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
Accordingly, Hegesander says that once, when he was assigned a very
mean place at a banquet by Dionysius, he endured it patiently; and when
Dionysius asked him what he thought of his present place, in comparison
of his yesterday's seat, he said, "That the one was much the same as
the other; for that one," says he, "is a mean seat to-day, because it
is deprived of me; but it was yesterday the most respectable seat in
the room, owing to me: and this one to-day has become respectable,
because of my presence in it; but yesterday it was an inglorious
seat, as I was not present in it." And in another place Hegesander
says—"Aristippus, being ducked with water by Dionysius's servants,
and being ridiculed by Antiphon for bearing it patiently, said, 'But
suppose I had been out fishing, and got wet, was I to have left my
employment, and come away?'" And Aristippus sojourned a considerable
time in Ægina, indulging in every kind of luxury; on which account
Xenophon says in his Memorabilia, that Socrates often reproved him, and
invented the apologue of Virtue and Pleasure to apply it to him. And
Aristippus said, respecting Lais, "I have her, and I am not possessed
by her." And when he was at the court of Dionysius, he once had a
quarrel with some people about a choice of three women. And he used to
wash with perfumes, and to say that—
E'en in the midst of Bacchanalian revels
A modest woman will not be corrupted.
And Alexis, turning him into ridicule in his Galatea, represents
one of the slaves as speaking in the following manner of one of his
disciples:—
For this my master once did turn his thoughts
To study, when he was a stripling young,
And set his mind to learn philosophy.
And then a Cyrenean, as he calls himself,
Named Aristippus, an ingenious sophist,
And far the first of all the men of his time,
But also far the most intemperate,
Was in the city. Him my master sought,
Giving a talent to become his pupil:
He did not learn, indeed, much skill or wisdom,
But got instead a sad complaint on his chest.
And Antiphanes, in his Antæus, speaking of the luxurious habits of the
philosophers, says—
My friend, now do you know who this old man
Is called? By his look he seems to be a Greek.
His cloak is white, his tunic fawn-colour'd,
His hat is soft, his stick of moderate size,
His table scanty. Why need I say more,
I seem to see the genuine Academy.
[Sidenote: THE PERSIAN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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