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
[9] Εὐεργέτης, from εὖ, well; Κακεργέτης, from κακῶς, ill;
and ἔργον, a work.
[10] The artabe was equivalent to the Greek medimnus, which was
a measure holding about twelve gallons.
[11] Cacodæmonistæ, from κακὸς, bad, and δαίμων, a deity.
Numeniastæ, from Νουμήνια, the Feast of the New Moon.
BOOK XIII.
[Sidenote: LACEDÆMONIAN MARRIAGES.]
1. ANTIPHANES the comic writer, my friend Timocrates, when he was
reading one of his own comedies to Alexander the king, and when it was
plain that the king did not think much of it, said to him, "The fact
is, O king, that a man who is to appreciate this play, ought to have
often supped at picnic feasts, and must have often borne and inflicted
blows in the cause of courtesans," as Lycophron the Chalcidian relates
in his treatise on Comedy. And accordingly we, who are now about to
set out a discussion on amatory matters, (for there was a good deal of
conversation about married women and about courtesans,) saying what we
have to say to people who understand the subject, invoking the Muse
Erato to be so good as to impress anew on our memory that amatory
catalogue, will make our commencement from this point—
Come now, O Erato, and tell me truly
what it was that was said by the different guests about love and about
amatory matters.
2. For our admirable host, praising the married women, said that
Hermippus stated in his book about lawgivers, that at Lacedæmon all the
damsels used to be shut up in a dark room, while a number of unmarried
young men were shut up with them; and whichever girl each of the young
men caught hold of he led away as his wife, without a dowry. On which
account they punished Lysander, because he left his former wife, and
wished to marry another who was by far more beautiful. But Clearchus
the Solensian, in his treatise on Proverbs, says,—"In Lacedæmon the
women, on a certain festival, drag the unmarried men to an altar, and
then buffet them; in order that, for the purpose of avoiding the insult
of such treatment, they may become more affectionate, and in due season
may turn their thoughts to marriage. But at Athens, Cecrops was the
first person who married a man to one wife only, when before his time
connexions had taken place at random, and men had had their wives in
common. On which account it was, as some people state, that Cecrops was
called διφυὴς,[12] because before his time people did not know
who their fathers were, by reason of the numbers of men who might have
been so."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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