Read Ebook: The Deipnosophists; or Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus Vol. 3 (of 3) by Athenaeus Of Naucratis Yonge Charles Duke Translator

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his treatise on Amatory Matters. For Melanippus and Chariton, being informed against as plotting against Phalaris, and being put to the torture in order to compel them to reveal their accomplices, not only did not betray them, but even made Phalaris himself pity them, on account of the tortures which they had undergone, so that he dismissed them with great praise. On which account Apollo, being pleased at this conduct, gave Phalaris a respite from death; declaring this to the men who consulted the Pythian priestess as to how they might best attack him. He also gave them an oracle respecting Chariton, putting the Pentameter before the Hexameter, in the same way as afterwards Dionysius the Athenian did, who was nicknamed the Brazen, in his Elegies; and the oracle runs as follows--

Happy were Chariton and Melanippus, Authors of heavenly love to many men.

The circumstances, too, that happened to Cratinus the Athenian, are very notorious. For he, being a very beautiful boy, at the time when Epimenides was purifying Attica by human sacrifices, on account of some old pollution, as Neanthes of Cyzicus relates in the second book of his treatise on Sacrifices, willingly gave himself up to secure the safety of the woman who had brought him up. And after his death, Apollodorus, his friend, also devoted himself to death, and so the calamities of the country were terminated. And owing to favouritism of this kind, the tyrants altogether forbad the fashion of making favourites of boys, and wholly abolished it. And some of them even burnt down and rased to the ground the palaestrae, considering them as fortresses hostile to their own citadels; as, for instance, Polycrates the tyrant of Samos did.

Admiring pretty legs and rosy lips;--

as AEschylus and Sophocles have openly made similar statements; the one saying, in the Myrmidons--

You paid not due respect to modesty, Led by your passion for too frequent kisses;--

and the other, in his Colchian Women, speaking of Ganymede, says--

Inflaming with his beauty mighty Jove.

But I am not ignorant that the stories which are told about Cratinus and Aristodemus are stated by Polemo Periegetes, in his Replies to Neanthes, to be all mere inventions. But you, O Cynulcus, believe that all these stories are true, let them be ever so false. And you take the greatest pleasure in all such poems as turn on boys and favourites of that kind; while the fashion of making favourites of boys was first introduced among the Grecians from Crete, as Timaeus informs us. But others say that Laius was the originator of this custom, when he was received in hospitality by Pelops; and that he took a great fancy to his son, Chrysippus, whom he put into his chariot and carried off, and fled with to Thebes. But Praxilla the Sicyonian says that Chrysippus was carried off by Jupiter. And the Celtae, too, although they have the most beautiful women of all the barbarians, still make great favourites of boys.... And the Persians, according to the statement of Herodotus, learnt from the Greeks to adopt this fashion.

But Ibycus states that Talus was a great favourite of Rhadamanthus the Just. And Diotimus, in his Heraclea, says that Eurystheus was a great favourite of Hercules, on which account he willingly endured all his labours for his sake. And it is said that Argynnus was a favourite of Agamemnon; and that they first became acquainted from Agamemnon seeing Argynnus bathing in the Cephisus. And afterwards, when he was drowned in this river, Agamemnon buried him, and raised a temple on the spot to Venus Argynnis. But Licymnius of Chios, in his Dithyrambics, says that it was Hymenaeus of whom Argynnus was a favourite. And Aristocles the harp-player was a favourite of King Antigonus: and Antigonus the Carystian, in his Life of Zeno, writes of him in the following terms:--"Antigonus the king used often to go to sup with Zeno; and once, as he was returning by daylight from some entertainment, he went to Zeno's house, and persuaded him to go with him to sup with Aristocles the harp-player, who was an excessive favourite of the king's."

The light of love doth shine in purple cheeks.

And a man from Eretria, or from Erythrae, who was a schoolmaster, answered him,--'You are a great man in poetry, O Sophocles; but still Phrynichus did not say well when he called purple cheeks a mark of beauty. For if a painter were to cover the cheeks of this boy with purple paint he would not be beautiful at all. And so it is not well to compare what is beautiful with what is not so.' And on this Sophocles, laughing at the Eretrian, said,--'Then, my friend, I suppose you are not pleased with the line in Simonides which is generally considered among the Greeks to be a beautiful one--

The maid pour'd forth a gentle voice From out her purple mouth.

And you do not either like the poet who spoke of the golden-haired Apollo; for if a painter were to represent the hair of the god as actually golden, and not black, the picture would be all the worse. Nor do you approve of the poet who spoke of rosy-fingered. For if any one were to dip his fingers in rosy-coloured paint he would make his hands like those of a purple-dyer, and not of a pretty woman.' And when they all laughed at this, the Eretrian was checked by the reproof; and Sophocles again turned to pursue the conversation with the boy; for he asked him, as he was brushing away the straws from the cup with his little finger, whether he saw any straws: and when he said that he did, he said, 'Blow them away, then, that you may not dirty your fingers.' And when he brought his face near the cup he held the cup nearer to his own mouth, so as to bring his own head nearer to the head of the boy. And when he was very near he took him by the hand and kissed him. And when all clapped their hands, laughing and shouting out, to see how well he had taken the boy in, he said, 'I, my friends, am meditating on the art of generalship, since Pericles has said that I know how to compose poetry, but not how to be a general; now has not this stratagem of mine succeeded perfectly?' And he both said and did many things of this kind in a witty manner, drinking and giving himself up to mirth: but as to political affairs he was not able nor energetic in them, but behaved as any other virtuous Athenian might have done.

"Onomarchus also gave," as he says, "to his favourite Lycolas, and to Physcidas the son of Tricholaus , a crown of laurel, the offering of the Ephesians. This boy was brought also to Philip by his father, but was dismissed without any favour. Onomarchus also gave to Damippus, the son of Epilycus of Amphipolis, who was a youth of great beauty, a present which had been consecrated to the god by Plisthenes.

"And Philomelus gave to Pharsalia, a dancing-woman from Thessaly, a golden crown of laurel-leaves, which had been offered by the Lampsacenes. But Pharsalia herself was afterwards torn to pieces at Metapontum, by the soothsayers, in the market-place, on the occasion of a voice coming forth out of the brazen laurel which the people of Metapontum had set up at the time when Aristeas of Proconnesus was sojourning among them, on his return, as he stated, from the Hyperboreans, the first moment that she was seen entering the market-place. And when men afterwards inquired into the reason for this violence, she was found to have been put to death on account of this crown which belonged to the god."

Have learnt by heart completely all the songs Breathing of love which sweetest Sappho sang, Or the Lamynthian Cleomenes.

But you, my philosophical friends, even when you are in love with women . . . as Clearchus says. For a bull was excited by the sight of the brazen cow at Pirene: and in a picture that existed of a bitch, and a pigeon, and a goose; and a gander came up to the goose, and a dog to the bitch, and a male pigeon to the pigeon, and not one of them discovered the deception till they got close to them; but when they got near enough to touch them, they desisted; just as Clisophus the Salymbrian did. For he fell in love with a statue of Parian marble that then was at Samos, and shut himself up in the temple to gratify his affection; but when he found that he could make no impression on the coldness and unimpressibility of the stone, then he discarded his passion. And Alexis the poet mentions this circumstance in his drama entitled The Picture, where he says--

And such another circumstance, they say, Took place in Samos: there a man did fall In love with a fair maiden wrought in marble, And shut himself up with her in the temple.

And Philemon mentions the same fact, and says--

But once a man, 'tis said, did fall, at Samos, In love with a marble woman; and he went And shut himself up with her in the temple.

But the statue spoken of is the work of Ctesicles; as Adaeus of Mitylene tells us in his treatise on Statuaries. And Polemo, or whoever the author of the book called Helladicus is, says--"At Delphi, in the museum of the pictures, there are two boys wrought in marble; one of which, the Delphians say, was so fallen in love with by some one who came to see it, that he made love to it, and shut himself up with it, and presented it with a crown; but when he was detected, the god ordered the Delphians, who consulted his oracle with reference to the subject, to dismiss him freely, for that he had given him a handsome reward.

The same Phylarchus also relates, in the twentieth book of his History, the great affection which was once displayed by an elephant for a boy. And his words are these: "But there was a female elephant kept with this elephant, and the name of the female elephant was Nicaea; and to her the wife of the king of India, when dying, entrusted her child, which was just a month old. And when the woman did die, the affection for the child displayed by the beast was most extraordinary; for it could not endure the child to be away; and whenever it did not see him, it was out of spirits. And so, whenever the nurse fed the infant with milk, she placed it in its cradle between the feet of the beast; and if she had not done so, the elephant would not take any food; and after this, it would take whatever reeds and grass there were near, and, while the child was sleeping, beat away the flies with the bundle. And whenever the child wept, it would rock the cradle with its trunk, and lull it to sleep. And very often the male elephant did the same."

"And one of the philosophers who was once drinking with us, when a flute-playing girl came in, and when there was plenty of room near him, when the girl wished to sit down near him, would not allow her, but drew himself up and looked grave. And then afterwards, when the girl was put up to auction, as is often the fashion at such entertainments, he was exceedingly eager to buy her, and quarrelled with the man who sold her, on the ground that he had knocked her down too speedily to some one else; and he said that the auctioneer had not fairly sold her. And at last this grave philosopher, he who at first would not permit the girl even to sit near him, came to blows about her." And perhaps this very philosopher, who came to blows about the flute-playing girl, may have been Persaeus himself; for Antigonus the Carystian, in his treatise on Zeno, makes the following statement:--"Zeno the Cittiaean, when once Perseus at a drinking-party bought a flute-playing girl, and after that was afraid to bring her home, because he lived in the same house with Zeno, becoming acquainted with the circumstance, brought the girl home himself, and shut her up with Persaeus." I know, also, that Polystratus the Athenian, who was a pupil of Theophrastus, and who was surnamed the Tyrrhenian, used often to put on the garments of the female flute-players.

And one did lie with garment well thrown back, Showing her snow-white bosom to the moon: Another, as she lightly danced, display'd The fair proportions of her lefthand side, Naked--a lovely picture for the air To wanton with; and her complexion white Strove with the darkening shades. Another bared Her lovely arms and taper fingers all: Another, with her robe high round her neck, Conceal'd her bosom, but a rent below Show'd all her shapely thighs. The Graces smiled, And love, not without hope, did lead me on. Then on th' inviting asphodel they fell, Plucking the dark leaves of the violet flower, And crocus, which, with purple petals rising, Copies the golden rays of the early sun. There, too, the Persian sweetly-smelling marjoram Stretch'd out its neck along the laughing meadow.

The glorious beauty of her dazzling body Shone brilliant, a sweet sight to every eye; And modesty, a tender blush exciting, Tinted her gentle cheeks with delicate rose: Her waxy hair, in gracefully modell'd curls, Falling as though arranged by sculptor's hand, Waved in the wanton breeze luxuriant.

And in his Io he calls the flowers children of spring, where he says--

Strewing around sweet children of the spring.

And in his Centaur, which is a drama composed in many metres of various kinds, he calls them children of the meadow--

There, too, they did invade the countless host Of all the new-born flowers that deck the fields, Hunting with joy the offspring of the meadows.

And in his Bacchus he says--

The ivy, lover of the dance, Child of the mirthful year.

And in his Ulysses he speaks thus of roses:--

And in their hair the Hours' choicest gifts They wore, the flowering, fragrant rose, The loveliest foster-child of spring.

And in his Thyestes he says--

The brilliant rose, and modest snow-white lily.

And in his Minyae he says--

There was full many a store of Venus to view, Dark in the rich flowers in due season ripe.

There was, for instance, Thargelia the Milesian, who was married to fourteen different husbands, so very beautiful and accomplished was she, as Hippias the Sophist says, in his book which is entitled Synagoge. But Dinon, in the fifth book of his History of Persia, and in the first part of it, says that the wife of Bagazus, who was a sister of Xerxes by the same father, was the most beautiful and the most licentious of all the women in Asia. And Phylarchus, in his nineteenth book, says that Timosa, the concubine of Oxyartes, surpassed all women in beauty, and that the king of Egypt had originally sent her as a present to Statira, the wife of the king.

And Theopompus, in the fifty-sixth book of his History, speaks of Xenopithea, the mother of Lysandrides, as the most beautiful of all the women in Peloponnesus. And the Lacedaemonians put her to death, and her sister Chryse also, when Agesilaus the king, having raised a seditious tumult in the city, procured Lysandrides, who was his enemy, to be banished by the Lacedaemonians. Pantica of Cyprus was also a very beautiful woman; and she is mentioned by Phylarchus, in the tenth book of his History, where he says that when she was with Olympias, the mother of Alexander, Monimus, the son of Pythion, asked her in marriage. And, as she was a very licentious woman, Olympias said to him--"O wretched man, you are marrying with your eyes, and not with your understanding." They also say that the woman who brought back Pisistratus to assume the tyranny, clad in the semblance of Minerva the Saviour, was very beautiful, as indeed she ought to have been, seeing that she assumed the appearance of a goddess. And she was a seller of garlands; and Pisistratus afterwards gave her in marriage to Hipparchus his son, as Clidemus relates in the eighth book of his Returns, where he says--"And he also gave the woman, by name Phya, who had been in the chariot with him, in marriage to his son Hipparchus. And she was the daughter of a man named Socrates. And he took for Hippias, who succeeded him in the tyranny, the daughter of Charmus the polemarch, who was extraordinarily beautiful."

And it happened, as it is said, that Charmus was a great admirer of Hippias, and that he was the man who first erected a statue of Love in the Academy, on which there is the following inscription--

O wily Love, Charmus this altar raised At the well-shaded bounds of her Gymnasium.

Hesiod, also, in the third book of his Melampodia, calls Chalcis in Euboea,

Land of fair women;--

for the women there are very beautiful, as Theophrastus also asserts. And Nymphodorus, in his Voyage round Asia, says that there are nowhere more beautiful women than those in Tenedos, an island close to Troy.

And even to this day this contest is continued; and the women who contend in it are called Goldbearing. And Theophrastus says that there is also a contest of beauty which takes place among the Eleans, and that the decision is come to with great care and deliberation; and that those who gain the victory receive arms as their prize, which Dionysius of Leuctra says are offered up to Minerva. And he says, too, that the victor is adorned with fillets by his friends, and goes in procession to the temple; and that a crown of myrtle is given to him . "But in some places," says the same Theophrastus, "there are contests between the women in respect of modesty and good management, as there are among the barbarians; and at other places also there are contests about beauty, on the ground that this also is entitled to honour, as for instance, there are in Tenedos and Lesbos. But they say that this is the gift of chance, or of nature; but that the honour paid to modesty ought to be one of a greater degree. For that it is in consequence of modesty that beauty is beautiful; for without modesty it is apt to be subdued by intemperance."

Your multifarious learning I do wonder at-- Though there is not a thing more vain and useless,

says Hippon the Atheist. But the divine Heraclitus also says--"A great variety of information does not usually give wisdom." And Timon said--

There is great ostentation and parade Of multifarious learning, than which nothing Can be more vain or useless.

For what is the use of so many names, my good grammarian, which are more calculated to overwhelm the hearers than to do them any good? And if any one were to inquire of you, who they were who were shut up in the wooden horse, you would perhaps be able to tell the names of one or two; and even this you would not do out of the verses of Stesichorus, but out of the Storming of Troy, by Sacadas the Argive; for he has given a catalogue of a great number of names. Nor indeed could you properly give a list of the companions of Ulysses, and say who they were who were devoured by the Cyclops, or by the Laestrygonians, and whether they were really devoured or not. And you do not even know this, in spite of your frequent mention of Phylarchus, that in the cities of the Ceans it is not possible to see either courtesans or female flute-players. And Myrtilus said,--But where has Phylarchus stated this? For I have read through all his history. And when he said,--In the twenty-third book; Myrtilus said--

Is this the Academy; is this Xenocrates? May the gods greatly bless Demetrius And all the lawgivers; for, as men say, They've driven out of Attica with disgrace All those who do profess to teach the youth Learning and science.

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