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
But others, as, for instance, Aristophanes, often call him φιλύρινος
Κινησίας, because he took a plank of linden wood (φιλύρα), and fastened
it to his waist under his girdle, in order to avoid stooping, because
of his great height and extreme thinness. But that Cinesias was a man
of delicate health, and badly off in other respects, we are told by
Lysias the orator, in his oration inscribed, "For Phanias accused of
illegal Practices," in which he says that he, having abandoned his
regular profession, had taken to trumping up false accusations against
people, and to making money by such means. And that he means the poet
here, and no one else, is plain from the fact that he shows also that
he had been attacked by the comic poets for impiety. And he also, in
the oration itself, shows that he was a person of that character. And
the words of the orator are as follows:—"But I marvel that you are
not indignant at such a man as Cinesias coming forward in aid of the
laws, whom you all know to be the most impious of all men, and the
greatest violater of the laws that has ever existed. Is not he the
man who has committed such offences against the gods as all other men
think it shameful even to speak of, though you hear the comic poets
mention such actions of his every year? Did not Apollophanes, and
Mystalides, and Lysitheus feast with him, selecting one of the days on
which it was not lawful to hold a feast, giving themselves the name of
Cacodæmonistæ,[11] instead of Numeniastæ, a name indeed appropriate
enough to their fortunes? Nor, indeed, did it occur to them that they
were really doing what that name denotes; but they acted in this manner
to show their contempt for the gods and for our laws. And accordingly,
each of those men perished, as it was reasonable to expect that such
men should.
"But this man, with whom you are all acquainted, the gods have treated
in such a manner, that his very enemies would rather that he should
live than die, as an example to all other men, that they may see that
the immortal Gods do not postpone the punishment due to men who behave
insolently towards their Deity, so as to reserve it for their children;
but that they destroy the men themselves in a miserable manner,
inflicting on them greater and more terrible calamities and diseases
than on any other men whatever. For to die, or to be afflicted with
sickness in an ordinary manner, is the common lot of all of us; but
to be in such a condition as they are reduced to, and to remain a long
time in such a state, and to be dying every day, and yet not be able to
end one's life, is a punishment allotted to men who act as this man has
acted, in defiance of all human and divine law." And this orator used
this language respecting Cinesias.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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