The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 7

Now I have tasted food, (pas???.)

For it was natural for a man suffering under such calamities as his, only just to taste food, for his grief would not permit him to go so far as to satisfy his hunger. And therefore, he who did not touch food at all is called "fasting," ?past??. But the poet never uses the word p?sas?a?

of those who eat their fill; but in their case he uses words which express satiety:--

But when their minds were pleased (t??f?e?) with wholesome food;

and,

When they had ceased to wish for meat and drink.

But more modern writers use the word p?sas?a? for being satisfied.

Callimachus says--

I should like to satiate (p?sas?a?) myself with thyme;

and Eratosthenes--

They roasted their game in the ashes and ate it, (?p?sa?t?) at least they all did who could get it.

44. We find in the Theban bard the expression, "glueing them together as one would glue one piece of wood to another."

Seleucus says that the expression so common in Homer, da?ta ???e?a?, is the same as d?a?ta by a slight alteration of the arrangement of the letters; for he thinks that is too violent a change to consider it as derived from da?sas?a?.

Carystius of Pergamos relates that the Corcyrean women sing to this day when playing at ball. And in Homer, it is not only men who play, but women also. And they used to play at quoits also, and at throwing the javelin, with some grace:--

They threw the quoit, and hurl'd the playful spear.

For any amus.e.m.e.nt takes away the feeling of ennui. And young men prosecute hunting as a sort of practice against the dangers of war; and there is no sort of chase which they avoid; and the consequence is that they are more vigorous and healthy than they otherwise would be.

As when they stand firm as unshaken towers, And face the foe, and pour forth darts in showers.

The men of those times were acquainted with baths also of all sorts, as a relief from fatigue. Refres.h.i.+ng themselves after toil by bathing in the sea; which of all baths is the best for the sinews; and having relaxed the excessive strains of their muscles in the bath, they then anointed themselves with ointment, in order to prevent their bodies from becoming too rigid as the water evaporated. And so the men who returned from a reconnoissance,

Wash'd off their heat in Neptune's briny tides, And bathed their heads, and legs, and brawny sides.[40:1]

And then--

They to the polish'd marble baths repair, Anoint with fresh perfumes their flowing hair, And seek the banquet hall.

There was another way, too, of refres.h.i.+ng themselves and getting rid of their fatigue, by pouring water over the head:--

Then o'er their heads and necks the cooling stream The handmaids pour'd;[40:2]

for baths, in which the whole body is immersed, as the water surrounds all the pores on every side, prevents the escape of the perspiration, just as if a sieve were thrown into the water. For then nothing goes through the sieve, unless you lift it up out of the water, and so allow its pores, if one may call them so, to open, and make a pa.s.sage through; as Aristotle says in his problems of natural philosophy, when he asks, "Why do men in a perspiration, when they come into warm or cold water no longer perspire, until they leave the bath again?"

45. Vegetables also were set before the ancient heroes when they supped.

And that they were acquainted with the use of vegetables is plain from the expression,

He went down to the furthest bed In the well-order'd garden.

And they used onions too, though they have a very disagreeable smell:--

There was the onion, too, to season wine.

Homer represents his heroes also as fond of the fruit of trees:--

Figs after figs grow old, pears after pears.

On which account also he calls those trees which bear fruit beauteous:--

There many a beauteous tree appears-- Pomegranates, apples, figs, and pears.

And those which are adapted for being cut down for timber he calls tall, distinguis.h.i.+ng the epithets which he applies to each by their respective uses:--

There tall trees adorn the grove, The ash, and pine that towers above.

And the use of these trees was older than the Trojan war. And Tantalus, even after he is dead, is not cured of his fancy for these fruits; as the G.o.d, to punish him, waves such before his eyes (just as men lead on irrational animals by holding branches in front of them), and then prevents him from enjoying them, the moment he begins to entertain a hope of doing so. And Ulysses reminds Laertes of what he gave him when he was a child: "You gave me thirteen pears"--and so on.

46. And that they used to eat fish, Sarpedon proves plainly, when he compares the being taken prisoner to fish caught in a large net. Yet Eubulus, jesting in the way that the comic writers allow themselves, says--

I pray you, where in Homer is the chief Who e'er eat fish, or anything but beef?

And, though, so much of liberty they boasted, Their meat was never anything but roasted.

Nor did those heroes allow the birds the free enjoyment of the air; setting traps and nets for thrushes and doves. And they practised the art of taking birds, and, suspending a dove by a small string to the mast of a s.h.i.+p, then shot arrows at it from a distance, as is shown in the book describing the funeral games. But Homer pa.s.sed over the use of vegetables, and fish, and birds, lest to mention them should seem like praising gluttony, thinking besides there would be a want of decorum in dwelling on the preparation of such things, which he considered beneath the dignity of G.o.ds and heroes. But that they did in reality eat their meat boiled as well as roasted, he shows when he says--

But as a caldron boils with melting fat Of well-fed pig;

and the foot of the ox which was thrown at Ulysses proves it too, for no one ever roasts oxen's feet. And the line too--

Then many a well-fill'd dish was duly set On the full board, with every kind of meat;

as this not only speaks of the variety of meats, such as birds, pigs, kids, and beef; but it also speaks of the way in which they were dressed as having varied, and not having been all of one kind, but carefully arranged. So that you may see here the origin of the Sicilian and Sybaritic and Italian ways of giving feasts, and the Chian fas.h.i.+on also.

For the Chians are reported not to have been less studious than the other nations just mentioned in the art of dressing their meat. Timocles says--

The Chians Are splendid hands at dressing viands.

And in Homer, not only the young men, but the old men too, such as Phnix and Nestor, sleep with the women; and Menelaus is the only man who has no woman allotted to him, inasmuch as he had collected the whole expedition for the sake of his wife, who had been carried away from him.

47. Pindar praises

Ancient wine and modern songs.

And Eubulus says--

Inconsistent it seems for a fair one to praise Old wine, and to say that such never can cloy; But bring her a man who has seen his best days, And she'd rather put up with a whiskerless boy.

And Alexis says very nearly the same thing word for word; only using the word _little_ instead of _never_. Though in reality old wine is not only more pleasant, but also better for health; for it aids digestion more; and being thinner it is itself more digestible; it also invigorates the body; and makes the blood red and fluid, and produces untroubled sleep.

But Homer praises that wine most which will admit of a copious admixture of water; as the Maronean. And old wine will allow of more water being added to it, because its very age has added heat to it. And some men say, that the flight of Bacchus to the sea is emblematic of the making of wine, as it was practised long ago; because wine is very sweet when sea-water is poured into it. And Homer praising dark-coloured wine, often calls it a????. For the dark-coloured wine is the strongest, and it remains in the system of the drinkers of it longer than any other. But Theopompus says, that black wine was first made among the Chians; and, that the Chians were the first people who imparted the knowledge of planting and tending vines to the rest of mankind, having learnt it from nopion the son of Bacchus, who was the original colonizer of their island. But white wine is weak and thin; but yellow wine is very digestible, being of a more drying nature.