Deipnosophistae

The PhagesiaFishEpicuresCooksSharksFishGlaucusEels The TunnyfishFishPike-FishThe Polypus

AND when the Banquet was now finished, the cynics, thinking that the festival of the Phagesia was being celebrated, were delighted above all things, and Cynulcus said, —While we are supping, O Ulpian, since it is on words that you are feasting us, I propose to you this question,—In what author do you find any mention of the festivals called Phagesia, and Phagesiposia? And he, hesitating, and bidding the slaves desist from carrying the dishes round, though it was now evening, said,—I do not recollect, you very wise man, so that you may tell us yourself, in order that you may sup more abundantly and more pleasantly. And he rejoined, —If you will promise to thank me when I have told you, I will tell you. And as he agreed to thank him, he continued; —Clearchus, the pupil of Aristotle, but a Solensian by birth, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures, (for I recollect his very expressions, because I took a great fancy to them,) speaks as follows:—

Phagesia—but some call the festival Phagesiposia—but this festival has ceased, as also has that of the Rhapsodists, which they celebrated about the time of the Dionysiac festival, in which every one as they passed by sang a hymn to the god by way of doing him honour.

This is what Clearchus wrote. And if you doubt it, my friend, I, who have got the book, will not mind lending it to you. And you may learn a good deal from it, and get a great many questions to ask us out of it. For he relates that Calias the Athenian composed a Grammatical Tragedy, from which Euripides in his Medea, and Sophocles in his Œdipus derived their choruses and the arrangement of their plot.

And when all the guests marvelled at the literary accomplishments of Cynulcus, Plutarch said,—In like manner there used to be celebrated in my own Alexandria a Flagon-bearing festival, which is mentioned by Eratosthenes in his treatise entitled Arsinoe. And he speaks as follows:—

When Ptolemy was instituting a festival and all kinds of

v.2.p.434

sacrifices, and especially those which relate to Bacchus, Arsinoe asked the man who bore the branches, what day he was celebrating now, and what festival it was. And when he replied, 'It is called the Lagynophoria; and the guests lie down on beds and so eat all that they have brought with them, and every one drinks out of his own flagon which he has brought from home;' and when he had departed, she, looking towards us, said, 'It seems a very dirty kind of party; for it is quite evident that it must be an assembly of a mixed multitude, all putting down stale food and such as is altogether unseasonable and unbecoming.' But if the kind of feast had pleased her, then the queen would not have objected to preparing the very same things herself, as is done at the festival called Choes. For there every one feasts separately, and the inviter only supplies the materials for the feast.

But one of the Grammarians who were present, looking on the preparation of the feast, said,—In the next place, how shall we ever be able to eat so large a supper? Perhaps we are to go on

during the night,

as that witty writer Aristophanes says in his Aeolosicon, where however his expression is

during the whole night.

And, indeed, Homer uses the preposition διὰ in the same way, for he says—

1. He lay within the cave stretch'd o'er the sheep (διὰ μήλων);

where διὰ μήλων means

over all the sheep,

indicating the size of the giant. And Daphnus the physician answered him; Meals taken late at night, my friend, are more advantageous for everybody. For the influence of the moon is well adapted to promote the digestion of food, since the moon has putrefying properties; and digestion depends upon putrefaction. Accordingly victims slain at night are more digestible; and wood which is cut down by moonlight decays more rapidly. And also the greater proportion of fruits ripen by moonlight.

But since there were great many sorts of fish, and those very different both as to size and beauty, which had been served up and which were still being constantly served up for the guests, Myrtilus said,—Although all the different dishes which we eat, besides the regular meal, are properly called by one generic name, ὄψον, still it is very deservedly that on account of its delicious taste fish has prevailed over everything else, and has appropriated the name to itself;

because men are so exceedingly enamoured of this kind of food. Accordingly we speak of men as ὀψοφάγοι, not meaning people who eat beef (such as Hercules was, who ate beef and green figs mixed together); nor do we mean by such a term a man who is fond of figs; as was Plato the philosopher, according to the account given of him by Phanocritus in his treatise on the Glorious: and he tells us in the same book that Arcesilas was fond of grapes: but we mean by the term only those people who haunt the fish-market. And Philip of Macedon was fond of apples, and so was his son Alexander, as Dorotheus tells us in the sixth book of his history of the Life and Actions of Alexander. But Chares of Mitylene relates that Alexander, having found the finest apples which he had ever seen in the country around Babylon, filled boats with them, and had a battle of apples from the vessels, so as to present a most beautiful spectacle. And I am not ignorant that, properly speaking, whatever is prepared for being eaten by the agency of fire is called ὄψον. For indeed the word is either identical with ἐψὸν, or else perhaps it is derived from ὀπτάω, to roast.

Since then there are a great many different kinds of fish which we eat at different seasons, my most admirable Timocrates, (for, as Sophocles says—

1. A chorus too of voiceless fish rush'd on,
2. Making a noise with their quick moving tails.

The tails not fawning on their mistress, but beating against the dish. And as Achæus says in his Fates—

1. There was a mighty mass of the sea-born herd—
2. A spectacle which fill'd the wat'ry waste,
3. Breaking the silence with their rapid tails;)

I will now recapitulate to you what the Deipnosophists said about each: for each of them brought to the discussion of the subject some contribution of quotation from books; though I will not mention the names of all who took part in the conversation, they were so numerous.

Amphis says in his Leucas—

1. Whoever buys some ὄψον for his supper,
2. And, when he might get real genuine fish,
3. Contents himself with radishes, is mad.

And that you may find it easy to remember what was said, I will arrange the names in alphabetical order For as Sophocles, in his Ajax Mastigophorus, called fish ἐλλοὶ, saying—

1. He gave him to the ἐλλοὶ ἰχθύες to eat;

one of the company asked whether any one before Sophocles ever used this word; to whom Zoilus replied,—But I, who am not a person ὀψοφαγίστατος [exceedingly fond of fish], (for that is a word which Xenophon has used in his Memorabilia, where he writes,

He is ὀψοφαγίστατος and the greatest fool possible,

) am well aware that the man who wrote the poem Titanomachia [or the Battle of the Giants], whether he be Eumelus the Corinthian, or Arctinus, or whatever else his name may chance to have been, in the second book of his poem speaks thus—

1. In it did swim the gold-faced ἐλλοὶ ἰχθύες,
2. And sported in the sea's ambrosial depths.

And Sophocles was very fond of the Epic Cycle, so that he composed even entire plays in which he has followed the stories told in their fables.

Presently when the tunnies called Amiæ were put on the table, some one said,—Aristotle speaks of this fish, and says that they have gills out of sight, and that they have very sharp teeth, and that they belong to the gregarious and carnivorous class of fishes: and that they have a gall of equal extent with their whole intestines, and a spleen of corresponding proportions. It is said also that when they are hooked, they leap up towards the fisherman, and bite through the line and so escape. And Archippus mentions them in his play entitled the Fishes, where he says—

1. But when you were eating the fat amiæ.

And Epicharmus in his Sirens says—

1. A. In the morning early, at the break of day,
2. We roasted plump anchovies,
3. Cutlets of well-fed pork, and polypi;
4. And then we drank sweet wine.
5. B. Alack! alack! my silly wife detain'd me,
6. Chattering near the monument.
7. A. I'm sorry for you. Then, too, there were mullets
8. And large plump amiæ—
9. A noble pair i' the middle of the table,
10. And eke a pair of pigeons,
11. A scorpion and a lobster.

And Aristotle, inquiring into the etymology of the name, says that they were called amiæ, παρὰ τὸ ἅμα ἰέναι ταῖς παρα- πλησίαις (from their going in shoals with their companions of the same kind). But Icesius, in his treatise on the Materials of Food, says that they are full of a wholesome juice, and tender, but only of moderate excellency as far as their digestible properties go, and not very nutritious.

But Archestratus,—that writer so curious in all that relates to cookery,—in his Gastrology (for that is the title of the book as it is given by Lycophron, in his treatise on Comedy, just as the work of Cleostratus of Tenedos is called Astrology), speaks thus of the amia:—

1. But towards the end of autumn, when the Pleiad
2. Has hidden its light, then dress the amiæ
3. Whatever way you please. Why need I teach you?
4. For then you cannot spoil it, if you wish.
5. But if you should desire, Moschus my friend,
6. To know by what recipe you best may dress it;
7. Take the green leaves of fig-trees, and some marjoram,
8. But not too much; no cheese or other nonsense,
9. But merely wrap it up in the fig leaves,
10. And tie it round with a small piece of string,
11. Then bury it beneath the glowing ashes,
12. Judging by instinct of the time it takes
13. To be completely done without being burnt.
14. And if you wish to have the best o' their kind,
15. Take care to get them from Byzantium;
16. Or if they come from any sea near that
17. They'll not be bad: but if you go down lower,
18. And pass the straits into the Aegæan sea,
19. They're quite a different thing, in flavour worse
20. As well as size, and merit far less praise.

But this Archestratus was so devoted to luxury, that he travelled over every country and every sea, with great diligence, wishing, as it seems to me, to seek out very carefully whatever related to his stomach; and, as men do who write Itineraries and Books of Voyages, so he wishes to relate everything with the greatest accuracy, and to tell where every kind of eatable is to be got in the greatest perfection; for this is what he professes himself, in the preface to his admirable Book of Precepts, which he addresses to his companions, Moschus and Cleander; enjoining them, as the Pythian priestess says, to seek

1. A horse from Thessaly, a wife from Sparta,
2. And men who drink at Arethusa's fount.

And Chrysippus, a man who was a genuine philosopher, and a thorough man at all points, says that he was the teacher of Epicurus, and of all those who follow his rules, in everything which belongs to pleasure, which is the ruin of everything. For Epicurus says, without any concealment, but speaking with a loud voice, as it were,

For I am not able to distinguish what is good if you once take away the pleasure arising from sweet flavours, and if you also take away amatory pleasures.

For this wise man thinks that even the life of the intemperate man is an unimpeachable one, if he enjoys an immunity from fear, and also mirth. On which account also the comic poets, running down the Epicureans, attack them as mere servants and ministers of pleasure and intemperance.

Plato, in his Joint Deceiver, representing a father as indignant with his son's tutor, makes him say—

1. A. You've taken this my son, and ruin'd him,
2. You scoundrel; you've persuaded him to choose
3. A mode of life quite foreign to his nature
4. And disposition; taught by your example,
5. He drinks i' the morning, which he ne'er was used to do.
6. B. Do you blame me, master, that your son
7. Has learnt to live?
8. A. But do you call that living?
9. B. Wise men do call it so. And Epicurus
10. Tells us that pleasure is the only good.
11. A. Indeed; I never heard that rule before.
12. Does pleasure come then from no other source?
13. Is not a virtuous life a pleasure now?
14. Will you not grant me that?—Tell me, I pray you,
15. Did you e'er see a grave philosopher
16. Drunk, or devoted to these joys you speak of?
17. B. Yes; all of them.-All those who raise their brows,
18. Who walk about the streets for wise men seeking,
19. As if they had escaped their eyes and hid:
20. Still when a turbot once is set before them,
21. Know how to help themselves the daintiest bits.
22. They seek the head and most substantial parts,
23. As if they were an argument dissecting,
24. So that men marvel at their nicety.

And in his play entitled the Homicide, the same Plato, laughing at one of those gentle philosophers, says—

1. The man who has a chance to pay his court
2. To a fair woman, and at eve to drink
3. Two bottles full of richest Lesbian wine,
4. Must be a wise man; these are real goods.
5. These things I speak of are what Epicurus
6. Tells us are real joys; and if the world
7. All lived the happy life I live myself,
8. There would not be one wicked man on earth.

And Hegesippus, in his Philetairi, says—

1. That wisest Epicurus, when a man
2. Once ask'd him what was the most perfect good
3. Which men should constantly be seeking for,
4. Said pleasure is that good. Wisest and best
5. Of mortal men, full truly didst thou speak:
6. For there is nothing better than a dinner,
7. And every good consists in every pleasure.