Deipnosophistae

But since we have here

fresh cheese (τρόφαλις), the glory of fair Sicily,

let us, my friends, also say something about cheese (τυρός). For Philemon, in his play entitled The Sicilian, says—

1. I once did think that Sicily could make
2. This one especial thing, good-flavour'd cheese;
3. But now I've heard this good of it besides,
4. That not only is the cheese of Sicily good,
5. But all its pigeons too: and if one speaks
6. Of richly-broider'd robes, they are Sicilian;
7. And so I think that island now supplies
8. All sorts of dainties and of furniture.

The Tromilican[*](There is a dispute whether this word ought to be written Tromilican or Stromilican. The city of Tromilea is mentioned nowhere else.) cheese also has a high character, respecting which Demetrius the Scepsian writes thus in his second book of the Trojan Array—"Tromilea is a city of Achaia, near which a delicious cheese is made of goat's milk, not to be compared with any other kind, and it is called Tromilican. And Simonides mentions it in his Iambic poem, which begins thus—

1. You're taking wondrous trouble beforehand,
2. Telembrotus:

and in this poem he says—

1. And there is the fine Achaian cheese,
2. Called the Tromilican, which I've brought with me.

And Euripides, in his Cyclops, speaks of a harsh-tasted cheese, which he calls ὀπίας τυρὸς, being curdled by the juice (ὀπὸς) of the fig-tree—

1. There is, too, τυρὸς ὀπίας, and Jove's milk.

Eur. Cycl. 136.

But since, by speaking in this way of all the things which are now put on the table before us, I am making the Tromilican cheese into the remains of the dessert, I will not continue this topic. For Eupolis calls the relics of sweetmeats (τραγημάτων) and confectionery ἀποτραγήματα. And ridiculing a man of the name of Didymias, he calls him the ἀποτράγημα of a fox, either because he was little in person, or as being cunning and mischievous, as Dorotheus of Ascalon says. There are also thin broad cheeses, which the Cretans call females, as Seleucus tells us, which they offer up at certain sacrifices. And Philippides, in his play called the Flutes, speaks of some called πυρίεφθαι (and this is a name given to those made of cream), when he says—

1. Having these πυρίεφθαι, and these herbs.

And perhaps all such things are included in this Macedonian term ἐπιδειπνίδες.. For all these things are provocatives to drinking.

Now, while Ulpian was continuing the conversation in this way, one of the cooks, who made some pretence to learn- ing, came in, and proclaimed μύμα. And when many of us were perplexed at this proclamation, (for the rascal did not show what it was that he had,) he said;—You seem to me, O guests, to be ignorant that Cadmus, the grandfather of Bacchus, was a cook. And, as no one made any reply to this, he said; Euhemerus the Coan, in the third book of his Sacred History, relates that the Sidonians give this account, that Cadmus was the cook of the king, and that he, having taken Harmonia, who was a female flute-player and also a slave of the king, fled away with her.—

1. But shall I flee, who am a freeman born

For no one can find any mention in any comedy of a cook being a slave, except in a play of Posidippus. But the introduction of slaves as cooks took place among the Macedonians first, who adopted this custom either out of insolence or on account of the misfortunes of some cities which had been reduced to slavery. And the ancients used to call a cook who was a native of the country, Mæson; but if he was a foreigner, they called him Tettix. And Chrysippus the philosopher thinks the name μαίσων is derived from the verb μασάομαι, to eat; a cook being an ignorant man, and the slave of his appetite; not knowing that Mæson was a comic actor, a Megarian by birth, who invented the mask which was called μαίσων, from him; as Aristophanes of Byzantium tells us, in his treatise on Masks, where he says that he invented a mask for a slave and also one for a cook. So that it is a deserved compliment to him to call the jests which suit those characters μαισωνικά.

For cooks are very frequently represented on the stage as jesting characters; as, for instance, in the Men selecting an Arbitrator, of Menander. And Philemon in one of his plays says—

1. 'Tis a male sphinx, it seems, and not a cook,
2. That I've brought home; for, by the gods I swear,
3. I do not understand one single word
4. Of all he says; so well provided is he
5. With every kind of new expression.

But Polemo says, in his writings which are addressed to Timæus, that Mæson was indeed a Megarian, but from Megara in Sicily, and not from Nisæa. And Posidippus speaks of slaves as cooks, in his Woman Shut out, where he says—

1. Thus have these matters happen'd: but just now,
2. While waiting on my master, a good joke
3. Occurr'd to me; I never will be caught
4. Stealing his meat.

And, in his Foster Brothers, he says—

1. A. Did you go out of doors, you who were cook?
2. B. If I remain'd within I lost my supper.
3. A. Let me then first . . . . B. Let me alone, I say;
4. I'm going to the forum to sacrifice:
5. A friend of mine, a comrade too in art,
6. Has hired me.

And there was nothing extraordinary in the ancient cooks being experienced in sacrifices. At all events, they usually managed all marriage feasts and sacrifices. On which account Menander, in his Flatterer, introduces a cook, who on the fourth day of the month had been ministering in the festival of Aphrodite Pandemus, using the following language—

1. Now a libation. Boy, distribute round
2. The entrails. Whither are you looking now?
3. Now a libation—quick! you Sosia, quick!
v.3.p.1055
4. Quick! a libation. That will do; now pour.
5. First let us pray to the Olympian gods,
6. And now to all the Olympian goddesses:
7. Meantime address them; pray them all to give
8. Us safety, health, and all good things in future,
9. And full enjoyment of all present happiness.
10. Such shall be now our prayers.

And another cook, in Simonides, says—

1. And how I roasted, how I carved the meat,
2. You know: what is there that I can't do well?

And the letter of Olympias to Alexander mentions the great experience of cooks in these matters. For, his mother having been entreated by him to buy him a cook who had experience in sacrifices, proceeds to say,

Accept the cook Pelignas from your mother; for he is thoroughly acquainted with the manner in which all your ancestral sacrifices, and all the mysterious rites, and all the sacred mysteries connected with the worship of Bacchus are performed, and every other sacrifice which Olympias practises he knows. Do not then disregard him, but accept him, and send him back again to me at as early a period as possible.

And that in those days the cook's profession was a respectable one, we may learn from the Heralds at Athens.

For these men used to perform the duties of cooks and also of sacrificers of victims,

as Clidemus tells us, in the first book of his Protogony; and Homer uses the verb ῥέζω, as we use θύω; but he uses θύω as we do θυμιάω, for burning cakes and incense after supper. And the ancients used also to employ the verb δράω for to sacrifice; accordingly Clidemus says,

The heralds used to sacrifice (ἕδρων) for a long time slaying the oxen, and preparing them, and cutting them up, and pouring wine over them. And they were called κήρυκες from the hero Ceryx; and there is nowhere any record of any reward being given to a cook, but only to a herald.

For Agamemnon in Homer, although he is king, performs sacrifices himself; for the poet says—

1. With that the chief the tender victims slew,
2. And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw;
3. The vital spirit issued at the wound,
4. And left the members quivering on the ground.

Homer, Iliad, iii. 292.

And Thrasymedes the son of Nestor, having taken an axe, slays the ox which was to be sacrificed, because Nestor himself was not able to do so, by reason of his old age; and his other

brothers assisted him; so respectable and important was the office of a cook in those days. And among the Romans, the Censors,—and that was the highest office in the whole state,—clad in a purple robe, and wearing crowns, used to strike down the victims with an axe. Nor is it a random assertion of Homer, when he represents the heralds as bringing in the victims, and whatever else had any bearing on the ratification of oaths, as this was a very ancient duty of theirs, and one which was especially a part of their office—

1. Two heralds now, despatch'd to Troy, invite
2. The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;

and again—

1. Talthybius hastens to the fleet, to bring
2. The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable king.

Homer, Iliad, iii. 116.

And, in another passage, he says—

1. A splendid scene! Then Agamemnon rose;
2. The boar Talthybius held; the Grecian lord
3. Drew the broad cutlass, sheath'd beside his sword.

Homer, Iliad, xix. 250.

And in the first book of the History of Attica, Clidemus says, that there was a tribe of cooks, who were entitled to public honours; and that it was their business to see that the sacrifices were performed with due regularity. And it is no violation of probability in Athenion, in his Samothracians, as Juba says, when he introduces a cook arguing philosophically about the nature of things and men, and saying—

1. A. Dost thou not know that the cook's art contributes
2. More than all others to true piety?
3. B. Is it indeed so useful A. Troth it is,
4. You ignorant barbarian: it releases
5. Men from a brutal and perfidious life,
6. And cannibal devouring of each other,
7. And leads us to some order; teaching us
8. The regular decorum of the life
9. Which now we practise. B. How is that? A. Just listen.
10. Once men indulged in wicked cannibal habits,
11. And numerous other vices; when a man
12. Of better genius arose, who first
13. Sacrificed victims, and did roast their flesh;
14. And, as the meat surpass'd the flesh of man,
15. They then ate men no longer, but did slay
16. The herds and flocks, and roasted them and ate them.
17. And when they once had got experience
18. Of this most dainty pleasure. they increased
19. In their devotion to the cook's employment;
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20. So that e'en now, remembering former days,
21. They roast the entrails of their victims all
22. Unto the gods, and put no salt thereon,
23. For at the first beginning they knew not
24. The use of salt as seasoning; but now
25. They have found out its virtue, so they use it
26. At their own meals, but in their holy offerings
27. They keep their ancient customs; such as were
28. At first the origin of safety to us:
29. That love of art, and various seasoning,
30. Which carries to perfection the cook's skill.
31. B. Why here we have a new Palæphatus.
32. A. And after this, as time advanced, a paunch,
33. A well-stuff'd paunch was introduced . . . .
34. . . . . . . . .
35. Then they wrapped up a fish, and quite concealed it
36. In herbs, and costly sauce, and groats, and honey;
37. And as, persuaded by these dainty joys
38. Which now I mention, every one gave up
39. His practice vile of feeding on dead men,
40. Men now began to live in company,
41. Gathering in crowds; cities were built and settled;
42. All owing, as I said before, to cooks.
43. B. Hail, friend! you are well suited to my master.
44. A. We cooks are now beginning our grand rites;
45. We're sacrificing, and libations offering,
46. Because the gods are most attentive to us,
47. Pleased that we have found out so many things,
48. Tending to make men live in peace and happiness.
49. B. Well, say no more about your piety—
50. A. I beg your pardon—B. But come, eat with me,
51. And dress with skill whate'er is in the house.