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
"You, indeed, are king of Macedonia, but I am king of medicine; and you
are able, when you please, to put men to death, who are in health; but
I am able to save those who are sick, and to cause those who are in
good health, if they only follow my advice, to live to old age without
being attacked by disease. Therefore the Macedonians attend you as
body-guards; but all who wish to live attend me; for I, Jupiter, give
them life."
[Sidenote: COOKS.]
And so Philip wrote back to him as to a man out of his senses,—"Philip
wishes Menecrates soundness." And he wrote in similar style to
Archidemus, also the king of the Lacedæmonians, and to every one else
to whom he wrote at all; never omitting to give himself the name of
Jupiter. And once Philip invited him and all his gods to supper, and
placed them all on the centre couch, which was adorned in the loftiest
and most holy-looking and beautiful manner. And he had a table placed
before them on which there was an altar and first-fruits of the
different productions of the earth. And whenever eatables were placed
before the other guests, the slaves placed incense before Menecrates,
and poured libations in his honour. And at last, the new Jupiter, with
all his subordinate gods, being laughed at by every one, ran away and
fled from the banquet, as Hegesander relates. And Alexis also makes
mention of Menecrates in his Minos.
35. And Themiso the Cyprian, the friend of Antiochus the king, as
Pythermus the Ephesian relates in the eighth book of his History,
not only used to have his name proclaimed in the public assemblies,
"Themiso, the Macedonian, the Hercules of Antiochus the king;" but all
the people of that country used to sacrifice to him, addressing him
as Hercules Themiso; and he himself would come when any of the nobles
celebrated a sacrifice, and would sit down, having a couch to himself,
and being clad in a lion's skin, and he used also to bear a Scythian
bow, and in his hand he carried a club. Menecrates then himself,
though he was such as we have said, never made such a preposterous
boast as the cook we have been speaking of,—
I am immortal, for I bring the dead,
By the mere smell of my meat, to life again.
36. But the whole tribe of cooks are conceited and arrogant, as
Hegesander says in his Brothers. For he introduces a cook, saying—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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