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
48. A man of the name of Arcadion, too, was a very great drinker,
(but it is uncertain whether this is the same man who was at enmity
with Philip,) as the epigram shows which Polemo has preserved in his
treatise on the Inscriptions existing in different Cities—
This is the monument of that great drinker,
Arcadion; and his two loving sons,
Dorcon and Charmylus, have placed it here,
At this the entrance of his native city:
And know, traveller, the man did die
From drinking strong wine in too large a cup.
And the inscription over some man of the name of Erasixenus says that
he also drank a great deal.
Twice was this cup, full of the strongest wine,
Drain'd by the thirsty Erasixenus,
And then in turn it carried him away.
Alcetas the Macedonian also used to drink a great deal, as Aristos
the Salaminian relates; and so did Diotimus the Athenian: and he was
the man who was surnamed the Funnel. For he put a funnel into his
mouth, and would then drink without ceasing while the wine was being
poured into it, according to the account of Polemo. And it has been
already mentioned that Cleomenes the Lacedæmonian was a great drinker
of unmixed wine; and that in consequence of his drunkenness he cut
himself to pieces with a sword, is related by Herodotus. And Alcæus
the poet also was very fond of drinking, as I have already mentioned.
And Baton of Sinope, in his essay on Ion the poet, says that Ion was
a man fond of drinking and amorous to excess; and he himself, too, in
his Elegies, confesses that he loved Chrysilla the Corinthian, the
daughter of Teleas, with whom Teleclides, in his Hesiods, says that the
Olympian[47] Pericles also was in love. And Xenarchus the Rhodian, on
account of the excessive way in which he used to drink, was surnamed
"The Nine-gallon Cask;" and Euphorion the Epic poet mentions him in his
Chiliades.
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