And after this Telemachus did meet him,
And with great cordiality embraced him,
And said, "Now lend me, I do beg, the saucepans
In which you boil'd your beans." And scarcely had
He finish'd saying this, when he beheld
At some small distance the renowned Philip,
Son of Chærephilus, that mighty man,
Whom he accosted with a friendly greeting,
And then he bade him send some wicker baskets.
But that this Telemachus was a citizen of the borough of Acharnæ, the same poet shows us in his Bacchus, where he says—
A. Telemachus th' Acharnian still is speaking,
And he is like the new-bought Syrian slaves.
B. How so, what does he do? I wish to know.
A. He bears about with him a deadly dish.
And in his Icarians, a satyric drama, he says—
So that we'd nothing with us; I myself,
Passing a miserable night, did first
BEAN SOUP.
Sleep on the hardest bed; and then that Lion,
Thudippus, did congeal us all with fear;
Then hunger pinch'd us . . . . . .
And so we went unto the fiery Dion.
But even he had nought with which to help us;
So running to the excellent Telemachus,
The great Acharnian, I found a heap
Of beans, and seized on some and ate them up.
And when that ass Cephisodorus saw us,
He by a most unseemly noise betray'd us.
From this it is plain that Telemachus, being a person who was constantly eating dishes of beans, was always celebrating the festival Pyanepsia.
74. And bean soup is mentioned by Heniochus the comic writer, in his play called the Wren, where he says—
A. I often, by the Gods I swear, consider
In my own mind how far a fig surpasses
A cardamum. But you assert that you
Have held some conversation with this Pauson,
And you request of me a difficult matter.
B. But having many cares of divers aspects,
Just tell me this, and it may prove amusing;
Why does bean soup so greatly fill the stomach,
And why do those who know this Pauson's habits
Dislike the fire? For this great philosopher
Is always occupied in eating beans.