out of a corrected edition of a play which is entitled Demetrius : Take, then, this meat which thus is sent to you; Dress it, and feast, and drink the cheerful healths, But the Athenians use the verb Xénoμaι for wanton and unseemly indulgence of the sensual appetites. Let the 84. And Artemidorus, in his Dictionary of Cookery, explains μarrún as a common name for all kinds of costly seasonings; writing thus-"There is also a μarróns (he uses the word in the masculine gender) made of birds. bird be killed by thrusting a knife into the head at the mouth; then let it be kept till the next day, like a partridge. And if you choose, you can leave it as it is, the wings on and with its body plucked." Then, having explained the way in which it is to be seasoned and boiled, he proceeds to say "Boil a fat hen of the common poultry kind, and some young cocks just beginning to crow, if you wish to make a dish fit to be eaten with your wine. Then taking some vegetables, put them in a dish, and place upon them some of the meat of the fowl, and serve it up. But in summer, instead of vinegar, put some unripe grapes into the sauce, just as they are picked from the vine; and when it is all boiled, then take it out before the stones fall from the grapes, and shred in some vegetables. And this is the most delicious partins that there is." Now, that ματτύη, οι ματτύης, really is a common name for all costly dishes is plain; and that the same name was also given to a banquet composed of dishes of this sort, we gather from what Philemon says in his Man carried off : Put now a guard on me, while naked, and Amid my cups the μarrúŋs shall delight me. And in his Homicide he says— Let some one pour us now some wine to drink, But Alexis, in his Pyraunus, has used the word in an obscure sense: But when I found them all immersed in business, I cried,-Will no one give us now a μattúŋ? as if he meant a feast here, though you might fairly refer the word merely to a single dish. Now Machon the Sicyonian is one of the comic poets who were contemporaries of Apollodorus of Carystus, but he did not exhibit his comedies at Athens, but in Alexandria; and he was an excellent poet, if ever there was one, next to those seven' of the first class. On which account, Aristophanes the grammarian, when he was a very young man, was very anxious to be much with him. And he wrote the following lines in his play entitled Igno rance : There's nothing that I'm fonder of than μarrúŋ; But whether 'twas the Macedonians Who first did teach it us, or all the gods, I know not; but it must have been a person 85. And that it used to be served up after all the rest of the banquet was over, is plainly stated by Nicostratus, in his Man expelled. And it is a cook who is relating how beautiful and well arranged the banquet was which he prepared; and having first of all related what the dinner and supper were composed of, and then mentioning the third meal, proceeds to say Well done, my men,-extremely well! but now I will arrange the rest, and then the μaTTun; So that I think the man himself will never And in his Cook he says— Thrium and candylus he never saw, Or any of the things which make a ματτύη. And some one else says They brought, instead of a partún, some paunch, And tender pettitoes, and tripe, perhaps. But Dionysius, in his Man shot at with Javelins (and it is a cook who is represented speaking), says— So that sometimes, when I a μATTún Was making for them, in haste would bring Philemon, also, in his Poor Woman When one can lay aside one's load, all day But Molpis the Lacedæmonian says that what the Spartans call eraikλeia, that is to say, the second course, which is served up when the main part of the supper is over, is called 1 Who these seven first-class authors were, whether tragedians or comic poets, or both, or whether there was one selection of tragic and another of comic poets, each classed as a sort of "Pleias Ptolemæi Philadelphi ætate nobilitata," is quite uncertain. 2 This passage is abandoned as corrupt by Schweighauser. járrval by other tribes of Greece. And Menippus the Cynic, in his book called Arcesilaus, writes thus :-"There was a drinking party formed by a certain number of revellers, and a Lacedæmonian woman ordered the μarrón to be served up; and immediately some little partridges were brought in, and some roasted geese, and some delicious cheesecakes." But such a course as this the Athenians used to call πδόρπισμα, and the Dorians ἐπάϊκλον ; but most of the Greeks called it τὰ ἐπίδειπνα. And when all this discussion about the μarrun was over, they thought it time to depart; for it was already evening. And so we parted. 1. BOOK XV. E'EN should the Phrygian God enrich my tongue as the all-accomplished Euripides says, my good TimocratesI never should be able to recapitulate to you the numerous things which were said in those most admirable banquets, on account of the varied nature of the topics introduced, and the novel mode in which they were continually treated. For there were frequent discussions about the order in which the dishes were served up, and about the things which are done after the chief part of the supper is over, such as I can hardly recollect; and some one of the guests quoted the following iambics from The Lacedæmonians of Plato Now nearly all the men have done their supper; 'Tis well.-Why don't you run and clear the tables? But I will go and straight some water get For the guests' hands; and have the floor well swept; I'll introduce the cottabus. This girl Ought now to have her flutes all well prepared, This is one of the fragments of unknown plays of Euripides. And sprinkle it around; and I myself Will bring a garland to each guest, and give it; "Now the libation is perform'd." The guests Is taken out of doors: a female slave Plays on the flute a cheerful strain, well pleasing The clear triangle, and, with well-tuned voice, 2. And after this quotation there arose, I think, a discussion about the cottabus and cottabus-players. Now by the term ἀποκοτταβίζοντες, one of the physicians who were present thought those people were meant, who, after the bath, for the sake of purging their stomach, drink a full draught of wine and then throw it up again; and he said that this was not an ancient custom, and that he was not aware of any ancient author who had alluded to this mode of purging. On which account Erasistratus of Julia, in his treatise on Universal Medicine, reproves those who act in this way, pointing out that it is a practice very injurious to the eyes, and having a very astringent effect on the stomach. And Ulpian addressed him thus Arise, Machaon, great Charoneus calls.2 For it was wittily said by one of our companions, that if Where we put up a target to shoot at with drops And Dicæarchus the Messenian, the pupil of Aristotle, in his 1 The original text here is very corrupt, and the meaning uncertain. 2 This is parodied from Homer, Iliad, iv. 204,— *Ορσ, ̓Ασκληπιάδη, καλέει κρείων Αγαμέμνων. treatise on Alcæus, says that the word Aarayy is also a Sicilian noun. But Aarayn means the drops which are left in the bottom after the cup is drained, and which the players used to throw with inverted hand into the Korraßeior. But Clitarchus, in his treatise on Words, says that the Thessalians and Rhodians both call the kórraßos itself, or splash made by the cups, λατάγη. 3. The prize also which was proposed for those who gained the victory in drinking was called korraẞos, as Euripides shows us in his Eneus, where he says And then with many a dart of Bacchus' juice, They struck the old man's head. And I was set To crown the victor with deserved reward, The vessel, too, into which they threw the drops was also called Kórraßos, as Cratinus shows in his Nemesis. But Plato the comic poet, in his Jupiter Ill-treated, makes out that the cottabus was a sort of drunken game, in which those who were defeated yielded up their tools to the victor. And these are his words A. I wish you all to play at cottabus While I am here preparing you your supper. Bring, too, some balls to play with, quick,——some balls, I challenge you all to play the cottabus, And for the prizes, here are these new slippers 4. There was a kind of cottabus also which they used to call KáraкTOS, that is, when lamps are lifted up and then let down again. Eubulus, in his Bellerophon, says Who now will take hold of my leg below? For I am lifted up like a κοτταβεῖον. And Antiphanes, in his Birthday of Venus, says- Casaubon says these tools (okevάpia) were the prîdes (bocts) and KOTUAOS (small cup) mentioned in the following iambics. This line, and one or two others in this fragment, are hopelessly corrupt. |