Book XIV.
MOST people, my friend Timocrates, call Bacchus frantic, because those who drink too much unmixed wine become violent
For when the wine has penetrated down into the body, as Herodotus says, bad and furious language is apt to rise to the surface. And Clearchus the comic poet says in his Corinthians—To copious wine this insolence we owe,
And much thy betters wine can overthrow
The great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,
Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:
Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and all
The heroes rose and dragg'd him from the hall;
His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,
And sent him sober'd home with better wit.Odyss. xxi. 293.
If all the men who to get drunk are apt,And Xenophon represents Agesilaus as insisting that a man ought to shun drunkenness equally with madness, and immoderate gluttony as much as idleness. But we, as we are not of the class who drink to excess, nor of the number of those who are in the habit of being intoxicated by midday, have come rather to this literary entertainment; for Ulpian, who is always finding fault, reproved some one just now who said, I am not drunk (ἔξοινος), saying,—Where do you find that word ἔξοινος? But he rejoined,—Why, in Alexis, who, in his play called the New Settler, says—
Had every day a headache ere they drank
The wine, there is not one would drink a drop:
But as we now get all the pleasure first,
And then the drink, we lose the whole delight
In the sharp pain which follows.
He did all this when drunk (ἔξοινος).[p. 979]
But as, after the discussion by us of the new topics which arise, our liberal entertainer Laurentius is every day constantly introducing different kinds of music, and also jesters and buffoons, let us have a little talk about them. Although I am aware that Anacharsis the Scythian, when on one occasion jesters were introduced in his company, remained without moving a muscle of his countenance; but afterwards, when a monkey was brought in, he burst out laughing, and said, “Now this fellow is laughable by his nature, but man is only so through practice.” And Euripides, in his Melanippe in Chains, has said—
But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,And Parmeniscus of Metapontum, as Semus tells us in the fifth book of his Delias, a man of the highest consideration both as to family and in respect of his riches, having gone down to the cave of Trophonius, after he had come up again, was not able to laugh at all. And when he consulted the oracle on this subject, the Pythian priestess replied to him—
Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jesters
I hate who let loose their unbridled tongues
Against the wise and good; nor do I class them
As men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.
Meantime they live at ease, and gather up
Good store of wealth to keep within their houses.
You're asking me, you laughless man,So, on this, he hoped that when he returned to his country he should be able to laugh again; but when he found that he could laugh no more now than he could before, he considered that he had been deceived; till, by some chance, he came to Delos; and as he was admiring everything he saw in the island, he came into the temple of Latona, expecting to see some very superb statue of the mother of Apollo; but when he saw only a wooden shapeless figure, he unexpectedly burst out laughing. And then, comparing what had happened with the oracle of the god, and being cured of his infirmity, he honoured the goddess greatly.
About the power to laugh again;
Your mother 'll give it you at home,
If you with reverence to her come.
Now Anaxandrides, in his Old Man's Madness, says that it was Rhadamanthus and Palamedes who invented the fashion of jesters; and his words are these:— [p. 980]
And yet we labour much.Xenophon also, in his Banquet, mentions jesters; introducing Philip, of whom he speaks in the following manner: —“But Philip the jester, having knocked at the door, told the boy who answered, to tell the guests who he was, and that he was desirous to be admitted; and he said that he came provided with everything which could qualify him for supping at other people's expense. And he said, too, that his boy was in a good deal of distress because he had brought nothing, and because he had had no dinner.” And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his epistle to Lynceus, mentions the jesters Mandrogenes and Strato the Athenian. And at Athens there was a great deal of this kind of cleverness. Accordingly, in the Heracleum at Diomea1 they assembled to the number of sixty, and they were always spoken of in the city as amounting to that number, in such expressions as—“The sixty said this,” and, “I am come from the sixty.” And among them were Callimedon, nicknamed the Crab, and Dinias, and also Mnasigeiton and Menæchmus, as Telephanes tells us in his treatise on the City. And their reputation for amusing qualities was so great, that Philip the Macedonian heard of it, and sent them a talent to engage them to write out their witticisms and send them to him. And the fact of this king having been a man who was very fond of jokes is testified to us by Demosthenes the orator in his Philippics. Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very eager for anything which could make him laugh, as Phylarchus tells us in the sixth book of his History. And he it was who said, “that the palace of Lysimachus was in no respect different from a comic theatre; for that there was no one there bigger than a dissyllable”2 (meaning to laugh at Bithys and Paris, who had more influence than anybody with Lysimachus, and at some others of his friends;) “but that his friends were [p. 981] Peucesteses, and Menelauses, and Oxythemises.” But when Lysimachus heard this, he said,—“I, however, never saw a prostitute on the stage in a tragedy;” referring to Lamia the female flute-player. And when this was reported to Demetrius, he rejoined,—“But the prostitute who is with me, lives in a more modest manner than the Penelope who is with him.”
But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,
Sought those who bring no other contribution,
But say amusing things.
And we have mentioned before this that Sylla, the general of the Romans, was very fond of anything laughable. And Lucius Anicius, who was also a general of the Romans, after he had subdued the Illyrians, and brought with him Genthius the king of the Illyrians as his prisoner, with all his children, when he was celebrating his triumphal games at Rome, did many things of the most laughable character possible, as Polybius relates in his thirtieth book:—“For having sent for the most eminent artists from Greece, and having erected a very large theatre in the circus, he first of all introduced all the flute-players. And these were Theodorus the Bœotian, and Theopompus, and Hermippus, surnamed Lysimachus, who were the most eminent men in their profession. And having brought these men in front of the stage after the chorus was over, he ordered them all to play the flute. And as they accompanied their music with appropriate gestures, he sent to them and said that they were not playing well, and desired them to be more vehement. And while they were in perplexity, one of the lictors told them that what Anicius wished was that they should turn round so as to advance towards each other, and give a representation of a battle. And then the flute-players, taking this hint, and adopting a movement not unsuited to their habitual wantonness, caused a great tumult and confusion; and turning the middle of the chorus towards the extremities, the flute-players, all blowing unpremeditated notes, and letting their flutes be all out of tune, rushed upon one another in turn: and at the same time the choruses, all making a noise to correspond to them, and coming on the stage at the same time, rushed also upon one another, and then again retreated, advancing and retreating alternately. But when one of the chorus-dancers tucked up his garment, and suddenly turned round and raised his hands against the flute-player who was coming towards him, as if he was going to box with him, then there arose an extraordinary [p. 982] clapping and shouting on the part of the spectators. And while all these men were fighting as if in regular battle, two dancers were introduced into the orchestra with a symphony, and four boxers mounted the stage, with trumpeters and horn-players: and when all these men were striving together, the spectacle was quite indescribable: and as for the tragedians,” says Polybius, “if I were to attempt to describe what took place with respect to them, I should be thought by some people to be jesting.”
Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus said,— Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:—
They say that once there was a man at Athens,And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian—
A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, who
Devoted all his life to this pursuit;
And he, whenever to a hill he came,
Ran straight up to the top; but then descending
Came slowly down, and leaning on a stick.
They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus onceThere was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned by Theognetus, in his Slave devoted to his Master—
Most wittily station'd in a narrow lane
A crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,
So that no one else could pass that way at all.
Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα）And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon: —“But Pantaleon the πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they after- [p. 983] wards went and dug together to no purpose, and then found out that they had been all deceived.”
Save only foreigners, and those, too, such
As ne'er had heard of him: and often he,
After a drunken revel, would pour forth
All sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laugh
By his unceasing chattering.
And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—“Once when a man fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him.” And Myrtilus having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus), as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—
You begin ill, introducing τηνδεμουσαν,3—ordered him to be put in a cage (γαλεάγρα) and carried about like a wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word γαλεάγρα, it occurs in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself. And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon, when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost his, kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—
The mountain was in labour; JupiterAnd Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, “I will prove a lion to you.” So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.
Was greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.
So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were said. For concerning [p. 984] flutes, somebody said that Melanippides, in his Marsyas, dis- paraging the art of playing the flute, had said very cleverly about Minerva:—
Minerva cast away those instrumentsAnd some one, replying to him, said,—But Telestes of Selinus, in opposition to Melanippides, says in his Argo (and it is of Minerva that he too is speaking):—
Down from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,
"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!
Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices'"
It seems to me a scarcely credible thingintimating his belief that she, as she was and always was to continue a maid, could not be alarmed at the idea of disfiguring her beauty. And in a subsequent passage he says—
That the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,
Should in the mountain groves have taken up
That clever instrument, and then again
Thrown it away, fearing to draw her mouth
Into an unseemly shape, to be a glory
To the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.
For how should chaste Minerva be so anxious
About her beauty, when the Fates had given her
A childless, husbandless virginity?
But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,And after this, in an express panegyric on the art of flute-playing, he says—
Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelessly
Through Greece, to raise an envy and reproach
Against the wise and sacred art of music.
And so the happy breath of the holy goddessAnd very neatly, in his Aesculapius, has Telestes vindicated the use of the flute, where he says—
Bestow'd this art divine on Bromius,
With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.
And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forth
The notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,
Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,
Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breath
Which fills the flute with tuneful modulation.
And Pratinas the Phliasian says, that when some hired flute-players and chorus-dancers were occupying the orchestra, some people were indignant because the flute-players did not play in tune to the choruses, as was the national custom, but the choruses instead sang, keeping time to the flutes. And [p. 985] what his opinion and feelings were towards those who did this, Pratinas declares in the following hyporchema:—
What noise is this
What mean these songs of dancers now?
What new unseemly fashion
Has seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,
Now echoing with various noise?
Bromius is mine! is mine!
I am the man who ought to sing,
I am the man who ought to raise the strain,
Hastening o'er the hills,
In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;
Blending a song of varied strain,
Like the sweet dying swan.
You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre sway
Of holy song:
And after you let the shrill flute resound;
For that is but the handmaid
Of revels, where men combat at the doors,
And fight with heavy fists.4
* * * * *
And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.
Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,
The leader of the changing choir,—
Chattering, untimely, leading on
The rhythm of the changing song.
* * * * w
King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,
Whose brow the ivy crowns,
Hear this my Doric song.
And of the union of flutes with the lyre (for that concert has often been a great delight to us ourselves), Ephippus, in his Traffic, speaks as follows:—
Clearly, O youth, the music of the flute,And the exact meaning of the word συναυλία is shown by Semus the Delian, in the fifth book of his Delias, where he writes—“But as the term 'concert' (συναυλία) is not understood by many people, we must speak of it. It is wren there is a union of the flute and of rhythm in alternation, without any words accompanying the melody.” And Antiphanes explains it very neatly in his Flute-player, where he says— [p. 986]
And that which from the lyre comes, does suit
Well with our pastimes; for when each resound
In unison with the feelings of those present,
Then is the greatest pleasure felt by all.
Tell me, I pray you, what this concert (ἡ συναυλία αἵτη) wasBut the poets frequently call the flute “the Libyan flute,” as Duris remarks in the second book of his History of Agathocles, because Seirites, who appears to have been the first inventor of the art of flute-playing, was a Libyan, of one of the Nomad tribes; and he was the first person who played airs on the flute in the festival of Cybele." And the different kinds of airs which can be played on the flute (as Tryphon tells us in the second book of his treatise on Names) have the following names:—the Comus, the Bucoliasmus, the Gingras, the Tetracomus, the Epiphallus, the Choreus, the Callinicus, the Martial, the Hedycomus, the Sicynnotyrbe, the Thyrocopicum, which is the same as the Crousithyrum (or Door-knocker), the Cnismus, the Mothon. And all these airs on the flute, when played, were accompanied with dancing.
Which he did give you. For you know; but they
Having well learnt, still played.5. . . . . . .
* * * * *
A concert of sweet sounds, apart from words,
Is pleasant, and not destitute of meaning.
Tryphon also gives a list of the different names of songs, as follows. He says—"There is the Himæus, which is also called the Millstone song, which men used to sing while grinding corn, perhaps from the word ἱμαλίς.. But ἱμαλίς is a Dorian word, signifying a return, and also the quantity of corn which the millers gave into the bargain. Then there is the Elinus, which is the song of the men who worked at the loom; as Epicharmus shows us in his Atalantas. There is also the Ioulos, sung by the women who spin. And Semus the Delian, in his treatise on Pæans, says—'"They used to call the handfuls of barley taken separately, ἄμάλαι; but when they were collected so that a great many were made into one sheaf, then they were called οὔλοι and ἴουλοι.. And Ceres herself was called sometimes Chloe, and sometimes Ioulo; and, as being the inventions of this goddess, both the fruits of the ground and also the songs addressed to the goddess were called οὖλοι and ἴουλοι: and so, too, we have the words δημήτρουλοι and καλλίουλοι, and the line—
πλεῖστον οὖλον οὖλον ἵει, ἴουλον ἵει.But others say that the Ioulis is the song of the workers in [p. 987] wool. There are also the songs of nurses, which are called καταβαυκαλήσεις. There was also a song used at the feast of Swings,6 in honour of Erigone, which is called Aletis. At all events, Aristotle says, in his treatise on the Constitution of the Colophonians—“Theodorus also himself died afterwards by a violent death. And he is said to have been a very luxurious man, as is evident from his poetry; for even now the women sing his songs on the festival of the Swing.” There was also a reaper's song called Lityerses; and another song sung by hired servants when going to the fields, as Teleclides tells us in his Amphictyons. There were songs, too, of bathing men, as we learn from Crates in his Deeds of Daring; and a song of women baking, as Aristophanes intimates in his Thesmophoriazusæ, and Nicochares in his Hercules Choregus. And another song in use among those who drove herds, and this was called the Bucoliasmus. And the man who first invented this species of song was Diomus, a Sicilian cowherd; and it is mentioned by Epicharmus in his Halcyon, and in his Ulysses Shipwrecked. The song used at deaths and in mourning is called Olophyrmus; and the songs called Iouli are used in honour of Ceres and Proserpine. The song sung in honour of Apollo is called Philhelias, as we learn from Telesilla; and those addressed to Diana are called Upingi. There were also laws composed by Charondas, which were sung at Athens at drinking-parties; as Hermippus tells us in the sixth book of his treatise on Lawgivers. And Aristophanes, in his catalogue of Attic Expressions, say—“The Himæus is the song of people grinding; the Hymenæus is the song used at marriage-feasts; and that employed in lamentation is called Ialemus. But the Linus and the Aelinus are not confined to occasions of mourning, but are in use also in good fortune, as we may gather from Euripides.”
But Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on matters relating to Love, says that there was a kind of song called Nomium, derived from Eriphanis; and his words are these:—"Eriphanis was a lyric poetess, the mistress of Menalcas the hunter; and she, pursuing him with her passions, hunted too. For often frequenting the mountains, and [p. 988] wandering over them, she came to the different groves, equal- ling in her wanderings the celebrated journeys of Io; so that not only those men who were most remarkable for their deficiency in the tender passion, but even the fiercest beasts, joined in weeping for her misfortunes, perceiving the lengths to which her passionate hopes carried her. Therefore she wrote poems; and when she had composed them, as it is said, she roamed about the desert, shouting and singing the kind of song called Nomium, in which the burden of the song is—
The lofty oaks, Menalcas."And Aristoxenus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Music, says—“Anciently the women used to sing a kind of song called Calyca. Now, this was a poem of Stesichorus, in which a damsel of the name of Calyca, being in love with a young man named Euathlus, prays in a modest manner to Venus to aid her in becoming his wife. But when the young man scorned her, she threw herself down a precipice. And this disaster took place near Leucas. And the poet has represented the disposition of the maiden as very modest; so that she was not willing to live with the youth on his own terms, but prayed that, if possible, she might become the wedded wife of Euathlus; and if that were not possible, that she might be released from life.” But, in his Brief Memoranda, Aristoxenus says—“Iphiclus despised Harpalyce, who was in love with him; but she died, and there has been a contest established among the virgins of songs in her honour, and the contest is called from her, Harpalyce.” And Nymphis, in the first book of his History of Heraclea, speaking of the Maryandyni, says—“And in the same way it is well to notice some songs which, in compliance with a national custom, they sing, in which they invoke some ancient person, whom they address as Bormus. And they say that he was the son of an illustrious and wealthy man, and that he was far superior to all his fellows in beauty and in the vigour of youth; and as he was superintending the cultivation of some of his own lands, and wishing to give his reapers something to drink, he went to fetch some water, and disappeared. Accordingly, they say that on this the natives of the country sought him with a kind of dirge and invocation set to music, which even to this day they are in the habit of using frequently. And a [p. 989] similar kind of song is that which is in use among the Egyp- tians, and is called Maneros.”
Moreover, there were rhapsodists also present at our entertainments: for Laurentius delighted in the reciters of Homer to an extraordinary degree; so that one might call Cassander the king of Macedonia a trifler in comparison of him; concerning whom Carystius, in his Historic Recollections, tells us that he was so devoted to Homer, that he could say the greater part of his poems by heart; and he had a copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey written out with his own hand. And that these reciters of Homer were called Homeristæ also, Aristocles has told us in his treatise on Choruses. But those who are now called Homeristæ were first introduced on the stage by Demetrius Phalereus. Now Chamæleon, in his essay on Stesichorus, says that not only the poems of Homer, but those also of Hesiod and Archilochus, and also of Mimnermus and Phocylides, were often recited to the accompaniment of music; and Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures, says—“Simonides of Zacynthus used to sit in the theatres on a lofty chair reciting the verses of Archilochus.” And Lysanias, in the first book of his treatise on Iambic Poets, says that Mnasion the rhapsodist used in his public recitations to deliver some of the Iambics of Simonides. And Cleomenes the rhapsodist, at the Olympic games, recited the Purification of Empedocles, as is asserted by Dicæarchus in his history of Olympia. And Jason, in the third book of his treatise on the Temples of Alexander, says that Hegesias, the comic actor, recited the works of Herodotus in the great theatre, and that Hermophantus recited the poems of Homer.
And the men called Hilarodists (whom some people at the present day call Simodists, as Aristocles tells us in his first book on Choruses, because Simus the Magnesian was the most celebrated of all the poets of joyous songs,) frequently come under our notice. And Aristocles also gives a regular list of them in his treatise on Music, here he speaks in the following manner:—“The Magodist—but he is the same as the Lysiodist.” But Aristoxenus says that Magodus is the name given to an actor who acts both male and female characters;7 but that he who acts a woman's part in [p. 990] combination with a man's is called a Lysiodist. And they both sing the same songs, and in other respects they are similar. The Ionic dialect also supplies us with poems of Sotades, and with what before his time were called Ionic poems, such as those of Alexander the Aetolian, and Pyres the Milesian, and Alexas, and other poets of the same kind; and Sotades is called κιναιδόλογος. And Sotades the Maronite was very notorious for this kind of poetry, as Carystius of Pergamus says in his essay on Sotades; and so was the son of Sotades, Apollonius: and this latter also wrote an essay on his father's poetry, from which one may easily see the unbridled licence of language which Sotades allowed himself,—abusing Lysimachus the king in Alexandria,—and, when at the court of Lysimachus, abusing Ptolemy Philadelphus,-and in different cities speaking ill of different sovereigns; on which account, at last, he met with the punishment that he deserved: for when he had sailed from Alexandria (as Hegesander, in his Reminiscences, relates), and thought that he had escaped all danger, (for he had said many bitter things against Ptolemy the king, and especially this, after he had heard that he had married his sister Arsinoe,—
He pierced forbidden fruit with deadly sting,)Patrocles, the general of Ptolemy, caught him in the island of Caunus, and shut him up in a leaden vessel, and carried him into the open sea and drowned him. And his poetry is of this kind: Philenus was the father of Theodorus the fluteplayer, on whom he wrote these lines:—
And he, opening the door which leads from the back-street,
Sent forth vain thunder from a leafy cave,
Such as a mighty ploughing ox might utter.
But the Hilarodus, as he is called, is a more respectable kind of poet than these men are; for he is never effeminate or indecorous, but he wears a white manly robe, and he is crowned with a golden crown: and in former times he used to wear sandals, as Aristocles tells us; but at the present day he wears only slippers. And some man or woman sings an accompaniment to him, as to a person who sings to the flute. And a crown is given to a Hilarodus, as well as to a person who sings to the flute; but such honours are not allowed to a player on the harp or on the flute. But the man who is called a Magodus has drums and cymbals, and wears all kinds [p. 991] of woman's attire; and he behaves in an effeminate manner, and does every sort of indecorous, indecent thing,—imitating at one time a woman, at another an adulterer or a pimp: or sometimes he represents a drunken man, or even a serenade offered by a reveller to his mistress. And Aristoxeus says that the business of singing joyous songs is a respectable one, and somewhat akin to tragedy; but that the business of a Magodus is more like comedy. And very often it happens that the Magodi, taking the argument of some comedy, represent it according to their own fashion and manner. And the word μαγῳδία was derived from the fact that those who addicted themselves to the practice, uttered things like magical incantations, and often declared the power of various drugs.
But there was among the Lacedæmonians an ancient kind of comic diversion, as Sosibius says, not very important or serious, since Sparta aimed at plainness even in pastimes. And the way was, that some one, using very plain, unadorned language, imitated persons stealing fruit, or else some foreign physician speaking in this way, as Allexis, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, represents one: and he says—
If any surgeon of the country says,And those who practised this kind of sport were called among the Lacedæmonians δικηλισταὶ, which is a term equivalent to σκευοποιοὶ or μιμηταί.8 There are, however, many names, varying in different places, for this class of δικηλισταί; for the Sicyonians call them φαλλοφόροι, and others call them αὐτοκάβδαλοι, and some call them φλύακες, as the Italians do; but people in general call them Sophists: and the Thebans, who are very much in the habit of giving peculiar lames to many things, call them ἐθελονταί. But that the Thebans do introduce all kinds of innovations with respect to words, Strattis shows us in the Phœnissæ, where he says— [p. 992]
"Give him at early dawn a platter full
Of barley-broth," we shall at once despise him;
But if he says the same with foreign accent,
We marvel and admire him. If he call
The beet-root σεύτλιον, we disregard him;
But if he style it τεύτλιον, we listen,
And straightway, with attention fix'd, obey;
As if there were such difference between
σεύτλιον and τεύτλιον.
You, you whole body of Theban citizens,
Know absolutely nothing; for I hear
You call the cuttle-fish not σηπία,
But ὀπισθότιλα. Then, too, you term
A cock not ἀλεκτρύων, but ὀρτάλιχος:
A physician is no longer in your mouths
ἰατρὸς—no, but σακτάς. For a bridge,
You turn γέφυρα into βλέφυρα.
Figs are not σῦκα now, but τῦκα: swallows,
κωτιλάδες, not χελιδόνες. A mouthful
With you is ἄκολος; to laugh, ἐκριδδέμεν.
A new-seled shoe you call νεοσπάτωτον.
Semos the Delian says in his book about Pæans—“The men who were called αὑτοκάβδαλοι used to wear crowns of ivy, and they would go through long poems slowly. But at a later time both they and their poems were called Iambics. And those,” he proceeds, “who are called Ithyphalli, wear a mask representing the face of a drunken man, and wear crowns, having gloves embroidered with flowers. And they wear tunics shot with white; and they wear a Tarentine robe, which covers them down to their ancles: and they enter at the stage entrance silently, and when they have reached the middle of the orchestra, they turn towards the spectators, and say—
Out of the way; a clear space leaveAnd the Phallophori,” says he, “wear no masks; but they put on a sort of veil of wild thyme, and on that they put acanthi, and an untrimmed garland of violets and ivy; and they clothe themselves in Caunacæ, and so come on the stage, some at the side, and others through the centre entrance, walking in exact musical time, and saying—
For the great mighty god:
For the god, to his ancles clad,
Will pass along the centre of the crowd.
For you, O Bacchus, do we now set forth -And then, advancing, they used to ridicule with their jests whoever they chose; and they did this standing still, but the Phallophorus himself marched straight on, covered with soot and dirt.”
This tuneful song; uttering in various melody
This simple rhythm.
It is a song unsuited to a virgin;
Nor are we now addressing you with hymns
Made long ago, but this our offering
Is fresh unutter'd praise.
And since we are on this subject, it is as well not to [p. 993] omit what happened to Amœbeus, a harp-player of our time, and a man of great science and skill in everything that related to music. He once came late to one of our banquets, and when he heard from one of the servants that we had all finished supper, he doubted what to do himself, until Sophon the cook came to him, and with a loud voice, so that every one might hear, recited to him these lines out of the Auge of Eubulus:—
O wretched man, why stand you at the doorsFor as that delightful writer Antiphanes says, in his Friend of the Thebans,—
Why don't you enter'? Long ago the geese
Have all been deftly carved limb from limb;
Long the hot pork has had the meat cut off
From the long backbone, and the stuffing, which
Lay in the middle of his stomach, has
Been served around; and all his pettitoes,
The dainty slices of fat, well-season'd sausages,
Have all been eaten. The well-roasted cuttle-fish
Is swallow'd long ago; and nine or ten
Casks of rich wine are drain'd to the very dregs.
So if you'd like some fragments of the feast,
Hasten and enter. Don't, like hungry wolf,
Losing this feast, then run about at random.
A. We now are well supplied with everything;So, come in—
For she, the namesake of the dame within,
The rich Bœotian eel, carved in the depths
Of the ample dish, is warm, and swells, and boils,
And bubbles up, and smokes; so that a man,
E'en though equipp'd with brazen nostrils, scarcely
Could bear to leave a banquet such as this,—
So rich a fragrance does it yield his senses.
B. Say you the cook is living
A. There is near
A cestreus, all unfed both night and day,
Scaled, wash'd, and stain'd with cochineal, and turned;
And as he nears his last and final turn
He cracks and hisses; while the servant bastes
The fish with vinegar: then there's Libyan silphium,
Dried in the genial rays of midday sun:—
B. Yet there are people found who dare to say
That sorcerers possess no sacred power;
For now I see three men their bellies filling
While you are turning this.
A. And the comrade squid
Bearing the form of the humpback'd cuttlefish,
Dreadful with armed claws and sharpen'd talons,
Changing its brilliant snow-white nature under
[p. 994] The fiery blasts of glowing coal, adorns
Its back with golden splendour; well exciting
Hunger, the best forerunner of a feast.
Do not delay, but enter: when we've dinedAnd so he, meeting him in this appropriate manner, replies with these lines out of the Harper of Clearchus:—
We then can best endure what must be borne.
Sup on white congers, and whatever elseAnd as there was great applause on this, and as every one with one accord called to him to come in, he went in and drank, and taking the lyre, sang to us in such a manner that we all marvelled at his skill on the harp, and at the rapidity of his execution, and at the tunefulness of his voice; for he appeared to me to be not at all inferior to that ancient Amœbeus, whom Aristeas, in his History of Harp-players, speaks of as living at Athens, and dwelling near the theatre, and receiving an Attic talent a-day every time he went out singing.
Can boast a sticky nature; for by such food
The breath is strengthen'd, and the voice of man
Is render'd rich and powerful.
And while some were discussing music in this manner, and others of the guests saying different things every day, but all praising the pastime, Masurius, who excelled in everything, and was a man of universal wisdom, (for as an interpreter of the laws he was inferior to no one, and he was always devoting some of his attention to music, for indeed he was able himself to play on some musical instruments,) said, —My good friends, Eupolis the comic poet says—
And music is a deep and subtle science,on which account Anaxilas, in his Hyacinthus, says—
And always finding out some novelty
For those who 're capable of comprehending it;
For, by the gods I swear, music, like Libya,for, my dear fellows, “Music,” as the Harp-player of Theophilus says, “is a great and lasting treasure to all who have learnt it and know anything about it;” for it ameliorates the disposition, and softens those who are passionate and quarrelsome in their tempers. Accordingly, “Clinias the Pythagorean,” as Chamæleon of Pontus relates, “who was a most unimpeachable man [p. 995] both in his actual conduct and also in his disposition, if ever it happened to him to get out of temper or indignant at anything, would take up his lyre and play upon it. And when people asked him the reason of this conduct, he used to say, 'I am pacifying myself.' And so, too, the Achilles of Homer was mollified by the music of the harp, which is all that Homer allots to him out of the spoils of Eetion,9 as being able to check his fiery temper. And he is the only hero in the whole Iliad who indulges in this music.” Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Aleman, and Adon, and Telus. And in Hipponax we find Cion, and Codalus, and Babys, from whom the proverb arose about men who play worse and worse,—“He plays worse than Babys.” But Aristoxenus ascribes the invention of this harmony to Hyagnis the Phrygian.
Brings forth each year some novel prodigy;
But Heraclides of Pontus, in the third book of his treatise on Music, says—"Now that harmony ought not to be called Phrygian, just as it has no right either to be called Lydian. For there are three harmonies; as there are also three different races of Greeks-Dorians, Aeolians, and] Ionians: and accordingly there is no little difference between their manners. The Lacedæmonians are of all the Dorians the most strict in maintaining their national customs and the Thessalians (and these are they who were the origin of the [p. 996] Aeolian race) have preserved at all times very nearly the same customs and institutions; but the population of the Ionians has been a great deal changed, and has gone through many transitions, because they have at all times resembled whatever nations of barbarians have from time to time been their masters. Accordingly, that species of melody which the Dorians composed they called the Dorian harmony, and that which the Aeolians used to sing they named the Aeolian harmony, and the third they called the Ionian, because they heard the Ionians sing it. "Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having nothing relaxed or merry in it, but, rather, it is stern and vehement, not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character of the Aeolian harmony is pompous and inflated, and full of a sort of pride; and these characteristics are very much in keeping with the fondness for breeding horses and for entertaining strangers which the people itself exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and they indulge in every sort of relaxation: on which account they cherish the style of the Sub-Dorian harmony; for that which they call the Aeolian is, says Heraclides, a sort of modification of the Dorian, and is called ὑποδώριος.. And we may collect the character of this Aeolian harmony also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn to the Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:—
I sing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine,But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by nearly everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great propriety that Lasus speaks of Aeolian harmony. Pratinas, too, somewhere or other says—
The sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibœa;
Raising the heavy-sounding harmony
Of hymns Aeolian.
Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yetAnd in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly—-
At the relax'd Ionian harmony;
But draw a middle furrow through your ground,
And follow the Eolian muse in preference.
But to all men who wish to raise their voices,[p. 997] "Now formerly, as I have said, they used to call this the Aeolian harmony, but afterwards they gave it the name of the Sub-Dorian, thinking, as some people say, that it was pitched lower on the flute than the Dorian. But it appears to me that those who gave it this name, seeing its inflated style, and the pretence to valour and virtue which was put forth in the style of the harmony, thought it not exactly the Dorian harmony, but to a certain extent like it: on which account they called it ὑποδώριον, just as they call what is nearly white ὑπόλευκον: and what is not absolutely sweet, but something near it, we call ὑπόγλυκυ; so, too, we call what is not thoroughly Dorian ὑπόδωριον.
The Aeolian harmony's most suitable.
"Next in order let us consider the character of the Milesians, which the Ionians display, being very proud of the goodly appearance of their persons; and full of spirit, hard to be reconciled to their enemies, quarrelsome, displaying no philanthropic or cheerful qualities, but rather a want of affection and friendship, and a great moroseness of disposition: on which account the Ionian style of harmony also is not flowery nor mirthful, but austere and harsh, and having a sort of gravity in it, which, however, is not ignoble-looking; on which account that tragedy has a sort of affection for that harmony. But the manners of the Ionians of the present day are more luxurious, and the character of their present music is very far removed from the Ionian harmony we have been speaking of. And men say that Pythermus the Teian wrote songs such as are called Scolia in this kind of harmony; and that it was because he was an Ionian poet that the harmony got the name of Ionian. This is that Pythermus whom Ananius or Hipponax mentions in his Iambics in this way:—
Pythermus speaks of gold as though all else were nought.And Pythermus's own words are as follows:—
All other things but gold are good for nothing.Therefore, according to this statement, it is probable that Pythermus, as coming from those parts. adapted the character of his melodies to the disposition of the Ionians; on which account I suppose that his was not actually the Ionian harmony, but that it was a harmony adapted in some a admirable manner to the purpose required. And those are contemptible [p. 998] people who are unable to distinguish the characteristic differences of these separate harmonies; but who are led away by the sharpness or flatness of the sounds, so as to describe one harmony as ὑπερμιξολύδιος, and then again to give a definition of some further sort, refining on this: for I do not think that even that which is called the ὑπερφρύγιος has a distinct character of its own, although some people do say that they have invented a new harmony which they call Sub-Phrygian (ὑποφρύγιος). Now every kind of harmony ought to have some distinct species of character or of passion; as the Locrian has, for this was a harmony used by some of those who lived in the time of Simonides and Pindar, but subsequently it fell into contempt.
"There are, then, as we have already said, three kinds of harmony, as there are three nations of the Greek people. But the Phrygian and Lydian harmonies, being barbaric, became known to the Greeks by means of the Phrygians and Lydians who came over to Peloponnesus with Pelops. For many Lydians accompanied and followed him, because Sipylus was a town of Lydia; and many Phrygians did so too, not because they border on the Lydians, but because their king also was Tantalus—(and you may see all over Peloponnesus, and most especially in Lacedæmon, great mounds, which the people there call the tombs of the Phrygians who came over with Pelops)—and from them the Greeks learnt these harmonies: on which account Telestes of Selinus says—
First of all, Greeks, the comrades brave of Pelops,
Sang o'er their wine, in Phrygian melody,
The praises of the mighty Mountain Mother;
But others, striking the shrill strings of the lyre,
Gave forth a Lydian hymn."
“But we must not admit,” says Polybius of Megalopolis, "that music, as Ephorus asserts, was introduced among men for the purposes of fraud and trickery. Nor must we think that the ancient Cretans and Lacedæmonians used flutes and songs at random to excite their military ardour, instead of trumpets. Nor are we to imagine that the earliest Arcadians had no reason whatever for doing so, when they introduced music into every department of their management of the republic; so that, though the nation in every other respect was most austere in its manner of life, they nevertheless com- [p. 999] pelled music to be the constant companion, not only of their boys, but even of their youths up to thirty years of age. For the Arcadians are the only people among whom the boys are trained from infancy to sing hymns and pæans to regular airs, in which indeed every city celebrates their national heroes and gods with such songs, in obedience to ancient custom. "But after this, learning the airs of Timotheus and Philoxenus, they every year, at the festival of Bacchus, dance in their theatres to the music of flute-players; the boys dancing in the choruses of boys, and the youths in those of men. And throughout the whole duration of their lives they are addicted to music at their common entertainments; not so much, however, employing musicians as singing in turn: and to admit themselves ignorant of any other accomplishment is not at all reckoned discreditable to them; but to refuse to sing is accounted a most disgraceful thing. And they, practising marches so as to march in order to the sound of the flute, and studying their dances also, exhibit every year in the theatres, under public regulations and at the public expense. These, then, are the customs which they have derived from the ancients, not for the sake of luxury and superfluity, but from a consideration of the austerity which each individual practised in his private life, and of the severity of their characters, which they contract from the cold and gloomy nature of the climate which prevails in the greater part of their country. And it is the nature of all men to be in some degree influenced by the climate, so as to get some resemblance to it themselves; and it is owing to this that we find different races of men, varying in character and figure and complexion, in proportion as they are more or less distant from one another. “In addition to this, they instituted public banquets and public sacrifices, in which the men and women join; and also dances of the maidens and boys together; endevouring to mollify and civilize the harshness of their nature character by the influence of education and habit. And as the people of Cynætha neglected this system (although they occupy by far the most inclement district of Arcadia, both as respects the soil and the climate), they, never meeting one another except for the purpose of giving offence and quarrelling, became at last so utterly savage, that the very greatest [p. 1000] impieties prevailed among them alone of all the people of Arcadia; and at the time when they made the great massacre, whatever Arcadian cities their emissaries came to in their passage, the citizens of all the other cities at once ordered them to depart by public proclamation; and the Mantineans even made a public purification of their city after their departure, leading victims all round their entire district.”
Agias, the musician, said that “the styrax, which at the Dionysiac festivals is burnt in the orchestras, presented a Phrygian odour to those who were within reach of it.” Now, formerly music was an exhortation to courage; and accordingly Alcæus the poet, one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, places valour and manliness before skill in music and poetry, being himself a man warlike even beyond what was necessary. On which account, in such verses as these, he speaks in high-toned language, and says—
My lofty house is bright with brass,although it would have been more suitable for him to have had his house well stored with musical instruments. But the ancients considered manly courage the greatest of all civil virtues, and they attributed the greatest importance to that, to the exclusion of other good qualities. Archilochus accordingly, who was a distinguished poet, boasted in the first place of being able to partake in all political undertakings, and in the second place he mentioned the credit he had gained by his poetical efforts, saying,—
And all my dwelling is adorn'd, in honour
Of mighty Mars, with shining helms,
O'er which white horsehair crests superbly wave,
Choice ornament for manly brows;
And brazen greaves, on mighty pegs suspended,
Hang round the hall; fit to repel
The heavy javelin or the long-headed spear.
There, too, are breastplates of new linen,
And many a hollow shield, thrown basely down
By coward enemies in flight:
There, too, are sharp Chalcidic swords, and belts,
Short military cloaks besides,
And all things suitable for fearless war;
Which I may ne'er forget,
Since first I girt myself for the adventurous work—
But I'm a willing servant of great Mars,And, in the same spirit, Aeschylus, though a man who had [p. 1001] acquired such great renown by his poetry, nevertheless pre- ferred having his valour recorded on his tomb, and composed an inscription for it, of which the following lines are a part:—
Skill'd also in the Muses' lovely art.
The grove of Marathon, and the long-hair'd Medes;
Who felt his courage, well may speak of it.
And it is on this account that the Lacedæmoians, who are a most valiant nation, go to war to the music of the flute, and the Cretans to the strains of the lyre, and the Lydians to the sound of pipes and flutes, as Herodotus relates. And, moreover, many of the barbarians make all their public proclamations to the accompaniment of flutes and harps, softening the souls of their enemies by these means. And Theopompus, in the forty-sixth book of his History, says—“The Getæ make all their proclamations while holding harps in their hands and playing on them.” And it is perhaps on this account that Homer, having due regard to the ancient institutions and customs of the Greeks, says—
as if this art of music were welcome also to men feasting. Now it was, as it should seem, a regular custom to introduce music, in the first place in order that every one who might be too eager for drunkenness or gluttony might have music as a sort of physician and healer of his insolence and indecorum, and also because music softens moroseness of temper; for it dissipates sadness, and produces affability and a sort of gentlemanlike joy. From which consideration, Homer has also, in the first book of the Iliad, represented the gods as using music after their dissensions on the subject of Achilles; for they continued for some time listening to it—I hear, what graces every feast, the lyre;
Odyss. xvii. 262.
For it was desirable that they should leave off their quarrels and dissensions, as we have said. And most people seem to attribute the practice of this art to banquets for the sake of setting things right, and of the general mutual advantage. And, besides these other occasions, the ancients also established by customs and laws that at feasts all men should sing hymns to the gods, in order by these means to preserve [p. 1002] order and decency among us; for as all songs proceed according to harmony, the consideration of the gods being added to this harmony, elevates the feelings of each individual. And Philochorus says that the ancients, when making their libations, did not always use dithyrambic hymns, but “when they pour libations, they celebrate Bacchus with wine and drunkenness, but Apollo with tranquillity and good order.” Accordingly Archilochus says—Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong
In feasts ambrosial and celestial song:
Apollo tuned the lyre,—the Muses round,
With voice alternate, aid the silver sound.Iliad, i. 603.
I, all excited in my mind with wine,And Epicharmus, in his Philoctetes, says—
Am skilful in the dithyrambic, knowing
The noble melodies of the sovereign Bacchus.
A water-drinker knows no dithyrambics.So, that it was not merely with a view to superficial and vulgar pleasure, as some assert, that music was originally introduced into entertainments, is plain from what has been said above. But the Lacedæmonians do not assert that they used to learn music as a science, but they do profess to be able to judge well of what is done in the art; and they say that they have already three times preserved it when it was in danger of being lost.
Music also contributes to the proper exercising of the body and to sharpening the intellect; on which account, every Grecian people, and every barbarian nation too, that we are acquainted with, practise it. And it was a good saying of Damon the Athenian, that songs and dances must inevitably exist where the mind was excited in any manner; and liberal, and gentlemanly, and honourable feelings of the mind produce corresponding kinds of music, and the opposite feelings likewise produce the opposite kinds of music. On which account, that saying of Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was a witty one, and a sign of a well-educated intellect. For when he saw, as it is related,10 one of the suitors for his daughter dancing in an unseemly manner (it was Hippoclides the Athenian), he told him that he had danced away his marriage, thinking, as it should seem, that the mind of the man corresponded to the dance which he had exhibited; for in dancing and walking decorum and good order are honourable, and disorder and vulgarity are discreditable. And it is on this principle that the poets originally arranged dances for [p. 1003] freeborn men, and employed figures only to be emblems of what was being sung, always preserving the principles of nobleness and manliness in them; on which account it was that they gave them the name of ὑπορχήματα(accompaniment to the dance). And if any one, while dancing indulged in unseemly postures or figures, and did nothing at all corresponding to the songs sung, he was considered blameworthy; on which account, Aristophanes or Plato, in his Preparations (as Chamæleon quotes the play), spoke thus:—
So that if any one danced well, the sightFor the kind of dancing which was at that time used in the choruses was decorous and magnificent, and to a certain extent imitated the motions of men under arms; on which account Socrates in his Poems says that those men who dance best are the best in warlike exploits; and thus he writes:—
Was pleasing: but they now do nothing rightly,
But stand as if amazed, and roar at random.
But they who in the dance most suitablyFor the dance is very nearly an armed exercise, and is a dis- play not only of good discipline in other respects, but also of the care which the dancers bestow on their persons.
Do honour to the Gods, are likewise best
In all the deeds of war.
And Amphion the Thespiæan, in the second book of his treatise on the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon, says that in Helicon there are dances of boys, got up with great care, quoting this ancient epigram:—
I both did dance, and taught the citizensAnd it was a good answer which was made by Caphesias the flute-player, when one of his pupils began to pay on the flute very loudly, and was endeavouring to play as loudly as he could; on which he struck him, and said, “Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness” There are also relics and traces of the ancient dancing in some statues which we have, which were made by ancient statuaries; on which account men at that time paid more attention to moving their hands with graceful gestures; for in his parti- [p. 1004] cular also they aimed at graceful and gentlemanlike motions, comprehending what was great in what was well done. And from these motions of the hands they transferred some figures to the dances, and from the dances to the palæstra; for they sought to improve their manliness by music and by paying attention to their persons. And they practised to the accompaniment of song with reference to their movements when under arms; and it was from this practice that the dance called the Pyrrhic dance originated, and every other dance of this kind, and all the others which have the same name or any similar one with a slight change: such as the Cretan dances called ὀρσίτης and ἐπικρήδιος; and that dance, too, which is named ἀπόκινος, (and it is mentioned under this name by Cratinus in his Nemesis, and by Cephisodorus in his Amazons, and by Aristophanes in his Centaur, and by several other poets,) though afterwards it came to be called μακτρισμός; and many women used to dance it, who, I am aware, were afterwards called μαρκτύπιαι.
The art of music, and my flute-player
Was Anacus the Phialensian;
My name was Bacchides of Sicyon;
And this my duty to the gods perform'd
Was honourable to my country Sicyon.
But the more sedate kinds of dance, both the more varied kinds and those too whose figures are more simple, are the following:—The Dactylus, the Iambic, the Molossian, the Emmelea, the Cordax, the Sicinnis, the Persian, the Phrygian, the Nibatismus, the Thracian, the Calabrismus, the Telesias (and this is a Macedonian dance which Ptolemy was practising when he slew Alexander the brother of Philip, as Marsyas relates in the third book of his History of Macedon). The following dances are of a frantic kind:—The Cernophorus, and the Mongas, and the Thermaustris. There was also a kind of dance in use among private individuals, called the ἄνθεμα, and they used to dance this while repeating the following form of words with a sort of mimicking gesture, saying—
Where are my roses, and where are my violets?Among the Syracusans there was a kind of dance called the Chitoneas, sacred to Diana, and it is a peculiar kind of dance, accompanied with the flute. There was also an Ionian kind of dance practised at drinking parties. They also practised the dance called ἀγγελικὴ at their drinking parties. And there is another kind of dance called the Burning of the [p. 1005] World, which Menippus the Cynic mentions in his Banquet. There are also some dances of a ridiculous character:—the Igdis, the Mactrismus, the Apocinus, and the Sobas; and besides these, the Morphasmus, and the Owl, and the Lion, and the Pouring out of Meal, and the Abolition of Debt, and the Elements, and the Pyrrhic dance. And they also lanced to the accompaniment of the flute a dance which they called the Dance of the Master of the Ship, and the Platter Dance. The figures used in dances are the Xiphismus, the Calathismus, the Callabides, the Scops, and the Scopeuma. And the Scops was a figure intended to represent people looking out from a distance, making an arch over their brows with their hand so as to shade their eyes. And it is mentioned by Aeschylus in his Spectators:—
Where is my beautiful parsley
Are these then my roses, are these then my violets
And is this my beautiful parsley?
And all these old σκωπεύματα of yours.And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, mentions the Callabides, when he says—
He walks as though he were dancing the Callabides.Other figures are the Thermastris, the Hecaterides,11 the Scopus, the Hand-down, the Hand-up, the Dipodismus, the Taking-hold of Wood, the Epanconismus, the Calathiscus, the Strobilus. There is also a dance called the Telesias; and this is a martial kind of dance, deriving its title from a man of the name of Telesias, who was the first person who ever danced it, holding arms in his hands, as Hippagoras tells us in the first book of his treatise on the Constitution of the Carthaginians.
There is also a kind of satyric dance called the Sicinnis, as Aristocles says in the eighth book of his treatise on Dances; and the Satyrs are called Sicinnistæ. But some say that a barbarian of the name of Sicinnus was the inventor of it, though others say that Sicinnus was a Cretan by birth; and certainly the Cretans are dancers, as is mentioned by Aristoxenus. But Scamon, in the first book of his treatise on Inventions, says that this dance is called Sicinnis, from being shaken (ἀπὸ τοῦ σείεσθαι), and that Thersippus was the first person who danced the Sicinnis. Now in dancing, the motion of the feet was adopted long before any motion of the lands was considered requisite; for the ancients exercised their feet more than their hands in games and in hunting; and the Cretans are [p. 1006] greatly addicted to hunting, owing to which they are swift of foot. But there are people to be found who assert that Sicinnis is a word formed poetically from κίνησις,12 because in dancing it the Satyrs use most rapid movements; for this kind of dance gives no scope for a display of the passions, on which account also it is never slow. Now all satyric poetry formerly consisted of choruses, as also did tragedy, such as it existed at the same time; and that was the chief reason why tragedy had no regular actors. Arid there are three kinds of dance appropriate to dramatic poetry, —the tragic, the comic, and the satyric; and in like manner, there are three kinds of lyric dancing,—the pyrrhic the gymnopædic, and the hyporchematic. And the pyrrhic dance resembles the satyric; for they both consist of rapid movements; but the pyrrhic appears to be a warlike kind of dance, for it is danced by armed boys. And men in war have need of swiftness to pursue their enemies, and also, when defeated,
To flee, and not like madmen to stand firm,But the dance called Gymnopædica is like the dance in tragedy which is called Emmelea; for in each there is seen a degree of gravity and solemnity. But the hyporchematic dance is very nearly identical with the comic one which is called Cordax. And they are both a sportive kind of figure.
Nor be afraid to seem a short time cowards.
But Aristoxenus says that the Pyrrhic dance derives its name from Pyrrhichus, who was a Lacedæmonian by birth; and that even to this day Pyrrhichus is a Lacedæmonian name. And the dance itself, being of a warlike character, shows that it is the invention of some Lacedæmonian; for the Lacedæmonians are a martial race, and their sons learn military marches which they call ἐνόπλια. And the Lacedæmonians themselves in their wars recite the poems of Tyrtæus, and move in time to those airs. But Philochorus asserts that the Lacedæmonians, when owing to the generalship of Tyrtæus they had subdued the Messenians, introduced a regular custom in their expeditions, that whenever they were at supper, and had sung the pæan, they should also sing one of Tyrtæus's hymns as a solo, one after another; and that the polemarch should be the judge, and should give a piece of meat as a prize to him who sang best. But the Pyrrhic dance is not [p. 1007] preserved now among any other people of Greece; and since that has fallen into disuse, their wars also have been brought to a conclusion; but it continues in use among the Lacedæmonians alone, being a sort of prelude preparatory to war: and all who are more than five years old in Sparta learn to dance the Pyrrhic dance. But the Pyrrhic dance as it exists in our time, appears to be a sort of Bacchic dance, and a little more pacific than the old one; for the dancers carry thyrsi instead of spears, and they point and dart canes at one another, and carry torches. And they dance in figures having reference to Bacchus, and to the Indians, and to the story of Pentheus: and they require for the Pyrrhic dance the most beautiful airs, and what are called the “stirring” tunes.
But the Gymnopædica resembles the dance which by the ancients used to be called Anapale; for all the boys dance naked, performing some kind of movement in regular time, and with gestures of the hand like those used by wrestlers: so that the dancers exhibit a sort of spectacle akin to the palestra and to the pancratium, moving their feet in regular time. And the different modes of dancing it are called the Oschophoricus,13 and the Bacchic, so that this kind of dance, too, has some reference to Bacchus. But Aristoxenus says that the ancients, after they had exercised themselves in the Gymnopædica, turned to the Pyrrhic dance before they entered the theatre: and the Pyrrhic dance is also called the Cheironomia. But the Hyporchematic dance is that in which the chorus dances while singing. Accordingly Bacchylides says—
There's no room now for sitting down,And Pindar says—
There's no room for delay.
The Lacedæmonian troop of maidens fair.And the Lacedæmonians dance this dance in Pindar. And the Hyporchematica is a dance of men and women. Now the best modes are those which combine dancing with the singing; and they are these-the Prosodiacal, the Apostolical (which last is also called (παρθένιος), and others of the same kind. And some danced to the hymn and some did not; and some danced in accompaniment to hymns to Venus and Bacchus, and to the Pæan, dancing at one time and resting at another. And [p. 1008] among the barbarians as well as among the Greeks there are respectable dances and also indecorous ones. Now the Cordax among the Greeks is an indecorous dance, but the Emmelea is a respectable one: as is among the Arcadians the Cidaris, and among the Sicyonians the Aleter; and it is called Aleter also in Ithaca, as Aristoxenus relates in the first book of his History of Sicyon. And this appears enough to say at present on the subject of dances.
Now formerly decorum was carefully attended to in music, and everything in this art had its suitable and appropriate ornament: on which account there were separate flutes for each separate kind of harmony; and every flute-player had flutes adapted to each kind of harmony in their contests. But Pronomus the Theban was the first man who played the three different kinds of harmony already mentioned on the same flute. But now people meddle with music in a random and inconsiderate manner. And formerly, to be popular with the vulgar was reckoned a certain sign of a want of real skill: on which account Asopodorus the Phliasian, when some flute-player was once being much applauded while he himself was remaining in the hyposcenium,14 said—“What is all this? the man has evidently committed some great blunder:”—as else he could not possibly have been so much approved of by the mob. But I am aware that some people tell this story as if it were Antigenides who said this. But in our days artists make the objects of their art to be the gaining the applause of the spectators in the theatre; on which account Aristoxenus, in his book entitled Promiscuous Banquets, says— “We act in a manner similar to the people of Pæstum who dwell in the Tyrrhenian Gulf; for it happened to them, though they were originally Greeks, to have become at last completely barbarised, becoming Tyrrhenians or Romans, and to have changed their language, and all the rest of their national habits. But one Greek festival they do celebrate even to the present day, in which they meet and recollect all their ancient names and customs, and bewail their loss to one another, and then, when they have wept for them, they go home. And so,” says he, “we also, since the theatres have become completely barbarised, and since music has become entirely ruined and vulgar, we, being but a few, will recal to [p. 1009] our minds, sitting by ourselves, what music once was.” And this was the discourse of Aristoxenus.
Wherefore it seems to me that we ought to have a philosophical conversation about music: for Pythgoras the Samian, who had such a high reputation as a philbsopher, is well known, from many circumstances, to have been a man who had no slight or superficial knowledge of music; for he indeed lays it down that the whole universe is put and kept together by music. And altogether the ancient philosophy of the Greeks appears to have been very much addicted to music; and on this account they judged Apollo to have been the most musical and the wisest of the gods, and Orpheus of' the demigods. And they called every one who devoted himself to the study of this art a sophist, as Aeschylus does in the verse where he says—
And then the sophist sweetly struck the lyre.And that the ancients were excessively devoted to the study of music is plain from Homer, who, because all his own poetry was adapted to music, makes, from want of care, so many verses which are headless, and weak, and imperfect in the tail. But Xenophobes, and Solon, and Theognis, and Phocylides, and besides them Periander of Corinth, an elegiac poet, and the rest of those who did not set melodies to their poems, compose their verses with reference to number and to the arrangement of the metres, and take great care that none of their verses shall be liable to the charge of any of the irregularities which we just now imputed to Homer. Now when we call a verse headless (ἀκέφαλος), we mean such as have a mutilation or lameness at the beginning, such as—
Those we call weak (λαγαρὸς) which are defective in the middle, as—᾿επειδὴ νῆάς τε καὶ ῾ελλήσποντον ἵκοντο.15
᾿επίτονος τετάνυστο βοὸς ἶφι κταμένοιο.Odyss. xii. 423.
αἶψα δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ αἰνείαν υἱὸν φίλον ᾿αγχίσαο.16[p. 1010] Those again are μείουροι, which are imperfect in the tail or end, as—
τῶν δ᾽ αὖθ᾽ ἡγείσθην ᾿ασκληπιοῦ δύο παῖδες.
καλὴ κασσιέπεια θεοῖς δέμας ἐοικυῖα.17τρῶες δ᾽ ἐῤῥίγησαν ὅπως ἴδον αἴολον ὄφιν.
Iliad, xii. 208.
τοῦ φέρον ἔμπλησας ἀσκὸν μέγαν, ἐν δὲ καί ἤϊα.
Odyss. ix. 212.
But of all the Greeks, the Lacedæmonians were those who preserved the art of music most strictly, as they applied themselves to the practice a great deal: and there were a great many lyric poets among them. And even to this day they preserve their ancient songs carefully, being possessed of very varied and very accurate learning on the subject; on which account Pratinas says—
The Lacedæmonian grasshopper sweetly sings,And on this account the poets also continually styled their odes—
Well suited to the chorus.
President of sweetest hymns:and—
The honey-wing'd melodies of the Muse.For owing to the general moderation and austerity of their lives, they betook themselves gladly to music, which has a sort of power of soothing the understanding; so that it was natural enough that people who hear it should be delighted. And the people whom they called Choregi, were not, as Demetrius of Byzantium tells us in the fourth book of his treatise on Poetry, those who have that name now, the people, that is to say, who hire the choruses, but those who actually led the choruses, as the name intimates: and so it happened, that the Lacedæmonians were good musicians, and did not violate the ancient laws of music. Now in ancient times all the Greeks were fond of music; but when in subsequent ages disorders arose, when nearly all the ancient customs had got out of fashion and had become obsolete, this fondness for music also wore out, and bad styles of music were introduced, which led all the composers to aim at effeminacy rather than delicacy, and at an enervated and dissolute rather than a modest style. And [p. 1011] perhaps this will still exist hereafter in a greater degree, and will extend still further, unless some one again draws forth the national music to the light. For formerly the subjects of their songs used to be the exploits of heroes, and the praises of the Gods; and accordingly Homer says of Achilles—
And of Phemius he says—With this he soothes his lofty soul, and sings
Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.Iliad, ix. 157.
And this custom was preserved among the barbarians, as Dinon tells us in his history of Persia. Accordingly, the poets used to celebrate the valour of the elder Cyrus, and they foresaw the war which was going to be waged against Astyages. “For when,” says he, “Cyrus had begun his march against the Persians, (and he had previously been the commander of the guards, and afterwards of the heavy-armed troops there, and then he left;) and while Astyages was sitting at a banquet with his friends, then a man, whose name was Angares, (and he was the most illustrious of his minstrels,) being called in, sang other things, such as were customary, and at last he said that—Phemius, let acts of gods and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bower have told,
Attemper'd to the lyre your voice employ,
Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.Odyss. i. 237.
A mighty monster is let loose at lastAnd when Astyages asked him what monster he meant, he Said—' Cyrus the Persian.' And so the king, thinking that his suspicions were well founded, sent people to recal Cyrus, but did not succeed in doing so.”
Into the marsh, fiercer than wildest boar;
And when once master of the neighbouring ground
It soon will fight with ease 'gainst numerous hosts.
But I, though I could still say a good deal about music, yet, as I hear the noise of flutes, I will check my desire for talking, and only quote you the lines out of the Amateur of the Flute, by Philetærus—
O Jove, it were a happy thing to die[p. 1012] After this there arose a discussion about the sambuca. And Masurius said that the sambuca was a musical instrument, very shrill, and that it was mentioned by Euphorion (who is also an Epic poet), in his book on the Isthmian Games; for he says that it was used by the Parthians and by the Troglodytæ, and that it had four strings. He said also that it was mentioned by Pythagoras, in his treatise on the Red Sea. The sambuca is also a name given to an engine used in sieges, the form and mechanism of which is explained by Biton, in his book addressed to Attalus on the subject of Military Engines. And Andreas of Panormus, in the thirty-third book of his History of Sicily, detailed city by city, says that it is borne against the walls of the enemy on two cranes. And it is called sambuca because when it is raised up it gives a sort of appearance of a ship and ladder joined together, and resembles the shape of the musical instrument of the same name. But Moschus, in the first book of his treatise on Mechanics, says that the sambuca is originally a Roman engine, and that Heraclides of Pontus was the original inventor of it. But Polybius, in the eighth book of his History, says,—“Marcellus, having been a great deal inconvenienced at that siege of Syracuse by the contrivances of Archimedes, used to say that Archimedes had given his ships drink out of the sea; but that his sambucæ had been buffeted and driven from the entertainment in disgrace.”
While playing on the flute. For flute-players
Are th' only men who in the shades below
Feel the soft power and taste the bliss of Venus.
But those whose coarser minds know nought of music,
Pour water always into bottomless casks.
And when, after this, Aemilianus said,—But, my good friend Masurius, I myself, often, being a lover of music, turn my thoughts to the instrument which is called the magadis, and cannot decide whether I am to think that it was a species of flute or some kind of harp. For that sweetest of poets, Anacreon, says somewhere or other—
I hold my magadis and sing,But Ion of Chios, in his Omphale, speaks of it as if it were a species of flute, in the following words—
Striking loud the twentieth string,
Leucaspis, as the rapid hour
Leads you to youth's and beauty's flower.
And let the Lydian flute, the magadis,And Aristarchus the grammarian, (a man whom Panætius the Rhodian philosopher used to call the Prophet, because he [p. 1013] could so easily divine the meanings of poem ,) when explaining this verse, affirms that the magadis was a kind of flute: though Aristoxenus does not say so either in his treatise on the Flute-players or in that on Flutes and other Musical Instruments; nor does Archestratus either,—and he also wrote two books on Flute-players; nor has Pyrrhander said so in his work on Flute-players; nor Phillis the Delian, —for he also wrote a treatise on Flute-players and so did Euphranor. But Tryphon, in the second book of his essay on Names, speaks thus—“The flute called magadis.” And in another place he says—"The magadis gives a shrill and deep tone at the same time, as Anaxandrides inti- mates in his Man fighting in heavy Armour, were we find the line—
Breathe its sweet sounds, and lead the tuneful song.
I will speak to you like a magadis,And, my dear Masurius, there is no one else except you who can solve this difficulty for me.
In soft and powerful sounds at the same time.
And Masurius replied—Didymus the gramarian, in his work entitled Interpretations of the Plays of Ion different from the Interpretations of others, says, my good friend Aemilianus, that by the term μάγαδις αὐλὸς he understands the instrument which is also called κιθαριοτήριος; which is mentioned by Aristoxenus in the first book of his treatise on the Boring of Flutes; for there he says that there are five kinds of flutes; the parthenius, the pædicus, the citharisterius, the perfect, and the superperfect. And he says that Ion has omitted the conjunction τε improperly, so that we are to understand by μάγαδις αὐλὸς the flute which accompanies the magadis; for the magadis is a stringed (ψαλτικὸν) instrument, as Anacreon tells us, and it was invented by the Lydians, on which account Ion, in his Omphale, calls the Lydian women ψάλτριαι, as playing on stringed instruments, in the following lines—
But come, ye Lydian ψάλτριαι, and singingBut Theophilus the comic poet, in his Neoptolemus, calls playing on the magadis μαγαδίζειν, saying—
Your ancient hymns, do honour to this stranger.
It may be that a worthless son may singAnd Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says, that the magadis is an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca. And, that this instrument was very much used at Mitylene, so that one of the Muses was represented by an old statuary, whose name was Lesbothemis, as holding one in her hand. But Menæchmus, in his treatise on Artists, says that the πηκτὶς, which he calls identical with the magadis, was invented by Sappho. And Aristoxenus says that the magadis and the pectis were both played with the fingers without any plectrum; on which account Pindar, in his Scolium addressed to Hiero, having named the magadis, calls it a responsive harping (ψαλμὸν ἀντίφθογγον), because its music is accompanied in all its keys by two kinds of singers, namely, men and boys. And Phrynichus, in his Phœnician Women, has said—
His father or his mother on the magadis (μαγαδίζειν),
[p. 1014] Sitting upon the wheel; but none of us
Shall ever play such music now as theirs.
Singing responsive songs on tuneful harps.And Sophocles, in his Mysians, says—
There sounded too the Phrygian triangle,
With oft-repeated notes; to which responded
The well-struck strings of the soft Lydian pectis.
But some people raise a question how, as the magadis did not exist in the time of Anacreon (for instruments with many strings were never seen till after his time), Anacreon can possibly mention it, as he does when he says—
I hold my magadis and sing,But Posidonius asserts that Anacreon mentions three kinds of melodies, the Phrygian, the Dorian, and the Lydian; for that these were the only melodies with which he was acquainted. And as every one of these is executed on seven strings, he says that it was very nearly correct of Anacreon to speak of twenty strings, as he only omits one for the sake of speaking in round numbers. But Posidonius is ignorant that the magadis is an ancient instrument, though Pindar says plainly enough that Terpander invented the barbitos to correspond to, and answer the pectis in use among the Lydians— [p. 1015]
Striking loud the twentieth string,
Leucaspis.
The sweet responsive lyreNow the pectis and the magadis are the same instrument, as Aristoxenus tells us, and Menechmus the Sicyonian too, in his treatise on Artists. And this last author says that Sappho, who is more ancient than Anacreon, was the first person to use the pectis. Now, that Terpander is more ancient than Anacreon, is evident from the following considerations:—Terpander was the first man who ever got the victory at the Carnean18 games, as Hellanicus tells us in the verses in which he has celebrated the victors at the Carnea, and also in the formal catalogue which he gives us of them. But the first establishment of the Carnea took place in the twenty-sixth Olympiad, as Sosibius tells us in his essay on Dates. But Hieronymus, in his treatise on Harp-players, which is the subject of the fifth of his Treatises on Poets, says that Terpander was a contemporary of Lycurgus the law-giver, who, it is agreed by all men, was, with Iphitus of Elis, the author of that establishment of the Olympic games from which the first Olympiad is reckoned. But Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says that the instruments with many strings are altered only in their names; but that the use of them is very ancient.
Which long ago the Lesbian bard,
Terpander, did invent, sweet ornament
To the luxurious Lydian feasts, when he
Heard the high-toned pectis.
However, Diogenes the tragic poet represents the pectis as differing from the magadis; for in the Semele he says—
And now I hear the turban-wearing women,And Phillis the Delian, in the second book of his treatise on Music, also asserts that the pectis is different from the magadis. And his words are these—“There are the phœnices, the pectides, the magadides, the sambucæ, the iambicæ, the triangles, the clepsiambi, the scindapsi, the nine-string.” For, he says that “the lyre to which they sang iambics, they called the iambyca, and the instrument to which they sang them in such a manner as to vary the metre a little, they called the clepsiambus,19 while the magadis was an instrument uttering a diapason sound, and equally in tune for every portion of the singers. And besides these there were instruments of other kinds also; for there was the barbitos, or barmus, and many others, some with strings, and some with sounding-boards.”
Votaries of th' Asiatic Cybele,
The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding
With drums, and rhombs, and brazen-clashing cymbals,
Their hands in concert striking on each other,
Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods.
Likewise the Lydian and the Bactrian maids
Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
[p. 1016] The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
Striking the clear three-corner'd pectis, and
Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,
While flutes in Persian manner neatly join'd
Accompany the chorus.
There were also some instruments besides those which were blown into, and those which were used with different strings, which gave forth only sounds of a simple nature, such as the castanets (κρέμβαλα), which are mentioned by Dicæarchus, in his essay on the Manners and Customs of Greece, where he says, that formerly certain instruments were in very frequent use, in order to accompany women while dancing and singing; and when any one touched these instruments with their fingers they uttered a shrill sound. And he says that this is plainly shown in the hymn to Diana, which begins thus—
Diana, now my mind will have me utterAnd Hermippus, in his play called The Gods, gives the word for rattling the castanets, κρεμβαλίζειν, saying—
A pleasing song in honour of your deity,
While this my comrade strikes with nimble hand
The well-gilt brazen-sounding castanets.
And beating down the limpets from the rocks,But Didymus says, that some people, instead of the lyre, are in the habit of striking oyster-shells and cockle-shells against [p. 1017] one another, and by these means contrive to play a tune in time to the dancers, as Aristophanes also intimates in his Frogs.20
They make a noise like castanets (κρεμβαλιζουσι).
But Artemon, in the first book of his treatise on the Dionysian System, as he calls it, says that Timotheus the Milesian appears to many men to have used an instrument of more strings than were necessary, namely, the magadis, on which account he was chastised by the Lacedæmonians as having corrupted the ancient music. And when some one was going to cut away the superfluous strings from his lyre, he showed them a little statue of Apollo which they had, which held in its hand a lyre with an equal number of strings, and which was tuned in the same manner; and so he was acquitted. But Douris, in his treatise on Tragedy, says that the magadis was named after Magodis, who was a Thracian by birth. But Apollodorus, in his Reply to the Letter of Aristocles, says—“That which we now call ψαλτήριον is the same instrument which was formerly called magadis; but that which used to be called the clepsiambus, and the triangle, and the elymus, and the nine-string, have fallen into comparative disuse.” And Alcman says—
And put away the magadis.And Sophocles, in his Thamyras, says—
And well-compacted lyres and magadides,But Telestes, in his dithyrambic poem, called Hymenæus, says that the magadis was an instrument with five strings, using the following expressions—
And other highly-polish'd instruments,
From which the Greeks do wake the sweetest sounds.
And each a different strain awakens,—I am acquainted, too, with another instrument which the Thracian kings use in their banquets, as Nicomedes tells us in his essay on Orpheus. Now Ephorus and Scarmon, in their treatise on Inventions, say that the instrument called the [p. 1018] Phoenix derives its name from having been invented by the Phœnicians. But Semus of Delos, in the first book of the Delias, says that it is so called because its ribs are made of the palm-tree which grows in Delos. The same writer, Semus, says that the first person who used the sambuca was Sibylla, and that the instrument derives its name from having been invented by a man named Sambyx.
One struck the loud horn-sounding magadis,
And in the fivefold number of tight strings
Moved his hand to and fro most rapidly.
And concerning the instrument called the tripod (this also is a musical instrument) the before-mentioned Artemo writes as follows—“And that is how it is that there are many instruments, as to which it is even uncertain whether they ever existed; as, for instance, the tripod of Pythagoras of Zacynthus. For as it was in fashion but a very short time, and as, either because the fingering of it appeared exceedingly difficult, or for some other reason, it was very soon disused, it has escaped the notice of most writers altogether. But the instrument was in form very like the Delphian tripod, and it derived its name from it; but it was used like a triple harp. For its feet stood on some pedestal which admitted of being easily turned round, just as the legs of movable chairs are made; and along the three intermediate spaces between the feet, strings were stretched; an arm being placed above each, and tuning-pegs, to which the strings were attached, below. And on the top there was the usual ornament of the vase, and of some other ornaments which were attached to it; all which gave it a very elegant appearance; and it emitted a very powerful sound. And Pythagoras divided the three harmonies with reference to three countries,—the Dorian, the Lydian, and Phrygian. And he himself sitting on a chair made on the same principles and after the same pattern, putting out his left hand so as to take hold of the instrument, and using the plectrum in his other hand, moved the pedestal with his foot very easily, so as to use whichever side of the instrument he chose to begin with; and then again turning to the other side he went on playing, and then he changed to the third side. And so rapidly did the easy movement of the pedestal, when touched by the foot, bring the various sides under his hand, and so very rapid was his fingering and execution, that if a person had not seen what was being done, but had judged only by his ear, he would have fancied that he was listening to three harp-players [p. 1019] all playing on different instruments. But this instrument, though it was so greatly admired, after his death rapidly fell into disuse.”
Now the system of playing the harp without any vocal accompaniment, was, as Menechmus informs us, first introduced by Aristonicus the Argive, who was a contemporary of Archilochus, and lived in Corcyra. But Philochorus, in the third book of his Atthis, says—-" Lysander the Sicyonian harp-player was the first person who ever changed the art of pure instrumental performance, dwelling on the long tones, and producing a very rich sound, and adding also to the harp the music of the flute; and this last addition was first introduced by Epigonus; and taking away the jejuneness which existed in the music of those who played the harp alone without any vocal accompaniment, he first introduced various beautiful modifications21 on that instrument; and he played on the different kinds of harp called iambus and magadis, which is also called συριγμός. And he was the first person who ever attempted to change his instrument while playing. And afterwards, adding dignity to the business, he was the first person to institute a chorus. And Menæchmus says that Dion of Chius was the first person who ever played on the harp an ode such as is used at libations to the honour of Bacchus. But Timomachus, in his History of Cyprus, says that Stesander the Samian added further improvements to his art, and was the first person who at Delphi sang to his lyre the battles narrated in Homer, beginning with the Odyssey. But others say that the first person who ever played amatory strains on his harp was Amiton the Eleuthernæan, who did so in his own city, whose descendants are all called Amitores. But Aristoxenus says that just as some men have composed parodies on hexameter verses, for the sake of exciting a [p. 1020] laugh; so, too, others have parodied the verses which were sung to the harp, in which pastime Œnopas led the way. And he was imitated by Polyeuctus the Achæan, and by Diodes of Cynætha. There have also been poets who have composed a low kind of poems, concerning whom Phænias the Eresian speaks in his writings addressed to the Sophists; where he writes thus:—“Telenicus the Byzantian, and also Argas, being both authors of low poems, were men who, as far as that kind of poetry could go, were accounted clever. But they never even attempted to rival the songs of Terpander or Phrynis.” And Alexis mentions Argas, in his Man Disembarked, thus—
A. Here is a poet who has gained the prizeAnd Anaxandrides, in his Hercules, says—
In choruses.
B. What is his style of poetry?
A. A noble kind.
B. How will he stand comparison
With Argas
A. He's a whole day's journey better.
For he appears a really clever man.
How gracefully he takes the instrument,
Then plays at once. . . . .
When I have eaten my fill, I then incline
To send you off to sing a match with Argas,
That you, my friend, may thus the sophists conquer.
But the author of the play called the Beggars, which is attributed to Chionides, mentions a certain man of the name of Gnesippus as a composer of ludicrous verses, and also of merry songs; and he says—
I swear that neither now Gnesippus, norAnd the author of the Helots says—
Cleomenes with all his nine-string'd lyre,
Could e'er have made this song endurable.
He is a man who sings the ancient songs(he means to say Gnesippus):
Of Alcman, and Stesichorus, and Simonides;
He likewise has composed songs for the night,And Cratinus, in his Effeminate Persons, says—
Well suited to adulterers, with which
They charm the women from their doors, while striking
The shrill iambyca or the triangle.
Who, O Gnesippus, e'er saw me in love[p. 1021] . . . . . . .and he ridicules him for his poems; and in his Herdsmen he says—
I am indignant; for I do think nothing
Can be so vain or foolish as a lover.
A man who would not give to SophoclesAnd in his Hours he says—
A chorus when he asked one; though he granted
That favour to Cleomachus, whom I
Should scarce think worthy of so great an honour,
At the Adonia.
Farewell to that great tragedianBut Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, says that he was greatly addicted to adultery. And Clearchus, in the second book of his Amatory Anecdotes, says that the love-songs, and those, too, which are called the Locrian songs, do not differ in the least from the compositions of Sappho and Anacreon. Moreover, the poems of Archilochus, and that on fieldfares, attributed to Homer, relate to some division or other of this passion, describing it in metrical poetry. But the writings of Asopodorus about love, and the whole body of amorous epistles, are a sort of amatory poetry out of metre.
Cleomachus, with his chorus of hair-pullers,
Plucking vile melodies in the Lydian fashion.
When Masurius had said this, the second course, as it is called, was served up to us; which, indeed, was very often offered to us, not only on the days of the festival of Saturn,22 when it is the custom of the Romans to feast their slaves, while they themselves discharge the offices of their slaves. But this is in reality a Grecian custom. At all events, in Crete, at the festival of Mercury, a similar thing takes place, as Carystius tells us in his Historic Reminiscences; for then, while the slaves are feasting, the masters wait upon them as if they were the servants: and so they do at Trœzen in the month Geræstius. For then there is a festival which lasts for many days, on one of which the slaves play at dice in common with the citizens, and the masters give a banquet to the slaves, as Carystius himself tells us. And Berosus, in the first book of his History of Babylon, says that on the sixteenth day of the month Lous, there is a great festival celebrated in [p. 1022] Babylon, which is called Sakeas; and it lasts five days: and during those days it is the custom for the masters to be under the orders of their slaves; and one of the slaves puts on a robe like the king's, which is called a zoganes, and is master of the house. And Ctesias also mentions this festival in the second book of his History of Persia. But the Coans act in an exactly contrary manner, as Macareus tells us in the third book of his History of Cos. For when they sacrifice to Juno, the slaves do not come to the entertainment; on which account Phylarchus says—
Among the Sourii, the freemen only
Assist at the holy sacrifice; none else
The temples or the altars dare approach;
And no slave may come near the sacred precincts.
But Baton of Sinope, the orator, in his treatise on Thessaly and Hæmonica, distinctly asserts that the Roman Saturnalia are originally a very Greek festival, saying that among the Thessalians it is called Peloria. And these are his words:—“When a common festival was being celebrated by all the Pelasgi, a man whose name was Pelorus brought news to Pelasgus that there had been some violent earthquakes in Hæmonia, by which the mountains called Tempe had been rent asunder, and that the water of the lake had burst through the rent, and was all falling into the stream of the Peneus; and that all the country which had formerly been covered by the lake was now laid open, and that, as the waters were now drained off, there were plains visible of wondrous size and beauty. Accordingly, Pelasgus, on hearing this statement, had a table loaded with every delicacy set before Pelorus; and every one else received him with great cordiality, and brought whatever they had that was best, and placed it on the table before the man who had brought this news; and Pelasgus himself waited on him with great cheerfulness, and all the rest of the nobles obeyed him as his servants as often as any opportunity offered. On which account, they say that after the Pelasgi occupied the district, they instituted a festival as a sort of imitation of the feast which took place on that occasion; and, sacrificing to Jupiter Pelor, they serve up tables admirably furnished, and hold a very cordial and friendly assembly, so as to receive every foreigner at the banquet, and to set free all the prisoners, and to make their servants sit down and feast with [p. 1023] every sort of liberty and licence, while their masters wait on them. And, in short, even to this day the Thessalians celebrate this as their chief festival, and call it Peloria.”
Very often, then, as I have said, when such a dessert as this is set before us, some one of the guests who were present would say—
Certainly, second thoughts are much the best;as Euripides says in his Cretan Women: and, as Eubulus said in his Rich Woman—
For what now can the table want? or what
Is there with which it is not amply loaded?
'Tis full of fish fresh from the sea, besides
Here's tender veal, and dainty dishes of goose,
Tartlets, and cheesecakes steep'd most thoroughly
In the rich honey of the golden bee;
And in the same way everything is soldAccordingly, when Pontianus was about to say something about each of the dishes of the second course,—We will not, said Ulpian, hear you discuss these things until you have spoken about the sweetmeats (ἐπιδορπίσματα). And Pontianus replied:—Cratinus says that Philippides has given this name to the τραγήματα, in his Miser, where he says—
Together at Athens; figs and constables,
Grapes, turnips, pears and apples, witnesses,
Roses and medlars, cheesecakes, honeycombs,
Vetches and law-suits; bee-strings of all kinds,
And myrtle-berries, and lots for offices,
Hyacinths, and lambs, and hour-glasses too,
And laws and prosecutions.
Cheesecakes, ἐπιδορπίσματα, and eggs,And Diphilus, in his Telesias, says—
And sesame; and were I to endeavour
To count up every dish, the day would fail me.
τράγημα, myrtle-berries, cheesecakes too,And Sophilus, in his Deposit, says—
And almonds; so that with the greatest pleasure
I eat the second course (ἐπιδορπίζομαι).
'Tis always pleasant supping with the Greeks;And Plato, in his Atlanticus, calls these sweetmeats μεταδόρπια; saying—“And at that time the earth used to produce all sorts of sweet-smelling things for its inhabitants; and a great [p. 1024] deal of cultivated fruit, and a great variety of nuts; and all the μεταδόρπια which give pleasure when eaten.”
They manage well; with them no one cries out—
Here, bring a stronger draught; for I must feast
With the Tanagrian; that there, lying down,
* * * * *
But Tryphon says that formerly before the guests entered the supper-room, each person's share was placed on the table, and that afterwards a great many dishes of various kinds were served up in addition; and that on this account these latter dishes were called ἐπιφορήματα. But Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaking of the second course, says—
Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιφορήματα.And Archippus, in his Hercules, and Herodotus, in the first book of his History, have both used the verb ἐπιδορπίζομαι for eating after supper. And Archippus also, in his Hercules Marrying, uses the word ἐπιφορήματα; where he says—
The board was loaded with rich honey-cakesAnd Herodotus, in the first book of his History, says—“They do not eat a great deal of meat, but a great many ἐπιφορήματα.” But as for the proverbial saying, “The ἐπιφόρημα of Abydos,” that is a kind of tax and harbour-due; as is explained by Aristides in the third book of his treatise on Proverbs. But Dionysius, the son of Tryphon, says—“Formerly, before the guests came into the banqueting-room, the portion for each individual was placed on the table, and afterwards a great many other things were served up in addition (ἐπιφέρεσθαι); from which custom they were called ἐπιφορήματα.” And Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaks of what is brought in after the main part of the banquet is over, saying—
And other ἐπιφορήματα.
Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιφορήματα.But Plato the comic poet, in the Menelaus, calls them ἐπιτραπεζώματα, as being for eatables placed on the table (ἐπὶ ταῖς τραπέζαις), saying—
A. Come, tell me now,And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says that sweetmeats (τραγήματα) used to be called by the ancients τρωγάλια; for that they come in as a sort of second course. But it is Pindar who said—
Why are so few of the ἐπιτραπεζώματα
Remaining?
B. That man hated by the gods
Ate them all up.
And τρώγαλον is nice when supper's over,[p. 1025] And he was quite right. For Euripides says, when one looks on what is served up before one, one may really say—
And when the guests have eaten plentifully.
You see how happily life passes when
A man has always a well-appointed table.
And that among the ancients the second course used to have a great deal of expense and pains bestowed on it, we may learn from what Pindar says in his Olympic Odes, where he speaks of the flesh of Pelops being served up for food:—
And the ancients often called this second course simply τράπεζαι, as, for instance, Achæus in his Vulcan, which is a satyric drama, who says,—And in the second course they carved
Your miserable limbs, and feasted on them;
But far from me shall be the thought profane,
That in foul feast celestials could delight.Pind. Ol. i. 80
A. First we will gratify you with a feast;And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—
Lo! here it is.
B. But after that what means
Of pleasure will you offer me?
A. We'll anoint you
All over with a richly-smelling perfume.
B. Will you not give me first a jug of water
To wash my hands with!
A. Surely; the dessert (τράπεζα）
Is now being clear'd away.
And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, uses the term δεύτεραι τράπεζαι, much as we do now; saying,—“We must therefore bear in mind that there is a difference between τράγημα and βρῶμα, as there is also between ἔδεσμα and τρωγάλιον. For this is a national name in use in every part of Greece, since there is food (βρῶμα) in sweetmeats (ἐντραγήμασι), from which consideration the man who, first used the expression δευτέρα τράπεζα,, appears to have spoken with sufficient correctness. For the eating of sweetmeats (τραγηματισμὸς） is really an eating after supper (ἐπιδορπισμὸς); and the sweetmeats are served up as a second supper.” But Dicæarchus, in the first book of his Descent to the Cave of Trophonius, speaks thus: “There was also the δευτέρα τράπεζα, which was a very expensive part of a banquet, and there were also garlands, and perfumes, and burnt frankincense, and all the other necessary accompaniments of these thing.” [p. 1026]Bring water for the hands; clear the dessert.
Ar. Vespæ, 121
Eggs too often formed a part of the second course, as did hares and thrushes, which were served up with the honey-cakes; as we find mentioned by Antiphanes in the Leptiniscus, where he says,—
A. Would you drink Thasian wine?And in his Things resembling one another, he says,—
B. No doubt, if any one
Fills me a goblet with it.
A. Then what think you
Of almonds?
B. I feel very friendly to them,
They mingle well with honey.
A. If a man
Should bring you honied cheesecakes?
B. I should eat them,
And swallow down an egg or two besides.
Then he introduced a dance, and after that he served upAnd Amphis, in his Gynæcomania, says,—
A second course, provided well with every kind of dainty.
A. Did you e'er hear of what they call a ground23 life?Anaxandrides, in his Clowns, says,—
. . . . . . . . 'tis clearly
Cheesecakes, sweet wine, eggs, cakes of sesame,
Perfumes, and crowns, and female flute-players.
B. Castor and Pollux! why you have gone through
The names of all the dozen gods at once.
And when I had my garland on my head,Clearchus says in his Pandrosus,—
They brought in the dessert (ἡ τράπεζα), in which there were
So many dishes, that, by all the gods,
And goddesses too, I hadn't the least idea
There were so many different things i' th' house;
And never did I live so well as then.
A. Have water for your hands:And Eubulus, in his Campylion, says,—
B. By no means, thank you;
I'm very comfortable as I am.
A. Pray have some;
You'll be no worse at all events. Boy, water!
And put some nuts and sweetmeats on the table.
A. Now is your table loaded well with sweetmeats.Alexis, too, says in his Polyclea, (Polyclea was the name of a courtesan,)— [p. 1027]
B. I am not always very fond of sweetmeats.
He was a clever man who first inventedAnd in his Female Likeness (but this same play is attributed also to Antidotus) he says,—
The use of sweetmeats; for he added thus
A pleasant lengthening to the feast, and saved men
From unfill'd mouths and idle jaws unoccupied.
A. I am not one, by Aesculapius!But Apion and Diodorus, as Pamphilus tells us, assert that the sweetmeats brought in after supper are also called ἐπαίκλεια.
To care excessively about my supper;
I'm fonder of dessert.
B. 'Tis very well.
A. For I do hear that sweetmeats are in fashion,
For suitors when they're following . . .
B. Their brides,—
A. To give them cheesecakes, hares, and thrushes too,
These are the things I like; but pickled fish
And soups and sauces I can't bear, ye gods!
Ephippus, in his Ephebi, enumerating the different dishes in fashion for dessert, says,—
Then there were brought some groats, some rich perfumesAnd in his Cydon he says,—
From Egypt, and a cask of rich palm wine
Was broach'd. Then cakes and other kinds of sweetmeats,
Cheesecakes of every sort and every name;
And a whole hecatomb of eggs. These things
We ate, and clear'd the table vigorously,
For we did e'en devour some parasites.
And after supper they served up some kernels,Alexis too, in his Philiscus, says,—
Vetches, and beans, and groats, and cheese, and honey,
Sweetmeats of various kinds, and cakes of sesame,
And pyramidical rolls of wheat, and apples,
Nuts, milk, hempseed too, and shell-fish,
Syrup, the brains of Jove.
Now is the time to clear the table, andAnd as Philoxenus of Cythera, in his Banquet, where he mentions the second course, has spoken by name of many of the dishes which are served up to us, we may as well cite his words:— “And the beautiful vessels which come in first, were brought in again full of every kind of delicacy, which mortals [p. 1028] call τράπεζαι, but the Gods call them the Horn of Amalthea. And in the middle was placed that great delight of mortals, white marrow dressed sweet; covering its face with a thin membrane, like a spider's web, out of modesty, that one might not see . . . . . in the dry nets of Aristæus . . . . And its name was amyllus . . . . . . . . . . which they call Jupiter's sweetmeats . . . . Then he distributed plates of . . . . very delicious . . . . . . and a cheesecake compounded of cheese, and milk, and honey . . . almonds with soft rind . . . . and nuts, which boys are very fond of; and everything else which could be expected in plentiful and costly entertainment. And drinking went on, and playing at the cottabus, and conversation . . . . . . . It was pronounced a very magnificent entertainment, and every one admired and praised it.” This, then, is the description given by Philoxenus of Cythera, whom Antiphanes praises in his Third-rate Performer, where he says—
To bring each guest some water for his hands,
And garlands, perfumes, and libations,
Frankincense, and a chafing-dish. Now give
Some sweetmeats, and let all some cheesecakes have.
Philoxenus now does surpass by far
All other poets. First of all he everywhere
Uses new words peculiar to himself;
And then how cleverly doth he mix his melodies
With every kind of change and modification!
Surely he is a god among weak men,
And a most thorough judge of music too,
But poets of the present day patch up
Phrases of ivy and fountains into verse,
And borrow old expressions, talking of
Melodies flying on the wings of flowers,
And interweave them with their own poor stuff.
There are many writers who have given lists of the different kinds of cheesecakes, and as far as I can recollect, I will mention them, and what they have said. I know, too, that Callimachus, in his List of Various Books, mentions the treatises on the Art of Making Cheesecakes, written by Aegimius, and Hegesippus, and Metrobius, and also by Phætus. But I will communicate to you the names of cheesecakes which I myself have been able to find to put down, not treating you as Socrates was treated in the matter of the cheesecake which was sent to him by Alcibiades; for Xanthippe took it and trampled upon it, on which Socrates laughed, and said, “At all events you will not have any of it yourself.” (This story is related by Antipater, in the first book of his essay on Passion.) But I, as I am fond of cheesecakes, should have been very sorry to see that divine cheesecake so [p. 1029] injuriously treated. Accordingly, Plato the comic poet ren- tions cheesecakes in his play called The Poet, where he says—
Am I alone to sacrifice withoutNor do I forget that there is a village, which Demetrius the Scepsian, in the twelfth book of his Trojan Array, tells us bears the name of πλακοῦς (cheesecake); and he says that it is six stadia from Hypoplacian Thebes.24 Now, the word πλακοῦς ought to have a circumflex in the nominative case; for it is contracted from πλακόεις, as τυροῦς is from τυρόεις, and σησαμοῦς from σησαμόεις.. And it is used as a substantive, the word ἄρτος (bread) being understood. Those who have lived in the place assure us that there are capital cheesecakes to be got at Parium on the Hellespont; for it is a blunder of Alexis, when he speaks of them as coming from the island of Paros. And this is what he says in his play called Archilochus:—
Having a taste allow'd me of the entrails,
Without a cheesecake, without frankincense?
Happy old man, who in the sea-girt isleAnd Sopater the farce-writer, in his Suitors of Bacchis, testifies that the cheesecakes of Samos are extraordinarily good; saying,—
Of happy Paros dwell'st—a land which bears
Two things in high perfection; marble white,
Fit decoration for th' immortal gods,
And cheesecakes, dainty food for mortal men.
The cheesecake-making island named Samos.
Menander, in his False Hercules, speaks of cheesecakes made in a mould:—
It is not now a question about candyli,And Evangelus, in his Newly-married Woman, says—
Or all the other things which you are used
To mix together in one dish-eggs, honey,
And similago; for all these things now
Are out of place. The cook at present's making
Baked cheesecakes in a mould; and boiling groats
To serve up after the salt-fish,—and grapes,
And forced-meat wrapp'd in fig-leaves. And the maid,
Who makes the sweetmeats and the common cheesecakes,
Is roasting joints of meat and plates of thrushes.
A. Four tables did I mention to you of women,There was a kind of cheesecake called ἄμης. Antiphanes enumerates
And six of men; a supper, too, complete—
In no one single thing deficient;
[p. 1030] Wishing the marriage-feast to be a splendid one.
B. Ask no one else; I will myself go round,
Provide for everything, and report to you.
. . . . . As many kinds of olives as you please;
For meat, you've veal, and sucking-pig, and pork,
And hares—
A. Hear how this cursed fellow boasts!
B. Forced-meat in fig-leaves, cheese, cheesecakes in moulds-
A. Here, Dromo!
B. Candyli, eggs, cakes of meal.
And then the table is three cubits high;
So that all those who sit around must rise
Whene'er they wish to help themselves to anything,
ἄμητες, ἄμυλοι;and Menander, in his Supposititious Son, says—
You would be glad were any one to dressBut the Ionians, as Seleucus tells us in his Dialects, make the accusative case ἄμην; and they call small cheesecakes of the same kind ἀμητίσκοι. Teleclides says—
A cheesecake (ἄμητα) for you.
Thrushes flew of their own accord
Right down my throat with savoury ἀμητίσκοι.
There was also a kind called διακόνιον:—
He was so greedy that he ate a wholeBut the ἀμφιφῶν was a kind of cheesecake consecrated to Diana, having figures of lighted torches round it. Philemon, in his Beggar, or Woman of Rhodes, says—
Diaconium up, besides an amphiphon.
Diana, mistress dear, I bring you nowDiphilus also mentions it in his Hecate. Philochorus also mentions the fact of its being called ἀμφιφῶν, and of its being brought into the temples of Diana, and also to the places where three roads meet, on the day when the moon is overtaken at its setting by the rising of the sun; and so the heaven is ἀμφιφῶς, or all over light. There is the basynias too. Semus, in the second book of the Deliad, says—“In the island of Hecate, the Delians sacrifice to Iris, offering her the cheesecakes called basyniæ; and this is a cake of wheat-flour, and suet, and honey, boiled up together: and what is called κόκκωρα consists of a fig and three nuts.” There are also cheesecakes called strepti and neëlata. Both; [p. 1031] these kinds are mentioned by Demosthenes the orator, in his Speech in Defence of Ctesiphon concerning the Crown. There are also epichyta. Nicochares, in his Handicraftsmen, says—
This amphiphon, and these libations holy.
I've loaves, and barley-cakes, and bran, and flour,But Pamphilus says that the ἐπίχυτος is the same kind of cheesecake as that which is called ἀττανίτης. And Hipponax mentions the ἀττανίτης in the following lines:—
And rolls, obelias, and honey'd cheesecakes,
Epichyti, ptisan, and common cheesecakes,
Dendalides, and fried bread.
Not eating hares or woodcocks,There is also the creïum. This is a kind of cheesecakes which, at Argos, is brought to the bridegroom from the bride; and it is roasted on the coals, and the friends of the bride- groom are invited to eat it; and it is served up with honey, as Philetas tells us in his Miscellanies. There is also the glycinas: this is a cheesecake in fashion among the Cretans, made with sweet wine and oil, as Seleucus tells us in his Dialects. There is also the empeptas. The same author speaks of this as a cheesecake made of wheat, hollow and well-shaped, like those which are called κρηπῖδες; being rather a kind of paste into which they put those cheesecakes which are really made with cheese.
Nor mingling small fried loaves with cakes of sesame,
Nor dipping attanite in honeycombs,
There are cakes, also, called ἐγκρίδες. These are cakes boiled in oil, and after that seasoned with honey; and they are mentioned by Stesichorus in the following lines:—
Groats and encrides,Epicharmus, too, mentions them; and so does Nicophon, in his Handicraftsmen. And Aristophanes, in his Danaides, speaks of a man who made them in the following words:—
And other cakes, and fresh sweet honey.
And not be a seller of encrides (ἐγκριδοπώλης).And Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, says—
Let him take this, and then along the roadThere is the ἐπικύκλιος, too. This is a kind of cheesecake in use among the Syracusans, under this name; and it is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his Earth and Sea. [p. 1032] There is also the γοῦρος;; and that this, too, is a kind of cheesecake we learn from what Solon says in his Iambics:—
Let him seize some encrides.
Some spend their time in drinking, and eating cakes,There are also cribanæ; and κριβάνης is a name given by Alcman to some cheesecakes, as Apollodorus tells us. And Sosibius asserts the same thing, in the third book of his Essay on Alcman; and he says they are in shape like a breast, and that the Lacedæmonians use them at the banquets of women, and that the female friends of the bride, who follow her in a chorus, carry them about when they are going to sing an encomium which has been prepared in her honour. There is also the crimnites, which is a kind of cheesecake made of a coarser sort of barley-meal (κρίμνον), as Iatrocles tells us in his treatise on Cheesecakes.
And some eat bread, and others feast on γοῦροι
Mingled with lentils; and there is no kind
Of dainty wanting there, but all the fruits
Which the rich earth brings forth as food for men
Are present in abundance.
Then there is the staitites; and this, too, is a species of cheesecake made of wheaten-flour and honey. Epicharmus mentions it in his Hebe's Wedding; but the wheaten-flour is wetted, and then put into a frying-pan; and after that honey is sprinkled over it, and sesame, and cheese; as Iatrocles tells us. There is also the charisius. This is mentioned by Aristophanes in his Daitaleis, where he says—
But I will send them in the eveningAnd Eubulus, in his Ancylion, speaks of it as if it were plain bread:—
A charisian cheesecake.
I only just leapt out,Then there is the ἐπίδαιτρον, which is a barley-cake, made like a cheesecake, to be eaten after supper; as Philemon tells us in his treatise on Attic Names. There is also the nanus, which is a loaf made like a cheesecake, prepared with cheese and oil. There are also ψώθια, which are likewise called ψαθύρια. Pherecrates, in the Crapatalli, says—
While baking the charisius.
And in the shades below you'll get for threepenceBut Apollodorus the Athenian, and Theodorus, in his treatise [p. 1033] on the Attic Dialect, say that the crumbs which are knocked off from a loaf are called ψώφια,, which some people also call ἀττάραγοι. Then there is the ἴτριον. This is a thin cake, made of sesame and honey; and it is mentioned by Anacreon thus:—
A crapatallus, and some ψώθια.
I broke my fast, taking a little sliceAnd Aristophanes, in his Acharnians, says—
Of an ἴριον; but I drank a cask of wine.
Cheesecakes, and cakes of sesame, and ἴτρια.And Sophocles, in his Contention, says—
But I, being hungry, look back at the ἴτρια.There is mention made also of ἄμοραι. Philetas, in his Miscellanies, says that cakes of honey are called ἄμοραι; and they are made by a regular baker. There is the ταγηνίτης, too; which is a cheesecake fried in oil. Magnes, or whoever it was that wrote the comedies which are attributed to him, says in the second edition of his Bacchus—
Have you ne'er seen the fresh ταγήνιαι hissing,And Cratinus, in his Laws, says—
When you pour honey over them?
The fresh ταγηνίας, dropping morning dew.Then there is the ἔλαφος.. This is a cheesecake made on the festival of Elaphebolia, of wheat-flour, and honey, and sesame. The ναστὸς is a kind of cheesecake, having stuffing inside it.
χόρια are cakes made up with honey and milk. The ἀμορβίτης is a species of cheesecake in fashion among the Sicilians. But some people call it παισά. And among the Coans it is called πλακούντιον,, as we are informed by Iatrocles. Then there are the σησαμίδες, which are cakes made of honey, and roasted sesame, and oil, of a round shape. Eupolis, in his Flatterers, says—
He is all grace, he steps like a callabis-dancer,And Antiphanes, in his Deucalion, says—
And breathes sesamides, and smells of apples.
Sesamides, or honey-cheesecakes,And Ephippus, in his Cydon, also mentions them in a passage which has been already quoted. [p. 1034] Then there are μύλλοι. Heraclides the Syracusan, in his treatise on Laws, says, that in Syracuse, on the principal day of the Thesmophorian festival, cakes of a peculiar shape are made of sesame and honey, which are called μύλλοι throughout all Sicily, and are carried about as offerings to the goddesses. There is also the echinus. Lynceus the Samian, in his epistle to Diagoras, comparing the things which are considered dainties in Attica with those which are in esteem at Rhodes, writes thus: “They have for the second course a rival to the fame of the ἄμης in a new antagonist called the ἐχῖνος, concerning which I will speak briefly; but when you come and see me, and eat one which shall be prepared for you in the Rhodian mariner, then I will endeavour to say more about it.” There are also cheesecakes named κοτυλίσκοι. Heracleon of Ephesus tells us that those cheesecakes have this name which are made of the third part of a chœnix of wheat. There are others called χοιρίναι, which are mentioned by Iatrocles in his treatise on Cheesecakes; and he speaks also of that which is called πυραμοῦς, which he says differs from the πυραμίς, inasmuch as this latter is made of bruised wheat which has been softened with honey. And these cheesecakes are in nightly festivals given as prizes to the man who has kept awake all night.
Or any other dainty of the kind.
But Chrysippus of Tyana, in his book called the Art of Making Bread, enumerates the following species and genera of cheesecakes:—“The terentinum, the crassianum, the tutianum, the sabellicum, the clustron, the julianum, the apicia- num, the canopicum, the pelucidum, the cappadocium, the hedybium, the maryptum, the plicium, the guttatum, the montianum. This last,” he says, "you will soften with sour wine, and if you have a little cheese you may mash the montianum up half with wine and half with cheese, and so it will be more palatable. Then there is the clustrum curia- num, the clustrum tuttatum, and the clustrum tabonianum. There are also mustacia made with mead, mustacia made with sesame, crustum purium, gosgloanium, and paulianum. “The following cakes resembling cheesecakes,” he says, “are really made with cheese:—the enchytus, the scriblites, the subityllus. There is also another kind of subityllus made of groats. Then there is the spira; this, too, is made with cheese. There are, too, the lucuntli, the argyrotryphema, the libos, the [p. 1035] cercus, the æxaphas, the clustroplacous. There is also,” says Chrysippus, "a cheesecake made of rye. The phthois is made thus:—Take some cheese and pound it, then put it into a brazen sieve and strain it; then put in honey and a hemina25 of flour made from spring wheat, and beat the whole together into one mass. "There is another cake, which is called by the Romans catillus ornatus, and which is made thus:—Wash some lettuces and scrape them; then put some wine into a mortar and pound the lettuces in it; then, squeezing out the juice, mix up some flour from spring wheat in it, and allowing it to settle, after a little while pound it again, adding a little pig's fat and pepper; then pound it again, draw it out into a cake, smoothe it, and cut it again, and cut it into shape, and boil it in hot oil, putting all the fragments which you have cut off into a strainer. "Other kinds of cheesecakes are the following:—the ostra- cites, the attanites, the amylum, the tyrocoscinnm. Make this last thus:—Pound some cheese (τῦρον) carefully, and put it into a vessel; then place above it a brazen sieve (κόσκινον) and strain the cheese through it. And when you are going to serve it up, then put in above it a sufficient quantity of honey. The cheesecakes called ὑποτυρίδες are made thus:—Put some honey into some milk, pound them, and put them into a vessel, and let them coagulate; then, if you have some little sieves at hand, put what is in the vessel into them, and let. the whey run off; and when it appears to you to have coagulated thoroughly, then take up the vessel in which it is, and transfer it to a silver dish, and the coat, or crust, will be uppermost. But if you have no such sieves; then use some new fans, such as those which are used to blow the fire; for they will serve the same purpose. Then there is the coptoplacous. And also," says he, “in Crete they make a kind of cheesecake which they call gastris. And it is made thus:— Take some Thasian and Pontic nuts and some almonds, and also a poppy. Roast this last with great care, and then take the seed and pound it in a clean mortar; then, adding the fruits which I have mentioned above, beat them up with boiled honey, putting in plenty of pepper, and make the whole into a soft mass, (but it will be of a black colour because of the poppy;) flatten it and make it into a square [p. 1036] shape; then, having pounded some white sesame, soften that too with boiled honey, and draw it out into two cakes, placing one beneath and the other above, so as to have the black surface in the middle, and make it into a neat shape.” These are the recipes of that clever writer on confectionary, Chrysippus.
But Harpocration the Mendesian, in his treatise on Cheesecakes, speaks of a dish which the Alexandrians call παγκαρπία. Now this dish consists of a number of cakes mashed up together and boiled with honey. And after they are boiled, they are made up into round balls, and fastened round with a thin string of byblus in order to keep them together. There is also a dish called πόλτος, which Alcman mentions in the following terms—
And then we'll give you poltos made of beans (πυάνιος),But the substantive πυάνιον, as Sosibius tells us, means a collection of all kinds of seeds boiled up in sweet wine. And χῖδρος means boiled grains of wheat. And when he speaks here of waxy fruit, he means honey. And Epicharmus, in his Earth and Sea, speaks thus—
And snow-white wheaten groats from unripe corn,
And fruit of wax.
To boil some morning πόλτος.And Pherecrates mentions the cakes called μελικηρίδων in his Deserters, speaking as follows—
As one man smells like goats, but others
Breathe from their mouths unalloy'd μελικήρας.
And when all this had been said, the wise Ulpian said,—Whence, my most learned grammarians, and out of what library, have these respectable writers, Chrysippus and Harpocration, been extracted, men who bring the names of illustrious philosophers into disrepute by being their namesakes? And what Greek has ever used the word ἡμίνα; or who has ever mentioned the ἄμυλος̣" And when Laurentius answered him, and said,—Whoever the authors of the poems attributed to Epicharmus were, they were acquainted with the ἡμίνα. And we find the following expressions in the play entitled Chiron—
And to drink twice the quantity of cool water,—And these spurious poems, attributed to Epicharmus, were, at all events, written by eminent men. For it was Chry- [p. 1037] sogonus the flute-player, as Aristoxenus tells us in the eighth book of his Political Laws, who wrote the poem entitled Polity. And Philochorus, in his treatise on Divination, says that it was a man of the name of Axiopistos, (whether he was a Locrian or a Sicyonian is uncertain,) who was the author of the Canon and the Sentences. And Apollodous tells us the same thing. And Teleclides mentions the ἄμυλος in his Rigid Men, speaking thus—
Two full heminas.
Hot cheesecakes now are things I'm fond of,
Wild pears I do not care about;
I also like rich bits of hare
Placed on an ἄμυλος.
When Ulpian had heard this, he said—But, since you have also a cake which you call κοπτὴ, and I see that there is one served up for each of you on the table, tell us now, you epicures, what writer of authority ever mentions this word κοπτή̣ And Democritus replied-Dionysius of Utica, in the seventh book of his Georgics, says that the sea leek is called κοπτή. And as for the honey-cake which is now served up before each of us, Clearchus the Solensian, in his treatise on Riddles, mentions that, saying—"If any one were to order a number of vessels to be mentioned which resemble one another, he might say,
A tripod, a bowl, a candlestick, a marble mortar,And after that he gives a list of the names of different dishes, thus—
A bench, a sponge, a caldron, a boat, a metal mortar,
An oil-cruse, a basket, a knife, a ladle,
A goblet, and a needle.
Soup, lentils, salted meat, and fish, and turnips,And in the same way he gives a catalogue of cakes, and sweetmeats, thus—
Garlic, fresh meat, and tunny-roe, pickles, onions,
Olives, and artichokes, capers, truffles, mushrooms.
Ames, placous, entiltos, itrium,26These are the words of Clearchus. But Sopater the farce writer, in his drama entitled Pylæ, says—
Pomegranates, eggs, vetches, and sesame;
Coptè and grapes, dried figs, and pears and peaches
Apples and almonds."
Who was it who invented first black cakes (κοπταὶ）[p. 1038] Here my excellent cross-examiner, Ulpian, you have autho- rities for κοπτή; and so now I advise you ἀπεσθίειν some. And he, without any delay, took and ate some. And when they all laughed, Democritus said;—But, my fine word-catcher, I did not desire you to eat, but not to eat; for the word ἀπεσθίω is used in the sense of abstaining from eating by Theopompus the comic poet, in his Phineus, where he says—
Of the uncounted poppy-seed? who mix'd
The yellow compounds of delicious sweetmeats?
Cease gambling with the dice, my boy, and nowMen do, however, use ἀπεσθίω for to eat a portion of anything, as Hermippus does, in his Soldiers—
Feed for the future more on herbs. Your stomach
Is hard with indigestion; give up eating (ἀπέσθιε）
Those fish that cling to the rocks; the lees of wine
Will make your head and senses clear, and thus
You'll find your health, and your estate too, better.
Alas! alas! he bites me now, he bites,
And quite devours (ἀπεσθίει) my ears.
The Syrian being convicted by these arguments, and being a good deal annoyed, said—But I see here on the table some pistachio nuts (ψιττάκια); and if you can tell me what author has ever spoken of them, I will give you, not ten golden staters, as that Pontic trifler has it, but this goblet. And as Democritus made no reply, he said, But since you cannot answer me, I will tell you; Nicander of Colophon, in his Theriacans, mentions them, and says—
Pistachio nuts (ψιττάκια) upon the highest branches,The word is also written βιστάκια,, in the line—
Like almonds to the sight.
And almond-looking βιστάκια were there.And Posidonius the Stoic, in the third book of his History, writes thus: "But both Arabia and Syria produce the peach, and the nut which is called βιστάκιον; which bears a fruit in bunches like bunches of grapes, of a sort of tawny white, long shaped, like tears, and the nuts lie on one another like berries. But the kernel is of a light green, and it is less juicy than the pine-cone, but it has a more pleasant smell. And the brothers who together composed the Georgics, write thus, in the third book—“There is also the ash, and the turpentine tree, which the Syrians call πιστάκια.” And these people spell the word πιστάκια with a π, but Nicander writes it φιττάκια, and Posidonius βιστάκια.
And when he had said this, looking round on all those [p. 1039] who were present, and being praised by them, he, said,—But I mean also to discuss every other dish that there is on the table, in order to make you admire my varied learning. And first of all I will speak of those which the Alexandrians call κόνναρα and παλίουροι. And they are mentioned also by Agathocles of Cyzicus, in the third book of his History of his Country; where he says: "But after the thunderbolt had struck the tomb, there sprung up from the monument a tree which they call κόνναρον. And this tree is not at all inferior in size to the elm or the fir. And it has great numbers of branches, of great length and rather thorny; but its leaf is tender and green, and of a round shape. And it bears fruit twice a year, in spring and autumn. And the fruit is very sweet, and of the size of a phaulian olive, which it resembles both in its flesh and in its stone; but it is superior in the good flavour of its juice. And the fruit is eaten while still green; and when it has become dry they make it into paste, and eat it without either bruising it or softening it with water, but taking it in very nearly its natural state. And Euripides, in the Cyclops, speaks of—
But Theopompus, in the twenty-first book of his History of Philip, mentions them, and Diphilus, the physician of Siphnus, also speaks of them, in his treatise on What may be eaten by People in Health, and by Invalids. But I have mentioned these things first, my good friends, not because they are before us at this moment, but because in the beautiful city of Alexandria, I have often eaten them as part of the second course, and as I have often heard the question as to their names raised there, I happened to fall in with a book here in which I read what I have now recounted to you.A branch of paliurus.
Eur. Cycl. 393.
And I will now take the pears (ἄπιον), which I see before me, and speak of them, since it is from them that the Peloponnesus was called ᾿απία,27 because plants of the pear- [p. 1040] tree were abundant in the country, as Ister tells us, in his treatise on the History of Greece. And that it was customary to bring up pears in water at entertainments, we learn from the Breutias of Alexis, where we read these lines—
A. Have you ne'er seen pears floating in deep waterBut the fruit called ἁμαμηλίδες are not the same as pears, as some people have fancied, but they are a different thing, sweeter, and they have no kernel. Aristomenes, in his Bacchus, says—
Served up before some hungry men at dinner?
B. Indeed I have, and often; what of that?
A. Does not each guest choose for himself, and eat
The ripest of the fruit that swims before him?
B. No doubt he does.
Know you not how the Chian garden growsAnd Aeschylides too, in the third book of his Georgics, shows us that it is a different fruit from the pear, and sweeter. For he is speaking of the island Ceos, and he expresses himself thus,—“The island produces the very finest pears, equal to that fruit which in Ionia is called hamamelis; for they are free from kernels, and sweet, and delicious.” But Aethlius, in the fifth book of his Samian Annals, if the book be genuine, calls them homomelides. And Pamphilus, in his treatise on Dialects and Names, says, “The epimelis is a species of pear.” Antipho, in his treatise on Agriculture, says that the phocides are also a kind of pear.
Fine medlars
Then there are pomegranates. And of pomegranates some kinds are said to be destitute of kernels, and some to have hard ones. And those without kernels are mentioned by Aristophanes in his Farmers; and in his Anagyrus he says—
Except wheat flour and pomegranates.He also speaks of them in the Gerytades; and Hermippus, in his Cercopes, says—
Have you e'er seen the pomegranate's kernel in snow?And we find the diminutive form ῥοΐδιον, like βοΐδιον. Antiphanes also mentions the pomegranates with the hard kernels in his Bœotia—
I bade him bring me from the farm pomegranatesAnd Epilycus, in his Phoraliscus, says—
Of the hard-kernell'd sort.
You are speaking of apples and pomegranates.[p. 1041] Alexis also, in his Suitors, has the line—
He took the rich pomegranates from their hands.But Agatharchides, in the nineteenth book of his History of Europe, tells us that the Bœotians call pomegranates not ῥοιαὶ but σίδαι, speaking thus:—“As the Athenians were disputing with the Bœotians about a district which they called Sidæ, Epaminondas, while engaged in upholding the claims of the Bœotians, suddenly lifted up in his left hand a pomegranate which he had concealed, and showed it to the Athenians, asking them what they called it, and when they said ῥοιὰ, But we,' said he, ' call it σίδη..' And the district bears the pomegranate-tree in great abundance, from which it originally derived its name. And Epaminondas prevailed.” And Menander, in his Heauton-Timorumenos, called them ῥοΐδια, in the following lines—
And after dinner I did set before themThere is, however, another plant called sida, which is something like the pomegranate, and which grows in the lake Orchomenus, in the water itself; and the sheep eat its leaves, and the pigs feed on the young shoots, as Theophrastus tells us, in the fourth book of his treatise on Plants; where he says that there is another plant like it in the Nile, which grows without any roots.
Almonds, and after that we ate pomegranates.
The next thing to be mentioned are dates. Xenophon, in the second book of his Anabasis, says—“And there was in the district a great deal of corn, and wine made of the dates, and also vinegar, which was extracted from them; but the berries themselves of the date when like what we see in Greece, were set apart for the slaves. But those which were destined for the masters were all carefully selected, being of a wonderful size and beauty, and their colour was like amber. And some they dry and serve up as sweetmeats; and the wine made from the date is sweet, but it produces headache.” And Herodotus, in his first book, speaking of Babylon says,— “There are palm-trees there growing over the whole plain, most of them being very fruitful; and they make bread, and wine, and honey of them. And they manage the tree in the same way as the fig-tree. For those palm-trees which they call the males they take, and bind their fruit to the other palm-trees which bear dates, in order that the insect which lives in the fruit of the male palm may get into the date and ripen it, [p. 1042] and so prevent the fruit of the date-bearing palm from being spoilt. For the male palm has an insect in each of its fruits, as the wild fig has.” And Polybius of Megalopolis, who speaks with the authority of an eye-witness, gives very nearly the same account of the lotus, as it is called, in Libya, that Herodotus here gives of the palm-tree; for he speaks thus of it: “And the lotus is a tree of no great size, but rough and thorny, and its leaf is green like that of the rhamnus, but a little thicker and broader. And the fruit at first resembles both in colour and size the berries of the white myrtle when full grown; but as it increases in size it becomes of a scarlet colour, and in size about equal to the round olives; and it has an exceedingly small stone. But when it is ripe they gather it. And some they store for the use of the servants, bruising it and mixing it with groats, and packing it into vessels. And that which is preserved for freemen is treated in the same way, only that the stones are taken out, and then they pack that fruit also in jars, and eat it when they please. And it is a food very like the fig, and also like the palm-date, but superior in fragrance. And when it is moistened and pounded with water, a wine is made of it, very sweet and enjoyable to the taste, and like fine mead; and they drink it without water; but it will not keep more than ten days, on which account they only make it in small quantities as they want it. They also make vinegar of the same fruit.”
And Melanippides the Melian, in his Danaides, calls the fruit of the palm-tree by the name of φοίνιξ, mentioning them in this manner:—“They had the appearance of inhabitants of the shades below, not of human beings; nor had they voices like women; but they drove about in chariots with seats, through the woods and groves, just as wild beasts do, holding in their hands the sacred frankincense, and the fragrant dates (φοίνικας), and cassia, and the delicate perfumes of Syria.” 28 And Aristotle, in his treatise on Plants, speaks thus:— “The dates (φοίνικες) without stones, which some call eunuchs and others ἀπύρηνοι..” Hellanicus has also called the fruit φοίνιξ, in his Journey to the Temple of Ammon, if at least. the book be a genuine one; and so has Phormus the comic poet, in his Atalantæ. But concerning those that are called [p. 1043] the Nicolaan dates, which are imported from Syria, I can give you this information; that they received this name from Augustus the emperor, because he was exceedingly fond of the fruit, and because Nicolaus of Damascus, who was his friend, was constantly sending him presents of it. And this Nicolaus was a philosopher of the Peripatetic School, and wrote a very voluminous history.
Now with respect to dried figs. Those which came from Attica were always considered a great deal the best. Accordingly Dinon, in his History of Persia, says—“And they used to serve up at the royal table all the fruits which the earth produces as far as the king's dominions extend, being brought to him from every district as a sort of first-fruits. And the first king did not think it becoming for the kings either to eat or drink anything which came from any foreign country; and this idea gradually acquired the force of a law. For once, when one of the eunuchs brought the king, among the rest of the dishes at dessert, some Athenian dried figs, the king asked where they came from. And when he heard that they came from Athens, he forbade those who had bought them to buy them for him any more, until it should be in his power to take them whenever he chose, and not to buy them. And it is said that the eunuch did this on purpose, with a view to remind him of the expedition against Attica.” And Alexis, in his Pilot, says—
Then came in figs, the emblem of fair Athens,And Lynceus, in his epistle to the comic poet, Posidippus, says—“In the delineation of the tragic passions, I do not think that Euripides is at all superior to Sophocles, but in dried figs, I do think that Attica is superior to every other country on earth.” And in his letter to Diagoras, he writes thus:—"But this country opposes to the Chelidonian dried figs those which are called Brigindaridæ, which in their name indeed are barbarous, but which in delicious flavour are not at all less Attic than the others. And Phœnicides, in his Hated Woman, says—
And bunches of sweet thyme.
They celebrate the praise of myrtle-berries,In which lines we must take notice of the mention of the [p. 1044] woodcock. But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Names, says that “the most excellent dried figs are those called Aegilides; and that Aegila is the name of a borough in Attica, which derives its name from a hero called Aegilus; but that the dried figs of a reddish black colour are called Chelidonians.” Theopompus also, in the Peace, praising the Tithrasian figs, speaks thus—
Of honey, of the Propylæa, and of figs;
Now these I tasted when I first arrived,
And saw the Propylæa; yet have I found nothing
Which to a woodcock can for taste compare.
Barley cakes, cheesecakes, and Tithrasian figs.But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men, (for really, as Aristophanes says—
There's really nothing nicer than dried figs;)that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to Antiochus, entreating him (it is Hegesander who tells this story) to buy and send him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a sophist; and that Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dried figs and the sweet wine we will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece. The Greeks were also in the habit of eating dried figs roasted, as Pherecrates proves by what he says in the Corianno, where we find—
But pick me out some of those roasted figs.And a few lines later he says—
Will you not bring me here some black dried figsI am aware, too, that Pamphilus has mentioned a kind of dried figs, which he calls προκνίδες.
Dost understand? Among the Mariandyni,
That barbarous tribe, they call these black dried figs
Their dishes.
That the word βότρυς is common for a bunch of grapes is known to every one; and Crates, in the second book of his Attic Dialect, uses the word σταφυλὴ, although it appears to be a word of Asiatic origin; saying that in some of the ancient hymns the word σταφυλὴ. is used for βότρυς, as in the following line:—
Thick hanging with the dusky grapes (σταφυλῆσι) themselves.And that the word σταφυλὴ is used by Homer is known to every one. But Plato, in the eighth book of his Laws, uses both βότρυς and σταφυλὴ, where he says—“Whoever tastes wild fruit, whether it be grapes (βοτρύων) or figs, before the time of the vintage arrives, which falls at the time of the rising of Arcturus, whether it be on his own farm, or on any one else's land, shall be fined fifty sacred drachmas to be paid to Bacchus, if he plucked them off his own land; but a mina [p. 1045] if he gather them on a neighbour's estate; but if he take them from any other place, two-thirds of a mina. But whoever chooses to gather the grapes (τὴν σταφυλὴν), which are now called the noble grapes, or the figs called the noble figs, if he gather them from his own trees, let him gather them as he pleases, and when he pleases; but if he gathers them from the trees of any one else without having obtained the leave of the owner, then, in accordance with the law which forbids any one to move what he has not placed, he shall be invariably punished.” These are the words of the divine Plato; but I ask now what is this noble grape (γενναῖα), and this noble fig that he speaks of? And you may all consider this point while I am discussing the other dishes which are on the table. And Masurius said—
But let us not postpone this till to-morrow,When the philosopher says γενναῖα, he means εὐγενῆ,, gene- rous, as Archilochus also uses the word—
Still less till the day after.
Come hither, you are generous (γενναῖος);or, perhaps, he means ἐπιγεγενημένα; that is to say, grafted. For Aristotle speaks of grafted pears, and calls them ἐπεμβολάδες. And Demosthenes, in his speech in defence of Ctesiphon, has the sentence, “gathering figs, and grapes (βότρυς), and olives.” And Xenophon, in his (Economics, says, “that grapes (τὰς σταφυλὰς) are ripened by the sun.” And our ancestors also have been acquainted with the practice of steeping grapes in wine. Accordingly Eubulus, in his Catacollomenos, says—
But take these grapes (βότρυς), and in neat wine pound them.And the poet, who is the author of the Chiron, which is generally attributed to Pherecrates, says—
And pour upon them many cups of water.
Then make him eat them when well steep'd in wine.
Almonds and apples, and the arbutus first,And that every sort of autumn fruit was always plentiful at Athens, Aristophanes testifies in his Horæ. Why, then, should that appear strange which Aethlius the Samian asserts in the fifth book of his Samian Annals, where he says, “The fig, and the grape, and the medlar, and the apple, and the rose grow twice a-year?” And Lynceus, in his letter to [p. 1046] Diagoras, praising the Nicostratian grape, which grows in Attica, and comparing it to the Rhodiacan, says, “As rivals of the Nicostratian grapes they grow the Hipponian grape; which after the month Hecatombæon (like a good servant) has constantly the same good disposition towards its masters.”
And myrtle-berries, pastry, too, and grapes
Well steep'd in wine; and marrow.
But as you have had frequent discussions about meats, and birds, and pigeons, I also will tell you all that I, after a great deal of reading, have been able to find out in addition to what has been previously stated. Now the word περιστέριον (pigeon), may be found used by Menander in his Concubine, where he says—
He waits a little while, and then runs upAnd so Nicostratus, in his Delicate Woman, says—
And says—“I've bought some pigeons (περιστέρια) for you.”
These are the things I want,—a little bird,And Anaxandrides, in his Reciprocal Lover, has the line—
And then a pigeon (περιστέριον) and a paunch.
For bringing in some pigeons (περιστέρια) and some sparrows.And Phrynichus, in his Tragedians, says—
Bring him a pigeon (περιστέριον) for a threepenny piece.Now with respect to the pheasant, Ptolemy the king, in the twelfth book of his Memorabilia, speaking of the palace which there is at Alexandria, and of the animals which are kept in it, says, “They have also pheasants, which they call τέταροι, which they not only used to send for from Media, but they also used to put the eggs under broody hens, by which means they raised a number, so as to have enough for food; for they call it very excellent eating.” Now this is the expression of a most magnificent monarch, who confesses that he himself has never tasted a pheasant, but who used to keep these birds as a sort of treasure. But if he had ever seen such a sight as this, when, in addition to all those which have been already eaten, a pheasant is also placed before each individual, he would have added another book to the existing twenty-four of that celebrated history, which he calls his Memorabilia. And Aristotle or Theophrastus, in his Commentaries, says, “In pheasants, the male is not only as much superior to the female as is usually the case, but he is so in an infinitely greater degree.”
But if the before-mentioned king had seen the number of peacocks also which exists at Rome, he would have fled to his sacred Senate, as though he had a second time been [p. 1047] driven out of his kingdom by his brother. For the multitude of these birds is so great at Rome, that Antiphanes the comic poet, in his Soldier or Tychon, may seem to have been inspired by the spirit of prophecy, when he said—
When the first man imported to this cityAnd Alexis, in his Lamp, says—
A pair of peacocks, they were thought a rarity,
But now they are more numerous than quails;
So, if by searching you find one good man,
He will be sure to have five worthless sons.
That he should have devour'd so vast a sum!And that they used to keep them tame in their houses, we learn from Strattis, in his Pausanias, where he says—
Why if (by earth I swear) I fed on hares' milk
And peacocks, I could never spend so much.
Of equal value with your many trifles,And Anaxandrides, in his Melilotus, says—
And peacocks, which you breed up for their feathers.
Is 't not a mad idea to breed up peacocks,And Anaxilaus, in his Bird Feeders, says—
When every one can buy his private ornaments?
Besides all this, tame peacocks, loudly croaking.Menodotus the Samian also, in his treatise on the Treasures in the Temple of the Samian Juno, says: “The peacocks are sacred to Juno; and perhaps Samos may be the place where they were first produced and reared, and from thence it was that they were scattered abroad over foreign countries, in the same way as cocks were originally produced in Persia, and the birds called guinea-fowl (μελεαγρίδες) in Aeolia.” On which account Antiphanes, in his Brothers by the same Father, says—
They say that in the city of the SunOn which account the peacock occurs on the coins of the Samians.
The phœnix is produced; the owl in Athens;
Cyprus breeds doves of admirable beauty:
But Juno, queen of Samos, does, they say,
Rear there a golden race of wondrous birds,
The brilliant, beautiful, conspicuous peacock.
But since Menodotus has mentioned the guinea-fowl, we ourselves also will say something on that subject. Clytus the Milesian, a pupil of Aristotle, in the first book of his History of Miletus, writes thus concerning them—“All [p. 1048] around the temple of the Virgin Goddess at Leros, there are birds called guinea-fowls. And the ground where they are bred is marshy. And this bird is very devoid of affection towards its young, and wholly disregards its offspring, so that the priests are forced to take care of them. And it is about the size of a very fine fowl of the common poultry, its head is small in proportion to its body, having but few feathers, but on the top it has a fleshy crest, hard and round, sticking up above the head like a peg, and of a wooden colour. And over the jaws, instead of a beard, they have a long piece of flesh, beginning at the mouth, redder than that of the common poultry; but of that which exists in the common poultry on the top of the beak, which some people call the beard, they are wholly destitute; so that their beak is mutilated in this respect. But its beak is sharper and larger than that of the common fowl; its neck is black, thicker and shorter than that of common poultry. And its whole body is spotted all over, the general colour being black, studded in every part with thick white spots something larger than lentil seeds. And these spots are ring-shaped, in the middle of patches of a darker hue than the rest of the plumage: so that these patches present a variegated kind of appearance, the black part having a sort of white tinge, and the white seeming a good deal darkened. And their wings are all over variegated with white, in serrated,29 wavy lines, parallel to each other. And their legs are destitute of spurs like those of the common hen. And the females are very like the males, on which account the sex of the guinea-fowls is hard to distinguish.” Now this is the account given of guinea-fowls by the Peripatetic philosopher.
Roasted sucking-pigs are a dish mentioned by Epicrates in his Merchant—
On this condition I will be the cook;And Alexis, in his Wicked Woman, says—
Nor shall all Sicily boast that even she
Produced so great an artist as to fish,
Nor Elis either, where I 've seen the flesh
Of dainty sucking-pigs well brown'd before
A rapid fire.
A delicate slice of tender sucking-pig,[p. 1049] But the Athenians," as Philochorus tells us, “when they sacri- fice to the Seasons, do not roast, but boil their meat, entreating the goddesses to defend them from all excessive droughts and heats, and to give increase to their crops by means of moderate warmth and seasonable rains. For they argue that roasting is a kind of cookery which does less good to the meat, while boiling not only removes all its crudities, but has the power also of softening the hard parts, and of making all the rest digestible. And it makes the food more tender and wholesome, on which account they say also, that when meat has been once boiled, it ought not to be warmed up again by either roasting or boiling it; for ally second process removes the good done by the first dressing, as Aristotle tells us. And roast meat is more crude and dry than boiled meat.” But roast meat is called φλογίδες. Accordingly Strattis in his Callippides says, with reference to Hercules—
Bought for three obols, hot, and very juicy,
When it is set before us.
Immediately he caught up some large slices (φλογίδες）And Archippus, in his Hercules Marrying, says—
Of smoking roasted boar, and swallow'd them.
The pettitoes of little pigs, well cook'd
In various fashion; slices, too, of bulls
With sharpen'd horns, and great long steaks of boar,
All roasted (φλογίδες).
But why need I say anything of partridges, when so much has already been said by you? However, I will not omit what is related by Hegesander in his Commentaries. For he says that the Samians, when sailing to Sybaris, having touched at the district called Siritis, were so alarmed at the noise made by partridges which rose up and flew away, that they fled, and embarked on board their ships, and sailed away. Concerning hares also Chamæleon says, in his treatise on Simonides, that Simonides once, when supping with king Hiero, as there was no hare set on the table in front of him as there was before all the other guests, but as Hiero afterwards helped him to some, made this extempore verse—
Nor, e'en though large, could he reach all this way.But Simonides was, in fact, a very covetous man, addicted to disgraceful gain, as we are told by Chamæleon. And accordingly in Syracuse, as Hiero used to send him everything necessary for his daily subsistence in great abundance, Simonides used to sell the greater part of what was sent to [p. 1050] him by the king, and reserve only a small portion for his own use. And when some one asked him the reason of his doing so, he said—“In order that both the liberality of Hiero and my economy may be visible to every one.” The dish called udder is mentioned by Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, in the following lines—
Being a woman, 'tis but reasonableBut Antidotus uses not the word οὖθαρ, but ὑπογάστριον, in his Querulous Man.
That I should bring an udder.
Matron, in his Parodies, speaks of animals being fattened for food, and birds also, in these lines—
Thus spake the hero, and the servants smiled,And Sopater the farce-writer speaks of fattened sucking-pigs in his Marriage of Bacchis, saying this—
And after brought, on silver dishes piled,
Fine fatten'd birds, clean singed around with flame,
Like cheesecakes on the back, their age the same.
If there was anywhere an oven, thereBut Aeschines uses the form δελφάκιον for δέλφαξ in his Alcibiades, saying, “Just as the women at the cookshops breed sucking-pigs (δελφάκια).” And Antiphanes, in his Physiognomist, says—
The well-fed sucking-pig did crackle, roasting.
Those women take the sucking-pigs (δελφάκια),And in his Persuasive Man he says—
And fatten them by force;
To be fed up instead of pigs (δελφακίων).Plato, however, has used the word δέλφαξ in the masculine gender in his Poet, where he says—
Leanest of pigs (δέλφακα ῥαιότατον).And Sophocles, in his play called Insolence, says—
Wishing to eat τὸν δέλφακα.And Cratinus, in his Ulysseses, has the expression—
Large pigs (δέλφακας μεγάλους).But Nicochares uses the word as feminine, saying—
A pregnant sow (κύουσαν δέλφακα);And Eupolis, in his Golden Age, says—
Did he not serve up at the feast a sucking-pig (δέλφακα),And Plato, in his Io, says—
Whose teeth were not yet grown, a beautiful beast (καλὴν)?
Bring hither now the head of the sucking-pig (τῆς δέλφακος).[p. 1051] Theopompus, too, in his Penelope, says—
And they do sacrifice our sacred pig (τὴν ἱερὰν δέλφακα).Theopompus also speaks of fatted geese and fatted calves in the thirteenth hook of his History of Philip, and in the eleventh book of his Affairs of Greece, where he is speaking of the temperance of the Lacedæmonians in respect of eating, writing thus—“And the Thasians sent to Agesilais, when he arrived, all sorts of sheep and well-fed oxen; and beside this, every kind of confectionery and sweetmeat. But Agesilaus took the sheep and the oxen, but as for the confectionery and sweetmeats, at first he did not know what they meant, for they were covered up; but when he saw what they were, he ordered the slaves to take them away, saying that it was not the custom of the Lacedæmonians to eat such food as that. But as the Thasians pressed him to take them, he said, Carry them to those men (pointing to the Helots) and give them to them; saying that it was much better for those Helots to injure their health by eating them than for himself and the Lacedæmonians whom he had with him.” And that the Lacedæmonians were in the habit of treating the Helots with great insolence, is related also by Myron of Priene, in the second book of his History of Messene, where he says—“They impose every kind of insulting employment on the Helots, such as brings with it the most extreme dishonour; for they compel them to wear caps of dogskin, and cloaks also of skins; and every year they scourge them without their having committed any offence, in order to present their ever thinking of emancipating themselves from slavery. And besides all this, if any of them ever appear too handsome or distinguished-looking for slaves, they impose death as the penalty, and their masters also are fined for not checking them in their growth and fine appearances. And they give them each a certain piece of land, and fix a portion which they shall invariably bring them in from it.” The verb χηνίζω, to cackle like a goose (χὴν), is used and applied to those who play on the flute. Diphilus says in his Synoris—
᾿εχήνισας,,—this noise is always made
By all the pupils of Timotheus.
And since there is a portion of a fore-quarter of pork which is called πέρνα placed before each of us, let us say Something about it, if any one remembers having seen the [p. 1052] word used anywhere. For the best πέρναι are those from Cisalpine Gaul: those from Cibyra in Asia are not much inferior to them, nor are those from Lycia. And Strabo mentions them in the third book of his Geography, (and he is not a very modern author). And he says also, in the seventh30 book of the same treatise, that he was acquainted with Posidonius the Stoic philosopher, of whom we have often spoken as a friend of Scipio who took Carthage. And these are the words of Strabo—“In Spain, in the province of Aquitania, is the city Pompelo, which one may consider equivalent to Pompeiopolis, where admirable πέρναι are cured, equal to the Cantabrian hams.” The comic poet Aristomenes, in his Bacchus, speaks of meat cured by being sprinkled with salt, saying—
I put before you now this salted meat.And in his Jugglers he says—
The servant always ate some salted crab.
But since we have here “fresh cheese (τρόφαλις), the glory of fair Sicily,” let us, my friends, also say something about cheese (τυρός). For Philemon, in his play entitled The Sicilian, says—
I once did think that Sicily could makeThe Tromilican31 cheese also has a high character, respecting which Demetrius the Scepsian writes thus in his second book of the Trojan Array—"Tromilea is a city of Achaia, near which a delicious cheese is made of goat's milk, not to be compared with any other kind, and it is called Tromilican. And Simonides mentions it in his Iambic poem, which begins thus—
This one especial thing, good-flavour'd cheese;
But now I've heard this good of it besides,
That not only is the cheese of Sicily good,
But all its pigeons too: and if one speaks
Of richly-broider'd robes, they are Sicilian;
And so I think that island now supplies
All sorts of dainties and of furniture.
You're taking wondrous trouble beforehand,and in this poem he says—
Telembrotus:
And there is the fine Achaian cheese,[p. 1053] And Euripides, in his Cyclops, speaks of a harsh-tasted cheese, which he calls ὀπίας τυρὸς, being curdled by the juice (ὀπὸς) of the fig-tree—
Called the Tromilican, which I've brought with me.
But since, by speaking in this way of all the things which are now put on the table before us, I am making the Tromilican cheese into the remains of the dessert, I will not continue this topic. For Eupolis calls the relics of sweetmeats (τραγημάτων) and confectionery ἀποτραγήματα. And ridiculing a man of the name of Didymias, he calls him the ἀποτράγημα of a fox, either because he was little in person, or as being cunning and mischievous, as Dorotheus of Ascalon says. There are also thin broad cheeses, which the Cretans call females, as Seleucus tells us, which they offer up at certain sacrifices. And Philippides, in his play called the Flutes, speaks of some called πυρίεφθαι (and this is a name given to those made of cream), when he says—There is, too, τυρὸς ὀπίας, and Jove's milk.
Eur. Cycl. 136.
Having these πυρίεφθαι, and these herbs.And perhaps all such things are included in this Macedonian term ἐπιδειπνίδες.. For all these things are provocatives to drinking.
Now, while Ulpian was continuing the conversation in this way, one of the cooks, who made some pretence to learn- ing, came in, and proclaimed μύμα. And when many of us were perplexed at this proclamation, (for the rascal did not show what it was that he had,) he said;—You seem to me, O guests, to be ignorant that Cadmus, the grandfather of Bacchus, was a cook. And, as no one made any reply to this, he said; Euhemerus the Coan, in the third book of his Sacred History, relates that the Sidonians give this account, that Cadmus was the cook of the king, and that he, having taken Harmonia, who was a female flute-player and also a slave of the king, fled away with her.—
But shall I flee, who am a freeman bornFor no one can find any mention in any comedy of a cook being a slave, except in a play of Posidippus. But the introduction of slaves as cooks took place among the Macedonians first, who adopted this custom either out of insolence or on account of the misfortunes of some cities which had been reduced to slavery. And the ancients used to call a cook who [p. 1054] was a native of the country, Mæson; but if he was a foreigner, they called him Tettix. And Chrysippus the philosopher thinks the name μαίσων is derived from the verb μασάομαι, to eat; a cook being an ignorant man, and the slave of his appetite; not knowing that Mæson was a comic actor, a Megarian by birth, who invented the mask which was called μαίσων, from him; as Aristophanes of Byzantium tells us, in his treatise on Masks, where he says that he invented a mask for a slave and also one for a cook. So that it is a deserved compliment to him to call the jests which suit those characters μαισωνικά. For cooks are very frequently represented on the stage as jesting characters; as, for instance, in the Men selecting an Arbitrator, of Menander. And Philemon in one of his plays says—
'Tis a male sphinx, it seems, and not a cook,But Polemo says, in his writings which are addressed to Timæus, that Mæson was indeed a Megarian, but from Megara in Sicily, and not from Nisæa. And Posidippus speaks of slaves as cooks, in his Woman Shut out, where he says—
That I've brought home; for, by the gods I swear,
I do not understand one single word
Of all he says; so well provided is he
With every kind of new expression.
Thus have these matters happen'd: but just now,And, in his Foster Brothers, he says—
While waiting on my master, a good joke
Occurr'd to me; I never will be caught
Stealing his meat.
A. Did you go out of doors, you who were cook?
B. If I remain'd within I lost my supper.
A. Let me then first . . . . B. Let me alone, I say;
I'm going to the forum to sacrifice:
A friend of mine, a comrade too in art,
Has hired me.
And there was nothing extraordinary in the ancient cooks being experienced in sacrifices. At all events, they usually managed all marriage feasts and sacrifices. On which account Menander, in his Flatterer, introduces a cook, who on the fourth day of the month had been ministering in the festival of Aphrodite Pandemus, using the following language—
Now a libation. Boy, distribute roundAnd another cook, in Simonides, says—
The entrails. Whither are you looking now?
Now a libation—quick! you Sosia, quick!
[p. 1055] Quick! a libation. That will do; now pour.
First let us pray to the Olympian gods,
And now to all the Olympian goddesses:
Meantime address them; pray them all to give
Us safety, health, and all good things in future,
And full enjoyment of all present happiness.
Such shall be now our prayers.
And how I roasted, how I carved the meat,And the letter of Olympias to Alexander mentions the great experience of cooks in these matters. For, his mother having been entreated by him to buy him a cook who had experience in sacrifices, proceeds to say, “Accept the cook Pelignas from your mother; for he is thoroughly acquainted with the manner in which all your ancestral sacrifices, and all the mysterious rites, and all the sacred mysteries connected with the worship of Bacchus are performed, and every other sacrifice which Olympias practises he knows. Do not then disregard him, but accept him, and send him back again to me at as early a period as possible.”
You know: what is there that I can't do well?
And that in those days the cook's profession was a respectable one, we may learn from the Heralds at Athens. “For these men used to perform the duties of cooks and also of sacrificers of victims,” as Clidemus tells us, in the first book of his Protogony; and Homer uses the verb ῥέζω, as we use θύω; but he uses θύω as we do θυμιάω, for burning cakes and incense after supper. And the ancients used also to employ the verb δράω for to sacrifice; accordingly Clidemus says, “The heralds used to sacrifice (ἕδρων) for a long time slaying the oxen, and preparing them, and cutting them up, and pouring wine over them. And they were called κήρυκες from the hero Ceryx; and there is nowhere any record of any reward being given to a cook, but only to a herald.” For Agamemnon in Homer, although he is king, performs sacrifices himself; for the poet says—
And Thrasymedes the son of Nestor, having taken an axe, slays the ox which was to be sacrificed, because Nestor himself was not able to do so, by reason of his old age; and his other [p. 1056] brothers assisted him; so respectable and important was the office of a cook in those days. And among the Romans, the Censors,—and that was the highest office in the whole state,—clad in a purple robe, and wearing crowns, used to strike down the victims with an axe. Nor is it a random assertion of Homer, when he represents the heralds as bringing in the victims, and whatever else had any bearing on the ratification of oaths, as this was a very ancient duty of theirs, and one which was especially a part of their office—With that the chief the tender victims slew,
And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw;
The vital spirit issued at the wound,
And left the members quivering on the ground.Homer, Iliad, iii. 292.
Two heralds now, despatch'd to Troy, inviteand again—
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;
And, in another passage, he says—Talthybius hastens to the fleet, to bring
The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable king.Homer, Iliad, iii. 116.
A splendid scene! Then Agamemnon rose;
The boar Talthybius held; the Grecian lord
Drew the broad cutlass, sheath'd beside his sword.Homer, Iliad, xix. 250.
And in the first book of the History of Attica, Clidemus says, that there was a tribe of cooks, who were entitled to public honours; and that it was their business to see that the sacrifices were performed with due regularity. And it is no violation of probability in Athenion, in his Samothracians, as Juba says, when he introduces a cook arguing philosophically about the nature of things and men, and saying—
A. Dost thou not know that the cook's art contributes
More than all others to true piety?
B. Is it indeed so useful A. Troth it is,
You ignorant barbarian: it releases
Men from a brutal and perfidious life,
And cannibal devouring of each other,
And leads us to some order; teaching us
The regular decorum of the life
Which now we practise. B. How is that? A. Just listen.
Once men indulged in wicked cannibal habits,
And numerous other vices; when a man
Of better genius arose, who first
Sacrificed victims, and did roast their flesh;
And, as the meat surpass'd the flesh of man,
They then ate men no longer, but did slay
The herds and flocks, and roasted them and ate them.
And when they once had got experience
Of this most dainty pleasure. they increased
In their devotion to the cook's employment;
[p. 1057] So that e'en now, remembering former days,
They roast the entrails of their victims all
Unto the gods, and put no salt thereon,
For at the first beginning they knew not
The use of salt as seasoning; but now
They have found out its virtue, so they use it
At their own meals, but in their holy offerings
They keep their ancient customs; such as were
At first the origin of safety to us:
That love of art, and various seasoning,
Which carries to perfection the cook's skill.
B. Why here we have a new Palæphatus.
A. And after this, as time advanced, a paunch,
A well-stuff'd paunch was introduced . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Then they wrapped up a fish, and quite concealed it
In herbs, and costly sauce, and groats, and honey;
And as, persuaded by these dainty joys
Which now I mention, every one gave up
His practice vile of feeding on dead men,
Men now began to live in company,
Gathering in crowds; cities were built and settled;
All owing, as I said before, to cooks.
B. Hail, friend! you are well suited to my master.
A. We cooks are now beginning our grand rites;
We're sacrificing, and libations offering,
Because the gods are most attentive to us,
Pleased that we have found out so many things,
Tending to make men live in peace and happiness.
B. Well, say no more about your piety—
A. I beg your pardon—B. But come, eat with me,
And dress with skill whate'er is in the house.
And Alexis, in his Caldron, shows plainly that cookery is an art practised by free-born men; for a cook is represented in that play as a citizen of no mean reputation; and those who have written cookery books, such as Heraclides and Glaucus the Locrian, say that the art of cookery is one in which it is not even every free-born man who can become eminent. And the younger Cratinus, in his play called the Giants, extols this art highly, saying—
A. Consider, now, how sweet the earth doth smell,And Antiphanes, in his Slave hard to Sell, praises the Sicilian cooks, and says—
How fragrantly the smoke ascends to heaven:
There lives, I fancy, here within this cave
Some perfume-seller, or Sicilian cook.
B. The scent of both is equally delicious.
And at the feast, delicious cakes,[p. 1058] And Menander, in his Spectre, says—
Well season'd by Sicilian art.
Do ye applaud,But Posidippus, in his Man recovering his Sight, says—
If the meat's dress'd with rich and varied skill.
I, having had one cook, have thoroughly learntAnd Antiphanes, in his Philotis, displaying the cleverness of the cooks, says—
All the bad tricks of cooks, while they compete
With one another in their trade. One said
His rival had no nose to judge of soup
With critical taste; that other had
A vicious palate; while a third could never
(If you'd believe the rest) restrain his appetite,
Without devouring half the meat he dress'd.
This one loved salt too much, and that one vinegar;
One burnt his meat; one gorged; one could not stand
The smoke; a sixth could never bear the fire.
At last they came to blows; and one of them,
Shunning the sword, fell straight into the fire.
A. Is not this, then, an owl? B. Aye, such as IAnd Baton, in his Benefactors, gives a catalogue of celebrated cooks and confectioners, thus—
Say should be dress'd in brine. A. Well; and this pike
B. Why roast him whole. A. This shark? B. Boil him in sauce.
A. This eel? B. Take salt, and marjoram, and water.
A. This conger? B. The same sauce will do for him.
A. This ray? B. Strew him with herbs. A. Here is a slice
Of tunny. B. Roast it. A. And some venison. B. Roast it.
A. Then here's a lot more meat. B. Boil all the rest.
A. Here's a spleen. B. Stuff it. A. And a nestis. B. Bah!
This man will kill me.
A. Well, O Sibynna, we ne'er sleep at nights,
Nor waste our time in laziness: our lamp
Is always burning; in our hands a book;
And long we meditate on what is left us
By—B. Whom? A. By that great Actides of Chios,
Or Tyndaricus, that pride of Sicyon,
Or e'en by Zopyrinus. B. Find you anything?
A. Aye, most important things. B. But what? The dead . . .
And such a food now is the μύμα, which I, my friends, am bringing you; concerning which Artemidorus, the pupil of Aristophanes, speaks in his Dictionary of Cookery, saying that it is prepared with meat and blood, with the addition also of a great deal of seasoning. And Epænetus, in his treatise on Cookery, speaks as follows:—“One must make μύμα of every kind of animal and bird, cutting up the tender parts of the meat into small pieces, and the bowels and [p. 1059] entrails, and pounding the blood, and seasoning it with vinegar, and roasted cheese, and assafœtida, and cummin-seed, and thyme (both green and dry), and savory, and coriander-seed (both green and dry), and leeks, and onions (cleaned and toasted), and poppy-seed, and grapes, and honey, and the pips of an unripe pomegranate. You may also make this μύμα of fish.”
And when this man had thus hammered on not only this dish but our ears also, another slave came in, bringing in a dish called ματτύη. And when a discussion arose about this, and when Ulpian had quoted a statement out of the Dictionary of Cookery by the before-mentioned Artemidorus relating to it, Aemilianus said that a book had been published by Dorotheus of Ascalon, entitled, On Antiphanes, and on the dish called Mattya by the Poets of the New Comedy, which he says is a Thessalian invention, and that it became naturalized at Athens during the supremacy of the Macedonians. And the Thessalians are admitted to be the most extravagant of all the Greeks in their manner of dressing and living; and this was the reason why they brought the Persians down upon the Greeks, because they were desirous to imitate their luxury and extravagance. And Cratinus speaks of their extravagant habits in his treatise on the Thessalian Constitution. But the dish was called ματτύη (as Apollodorus the Athenian affirms in the first book of his treatise on Etymologies), from the verb μασάομαι (to eat); as also are the words μαστίχη (mastich) and μάζα (barley-cake). But our own opinion is that the word is derived from μάττω, and that this is the verb from which μάζα itself is derived, and also the cheese-pudding called by the Cyprians μαγίς; and from this, too, comes the verb ὑπερμαζάω, meaning to be extravagantly luxurious. Originally they used to call this common ordinary food made of barley-meal μάζα, and preparing it they called μάττω. And afterwards, varying the necessary food in a luxurious and superfluous manner, they derived a word with a slight change from the form μάζα, and called every very costly kind of dish ματτύη; and preparing such dishes they called ματτυάζω, whether it were fish, or poultry, or herbs, or beasts or sweetmeats. And this is plain from the testimony of Ale is, quoted by Artemidorus; for Alexis, wishing to show the great luxuriousness of the way in which this dish was prepared, added the verb λέπομαι. And the whole extract runs thus, being [p. 1060] out of a corrected edition of a play which is entitled De- metrius:—
Take, then, this meat which thus is sent to you;But the Athenians use the verb λέπομαι for wanton and unseemly indulgence of the sensual appetites.
Dress it, and feast, and drink the cheerful healths,
λέπεσθε, ματτυάζετε.
And Artemidorus, in his Dictionary of Cookery, explains ματτύη as a common name for all kinds of costly seasonings; writing thus—“There is also a ματτύης (he uses the word in the masculine gender) made of birds. Let the bird be killed by thrusting a knife into the head at the mouth; then let it be kept till the next day, like a partridge. And if you choose, you can leave it as it is, the wings on and with its body plucked.” Then, having explained the way in which it is to be seasoned and boiled, he proceeds to say—“Boil a fat hen of the common poultry kind, and some young cocks just beginning to crow, if you wish to make a dish fit to be eaten with your wine. Then taking some vegetables, put them in a dish, and place upon them some of the meat of the fowl, and serve it up. But in summer, instead of vinegar, put some unripe grapes into the sauce, just as they are picked from the vine; and when it is all boiled, then take it out before the stones fall from the grapes, and shred in some vegetables. And this is the most delicious ματτύης that there is.” Now, that ματτύη, or ματτύης, really is a common name for all costly dishes is plain; and that the same name was also given to a banquet composed of dishes of this sort, we gather from what Philemon says in his Man carried off:—
Put now a guard on me, while naked, andAnd in his Homicide he says—
Amid my cups the ματτύης shall delight me.
Let some one pour us now some wine to drink,But Alexis, in his Pyraunus, has used the word in an obscure sense:—
And make some ματτύη quick.
But when I found them all immersed in business,as if he meant a feast here, though you might fairly refer the word merely to a single dish. Now Machon the Sicyonian is one of the comic poets who were contemporaries of Apollodorus of Carystus, but he did not exhibit his comedies at [p. 1061] Athens, but in Alexandria; and he was an excellent poet, if ever there was one, next to those seven32 of the first class. On which account, Aristophanes the grammarian, when he was a very young man, was very anxious to be much with him. And he wrote the following lines in his play entitled Ignorance:—
I cried,—Will no one give us now a ματτύη̣
There's nothing that I'm fonder of than ματτύη;
But whether 'twas the Macedonians
Who first did teach it us, or all the gods,
I know not; but it must have been a person
Of most exalted genius.
And that it used to be served up after all the rest of the banquet was over, is plainly stated by Nicostratus, in his Man expelled. And it is a cook who is relating how beautiful and well arranged the banquet was which he prepared; and having first of all related what the dinner and supper were composed of, and then mentioning the third meal, proceeds to say—
Well done, my men,—extremely well! but nowAnd in his Cook he says—
I will arrange the rest, and then the ματτύη;
So that I think the man himself will never
Find fault with us again.
Thrium and candylus he never saw,And some one else says—
Or any of the things which make a ματτύη.
They brought, instead of a ματτύη, some paunch,But Dionysius, in his Man shot at with Javelins (and it is a cook who is represented speaking), says—
And tender pettitoes, and tripe, perhaps.
So that sometimes, when I a ματτύηPhilemon, also, in his Poor Woman—
Was making for them, in haste would bring
(More haste worse speed) . . . . . 33
When one can lay aside one's load, all dayBut Molpis the Lacedæmonian says that what the Spartans call ἐπαίκλεια, that is to say, the second course, which is served up when the main part of the supper is over, is called [p. 1062] μάττυαι by other tribes of Greece. And Menippus the Cynic, in his book called Arcesilaus, writes thus:—“There was a drinking party formed by a certain number of revellers, and a Lacedæmonian woman ordered the ματτύη to be served up; and immediately some little partridges were brought in, and some roasted geese, and some delicious cheesecakes.” But such a course as this the Athenians used to call ἐπιδόρπισμα, and the Dorians ἐπάϊκλον; but most of the Greeks called it τὰ ἐπίδειπνα. And when all this discussion about the ματτύη was over, they thought it time to depart; for it was already evening. And so we parted.
Making and serving out rich μάττυαι.
