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
51. There are many writers who have given lists of the different
kinds of cheesecakes, and as far as I can recollect, I will mention
them, and what they have said. I know, too, that Callimachus, in his
List of Various Books, mentions the treatises on the Art of Making
Cheesecakes, written by Ægimius, and Hegesippus, and Metrobius, and
also by Phætus. But I will communicate to you the names of cheesecakes
which I myself have been able to find to put down, not treating you as
Socrates was treated in the matter of the cheesecake which was sent to
him by Alcibiades; for Xanthippe took it and trampled upon it, on which
Socrates laughed, and said, "At all events you will not have any of it
yourself." (This story is related by Antipater, in the first book of
his essay on Passion.) But I, as I am fond of cheesecakes, should have
been very sorry to see that divine cheesecake so injuriously treated.
Accordingly, Plato the comic poet mentions cheesecakes in his play
called The Poet, where he says—
Am I alone to sacrifice without Having a taste allow'd
me of the entrails, Without a cheesecake, without
frankincense?
[Sidenote: CHEESECAKES.]
Nor do I forget that there is a village, which Demetrius the Scepsian,
in the twelfth book of his Trojan Array, tells us bears the name
of Πλακοῦς (cheesecake); and he says that it is six stadia from
Hypoplacian Thebes.[94]
Now, the word πλακοῦς ought to have a circumflex in the nominative
case; for it is contracted from πλακόεις, as τυροῦς is from τυρόεις,
and σησαμούς from σησαμόεις. And it is used as a substantive, the word
ἄρτος (bread) being understood.
Those who have lived in the place assure us that there are capital
cheesecakes to be got at Parium on the Hellespont; for it is a blunder
of Alexis, when he speaks of them as coming from the island of Paros.
And this is what he says in his play called Archilochus:—
Happy old man, who in the sea-girt isle Of happy
Paros dwell'st—a land which bears Two things in high
perfection; marble white, Fit decoration for th' immortal
gods, And cheesecakes, dainty food for mortal men.
And Sopater the farce-writer, in his Suitors of Bacchis, testifies that
the cheesecakes of Samos are extraordinarily good; saying,—
The cheesecake-making island named Samos.
52. Menander, in his False Hercules, speaks of cheesecakes made in a
mould:—
It is not now a question about candyli, Or all the
other things which you are used To mix together in one
dish—eggs, honey, And similago; for all these things
now Are out of place. The cook at present's making Baked
cheesecakes in a mould; and boiling groats, To serve up
after the salt-fish,—and grapes, And forced-meat wrapp'd
in fig-leaves. And the maid, Who makes the sweetmeats and
the common cheesecakes, Is roasting joints of meat and
plates of thrushes.
And Evangelus, in his Newly-married Woman, says—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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