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The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the learned
The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the learned Author:Athenaeus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK VII. 1. And when the Banquet was now finished, the cynics, thinking that the festival of the Phagesia was being celebrated, were delighted above all thin... more »gs, and Cynulcus said, —While we are supping, O Ulpian, since it is on words that you are feasting us, I propose to you this question,—In what author do you find any mention of the festivals called Phagesia, and Phagesiposia ? And he, hesitating, and bidding the slaves desist from carrying the dishes round, though it was now evening, said,—I do not recollect, iyou very wise man, so that you may tell us yourself, in order that you may sup more abundantly and more pleasantly. And he rejoined, —If you will promise to thank me when I have told you, I will tell you. And as he agreed to thank him, he continued; —Clearchus, the pupil of Aristotle, but a Solensian by birth, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures, (for I recollect his very expressions, because I took a great fancy to them,) speaks as follows :—" Phagesia—but some call the festival Phagesiposia—but this festival has ceased, as also has that of the Rhapsodists, which they celebrated about the time, of the Dionysiac festival, in which every one a5 they passed by sang a hymn to the god by way of doing'him honour." Tnis is what Clearchus wrote. And if you doubt it, my fricrd, I, who have got the book, will not mind lending H to you. And you may learn a good deal from it, an4 get a gret many questions to ask us out of it. For he relates thiiu Gallic ths Athenian composed a Grammatical Tragedy, from which Euripides in his Medea, and Sophocles in his CEdipus, derived their choruses and the arrangement of their plot. 2. And when all the guests marvelled at the literary accomplishments of Cynulcus, Plutarch said,—In like manner there used to be celebrated in my own...« less