The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 12

O'er the first gla.s.s the Graces three preside, And with the smiling Hours the palm divide; Next Bacchus, parent of the sacred vine, And Venus, loveliest daughter of the brine, Smile on the second cup, which cheers the heart, And bids the drinker home in peace depart.

But the third cup is waste and sad excess, Parent of wrongs, denier of redress; Oh, who can tell what evils may befall When Strife and Insult rage throughout the hall?

Content thee, then, my friend, with gla.s.ses twain; Then to your home and tender wife again; While your companions, with unaching heads, By your example taught, will seek their beds.

But riot will be bred by too much wine, A mournful ending for a feast divine; While, then, you live, your thirst in bounds confine.

And a few lines afterwards he says of immoderate drinking--

For Insolence and Ruin follow it.

According to Euripides,

Drinking is sire of blows and violence.

From which some have said that the pedigree of Bacchus and of Insolence were the same.

4. And Alexis says somewhere--

Man's nature doth in much resemble wine: For young men and new wine do both need age To ripen their too warm unseason'd strength, And let their violence evaporate.

But when the grosser portions are worked off, And all the froth is skimm'd, then both are good; The wine is drinkable, the man is wise, And both in future pleasant while they last.

And according to the bard of Cyrene--

Wine is like fire when 'tis to man applied, Or like the storm that sweeps the Libyan tide; The furious wind the lowest depths can reach, And wine robs man of knowledge, sense, and speech.

But in some other place Alexis says the contrary to what I have just cited:--

_A._ Man in no one respect resembles wine: For man by age is made intolerable; But age improves all wine.

_B._ Yes; for old wines cheer us, But old men only snarl, abuse, and jeer us.

And Panyasis says--

Wine is like fire, an aid and sweet relief, Wards off all ills, and comforts every grief; Wine can of every feast the joys enhance, It kindles soft desire, it leads the dance.

Think not then, childlike, much of solid food, But stick to wine, the only real good.

And again--

Good wine's the gift which G.o.d has given To man alone beneath the heaven; Of dance and song the genial sire, Of friendship gay and soft desire; Yet rule it with a tighten'd rein, Nor moderate wisdom's rules disdain; For when uncheck'd there's nought runs faster,-- A useful slave, but cruel master.

5. Timaeus of Tauromenium relates that there was a certain house at Agrigentum called the Trireme, on this account:--Some young men got drunk in it, and got so mad when excited by the wine, as to think that they were sailing in a trireme, and that they were being tossed about on the sea in a violent storm; and so completely did they lose their senses, that they threw all the furniture, and all the sofas and chairs and beds, out of window, as if they were throwing them into the sea, fancying that the captain had ordered them to lighten the ship because of the storm. And though a crowd collected round the house and began to plunder what was thrown out, even that did not cure the young men of their frenzy. And the next day, when the praetors came to the house, there were the young men still lying, sea-sick as they said; and, when the magistrates questioned them, they replied that they had been in great danger from a storm, and had consequently been compelled to lighten the ship by throwing all their superfluous cargo into the sea.

And while the magistrates marvelled at the bewilderment of the men, one of them, who seemed to be older than the rest, said, "I, O Tritons, was so frightened that I threw myself down under the benches, and lay there as low down and as much out of sight as I could." And the magistrates forgave their folly, and dismissed them with a reproof, and a warning not to indulge in too much wine in future. And they, professing to be much obliged to them, said, "If we arrive in port after having escaped this terrible storm, we will erect in our own country statues of you as our saviours in a conspicuous place, along with those of the other G.o.ds of the sea, as having appeared to us at a seasonable time." And from this circ.u.mstance that house was called the Trireme.

6. But Philochorus says that men who drink hard do not only show what sort of disposition they themselves are of, but do also reveal in their chattering the characters of every one else whom they know. Whence comes the proverb,

Wine and truth;[62:1]

and the sentence,

Wine lays bare the heart of man.

And so in the contests of Bacchus the prize of victory is a tripod: and we have a proverb of those who speak truth, that "they are speaking from the tripod;" in which the tripod meant is the cup of Bacchus. For there were among the ancients two kinds of tripods, each of which, as it happened, bore the name of ????, or _bowl_; one, which was used to be put on the fire, being a sort of kettle for bathing, as aeschylus says--

They pour'd the water in a three-legg'd bowl, Which always has its place upon the fire:

and the other is what is also called ??at??, a _goblet_. Homer says--

And seven fireless tripods.

And in these last they mixed wine; and it is this last tripod that is the tripod of truth; and it is considered appropriate to Apollo, because of the truth of his prophetic art; and to Bacchus, because of the truth which people speak when drunk. And Semus the Delian says--"A brazen tripod, not the Pythian one, but that which they now call a bowl. And of these bowls some were never put on the fire, and men mixed their wine in them; and the others held water for baths, and in them they warmed the water, putting them on the fire; and of these some had ears, and having their bottom supported by three feet they were called tripods."

Ephippus says somewhere or other--

_A._ That load of wine makes you a chatterer.

_B._ That's why they say that drunken men speak truth.

And Antiphanes writes--

There are only two secrets a man cannot keep, One when he's in love, t' other when he's drunk deep: For these facts are so proved by his tongue or his eyes, That we see it more plainly the more he denies.

7. And Philochorus relates that Amphictyon, the king of the Athenians, having learnt of Bacchus the art of mixing wine, was the first man who ever did mix it: and that it is owing to him that men who have been drinking on his system can walk straight afterwards, when before they used to blunder about after drinking sheer wine: and on this account he erected an altar to the Straight Bacchus in the temple of the Seasons; for they are the Nymphs who cherish the fruit of the vine. And near it he built also an altar to the Nymphs, as a memorial to all who use mixed drink; for the Nymphs are said to have been the nurses of Bacchus. And he made a law to bring an unmixed wine after meals only just enough to taste, as a token of the power of the Good Deity. But the rest of the wine was put on the table ready mixed, in whatever quant.i.ty any one chose. And then he enjoined the guests to invoke in addition the name of Jupiter the Saviour, for the sake of instructing and reminding the drinkers that by drinking in that fashion they would be preserved from injury. But Plato, in his second book of the Laws, says that the use of wine is to be encouraged for the sake of health. But on account of the look which habitual drunkards get, they liken Bacchus to a bull; and to a leopard, because he excites drunkards to acts of violence. And Alcaeus says--

Wine sometimes than honey sweeter, Sometimes more than nettles bitter.

Some men, too, are apt to get in a rage when drunk; and they are like a bull. Euripides says--

Fierce bulls, their pa.s.sion with their horns displaying.

And some men, from their quarrelsome disposition when drunk, are like wild beasts, on which account it is that Bacchus is likened to a leopard.

8. Well was it then that Ariston the Chian said that that was the most agreeable drink which partook at the same time of both sweetness and fragrance; for which reason some people prepare what is called nectar about the Olympus which is in Lydia, mixing wine and honeycombs and the most fragrant flowers together. Though I am aware indeed that Anaxandrides says that nectar is not the drink, but the meat of the G.o.ds:--

Nectar I eat, and well do gnaw it; Ambrosia drink, (you never saw it); I act as cupbearer to Jove, And chat to Juno--not of love; And oftentimes I sit by Venus, With marplot none to come between us.

And Alcman says--

Nectar they eat at will.

And Sappho says--

The goblets rich were with ambrosia crown'd, Which Hermes bore to all the G.o.ds around.

But Homer was acquainted with nectar as the drink of the G.o.ds. And Ibycus says that ambrosia is nine times as sweet as honey; stating expressly that honey has just one-ninth part of the power of ambrosia as far as sweetness goes.

9.

One fond of wine must be an honest man; For Bacchus, for his double mother famed, Loves not bad men, nor uninstructed clowns,

says Alexis. He adds, moreover, that wine makes all men who drink much of it fond of talking. And the author of the Epigram on Cratinus says--