The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 26

Then, in a little while, a well-fill'd basket Of dry Chelidonian figs is brought in.

And Androtion, or Philippus, or Hegemon, in the Book of the Farm, gives a list of these kinds of figs, saying--"In the plain it is desirable to plant specimens of the Chelidonian fig, of the fig called Erinean, of the Leukerinean, and of the Phibalean; but plant the Oporobasilis, the queen of autumn, everywhere; for each kind has some useful qualities; and, above all, the pollarded trees, and the phormynian, and the double-bearers, and the Megarian, and the Lacedaemonian kinds are desirable, if there is plenty of water.

8. Lynceus, too, mentions the fig-trees which grow in Rhodes, in his Epistles; inst.i.tuting a comparison between the best of the Athenian kinds and the Rhodian species. And he writes in these terms:--"But these fig-trees appear to vie with Lacedaemonian trees of the same kind, as mulberries do with figs; and they are put on the table before supper, not after supper as they are here, when the taste is already vitiated by satiety, but while the appet.i.te is still uninfluenced and unappeased."

And if Lynceus had tasted the figs which in the beautiful Rome are called ?a???st?????a, as I have, he would have been by far more long-sighted than ever his namesake was. So very far superior are those figs to all the other figs in the whole world.

Other kinds of figs grown near Rome are held in high esteem; and those called the Chian figs, and the Libianian; those two named the Chalcidic, and the African figs; as Herodotus the Lycian bears witness, in his treatise on Figs.

9. But Parmeno the Byzantine, in his Iambics, speaks of the figs which come from Canae, an aeolian city, as the best of all: saying--

I am arrived after a long voyage, not having brought A valuable freight of Canaean figs.

And that the figs from Caunus, a city of Caria, are much praised, is known to all the world. There is another sort of fig, called the Oxalian, which Heracleon the Ephesian makes mention of, and Nicander of Thyatira, quoting what is mentioned by Apollodorus of Carystus, in his play, called the "Dress-seller with a Dowry;" where he says--

Moreover, all the wine Was very sour and thin, so that I felt Ashamed to see it; for all other farms In the adjacent region bear the figs Ycleped Oxalian; and mine bears vines.

Figs also grow in the island of Paros, for those which are called by the Parians a????a are a different fig from the common one, and are not what I am alluding to here; for the a????a are the same with those which are called Lydian figs; and they have obtained this name on account of their red colour, since a?a means blood, and they are mentioned by Archilochus, who speaks in this manner:--

Never mind Paros, and the figs which grow Within that marble island, and the life Of its seafaring islanders.

But these figs are as far superior to the ordinary run of figs which are grown in other places as the meat of the wild boar is superior to that of all other animals of the swine tribe which are not wild.

10. The ?e??e???e?? is a kind of fig-tree; and perhaps it is that kind which produces the white figs; Hermippus mentions it in his Iambics, in these terms--

There are besides the Leucerinean figs.

And the figs called ????e??, or ??????, are mentioned by Euripides in his "Sciron"--

Or else to fasten him on the erinean boughs.

And Epicharmus says, in his Sphinx,--

But these are not like the erinean figs.

And Sophocles, in his play ent.i.tled "The Wedding of Helen," by a sort of metaphor, calls the fruit itself by the name of the tree; saying--

A ripe ?????? is a useless thing For food, and yet you ripen others by Your conversation.

And he uses the masculine gender here, saying p?p?? ??????, instead of p?p?? ??????. Alexis also says in his "Caldron"--

And why now need we speak of people who Sell every day their figs in close pack'd baskets, And constantly do place those figs below Which are hard and bad; but on top they range The ripe and beautiful fruit. And then a comrade, As if he'd bought the basket, gives the price; The seller, putting in his mouth the coin, Sells wild figs (????a) while he swears he's selling good ones.

Now the tree, the wild fig, from which the fruit meant by the term ????a comes, is called ??????, being a masculine noun. Strattis says, in his Troilus--

Have you not perceived a wild fig-tree near her?

And Homer says--

There stands a large wild fig-tree flourishing with leaves.

And Amerias says, that the figs on the wild fig-trees are called ????a?a?.

11. Hermonax, in his book on the Cretan Languages, gives a catalogue of the different kinds of figs, and speaks of some as ??dea and as ?????ea; and Philemon, in his book on Attic Dialects, says, that some figs are called royals, from which also the dried figs are called as???de?, or royal; stating besides, that the ripe figs are called ????t?a. Seleucus, too, in his Book on Dialects, says that there is a fruit called ?????s?d? being exceedingly like a fig in shape: and that women guard against eating them, because of their evil effects; as also Plato the comic writer says, in his Cleophon. And Pamphilus says, that the winter figs are called Cydonaea by the Achaeans, saying, that Aristophanes said the very same thing in his Lacedaemonian Dialects. Hermippus, in his Soldiers, says that there is a kind of fig called Coracean, using these words--

Either Phibalean figs, or Coracean.

Theophrastus, in the second book of his treatise on Plants, says that there is a sort of fig called Charitian Aratean. And in his third book he says, that in the district around the Trojan Ida, there is a sort of fig growing in a low bush, having a leaf like that of the linden-tree; and that it bears red figs, about the size of an olive, but rounder, and in its taste like a medlar. And concerning the fig which is called in Crete the Cyprian fig, the same Theophrastus, in his fourth book of his History of Plants, writes as follows:--"The fig called in Crete the Cyprian fig, bears fruit from its stalk, and from its stoutest branches; and it sends forth a small leafless shoot, like a little root, attached to which is the fruit. The trunk is large, and very like that of the white poplar, and its leaf is like that of the elm. And it produces four fruits, according to the number of the shoots which it puts forth. Its sweetness resembles that of the common fig; and within it resembles the wild fig: but in size it is about equal to the cuckoo-apple.

12. Again, of the figs called _prodromi_, or precocious, the same Theophrastus makes mention in the third book of his Causes of Plants, in this way--"When a warm and damp and soft air comes to the fig-tree, then it excites the germination, from which the figs are called prodromi." And proceeding further, he says--"And again, some trees bear the prodromi, namely, the Lacedaemonian fig-tree, and the leucomphaliac, and several others; but some do not bear them." But Seleucus, in his book on Languages, says that there is a kind of fig called p??te????, which bears very early fruit. And Aristophanes, in his Ecclesiazusae, speaks of a double-bearing fig-tree--

Take for a while the fig-tree's leaves Which bears its crop twice in the year.

And Antiphanes says, in his Scleriae--

'Tis by the double-bearing fig-tree there below.

But Theopompus, in the fifty-fourth book of his Histories, says--"At the time when Philip reigned about the territory of the Bisaltae, and Amphipolis and Graestonia, of Macedon, when it was the middle of spring, the fig-trees were loaded with figs, and the vines with bunches of grapes, and the olive-trees, though it was only the season for them to be just pushing, were full of olives. And Philip was successful in all his undertakings." But in the second book of his treatise on Plants, Theophrastus says that the wild fig also is double-bearing; and some say that it bears even three crops in the year, as for instance, at Ceos.

13. Theophrastus also says, that the fig-tree if planted among squills grows up faster, and is not so liable to be destroyed by worms: and, in fact, that everything which is planted among squills both grows faster and is more sure to be vigorous. And in a subsequent pa.s.sage Theophrastus says, in the second book of his Causes--"The fig called the Indian fig, though it is a tree of a wonderful size, bears a very small fruit; and not much of it; as if it had expended all its strength in making wood." And in the second book of his History of Plants, the philosopher says--"There is also another kind of fig in Greece, and in Cilicia and Cyprus, which bears green figs; and that tree bears a real fig, s???? in front of the leaf, and a green fig, ??????? behind the leaf.

And these green figs grow wholly on the wood which is a year old, and not on the new wood." And this kind of fig-tree produces the green fig ripe and sweet, very different from the green fig which we have; and it grows to a much greater size than the genuine fig. And the time when it is in season is not long after the tree has made its wood. And I know, too, that there are many other names of fig-trees; there are the Royal, and the Fig Royal, and the Cirrocladian, and the Hyladian, and the Deerflesh, and the Lapyrian, and the Subbitter, and the Dragon-headed, and the White-faced, and the Black-faced, and the Fountain fig, and the Mylaic, and the Ascalonian.

14. Tryphon also speaks of the names of figs in the second book of his History of Plants, and says that Dorion states, in his book of the Farm, that Sukeas, one of the t.i.tans, being pursued by Jupiter, was received in her bosom as in an asylum by his mother Earth; and that the earth sent forth that plant as a place of refuge for her son; from whom also the city Sukea in Cilicia has its name. But Pherenicus the epic poet, a Heraclean by birth, says that the fig-tree, (s???) is so called from Suke the daughter of Oxylus: for that Oxylus the son of Orius, having intrigued with his sister Hamadryas, had several children, and among them Carya (the nut-tree), Bala.n.u.s (the acorn-bearing oak), Craneus (the cornel-tree), Orea (the ash), aegeirus (the poplar), Ptelea (the elm), Ampelus (the vine), Suke (the fig-tree): and that these daughters were all called the Hamadryad Nymphs; and that from them many of the trees were named. On which account Hipponax says--

The fig-tree black, the sister of the vine.

And Sosibius the Lacedaemonian, after stating that the fig-tree was the discovery of Bacchus, says that on this account the Lacedaemonians worship Bacchus Sukites. But the people of Naxus, as Andriscus and Aglaosthenes related, state that Bacchus is called Meilichius, because of his gift of the fruit of the fig-tree: and that on this account the face of the G.o.d whom they call Bacchus Dionysus is like a vine, and that of the G.o.d called Bacchus Meilichius is like a fig. For figs are called e????a by the Naxians.

15. Now that the fig is the most useful to man of all the fruits which grow upon trees is sufficiently shown by Herodotus the Lycian, who urges this point at great length, in his treatise on Figs. For he says that young children grow to a great size if they are fed on the juice of figs. And Pherecrates, who wrote the Persae, says--

If any one of us, after absence, sees a fig, He will apply it like a plaster to his children's eyes:

as if there were no ordinary medicinal power in the fig. And Herodotus, the most wonderful and sweet of all writers, says in the first book of his Histories, that figs are of the greatest good, speaking thus:--"O king, you are preparing to make war upon men of this character, who wear breeches of leather, and all the rest of their garments are made of leather; and they eat not whatever they fancy, but what they have, since they have but a rough country; moreover they do not, by Jove, use wine, but they drink water; they have no figs to eat, nor any other good thing."

And Polybius of Megalopolis, in the twelfth book of his Histories, says--"Philip, the father of Perseus, when he overran Asia, being in want of provisions, took figs for his soldiers from the Magnesians, as they had no corn. On which account, too, when he became master of Myus, he gave that place to the Magnesians in return for their figs." And Ananius, the writer of Iambics, says--

He who should shut up gold within his house, And a few figs, and two or three men, Would see how far the figs surpa.s.s the gold.

16. And when Magnus had said all this about figs, Daphnus the physician said: Philotimus, in the third book of his treatise on Figs, says, "There is a great deal of difference between the various kinds of figs when fresh; both in their sorts, and in the times when each is in season, and in their effects; not but what one may lay down some general rules, and say that the juicy ones and those which are full ripe are quickly dissolved and are digested more easily than any other fruit whatever, nor do they interfere with the digestion of other sorts of food; and they have the ordinary properties of all juicy food, being glutinous and sweet, and slightly nitrous in taste. And they make the evacuations more copious and fluid, and rapid and wholly free from discomfort; and they also diffuse a saltish juice, having a good deal of harshness, when they are combined with anything at all salt. They are very quickly dissolved by the digestion, because, though many heavy things may be taken into the stomach, we still after a short time feel as if we had become excessively empty: but this could not have happened if the figs had remained in the stomach, and were not immediately dissolved. And figs are dissolved more easily than any other fruit; as is proved not only by the fact that though we eat a great many times as great a quant.i.ty of figs as of all other fruits put together, we still never feel inconvenienced by them; and even if we eat a quant.i.ty of figs before dinner, and then eat as much of other things as if we had never touched them, we still feel no discomfort. It is plain, therefore, that if we can manage both them and the rest of our food, they must be easily digested; and that is why they do not interfere with the digestion of the rest of our food.

"Figs, then, have the qualities which I have mentioned. That they are glutinous and rather salt is proved by their being sticky and cleansing the hands; and we see ourselves that they are sweet in the mouth. And it certainly needs no arguments to prove that our evacuations after eating them take place without any convulsions or trouble, and that they are more numerous and more rapid and more easy in consequence. And they do not go through any great decomposition in the stomach, which arises not from their being indigestible, but because we drink while eating them, without waiting for the action of the stomach to soften them, and also because they pa.s.s through the stomach so quickly. And they generate a salt juice in the stomach, because it has been already shown that they contain something of nitre in them: and they will make that food taste rather salt and harsh which is combined with them. For salt increases the briny taste of anything, but vinegar and thyme increase the harsh qualities of food."

17. Now Heraclides the Tarentine asks this question; "Whether it is best to drink warm water or cold after the eating of figs?" And he says, that those who recommend the drinking of cold water do so because they have an eye to such a fact as this,--that warm water cleanses one's hands more quickly than cold; on which account it is reasonable to believe that food in the stomach will be quickly washed away by warm water. And with respect to figs which are not eaten, warm water dissolves their consistency and connexion, and separates them into small pieces; but cold coagulates and consolidates them. But those who recommend the drinking of cold water say, the taking of cold water bears down by its own weight the things which are heavy on the stomach; (for figs do not do any extraordinary good to the stomach, since they heat it and destroy its tone; on which account some people always drink neat wine after them;) and then too it quickly expels what is already in the stomach. But after eating figs, it is desirable to take an abundant and immediate draught of something or other; in order to prevent those things from remaining in the stomach, and to move them into the lower parts of the bowels.

18. Others however say, that it is not a good thing to eat figs at midday; for that at that time they are apt to engender diseases, as Pherecrates has said in his c.r.a.patalli. And Aristophanes, in his Proagon, says--

But once seeing him when he was sick in the summer, In order to be sick too himself, eat figs at midday.

And Eubulus says, in his Sphingocarion--