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
Patrocles, the general of Ptolemy, caught him in the island of Caunus,
and shut him up in a leaden vessel, and carried him into the open sea
and drowned him. And his poetry is of this kind: Philenus was the
father of Theodorus the flute-player, on whom he wrote these lines:—
And he, opening the door which leads from the back-street,
Sent forth vain thunder from a leafy cave,
Such as a mighty ploughing ox might utter.
[Sidenote: MAGODI.]
14. But the Hilarodus, as he is called, is a more respectable kind of
poet than these men are; for he is never effeminate or indecorous, but
he wears a white manly robe, and he is crowned with a golden crown: and
in former times he used to wear sandals, as Aristocles tells us; but
at the present day he wears only slippers. And some man or woman sings
an accompaniment to him, as to a person who sings to the flute. And a
crown is given to a Hilarodus, as well as to a person who sings to the
flute; but such honours are not allowed to a player on the harp or on
the flute. But the man who is called a Magodus has drums and cymbals,
and wears all kinds of woman's attire; and he behaves in an effeminate
manner, and does every sort of indecorous, indecent thing,—imitating
at one time a woman, at another an adulterer or a pimp: or sometimes
he represents a drunken man, or even a serenade offered by a reveller
to his mistress. And Aristoxenus says that the business of singing
joyous songs is a respectable one, and somewhat akin to tragedy; but
that the business of a Magodus is more like comedy. And very often it
happens that the Magodi, taking the argument of some comedy, represent
it according to their own fashion and manner. And the word μαγῳδία
was derived from the fact that those who addicted themselves to the
practice, uttered things like magical incantations, and often declared
the power of various drugs.
15. But there was among the Lacedæmonians an ancient kind of comic
diversion, as Sosibius says, not very important or serious, since
Sparta aimed at plainness even in pastimes. And the way was, that some
one, using very plain, unadorned language, imitated persons stealing
fruit, or else some foreign physician speaking in this way, as Alexis,
in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, represents one: and he says—
If any surgeon of the country says,
"Give him at early dawn a platter full
Of barley-broth," we shall at once despise him;
But if he says the same with foreign accent,
We marvel and admire him. If he call
The beet-root σεύτλιον, we disregard him;
But if he style it τεύτλιον, we listen,
And straightway, with attention fix'd, obey;
As if there were such difference between
σεύτλιον and τεύτλιον.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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