Deipnosophistae

With respect to Nettles—ʼἀκαλήφη is the name given by the Attic writers to a plant which is herbaceous and which produces itching. Aristophanes says, in his Phœnissæ,

that pot-herbs were the first things which grew out of the earth; and after them the rough stinging-nettles.

The next thing to be considered is Asparagus—which is divided into mountain asparagus and marsh asparagus; the best kinds of which are not raised from seed; but they are remedies for every kind of internal disorder. But those which are raised from seed grow to an immense size. And they say that in Libya, among the Gætuli, they grow of the thickness of a Cyprian reed, and twelve feet long; but that on the mountain land and on land near the sea they grow to the thickness of large canes, and twenty cubits long. But Cratinus writes the word, not ἀσπάραγος, but ἀσφάραγος, with a φ. And Theopompus says—

1. And then seeing the aspharagus in a thicket.

And Ameipsias says—

1. No squills, no aspharagus, no branches of bay-tree.

But Diphilus says, that of all greens, that sort of which is especially called the bursting asparagus, is better for the stomach, and is more easily digested; but that it is not very good for the eyes: and it is harsh-flavoured and diuretic, and injurious to the kidneys and bladder. But it is the Athenians who give it the name of bursting; and they also give the flowering cabbage, or cauliflower, the same name. Sophocles says, in The Huntsmen—

1. Then it puts forth a stalk, and never ceases
2. The germnination;

because it is continually bursting out and putting forth shoots. However, Antiphanes always spells the word ἀσπάραγος, with a π; and he writes thus—

1. The asparagus was shining; the pale vetches had faded.

And Aristophon says—

Capers, pennyroyal, thyme, asparagus, garlic, radishes, sage, and rue.

With respect to Snails.—Philyllius says—

1. I am not a grasshopper, nor a snail, O woman.

And in a subsequent passage he says—

1. Sprats, tunny fish, and snails, and periwinkles.

And Hesiod calls the snail,

1. The hero that carries his house on his back.

And Anaxilas says—

1. You are e'en more distrustful than a snail;
2. Who fears to leave even his house behind him.

And Achæus speaks of them, and says—

1. Can such a vapour strange produce
2. The snails, those horned monsters?

And an enigma, like a fishing-net, having reference to the snail, is often proposed at banquets, in these terms—

1. What is that spineless bloodless beast of the woods,
2. Who makes his path amid the humid waters.

And Aristotle, in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, says—

Snails appear to become pregnant in the autumn and in spring, and they are the only animals with coverings of shells that have ever been detected in union.

But Theophrastus says, in his treatise about Animals which live in Holes—

Snails live in holes during the winter, and still more in the summer, on which account they are seen in the greatest numbers during the autumn rains. But their holes in the summer are made upon the ground, and in the trees.

There are some snails which are called σέσιλοι. Epicharmus says—

1. Instead of all these animals, they have locusts;
2. But I hate above all things the shell of the sesilus.

And Apellas relates that the Lacedæmonians call the snail σέμελος. But Apollodorus, in the second book of his Etymologies, says that there are some snails which are called κωλυσιδειπνοι, interrupters of banquets.

The next vegetable to be mentioned is Onions.—In

the Amalthea of Eubulus, Hercules is represented as refusing to eat them; saying—

1. Whether it's hot, or whether it is dry,
2. Or whether it is something 'tween the two,
3. Are points of more importance than old Troy.
4. But I have not come here to fill myself
5. With cabbages, or benjamin, or other
6. Impious and bitter danties, or with onions.
7. But that which tends the most to vigorous strength
8. And health is food which I delight in chiefly.
9. Meat of beef, boil'd and fresh, and plenty of it,
10. And a large well-filled dish of oxen's feet,
11. Three roasting pigs besides, sprinkled with salt.

Alexis, while explaining the efficacy of onions in aphrodisiac matters, says—

1. Pinnas, beetles, snails, muscles, eggs, calves'-feet,
2. And many other philters, may be found
3. More useful still to one who loves his mistress.

Xenarchus, in the Butalion, says—

1. A house is ruined which has a master
2. Whose fortune's gone, and whom the evil genius
3. Has struck. And so the once great house of the Pelops
4. Is weak and nerveless. Nor can earth-born onion,
5. Fair Ceres' handmaid, who contracts the neck,
6. Even when boiled, assist to check this evil.
7. Nor e'en the polypus, who swells the veins,
8. Born in dark eddies of the deepest sea,
9. When taken in the net of stern necessity
10. By hungry mortals, fill the broad deep bosom
11. Of the large dish turn'd by the potter's wheel.

And Archestratus says—

1. I love not onions, nor yet cabbages,
2. Nor the sweet barberry-tree, nor all the other
3. Dainties and sweetmeats of the second course.

Heraclides the Tarentine, in his Banquet, says—

The onion, and the snail, and the egg, and similar things, appear to be productive of seed; not because they are very nutritious, but because their original natures are similar, and because their powers resemble that.

And Diphilus says—"Onions are difficult to digest, but very nutritious, and good for the stomach. And, moreover, they are productive of moisture, and cleansing, but they dim the eyes, and excite the amatory propensities. But the proverb says—

1. The onion will do you no good if you have no strength yourself.

But those onions which are called the royal onions, really do stimulate the amatory propensities, for they are superior to the other kinds; and next to them are the red ones. But the white ones, and the Libyan onions, are something like squills. But the worst of all are the Egyptian.

But the white onions, called βόλβιναι, are fuller of good juice than the common onions; but they are not so good for the stomach, because the white portion of them has a certain thickness in it. Yet they are very tolerably wholesome, because they have a good deal of harshness in them, and because they promote the secretions. And Matron, in his Parodies, mentions the βολβίνη—

1. But sowthistles I will not even name,
2. Plants full of'marrow, crown'd on th' heads with thorns;
3. Nor the white onions, minstrels of great Jove,
4. Which his dear Child, incessant rain, has nourish'd
5. Whiter than snow storms, and like meal to view,
6. Which, when they first appeared, my stomach loved.

Nicander extols the onions of Megara. But Theophrastus, in the seventh book of his treatise on Plants, says—

In some places the onions are so sweet, that they are eaten raw, as they are in the Tauric Chersonesus.

And Phænias makes the same statement:—

There is,

says he,

a kind of onion which bears wool, according to Theophrastus; and it is produced on the sea-shore. And it has the wool underneath its first coat, so as to be between the outer eatable parts and the inner ones. And from this wool socks and stockings and other articles of clothing are woven.

And Phœnias himself adopts the statement.

But the onion,

he continues,

of the Indians is hairy.

But concerning the dressing of onions, Philemon says—

1. Now if you want an onion, just consider
2. What great expense it takes to make it good:
3. You must have cheese, and honey, and sesame,
4. Oil, leeks, and vinegar, and assafœtida,
5. To dress it up with; for by itself the onion
6. Is bitter and unpleasant to the taste.

But Heraclides the Tarentine, limiting the use of onions at banquets, says—

One must set bounds to much eating, especially of such things as have anything glutinous or sticky about them; as, for instance, eggs, onions, calves' feet, snails, and such things as those: for they remain in the stomach a

v.1.p.107

long time, and form a lump there, and check their natural moisture.

Thrushes, too, and crowds of other birds, formed part of the dishes in the propomata. Teleclides says— But roasted thrushes with sweet cheese-cakes served, Flew of their own accord down the guests' throats.

1. But the Syracusans call thrushes, not κίχλαι, but κίχηλαι.

Epicharmus says—

1. The thrushes (κίχηλαι) fond of eating the olive.

And Aristophanes also, in his

Clouds,

mentions the same birds. But Aristotle asserts that there are three kinds of thrushes; the first and largest kind of which is nearly equal to a jay; and they call it also the ixophagus, since it eats the mistletoe. The next kind is like a blackbird in size, and they call them trichades. The third kind is less than either of the before-mentioned sorts, and is called illas, but some call it tylas, as Alexander the Myndian does. And this is a very gregarious species, and builds its nest as the swallow does.

There is a short poem, which is attributed to Homer, and which is entitled ἐπικιχλίδες, which has received this title from the circumstance of Homer singing it to his children, and receiving thrushes as his reward,—at least, this is the account given by Menœchmus, in his treatise on Artists.

There is a bird called the συκαλὶς, or figpecker. And Alexander the Myndian asserts—

One of the tits is called by some people elœus, and by others pirias; but when the figs become ripe, it gets the name of sycalis.

And there are two species of this bird, the sycalis and the μελαγκόρυφος, or blackcap. Epicharmus spells the word with two λλ, and writes συκαλλίδες. He speaks of beautiful συκαλλίδες: and in a subsequent passage he says—

1. And herons were there with their long bending necks,
2. And grouse who pick up seed, and beautiful sycallilles.

And these birds are caught at the season when figs are ripe. And it is more correct to spell the name with on y one λ; but Epicharmus put in the second λ because of the metre.

There is a kind of finch, too, which was sometimes eaten, of which Eubulus says,

And Ephippus says, in his

Geryones

—

1. When 'twas the Amphidromian festival,
2. When 'tis the custom to toast bits of cheese
3. O' the Chersonesus; and to boil a cabbage,
4. Bedewed with shining oil; and eke to bake
5. The breasts of fat and well-fed lambs; to pluck
6. The feathers from the thrushes, doves and finches;
7. And also to eat cuttle-fish with anchovies,
8. And baskets of rich polypus to collect,
9. And to drink many cups of unmixed wine.

Then, too, there are blackbirds.-Nicostratus or Philetærus says—

1. A. What then shall I buy? Tell me, I pray you.
2. B. Go not to more expense than a neat table;
3. Buy a rough-footed hare; some ducklings too,
4. As many as you like; thrushes, and blackbirds,
5. And other small birds; there are many wild sorts.
6. A. Yes, and they're very nice.

Antiphanes also reckons starlings among the eatable birds, numerating them in the following list—

Honey, partridges, pigeons, ducks, geese, starlings, jays, rooks, blackbirds, quails, and pullets.

You are asking of us for a history of everything, and you do not allow us to say a single thing without calling us to account for it. The word στρουθάριον (a little bird) is found in many other authors, and also in Eubulus. He says,

Take three or four partridges, and three hares, and as many small birds as you can eat, and goldfinches, and parrots, and finches, and nightjars, and whatever other birds of this kind you can come across.

Swine's brains, too, was a not uncommon dish. Philosophers used to forbid our eating these, saying that a person who partook of them might as well eat a bear, and would not stick at eating his father's head, or anything else imaginable. And they said, that at all events none of the ancients had ever eaten them, because they were the seat of nearly all sensation. But Apollodorus the Athenian says, that none of the ancients ever even named the brain. And at all events Sophocles, in his Trachiniæ, where he represents Hercules as throwing Lichas into the sea, does not use the word ἐγκέφαλον, brains, but says λευκὸν μυελὸς, white marrow; avoiding a word which it was thought ill-omened to use:—

1. And from his hair he forces the white marrow,
2. His head being burst asunder in the middle,
3. And the blood flows:

though he had named all the rest of his limbs plainly enough. And Euripides, introducing Hecuba lamenting for Astyanax, who had been thrown down by the Greeks, says—

1. Unhappy child, how miserably have
2. Your native city's walls produced your death,
3. And dash'd your head in pieces! Fatal towers,
4. Which Phæbus builded! How did your mother oft
5. Cherish those curly locks, and press upon them
6. With never-wearied kisses! now the blood
7. Wells from that wound, where the bones broken gape;
8. But some things are too horrid to be spoken.

The lines too which follow these are worth stopping to consider. But Philocles does employ the word ἐγκέφαλον—

1. He never ceased devouring even the brains (ἐγκέφαλον).

And Aristophanes says—

1. I would be content
2. To lose two membranes of the ἐγκέφαλον.

And others, too, use the word. So that it must have been for the sake of the poetical expression that Sophocles said

white marrow.

But Euripides not choosing openly to display to sight an unseemly and disgusting object, revealed as much as he chose. And they thought the head sacred, as is plain by their swearing by it; and by their even venerating sneezes, which proceed from the head, as holy. And we, to this day, confirm our arrangements and promises by nodding the head. As the Jupiter of Homer says—

1. Come now, and I will nod my head to you.

Now all these things were put into the dishes which were served up as propomata: pepper, green leaved myrrh, galingal, Egyptian ointment. Antiphanes says—

1. If any one buys pepper and brings it home,
2. They torture him by law like any spy.

And in a subsequent passage he says—

1. Now is the time for a man to go and find pepper,
2. And seed of orach, and fruit, and buy it, and bring it here.

And Eubulus says—

1. Just take some Cnidian grains, or else some pepper,
2. And pound them up with myrrh, and strew around.

And Ophelion says—

1. Pepper from Libya take, and frankincense,
2. And Plato's heaven-inspired book of wisdom.

And Nicander says, in his Theriaca—

1. Take the conyza's woolly leaves and stalks,
2. And often cut new pepper up, and add
3. Cardamums fresh from Media.

And Theophrastus, in his History of Plants, says—

Pepper indeed is a fruit: and there are two kinds of it; the one is round, like a vetch, having a husk, and is rather red in colour; but the other is oblong, black, and full of seeds like poppy-seeds. But this kind is much stronger than the other. Both kinds are heating, on which account they are used as remedies for, and antidotes against, hemlock.

And in his treatise on Suffocation, he writes—

And people who are suffocated are recovered by an infusion of vinegar and pepper, or else by the fruit of the nettle when crushed.

But we must recollect that, properly speaking, there is no noun of the neuter gender among the Greeks ending in ι, except μέλι alone; for the words πέπερι, and κόμμι, and κοῖφι are foreign.

Let us now speak of oil—Antiphanes or Alexis makes mention of the Samian Oil, saying—

1. This man you see will be a measurer
2. Of that most white of oils, the Samian oil.

Ophelion makes mention also of Carian oil, and says—

1. The man anointed was with Carian oil.

Amyntas, in his treatise on Persian Weights and Measures, Says—"The mountains there bear turpentine and mastic trees, and Persian nuts, from which they make a great deal of oil for the king. And Ctesias says, that in Carmania there is made an oil which is extracted from thorns, which the king uses. And he, in his third book of his treatise on the Revenues derived from Asia, making a list of all the things which are prepared for the king for his supper, makes no mention of pepper, or of vinegar, which of itself is the very best of all seasonings. Nor does Deinon, in his Persian History; though he does say that ammoniac salt is sent up to the king from Egypt, and water from the Nile. Theophrastus also mentions an oil which he calls ὠμοτριβὲς, that is to say, extracted raw, in his treatise on Scents, saying that it is produced from the large coarse olives called phaulian, and from almonds. Amphis also speaks of the oil which is produced amongst the Thurians, as exceedingly fine—

1. Oil from the Thurians comes; from Gela lentils.

Pickle is a thing often mentioned. Cratinus Says—

1. Your basket will be full of briny pickle.

And Pherecrates says—

1. His beard was all besmear'd with pickle juice.

And Sophocles, in his Triptolemus, says—

1. Eating this briny season'd pickle.

And Plato the comic writer says—

1. These men will choke me, steeping me in putrid pickle.

But the word γάρος, pickle, is a masculine noun. As Aeschylus proves, when he says καὶ τὸν ἰχθύων γάρον.

Vinegar too was much used by the ancients, and this is the only seasoning to which the Attics give the name of ἧδος, as if it were akin to ἡδὺς, sweet. And Chrysippus the philosopher says, that the best vinegar is the Egyptian and the Cnidian. But Aristophanes, in his Plutus, says—

1. Sprinkling it o'er with Sphettian vinegar.

Didymus explaining this verse says,

Perhaps he says Sphettian because the Sphettians are sour-tempered people.

And somewhere or other he mentions vinegar from Cleonæ, as being most excellent, saying,

And at Cleonæ there are manufactories of vinegar.

We find also in Diphilus—

1. A. He first takes off his coat, and then he sups,
2. After what fashion think you?
3. B. Why, like a Spartan.
4. A. A measure then of vinegar . . . .
5. B. Bah!
6. A. Why bah
7. B. A measure holds but such and such a quantity
8. Of the best Cleonæan vinegar.

And Philonides says—

1. Their seasonings have not vinegar sufficient.

But Heraclides the Tarentine, in his Symposium, says,

Vinegar has a tendency to make the exterior parts coagulate, and it affects the strings within the stomach in a very similar manner; but any parts which are tumid it dissolves, because forsooth different humours are mixed up in us.

And Alexis used to admire above all others the Decelean vinegar, and says—

1. You have compell'd me to bring forth from thence
2. Four half-pint measures full of vinegar
3. From Decelea, and now drag me through
4. The middle of the forum.

The word ὀξύγαρον must be spelt so, with a v, and the vessel which receives it is called ὀξύβαφον. And so Lysias, in the speech against Theopompus when on his trial for an assault, says,

But I myself drink ὀξύμελι.

And so too we must call oil of roses mixed with vinegar ὀξυρόδινον, spelling all the words thus compounded in this manner with a v.

Seasonings are mentioned even by Sophocles. In his Phæacians we find the expression,

1. And seasoning for food.

And in Aeschylus too we read—

1. You are steeping the seasonings.

And Theopompus says—

Many bushels of seasonings, and many sacks and bags of books, and of all other things which may be useful for life.

In Sophocles too the expression is found—

1. I like a cook will cleverly season . . . .

And Cratinus says in the Glaucus—

1. It is not every one who can season skilfully.

And Eupolis speaks of

1. Very bad vinegar seasoned in an expensive way.

And Antiphanes, in his Leucas, gives the following catalogue of seasonings:—

1. Dried grapes, and salt, and eke new wine
2. Newly boiled down, and assafætida,
3. And cheese, and thyme, and sesame,
4. And nitre too, and cummin seed,
5. And sumach, honey, and marjoram,
6. And herbs, and vinegar and oil
7. And sauce of onions, mustard and capers mix d,
8. And parsley, capers too, and eggs,
9. And lime, and cardamums, and th' acid juice
10. Which comes from the green fig-tree, besides lard
11. And eggs and honey and flour wrapp'd in fig-leaves,
12. And all compounded in one savoury forcemeat.

The ancients were well acquainted with the Ethiopian cardamum. We must take notice that they used the words θύμος and ὀρίγανος as masculine nouns. And so Anaxandrides says—

1. Cutting asparagus and squills and marjoram, (ὃς)
2. Which gives the pickle an aristocratic taste,
3. When duly mixed (μιχθεὶς) with coriander seed.

And Ion says—

1. But in a hurried manner in his hand
2. He hides the marjoram (τὸν ὀρίγανον).

Plato however, or Cantharus, used it as feminine, saying—

1. She from Arcadia brought
2. The harshly-tasted (τὴν δριμυτάτην) marjoram.

Epicharmus and Ameipsias both use it as a neuter noun; but Nicander, in his Melissurgica, uses θύμος as masculine.

Cratinus used the word πέπονες, which properly means merely full ripe, in speaking of the cucumbers which give seed, in his Ulysseses—

1. Tell me, O wisest son of old Laertes,
2. Have you e'er seen a friend of yours in Paros
3. Buy a large cucumber that's run to seed?

And Plato says in his Laius—

1. Do you not see
2. That Meleager, son of mighty Glaucon,
3. . . . . Goes about every where like a stupid cuckoo,
4. With legs like the seedless πέπων cucumber?

And Anaxilas says—

1. His ankles swell'd
2. Larger than e'en a πέπων cucumber.

And Theopompus says of a woman—

1. She was to me
2. More tender than a πέπων cucumber.

Phænias says, "Both the σίκυος and the πέπων are tender to eat, with the stem on which they grow; however the seed is not to be eaten, but the outside only, when they are fully ripe; but the gourd called κολοκύντη, when raw is not eatable, but is very good either boiled or roasted. And Diodes the Carystian, in the first book of his treatise on Wholesome Things, says that

of wild vegetables the following should be boiled before eating: the lettuce (the best kind of which is the black); the cardamum; mustard from the Adriatic; onions (the best kinds are the Asalonian, and that called getian); garlic, that other kind of garlic called physinga, the πέπων cucumber, and the poppy.

And a little afterwards he says, "The πέπων cucumber is better for the stomach and more digestible; though every cucumber when boiled is tender, never gives any pain, and is diuretic; but that kind called πέπων when boiled in mead has very aperient qualities. And Speusippus, in his treatise on Similarities, calls the πέπων by the name of σικύα. But Diocles having named the πέπων, does not any longer call it σικύα: and Speusippus after having named the σικύα never names the πέπων. Diphilus says, the πέπων is more full of wholesome juice, and moderates the humours of the body, but it is not very nutritious; it is easily digested, and promotes the secretions.

The lettuce was in great request as an article of food. Its name is θρῖδαξ, but the Attics call it θριδακίνη. Epicharmus says—

1. A lettuce (θρῖδαξ) with its stalk peel'd all the way up.

But Strattis calls lettuces θριδακινίδες, and says—

1. The leek-destroying grubs, which go
2. Throughout the leafy gardens
3. On fifty feet, and leave their trace,
4. Gnawing all herbs and vegetables;
5. Leading the dances of the long-tailed satyrs
6. Amid the petals of the verdant herbs,
7. And of the juicy lettuces (θριδακινίδες),
8. And of the fragrant parsley.

And Theophrastus says,

Of lettuce (θριδακίνη) the white is the sweeter and the more tender: there are three kinds; there is the lettuce with the broad stalk, and the lettuce with the round stalk, and in the third place there is the Lacedæmonian lettuce-its leaf is like that of a thistle, but it grows up straight and tall, and it never sends up any side shoots from the main stalk. But some plants of the broad kind are so very broad in the stalk that some people even use them for doors to their gardens. But when the stalks are cut, then those which shoot again are the sweetest of any.

But Nicander the Colophonian, in the second part of his Dictionary, says that the lettuce is called βρένθις by the Cyprians. And it was towards a plant of this kind that Adonis was flying when he was slain by the boar. Amphis in his Ialemus says—

1. Curse upon all these lettuces (θριδάκιναι)!
2. For if a man not threescore years should eat them,
3. And then betake himself to see his mistress,
4. He'll toss the whole night through, and won't be equal
5. To her expectations or his own.

And Callimachus says that Venus hid Adonis under a lettuce, which is an allegorical statement of the poet's, intended to show that those who are much addicted to the use of lettuces are very little adapted for pleasures of love. And Eubulus says in his Astuti—

1. Do not put lettuces before me, wife,
2. Upon the table; or the blame is yours.
3. For once upon a time, as goes the tale,
4. Venus conceal'd the sadly slain Adonis;
5. Beneath the shade of this same vegetable;
6. So that it is the food of dead men, or of those
7. Who scarcely are superior to the dead.

Cratinus also says that Venus when in love with Phaon hid him also in the leaves of the lettuce: but the younger Marsyas says that she hid him amid the grass of barley.

Pamphilus in his book on Languages says, that Hipponax called the lettuce τετρακίνη: but Clitarchus says that it is the Phrygians who give it this name. Ibycus the Pythagorean says that the lettuce is at its first beginning a plant with a broad leaf, smooth, without any stalk, and is called by the Pythagoreans the eunuch, and by the women ἄστυτις; for that it makes the men diuretic and powerless for the calls of love: but it is exceedingly pleasant to the taste.