But Seleucus says that Panyasis is the earliest author who speaks of sweetmeats, in the book in which he speaks of the human sacrifices practised by the Egyptians, saying that many sorts of pastry and sweetmeats are put on the table, and many kinds of young birds. And before his time Stesichorus, or Ibycus, in the poem entitled the Contest, wrote as follows:-- Bring gifts unto the maiden, cakes of cesane, And groats, and cakes of oil and honey mixed, And other kinds of pastry, and fresh honey. But that this poem is the work of Stesichorus, Simonides the poet is a most undeniable witness; who, when speaking of Meleager, says-- Who with the spear excell'd his fellows all, Hurling beyond the eddying Anauros From the grape-famous Iolcos. For thus did Homer and Stesichorus Sing to the nations. For Stesichorus had sung so in the previously quoted poem, namely, the Contests-- Amphiaraus gain'd the prize in leaping, And with the dart the godlike Meleager. 73. But I am not ignorant of what Apollodorus the Athenian has said of the Delians, that they supplied all who came to their sacred ceremonies with the assistance of cooks and table-setters; and from their actions they were named Magis and Gongylis;--since, says Aristophanes, they furnished them at these banquets with round barley-cakes, (γόγγυλαι μάζαι,) as if they had been women. And even to this very day some of them are called Chœraci, and Amni, and Artysilai, and Sesami, and Artusitragi, and Neocori, and Icthyboli. And of the women, some are called Cuminanthæ. But all are called by one common name Eleodytæ, because they attend on the kitchen tables, and minister at the festivals. For ἔλεος means a kitchen or cook's table. Homer says-- But when he roasted the meat, and placed it ἐν ἐλεοισῖν. On which account, also, Polycraton the son of Crithon, a Rhenæan, when instituting a prosecution against them, did not call them Delians, but inscribed his action "against the whole body of the Eleodytæ." And the law of the Amphictyons commands the Eleodytæ to provide water; meaning by Eleodytæ the table-setters, and all attendants of that sort. But Criton the comic poet, in his Busy-body, calls the Delians the parasites of the god, in these lines-- When we had forced this great Phœnician, The master of a well-provided purse, Though captain of the ship, to stay in harbour, And * * * two ships To come to Delos from Piræus' port; He heard from all men that this place alone Seem'd to have three good things for a parasite, A well-stored market, a large population From every country, and the native Delians, Themselves a tribe of parasites of the god. 74. But Achæus the Eretrian, in his Alcmæon, a satyric drama, calls the Delphians makers of sauces, in these words:-- I see the sauce-makers, and spit on them.