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
They celebrate the praise of myrtle-berries,
Of honey, of the Propylæa, and of figs;
Now these I tasted when I first arrived,
And saw the Propylæa; yet have I found nothing
Which to a woodcock can for taste compare.
In which lines we must take notice of the mention of the woodcock.
But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Names, says that "the most
excellent dried figs are those called Ægilides; and that Ægila is the
name of a borough in Attica, which derives its name from a hero called
Ægilus; but that the dried figs of a reddish black colour are called
Chelidonians." Theopompus also, in the Peace, praising the Tithrasian
figs, speaks thus—
Barley-cakes, cheesecakes, and Tithrasian figs.
But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men, (for really,
as Aristophanes says—
There's really nothing nicer than dried figs;)
that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to Antiochus,
entreating him (it is Hegesander who tells this story) to buy and send
him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a sophist; and that
Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dried figs and the sweet wine we
will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece.
The Greeks were also in the habit of eating dried figs roasted, as
Pherecrates proves by what he says in the Corianno, where we find—
But pick me out some of those roasted figs.
And a few lines later he says—
Will you not bring me here some black dried figs?
Dost understand? Among the Mariandyni,
That barbarous tribe, they call these black dried figs
Their dishes.
I am aware, too, that Pamphilus has mentioned a kind of dried figs,
which he calls προκνίδες.
68. That the word βότρυς is common for a bunch of grapes is known to
every one; and Crates, in the second book of his Attic Dialect, uses
the word σταφυλὴ, although it appears to be a word of Asiatic origin;
saying that in some of the ancient hymns the word σταφυλὴ is used for
βότρυς, as in the following line:—
Thick hanging with the dusky grapes (σταφυλῆσι) themselves.
[Sidenote: GRAPES.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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