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
35. "But now, not only scents," as Clearchus says in the third book of
his Lives, "but also dyes, being full of luxury, tend to make those
men effeminate who have anything to do with them. And do you think
that effeminacy without virtue has anything desirable in it? But even
Sappho, a thorough woman, and a poetess into the bargain, was ashamed
to separate honour from elegance; and speaks thus—
But elegance I truly love;
And this my love of life has brilliancy,
And honour, too, attached to it:
making it evident to everybody that the desire of life that she
confessed had respectability and honour in it; and these things
especially belong to virtue. But Parrhasius the painter, although he
was a man beyond all measure arrogant about his art, and though he got
the credit of a liberal profession by some mere pencils and pallets,
still in words set up a claim to virtue, and put this inscription on
all his works that are at Lindus:—
This is Parrhasius' the painter's work,
A most luxurious (ἁβροδίαιτος) and virtuous man.
And a wit being indignant at this, because, I suppose, he seemed to be
a disgrace to the delicacy and beauty of virtue, having perverted the
gifts which fortune had bestowed upon him to luxury, proposed to change
the inscription into ῥαβδοδίαιτος ἀνήρ: Still, said he, the
man must be endured, since he says that he honours virtue." These are
the words of Clearchus. But Sophocles the poet, in his play called The
Judgment, represents Venus, being a sort of Goddess of Pleasure, as
anointed with perfumes, and looking in a glass; but Minerva, as being a
sort of Goddess of Intellect and Mind, and also of Virtue, as using oil
and gymnastic exercises.
36. In reply to this, Masurius said;—But, my most excellent friend,
are you not aware that it is in our brain that our senses are soothed,
and indeed reinvigorated, by sweet smells? as Alexis says in his
Wicked Woman, where he speaks thus—
The best recipe for health
Is to apply sweet scents unto the brain.
And that most valiant, and indeed warlike poet, Alcæus, says—
He shed a sweet perfume all o'er my breast.
And the wise Anacreon says somewhere—
Why fly away, now that you've well anointed
Your breast, more hollow than a flute, with unguents?
for he recommends anointing the breast with unguent, as being the seat
of the heart, and considering it an admitted point that that is soothed
with fragrant smells. And the ancients used to act thus, not only
because scents do of their own nature ascend upwards from the breast
to the seat of smelling, but also because they thought that the soul
had its abode in the heart; as Praxagoras, and Philotimus the physician
taught; and Homer, too, says—
He struck his breast, and thus reproved his heart.[128]
And again he says—
His heart within his breast did rage.[129]
And in the Iliad he says—
But Hector's heart within his bosom shook.[130]
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