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
And in these last they mixed wine; and it is this last tripod that is
the tripod of truth; and it is considered appropriate to Apollo, because
of the truth of his prophetic art; and to Bacchus, because of the truth
which people speak when drunk. And Semus the Delian says--"A brazen
tripod, not the Pythian one, but that which they now call a bowl. And of
these bowls some were never put on the fire, and men mixed their wine in
them; and the others held water for baths, and in them they warmed the
water, putting them on the fire; and of these some had ears, and having
their bottom supported by three feet they were called tripods."
Ephippus says somewhere or other--
_A._ That load of wine makes you a chatterer.
_B._ That's why they say that drunken men speak truth.
And Antiphanes writes--
There are only two secrets a man cannot keep,
One when he's in love, t' other when he's drunk deep:
For these facts are so proved by his tongue or his eyes,
That we see it more plainly the more he denies.
7. And Philochorus relates that Amphictyon, the king of the Athenians,
having learnt of Bacchus the art of mixing wine, was the first man who
ever did mix it: and that it is owing to him that men who have been
drinking on his system can walk straight afterwards, when before they
used to blunder about after drinking sheer wine: and on this account he
erected an altar to the Straight Bacchus in the temple of the Seasons;
for they are the Nymphs who cherish the fruit of the vine. And near it
he built also an altar to the Nymphs, as a memorial to all who use mixed
drink; for the Nymphs are said to have been the nurses of Bacchus. And
he made a law to bring an unmixed wine after meals only just enough to
taste, as a token of the power of the Good Deity. But the rest of the
wine was put on the table ready mixed, in whatever quantity any one
chose. And then he enjoined the guests to invoke in addition the name of
Jupiter the Saviour, for the sake of instructing and reminding the
drinkers that by drinking in that fashion they would be preserved from
injury. But Plato, in his second book of the Laws, says that the use of
wine is to be encouraged for the sake of health. But on account of the
look which habitual drunkards get, they liken Bacchus to a bull; and to
a leopard, because he excites drunkards to acts of violence. And Alcæus
says--
Wine sometimes than honey sweeter,
Sometimes more than nettles bitter.
Some men, too, are apt to get in a rage when drunk; and they are like a
bull. Euripides says--
Fierce bulls, their passion with their horns displaying.
And some men, from their quarrelsome disposition when drunk, are like
wild beasts, on which account it is that Bacchus is likened to a
leopard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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