Their meat being all roasted, and chiefly beef; and he never sets before his heroes anything except such dishes as these, either at a sacred festival, or at a marriage feast, or at any other sort of convivial meeting. And this, too, though he often represents Agamemnon as feasting the chiefs. And Menelaus makes a feast on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Hermione; and again on the occasion of the marriage of his son; and also when Telemachus comes to him—

For Homer never puts rissoles, or forcemeat, or cheesecakes, or omelettes before his princes, but meat such as was calculated to make them vigorous in body and mind. And so too Agamemnon feasted Ajax after his single combat with Hector, on a rumpsteak; and in the same way he gives Nestor, who was now of advanced age, and Phœnix too, a roast sirloin of [14]beef. And Homer describes Alcinous, who was a man of a very luxurious way of life, as having the same dinner; wishing by these descriptions to turn us away from intemperate indulgence of our appetites. And when Nestor, who was also a king and had many subjects, sacrificed to Neptune on the sea-shore, on behalf of his own dearest and most valued friends, it was beef that he offered him. For that is the holiest and most acceptable sacrifice to the gods, which is offered to them by religious and well-disposed men. And Alcinous, when feasting the luxurious Phæacians, and when entertaining Ulysses, and displaying to him all the arrangements of his house and garden, and showing him the general tenor of his life, gives him just the same dinner. And in the same way the poet represents the suitors, though the most insolent of men and wholly devoted to luxury, neither eating fish, nor game, nor cheesecakes; but embracing as far as he could all culinary artifices, and all the most stimulating food, as Menander calls it, and especially such as are called amatory dishes, (as Chrysippus says in his Treatise on Honour and Pleasure,) the preparation of which is something laborious.

16. Priam also, as the poet represents him, reproaches his sons for looking for unusual delicacies; and calls them

Philochorus, too, relates that a prohibition was issued at Athens against any one tasting lamb which had not been shorn, on an occasion when the breed of sheep appeared to be failing. And Homer, though he speaks of the Hellespont as abounding in fish, and though he represents the Phæacians as especially addicted to navigation, and though he knew of many harbours in Ithaca, and many islands close to it, in which there were large flocks of fishes and of wild birds; and though he enumerates among the riches of the deep the fact of its producing fish, still never once represents either fish or game as being put on the table to eat. And in the same way he never represents fruit as set before any one, although there was abundance of it; and although he is fond of speaking of it, and although he speaks of it as being supplied without end. For he says, "Pears upon pears," and so on. Moreover, he does not represent his heroes as crowned, or anointed, or using [15]perfumes; but he portrays even his kings as scorning all such things, and devoting themselves to the maintenance of freedom and independence.

In the same way he allots to the gods a very simple way of life, and plain food, namely, nectar and ambrosia; and he represents men as paying them honour with the materials of their feasts; making no mention of frankincense, or myrrh, or garlands, or luxury of this sort. And he does not describe them as indulging in even this plain food to an immoderate extent; but like the most skilful physicians he abhors satiety.

then, having satisfied their desires, they went forth to athletic exercises; amusing themselves with quoits and throwing of javelins, practising in their sport such arts as were capable of useful application. And they listened to harp players who celebrated the exploits of bygone heroes with poetry and song.

17. So that it is not at all wonderful that men who lived in such a way as they did were healthy and vigorous both in mind and body. And he, pointing out how wholesome and useful a thing moderation is, and how it contributes to the general good, has represented Nestor, the wisest of the Greeks, as bringing wine to Machaon the physician when wounded in the right shoulder, though wine is not at all good for inflammations; and that, too, was Pramnian wine, which we know to be very strong and nutritious. And he brings it to him too, not as a relief from thirst, but to drink of abundantly; (at all events, when he has drank a good draught of it, he recommends him to repeat it.)

says he; and then he cuts a slice of goat-milk cheese, and then an onion,

though in other places he does say that wine relaxes and enervates the strength. And in the case of Hector, Hecuba, thinking that then he will remain in the city all the rest of the day, invites him to drink and to pour libations, encouraging him to abandon himself to pleasure. But he, as he is going out to action, puts off the drinking. And she, indeed, praises wine without ceasing; but he, when he comes in out [16]of breath, will not have any. And she urges him to pour a libation and then to drink, but he, as he is all covered with blood, thinks it impiety.

Homer knew also the use and advantages of wine, when he said that if a man drank it in too large draughts it did harm. And he was acquainted, too, with many different ways of mixing it. For else Achilles would not have bade his attendants to mix it for him with more wine than usual, if there had not been some settled proportion in which it was usually mixed. But perhaps he was not aware that wine was very digestible without any admixture of solid food, which is a thing known to the physicians by their art; and, therefore, in the case of people with heartburn they mix something to eat with the wine, in order to retain its power. But Homer gives Machaon meal and cheese with his wine; and represents Ulysses as connecting the advantages to be derived from food and wine with one another when he says—

and to the reveller gives sweet drink, saying—

18. Homer, too, represents the virgins and women washing the strangers, knowing that men who have been brought up in right principles will not give way to undue warmth or violence; and accordingly the women are treated with proper respect. And this was a custom of the ancients; and so too the daughters of Cocalus wash Minos on his arrival in Sicily, as if it was a usual thing to do. On the other hand, the poet, wishing to disparage drunkenness, represents the Cyclops, great as he was, destroyed through inebriety by a man of small stature, and also Eurytian the Centaur. And he relates how the men at Circe's court were transformed into lions and wolves, from a too eager pursuit of pleasure. But Ulysses was saved from following the advice of Mercury, by means of which he comes off unhurt. But he makes Elpenor, a man given to drinking and luxury, fall down a precipice. And Antinous, though he says to Ulysses—

could not himself abstain from drinking, owing to which he was wounded and slain while still having hold of the goblet. [17]He represents the Greeks also as drinking hard when sailing away from Troy, and on that account quarrelling with one another, and in consequence perishing. And he relates that Æneas, the most eminent of the Trojans for wisdom, was led away by the manner in which he had talked, and bragged, and made promises to the Trojans, while engaged in drinking, so as to encounter the mighty Achilles, and was nearly killed. And Agamemnon says somewhere about drunkenness—

placing madness and drunkenness in the same boat. And Dioscorides, too, the pupil of Isocrates, quoted these verses with the same object, saying, "And Achilles, when reproaching Agamemnon, addresses him—

This was the way in which the sophist of Thessalia argued, from whence came the term, a Sicilian proverb, and Athenæus is, perhaps, playing on the proverb.

19. As to the meals the heroes took in Homer, there was first of all breakfast, which he calls ἄριστον, which he mentions once in the Odyssey,

And once in the Iliad,

But this was the morning meal, which we call ἀκρατισμὸς, because we soak crusts of bread in pure wine (ἄκρατος), and eat them, as Antiphanes says—

And afterwards he says—

And Cantharus says—

using the two words as synonymous. Aristomenes says—

But Philemon says that the ancients took the following [18]meals—ἀκράτισμα, ἄριστον, ἑσπέρισμα, or the afternoon meal, and δεῖπνον, supper; calling the ἀκρατισμὸς breakfast, and ἄριστον[18:1] luncheon, and δεῖπνον the meal which came after luncheon. And the same order of names occur in Æschylus, where Palamedes is introduced, saying—

And of the fourth meal Homer speaks thus—

That which some call δειλινὸν is between what we call ἄριστον and δεῖπνον; and ἄριστον in Homer, that which is taken in the morning, δεῖπνον is what is taken at noon, which we call ἄριστον, and δόρπον is the name for the evening meal. Sometimes, then, ἄριστον is synonymous with δεῖπνον; for somewhere or other Homer says—

For making their δεῖπνον immediately after sunrise, they then advance to battle.

20. In Homer they eat sitting down; but some think that a separate table was set before each of the feasters. At all events, they say a polished table was set before Mentes when he came to Telemachus, arriving after tables were already laid for the feast. However, this is not very clearly proved, for Minerva may have taken her food at Telemachus's table. But all along the banqueting-room full tables were laid out, as is even now the custom among many nations of the barbarians,

as Anacreon says. And then when the guests have departed, the handmaidens

[19] The feast which he mentions as taking place in the palace of Menelaus is of a peculiar character; for there he represents the guests as conversing during the banquet; and then they wash their hands and return to the board, and proceed to supper after having indulged their grief. But the line in the last book of the Iliad, which is usually read,

should be read,

or else there would be blame implied for what Achilles was doing at the moment; for how could it be decent that a table should be laid before Achilles, as before a party of revellers, down the whole length of a banqueting-room? Bread, then, was placed on the table in baskets, and the rest of the meal consisted wholly of roast meat. But Homer never speaks of broth, Antiphanes says,

21. And portions of the meat were then distributed among the guests; from which circumstances he speaks of "equal feasts," because of their equal division. And he calls suppers δαῖτας, from the word δατέομαι, to divide, since not only was the meat distributed in that way, but the wine also.

And again,

From these passages Zenodotus got the idea that δαῖτα ἐΐσην meant a good feast; for as food is a necessary good to men, he says that he, by extension of the meaning of the word, called it ἐΐσην. But men in the early times, as they had not food in sufficient abundance, the moment any appeared, rushed on it all at once, and tore it to pieces with violence, and even took it away from others who had it; and this disorderly behaviour gave rise to bloodshed. And it is from this that very probably the word ἀτασθαλία originated, because it was in θάλιαι, another name for banquets, that men first offended against one another. But when, by the bounty [20]of Ceres, food became abundant, then they distributed an equal portion to each individual, and so banquets became orderly entertainments. Then came the invention of wine and of sweetmeats, which were also distributed equally: and cups, too, were given to men to drink out of, and these cups all held the same quantity. And as food was called δαὶς, from δαίεσθαι, that is, from being divided, so he who roasted the meat was called δαιτρὸς, because it was he who gave each guest an equal portion. We must remark that the poet uses the word δαὶς only of what is eaten by men, and never applies it to beasts; so that it was out of ignorance of the force of this word that Zenodotus, in his edition writes:—

calling the food of the vultures and other birds by this name, though it is man alone who has come to an equal division after his previous violence, on which account it is his food alone that is called δαὶς, and the portion given to him is called μοῖρα. But the feasters mentioned in Homer did not carry home the fragments, but when they were satisfied they left them with the givers of the feast; and the housekeeper took them in order, if any stranger arrived, to have something to give him.

22. Now Homer represents the men of his time as eating fish and birds: at all events, in Sicily the companions of Ulysses catch

But as the hooks were not forged in Sicily, but were brought by them in their vessel; it is plain that they were fond of and skilful in catching fish. And again, the poet compares the companions of Ulysses, who were seized by Sylla, to fish caught with a long rod and thrown out of doors; and he speaks more accurately concerning this act than those who have written poems or treatises professedly on the subject. I refer to Cæcilius of Argos, and Numenius of Heraclea, and Pancrates the Arcadian, and Posidonius the Corinthian, and Oppianus the Cilician, who lived a short time ago; for we [21]know of all those men as writers of heroic poems about fishing. And of prose essayists on the subject we have Seleucus of Tarsus, and Leonidas of Byzantium, and Agathocles of Atracia. But he never expressly mentions such food at his banquets, just as he also forbears to speak of the meat of young animals, as such food was hardly considered suitable to the dignity of heroes of reputation. However, they did eat not only fish, but oysters; though this sort of food is neither very wholesome nor very nice, but the oysters lie at the bottom of the sea, and one cannot get at them by any other means, except by diving to the bottom.

as he says of a man who could have collected enough to satisfy many men, while hunting for oysters.

23. Before each one of the guests in Homer is placed a separate cup. Demodocus has a basket and a table and a cup placed before him,

Again the goblets are crowned with drink; that is to say, they are filled so that the liquor stands above the brim, and the cups have a sort of crown of wine on them. Now the cupbearers filled them so for the sake of the omen; and then they pour out

the word πᾶσιν referring not to the cups but to the men. Accordingly Alcinous says to Pontonous,

and then he goes on,

And due honour is paid at those banquets to all the most eminent men. Accordingly, Tydides is honoured with great quantities of meat and wine; and Ajax receives the compliment of a whole chine of beef. And the kings are treated in the same way:—

[22] that is, before Menelaus. And in like manner he honours Idomeneus and Agamemnon

And Sarpedon, among the Lycians, receives the same respect, and has the highest seat, and the most meat.

They had also a way of saluting in drinking one another's health; and so even the gods,

that is, they took one another by the right hand while drinking. And so some one δείδεκτ' Ἀχιλλέα, which is the same as if he had said ἐδεξιοῦτο, that is, took him by the right hand. He drank to him, proffering him the goblet in his right hand. They also gave some of their own portion to those to whom they wished to show attention; as, Ulysses having cut off a piece of chine of beef which was set before himself, sent it to Demodocus.

24. They also availed themselves at their banquets of the services of minstrels and dancers; as the suitors did, and in the palace of Menelaus

And though Homer uses μολπὴ, warbling, here, he is really speaking only of the exercise of the dance. But the race of bards in those days was modest and orderly, cultivating a disposition like that of philosophers. And accordingly Agamemnon leaves his bard as a guardian and counsellor to Clytæmnestra: who, first of all, going through all the virtues of women, endeavoured to inspire her with an ambition of excelling in virtuous and ladylike habits; and, after that, by supplying her with agreeable occupation, sought to prevent her inclinations from going astray after evil thoughts: so that Ægisthus could not seduce the woman till he had murdered the bard on a desert island. And the same is the character of that bard who sings under compulsion before the suitors; who bitterly reproached them for laying plots against Penelope. We find too that using one general [23]term, Homer calls all bards objects of veneration among men.

And Demodocus the bard of the Phæacians sings of the intrigue between Mars and Venus; not because he approves of such behaviour, but for the purpose of dissuading his hearers from the indulgence of such passions, knowing that they have been brought up in a luxurious way, and therefore relating to them tales not inconsistent with their own manners, for the purpose of pointing out to them the evil of them, and persuading them to avoid such conduct. And Phemius sings to the suitors, in compliance with their desire, the tale of the return of the Greeks from Troy; and the sirens sing to Ulysses what they think will be most agreeable to him, saying what they think most akin to his own ambition and extensive learning. We know, say they,

25. The dances spoken of in Homer are partly those of tumblers and partly those of ball-players; the invention of which last kind Agallis, the Corcyrean authoress, who wrote on grammar, attributes to Nausicaa, paying a compliment to her own countrywoman; but Dicæarchus attributes it to the Sicyonians. But Hippasus gives the credit of both this and gymnastic exercises to the Lacedæmonians. However, Nausicaa is the only one of his heroines whom Homer introduces playing at ball. Demoteles, the brother of Theognis the Chian sophist, was eminent for his skill in this game; and a man of the name of Chærephanes, who once kept following a debauched young man, and did not speak to him, but prevented him from misbehaving. And when he said, "Chærephanes, you may make your own terms with me, if you will only desist from following me;" "Do you think," said he, "that I want to speak to you?" "If you do not," said he, "why do you follow me?" "I like to look at you," he replied, "but I do not approve of your conduct."

The thing called φούλλικλον, which appears to have been a kind of small ball, was invented by Atticus the Neapolitan, the tutor in gymnastics of the great Pompey. And in the [24]game of ball the variation called ἁρπαστὸν used to be called φαινίνδα and I think that the best of all the games of ball.

26. There is a great deal of exertion and labour in a game of ball, and it causes great straining of the neck and shoulders. Antiphanes says,

and again Antiphanes describes the φαινίνδα thus:—

And it was called φαινίνδα from the rapid motion of those who played, or else because its inventor, as Juba the Mauritanian says, was Phænestius, a master of gymnastics. And Antiphanes,

And those who played paid great attention to elegance of motion and attitude; and accordingly Demoxenus says:—

Ctesibius also of Chalcis, a philosopher, was no bad player. And there were many of the friends of Antigonus the king who used to take their coats off and play ball with him. Timocrates, too, the Lacedæmonian, wrote a book on playing ball.

27. But the Phæacians in Homer had a dance also [25]unconnected with ball playing; and they danced very cleverly, alternating in figures with one another. That is what is meant by the expression,

while others stood by and made a clapping noise with their fore-fingers, which is called ληκεῖν. The poet was acquainted also with the art of dancing so as to keep time with singing. And while Demodocus was singing, youths just entering on manhood were dancing; and in the book which is called the Manufacture of the Arms, a boy played the harp,

And in these passages the allusion is to that which is called the hyporchematic[25:1] style, which flourished in the time of Xenodemus and Pindar. And this kind of dance is an imitation of actions which are explained by words, and is what the elegant Xenophon represents as having taken place, in his Anabasis, at the banquet given by Seuthes the Thracian. He says:

"After libations were made, and the guests had sung a pæan, there rose up first the Thracians, and danced in arms to the music of a flute, and jumped up very high, with light jumps, and used their swords. And at last one of them strikes another, so that it seemed to every one that the man was wounded. And he fell down in a very clever manner, and all the bystanders raised an outcry. And he who struck him having stripped him of his arms, went out singing Sitalces. And others of the Thracians carried out his antagonist as if he were dead; but in reality, he was not hurt. After this some Ænianians and Magnesians rose up, who danced the dance called Carpæa, they too being in armour. And the fashion of that dance was like this: One man, having laid aside his arms, is sowing, and driving a yoke of oxen, constantly looking round as if he were afraid. Then there comes up a robber; but the sower, as soon as he sees him, snatches up his arms and fights in defence of his team in regular time to the music of the flute. And at last the robber, having [26]bound the man, carries off the team; but sometimes the sower conquers the robber, and then binding him alongside his oxen, he ties his hands behind him, and drives him forward. And one man," says he, "danced the Persian dance, and rattling one shield against another, fell down, and rose up again: and he did all this in time to the music of a flute. And the Arcadians rising up, all moved in time, being clothed in armour, the flute-players playing the tune suited to an armed march; and they sung the pæan, and danced."

28. The heroes used also flutes and pipes. At all events Agamemnon hears "the voice of flutes and pipes," which however he never introduced into banquets, except that in the Manufacture[26:1] of Arms, he mentions the flute on the occasion of a marriage-feast. But flutes he attributes to the barbarians. Accordingly, the Trojans had "the voice of flutes and pipes," and they made libations, when they got up from the feast, making them to Mercury, and not, as they did afterwards, to Jupiter the Finisher. For Mercury appears to be the patron of sleep: they drop libations to him also on their tongues when they depart from a banquet, and the tongues are especially allotted to him, as being the instruments of eloquence.

Homer was acquainted also with a variety of meats. At all events he uses the expression "various meats," and

He was acquainted, too, with everything that is thought luxurious even in our age. And accordingly the palace of Menelaus is the most splendid of houses. And Polybius describes the palace of one of the Spanish kings as being something similar in its appointments and splendour, saying that he was ambitious of imitating the luxury of the Phæacians, except as far as there stood in the middle of the palace huge silver and golden goblets full of wine made of barley. But Homer, when describing the situation and condition of Calypso's house, represents Mercury as astonished; and in his descriptions the life of the Phæacians is wholly devoted to pleasure:

[27] and so on. And

lines which Eratosthenes says ought to stand thus:—

When he says "far from all ills," he means where folly is not allowed to exhibit itself; for it would be impossible for the Phæacians to be anything but wise, inasmuch as they are very dear to the gods, as Nausicaa says.

29. In Homer, too, the suitors amused themselves in front of the doors of the palace with dice; not having learnt how to play at dice from Diodorus of Megalopolis, or from Theodorus, or from Leon of Mitylene, who was descended from Athenian ancestors: and was absolutely invincible at dice, as Phanias says. But Apion of Alexandria says that he had heard from Cteson of Ithaca what sort of game the game of dice, as played by the suitors, was. For the suitors being a hundred and eight in number, arranged their pieces opposite to one another in equal numbers, they themselves also being divided into two equal parties, so that there were on each side fifty-four; and between the men there was a small space left empty. And in this middle space they placed one man, which they called Penelope. And they made this the mark, to see if any one of them could hit it with his man; and then, when they had cast lots, he who drew the lot aimed at it. Then if any one hit it and drove Penelope forward out of her place, then he put down his own man in the place of that which had been hit and moved from its place. After which, standing up again, he shot his other man at Penelope in the place in which she was the second time. And if he hit her again without touching any one of the other men, he won the game, and had great hopes that he should be the man to marry her. He says too that Eurymachus gained the greatest number of victories in this game, and was very sanguine about his marriage. And in consequence of their luxury the suitors had such tender hands that they were not able to bend the bow; and even their servants were a very luxurious set.

[28] Homer, too, speaks of the smell of perfumes as something very admirable:—

He speaks, too, of splendid beds; and such is the bed which Arete orders her handmaids to prepare for Ulysses. And Nestor makes it a boast to Telemachus that he is well provided with such things.

30. But some of the other poets have spoken of the habits of expense, and indolence of their own time as existing also at the time of the Trojan war; and, so Æschylus very improperly introduces the Greeks as so drunk as to break their vessels about one another's heads; and he says—

And Sophocles says in his banquet of the Greeks,

But Eupolis attacks the man who first mentioned such a thing, saying—

But in Homer the chiefs banquet in Agamemnon's tent in a very orderly manner; and if in the Odyssey Achilles and Ulysses dispute and Agamemnon exults, still their rivalry with one another is advantageous, since what they are discussing is whether Troy is to be taken by stratagem, or by open-hand fighting. And he does not represent even the [29]suitors as drunk, nor has he ever made his heroes guilty of such disorderly conduct as Æschylus and Sophocles have, though he does speak of the foot of an ox being thrown at Ulysses.

31. And his heroes sit at their banquets, and do not lie down. And this was sometimes the case at the feasts of Alexander the king, as Dures says. For he once, when giving a feast to his captains to the number of six thousand, made them sit upon silver chairs and couches, having covered them with purple covers. And Hegesander says that it was not the custom in Macedonia for any one to lie down at a banquet, unless he had slain a boar which had escaped beyond the line of nets; but with that exception, every one sat at supper. And so Cassander, when he was thirty-five years of age, supped with his father in a sitting posture, not being able to perform the above-mentioned exploit, though he was of man's estate, and a gallant hunter.

But Homer, who has always an eye to propriety, has not introduced his heroes feasting on anything except meat, and that too they dressed for themselves. For it caused neither ridicule nor shame to see them preparing and cooking their own food: for they studied to be able to wait upon themselves; and they prided themselves, says Chrysippus, on their dexterity in such matters. And accordingly Ulysses boasts of being a better hand than any one else at making a fire and cutting up meat. And in the book of the Iliad called The Prayers,[29:1] Patroclus acts as cupbearer, and Achilles prepares the supper. And when Menelaus celebrates a marriage feast, Megapenthes the bridegroom acts as cupbearer. But now we have come to such a pitch of effeminacy as to lie down while at our meals.

32. And lately baths too have been introduced; things which formerly men would not have permitted to exist inside a city. And Antiphanes points out their injurious character: