greeting,--As I have often in my conversations with you talked about
illustrious invitations and entertainments, I am afraid lest you should
labour under such a plethora as to blame me; on which account I wish to
make you a partaker in the feast which was given by Cebes of Cyzicus.
Therefore, having first taken a drink of hyssop, come at the proper hour
to the feast. For at the time when the festival of Bacchus was being
celebrated at Athens, I went to sup with him; and I found six Cynics
sitting at table, and one dog-leader, Carneus the Megarian. But, as the
supper was delayed, a discussion arose, what water is the sweetest. And
while some were praising the water of Lerna, and some that of Pirene,
Carneus, imitating Philoxenus, said--That is the best water which is
poured over our hands. So then when the tables were laid we went to
supper,
And much pulse porridge then we ate, but more did still flow in.
Then again lentils were brought on the table steeped in vinegar; and
that child of Jupiter laid his hands on them and said--
Jove, may the man who made these lentils grow,
Never escape thy notice or thy memory.
And then some one else immediately cried out--
May a lentil deity and a lentil fate seize you.
But to me may there be, according to the words of the comic poet
Diphilus, which he uses in his Peliades--
_A._ A flowery supper very sumptuous,
A bowl quite full of pulse for every man.
_B._ That first part is not flowery.
_A._ After that
Let a saperdes dance into the middle,
A little strong to smell.
_B._ That is a flower
Which soon will drive the thrushes all away.
And as a great laugh arose, immediately that spoon of the theatre
Melissa came in, and that dogfly Nicium, each of them being a courtesan
of no small renown: and so they, looking on what was set upon the table
and admiring it, laughed. And Nicium said,--Is not there one of all you
men so proud of your beards that eats fish? Is it because your ancestor
Meleager the Gadarean, in his poem entitled the Graces, said that Homer,
being a Syrian by birth, represented the ancients as abstaining from
fish in accordance with the custom of his own country, although there
was a great abundance of them in the Hellespont? Or have you ever read
that one treatise of his which embraces a comparison between peas and
lentils? for I see that you have made a great preparation of lentils.
And when I see it, I should advise you, according to the rules of
Antisthenes the pupil of Socrates, to relieve yourselves of life if you
stick to such food as this. And Carneus replied to her--Euxitheus the
Pythagorean, O Nicium, as Clearchus the Peripatetic tells us, in the
second book of his Lives, said that the souls of all men were bound in
the body, and in the life which is on earth, for the sake of punishment;
and that God has issued an edict that if they do not remain there until
he voluntarily releases them himself, they shall fall into more numerous
and more important calamities. On which account all men, being afraid of
those threatenings of the gods, fear to depart from life by their own
act, but only gladly welcome death when he comes in old age, trusting
that that deliverance of the soul then takes place with the full consent
of those who have the power to sanction it. And this doctrine we
ourselves believe. But I have no objection, replied she, to your
selecting one of three evils, if you please. For do you not know, O
wretched men, that these heavy kinds of food shut in the dominant
principle of the soul, and do not allow wisdom to exist unimpaired in
it?
46. Accordingly Theopompus, in the fifth book of his History of the
Actions of Philip, says--"For to eat much, and to eat meat, takes away
the reasoning powers, and makes the intellect slower, and fills a man
with anger, and harshness, and all sorts of folly." And the admirable
Xenophon says, that it is sweet to a hungry man to eat barley-cakes and
cardamums, and sweet to a thirsty man to draw water out of the river and
drink it. But Socrates was often caught walking in the depth of evening
up and down before his house; and to those who asked him what he was
doing there, he used to reply that he was getting a relish for supper.
But we shall be satisfied with whatever portion we receive from you, and
we are not angry as if we received less than we ought, like the Hercules
in Anticlides. For he says, in the second book of his Returns--"After
Hercules had accomplished his labours, when Eurystheus was solemnizing
some sacrificial feast, he also was invited. And when the sons of
Eurystheus were setting before each one of the company his proper
portion, but placing a meaner one before Hercules, Hercules, thinking
that he was being treated with indignity, slew three of the sons,
Perimedes, Eurybius, and Eurypylus." But we are not so irascible, even
though in all other points we are imitators of Hercules.
47.
For lentils are a tragic food,
said Archagathus . . . . to have written; which also
Orestes ate when he had recover'd from his sickness,
as Sophilus the comic writer says. But it is a Stoic doctrine, that the
wise man will do everything well, and will be able to cook even lentils
cleverly. On which account Timon the Phliasian said--
And a man who knows not how to cook a lentil wisely.
As if a lentil could not be boiled in any other way except according to
the precepts of Zeno, who said--
Add to the lentils a twelfth part of coriander.
And Crates the Theban said--
Do not prefer a dainty dish to lentils,
And so cause factious quarrels in our party.
And Chrysippus, in his treatise on the Beautiful, quoting some
apophthegms to us, says--
Eat not an olive when you have a nettle;
But take in winter lentil-macaroni--
Bah! bah!
Lentil-macaroni's like ambrosia in cold weather.
And the witty Aristophanes said, in his Gerytades--
You're teaching him to boil porridge or lentils.
And, in his Amphiaraus--
You who revile the lentil, best of food.
And Epicharmus says, in his Dionysi--
And then a dish of lentils was boil'd up.
And Antiphanes says, in his Women like one another--
Things go on well. Do you now boil some lentils,
Or else at least now teach me who you are.
And I know that a sister of Ulysses, the most prudent and wisest of men,
was called =Phakê= (lentil), the same whom some other writers call
Callisto, as Mnaseas of Patra relates, in the third book of his History
of the Affairs of Europe, and as Lysimachus also tells us, in the third
book of his Returns.
48. And when Plutarch had burst into a violent fit of laughter at this,
the Cynic, who could not endure to have his extensive learning on the
subject of lentils disregarded, said--"But all you fine gentlemen from
Alexandria, O Plutarch, are fed from your childhood on lentils; and your
whole city is full of things made of lentils: which are mentioned by
Sopater the lentil parodist, in his drama entitled Bacchis, where he
speaks as follows:--
I could not bear to eat a common loaf,
Seeing a large high brazen pile of lentils.
For, what is there of which mortals have need, (according to your own
idol, Euripides, O you most learned of men,) except two things only,
The corn of Ceres and a draught of water?
And they are here, and able to support us.
But we are not with plenty such as this
Contented, but are slaves to luxury
And such contrivances of other food.
And in another place that dramatic philosopher says--
The moderate fare shall me content
Of a plain modest table;
And I will never seek nor e'en admit
Whatever is out of season and superfluous.
And Socrates said that he differed from other men in this, that they
lived that they might eat, but he ate that he might live. And Diogenes
said to those who accused him of scratching himself,--I wish I could
scratch my stomach, so as to rub all poverty and want out of it. And
Euripides, in his Suppliant Women, says of Capaneus--
This man is Capaneus, a man who had
Abundant riches, but no pride therefrom
Lodged in his, more than in a poor man's bosom.
But those who boasted of their luxury
He blamed, and praised the contented spirit.
For virtue did not, as he said, consist
In eating richly, but in moderation.
49. Capaneus was not, as it seems, such as the honest Chrysippus
describes, in his treatise On those things which are not eligible for
their own sakes. For he speaks in this manner:--"Some men apply
themselves with such eagerness to the pursuit of money, that it is even
related, that a man once, when near his end, swallowed a number of
pieces of gold, and so died. Another person sewed a quantity of money
into a tunic, and put it on, and then ordered his servants to bury him
in that dress, neither burning his body, nor stripping it and laying it
out." For these men and all like them may almost be said, as they die,
to cry out--
Oh gold, the choicest of all gifts to men!
For no fond mother does such raptures know,
Nor children in the house, nor any father,
Such as do flow from you, and are enjoy'd
By those who own you. If like yours the face
Of Venus, when she rose up from the sea,
No wonder that she has ten thousand lovers.
Such great thirst for money was there among the men of that time,
concerning which Anacharsis, when some one asked him what the Greeks
used money for? said, To count with. But Diogenes, in his treatise on
Polity, proposed to establish a law that bits of bone should be taken as
coins; and well too has Euripides said--
Speak not of wealth; that god I worship not,
Who comes with ease into a bad man's power.
And Chrysippus, in his elementary work, which is entitled, A Treatise on
Good and Evil Things, says that "a certain young man from Ionia came to
sojourn at Athens, clothed in a purple robe having golden fringes; and
when some one asked of him what countryman he was, he replied that he
was rich. And, perhaps, it may be the very same person whom Alexis
mentions in his Thebans, where he says--
_A._ But from what country does this person come?
_B._ From Richland; and by general consent
The natives of that land are counted noble;
Nor can one find a noble beggar anywhere.
50. When Cynulcus had said this, and when no one applauded him, he got
out of temper; and said,--But since these men, O you master of the
feast, are made so uncomfortable by a diarrhoea of words as to feel no
hunger; or perhaps, it may be that they laugh at what is said about
lentils, (having in their mind what is said by Pherecrates, in his
Coriander--
_A._ Come now, I'll sit me down; and bring me here,
O slave, a table, and a cup of wine,
That I may eat to flavour what I drink.
_B._ Here is a cup, a table, and some lentils.
_A._ No lentils bring to me, I like them not:
For if one eats them, they do taint the breath.)--
Since then, on this account, these wise men guard against the lentils,
at all events cause some bread to be given to us, with a little plain
food; no expensive dishes, but any of those vulgar lentils, if you have
them, or what is called lentil soup. And when every one laughed,
especially at the idea of the lentil soup, he said, You are very
ignorant men, you feasters, never having read any books, which are the
only things to instruct those who desire what is good. I mean the books
of the Silli of Timon the Pyrrhonian. For he it is who speaks of lentil
soup, in the second book of his Silli, writing as follows:--
The Teian barley-cakes do please me not,
Nor e'en the Lydian sauces: but the Greeks,
And their dry lentil soup, delight me more
Than all that painful luxury of excess.
For though the barley-cakes of Teos are preeminently good, (as also are
those from Eretria, as Sopater says, in his Suitors of Bacchis, where he
says--
We came to Eretria, for its white meal famed;)
and also, the Lydian sauces; still Timon prefers the lentil soup to both
of them put together.
51. To this our admirable entertainer, Laurentius himself, replied,
saying,--O you men who drive the dogs, according to the Jocasta of
Strattis, the comic poet, who in the play entitled The Phoenician
Women, is represented as saying--
I wish to give you both some good advice:
When you boil lentils, pour no perfume o'er them.
And Sopater, too, whom you were mentioning just now, in his Descent to
Hell, speaks in these terms:--
Ulysses, king of Ithaca--'Tis perfume
On lentils thrown: courage, my noble soul!
And Clearchus the Peripatetic philosopher, in his treatise on Proverbs,
gives the saying, "Perfume thrown on lentils;" as a proverb which my
grandfather Varro also mentions, he, I mean, who was nicknamed
Menippius. And many of the Roman grammarians, who have not had much
intercourse with many Greek poets or historians, do not know where it is
that Varro got his Iambic from. But you seem to me, O Cynulcus, (for you
delight in that name, not using the name by which your mother has called
you from your birth,) according to your friend Timon, to be a noble and
great man, not knowing that the lentil soup obtained mention from the
former Epicharmus, in his Festival, and in his Islands, and also from
Antiphanes the comic poet; who, using the diminutive form, has spoken of
it in his Wedding, under the following form of expression--
A little lentil soup (=konchion=), a slice of sausage.
And Magnus immediately taking up the conversation, said,--The most
universally excellent Laurentius has well and cleverly met this hungry
dog on the subject of the lentil soup. But I, like to the Galatians of
the Paphian Sopater, among whom it is a custom whenever they have met
with any eminent success in war to sacrifice their prisoners to the
gods,--
I too, in imitation of those men,
Have vow'd a fiery sacrifice to the gods--
Three of these secretly enroll'd logicians.
And now that I have heard your company
Philosophise and argue subtlely,
Persisting firmly, I will bring a test,
A certain proof of all your arguments:
First smoking you. And if then any one
When roasted shrinks and draws away his leg,
He shall be sold to Zeno for his master
For transportation, as bereft of wisdom.
52. For I will speak freely to them. If you are so fond of contentment,
O philosopher, why do you not admire those disciples of Pythagoras,
concerning whom Antiphanes says, in his Monuments--
Some miserable Pythagoreans came
Gnawing some salt food in a deep ravine,
And picking up such refuse in a wallet.
And in the play which is especially entitled the Wallet, he says--
First, like a pupil of Pythagoras,
He eats no living thing, but peels some husks
Of barley which he's bought for half an obol,
Discolour'd dirty husks, and those he eats.
And Alexis says, in his Tarentines--
For, as we hear, the pupils of Pythagoras
Eat no good meat nor any living thing,
And they alone of men do drink no wine.
But Epicharides will bitches eat;
The only one of all the sect; but then
He kills them first, and says they are not living.
And proceeding a little farther, he says--
_A._ Shreds of Pythagoras and subtleties
And well-fill'd thoughts are their sufficient food.
Their daily meals are these--a simple loaf
To every man, and a pure cup of water.
And this is all.
_B._ You speak of prison fare.
_A._ This is the way that all the wise men live.
These are the hardships that they all endure.
_B._ Where do they live in such a way?
_A._ Yet they procure
Dainties after their sort for one another;
Know you not Melanippides and Phaon,
Phyromachus and Phanus are companions?
And they together sup on each fifth day
On one full cotyla of wheaten meal.
And, in his Female Pythagorean, he says--
_A._ The banquet shall be figs and grapes and cheese,
For these the victims are which the strict law
Allows Pythagoras' sect to sacrifice.
_B._ By Jove, as fine a sacrifice as possible.
And a few lines afterwards, he says--
One must for a short time, my friend, endure
Hunger, and dirt, and cold, and speechlessness,
And sullen frowns, and an unwashen face.
53. But you, my philosophical friends, practise none of these things.
But what is far worse than any of them, you talk about what you do not
in the least understand; and, as if you were eating in an orderly
manner, you take in mouthfuls like the man in that sweet poet
Antiphanes; for he says, in his Runaway Slave-catcher--
Taking a moderate mouthful, small outside,
But large within his hand, as women do.
And in the same way you eat a great deal and eat very fast; when it is
in your power, according to the words of the same poet which he uses in
the Thombycius, "to buy for a single drachma food well suited to you,
such as garlic, cheese, onions, and capers; for all these only cost a
drachma." And Aristophanes says, in his Pythagoreans--
What? do we think, I ask you in God's name,
That these philosophers of olden time,
The pupils of Pythagoras, went thus
In dirt and rags all of their own accord?
I don't believe one word of such a thing.
No; they were forced to do so, as they had not
A single farthing to buy clothes or soap.
And then they made a merit of economy,
And laid down rules, most splendid rules for beggars.
But only put before them fish or meat;
And if they do not their own fingers bite
For very eagerness, I will be bound
To let you hang me ten times over.
And it is not foreign to the present discussion to mention an epigram
which was made with reference to you, which Hegesander the Delphian has
quoted, in the sixth book of his Commentaries--
Men drawing up your eyebrows, and depressing
Your scornful nostrils till they reach the chin,
Wearing your beards in sacks, strippers of dishes,
Wearing your cloak outside, with unshod feet
Looking like oil, and eating stealthily
Like hungry vagrants 'neath night's friendly cover,
Cheaters of youth, spouters of syllables,
Pretenders to vain wisdom, but pretending
To make your only object Virtue's self.
54. But Archestratus of Gela, in his treatise on Gastronomy, (which is
the only poetical composition which you wise men admire; following
Pythagoras in this doctrine alone, namely silence, and doing this only
because of your want of words; and besides that, you profess to think
well of the Art of Love of Sphodrias the Cynic, and the Amatory
Conversation of Protagorides, and the Convivial Dialogues of that
beautiful philosopher Persæus, compiled out of the Commentaries of
Stilpon and Zeno, in which he inquires, How one may guard against guests
at a banquet going to sleep; and, How one ought to use drinking of
healths; and, When one ought to introduce beautiful boys and girls into
a banquet; and when one ought to treat them well as if they were
admired, and when one ought to send them away as disregarding them; and
also, concerning various kinds of cookery, and concerning loaves, and
other things; and all the over-subtle discussions in which the son of
Sophroniscus has indulged concerning kissing. A philosopher who was
continually exercising his intellect on such investigations as these,
being entrusted, as Hermippus relates, with the citadel of Corinth by
Antigonus, got drunk and lost even Corinth itself, being outwitted and
defeated by Aratus the Sicyonian; who formerly had argued in his
Dialogues against Zeno the philosopher, contending that a wise man would
in every respect be a good general; and this excellent pupil of Zeno
proved this especial point admirably by his own achievements. For it was
a witty saying of Bion the Borysthenite, when he saw a brazen statue of
his, on which was the inscription, PERSÆUS OF CITIUM, THE PUPIL OF ZENO,
that the man who engraved the inscription had made a blunder, for that
it ought to have been, Persæus the servant (=oikitiea= not =kitiea=) of
Zeno; for he had been born a slave of Zeno, as Nicias of Nicæa relates,
in his History of Philosophers; and this is confirmed by Sotion the
Alexandrian, in his Successions. And I have met with two books of that
admirable work of Persæus, which have this title, "Convivial Dialogues."
55. But Ctesibius the Chalcidian, the friend of Menedemus, as Antigonus
the Carystian relates in his Lives, being asked by somebody, What he had
ever got by philosophy? replied, The power of getting a supper without
contributing to it himself. On which account Timon somewhere or other
said to him--
Oh you mad dinner hunter, with the eyes
Of a dead corpse, and heart both bold and shameless.
And Ctesibius was a man who made very good guesses, and was a very witty
man, and a sayer of amusing things; on which account every one used to
invite him to their parties; he was not a man like you, you Cynic, who
never sacrificed to the Graces, nor even to the Muses. And therefore
Virtue avoiding you, and all like you, sits by Pleasure, as Mnasalces,
the Sicyonian says, in his Epigrams--
Here I most miserable Virtue sit
By Pleasure's side, and cut my hair for grief,
Crush'd in my spirit; for profane Delight
Is judged by all my better, and my chief.
And Baton the comic writer says in his Homicide--
Now I invite those moderate philosophers,
Who ne'er allow themselves a single pleasure,
Who keep on looking for the one wise man
In all their walks and conversations,
As if he were a slave who'd run away.
O wretched man, why, when you have a ticket,
Will you refuse to drink? Why dost thou now
Do so much wrong to the Gods? why dost thou make
Money of greater value than the rate
Which nature puts on it? You drink but water,
And so must be a worthless citizen;
For so you cheat the farmer and the merchant;
But I by getting drunk increase their trade.
Then you at early dawn bear round a cruet,
Seeking for oil, so that a man must think
You have an hour-glass with you, not a bottle.)
56. However, Archestratus, as I was saying before this long digression,
whom you praise as equal to Homer, because of his praises of the
stomach--though your friend Timon says of the stomach,
Than which no part more shameless can be found--
when speaking of the Sea-dog, writes as follows:--
There are but few so happy as to know
This godlike food, nor do men covet it
Who have the silly souls of common mortals.
They fear because it is an animal
Which living preys on man. But every fish
Loves human flesh, if it can meet with it.
So that 'tis fit that all who talk such nonsense
Should be confined to herbs, and should be sent
To Diodorus the philosopher
And starve, and so pythagorize with him.
But this Diodorus was by birth an Aspendian; but desiring to be thought
a Pythagorean, he lived after the fashion of you Cynics, letting his
hair grow, being dirty, and going barefoot. On which account some people
fancied that it was an article of the Pythagorean creed to let the hair
grow, which was in reality a fashion introduced by Diodorus, as
Hermippus asserts. But Timæus of Tauromenium, in the ninth book of his
Histories, writes thus concerning him--"Diodorus, who was by birth an
Aspendian, introduced a novel fashion of dress, and pretended to
resemble the Pythagoreans. Stratonicus wrote and sent a messenger to
him, desiring him who carried the message to seek out a disciple of
Pythagoras who kept the portico crowded by his insane vagaries about
dress, and his insolence. And Sosicrates, in the third book of the
Succession of Philosophers, relates that Diodorus used to wear a long
beard, and a worn-out cloak, and to keep his hair long, indulging in
these fashions out of a vain ostentation. For that the Pythagoreans
before him wore very handsome clothes, and used baths, and perfumes, and
hair of the ordinary length.
57. And if you in reality, O philosopher, do admire contentment and
moderation in your feasts, why is it that you have come hither without
being invited? Did you come as to a house of intemperance, in order to
learn to make a catalogue of a cook's instruments? or in order to spout
some verses of Cepholion the Athenian? For according to the Cedalion of
Sophocles, you are
A branded lot, all knaves and parasites.
And he says that you philosophers always have your minds set upon
banquets; and that you think it constantly necessary to ask for
something to eat or to devour some Cynic food. For there is no need for
our picking our phrases. And all this is plain from what Alexis relates
in his book which is entitled Linus: and in that he supposes Hercules to
have been educated by Linus, and to have been ordered by him to select
any one out of a number of books that were at hand to read. And he
having taken a cookery-book in his hand, retained it with great
eagerness. And Linus then speaks to him in the following terms--
_Lin._ Come here, and take whatever book you please,
And read it carefully, when you have scann'd
The titles, and the subject well consider'd.
There's Orpheus here, and Hesiod, and plays,
Choerilus, Homer, Epicharmus too,
All sorts of works. For thus your choice will show me
Your nature, and your favourite pursuit.
_Her._ I will take this.
_Lin._ First show me what it is.
_Her._ A cookery book, as says the title-page.
_Lin._ You're a philosopher, that's very plain,
Who passing over all these useful books,
Choose out the art of Simus.
_Her._ Who is Simus?
_Lin._ A very clever man; now he has turn'd
To tragic studies; and of all the actors
Is the most skilful cook, as those who eat
His dishes do declare. And of all cooks
By far the cleverest actor.
_Her._ He's a man
Of noble appetite; say what you wish;
For be of this assured, that I am hungry.
58. When Magnus had run through these quotations, Cynulcus, looking at
the philosophers who were present, said--
Have you seen the Thasian brine,[264:1] and heard how he does bark?
How speedily the fellow did revenge himself, and thoroughly;
It does not seem a case of one blind speaking to a deaf man:
as Cratinus says, in his Archilochi. For he, forgetting before what a
tribunal he was making an exhibition of his fine iambics, read his
colabri with his natural greediness, and at the same time with his usual
elegance of expression, and
Melodies out of time, and tuneless cymbals:
and after all this fine ignorant stupidity, he goes round to people's
houses, seeking out where any handsome banquet is prepared, carrying his
conduct to a length even beyond the Athenian Chærephon, of whom Alexis
says in his Fugitive--
That Chærephon has always got some trick,
And now he's looking for some feast to share
Where he himself will not be call'd upon
For any contribution. For wheresoever
A pot, such as is let to cooks, does stand,
Thither he goeth at the earliest dawn;
And if he sees one come to hire it
For any feast, he asks the cook the name
Of him who gives the feast, and then as soon
As the door opens, in he walks the first.
But this man has no hesitation, like the excellent Magnus, even to make
excursions quite beyond the boundaries for the sake of his stomach, as
Alexis said in his Men who Died together--
Chærephon comes to Corinth for a supper,
Though he has never had an invitation;
But still he flies across the sea, so sweet
It is to eat of what another pays for.
And Theopompus, in his Ulysses, says--
Well said Euripides, "It is not bad
For a rich man to dine at other's cost."
59. And when all laughed at this, Ulpian said, Whence do the
voluptuaries who talk so loosely get all their elegance of expression?
And Cynulcus replied, But, O you well-seasoned little pig, Phrynichus
the Cynic poet, in his Ephialtes, mentions "the elegant speaker" in
these terms:--
It is the hardest work of all to guard against such men;
For they do carry always at their finger's end a sting,
The misanthropic flower of youth; and then they fawn on all
With carefully selected sweetness of expression,
Always the forum haunting when the citizens are seated;
And then they lacerate with wounds severe and unexpected
Those whom they have been fawning on, and hide themselves and
laugh.
And the word =charitoglôssein= (to speak so as to please) is used by
Æschylus in the Prometheus Vinctus--
You shall know this for true; nor is it mine
=charitoglôssein=.
And when Ulpian said again, But what, my friends, is meant by cooks'
instruments? for these things were mentioned, and were thought worthy of
being enumerated in the Arcadian banquets: and also where is the word
=asôtion= (abode of luxury) to be found? For I know that the adjective
=asôtos= is common enough. And Alexis speaks of a luxurious extravagant
man in his Cnidia, saying--
Diodorus, most extravagant of men,
In two brief years did make his patrimony
Into a football, with such headlong speed
Did he devour everything.
And again, in the Phædrus, he says--
You tell me of a very slow proceeding;
For in five days the little Epicharides
Made ducks and drakes of all his father's property,
So quickly and entirely did he swallow it.
60. And Ctesippus the son of Chabrias carried his extravagance and
intemperance to such a height, that he sold even the stones of his
father's tomb, on which the Athenians had spent a thousand drachmæ, to
furnish means for his luxury. And accordingly Diphilus says in his Men
offering Sacrifices to the Dead--
If Chabrias's son, the young Ctesippus,
Had not become a friend of Phædimus,
I should have brought a wholesome law forward
To cause his father's monument to be finished.
That each of all the citizens should give
A stone of size to fill a waggon, and
I say that that would not be much for him.
And Timocles, in his Demosatyri, says--
Ctesippus, the fine son of Chabrias,
Has ceased to shave himself three times a-day.
A great man among women, not with men.
And Menander, in his "Anger," says this of him--
And I too once was a young man, O woman,
Nor did I then five several times a-day
Bathe, as I now do bathe; nor at that time
Had I a soft cloak, such as now I have,
Nor such perfumes as now; now I will paint myself,
And pluck my hair, by Jove. Aye, I will be
Ctesippus, not a man; and in brief time
I too, like him, will eat up all the stones,
For I'll not be content with earth alone.
And perhaps it was on account of this extravagant luxury and debauchery
that Demosthenes has handed down his name in his treatise on Immunities.
But those who have devoured their patrimony ought to be punished in such
a way as this, like the Nauclerus of Menander. For Menander says--
O dearest mother of all mortals, Earth,
How kind you are to all possess'd of sense;
How worthy of all honour! Sure that man
Who like a spendthrift eats his patrimony,
Should be condemn'd to sail about for ever
And never reach the shore; that he might feel
To what great good he'd been insensible.
61. And Axionicus speaks of a certain Pythodelus as a very intemperate
man, in his Etrurian, saying--
Here Pythodelus comes, who is surnamed
Isoballion, greediest of men,
And on his steps does follow that wise woman
Ischas, bearing a drum, and very drunk.
And Anaxandrides attacks Polyeuctus, turning him into ridicule in the
comedy called Tereus--
_A._ You shall be call'd a bird.
_B._ Why so, by Vesta?
Is it because I ate my patrimony
Like that most fashionable Polyeuctus?
_A._ No, but because you, though you were a man,
Were torn in pieces by the women so.
And Theopompus, in the tenth book of his account of the Exploits of
Philip, (a book from which some separate the conclusion, in which there
is the mention made of the demagogues at Athens,) says that Eubulus the
demagogue was an intemperate man. And he uses the following
expressions--"And he so far exceeded the whole nation of the Tarentines
in luxury and extravagance, that this latter is only immoderate in its
indulgence in feasts; but he spent on his luxury even the revenues of
the Athenian people. But Callistratus," he continues, "the son of
Callicrates, who was himself also a demagogue, was very intemperate in
his pleasures, but still he was very attentive to the business of the
state." And speaking of the Tarentines, in the fifty-second book of his
Histories, he writes as follows--"The city of the Tarentines sacrifices
oxen nearly every month, and celebrates public festivals; and the chief
body of private individuals is always occupied in banquets and drinking
parties. And the Tarentines hold some such language as this: That other
men, because they are fond of personal exertion, and because they devote
themselves to actual labour, prepare their subsistence in this way for
the future: but that they, by means of their banquets and pleasures, are
not about to live, but are living already."
62. But concerning the intemperance and general habits and life of
Philip and his companions, Theopompus gives the following account, in
the forty-ninth book of his Histories--"When Philip became master of
great treasures, he did not spend them quickly, but he threw them away
and squandered them; being of all the men that ever lived, not only the
worst manager himself, but all those who were about him were so too. For
absolutely not one of them had any idea of living properly, or of
managing his household with moderation. And of that he himself was the
cause, being a most insatiable and extravagant man, doing everything in
an offhand manner, whether he was acquiring property or giving it away.
For though he was a soldier, he was unable, out of pure laziness, to
count what he had coming in and what he spent. And then his companions
were men collected together from all quarters; for some of them came
from his own country, and some from Thessaly, and some from other parts
of Greece, not being selected with any care; but if among either Greeks
or barbarians there was any lascivious, or impure, or avaricious man, he
had almost every one of the same character assembled in Macedonia, and
they were all called friends of Philip. And even if any one came who was
not entirely of that disposition, still under the influence of the life
and manners of the Macedonians, he very soon became like the rest. For
their wars, and military expeditions, and other great expenses,
encouraged them to be audacious, and to live, not in an orderly manner,
but after a prodigal fashion and like robbers."
63. But Duris, in the seventh book of his History of the Affairs of
Macedonia, speaking of Pasicyprus the king of Cyprus, and of his
intemperate habits, writes as follows--"Alexander, after the siege of
Tyre, dismissed Pnytagoras, and gave him many presents, and among them
he gave him the fortified place which he asked for. And that very place
Pasicyprus the king had previously sold, in a luxurious freak, for fifty
talents, to Pymatus the Cittiæan, selling him both the fortress itself
and his own royal authority over it. And when he had received the money
he grew old in Amathus." Such also was Æthiops the Corinthian, as
Demetrius the Scepsian relates, of whom mention is made by Archilochus;
"for he, out of his love of pleasure and intemperance, sailing with
Archias to Sicily when he was about to found Syracuse, sold to his
messmate for a cake of honey the lot which he had just drawn, and was
about to take possession of in Syracuse."
64. But Demetrius carried his extravagance to such a height, he, I mean,
who was the descendant of Demetrius Phalereus, according to the account
of Hegesander, that he had Aristagora the Corinthian for a mistress, and
lived in a most expensive manner. And when the Areopagitæ summoned him
before them, and ordered him to live more decorously--"But even now,"
said he, "I live like a gentleman, for I have a most beautiful mistress,
and I do no wrong to any one, and I drink Chian wine, and I have a
sufficiency of everything, as my own revenues suffice for all these
expenses. And I do not live as some of you do, corrupted by bribes
myself, and intriguing with other men's wives." And hereupon he
enumerated some who acted in this manner by name. And Antigonus the
king, having heard this, made him a thesmothete. And he, being an
hipparch at the Panathenæa, erected a seat close to the statues of
Mercury for Aristagora, higher than the Mercuries themselves. And when
the mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis, he placed a seat for her close
to the temple, saying that those who endeavoured to hinder him should
repent it.
65. But Phanodemus, and also Philochorus, have related that in former
times the judges of the Areopagus used to summon before them and to
punish profligate and extravagant men, and those who had no ostensible
means of living: and many others have told the same story. At all
events, those judges sent for Menedemus and Asclepiades the philosophers
when they were young men and poor, and asked them how they managed to
look so sleek and comfortable when they spent the whole day idling with
philosophers, and had no property. And they replied that some one of the
men about the mill had better be sent for. And when he came and said
that they came every night to the mill and threshed and ground the corn,
and each earned two drachmæ, the judges of the Areopagus marvelled, and
presented them with two hundred drachmæ as a reward.
And the citizens of Abdera brought Democritus to trial, on the ground
that he had wasted the estate which he had inherited from his father.
And when he had read to them his Great World, and his treatise
concerning the Things in the Shades below, and had said that he had
spent it on these works, he was discharged.
66. But those men who are not so luxurious, as Amphis says--
Drink two entire days in every day,
Shaking their heads through their too mighty draughts.
And according to Diphilus--
Having three heads, like to Diana's statue.
Being enemies to their own estate, as Satyrus in his treatise on
Characters said, running through their land, tearing to pieces and
plundering their own houses, selling their own property as if it were
the spoils of the enemy, considering not what has been spent, but what
will be spent, and not what will remain afterwards, but what will not
remain, having spent beforehand in their youth the money which ought to
have carried them safely through old age, rejoicing in companionship,
not in companions, and in their wine, and not in those who drink it with
them. But Agatharchides the Corinthian, in the twenty-eighth book of his
Commentary on the Affairs of Europe, says "that Gnosippus, who was a
very luxurious and extravagant man in Sparta, was forbidden by the
Ephori to hold intercourse with the young men." And among the Romans, it
is related, according to the statement of Posidonius, in the forty-ninth
book of his Histories, that there was a man named Apicius who went
beyond all other men in intemperance. This is that Apicius who was the
cause of banishment to Rutilius, who wrote the history of the Romans in
the Greek language. But concerning Apicius, the man, I mean, who is so
notorious for his extravagant luxury, we have already spoken in our
first book.
67. But Diogenes the Babylonian, in his treatise on Nobility of Birth,
says "that the son of Phocion, whose name was Phocus, was such a man
that there was not one Athenian who did not hate him. And whenever any
one met him they said to him, 'O you man who are a disgrace to your
family!' For he had expended all his patrimony on intemperance; and
after this he became a flatterer of the prefect of Munychia; on which
account he was again attacked and reproached by every one. And once,
when a voluntary contribution was being made, he came forward and said,
before the whole assembly, 'I, too, contribute my share.' And the
Athenians all with one accord cried out, 'Yes, to profligacy.' And
Phocus was a man very fond of drinking hard; and accordingly, when he
had conquered with horses at the Panathenæa, and when Sopater
entertained his companions at a banquet, the preparation was very
splendid, and foot-tubs full of wine and spices were set before all who
came in. And his father, seeing this, called Phocus, and said, 'Will you
not stop your companion from polluting your victory in this fashion?'"
And I know too of many other intemperate and extravagant, men, whom I
leave you to find out, with the exception of Callias the son of
Hipponicus, whom even the tutors of little children have heard of. But
concerning the others whom I have been a little hasty in mentioning, if
you have anything to say, I have the doors of my ears open. So speak;
for I want to know something.
Besides Magnus used the words =epesthiein= and =epiphagein=. And
Æmilianus said, you have the word =asôtion= used by Strattis, in his
Chrysippus, where he says--
He will not e'en have time to ease himself,
Nor to turn to an =asôtion=, nor e'en,
If a man meets him, to converse with him.
68. But the instruments used by a cook are enumerated by Anaxippus, in
his Harp-player, as follows:--
Bring me a ladle and a dozen spits,
A flesh-hook, and a mortar, and a cheese-scraper,
A cylinder, three troughs, a knife, four choppers.
Will you not, O man hated by the gods,
Make haste and put the kettle on the fire?
And are you now still dawdling at that dish?
And with that largest chopper?
But Aristophanes calls the dish which we commonly call =chytra=, a
=kakkabê=, in his play of the Women occupying the Tents; saying--
Warm now the =kakkabê= of the preceptor.
And, in his Daitaleis, he says--
To bring the =kakkabê= from thence.
And Antiphanes, in his Friend to the Thebans, says--
We now have everything; for that fine eel
From Thebes, a namesake of the one in-doors,
Mingling within the hollow =kakkabê=,
Is warm, and leaps, is boiled, and bubbles up.
But Antiphanes calls a dish =batanion=, in his Euthydicus--
Then came a polypus all cut in pieces,
And boiled =en batanioisin=.
And Alexis, in his Asclepioclides, says--
But I when sojourning in Sicily,
Learn'd to cook with such dexterity,
That I make all the guests with eagerness
Invade the dishes (=batania=) with their teeth at times.
But Antiphanes spells the word with a =p=; writing it =patanion=, in his
Wedding--
=Patania=, beet, and assafoetida,
Dishes and candles, coriander and onions,
And salt and olives, and round dishes too.
And Philetærus says, in his Oenopion--
Here let the cook of dainty dishes (=pataniôn=) come.
And, in a subsequent passage, he says--
He seems to have more pupils for his dishes
Than even Stratonicus had.
And Antiphanes, in his Parasite, said this--
_A._ Another bulky man, large as a table,
And nobly born, will come besides this man.
_B._ Whom do you mean?
_A._ A new Carystian,
Born of the earth and warm.
_B._ Tell me his name,
Or else begone.
_A._ I mean a =kakkabos=,
But you, perhaps, would call it merely dish.
_B._ What do I care what name you give to it?
Whether men like to call it =kakkabos=
Or =sittybos=, I know the thing you mean.
But Eubulus, in his Ionian, uses both forms, both =batanion= and
=patanion=, where he says--
Round dishes, and =batania=, and caccabia,
And lopadia, and =patania=, in crowds
Countless, I could not tell you half their names.
69. But Alexis made a catalogue of seasonings, in his play called the
Caldron, saying--
_A._ Let me have no excuses, no "I have not."
_B._ But tell me what you want--I will take all.
_A._ Quite right. Go first of all and take some sesame.
_B._ There's some within.
_A._ Take some grapes dried and cut,
Some fennel, anise, assafoetida,
Mustard and cabbage, some dry coriander,
Sumach and cummin, capers, marjoram,
Leeks, garlic, thyme, sage, seseli,
Some new-made wine boil'd down, some rue and spinach.
And, in his Woman working all Night, or the Spinners, he introduces a
cook as saying--
I must run round, and bawl for what I want;
You'll call for supper when you home return,
And I have got no vinegar, nor anise,
Nor marjoram, nor fig-leaves, nor sweet oil,
Nor almonds, nor the lees of new-made wine,
Nor garlic, no, nor leeks, nor onions,
No fire, no cummin seed, no salt, no eggs,
No wood, no trough, no frying-pan, no rope;
No pail, no cistern, neither well nor pitcher;
Here I stand useless with but knife in hand,
Girt and prepared for action all in vain.
And, in his Wicked Woman, he says--
First of all take a dish of goodly size,
And put in marjoram and pounded herbs,
Steep'd to a fair extent in vinegar,
Colour'd with new made wine, and flavoured with
Plenty of potent assafoetida.
And Teleclides used the word =epesthiein=, in his Prytanes, in
this manner:--
=Tyrion epesthionta=, eating cheese.
And Eupolis used the word =epiphagein= in his Taxiarchs--
Wishing to eat (=epiphagein=) of nothing
But just an onion and three pickled olives.
And Aristophanes, in his Plutus, says--
Once, out of poverty, he ate up (=epêsthien=) everything.
70. But there was another class of men somewhat different from the
cooks, called =trapezopoioi=, setters out of tables. But what their
office was is plainly stated by Antiphanes, in his Sojourner--
Hither I come, and bring this table-setter,
Who soon shall wash the cloths, and trim the lamps,
Prepare the glad libations, and do every thing
Which to his office may pertain.
And it is worth inquiring whether the =trapezokomos= is the same person
as the =trapezopoios=. For king Juba, in his treatise on Similitudes,
says that the =trapezokomos= is the same person who is called by the
Romans _structor_, quoting from the play of Alexander, which is entitled
Potation--
Now for to-morrow I must get a flute-player,
A table-setter, and a workman too.
This was my master's reason for despatching me
On this commission from his country seat.
But they called him =trapezopoios= who took care of the tables, and of
everything else which required order and good management. Philemon says,
in his "The Uninvited Guest"--
There is no need of long deliberation
About the kitchen, for the table-setter
Is bound to look to that; that is his office.
They also used the word =epitrapezômata=, meaning by this the food which
was placed upon the table. Plato says, in the Menelaus--
How little now is left of the =epitrapezômata=.
They also called the man who bought the meat, the =Agorastês=, but now
they call him =opsônatôr=, an officer whom Xenophon mentions, in the
second[274:1] book of the Memorabilia, speaking thus:--"Could we expect
to get a steward and buyer of such a character for nothing?" But the
same word is used in a more general sense by Menander, in his Phanius--
He was a thrifty and a moderate buyer (=agorastês=):
And Aristophanes calls him =opsônês=, in his Tagenistæ, saying--
How the purveyor (=opsônês=) seems to delay our supper.
Cratinus, too, uses the verb =paropsôneô=, in his Cleobulinæ, where he
says
* * * * *
And Alexis uses the verb =paragorazô=, in the same sense, (to buy dainty
side-dishes,) in his Dropidas.
There are people called =eileatroi=; they are those, according to
Pamphilus, who invite people to the king's table, having their name
derived from =eleos= (a kitchen table). But Artemidorus calls them
=deipnoklêtores=.
71. They also used to call the tasters (according to the statement of
the same Pamphilus) =edeatroi=, because they ate of dishes before the
king with a view to his safety. But now, the person called =edeatros= is
the superintendent of the whole management of the feast; and that office
is very eminent and honourable. Accordingly, Chares, in the third book
of his Histories, says that Ptolemy surnamed Soter, was originally
appointed as the taster (=edeatros=) of Alexander. And it appears that
the person whom the Romans now call the taster was at that time called
by the Greeks =protenthês=. As Aristophanes, in the earlier of his
plays, called the Clouds, says--
_A._ Why then do not the magistrates receive
The prytanea on the new-moon's day,
But on the day before?
_B._ They seem to me
To act like tasters (=protenthai=) who in hopes to take
The prytanea with all possible speed,
Taste them on this account all on one day.
And Pherecrates mentions them, in his Countrymen--
Do not you marvel; we are of the number
Of skilful tasters (=protenthôn=), but you know us not.
And Philyllus says, in his Hercules--
Must I then tell you who I am to-day?
I am that taster called Dorpia.
And I find also a decree passed, while Cephisodorus was archer at
Athens, in which the tasters are mentioned as a regular guild or
college; just like the men who are called parasites. For the decree runs
thus:--"Phocus proposed that, in order that the council might celebrate
the Apaturia with the rest of the Athenians, in accordance with the
national customs, that it should be decreed by the council, that the
councillors should be released for the day, as also the other councils
have been dismissed, for a holiday of five days from the day which the
tasters (=hoi protenthai=) celebrate." And that the ancients had people
who were called "tasters" Xenophon tells us in his treatise which is
entitled Hiero or the Tyrant, where he says, "The tyrant lives, never
trusting either meat or drink, but they order those who minister to them
to taste them first, in the place of offering libations to the gods;
because they feel a distrust lest they should eat or drink something
pernicious." And Anaxilas, in his Calypso, says--
First the old woman here shall taste your drink.
72. And the ancients used to call those who made sweetmeats and
cheesecakes =dêmiourgoi=. Menander, in his False Hercules, blaming the
cooks as attempting what they ought not, says--
Holloa, you cook, why do you sulky seem?
'Tis the third time you've asked me what's the number
Of tables which will be required to-day.
We go to sacrifice one little pig.
Eight tables are required, or two, or one;
What can that be to you?--I want but one.
May we not make some candyli[275:1] and dishes
Such as you're used to season; honey, eggs,
And semilago; but now everything
Is contrary; the cook makes cakes in moulds,
Roasts cheesecakes, and boils groats, and brings on table
After the salted meats fig-leaves and grapes.
And for the sweetmeat-makers, they, with duties
Turn'd upside down, roast joints of meat and thrushes
Instead of delicate confections; thus
He who believes he sups doth feed on dainties,
And when perfumed and crown'd, again doth feast
On honey'd cheese-cakes interspersed with thrushes.
But that all these different duties were formerly separated, when the
demiurgi, as they called them, attended to the sweetmeats, and the cooks
to the regular cookery, Antiphanes shows us plainly enough, in his
Chrysis, where he says--
Four female flute-players do have their wages,
Twelve cooks, and just as many sweetmeat-makers,
Asking for plates for honey.
And Menander, in his Demiurgus, says--
_A._ What now is this, my boy, for you, by Jove,
Have come in a most business-like set fashion.
_B._ Yes, for we are inventing fine inventions,
And all the night long we've been hard at work,
And even now we have much left unfinish'd.
But Seleucus says that Panyasis is the earliest author who speaks of
sweetmeats, in the book in which he speaks of the human sacrifices
practised by the Egyptians, saying that many sorts of pastry and
sweetmeats are put on the table, and many kinds of young birds. And
before his time Stesichorus, or Ibycus, in the poem entitled the
Contest, wrote as follows:--
Bring gifts unto the maiden, cakes of cesane,
And groats, and cakes of oil and honey mixed,
And other kinds of pastry, and fresh honey.
But that this poem is the work of Stesichorus, Simonides the poet is a
most undeniable witness; who, when speaking of Meleager, says--
Who with the spear excell'd his fellows all,
Hurling beyond the eddying Anauros
From the grape-famous Iolcos.
For thus did Homer and Stesichorus
Sing to the nations.
For Stesichorus had sung so in the previously quoted poem, namely, the
Contests--
Amphiaraus gain'd the prize in leaping,
And with the dart the godlike Meleager.
73. But I am not ignorant of what Apollodorus the Athenian has said of
the Delians, that they supplied all who came to their sacred ceremonies
with the assistance of cooks and table-setters; and from their actions
they were named Magis and Gongylis;--since, says Aristophanes, they
furnished them at these banquets with round barley-cakes, (=gongylai
mazai=,) as if they had been women. And even to this very day some of
them are called Choeraci, and Amni, and Artysilai, and Sesami, and
Artusitragi, and Neocori, and Icthyboli. And of the women, some are
called Cuminanthæ. But all are called by one common name Eleodytæ,
because they attend on the kitchen tables, and minister at the
festivals. For =eleos= means a kitchen or cook's table. Homer says--
But when he roasted the meat, and placed it =en eleoisin=.
On which account, also, Polycraton the son of Crithon, a Rhenæan, when
instituting a prosecution against them, did not call them Delians, but
inscribed his action "against the whole body of the Eleodytæ." And the
law of the Amphictyons commands the Eleodytæ to provide water; meaning
by Eleodytæ the table-setters, and all attendants of that sort. But
Criton the comic poet, in his Busy-body, calls the Delians the parasites
of the god, in these lines--
When we had forced this great Phoenician,
The master of a well-provided purse,
Though captain of the ship, to stay in harbour,
And * * * two ships
To come to Delos from Piræus' port;
He heard from all men that this place alone
Seem'd to have three good things for a parasite,
A well-stored market, a large population
From every country, and the native Delians,
Themselves a tribe of parasites of the god.
74. But Achæus the Eretrian, in his Alcmæon, a satyric drama, calls the
Delphians makers of sauces, in these words:--
I see the sauce-makers, and spit on them.
Inasmuch, forsooth, as they cut up the victims, it is plain that they
cooked and seasoned them; and, having a regard to these facts,
Aristophanes also said--
But O thou Phoebus, them who sharpenest
The Delphian knives, and with an early warning
Givest instruction to thy ministers.
And, in the lines immediately following the former passage, Achæus
says--
Why do you stay conceal'd,
Namesake of all the knives which cooks employ?
For the Satyrs ridicule the Delphians, as devoting all their time and
attention to festivals and sacrifices. And Semus says, in the fourth
book of his Deliad, "The Delians used to provide the Delphians who came
to Delos with salt, and vinegar, and oil, and wood, and counterpanes."
And Aristotle, or Theophrastus, in his Commentaries, speaking of the
Magnesians who dwell on the banks of the river Mæander, as colonists of
the Delphians, represents them as showing the same attentions to all
foreigners who came to them; speaking as follows:--"The Magnesians who
dwell on the banks of the river Mæander, being sacred to the god, and
colonists of the Delphians, give shelter to all who come among them, and
salt, and oil, and vinegar, and lights, and beds, and coverlets, and
tables."
But Demetrius the Scepsian, in the sixteenth book of his Trojan Array,
says that in Laconia, on the road which is called the Hyacinthine road,
statues of the heroes Daiton and Ceraon were erected by those who made
barley-cakes at the Phiditia, and by the attendants who mixed the wine.
And the same writer reports also, in the twenty-fourth book of the same
work, that Daitas the hero is worshipped among the Trojans, who is also
mentioned by Mimnermus. And Hegesander the Delphian says that Jupiter is
worshipped in Cyprus, under the names of Eilapinastes or the Feaster,
and of Splanchnotomus or the Carver of Entrails.
75. And while much such conversation as this was proceeding, on a sudden
a noise was heard from some one of the neighbouring places, as from an
hydraulic organ, very pleasant and agreeable, so that we all turned
round towards it, being charmed by the melody; and Ulpian looking
towards the musical Alcides said, Do you hear, O you most musical of
men, this beautiful harmony which has made us turn round, being
enchanted by the music? And is it not the case, as it is said to be
among you Alexandrians, that constant music of an unaccompanied flute
causes pain rather than any musical pleasure to those who hear it? And
Alcides said,--But this engine, the hydraulic organ, whether you choose
to class it among stringed instruments or among wind instruments, is the
invention of a fellow-countryman of ours, an Alexandrian, a barber by
trade; and his name is Ctesibius. And Aristocles reports this, in his
book on Choruses, saying--"The question is asked, whether the hydraulic
organ is a stringed instrument or a wind instrument." Now Aristoxenus
did not feel sure on this point; but it is said, that Plato showed a
sort of notion of the invention, making a nightly clock like the
hydraulic organ; being very like an enormous hour-glass. And, indeed,
the hydraulic organ does seem to be a kind of hour-glass. It cannot,
therefore, be considered a stringed instrument, and one to be played by
touching. But perhaps it may be called a wind instrument, because the
organ is inflated by the water; for the pipes are plunged down into the
water, and when the water is agitated by a youth, as the axles penetrate
through the whole organ, the pipes are inflated, and emit a gentle and
agreeable sound. And this organ is like a round altar; and they say that
it was invented by Ctesibius the barber, who dwelt at that time in the
territory of Aspendor, in the reign of the second Ptolemy surnamed
Euergetes; and they say that he was a very eminent man; they say also,
that he learnt a good deal from his wife Thais. But Trypho, in the third
book of his treatise on Names, (and it is a dissertation on Flutes and
Organs,) says Ctesibius the mechanic wrote a book about the hydraulis;
but I am not sure that he is not mistaken as to the name. At all events,
Aristoxenus prefers stringed instruments which are played upon by the
touch to wind instruments; saying that wind instruments are very easy;
for that many people, without having been taught, can play on the flute
and pipe, as for instance, shepherds.
76. And this is what I have got to say to you about the hydraulic organ,
O Ulpian. For the Phoenicians used a kind of flute called the gingras,
according to the account of Xenophon, about a span in length, and of a
very shrill and mournful tone. And the same instrument is used also by
the Carians in their wailings, unless, indeed, when he says Phoenicia
he means Caria; and indeed you may find the name used so in Corinna and
in Bacchylides. And these flutes are called gingri by the Phoenicians
from the lamentations for Adonis; for you Phoenicians called Adonis
Gingres, as Democlides tells us. And Antiphanes mentions the gingri
flutes, in his Physician; and Menander does so too, in his Carina; and
Amphis, in his Dithyrambus, saying--
_A._ And I have got that admirable gingras.
_B._ What is the gingras?
_A._ 'Tis a new invention
Of our countryman, which never yet
Has been exhibited in any theatre,
But is a luxury of Athenian banquets.
_B._ Why then not introduce it to this people?
_A._ Because I think that I shall draw by lot
Some most ambitious tribe; for well I know
They would disturb all things with their applause.
And Axionicus says, in his Phileuripides--
For they are both so sick with love
Of the melodious strains of soft Euripides,
That every other music seems to them
Shrill as the gingras, and a mere misfortune.
77. But how much better, O most sagacious Ulpian, is this hydraulic
organ, than the instrument which is called nabla; which Sopater the
parodist, in his drama entitled Pylæ, says is also an invention of the
Phoenicians, using the following expressions--
Nor is the noise of the Sidonian nabla,
Which from the throat doth flow, at all impair'd.
And in the Slave of Mystacus we find--
Among the instruments of harmony
The nablas comes, not over soft or sweet;
By its long sides a lifeless lotus fix'd
Sends forth a breathed music; and excites men,
Singing in Bacchic strain a merry song.
And Philemon says, in his Adulterer--
_A._ There should, O Parmeno, be here among us
A nablas or a female flute-player.
_B._ What is a nablas?
_A._ Don't you know? you idiot!
_B._ Indeed I don't.
_A._ What, do not know a nablas?
You know no good; perhaps a sambucistria
You ne'er have heard of either?
There is also an instrument called the triangle, which Juba mentions in
the fourth book of his Theatrical History, and says it is an invention
of the Syrians; as is also the sambuca, which is called =lyrophoinix=.
But this instrument Neanthes the Cyzicene, in the first book of his
Seasons, says is an invention of Ibycus the Rhegian poet; as also the
lyre called barbitos was of Anacreon. But since you are running all us
Alexandrians down as unmusical, and keep mentioning the monaulos as our
only national instrument, listen now to what I can tell you offhand
about that.
78. For Juba, in the before-mentioned treatise, says that the Egyptians
call the monaulos an invention of Osiris, just as they say that kind of
plagiaulos is, which is called photinx, and that, too, I will presently
show you is mentioned by a very illustrious author; for the photinx is
the same as the flute, which is a national instrument. But Sophocles, in
his Thamyras, speaks of the monaulos, saying--
For all the tuneful melodies of pipes =pêktides=
Are lost, the lyre, and monaulos too.
* * * * *
And Araros, in his Birth of Pan, says--
But he, can you believe it? seized at once
On the monaulos, and leapt lightly forth.
And Anaxandrides, in his Treasure, says--
I the monaulos took, and sang a wedding song.
And in his Bottle-bearer he says--
_A._ What have you done, you Syrian, with your monaulos?
_B._ What monaulos?
_A._ The reed.
And Sopater, in his Bacchis, says--
And then he sang a song on the monaulos.
But Protagorides of Cyzicus, in the second book of his treatise on the
Assemblies in Honour of Daphne, says, "He touched every kind of
instrument, one after another, castanets, the weak-sounding pandurus,
but he drew the sweetest harmony from the sweet monaulos. And Posidonius
the Stoic philosopher, in the third book of his Histories, speaking of
the war of the Apameans against the Larissæans, writes as
follows--"Having taken short daggers sticking in their waists, and small
lances covered with rust and dirt, and having put veils and curtains
over their heads which produce a shade but do not hinder the wind from
getting to their necks, dragging on asses laden with wine and every sort
of meat, by the side of which were packed little photinges and little
monauli, instruments of revelry, not of war." But I am not ignorant that
Amerias the Macedonian, in his Dialects, says, that the monaulos is
called tityrinus. So here you have, O excellent Ulpian, a man who
mentions the photinx. But that the monaulos was the same instrument
which is now called calamaules, or reedfife, is clearly shown by
Hedylus, in his Epigrams, where he says--
Beneath this mound the tuneful Theon lies,
Whom the monaulos knew its sweetest lord;
Scirpalus' son; age had destroy'd his sight,
And when he was a child his sire him call'd
Eupalamus in his first birthday ode,
Showing that he was a choice bouquet where
The virtues all had met. For well he sung
The Muses' sports amid their wine-glad revels;
He sang to Battalus, an eager drinker
Of unmix'd wine, and Cotalus and Pæncalus.
Say then to Theon with his calamaules,
Farewell, O Theon, tunefullest of men.
As, therefore, they now call those who play on a pipe of reeds
(=kalamoi=) calamaules, so also they call them now rapaules, according
to the statement of Amerias the Macedonian, in his dialects.
79. But I wish you to know, my most excellent Ulpian, that a more
musical and accomplished people than the Alexandrians is not mentioned.
And I do not speak only of playing on the harp, with which even the
poorest people among us, and those who do not make a profession of it,
and who are utterly ignorant of every other kind of learning, are so
familiarized that they can in a moment detect any error which has been
made in striking the strings,--but especially are they skilful with the
flute; and not only in those which are called girls' flutes and boys'
flutes, but also in men's flutes, which are called perfect and
superperfect; and also in those which are called harp-flutes and
finger-flutes. For the flutes called elymi, which Sophocles mentions in
his Niobe and in his Drummers, we do not understand to be anything but
the common Phrygian flute. And these, too, the Alexandrians are very
skilful in. They are acquainted also with the flute with two holes, and
also with the intermediate flute, and with those which are called
hypotreti, or bored underneath. And Callias also speaks of the flute
called elymi, in his Pedetæ. But Juba says that they are an invention of
the Phrygians, and that they were also called scytaliæ, from their
resemblance in thickness to the scytale. And Cratinus the younger says
that the Cyprians also use them, in his Theramenes. We know, too, of
some which are called half-bored, of which Anacreon says--
What lust has now seized thus upon your mind,
To wish to dance to tender half-bored flutes?
And these flutes are smaller than the perfect flutes. At all events,
Æschylus says, speaking metaphorically, in his Ixion--
But very soon the greater swallows up
The lesser and the half-bored flute.
And these half-bored flutes are the same as those which are called boys'
flutes, which they use at banquets, not being fit for the games and
public shows; on which account Anacreon called them tender.
80. I am acquainted, too, with other kinds of flutes, the tragic flute,
and the lysiodic[283:1] flute, and the harplike flute; all which are
mentioned by Ephorus, in his Inventions, and by Euphranor the
Pythagorean, in his treatise on Flutes, and also by Alexon, who wrote
another treatise on Flutes. But the flute made of reeds is called
tityrinus among the Dorians in Italy, as Artemidorus the Aristophanian
tells us, in the second book of his History of Doris. And the flute
which is called magadis, which is also named palæo-magadis, sends forth
a sharp and a deep note at the same time, as Anaxandrides says in his
Armed Fighter--
I will speak like a magadis, both loudly and gently.
And the flutes called lotus flutes are the same which are called
photinges by the Alexandrians; and they are made of the plant called the
lotus; and this is a wood which grows in Libya. But Juba says that the
flute which is made out of the leg bones of the kid is an invention of
the Thebans; and Tryphon says that those flutes also which are called
elephantine flutes were first bored among the Phoenicians. I know,
too, that the magadis is a stringed instrument, as is the harp, the
lyre, and the barbitos. But Euphorion the epic poet says in his book on
the Isthmian Games--"Those men who are now called players on the nablas,
and on the pandurus, and on the sambuca, do not use any new instrument,
for the baromus and the barbitos (both of which are mentioned by Sappho
and Anacreon), and the magadis, and the triangle, and the sambuca are
all ancient instruments. At all events, a statue of one of the Muses was
erected in Mitylene by Lesbothemis, holding a sambuca in her hand." But
Aristoxenus calls the following foreign instruments--phoenices, and
pectides, and magadides, and sambucæ, and triangles, and clepsiambi, and
scindapsi, and the instrument called the enneachord or nine-stringed
instrument. But Plato, in the third book of his Polity, states--"'We
shall not, then,' said I, 'have much need of many strings or of much
harmony in our songs and melodies.' 'I think not,' said he. 'But we
shall have triangles, and pectides, and all sorts of instruments which
have many strings and are very harmonious.'"
81. But the scindapsus is an instrument of four strings, as Matron the
parodist says in the following lines--
Nor did they hang it upon pegs where hung
The sweet scindapsus with its fourfold strings,
Joy of the woman who the distaff hates.
And Theopompus the Colophonian likewise mentions it, the Epic poet, I
mean, in his poem entitled the Chariot--
Shaking the large and lyre-toned scindapsus,
Made of young tamarisk, in his skilful hand.
Anaxilas, too, in his Lyre Maker, says--
But I was making three-string'd barbiti,
Pectides, citharæ, lyres, and scindapsi.
But Sopater the parodist, in his poem entitled "The Initiated," says
that the pectis is an instrument with two strings, saying--
The pectis, proud of its barbaric muse,
With its two strings was placed within my hand.
The instrument called pariambis is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his
Periallus, in this way--
But Semele doth dance and he doth sing
Tunefully on his pariambis lyre,
And she rejoices at the rapid song.
Now it was Alexander of Cythera, according to the account given by Juba,
who completed the psaltery with its full number of strings. And he, when
he had grown old in the city of the Ephesians, suspended this instrument
in the temple of Diana, as being the most skilful invention he had made
with reference to his art. Juba mentions also the lyrophoenix and the
Epigonius, which, though now it is transformed into the upright
psaltery, still preserves the name of the man who was the first to use
it. But Epigonius was by birth an Ambraciot, but he was subsequently
made a citizen of Sicyon. And he was a man of great skill in music, so
that he played the lyre with his bare hand without a plectrum. For the
Alexandrians have great experience and skill in all the above-named
instruments and kinds of flutes. And whichever of them you wish me to
try, I will exhibit my own skill before you, though there are many
others in my country more musical and skilful than I am.
82. But Alexander, my fellow-citizen, and he has only lately died;
having given a public exhibition of his skill on the instrument called
the triangle, made all the Romans so music-mad that even now most people
recollect the way in which he used to play. And Sophocles speaks of this
triangle in his Mysians, saying--
The constant music of the Phrygian
Tender triangle, and the concerted strains
Of the shrill Lydian pectis sounded too.
And in his Thamyras he also mentions it. But Aristophanes, in his
Daitaleis, and Theopompus, in his Penelope, likewise speak of it. And
Eupolis, in his Baptæ, says--
Who plays the drum with wondrous skill,
And strikes the strings of the triangle.
And the instrument called the pandurus is mentioned, as has been said
before, by Euphorion, and by Protagorides, in the second book of his
treatise on the Assemblies in honour of Daphne. But Pythagoras, who
wrote a book on the Red Sea, says that the Troglodytæ make the panduri
out of the daphne which grows on the seashore.
But horns and trumpets are the invention of the Etrurians. But
Metrodorus the Chian, in his history of the Affairs of Troy, says that
Marsyas invented the pipe and flute at Celænæ, when all his predecessors
had played on a single reed. But Euphorion the epic poet, in his
treatise on the Modulation of Songs, says that Mercury invented the pipe
which consists of one single reed; but that some say that Seuthes and
Ronaces the Medes did so; and that Sileuus invented the pipe which is
made of many reeds, and that Marsyas invented that one which is joined
together with wax.
83. This then, O my word-hunting Ulpian, is what you may learn from us
Alexandrians, who are very fond of the music of the monaulos. For you do
not know that Menecles the Barcæan compiler, and also that Andron, in
his Chronicles, him of Alexandria I mean, assert that it is the
Alexandrians who instructed all the Greeks and the barbarians, when the
former encyclic mode of education began to fail, on account of the
incessant commotions which took place in the times of the successors of
Alexander. There was subsequently a regeneration of all sorts of
learning in the time of Ptolemy the seventh king of Egypt, the one who
was properly called by the Alexandrians Cacergetes; for he having
murdered many of the Alexandrians, and banished no small number of those
who had grown up to manhood with his brother, filled all the islands and
cities with men learned in grammar, and philosophy, and geometry, with
musicians, and painters, and schoolmasters, and physicians, and men of
all kinds of trades and professions; who, being driven by poverty to
teach what they knew, produced a great number of celebrated pupils.
84. But music was a favourite amusement of all the Greeks of old time;
on which account also skill in playing the flute was much aimed at.
Accordingly, Chamæleon of Heraclia, in his book entitled Protrepticus,
says that the Lacedæmonians and Thebans all learned to play on the
flute, and the inhabitants of Heraclea in Pontus devoted themselves to
the same study down to his own time. And that so did the most
illustrious of the Athenians, Callias the son of Hipponicus, and Critias
the son of Callæschrus. But Duris, in his treatise on Euripides and
Sophocles, says that Alcibiades learnt music, not of any ordinary
master, but of Pronomus, who had the very highest reputation in that
line. And Aristoxenus says that Epaminondas the Theban learnt to play
the flute of Olympiodorus and Orthagoras. And likewise, many of the
Pythagoreans practised the art of flute-playing, as Euphranor, and
Archytas, and Philolaus, and many others. But Euphranor has also left
behind an essay on Flutes, and so too has Archytas. And Aristophanes
shows us, in his Daitaleis, the great eagerness with which men applied
themselves to this study, when he says--
I who am wasted quite away
In the study of flutes and harps,
Am I now to be sent to dig?
And Phrynichus, in his Ephialtes, says--
But were not you the man who taught him once
To play upon the flute and well-strung harp?
And Epicharmus, in his Muses, says that Minerva played a martial strain
to the Dioscuri. And Ion, in his Phoenician, or Cæneus, calls the
flute a cock, speaking thus:--
The cock then sang the Greeks a Lydian hymn.
And also, in his Garrison, he calls the pipe the Idæan cock, using the
following expression:--
The pipe, th'Idæan cock, precedes your steps.
And, in the Second Phoenix, the same Ion writes--
I made a noise, bringing the deep-toned flute
With fluent rhythm.
Where he means Phrygian rhythm; and he calls the Phrygian flute
deep-toned. For it is deep; on which account they also add a horn to it,
having a similarity to the bell mouth of trumpets.
So now this book may be ended, my friend Timocrates; as it is quite long
enough.
FOOTNOTES:
[210:1] Theophrastus was a disciple of Aristotle, and succeeded him as
head of the Lyceum, so that this time would be about 310 B.C.
[211:1] A cotyla held about half a pint.
[212:1] Held on the thirteenth day of the month Anthesterion; being the
first day of the great festival Anthesteria.
[218:1] The cercope, or monkey-grasshopper, was so called from having a
long tail like a monkey (=kerkôps=).
[220:1] See Pope's Homer for his version of the different parts
parodied. Odyss. i. 1.
[220:2] Iliad, x. 436.
[220:3] Ib. xx. 223.
[220:4] Odyss. v. 51.
[220:5] Iliad, xxiii. 51.
[220:6] Odyss. i. 334.
[221:1] This was a Greek proverb. See Aristophanes, Eq. 1279.
[221:2] Odyss. xi. 575.
[221:3] Ib. xi. 543.
[221:4] Ib. ix. 27.
[221:5] Iliad, ii. 745.
[222:1] Odyss. ix 292.
[222:2] Iliad, ii. 489.
[225:1] From =tithênê=, a nurse.
[227:1] From =kaptô=, to swallow.
[228:1] The Attic medimnus contained nearly twelve gallons.
[228:2] The =chous= held about three quarts.
[228:3] An obol was about three half-pence or rather more.
[229:1] From =skia=, shade.
[230:1] A cotyla held about half a pint.
[230:2] A cyathus held about a twelfth part of a pint.
[232:1] A stater was about 3_s._ 3_d._
[238:1] I have only attempted here to extract a few of the sentences and
words which appeared a little intelligible. The whole quotation is
perhaps the most hopelessly corrupt in all Athenæus. Schweighauser
says,--"Even the most learned men have given up the whole extract in
despair," and that it is only a very few words from which he can extract
any sense by the greatest freedom of conjecture.
[244:1] A choenix held about a quart.
[244:2] The magadis was a three-cornered instrument like a harp, with
twenty strings arranged in octaves, like the =pêktis=. It was also a
Lydian name for a peculiar kind of flute or flageolet, producing a high
and low note at the same time. V. Liddell and Scott in voc.
[264:1] The term =halmê=, _brine_, seems used here of a troublesome
fellow; something in the same spirit as we call a person "a pickle."
[274:1] This is a mistake; the passage occurs in the first book.
[275:1] The candylus or candaulus was the name of a Lydian dish.
[283:1] "=Lysiôdos, ho kai hê=, a man who played women's characters in
male attire; so called from Lysis, who wrote songs for such
actors."--Liddell and Scott, in voc.