Deipnosophistae

Just think, in God's name, my friends, what luxury, or I should rather say, what profuse waste it was to have one's garments sprinkled in this manner, when a man might have taken up a little unguent in his hands, as we do now, and in that manner have anointed his whole body, and especially his head. For Myronides says, in his treatise on Unguents and Garlands, that

the fashion of anointing the head at banquets arose from this:—that those men whose heads are naturally dry, find the humours which are engendered by what they eat, rise up into their heads; and on this account, as their bodies are inflamed by fevers, they bedew their heads with lotions, so as to prevent the neighbouring humours from rising into a part which is dry, and which also has a considerable vacuum in it. And so at their banquets, having consideration for this fact, and being afraid of the strength of the wine rising into their heads, men have introduced the fashion of anointing their heads, and by these means the wine, they think, will have less effect upon then, if they make their head thoroughly wet first. And as men are never content with what is merely useful, but are always desirous to add to that whatever tends to pleasure and enjoyment; in that way they have been led to adopt the use of unguents.

We ought, therefore, my good cynic Theodorus, to use at banquets those unguents which have the least tendency to produce heaviness, and to employ those which have astringent

or cooling properties very sparingly. But Aristotle, that man of most varied learning, raises the question,

Why men who use unguents are more grey than others? Is it because unguents have drying properties by reason of the spices used in their composition, so that they who use them become dry, and the dryness produces greyness? For whether greyness arises from a drying of the hair, or from a want of natural heat, at all events dryness has a withering effect. And it is on this account too that the use of hats makes men grey more quickly; for by them the moisture which ought to nourish the hair is taken away.

But when I was reading the twenty-eighth book of the History of Posidonius, I observed, my friends, a very pleasant thing which was said about unguents, and which is not at all foreign to our present discussion. For the philosopher says —

In Syria, at the royal banquets, when the garlands are given to the guests, some slaves come in, having little bladders full of Babylonian perfumes, and going round the room at a little distance from the guests, they bedew their garlands with the perfumes, sprinkling nothing else.

And since the discussion has brought us to this point, I will add

1. A verse to Love,

as the bard of Cythera says, telling you that Janus, who is worshipped as a great god by us, and whom we call Janus Pater, was the original inventor of garlands. And Dracon of Corcyra tells us this in his treatise on Precious Stones, where his words are—

But it is said that Janus had two faces, the one looking forwards and the other backwards; and that it is from him that the mountain Janus and the river Janus are both named, because he used to live on the mountain. And they say that he was the first inventor of garlands, and boats, and ships; and was also the first person who coined brazen money. And on this account many cities in Greece, and many in Italy and Sicily, place on their coins a head with two faces, and on the obverse a boat, or a garland, or a ship. And they say that he married his sister Camise, and had a son named Aethax, and a daughter Olistene. And he, aiming at a more extended power and renown, sailed over to Italy, and settled on a mountain near Rome, which was called Janiculum from his name.

This, now, is what was said about perfumes and unguents. And after this most of them asked for wine,

some demanding the Cup of the Good Deity, others that of Health, and different people invoking different deities; and so they all fell to quoting the words of those poets who had mentioned libations to these different deities; and I will now recapitulate what they said, for they quoted Antiphanes, who, in his Clowns, says—

1. Harmodius was invoked, the paean sung,
2. Each drank a mighty cup to Jove the Saviour.

And Alexis, in his Usurer, or The Liar, says—

1. A. Fill now the cup with the libation due
2. To Jove the Saviour; for he surely is
3. Of all the gods most useful to mankind.
4. B. Your Jove the Saviour, if I were to burst,
5. Would nothing do for me.
6. A. Just drink, and trust him.

And Nicostratus, in his Pandrosos, says—

1. And so I will, my dear;
2. But fill him now a parting cup to Health;
3. Here, pour a due libation out to Health.
4. Another to Good Fortune. Fortune manages
5. All the affairs of men; but as for Prudence,—
6. That is a blind irregular deity.

And in the same play he mentions mixing a cup in honour of the Good Deity, as do nearly all the poets of the old comedy; but Nicostratus speaks thus—

1. Fill a cup quickly now to the Good Deity,
2. And take away this table from before me;
3. For I have eaten quite enough;—I pledge
4. This cup to the Good Deity;—here, quick, I say,
5. And take away this table from before me.

Xenarchus, too, in his Twins, says—

1. And now when I begin to nod my head,
2. The cup to the Good Deity * *
3. * * * *
4. That cup, when I had drain'd it, near upset me;
5. And then the next libation duly quaff'd
6. To Jove the Saviour, wholly wreck'd my boat,
7. And overwhelm'd me as you see.

And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, says—

1. Before he'd drunk a cup to the Good Deity,
2. Or to great Jove the Saviour.

And Theophrastus, in his essay on Drunkenness, says—

The unmixed wine which is given at a banquet, which they call the pledge-cup in honour of the Good Deity, they offer in small quantities, as if reminding the guests of its strength,

v.3.p.1108

and of the liberality of the god, by the mere taste. And they hand it round when men are already full, in order that there may be as little as possible drunk out of it. And having paid adoration three times, they take it from the table, as if they were entreating of the gods that nothing may be done unbecomingly, and that they may not indulge in immoderate desires for this kind of drink, and that they may derive only what is honourable and useful from it.

And Philochorus, in the second book of his Atthis, says—

And a law was made at that time, that after the solid food is removed, a taste of the unmixed wine should be served round as a sort of sample of the power of the Good Deity, but that all the rest of the wine should be previously mixed; on which account the Nymphs had the name given them of Nurses of Bacchus.

And that when the pledge-cup to the Good Deity was handed round, it was customary to remove the tables, is made plain by the wicked action of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. For there was a table of gold placed before the statue of Aesculapius at Syracuse; and so Dionysius, standing before it, and drinking a pledge-cup to the Good Deity, ordered the table to be removed.

But among the Greeks, those who sacrifice to the Sun, as Phylarchus tells us in the twelfth book of his History, make their libations of honey, as they never bring wine to the altars of the gods; saying that it is proper that the god who keeps the whole universe in order, and regulates everything, and is always going round and superintending the whole, should in no respect be connected with drunkenness.

Most writers have mentioned the Attic Scolia; and they are worthy also of being mentioned by me to you, on account of the antiquity and simple style of composition of the authors, and of those especially who gained a high reputation for that description of poetry, Alcæus and Anacreon; as Aristophanes says in his Daitaleis, where we find this line—

1. Come, then. a scolium sing to me,
2. Of old Alcæus or Anacreon.

Praxilla, the Sicyonian poetess, was also celebrated for the composition of scolia. Now they are called scolia, not because of the character of the verse in which they are written, as if it were σκολιὸς (crooked); for men call also those poems written in a laxer kind of metre σκολιά. But,

as there are three kinds of songs

(as Artemo of Cassandra says in the second book of his treatise on the Use of Books),

one or other of which comprehends everything which is sung at banquets; the first kind is that which it was usual for the whole party to sing; the second is that which the whole party indeed sang, not, however, together, but going round according to some kind of succession; the third is that which is ranked lowest of all, which was not sung by all the guests, but only by those who seemed to understand what was to be done, wherever they might happen to be sitting; on which account, as having some irregularity in it beyond what the other kinds had, in not being sung by all the guests, either together or in any definite kind of succession, but just as it might happen, it was called σκολιόν. And songs of this kind were sung when the ordinary songs, and those in which every one was bound to join, had come to an end. For then they invited all the more intelligent of the guests to sing some song worth listening to. And what they thought worth listening to were such songs as contained some exhortations and sentiments which seemed useful for the purposes of life.