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
90. I am aware, too, that on one occasion there was a contest of beauty
instituted among women. And Nicias, speaking of it in his History of
Arcadia, says that Cypselus instituted it, having built a city in the
plain which is watered by the Alpheus; in which he established some
Parrhasians, and consecrated a plot of sacred ground and an altar to
Ceres of Eleusis, in whose festival it was that he had instituted this
contest of beauty. And he says that the woman who gained the victory
in this contest was Herodice.
And even to this day this contest is continued; and the women who
contend in it are called Goldbearing. And Theophrastus says that there
is also a contest of beauty which takes place among the Eleans, and
that the decision is come to with great care and deliberation; and that
those who gain the victory receive arms as their prize, which Dionysius
of Leuctra says are offered up to Minerva. And he says, too, that the
victor is adorned with fillets by his friends, and goes in procession
to the temple; and that a crown of myrtle is given to him (at least
this is the statement of Myrsilus, in his Historical Paradoxes). "But
in some places," says the same Theophrastus, "there are contests
between the women in respect of modesty and good management, as there
are among the barbarians; and at other places also there are contests
about beauty, on the ground that this also is entitled to honour,
as for instance, there are in Tenedos and Lesbos. But they say that
this is the gift of chance, or of nature; but that the honour paid
to modesty ought to be one of a greater degree. For that it is in
consequence of modesty that beauty is beautiful; for without modesty it
is apt to be subdued by intemperance."
91. Now, when Myrtilus had said all this in a connected statement; and
when all were marvelling at his memory, Cynulcus said—
Your multifarious learning I do wonder at—
Though there is not a thing more vain and useless,
says Hippon the Atheist. But the divine Heraclitus also says—"A great
variety of information does not usually give wisdom." And Timon said—
There is great ostentation and parade
Of multifarious learning, than which nothing
Can be more vain or useless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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