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
But you are not yet satisfied about your πάροινοι, and drunkards;
nor do you consider that Eumenes the king of Pergamus, the nephew
of Philetærus, who had formerly been king of Pergamus, died of
drunkenness, as Ctesicles relates, in the third book of his Times.
But, however, Perseus, whose power was put down by the Romans, did not
die in that way; for he did not imitate his father Philip in anything;
for he was not eager about women, nor was he fond of wine; but when
at a feast he was not only moderate himself, but all his friends who
were with him were so too, as Polybius relates, in his twenty-sixth
book. But you, O Ulpian, are a most immoderate drinker yourself
(ἀῤῥυθμοπότης), as Timon the Phliasian calls it. For so he called those
men who drink a great quantity of unmixed wine, in the second book of
his Silli—
Or that great ox-goad, harder than Lycurgus's,
Who smote the ἀῤῥυθμόποται of Bacchus,
And threw their cups and brimming ladles down.
For I do not call you simply ποτικὸς, or fond of drinking; and this
last is a word which Alcæus has used, in his Ganymede. And that a habit
of getting drunk deceives our eyesight, Anacharsis has shown plainly
enough, in what he says where he shows that mistaken opinions are taken
up by drunken men. For a fellow-drinker of his once, seeing his wife
at a banquet, said, "O Anacharsis, you have married an ugly woman." And
he replied, "Indeed I think so too, but however now, give me, O boy, a
cup of stronger wine, that I may make her out beautiful."
65. After this Ulpian, pledging one of his companions, said,—But, my
dear friend, according to Antiphanes, who says, in his Countryman—
_A._ Shut now your eyes, and drink it all at once.
_B._ 'Tis a great undertaking.
_A._ Not for one
Who has experience in mighty draughts.
Drink then, my friend; and—
_A._ Let us not always drink
(as the same Antiphanes says, in his Wounded Man,)
Full cups, but let some reason and discussion
Come in between, and some short pretty songs;
Let some sweet strophes sound. There is no work,
Or only one at least, I tell you true,
In which some variation is not pleasant.
_B._ Give me, then, now at once, I beg you, wine,
Strengthening the limbs (ἀρκεσίγυιον), as says Euripides—
_A._ Aye, did Euripides use such a word?
_B._ No doubt—who else?
_A._ It may have been Philoxenus,
'Tis all the same; my friend, you now convict me,
Or seek to do so, for one syllable.
And he said,—But who has ever used this form πῖθι̣? And Ulpian
replied,—Why, you are all in the dark, my friend, from having drunk
such a quantity of wine. You have it in Cratinus, in his Ulysses,—
Take now this cup, and when you've taken, drink it (πῖθι),
And then ask me my name.
And Antiphanes, in his Mystic, says—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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