Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

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

Hermon, in his Cretan Dialects, says that Cydonian apples are called κοδύμαλα. But Polemo, in the fifth book of the treatise against Timæus, says that some people affirm that the κοδύμαλον is a kind of flower. But Alcman asserts that it is the same as the στρούθιον apple, when he says,

less than a κοδύμαλον.

And Apollodorus and Sosibius understand the Cydonian apple by κοδύμαλον. But that the Cydonian apple differs from the στρούθιον, Theophrastus has asserted clearly enough in the second book of his History. Moreover, there are excellent apples grown at Sidus, (that is, a village in the Corinthian territory,) as Euphorion or Archytas says, in the poem called

The Crane:

—

Like a beautiful apple which is grown on the clayey banks
Of the little Sidus, refulgent with purple colour.

And Nicander mentions them in his Transformed, in this manner:—

And immediately, from the gardens of Sidoeis or Pleistus
He cut green apples, and imitated the appearance of Cadmus.

And that Sidus is a village of the Corinthian territory, Rhianus assures us, in the first book of the Heraclea; and Apollodorus the Athenian confirms it, in the fifth book On the Catalogue of the Ships. But Antigonus the Carystian says, in his Antipater—

More dear to me was he than downy apples
Of purple hue, in lofty Corinth growing.

And Teleclides mentions the Phaulian apples, in his Amphictyons, in these terms:—

O men, in some things neat, but yet in others
More fallen than phaulian apples!

And Theopompus also speaks of them, in the Theseus. But Androtion, in his Book of the Farm, says, that some apple-trees are called φαύλιαι, and others στρούθιαι;

for,

says he,

the apple does not fall from the footstalk of the strouthian apple-tree.

And that others are called spring-trees, or Lace-

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dæmonian, or Siduntian, or woolly. But I, my friends, admire above all others the apples which are sold at Rome, which are called the Mattianian; and which are said to be brought from a certain village situated on the Alps near Aquileia. And the apples which grow at Gangra, a city of Paphlagonia, are not much inferior to them. But that Bacchus was the discoverer of the apple we have the testimony of Theocritus the Syracusan, who writes thus:—

Guarding the apples in the bosom of Bacchus;
And having on his head a poplar garland,
The silv'ry tree, sacred to Theban Hercules.

But Neoptolemus the Parian testifies himself, in his Dionysias, that the apple was discovered by Bacchus, as were all other fruits which grow on trees.

There is a fruit called epimelis; which is, says Pamphilus, a description of pear. But Timachides asserts, in the fourth book of The Banquet, that it is an apple, the same as that called the apple of the Hesperides. And Pamphilus asserts that at Lacedæmon they are set before the gods; and that they have a sweet smell, but are not very good to eat; and are called the apples of the Hesperides. At all events, Aristocrates, in the fourth book of his Affairs of Lacedæmon, says,

And besides that apples, and those which are called Hesperides.

Walnuts are next to be mentioned.—Theophrastus, in the second book of his History of Plants, speaking of those whose fruit is not visible, says this among other things:—

Since the beginning of all the greater fruits is visible, as of the almond, the nut, the date, and other fruits of the same kind; except the walnut, in which that is not at all the case; and with the exception also of the pomegranate and of the female pear.

But Diphilus of Siphnos, in his book about What should be eaten by People when Sick and by People in Health," says—

The fruit called the Persian apple or peach, and by some the Persian cuckoo-apple, is moderately juicy, but is more nutritious than apples.

But Philotimus, in the second and third books of his treatise on Food, says that the Persian nut or walnut is more oily and like millet, and that being a looser fruit, when it is pressed it yields a great quantity of oil. But Aristophanes the grammarian, in his Lacedæmonian Dialects, says that the Lacedæmonians call the cuckoo-apples Persian bitter apples; and that some people call them ἄδρυα.

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The Citron was next mentioned.—And with respect to this fruit there was a great discussion among the Deipnosophists, as to whether there is any mention made of it by the ancients. For Myrtilus said, proposing, as it were, to send us who made the inquiry to feed among the wild goats, that Hegesander the Delphian, in his Memorials, does make mention of this fruit; but that he did not recollect the exact words: and Plutarch, contradicting him, said,—But I indeed contend, that Hegesander never mentions the citron at all, for I read through the whole of his Memorials for the express purpose of seeing whether he did or no; since some other of our companions also asserted positively that he did, trusting to some scholastic commentaries of a man whom he considered respectable enough. So that it is time for you, my good friend Myrtilus, to seek for some other witness. But Aemilianus said, that Jobas the king of the Mauritanians, a man of the most extensive learning, in his History of Libya, does mention the citron, saying that it is called among the Libyans the Hesperian apple, and that they were citrons which Hercules carried into Greece, and which obtained the name of golden apples on account of their colour and appearance. But the fruit which is called the apples of the Hesperides, is said to have been produced by Terra, on the occasion of the marriage of Jupiter and Juno, according to the statement of Asclepiades, in the sixtieth book of his History of the Affairs of Egypt. On this, Democritus, looking towards the speakers, said,—If, indeed, Jobas asserts any of these things, let him take pleasure in his Libyan books, and in the nonsense of Hanno. But I repeat the assertion, that the name citron does not occur in the old authors. But the fruit which is described by Theophrastus the Eresian, in his Histories of Plants, is described in such a manner as to compel me to believe that he intended the citron by what he said.

For that philosopher says, in the fourth book of his History of Plants—

The Median territory, and like wise the Persian, has many other productions, and also the Perian or Median apple. Now, that tree has a leaf very like and almost exactly the same as that of the bay-tree, the arbutus, or the nut: and it has thorns like the prickly-pear, or blackthorn, smooth but very sharp and strong. And the fruit is not good to eat, but is very fragrant, and so too are
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the leaves of the tree. And if any one puts one of the fruits among his clothes, it keeps them from the moth. And it is useful when any one has taken poison injurious to life; for when given in wine it produces a strong effect on the bowels, and draws out the poison. It is serviceable also in the way of making the breath sweet; for if any one boils the inner part of the fruit in broth or in anything else, and then presses it in his mouth and swallows it, it makes his breath smell sweet. And the seed is taken out and is sown in spring in square beds, being very carefully cultivated; and then it is watered every fourth or fifth day; and when it has grown up it is again transplanted the next spring into a place where the ground is soft, and well-watered, and not very thin. And it bears fruit every year; some of which are fit to be gathered, and some are in flower, and some are becoming ripe at the same time. And those of the flowers which have a stem like a distaff projecting out of the centre are sure to produce good seed; but those which have no such stem are unproductive.

And in the first book of the same treatise he says the same thing about the distaff, and about the flowers which are productive. And I am induced by these things, my mates, and by what Theophrastus says of the colour and smell and leaves of the fruit, to believe that the fruit meant by him is the citron; and let no one of you marvel if he says that it is not good to eat; since until the time of our grandfathers no one was used to eat it, but they put it away as a treasure in their chests along with their clothes.

But that this plant really did come from that upper country into Greece, one may find asserted in the works of the Comic poets, who, speaking of its size, appear to point out the citron plainly enough. Antiphanes says, in his Bœotian—

A. 'Tis silly to say a word about roast meat
To men who're ne'er content. But now, my girl,
Just take these apples.
B. They are fine to look at.
A. Indeed they are, and good too, O ye gods!
For this seed has arrived not long ago
In Athens, coming from the mighty king.
B. I thought it came from the Hesperides;
For there they say the golden apples grow.
A. They have but three.
B. That which is very beautiful
Is rare in every place, and so is dear.

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And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, quotes these selfsame Iambics of Antiphanes, and then proceeds in his own words:—

B. I thought, I swear by Dian, that they came
From out the garden of the Hesperides,
For they, they say, do keep the golden apples.
A. They have but three.
B. That which is very beautiful
Is rare in every place, and so is dear.
A. I'll sell you these now for a single penny,
And even that I'll put down in the bill.
B. Are they not pomegranates? how fine they are!
A. Fine! yes—they say that Venus did herself
Plant this the parent tree in Cyprus, where it stands.
Take it, my dear Berbeias.
B. Thank you kindly.
A. Take also these three; they are all I had.

And if any one is able to contradict this, and to show that these descriptions are not meant to apply to the fruit which we now call the citron, let him bring forward some clearer testimonies.

However, Phænias the Eresian compels us to entertain the idea that, perhaps, the name may be meant for cedron, as from the cedar-tree. For, in the fifth book of his treatise on Plants, he says that the cedar has thorns around its leaves; and that the same is the case with the citron is visible to everybody. But that the citron when eaten before any kind of food, whether dry or moist, is an antidote to all injurious effects, I am quite certain, having had that fact fully proved to me by my fellow-citizen, who was entrusted with the government of Egypt. He had condemned some men to be given to wild beasts, as having been convicted of being malefactors, and such men he said were only fit to be given to beasts. And as they were going into the theatre appropriated to the punishment of robbers, a woman who was selling fruit by the wayside gave them out of pity some of the citron which she herself was eating, and they took it and ate it, and after a little while, being exposed to some enormous and savage beasts, and bitten by asps, they suffered no injury. At which the governor was mightily astonished. And at last, examining the soldier who had charge of them, whether they had eaten or drunk anything, when he learnt of him that some citron had been given to them without any evil design; on the next day he ordered some citron to be given o some of them again, and others to have none given to them And

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those who eat the citron, though they were bitten, received no injury, but the others died immediately on being bitten. And this result being proved by repeated experiments, it was found that citron was an antidote to all sorts of pernicious poison. But if any one boils a whole citron with its seed in Attic honey, it is dissolved in the honey, and he who takes two or three mouthfuls of it early in the morning will never experience any evil effects from poison.

Now if any one disbelieves this, let him learn from Theopompus the Chian, a man of the strictest truth and who expended a great deal of money on the most accurate investigation of matters to be spoken of in his History. For he says, in the thirty-eighth book of his History, while giving an account of Clearchus, the tyrant of the Heracleans who were in Pontus, that he seized violently upon a number of people and gave a great many of them hemlock to drink.—

And as,

says he,

they all knew that he was in the habit of compelling them to pledge him in this liquor, they never left their homes without first eating rue: for people who have eaten this beforehand take no harm from drinking aconite,— a poison which, they say, has its name from growing in a place called Aconæ, which is not far from Heraclea.

When Democritus had said this they all marvelled at the efficacy of citron, and most of them ate it, as if they had had nothing to eat or drink before. But Pamphilus, in his Dialects, says that the Romans call it not κίτριον, but κίτρον.

And after the viands which have been mentioned there were then brought unto us separately some large dishes of oysters, and other shell-fish, nearly all of which have been thought by Epicharmus worthy of being celebrated in his play of the Marriage of Hebe, in these words:—

Come, now, bring all kinds of shell-fish;
Lepades, aspedi, crabyzi, strabeli, cecibali,
Tethunachia, balani, porphyryæ, and oysters with closed shells,
Which are very difficult to open, but very easy to eat;
And mussels, and anaritæ, and ceryces, and sciphydria,
Which are very sweet to eat, but very prickly to touch;
And also the oblong solens. And bring too the black
Cockle, which keeps the cockle-hunter on the stretch.
Then too there are other cockles, and sand-eels,
And periwinkles, unproductive fish,
Which men entitle banishers of men,
But which we gods call white and beautiful.

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And in the Muses it is written—

There is the cockle, which we call the tells;
Believe me, that is most delicious meat.

Perhaps he means that fish which is called the tellina, and which the Romans call the mitlus,—a fish which Aristophanes the grammarian names in his treatise on the Broken Scytale, and says that the lepas is a fish like that which is called the tellina. But Callias of Mitylene, in his discussion of the Limpet in Alcæus, says that there is an ode in Alcæus of which the beginning is—

O child of the rock, and of the hoary sea;

and at the end of it there is the line—

Of all limpets the sea-limpet most relaxes the mind.

But Aristophanes writes the line with the word tortoise instead of limpet. And he says that Dicearchus made a great blunder when he interpreted the line of limpets; and that the children when they get them in their mouths sing and play with them, just as idle boys among us do with the fish which we call tellina. And so, too, Sopater, the compiler of Comicalities, says in his drama which is entitled the Eubulotheombrotus:—

But stop, for suddenly a certain sound
Of the melodious tellina strikes my ears.

And in another place Epicharmus, in his Pyrrha and Prometheus, says—

Just look now at this tellina, and behold
This periwinkle and this splendid limpet.

And in Sophron cockles are called melœnides.

For now melænides will come to us,
Sent from a narrow harbour.

And in the play which is called

The Clown and the Fisherman,

they are called the cherambe. And Archilochus also mentions the cherambe: and Ibycus mentions the periwinkle. And the periwinkle is called both ἀναρίτης and ἀνάρτας. And the shell being something like that of a cockle, it sticks to the rocks, just as limpets do. But Herodas, in his Coadjutrixes, says—

Sticking to the rocks as a periwinkle.

And Aeschylus, in his Persæ, says—

Who has plunder'd the islands producing the periwinkle?
And Homer makes mention of the oyster.

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Diodes the Carystian, in his treatise on the Whole- somes, says that the best of all shell-fish, as aperient and diuretic food, are mussels, oysters, scallops, and cockles. And Archippus says, in his poem called

Fishes,

—

With limpets and sea-urchins and escharæ,
And with periwinkles and cockles.

And Diocles says that the strongest of all shell-fish are cockles, purple-fish, and ceryces. But concerning ceryces Archippus says this—

The ceryx, ocean's nursling, child of purple.

But Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that ceryces, purple-fish, strabeli, and cockles, are all very nearly alike. And Sophocles makes mention of the shellfish called strabeli in his Camici, in these words:—

Come now, my son, and look if we may find
Some of the nice strabelus, ocean's child.

And again Speusippus enumerates separately in regular order the cockle, the periwinkle, the mussel, the pinna, the solens; and in another place he speaks of oysters and limpets. And Araros says, in his Campylion—

These now are most undoubted delicacies,
Cockles and solens; and the crooked locusts
Spring forth in haste like dolphins.

And Sophron says, in his Mimi—

A. What are these long cockles, O my friend,
Which you do think so much of?
B. Solens, to be sure.
This too is the sweet-flesh'd cockle, dainty food,
The dish much loved by widows.

And Cratinus also speaks of the pinna in his Archilochi—

She indeed like pinnas and sea oysters.

And Philyllius, or Eunicus, or Aristophanes, in the Cities, says—

A little polypus, or a small cuttle-fish,
A crab, a crawfish, oysters, cockles,
Limpets and solens, mussels and pinnas;
Periwinkles too, from Mitylene take;
Let us have two sprats, and mullet, ling,
And conger-eel, and perch, and black fish.

But Agiastos, and Dercylus, in his Argolici, call the strabeli ἀστράβηλοι; speaking of them as suitable to play upon like a trumpet.

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