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
And Lynceus the Samian, in his epistle to Apollodorus, writes
thus—"That you may have some goat's flesh for your children, and some
meat of the wild boar (τὰ συάγρια) for yourself and your friends."
And Hippolochus the Macedonian, whom we have mentioned before now,
in his epistle to the above-named Lynceus, mentioned many wild boars
(συάγρων). But, since you have turned off the question which was put to
you about the colour of the Calydonian boar, and whether any one states
him to have been white as to his flesh, we ourselves will tell you who
has said so; and you yourself may investigate the proofs which I bring.
For some time ago, I read the dithyrambics of Cleomenes of Rhegium; and
this account is given in that ode of them which is entitled Meleager.
And I am not ignorant that the inhabitants of Sicily call the wild boar
(which we call σύαγρος) ἀσχέδωρος. And Æschylus, in his Phorcides,
comparing Perseus to a wild boar, says—
He rush'd into the cave like a wild boar (ἀσχέδωρος ὥς).
And Sciras (and he is a poet of what is called the Italian comedy, and
a native of Tarentum), in his Meleager, says—
Where shepherds never choose to feed their flocks,
Nor does the wild boar range and chase his mate.
And it is not wonderful that Æschylus, who lived for some time in
Sicily, should use many Sicilian words.
66. There were also very often kids brought round by the servants,
dressed in various ways; some of them with a great deal of assafoetida,
which afforded us no ordinary pleasure; for the flesh of the goat is
exceedingly nutritious. At all events, Clitomachus the Carthaginian,
who is inferior to no one of the new Academy for his spirit of
philosophical investigation, says that a certain Theban athlete
surpassed all the men of his time in strength, because he ate goat's
flesh; for the juice of that meat is nervous and sticky, and such as
can remain a long time in the substance of the body. And this wrestler
used to be much laughed at, because of the unpleasant smell of his
perspiration. And all the meat of pigs and lambs, while it remains
undigested in the system, is very apt to turn, because of the fat. But
the banquets spoken of by the comic poets rather please the ears by
sweet sounds, than the palate by sweet tastes; as, for instance, the
feast mentioned by Antiphanes, in his Female Physician—
[Sidenote: DINNERS.]
_A._ But what meat do you eat with most delight?
_B._ What meat?—why if you mean as to its cheapness,
There's mutton ere it bears you wool or milk,
That is to say, there's lamb, my friend; and so
There's also meat of goats which give no milk,
That is to say, of kids. For so much profit
Is got from these when they are fully grown,
That I put up with eating cheaper kinds.
And in his Cyclops he says—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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