Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

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

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—

Then first a fire we kindle, and prepare
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—

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

And also he introduces the guests as making libations—

He said, and all approved; the heralds bring
The cleansing water from the living spring,
The youths with wine the sacred goblets crown'd,
And large libations drench'd the sand around.
The rite perform'd, the chiefs their thirst allay,
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—

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—

Hear me, my friends! who this good banquet grace,—
'Tis sweet to play the fool in time and place.
And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic and the serious smile;
The grave in merry measures frisk about,
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

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word merry, and applying that to both, he reproves the un- manly propensity to such trifling—

Makes . . . . . . . .
The grave in merry measure frisk about,
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—

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—

Let these, my friend,
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—

Where sate Atrides 'midst his bridal friends,

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

While this gay friendly troop the king surround,
With festival and mirth the roofs resound;
A bard amid the joyous circle sings
High airs, attemper'd to the vocal strings,
Whilst, warbling to the varied strain, advance
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

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ἐξάρχω has peculiar reference to preluding on the lyre. On which account Hesiod also says in his Shield of Hercules—

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

And Archilochus says—

Himself preluding (ἐξάρχων) with a sacred paean
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—

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

And then he adds to this—

Now all at once they rise, at once descend,
With well-taught feet; now shape in oblique ways
Confus'dly regular the moving maze.
Now forth at once too swift for sight they spring,
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—

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

[*](Ib. xvi. 617.)

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And from this they call the hyporchemata Cretan

They call it all a Cretan air . . . .
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:—

The gazing multitudes admire around
Two active tumblers in the centre bound;
Now high, now low their pliant limbs they bend,
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:—

Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey
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—

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

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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—

I dare not in your presence speak,
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—

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

And again, he says—

O son of wise Ulysses, what a word
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

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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—

Sure 'tis no wonder such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms.
What winning graces, what majestic mien-
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen![*](Iliad, iii. 196.)

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And then he adds—

Yet hence, O heaven, convey that fatal face;
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—

You speak of those pale-faced and shoeless men,
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—

Accept this welcome to the Spartan court;
The waste of nature let the feast repair,
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—

Ceasing, benevolent he straight assigns
The royal portion of the choicest chines
To each accepted friend; with grateful haste
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

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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—

Soft whispering thus to Nestor's son,
His head reclined, young Ithacus begun:
View'st thou unmoved, O ever honour'd most,
These prodigies of art and wondrous cost?
Such, and not nobler, in the realms above
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—

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—

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

So that it is a natural addition to say—

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

But the statement,

Such is the palace of Olympian Jove,

has no connexion with—

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—

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

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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—

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

And Sophocles, in his Scythians, writes—

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

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

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—

To haunt palaces (αὐλαὶ) and princes.

And Diphilus says—

To haunt palaces (αὐλαὶ) is, it seems to me,
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—

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

And so Priam lay:—

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

And Ulysses says to Phemius—

Thou with the heav'n-taught bard in peace resort,
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—

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My wars, the copious theme of ev'ry tongue,
To you your fathers have recorded long;
How favouring Heav'n repaid my glorious toils
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,

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

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

The monarch took the word, and grave replied—
Presumptuous are the vaunts, and vain the pride
Of man who dares in pomp with Jove contest,
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—

Oh, had the gods so large a boon denied,
And life, the just equivalent, supplied
To those brave warriors who, with glory fired,
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—

But oh! Ulysses,—deeper than the rest,
That sad idea wounds my anxious breast;
My heart bleeds fresh with agonising pain,
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—

Doubtful of his doom,
His good old sire with sorrow to the tomb
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Declines his trembling steps; untimely care
Withers the blooming vigour of his heir;
And the chaste partner of his bed and throne
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—

To her beset with Trojan beauties, came
In borrow'd form the laughter-loving dame.
She seem'd an ancient maid, well skill'd to cull
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—

In this suspense bright Helen graced the room;
Before her breathed a gale of rich perfume;
The seat of majesty Adraste brings,
With art illustrious for the pomp of kings;
To spread the pall, beneath the regal chair,
Of softest woof, is bright Alcippe's care;
A silver canister, divinely wrought,
In her soft hands the beauteous Philo brought;
To Sparta's queen of old the radiant vase
Alcandra gave, a pledge of royal grace,
[*](Odyss. iv. 123.)
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Sharer of Polybus's high command,
She gave the distaff too to Helen's hand,
And that rich vase with living sculpture wrought,
Which, heap'd with wool, the beauteous Philo brought;
The silken fleece, impurpled for the loom,
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—

Accept, dear youth, this monument of love,
Long since, in better days, by Helen wove.
Safe in thy mother's care the vesture lay,
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—

Her in the palace at the loom she found,
The golden web her own sad story crown'd;
The Trojan wars she weaved, (herself the prize,)
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—

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

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

Now immolate the tongues and mix the wine,
Sacred to Neptune and the pow'rs divine:
The lamp of day is quench'd beneath the deep,
And soft approach the balmy hours of sleep;
Nor fits it to prolong the heav'nly feast,
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—

For now has darkness quench'd the solar light,
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

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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—

Oh mighty thund'ring Jove!
Great Saturn's son, lord of the realms above,
That I may be to thee and the nine Muses dear,
That joy my heart may cheer;
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—

Where he who scorns the chains of sleep to wear,
And adds the herdsman's to the shepherd's care,
His double toils may claim a double pay,
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—

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How goodly seems it ever to employ
Man's social days in union and in joy;
The plenteous board high heap'd with cates diviner
And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine;
The heav'n-taught poet and enchanting strain,
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—

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—

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—

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,

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—

To thee the foremost honours are decreed,
First in the fight, and every graceful deed;
[*](Odyss. ix. 5.)[*](Iliad, iv. 262.)
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For this in banquets, when the generous bowls
Restore our blood, and raise our warrior souls,
Though all the rest with stated rules are bound,
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—

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—

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—

They wash; the tables in fair order spread,
They heap the glittering canisters with bread,
Viands of various kinds allure the taste,
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—

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).

What then, my friends, shall we call the entertainment which Antiochus, who was surnamed Epiphanes, (but who was more rightly called Epimanes[*](ʼἐπιφανὴς, illustrious. ʼἐπιμανὴς, mad.) from his actions,) gave

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Now he was king of the Syrians, being one of the Seleucidæ. And Polybius says of him, "He, escaping out of the palace without the knowledge of the attendants, was often found with one or two companions wandering about the city wherever he might chance to take it into his head to go. And he was, above all other places, frequently found at the shops of the engravers of silver and of the goldsmiths, conversing on the subject of their inventions with, and inquiring into the principles of their art from, the engravers and other artists. And besides this, he often used to go among the common people, conversing with whomsoever he might chance to meet; and he would drink with the lowest and poorest strangers. And whenever he heard of any young men having a banquet, without having given any notice of his intention, he would come to join in their feast with a flute and music, behaving in a most lascivious manner; so that many used to rise up and depart, being alarmed at his strange behaviour. Often, also, he would lay aside his royal robes, and put on a common cloak, and so go round the market, like a man who was a candidate for some office: and taking some people by the hand, and embracing others, he would solicit them to vote for him, sometimes begging to be made ædile, and sometimes tribune; and when he was elected, sitting in his ivory curule chair, according to the fashion which prevails among the Romans, he would hear all the causes which were pleaded in the forum, and decide them with great attention and earnestness, by which conduct he greatly perplexed sensible men, For some thought him a man of very simple tastes, and others considered him mad. And his conduct with respect to presents was very much the same. For he would give some people dice of antelope's bones, and some he would present with dates, and to others he would give gold. And even if he met people in the street whom he had never seen, he would give them presents unexpectedly. And in his sacrifices, which were offered up in the different cities, and in the honours offered to the gods, he surpassed all the kings who had ever existed. And any one may conjecture his from the temple raised to Olympian Jupiter at Athens, and from the statues around the altar at Delos. And he used to bathe in the public baths, often when they were complete y full of the citizens, and then he would have earthen pairs of the

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most expensive perfumes brought to him. And on one of these occasions, when some one said to him,

Happy are you kings, who use all these things and smell so sweet,

he made the man no answer at the time; but coming the next day to the place where he was bathing, he caused him to have a pan of the largest size of that most precious ointment called στακτὴ poured over his head, so that when that had been done, every one near got up and hastened to get a little of the ointment, and as they fell down in their haste, by reason of the slipperiness of the floor, every one laughed, as did the king himself.

And this same king,

continues Polybius, "having heard of the games which had been celebrated in Macedonia by Aemilius Paullus the Roman general, wishing to surpass Paullus in his magnificence and liberality, sent ambassadors and theori to the different cities to proclaim that games were going to be exhibited by him at Daphne, so that the Greeks all hastened with great eagerness to come to him to see them. And the beginning of the exhibition was a splendid procession, arranged in this way:—Some men led the way armed in the Roman fashion, in breastplates of chain armour, all men in the flower of their youth, to the number of five thousand; immediately after them, five thousand Mysians followed; and then three thousand Cilicians, armed in the fashion of light-armed skirmishers, having golden crowns; and after them three thousand Thracians and five thousand Galatians; these were followed by twenty thousand Macedonians, and by five thousand men armed with brazen shields, and as many more with silver shields; they were followed by two hundred and forty pair of gladiators to fight in single combat; behind these came a thousand Nisæan cavalry, and three thousand men of the city guard, the greatest part of whom had golden trappings and golden crowns, but some had silver trappings; to these succeeded the cavalry who are called the King's Companions; these amounted to one thousand men, all equipped with golden trappings; next to these was the battalion of the King's Friends, of the same number and the same equipment; after these a thousand picked men; and they were followed by what was called the Agema, which was considered to be the most excellent squadron of all the cavalry, to the number of

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a thousand men; last of all came the Fenced Cavalry, having its name from the fact that both men and horses were com- pletely enveloped in armour; they were in number fifteen hundred men. And all the above-mentioned soldiers had purple cloaks, and many had them also embroidered with gold or painted with figures of living animals. Besides all this, there were a hundred chariots with six horses, and forty with four horses; then a chariot drawn by four elephants, and another by two; and last of all, six-and-thirty elephants, all handsomely appointed, followed one by one.

"The rest of the procession was such as it is difficult adequately to describe, and it must be enumerated in a summary manner. For youths walked in the procession to the number of eight hundred, all having golden crowns; and fat oxen to the number of one thousand; and deputations to see to the performance of separate sacrifices, very little short of three hundred; and there were eight hundred elephants' teeth carried by, and such a multitude of statues as it is beyond any one's power to enumerate. For images were carried in the procession of all who are ever said or thought by men to be gods, or deities, or demigods, or heroes; some gilt all over, and some arrayed in golden-broidered robes. And to all of them suitable inscriptions according to the accounts commonly received of them were attached, earved in the most expensive materials. And they were followed by an image of Night and another of Day; and of the Earth, and of Heaven, and of Morning, and of Noon. And the vast quantity of gold plate and silver plate was such as perhaps a man may form a guess at from the following account. For a thousand slaves belonging to Dionysius the secretary and amanuensis of the king joined in the procession, each carrying articles of silver plate, of which there was not one weighing less than a thousand drachmæ. And there were six hundred slaves belonging to the king himself, carrying articles of gold plate. And besides them there were women to the number of two hundred sprinkling every one with perfume out of golden waterpots. And they were succeeded by eighty women magnificently apparelled, borne on palanquins with golden feet, and five hundred borne on palanquins wit silver feet. And this was the most important portion of the procession.

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But after the games were over and the single combats and the hunting, during the whole thirty days which he exhibited these shows, on the first five days every one who came into the gymnasium was anointed with a saffron perfume shed upon him out of golden dishes. And there were fifteen of these golden dishes, full of equal quantities of cinnamon and spikenard. And in a similar manner in the five next days there was brought in essence of fenugreek, and of amaracus, and of lilies, all differing in their scent; and some days there were laid a thousand triclinia for the banquet; and some days fifteen hundred, all laid in the most expensive possible manner. And the arrangement of the whole business was superintended by the king himself. For having a very fine horse he went up and down the whole procession, commanding some to advance, and others to halt. And stopping at the entrances of the rooms where the drinking was going on he brought some in, and to others he assigned places on the couches. And he himself conducted in the attendants who brought in the second course. And he went round the whole banquet, sometimes sitting down in one place, and presently lying down in another place. And sometimes even while he was eating he would lay down what he was eating or his cup, and jump up, and go away to another part of the room. And he would go all round the company, at times, pledging some of the guests in a standing posture; and at times entertaining himself with the jesters or with the music. And when the entertainment had lasted a long time and many of the guests had gone away, then the king would be brought in by buffoons, all covered up, and laid on the ground as if he had been one of their band. And when the music excited him, he would jump up and dance, and act with the mummers, so that every one felt ashamed for him and fled away. And all this was done partly with the treasure which he brought out of Egypt, having plundered Ptolemy Philometor the king there, in defiance of his treaty with him when he was but a little boy; and some of the money too was contributed by his friends. And he had also sacrilegiously plundered most of the temples in his dominions.

And while all the guests marvelled at the conduct of the king, seeing that he was not illustrious but absolutely mad, Masurius brought forward Callixenus the Rhodian, who

v.1.p.313

in the fourth book of his History of Alexandria has given an account of a spectacle and procession which was exhibited by that most admirable of all monarchs, Ptolemy Phiadelphus. And he says—"But before I begin, I will give a description of the tent which was prepared within the circuit of the citadel, apart from the place provided for the reception of the soldiers, and artisans, and foreigners. For it was wonderfully beautiful, and worth hearing about. Its size was such as to be able to hold a hundred and thirty couches placed in a circle, and it was furnished in the following manner:—There were wooden pillars at intervals, five on each side of the tent longwise, fifty cubits high, and something less than one cubit broad. And on these pillars at the top was a capital, of square figure, carefully fitted, supporting the whole weight of the roof of the banqueting room. And over this was spread in the middle a scarlet veil with a white fringe, like a canopy; and on each side it had beams covered over with turreted veils, with white centres, on which canopies embroidered all over the centre were placed. And of the pillars four were made to resemble palm-trees, and they had in the centre a representation of thyrsi. And on the outside of these a portico ran, adorned with a peristyle on three sides, with a vaulted roof. And in this place it was intended that the company of the feasters should sit down. And the interior of it was surrounded with scarlet curtains. But in the middle of the space there were strange hides of beasts, strange both as to their variegated colour and their size, suspended. And the part which surrounded this portico in the open air was shaded by myrtle-trees and daphnes, and other suitable shrubs. And the whole floor was strewed with flowers of every description. For Egypt, on account of the temperate character of the atmosphere which surrounds it, and on account of the fondness of the inhabitants for gardening, produces in great abundance, and all the year round, those things which in other countries are rarely found, and only at particular seasons. And roses, and white lilies, and numberless other flowers are never wanting in that country. On which account, though this entertainment took place in the middle of winter, still there was a show of flowers which was quite incredible to the foreigners. For flowers of which one could not easily have found enough to make one chaplet in any other city

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were supplied in the greatest abundance here, to make chaplets for every one of the guests at this entertainment, and were strewed thickly over the whole floor of the tent; so as really to give the appearance of a most divine meadow.

"And by the posts round the entire tent there were placed animals carved in marble by the first artists, a hundred in number. And in the spaces between the posts there were pictures hung by the Sicyonian painters; and alternately with these there were carefully selected images of every kind; and garments embroidered with gold, and most exquisite cloaks, some of them having portraits of the kings of Egypt embroidered on them; and some, stories taken from the mythology. Above them were placed gold and silver shields alternately; and on the spaces above these shields, which were eight cubits high, caves were made, six on each side of the tent longwise, and four at each end. There were likewise in them representations of eating parties opposite to one another, of tragic, and comic, and satyric animals, having on real clothes. And before them were placed golden goblets. And in the middle of the caves were placed nymphæa, and on them there lay golden Delphian tripods, having pedestals of their own. And along the highest part of the roof were golden eagles all facing one another, each fifteen cubits large. There were also golden couches, with feet made like sphinxes, on the two sides of the tent, a hundred on each side. For the front of the tent was left open. And under these there were strewed purple carpets of the finest wool, with the carpet pattern on both sides. And there were handsomely embroidered rugs very beautifully elaborated on them. Besides this, thin Persian cloths covered all the centre space where the guests walked, having most accurate representations of animals embroidered on them. And by them were placed tripods for the guests, made of gold, two hundred in number, so that there were two for every couch, and they rested on silver pedestals. And behind, out of sight, there were a hundred flat dishes of silver, and an equal number of lavers. On the opposite side of the sitting-room there was fixed another sideboard, opposite to that on which the cups and goblets were placed; and on that were all the rest of the things which had been prepared for, or could come into use. And they were all made of gold, and studded with precious stones;

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admirably carved and wrought. And it has appeared to me too long a task to undertake to enumerate every article of the furniture, and even all the different kinds separate. But the entire weight of all the plate and valuables there exhibited came to ten thousand talents.