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 Aristotle, in his treatise on Drinking, says, "If the wine be
moderately boiled, then when it is drunk, it is less apt to intoxicate;
for, as some of its power has been boiled away, it has become weaker."
And he also says, "Old men become drunk more quickly on account of
the small quantity of natural warmth which there is in them, and also
of the weak-genius get drunk very quickly, on account of the great
quantity of natural warmth that there is in them; for, in consequence,
they are easily subdued by the warmth proceeding from the wine which is
added to their natural warmth. And some of the brute beasts are also
capable of becoming intoxicated; such as pigs when they are filled with
the husks of pressed grapes; and the whole race of crows, and of dogs,
when they have eaten of the herb called œnussa: and the monkey and the
elephant get intoxicated if they drink wine; on which account they hunt
monkeys and crows when the former have been made drunk with wine, and
the latter with œnussa.
But to drink unceasingly—
as Crobylus says, in his Woman who deserted her Husband—
Can have
No pleasure in it, surely; how should it,
When it deprives a living man of power
To think as he should think? and yet is thought
The greatest blessing that is given to man.
And Alexis, in the revised edition of his Phrygian, says—
If now men only did their headaches get
Before they get so drunk, I'm sure that no one
Would ever drink more than a moderate quantity:
But now we hope t' escape the penalty
Of our intemperance, and so discard
Restraint, and drink unmixed cups of wine.
And Aristotle says, that the wine called the Samagorean wine was so
strong that more than forty men were made drunk with a pint and a half
of it after it had been mixed with water.
35. Democritus having said this, and having drunk, said,—Now if any
one can gainsay any of these statements let him come forward: and then
he shall be told, as Evenus says—
That may be your opinion; this is mine.
But I, since I have now made this digression about the mixtures of the
ancients, will resume the thread of my original discourse where I let
it drop; considering what was said by Alcæus the lyric poet. For he
speaks, somewhere or other, in this way—
Pour out, in just proportion, one and two.
[Sidenote: DRINKING.]
For in these words some people do not think that he is alluding to
the mixture of wine and water at all; but that, being a moderate and
temperate man, he would not drink more than one cyathus of pure wine,
or perhaps, at the most, two. And this is the interpretation given
to the passage by Chamæleon of Pontus, who was ignorant how fond of
wine Alcæus had been. For this poet will be found to have been in the
habit of drinking at every season and in every imaginable condition of
affairs. In winter he speaks thus—
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