The Symposium

And since I now see your banquet, as Xeophanes the Colophonian says, full of all kinds of pleasure— For now the floor and all men's hands are clean, And all the cups, and since the feasters' brows Are

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And the exquisite Anacreon says— I do not love the man who, 'midst his cups, Says nothing but old tales of war and strife, But him who gives its honour due to mirth, Praising the Muses and the bright-

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But you, O philosophers, are far fiercer than dolphins and elephants, and are also much more untameable; although Persæus the Cittiæan, in his Recollections of Banquets, says loudly,—“It is a very con

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E'en should the Phrygian God enrich my tongue With honey'd eloquence, such as erst did fall From Nestor's or Antenor's lips, as the all-accomplished Euripides says, my good Timocrates— I never should

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And of these Deipnosophists, one quoted one scolium, and one another. And these were those which were recited— I. O thou Tritonian Pallas, who from heaven above Look'st with protecting eye On this hol

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Then a paunch was brought in, which may be looked upon as a sort of metropolis, and the mother of the sons of Hippocrates, whom I know to have been turned into ridicule by the comic poets on account o

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And when we were relieved from their exhibition, then we had a fresh drink offered to us, hot and strong, and Thasian, and Mendæan, and Lesbian wines were placed upon the board, very large golden gobl

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But in the banquet of Epicurus there is an assembly of flatterers praising one another. And Plato's banquet is full of mockers, cavilling at one another; for I say nothing of the digression about Alci

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But now let us speak of the banquets celebrated by Homer. For the poet gives us the different times of them, and the persons present, and the causes of them. And Xenophon and Plato have done well to i

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After rich men's repasts, a man carries around an image in a coffin, painted and carved in exact imitation of a corpse two or four feet long. This he shows to each of the company, saying “While you dr

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Some, my dear Sossius Senecio, imagine that this sentence, μισέω μνάμονα συμπόταω, was principally designed against the stewards of a feast, who are usually troublesome and press liquor too much upon

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I think there are topics fit to be used at table, some of which reading and study give us, others the present occasion; some to incite to study, others to piety and great and noble actions, others to

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Besides, the questions should be easy, the problems known, the interrogations plain and familiar, not intricate and dark, that they might neither vex the unlearned, nor fright them from the disquisiti

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But after supper, my father addressing himself to me, who sat at another quarter of the table,—Timon, said he, and I have a dispute, and you are to be judge, for I have been upon his skirts already ab

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When this had been offered on both sides, and all present required my determination, I said: Being an arbitrator and not a judge, I shall close strictly with neither side, but go indifferently in the

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We all agreed that he said well, but asked him why he would not instruct us how to order things aright, and communicate his skill. I am content, says he, to instruct you, if you will permit me to chan

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CRATO a relative of ours, and Theon my acquaintance, at a certain banquet, where the glasses had gone round freely, and a little stir arose but was suddenly appeased, began to discourse of the office

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They made some slight excuse at first; but the whole company urging them to obey, Crato began thus. A captain of a watch (as Plato says) ought to be most watchful and diligent himself, and the directo

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And Theon replied: He is welcome,—a very well-shaped gentleman, and fitted for the office; but whether I shall not spoil him in my particular application, I cannot tell. In my opinion he seems such a

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OF the several things that are provided for an entertainment, some, my Sossius Senecio, are absolutely necessary; such are wine, bread, meat, couches, and tables. Others are brought in, not for necess

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