The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 15

And Plato says, "he not only was not content with one meal a-day, but sometimes he even dined twice the same day."

We know that men used to call sweetmeats ???a?e?ata. Araros says in the Campylion--

These ???a?e?ata are very nice.

And Alexis says--

In Thasian feasts his friends he meets, And ???a???e?, sweatmeats eats.

And Antiphanes, in the Busiris, says--

Grapes, and pomegranates, and palms, And other ???a?a.

Philonides used the word ?p?s?t?? for _fasting_; and Crobylus has the word a?t?s?t??, writing pa??s?t??, a?t?s?t??.

Eupolis, too, used ??a??st?t?? for _without breakfast_; Crates has the word ??a???s?t??, _eating by force_, and Nicostratus uses ??a???s?t??.

There is a youth most delicately curl'd, Whom I do feed by force beneath the earth.

And Alexis has the word ???st?de?p???, _breakfast-dinner_--

By whom the breakfast-dinner is prepared.

29. After this we rose up and sat down again as each of us pleased, not waiting for a nomenclator to arrange us in order.

Now that rooms were fitted up with couches for three, and with couches for four, and for seven, and for nine, and for other successive numbers, in the time of the ancients, we may prove from Antiphanes, who says--

I bring you, since you are but three, To a room with equal couches.

And Phrynichus says--

One room had seven couches fine, While another boasted nine.

And Eubulus says--

_A._ Place now a couch for seven.

_B._ Here it is.

_A._ And five Sicilian couches.

_B._ Well, what next

_A._ And five Sicilian pillows.

And Amphis says--

Will you not place a couch for three?

Anaxandrides--

A couch was spread, And songs to please the aged man.

Open the supper rooms, and sweep the house, And spread the couches fair, and light the fire; Bring forth the cups, and fill with generous wine.

30. . . . . . And Plato the philosopher, "Men now distinguish the couches and coverings with reference to what is put round the couch and what is put under it." And his namesake, the comic poet, says--

There the well-dress'd guests recline On couches rich with ivory feet; And on their purple cus.h.i.+ons dine, Which rich Sardinian carpets meet.

For the art of weaving embroidered cloths was in great perfection in his time, Acesas and Helicon, natives of Cyprus, being exceedingly eminent for their skill in it; and they were weavers of very high reputation.

And Helicon was the son of Acesas, as Hieronymus reports: and so at Pytho there is an inscription on some work--

Fair Venus's isle did bring forth Helicon, Whose wondrous work you now do gaze upon; And fair Minerva's teaching bade his name And wondrous skill survive in deathless fame.

And Pathymias the Egyptian was a man of similar renown.

Ephippus says--

Place me where rose-strewn couches fill the room, That I may steep myself in rich perfume.

Aristophanes says--

Oh you who press your mistress to your arms, All night upon sweet-scented couches lying.

Sophron too speaks of coverlets embroidered with figures of birds as of great value. And Homer, the most admirable of all poets, calls those cloths which are spread below ??ta, that is to say, white, neither dyed nor embroidered. But the coverlets which are laid above he calls "beautiful purple cloths."

31. The Persians, according to the account of Heraclides, are the people who first introduced the system of having particular servants to prepare the couches, in order that they might always be elegantly arranged and well made. And on this account Artaxerxes, having a high esteem for Timagoras the Cretan, or, as Phanias the Peripatetic says, for Entimus the Gortinian, who went up to the king in rivalry of Themistocles, gave him a tent of extraordinary size and beauty, and a couch with silver feet; and he sent him also expensive coverlets, and a man to arrange them, saying that the Greeks did not know how to arrange a couch. And so completely had this Cretan gained the favour of the king, that he was invited to a banquet of the royal family, an honour which had never been paid to any Greek before, and never has been since; for it was reserved as an especial compliment for the king's relations. Nor was this compliment paid to Timagoras the Athenian, who submitted to offer adoration to the king, and who was held in the highest honour by him, though some of the things which were set before the king were sent to him from the royal table. The king of Persia, too, once took a chaplet from off his head and dipped it in perfume, and sent it to Antalcidas the Lacedaemonian. But he did this too, and many similar things, to Entimus; also, and in addition to everything else, he invited him to a banquet of the royal family. And the Persians were very indignant at this, thinking that it was making such an honour too common, and also because they thought they were on the eve of another expedition against Greece. He sent him also a couch with silver feet, and cus.h.i.+ons for it, and a flowered tent surmounted with a canopy, and a silver chair, and a gilt parasol, and some golden vessels inlaid with precious stones, and a hundred large vessels of silver, and silver bowls, and a hundred girls, and a hundred boys, and six thousand pieces of gold, besides what was allowed him for his daily expenses.

32. There were tables with ivory feet, the top slabs of which were made of maple wood. Cratinus says--

Fair girls await you, and a table Of highly polish'd dappled maple.

And when one of the Cynics used the word t??p???, meaning a table, Ulpian got indignant and said, "To-day I seem to have trouble coming on me arising out of my actual want of business; for what does this fellow mean by his tripod, unless indeed he counts Diogenes' stick and his two feet, and so makes him out to be a tripod? At all events every one else calls the thing which is set before us t??pe?a."

Hesiod, in his poem on the marriage of Ceyx, (although indeed the sons of the Grammarians deny that that poem is his work, but I myself think that it is an ancient piece,) does call tables t??p?de?. And Xenophon, a most accomplished writer, in the second book of the Anabasis, writes--"???p?de? were brought in for every one, to the number of about twenty, loaded with ready carved meats." And he goes on, "And these t??pe?a? were placed for the most part where the strangers sat."

Antiphanes says--

The t??p??? was removed, we wash'd our hands.

Eubulus says--

_A._ Here are five t??p?de? for you; here five more.

_B._ Why I shall be quinquagenarian.

Epicharmus says--

_A._ And what is this?