But such a course as this the Athenians used to call ἐπιδόρπισμα, and the Dorians ἐπάϊκλον; but most of the Greeks called it τὰ ἐπίδειπνα .
And when all this discussion about the ματτύη was over, they thought it time to depart; for it was already evening. And so we parted.
Footnotes.
[61] Odyss. xxi. 293.
[62] Diomea was a small village in Attica, where there was a celebrated temple of Hercules, and where a festival was kept in his honour: Aristophanes says—
Ὅποθ' Ἡράκλεια τὰ 'ν Διομείοισ γίγνεται.—Ranæ, 651.
[63] Because slaves (and the actors were usually slaves) had only names of one, or at most two syllables, such as Davus, Geta, Dromo, Mus.
[64] Τήνδε μοῦσαν, this Muse; τήνδ' ἐμοῦσαν, this woman vomiting.
[65] The text here is corrupt and hopeless.—Schweig.
[66] This passage, again, is hopelessly corrupt. "Merum Augeæ stabulum."—Casaub.
[67] There is no account of what this feast of Swings was. The Greek is ἔωραι. Some have fancied it may have had some connexion with the images of Bacchus (oscilla) hung up in the trees. See Virg. G. ii. 389.
[68] There is probably some corruption in this passage: it is clearly unintelligible as it stands.
[69] Σκευοποιὸς, a maker of masks, etc. for the stage; μιμητὴς, an actor.
[70] See Iliad, ix. 186.
Τὸν δ' εὗρον φρένα τερπόμενον φόρμιγγι λιγείῃ,
καλῇ, δαιδαλέῃ, ἐπὶ δ' ἀργύρεος ζύγος ἤεν
τὴν ἄρετ' ἐξ ἐνάρων πτόλιν Ἠετίωνος ὀλέσσας
Τῃ ὅγε θυμὸν ἔτερπεν, ἄειδε δ' ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν.
Which is translated by Pope:—
Amused at ease the godlike man they found,
Pleased with the solemn harp's harmonious sound,
(The well-wrought harp from conquer'd Thebæ came,
Of polish'd silver was its costly frame.)
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.—Iliad, ix. 245.
[71] Odyss. xvii. 262.
[72] Iliad, i. 603.
[73] This story is related by Herodotus, vi. 126.
[74] See Herodotus, i. 55.
[75] Κίνησις, motion.
[76] From ὄσχη, a vine-branch with grapes on it, and φέρω, to bear.
[77] It is not known what part of the theatre this was.
[78] Iliad, xxiii. 2.
[79] Odyss. xii. 423.
[80] "This passage perplexes me on two accounts; first of all because I have not been able to find such a line in Homer; and secondly because I do not see what is faulty or weak in it; and it cannot be because it is a spondaic verse, for of that kind there are full six hundred in Homer. The other line comes from Iliad, ii. 731."—Schweigh.
[81] Iliad, xii. 208.
[82] There is a difficulty again here, for there is no such line found in Homer; the line most like it is—
Καλὴ Καστιάνειρα, δέμας εἰκυῖα θεῆσι.—Iliad, viii. 305.
In which, however, there is no incorrectness or defect at all.
[83] Odyss. ix. 212.
[84] Iliad, ix. 157.
[85] Odyss. i. 237.
[86] The Κάρνεια were a great national festival, celebrated by the Spartans in honour of Apollo Carneius, under which name he was worshipped in several places in Peloponnesus, especially at Amyclæ, even before the return of the Heraclidæ. It was a warlike festival, like the Attic Boedromia. The Carnea were celebrated also at Cyrene, Messene, Sybaris, Sicyon, and other towns.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. in voc.
[87] From κλέπτω, to steal,—to injure privily.
καίτοι τί δεῖ
λύρας ἐπι τοῦτον, ποῦ 'στιν ἡ τοῖς ὀστράκοις
αὔτη κροτοῦσα; δεῦρο Μοῦσ' Εὐμιπίδου.—Ar. Ranæ, 1305.
[89] The Greek word is χρώματα: "As a technical term in Greek music, χρῶμα was a modification of the simplest or diatonic music; but there were also χρώματα as further modifications of all the three common kinds (diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic)." Liddell and Scott, in voc. Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant. v. Music, p. 625 a, calls them χρόαι, and says there were six of them; one in the enharmonic genus, often called simply ἁρμονία; two in the diatonic, 1st, διάτονον σίντονον, or simply διάτονον, the same as the genus; 2d, διάτονον μαλακόν: and three in the chromatic, 1st,χρῶμα τονιαῖον, or simply χρῶμα, the same as the genus; 2d, χρῶμα ἡμιόλιον; 3d, χρῶμα μαλακόν. V. loc.
[90] The Saturnalia originally took place on the 19th of December; in the time of Augustus, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th: but the merrymaking in reality appears to have lasted seven days. Horace speaks of the licence then permitted to the slaves:—
"Age, libertate Decembri,
Quando ita majores voluerunt, utere—narra."—Sat. ii. 7. 4.
—Vide Smith, Gr. Lat. Ant.
[91] Pind. Ol. i. 80.
[92] Ar. Vespæ, 1216.
[93] Βίος ἀληλεσμένος, a civilised life, in which one uses ground corn, and not raw fruits.—Liddell and Scott in voc. ἀλέω.
[94] This was a Thebes in Asia, so called by Homer (Iliad, vi. 397), as being at the foot of a mountain called Placia, or Placos.
[95] The ἡμίνα was equal to a κοτύλη, and held about half a pint.
[96] These are all names of different kinds of cheesecakes which cannot be distinguished from one another in an English translation.
[97] Eur. Cycl. 393.
[98] This is the name given to the Peloponnesus by Homer,—
ἐξ Ἀπίης γαίης—II. iii. 49,—
where Damm says the name is derived from some ancient king named Apis; but he adds that the name Ἀπία is also used merely as meaning distant (γῆν ἀπὸ ἀφεστῶσαν καὶ ἀλλοδάπην), as is plain from what Ulysses says of himself to the Phæacians—
καὶ γὰρ ἔγω ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἔνθαδ' ἱκάνω
τηλόθεν ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης.—Odyss. vii. 25.
[99] This fragment is full of corruptions. I have adopted the reading and interpretation of Casaubon.
[100] There is probably some corruption here.
[101] There is probably some great corruption here; for Posidonius was a contemporary of Cicero.
[102] There is a dispute whether this word ought to be written Tromilican or Stromilican. The city of Tromilea is mentioned nowhere else.
[103] Eur. Cycl. 136.
[104] Homer, Iliad, iii. 292.
[105] Homer, Iliad, iii, 116.
[106] Homer, Iliad, xix. 250.
[107] Who these seven first-class authors were, whether tragedians or comic poets, or both, or whether there was one selection of tragic and another of comic poets, each classed as a sort of "Pleias Ptolemæi Philadelphi ætate nobilitata," is quite uncertain.
[108] This passage is abandoned as corrupt by Schweighauser.
BOOK XV.
1.
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,[109]
as the all-accomplished Euripides says, my good Timocrates—