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
59. And whole nations are mentioned as addicted to drunkenness.
Accordingly, Bæton, the measurer of distances for Alexander, in his
book which is entitled Stations of the March of Alexander, and Amyntas
also, in his Stations, says that the nation of the Tapyri is so fond
of wine that they never use any other unguent than that. And Ctesias
tells the same story, in his book Concerning the Revenues in Asia. And
he says that they are a most just people. And Harmodius of Lepreum, in
his treatise on the Laws in force among the people of Phigalea, says
that the Phigaleans are addicted to drinking, being neighbours of the
Messenians, and being also a people much accustomed to travelling.
And Phylarchus, in his sixth book, says that the Byzantians are so
exceedingly fond of wine, that they live in the wine-shops and let
out their own houses and their wives also to strangers: and that they
cannot bear to hear the sound of a trumpet even in their sleep. On
which account once, when they were attacked by the enemy, and could not
endure the labour of defending their walls, Leonidas, their general,
ordered the innkeepers' booths to be erected as tents upon the walls,
and even then it was with difficulty that they were stopped from
deserting, as Damon tells us, in his book on Byzantium. But Menander,
in his play called the Woman carrying the Mysterious sacred Vessels of
Minerva, or the Female Flute-player, says—
Byzantium makes all the merchants drunk.
On your account we drank the whole night long,
And right strong wine too, as it seems to me,—
At least I got up with four heads, I think.
[Sidenote: THE ILLYRIANS.]
And the Argives too are ridiculed by the comic poets as addicted to
drunkenness; and so are the Tirynthians by Ephippus, in his Busiris.
And he introduces Hercules as saying—
_A._ For how in the name of all the gods at once,
Do you not know me, the Tirynthian Argive?
That race fights all its battles when 'tis drunk.
_B._ And that is why they always run away.
And Eubulus, in his Man Glued, says that the Milesians are very
insolent when they are drunk. And Polemo, in his treatise on the
Inscriptions to be found in Cities, speaking of the Eleans, produces
this epigram:—
Elis is always drunk, and always lying:
As is each single house, so is the city.
60. And Theopompus, in his twenty-second book, speaking of the
Chalcidians in Thrace, says: "For they disregarded all the most
excellent habits, rushing readily with great eagerness to drinking and
laziness, and every sort of intemperance. And all the Thracians are
addicted to drinking; on which account Callimachus says—
For he could hardly bear the Thracian way
Of drinking monstrous goblets at one draught;
And always did prefer a smaller cup."
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