Volume 3 / Book 15 — BOOK XV. (continued 2)

We ought, therefore, my good cynic Theodorus, to use at banquets those unguents which have the least tendency to produce heaviness, and to employ those which have astringent or cooling properties very sparingly. But Aristotle, that man of most varied learning, raises the question, "Why men who use unguents are more grey than others? Is it because unguents have drying properties by reason of the spices used in their composition, so that they who use them become dry, and the dryness produces greyness? For whether greyness arises from a drying of the hair, or from a want of natural heat, at all events dryness has a withering effect. And it is on this account too that the use of hats makes men grey more quickly; for by them the moisture which ought to nourish the hair is taken away."

46. But when I was reading the twenty-eighth book of the History of Posidonius, I observed, my friends, a very pleasant thing which was said about unguents, and which is not at all foreign to our present discussion. For the philosopher says—"In Syria, at the royal banquets, when the garlands are given to the guests, some slaves come in, having little bladders full of Babylonian perfumes, and going round the room at a little distance from the guests, they bedew their garlands with the perfumes, sprinkling nothing else." And since the discussion has brought us to this point, I will add

as the bard of Cythera says, telling you that Janus, who is worshipped as a great god by us, and whom we call Janus Pater, was the original inventor of garlands. And Dracon of Corcyra tells us this in his treatise on Precious Stones, where his words are—"But it is said that Janus had two faces, the one looking forwards and the other backwards; and that it is from him that the mountain Janus and the river Janus are both named, because he used to live on the mountain. And they say that he was the first inventor of garlands, and boats, and ships; and was also the first person who coined brazen money. And on this account many cities in Greece, and many in Italy and Sicily, place on their coins a head with two faces, and on the obverse a boat, or a garland, or a ship. And they say that he married his sister Camise, and had a son named Æthax, and a daughter Olistene. And he, aiming at a more extended power and renown, sailed over to Italy, and settled on a mountain near Rome, which was called Janiculum from his name."

LIBATIONS.

47. This, now, is what was said about perfumes and some unguents. And after this most of them asked for wine, some demanding the Cup of the Good Deity, others that of Health, and different people invoking different deities; and so they all fell to quoting the words of those poets who had mentioned libations to these different deities; and I will now recapitulate what they said, for they quoted Antiphanes, who, in his Clowns, says—

And Alexis, in his Usurer, or The Liar, says—

And Nicostratus, in his Pandrosos, says—

And in the same play he mentions mixing a cup in honour of the Good Deity, as do nearly all the poets of the old comedy; but Nicostratus speaks thus—

Xenarchus, too, in his Twins, says—

And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, says—

48. And Theophrastus, in his essay on Drunkenness, says—"The unmixed wine which is given at a banquet, which they call the pledge-cup in honour of the Good Deity, they offer in small quantities, as if reminding the guests of its strength, and of the liberality of the god, by the mere taste. And they hand it round when men are already full, in order that there may be as little as possible drunk out of it. And having paid adoration three times, they take it from the table, as if they were entreating of the gods that nothing may be done unbecomingly, and that they may not indulge in immoderate desires for this kind of drink, and that they may derive only what is honourable and useful from it." And Philochorus, in the second book of his Atthis, says—"And a law was made at that time, that after the solid food is removed, a taste of the unmixed wine should be served round as a sort of sample of the power of the Good Deity, but that all the rest of the wine should be previously mixed; on which account the Nymphs had the name given them of Nurses of Bacchus." And that when the pledge-cup to the Good Deity was handed round, it was customary to remove the tables, is made plain by the wicked action of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily. For there was a table of gold placed before the statue of Æsculapius at Syracuse; and so Dionysius, standing before it, and chinking a pledge-cup to the Good Deity, ordered the table to be removed.

But among the Greeks, those who sacrifice to the Sun, as Phylarchus tells us in the twelfth book of his History, make their libations of honey, as they never bring wine to the altars of the gods; saying that it is proper that the god who keeps the whole universe in order, and regulates everything, and is always going round and superintending the whole, should in no respect be connected with drunkenness.

49. Most writers have mentioned the Attic Scolia; and they are worthy also of being mentioned by me to you, on account of the antiquity and simple style of composition of the authors, and of those especially who gained a high reputation for that description of poetry, Alcæus and Anacreon; as Aristophanes says in his Daitaleis, where we find this line—

SCOLIA.

Praxilla, the Sicyonian poetess, was also celebrated for the composition of scolia. Now they are called scolia, not because of the character of the verse in which they are written, as if it were σκολιὸς (crooked); for men call also those poems written in a laxer kind of metre σκολιά. But, "as there are three kinds of songs" (as Artemo of Cassandra says in the second book of his treatise on the Use of Books), "one or other of which comprehends everything which is sung at banquets; the first kind is that which it was usual for the whole party to sing; the second is that which the whole party indeed sang, not, however, together, but going round according to some kind of succession; the third is that which is ranked lowest of all, which was not sung by all the guests, but only by those who seemed to understand what was to be done, wherever they might happen to be sitting; on which account, as having some irregularity in it beyond what the other kinds had, in not being sung by all the guests, either together or in any definite kind of succession, but just as it might happen, it was called σκολιόν. And songs of this kind were sung when the ordinary songs, and those in which every one was bound to join, had come to an end. For then they invited all the more intelligent of the guests to sing some song worth listening to. And what they thought worth listening to were such songs as contained some exhortations and sentiments which seemed useful for the purposes of life."

50. And of these Deipnosophists, one quoted one scolium, and one another. And these were those which were recited—

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

And when this had been sung, and everybody had been delighted with it; and when it had been mentioned that even the incomparable Plato had spoken of this scolium as one most admirably written, Myrtilus said, that Anaxandrides the comic poet had turned it into ridicule in his Treasure, speaking thus of it—

After that, these other scolia were sung—

VIII.

IX.

SCOLIA.

X.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

XX.

XXI.

XXII.

XXIII.

Some also call that a scolium which was composed by Hybrias the Cretan; and it runs thus—

XXIV.

SCOLIA.

51. After this, Democritus said;—But the song which was composed by that most learned writer, Aristotle, and addressed to Hermias[141] of Atarneus, is not a pæan, as was asserted by Demophilus, who instituted a prosecution against the philosopher, on the ground of impiety (having been suborned to act the part of accuser by Eurymedon, who was ashamed to appear himself in the business). And he rested the charge of impiety on the fact of his having been accustomed to sing at banquets a pæan addressed to Hermias. But that this song has no characteristic whatever of a pæan, but is a species of scolium, I will show you plainly from its own language—

52. Now I don't know whether any one can detect in this any resemblance to a pæan, when the author expressly states in it that Hermias is dead, when he says—

Nor has the song the burden, which all pæans have, of Io Pæan, as that song written on Lysander the Spartan, which really is a pæan, has; a song which Duris, in his book entitled The Annals of the Samians, says is sung in Samos. That also was a pæan which was written in honour of Craterus the Macedonian, of which Alexinus the logician was the author, as Hermippus the pupil of Callimachus says in the first book of his Essay on Aristotle. And this song is sung at Delphi, with a boy playing the lyre as an accompaniment to it. The song, too, addressed to Agemon of Corinth, the father of Alcyone, which the Corinthians sang, contains the burden of the pæan. And this burden, too, is even added by Polemo Periegetes to his letter addressed to Aranthius. The song also which the Rhodians sing, addressed to Ptolemy the first king of Egypt, is a pæan: for it contains the burden Io Pæan, as Georgus tells us in his essay on the Sacrifices at Rhodes. And Philochorus says that the Athenians sing pæans in honour of Antigonus and Demetrius, which were composed by Hermippus of Cyzicus, on an occasion when a great many poets had a contest as to which could compose the finest pæan, and the victory was adjudged to Hermippus. And, indeed, Aristotle himself, in his Defence of himself from this accusation of impiety, (unless the speech is a spurious one,) says—"For if I had wished to offer sacrifice to Hermias as an immortal being, I should never have built him a tomb as a mortal; nor if I had wished to make him out to be a god, should I have honoured him with funeral obsequies like a man."

53. When Democritus had said this, Cynulcus said;—Why do you remind me of those cyclic poems, to use the words of your friend Philo, when you never ought to say anything serious or important in the presence of this glutton Ulpian? For he prefers lascivious songs to dignified ones; such, for instance, as those which are called Locrian songs, which are of a debauched sort of character, such as—

PARODIES.

And all Phœnicia is full of songs of this kind; and he himself, when there, used to go about playing on the flute with the men who sing colabri.[142] And there is good authority, Ulpian, for this word κόλαβροι. For Demetrius the Scepsian, in the tenth book of his Trojan Array, speaks thus:—"Ctesiphon the Athenian, who was a composer of the songs called κόλαβροι, was made by Attalus, who succeeded Philetærus as king of Pergamus, judge of all his subjects in the Æolian district." And the same writer, in the nineteenth book of the same work, says that Seleucus the composer of merry songs was the son of Mnesiptolemus, who was an historian, and who had great interest with that Antiochus who was surnamed the Great. And it was very much the fashion to sing this song of his—

54. And after this, looking towards Ulpian, he said;—But since you are out of humour with me, I will explain to you what the Syrbenæan chorus is. And Ulpian said;—Do you think, you wretch, that I am angry at what you say, or even that I pay the least attention to it, you shameless hound? But since you profess to teach me something, I will make a truce with you, not for thirty, but for a hundred years; only tell me what the Syrbenæan chorus is. Then, said he, Clearchus, my good friend, in the second book of his treatise on Education, writes thus—"There remains the Syrbenæan chorus, in which every one is bound to sing whatever he pleases, without paying the least attention to the man who sits in the post of honour and leads the chorus. And indeed he is only a more noisy spectator." And in the words of Matron the parodist—

But you, even while you are alive, ask questions about everything, but never give information on any subject yourself. And he replied, who . . . . ? while the truce between us lasts.

55. And Cynulcus said;—There have been many poets who have applied themselves to the composition of parodies, my good friend; of whom the most celebrated was Eubœus of Paros, who lived in the time of Philip; and he is the man who attacked the Athenians a great deal. And four books of his Parodies are preserved. And Timon also mentions him, in the first book of his Silli. But Polemo, in the twelfth book of his Argument against Timæus, speaking of the men who have written parodies, writes thus—"And I should call Bœotus and Eubœus, who wrote parodies, men of great reputation, on account of their cleverness in sportive composition, and I consider that they surpass those ancient poets whose followers they were. Now, the invention of this kind of poetry we must attribute to Hipponax the Iambic poet. For he writes thus, in his Hexameters,—

Epicharmus of Syracuse also uses the same kind of poetry, in a small degree, in some of his plays; and so does Cratinus, a poet of the old Comedy, in his Eunidæ, and so also does his contemporary, Hegemon of Thasos, whom they used to call Lentil. For he writes thus—

PARODIES.

56. "Hermippus also, the poet of the old Comedy, composed parodies. But the first writer of this kind who ever descended into the arena of theatrical contests was Hegemon, and he gained the prize at Athens for several parodies; and among them, for his Battle of the Giants. He also wrote a comedy in the ancient fashion, which is called Philinna. Eubœus also was a man who exhibited a good deal of wit in his poems; as, for instance, speaking about the Battle of the Baths, he said—

[as if ἐγχεία, instead of meaning a spear, were derived from ἐγχέω, to pour in.] And speaking of a barber who was being abused by a potter on account of some woman, he said—

And that these men were held in high estimation among the Sicilians, we learn from Alexander the Ætolian, a composer of tragedies, who, in an elegy, speaks as follows:—

57. After all this discussion had been entered into on many occasions, once when evening overtook us, one of us said,—Boy, bring a light (λύχνειον). But some one else used the word λυχνεὼς, and a third called it λοφνίας, saying that that was the proper name for a torch made of bark; another called it πανός; and another φανός.—This one used the word λυχνοῦχος, and that one λύχνος. Some one else again said ἐλάνη, and another said ἕλαναι, insisting on it that that was the proper name for a lamp, being derived from ἔλη, brightness; and urging that Neanthes used this word in the first book of his History of Attalus. Others, again, of the party made use of whatever other words they fancied; so that there was no ordinary noise; while all were vying with one another in adducing every sort of argument which bore upon the question. For one man said that Silenus, the dictionary-maker, mentioned that the Athenians call lamps φανοί. But Timachidas of Rhodes asserts that for φανὸς, the word more properly used is δέλετρον, being a sort of lantern which young men use when out at night, and which they themselves call ἕλαναι. But Amerias for φανὸς uses the word γράβιον. And this word is thus explained by Seleucus:—"Γράβιον is a stick of ilex or common oak, which, being pounded and split, is set on fire, and used to give light to travellers. Accordingly Theodoridas of Syracuse, in his Centaurs, which is a dithyrambic poem, says—

Strattis also, mentions the γράβια in his Phœnician Women."

58. But that what are now called φανοὶ used to be called λυχνοῦχοι, we learn from Aristophanes, in his Æolosicon—

And, in the second edition of the Niobus, having already used the word λυχνοῦχος, he writes—

after which, he adds—

And, in his play called The Dramas, he calls the same thing λυχνίδιον, in the following lines—

Plato also, in his Long Night, says—

And Pherecrates, in his Slave Teacher, writes—

Alexis too, in his Forbidden Thing, says—

PARODIES.

And Eumelus, in his Murdered Man . . . having said first—

adds—

And Alexis says, in his Midon—

59. But the same Alexis says, in his Fanatic—

And Anaxandrides, in his Insolence, says—

But others assert that it is a lamp which is properly called φανὸς. And others assert that φανὸς means a bundle of matches made of split wood. Menander says, in his Cousins—

And Nicostratus, in his Fellow-Countrymen, says—

And Philippides, in his Women Sailing together, says—

60. Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, calls what we now call λυχνία, λυχνεῖον in this line—

For there were a great many manufactories in Etruria, as the Etrurians were exceedingly fond of works of art. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—

And Diphilus, in his Ignorance, says—

And Euphorion, in his Historic Commentaries, says that the young Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily dedicated, in the Prytaneum at Tarentum, a candlestick capable of containing as great a number of candles as there are days in a year. And Hermippus the comic poet, in his Iambics, speaks of—

And, in his play called The Grooms, he says—

Now, πανὸς was a name given to wood cut into splinters and bound together, which they used for a torch: Menander, in his Cousins, says—

And Diphilus, in his Soldier, says—

And before them Æschylus, in his Agamemnon, had used the word πανός—

61. Alexis, too, uses the word ξυλολυχνούχου, and perhaps this is the same thing as that which is called by Theopompus ὀβελισκολύχνιον. But Philyllius calls λαμπάδες, δᾷδε. But the λύχνος, or candle, is not an ancient invention; for the ancients used the light of torches and other things made of wood. Phrynichus, however, says—

Plato too, in his Long Night, says—

And these candles with two wicks are mentioned also by Metagenes, in his Man fond of Sacrificing; and by Philonides in his Buskins. But Clitarchus, in his Dictionary, says that the Rhodians give the name of λοφνὶς to a torch made of the bark of the vine. But Homer calls torches δεταί—

TORCHES.

A torch was also called ἑλάνη, as Amerias tells us; but Nicander of Colophon says that ἑλάνη means a bundle of rushes. Herodotus uses the word in the neuter plural, λύχνα, in the second book of his History.

Cephisodorus, in his Pig, uses the word λυχναψία, for what most people call λυχνοκαυτία, the lighting of candles.

And Cynulcus, who was always attacking Ulpian, said;—But now, my fine supper-giver, buy me some candles for a penny, that, like the good Agathon, I may quote this line of the admirable Aristophanes—

and when he had said this—

he left the party, being very sleepy.

62. Then, when many of the guests cried out Io Pæan, Pontianus said;—I wish, my friends, to learn from you whether Io Pæan is a proverb, or the burden of a song, or what else it is. And Democritus replied;—Clearchus the Solensian, inferior to none of the pupils of the wise Aristotle, in the first book of his treatise on Proverbs, says that "Latona, when she was taking Apollo and Diana from Chalcis in Eubœa to Delphi, came to the cave which was called the cave of the Python. And when the Python attacked them, Latona, holding one of her children in her arms, got upon the stone which even now lies at the foot of the brazen statue of Latona, which is dedicated as a representation of what then took place near the Plane-tree at Delphi, and cried out Ἵε, παῖ; (and Apollo happened to have his bow in hand;) and this is the same as if she had said Ἄφιε,Ἵε, παῖ, or Βάλε, παῖ, Shoot, boy. And from this day Ἵε, παῖ and Ἵε, παιὼν arose. But some people, slightly altering the word, use it as a sort of proverbial exclamation to avert evils, and say ἰη παιὼν, instead of Ἵε, παῖ. And many also, when they have completed any undertaking, say, as a sort of proverb, ἰὴ παιὼν; but since it is an expression that is familiar to us it is forgotten that it is a proverb, and they who use it are not aware that they are uttering a proverb."

But as for what Heraclides of Pontus says, that is clearly a mistake, "That the god himself, while offering a libation, thrice cried out ἱη παιὰν, ἵη παιών." From a belief in which statement he refers the trimeter verse, as it is called, to the god, saying "that each of these metres belongs to the god; because when the first two syllables are made long, ἵη παιὰν, it becomes a heroic verse, but when they are pronounced short it is an iambic, and thus it is plain that we must attribute the iambic to him. And as the rest are short, if any one makes the last two syllables of the verse long, that makes a Hipponactean iambic.

63. And after this, when we also were about to leave the party, the slaves came in bringing, one an incense burner, and another . . . . For it was the custom for the guests to rise up and offer a libation, and then to give the rest of the unmixed wine to the boy, who brought it to them to drink.

Ariphron the Sicyonian composed this Pæan to Health—

64. They know.—For Sopater the farce-writer, in his play entitled The Lentil, speaks thus—

These things, my good Timocrates, are not, as Plato says, the sportive conversations of Socrates in his youth and beauty, but the serious discussions of the Deipnosophists; for, as Dionysius the Brazen says,—