[801]. Tuscul. Quæst. ii. 41.
[802]. Potter, ii. 396.
CHAPTER VI.
ENTERTAINMENTS.
The man upon the creations of whose art the principal enjoyments of Greek gourmands were based was the cook,[[803]] whose character and achievements ought not perhaps to be entirely passed over. We are, indeed, chiefly indebted for our information to the comic poets; but, in spite of some little exaggeration, the likeness they have bequeathed to us is probably upon the whole pretty exact.
The Athenian cook was a singularly heterogeneous being, something between the parasite and the professed jester; he was usually a poor citizen, with all the pride of autochthoneïty about him, who considered it indispensable to acquire, besides his culinary lore, a smattering of many other kinds of knowledge, not only for the purpose of improving his soups or ragouts, but in order, by the orations he pronounced in praise of himself, to dazzle and allure such persons as came to the agora in search of an artist of his class. Of course the principal source of his oratory lay among pots and frying-pans, and the wonders effected by his art. Philemon hits off with great felicity one of these worthies, who desires to convey a lofty opinion of himself,—
“How strong is my desire ’fore earth and heaven,
To tell how daintily I cooked his dinner
’Gainst his return! By all Athena’s owls!
’Tis no unpleasant thing to hit the mark