And always at the banquet crown your head

With flowing wreaths of varied scent and hue,

Culling the treasures of the happy earth;

And steep your hair in rich and reeking odours,

And all day long pour holy frankincense

And myrrh, the fragrant fruit of Syria,

On the slow slumb'ring ashes of the fire:

Then, when you drink, let slaves these luxuries bring--

Tripe, and the boiled paunch of well-fed swine,

Well soak'd in cummin juice and vinegar,

And sharp, strong-smelling assafoetida;

Taste, too, the tender well-roast birds, and game,

Whate'er may be in season. But despise

The rude uncivilized Sicilian mode,

Where men do nought but drink like troops of frogs,

And eat no solid seasoning. Avoid them.

And seek the meats which I enjoin thee here.

All other foods are only signs and proofs

Of wretched poverty: the green boil'd vetch,

And beans, and apples, and dried drums of figs.

But praise the cheesecakes which from Athens come;

And if there are none, still of any country

Cheesecakes are to be eaten; also ask

For Attic Honey, the feast's crowning dish--

For that it is which makes a banquet noble.

Thus should a free man live, or else descend

Beneath the earth, and court the deadly realms

Of Tartarus, buried deep beneath the earth

Innumerable fathoms.

But Lynceus, describing the banquet given by Lamia, the female

flute-player, when she entertained Demetrius Poliorcetes, represents the

guests the moment they come to the banquet as eating all sorts of fish

and meat; and in the same way, when speaking of the feast given by

Antigonus the king, when celebrating the Aphrodisiac festival, and also

one given by King Ptolemy, he speaks of fish as the first course; and

then meat.

60. But one may well wonder at Archestratus, who has given us such

admirable suggestions and injunctions, and who was a guide in the matter

of pleasure to the philosopher Epicurus, when he counsels us wisely, in

a manner equal to that of the bard[169:1] of Ascra, that we ought not to

mind some people, but only attend to him; and he bids us eat such and

such things, differing in no respect from the cook in Damoxenus the

comic writer, who says in his Syntrophi--

_A._ You see me here a most attentive pupil

Of Epicurus, wisest of the Greeks,

From whom in two years and ten months or less,

I scraped together four good Attic talents.

_B._ What do you mean by this? I pray thee, tell me,

Was he a cook, my master? That is news.

_A._ Ye gods! and what a cook! Believe me, nature

Is the beginning and the only source

Of all true wisdom. And there is no art

At which men labour, which contains more wisdom.

So this our art is easy to the man

Who has drunk deep of nature's principles;

They are his guides: and therefore, when you see

A cook who is no scholar, nor has read

The subtle lessons of Democritus,

(Aye and he must remember them besides,)

Laugh at him as an ass; and if you hire one

Who knows not Epicurus and his rules,

Discharge him straightway. For a cook must know,

(I speak the words of sober truth, my friend,)

How great the difference is in summer time

Between the glaucisk of the winter-season;

He must know all the fish the Pleiades

Bring to us at their setting; what the solstice,

Winter and summer, gives us eatable--

For all the changes and the revolutions

Are fraught with countless evil to mankind,

Such changes do they cause in all their food.

Dost thou not understand me? And remember,

Whatever is in season must be good.

_B._ How few observe these rules.

_A._ From this neglect

Come spasms, and the flatulence which ill

Beseems a politic guest;--but all the food

I give my parties, wholesome is, and good,

Digestible and free from flatulence.

Therefore its juice is easily dissolved,

And penetrates the entire body's pores.

_B._ Juice, say you? This is not known to Democritus.

_A._ But all meats out of season make the eater

Diseased in his joints.

_B._ You seem to me,

To have studied too the art of medicine.

_A._ No doubt, and so does every one who seeks

Acquaintance with his nature's mysteries.

But see now, I do beg you by the gods,

How ignorant the present race of cooks are.

When thus you find them ignorant of the smell

Of all the varied dishes which they dress,

And pounding sesame in all their sauce.

What can be bad enough for such sad blunderers?

_B._ You seem to speak as any oracle.

_A._ What good can e'er arise, where every quality

Is jumbled with its opposite in kind,

How different soever both may be?

Now to discern these things is art and skill,

Not to wash dishes nor to smell of smoke.

For I do never enter a strange cook-shop,

But sit within such a distance as enables

My eyes to comprehend what is within.

My friends, too, do the same; I tell them all

The causes and results. This bit is sour,

Away with it; the man is not a cook,

Though he perhaps may be a music master:

Put in some fire; keep an equal heat.

The first dish scarcely suits the rest. Do you

Not see the form of th' art?

_B._ O, great Apollo!

_A._ What does this seem to you?

_B._ Pure skill; high art.

_A._ Then I no dishes place before my guests

At random; but while all things correspond

I regulate the whole, and will divide

The whole as best may suit, in fours, or fives;

And will consult each separate division--

And satisfy each party. Then again,

I stand afar off and directions give;

Whence bring you that? what shall you mix with this?

See how discordant those two dishes are!

Take care and shun such blunders. That will do.

Thus Epicurus did arrange his pleasures.

Thus wisely did he eat. He, only wise,

Saw what was good and what its nature was.

The Stoics seek in vain for such discoveries,

And know not good nor what the nature may be

Of good; and so they have it not; nor know

How to impart it to their friends and guests.

Enough of this. Do'st not agree with me?

_B._ Indeed I do, all things are plain to me.

61. Plato, too, in his Joint Deceiver, introduces the father of a young

man in great indignation, on the ground that his son's principles and

way of living have been injured by his tutor; and he says--

_A._ You now have been the ruin of my son,

You wretch, you have persuaded him t' embark

In a course of life quite foreign to his habits

And former inclinations. You have taught him

To drink i' th' morning, quite beyond his wont.

_B._ Do you blame me that he has learnt to live?

_A._ Call you this living?

_B._ So the wise do say:

At all events the allwise Epicurus

Tells us that pleasure is the only good.

_A._ No doubt, and nobody can entertain

A different opinion. To live well

Must be to rightly live; is it not so?

Tell me, I pray thee, hast thou ever seen

Any philosopher confused with wine?

Or overtaken with those joys of yours?

_B._ Aye, all of them. Those who lift up their brows,

Who look most solemn in the promenades,

And in their daily conversation,

Who turn their eyes away in high disdain

If you put plaice or turbot on their board,

Know for all that the fish's daintiest part.

Seek out the head, the fins; the sound, the roe,

And make men marvel at their gluttony.

62. And in Antiphanes, in his Soldier or in his Tycho, a man is

introduced delivering rules in this way, saying--

Whoever is a mortal man, and thinks

This life has any sure possession,

Is woefully deceived. For either taxes

Take off his property; or he goes to law

And loses all he seeks, and all he has:

Or else he's made a magistrate, and bears

The losses they are subject to; or else

The people bid him a choragus be,

And furnish golden garments for a chorus;

And wear but rags himself. Or as a captain

Of some tall ship, he hangs himself; or else

Takes the command, and then is taken prisoner:

Or else, both waking and in soundest sleep,

He's helpless, pillaged by his own domestics.

Nothing is sure, save what a man can eat,

And treats himself to day by day. Nor then,

Is even this too sure. For guests drop in

To eat what you have order'd for yourself.

So not until you've got it 'twixt your teeth

Ought you to think that e'en your dinner's safe.

And he says the same in his Hydria.

63. Now if any one, my friends, were to consider this, he would

naturally and reasonably praise the honest Chrysippus, who examined

accurately into the nature of Epicurus's philosophy, and said, "That the

Gastrology of Archestratus was the metropolis of his philosophy;" which

all the epicures of philosophers call the Theogony, as it were, that

beautiful epic poem; to whom Theognetus, in his Phasma or in his Miser,

says--

My man, you will destroy me in this way;

For you are ill and surfeited with all

The divers arguments of all the Stoics.

"Gold is no part of man, mere passing rime.

Wisdom's his real wealth, solid like ice;

No one who has it ever loses it."

Oh! wretched that I am; what cruel fate

Has lodged me here with this philosopher?

Wretch, you have learnt a most perverted learning;

Your books have turn'd your whole life upside down;

Buried in deep philosophy you talk

Of earth and heaven, both of which care little

For you and all your arguments.

64. While Ulpian was continuing to talk in this way, the servants came

in bearing on some dishes some crabs bigger than Callimedon, the orator,

who, because he was so very fond of this food was himself called the

Crab. Accordingly, Alexis, in his Dorcis, or the Flatterer, (as also

others of the comic poets do,) hands him down, as a general rule, as

being most devoted to fish, saying--

It has been voted by the fish-sellers,

To raise a brazen statue to Callimedon

At the Panathenaic festival

In the midst of the fish-market; and the statue

Shall in his right hand hold a roasted crab,

As being the sole patron of their trade,

Which other men neglect and seek to crush.

But the taste of the crab is one which many people have been very much

devoted to; as may be shown by many passages in different comedies; but

at present Aristophanes will suffice, who in the Thesmophoriazusæ speaks

as follows--

_A._ Has any fish been bought? a cuttle-fish,

Or a broad squill, or else a polypus;

Or roasted mullet, or perhaps some beet-root?

_B._ Indeed there was not.

_A._ Or a roach or dace?

_B._ Nothing of such a sort?

_A._ Was there no black-pudding,

Nor tripe, nor sausage, nor boar's liver fried,

No honeycomb, no paunch of pig, no eel,

No mighty crab, with which you might recruit

The strength of women wearied with long toil?

But by broad squills he must have meant what we call astaci, a kind of

crab which Philyllius mentions in his Cities. And Archestratus, in that

famous poem of his where he never once mentions the crab by the name of

=karabos=, does speak of the =astakos=. As he does also in the following

passage--

But passing over trifles, buy an astacus,

Which has long hands and heavy too, but feet

Of delicate smallness, and which slowly walks

Over the earth's face. A goodly troop there are

Of such, and those of finest flavour, where

The isles of Lipara do gem the ocean:

And many lie in the broad Hellespont.

And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, shows plainly that the =astakos=

spoken of by Archestratus is the same as the =karabos=, speaking as

follows--

There are astaci and colybdænæ, both equipp'd

With little feet and long hands, both coming under

The name of =karabos=.

65. But the carabi, and astaci, and also carides or squills, are each a

distinct genus. But the Athenians spell the name =astakos= with an =o=,

=ostakos=, just as they also write =ostaphidas=. But Epicharmus in his

Earth and Sea says--

=kastakoi gampsônychoi=.

And Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that of

soft-shelled animals the following are nearly like one another. The

coracus, the astacus, the nymphe, the arctus, the carcinus, and the

pagurus. And Diocles the Carystian says, "Carides, carcini, carabi, and

astaci, are pleasant to the taste and diuretic." And Epicharmus has also

mentioned the colybdæna in the lines I have quoted above; which Nicander

calls the beauty of the sea; but Heraclides in his Cookery Book gives

that name to the caris. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of

Animals, says, "Of soft-shelled animals the carabi, the astaci, the

carides, and others of the same sort, are propagated like quadrupeds;

and they breed at the beginning of spring; as indeed is no secret to

anybody; but at times they breed when the fig begins to ripen.

Now carabi are found in rough and rocky places; but astaci in smooth

ground; neither kind in muddy places: on which account there are astaci

produced in the Hellespont and about Thasos; and carabi off Cape Sigeum

and Mount Athos. But the whole race of crabs is long-lived. But

Theophrastus, in his book on Animals who dive in Holes, says that the

astaci and carabi and carides all cast off their old age.

66. But concerning carides, Ephorus mentions in his first book that

there is a city called Carides near the island of Chios; and he says

that it was founded by Macar and those of his companions who were saved

out of the deluge which happened in the time of Deucalion; and that to

this very day the place is called Carides. But Archestratus, the

inventor of made dishes, gives these recommendations--

But if you ever come to Iasus,

A city of the Carians, you shall have

A caris of huge size, but rare to buy.

Many there are where Macedon is wash'd

By the deep sea, and in Ambracia's gulf.

But Araros in his Campylion has used the word =karida= with the

penultima circumflexed and long--

The strangely bent carides did leap forth

Like dolphins into the rope-woven vessel.

And Eubulus says in his Orthane--

I put a carid (=karida=) down and took it up again.

Anaxandrides says in his Lycurgus--

And he plays with little carids (=karidarion=),

And little partridges, and little lettuces;

And little sparrows, and with little cups,

And little scindaries, and little gudgeons.

And the same poet says in his Pandarus--

If you don't stoop, my friend, you'll upright be.

But she is like a carid (=karidoô=) in her person;

Bent out, and like an anchor standing firm.

And in his Cerkios he says--

I'll make them redder than a roasted carid (=karidos=).

And Eubulus says in his Grandmothers--

And carids (=karides=) of the humpback'd sort.

And Ophelion says in his Callæschrus--

There lay the crooked carids (=karides=) on dry ground.

And in his Ialemus we find--

And then they danced as crooked limbed carides (=karides=)

Dance on the glowing embers.

But Eupolis, in his Goats, uses the word with the penultima short,

(=karides=), thus--

Once in Phæacia I ate carides (=karidas=).

And again in his People he says--

Having the face of a tough thick-skinn'd carid (=karidos=).

67. Now the carides were so called from the word =kara=, _head_. For the

head takes up the greater part of them. But the Attic writers also use

the word short in the same manner, in analogy with the quantity of

=kara=, it being, as I said, called caris because of the size of its

head; and so, as =graphis= is derived from =graphê=, and =bolis= from

=bolê=, in like manner is =karis= from =kara=. But when the penultima is

made long the last syllable also is made long, and then the word is like

=psêphis=, and =krêpis=, and =teuthis=.

But concerning these shell-fish, Diphilus the Siphnian writes, "Of all

shell-fish the caris, and astacus, and carabus, and carcinus, and lion,

being all of the same genus, are distinguished by some differences. And

the lion is larger than the astacus; and the carabi are called also

grapsæi; but they are more fleshy than the carcini; but the carcinus is

heavy and indigestible." But Mnesitheus the Athenian, in his treatise on

Comestibles, says, "Carabi and carcini and carides, and such like; these

are all indigestible, but still not nearly so much so as other fish: and

they are better and more wholesome roast than boiled." But Sophron in

his Gynæcea calls carides _courides_, saying--

Behold the dainty courides, my friend.

And see these lobsters; see how red they are,

How smooth and glossy is their hair and coats.

And Epicharmus in his Land and Sea says--

And red-skinned courides.

And in his Logos and Logina he spells the word =kôrides= with an =ô=--

Oily anchovies, crooked corides.

And Simonides says--

Beet-root with thunnies, and with gudgeons corides.

68. After this conversation there were brought in some dishes of fried

liver; wrapped up in what is called the caul, or =epiploon=, which

Philetærus in his Tereus calls =epiploion=. And Cynulcus looking on

said,--Tell us, O wise Ulpian, whether there is such an expression

anywhere as "liver rolled up." And he replied,--I will tell you if you

will first show me in whose works the word =epiplous= is used for the

fat and the membrane which covers it. So as they were thus prepared for

the discussion, Myrtilus said, The word =epiplous= is used by Epicharmus

in the Bacchæ--

And wrapping up the bread in the =epiploos=.

And again, in his Theari, he says--

Around the loins and =epiplous=.

And Ion of Chios, in his Epidemiæ, says--

Having wrapp'd it up in the =epiplous=.

So here, my friend Ulpian, you have plenty of authority for your

=epiplous=. And you may wrap yourself up in it and burn yourself, and so

release us from all these investigations. And, indeed, you ought to bear

your own testimony to a liver having been prepared in this way; since

you mentioned before, when we were inquiring about ears and feet, what

Alexis said in his Crateua, or the Female Druggist. And the whole

quotation is serviceable for many purposes, and since you at the moment

fail to recollect it, I myself will repeat it to you.

The Comedian says this--

69.

First, then, I saw a man whose name was Nercus;

With noble oysters laden; an aged man,

And clad in brown sea-weed. I took the oysters

And eke some fine sea-urchins; a good prelude

To a rich banquet daintily supplied.

When they were done, next came some little fish,

Still quivering as if they felt a fear

Of what should now befal them. Courage, said I,

My little friends, and fear no harm from me;

And to spare them I bought a large flat glaucus.

Then a torpedo came; for it did strike me,

That even if my wife should chance to touch it

She from its shock would surely take no harm.

So for my frying-pan I've soles and plaice,

Carides, gudgeons, perch, and spars, and eels,

A dish more varied than a peacock's tail.

Slices of meat, and feet, and snouts, and ears,

And a pig's liver neatly wrapp'd in caul.

For by itself it looks too coarse and livid.

No cook shall touch or e'er behold these dainties;

He would destroy them all. I'll manage them

Myself; with skill and varied art the sauce

I will compound, in such a tasty way

That all the guests shall plunge their very teeth

Into the dish for joy and eagerness;

And the recipes and different modes of dressing

I am prepared to teach the world for nothing,

If men are only wise enough to learn.

70. But that it was the fashion for liver to be wrapped up in a caul is

stated by Hegesander the Delphian in his Memorials, where he says that

Metanira the courtesan, having got a piece of the lungs of the animal in

the liver which was thus wrapped up, as soon as she had unfolded the

outer coat of fat and seen it, cried out--

I am undone, the tunic's treacherous folds

Have now entangled me to my destruction.

And perhaps it was because of its being in this state that Crobylus the

comic poet called the liver modest; as Alexis also does in his

Pseudypobolemæus, speaking as follows--

Take the stiff feelers of the polypus,

And in them you shall find some modest liver,

And cutlets of wild goats, which you shall eat.

But Aristophanes uses the diminutive form =hêpation= in his Tagenistæ,

and so does Alcæus in the Palæstra, and Eubulus in his Deucalion. And

the first letter of =hêpar= and =hêpation= must be aspirated. For a

synaloepha is used by Archilochus with the aspirate; when he says--

For you do seem to have no gall =eph' hêpati= (_in your liver_).

There is also a fish which is called =hêpatos=, which Eubulus himself

mentions in his Lacedæmonians or Leda, and says that it has no gall in

it--

You thought that I'd no gall; but spoke to me

As if I'd been a =hêpatos=: but I

Am rather one of the melampyx class.

But Hegesander, in his Memorials, says, that the hepatos has in its head

two stones, like pearls in brilliancy and colour, and in shape something

like a turbot.

71. But Alexis speaks of fried fish in his Demetrius, as he does also in

the before-mentioned play. And Eubulus says, in his Orthane--

Now each fair woman walks about the streets,

Fond of fried fish and stout Triballian youths.

Then there is beet-root and canary-grass

Mix'd up in forcemeat with the paunch of lamb,

Which leaps within one's stomach like a colt

Scarce broken to the yoke. Meanwhile the bellows

Waken the watchful hounds of Vulcan's pack,

And stir the frying-pan with vapours warm.

The fragrant steam straight rises to the nose,

And fills the sense with odours.

Then comes the daughter of the bounteous Ceres,

Fair wheaten flour, duly mash'd, and press'd

Within the hollow of the gaping jaws,

Which like the trireme's hasty shock comes on,

The fair forerunner of a sumptuous feast.

I have also eaten cuttle-fish fried. But Nicostratus or Philetærus says,

in the Antyllus--I never again will venture to eat cuttle-fish which has

been dressed in a frying-pan. But Hegemon, in his Philinna, introduces

men eating the roe fried, saying--

Go quickly, buy of them that polypus,

And fry the roe, and give it us to eat.

72. Ulpian was not pleased at this; and being much vexed, he looked at

us, and repeating these iambics from the Orthanus of Eubulus, said--

How well has Myrtilus, cursed by the gods,

Come now to shipwreck on this frying-pan.

For certainly I well know that he never ate any of these things at his

own expense; and I heard as much from one of his own servants, who once

quoted me these iambics from the Pornoboscus of Eubulus--

My master comes from Thessaly; a man

Of temper stern; wealthy, but covetous;

A wicked man; a glutton; fond of dainties,

Yet sparing to bestow a farthing on them.

But as the young man was well educated, and that not by Myrtilus, but by

some one else, when I asked him how he fell in with the young Myrtilus,

he repeated to me these lines from the Neottis of Antiphanes--

While still a boy, bearing my sister company,

I came to Athens, by some merchant brought;

For Syria was my birthplace. There that merchant

Saw us when we were both put up for sale,

And bought us, driving a most stingy bargain.

No man could e'er in wickedness surpass him;

So miserly, that nothing except thyme

Was ever bought by him for food, not e'en

So much as might have fed Pythagoras.

73. While Ulpian went on jesting in this manner, Cynulcus cried out--I

want some bread; and when I say bread =artos= I do not mean Artus king

of the Messapians, the Messapians, I mean, in Iapygia, concerning whom

there is a treatise among Polemo's works. And Thucydides also mentions

him, in his seventh book, and Demetrius the comic writer speaks of him

in the drama entitled Sicily, using the following language--

From thence, borne on by the south wind, we came

Across the sea to the Italian shore,

Where the Messapians dwelt; and Artus there,

The monarch of the land, received us kindly,

A great and noble host for foreigners.

But this is not the time for speaking of that Artus, but of the other,

which was discovered by Ceres, surnamed Sito (food), and Simalis. For

those are the names under which the Goddess is worshipped by the

Syracusans, as Polemo himself reports in his book about Morychus. But in

the first book of his treatise addressed to Timæus, he says, that in

Scolus, a city of Boeotia, statues are erected to Megalartus (the God

or Goddess of great bread), and to Megalomazus (the God or Goddess of

abundant corn). So when the loaves were brought, and on them a great

quantity of all kinds of food, looking at them, he said--

What numerous nets and snares are set by men

To catch the helpless loaves;

as Alexis says in his play, The Girl sent to the Well. And so now let us

say something about bread.

74. But Pontianus anticipating him, said; Tryphon of Alexandria, in the

book entitled the Treatise on Plants, mentions several kinds of loaves;

if I can remember them accurately, the leavened loaf, the unleavened

loaf, the loaf made of the best wheaten flour, the loaf made of groats,

the loaf made of remnants (and this he says is more digestible than that

which is made only of the best flour), the loaf made of rye, the loaf

made of acorns, the loaf made of millet. The loaf made of groats, said

he, is made of oaten groats, for groats are not made of barley. And from

a peculiar way of baking or roasting it, there is a loaf called ipnites

(or the oven loaf) which Timocles mentions in his Sham Robbers, where he

says--

And seeing there a tray before me full

Of smoking oven-loaves, I took and ate them.

There is another kind called escharites (or the hearth-loaf), and this

is mentioned by Antidotus in the Protochorus--

I took the hot hearth-loaves, how could I help it?

And dipp'd them in sweet sauce, and then I ate them.

And Crobylus says, in his Strangled Man--

I took a platter of hot clean hearth-loaves.

And Lynceus the Samian, in his letter to Diagoras, comparing the

eatables in vogue at Athens with those which were used at Rhodes,

says--"And moreover, while they talk a great deal about their bread

which is to be got in the market, the Rhodians at the beginning and

middle of dinner put loaves on the table which are not at all inferior

to them; but when they have given over eating and are satisfied, then

they introduce a most agreeable dish, which is called the hearth-loaf,

the best of all loaves; which is made of sweet things, and compounded so

as to be very soft, and it is made up with such an admirable harmony of

all the ingredients as to have a most excellent effect; so that often a

man who is drunk becomes sober again, and in the same way a man who has

just eaten to satiety is made hungry again by eating of it."

There is another kind of loaf called tabyrites, of which Sopater, in his

Cnidia, says--The tabyrites loaf was one which fills the cheeks.

There was also a loaf called the achæinas. And this loaf is mentioned by

Semus, in the eighth book of his Delias; and he says that is made by the

women who celebrate the Thesmophoria. They are loaves of a large size.

And the festival is called Megalartia, which is a name given to it by

those who carry these loaves, who cry--"Eat a large achæinas, full of

fat."

There is another loaf called cribanites, or the pan-loaf. This is

mentioned by Aristophanes, in his Old Age. And he introduces a woman

selling bread, complaining that her loaves have been taken from her by

those who have got rid of the effects of their old age--

_A._ What was the matter?

_B._ My hot loaves, my son.

_A._ Sure you are mad?

_B._ My nice pan-loaves, my son,

So white, so hot. . . . . .

There is another loaf called the encryphias, or secret loaf. And this is

mentioned by Nicostratus, in his Hierophant, and Archestratus the

inventor of made dishes, whose testimony I will introduce at the proper

season.

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

his Ganymede--

And nice hot twice-baked loaves.

And Alcæus says, in his Ganymede--

_A._ But what are dipyri, or twice-baked loaves?

_B._ Of all loaves the most delicate.

There is another loaf, called laganum. This is very light, and not very

nutritious; and the loaf called apanthracis is even less nutritious

still. And Aristophanes mentions the laganum in his Ecclesiazusæ,

saying--

The lagana are being baked.

And the apanthracis is mentioned by Diocles the Carystian, in the first

book of his treatise on Wholesomes, saying--"The apanthracis is more

tender than the laganum: and it appears that it is made on the coals,

like that called by the Attic writers encryphias, which the Alexandrians

consecrate to Saturn, and put them in the temple of Saturn for every one

to eat who pleases."

75. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, and in his Muses (and this

play is an emendation of the former one), thus enumerates the different

kinds of loaves--"The pan-loaf, the homorus, the statites, the encris,

the loaf made of meal, the half loaf," which Sophron also mentions in

his Female Actors, saying--

Pan-loaves and homori, a dainty meal

For goddesses, and a half-loaf for Hecate.

And I know, my friends, that the Athenians spell this word with a =r=,

writing =kribanon= and =kribanitês=; but Herodotus, in the second book

of his history, writes it with a =l=, saying =klibanô diaphanei=. And so

Sophron said--

Who dresses suet puddings or clibanites,

Or half-loaves here?

And the same writer also speaks of a loaf which he calls =plakitês=,

saying in his Gynæcea--

He feasted me till night with placite loaves.

Sophron also mentions tyron bread, or bread compounded with cheese,

saying in the play called the Mother-in-law--

I bid you now eat heartily,

For some one has just giv'n a tyron loaf,

Fragrant with cheese, to all the children.

And Nicander of Colophon, in his Dialects, calls unleavened bread

=daratos=. And Plato the comic writer, in his Long Night, calls large

ill-made loaves Cilician, in these words--

Then he went forth, and bought some loaves, not nice

Clean rolls, but dirty huge Cilicians.

And in the drama entitled Menelaus, he calls some loaves agelæi, or

_common loaves_. There is also a loaf mentioned by Alexis, in his

Cyprian, which he calls autopyrus--

Having just eaten autopyrus bread.

And Phrynichus, in his Poastriæ, speaks of the same loaves, calling them

autopyritæ, saying--

With autopyrite loaves, and sweeten'd cakes

Of well-press'd figs and olives.

And Sophocles makes mention of a loaf called orindes, in his Triptolemus,

which has its name from being made of rice =oryza=, or from a grain

raised in Æthiopia, which resembles sesamum.

Aristophanes also, in his Tagenistæ, or the Fryers, makes mention of

rolls called collabi, and says--

Each of you take a collabus.

And in a subsequent passage he says--

Bring here a paunch of pig in autumn born,

With hot delicious collabi.

And these rolls are made of new wheat as Philyllius declares in his

Auge--

Here I come, bearing in my hand the offspring

Of three months' wheat, hot doughy collabi,

Mixed with the milk of the grass-feeding cow.

There is also a kind of loaf called maconidæ, mentioned by Alcman, in

his fifteenth book, in these terms--"There were seven couches for the

guests, and an equal number of tables of maconidæ loaves, crowned with a

white tablecloth, and with sesamum, and in handsome dishes." Chrysocolla

are a food made of honey and flax.[183:1]

There is also a kind of loaf called collyra, mentioned by Aristophanes

in his Peace--

A large collyra, and a mighty lump

Of dainty meat upon it.

And in his Holcades he says--

And a collyra for the voyagers,

Earn'd by the trophy raised at Marathon.

76. There is a loaf also called the obelias, or the penny loaf, so

called because it is sold for a penny, as in Alexandria; or else because

it is baked on small spits. Aristophanes, in his Farmers, says--

Then perhaps some one bakes a penny loaf.

And Pherecrates, in his Forgetful Man, says--

Olen, now roast a penny roll with ashes,

But take care, don't prefer it to a loaf.

And the men who in the festivals carried these penny rolls on their

shoulders were called =obeliaphoroi=. And Socrates, in his sixth book of

his Surnames, says that it was Bacchus who invented the penny roll on

his expeditions. There is a roll called etnites, the same which is also

named lecithites, according to the statement of Eucrates.

The Messapians call bread =panos=, and they call satiety =pania=, and

those things which give a surfeit they call =pania=; at least, those

terms are used by Blæsus, in his Mesotriba, and by Archilochus, in his

Telephus, and by Rhinthon, in his Amphitryon. And the Romans call bread

_panis_.

Nastus is a name given to a large loaf of leavened bread, according to

the statement of Polemarchus and Artemidorus. But the Heracleon is a

kind of cheesecake. And Nicostratus says, in his Sofa--

Such was the size, O master, of the nastus,

A large white loaf. It was so deep, its top

Rose like a tower quite above its basket.

Its smell, when that the top was lifted up,

Rose up, a fragrance not unmix'd with honey

Most grateful to our nostrils, still being hot.

The name of bread among the Ionians was cnestus, as Artemidorus the

Ephesian states in his Memorials of Ionia. Thronus was the name of a

particular kind of loaf, as it is stated by Neanthes of Cyzicus, in the

second book of his Grecian History, where he writes as follows--"But

Codrus takes a slice of a loaf of the kind called thronus, and a piece

of meat, such as they give to the old men."

There is, among the Elians, a kind of loaf baked on the ashes which they

call bacchylus, as Nicander states in the second book of his treatise On

Dialects. And Diphilus mentions it in his Woman who went Astray, in

these words--

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

The thing called =apopyrias= is also a kind of roll; and that also is

baked on the ashes; and by some it is called =zymitês=, or leavened.

Cratinus, in his Effeminate People--

First of all I an apopyrias have--

* * * * *

77. And Archestratus, in his Gastronomy, thus speaks of flour and of

rolls--

First, my dear Moschus, will I celebrate

The bounteous gifts of Ceres the fair-hair'd.

And cherish these my sayings in thy heart.

Take these most excellent things,--the well-made cake

Of fruitful barley, in fair Lesbos grown,

On the circumfluous hill of Eresus;

Whiter than driven snow, if it be true

That these are loaves such as the gods do eat,

Which Mercury their steward buys for them.

Good is the bread in seven-gated Thebes,

In Thasos, and in many other cities,

But all compared with these would seem but husks,

And worthless refuse. Be you sure of this.

Seek too the round Thessalian roll, the which

A maid's fair hand has kneaded, which the natives

Crimmatias call; though others chondrinus.

Nor let the Tegean son of finest flour,

The fine encryphias be all unpraised.

Athens, Minerva's famous city, sends

The best of loaves to market, food for men;

There is, besides, Erythra, known for grapes,

Nor less for a white loaf in shapely pan,

Carefully moulded, white and beautiful,

A tempting dish for hungry guests at supper.

The epicure Archestratus says this; and he counsels us to have a

Phoenician or Lydian slave for a baker; for he was not ignorant that

the best makers of loaves come from Cappadocia. And he speaks thus--

Take care, and keep a Lydian in thy house,

Or an all-wise Phoenician; who shall know

Your inmost thoughts, and each day shall devise

New forms to please your mind, and do your bidding.

78. Antiphanes also speaks of the Athenian loaves as preeminently good,

in his Omphale, saying--

For how could any man of noble birth

Ever come forth from this luxurious house,

Seeing these fair-complexion'd wheaten loaves

Filling the oven in such quick succession,

And seeing them, devise fresh forms from moulds,

The work of Attic hands; well-train'd by wise

Thearion to honour holy festivals.

This is that Thearion the celebrated baker, whom Plato makes mention of

in the Gorgias, joining him and Mithæcus in the same catalogue, writing

thus. "Those who have been or are skilful providers for the body you

enumerated with great anxiety; Thearion the baker, and Mithæcus who

wrote the treatise called the Sicilian Cookery, and Sarambus the

innkeeper, saying that they were admirable providers for the body, the

one preparing most excellent loaves of bread, and the other preparing

meat, and the other wine." And Aristophanes, in the Gerytades and

Oeolosicon, speaks in this manner--

I come now, having left the baker's shop,

The seat of good Thearion's pans and ovens.

And Eubulus makes mention of Cyprian loaves as exceedingly good, in his

Orthane, using these words--

'Tis a hard thing, beholding Cyprian loaves,

To ride by carelessly; for like a magnet

They do attract the hungry passengers.

And Ephippus, in his Diana, makes mention of the =kollikioi= loaves (and

they are the same as the =kollaboi=) in these terms--

Eating the collix, baked in well-shaped pan,

By Alexander's Thessalian recipe.

Aristophanes also says, in his Acharnensians--

All hail, my collix-eating young Boeotian.

79. When the conversation had gone on this way, one of the grammarians

present, whose name was Arrian, said--This food is as old as the time of

Saturn, my friends; for we are not rejoicing in meal, for the city is

full of bread, nor in all this catalogue of loaves. But since I have

fallen in with another treatise of Chrysippus of Tyana, which is

entitled a treatise on the Art of Making Bread; and since I have had

experience of the different recipes given in it at the houses of many

of my friends, I will proceed to say something myself also on the

subject of loaves. The kind of loaf which is called =artoptikinos=,

differs in some respect from that made in a pan, and from that made in

an oven. But if you make it with hard leaven, it will be bright and

nice, so that it may be eaten dry; but if it be made with a looser

leaven, then it will be light but not bright. But the loaf which is made

in a pan, and that which is made in an oven, require a softer kind of

leaven. And among the Greeks there is a kind of bread which is called

tender, being made up with a little milk and oil, and a fair quantity of

salt; and one must make the dough for this bread loose. And this kind of

loaf is called the Cappadocian, since tender bread is made in the

greatest quantities in Cappadocia. But the Syrians call loaves of this

kind =lachmê=; and it is the best bread made in Syria, because it can be

eaten hot; and it is like a flower. But there is also a loaf called

boletinus, from being made like a mushroom, and the kneading-trough is

smeared with poppies plastered over the bottom of it, on which the dough

is placed, and by this expedient it is prevented from sticking to the

trough while the leaven is mixed in. But when it is put in the oven,

then some groats are spread under on a tile, and then the bread is put

on it, and it gets a most beautiful colour, like cheese which has been

smoked.

There is also a kind of bread called strepticias, which is made up with

a little milk, and pepper and a little oil is added, and sometimes suet

is substituted. And a little wine, and pepper, and milk, and a little

oil, or sometimes suet, is employed in making the cake called

artolaganum. But for making the cakes called capuridia tracta, you mix

the same ingredients that you do for bread, and the difference is in the

baking.

80. So when the mighty sophist of Rome had enunciated these precepts of

Aristarchus, Cynulcus said--O Ceres, what a wise man! It is not without

reason that the admirable Blepsias has pupils as the sand of the sea in

number, and has amassed wealth from this excellent wisdom of his, beyond

all that was acquired by Gorgias or Protagoras. So that I am afraid, by

the goddesses, to say whether he himself is blind, or whether those who

have entrusted his pupils to him have all but one eye, so as scarcely to

be able to see, numerous as they are. Happy are they, or rather blessed

ought I to call them, whose masters treat them to such divine lectures.

And in reply to this Magnus, a man fond of the table, and very much

inclined to praise this grammarian to excess, because of the abundance

of his learning, said--But ye--

Men with unwashen feet, who lie on the ground,

You roofless wanderers, all-devouring throats,

Feasting on other men's possessions,

as Eubulus says--did not your father Diogenes, once when he was eagerly

eating a cheesecake at a banquet, say to some one who put the question

to him, that he was eating bread excellently well made? But as for you,

you

Stranglers of dishes of white paunches,

as the same poet, Eubulus, says, you keep on speaking without ever

giving place to others; and you are never quiet until some one throws

you a crust or a bone, as he would do to a dog. How do you come to know

that cubi (I do not mean those which you are continually handling) are a

kind of loaf, square, seasoned with anise, and cheese, and oil, as

Heraclides says in his Cookery Book? But Blepsias overlooked this kind,

as also he did the thargelus, which some call the thalysius. But Crates,

in the second book of his treatise on the Attic Dialect, says that the

thargelus is the first loaf made after the carrying home of the harvest.

The loaf made of sesame he had never seen, nor that which is called

anastatus, which is made for the Arrephori.[188:1] There is also a loaf

called the pyramus, made of sesame, and perhaps being the same as the

sesamites. But Trypho mentions all these different kinds in the first

book of his treatise on Plants, as he also does those which are called

thiagones. And these last are loaves made for the gods in Ætolia. There

are also loaves called dramices and araxis among the Athamanes.

81. And the writers of books on dialects give lists of the names of

different loaves. Seleucus speaks of one called dramis, which bears this

name among the Macedonians; and of another called daratus by the

Thessalians. And he speaks of the etnites, saying that it is the same as

the lecithites, that is to say, made of the yolks of eggs and of pulse.

And he says that the loaf called =erikitês=, has its name from being

made of wheat crushed (=erêrigmenos=), and not sifted, and of groats.

And Amerias speaks of a loaf called xeropyrites, made of pure wheat, and

nothing else; and so does Timachidas. But Nicander says that thiagones

is the name given by the Ætolians to those loaves which are made for the

gods. The Egyptians have a bread which is rather bitter, which they call

cyllastis. And Aristophanes speaks of it in his Danaides, saying--

Mention the cyllastis and the petosiris.

Hecatæus, too, and Herodotus mention it; and so does Phanodemus, in the

seventh book of his Attic History. But Nicander of Thyatira says, that

it is bread made of barley which is called cyllastis by the Egyptians.

Alexis calls dirty loaves phæi, in his Cyprian, saying--

_A._ Then you are come at last?

_B._ Scarce could I find

Of well-baked loaves enough----

_A._ A plague upon you;

But what now have you got?

_B._ I bring with me

Sixteen, a goodly number; eight of them

Tempting and white, and just as many phæi.

And Seleucus says that there is a very closely made hot bread which is

called blema. And Philemon, in the first book of his Oracles, "Useful

Things of Every Kind," says--that bread made of unsifted wheat, and

containing the bran and everything, is called =pyrnos=. He says, too,

that there are loaves which are called blomilii, which have divisions in

them, which the Romans call quadrati. And that bread made of bran is

called brattime, which Amerias and Timachidas call euconon or teuconon.

But Philetas, in his Miscellanies, says that there is a kind of loaf

which is called spoleus, which is only eaten by relations when assembled

together.

82. Now you may find barley-cakes mentioned in his writings by Tryphon,

and by many other authors. Among the Athenians it is called phystes, not

being too closely kneaded. There is also the cardamale, and the berex,

and the tolype, and the Achilleum; and perhaps that is a cake which is

made of the Achillean barley. Then there is the thridakina, so named

from lettuce; the oenutta, so called from wine; the melitutta, from

honey; and the crinon, the name of which is derived from the lily, which

last is also the name of a choral dance, mentioned by Apollophanes, in

the Dalis. But the cakes called thridaciscæ by Alcman, are the same as

the Attic thridacinæ. But Alcman speaks thus--

The thridacisca, and the cribanotus.

And Sosibius, in the third book of his essay on Alcman, says, that

cribana is a name given to a peculiar kind of cheesecake, in shape like

a breast. But the barley cake, which is given in sacrifices to be tasted

by the sacrificers, is called hygea. And there is also one kind of

barley cake which is called by Hesiod amolgæa.

The amolgæan cake of barley made,

And milk of goats whose stream is nearly dry.

And he calls it the cake of the shepherds, and very strengthening. For

the word =amolgos= means that which is in the greatest vigour. But I may

fairly beg to be excused from giving a regular list (for I have not a

very unimpeachable memory) of all the kinds of biscuits and cakes which

Aristomenes the Athenian speaks of in the third book of his treatise on

Things pertaining to the Sacred Ceremonies. And we ourselves were

acquainted with that man, though we were young, and he was older than

we. And he was an actor in the Old Comedy, a freedman of that most

accomplished king Adrian, and called by him the Attic partridge.

And Ulpian said--By whom is the word freedman (=apeleutheros=) ever

used? And when some one replied that there was a play with that

title--namely, the Freedman of Phrynichus, and that Menander, in his

Beaten Slave, had the word freedwoman (=apeleuthera=), and was

proceeding to mention other instances; he asked again--What is the

difference between =apeleutheros=[190:1] and =exeleutheros=. However, it

was agreed upon to postpone this part of the discussion for the present.

83. And Galen, when we were just about to lay hands on the loaves,

said--We will not begin supper until you have heard what the sons of the

Asclepiadæ have said about loaves, and cheesecakes, and meal, and flour.

Diphilus the Siphnian, in his treatise on What is Wholesome to be eaten

by People in Health and by Invalids, says, "Loaves made of wheat are by

far more nutritious and by far more digestible than those made of

barley, and are in every respect superior to them; and the next best are

those which are made of similago; and next to those come the loaves made

of sifted flour, and next to them those called syncomisti, which are

made of unsifted meal;--for these appear to be more nutritious." But

Philistion the Locrian says "that the loaves made of similago are

superior to those made of groats, as far as their strengthening

properties go; and next to them he ranks loaves made of groats, then

those made of sifted flour. But the rolls made of bran give a much less

wholesome juice, and are by far less nutritious. And all bread is more

digestible when eaten hot than cold, and it is also more digestible

then, and affords a pleasanter and more wholesome juice; nevertheless,

hot bread is apt to cause flatulence, though it is not the less

digestible for that; while cold bread is filling and indigestible. But

bread which is very stale and cold is less nutritious, and is apt to

cause constipation of the bowels, and affords a very unpleasant juice.

The bread called encryphiasis is heavy and difficult of digestion,

because it is not baked in an equal manner; but that which is called

ipnites and caminites is indigestible and apt to disagree with people.

That called escharites, and that which is fried, is more easily secreted

because of the admixture of oil in it, but is not so good for the

stomach, on account of the smell which there is about it. But the bread

called 'the clibanites' has every possible good quality; for it gives a

pleasant and wholesome juice, and is good for the stomach, and is

digestible, and agrees exceedingly well with every one, for it never

clogs the bowels, and never relaxes them too much."

But Andreas the physician says that there are loaves in Sicily made of

the sycamine, and that those who eat them lose their hair and become

bald. Mnesitheus says "that wheat-bread is more digestible than

barley-bread, and that those which are made with the straw in them are

exceedingly nutritious; for they are the most easily digested of all

food. But bread which is made of rye, if it be eaten in any quantity, is

heavy and difficult of digestion; on which account those who eat it do

not keep their health." But you should know that corn which has not

been exposed to the fire, and which has not been ground, causes

flatulence, and heaviness, and vertigo, and headache.

84. After all this conversation it seemed good to go to supper. And when

the Uræum was carried round, Leonidas said, "Euthydemus the Athenian, my

friends, in his treatise on Pickles, says that Hesiod has said with

respect to every kind of pickle--

* * * * *[192:1]

Some sorrily-clad fishermen did seek

To catch a lamprey; men who love to haunt

The Bosporus's narrow strait, well stored

With fish for pickling fit. They cut their prey

In large square portions, and then plunge them deep

Into the briny tub: nor is the oxyrhyncus

A kind to be despised by mortal man;

Which the bold sons of ocean bring to market

Whole and in pieces. Of the noble tunny

The fair Byzantium the mother is,

And of the scombrus lurking in the deep,

And of the well-fed ray. The snow-white Paros

Nurses the colius for human food;

And citizens from Bruttium or Campania,

Fleeing along the broad Ionian sea,

Will bring the orcys, which shall potted be,

And placed in layers in the briny cask,

Till honour'd as the banquet's earliest course.

Now these verses appear to me to be the work of some cook rather than of

that most accomplished Hesiod; for how is it possible for him to have

spoken of Parium or Byzantium, and still more of Tarentum and the

Bruttii and the Campanians, when he was many years more ancient than any

of these places or tribes? So it seems to me that they are the verses of

Euthydemus himself."

And Dionysiocles said, "Whoever wrote the verses, my good Leonidas, is a

matter which you all, as being grammarians of the highest reputation,

are very capable of deciding. But since the discussion is turning upon

pickles and salt fish, concerning which I recollect a proverb which was

thought deserving of being quoted by Charchus the Solensian,--

For old salt-fish is fond of marjoram.

I too myself will say a word on the subject, which is not unconnected

with my own art.

85. Diocles the Carystian, in his treatise on the Wholesomes, as it is

entitled, says, "Of all salt-fish which are destitute of fat, the best

is the horæum; and of all that are fat, the best is the tunny-fish." But

Icesius says, "that neither the pelamydes nor the horæa are easily

secreted by the stomach; and that the younger tunnies are similar in

most respects to the cybii, but that they have a great superiority over

those which are called horæa." And he says the same of the Byzantine

horæa, in comparison with those which are caught in other places. And he

says "that not only the tunnies, but that all other fish caught at

Byzantium is superior to that which is caught elsewhere."

To this Daphnus the Ephesian added,--Archestratus, who sailed round the

whole world for the sake of finding out what was good to eat, and what

pleasures he could derive from the use of his inferior members, says--

And a large slice of fat Sicilian tunny,

Carefully carved, should be immersed in brine.

But the saperdes is a worthless brute,

A delicacy fit for Ponticans

And those who like it. For few men can tell

How bad and void of strengthening qualities

Those viands are. The scombrus should be kept

Three days before you sprinkle it with salt,

Then let it lie half-pickled in the cask.

But when you come unto the sacred coast,

Where proud Byzantium commands the strait,

Then take a slice of delicate horæum,

For it is good and tender in those seas.

But that epicure Archestratus has omitted to enumerate the pickle-juice

called elephantine, which is spoken of by Crates the comic poet, in his

Samians; who says of it--

A sea-born turtle in the bitter waves

Bears in its skin the elephantine pickle;

And crabs swift as the wind, and thin-wing'd pike,

[193:1] * * * * *

But that the elephantine pickle of Crates was very celebrated

Aristophanes bears witness, in his Thesmophoriazusæ, in these words--

Sure comic poetry is a mighty food;

Listen to Crates, he will tell you, how

The elephantine pickle, easily made,

Is dainty seas'ning; many other jokes

Of the same kind he utter'd.

86. And there was another kind, which Alexis calls raw pickle, in his

Apeglaucomenos. And the same poet, in his Wicked Woman, introduces a

cook talking about the preparation of salt-fish and pickled fish, in the

following verses:--

I wish now, sitting quiet by myself,

To ponder in my mind some dainty dishes;

And also to arrange what may be best

For the first course, and how I best may flavour

Each separate dish, and make it eatable.

Now first of all the pickled horæum comes;

This will but cost one penny; wash it well,

Then strew a large flat dish with seasoning,

And put in that the fish. Pour in white wine

And oil, then add some boil'd beef marrow-bones,

And take it from the fire, when the last zest

Shall be by assafoetida imparted.

And, in his Apeglaucomenos, a man being asked for his contribution to

the feast, says--

_A._ Indeed you shall not half a farthing draw

From me, unless you name each separate dish.

_B._ That reasonable is.

_A._ Well, bring a slate

And pencil; now your items.

_B._ First, there is

Raw pickled fish, and that will fivepence cost.

_A._ What next?

_B._ Some mussels, sevenpence for them.

_A._ Well, there's no harm in that. What follows next?

_B._ A pennyworth of urchins of the sea.

_A._ Still I can find no fault.

_B._ The next in order

Is fine dish of cabbage, which you said . . .

_A._ Well, that will do.

_B._ For that I paid just twopence.

_A._ What was't I said?

_B._ A cybium for threepence.

_A._ But are you sure you've nought embezzled here?

_B._ My friend, you've no experience of the market;

You know not how the grubs devour the greens.

_A._ But how is that a reason for your charging

A double price for salt-fish?

_B._ The greengrocer

Is also a salt-fishmonger; go and ask him.

A conger, tenpence.

_A._ That is not too much.

What next?

_B._ I bought a roast fish for a drachma.

_A._ Bah! how he runs on now towards the end,

As if a fever had o'ertaken him.

_B._ Then add the wine, of which I bought three gallons

When you were drunk, ten obols for each gallon.

87. And Icesius says, in the second book of his treatise on the

Materials of Nourishment, that pelamydes are a large kind of cybium. And

Posidippus speaks of the cybium, in his Transformed. But Euthydemus, in

his treatise on Salt Fish, says that the fish called the Delcanus is so

named from the river Delcon, where it is taken; and then, when pickled

and salted, it is very good indeed for the stomach. But Dorion, in his

book on Fishes, calls the leptinus the lebianus, and says, "that some

people say that is the same fish as the delcanus; and that the ceracinus

is called by many people the saperdes; and that the best are those which

come from the Palus Mæotis. And he says that the mullet which are caught

about Abdera are excellent; and next to them, those which are caught

near Sinope; and that they, when pickled and salted, are very good for

the stomach. But those, he says, which are called mulli are by some

people called agnotidia, and by some platistaci, though they are all the

same fish; as also is the chellares. For that he, being but one fish,

has received a great variety of names; for that he is called a bacchus,

and an oniscus, and a chellares. And those of the larger size are called

platistaci, and those of middle size mulli, and those which are but

small are called agnotidia. But Aristophanes also mentions the mulli, in

his Holcades--

Scombri, and coliæ, and lebii,

And mulli, and saperdæ, and all tunnies.

88. When Dionysiocles was silent upon this, Varus the grammarian

said,--But Antiphanes the poet, also, in his Deucalion, mentions these

kinds of pickled salt-fish, where he says--

If any one should wish for caviar

From mighty sturgeon, fresh from Cadiz' sea;

Or else delights in the Byzantine tunny,

And courts its fragrance.

And in his Parasite he says--

Caviar from the sturgeon in the middle,

Fat, white as snow, and hot.

And Nicostratus or Philetærus, in his Antyllus, says--

Let the Byzantine salt-fish triumph here,

And paunch from Cadiz, carefully preserved.

And a little further on, he proceeds--

But, O ye earth and gods! I found a man,

An honest fishmonger of pickled fish,

Of whom I bought a huge fish ready scaled,

Cheap at a drachma, for two oboli.

Three days' hard eating scarcely would suffice

That we might finish it; no, nor a fortnight,

So far does it exceed the common size.

After this Ulpian, looking upon Plutarch, chimed in,--It seems to me

that no one, in all that has been said, has included the Mendesian fish,

which are so much fancied by you gentlemen of Alexandria; though I

should have thought that a mad dog would scarcely touch them; nor has

any one mentioned the hemineri or half-fresh fish, which you think so

good, nor the pickled shads. And Plutarch replied,--The heminerus, as

far as I know, does not differ from the half-pickled fish which have

been already mentioned, and which your elegant Archestratus speaks of;

but, however, Sopater the Paphian has mentioned the heminerus, in his

Slave of Mystacus, saying--

He then received the caviar from a sturgeon

Bred in the mighty Danube, dish much prized,

Half-fresh, half-pickled, by the wandering Scythians.

And the same man includes the Mendesian in his list--

A slightly salt Mendesian in season,

And mullet roasted on the glowing embers.

And all those who have tried, know that these dishes are by far more

delicate and agreeable than the vegetables and figs which you make such

a fuss about. Tell us now also, whether the word =tarichos= is used in

the masculine gender by the Attic writers; for we know it is by

Epicharmus.

89. And while Ulpian was thinking this over with himself, Myrtilus,

anticipating him, said,--Cratinus, in his Dionysalexander, has--

I will my basket fill with Pontic pickles,

(where he uses =tarichoi= as masculine;) and Plato, in his Jupiter

Illtreated, says--

All that I have amounts to this,

And I shall lose my pickled fish (=tarichous=).

And Aristophanes says, in his Daitaleis--

I'm not ashamed to wash this fine salt-fish (=ton tarichon

toutoni=),

From all the evils which I know he has.

And Crates says, in his Beasts--

And you must boil some greens, and roast some fish,

And pickled fish likewise, (=tous tarichous=,) and keep your hands

From doing any injury to us.

But the noun is formed in a very singular manner by Hermippus, in his

Female Bread-Sellers--

And fat pickled fish (=tarichos piona=).

And Sophocles says, in his Phineus--

A pickled corpse (=nekros tarichos=) Egyptian to behold.

Aristophanes has also treated us to a diminutive form of the word, in

his Peace--

Bring us some good =tarichion= to the fields

And Cephisodorus says, in his Pig--

Some middling meat, or some =tarichion=.

And Pherecrates, in his Deserters, has--

The woman boil'd some pulse porridge, and lentils,

And so awaited each of us, and roasted

Besides an orphan small =tarichion=.

Epicharmus also uses the word in the masculine gender, =ho tarichos=.

And Herodotus does the same in his ninth book; where he says--"The

salt-fish (=hoi tarichoi=) lying on the fire, leaped about and

quivered." And the proverbs, too, in which the word occurs, have it in

the masculine gender:--

Salt-fish (=tarichos=) is done if it but see the fire.

Salt-fish (=tarichos=) when too long kept loves

marjoram.

Salt-fish (=tarichos=) does never get its due from men.

But the Attic writers often use it as a neuter word; and the genitive

case, as they use it, is =tou tarichous=. Chionides says, in his

Beggars--

Will you then eat some pickled fish (=tou tarichous=), ye gods!

And the dative is =tarichei=, like =xiphei=--

Beat therefore now upon this pickled fish (=tô tarichei tôde=).

And Menander uses it =tarichos=, in the accusative case, in his Man

selecting an Arbitrator--

I spread some salt upon the pickled fish (=epi to tarichos=).

But when the word is masculine the genitive case does not end with =s=.

90. The Athenians were so fond of pickled fish that they enrolled as

citizens the sons of Chærephilus the seller of salt-fish; as Alexis

tells us, in his Epidaurus, when he says--

For 'twas salt-fish that made Athenians

And citizens of Chærephilus's sons.

And when Timocles once saw them on horseback, he said that two

tunny-fish were among the Satyrs. And Hyperides the orator mentions them

too. And Antiphanes speaks of Euthynus the seller of pickled fish, in

his Couris, in these terms:--

And going to the salt-fish seller, him

I mean with whom I used to deal, there wait for me;

And if Euthynus be not come, still wait,

And occupy the man with fair excuses,

And hinder him from cutting up the fish.

And Alexis, in his Hippiscus, and again in his Soraci, makes mention of

Phidippus; and he too was a dealer in salt-fish--

There was another man, Phidippus hight,

A foreigner who brought salt-fish to Athens.

91. And while we were eating the salt-fish and getting very anxious to

drink, Daphnus said, holding up both his hands,--Heraclides of Tarentum,

my friends, in his treatise entitled The Banquet, says, "It is good to

take a moderate quantity of food before drinking, and especially to eat

such dishes as one is accustomed to; for from the eating of things which

have not been eaten for a long time the wine is apt to be turned sour,

so as not to sit on the stomach, and many twinges and spasms are often

originated. But some people think that these also are bad for the

stomach; I mean, all kinds of vegetables and salted fish, since they

possess qualities apt to cause pangs; but that glutinous and

invigorating food is the most wholesome,--being ignorant that a great

many of the things which assist the secretions are, on the contrary,

very good for the stomach; among which is the plant called sisarum,

(which Epicharmus speaks of, in his Agrostinus, and also in his Earth

and Sea; and so does Diocles, in the first book of his treatise on the

Wholesomes;) and asparagus and white beet, (for the black beet is apt to

check the secretions,) and cockles, and solens, and sea mussels, and

chemæ, and periwinkles, and perfect pickles, and salt-fish, which are

void of smell, and many kinds of juicy fishes. And it is good that,

before the main dinner, there should be served up what is called salad,

and beet-root, and salt-fish, in order that by having the edge of our

appetite taken off we may go with less eagerness to what is not equally

nutritious. But at the beginning of dinner it is best to avoid abundant

draughts; for they are bad as generating too great a secretion of

humours in the body.

"But the Macedonians, according to the statement of Ephippus the

Olynthian, in his treatise Concerning the Burial of Alexander and

Hephæstion, had no notion of moderation in drinking, but started off at

once with enormous draughts before eating, so as to be drunk before the

first course was off the table, and to be unable to enjoy the rest of

the banquet."

92. But Diphilus the Siphnian says, "The salt pickles which are made of

fish, whether caught in the sea, or in the lake, or in the river, are

not very nourishing, nor very juicy, but are inflammatory, and act

strongly on the bowels, and are provocative of desire. But the best of

them are those which are made of animals devoid of fat, such as cybia,

and horæa, and other kinds like them. And of fat fish, the best are the

different kinds of tunny, and the young of the tunny; for the old ones

are larger and harsher to the taste; and above all, the Byzantine

tunnies are so. But the tunny, says he, is the same as the larger

pelamys, the small kind of which is the same as the cybium, to which

species the horæum also belongs. But the sarda is of very nearly the

same size as the colias. And the scombrus is a light fish, and one which

the stomach easily gets rid of; but the colias is a glutinous fish, very

like a squill, and apt to give twinges, and has an inferior juice, but

nevertheless is nutritious. And the best are those which are called the

Amyclæan, and the Spanish, which is also called the Saxitan; for they

are lighter and sweeter."

But Strabo, in the third book of his work on Geography, says that near

the Islands of Hercules,[199:1] and off the city of Carthagena, is a

city named Sexitania, from which the salt-fish above-mentioned derive

their name; and there is another city called Scombroaria, so called from

the scombri which are caught in its neighbourhood, and of them the best

sauce is made. But there are also fish which are called melandryæ,

which are mentioned by Epicharmus also, in his Ulysses the Deserter, in

this way--

Then there was salt and pickled fish to eat,

Something not quite unlike melandryæ.

But the melandrys is the largest description of tunny, as Pamphilus

explains in his treatise on Names; and that when preserved is very rich

and oily.

93. "But the raw pickle called omotarichum," says Diphilus, "is called

by some people cetema. It is a heavy sticky food, and moreover very

indigestible. But the river coracinus, which some people call the

peltes, the one from the Nile, I mean, which the people at Alexandria

have a peculiar name for, and call the heminerus, is rather fat, and has

a juice which is far from disagreeable; it is fleshy, nutritious, easily

digestible, not apt to disagree with one, and in every respect superior

to the mullet. Now the roe of every fish, whether fresh or dried and

salted, is indigestible and apt to disagree. And the most so of all is

the roe of the more oily and larger fish; for that remains harder for a

long time, and is not decomposed. But it is not disagreeable to the

taste when seasoned with salt and roasted. Every one, however, ought to

soak dried and salted fish until the water becomes free from smell, and

sweet. But dried sea-fish when boiled becomes sweeter; and they are

sweeter too when eaten hot than cold." And Mnesitheus the Athenian, in

his treatise on Comestibles, says, "Those juices which are salt, and

those which are sweet, all have an effect in relaxing the bowels; but

those which are sharp and harsh are strongly diuretic. Those too which

are bitter are generally diuretic, but some of them also relax the

bowels. Those which are sour, however, check the secretions."

And Xenophon, that most accomplished of writers, in his treatise

entitled Hiero, or the Tyrant, abuses all such food, and says, "For

what, said Hiero, have you never noticed all the multitudinous

contrivances which are set before tyrants, acid, and harsh, and sour;

and whatever else there can be of the same kind?--To be sure I have,

said Simonides, and all those things appeared to me to be very contrary

to the natural taste of any man. And do you think, said Hiero, that

these dishes are anything else but the fancies of a diseased and

vitiated taste; since those who eat with appetite, you well know, have

no need of these contrivances and provocatives?"

94. After this had been said, Cynulcus asked for some spiced and boiled

water to drink; saying that he must wash down all those salt arguments

with sweet drink. And Ulpian said to him with some indignation, and

slapping his pillow with his hand,--How long will it be before you leave

off your barbarian tricks? Will you never stop till I am forced to leave

the party and go away, being unable to digest all your absurd speeches?

And he replied,--Now that I am at Rome, the Sovereign City, I use the

language of the natives habitually; for among the ancient poets, and

among those prose writers who pique themselves on the purity of their

Greek, you may find some Persian nouns, because of their having got into

a habit of using them in conversation. As for instance, one finds

mention made of parasangs, and astandæ, and angari (couriers), and a

schoenus or perch, which last word is used either as a masculine or

feminine noun, and it is a measure on the road, which retains even to

this day that Persian name with many people. I know, too, that many of

the Attic writers affect to imitate Macedonian expressions, on account

of the great intercourse that there was between Attica and Macedonia.

But it would be better, in my opinion,

To drink the blood of bulls, and so prefer

The death of great Themistocles,

than to fall into your power. For I could not say, to drink the water of

bulls; as to which you do not know what it is. Nor do you know that even

among the very best poets and prose writers there are some things said

which are not quite allowable. Accordingly Cephisodorus, the pupil of

Isocrates the orator, in the third of his treatises addressed to

Aristotle, says that a man might find several things expressed

incorrectly by the other poets and sophists; as for instance, the

expression used by Archilochus, That every man was immodest; and that

apophthegm of Theodorus, That a man ought to get all he can, but to

praise equality and moderation; and also, the celebrated line of

Euripides about the tongue[201:1] having spoken; and even, by Sophocles,

the lines which occur in the Æthiopians--

These things I say to you to give you pleasure,

Not wishing to do aught by violence:

And do thou, like wise men, just actions praise,

And keep thy hands and heart from unjust gain.

And in another place the same poet says--

I think no words, if companied by gain,

Pernicious or unworthy.

And in Homer, we find Juno represented as plotting against Jupiter, and

Mars committing adultery. And for these sentiments and speeches those

writers are universally blamed.

95. If therefore I have committed any errors, O you hunter of fine names

and words, do not be too angry with me; for, according to Timotheus of

Miletus, the poet,--

I do not sing of ancient themes,

For all that's new far better seems.

Jove's the new king of all the world;

While anciently 'twas Saturn hurl'd

His thunders, and the Heavens ruled;

So I'll no longer be befool'd

With dotard's ancient songs.

And Antiphanes says, in his Alcestis--

Dost thou love things of modern fashion?

So too does he; for he is well assured

That new devices, though they be too bold,

Are better far than old contrivances.

And I will prove to you, that the ancients were acquainted with the

water which is called dicoctas, in order that you may not be indignant

again, when I speak of boiled and spiced water. For, according to the

Pseudheracles of Pherecrates--

Suppose a man who thinks himself a genius

Should something say, and I should contradict him,

Still trouble not yourself; but if you please,

Listen and give your best attention.

But do not grudge, I entreat you, said Ulpian, to explain to me what is

the nature of that Bull's water which you spoke of; for I have a great

thirst for such words. And Cynulcus said,--But I pledge you, according

to your fancy; you thirst for words, taking a desire from Alexis, out of

his Female Pythagorean,

A cup of water boil'd; for when fresh-drawn

'Tis heavy, and indigestible to drink.

But it was Sophocles, my friend, who spoke of Bull's water, in his

Ægeus, from the river Taurus near Troezen, in the neighbourhood of

which there is a fountain called Hyoëssa.

96. But the ancients did also at times use very cold water in their

draughts before dinner. But I will not tell you, unless you first teach

me, whether the ancients were in the habit of drinking warm water at

their banquets. For if their cups got their name[203:1] from what took

place in reference to them, and if they were set before the guests full

of mixed liquors, then they certainly did not contain warm drink, and

were not put on the fire like kettles. For that they were in the habit

of drinking warm water Eupolis proves, in his Demi--

Warm for us now the brazen ewer quick,

And bid the slaves prepare the victims new,

That we may feast upon the entrails.

And Antiphanes says, in his Omphale--

May I ne'er see a man

Boiling me water in a bubbling pail;

For I have no disease, and wish for none.

But if I feel a pain within my stomach,

Or round about my navel, why I have

A ring I lately gave a drachma for

To a most skilful doctor.

And, in his Anointing Woman, (but this play is attributed to Alexis

also,) he says--

But if you make our shop notorious,

I swear by Ceres, best of goddesses,

That I will empt the biggest ladle o'er you,

Filling it with hot water from the kettle;

And if I fail, may I ne'er drink free water more.

And Plato, in the fourth book of his Polity, says--"Desire in the mind

must be much the same as thirst is in the body. Now, a man feels thirst

for hot water or for cold; or for much water or for a little; or

perhaps, in a word, for some particular drink. And if there be any heat

combined with the thirst, then that will give a desire for cold water;

but if a sensation of cold be united with it, that will engender a wish

for warm water. And if by reason of the violence of the cause the thirst

be great, that will give a desire for an abundant draught; but if the

thirst be small, then the man will wish for but a small draught. But the

thirst itself is not a desire of anything except of the thing itself,

namely, drinking. And hunger, again, is not a desire of anything else

except food."

And Semus the Delian, in the second book of his Nesias, or treatise on

Islands, says that in the island of Cimolus, cold places are prepared

by being dug out against the summer, where people may put down vessels

full of warm water, and then draw them up again in no respect different

from snow. But warm water is called by the Athenians metaceras, a word

used by Sophilus, in his Androcles. And Alexis says, in his Locrians--

But the maid-servants pour'd forth water,

One pouring boiling water, and the other warm.

And Philemon, in his Corinthian Women, uses the same word. And Amphis

says, in his Bath--

One call'd out, to the slaves to bring hot water,

Another shouted for metaceras.

97. And as the Cynic was proceeding to heap other proofs on these,

Pontianus said,--The ancients, my friends, were in the habit also of

drinking very cold water. At all events Alexis says, in his Parasite--

I wish to make you taste this icy water,

For I am proud of my well, whose limpid spring

Is colder than the Ararus.

And Hermippus, in his Cercopes, calls water drawn from wells =phreatiaion

hydôr=. Moreover, that men used to drink melted snow too, is shown by

Alexis, in his Woman eating Mandragora--

Sure is not man a most superfluous plant,

Constantly using wondrous contradictions.

Strangers we love, and our own kin neglect;

Though having nothing, still we give to strangers.

We bear our share in picnics, though we grudge it,

And show our grudging by our sordidness.

And as to what concerns our daily food,

We wish our barley-cakes should white appear,

And yet we make for them a dark black sauce,

And stain pure colour with a deeper dye.

Then we prepare to drink down melted snow;

Yet if our fish be cold, we storm and rave.

Sour or acid wine we scorn and loathe,

Yet are delighted with sharp caper sauce.

And so, as many wiser men have said,

Not to be born at all is best for man;

The next best thing, to die as soon as possible.

And Dexicrates, in the play entitled The Men deceived by Themselves,

says--

But when I'm drunk I take a draught of snow,

And Egypt gives me ointment for my head.

And Euthycles, in his Prodigal Men, or The Letter, says--

He first perceived that snow was worth a price;

He ought to be the first to eat the honeycombs.

And that excellent writer Xenophon, in his Memorabilia, shows that he

was acquainted with the fashion of drinking snow. But Chares of

Mitylene, in his History of Alexander, has told us how we are to proceed

in order to keep snow, when he is relating the siege of the Indian city

Petra. For he says that Alexander dug thirty large trenches close to one

another, and filled them with snow, and then he heaped on the snow

branches of oak; for that in that way snow would last a long time.

98. And that they used to cool wine, for the sake of drinking it in a

colder state, is asserted by Strattis, in his Psychastæ, or Cold

Hunters--

For no one ever would endure warm wine,

But on the contrary, we use our wells

To cool it in, and then we mix with snow.

And Lysippus says, in his Bacchæ--

_A._ Hermon, what is the matter? Where are we?

_B._ Nothing's the matter, only that your father

Has just dropt down into the well to cool himself,

As men cool wine in summer.

And Diphilus says, in his Little Monument--

Cool the wine quick, O Doris.

And Protagoras in the second book of his Comic Histories, relating the

voyage of king Antiochus down the river, says something about the

contrivances for procuring cold water, in these terms:--"For during the

day they expose it to the sun, and then at night they skim off the

thickest part which rises to the surface, and expose the rest to the

air, in large earthen ewers, on the highest parts of the house, and two

slaves are kept sprinkling the vessels with water the whole night. And

at daybreak they bring them down, and again they skim off the sediment,

making the water very thin, and exceedingly wholesome, and then they

immerse the ewers in straw, and after that they use the water, which has

become so cold as not to require snow to cool it." And Anaxilas speaks

of water from cisterns, in his Flute Player, using the following

expressions:--

_A._ I want some water from a cistern now.

_B._ I have some here, and you are welcome to it.

And, in a subsequent passage, he says--

Perhaps the cistern water is all lost.

But Apollodorus of Gela mentions the cistern itself, =lakkos=, as we

call it, in his Female Deserter, saying--

In haste I loosed the bucket of the cistern,

And then that of the well; and took good care

To have the ropes all ready to let down.

99. Myrtilus, hearing this conversation, said,--And I too, being very

fond of salt-fish, my friends, wish to drink snow, according to the

practice of Simonides. And Ulpian said,--The word =philotarichos=, _fond

of salt-fish_, is used by Antiphanes, in his Omphale, where he says--

I am not anxious for salt-fish, my girl.

But Alexis, in his Gynæcocracy, speaks of one man as =zômotarichos=, or

fond of sauce made from salt-fish, saying--

But the Cilician here, this Hippocles,

This epicure of salt-fish sauce, this actor.

But what you mean by "according to the practice of Simonides," I do not

know. No; for you do not care, said Myrtilus, to know anything about

history, you glutton; for you are a mere lickplatter; and as the Samian

poet Asius, that ancient bard, would call you, a flatterer of fat. But

Callistratus, in the seventh book of his Miscellanies, says that

Simonides the poet, when feasting with a party at a season of violently

hot weather, while the cup-bearers were pouring out for the rest of the

guests snow into their liquor, and did not do so for him, extemporised

this epigram:--

The cloak with which fierce Boreas clothed the brow

Of high Olympus, pierced ill-clothed man

While in its native Thrace; 'tis gentler now,

Caught by the breeze of the Pierian plain.

Let it be mine; for no one will commend

The man who gives hot water to a friend.

So when he had drunk, Ulpian asked him again where the word

=knisoloichos= is used, and also, what are the lines of Asius in which

he uses the word =knisokolax=? These, said Myrtilus, are the verses of

Asius, to which I alluded:--

Lame, branded, old, a vagrant beggar, next

Came the cnisocolax, when Meles held

His marriage feast, seeking for gifts of soup,

Not waiting for a friendly invitation;

There in the midst the hungry hero stood,

Shaking the mud from off his ragged cloak.

And the word =knisoloichos= is used by Sophilus, in his Philarchus, in

this passage,--

You are a glutton and a fat-licker.

And in the play which is entitled, The Men running together, he has used

the word =knisoloichia=, in the following lines:--

That pandar, with his fat-licking propensities,

Has bid me get for him this black blood-pudding.

Antiphanes too uses the word =knisoloichos=, in his Bombylium.

Now that men drank also sweet wine while eating is proved by what Alexis

says in his Dropidas--

The courtesan came in with sweet wine laden,

In a large silver cup, named petachnon,

Most beauteous to behold. Not a flat dish,

Nor long-neck'd bottle, but between the two.

100. After this a cheesecake was served up, made of milk and sesame and

honey, which the Romans call libum. And Cynulcus said,--Fill yourself

now, O Ulpian, with your native Chthorodlapsus; a word which is not, I

swear by Ceres, used by any one of the ancient writers, unless, indeed,

it should chance to be found in those who have compiled histories of the

affairs of Phoenicia, such as Sanchoniatho and Mochus, your own

fellow-countrymen. And Ulpian said,--But it seems to me, you dog-fly,

that we have had quite enough of honey-cakes: but I should like to eat

some groats, with a sufficient admixture of the husks and kernels of

pine-cones. And when that dish was brought--Give me, said he, some crust

of bread hollowed out like a spoon; for I will not say, give me a spoon

(=mystron=); since that word is not used by any of the writers previous

to our own time. You have a very bad memory, my friend, quoth Æmilianus;

have you not always admired Nicander the Colophonian, the Epic poet, as

a man very fond of ancient authors, and a man too of very extensive

learning himself? And indeed, you have already quoted him as having used

the word =peperion=, for _pepper_. And this same poet, in the first book

of his Georgics, speaking of this use of groats, has used also the word

=mystron=, saying--

But when you seek to dress a dainty dish

Of new-slain kid, or tender house-fed lamb,

Or poultry, take some unripe grains, and pound them,

And strew them all in hollow plates, and stir them,

Mingled with fragrant oil. Then pour thereon

Warm broth, which take from out the dish before you,

That it be not too hot, and so boil over.

Then put thereon a lid, for when they're roasted,

The grains swell mightily; then slowly eat them,

Putting them to your mouth with hollow spoon.

In these words, my fine fellow, Nicander describes to us the way in

which they ate groats and peeled barley; bidding the eater pour on it

soup made of kid or lamb, or of some poultry or other. Then, says he,

pound the grains in a mortar, and having mingled oil with them, stir

them up till they boil; and mix in the broth made after this recipe as

it gets warm, making it thicker with the spoon; and do not pour in

anything else; but take the broth out of the dish before you, so as to

guard against any of the more fatty parts boiling over. And it is for

this reason, too, that he charges us to keep it close while it is

boiling, by putting the lid on the dish; for that barley grains when

roasted or heated swell very much. And at last, when it is moderately

warm we are to eat it, taking it up in hollow spoons.

And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his letter to Lynceus, in which he

gives an account of some Macedonian banquet which surpassed all the

feasts which had ever been heard of in extravagance, speaks of golden

spoons (which he also calls =mystra=) having been given to each of the

guests. But since you, my friend, wish to set up for a great admirer of

the ancients, and say that you never use any expressions which are not

the purest Attic, what is it that Nicophon says, the poet I mean of the

old comedy, in his Cherogastores, or the Men who feed themselves by

manual Labour? For I find him too speaking of spoons, and using the word

=mystron=, when he says--

Dealers in anchovies, dealers in wine;

Dealers in figs, and dealers in hides;

Dealers in meal, and dealers in spoons (=mystriopôlês=);

Dealers in books, and dealers in sieves;

Dealers in cheesecakes, and dealers in seeds:

For who can the =mystriopôlai= be, but the men who sell =mystra=? So

learning from them, my fine Syrian-Atticist, the use of the spoon, pray

eat your groats, that you may not say--

But I am languid, weak for want of food.

101. And I have been surprised at your not asking where the word

=chondros=, _groats_, comes from. Whether it is a Megarian word, or

whether it comes from Thessaly, as Myrtilus does. And Ulpian said,--I

will stop eating if you will tell me by whom these Megarian, or

Thessalian groats are spoken of. And Æmilianus said,--But I will not

refuse you; for seeing a very splendid preparation for supper, I wish

that you should arm yourself for the fray, being filled with barley like

a game cock; and I wish you to instruct us about the dishes which we are

going to partake of. And he, getting out of temper, said,--Whence do you

get this word =edesmata=? for one has no breathing time allowed one

while constantly forced to ask these questions of these late-learned

sophists. But, says Æmilianus, I can easily answer you this question;

but I will first speak of the word =chondros=, quoting you these lines

of Antiphanes, out of his Antea,--

_A._ What have you in your baskets there, my friend?

_B._ In three of them I've good Megarian groats.

_A._ Do they not say Thessalian are the best?

_B._ I also have some similago fetch'd

From the far distant land Phoenicia.

But the same play is also attributed to Alexis, though in some few

places the text is a little different. And, again, Alexis says, in his

play called The Wicked Woman--

There's a large parcel of Thessalian groats.

But Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis, calls soup =chondros=, saying--

He would boil soup, and then put in a fly,

And so would give it you to drink.

He also speaks of similago; and so, though I do not remember his exact

words, does Strattis, in his Anthroporaistes, or Man-destroyer. And so

does Alexis, in his Isostasium. But Strattis uses =semidalidos= as the

genitive case, in these words--

Of these two sorts of gentle semidalis.

The word =edesmata= is used by Antiphanes, in his Twins, where he says--

Many nice eatables I have enjoy'd,

And had now three or four most pleasant draughts;

And feel quite frisky, eating as much food

As a whole troop of elephants.

So now we may bring this book to an end, and let it have its

termination with the discussions about eatables; and the next book shall

begin the description of the Banquet.

Do not do so, O Athenæus, before you have told us of the Macedonian

banquet of Hippolochus.--Well, if this is your wish; O Timocrates, we

will prepare to gratify it.

FOOTNOTES:

[122:1] This was a Latin word for a cup. Horace says--

Obliviosi levia Massici

Ciboria exple.

[123:1] This is parodied from--

=Kai Tityon eidon gaiês erikydeos hyion

Keimenon en dapedô hod' ep' ennea keito pelethra:=

translated by Pope:

There Tityus large, and long in fetters bound,

O'erspreads nine acres of infernal ground.

[124:1] The whole of the first two books of the genuine work of Athenæus

are lost; as also is the beginning of the third book; and a good deal of

the last. What has been translated up to this point is an epitome or

abridgement made by some compiler whose name is unknown. Casaubon states

that he is ignorant of the name of this compiler; but is sure that he

lived five hundred years before his own time, and before Eustathius;

because Eustathius sometimes uses his epitome in preference to the

original work. But even before this abridgement was made the text had

become exceedingly corrupt, according to the statement of the compiler

himself.--See Bayle, Dict. voc. _Athenæus_.

[161:1] The pun in the original cannot be preserved in a translation.

The Greek word for paunch is =mêtra=.

163-1] Ovid gives the following derivation of the name

February:

Februa Romani dixere piamina patres,

Nunc quoque dant verbo plurima signa fidem

Pontifices ab rege petunt et Flamine lanas,

Queis veteri lingua Februa nomen erat.

Quæque capit lictor domibus purgamina certis

Torrida cum micâ farra vocantur idem.

Nomen idem ramo qui cæsus ab arbore purâ

Casta sacerdotum tempora fronde tegit.

Ipse ego Flaminicam poscentem Februa vidi;

Februa poscenti pinea virga data est.

Denique quodcunque est quo pectora nostra piamur.

Hoc apud intonsos nomen habebat avos.

Mensis ab his dictus, secta quia pelle Luperci

Omne solum lustrant, idque piamen habent.

Aut quia placatis sunt tempora pura sepulchris.

Tunc cum ferales præteriere dies.--_Ov. Fasti_, ii. 19.

(See Ovid, vol. i. p. 46, Bohn's Classical Library.)

[164:1] It is not quite clear what the blunder was, for =anypostatos=

means irresistible. Aretæus uses the word for "unsubstantial," which is

perhaps what Athenæus means to say Pompeianus called Rome.

[164:2] I have followed Casaubon's advice in not attempting to translate

this letter, who "marvels that interpreters have endeavoured to

translate it, for what can wasting time be, if this is not?" And

Schweighaeuser says that he will not attempt to explain it further, lest

he should seem to be endeavouring to appear wiser than Apollo.

[169:1] Hesiod.

[183:1] It seems certain that there is some great corruption in this and

the preceding sentence.

[188:1] =Arrêphoroi.= At Athens, two maidens chosen in their seventh

year, who carried the peplos, and other holy things, =arrêta=, of Pallas

in the Scirrophoria. Others write it =ersê-= or =errêphoroi=, which

points to =Ersê=, a daughter of Cecrops, who was worshipped along with

Pallas. Liddell and Scott, Gr. Lex. _in voc._

[190:1] There is no classical authority for =exeleutheros=; though

Demosthenes has =exeleutherikos=, relating to a freedman.

[192:1] The beginning of this fragment of Hesiod is given up as

hopelessly corrupt by the commentators; and there is probably a great

deal of corruption running through the whole of it.

[193:1] The text here is so corrupt as to be quite unintelligible.

[199:1] The Balearic Isles.

[201:1] =hê glôss' omômoch', hê de phrên anômotos.= Eur. Hip. 763.

[203:1] =kratêr=, from =kerannymi=, to mix.