Deipnosophistae

BUT since, O Timocrates, we have now had a great deal of conversation on the subject of banquets in all that has been hitherto said; and since we have passed over those things in them which are most useful and which do not weigh down the soul, but which cheer it, and nourish it by variety of food, as the divine Homer incidentally teaches us, I will also mention what has been said concerning these things by that most excellent writer Masyrius. For we, as the beautiful Agathon says—

1. Do what is more than needful as if needful,
2. And treat our real work as if it were superfluous.

The poet accordingly says, when he is speaking of Menelaus—

1. At the fair dome the rapid labour ends,[*](Odyss. iv. 3.)
2. Where sat Atrides 'midst his bridal friends,
3. With double vows invoking Hymen's power
4. To bless his son's and daughter's nuptial hour:—

as it was a custom to celebrate banquets at marriages, both for the sake of the gods who preside over marriage, and as it were for a testimony to the marriage; and also, the king of Lycia instructs us what sort of banquet ought to be given to foreigners, receiving Bellerophon with great magnificence—

1. There Lycia's monarch paid him honours due,[*](Iliad, vi. 174.)
2. Nine days he feasted, and nine bulls he slew.

For wine appears to have a very attractive influence in promoting friendship, as it warms and also melts the soul. On

which account the ancients did not ask who a man was before drinking, but afterwards; as honouring the laws of hospitality itself, and not this or that particular individual. But the lawgivers, taking care beforehand of the banquets of the present day, have appointed feasts for the tribe, and feasts for the borough; and also general banquets, and entertainments to the ward, and others also called orgeonica. And there are many meetings of philosophers in the city, some called the pupils of Diogenes, and others, pupils of Antipater, others again styled disciples of Panætius. And Theophrastus bequeathed money for an entertainment of that sort. Not, by Jove, in order that the philosophers assembled might indulge in intemperance, but in order that during the banquet they might have a wise and learned conversation. And the Prytanes were accustomed every day to meet in well-regulated banquets, which tended to the advantage of the state. And it was to such a banquet as that Demosthenes says the news of the taking of Elatea was brought.

For it was evening, and a man came bringing news to the Prytanes that Elatea was taken.

And the philosophers used to be careful to collect the young men, and to feast with them according to some well-considered and carefully laid down law. Accordingly, there were some laws for banquets laid down by Xenocrates, in the Academy, and again by Aristotle.

But the Phiditia in Sparta, and the Andrea, or man's feasts, among the Cretans, were celebrated in their respective cities with all imaginable care. On which account some one said not unwisely—

1. Dear friends should never long abstain from feasts,
2. For e'en the memory of them is delightful.

And Antipater the philosopher once assembled a banqueting party, and invited all the guests on the understanding that they were to discuss subtle questions. And they say that Arcesilaus, being once invited to a banquet, and sitting next to a man who ate voraciously, while he himself was unable to enjoy anything, when some one of those who were present offered him something, said—

1. May it be well with you; be this for Telephus:

for it so happened that the epicure by his side was named Telephus. But Zeno, when some epicure who was at the same party with him snatched away the upper half of the fish the moment that it was placed on the table, turned the fish round himself, and took the remaining portion, saying—

1. Then Ino came and finish'd what was left.

And Socrates seeing a man once devouring dainties eagerly, Said—O you bystanders, which of you eats bread as if it were sweetmeats, and sweetmeats as if they were bread?

But now let us speak of the banquets celebrated by Homer. For the poet gives us the different times of them, and the persons present, and the causes of them. And Xenophon and Plato have done well to imitate him in this; who at the very beginning of their treatises set forth the cause which gave rise to the banquet, and mention the names of those who were present. But Epicurus never defines either the place or the time, nor does he preface his accounts with any preliminary statement. But Aristotle says that it is an unseemly thing for a man to come unwashed and covered with dust to a banquet. Then Homer instructs us who ought to be invited; saying that one ought to invite the chiefs, and men of high reputation—

1. He bade the noblest of the Grecian peers,[*](Iliad, ii. 404.)

not acting on the principle asserted by Hesiod, for he bids men invite chiefly their neighbours—

1. Then bid your neighbours to the well-spread feast,
2. Who live the nearest, and who know you best.[*](Op. et Di. 341.)

For such a banquet would be one of rustic stupidity; and adapted to the most misanthropic of proverbs—

1. Friends who far off do live are never friends.

For how can it be anything but nonsense that friendship should depend on place and not on disposition? Therefore we find in Homer, that after the cup had gone round,

1. Then the old man his counsels first disclosed;[*](Iliad, viii. 324.)

but among people who did not regulate their banquets in an orderly manner we read—

1. Then first the flatterer rose with mocking speech.

Besides, Homer introduces guests differing in ages and tastes, such as Nestor, Ulysses, and Ajax, who are all invited together. And speaking in general terms he represents all who lay claim to any sort of eminence as invited, and individually those who arrive at it by different roads. But Epicuus has represented all his guests as believers in the atonic theory, and this, too, though he had models both in the variety of the banquets of the great poet, and also in the elegant accounts of Plato and Xenophon; of whom Plato has introduced Eryximachus the physician, and Aristophanes the poet, and other professors of different branches of science, discussing matters of weight: and Xenophon has mingled with them some private individuals.

Homer therefore has done much the best of all, and has given us by far the best banquets; and that again is best seen by comparing him with others. For the banquet of the suitors in Homer is just such as might be expected from young men devoted to drinking and love; and that of the Phæacians is more orderly, but still luxurious. And he has made a wide distinction between these entertainments and those which may be called military banquets, and those which have reference to political affairs and are conducted in a well-regulated manner: and again he has distinguished between public and family banquets. But Epicurus has described a banquet consisting of philosophers alone.

Homer, too, has pointed out whom one ought not to invite, but who ought to consider that they have a right to come uninvited, showing by the presence of one of the relations that those in similar circumstances had a right to be present—

1. Unbidden there the brave Atrides came.[*](Iliad, ii. 408.)

For it is plain that one ought not to send a formal invitation to one's brother, or to one's parents, or to one's wife, or to any one else whom one can possibly regard in the same light as these relations, for that would be a cold and unfriendly proceeding. And some one has written an additional line, adding the reason why Menelaus had no invitation sent him, and yet came—

1. For well he knew how busy was his brother:

as if there had been any need of alleging a reason why his brother should come of his own accord to a banquet without any invitation,—a very sufficient reason having been already given.

For,

said the interpolater of this line,

did he not know that his brother was giving a banquet? And how can it be otherwise than absurd to pretend that he did not know it, when his sacrifice of oxen was notorious and visible to every one? And how could he have come if he had not

v.1.p.291

known it Or, by Jove, when he saw him,

he continues,

occupied with business, was it not quite right of him to excuse his not having sent him an invitation, and to come of his own accord?

As if he were to say that he came uninvited in order that the next day they might not look at one another, the one with feelings of mortification, ad the other of annoyance.

But it would be an absurd thing to suppose that Menelaus forgot his brother, and this, too, when he was not only sacrificing on his account at the present moment, but when it was on his account that he had undertaken the whole war, and when he had invited those who were no relations of his, and who had no connexion even with his country. But Athenocles the Cyzicene, understanding the poems of Homer better than Aristarchus did, speaks in a much more sensible manner to us, and says that Homer omitted to mention Menelaus as having been invited because he was more nearly related to Agamemnon than the others. But Demetrius Phalereus having asserted that interpolated verse to be a bungling and unseasonable addition, quite unsuited to the poetry of Homer,—-the verse, I mean,

1. For well he knew how busy was his brother,

says that he is accusing him of very ungentlemanly manners.

For I think,

says he,

that every well-bred man has relations and friends to whom he may go, when they are celebrating any sacrifice, without waiting for them to send him an invitation.

And Plato in his Banquet speaks in the same manner on this subject.

For,

says he,

that we may destroy the proverb by altering it: Good men may go of their own accord to feasts given by good men. For Homer appears not only to have destroyed that proverb, but also to have ridiculed it; for having represented Agamemnon as valiant in warlike matters, and Menelaus as an effeminate warrior, when Agamemnon celebrates a sacrifice, he represents Menelaus as coming uninvited,—that is, the worse man coming to the feast of the better man.

And Bacchylides, speaking of Hercules, and telling how he came to the house of Ceyx, says—

1. Then on the brazen threshold firm he stood,
2. (They were a feast preparing,) and thus spake
3. Brave and just men do uninvited come
4. To well-appointed feasts by brave and just men made

And as to proverbs, one says—

1. Good men do of their own accord
2. To good men's entertainments come:

and another says—

1. Brave men do of their own accord
2. To cowards' entertainments come.

It was without reason, therefore, that Plato thought that Menelaus was a coward; for Homer speaks of him as Mars-loving, and as fighting single-handed with the greatest gallantry in defence of Patroclus, and eager to fight in single combat with Hector as the champion of the whole army, although he certainly was inferior to Hector in personal strength. And he is the only man in the whole expedition of whom he has said—

1. And on he went, firm in his fearless zeal.[*](Iliad, ii 588.)

But if an enemy, disparaging him, called him an effeminate warrior, and on this account Plato thinks that he really was an effeminate warrior, why should he not also class Agamemnon himself among the men void of prowess, since this line is spoken against him?—

1. O monster, mix'd of insolence and fear,
2. Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!
3. When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare,
4. Or nobly face the horrid front of war?
5. 'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try,
6. Thine to look on and bid the valiant die.[*](Ib. i. 225.)

For it does not follow because something is said in Homer, that Homer himself says it. For how could Menelaus have been effeminate who, single-handed, kept Hector away from Patroclus, and who slew Euphorbus, and stripped him of his arms though in the very middle of the Trojan host? And it was foolish of him not completely to consider the entire line which he was finding fault with, in which Menelaus is called

Raising the battle cry,

βοὴν ἀγαθὸς, for that is an epithet which Homer is in the habit of giving only to the most valiant; for the ancients called war itself βοή.

But Homer, who is most accurate in everything, did not overlook even this trifling point; that a man ought to show some care of his person, and to bathe himself before going to an entertainment. And so, in the case of Ulysses, before the banquet among the Phæacians, he tells us—

1. A train attends
2. Around the baths, the bath the king ascends,
3. (Untasted joy since that disastrous hour
4. He sail'd defeated from Calypso's bower,)
5. He bathes, the damsels with officious toil
6. Shed sweets, shed unguents in a shower of oil.
7. Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads,
8. And to the feast magnificently treads.[*](Odyss. viii. 449.)

And again he says of Telemachus and his companion—

1. From room to room their eager view they bend,
2. Thence to the bath, a beauteous pile, descend.[*](lb. iv. 48.)

For it was unseemly, says Aristotle, for a man to come to a banquet all over sweat and dust. For a well-bred man ought not to be dirty nor squalid, nor to be all over mud, as Heraclitus says. And a man when he first enters another person's house for a feast, ought not to hasten at once to the banqueting-room, as if he had no care but to fill his stomach, but he ought first to indulge his fancy in looking about him, and to examine the house. And the poet has not omitted to take notice of this also.

1. Part in a portico, profusely graced
2. With rich magnificence, the chariot placed;
3. Then to the dome the friendly pair invite,
4. Who eye the dazzling roof with vast delight,
5. Resplendent as the blaze of summer noon,
6. Or the pale radiance of the midnight moon.[*](Ib. iv. 43.)

And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, represents the rustic and litigious old man as invited to a more civilized form of life by his son—

1. Cease; sit down here and learn at length to be
2. A boon companion, and a cheerful guest.[*](Ar. Vesp. 1208.)

And then showing him how he ought to sit down he says—

1. Then praise some of these beauteous works in brass,
2. Look at the roof, admire the carvèd hall.

And again Homer instructs us as to what we ought to do before a banquet, namely how we ought to allot the first-fruits of the dishes to the gods. At all events Ulysse and his friends, although in the cave of the Cyclops—

1. Then first a fire we kindle, and prepare
2. For his return with sacrifice and prayer.[*](Odyss. ix. 201.)

And Achilles, although the ambassadors were impatient, as they had arrived in the middle of the night, still—

1. Himself opposed t' Ulysses full in sight
2. Each portion parts, and orders every rite;
3. The first fat offerings to th' Immortals due,
4. Amid the greedy flames Patroclus threw.

And also he introduces the guests as making libations—

1. He said, and all approved; the heralds bring
2. The cleansing water from the living spring,
3. The youths with wine the sacred goblets crown'd,
4. And large libations drench'd the sand around.
5. The rite perform'd, the chiefs their thirst allay,
6. Then from the royal tent they take their way.[*](Iliad, ix. 219.)

And this ceremony Plato also observes in his Banquet. For he says—

Then after they had supped and made libations, they sang pæans to the god with all customary honours.

And Xenophon speaks in very nearly the same terms. But in Epicurus there is no mention of any libation to the gods, or of any offering of first-fruits. But as Simonides says of an immodest woman—

1. And oftentimes she eats unhallow'd victims.

He says too that the Athenians were taught the proper proportions in which wine should be mixed by Amphictyon when he was king; and that on this account he erected a temple to the Upright Bacchus. For he is then really upright and not likely to fall, when he is drunk in proper proportions and well mixed; as Homer has it—

1. Hear me, my friends! who this good banquet grace,—
2. 'Tis sweet to play the fool in time and place.
3. And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
4. Make the sage frolic and the serious smile;
5. The grave in merry measures frisk about,
6. And many a long-repented word bring out.[*](Odyss. xiv. 464.)

For Homer does not call wine ἠλεὸς in the sense of ἠλίθιος, that is to say, foolish and the cause of folly. Nor does he bid a man be of a sullen countenance, neither singing nor laughing, nor ever turning himself to cheerful dancing in time to music. He is not so morose or ill-bred. But he knew the exact proportions in which all these things should be done, and the proper qualities and quantities of wine to be mixed. On which account he did not say that wine makes the sage sing, but sing very much, that is to say, out of tune and excessively, so as to trouble people. Nor, by Jove, did he say simply to smile, and to frisk about; but using the word merry, and applying that to both, he reproves the un- manly propensity to such trifling—

1. Makes . . . . . . . .
2. The grave in merry measure frisk about,
3. And many a long-repented word bring out.

But in Plato none of these things are done in a moderate manner. But men drink in such quantities that they cannot even stand on their feet. For just look at the reveller Alcibiades, how unbecomingly he behaves. And all the rest drink a large goblet holding eight cotylæ, using as an excuse that Alcibiades has led them on; not like the men in Homer—

1. But when they drank, and satisfied their soul.

Now of these things some ought to be repudiated once for all; but some ought to be enjoyed in moderation; people looking at them as at a slight addition or appendage to a repast; as Homer has said—

1. Let these, my friend,
2. With song and dance the pompous revel end.

And altogether the poet has attributed devotion to such things to the Suitors, and to the Phæacians, but not to Nestor or to Menelaus. And Aristarchus did not perceive that in his marriage feast, after the entertainment had lasted some time, and the principal days of the revel were over, in which the bride had been taken to the house of the bridegroom, and the marriage of Megapenthes was completed, Menelaus and Helen were left to themselves and feasted together. He, I say, not perceiving this, but being deceived by the first line—

1. Where sate Atrides 'midst his bridal friends,

he then added these lines, which do not properly belong to this place—

1. While this gay friendly troop the king surround,
2. With festival and mirth the roofs resound;
3. A bard amid the joyous circle sings
4. High airs, attemper'd to the vocal strings,
5. Whilst, warbling to the varied strain, advance
6. Two sprightly youths to form the bounding dance:—

transferring them with the error in the reading and all from the eighteenth book of the Iliad, where he relates the making of the arms of Achilles; for it ought to be red not ἐξάρχοντες, the dancers beginning, but (τοῦ ᾠδοῦ, that is to say,) when the poet began to sing. For the word ἐξάρχω has peculiar reference to preluding on the lyre. On which account Hesiod also says in his Shield of Hercules—

1. The holy goddesses, the Muses nine,
2. Preluded (ἐξῆρχον) with a sacred melody.[*](Hes. Scut. Here. 205.)

And Archilochus says—

1. Himself preluding (ἐξάρχων) with a sacred paean
2. Set to the Lesbian flute.

And Stesichorus calls the Muse the Beginner of Song (ἀρχεσίμολπος). And Pindar calls Preludes the Leaders of the Dance. And Diodorus the Aristophanian enclosed the whole account of the wedding in brackets; thinking that the first days only were alluded to, and disregarding the termination and what came after the banquet. And then he says we ought to write the words δοίω δὲ κυβιστητῆρε κατʼ αὐτοὺς with an aspirate, καθʼ αὑτοὺς, but that would be a solecism. For κατʼ αὐτοὺς is equivalent to κατὰ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς, but to say ἑαυτοὺς would be a solecism.

But, as I said before, the introduction of this kind of music into this modest kind of entertainment is transferred to this place from the Cretic dance, of which he says in the eighteenth book of the Iliad, about the Making of the Arms—

1. A figured dance succeeds; such once was seen
2. In lofty Cnossus, for the Cretan queen
3. Form'd by Dædalean art; a comely band
4. Of youths and maidens bounding hand-in-hand;
5. The maids in soft cymars of linen dress'd,
6. The youths all graceful in the glossy vest.
7. Of those the locks with flow'ry wreaths enroll'd,
8. Of these the sides adorn'd with swords of gold,
9. That glittering gay from silver belts depend.[*](Iliad, xviii. 590.)

And then he adds to this—

1. Now all at once they rise, at once descend,
2. With well-taught feet; now shape in oblique ways
3. Confus'dly regular the moving maze.
4. Now forth at once too swift for sight they spring,
5. And undistinguish'd blend the flying ring.

Now among the Cretans, dancing and posture-making was a national amusement. On which account Aeneas says to the Cretan Meriones—

1. Swift as thou art (the raging hero cries),
2. And skill'd in dancing to dispute the prize,
3. My spear, the destined passage had it found,
4. Had fix'd thy active vigour to the ground.

[*](Ib. xvi. 617.) And from this they call the hyporchemata Cretan

1. They call it all a Cretan air . . . .
2. The instrument is called Molossian . . . .

But they who were called Laconistæ,

says Timæus, used to sing standing to dance in square figures." And altogether there were many various kinds of music among the Greeks: as the Athenians preferred the Dionysiac and the Cyclian dances; and the Syracusians the Iambistic figure; and different nations practised different styles.

But Aristarchus not only interpolated lines which had no business there into the banquet of Menelaus, and by so doing made Homer make representations inconsistent with the system of the Lacedæmonians, and with the moderation of their king, but he also took away the singer from the Cretan chorus, mutilating his song in the following manner:—

1. The gazing multitudes admire around
2. Two active tumblers in the centre bound;
3. Now high, now low their pliant limbs they bend,
4. And general songs the sprightly revel end.[*](Iliad, xvi. 603.)

So that blunder of his in using the word ἐξάρχοντες is almost irremediable, as the relation cannot after that possibly be brought back so as to refer to the singer.

And it is not probable that there were any musical entertainments at Menelaus's banquet, as is manifest from the fact of the whole time of the banquet being occupied by the guests in conversation with one another; and that there is no name mentioned as that of the minstrel; nor is any lay mentioned which he sang; nor is it said that Telemachus and his party listened to him; but they rather contemplated the house in silence, as it were, and perfect quiet. And how can it be looked upon as anything but incredible, that the sons of those wisest of men, Ulysses and Nestor, should be introduced as such ignorant people as, like clowns, not to pay the least attention to carefully prepared music? At all events Ulysses himself attends to the Phæacian minstrels:—

1. Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey
2. The glancing splendours as their sandals play:—[*](Odyss. viii. 264.)

although he had plenty of things to distract his attention, and although he could say—

1. Now care surrounds me, and my force decays,
2. Inured a melancholy part to bear,
3. In scenes of death by tempest and by war.[*](Ib. 154.)

How then can we think Telemachus any better than a mere clown, when a minstrel and a dancer are present, if he had bent silently towards Pisistratus and gazed on nothing but the plate and furniture? But Homer, like a good painter, makes Telemachus in every respect like his father; and so he has made each of them easily recognised, the one by Alcinous, and the other by Menelaus, by means of their tears.

But in the banquet of Epicurus there is an assembly of flatterers praising one another. And Plato's banquet is full of mockers, cavilling at one another; for I say nothing of the digression about Alcibiades But in Homer it is only banquets conducted with moderation which are applauded; and on one occasion, a man addressing Menelaus says—

1. I dare not in your presence speak,
2. Whose voice we reverence as a voice divine.[*](Odyss. iv. 160.)

But he was reproving something which was either not said or not done with perfect correctness—

1. And now if aught there is that can be done,
2. Take my advice; I grief untimely shun
3. That interrupts the feast.[*](Ib. 193.)

And again, he says—

1. O son of wise Ulysses, what a word
2. Has 'scaped thy ivory fence!. . . .

For it is not right for a man to be a flatterer, nor a mocker.

Again, Epicurus, in his banquet, inquires about indigestion, so as to draw an omen from the answer: and immediately after that he inquires about fevers; for why need I speak of the general want of rhythm and elegance which pervades the whole essay? But Plato, (I say nothing about his having been harassed by a cough, and about his taking care of himself with constant gargling of water, and also by inserting a straw, in order that he might excite his nose so as to sneeze; for his object was to turn things into ridicule and to disparage them,) Plato, I say, turns into ridicule the equalized sentences and the antitheses of Agathon, and introduces Alcibiades, saying that he is in a state of excitement. But still those men who write in this manner, propose to expel Homer from their cities. But, says Demochares,

A spear is not made of a stalk of savory,

nor is a good man made so by such discourses as these; and not only does he disparage Alcibiades, but he also runs down Charmides, and Euthyde- mus, and many others of the young men. And this is the conduct of a man ridiculing the whole city of the Athenians, the Museum of Greece, which Pindar styled The Bulwark of Greece; and Thucydides, in his Epigram address d to Euripides, The Greece of Greece; and the priest at De phi termed it, The Hearth and Prytaneum of the Greeks. And that he spoke falsely of the young men one may perceive from Plato himself, for he says that Alcibiades, (in the dialogue to which he has prefixed his name,) when he arrived at man's estate, then first began to converse with Socrates, when every one else who was devoted to the pleasures of the body fell off from him. But he says this at the very beginning of the dialogue. And how he contradicts himself in the Charmides any one who pleases may see in the dialogue itself. For he represents Socrates as subject to a most unseemly giddiness, and as absolutely intoxicated with a passion for Alcibiades, and as becoming beside himself, and yielding like a kid to the impetuosity of a lion; and at the same time he says that he disregarded his beauty.

But also the banquet of Xenophon, although it is much extolled, gives one as many handles to blame it as the other. For Callias assembles a banqueting party because his favourite Autolycus has been crowned at the Panathenæa for a victory gained in the Pancratium. And as soon as they are assembled the guests devote their attention to the boy; and this too while his father is sitting by.

For as when light appears in the night season it attracts the eyes of every one, so does the beauty of Autolycus attract the eyes of everybody to itself. And then there was no one present who did not feel something in his heart because of him; but some were more silent than others, and some betrayed their feelings by their gestures.

But Homer has never ventured to say anything of that sort, not even when he represents Helen as present; concerning whose beauty though one of those who sat opposite to her did speak, all he said, being overcome by the truth, was this—

1. Sure 'tis no wonder such celestial charms
2. For nine long years have set the world in arms.
3. What winning graces, what majestic mien-
4. She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen

And then he adds—

1. Yet hence, O heaven, convey that fatal face;
2. And from destruction save the Trojan race.

But the young men who had come to Menelaus's court, the son of Nestor and Telemachus, when over their wine, and celebrating a wedding feast, and though Helen was sitting by, kept quite quiet in a decorous manner, being struck dumb by her renowned beauty. But why did Socrates, when to gratify some one or other he had tolerated some female flute-players, and some boy dancing and playing on the harp, and also some women tumbling and posture-making in an unseemly manner, refuse perfumes? For no one would have been able to restrain his laughter at him, recollecting these lines—

1. You speak of those pale-faced and shoeless men,
2. Such as that wretched Socrates and Chærephon.

And what followed after was very inconsistent with his austerity. For Critobulus, a very well-bred young man, mocks Socrates, who was aged and his tutor, saying he was much uglier than the Sileni; but he discusses beauty with him, and selecting as judges the boy and the dancing woman, makes the prize to be the kisses of the judges. Now what young man meeting with this writing would not be corrupted rather than excited to virtue?

But in Homer, in the banquet of Menelaus, they propose to one another questions as in ordinary conversation, and chatting with one another like fellow-citizens, they entertain one another and us too. Accordingly, Menelaus, when Telemachus and his friends come from the bath-room, and when the tables and the dishes are laid, invites them to partake of them, saying—

1. Accept this welcome to the Spartan court;
2. The waste of nature let the feast repair,
3. Then your high lineage and your names declare:[*](Odyss. iv. 60.)—

and then he helps them to what he has before him, treating them in the most friendly manner—

1. Ceasing, benevolent he straight assigns
2. The royal portion of the choicest chines
3. To each accepted friend; with grateful haste
4. They share the honours of the rich repast.

And they, eating in silence, as it becomes young men to do, converse with one another, leaning forwards gently, not about the food, as Homer tells us, nor about the maid-servants of him who had invited them, and by whom they had been washed, but about the riches of their entertainer—

1. Soft whispering thus to Nestor's son,
2. His head reclined, young Ithacus begun:
3. View'st thou unmoved, O ever honour'd most,
4. These prodigies of art and wondrous cost?
5. Such, and not nobler, in the realms above
6. Are the rich treasures in the dome of Jove.[*](The reading is— ζηνός που τοιαῦτα δόμοις ἐν κτήματα κεῖται, for which Aristarchus wished to read— ζηνός που τοίηδέ γʼ ʼολυμπίου ἔνδοθεν αὐλή. I have given here, as elsewhere, Pope's version in the translation.)

For that, according to Seleucus, is the best reading; and Aristarchus is wrong when he writes—

1. Such is the palace of Olympian Jove.

For they are not admiring the beauty of building alone; for how could there be amber, and silver, and ivory in the walls? But they spoke partly about the house, as where they used the expression

the sounding house,

for that is the character of large and lofty rooms; and they spoke also of the furniture—

1. Above, beneath, around the palace shines
2. The sumless treasure of exhausted mines;
3. The spoils of elephants the roofs inlay,
4. And studded amber darts a golden ray.

So that it is a natural addition to say—

1. Such are the treasures in the dome of Jove,
2. Wondrous they are, and awe my heart doth move

But the statement,

1. Such is the palace of Olympian Jove,

has no connexion with—

1. Wondrous they are . . . .

and it would be a pure solecism and a very unusual reading.

Besides, the word αὐλὴ is not adapted to a house; for a place which the wind blows through is what is called αὐλή. And we say that a place which receives the wind on both sides διαυλωνίζει. And so again, αὐλὸς is an instrument through which the wind passes, (namely, a flute,) and every figure which is stretched out straight we call αὐλὸς, as a stadium, or a flow of blood—

1. Straightway a thick stream (αὐλὸς) through the nostrils rush'd.

pp And we call a helmet also, when it rises up in a ridge out of the centre, αὐλῶπις. And at Athens there are some sacred places called αὐλῶνες, which are mentioned by Philochorus in his ninth book. And they use the word in the masculine gender, οἱ αὐλῶνες, as Thucydides does in his fourth book; and as, in fact, all prose writers do. But the poets use it in the feminine gender. Carcines says in his Achilles—

1. βαθεῖαν εἰς αύλῶνα—Into a deep ravine which surrounded the army.

And Sophocles, in his Scythians, writes—

1. The crags and caverns, and the deep ravines
2. Along the shore (ἐπακτίας αὐλῶνας).

And therefore we ought to understand that it is used as a feminine noun by Eratosthenes in his Mercury—

1. A deep ravine runs through (βαθὺς αὐλών),

instead of βαθεῖα, just as we find θῆλυς ἐέρση, where θῆλυς is feminine. Everything of that kind then is called αὐλὴ or αὐλών; but at the present day they call palaces αὐλαὶ, as Menander does—

1. To haunt palaces (αὐλαὶ) and princes.

And Diphilus says—

1. To haunt palaces (αὐλαὶ) is, it seems to me,
2. The conduct of an exile, slave, or beggar.

And they got this name from having large spaces in front of their buildings exposed to the open air, or else, because the guards of the palace were stationed, and took their rest in the open air. But Homer always classes the αὐλὴ among the places exposed to the air, where the altar of Jupiter Herceus stood. And so Peleus is found—

1. I and Ulysses touch'd at Peleus[*](Iliad, xi. 733.) port;
2. There, in the centre of his grassy court,
3. A bull to Jove he slew in sacrifice,
4. And pour'd libations on the flaming thighs.

And so Priam lay:—

1. In the court-yard amid the dirt he roll'd.[*](Ib. xxiv. 640.)

And Ulysses says to Phemius—

1. Thou with the heav'n-taught bard in peace resort,
2. From blood and carnage, to yon open court.[*](Odyss. xxii. 375.)

But that Telemachus was praising not only the house, but also the riches which it contained, is made plain by the reply of Menelaus—

1. My wars, the copious theme of ev'ry tongue,
2. To you your fathers have recorded long;
3. How favouring Heav'n repaid my glorious toils
4. With a sack'd palace and barbaric spoils.[*](Odyss. iv. 78.)

But we must return back to the banquet, in which Homer very ingeniously devises a subject for conversation, by comparing the acquisition of riches with that of a friend. For he does not put it forward as a grave proposition for discussion, but Menelaus inserts it in his conversation very gracefully, after he has heard them praise himself and his good fortune; not denying that he is rich, but from that very circumstance deprecating envy, for he says that he has acquired those riches so that,

1. When my woes are weigh'd,
2. Envy will own the purchase dearly paid.[*](lb. 95.)

He does not indeed think it right to compare himself with the gods—

1. The monarch took the word, and grave replied—
2. Presumptuous are the vaunts, and vain the pride
3. Of man who dares in pomp with Jove contest,
4. Unchanged, immortal, and supremely blest.

But then, after displaying his affectionate disposition as a brother, and saying that he is compelled to live and to be rich, he opposes to this the consideration of friendship—

1. Oh, had the gods so large a boon denied,
2. And life, the just equivalent, supplied
3. To those brave warriors who, with glory fired,
4. Far from their country in my cause expired.

Who could there be then of the descendants of those men who had died in his cause, who would not think his grief for the death of his father as fair a compensation as could be given by grateful recollection? But still, that he may not appear to look upon them all in the same light, though they had all equally shown their good-will to him, he adds—

1. But oh! Ulysses,—deeper than the rest,
2. That sad idea wounds my anxious breast;
3. My heart bleeds fresh with agonising pain,
4. The bowl and tasteful viands tempt in vain.

And that he may not seem to disregard any one of his family he names them all separately—

1. Doubtful of his doom,
2. His good old sire with sorrow to the tomb
v.1.p.304
3. Declines his trembling steps; untimely care
4. Withers the blooming vigour of his heir;
5. And the chaste partner of his bed and throne
6. Wastes all her widow'd hours in tender moan.

And while he is weeping at the recollection of his father, Menelaus observes him; and, in the interim, Helen had come in, and she also conjectured who Telemachus was from his likeness to Ulysses, (for women, because of their habit of observing one another's modesty, are wonderfully clever at detecting the likeness of children to their parents,) and after Pisistratus had interfered with some observation, (for it was not fitting for him to stand by like a mute on the stage,) and said something appropriate and elegant about the modesty of Telemachus; again Menelaus made mention of his affection for Ulysses, that of all men in the world he was the one in whose companionship he wished to grow old.

And then, as is natural, they all weep; and Helen, as being the daughter of Jupiter, and as having learnt of the philosophers in Egypt many expedients of all kinds, pours into some wine a medicinal panacea, as it was in reality; and begins to relate some of the exploits of Ulysses, while working at her loom in the meantime; not doing this so much for the purpose of amusement, as because she had been bred up in that way at home. And so Venus, coming to her after the single combat in the Iliad, takes a form not her own—

1. To her beset with Trojan beauties, came
2. In borrow'd form the laughter-loving dame.
3. She seem'd an ancient maid, well skill'd to cull
4. The snowy fleece, and wind the twisted wool.[*](Iliad, iii. 385.)

And her industry is made manifest not in a merely cursory manner, in the following description—

1. In this suspense bright Helen graced the room;
2. Before her breathed a gale of rich perfume;
3. The seat of majesty Adraste brings,
4. With art illustrious for the pomp of kings;
5. To spread the pall, beneath the regal chair,
6. Of softest woof, is bright Alcippe's care;
7. A silver canister, divinely wrought,
8. In her soft hands the beauteous Philo brought;
9. To Sparta's queen of old the radiant vase
10. Alcandra gave, a pledge of royal grace,
[*](Odyss. iv. 123.)
v.1.p.305
11. Sharer of Polybus's high command,
12. She gave the distaff too to Helen's hand,
13. And that rich vase with living sculpture wrought,
14. Which, heap'd with wool, the beauteous Philo brought;
15. The silken fleece, impurpled for the loom,
16. Rivall'd the hyacinth in vernal bloom.

And she seems to be aware of her own proficiency in the art: at all events, when she presents Telemachus with arobe, she says—

1. Accept, dear youth, this monument of love,
2. Long since, in better days, by Helen wove.
3. Safe in thy mother's care the vesture lay,
4. To deck thy bride, and grace thy nuptial day.[*](Odyss. xv. 125.)

And that fondness for employment proves her temperance and modesty. For she is never represented as luxurious or arrogant, because of her beauty. Accordingly, she is found at her loom weaving and embroidering—

1. Her in the palace at the loom she found,
2. The golden web her own sad story crown'd;
3. The Trojan wars she weaved, (herself the prize,)
4. And the dire triumph of her fatal eyes.[*](Iliad, iii. 125.)

And Homer teaches us that those who have been invited to a feast, ought to ask leave of their entertainers before they rise up to depart. And so Telemachus does to Menelaus—

1. But now let sleep the painful waste repair,
2. Of sad reflection and corroding care.[*](Odyss. iv. 294.)

And Minerva, when pretending to be Mentor, says to Nestor—

1. Now immolate the tongues and mix the wine,
2. Sacred to Neptune and the pow'rs divine:
3. The lamp of day is quench'd beneath the deep,
4. And soft approach the balmy hours of sleep;
5. Nor fits it to prolong the heav'nly feast,
6. Timeless, indecent; but retire to rest.[*](lb. iii 332.)

And in the feasts of the gods it does not appear to have been considered proper to remain too long at the table. Accordingly, Minerva says, very sententiously, in Homer—

1. For now has darkness quench'd the solar light,
2. And it becomes not gods to feast by night.

And now there is a law in existence that there are some sacrificial feasts from which men must depart before sunset. And among the Egyptians formerly every kind of banquet was conducted with great moderation; as Apollonis has said, who wrote a treatise on the feasts of the Egyptian; for they ate in a sitting posture, using the very simplest and most wholesome food; and only just as much wine as was calculated to put them in cheerful spirits, which is what Pindar entreats of Jupiter—

1. Oh mighty thund'ring Jove!
2. Great Saturn's son, lord of the realms above,
3. That I may be to thee and the nine Muses dear,
4. That joy my heart may cheer;
5. This is my prayer, my only prayer to thee.

But the banquet of Plato is not an assembly of grave men, nor a conversazione of philosophers. For Socrates does not choose to depart from the banquet, although Eryximachus, and Phædrus, and some others, have already left it; but he stays till a late hour with Agathon and Aristophanes, and drinks from the silver well; for fairly has some one given this name to large cups. And he drinks out of the bowl cleverly, like a man who is used to it. And Plato says, that after this those two others began to nod, and that first of all Aristophanes fell asleep, and when day began to break so did Agathon; and that Socrates, after he had sent them both to sleep, rose up from table himself and went away to the Lyceum, when he might, says Herodicus, have gone to Homer's Læstrygones—

1. Where he who scorns the chains of sleep to wear,
2. And adds the herdsman's to the shepherd's care,
3. His double toils may claim a double pay,
4. And join the labours of the night and day.[*](Odyss. x. 84.)

But every banqueting party among the ancients was referred to the gods; and accordingly men wore garlands appropriate and peculiar to the gods, and used hymns and odes. And there were no slaves to attend upon the guests, but free youths acted as the cupbearers. So the son of Mænelaus, although he was the bridegroom, and at his own wedding, acted; and in the poem of the beautiful Sappho, even Mercury acts as the cupbearer to the gods. And they were free men who prepared everything else for the guests. And after they had supped they went away while it was still daylight. But at some of the Persian feasts there were also councils held, as there were in the tent of Agamemnon with respect to the further conduct of the Trojan war. Now as to the entertainment given by Alcinous, to which the discourse of Ulysses refers where he says—

1. How goodly seems it ever to employ
2. Man's social days in union and in joy;
3. The plenteous board high heap'd with cates diviner
4. And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine;
5. The heav'n-taught poet and enchanting strain,
6. These are the products of a peaceful reign.

He refers also especially to his reception of straners, since the Phæacians themselves were devoted to luxury and yet if any one compares that feast made by Alcinous with the banquets of the philosophers, he will find that the better regulated of the two; although that also embraced much cheerfulness and spirit, only not in any unbecoming manner. For after the exhibition of gymnastics the bard sings—

1. The loves of Mars,

a certain lay mingled with some ridiculous incidents, and one which suggested to Ulysses some hints for the slaughter of the suitors; since Vulcan, even though he was lame, got the better of the most valiant Mars.

And the feasters of that time sat at the table; at all events, Homer very often says—

1. Sitting in order on the chairs and couches.

For the word θρόνος, which he uses in this line, when taken by itself, is a seat such as is used by free men, with a footstool, the name of which being θρῆνυς, from thence they came to call the seat itself θρόνος, from the verb θρήσασθαι, which they used for, to sit; as Philetas says—

1. To sit (θρήσασθαι) on the ground under a plane-tree.

But the couch (κλισμὸς) was more adapted for reclining on; and the δίφρος is something simpler than these things. Accordingly, in the book where Ulysses appears as a beggar the servants place for him, as Homer tells us,

1. A humble chair (δίφρος), and spread a scanty board.

But their goblets, as their name (κρατῆρες) indicates, were supplied full of wine mixed with water (κεκραμένοι); and the youths ministered to them from the larger goblets, always, in the case of the most honourable of the guests, keeping their small cups full; but to the rest they distributed the wine in equal portions. Accordingly Agamemnon says to Idomeneus—

1. To thee the foremost honours are decreed,
2. First in the fight, and every graceful deed;
[*](Odyss. ix. 5.)[*](Iliad, iv. 262.)
v.1.p.308
3. For this in banquets, when the generous bowls
4. Restore our blood, and raise our warrior souls,
5. Though all the rest with stated rules are bound,
6. Unmix'd, unmeasured are thy goblets crown'd.

And they used to pledge one another, not as we do, (for our custom may be expressed by the verb προεκπίνω rather than by προπινω,) but they drank the entire bumper off—

1. He fill'd his cup, and pledged great Peleus' son.

And how often they took meat, we have already explained —namely, that they had three meals, because it is the same meal that was at one time called δεῖπνον, and at another ἄριστον. For those men who say that they used to take four meals a day, are ridiculously ignorant, since the poet himself says—

1. But do thou come δειελιήσας.

And these men do not perceive that this word means,

after having remained here till evening.

But, nevertheless, no one can show in the poet one instance of any one taking food even three times in the day. But many men are led into mistakes, placing these verses in the poet all together—

1. They wash; the tables in fair order spread,
2. They heap the glittering canisters with bread,
3. Viands of various kinds allure the taste,
4. Of choicest sort and savour; rich repast.[*](Odyss. i. 131; vii. 175.)

For if the housekeeper placed the meats on the table, it is plain that there was no need for the carver to bring in more, so that some of the above description is superfluous. But when the guests had departed the tables were removed, as is done at the feasts of the Suitors and of the Phæacians, in whose case he says—

1. The servants bore away the armour of the feast.

And it is plain that he means the dishes, for the word he uses is ἔντεα; and it is that part of the armour which covers a man, such as his breastplate, his greaves, and things like them which men call ἔντεα, as being in front (ἄντια) of the parts of the body. And of the rooms in the palaces of the heroes, those which were larger Homer calls, μέγαρα, and δώματα, and even κλισίας (tents). But the moderns call them ἀνδρῶνες (rooms to receive men) and ξενῶνες (strangers' apartments).