Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

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

But one may well wonder at Archestratus, who has given us such admirable suggestions and injunctions, and who was a guide in the matter of pleasure to the philosopher Epicurus, when he counsels us wisely, in a manner equal to that of the bard[*](Hesiod.) of Ascra, that we ought not to mind some people, but only attend to him; and he bids us eat such

v.1.p.170
and such things, differing in no respect from the cook in Damoxenus the comic writer, who says in his Syntrophi—
  1. A. You see me here a most attentive pupil
  2. Of Epicurus, wisest of the Greeks,
  3. From whom in two years and ten months or less,
  4. I scraped together four good Attic talents.
  5. B. What do you mean by this I pray thee, tell me,
  6. Was he a cook, my master That is news.
  7. A. Ye gods! and what a cook! Believe me, nature
  8. Is the beginning and the only source
  9. Of all true wisdom. And there is no art
  10. At which men labour, which contains more wisdom.
  11. So this our art is easy to the man
  12. Who has drunk deep of nature's principles;
  13. They are his guides: and therefore, when you see
  14. A cook who is no scholar, nor has read
  15. The subtle lessons of Democritus,
  16. (Aye and he must remember them besides,)
  17. Laugh at him as an ass; and if you hire one
  18. Who knows not Epicurus and his rules,
  19. Discharge him straightway. For a cook must know,
  20. (I speak the words of sober truth, my friend,)
  21. How great the difference is in summer time
  22. Between the glaucisk of the winter-season;
  23. He must know all the fish the Pleiades
  24. Bring to us at their setting; what the solstice,
  25. Winter and summer, gives us eatable—
  26. For all the changes and the revolutions
  27. Are fraught with countless evil to mankind,
  28. Such changes do they cause in all their food.
  29. Dost thou not understand me? And remember,
  30. Whatever is in season must be good.
  31. B. How few observe these rules.
  32. A. From this neglect
  33. Come spasms, and the flatulence which ill
  34. Beseems a politic guest;-but all the food
  35. I give my parties, wholesome is, and good,
  36. Digestible and free from flatulence.
  37. Therefore its juice is easily dissolved,
  38. And penetrates the entire body's pores.
  39. B. Juice, say you? This is not known to Democritus.
  40. A. But all meats out of season make the eater
  41. Diseased in his joints.
  42. B. You seem to me,
  43. To have studied too the art of medicine.
  44. A. No doubt, and so does every one who seeks
  45. Acquaintance with his nature's mysteries.
  46. But see now, I do beg you by the gods,
  47. How ignorant the present race of cooks are.
  48. When thus you find them ignorant of the smell
  49. v.1.p.171
  50. Of all the varied dishes which they dress,
  51. And pounding sesame in all their sauce.
  52. What can be bad enough for such sad blunderers
  53. B. You seem to speak as any oracle.
  54. A. What good can e'er arise, where every quality
  55. Is jumbled with its opposite in kind,
  56. How different so ever both may be?
  57. Now to discern these things is art and skill,
  58. Not to wash dishes nor to smell of smoke.
  59. For I do never enter a strange cook-shop,
  60. But sit within such a distance as enables
  61. My eyes to comprehend what is within.
  62. My friends, too, do the same; I tell them all
  63. The causes and results. This bit is sour,
  64. Away with it; the man is not a cook,
  65. Though he perhaps may be a music master:
  66. Put in some fire; keep an equal heat.
  67. The first dish scarcely suits the rest. Do you
  68. Not see the form of th' art?
  69. B. O, great Apollo!
  70. A. What does this seem to you?
  71. B. Pure skill; high art.
  72. A. Then I no dishes place before my guests
  73. At random; but while all things correspond
  74. I regulate the whole, and will divide
  75. The whole as best may suit, in fours, or fives;
  76. And will consult each separate division-
  77. And satisfy each party. Then again,
  78. I stand afar off and directions give;
  79. Whence bring you that? what shall you mix with this?
  80. See how discordant those two dishes are!
  81. Take care and shun such blunders. That will do.
  82. Thus Epicurus did arrange his pleasures.
  83. Thus wisely did he eat. He, only wise,
  84. Saw what was good and what its nature was.
  85. The Stoics seek in vain for such discoveries,
  86. And know not good nor what the nature may be
  87. Of good; and so they have it not; nor know
  88. How to impart it to their friends and guests.
  89. Enough of this. Do'st not agree with me?
  90. B. Indeed i do, all things are plain to me.

Plato, too, in his Joint Deceiver, introduces the father of a young man in great indignation, on the ground that his son's principles and way of living have been injured by his tutor; and he says—

  1. A. You now have been the ruin of my son,
  2. You wretch, you have persuaded him t' embark
  3. In a course of life quite foreign to his habits
  4. And former inclinations. You have taught him
  5. To drink i' th' morning, quite beyond his wont.
  6. v.1.p.172
  7. B. Do you blame me that he has learnt to live?
  8. A. Call you this living?
  9. B. So the wise do say:
  10. At all events the all wise Epicurus
  11. Tells us that pleasure is the only good.
  12. A. No doubt, and nobody can entertain
  13. A different opinion. To live well
  14. Must be to rightly live; is it not so?
  15. Tell me, I pray thee, hast thou ever seen
  16. Any philosopher confused with wine?
  17. Or overtaken with those joys of yours
  18. B. Aye, all of them. Those who lift up their brows,
  19. Who look most solemn in the promenades,
  20. And in their daily conversation,
  21. Who turn their eyes away in high disdain
  22. If you put plaice or turbot on their board,
  23. Know for all that the fish's daintiest part.
  24. Seek out the head, the fins; the sound, the roe,
  25. And make men marvel at their gluttony.

And in Antiphanes, in his Soldier or in his Tycho, a man is introduced delivering rules in this way, saying—

  1. Whoever is a mortal man, and thinks
  2. This life has any sure possession,
  3. Is woefully deceived. For either taxes
  4. Take off his property; or he goes to law
  5. And loses all he seeks, and all he has:
  6. Or else he's made a magistrate, and bears
  7. The losses they are subject to; or else
  8. The people bid him a choragus be,
  9. And furnish golden garments for a chorus;
  10. And wear but rags himself. Or as a captain
  11. Of some tall ship, he hangs himself; or else
  12. Takes the command, and then is taken prisoner:
  13. Or else, both waking and in soundest sleep,
  14. He's helpless, pillaged by his own domestics.
  15. Nothing is sure, save what a man can eat,
  16. And treats himself to day by day. Nor then,
  17. Is even this too sure. For guests drop in
  18. To eat what you have order'd for yourself.
  19. So not until you've got it 'twixt your teeth
  20. Ought you to think that e'en your dinner's safe.
And he says the same in his Hydria.

Now if any one, my friends, were to consider this, he would naturally and reasonably praise the honest Chrysippus, who examined accurately into the nature of Epicurus's philosophy, and said,

That the Gastrology of Archestratus was the metropolis of his philosophy;
which all the epicures of philosophers call the Theogony, as it were, that beautiful
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epic poem; to whom Theognetus, in his Phasma or in his Miser, says—
  1. My man, you will destroy me in this way;
  2. For you are ill and surfeited with all
  3. The divers arguments of all the Stoics.
  4. "Gold is no part of man, mere passing rime,
  5. Wisdom's his real wealth, solid like ice;
  6. No one who has it ever loses it."
  7. Oh! wretched that I am; what cruel fate
  8. Has lodged me here with this philosopher?
  9. Wretch, you have learnt a most perverted learning;
  10. Your books have turn'd your whole life upside down;
  11. Buried in deep philosophy you talk
  12. Of earth and heaven, both of which care little
  13. For you and all your arguments.

While Ulpian was continuing to talk in this way, the servants came in bearing on some dishes some crabs bigger than Callimedon, the orator, who, because he was so very fond of this food was himself called the Crab. Accordingly, Alexis, in his Dorcis, or the Flatterer, (as also others of the comic poets do,) hands him down, as a general rule, as being most devoted to fish, saying—

  1. It has been voted by the fish-sellers,
  2. To raise a brazen statue to Callimedon
  3. At the Panathenaic festival
  4. In the midst of the fish-market; and the statue
  5. Shall in his right hand hold a roasted crab,
  6. As being the sole patron of their trade,
  7. Which other men neglect and seek to crush.

But the taste of the crab is one which many people have been very much devoted to; as may be shown by many passages in different comedies; but at present Aristophanes will suffice, who in the Thesmophoriazusæ speaks as follows—

  1. A. Has any fish been bought? a cuttle-fish,
  2. Or a broad squill, or else a polypus;
  3. Or roasted mullet, or perhaps some beet-root?
  4. B. Indeed there was not.
  5. A. Or a roach or dace?
  6. B. Nothing of such a sort?
  7. A. Was there no black-pudding,
  8. Nor tripe, nor sausage, nor boar's liver fried,
  9. No honeycomb, no paunch of pig, no eel,
  10. No mighty crab, with which you might recruit
  11. The strength of women wearied with long toil
But by broad squills he must have meant what we call astaci, a kind of crab which Philyllius mentions in his Cities.
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And Archestratus, in that famous poem of his where he never once mentions the crab by the name of κάραβος, does speak of the ἄστακος. As he does also in the following passage—
  1. But passing over trifles, buy an astacus,
  2. Which has long hands and heavy too, but feet
  3. Of delicate smallness, and which slowly walks
  4. Over the earth's face. A goodly troop there are
  5. Of such, and those of finest flavour, where
  6. The isles of Lipara do gem the ocean:
  7. And many lie in the broad Hellespont.
And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, shows plainly that the ἄστακος spoken of by Archestratus is the same as the κάραβος, speaking as follows—
  1. There are astaci and colybdaenæ, both equipp'd
  2. With little feet and long hands, both coming under
  3. The name of κάραβος.

But the carabi, and astaci, and also carides or squills, are each a distinct genus. But the Athenians spell the name ἄστακος with an ο, ὄστακος, just as they also write ὀσταφίδας. But Epicharmus in his Earth and Sea says—

  1. κᾀστακοὶ γαμψώνυχοι.

And Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that of soft-shelled animals the following are nearly like one another. The coracus, the astacus, the nymphe, the arctus, the carcinus, and the pagurus. And Diocles the Carystian says,

Carides, carcini, carabi, and astaci, are pleasant to the taste and diuretic.
And Epicharmus has also mentioned the colybdæna in the lines I have quoted above; which Nicander calls the beauty of the sea; but Heraclides in his Cookery Book gives that name to the caris. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says, "Of soft-shelled animals the carabi, the astaci, the carides, and others of the same sort, are propagated like quadrupeds; and they breed at the beginning of spring; as indeed is no secret to anybody; but at times they breed when the fig begins to ripen.

Now carabi are found in rough and rocky places; but astaci in smooth ground; neither kind in muddy places: on which account there are astaci produced in the Hellespont and about Thasos; and carabi off Cape Sigeum and Mount Athos. But the whole race of crabs is long-lived. But Theophrastus, in his book on Animals who dive in Holes,

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says that the astaci and carabi and carides all cast off their old age.

But concerning carides, Ephorus mentions in his first book that there is a city called Carides near the island of Chios; and he says that it was founded by Macar and those of his companions who were saved out of the deluge which happened in the time of Deucalion; and that to this very day the place is called Carides. But Archestratus, the inventor of made dishes, gives these recommendations—

  1. But if you ever come to Iasus,
  2. A city of the Carians, you shall have
  3. A cars of huge size, but rare to buy.
  4. Many there are where Macedon is wash'd
  5. By the deep sea, and in Ambracia's gulf.
But Araros in his Campylion has used the word καρῖδα with the penultima circumflexed and long—
  1. The strangely bent carides did leap forth
  2. Like dolphins into the rope-woven vessel.
And Eubulus says in his Orthane—
  1. Iput a carid (καρῖδα) down and took it up again.
Anaxandrides says in his Lycurgus—
  1. And he plays with little carids (καριδάριον),
  2. And little partridges, and little lettuces;
  3. And little sparrows, and with little cups,
  4. And little scindaries, and little gudgeons.
And the same poet says in his Pandarus—
  1. If you don't stoop, my friend, you'll upright be.
  2. But she is like a carid (καριδόω) in her person;
  3. Bent out, and like an anchor standing firm.
And in his Cerkios he says—
  1. I'll make them redder than a roasted carid (καρῖδος).
And Eubulus says in his Grandmothers—
  1. And carids (καρῖδες) of the humpback'd sort.
And Ophelion says in his Callæschrus—
  1. There lay the crooked carids (καρῖδες) on dry ground.
And in his Ialemus we find—
  1. And then they danced as crooked limbed carides (καρῖδες)
  2. Dance on the glowing embers.
But Eupolis, in his Goats, uses the word with the penultima short, (καρι???δες), thus—
  1. Once in Phæacia I ate carides (καρίδας).
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And again in his People he says—
  1. Having the face of a tough thick-skinn'd carid (καρίδος).

Now the carides were so called from the word κόρα, head. For the head takes up the greater part of them. But the Attic writers also use the word short in the same manner, in analogy with the quantity of κάρα, it being, as I said, called cars because of the size of its head; and so, as γραφὶς is derived from γραφὴ, and βολὶς from βολὴ, in like manner is καρὶς from κάρα. But when the penultima is made long the last syllable also is made long, and then the word is like ψηφὶς, and κρηπὶς, and τευθίς.

But concerning these shell-fish, Diphilus the Siphnian writes,

Of all shell-fish the caris, and astacus, and carabus, and carcinus, and lion, being all of the same genus, are distinguished by some differences. And the lion is larger than the astacus; and the carabi are called also grapsæi; but they are more fleshy than the carcini; but the carcinus is heavy and indigestible.
But Mnesitheus the Athenian, in his treatise on Comestibles, says,
Carabi and carcini and carides, and such like; these are all indigestible, but still not nearly so much so as other fish: and they are better and more wholesome roast than boiled.
But Sophron in his Gynæcea calls carides courides, saying—
  1. Behold the dainty courides, my friend.
  2. And see these lobsters; see how red they are,
  3. How smooth and glossy is their hair and coats.
And Epicharmus in his Land and Sea says—
  1. And red-skinned courides.
And in his Logos and Logina he spells the word κωρίδες with an ω—
  1. Oily anchovies, crooked corides.
And Simonides says—
  1. Beet-root with thunnies, and with gudgeons corides.

After this conversation there were brought in some dishes of fried liver; wrapped up in what is called the caul, or ἐπίπλοον, which Philetærus in his Tereus calls ἐπιπλοῖον. And Cynulcus looking on said,—Tell us, O wise Ulpian, whether there is such an expression anywhere as ' liver rolled up." And he replied,—I will tell you if you will first show me

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in whose works the word ἐπίπλους is used for the fat and the membrane which covers it. So as they were thus prepared for the discussion, Myrtilus said, The word ἐπίπλους is used by Epicharmus in the Bacchæ—
  1. And wrapping up the bread in the ἐπίπλοος.
And again, in his Theari, he says—
  1. Around the loins and ἐπίπλους.
And Ion of Chios, in his Epidemiæ, says—
  1. Having wrapp'd it up in the ἐπίπλους.

So here, my friend Ulpian, you have plenty of authority for your ἐπίπλους. And you may wrap yourself up in it and burn yourself, and so release us from all these investigations. And, indeed, you ought to bear your own testimony to a liver having been prepared in this way; since you mentioned before, when we were inquiring about ears and feet, what Alexis said in his Crateua, or the Female Druggist. And the whole quotation is serviceable for many purposes, and since you at the moment fail to recollect it, I myself will repeat it to you.

The Comedian says this—

  1. First, then, I saw a man whose name was Nereus;
  2. With noble oysters laden; an aged man,
  3. And clad in brown sea-weed. I took the oysters
  4. And eke some fine sea-urchins; a good prelude
  5. To a rich banquet daintily supplied.
  6. When they were done, next came some little fish,
  7. Still quivering as if they felt a fear
  8. Of what should now befal them. Courage, said I,
  9. My little friends, and fear no harm from me;
  10. And to spare them I bought a large flat glaucus.
  11. Then a torpedo came; for it did strike me,
  12. That even if my wife should chance to touch it
  13. She from its shock would surely take no harm.
  14. So for my frying-pan I've soles and plaice,
  15. Carides, gudgeons, perch, and spars, and eels,
  16. A dish more varied than a peacock's tail.
  17. Slices of meat, and feet, and snouts, and ears,
  18. And a pig's liver neatly wrapp'd in caul.
  19. For by itself it looks too coarse and livid.
  20. No cook shall touch or e'er behold these dainties;
  21. He would destroy them all. I'll manage them
  22. Myself; with skill and varied art the sauce
  23. I will compound, in such a tasty way
  24. That all the guests shall plunge their very teeth
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  26. Into the dish for joy and eagerness;
  27. And the recipes and different modes of dressing
  28. I am prepared to teach the world for nothing,
  29. If men are only wise enough to learn.

But that it was the fashion for liver to be wrapped up in a caul is stated by Hegesander the Delphian in his Memorials, where he says that Metanira the courtesan, having got a piece of the lungs of the animal in the liver which was thus wrapped up, as soon as she had unfolded the outer coat of fat and seen it, cried out—

  1. I am undone, the tunic's treacherous folds
  2. Have now entangled me to my destruction.
And perhaps it was because of its being in this state that Crobylus the comic poet called the liver modest; as Alexis also does in his Pseudypobolemæus, speaking as follows— Take the stiff feelers of the polypus, And in them you shall find some modest liver, And cutlets of wild goats, which you shall eat. But Aristophanes uses the diminutive form ἡπάτιον in his Tagenistæ, and so does Alcæus in the Palæstra, and Eubulus in his Deucalion. And the first letter of ἧπαρ and ἡπάτιον must be aspirated. For a synalœpha is used by Archilochus with the aspirate; when he says—
  1. For you do seem to have no gall ἐφʼ ἥπατι (in your liver).
There is also a fish which is called ἥπατος, which Eubulus himself mentions in his Lacedæmonians or Leda, and says that it has no gall in it—
  1. You thought that I'd no gall; but spoke to me
  2. As if I'd been a ἥπατος: but I
  3. Am rather one of the melampyx class.
But Hegesander, in his Memorials, says, that the hepatos has in its head two stones, like pearls in brilliancy and colour, and in shape something like a turbot.

But Alexis speaks of fried fish in his Demetrius, as he does also in the before-mentioned play. And Eubulus says, in his Orthane—

  1. Now each fair woman walks about the streets,
  2. Fond of fried fish and stout Triballian youths.
  3. Then there is beet-root and canary-grass
  4. Mix'd up in forcemeat with the paunch of lamb,
  5. Which leaps within one's stomach like a colt
  6. Scarce broken to the yoke. Meanwhile the bellows
  7. v.1.p.179
  8. Waken the watchful hounds of Vulcan's pack,
  9. And stir the frying-pan with vapours warm.
  10. The fragrant steam straight rises to the nose,
  11. And fills the sense with odours.
  12. Then comes the daughter of the bounteous Ceres,
  13. Fair wheaten flour, duly mash'd, and press'd
  14. Within the hollow of the gaping jaws,
  15. Which like the trireme's hasty shock comes on,
  16. The fair forerunner of a sumptuous feast.
I have also eaten cuttle-fish fried. But Nicostratus or Philetærus says, in the Antyllus—I never again will venture to eat cuttle-fish which has been dressed in a frying-pan. But Hegemon, in his Philinna, introduces men eating the roe fried, saying—
  1. Go quickly, buy of them that polypus,
  2. And fry the roe, and give it us to eat.

Ulpian was not pleased at this; and being much vexed, he looked at us, and repeating these iambics from the Orthanus of Eubulus, said—

  1. How well has Myrtilus, cursed by the gods,
  2. Come now to shipwreck on this frying-pan.
For certainly I well know that he never ate any of these things at his own expense; and I heard as much from one of his own servants, who once quoted me these iambics from the Pornoboscus of Eubulus—
  1. My master comes from Thessaly; a man
  2. Of temper stern; wealthy, but covetous;
  3. A wicked man; a glutton; fond of dainties,
  4. Yet sparing to bestow a farthing on them.
But as the young man was well educated, and that not by Myrtilus, but by some one else, when I asked him how he fell in with the young Myrtilus, he repeated to me these lines from the Neottis of Antiphanes—
  1. While still a boy, bearing my sister company,
  2. I came to Athens, by some merchant brought;
  3. For Syria was my birthplace. There that merchant
  4. Saw us when we were both put up for sale,
  5. And bought us, driving a most stingy bargain.
  6. No man could e'er in wickedness surpass him;
  7. So miserly, that nothing except thyme
  8. Was ever bought by him for food, not e'en
  9. So much as might have fed Pythagoras.

While Ulpian went on jesting in this manner, Cynulcus cried out—I want some bread; and when I say bread (ἄρτος)

v.1.p.180
I do not mean Artus king of the Messapians, the Messapians, I mean, in Iapygia, concerning whom there is a treatise among Polemo's works. And Thucydides also mentions him, in his seventh book, and Demetrius the comic writer speaks of him in the drama entitled Sicily, using the following language—
  1. From thence, borne on by the south wind, we came
  2. Across the sea to the Italian shore,
  3. Where the Messapians dwelt; and Artus there,
  4. The monarch of the land, received us kindly,
  5. A great and noble host for foreigners.
But this is not the time for speaking of that Artus, but of the other, which was discovered by Ceres, surnamed Sito (food), and Simalis. For those are the names under which the Goddess is worshipped by the Syracusans, as Polemo himself reports in his book about Morychus. But in the first book of his treatise addressed to Timæus, he says, that in Scolus, a city of Bœotia, statues are erected to Megalartus (the God or Goddess of great bread), and to Megalomazus (the God or Goddess of abundant corn). So when the loaves were brought, and 'on them a great quantity of all kinds of food, looking at them, he said—
  1. What numerous nets and snares are set by men
  2. To catch the helpless loaves;
as Alexis says in his play, The Girl sent to the Well. And so now let us say something about bread.

But Pontianus anticipating him, said; Tryphon of Alexandria, in the book entitled the Treatise on Plants, mentions several kinds of loaves; if I can remember them accurately, the leavened loaf, the unleavened loaf, the loaf made of the best wheaten flour, the loaf made of groats, the loaf made of remnants (and this he says is more digestible than that which is made only of the best flour), the loaf made of rye, the loaf made of acorns, the loaf made of millet. The loaf made of groats, said he, is made of oaten groats, for groats are not made of barley. And from a peculiar way of baking or roasting it, there is a loaf called ipnites (or the oven loaf) which Timocles mentions in his Sham Robbers, where he says—

  1. And seeing there a tray before me full
  2. Of smoking oven-loaves, I took and ate them.
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There is another kind called escharites (or the hearth-loaf), and this is mentioned by Antidotus in the Protohorus—
  1. I took the hot hearth-loaves, how could I help it?
  2. And dipp'd them in sweet sauce, and then I at them.
And Crobylus says, in his Strangled Man—
  1. I took a platter of hot clean hearth-loaves.
And Lynceus the Samian, in his letter to Diagoras, comparing the eatables in vogue at Athens with those which were used at Rhodes, says—
And moreover, while they talk a great deal about their bread which is to be got in the market, the Rhodians at the beginning and middle of dinner put loaves on the table which are not at all inferior to them; but when they have given over eating and are satisfied, then they introduce a most agreeable dish, which is called the hearth-loaf, the best of all loaves; which is made of sweet things, and compounded so as to be very soft, and it is made up with such an admirable harmony of all the ingredients as to have a most excellent effect; so that often a man who is drunk becomes sober again, and in the same way a man who has just eaten to satiety is made hungry again by eating of it.

There is another kind of loaf called tabyrites, of which Sopater, in his Cnidia, says—The tabyrites loaf was one which fills the cheeks.

There was also a loaf called the achæinas. And this loaf is mentioned by Semus, in the eighth book of his Delias; and he says that is made by the women who celebrate the Thesmophoria. They are loaves of a large size. And the festival is called Megalartia, which is a name given to it by those who carry these loaves, who cry—

Eat a large achæinas, full of fat.

There is another loaf called cribanites, or the pan-loaf. This is mentioned by Aristophanes, in his Old Age. And he introduces a woman selling bread, complaining that her loaves have been taken from her by those who have got rid of the effects of their old age—

  1. A. What was the matter?
  2. B. My hot loaves, my son.
  3. A. Sure you are mad?
  4. B. My nice pan-loaves, my son,
  5. So white, so hot. . . . . .
v.1.p.182
There is another loaf called the encryphias, or secret loaf. And this is mentioned by Nicostratus, in his Hierophant, and Archestratus the inventor of made dishes, whose testimony I will introduce at the proper season.

There is a loaf also called dipyrus, or twice-baked. Eubulus says, in his Ganymede—

  1. And nice hot twice-baked loaves.
And Alcæus says, in his Ganymede—
  1. A. But what are dipyri, or twice-baked loaves?
  2. B. Of all loaves the most delicate.

There is another loaf, called laganum. This is very light, and not very nutritious; and the loaf called apanthracis is even less nutritious still. And Aristophanes mentions the laganum in his Ecclesiazusæ, saying—

  1. The lagana are being baked.
And the apanthracis is mentioned by Diocles the Carystian, in the first book of his treatise on Wholesomes, saying—
The apanthracis is more tender than the laganum: and it appears that it is made on the coals, like that called by the Attic writers encryphias, which the Alexandrians consecrate to Saturn, and put them in the temple of Saturn for every one to eat who pleases.

And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, and in his Muses (and this play is an emendation of the former one), thus enumerates the different kinds of loaves—

The panloaf, the homorus, the statites, the encris, the loaf made of meal, the half loaf,
which Sophron also mentions in his Female Actors, saying—
  1. Pan-loaves and homori, a dainty meal
  2. For goddesses, and a half-loaf for Hecate.
And I know, my friends, that the Athenians spell this word with a ρ, writing κρίβανον and κριβανίτης; but Herodotus, in the second book of his history, writes it with a λ, saying κλιβάνῳ διαφανεῖ. And so Sophron said—
  1. Who dresses suet puddings or clibanites,
  2. Or half-loaves here?
And the same writer also speaks of a loaf which he calls πλακίτης, saying in his Gynæcea—
  1. He feasted me till night with placite loaves.
Sophron also mentions tyron bread, or bread compounded with cheese, saying in the play called the Mother-in-law—
v.1.p.183
  1. I bid you now eat heartily,
  2. For some one has just giv'n a tyron loaf,
  3. Fragrant with cheese, to all the children.
And Nicander of Colophon, in his Dialects, calls unleavened bread δάρατος. And Plato the comic writer, in his Long Night, calls large ill-made loaves Cilician, in these words—
  1. Then he went forth, and bought some loaves, no nice
  2. Clean rolls, but dirty huge Cilicians.
And in the drama entitled Menelaus, he calls some loaves Agelæi, or common loaves. There is also a loaf mentioned by Alexis, in his Cyprian, which he calls autopyrus—
  1. Having just eaten autopyrus bread.
And Phrynichus, in his Poastriæ, speaks of the same loaves, calling them autopyritæ, saying—
  1. With autopyrite loaves, and sweeten'd cakes
  2. Of well-press'd figs and olives.

And Sophocles makes mention of a loaf called orindes, in his Triptolemus, which has its name from being made of rice (ὄρυζα), or from a grain raised in Aethiopia, which resembles sesamum.

Aristophanes also, in his Tagenistæ, or the Fryers, makes mention of rolls called collabi, and says—

  1. Each of you take a collabus.
And in a subsequent passage he says—
  1. Bring here a paunch of pig in autumn born,
  2. With hot delicious collabi.
And these rolls are made of new wheat, as Philyllius declares in his Auge—
  1. Here I come, bearing in my hands the offspring
  2. Of three months' wheat, hot doughy collabi,
  3. Mixed with the milk of the grass-feeding cow.

There is also a kind of loaf called maconidæ, mentioned by Aleman, in his fifteenth book, in these terms—

Tere were seven coaches for the guests, and an equal number of tables of maconidæ loaves, crowned with a white tablecoth, and with sesamum, and in handsome dishes.
Chrysocolla are a food made of honey and flax.[*](It seems certain that there is some great corruption in this and the preceding sentence.)

v.1.p.184

There is also a kind of loaf called collyra, mentioned by Aristophanes in his Peace—

  1. A large collyra, and a mighty lump
  2. Of dainty meat upon it.
And in his Holcades he says—
  1. And a collyra for the voyagers,
  2. Earn'd by the trophy raised at Marathon.'

There is a loaf also called the obelias, or the penny loaf, so called because it is sold for a penny, as in Alexandria; or else because it is baked on small spits. Aristophanes, in his Farmers, says—

  1. Then perhaps some one bakes a penny loaf.
And Pherecrates, in his Forgetful Man, says—
  1. Olen, now roast a penny roll with ashes,
  2. But take care, don't prefer it to a loaf.
And the men who in the festivals carried these penny rolls on their shoulders were called ὀβελιαφόροι. And Socrates, in his sixth book of his Surnames, says that it was Bacchus who invented the penny roll on his expeditions. There is a roll called etnites, the same which is also named lecithites, according to the statement of Eucrates.

The Messapians call bread πανὸς, and they call satiety πανία, and those things which give a surfeit they call πάνια; at least, those terms are used by Blæsus, in his Mesotriba, and by Archilochus, in his Telephus, and by Rhinthon, in his Amphitryon. And the Romans call bread panis.

Nastus is a name given to a large loaf of leavened bread, according to the statement of Polemarchus and Artemidorus. But the Heracleon is a kind of cheesecake. And Nicostratus says, in his Sofa—

  1. Such was the size, O master, of the nastus,
  2. A large white loaf. It was so deep, its top
  3. Rose like a tower quite above its basket.
  4. Its smell, when that the top was lifted up,
  5. Rose up, a fragrance not unmix'd with honey
  6. Most grateful to our nostrils, still being hot.

The name of bread among the Ionians was cnestus, as Artemidorus the Ephesian states in his Memorials of Ionia. Thronus was the name of a particular kind of loaf, as it is stated by Neanthes of Cyzicus, in the second book of his Grecian History, where he writes as follows—

But Codrus
v.1.p.185
takes a slice of a loaf of the kind called thronus, and a piece of meat, such as they give to the old men.'

There is, among the Elians, a kind of loaf baked on the ashes which they call bacchylus, as Nicander states in the second book of his treatise on Dialects. And Dihilus mentions it in his Woman who went Astray, in these words—

  1. To bring loaves baked on ashes, strain'd through sieves.

The thing called ἀποπυρίας is also a kind of roll; and that also is baked on the ashes; and by some it is called ζυμίτης, or leavened. Cratinus, in his Effeminate People—

  1. First of all I an apopyrias have—

And Archestratus, in his Gastronomy, thus speaks of flour and of rolls—

  1. First, my dear Moschus, will I celebrate
  2. The bounteous gifts of Ceres the fair-hair'd.
  3. And cherish these my sayings in thy heart.
  4. Take these most excellent things,—the well-made cake
  5. Of fruitful barley, in fair Lesbos grown,
  6. On the circumfluous hill of Eresus;
  7. Whiter than driven snow, if it be true
  8. That these are loaves such as the gods do eat,
  9. Which Mercury their steward buys for them.
  10. Good is the bread in seven-gated Thebes,
  11. In Thasos, and in many other cities,
  12. But all compared with these would seem but husks,
  13. And worthless refuse. Be you sure of this.
  14. Seek too the round Thessalian roll, the which
  15. A maid's fair hand has kneaded, which the natives
  16. Crimmatias call; though others chondrinus.
  17. Nor let the Tegean son of finest flour,
  18. The fine encryphias be all unpraised.
  19. Athens, Minerva's famous city, sends
  20. The best of loaves to market, food for men;
  21. There is, besides, Erythra, known for grapes,
  22. Nor less for a white loaf in shapely pan,
  23. Carefully moulded, white and beautiful,
  24. A tempting dish for hungry guests at supper.
The epicure Archestratus says this; and he counsels us to have a Phœnician or Lydian slave for a baker; for he was not ignorant that the best makers of loaves come from Cappadocia. And he speaks thus–
  1. Take care, and keep a Lydian in thy house,
  2. Or an all-wise Phoenician; who shall know
  3. Your inmost thoughts, and each day shall devise
  4. New forms to please your mind, and do your bidding.

v.1.p.186

Antiphanes also speaks of the Athenian loaves as pre- eminently good, in his Omphale, saying—

  1. For how could any man of noble birth
  2. Ever come forth from this luxurious house,
  3. Seeing these fair-complexion'd wheaten loaves
  4. Filling the oven in such quick succession,
  5. And seeing them, devise fresh forms from moulds,
  6. The work of Attic hands; well-train'd by wise
  7. Thearion to honour holy festivals.
This is that Thearion the celebrated baker, whom Plato makes mention of in the Gorgias, joining him and Mithæcus in the same catalogue, writing thus.
Those who have been or are skilful providers for the body you enumerated with great anxiety; Thearion the baker, and Mithæcus who wrote the treatise called the Sicilian Cookery, and Sarambus the innkeeper, saying that they were admirable providers for the body, the one preparing most excellent loaves of bread, and the other preparing meat, and the other wine.
And Aristophanes, in the Gerytades and Aeolosicon, speaks in this manner—
  1. I come now, having left the baker's shop,
  2. The seat of good Thearion's pans and ovens.
And Eubulus makes mention of Cyprian loaves as exceedingly good, in his Orthane, using these words—
  1. 'Tis a hard thing, beholding Cyprian loaves,
  2. To ride by carelessly; for like a magnet
  3. They do attract the hungry passengers.
And Ephippus, in his Diana, makes mention of the κολλίκιοι loaves (and they are the same as the κόλλαβοι) in these terms—
  1. Eating the collix, baked in well-shaped pan,
  2. By Alexander's Thessalian recipe.
Aristophanes also says, in his Acharnensians—
  1. All hail, my collix-eating young Bœotian.

When the conversation had gone on this way, one of the grammarians present, whose name was Arrian, said— This food is as old as the time of Saturn, my friends; for we are not rejoicing in meal, for the city is full of bread, nor in all this catalogue of loaves. But since I have fallen in with another treatise of Chrysippus of Tyana, which is entitled a treatise on the Art of Making Bread; and since I have had experience of the different recipes given in it at the houses

v.1.p.187
of many of my friends, I will proceed to say something my- self also on the subject of loaves. The kind of loaf which is called ἀρτοπτίκινος, differs in some respect from that made in a pan, and from that made in an oven. But if you make it with hard leaven, it will be bright and nice, so tat it may be eaten dry; but if it be made with a looser leaven, then it will be light but not bright. But the loaf which s made in a pan, and that which is made in an oven, require a softer kind of leaven. And among the Greeks there is a kind of bread which is called tender, being made up with a little milk and oil, and a fair quantity of salt; and one must make the dough for this bread loose. And this kind of loaf is called the Cappadocian, since tender bread is made in the greatest quantities in Cappadocia. But the Syrians call loaves of this kind λαχμὴ; and it is the best bread made in Syria, because it can be eaten hot; and it is like a flower. But there is also a loaf called boletinus, from being made like a mushroom, and the kneading-trough is smeared with poppies plastered over the bottom of it, on which the dough is placed, and by this expedient it is prevented from sticking to the trough while the leaven is mixed in. But when it is put in the oven, then some groats are spread under on a tile, and then the bread is put on it, and it gets a most beautiful colour, like cheese which has been smoked.

There is also a kind of bread called strepticias, which is made up with a little milk, and pepper and a little oil is added, and sometimes suet is substituted. And a little wine, and pepper, and milk, and a little oil, or sometimes suet, is employed in making the cake called artolaganum. But for making the cakes called capuridia tracta, you mix the same ingredients that you do for bread, and the difference is in the baking.