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
_A._ Of boil'd meat about three minæ weight.
_B._ Now mention something else.
_A._ A fine pig's face;
A ham; four pettitoes;—
_B._ Oh, Hercules!
_A._ Three calves' feet, and one hen.
_B._ Oh, Phoebus, oh!
What else?
_A._ Two minæ weight of figs: that's all.
_B._ And how much did you drink?
_A._ Twelve measures only
Of unmix'd wine.
_B._ Oh, Bacchus! oh, Sabazius!
11. And whole nations also have been ridiculed by the comic poets for
their gluttony; as the Bœotians, for instance. Accordingly, Eubulus
says, in his Antiopa—
We are courageous men to toil and eat,
And to endure sharp pain; the Attic race
Is quick and eloquent, and they eat little;
But the Bœotians eat enormously.
And in his Europa he says—
Go now and build up the Bœotian city,
Where the men eat all day and never tire.
And in his Ionian he says—
He is so thorough a Bœotian
In all his manners, that, like them, 'tis said
He's never tired nor content with eating.
And in his Cercopes he says—
And after that I came to Thebes, where men
Spend the whole night in feasts and revelry;
And each man has a privy at his doors,
Which is a great boon to an o'er-fed man;
For men who have got a long way to go,
And who eat much and bite their weary lips,
Are some of the most ludicrous of sights.
And in his Mysians he represents some one as making the following
speech to Hercules—
You leaving, as you say, the Theban plain,
Where valiant men sit eating all the day,
Being all throat, and close beside the privy.
Diphilus, in his Bœotian, says—
That man can eat, beginning before dawn,
Or come again and eat till the following day.
Mnesimachus, in his Busiris, says—
. . . . . . . For I am a Bœotian,
Who do not eat much else, except these things.
Alexis, in his Trophonius, says—
And now that you may not be found out thus,
And spoken of as men of Boeotia,
By those whose wont it is to run you down,
As men unequall'd in creating noise,
And knowing nothing else save how to eat
And drink unceasingly the whole night long;
Strip yourselves quick, and all prepare for action.
And Achæus, in his Contests, says—
_A._ Are you now speaking to the spectators here,
Or to the body of competitors?
_B._ To those who eat much, as men training do.
_A._ Whence do the strangers come from?
_B._ They're Bœotians.
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