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
63. But Antisthenes, in the second of his treatises called Cyrus,
abusing Alcibiades, says that he is a breaker of the laws, both with
respect to women and with respect to every other part of his conduct in
life; for he says that he had intrigued with a mother, and daughter, and
sister, after the fashion of the Persians. And his Political Dialogue
runs down the whole of the Athenian demagogues: and his Archelaus
attacks Gorgias, the rhetorician; and his Aspasia attacks Xanthippus and
Paralus, the sons of Pericles. For, as for one of them, he says that he
is a companion of Archestratus, who is no better than a frequenter of
houses of the worst possible fame; and the other he calls an
acquaintance and intimate friend of Euphemus, who abused every one he
met with vulgar and ill-mannered abuse. And nicknaming Plato Satho, in a
witless and vulgar manner, he published a dialogue against him, to which
he gave the same name as its title.
For these men believe that there is no such thing as an honest
counsellor, or a conscientious general, or a respectable sophist, or a
poet worth listening to, or a reasonable people: but Socrates, who spent
his time in loose houses with the flute-playing women of Aspasia, and
who was always chatting with Piston the armourer, and who gave lessons
to Theodote the courtesan, how she ought to make the most of her lovers,
as Xenophon tells us in the second book of his Memorabilia, is the only
wise man according to them; for they represent him as giving Theodote
such rules as neither Nico the Samian, nor Callistrate the Lesbian, nor
Philænis the Leucadian, nor even Pythonicus the Athenian, were ever
acquainted with as charms to conciliate affection. And yet those people
paid much attention to such things. And time would fail me if I were to
be inclined to quote the attacks which philosophers have made on
people; for, as the same Plato says, a regular crowd of Gorgons and
Pegasi, and other monsters, keeps flowing in upon me in immense numbers,
and of preposterous appearance, so that I will keep silence.
64. When Masurius had said this, and when all had admired his wisdom,
after silence was restored Ulpian said,--You seem to me, O guests, to be
overwhelmed with impetuous speeches which come upon you unexpectedly,
and to be thoroughly soaked in unmixed wine;--
For a man drinking wine, as a horse does water,
Speaks like a Scythian, not knowing even koppa,
But voiceless, lies immersed in a cask,
And sleeps as if he'd drunk medicinal poppy;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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