The Complete Works of Athenaeus. Illustrated (eBook)

The Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
2782 Seiten
Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing (Verlag)
978-0-88001-145-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Athenaeus (Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD. The Suda says only that he lived in the times of Marcus Aurelius. Several of his publications are lost, but the fifteen-volume Deipnosophistae mostly survives. The Deipnosophistae is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work by the Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of literary, historical, and antiquarian references set in Rome at a series of banquets held by the protagonist Publius Livius Larensis for an assembly of grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians, and hangers-on. It is sometimes called the oldest surviving cookbook. Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a treatise on the thratta, a kind of fish mentioned by Archippus and other comic poets, and of a history of the Syrian kings. Both works are lost. Contents: The Deipnosophistae THE GREEK TEXT

Athenaeus of Naucratis was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD.

Textauszug

BOOK II.

1. The conversation which you reported to me did not allow me to give up a considerable portion of the day to sleep, as it was of a very varied nature.

Nicander of Colophon says that wine, οἶνος, has its name from Œneus: —

 

Œneus pour’d the juice divine In hollow cups, and call’d it wine.

And Melanippides of Melos says —

’Twas Œneus, master, gave his name to wine.

 

 

But Hecatæus of Miletus says, that the vine was discovered in Ætolia; and adds, “Orestheus, the son of Deucalion, came to Ætolia to endeavour to obtain the kingdom; and while he was there, a bitch which he had brought forth a stalk: and he ordered it to be buried in the ground, and from it there sprang up a vine loaded with grapes. On which account he called his son Phytius. And he had a son named Œneus, who was so called from the vines: for the ancient Greeks,” says he, “called vines οἶναι. Now Œneus was the father of Ætolus.” But Plato in his Cratylus, inquiring into the etymology of the word oἶnos, says, that it is equivalent to οἰόνους, as filling the mind, νοῦς, with ὄιησις, or self-conceit. Perhaps, however, the word may be derived from ὄνησις, succour. For Homer, giving as it were the derivation of the word, speaks nearly after this fashion —

And then you will be succour’d (ὀνήσεαι) if you drink.

And he too constantly calls food ὀνείατα, because it supports us.

2. Now the author of the Cyprian poems, whoever he was, says —

No better remedies than wine there are, O king, to drive away soul-eating care.

And Diphilus the comic poet says —

O Bacchus, to all wise men dear, How very kind you do appear; You make the lowly-hearted proud, And bid the gloomy laugh aloud; You fill the feeble man with daring, And cowards strut and bray past bearing.

And Philoxenus of Cythera says —

Good store of wine which makes men talk.

But Chæremon the tragedian says, that wine inspires those who use it with

Laughter and wisdom and prudence and learning.

And Ion of Chios calls wine

Youth of indomitable might, With head of bull; the loveliest wight Who ever rank’d as Love’s esquire, Filling men with strength and fire.

And Mensitheus says —

Great was the blessing, when the gods did show Sweet wine to those who how to use it know; But where bad men its righteous use pervert, To such, I trow, it will be rather hurt. For to the first it nourishment supplies, Strengthens their bodies, and their minds makes wise; A wholesome physic ’tis when mix’d with potions, Heals wounds as well as plasters or cold lotions. Wine to our daily feasts brings cheerful laughter, When mix’d with proper quantities of water; Men saucy get if one-third wine they quaff; While downright madness flows from half-and-half; And neat wine mind and body too destroys; While moderation wise secures our joys. And well the oracle takes this position, That Bacchus is all people’s best physician.

3. And Eubulus introduces Bacchus as saying —

Let them three parts of wine all duly season With nine of water, who’d preserve their reason; The first gives health, the second sweet desires, The third tranquillity and sleep inspires. These are the wholesome draughts which wise men please, Who from the banquet home return in peace. From a fourth measure insolence proceeds; Uproar a fifth, a sixth wild licence breeds; A seventh brings black eyes and livid bruises, The eighth the constable next introduces; Black gall and hatred lurk the ninth beneath, The tenth is madness, arms, and fearful death; For too much wine pour’d in one little vessel, Trips up all those who seek with it to wrestle.

And Epicharmus says —

A.	Sacrifices feasts produce,

Drinking then from feasts proceeds.

B.	Such rotation has its use.

A.	Then the drinking riot breeds;

Then on riot and confusion

Follow law and prosecution;

Law brings sentence; sentence chains;

Chains bring wounds and ulcerous pains.

And Panyasis the epic poet allots the first cup of wine to the Graces, the Hours, and Bacchus; the second to Venus, and again to Bacchus; the third to Insolence and Destruction. And so he says —

O’er the first glass the Graces three preside, And with the smiling Hours the palm divide; Next Bacchus, parent of the sacred vine, And Venus, loveliest daughter of the brine, Smile on the second cup, which cheers the heart, And bids the drinker home in peace depart. But the third cup is waste and sad excess, Parent of wrongs, denier of redress; Oh, who can tell what evils may befall When Strife and Insult rage throughout the hall? Content thee, then, my friend, with glasses twain; Then to your home and tender wife again; While your companions, with unaching heads, By your example taught, will seek their beds. But riot will be bred by too much wine, A mournful ending for a feast divine; While, then, you live, your thirst in bounds confine.

And a few lines afterwards he says of immoderate drinking —

For Insolence and Ruin follow it.

According to Euripides,

Drinking is sire of blows and violence.

From which some have said that the pedigree of Bacchus and of Insolence were the same.

4. And Alexis says somewhere —

Man’s nature doth in much resemble wine: For young men and new wine do both need age To ripen their too warm unseason’d strength, And let their violence evaporate. But when the grosser portions are worked off, And all the froth is skimm’d, then both are good; The wine is drinkable, the man is wise, And both in future pleasant while they last.

And according to the bard of Cyrene —

Wine is like fire when ’tis to man applied, Or like the storm that sweeps the Libyan tide; The furious wind the lowest depths can reach, And wine robs man of knowledge, sense, and speech.

But in some other place Alexis says the contrary to what I have just cited: —

A.	Man in no one respect resembles wine:

For man by age is made intolerable;

But age improves all wine.

B.	Yes; for old wines cheer us,

But old men only snarl, abuse, and jeer us.

And Panyasis says —

Wine is like fire, an aid and sweet relief, Wards off all ills, and comforts every grief; Wine can of every feast the joys enhance, It kindles soft desire, it leads the dance. Think not then, childlike, much of solid food, But stick to wine, the only real good.

And again —

Good wine’s the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven; Of dance and song the genial sire, Of friendship gay and soft desire; Yet rule it with a tighten’d rein, Nor moderate wisdom’s rules disdain; For when uncheck’d there’s nought runs faster, — A useful slave, but cruel master.

5. Timæus of Tauromenium relates that there was a certain house at Agrigentum called the Trireme, on this account: — Some young men got drunk in it, and got so mad when excited by the wine, as to think that they were sailing in a trireme, and that they were being tossed about on the sea in a violent storm; and so completely did they lose their senses, that they threw all the furniture, and all the sofas and chairs and beds, out of window, as if they were throwing them into the sea, fancying that the captain had ordered them to lighten the ship because of the storm. And though a crowd collected round the house and began to plunder what was thrown out, even that did not cure the young men of their frenzy. And the next day, when the prætors came to the house, there were the young men still lying, sea-sick as they said; and, when the magistrates questioned them, they replied that they had been in great danger from a storm, and had consequently been compelled to lighten the ship by throwing all their superfluous cargo into the sea. And while the magistrates marvelled at the bewilderment of the men, one of them, who seemed to be older than the rest, said, “I, O Tritons, was so frightened that I threw myself down under the benches, and lay there as low down and as much out of sight as I could.” And the magistrates forgave their...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.9.2021
• Übersetzer: C. D. Yonge
• Verlagsort: Mikhailovka village
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Schlagworte: antiquarian references • antique literature • English • grammar • History • Philosophy • rhetoric • Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing • Symposium
• ISBN-10: 0-88001-145-9 / 0880011459
• ISBN-13: 978-0-88001-145-7 / 9780880011457