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

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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,
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.

And after that he gives a list of the names of different dishes, thus—

Soup, lentils, salted meat, and fish, and turnips,
Garlic, fresh meat, and tunny-roe, pickles, onions,
Olives, and artichokes, capers, truffles, mushrooms.

And in the same way he gives a catalogue of cakes, and sweetmeats, thus—

Ames, placous, entiltos, itrium,¹
Pomegranates, eggs, vetches, and sesame;
Coptè and grapes, dried figs, and pears and peaches
Apples and almonds."

These are the words of Clearchus. But Sopater the farce writer, in his drama entitled Pylæ, says—

Who was it who invented first black cakes (κοπταὶ）
Of the uncounted poppy-seed? who mix'd
The yellow compounds of delicious sweetmeats?

[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—

Cease gambling with the dice, my boy, and now
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.

Men do, however, use ἀπεσθίω for to eat a portion of anything, as Hermippus does, in his Soldiers—

Alas! alas! he bites me now, he bites,
And quite devours (ἀπεσθίει) my ears.