Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

With respect to Olives. Eupolis says—

Cuttle-fish, and olives fallen from the tree.

And these the Romans call dryptæ. But Diphilus the Siphnian writer says that olives contain very little nourishment, and are apt to give headaches; and that the black ones are still worse for the stomach, and make the head feel heavy; but that those which we call κολυμβάδες, that is to say, preserved in pickle, are better for the stomach, and give strength to the bowels. But that the black when crushed are better for the stomach. Aristophanes too makes mention of crushed olives in

The Islands,

saying—

Bring some crushed olives;

and in another place he says—

Crush'd olives and pickled olives are not the same thing;

and a few lines after—

For it is better that they should be crush'd than pickled.

And Archestratus says, in his Gastronomy—

Let wrinkled olives, fallen from the tree,
Be placed before you.

And Hermippus says—

Be sure that for the future you remember
The ever-glorious Marathon for good,
When you do all from time to time add μάραθον (that is to say, fennel) to your pickled olives.

And Philemon says—

The inferior olives are called πιτυρίδες, and the dark-coloured are called στεμφυλίδες.

And Callimachus, in his

Hecale,

gives a regular catalogue of the different kinds of olive—

γεργέριμος and πίτυρις, and the white olive, which does not
Become ripe till autumn, which is to float in wine.

And according to Didymus, they called both olives and figs which had fallen to the ground of their own accord, γεργέριμοι. Besides, without mentioning the name

olive,

the fruit itself was called by that name δρυπετὴς, without any explanatory addition. Teleclides says—

He urged me to remain, and eat with him
Some δρυπετεῖς, and some maize, and have a chat with him.

But the Athenians called bruised olives στέμφυλα; and what we call στέμφυλα they called βρύτεα, that is to say, the dregs

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of the grapes after they have been pressed. And the word βρῦτος is derived from βότρυς, a bunch of grapes.

With respect to Radishes.—The Greek name ῥαφανὶς is derived from ῥᾳδίως φαίνεσθαι, because they quickly appear above ground; and in the plural the Attic writers either shorten or lengthen the penultima at pleasure. Cratinus writes—

ταῖς ῥαφανῖσι δοκεῖ, it is like radishes, but not like other vegetables;

and Eupolis, on the other hand, says—

ʽῥαφανίδες ἄπλυτοι, unwashed radishes and cuttle-fish.

For the word ἄπλυτοι, unwashed, must clearly refer to the radishes, and not to the cuttle-fish; as is shown by Antiphanes, in whom we find these lines:—

To eat ducks, and honeycombs of wild bees, and eggs,
And cheese-cakes, and unwash'd radishes,
And rape, and oatmeal-groats, and honey.

So that radishes appear to have been particularly called un- washed radishes; being probably the same as those called Thasian. Pherecrates says—

There one may have the unwash'd radish, and the warm
Bath, and closely stewed pickles, and nuts.

And Plato, in his Hyperbolus, says, using the diminutive termination, φύλλιον ἤ ῥαφανίδιον,

a leaflet, or a little radish.

But Theophrastes, in his book on Plants, says that there are five kinds of radishes: the Corinthian, the Leiothasian, the Cleonæan, the Amorean, and the Bœotian; and that the Bœotian, which is of a round form, is the sweetest. And he says that, as a general rule, those the leaves of which are smooth, are the sweetest. But Callias used the form ῥάφανος for ῥάφανις; at all events, when discussing the antiquity of comedy, he says,

Broth, and sausages, and radishes (ῥάφανοι), and fallen olives, and cheese-cakes.

And indeed that he meant the same as what we call ῥαφανίδες, is plainly sown by Aristophanes, who in the Danaïdes alludes to such old forms, and says—

And then the chorus used to dance,
Clad in worsted-work and fine clothes;
And bearing under their arms ribs of beef,
And sausages, and radishes.

And the radish is a very economical kind of food. Amphis says—

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Whoever, when purchasing food,
When it is in his power, O Apollo, to buy genuine fish,
Prefers buying radishes, is downright mad!

With respect to Pine-cones.—Mnesitheus, the Athenian physician, in his book on Comestibles, calls the husks of the pine-cones ὀστρακίδες, and in another place he calls them κῶνοι. But Diocles of Carystus calls them πιτϋίνα κάρυα, nuts of the pine-tree. And Alexander the Myndian calls them πιτυΐνὸυς κώνους. And Theophrastus calls the tree πεύκη, and the fruit κῶνος. But Hippocrates, in his book on Barley-water,— (one half of which is considered spurious by everybody, and some people reckon the whole so,)—calls the fruit κόκκαλοι; but most people call it πυρῆνες: as Herodotus does, in speaking of the Pontic nut. For he says,

And this has πυρῆνα (a kernel), when it becomes ripe.

But Diphilus the Siphnian says,

Pine-cones

(which he calls στρόβιλοι

are very nutritious, and have a tendency to soften the arteries, and to relieve the chest, because they have some resinous qualities contained in them.

While Mnesitheus says that they fill the body with fat, and are very free from all hindrances to the digestion; and, moreover, that they are diuretic, and that they are free from all astringent tendencies.

Now with respect to Eggs.—Anaxagoras, in his book on Natural Philosophy, says that what is called the milk of the bird is the white which is in the eggs. And Aristophanes says— In the first instance, night brings forth a wind egg. Sappho dissolves the word ὦον into a trisyllable, making it ὤϊον, when she says—

They say that formerly Leda found an egg.

And again she says—

Far whiter than an egg:

in each case writing ὤϊον. But Epicharmus spelt the word ὤεα; for so we find the line written—

The eggs of geese and other poultry.

And Simonides, in the second book of his Iambics, says—

Like the egg of a Mæandrian goose;

which he, too, writes ὤεον. But Alexandrides lengthens the word into a quadrisyllable, and calls it ὠάριον. And so does Ephippus, when he says—

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And little casks of good wine made of palms,
And eggs, and all other trifles of that kind.

And Alexis, somewhere or other, uses the expressidn,

hemispheres of eggs.

And wind eggs they called ἀνεμιαῖα, and also ὑπηνέμια. They called also the upper chambers of houses which we now call ὑπερῶον, ὦον; and accordingly Clearchus says, in his

Erotics,

that Helen, from having been born and brought up in a chamber of this sort, got the character, with a great many people, of having been born of an egg (ὠοῦ). And it was an ignorant statement of Neocles of Crotona, that the egg fell from the moon, from which Helen was born: for that women under the influence of the moon bring forth eggs, and that those who are born from such eggs are fifteen times as large as we are: as Herodotus of Heraclea also asserts. And Ibycus, in the fifth book of his Melodies, says of the Molionidœ—

And they slew the two young Molions, youths alike in face,
Borne on white horses; of the same age; and
Alike, too, in all their limbs, for both were born
On one day, from one single silver egg.

And Ephippus says—

Cakes made of sesame and honey, sweetmeats,
Cheese-cakes, and cream-cakes, and a hecatomb
Of new-laid eggs, were all devour'd by us.

And Nicomachus makes mention of such eggs—

For when my father had left me a very little property,
I scraped it so, and got the kernel out of it
In a few months, as if I had been a boy sucking an egg.

And Eriphus makes mention of goose's eggs—

Just see how white and how large these eggs are;
These must be goose eggs, as far as I can see.

And he says, that it was eggs like this which were laid by Leda. But Epænetus and Heraclides the Syracusan, in their book on Cookery, say that the best of all eggs are peacock's eggs; and that the next best are those of the foxgoose; and the third best are those of common poultry.

Now let us speak of provocatives to appetite, called πρόπομα.—When they were brought round by the butler, Ulpian said,

Does the word πρόπομα occur in any ancient author in the sense in which we use it now?

and when every one joined in the question,

I will tell you,

said Athenæus;

Phylarchus the Athenian, (though some called
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him a native of Naucratis,) in the book where he speaks of Zelas the king of the Bithynians, who invited to supper all the leaders of the Galatians, and then plotted against them, and was killed himself also, says, if I recollect his words rightly, 'A certain πρόπομα was brought round before supper, as was the custom of antiquity.'

And when Ulpian had said this, he asked for something to drink from the wine-cooler, saying, that he was in good humour with himself for having been able to remember this so very à propos. But there were things of all sorts, says Athenæus, used in these προπόματα.

With respect to Mallows, Hesiod says—

Nor do men know how great may be the good
Derived from asphodel and mallow food.

μαλάχη is the Attic name for mallow. But I, says Atheneus, have found in many of the copies of the Minos of Antiphanes the word spelt with an o; for instance, he speaks of men—

Eating the root of mallow (μολόχης).

And Epicharmus has—

I am milder than the mallow (μολόχης).

And Phanias says, in his book on Plants—

The seminal portions of the cultivated mallow are called 'the cheese-cake,' as being like a cheese-cake. For those pistils which are like the teeth of a comb have some resemblance to the edge of a cheese-cake; and there is a boss like centre, like that in the middle of a cheese-cake. And the whole circumference of the rim is like the sea-fish denominated the sea-urchin.

But Diphilus the Siphnian makes a statement, that the mallow is full of pleasant and wholesome juice; having a tendency to smooth the arteries, separating from them the harshnesses of the blood by bringing them to the surface. And he adds that the mallow is of great service in irritations of the kidneys and the bladder, and that it is very tolerably digestible and nutritious. And moreover, that the wild mallow is superior to that which grows in a garden. But Hermippus, the follower of Callimachus, in his treatise on the Seven Wise Men, says that mallows are put in what he calls the ἄλιμον, that is to say, the preventive against hunger, and into the ἄδιψον, that is, the preventive against thirst; and that it is a very useful ingredient in both.

The next thing to be mentioned are Gourds.—Euthy-

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demus, the Athenian, in his book on Vegetables, calls the long gourd, known as κολοκύντη, the Indian gourd; and it is called Indian because the seed was originally introduced from India. But the people of Megalopolis call the same the Sicyonian gourd. Theophrastus however says, that of the kind called κολοκύντη, there is not one species or genus only, but several, some better, some worse. While Meodorus, the follower of Erasistratus, the friend of Icesius, says,

Of the long gourds there is the Indian, which is the same which we call σικύα, and which is vulgarly called the κολοκύντη. Now the Indian gourd is usually boiled, but that called κολοκύντη is usually roasted.

And even to the present day the κολόκυνται are called by the Cnidians Indian gourds; while the people of the Hellespont call the long gourds σίκυαι, and the round gourds κολόκυνται. But Diocles states that the best round gourds are those grown near Magnesia; and, moreover, that the rape grown in that district runs to an exceedingly large size, and is sweet, and good for the stomach. He says, at the same time, that the best cucumbers are grown at Antioch, the best lettuce at Smyrna and Galatea, and the best rue at Myra. Diphilus says, "The gourd is far from nutritious, easily digested, apt to produce moisture in the skin, promotes the secretions of the body, and is full of agreeable and wholesome juice; but it is still more juicy when cooked. Its alterative qualities are increased when it is eaten with mustard, but it is more digestible, and it promotes the secretions more, when boiled.

Mnesitheus too says, "All the vegetables and fruits which are easily affected by the action of fire, such as the cucumber, and the gourd, and the quince, and the small quince, and everything else of the same sort, when they are eaten after having been roasted, afford nutriment to the body, in no great quantity indeed, but still such as is pleasant and promotes moisture. However all these vegetables and fruits have a tendency to produce constipation, and they ought to be eaten boiled rather than raw. But the Attic writers call the gourd by no other name but κολοκύντη. Hermippus says—

What a huge head he has; it is as big as a gourd!

And Phrynichus, using the diminutive, says—

Will you have a little maize (μάζιον) or gourd (κολοκύντιον)?

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And Epicharmus says—

That is much more wholesome than a gourd (κολοκύντη).

And Epicrates the comic poet writes—

A. What now is Plato doing'?
The grave Speusippus too and Menedemus?
In what are they now spending all their time?
What care is theirs, and what their conversation?
What is their subject of deliberation?
Tell me, I beg of you, by the mighty Terra,
In learned language, if at least you know.
B. Indeed, I can inform you most exactly.
For at the great Panathenaic feast,
I saw a company of youths assembled
Within the schools of the old Academy,
And heard some strange and marvellous assertions.
For they were nature's mysteries discussing,
Drawing distinctions subtle 'tween the life
Of animated things, both men and beasts,
And that of trees and all the race of herbs.
And then, while occupied in these discussions
They turned to gourds their deep investigations,
Asking their species and their character.
A. And to what sage conclusion did they come?
What was their definition, of what genus
Did they decide this plant to be, my friend?
I pray you tell 'em, if you know at least.
B. At first they all stood silent for a while,
And gazed upon the ground and knit their brows
In profound solemn meditation:
Then on a sudden, while the assembled youths
Were stooping still considering the matter,
One said a gourd was a round vegetable;
But others said it was a kind of grass;
While others class'd it as a sort of tree.
On hearing this, a certain old physician
Coming from Sicily interrupted them
As but a pack of triflers. They were furious,
Greatly enraged, and all most loudly cried
With one accord, that he insulted them;
For that such sudden interruptions
To philosophical discussion
Were ill-bred and extremely unbecoming.
And then the youths thought no more of the gourd.
But Plato, who was present, mildly said,
Not being at all excited by what pass'd,
That the best thing that they could do would be
The question to resume of the gourd's nature.
They would not hear him, and adjourn'd the meeting.

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Alexis, that most witty poet, sets an entire course of πρόπομα before those who can understand him—

I came without perceiving it on a place
Which was exceedingly convenient.
Water was given me; and then a servant
Entered, and bore a table for my use;
On which was laid, not cheese, or tawny olives,
Or any dainty side-dishes and nonsense,
Which fill the room with scent, but have no substance;
But there was set before me a huge dish
Redolent of the Seasons and the joyful Hours—
A sort of hemisphere of the whole globe.
Everything there was beautiful and good:
Fish, goats' flesh, and a scorpion between them;
Then there were eggs in half, looking like stars.
On them we quickly laid our hands, and then
Speaking to me, and giving me a nod,
The host began to follow our example;
So we'd a race, and never did I stop
Till the whole dish was empty as a sieve.

With respect to Mushrooms.—Aristias says—

The stony soil produced no mushrooms.

And Poliochus has the following passage—

Each of us twice a day received to eat
Some small dark maize well winnow'd from the chaff,
And carefully ground; and also some small figs.
Meantime some of the party would begin
And roast some mushrooms; and perhaps would catch
Some delicate snails if 'twas a dewy morning,
And vegetables which spontaneous grew.
Then, too, we'd pounded olives; also wine
Of no great strength, and no very famous vintage.

And Antiphanes says—

Our supper is but maize well fenced round
With chaff, so as not to o'erstep the bounds
Of well-devised economy. An onion,
A few side-dishes, and a sow-thistle,
A mushroom, or what wild and tasteless roots
The place affords us in our poverty.
Such is our life, not much exposed to fevers
For no one, when there's meat, will eat of thyme,
Not even the pupils of Pythagoras.

And a few lines afterwards he goes on—

For which of us can know the future, or
The fate that shall our various friends befall
Take now these mushrooms and for dinner roast them,
Which I've just picked beneath the maple shade.

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Cephisodorus, the pupil of Isocrates, in the treatise which he wrote against Aristotle (and there are four books of it), reproaches the philosopher for not having thought it worth his while to collect proverbs, though Antiphanes had made an entire play which was called Proverbs: from which play he produces these lines—

For I, if I eat any of your dishes,
Seem as if I was on raw mushrooms feeding,
Or unripe apples, fit to choke a man.

Mushrooms are produced by the earth itself. But there are not many sorts of them which are good to eat; for the greater part of them produce a sensation of choking: on which account Epicharmus, when jesting, said—

You will be choked, like those who waste away
By eating mushrooms, very heating food.

And Nicander, in his Georgics, gives a list of which species are poisonous; and says—

Terrible evils oftentimes arise
From eating olives, or pomegranates, or from the trees
Of maple, or of oak; but worst of all
Are the swelling sticky lumps of mushrooms.

And he says in another place—

Bury a fig-tree trunk deep in the ground,
Then cover it with dung, and moisten it
With water from an ever flowing brook,
Then there will grow at bottom harmless mushrooms;
Select of them what's good for food, and not
Deserving of contempt, and cut the root off.

But all the rest of that passage is in a mutilated state. The same Nicander in the same play writes—

And there, too, you may roast the mushrooms,
Of the kind which we call ἀμάνιται.

And Ephippus says—

That I may choke you as a mushroom would.

Eparchides says that Euripides the poet was once staying on a visit at Icarus, and that, when it had happened that a certain woman being with her children in the fields, two of them being full-grown sons and the other being an unmarried daughter, eat some poisonous mushrooms, and died with her children in consequence, he made this epigram upon them:—

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O Sun, whose path is through th' undying heaven,
Have you e'er before seen a misery such as this?
A mother, a maiden daughter, and two sons,
All dying on one day by pitiless fate?

Diodes the Carystian, in the first book of his treatise on the Wholesomes, says, "The following things which grow wild should be boiled,—beetroot, mallow, sorrel, nettes, spinach, onions, leeks, orach, and mushrooms.