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
10. And I do not think that any of you are ignorant, my friends, that
the greatest wars have taken place on account of women:—the Trojan war
on account of Helen; the plague which took place in it was on account
of Chryseis; the anger of Achilles was excited about Briseis; and the
war called the Sacred War, on account of another wife (as Duris relates
in the second book of his History), who was a Theban by birth, by name
Theano, and who was carried off by some Phocian. And this war also
lasted ten years, and in the tenth year was brought to an end by the
cooperation of Philip; for by his aid the Thebans took Phocis.
The war, also, which is called the Crissæan War (as Callisthenes
tells us in his account of the Sacred War), when the Crissæans made
war upon the Phocians, lasted ten years; and it was excited on this
account,—because the Crissæans carried off Megisto, the daughter of
Pelagon the Phocian, and the daughters of the Argives, as they were
returning from the Pythian temple: and in the tenth year Crissa was
taken. And whole families also have been ruined owing to women;—for
instance, that of Philip, the father of Alexander, was ruined on
account of his marriage with Cleopatra; and Hercules was ruined by his
marriage with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus; and Theseus on account
of his marriage with Phædra, the daughter of Minos; and Athamas on
account of his marriage with Themisto, the daughter of Hypseus; and
Jason on account of his marriage with Glauce, the daughter of Creon;
and Agamemnon on account of Cassandra. And the expedition of Cambyses
against Egypt (as Ctesias relates) took place on account of a woman;
for Cambyses, having heard that Egyptian women were far more amorous
than other women, sent to Amasis the king of the Egyptians, asking him
for one of his daughters in marriage. But he did not give him one of
his own daughters, thinking that she would not be honoured as a wife,
but only treated as a concubine; but he sent him Nitetis, the daughter
of Apries.
[Sidenote: LOVE.]
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