The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 56

Again, Epicurus, in his banquet, inquires about indigestion, so as to draw an omen from the answer: and immediately after that he inquires about fevers; for why need I speak of the general want of rhythm and elegance which pervades the whole essay? But Plato, (I say nothing about his having been hara.s.sed by a cough, and about his taking care of himself with constant gargling of water, and also by inserting a straw, in order that he might excite his nose so as to sneeze; for his object was to turn things into ridicule and to disparage them,) Plato, I say, turns into ridicule the equalized sentences and the ant.i.theses of Agathon, and introduces Alcibiades, saying that he is in a state of excitement. But still those men who write in this manner, propose to expel Homer from their cities. But, says Demochares, "A spear is not made of a stalk of savory," nor is a good man made so by such discourses as these; and not only does he disparage Alcibiades, but he also runs down Charmides, and Euthydemus, and many others of the young men. And this is the conduct of a man ridiculing the whole city of the Athenians, the Museum of Greece, which Pindar styled The Bulwark of Greece; and Thucydides, in his Epigram addressed to Euripides, The Greece of Greece; and the priest at Delphi termed it, The Hearth and Prytaneum of the Greeks. And that he spoke falsely of the young men one may perceive from Plato himself, for he says that Alcibiades, (in the dialogue to which he has prefixed his name,) when he arrived at man's estate, then first began to converse with Socrates, when every one else who was devoted to the pleasures of the body fell off from him. But he says this at the very beginning of the dialogue. And how he contradicts himself in the Charmides any one who pleases may see in the dialogue itself. For he represents Socrates as subject to a most unseemly giddiness, and as absolutely intoxicated with a pa.s.sion for Alcibiades, and as becoming beside himself, and yielding like a kid to the impetuosity of a lion; and at the same time he says that he disregarded his beauty.

13. But also the banquet of Xenophon, although it is much extolled, gives one as many handles to blame it as the other. For Callias a.s.sembles a banqueting party because his favourite Autolycus has been crowned at the Panathenaea for a victory gained in the Pancratium. And as soon as they are a.s.sembled the guests devote their attention to the boy; and this too while his father is sitting by. "For as when light appears in the night season it attracts the eyes of every one, so does the beauty of Autolycus attract the eyes of everybody to itself. And then there was no one present who did not feel something in his heart because of him; but some were more silent than others, and some betrayed their feelings by their gestures." But Homer has never ventured to say anything of that sort, not even when he represents Helen as present; concerning whose beauty though one of those who sat opposite to her did speak, all he said, being overcome by the truth, was this--

Sure 'tis no wonder such celestial charms For nine long years have set the world in arms.

What winning graces, what majestic mien-- She moves a G.o.ddess, and she looks a queen![299:1]

And then he adds--

Yet hence, O heaven, convey that fatal face; And from destruction save the Trojan race.

But the young men who had come to Menelaus's court, the son of Nestor and Telemachus, when over their wine, and celebrating a wedding feast, and though Helen was sitting by, kept quite quiet in a decorous manner, being struck dumb by her renowned beauty. But why did Socrates, when to gratify some one or other he had tolerated some female flute-players, and some boy dancing and playing on the harp, and also some women tumbling and posture-making in an unseemly manner, refuse perfumes? For no one would have been able to restrain his laughter at him, recollecting these lines--

You speak of those pale-faced and shoeless men, Such as that wretched Socrates and Chaerephon.

And what followed after was very inconsistent with his austerity. For Critobulus, a very well-bred young man, mocks Socrates, who was aged and his tutor, saying he was much uglier than the Sileni; but he discusses beauty with him, and selecting as judges the boy and the dancing woman, makes the prize to be the kisses of the judges. Now what young man meeting with this writing would not be corrupted rather than excited to virtue?

14. But in Homer, in the banquet of Menelaus, they propose to one another questions as in ordinary conversation, and chatting with one another like fellow-citizens, they entertain one another and us too.

Accordingly, Menelaus, when Telemachus and his friends come from the bath-room, and when the tables and the dishes are laid, invites them to partake of them, saying--

Accept this welcome to the Spartan court; The waste of nature let the feast repair, Then your high lineage and your names declare:[300:1]--

and then he helps them to what he has before him, treating them in the most friendly manner--

Ceasing, benevolent he straight a.s.signs The royal portion of the choicest chines To each accepted friend; with grateful haste They share the honours of the rich repast.

And they, eating in silence, as it becomes young men to do, converse with one another, leaning forwards gently, not about the food, as Homer tells us, nor about the maid-servants of him who had invited them, and by whom, they had been washed, but about the riches of their entertainer--

Soft whispering thus to Nestor's son, His head reclined, young Ithacus begun: View'st thou unmoved, O ever honour'd most, These prodigies of art, and wondrous cost?

Such, and not n.o.bler, in the realms above Are the rich treasures in the dome of Jove.[301:1]

For that, according to Seleucus, is the best reading; and Aristarchus is wrong when he writes--

Such is the palace of Olympian Jove.

For they are not admiring the beauty of building alone; for how could there be amber, and silver, and ivory in the walls? But they spoke partly about the house, as when they used the expression "the sounding house," for that is the character of large and lofty rooms; and they spoke also of the furniture--

Above, beneath, around the palace s.h.i.+nes The sumless treasure of exhausted mines; The spoils of elephants the roofs inlay, And studded amber darts a golden ray.

So that it is a natural addition to say--

Such are the treasures in the dome of Jove, Wondrous they are, and awe my heart doth move.

But the statement,

Such is the palace of Olympian Jove,

has no connexion with--

Wondrous they are . . . .

and it would be a pure solecism and a very unusual reading.

15. Besides, the word a??? is not adapted to a house; for a place which the wind blows through is what is called a???. And we say that a place which receives the wind on both sides d?a??????e?. And so again, a???? is an instrument through which the wind pa.s.ses, (namely, a flute,) and every figure which is stretched out straight we call a????, as a stadium, or a flow of blood--

Straightway a thick stream (a????) through the nostrils rush'd.

And we call a helmet also, when it rises up in a ridge out of the centre, a???p??. And at Athens there are some sacred places called a????e?, which are mentioned by Philochorus in his ninth book. And they use the word in the masculine gender, ?? a????e?, as Thucydides does in his fourth book; and as, in fact, all prose writers do. But the poets use it in the feminine gender. Carcines says in his Achilles--

?a?e?a? e?? a????a--Into a deep ravine which surrounded the army.

And Sophocles, in his Scythians, writes--

The crags and caverns, and the deep ravines Along the sh.o.r.e (?pa?t?a? a????a?).

And therefore we ought to understand that it is used as a feminine noun by Eratosthenes in his Mercury--

A deep ravine runs through (a??? a????),

instead of a?e?a, just as we find ????? ???s?, where ????? is feminine.

Everything of that kind then is called a??? or a????; but at the present day they call palaces a??a?, as Menander does--

To haunt palaces (a??a?) and princes.

And Diphilus says--

To haunt palaces (a??a?) is, it seems to me, The conduct of an exile, slave, or beggar.

And they got this name from having large s.p.a.ces in front of their buildings exposed to the open air, or else, because the guards of the palace were stationed, and took their rest in the open air. But Homer always cla.s.ses the a??? among the places exposed to the air, where the altar of Jupiter Herceus stood. And so Peleus is found--

I and Ulysses touch'd at Peleus' port; There, in the centre of his gra.s.sy court, A bull to Jove he slew in sacrifice, And pour'd libations on the flaming thighs.[302:1]

And so Priam lay:--

In the court-yard amid the dirt he roll'd.[302:2]

And Ulysses says to Phemius--

Thou with the heav'n-taught bard in peace resort, From blood and carnage, to yon open court.[302:3]

But that Telemachus was praising not only the house, but also the riches which it contained, is made plain by the reply of Menelaus--

My wars, the copious theme of ev'ry tongue, To you your fathers have recorded long; How favouring Heav'n repaid my glorious toils With a sack'd palace and barbaric spoils.[303:1]

16. But we must return back to the banquet, in which Homer very ingeniously devises a subject for conversation, by comparing the acquisition of riches with that of a friend. For he does not put it forward as a grave proposition for discussion, but Menelaus inserts it in his conversation very gracefully, after he has heard them praise himself and his good fortune; not denying that he is rich, but from that very circ.u.mstance deprecating envy, for he says that he has acquired those riches so that,

When my woes are weigh'd, Envy will own the purchase dearly paid.[303:2]

He does not indeed think it right to compare himself with the G.o.ds--