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
42. And Clearchus, in the second book of his treatise on Friendship,
says,—"Stratonicus the harp-player, whenever he wished to go to sleep,
used to order a slave to bring him something to drink; 'not,' says
he, 'because I am thirsty now, but that I may not be presently.'" And
once, at Byzantium, when a harp-player had played his prelude well,
but had made a blunder of the rest of the performance, he got up and
made proclamation, "That whoever would point out the harp-player who
had played the prelude should receive a thousand drachmæ." And when
he was once asked by some one who were the wickedest people, he said,
"That in Pamphylia, the people of Phaselis were the worst; but that
the Sidetæ were the worst in the whole world." And when he was asked
again, according to the account given by Hegesander, which were the
greatest barbarians, the Bœotians or the Thessalians, he said, "The
Eleans." And once he erected a trophy in his school, and put this
inscription on it—"Over the bad harp-players." And once, being asked
by some one which was the safer kind of vessel, the long one or the
round one,—"Those," quoth he, "are the safest which are in dock." And
once he made a display of his art at Rhodes, and no one applauded; on
which he left the theatre, and when he had got into the air he said,
"When you fail to give what costs you nothing, how can I expect any
solid pay from you?" "Let the Eleans," said he, "celebrate gymnastic
contests, and let the Corinthians establish choral, and the Athenians
theatrical exhibitions; and if any one of them does anything wrong, let
the Lacedæmonians be scourged,"—jesting upon the public scourgings
exhibited in that city, as Charicles relates, in the first book of his
treatise on the City Contests. And when Ptolemy the king was talking
with him in an ambitious kind of way about harp-playing, "The sceptre,"
said he, "O king, is one thing, and the plectrum another;" as Capito
the epic poet says in the fourth book of his Commentaries addressed to
Philopappus. And once being invited to hear a flute-player, after he
had heard him, he said—
The father granted half his prayer,
The other half denied.
And when some one asked him which half he granted, he said, "He granted
to him to play very badly, and denied him the ability to sing well."
And once, when a beam fell down and slew some wicked man, "O Men," said
he, "I think (δοκῶ) there are gods; and if not, there are
beams (δόκοι)."
43. Also, after the before-mentioned witticisms of Stratonicus, he put
down besides a list of these things following.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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