The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
General
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
4. And when we were relieved from their exhibition, then we had a fresh
drink offered to us, hot and strong, and Thasian, and Mendæan, and
Lesbian wines were placed upon the board, very large golden goblets
being brought to every one of us. And after we had drunk, a glass goblet
of two cubits in diameter, placed on a silver stand, was served up, full
of roast fishes of every imaginable sort that could be collected. And
there was also given to every one a silver breadbasket full of
Cappadocian loaves; some of which we ate and some we delivered to the
slaves behind us. And when we had washed our hands, we put on chaplets;
and then again we received golden circlets twice as large as the former
ones, and another pair of cruets of perfume. And when quiet was
restored, Proteas leaping up from his couch, asked for a cup to hold a
gallon; and having filled it with Thasian wine, and having mingled a
little water with it, he drank it off, saying--
He who drinks most will be the happiest.
And Caranus said--"Since you have been the first to drink, do you be the
first also to accept the cup as a gift; and this also shall be the
present for all the rest who drink too." And when this had been said, at
once nine of the guests rose up snatching at the cups, and each one
trying to forestall the other. But one of those who were of the party,
like an unlucky man as he was, as he was unable to drink, sat down and
cried because he had no goblet; and so Caranus presented him with an
empty goblet. After this, a dancing party of a hundred men came in,
singing an epithalamium in beautiful tune. And after them there came in
dancing girls, some arranged so as to represent the Nereids, and others
in the guise of the nymphs.
5. And as the drinking went on, and the shadows were beginning to fall,
they opened the chamber where everything was encircled all round with
white cloths. And when these curtains were drawn, the torches appeared,
the partitions having been secretly removed by mechanism. And there were
seen Cupids, and Dianas, and Pans, and Mercuries, and numbers of statues
of that kind, holding torches in silver candlesticks. And while we were
admiring the ingenuity of the contrivance, some real Erymanthean boars
were brought round to each of the guests on square platters with golden
edges, pierced through and through with silver darts. And what was the
strangest thing of all was, that those of us who were almost helpless
and stupefied with wine, the moment that we saw any of these things
which were brought in, became all in a moment sober, standing upright,
as it is said. And so the slaves crammed them into the baskets of good
omen, until the usual signal of the termination of the feast sounded.
For you know that that is the Macedonian custom at large parties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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