This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
Question 44. Who are the Monophagi in Aegina?
Solution. Many of the Aeginetans that fought against
Troy were slain in those wars, but more of them by
storm in the voyaging by sea. The relations therefore
receiving those few that were left, and observing the other
citizens overwhelmed with sorrow and grief, thought it not
convenient to make any public appearances of joy or to
sacrifice to the Gods; but every one entertained privately
in his own house his relations that were escaped with
feasts and entertainments, they themselves giving attendance to their fathers, kinsfolks, brethren, and acquaintance, none of other families being admitted thereto.
Hence in imitation of these they celebrate a sacrifice to
Neptune, which is called the Thiasi, in which they revel
without any noise, each family apart by itself, for the
space of sixteen days, without any servant attending them;
then offering sacrifices to Venus, they finish this solemn
feast. Upon this account they are called Monophagi, i.e.
such as feed apart by themselves.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.