Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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With respect to Lupins. Alexis says—

A curse upon the man;
Let him not come near me, who eats lupins in season,
And then leaves the husks and shells in the vestibules
Why was he not choked while eating them I know,
I know most certainly, that Cleænetus the tragedian
Did not eat them. For Cleænetus
Never threw away the husk of a single vegetable,
So exceedingly economical is that man.

And Lycophron of Chalcis, in a satiric drama which he wrote against Menedemus the philosopher, for the purpose of turn- [p. 91] ing him into ridicule, (it was from Menedemus that the sect of the Eretrians derived its name,) laughs at the suppers of the philosophers, and says—

The lupin, common to all the people, in great plenty
Danced upon the board, the companion of poor couches.

And Diphilus says—

There is no business more mischievous or degrading
Than that of the pander.
I would rather walk along the streets selling
Roses, and radishes, and lupin-beans, and press'd olives,
And anything else in the world, rather than give encouragement
To such a miserable trade.

And you may observe, that he then uses the expression θερμοκύαμοι, lupin-beans, as they are called even now. Polemo says, that the Lacedæmonians call lupins λυσιλαΐδες. And Theophrastus, in his book about The Causes of Plants, tells us that the lupin, and the bitter vetch, and the common vetch, are the only kinds of green vegetable which do not produce animal life, because of their harshness and bitterness. But the vetch, says he, turns black as it decays. He says, also, that caterpillars come in vetches, and it is in the fourth book of the same treatise that he states this. Diphilus the Siphnian writer says that lupins are very apt to create moisture, and are very nutritious, especially those kinds Which are rendered sweet by being soaked. On which account Zeno the Citiæan, a man of harsh disposition and very apt to get in a passion with his friends, when he had taken a good deal of wine, became sweet-tempered and gentle; and when people asked him what produced this difference in his disposition, he said, that he was subject to the same influences as lupins: for that they before they were cooked were very bitter; but that when they had been steeped in liquor they were sweet and wholesome.