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
28. Cratinus also speaks of the hyacinth by the name of κοσμοσάνδαλον
in his Effeminate People, where he says—
I crown my head with flowers, λείρια,
Roses, and κρίνα, and κοσμοσάνδαλα.
And Clearchus, in the second book of his Lives, says—"You may remark
the Lacedæmonians who, having invented garlands of cosmosandalum,
trampled under foot the most ancient system of polity in the world, and
utterly ruined themselves; on which account Antiphanes the comic poet
very cleverly says of them, in his Harp-player—
Did not the Lacedæmonians boast of old
As though they were invincible? but now
They wear effeminate purple head-dresses.
And Hicesius, in the second book of his treatise on Matter, says—"The
white violet is of moderately astringent properties, and has a most
delicious fragrance, and is very delightful, but only for a short time;
and the purple violet is of the same appearance, but it is far more
fragrant." And Apollodorus, in his treatise on Beasts, says—"There
is the chamæpitys, or ground pine, which some call olocyrum, but the
Athenians call it Ionia, and the Eubœans sideritis." And Nicander, in
the second book of his Georgics, (the words themselves I will quote
hereafter, when I thoroughly discuss all the flowers fit for making
into garlands,) says—"The violet (ἴον) was originally given
by some Ionian nymphs to Ion."
[Sidenote: GARLANDS.]
And in the sixth book of his History of Plants, Theophrastus says that
the narcissus is also called λείριον; but in a subsequent passage
he speaks of the narcissus and λείριον as different plants. And
Eumachus the Corcyrean, in his treatise on Cutting Roots, says that
the narcissus is also called acacallis, and likewise crotalum. But the
flower called hemerocalles, or day-beauty, which fades at night but
blooms at sunrise, is mentioned by Cratinus in his Effeminate People,
where he says—
And the dear hemerocalles.
Concerning the ground thyme, Theophrastus says—"The people gather the
wild ground thyme on the mountains and plant it around Sicyon, and the
Athenians gather it on Hymettus; and other nations too have mountains
full of this flower, as the Thracians for instance." But Philinus
says that it is called zygis. And Amerias the Macedonian, speaking of
the lychnis in his treatise on Cutting up Roots, says that "it sprang
from the baths of Venus, when Venus bathed after having been sleeping
with Vulcan. And it is found in the greatest perfection in Cyprus and
Lemnos, and also in Stromboli and near mount Eryx, and at Cythera."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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