼ ʼαρκάδων,
3. κλήσω γραφῇ τῇδʼ ἐν σοφῇ, πάγκψειτʼ ἔπη
4. συνθεὶς, ἄναξ, δύσγνωστα μὴ σοφοῖς κλύειν,
5. μουσοπόλε θὴρ, κηρόχυτον ὅς μείλιγμʼ ἱεῖς.

[Which may be translated thus—

1. O thou that dwellest on the lofty plain,
2. Stormy with deep loud-sounding falls of snow,
3. Th' Arcadian land,—lord of the forest kinds,
4. Thee, mighty Pan, will I invoke in this
5. Sagacious writing, carefully compounding
6. Words difficult for ignorant men to know,
7. Or rightly understand. Hail, friend o' the Muse,
8. Who pourest forth sweet sounds from waxen flute.]

And so on in the same manner. And in whatever order you place each of these pairs of feet it will give the same metre; as you may, for instance, transpose the first line, and instead of—

1. σὲ, τὸν βόλοις νιφοκτύποις δυσχείμερον,

you may read it—

1. νιφοκτύποις σὲ τὸν βόλοις δυσχείμερον.

You may also remark that each pair of feet consists of ten[*](There is some mistake here, for they consist of eleven.) letters; and you may produce the same effect not in this way, but in a different one, so as to have many ways of putting one line; for instead you may read—

1. μέτρον φράσον μοι, τῶν ποδῶν μέτρον λαβών·

or this way—

1. λαβὼν μέτρον μοι τῶν ποδῶν, μέτρον φράσον.

[And you may take this line too—]

1. οὐ βούλομαι γὰρ τῶν ποδῶν μέτρον λαβεῖν,

[and transpose it thus—]

1. λαβεῖν μέτρον γὰρ τῶν ποδῶν οὐ βούλομαι.

But Pindar, with reference to the ode which was composed without a ς in it, as the same Clearchus tells us, as if some griphus had been proposed to him to be expressed in a lyric ode,—as many were offended because they considered it impossible to abstain from the ς, and because they did not approve of the way in which the idea was executed, uttered this sentence—

1. Before long series of songs were heard,
2. And the ill-sounding san from out men's mouths.

And we may make use of this observation in opposition to those who pronounce the sigma-less ode of Lasus of Hermione to be spurious, which is entitled The Centaurs. And the ode which was composed by Lasus to the Ceres in Hermione, has not a ς in it, as Heraclides of Pontus says, in the third book of his treatise on Music, which begins—

1. I sing of Ceres and her daughter fair,
2. The bride of Clymenus.

And there are great numbers of other griphi. Here is one—

1. In a conspicuous land I had my birth,
2. The briny ocean girds my country round,
3. My mother is the daughter fair of Number.

By the conspicuous land (φανερὰ) he means Delos (as δῆλος is synonymous with φανερὸς), and that is an island surrounded by the sea. And the mother meant is Latona, who is the daughter of Coius, and the Macedonians use κοῖος as synonymous with ἀριθμός. And the one on barley-water (πτυσάνη)—

1. Mix the juice of peel'd barley, and then drink it.

And the name πτισάνη is derived from the verbs πτίσσω, to pound, and ἄνω, to bruise. There is also the one on the snail, which is quoted in the Definitions of Teucer—

1. An animal destitute of feet and spine
2. And bone, whose back is clad with horny shell,
3. With long, projecting, and retreating eyes.

And Antiphanes, in the Man who admires himself, says—

1. Coagulated, tender-bodied milk.
2. lost understand me not? I mean new cheese.

And Anaxandrides, in his Ugly Woman, says—

1. He's lately cut it up; then he confined
2. The long, unbroken portions of the body
3. In earthen vases, wrought in crackling fire,—
4. A phrase, my men, invented by Timotheus,
5. Who meant to say in dishes.

And Timocles, in his Heroes, says—

1. A. And when the nurse of life was taken away,
2. Fierce hunger's foe, sweet friendship's guardian,
3. Physician of voracious hunger, which
4. Men call the table . . .
5. B. How you tire yourself,
6. When you might say

   the table

   in a word.

And Plato, in his Adonis, saying that an oracle was given to Cinyras concerning his son Adonis, reports it in these words—

1. O Cinyras, king of hairy Cyprians,
2. Your son is far the fairest of all men,
3. And the most admirable: but two deities
4. Lay hands upon him; one is driven on
5. By secret courses, and the other drives.

He means Venus and Bacchus; for both of them loved Adonis. And the enigma of the Sphinx is reported by Asclepiades, in his essay on the Subjects on which Tragedies have been written, to have been such as this—

1. There is upon the earth an animal
2. With two feet, and with four, and eke with three,
3. And with one voice; and it alone, of all
4. The things which move on earth, or in the heavens,
5. Or o'er the boundless sea, doth change its nature;
6. But when its feet are of the greatest number,
7. Then is its speed the slowest, and strength least.

And there are also some sayings partaking of the character of griphi, composed by Simonides, as is reported by Chamæleon of Heraclea, in his treatise on the Life and Writings of Simonides—

1. The father of a kid which roves for food,
2. And a sad fish, had their heads near together;
3. And when they had received beneath their eyelids
4. The son of Night, they did not choose to cherish
5. The bull-slaying servant of the sovereign Bacchus.

But some say that these verses were inscribed on some one of the ancient offerings which were dedicated at Chalcis; and that on it were represented the figures of a goat and a dolphin; to which animals allusion is made in the above lines. And others say that a dolphin and a goat were embossed in that part of a psaltery where the strings are put in, and that they are what is meant here; and that the bull-slaying servant of Bacchus is the dithyrambic. And others say that the ox which is sacrificed to Bacchus in the town of Iulis is struck with an axe by some one of the young men: and that the festival being near, the axe had been sent to a forge, and Simonides, being then a young man, went to the smith to fetch it; and that when he found the man asleep, and his bellows and his tongs lying loosely about with their fore parts touching one another, he then came back, and told the before-mentioned problem to his friends. For the father of a kid he called the bellows, and the sad fish the tongs (which is called καρκῖνος, or the crab). The son of Night is sleep, and the bull-slaying servant of Bacchus is the axe. And Simonides composed also another epigram which causes perplexity to those who are ignorant of history—

1. I say that he who does not like to win
2. The grasshopper's prize, will give a mighty feast
3. To the Panopeiadean Epeus.

And it is said, that when he was sojourning at Carthea he used to train choruses; and that the place where these exercises took place was in the upper part of the city, near the temple of Apollo, a long way from the sea; so that all the rest of the citizens, and Simonides himself, went down to get water, to a place where there was a fountain; an that an ass, whose name was Epeus, used to carry the water up for them; and they gave him this name, because there was a fable that Epeus himself used to do this; and there was also represented in a picture, in the temple of Apollo, th Trojan fable, in which Epeus is represented as drawing water for the Atridæ; as Stesichorus also relates—

1. For the great daughter of Jove pitied him
2. Bearing incessant water for the kings.

And as this was the case, they say that it was a burden imposed on every member of the choruses who was not present at the appointed time, that he should give the ass a chœnix of barley; and that this is stated by the same poet; and that what is meant by not liking to win the grasshopper's prize, is not liking to sing; and that by Panopeiadean is meant the ass, and the mighty feast is the chœnix of barley.

And of the same kind is the epigram of Theognis the poet,—

1. For a sea-corpse has call'd me now back home,
2. Which, though dead, speaketh with a living mouth.

Where he means the cockle. And we may consider of the same character those sentences in which we use words which resemble men's names, as—

1. λαβὼν ἀριστόνικον ἐν μάχῃ κράτος·
2. He gain'd in battle a glorious victory;

where ἀριστόνικος sounds like the name of a man, Aristonicus. And there is also that riddle which is so frequently repeated—

1. Five men came to one place in vessels ten,
2. And fought with stones, but might not lift a stone,
3. And died of thirst while water reach'd their chins.

And what punishment had the Athenians who could not solve this riddle when proposed to them, if it was only to drink a bowl of mixed wine, as Clearchus has stated in his Definition? And, in the first book of his treatise on Proverbs, he writes thus—

The investigation of riddles is not unconnected with philosophy; for the ancients used to make a display of their erudition by such things; for they used at their entertainments to ask questions, not such as the men of the present day ask one another, as to what sort of amorous enjoyment is the most delicious, or what kind of fish is nicest, or what is most in season at the moment; or again, what fish is best to eat at the time of Arcturus, or what after the rising of the Pleiades, or of the Dogstar. And then they offer kisses as prizes for those who gain the victory in such questions; such as are hateful to men of liberal sentiments; and as a punishment for those who are defeated they enjoin them to drink sheer wine; which they drink more willingly than the cup of health. For these things are well adapted to any one who has devoted his attention to the writings of Philænis and Archestratus, or who has studied the books called Gastro-

v.2.p.723

logies. They preferred such plays as these;—when the first person had recited a verse, the others were bound to quote the verse following; or if any one had quoted a sentence from some poet, the rest were bound to produce a sentence from some other poet expressing the same sentiments. After that, every one was bound to repeat an iambic. And then, each person was to repeat a line of such and such a number of syllables precisely; and so on with everything that related to any acquaintance with letters and syllables. And in a similar manner they would be bound to repeat the names of all the commanders in the army which attacked Troy, or of all the Trojan leaders: or to tell the name of some city in Asia beginning with a given letter; and then the next person was to tell the name of a city in Europe: and then they were to go through the rest according as they were desired to give the names of Grecian or barbarian cities; so that this sport, not being an inconsiderate one, was a sort of exhibition of the ability and learning of each individual. And the prizes given were a garland and applause, things by which love for one another is especially sweetened.

This, then, was what Clearchus said; and the things which he says one ought to propose, are, I imagine, such as these. For one person to quote a line in Homer beginning with Alpha, and ending with the same letter, such as—

1. ʼἀγχοῦ δʼ ἱσταμένη ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα.
2. ʼἀλλʼ ἄγε νῦν μάστιγα καὶ ἡνία σιγαλόεντα.
3. ʽἁσπίδας εὐκύκλους λαισήαϊ τε πτερόεντα.

And, again, they quoted iambics on a similar principle—

1. ʼἀγαθὸς ἀνὴρ λέγοιτʼ ἄν, ὁ φέρων τʼ ἀγαθά.
2. ʼἀγαθὸς ἂν εἴη καὶ ὁ φέρων καλῶς κακά.

Or lines in Homer beginning and ending with ε, as—

1. εὗρε λυκάονος υἷον ἀμύμονά τε κρατερόν τε.
2. ʼἐν πόλει ὑμετέρῃ ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἔμελλον ἔγωγε.

And iarabics on the same principle—

1. εὐκαταφρόνητός ἐστι πενία, δέρκυλε·
2. ʼἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσι τὸν βίον διάπλεκε.

And lines of Homer beginning and ending with η, as—

1. ʽἡ μὲν ἄπʼ ὥς εἰποῦσʼ ἀπέβη γλαυκῶπις ʼαθήνη·
2. ʽἡ δʼ ἐν γούνασι πίπτε διώνης δῖ ʼαφροδίτη.

And iambics—

1. ʽἡ τῶν φίλων σοι πίστις ἔστω κεκριμένη.

Lines in Homer beginning and ending with ι, as—

1. ʼἰλίου ἐξαπολοίατʼ ἀκήδεστοι καὶ ἄφαντοι·
2. ʽἱππόλοχος δέ μʼ ἔτικτε καὶ ἐκ τοῦ φημὶ γενέσθαι.

Beginning and ending with ς, as—

1. συμπάντων δαναῶν, οὐδʼ ἢν ʼαγαμέμνονα εἴπῃς.

And iambics as—

1. σοφος ἐστιν ὁ φέρων τἀπὸ τῆς τύχης καλῶς.

And beginning and ending with ω, as—

1. ʽὡς δʼ ὅτʼ ἀπʼ οὐλύμπου νέφος ἔρχεται οὐρανὸν εἴσω.

And iambics as—

1. ʼὠρθωμένην πρὸς ἅπαντα τὴν ψύχην ἔχω.

Sometimes too, it is well to propound lines without a sigma, as—

1. πάντʼ ἐθέλω δόμεναι, καὶ ἔτʼ οἴκοθεν ἄλλʼ ἐπιθεῖναι·

and again, to quote lines of Homer, of which the first syllable when connected with the last, will make some name, such as—

1. ῎ἄιας δʼ ἐκ σαλαμῖνος ἄγεν δύο καὶ δεκα νῆας·
2. φυλείδης ὃν τίκτε διῒ φίλος ἵπποτα φυλευς.
3. ʼἰητὴρ δʼ ἀγαθὸς ποδαλείριος ἠδὲ μάχαων.

There are also other lines in Homer expressing the names of vessels from the first and last syllable, such as—

1. ʼὀλψυμένων δαναῶν ὀλοφύρεται ἐν φρεσὶ θυμος,

which makes ῞ὅλμος, a mortar;

1. μυθεῖται κατὰ μοῖραν ἅπερ κʼ οἴοιτο καὶ ἄλλος,

which makes μύλος, a millstone;

1. λυγρός ἐὼν μή πού τι κακὸν καὶ μεῖζον ἐπαύρῃ,

which makes λύρη, a lyre.

And other lines, the first and last syllables of which give some eatable, as—

1. ʼἀργυρόπεζα θέτις θυγατὴρ ἁλίοιο γέροντος,

which makes ἄρτος, bread;

1. μητι σὺ ταῦτα ἕκαστα διείρεο, μὴ δὲ μετάλλα,

which makes μῆλα, apples.

And since we have made a pretty long digression about griphi, we must now say what punishment those people underwent who failed to solve the griphus which was proposed to them. They drank brine mingled with their drink, and were bound to drink the whole cup up at one draught; as Antiphanes shows in his Ganymede, where he says—

1. A. Alas me! what perplexing things you say,
2. O master, and what numerous things you ask me.
3. B. But now I will speak plainly: if you know
4. One circumstance about the rape of the child,
5. You must reveal it quick, before you're hang'd.
6. A. Are you then asking me a riddle, master,
7. Bidding me tell you all about the rape
8. Of the child? What's the meaning of your words?
9. B. Here, some one, bring me out a halter quickly.
10. A. What for?
11. B. Perhaps you'll say you do not know.
12. A. Will you then punish me with that? Oh don't!
13. You'd better make me drink a cup of brine.
14. B. Know you then how you ought to drink that up?
15. A. Indeed I do.
16. B. How?
17. A. So as to make you pledge me.
18. B. No, but first put your hands behind your back,
19. Then drink it at a draught, not drawing breath.

So when the Deipnosophists had said all this about the griphi, since it has taken us till evening to recollect all they said, we will put off the discussion about cups till to-morrow. For as Metagenes says in his Philothytes—

1. I'll change my speech, by way of episode,
2. So as to treat the theatre with many
3. New dishes rich with various seasonings;

taking the discussion about cups next.