The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
47. And Lynceus has recorded many repartees of Gnathæna. There was a
parasite who used to live upon an old woman, and kept himself in very
good condition; and Gnathæna, seeing him, said, "My young friend,
you appear to be in very good case." "What then do you think," said
he, "that I should be if I slept by myself?" "Why, I think you would
starve," said she. Once, when Pausanius, who was nicknamed Laccus,[35]
was dancing, he fell into a cask. "The cellar," says Gnathæna, "has
fallen into the cask." On one occasion, some one put a very little wine
into a wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. "It is
very little of its age," said she, "to be as old as that." Once at a
drinking-party, some young men were fighting about her, and beating one
another, and she said to the one who was worsted, "Be of
good cheer, my boy; for it is not a contest to be decided by crowns,
but by guineas." There was a man who once gave her daughter a mina,
and never brought her anything more, though he came to see her very
often. "Do you think, my boy," said she, "that now you have once paid
your mina, you are to come here for ever, as if you were going to
Hippomachus the trainer?" On one occasion, when Phryne said to her,
with some bitterness, "What would become of you if you had the stone?"
"I would give it to you," said she, "to sharpen your wit upon." For
it was said that Gnathæna was liable to the stone, while the other
certainly wanted it as Gnathæna hinted. On one occasion, some men were
drinking in her house, and were eating some lentils dressed with onions
(βολβοφάκη); as the maidservant was clearing the table, and
putting some of the lentils in her bosom (κόλπον), Gnathæna
said, "She is thinking of making some κολποφάκη."
Once, when Andronicus the tragedian had been acting his part in the
representation of the Epigoni with great applause, and was coming to
a drinking-party at her house, and sent a boy forward to bid her make
preparation to receive him, she said—
"O cursed boy, what word is this you've spoken?"
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