The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
But Theophrastus says that there are two kinds of turnips, the male and
the female, and that they both come from the same seed; but Posidonius
the Stoic philosopher, in the twenty-seventh book of his Histories,
concerning Dalmatia, says that there are some turnips which grow
without any cultivation, and also some carrots that grow wild. But
Diphilus the physician, of Siphnos, says—"The turnip has attenuating
properties, and is harsh and indigestible, and moreover is apt to cause
flatulence: but the vegetable called bounias is superior to that; for
it is sweeter in taste and more digestible, in addition to being
wholesome for the stomach and nutritious. But the turnip," he says,
"when roasted, is more easily digested, but in this state it attenuates
the blood still more." This vegetable is mentioned by Eubulus, in his
Ancylion, where he says—
I bring this turnip to be roasted now.
And Alexis, in his Enthusiast, says—
I speak to Ptolemy, roasting slices of turnip.
But the turnip, when pickled, is more attenuating in its effects than
when boiled, especially when it is pickled with mustard, as Diphilus
says.
9. Then there was the cabbage. Eudemus the Athenian, in his treatise
on Vegetables, says that there are three kinds of cabbage—the kind
called the salt-cabbage, and the smooth-leaved-cabbage, and the
parsley-cabbage: and that the salt-cabbage is reckoned the finest of
all in respect of its delicacy of taste; and it grows in Eretria, and
Cyme, and Rhodes, and also in Cnidos and Ephesus: but the smooth-leaved
kind is found in every country; and the parsley-cabbage has its name
from the curly nature of its leaves, for it is like parsley, both in
that respect and in its general thickness. But Theophrastus writes
thus—"But of the ῥάφανος,—I mean the cabbage,—there is one kind with
curly leaves, and another with smooth leaves, and a third which is
wild." And Diphilus the Siphnian says—"The finest and most delicious
cabbage grows in Cyme: in Alexandria it is bitter; and the seed which
is brought from Rhodes to Alexandria produces sweet cabbage for one
year, after which time it degenerates again, from the nature of the
soil." And Nicander, in his Georgics, says—
The smooth-leaved cabbage sometimes wild is found,
And then the curly many-leaved plants
Are often sown in beds; . . . . . . . .
There is another kind, of reddish colour,
Like frogs in drought; some of bad colour too
Do come from Cyme, like the dingy soles
Which cobblers often sew on worn-out boots;
And these the ancients do the Prophets call.
But perhaps Nicander calls the cabbage Prophet, as being sacred; since
in Hipponax, in his Iambics, we find some such lines as these,—
He falling down worshipp'd the seven-leaved cabbage,
To which, before she drank the poison'd draught,
Pandora brought a cake at the Thargelia.
[Sidenote: CABBAGE.]
And Ananius says—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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