The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 54

for it so happened that the epicure by his side was named Telephus. But Zeno, when some epicure who was at the same party with him s.n.a.t.c.hed away the upper half of the fish the moment that it was placed on the table, turned the fish round himself, and took the remaining portion, saying--

Then Ino came and finish'd what was left.

And Socrates seeing a man once devouring dainties eagerly, said--O you bystanders, which of you eats bread as if it were sweetmeats, and sweetmeats as if they were bread?

3. But now let us speak of the banquets celebrated by Homer. For the poet gives us the different times of them, and the persons present, and the causes of them. And Xenophon and Plato have done well to imitate him in this; who at the very beginning of their treatises set forth the cause which gave rise to the banquet, and mention the names of those who were present. But Epicurus never defines either the place or the time, nor does he preface his accounts with any preliminary statement. But Aristotle says that it is an unseemly thing for a man to come unwashed and covered with dust to a banquet. Then Homer instructs us who ought to be invited; saying that one ought to invite the chiefs; and men of high reputation--

He bade the n.o.blest of the Grecian peers,[289:1]

not acting on the principle a.s.serted by Hesiod, for he bids men invite chiefly their neighbours--

Then bid your neighbours to the well-spread feast, Who live the nearest, and who know you best.[289:2]

For such a banquet would be one of rustic stupidity; and adapted to the most misanthropic of proverbs--

Friends who far off do live are never friends.

For how can it be anything but nonsense that friendship should depend on place and not on disposition? Therefore we find in Homer, that after the cup had gone round,

Then the old man his counsels first disclosed;[289:3]

but among people who did not regulate their banquets in an orderly manner we read--

Then first the flatterer rose with mocking speech.

Besides, Homer introduces guests differing in ages and tastes, such as Nestor, Ulysses, and Ajax, who are all invited together. And speaking in general terms he represents all who lay claim to any sort of eminence as invited, and individually those who arrive at it by different roads. But Epicurus has represented all his guests as believers in the atonic theory, and this, too, though he had models both in the variety of the banquets of the great poet, and also in the elegant accounts of Plato and Xenophon; of whom Plato has introduced Eryximachus the physician, and Aristophanes the poet, and other professors of different branches of science, discussing matters of weight: and Xenophon has mingled with them some private individuals.

Homer therefore has done much the best of all, and has given us by far the best banquets; and that again is best seen by comparing him with others. For the banquet of the suitors in Homer is just such as might be expected from young men devoted to drinking and love; and that of the Phaeacians is more orderly, but still luxurious. And he has made a wide distinction between these entertainments and those which may be called military banquets, and those which have reference to political affairs and are conducted in a well-regulated manner; and again he has distinguished between public and family banquets. But Epicurus has described a banquet consisting of philosophers alone.

4. Homer, too, has pointed out whom one ought not to invite, but who ought to consider that they have a right to come uninvited, showing by the presence of one of the relations that those in similar circ.u.mstances had a right to be present--

Unbidden there the brave Atrides came.[290:1]

For it is plain that one ought not to send a formal invitation to one's brother, or to one's parents, or to one's wife, or to any one else whom one can possibly regard in the same light as these relations, for that would be a cold and unfriendly proceeding. And some one has written an additional line, adding the reason why Menelaus had no invitation sent him, and yet came--

For well he knew how busy was his brother:

as if there had been any need of alleging a reason why his brother should come of his own accord to a banquet without any invitation,--a very sufficient reason having been already given. "For," said the interpolater of this line, "did he not know that his brother was giving a banquet? And how can it be otherwise than absurd to pretend that he did not know it, when his sacrifice of oxen was notorious and visible to every one? And how could he have come if he had not known it? Or, by Jove, when he saw him," he continues, "occupied with business, was it not quite right of him to excuse his not having sent him an invitation, and to come of his own accord?" As if he were to say that he came uninvited in order that the next day they might not look at one another, the one with feelings of mortification, and the other of annoyance.

But it would be an absurd thing to suppose that Menelaus forgot his brother, and this, too, when he was not only sacrificing on his account at the present moment, but when it was on his account that he had undertaken the whole war, and when he had invited those who were no relations of his, and who had no connexion even with his country. But Athenocles the Cyzicene, understanding the poems of Homer better than Aristarchus did, speaks in a much more sensible manner to us, and says that Homer omitted to mention Menelaus as having been invited because he was more nearly related to Agamemnon than the others. But Demetrius Phalereus having a.s.serted that interpolated verse to be a bungling and unseasonable addition, quite unsuited to the poetry of Homer,--the verse, I mean,

For well he knew how busy was his brother,

says that he is accusing him of very ungentlemanly manners. "For I think," says he, "that every well-bred man has relations and friends to whom he may go, when they are celebrating any sacrifice, without waiting for them to send him an invitation."

5. And Plato in his Banquet speaks in the same manner on this subject.

"For," says he, "that we may destroy the proverb by altering it: Good men may go of their own accord to feasts given by good men. For Homer appears not only to have destroyed that proverb, but also to have ridiculed it; for having represented Agamemnon as valiant in warlike matters, and Menelaus as an effeminate warrior, when Agamemnon celebrates a sacrifice, he represents Menelaus as coming uninvited,--that is, the worse man coming to the feast of the better man." And Bacchylides, speaking of Hercules, and telling how he came to the house of Ceyx, says--

Then on the brazen threshold firm he stood, (They were a feast preparing,) and thus spake Brave and just men do uninvited come To well-appointed feasts by brave and just men made.

And as to proverbs, one says--

Good men do of their own accord To good men's entertainments come:

and another says--

Brave men do of their own accord To cowards' entertainments come.

It was without reason, therefore, that Plato thought that Menelaus was a coward; for Homer speaks of him as Mars-loving, and as fighting single-handed with the greatest gallantry in defence of Patroclus, and eager to fight in single combat with Hector as the champion of the whole army, although he certainly was inferior to Hector in personal strength.

And he is the only man in the whole expedition of whom he has said--

And on he went, firm in his fearless zeal.[292:1]

But if an enemy, disparaging him, called him an effeminate warrior, and on this account Plato thinks that he really was an effeminate warrior, why should he not also cla.s.s Agamemnon himself among the men void of prowess, since this line is spoken against him?--

O monster, mix'd of insolence and fear, Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!

When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare, Or n.o.bly face the horrid front of war?

'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try, Thine to look on and bid the valiant die.[292:2]

For it does not follow because something is said in Homer, that Homer himself says it. For how could Menelaus have been effeminate who, single-handed, kept Hector away from Patroclus, and who slew Euphorbus, and stripped him of his arms though in the very middle of the Trojan host? And it was foolish of him not completely to consider the entire line which he was finding fault with, in which Menelaus is called "Raising the battle cry," ??? ??a???, for that is an epithet which Homer is in the habit of giving only to the most valiant; for the ancients called war itself ??.

6. But Homer, who is most accurate in everything, did not overlook even this trifling point; that a man ought to show some care of his person, and to bathe himself before going to an entertainment. And so, in the case of Ulysses, before the banquet among the Phaeacians, he tells us--

A train attends Around the baths, the bath the king ascends, (Untasted joy since that disastrous hour He sail'd defeated from Calypso's bower,) He bathes, the damsels with officious toil Shed sweets, shed unguents in a shower of oil.

Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads, And to the feast magnificently treads.[293:1]

And again he says of Telemachus and his companion--

From room to room their eager view they bend, Thence to the bath, a beauteous pile, descend.[293:2]

For it was unseemly, says Aristotle, for a man to come to a banquet all over sweat and dust. For a well-bred man ought not to be dirty nor squalid, nor to be all over mud, as Herac.l.i.tus says. And a man when he first enters another person's house for a feast, ought not to hasten at once to the banqueting-room, as if he had no care but to fill his stomach, but he ought first to indulge his fancy in looking about him, and to examine the house. And the poet has not omitted to take notice of this also.

Part in a portico, profusely graced With rich magnificence, the chariot placed; Then to the dome the friendly pair invite, Who eye the dazzling roof with vast delight, Resplendent as the blaze of summer noon, Or the pale radiance of the midnight moon.[293:3]

And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, represents the rustic and litigious old man as invited to a more civilized form of life by his son--

Cease; sit down here and learn at length to be A boon companion, and a cheerful guest.[293:4]

And then showing him how he ought to sit down he says--

Then praise some of these beauteous works in bra.s.s, Look at the roof, admire the carved hall.

7. And again Homer instructs us as to what we ought to do before a banquet, namely how we ought to allot the first-fruits of the dishes to the G.o.ds. At all events Ulysses and his friends, although in the cave of the Cyclops--

Then first a fire we kindle, and prepare For his return with sacrifice and prayer.[293:5]

And Achilles, although the amba.s.sadors were impatient, as they had arrived in the middle of the night, still--