Next to bread, flesh, in the heroic ages, was the greatest stay-stomach, particularly beef, kid, mutton, and pork. They had not, however, as yet discovered many ways of cooking it. Nearly all their culinary ingenuity reduced itself in fact to roasting and boiling, a circumstance which led Athenæus,[530] and the president Goguet to look back with great pity and concern on these unhappy ages when even princes, generally gourmands, were deprived of the supreme felicity of dining on ragouts, soups, and boiled brains. Servius,[531] too, and Varro are inclined to participate in this feeling of commiseration, and the latter observes, that among their own ancestors people were originally compelled to dine on roast meat, though in the course of time the arts of boiling and soup-making were introduced.[532] With regard to Homer’s heroes, however, our sympathies are somewhat relieved by finding, that learned men have overrated the extent of their misfortunes. They were not altogether ignorant of the art of boiling, as Athenæus himself admits, where he mentions the boiled shin of beef which one of the drunken suitors flung at Odysseus’s head. ----- Footnote 530: Deipnosoph. i. 15. Origine des Loix, ii. 306. “J’ai dit que la simplicité faisoit le caractère distinctif de ses premiers âges. La manière dont on se nourissoit alors en fait preuve. On ne voit paroître ni sauce ni ragoût, ni même de gibier, dans la description que l’Ecriture fait du repas donné par Abraham aux trois anges qui lui apparurent dans la vallée de Membré. Ce Patriarche leur sert un veau roti, ou, pour mieux dire, grillé; du lait de beurre, et du pain frais cuit sous la cendre. Voilà tout le festin. Ce fait montre que les repas alors étoient plus solides que délicats. Abraham avoit certainement intention de traiter ses hôtes du mieux qu’il lui étoit possible, et il faut observer que ce Patriarche possédoit de très-grandes richesses en or, en argent, en troupeaux et en esclaves. On peut donc regarder le repas qu’il donne aux trois anges, comme le modèle d’un festin magnifique, et juger en conséquence quelle étoit de son tems la manière de traiter splendidement.” Footnote 531: Comm. ad Æneid. i. 710. ----- The flesh of young animals was not habitually eaten in those early ages, so that in denominating them public devourers of kids and lambs, Priam accuses his sons of scandalous luxury.[533] In fact, with the design of preventing a scarcity of animal food, a law was enacted at Athens prohibiting the slaughter of an unshorn lamb, and from the same motive the Emperor Valens forbade the use of veal.[534] ----- Footnote 532: Feith, Antiq. Homer, iii. 1, 3. Footnote 533: Il. ω. 262. Footnote 534: Hieron adv. Jovian. ii. 75. a. Diosc. ap. Athen. ix. 17. Eustath. ad Il. ω. p. 1481. 12. Schweigh, Animad. in Athen. t. vi. p. 96, seq. -----