The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 40

And Hermippus, in his Cercopes, calls water drawn from wells f?eat?a???

?d??. Moreover, that men used to drink melted snow too, is shown by Alexis, in his Woman eating Mandragora--

Sure is not man a most superfluous plant, Constantly using wondrous contradictions.

Strangers we love, and our own kin neglect; Though having nothing, still we give to strangers.

We bear our share in picnics, though we grudge it, And show our grudging by our sordidness.

And as to what concerns our daily food, We wish our barley-cakes should white appear, And yet we make for them a dark black sauce, And stain pure colour with a deeper dye.

Then we prepare to drink down melted snow; Yet if our fish be cold, we storm and rave.

Sour or acid wine we scorn and loathe, Yet are delighted with sharp caper sauce.

And so, as many wiser men have said, Not to be born at all is best for man; The next best thing, to die as soon as possible.

And Dexicrates, in the play ent.i.tled The Men deceived by Themselves, says--

But when I'm drunk I take a draught of snow, And Egypt gives me ointment for my head.

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

He first perceived that snow was worth a price; He ought to be the first to eat the honeycombs.

And that excellent writer Xenophon, in his Memorabilia, shows that he was acquainted with the fashion of drinking snow. But Chares of Mitylene, in his History of Alexander, has told us how we are to proceed in order to keep snow, when he is relating the siege of the Indian city Petra. For he says that Alexander dug thirty large trenches close to one another, and filled them with snow, and then he heaped on the snow branches of oak; for that in that way snow would last a long time.

98. And that they used to cool wine, for the sake of drinking it in a colder state, is a.s.serted by Strattis, in his Psychastae, or Cold Hunters--

For no one ever would endure warm wine, But on the contrary, we use our wells To cool it in, and then we mix with snow.

And Lysippus says, in his Bacchae--

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

_B._ Nothing's the matter, only that your father Has just dropt down into the well to cool himself, As men cool wine in summer.

And Diphilus says, in his Little Monument--

Cool the wine quick, O Doris.

And Protagoras in the second book of his Comic Histories, relating the voyage of king Antiochus down the river, says something about the contrivances for procuring cold water, in these terms:--"For during the day they expose it to the sun, and then at night they skim off the thickest part which rises to the surface, and expose the rest to the air, in large earthen ewers, on the highest parts of the house, and two slaves are kept sprinkling the vessels with water the whole night. And at daybreak they bring them down, and again they skim off the sediment, making the water very thin, and exceedingly wholesome, and then they immerse the ewers in straw, and after that they use the water, which has become so cold as not to require snow to cool it." And Anaxilas speaks of water from cisterns, in his Flute Player, using the following expressions:--

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

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

And, in a subsequent pa.s.sage, he says--

Perhaps the cistern water is all lost.

But Apollodorus of Gela mentions the cistern itself, ?a????, as we call it, in his Female Deserter, saying--

In haste I loosed the bucket of the cistern, And then that of the well; and took good care To have the ropes all ready to let down.

99. Myrtilus, hearing this conversation, said,--And I too, being very fond of salt-fish, my friends, wish to drink snow, according to the practice of Simonides. And Ulpian said,--The word f???t??????, _fond of salt-fish_, is used by Antiphanes, in his Omphale, where he says--

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

But Alexis, in his Gynaecocracy, speaks of one man as ???t??????, or fond of sauce made from salt-fish, saying--

But the Cilician here, this Hippocles, This epicure of salt-fish sauce, this actor.

But what you mean by "according to the practice of Simonides," I do not know. No; for you do not care, said Myrtilus, to know anything about history, you glutton; for you are a mere lickplatter; and as the Samian poet Asius, that ancient bard, would call you, a flatterer of fat. But Callistratus, in the seventh book of his Miscellanies, says that Simonides the poet, when feasting with a party at a season of violently hot weather, while the cup-bearers were pouring out for the rest of the guests snow into their liquor, and did not do so for him, extemporised this epigram:--

The cloak with which fierce Boreas clothed the brow Of high Olympus, pierced ill-clothed man While in its native Thrace; 'tis gentler now, Caught by the breeze of the Pierian plain.

Let it be mine; for no one will commend The man who gives hot water to a friend.

So when he had drunk, Ulpian asked him again where the word ???s???????

is used, and also, what are the lines of Asius in which he uses the word ???s????a?? These, said Myrtilus, are the verses of Asius, to which I alluded:--

Lame, branded, old, a vagrant beggar, next Came the cnisocolax, when Meles held His marriage feast, seeking for gifts of soup, Not waiting for a friendly invitation; There in the midst the hungry hero stood, Shaking the mud from off his ragged cloak.

And the word ???s??????? is used by Sophilus, in his Philarchus, in this pa.s.sage,--

You are a glutton and a fat-licker.

And in the play which is ent.i.tled, The Men running together, he has used the word ???s??????a, in the following lines:--

That pandar, with his fat-licking propensities, Has bid me get for him this black blood-pudding.

Antiphanes too uses the word ???s???????, in his Bombylium.

Now that men drank also sweet wine while eating is proved by what Alexis says in his Dropidas--

The courtesan came in with sweet wine laden, In a large silver cup, named petachnon, Most beauteous to behold. Not a flat dish, Nor long-neck'd bottle, but between the two.

100. After this a cheesecake was served up, made of milk and sesame and honey, which the Romans call lib.u.m. And Cynulcus said,--Fill yourself now, O Ulpian, with your native Chthorodlapsus; a word which is not, I swear by Ceres, used by any one of the ancient writers, unless, indeed, it should chance to be found in those who have compiled histories of the affairs of Phnicia, such as Sanchoniatho and Mochus, your own fellow-countrymen. And Ulpian said,--But it seems to me, you dog-fly, that we have had quite enough of honey-cakes: but I should like to eat some groats, with a sufficient admixture of the husks and kernels of pine-cones. And when that dish was brought--Give me, said he, some crust of bread hollowed out like a spoon; for I will not say, give me a spoon (?st???); since that word is not used by any of the writers previous to our own time. You have a very bad memory, my friend, quoth aemilia.n.u.s; have you not always admired Nicander the Colophonian, the Epic poet, as a man very fond of ancient authors, and a man too of very extensive learning himself? And indeed, you have already quoted him as having used the word pep?????, for _pepper_. And this same poet, in the first book of his Georgics, speaking of this use of groats, has used also the word ?st???, saying--

But when you seek to dress a dainty dish Of new-slain kid, or tender house-fed lamb, Or poultry, take some unripe grains, and pound them, And strew them all in hollow plates, and stir them, Mingled with fragrant oil. Then pour thereon Warm broth, which take from out the dish before you, That it be not too hot, and so boil over.

Then put thereon a lid, for when they're roasted, The grains swell mightily; then slowly eat them, Putting them to your mouth with hollow spoon.

In these words, my fine fellow, Nicander describes to us the way in which they ate groats and peeled barley; bidding the eater pour on it soup made of kid or lamb, or of some poultry or other. Then, says he, pound the grains in a mortar, and having mingled oil with them, stir them up till they boil; and mix in the broth made after this recipe as it gets warm, making it thicker with the spoon; and do not pour in anything else; but take the broth out of the dish before you, so as to guard against any of the more fatty parts boiling over. And it is for this reason, too, that he charges us to keep it close while it is boiling, by putting the lid on the dish; for that barley grains when roasted or heated swell very much. And at last, when it is moderately warm we are to eat it, taking it up in hollow spoons.

And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his letter to Lynceus, in which he gives an account of some Macedonian banquet which surpa.s.sed all the feasts which had ever been heard of in extravagance, speaks of golden spoons (which he also calls ?st?a) having been given to each of the guests. But since you, my friend, wish to set up for a great admirer of the ancients, and say that you never use any expressions which are not the purest Attic, what is it that Nicophon says, the poet I mean of the old comedy, in his Cherogastores, or the Men who feed themselves by manual Labour? For I find him too speaking of spoons, and using the word ?st???, when he says--

Dealers in anchovies, dealers in wine; Dealers in figs, and dealers in hides; Dealers in meal, and dealers in spoons (?st???p????); Dealers in books, and dealers in sieves; Dealers in cheesecakes, and dealers in seeds:

For who can the ?st???p??a? be, but the men who sell ?st?a? So learning from them, my fine Syrian-Atticist, the use of the spoon, pray eat your groats, that you may not say--

But I am languid, weak for want of food.

101. And I have been surprised at your not asking where the word ???d???, _groats_, comes from. Whether it is a Megarian word, or whether it comes from Thessaly, as Myrtilus does. And Ulpian said,--I will stop eating if you will tell me by whom these Megarian, or Thessalian groats are spoken of. And aemilia.n.u.s said,--But I will not refuse you; for seeing a very splendid preparation for supper, I wish that you should arm yourself for the fray, being filled with barley like a game c.o.c.k; and I wish you to instruct us about the dishes which we are going to partake of. And he, getting out of temper, said,--Whence do you get this word ?d?sata? for one has no breathing time allowed one while constantly forced to ask these questions of these late-learned sophists.

But, says aemilia.n.u.s, I can easily answer you this question; but I will first speak of the word ???d???, quoting you these lines of Antiphanes, out of his Antea,--

_A._ What have you in your baskets there, my friend?