Deipnosophistae

Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, calls what we now call λυχνία, λυχνεῖον, in this line—

1. A. Where were these λυχνεῖα made?
2. B. In Etruria.

For there were a great many manufactories in Etruria, as the Etrurians were exceedingly fond of works of art. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—

1. Binding three long straight darts together,
2. We use them for a torch (λυχνείῳ).

And Diphilus, in his Ignorance, says—

1. We lit a candle (λύχνον), and then sought a candlestick (λύχνειον).

And Euphorion, in his Historic Commentaries, says that the young Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily dedicated, in the Prytaneum at Tarentum, a candlestick capable of containing as great a number of candles as there are days in a year. And Hermippus the comic poet, in his Iambics, speaks of—

1. A military candlestick well put together.

And, in his play called The Grooms, he says—

1. Here, lamp (λυχνίδιον), show me my road on the right hand.

Now, πανὸς was a name given to wood cut into splinters and bound together, which they used for a torch: Menander, in his Cousins, says—

1. He enter'd, and cried out,

2. πανὸν, πύχνον, λυχνοῦχον, any light—

3. Making one into many.

And Diphilus, in his Soldier, says—

1. But now this, πανὸς is quite full of water.

And before them Aeschylus, in his Agamemnon, had used the word πανός—

1. * * * * *[*](There is a hiatus here in the text of Athenæus, but he refers to Ag. 284,— μέγαν δὲ πανὸν ἐκ νήσου τρίτον,ἄθωον αἶπος ζηνὸς ἐξεδέξατο, where Clytæmnestra is speaking of the beacon fires, which had conveyed to her the intelligence of the fall of Troy.)

Alexis, too, uses the word ξυλολυχνούχου, and perhaps this is the same thing as that which is called by Theopompus ὀβελισκολύχνιον. But Philyllius calls λαμπάδες, δᾷδες. But the λύχνος, or candle, is not an ancient invention; for the ancients used the light of torches and other things made of wood. Phrynichus, however, says—

1. Put out the λύχνον,

* * * * * * Plato too, in his Long Night, says—

1. And then upon the top he'll have a candle,
2. Bright with two wicks.

And these candles with two wicks are mentioned also by Metagenes, in his Man fond of Sacrificing; and by Philonides in his Buskins. But Clitarchus, in his Dictionary, says that the Rhodians give the name of λοφνὶς to a torch made of the bark of the vine. But Homer calls torches δεταί—

1. The darts fly round him from an hundred hands,
2. And the red terrors of the blazing brands (δεταὶ),
3. Till late, reluctant, at the dawn of day,
4. Sour he departs, and quits th' untasted prey.

Iliad, xvii. 663.

A torch was also called ἑλάνη, as Amerias tells us; but Nicander of Colophon says that ἑλάνη means a bundle of rushes. Herodotus uses the word in the neuter plural, λύχνα,, in the second book of his History.

Cephisodorus, in his Pig, uses the word λυχναψία, for what most people call λυχνοκαυτία, the lighting of candles.

And Cynulcus, who was always attacking Ulpian, said;—But now, my fine supper-giver, buy me some candles for a penny, that, like the good Agathon, I may quote this line of the admirable Aristophanes—

1. Bring now, as Agathon says, the shining torches (πεύκας);

and when he had said this—

1. Putting his tail between his lion's feet,

he left the party, being very sleepy.

Then, when many of the guests cried out Io Pæan, Pontianus said;—I wish, my friends, to learn from you whether Io Pæan is a proverb, or the burden of a song, or what else it is. And Democritus replied;—–Clearchus the Solensian, inferior to none of the pupils of the wise Aristotle, in the first book of his treatise on Proverbs, says that

Latona, when she was taking Apollo and Diana from Chalcis in Eubœa to Delphi, came to the cave which was called the cave of the Python. And when the Python attacked them, Latona, holding one of her children in her arms, got upon the stone which even now lies at the foot of the brazen statue of Latona, which is dedicated as a representation of what then took place near the Plane-tree at Delphi, and cried out ῞ἵε, παῖ; (and Apollo happened to have his bow in hand;) and this is the same as if she had said ῎ἄφιε, ῞ιε, παῖ, or βάλε, παῖ, Shoot, boy. And from this day ῞ἵε, παῖ and ῞ἵε, παιὼν arose. But some people, slightly altering the word, use it as a sort of proverbial exclamation to avert evils, and say ἰὴ παιών, instead of ῞ἵε, παῖ. And many also, when they have completed any undertaking, say, as a sort of proverb, ἰὴ παιὼν; but since it is an expression that is familiar to us it is forgotten that it is a proverb, and they who use it are not aware that they are uttering a proverb.

But as for what Heraclides of Pontus says, that is clearly a mistake,

That the god himself, while offering a libation, thrice cried out ἵη παιὰν, ἵη παιών.

From a belief in which statement he refers the trimeter verse, as it is called to the god, saying "that each of these metres belongs to the god; because when the first two syllables are made long, ἵη παιὰν, it becomes a heroic verse, but when they are pronounced short it is an iambic, and thus it is plain that we must attribute the iambic to him. And as the rest are short, if any one makes the last two syllables of the verse long, that makes a Hipponactean iambic.

And after this, when we also were about to leave the party, the slaves came in bringing, one an incense burner, and another. . . . . . . . . .

For it was the custom for the guests to rise up and offer a libation, and then to give the rest of the unmixed wine to the boy, who brought it to them to drink.

Ariphron the Sicyonian composed this Pæan to Health—

1. O holiest Health, all other gods excelling,
2. May I be ever blest
3. With thy kind favour, and for all the rest
4. Of life I pray thee ne'er desert my dwelling;
5. For if riches pleasure bring,
6. Or the power of a king,
7. Or children smiling round the board,
8. Or partner honour'd and adored,
9. Or any other joy
10. Which the all-bounteous gods employ
11. To raise the hearts of men,
12. Consoling them for long laborious pain;
13. All their chief brightness owe, kind Health, to you;
14. You are the Graces' spring,
15. 'Tis you the only real bliss can bring,
16. And no man's blest when you are not in view,
17. * * * * * *

They know.—For Sopater the farce-writer, in his play entitled The Lentil, speaks thus—

1. I can both carve and drink Etruscan wine,
2. In due proportion mix'd.

These things, my good Timocrates, are not, as Plato says, the sportive conversations of Socrates in his youth and beauty, but the serious discussions of the Deipnosophists; for, as Dionysius the Brazen says,—

1. What, whether you begin or end a work,
2. Is better than the thing you most require?