The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 23

_A._ Why bah?

_B._ A measure holds but such and such a quant.i.ty Of the best Cleonaean vinegar.

And Philonides says--

Their seasonings have not vinegar sufficient.

But Heraclides the Tarentine, in his Symposium, says, "Vinegar has a tendency to make the exterior parts coagulate, and it affects the strings within the stomach in a very similar manner; but any parts which are tumid it dissolves, because forsooth different humours are mixed up in us." And Alexis used to admire above all others the Decelean vinegar, and says--

You have compell'd me to bring forth from thence Four half-pint measures full of vinegar From Decelea, and now drag me through The middle of the forum.

The word ????a??? must be spelt so, with a ?, and the vessel which receives it is called ???af??. And so Lysias, in the speech against Theopompus when on his trial for an a.s.sault, says, "But I myself drink ???e??." And so too we must call oil of roses mixed with vinegar ?????d????, spelling all the words thus compounded in this manner with a ?.

77. Seasonings are mentioned even by Sophocles. In his Phaeacians we find the expression,

And seasoning for food.

And in aeschylus too we read--

You are steeping the seasonings.

And Theopompus says--"Many bushels of seasonings, and many sacks and bags of books, and of all other things which may be useful for life." In Sophocles too the expression is found--

I like a cook will cleverly season . . . .

And Cratinus says in the Glaucus--

It is not every one who can season, skilfully.

And Eupolis speaks of

Very bad vinegar seasoned in an expensive way.

And Antiphanes, in his Leucas, gives the following catalogue of seasonings:--

Dried grapes, and salt, and eke new wine Newly boiled down, and a.s.saftida, And cheese, and thyme, and sesame, And nitre too, and c.u.mmin seed, And sumach, honey, and marjoram, And herbs, and vinegar and oil And sauce of onions, mustard and capers mix'd, And parsley, capers too, and eggs, And lime, and cardamums, and th' acid juice Which comes from the green fig-tree, besides lard And eggs and honey and flour wrapp'd in fig-leaves, And all compounded in one savoury forcemeat.

The ancients were well acquainted with the Ethiopian cardamum. We must take notice that they used the words ???? and ????a??? as masculine nouns.

And so Anaxandrides says--

Cutting asparagus and squills and marjoram, (??) Which gives the pickle an aristocratic taste, When duly mixed (???e??) with coriander seed.

And Ion says--

But in a hurried manner in his hand He hides the marjoram (t?? ????a???).

Plato however, or Cantharus, used it as feminine, saying--

She from Arcadia brought The harshly-tasted (t?? d???t?t??) marjoram.

Epicharmus and Ameipsias both use it as a neuter noun; but Nicander, in his Melissurgica, uses ???? as masculine.

78. Cratinus used the word p?p??e?, which properly means merely full ripe, in speaking of the cuc.u.mbers which give seed, in his Ulysses--

Tell me, O wisest son of old Laertes, Have you e'er seen a friend of yours in Paros Buy a large cuc.u.mber that's run to seed?

And Plato says in his Laius--

Do you not see That Meleager, son of mighty Glaucon, . . . . Goes about every where like a stupid cuckoo, With legs like the seedless p?p?? cuc.u.mber?

And Anaxilas says--

His ankles swell'd Larger than e'en a p?p?? cuc.u.mber.

And Theopompus says of a woman--

She was to me More tender than a p?p?? cuc.u.mber.

Phaenias says, "Both the s????? and the p?p?? are tender to eat, with the stem on which they grow; however the seed is not to be eaten, but the outside only, when they are fully ripe; but the gourd called ???????t?, when raw is not eatable, but is very good either boiled or roasted. And Diocles the Carystian, in the first book of his treatise on Wholesome Things, says that "of wild vegetables the following should be boiled before eating: the lettuce (the best kind of which is the black); the cardamum; mustard from the Adriatic; onions (the best kinds are the Ascalonian, and that called getian); garlic, that other kind of garlic called physinga, the p?p?? cuc.u.mber, and the poppy." And a little afterwards he says, "The p?p?? cuc.u.mber is better for the stomach and more digestible; though every cuc.u.mber when boiled is tender, never gives any pain, and is diuretic; but that kind called p?p?? when boiled in mead has very aperient qualities. And Speusippus, in his treatise on Similarities, calls the p?p?? by the name of s???a. But Diocles having named the p?p??, does not any longer call it s???a: and Speusippus after having named the s???a never names the p?p??. Diphilus says, the p?p??

is more full of wholesome juice, and moderates the humours of the body, but it is not very nutritious; it is easily digested, and promotes the secretions.

79. The lettuce was in great request as an article of food. Its name is ???da?, but the Attics call it ???da????. Epicharmus says--

A lettuce (???da?) with its stalk peel'd all the way up.

But Strattis calls lettuces ???da????de?, and says--

The leek-destroying grubs, which go Throughout the leafy gardens On fifty feet, and leave their trace, Gnawing all herbs and vegetables; Leading the dances of the long-tailed satyrs Amid the petals of the verdant herbs, And of the juicy lettuces (???da????de?), And of the fragrant parsley.

And Theophrastus says, "Of lettuce (???da????) the white is the sweeter and the more tender: there are three kinds; there is the lettuce with the broad stalk, and the lettuce with the round stalk, and in the third place there is the Lacedaemonian lettuce--its leaf is like that of a thistle, but it grows up straight and tall, and it never sends up any side shoots from the main stalk. But some plants of the broad kind are so very broad in the stalk that some people even use them for doors to their gardens. But when the stalks are cut, then those which shoot again are the sweetest of any."

80. But Nicander the Colophonian, in the second part of his Dictionary, says that the lettuce is called ?????? by the Cyprians. And it was towards a plant of this kind that Adonis was flying when he was slain by the boar. Amphis in his Ialemus says--

Curse upon all these lettuces (???d????a?)!

For if a man not threescore years should eat them, And then betake himself to see his mistress, He'll toss the whole night through, and won't be equal To her expectations or his own.

And Callimachus says that Venus hid Adonis under a lettuce, which is an allegorical statement of the poet's, intended to show that those who are much addicted to the use of lettuces are very little adapted for pleasures of love. And Eubulus says in his Astuti--

Do not put lettuces before me, wife, Upon the table; or the blame is yours.

For once upon a time, as goes the tale, Venus conceal'd the sadly slain Adonis Beneath the shade of this same vegetable; So that it is the food of dead men, or of those Who scarcely are superior to the dead.

Cratinus also says that Venus when in love with Phaon hid him also in the leaves of the lettuce: but the younger Marsyas says that she hid him amid the gra.s.s of barley.

Pamphilus in his book on Languages says, that Hipponax called the lettuce tet?a????: but c.l.i.tarchus says that it is the Phrygians who give it this name. Ibycus the Pythagorean says that the lettuce is at its first beginning a plant with a broad leaf, smooth, without any stalk, and is called by the Pythagoreans _the eunuch_, and by the women ?st?t??; for that it makes the men diuretic and powerless for the calls of love: but it is exceedingly pleasant to the taste.

81. Diphilus says that "the stalk of the lettuce is exceedingly nutritious, and more difficult of digestion than the leaves; but that the leaves are more apt to produce flatulence, and are still more nutritious, and have a greater tendency to promote the secretions. And as a general rule the lettuce is good for the stomach, cooling and wholesome for the bowels, soporific, full of pleasant and wholesome juice, and certainly has a great tendency to make men indifferent to love. But the softer lettuce is still better for the stomach, and still more soporific; while that which is harder and drier is both less good for the stomach and less wholesome for the bowels; that, however, is also soporific. But the black lettuce is more cooling, and is good for the bowels; and summer lettuce is full of wholesome juice, and more nutritious; but that which is in season at the end of autumn is not nutritious, and has no juice. And the stalk of the lettuce appears to be a remedy against thirst." And the lettuce when boiled like asparagus in a dish, if we adopt the statement of Glaucias, is superior to all other boiled vegetables.

Among some of the other nations Theophrastus says that beetroot, and lettuce, and spinach, and mustard, and sorrel, and coriander, and anise, and cardamums, are all called ?p?sp??a, things fit to be sown for the second crop. And Diphilus says that, as a general rule, all vegetables have but little nutriment in them, and have all of them a tendency to make people thin, and are devoid of wholesome juices, and moreover stay a long while in the stomach, and are not very digestible. But Epicharmus speaks of some as summer vegetables.