Opening the text

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)

Name: The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Author: Athenaeus, of Naucratis

Athenaeus, of Naucratis

Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece

So gaunt they seem, that famine never made
       Of lank Philippides so mere a shade:
       Of salted tunny-fish their scanty dole;
       Their beverage, like the frog's, a standing pool,
       With now and then a cabbage, at the best
       The leavings of the caterpillar's feast:
       No comb approaches their dishevell'd hair,
       To rout the long establish'd myriads there;
       On the bare ground their bed, nor do they know
       A warmer coverlid than serves the crow:
       Flames the meridian sun without a cloud?
       They bask like grasshoppers, and chirp as loud:
       With oil they never even feast their eyes;
       The luxury of stockings they despise,
       But bare-foot as the crane still march along,
       All night in chorus with the screech-owl's song.—CUMBERLAND.

_The same._

       For famishment direct, and empty fare,
       I am your Tithymallus, your Philippides,
       Close pictured to the life: for water-drinking,
       Your very frog. To fret, and feed on leeks,
       Or other garden-stuff, your caterpillar
       Is a mere fool to me. Would ye have me abjure
       All cleansing, all ablution? I'm your man—
       The loathsom'st scab alive—nay, filth itself,
       Sheer, genuine, unsophisticated filth.
       To brave the winter with his nipping cold,
       A houseless tenant of the open air,
       See in me all the ousel. Is't my business,
       In sultry summer's dry and parched season,
       To dare the stifling heat, and prate the while
       Mocking the noontide blaze? I am at once
       The grasshopper: to abhor the mother'd oil?
       I am the very dust to lick it up
       And blind me to its use: to walk a-mornings
       Barefoot? the crane: to sleep no wink? the bat.—BAILEY.

_The same._

       In bearing hunger and in eating nothing,
       I can assure you, you may reckon me
       A Tithymallus or Philippides;
       In drinking water I'm a very frog;
       In loving thyme and greens—a caterpillar;
       In hating Bagnios—a lump of dirt;
       In living out of doors all winter-time—
       A blackbird; in enduring sultry heat,
       And chattering at noon—a grasshopper;
       In neither using oil, nor seeing it—
       A cloud of dust; in walking up and down
       Bare-footed at the dawn of day—a crane;
       In sleeping not one single jot—a bat.—WALSH.

       *       *       *       *       *

EUBULUS. (Book vi. § 35, p. 376.)

       He that invented first the scheme of sponging
       On other men for dinner, was a sage
       Of thorough democratic principles.
       But may the wretch who asks a friend or stranger
       To dine, and then requests he'll pay his club,
       Be sent without a farthing into exile.—WALSH.

       *       *       *       *       *

DIODORUS OF SINOPE. (Book vi. § 36, p. 377.)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

So gaunt they seem, that famine never made
       Of lank Philippides so mere a shade:
       Of salted tunny-fish their scanty dole;
       Their beverage, like the frog's, a standing pool,
       With now and then a cabbage, at the best
       The leavings of the caterpillar's feast:
       No comb approaches their dishevell'd hair,
       To rout the long establish'd myriads there;
       On the bare ground their bed, nor do they know
       A warmer coverlid than serves the crow:
       Flames the meridian sun without a cloud?
       They bask like grasshoppers, and chirp as loud:
       With oil they never even feast their eyes;
       The luxury of stockings they despise,
       But bare-foot as the crane still march along,
       All night in chorus with the screech-owl's song.—CUMBERLAND.

_The same._

       For famishment direct, and empty fare,
       I am your Tithymallus, your Philippides,
       Close pictured to the life: for water-drinking,
       Your very frog. To fret, and feed on leeks,
       Or other garden-stuff, your caterpillar
       Is a mere fool to me. Would ye have me abjure
       All cleansing, all ablution? I'm your man—
       The loathsom'st scab alive—nay, filth itself,
       Sheer, genuine, unsophisticated filth.
       To brave the winter with his nipping cold,
       A houseless tenant of the open air,
       See in me all the ousel. Is't my business,
       In sultry summer's dry and parched season,
       To dare the stifling heat, and prate the while
       Mocking the noontide blaze? I am at once
       The grasshopper: to abhor the mother'd oil?
       I am the very dust to lick it up
       And blind me to its use: to walk a-mornings
       Barefoot? the crane: to sleep no wink? the bat.—BAILEY.

_The same._

       In bearing hunger and in eating nothing,
       I can assure you, you may reckon me
       A Tithymallus or Philippides;
       In drinking water I'm a very frog;
       In loving thyme and greens—a caterpillar;
       In hating Bagnios—a lump of dirt;
       In living out of doors all winter-time—
       A blackbird; in enduring sultry heat,
       And chattering at noon—a grasshopper;
       In neither using oil, nor seeing it—
       A cloud of dust; in walking up and down
       Bare-footed at the dawn of day—a crane;
       In sleeping not one single jot—a bat.—WALSH.

       *       *       *       *       *

EUBULUS. (Book vi. § 35, p. 376.)

       He that invented first the scheme of sponging
       On other men for dinner, was a sage
       Of thorough democratic principles.
       But may the wretch who asks a friend or stranger
       To dine, and then requests he'll pay his club,
       Be sent without a farthing into exile.—WALSH.

       *       *       *       *       *

DIODORUS OF SINOPE. (Book vi. § 36, p. 377.)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)

The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)

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