Come now, where shall our conversation rise?
as Cephisodorus the comic poet says, my good friend Timocrates; for when we were all met together at a convenient
season, and with serious minds, to discuss the goblets,
Ulpian, while every one was sitting still, and before any one
began to speak at all, said,—At the court of Adrastus, my
friends, the chief men of the nation sup while sitting down.
But Polyidus, while sacrificing on the road, detained Peteos as
he was passing by, and while lying on the grass, strewing
some leaves which he had broken off on the ground by way
of a table, set before him some part of the victim which he
had sacrificed. And when Autolycus had come to the rich
[p. 726]
people of Ithaca, and while he was sitting down, (for the men
of that time ate their meals while sitting down,) the nurse
took Ulysses, (as the poet says—
His course to Ithaca the hero sped
When first the product of Laertes' bed
Was new disclosed to birth; the banquet ends
When Euryclea from the queen descends,
And to his fond embrace the babe commends:)
and placed him on his knees, not near his knees. So let us
not waste time now, but let us lie down, that Plutarch may
lead the way in the lecture which he promised us on the
subject of goblets, and that he may pledge us all in bumpers.
