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
stranger, and a handsome man, and that he resembled the man whom she
had beheld in her sleep, being exceedingly rejoiced, gave him the bowl.
And he, seizing on her, led her away to his chariot, and fled away,
having Odatis with him. And the servants and the handmaidens, knowing
their love, said not a word. And when her father ordered them to summon
her, they said that they did not know which way she was gone. And the
story of this love is often told by the barbarians who dwell in Asia,
and is exceedingly admired; and they have painted representations of
the story in their temples and palaces, and also in their private
houses. And a great many of the princes in those countries give their
daughters the name of Odatis."
[Sidenote: COURTESANS.]
36. Aristotle also, in his Constitution of the Massilians, mentions a
similar circumstance as having taken place, writing as follows:—"The
Phocæans in Ionia, having consulted the oracle, founded Marseilles.
And Euxenus the Phocæan was connected by ties of hospitality with
Nanus; this was the name of the king of that country. This Nanus was
celebrating the marriage-feast of his daughter, and invited Euxenus,
who happened to be in the neighbourhood, to the feast. And the marriage
was to be conducted in this manner:—After the supper was over the
damsel was to come in, and to give a goblet full of wine properly
mixed to whichever of the suitors who were present she chose; and to
whomsoever she gave it, he was to be the bridegroom. And the damsel
coming in, whether it was by chance or whether it was for any other
reason, gives the goblet to Euxenus. And the name of the maiden was
Petta. And when the cup had been given in this way, and her father
(thinking that she had been directed by the Deity in her giving of it)
had consented that Euxenus should have her, he took her for his wife,
and cohabited with her, changing her name to Aristoxena. And the family
which is descended from that damsel remains in Marseilles to this day,
and is known as the Protiadæ; for Protis was the name of the son of
Euxenus and Aristoxena."
37. And did not Themistocles, as Idomeneus relates, harness a chariot
full of courtesans and drive with them into the city when the market
was full? And the courtesans were Lamia and Scione and Satyra and
Nannium. And was not Themistocles himself the son of a courtesan,
whose name was Abrotonum? as Amphicrates relates in his treatise on
Illustrious Men—
Abrotonum was but a Thracian woman,
But for the weal of Greece
She was the mother of the great Themistocles.
But Neanthes of Cyzicus, in his third and fourth books of his History
of Grecian Affairs, says that he was the son of Euterpe.
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