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
84. And there are also some sayings partaking of the character of
griphi, composed by Simonides, as is reported by Chamæleon of Heraclea,
in his treatise on the Life and Writings of Simonides—
[Sidenote: ENIGMATICAL SAYINGS.]
The father of a kid which roves for food,
And a sad fish, had their heads near together;
And when they had received beneath their eyelids
The son of Night, they did not choose to cherish
The bull-slaying servant of the sovereign Bacchus.
But some say that these verses were inscribed on some one of the
ancient offerings which were dedicated at Chalcis; and that on it were
represented the figures of a goat and a dolphin; to which animals
allusion is made in the above lines. And others say that a dolphin and
a goat were embossed in that part of a psaltery where the strings are
put in, and that they are what is meant here; and that the bull-slaying
servant of Bacchus is the dithyrambic. And others say that the ox which
is sacrificed to Bacchus in the town of Iulis is struck with an axe by
some one of the young men: and that the festival being near, the axe
had been sent to a forge, and Simonides, being then a young man, went
to the smith to fetch it; and that when he found the man asleep, and
his bellows and his tongs lying loosely about with their fore parts
touching one another, he then came back, and told the before-mentioned
problem to his friends. For the father of a kid he called the bellows,
and the sad fish the tongs (which is called καρκῖνος, or the crab).
The son of Night is sleep, and the bull-slaying servant of Bacchus
is the axe. And Simonides composed also another epigram which causes
perplexity to those who are ignorant of history—
I say that he who does not like to win
The grasshopper's prize, will give a mighty feast
To the Panopeiadean Epeus.
And it is said, that when he was sojourning at Carthea he used to train
choruses; and that the place where these exercises took place was in
the upper part of the city, near the temple of Apollo, a long way from
the sea; so that all the rest of the citizens, and Simonides himself,
went down to get water, to a place where there was a fountain; and that
an ass, whose name was Epeus, used to carry the water up for them; and
they gave him this name, because there was a fable that Epeus himself
used to do this; and there was also represented in a picture, in the
temple of Apollo, the Trojan fable, in which Epeus is represented as
drawing water for the Atridæ; as Stesichorus also relates—
For the great daughter of Jove pitied him
Bearing incessant water for the kings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account