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
21. And Cynulcus said:—And do you dare to talk in this way, you who
are not "rosy-fingered," as Cratinus says, but who have one foot made
of cow-dung? and do you bring up again the recollection of that poet
your namesake, who spends all his time in cookshops and inns? although
Isocrates the orator has said, in his Areopagitic Oration, "But not
one of their servants ever would have ventured to eat or drink in a
cookshop; for they studied to keep up the dignity of their appearance,
and not to behave like buffoons." And Hyperides, in his oration against
Patrocles, (if, at least, the speech is a genuine one,) says that
they forbade a man who had dined at a cookshop from going up to the
Areopagus. But you, you sophist, spend your time in cookshops, not with
your friends (ἑταίρων), but with prostitutes (ἑταιρῶν), having a lot
of pimps and procuresses about you, and always carrying about these
books of Aristophanes, and Apollodorus, and Ammonius, and Antiphanes,
and also of Gorgias the Athenian, who have all written about the
prostitutes at Athens.
Oh, what a learned man you are! how far are you from imitating
Theomandrus of Cyrene, who, as Theophrastus, in his treatise on
Happiness, says, used to go about and profess that he gave lessons in
prosperity. You, you teacher of love, are in no respect better than
Amasis of Elis, whom Theophrastus, in his treatise on Love, says was
extraordinarily addicted to amatory pursuits. And a man will not be
much out who calls you a πορνογράφος, just as they call Aristides
and Pausanias and Nicophanes ζωγράφοι. And Polemo mentions them, as
painting the subjects which they did paint exceedingly well, in his
treatise on the Pictures at Sicyon. Think, my friends, of the great and
varied learning of this grammarian, who does not conceal what he means,
but openly quotes the verses of Eubulus, in his Cercopes—
I came to Corinth; there I ate with pleasure
Some herb called basil (ocimum), and was ruin'd by it;
And also, trifling there, I lost my cloak.
And the Corinthian sophist is very fine here, explaining to his pupils
that Ocimum is the name of a harlot. And a great many other plays also,
you impudent fellow, derived their names from courtesans. There is the
Thalassa of Diodes, the Corianno of Pherecrates, the Antea of Eunicus
or Philyllus, the Thais, and the Phanion of Menander, the Opora of
Alexis, the Clepsydra of Eubulus—and the woman who bore this name, had
it because she used to distribute her company by the hour-glass, and to
dismiss her visitors when it had run down; as Asclepiades, the son of
Areas, relates in his History of Demetrius Phalereus; and he says that
her proper name was Meticha.
22.
There is a courtesan . . . . .
(as Antiphanes says in his Clown)—
. . . who is a positive
Calamity and ruin to her keeper;
And yet he's glad at nourishing such a pest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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