The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 6

40. Now the national dances are the following:--the Lacedaemonian, the Trzenian, the Epizephyrian, the Cretan, the Ionian, the Mantinean, which Aristoxenus considers as the best of all, on account of its movement of the hands. And dancing was considered so creditable an employment, and one requiring so much talent, that Pindar calls Apollo a dancer:--

Prince of dancers, prince of grace, Hail, Phbus of the silver quiver.

And Homer too, or one of the Homeridae, in one of the hymns to Apollo, says--

How deftly Phbus strikes the golden lyre, While strength and grace each moving limb inspire!

and Eumelus, or Arctinus, the Corinthian, somewhere or other introduces Jupiter himself as dancing, saying--

And gracefully amid the dancing throng, The sire of G.o.ds and mortals moved along.

But Theophrastus says that Andron of Catana, a flute-player, was the first person who invented motions of the body keeping time to music, while he played on the flute to the dancers; from whom dancing among the ancients was called Sicelizing. And that he was followed by Cleophantus of Thebes. Among the dancers of reputation there was Bulbus, mentioned by Cratinus and Callias; and Zeno the Cretan, who was in high favour with Artaxerxes, mentioned by Ctesias. Alexander also, in his letter to Philoxenus, mentions Theodorus and Chrysippus.

41. The Temple of the Muses is called by Timon the Phliasian, the satiric writer, the basket, by which term he means to ridicule the philosophers who frequent it, as if they were fattened up in a hen-coop, like valuable birds:--

aegypt has its mad recluses, Book-bewilder'd anchorites, In the hen-coop of the Muses Keeping up their endless fights.

. . . . till these table orators got cured of their diarrha of words; a pack of men, who from their itch for talking appear to me to have forgotten the Pythian oracle, which Chamaeleon quotes--

Three weeks ere Sirius burns up the wheat, And three weeks after, seek the cool retreat Of shady house, and better your condition By taking Bacchus for your sole physician.

And so Mnesitheus the Athenian says that the Pythia enjoined the Athenians to honour Bacchus the physician. But Alcaeus, the Mitylenaean poet, says--

Steep your heart in rosy wine, for see, the dogstar is in view; Lest by heat and thirst oppress'd you should the season's fury rue.

And in another place he says--

Fill me, boy, a sparkling cup; See, the dogstar's coming up.

And Eupolis says that Callias was compelled to drink by Protagoras, in order that his lungs might not be melted away before the dogdays. But at such a time I not only feel my lungs dried up, but I may almost say my heart too. And Antiphanes says--

_A._ Tell me, I pray you, how you life define.

_B._ To drink full goblets of rich Chian wine.

You see how tall and fine the forest grows Through which a sacred river ceaseless flows; While on dry soils the stately beech and oak Die without waiting for the woodman's stroke.

And so, says he, they, disputing about the dogstar, had plenty to drink.

Thus the word ????, to moisten or soak, is often applied to drinking.

And so Antiphanes says--

Eating much may bring on choking, Unless you take a turn at soaking.

And Eubulus has--

_A._ I Sicon come with duly moisten'd clay.

_B._ What have you drunk then?

_A._ That you well may say.

42. Now the verb ??ap?pt?, meaning _to fall back_, has properly reference to the mind, meaning to despair, to be out of heart.

Thucydides says in his first book, "When they are defeated they are least of all people inclined to ??ap?pte??." And Cratinus uses the same expression of rowers--

Ply your oars and bend your backs.

And Xenophon in his conomics says, "Why is it that rowers are not troublesome to one another, except because they sit in regular order, and bend forward in regular order, and (??ap?pt??s??) lean back in regular order?"--The word ??a?e?s?a? is properly applied to a statue, on which account they used to laugh at those who used the word of the guests at a feast, for whom the proper expression was ?ata?e?a?. Accordingly Diphilus puts into the mouth of a man at a feast--

I for a while sat down (??e?e???):

and his friend, not approving of such an expression, says, ????e?s?. And Philippides has--

I supped too ??a?e????? in his house.

And then the other speaker rejoins--

What, was he giving a dinner to a statue?

But the word ?ata?e?s?a? is used, and also ?ata?e???s?a?, of reclining at meals: as Xenophon and Plato prove in their essays called the Banquet. Alexis too says--

'Tis hard before one's supper to lie down, For if one does one cannot go to sleep; Nor give much heed to aught that may be said; One's thoughts being fix'd on what there'll be to eat.

Not but what the word ??a?e?s?a? is used in this sense, though rarely. The satyr in Sophocles says--

If I catch fire I'll leap with a mighty Spring upon Hercules, as ??a?e?ta?.

And Aristotle says, when speaking of the laws of the Tyrrhenians, "But the Tyrrhenians sup, ??a?e????? with the women under the same covering."

Theopompus also says--

Then we the goblets fill'd with mighty wine, On delicate couches ?ata?e?????, Singing in turn old songs of Telamon.

And Philonides says--

I have been here ?ata?e????? a long time.

And Euripides says in the Cyclops--

???pese (which is the same as ????e?t?) Breathing forth long and deep and heavy breath.

And Alexis says--

After that I bade her ??apese?? by my side.

43. The ancients, too, used the word p?sas?a? for to taste. And so Phnix says to Achilles, "You would not p?sas?a? anything in any one else's house.

And in another place we find--

When, they ?p?sa?t? the entrails:

for they only taste the entrails, so that a great mult.i.tude might have a taste of what exists in but a small quant.i.ty. And Priam says to Achilles--