[[222]] Then the sea thrushes young and fierce, who dive
Mid the deep rocks and tear their prey alive.
The sargus, mormyrus, hippurus, spar,
The shad, the gale; so countless fishes are.
The feast to view the guests' eyes joyful beam'd,
And all the house with the rich odour steam'd.
The host bade all sit down: myself, I thought
This woman's food, and something solid sought.
Large in the centre lay a vacant space,
Which herbs and salads did with verdure grace.
Then a sea blackbird came, a morsel nice,
And disappear'd, devoured in a trice.
Then came a ham, t' its foes a helpless prey,
And while it lasted none could keep away.
But when the feast was o'er I wept with sorrow
To think I could not eat on till to-morrow,
But must fall back on barley-meal and cheese.

* * * * *

Black broth subdued him and boil'd pettitoes;
Then came some ducks from Salamis, sacred isle,
Borne by the cook, who with a cheerful smile,
Marshall'd them where the Athenian phalanx stood;
And Chærephon survey'd the various food,
That he might know to choose and eat the best;
Then like a lion leapt he on the feast,[222:1]
And seized a mighty leg of turkey hot,
To make his supper when he home had got.
Then groats which Vulcan made into a cake,
And in Attic pan full thirteen months did bake
But when our wish for food was satisfied,
We wash'd our hands in ocean's foaming tide;
One beauteous slave came round with rich perfume,
Another garlands strew'd around the room.
Then foam'd around old Bacchus' rosy tide,
And each guest merrily with his fellow vied.
Then the dessert was served; the juicy pear,
The apple and pomegranate too were there.
The grape, the nurse of Bacchus, and the plum,
And fig, and medlar on the table come.
But I ate nought, I was so full before,
Till I that lovely child of Ceres saw,
A large sweet round and yellow cake; how then
Could I from such a dish, my friends, abstain?
Had I ten mouths, aye, and as many hands,
A brazen stomach within brazen bands,[222:2]
They all would on that lovely cake have sprung.
And so the feast of Stratocles I've sung.

14. And Alexis, in his Men running together, ridiculing the Attic banquets, says—

[[223]] I wish that I could get a brace of cooks,
The cleverest in their art in all the city.
For he who a Thessalian would invite,
Must never stint his fare in Attic fashion,
Nor practise over strict economy;
But have in all things a well-order'd feast.

And the Thessalians are truly fond of eating; as Eriphus says in his Light-armed Soldier, thus—

It is not Corinth now, nor Lais here,
Nor any feast of sumptuous Thessalians,
Whose habits well I know.

And the author, whoever he was, of the play called The Beggars, which is ascribed to Chionides, says that the Athenians, when they place a banquet for Castor and Pollux in their Prytaneum, serve up on the tables cheese and barley-cakes, and olives which have fallen, and leeks, for the sake of reminding people of the ancient manner of living. And Solon enjoins them to serve up barley-cakes to those who eat in the prytaneum: and besides that, to place bread on the table at festivals, in imitation of Homer; for he, too, when collecting the chiefs around Agamemnon, says—

The cakes were baked.

And Chrysippus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Beauty and Pleasure, says—"But at Athens they say that two festivals are celebrated there (neither of them of great antiquity), one at the Lyceum and one in the Academy, and when the confectioner had brought into the Academy a dish for some other purpose, all those who were offering sacrifice at once broke the dish, because something had been introduced which did not belong to the city, and everything which came from afar ought to have been kept away. And that the cook at the Lyceum having prepared some salt-fish in order to serve up a dish of it, was scourged as a man who used his invention in a very wicked manner." And Plato, in the second book of his Republic, represents his new citizens as feasting, and writes—"You make your men feast without any second course, says he. You say the truth, I replied; I forgot that they will have a second course—namely, salt, and olives, and cheese, and onions; and besides, they will boil such vegetables as are found in the fields; and moreover, we shall serve up some sweetmeats to them,—figs, and beans, and vetches. They shall roast myrtle-berries too and