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Transcriber's Notes: Words in italics in the original are surrounded by
_underscores_. A row of asterisks represents either an ellipsis in a
poetry quotation or a place where the original Greek text was too
corrupt to be read by the translator. Other ellipses match the original.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
original.

There are numerous long quotations in the original, many missing the
closing quotation mark. Since it is often difficult to determine where a
quotation begins or ends, the transcriber has left quotation marks as
they appear in the original.

A few typographical errors have been corrected. A complete list follows
the text. Other notes also follow the text.




                                 THE

                            DEIPNOSOPHISTS

                                  OR

                        BANQUET OF THE LEARNED

                                  OF

                              ATHENÆUS.


                         LITERALLY TRANSLATED
                         BY C. D. YONGE, B.A.


               WITH AN APPENDIX OF POETICAL FRAGMENTS,
           RENDERED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY VARIOUS AUTHORS,
                         AND A GENERAL INDEX.


                          IN THREE VOLUMES.
                               VOL. I.


                               LONDON:
              HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
                              MDCCCLIV.




                               LONDON:
                 R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.




PREFACE.


The author of the DEIPNOSOPHISTS was an Egyptian, born in Naucratis, a
town on the left side of the Canopic Mouth of the Nile. The age in which
he lived is somewhat uncertain, but his work, at least the latter
portion of it, must have been written after the death of Ulpian the
lawyer, which happened A.D. 228.

Athenæus appears to have been imbued with a great love of learning, in
the pursuit of which he indulged in the most extensive and multifarious
reading; and the principal value of his work is, that by its copious
quotations it preserves to us large fragments from the ancient poets,
which would otherwise have perished. There are also one or two curious
and interesting extracts in prose; such, for instance, as the account of
the gigantic ship built by Ptolemæus Philopator, extracted from a lost
work of Callixenus of Rhodes.

The work commences, in imitation of Plato's Phædo, with a dialogue, in
which Athenæus and Timocrates supply the place of Phædo and Echecrates.
The former relates to his friend the conversation which passed at a
banquet given at the house of Laurentius, a noble Roman, between some of
the guests, the best known of whom are Galen and Ulpian.

The first two books, and portions of the third, eleventh, and fifteenth,
exist only in an Epitome, of which both the date and author are unknown.
It soon, however, became more common than the original work, and
eventually in a great degree superseded it. Indeed Bentley has proved
that the only knowledge which, in the time of Eustathius, existed of
Athenæus, was through its medium.

Athenæus was also the author of a book entitled, "On the Kings of
Syria," of which no portion has come down to us.

The text which has been adopted in the present translation is that of
Schweighäuser.

                                                         C. D. Y.




CONTENTS.


     BOOK I.--EPITOME.

     The Character of Laurentius--Hospitable and Liberal Men--
     Those who have written about Feasts--Epicures--The Praises
     of Wine--Names of Meals--Fashions at Meals--Dances--Games
     --Baths--Partiality of the Greeks for Amusements--Dancing
     and Dancers--Use of some Words--Exercise--Kinds of Food--
     Different kinds of Wine--The Produce of various places--
     Different Wines                                                1-57


     BOOK II.--EPITOME.

     Wine--Drinking--The evils of Drunkenness--Praises of Wine
     --Water--Different kinds of Water--Sweetmeats--Couches and
     Coverlets--Names of Fruits--Fruit and Herbs--Lupins--Names
     of--Plants--Eggs--Gourds--Mushrooms--Asparagus--Onions--
     Thrushes--Brains--The Head--Pickle--Cucumbers--Lettuce--
     The Cactus--The Nile                                         57-121


     BOOK III.

     Cucumbers--Figs--Apples--Citrons--Limpets--Cockles--
     Shell-fish--Oysters--Pearls--Tripe--Pigs' Feet--Music at
     Banquets--Puns on Words--Banquets--Dishes at Banquets--
     Fish--Shell-fish--Fish--Cuttle-fish--Bread--Loaves--Fish--
     Water Drinking--Drinking Snow--Cheesecakes--Χόνδοος           121-210


     BOOK IV.

     Feast of Caranus--Supper of Iphicrates--Cooks--Dancing at
     Banquets--The Attic Banquet--Athenian Feasts--The Copis--
     The Phiditia--Cleomenes--Persian Banquets--Alexander the
     Great--Cleopatra--Banquets at Phigalea--Thracian Banquets
     --Celtic Banquets--Roman Banquets--Gladiatorial Combats--
     Temperance of the Lacedæmonians--The Theory of Euxitheus--
     Lentils--Spare Livers--Persæus--Diodorus--Extravagance--
     Luxury of the Tarentines--Extravagance of Individuals--
     Cooks' Apparatus--Use of Certain Words--Tasters--The
     Delphians--Musical Instruments--Kinds of Flutes--Wind
     Instruments                                                 210-287


     BOOK V.

     Banquets--Baths--Banquets--The Banquets described by Homer
     --Banquets--The Palaces of Homer's Kings--Conversation at
     Banquets--Customs in Homer's Time--Attitudes of Guests--
     Feast given by Antiochus--Extravagance of Antiochus--
     Ptolemy Philadelphus--Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus--
     A large Ship built by Ptolemy--The Ship of Ptolemy
     Philopator--Hiero's Ship--Banquet given by Alexander--
     Athenio--The Valour of Socrates--Plato's account of
     Socrates--Socrates--The Gorgons                             287-352


     BOOK VI.

     Tragedy--Fishmongers--Misconduct of Fishmongers--Use of
     particular Words--Use of Silver Plate--Silver Plate--
     Golden Trinkets--Use of Gold in different Countries--
     Parasites--Gynæconomi--Parasites--Flatterers of Dionysius
     --Flatterers of Kings--Flattery of the Athenians--
     Flatterers--The Tyrants of Chios--The Conduct of Philip--
     Flatterers and Parasites--The Mariandyni--Slaves--Drimacus
     --Condition of Slaves--Slaves--Banquets--The Effects of
     Hunger--The Mothaces--Slaves under the Romans--The Fannian
     Law                                                         353-432


     BOOK VII.

     The Phagesia--Fish--Epicures--Fish--Cooks--Sharks--Fish--
     Glaucus--Eels--The Tunny-Fish--Fish--Pike--Fish--The
     Polybus--Fish                                               433-521




THE DEIPNOSOPHISTS,

OR

THE BANQUET OF THE LEARNED.[1:1]


_The first two Books, and a portion of the third, as is known to the
scholar, exist only in Epitome._




BOOK I.--EPITOME.


1. Athenæus is the author of this book; and in it he is discoursing with
Timocrates: and the name of the book is the Deipnosophists. In this work
Laurentius is introduced, a Roman, a man of distinguished fortune,
giving a banquet in his own house to men of the highest eminence for
every kind of learning and accomplishment; and there is no sort of
gentlemanly knowledge which he does not mention in the conversation
which he attributes to them; for he has put down in his book, fish, and
their uses, and the meaning of their names; and he has described divers
kinds of vegetables, and animals of all sorts. He has introduced also
men who have written histories, and poets, and, in short, clever men of
all sorts; and he discusses musical instruments, and quotes ten thousand
jokes: he talks of the different kinds of drinking cups, and of the
riches of kings, and the size of ships, and numbers of other things
which I cannot easily enumerate, and the day would fail me if I
endeavoured to go through them separately.

And the arrangement of the conversation is an imitation of a sumptuous
banquet; and the plan of the book follows the arrangement of the
conversation. This, then, is the delicious feast of words which this
admirable master of the feast, Athenæus, has prepared for us; and
gradually surpassing himself, like the orator at Athens, as he warms
with his subject, he bounds on towards the end of the book in noble
strides.

2. And the Deipnosophists who were present at this banquet were,
_Masyrius_, an expounder of the law, and one who had been no superficial
student of every sort of learning; _Magnus_... [Myrtilus] a poet; a
man who in other branches of learning was inferior to no one, and who
had devoted himself in no careless manner to the whole circle of arts
and learning; for in everything which he discussed, he appeared as if
that was the sole thing which he had studied; so great and so various
was his learning from his childhood. And he was an iambic poet, inferior
to no one who has ever lived since the time of Archilochus. There were
present also _Plutarchus_, and _Leonidas_ of Elis, and _Æmilianus_ the
Mauritanian, and _Zöilus_, all the most admirable of grammarians.

And of philosophers there were present _Pontianus_ and _Democritus_,
both of Nicomedia; men superior to all their contemporaries in the
extent and variety of their learning; and _Philadelphus_ of Ptolemais, a
man who had not only been bred up from his infancy in philosophical
speculation, but who was also a man of the highest reputation in every
part of his life. Of the Cynics, there was one whom he calls _Cynulcus_,
who had not only two white dogs following him, as they did Telemachus
when he went to the assembly, but a more numerous pack than even Actæon
had. And of rhetoricians there was a whole troop, in no respect inferior
to the Cynics. And these last, as well, indeed, as every one else who
ever opened his mouth, were run down by _Uppianus_ the Tyrian, who, on
account of the everlasting questions which he keeps putting every hour
in the streets, and walks, and booksellers' shops, and baths, has got a
name by which he is better known than by his real one, _Ceitouceitus_.
This man had a rule of his own, to eat nothing without saying κεῖται; ἢ
οὐ κεῖται; In this way, "Can we say of the word ὥρα, that it κεῖται, or
is applicable to any part of the day? And is the word μέθυσο, or drunk,
applicable to a man? Can the word μήτρα, or paunch, be applied to any
eatable food? Is the name σύαγρος a compound word applicable to a
boar?"--And of physicians there were present _Daphnus_ the Ephesian, a
man holy both in his art and by his manners, a man of no slight insight
into the principles of the Academic school; and _Galenus_ of Pergamos,
who has published such numbers of philosophical and medical works as to
surpass all those who preceded him, and who is inferior to none of the
guests in the eloquence of his descriptions. And _Rufinus_ of
Mylæa.--And of musicians, _Alcides_ of Alexandria, was present. So that
the whole party was so numerous that the catalogue looks rather like a
muster-roll of soldiers, than the list of a dinner party.

3. And Athenæus dramatises his dialogue in imitation of the manner of
Plato. And thus he begins:--


TIMOCRATES. ATHENÆUS.

     _Tim._ Were you, Athenæus, yourself present at that delightful
     party of the men whom they now call Deipnosophists; which has
     been so much talked of all over the city; or is it only from
     having heard an account of it from others that you spoke of it
     to your companions?

     _Ath._ I was there myself, Timocrates.

     _Tim._ I wish, then, that you would communicate to us also
     some of that agreeable conversation which you had over your
     cups;

          Make your hand perfect by a third attempt,

     as the bard of Cyrene[3:1] says somewhere or other; or must we
     ask some one else?

4. Then after a little while he proceeds to the praises of Laurentius,
and says that he, being a man of a munificent spirit, and one who
collected numbers of learned men about him, feasted them not only with
other things, but also with conversation, at one time proposing
questions deserving of investigation, and at another asking for
information himself; not suggesting subjects without examination, or in
any random manner, but as far as was possible with a critical and
Socratic discernment; so that every one marvelled at the systematic
character of his questions. And he says, too, that he was appointed
superintendant of the temples and sacrifices by that best of all
sovereigns Marcus;[3:2] and that he was no less conversant with the
literature of the Greeks than with that of his own countrymen. And he
calls him a sort of Asteropæus,[4:1] equally acquainted with both
languages. And he says that he was well versed in all the religious
ceremonies instituted by Romulus, who gave his name to the city, and by
Numa Pompilius; and that he is learned in all the laws of politics; and
that he has arrived at all this learning solely from the study of
ancient decrees and resolutions; and from the collection of the laws
which (as Eupolis, the comic writer, says of the poems of Pindar) are
already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for
elegant learning. He had also, says he, such a library of ancient Greek
books, as to exceed in that respect all those who are remarkable for
such collections; such as Polycrates of Samos, and Pisistratus who was
tyrant of Athens, and Euclides who was himself also an Athenian, and
Nicorrates the Samian, and even the kings of Pergamos, and Euripides the
poet, and Aristotle the philosopher, and Nelius his librarian; from whom
they say that our countryman Ptolemæus, surnamed Philadelphus, bought
them all, and transported them with all those which he had collected at
Athens and at Rhodes to his own beautiful Alexandria. So that a man may
fairly quote the verses of Antiphanes and apply them to him:--

     You court the heav'nly muse with ceaseless zeal,
     And seek to open all the varied stores
     Of high philosophy.

And as the Theban lyric poet[4:2] says:--

     Nor less renown'd his hand essays
     To wake the muse's choicest lays,
     Such as the social feast around
     Full oft our tuneful band inspire.

And when inviting people to his feasts, he causes Rome to be looked upon
as the common country of all of them. For who can regret what he has
left in his own country, while dwelling with a man who thus opens his
house to all his friends. For as Apollodorus the comic poet says:--

     Whene'er you cross the threshhold of a friend,
     How welcome you may be needs no long time
     To feel assured of; blithe the porter looks,
     The house-dog wags his tail, and rubs his nose
     Against your legs; and servants hasten quick,
     Unbidden all, since their lord's secret wish
     Is known full well, to place an easy chair
     To rest your weary limbs.

5. It would be a good thing if other rich men were like him; since when
a man acts in a different manner, people are apt to say to him, "Why are
you so mean? Your tents are full of wine."

     Call the elders to the feast,
     Such a course befits you best.

Such as this was the magnanimity of the great Alexander. And Conon,
after he had conquered the Lacedæmonians in the sea-fight off Cnidus,
and fortified the Piræus, sacrificed a real hecatomb, which deserved the
name, and feasted all the Athenians. And Alcibiades, who conquered in
the chariot race at the Olympic games, getting the first, and second,
and fourth prizes, (for which victories Euripides wrote a triumphal
ode,) having sacrificed to Olympian Jupiter, feasted the whole assembly.
And Leophron did the same at the Olympic games, Simonides of Ceos
writing a triumphal ode for him. And Empedocles of Agrigentum, having
gained the victory in the horse race at the Olympic games, as he was
himself a Pythagorean, and as such one who abstained from meat, made an
image of an ox of myrrh, and frankincense, and the most expensive
spices, and distributed it among all who came to that festival. And Ion
of Chios, having gained the tragic crown at Athens, gave a pot of Chian
wine to every Athenian citizen. For Antiphanes says:--

     For why should any man wealth desire,
     And seek to pile his treasures higher,
     If it were not to aid his friends in their need,
     And to gain for himself love's and gratitude's meed?
     For all can drink and all can eat,
     And it is not only the richest meat,
     Or the oldest wine in the well-chased bowl
     Which can banish hunger and thirst from the soul.

And Xenophanes of Chalcedon, and Speusippus the Academic philosopher,
and Aristotle, have all written drinking songs.

And in the same manner Gellias of Agrigentum, being a very hospitable
man, and very attentive to all his guests, gave a tunic and cloak to
every one of five hundred horsemen who once came to him from Gela in the
winter season.

6. The sophist uses the word Dinnerchaser, on which Clearchus says that
Charmus the Syracusan adopted some little versicles and proverbs very
neatly to whatever was put on the table. As on seeing a fish, he says:--

     I come from the salt depths of Ægeus' sea.

And when he saw some ceryces he said--

     Hail holy heralds (κήρυκες), messengers of Jove.

And on seeing tripe,

     Crooked ways, and nothing sound.

When a well-stuffed cuttlefish is served up,

     Good morrow, fool.

When he saw some pickled char,

     O charming sight; hence with the vulgar crowd.

And on beholding a skinned eel,

     Beauty when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.

Many such men then as these, he says, were present at Laurentius's
supper; bringing books out of their bags, as their contribution to the
picnic. And he says also that Charmus, having something ready for
everything that was served up, as has been already said, appeared to the
Massenians to be a most accomplished man; as also did Calliphanes, who
was called the son of Parabrycon, who having copied out the beginnings
of many poems and other writings, recollected three or four stanzas of
each, aiming at a reputation for extensive learning. And many other men
had in their mouths turbots caught in the Sicilian sea, and swimming
eels, and the trail of the tunny-fish of Pachynum, and kids from Melos,
and mullets from Symæthus. And, of dishes of less repute, there were
cockles from Pelorum, anchovies from Lipara, turnips from Mantinea, rape
from Thebes, and beet-root from the Ascræans. And Cleanthes the
Tarentine, as Clearchus says, said everything while the drinking lasted,
in metres. And so did Pamphilus the Sicilian, in this way:--

     Give me a cup of sack, that partridge leg,
     Likewise a pot, or else at least a cheesecake.

Being, says he, men with fair means, and not forced to earn their dinner
with their hands,--

     Bringing baskets full of votes.

7. Archestratus the Syracusan or Geloan, in his work to which Chrysippus
gives the title of Gastronomy, but Lynceus and Callimachus of Hedypathy,
that is Pleasure, and which Clearchus calls Deipnology, and others
Cookery, (but it is an epic poem, beginning,

     Here to all Greece I open wisdom's store;)

says,

     A numerous party may sit round a table,
       But not more than three, four, or five on one sofa;
     For else it would be a disorderly Babel,
       Like the hireling piratical band of a rover.

But he does not know that at the feast recorded by Plato there were
eight and twenty guests present.

     How keenly they watch for a