partridges, and pheasants. By way of stimulants to the appetite, Grecian bill were used, pickled radishes, olives, onions, colewort, garlic, gourds, of fare. beans, or lettuce. Athens was celebrated for its pastry and bread; Rhodes for dried figs; Cappadocia for a species of bread, made of milk, oil, salt, and flour of wheat; Boeotia' for eels; Salamis for ducks; Euboea for apples; Phoenicia for dates; Corinth for quinces; Naxos for almonds. Xenophon remarks, that from the extent of their commercial transactions, the Athenians learnt different modes of "good living;" "whatever," says he, " is delicious in Sicily, in Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Lydia, Pontus, in Peloponnesus, or anywhere else, is collected at Athens." Nor did the taste of the epicure fail to discriminate amidst variety; accordingly, he rejoiced in tunny-fish from Tyre, a 1 Aristoph. 2 Athenæus. 3 Julius Pollux. Culinary skill. Ancient receipts, from Athenæus. Description of a feast. kid from Melos, turnips from Mantinea, cheese from Sicily,' radishes from Thasos, beet-root from Ascra. Materials collected by so wide a search abroad, were employed with great culinary skill at home; nor were the secrets of this art transmitted along the line of cooks only by oral tradition. Archestratus wrote expressly on the subject: fragments of his works are preserved in Athenæus, together with some ancient receipts, the singularity of which may excite a smile, without any strong regret that they are now superseded. Flour was kneaded with aromatic herbs and blossoms; sesame, with honey and oil; pounded barley, with oil and lamb gravy; a pig might be served up with the skin unbroken, and stuffed with thrushes, yolks of eggs oysters, and various other shell-fish. A wild boar's liver was esteemed a delicacy; also a lamb's head, and a sow's belly seasoned with cummir and vinegar; small birds were dressed with sauce of scraped chees and oil. A fragrant cake might be made by bruising rose-leaves in a mortar, mixed with the brains of birds and pigs, and the yolks of eggs, with oil, pepper, and pickle, boiled over a slow fire. From the same industrious compiler, may be learned some amusing characteristics of the behaviour of the guests. The following passage is written in mock heroics, containing an ingenious application of the phraseology of Homer. "The bread," says the speaker, "was whiter than snow: Boreas was enamoured of the loaves as they were baking: others fell on the vegetables.-I did not; I ate onions and oysters. The shell-fish crackled under the slaves' feet; a mullet entered; his head was already in the hand of Stratoclēs; 1 snatched and devoured it; then came an immense eel; the cook carried it up and down OL his shoulders; a sturgeon followed; full as I was, I stretched out my hand for a bit. Surely,' said I, 'this is the true ambrosia; then a blackbird, so tempting, I cried to think I should not see it to-morrow. then three ducks from Salamis; Chorephon ate like a lion, abi secreted one leg for a meal at home: I was lying back quite full, bet when I saw a yellow, sweet, large, round, cheese-cake, how could I abstain from the divine dish?" The following is the soliloquy of a And doves. Philemon apud Stob. 115. 2 The following sketch is from Athenæus : How is it No wreathed garland decks the festive door? No savoury odour creeps into the nostrils? Since 'tis a birth-feast? Custom, sooth, requires Toasted and hissing; cabbage, too, in oil Fried brown and crisp, with smothered breast of lamb. Gnaw the delicious feet of polypi, And drink large draughts of scarcely mingled wine. Athen. iv. 5. See Casaubon's notes. St. John, vol. i. 129. a cook' from Philemon's comedies :-" How tender was the fish I 2 Such scenes of riot and rude merriment may be, in some measure, Privileged accounted for by the fact that, according to the conventional forms of jesters. Athenian society, some privileged characters, as jesters and jugglers, might appear without an invitation: parasites, also, frequently formed part of the company, combining, in different degrees, the qualities of buffoon, punster, flatterer, gourmand, and bully. "I make myself Office of a agreeable," says one of the fraternity, "utter my jokes, praise the parasite. master, abuse any guest that contradicts me, eat and drink, and then betake myself to my bed." "When I go out," says another, "I do not notice the cornice or the ceiling: I look for the smoke of the kitchen; if that is upright, and strong, I rejoice; if thin and scattered, I sorrow." The character is thus sketched by Antiphanes:In life, my life at least, the first of pleasures Were to be rich myself: but next to this I hold it best to be a parasite, And feed upon the rich. No striker I, no swaggerer, no defamer, sit down to supper, I'm your guest; "Do this," and it is done. Cumberland. In general, however, the office of the parasite was more pacific. The parasite of Eupolis has a nimble page, two suits of clothes; he saunters on the agora, flatters the rich, gulls the foolish; in short, lives by his wits from day to day, and when he is not invited out, sups on barley-cakes. The rude man (åndns) in Theophrastus, at his own table, points out his parasite to the guests, and bids him amuse the company (repov Tоùç паρóvтaç). In case his memory failed to supply Amusements anecdotes or jests, he read them from a book; but if his entertainers provided were dissatisfied with his powers of amusement, blows and other company. practical insults were the consequence; his seat was removed from under him, the dishes were broken upon his head, and he was turned Ten minæ for a cook, one drachma for a physician, five talents for a flatterer, moonshine for a monitor, a talent for a courtesan, threepence for a philosopher.- 3 Ibid. vii. 10. for the Dancing girls. out of doors with a collar round his neck. In the Banquet of Plato, besides a character of this stamp, there are introduced a piper, a dancing-girl, a lyrist, and a juggler, who threw twelve balls into the air, "catching them exactly in time," and who tumbled and danced in the midst of sharp swords. Even at the least boisterous of the con Potations. Music. Riddles. Poetry. vivial meetings of the Greeks, dancing was an ordinary recreation. Meursius names one hundred and eighty-four kinds of dancing, some were pantomimic representations of mythology, e.g., the story of Niobe, or Daphne, the infancy of Zeus, or the deeds of Heracles. The master of the house did not necessarily preside at the feast. That dignity was determined by lot, and imposed the duty of providing, not only that each guest received his portion of wine, but also that he drank it. To taste a cup and hand it to a friend, was a courteous salutation, of which the reciprocal part was to finish the contents of the offered goblet. A lover drank to his mistress as many cups as there were letters in her name. The pleasures of wine were heightened by those of harmony. A lyre was handed round, to which the guests sang, separately, or in chorus, satirical, amorous, or more serious compositions. Or the guests exercised their ingenuity by questions couched in the ambiguity of fallacies, or in anagrams and riddles or by demanding verses from some poet, corresponding with certain conditions: as, for example, that a particular letter should be excluded, that the first and last letters should be alike, or that the first and last syllables should compose a word. A failure was followed by the penalty of drinking wine mixed with salt. 1 Walp. Com. Græc. Fragm. p. 5. 2 Many of the games of the ancients, as described by Meursius, exist at present, with little variation. The Cottabus consisted in throwing wine into the orifice of floating phials, or into scales, suspended over a metallic image: there is more spirit in the following sport :-Stand on a round ball, with a running noose round your neck, and a knife in your hand; when your opponent kicks away the ball, Of course, by graver characters,' more serious subjects were dis- Philosophicussed. They who are desirous of becoming acquainted with the cal banquet. details of a literary conversazione, will find in the Banquet of Plutarch the political and domestic wisdom of the seven wise men of Greece, -or a strange mixture of metaphysics and sensuality in the eloquent Symposium of Plato,—or in that of Xenophon, a discussion more lively, more varied in its topics, more intelligible, and probably more characteristic of the state of convivial society among Athenians of rank and talent. Before we draw these remarks to a conclusion, there is yet one Respect paid aspect more under which we may contemplate the customs of the to the dead. ancient Greek-namely, as he testified by outward signs his respect and love for the memory of the dead. Such feelings are planted deeply in the human heart, and therefore such signs are universal. The desire of sepulchral honours is, in those who seek them, an expectation of one kind of immortality-the immortality of public renown, or, in private life, of affectionate remembrance. In those who pay this tribute to the deceased, sorrow is alleviated by the opportunity of immediate exertion: "Fungar inani munere " has always been the language of love, though reason acknowledges that the gift is useless. Grassy mound, or cairn, or pyramid-mausoleum, bust, or statue-inscription, pillar, slab, or monumental brass-all attest by various signs the same feeling in different times and nations. In that semicivilized age described by Homer, the vindictive nature Funeral of a conqueror sometimes overpowered his generous feeling, and caused ceremonies. him to insult the corpse of a fallen foe; still such injury was the outbreak of individual anger: it was not sanctioned by the customs of the age. In fact, all through antiquity, respect for the dead was part of the law of nations. Achilles, pierced to the heart with sorrow and anger, drags behind his chariot, thrice round the tomb of his beloved friend Patroclus, the corpse of Hector, who had slain him; but the same Achilles, in his cooler moments,3 bids his own slaves wash and anoint the same corpse; he himself assists in raising it to the litter, then cut at the string; if you succeed, you win the game, if not, you are hanged. (Athenæus.) See this subject treated historically, at great length, by St. John, vol. i. 3.; satirically, with great humour, in Scriblerus' Memoirs, ch. v. A few names of the ancient pastimes and their (supposed) translation may excite curiosity. Muinda, blindman's-buff; chytrinda, hot-cockles; trygodiphesis, bob-cherry. (St. John.) ""I will permit my son to play at apodidascinda,' which can be no other than our puss-in-a-corner." (Scribl. ch. iii.) Bullinger has a learned essay on these subjects in the Classical Journal, No. IX. p. 67. The short work of Theophrastus, in which he sketches the Flatterer, the Garrulous, the Querulous, the Boaster, and others, is entertaining; it should, however, be read continuously extracts from it appear insignificant and feeble. "I will discharge an unavailing office."-Virgil, Æn. vi. 885. Il. xxiv. 15. |