Deipnosophistae

Diphilus says that

the stalk of the lettuce is exceedingly nutritious, and more difficult of digestion than the leaves; but that the leaves are more apt to produce flatulence, and are still more nutritious, and have a greater tendency to promote the secretions. And as a general rule the lettuce is good for the stomach, cooling and wholesome for the bowels, soporific, full of pleasant and wholesome juice, and certainly has a great tendency to make men indifferent to love. But the softer lettuce is still better for the stomach, and still more soporific; while that which is harder and drier is both less good for the stomach and less wholesome for the bowels; that, however, is also soporific. But the black lettuce is more cooling, and is good for the bowels; and summer lettuce is full of wholesome juice, and more nutritious; but that which is in season at the end of autumn is not nutritious, and has no juice. And the stalk of the lettuce appears to be a remedy against thirst.

Among some of the other nations Theophrastus says that

Artichokes were often eaten. And Sophocles, in his Colchian Women, calls an artichoke κινάρα, but in his Phœnix he writes the word κύναρος, saying—

1. The artichoke fills every field with its thorn.

Around the sea which is called the Hyrcanian sea there are mountains lofty and rough with woods, and on the mountains there is the prickly artichoke.

Of the Parthian tribes the Chorasmians dwell towards the rising sun, having a territory partly champaign and partly mountainous. And in the mountains there are wild trees; the prickly artichoke, the willow, the tamarisk.

that that land is well watered with fountains and with canals, and on the mountains there grow artichokes and many other plants.

From that point a mountain stretches on both sides of the river Indus, very lofty, and very thickly overgrown with wild wood and the prickly artichoke.

But Didymus the grammarian, explaining what is meant by Sophocles when he speaks of the prickly artichoke (which he calls κύναρος), says, "Perhaps he means the dog-brier, because that plant is prickly and rough; for the Pythian priestess did call that plant a wooden bitch. And the Locrian, after he had been ordered by an oracle to build a city in that place in which he was bitten by a wooden bitch, having had his leg scratched by a dog-brier, built the city in the place

Phænias, in the fifth book of his treatise on Plants, speaks of one which he calls the Sicilian cactus a very prickly plant. As also does Theophrastus, in his sixth book about Plants, who says,

But the plant which is called the cactus exists only in Sicily, and is not found in Greece: and it sends forth stalks close to the ground, just above the root. And the stalks are the things which are called cacti: and they are eatable as soon as they are peeled, and rather bitter; and they preserve them in brine. But there is a second kind, which sends up a straight stalk, which they call πτέρνιξ; and that also is eatable. The shell of the fruit, as soon as the outer soft parts have been taken away, is like the inside of a date: that also is eatable; and the name of that is ἀσκάληρον.

And Epicharmus also shows us plainly this, when he puts down the cactus in his catalogue of eatable vegetables; in this way—

The poppy, fennel, and the rough cactus; now one can eat of the other vegetables when dressed with milk, if he bruises them and serves them up with rich sauce, but by themselves they are not worth much.

Lettuces, pines, squills, radishes, cacti.

A man came from the country, bringing fennel, and cacti, and lavender, and sorrel, and chicory, and thisles, and ferns, and the cactus, and dractylus, and otostyllus, and scolium, and seni, and onopordus.

1. A fawn about to die would make a noise,
2. Fearing the venom of the thorny cactus.

And, indeed, Sopater the Paphian, who was born in the time of Alexander the son of Philip, and who lied even till the time of the second Ptolemy king of Egypt, called the artichoke κίναρα just as we do, as he himself declares in one

Now with respect to what is called the Brain of the Palm.—Theophrastus, speaking of the plant of the palm-tree, states,

The manner of cultivating it, and of its propagation from the fruit, is as follows: when one has taken off the upper rind, one comes to a portion in which is what is called the brain.

There, too, the soldiers first ate the brain of the palm or date-tree. And many of them marvelled at its appearance, and at the peculiarity of its delicious flavour. But it was found to have a great tendency to produce headache; but the date, when the brain was taken out of it, entirely dried up.

1. And at the same time cutting off the branches
2. Loaded with dates they bring away the brain,
3. A dainty greatly fancied by the young.

The brains of the dates are filling and nutritious; still they are heavy and not very digestible: they cause thirst, too, and constipation of the stomach.

But we, says Athenæus, O my friend Timocrates, shall appear to keep our brains to the end, if we stop this conversation and the book at this point.

Menander says—

1. It is a troublesome thing to fall in with
2. An entire party of none but relations;
3. Where as soon as he has taken his cup in his hand
4. The father first begins the discourse,
5. And stammers out his recommendations:
6. Then after him the mother, in the second place;
7. And then some old aunt gossips and chatters;
8. And then some harsh-voiced old man,
9. The father of the aunt aforesaid; then too
10. Another old woman calls him her darling:
11. And he nods assent to all that is said.

And a little afterwards he says—

1. Before the shade they wear a purple cloth,
2. And then this comes after the purple;
3. Being itself neither white nor purple,
4. But a ray of the brilliancy of the woof as it were
5. Of divers colours curiously blended.

What do you say? Will you not bring something hither to the door which we may eat? and then I will sit on the ground and eat it as the beggars do: and any one may see me.

The same man says in another place—

1. Prepare then
2. A fanner to cool me, a dish, a tripod, a cup,
3. An ewer, a mortar, a pot, and a spoon.

Thales the Milesian, one of the seven wise that the overflowing of the Nile arises from the Etestian for that they blow up the river, and that the mouths of the river lie exactly opposite to the point from which they blow; and accordingly that the wind blowing in the opposite direc- tion hinders the flow of the waters; and the waves of the sea, dashing against the mouth of the river, and coming on with a fair wind in the same direction, beat back the river, and in this manner the Nile becomes full to overflowing. But Anaxagoras the natural philosopher says that the fullness of the Nile arises from the snow melting; and so, too, says

Archelaus

1. Danaus, the noble sire of fifty daughters,
2. Leaving the Nile, the fairest stream on earth,
3. Fill'd by the summer of the Aethiop land,
4. The negro's home, when the deep snow does melt,
5. And o'er the land the Sun his chariot drives.

Helen

1. These are the beauticous virgin streams of Nile,
2. Which in the place of rain bedew the plain
3. Of Egypt when the white snow melts on th' hills.

1. I know its history, and love to praise
2. The race of the Aethiop land, where mighty Nile
3. Rolls down his seven streams the country through,
4. When the spring winds bring down the heavy waters;
5. What time the sun shining along that land
6. Dissolves the mountain snow; and the whole land
7. Of flourishing Egypt, fill'd with th' holy stream,
8. Sends forth the vital ears of corn of Ceres.

And Callisthenes the historian argues against what I quoted just now as stated by Anaxagoras and Euripides: and he, too, declares his own opinion,—that as there is much very heavy and continued rain in Aethiopia about the time of the rising of the Dogstar, and from that period till the rising of Arcturus, and as the Etesian winds blow at about the same time, (for these are the winds which he says have the greatest tendency to bring the clouds over Aethiopia,) when the clouds fall upon the mountains in that region, a vast quantity of water bursts forth, in consequence of which the Nile rises. But Democritus says that about the winter solstice there are heavy falls of snow in the countries around the north; but that when the sun changes its course, at the summer solstice, the snow being melted and evaporated by the warmth, clouds are formed, and then the Etesian gales catch hold of them, and drive them towards the south; and when these clouds are all driven together towards Aethiopia and Libya, a mighty rain ensues, and the water from that flows down the mountains and fills the Nile. This, then, is the cause which Democritus alleges for this fulness of the Nile.

But Euthymenes the Massiliote says, speaking of his

But Œnopides the Chian says, that in winter the sources of the river are dried up, but in the summer they are thawed and flow; and so that for the sake of filling up the previous dryness, the rains from heaven cooperate with * * * * * * * * And on this account the river is smaller in winter and is full in summer.

But Herodotus gives an explanation quite contrary to that of the rest of those who have discussed this subject, but agreeing with the explanation of Œnopides; for he says that the stream of the Nile is of such magnitude as always to fill the river; but that the sun, as it makes its journey through Libya in the winter, dries up the river at that time; but that as it has gone off towards the north at the time of the sum- mer solstice, then the river becomes full again, and overflows the plains.

Now these are the mouths of the Nile:—towards Arabia, the Pelusiac mouth; towards Libya, the Canopic: and the rest are,—the Bolbitic, the Sebennytic, the Mendesian, the Saitic, and the Opuntic.

CALLIMACHUS the grammarian said that a great book was equivalent to a great evil.

With respect to Ciboria, or Egyptian beans, Nicander says in his Georgics—

1. You may sow the Egyptian bean, in order in summer
2. To make its flowers into garlands; and when the ciboria
3. Have fallen, then give the ripe fruit to the youths
4. Who are feasting with you, into their hands, as they have been a long time
5. Wishing for them; but roots I boil, and then place on the table at feasts.

roots,

1. Have peel'd the beans, and cut up the colocasia.

Theophrastus, in his book on Plants, writes thus: "The bean in Egypt grows in marshes and swamps; and its stalk is in length, when it is at the largest, about four cubits; but in thickness, it is as thick as one's finger: and it is like a long reed, only without joints. But it has divisions within, running through the whole of it, like honeycombs. And on this stalk is the head and the flower, being about twice the size of a poppy; and its colour is like that of a rose, very full coloured; and it puts forth large leaves. But the root is thicker than the thickest reed, and it has divisions like the stalk. And people eat it boiled, and roasted, and raw. And the men who live near the marshes eat it very much. It grows, too, in Syria and in Cilicia, but those countries do not ripen it thoroughly. It grows, too, around Torone in Chalcidice, in a marsh of moderate size, and that place ripens it, and it brings its fruit to perfection there. But Diphilus the Siphnian says, "The root of the Egyptian bean, which is called colocasium, is very good for the stomach, and very nutritious, but it is not very digestible, being very astringent; and that is the best which is the least woolly. But the beans which are produced by the plant called ciborium, when they are green are indigestible, not very nutritious, easily pass through one, and are apt to cause flatulence; but when they are dry they are, not so flatulent. And from the genuine ciborium there is a flower which grows which is made into garlands. And the Egyptians call the flower the lotus; but the Naucratitans tell me, says Athenæus, that its name is the melilotus: and it is of that flower that the melilotus garlands are made, which are very fragrant, and which have a cooling effect in the summer season.

But Phylarchus says, "that though Egyptian beans had never been sown before in any place, and had never produced

With respect to Cucumbers.—There is a proverb—

1. Eat the cucumber, O woman, and weave your cloak.

1. And I saw a cucumber, the son of the all-glorious Earth,
2. Lying among the herbs; and it was served up on nine tables.[*](This is parodied from— καὶ τίτυον εἶδον γαίης ἐρικυδέος υἷονκειμένον ἐν δαπέδῳ ὁδʼ ἔπʼ ἐννεὰ κεῖτο πέλεθρα: translated by Pope: There Tityus large, and long in fetters bound,O'erspreads nine acres of infernal ground. )

1. But, as when cucumber grows up in a dewy place,

1. εντραγεῖν σικύδιον, to eat a little cucumber.

[From this point are the genuine words of Athenœus.][*](The whole of the first two books of the genuine work of Athenæus are lost; as also is the beginning of the third book; and a good deal of the last. What has been translated up to this point is an epitome or abridgement made by some compiler whose name is unknown. Casaubon states that he is ignorant of the name of this compiler; but is sure that he lived five hundred years before his own time, and before Eustathius; because Eustathius sometimes uses his epitome in preference to the original work. But even before this abridgement was made the text had become exceedingly corrupt, according to the statement of the compiler himself.—See Bayle, Diet. voc. Athenœus.)

1. I will send radishes and four cucumbers.

But Theophrastus says that there are three kinds of cucumbers, the Lacedæmonian, the Scytalian, and the Bœotian; and that of these the Lacedæmonian, which is a watery one, is the best; and that the others do not contain water.

Cucumbers too,

contain a more agreeable and wholesome juice if the seed be steeped in milk or in mead before it is sown;

The cucumber being a cooling food is not very manageable, and is not easily digested or evacuated; besides that, it creates shuddering feelings and engenders bile, and is a great preventive against amatory feelings.

With respect to Figs.-The fig-tree, says Magnus, (for I will not allow any one to take what I have to say about figs out of my mouth, not if I were to be hanged for it, for I am most devilishly fond of figs, and I will say what occurs to me;) "the fig-tree, my friends, was the guide to men to lead them to a more civilized life. And this is plain from the fact that the Athenians call the place where it was first discovered The Sacred Fig; and the fruit from it they call hegeteria, that is to say,

the guide,

1. A. What fruits this land produces!
2. Superior, O Hipponicus, to the world.
3. What honey, what bread, what figs!
4. Hipp. It does, by Jove!
5. Bear wondrous figs.

Attics,

The Poet

1. The name of sycophant is one which does
2. Of right apply to every wicked person;
3. For figs when added to a name might show
4. Whether the man was good and just and pleasant
5. But now when a sweet name is given a rogue,
6. It makes us doubt why this should be the case.

And Aristophanes mentions the fig, in his

Farmers;

1. I am planting figs of all sorts except the Lacedæmonian,
2. For this kind is the fig of an enemy and a tyrant:
3. And it would not have been so small a fruit if it had not been a great hater of the people.

Olynthian,

1. And the beautiful fig,
2. The wonderful invention of the Phrygian fig,
3. The diine object of my mother's care.

Crapatalli,

1. O my good friend, make haste and catch a fever,
2. And then alarm yourself with no anxiety,
3. But eat Phibalean figs all the summer;
4. And then, when you have eaten your fill, sleep the whole of the midday;
5. And then feel violent pains, get in a fever, and holloa.

1. How beautiful those Phibalean figs are!

Cretans

1. . . . . . But first of all
2. I want some myrtle-berries on the table,
3. Which I may eat when e'er I counsel take;
4. And they must be Phibalean, very fine,
5. Fit for a garland.

1. Then, in a little while, a well-fill'd basket
2. Of dry Chelidonian figs is brought in.

Lynceus, too, mentions the fig-trees which grow in Rhodes, in his Epistles; instituting a comparison between the best of the Athenian kinds and the Rhodian species. And he writes in these terms:—

But these fig-trees appear to vie with Lacedæmonian trees of the same kind, as mulberries do with figs; and they are put on the table before supper, not after supper as they are here, when the taste is already vitiated by satiety, but while the appetite is still uninfluenced and unappeased.

Other kinds of figs grown near Rome are held in high esteem; and those called the Chian figs, and the Libianian; those two named the Chalcidic, and the African figs; as Herodotus the Lycian bears witness, in his treatise on Figs.

But Parmeno the Byzantine, in his Iambics, speaks of the figs which come from Canæ, an Aeolian city, as the best of all: saying—

1. I am arrived after a long voyage, not having brought
2. A valuable freight of Canæan figs.

1. Moreover, all the wine
2. Was very sour and thin, so that I felt
3. Ashamed to see it; for all other farms
4. In the adjacent region bear the figs
5. Ycleped Oxalian; and mine bears vines.

1. Never mind Paros, and the figs which grow
2. Within that marble island, and the life
3. Of its seafaring islanders.