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
32. "And after them came twenty-four chariots drawn by four elephants
each, and sixty chariots each drawn by a pair of goats, and twelve
chariots by antelopes, and seven by oryxes, and fifteen by buffaloes,
eight by pairs of ostriches, and seven by gnus, and four by pairs of
zebras, and four chariots also drawn each by four zebras. And on all
these animals rode boys wearing the garments of charioteers, and the
broad hats called petasi; and besides them were smaller boys still,
armed with little peltæ, and thyrsi-spears, and they also were dressed
in golden-broidered garments; and the boys who were acting as
charioteers were crowned with pine-leaf chaplets, and the smaller boys
with ivy-leaves. And besides this there were three pair of camels, on
either side three, and they were followed by cars drawn by mules; and
these had on them barbaric palanquins, on which sat women from India and
other countries, habited as prisoners. And of the camels, some bore
three hundred minæ weight of frankincense, and three hundred of myrrh,
and two hundred of saffron, and cassia, and cinnamon, and iris, and two
hundred of other spices. And next to them came some Æthiopians bearing
presents, some of whom carried six hundred elephant's tusks, and others
carried two thousand fagots of ebony, and others carried sixty gold and
silver goblets, and a quantity of gold-dust. And after them came two
huntsmen, having hunting-spears with golden points; and twenty-four
hundred dogs were led in the procession, some Indian dogs, and others
Hyrcanian and Molossian hounds, and hounds of other breeds too.
"After them came a hundred and fifty men carrying trees from which were
suspended birds and beasts of every imaginable country and description;
and then were carried a lot of cages, in which were parrots, and
peacocks, and guinea-fowls, and pheasants, and other Æthiopian birds in
great numbers."
And when he had mentioned many other things, and enumerated herds of
animals, he continued, "A hundred and thirty Æthiopian sheep, three
hundred Arabian sheep, twenty Eubœan sheep, some white hornless
cattle, six-and-twenty Indian cows, eight Æthiopian oxen, one immense
white bear, fourteen leopards, sixteen panthers, four lynxes, three
arceti, one cameleopard, and one rhinoceros from Æthiopia.
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