The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 5

Homer, too, speaks of the smell of perfumes as something very admirable:--

Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets The sense of G.o.ds with more than mortal sweets.[28:1]

He speaks, too, of splendid beds; and such is the bed which Arete orders her handmaids to prepare for Ulysses. And Nestor makes it a boast to Telemachus that he is well provided with such things.

30. But some of the other poets have spoken of the habits of expense, and indolence of their own time as existing also at the time of the Trojan war; and, so aeschylus very improperly introduces the Greeks as so drunk as to break their vessels about one another's heads; and he says--

This is the man who threw so well The vessel with an evil smell, And miss'd me not, but dash'd to shivers The pot too full of steaming rivers Against my head, which now, alas! sir, Gives other smells besides maca.s.sar.

And Sophocles says in his banquet of the Greeks,

He in his anger threw too well The vessel with an evil smell Against my head, and fill'd the room With something not much like perfume; So that I swear I nearly fainted With the foul steam the vessel vented.

But Eupolis attacks the man who first mentioned such a thing, saying--

I hate the ways of Sparta's line, And would rather fry my dinner; He who first invented wine Made poor man a greater sinner, And through him the greater need is Of the arts of Palamedes.[28:2]

But in Homer the chiefs banquet in Agamemnon's tent in a very orderly manner; and if in the Odyssey Achilles and Ulysses dispute and Agamemnon exults, still their rivalry with one another is advantageous, since what they are discussing is whether Troy is to be taken by stratagem, or by open-hand fighting. And he does not represent even the suitors as drunk, nor has he ever made his heroes guilty of such disorderly conduct as aeschylus and Sophocles have, though he does speak of the foot of an ox being thrown at Ulysses.

31. And his heroes sit at their banquets, and do not lie down. And this was sometimes the case at the feasts of Alexander the king, as Dures says. For he once, when giving a feast to his captains to the number of six thousand, made them sit upon silver chairs and couches, having covered them with purple covers. And Hegesander says that it was not the custom in Macedonia for any one to lie down at a banquet, unless he had slain a boar which had escaped beyond the line of nets; but with that exception, every one sat at supper. And so Ca.s.sander, when he was thirty-five years of age, supped with his father in a sitting posture, not being able to perform the above-mentioned exploit, though he was of man's estate, and a gallant hunter.

But Homer, who has always an eye to propriety, has not introduced his heroes feasting on anything except meat, and that too they dressed for themselves. For it caused neither ridicule nor shame to see them preparing and cooking their own food: for they studied to be able to wait upon themselves; and they prided themselves, says Chrysippus, on their dexterity in such matters. And accordingly Ulysses boasts of being a better hand than any one else at making a fire and cutting up meat.

And in the book of the Iliad called The Prayers,[29:1] Patroclus acts as cupbearer, and Achilles prepares the supper. And when Menelaus celebrates a marriage feast, Megapenthes the bridegroom acts as cupbearer. But now we have come to such a pitch of effeminacy as to lie down while at our meals.

32. And lately baths too have been introduced; things which formerly men would not have permitted to exist inside a city. And Antiphanes points out their injurious character:

Plague take the bath! just see the plight In which the thing has left me; It seems t' have boil'd me up, and quite Of strength, and nerve bereft me.

Don't touch me, curst was he who taught a Man to soak in boiling water.

And Hermippus says,

As to mischievous habits, if you ask my vote, I say there are two common kinds of self-slaughter, One, constantly pouring strong wine down your throat, T'other plunging in up to your throat in hot water.

But now the refinements of cooks and perfumers have increased so much, that Alexis says that even if a man could bathe in a bath of perfume he would not be content. And all the manufactories of sweetmeats are in great vigour, and such plans are devised for intercourse between people, that some have proposed even to stuff the sofas and chairs with sponge, as on the idea that that will make the occupiers more amorous. And Theophrastus says that some contrivances are of wondrous efficacy in such matters; and Phylarchus confirms him, by reference to some of the presents which Sandrocottus, the king of the Indians, sent to Seleucus; which were to act like charms in producing a wonderful degree of affection, while some, on the contrary, were to banish love. Music, too, has been cultivated now, in a way which is a great perversion of its legitimate use: and extravagance has descended even to our clothes and shoes.

33. But Homer, though he was well acquainted with the nature of perfume, has never introduced any of his heroes as perfumed except Paris; when he says, "glittering with beauty," as in another place he says that Venus--

With every beauty every feature arms, Bids her checks glow, and lights up all her charms.[30:1]

Nor does he ever represent them as wearing crowns, although by some of his similes and metaphors he shows that he knew of garlands. At all events he speaks of

That lovely isle crown'd by the foaming waves,[30:2]

And again he says--

For all around the crown of battle swells.[30:3]

We must remark, too, that in the Odyssey he represents his characters as washing their hands before they partake of food. But in the Iliad there is no trace of such a custom. For the life described in the Odyssey is that of men living easily and luxuriously owing to the peace; on which account the men of that time indulged their bodies with baths and washings. And that is the reason why in that state of things they play at dice, and dance, and play ball. But Herodotus is mistaken when he says that those sports were invented in the time of Atys to amuse the people during the famine. For the heroic times are older than Atys. And the men living in the time of the Iliad are almost constantly crying out--

Raise the battle cry so clear, Prelude to the warlike spear.

34. Now to go back to what we were saying before. The Athenians made Aristonicus the Carystian, who used to play at ball with Alexander the king, a freeman of their city on account of his skill, and they erected a statue to him. And even in later times the Greeks considered all handicraft trades of much less importance than inventions which had any reference to amus.e.m.e.nt. And the people of Histiaea, and of Oreum, erected in their theatre a brazen statue holding a die in its hand to Theodorus the juggler. And on the same principle the Milesians erected one to Archelaus the harp-player. But at Thebes there is no statue to Pindar, though there is one to Cleon the singer, on which there is the inscription--

Stranger, thou seest Pytheas' tuneful son, While living oft with vict'ry's garlands crown'd, Sweet singer, though on earth his race is run, E'en the high heavens with his name resound.

Polemo relates that when Alexander razed Thebes to the ground, one man who escaped hid some gold in the garments of this statue, as they were hollow; and then when the city was restored he returned and recovered his money after a lapse of thirty years. But Herodotus, the logomime as he was called, and Archelaus the dancer, according to Hegesander, were more honoured by Antiochus the king than any others of his friends. And Antiochus his father made the sons of Sostratus the flute-player his body guards.

35. And Matreas, the strolling player of Alexandria, was admired by both Greeks and Romans; and he said that he was cherishing a beast which was eating itself. So that even now it is disputed what that beast of Matreas's was. He used to propose ridiculous questions in parody of the doubts raised by Aristotle, and then he read them in public; as "Why is the sun said to set, and not to dive?" "why are sponges said to suck up, and not to drink?" and "why do we say of a tetradrachm that it ?ata???tteta?,[32:1] when we never speak of its getting in a pa.s.sion?" And the Athenians gave Pothimos the puppet-master the use of the very stage on which Euripides had exhibited his n.o.ble dramas. And they also erected a statue of Euripides in the theatre next to the statue of aeschylus.

Xenophon the conjuror, too, was very popular among them, who left behind him a pupil of the name of Cratisthenes, a citizen of Phlias; a man who used to make fire spout up of its own accord, and who contrived many other extraordinary sights, so as almost to make men discredit the evidence of their own senses. And Nymphodorus the conjuror was another such; a man who having quarrelled with the people of Rhegium, as Duris relates, was the first man who turned them into ridicule as cowards. And Eudicus the buffoon gained great credit by imitating wrestlers and boxers, as Aristoxenus relates. Straton of Tarentum, also, had many admirers; he was a mimic of the dithyrambic poets; and so had nonas the Italian, who mimicked the harp-players; and who gave representations of the Cyclops trying to sing, and of Ulysses when shipwrecked, speaking in a clownish fashion. And Diopeithes the Locrian, according to the account of Phanodemus, when he came to Thebes, fastened round his waist bladders full of wine and milk, and then, squeezing them, pretended that he was drawing up those liquids out of his mouth. And Noemon gained a great reputation for the same sort of tricks.

There were also in Alexander's court the following jugglers, who had all a great name. Scymnus of Tarentum, and Philistides of Syracuse, and Herac.l.i.tus of Mitylene. And there were too some strolling players of high repute, such as Cephisodorus and Pantaleon. And Xenophon makes mention also of Philip the buffoon.

36. Rome may fairly be called the nation of the world. And he will not be far out who p.r.o.nounces the city of the Romans an epitome of the whole earth; for in it you may see every other city arranged collectively, and many also separately; for instance, there you may see the golden city of the Alexandrians, the beautiful metropolis of Antioch, the surpa.s.sing beauty of Nicomedia; and besides all these that most glorious of all the cities which Jupiter has ever displayed, I mean Athens. And not only one day, but all the days in an entire year, would be too short for a man who should attempt to enumerate all the cities which might be enumerated as discernible in that uranopolis of the Romans, the city of Rome; so numerous are they.--For indeed some entire nations are settled there, as the Cappadocians, the Scythians, the people of Pontus, and many others.

And all these nations, being so to say the entire population of the world, called the dancer who was so famous in our time Memphis, comparing him, on account of the elegance of his movements, to the most royal and honourable of cities; a city of which Bacchylides sings--

Memphis, which winter dares not to a.s.sail, And lotus-crowned Nile.

As for the Pythagorean philosophy, Athenaeus explains that to us, and shows us everything in silence more intelligibly than others who undertake to teach the arts which require talking.

37. Now of tragic dancing, as it was called, such as it existed in his time, Bathyllus of Alexandria was the first introducer; whom Seleucus describes as having been a legitimate dancer. This Bathyllus, according to the account of Aristonicus, and Pylades too, who has written a treatise on dancing, composed the Italian dance from the comic one which was called ???da?, and from the tragic dance which was called ???e?a, and from the Satyric dance which was called s???????, (from which also the Satyrs were called s??????sta?,) the inventor of which was a barbarian named Sicinnus, though some say that Sicinnus was a Cretan. Now, the dance invented by Pylades was stately, pathetic, and laborious; but that of Bathyllus was in a merrier style; for he added to his a kind of ode to Apollo. But Sophocles, in addition to being eminent for personal beauty, was very accomplished in music and dancing, having been instructed in those arts while a boy by Lamprus, and after the naval victory of Salamis, he having no clothes on, but only being anointed with oil, danced round the trophy erected on that occasion to the music of the lyre, but some say that he had his tunic on; and when he exhibited his Thamyris he himself played the harp; and he also played at ball with great skill when he exhibited his Nausicaa. And Socrates the Wise was very fond of the dance Memphis; and as he was often caught dancing, as Xenophon relates, he said to his friends that dancing was a gymnastic exercise for every limb; for the ancients used the word ?????a? for every sort of motion and agitation. Anacreon says--

The fair-hair'd maids of mighty Jove Danced lightly in the mystic grove;

and Ion has the expression--

This strange occurrence makes my heart to dance.

38. And Hermippus says, that Theophrastus used to come to the walks at a regular hour, carefully and beautifully dressed; and that then he would sit down and enter upon an argument, indulging in every sort of motion and gesture imaginable; so that once while imitating an epicure he even put out his tongue and licked his lips.

Those men were very careful to put on their clothes neatly; and they ridiculed those who did not do so. Plato, in the Theaetetus, speaks of "a man who has capacity to manage everything cleverly and perfectly, but who has no idea how to put on even proper clothes like a gentleman, and who has no notion of the propriety of language, so as to be able to celebrate the life of G.o.ds and men in a becoming manner." And Sappho jests upon Andromeda:--

Sure by some milkmaid you've been taught To dress, whose gown is all too short To reach her st.u.r.dy ancles.

And Philetaerus says--

Don't let your gown fall down too low, Nor pull it up too high to show Your legs in clownish fashion.

And Hermippus says, that Theocritus of Chios used to blame the way in which Anaximenes used to wrap his cloak round him as a boorish style of dressing. And Callistratus the pupil of Aristophanes, in one of his writings, attacked Aristarchus severely for not being neatly dressed, on the ground, that attention to those minutiae is no trifling indication of a man's abilities and good sense. On which account Alexis says--

'Tis a sure sign of a degraded nature, To walk along the street in sloven's guise; Having the means of neatness: which costs nothing; Is subject to no tax; requires no change; And creditable is to him who uses it, And pleasant to all those who witness it.

Who then would ever disregard this rule, That wishes to be thought a man of sense?

39. But aeschylus was not only the inventor of becoming and dignified dress, which the hierophants and torch-bearers of the sacred festivals imitated; but he also invented many figures in dancing, and taught them to the dancers of the chorus. And Chamaeleon states that he first arranged the choruses, not using the ordinary dancing-masters, but himself arranging the figures of the dancers for the chorus; and altogether that he took the whole arrangement of his tragedies on himself. And he himself acted in his own plays very fairly. And accordingly, Aristophanes (and we may well trust the comic writers in what they say of the tragedians) represents aeschylus himself as saying--

I myself taught those dances to the chorus, Which pleased so much when erst they danced before us.

And again, he says, "I recollect that when I saw 'The Phrygians,' when the men came on who were uniting with Priam in his pet.i.tion for the ransom of his son, some danced in this way, some in that, all at random." Telesis, or Telestes, (whichever was his right name,) the dancing-master, invented many figures, and taught men to use the action of their hands, so as to give expression to what they said. Phillis the Delian, a musician, says, that the ancient harp-players moved their countenances but little, but their feet very much, imitating the march of troops or the dancing of a chorus. Accordingly Aristotle says, that Telestes the director of aeschylus's choruses was so great a master of his art, that in managing the choruses of the Seven Generals against Thebes, he made all the transactions plain by dancing. They say, too, that the old poets, Thespis, Pratinas, Carcinus, and Phrynichus, were called dancing poets, because they not only made their dramas depend upon the dancing of the chorus, but because, besides directing the exhibition of their own plays, they also taught dancing to all who wished to learn. But aeschylus was often drunk when he wrote his tragedies, if we may trust Chamaeleon: and accordingly Sophocles reproached him, saying, that even when he did what was right he did not know that he was doing so.