Deipnosophistae
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2008-01-27T09:17:08Z
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/* Food and cookery */
The '''Deipnosophistae''' (''deipnon'', "dinner", and ''sophistai'', "professors"; original Greek title ''{{polytonic|Δειπνοσοφισταί}}'', ''Deipnosophistai'', English ''Deipnosophists'') may be translated as ''The Banquet of the Learned'' or ''Philosophers at Dinner'' or ''The Gastronomers''. The ''Deipnosophists'' is a long work of literary and antiquarian research by the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] author [[Athenaeus]] of [[Naucratis]] in Egypt, written in [[Rome]] in the early [[2nd century]] AD. The protagonist is Ulpian, the host of a leisurely banquet whose main purpose is literary, historical and antiquarian conversation. Characters include grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians and hangers-on.
==Contents==<!-- This section is linked from [[Athenaeus]] -->
The ''Deipnosophistae'' professes to be an account given by the author to his friend Timocrates of a series of banquets (apparently three) held at the house of Larensius, a scholar and wealthy patron of art. It is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, although each conversation is so long that, realistically, it would occupy several days. Among the twenty-nine guests, [[Galen]], [[Ulpian]] and [[Plutarch]] are named, but all are probably to be taken as fictitious personages, and the majority take little or no part in the conversation. If Ulpian is identical with the famous jurist, the ''Deipnosophistae'' must have been written after his death in [[228]]; but the jurist was murdered by the [[praetorian guard]]s, whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death.
The work is invaluable for providing fictionalized information about the Hellenistic literary world of the leisured class during the [[Roman Empire]]. To the majority of modern readers, even more useful is the wealth of information provided in the ''Deipnosophists'' about earlier Greek literature. In the course of discussing classic authors, the participants make quotations, long and short, from the works of about 700 earlier Greek authors and 2,500 separate writings, many of them otherwise unrecorded. Food and wine, luxury, music, sexual mores, literary gossip and philology are among the major topics of discussion, and the stories behind many artworks such as the [[Venus Kallipygos]] are also transmitted in its pages.
===Food and cookery===
The ''Deipnosophists'' is an important source of cookery recipes in classical Greek. It quotes the original text of one recipe from the lost cookbook by [[Mithaecus]], the oldest in Greek and the oldest recipe by a named author in any language. Other authors quoted for their recipes include [[Glaucus of Locri]], [[Dionysius, author on cookery|Dionysius]], [[Epaenetus]], [[Hegesippus of Tarentum]], [[Erasistratus]], [[Diocles of Carystus]], [[Timachidas of Rhodes]], [[Philistion of Locri]], [[Euthydemus of Athens]], [[Chrysippus of Tyana]] and [[Paxamus]].
===Homosexuality===
In addition to its main focuses, the text offers an unusually clear portrait of [[pederasty]] in late Hellenism. Book XIII holds a wealth of information for studies of [[homosexuality]] in [[Roman Greece]]. The subject is discussed without restraint; many famous boy-lovers are mentioned, including [[Alcibiades]], [[Charmides]], [[Autolycus]], [[Pausanias (Athenian)|Pausanias]] and [[Sophocles]]. Furthermore, numerous books and plays on the subject are mentioned, including ''The Pederasts'' by [[Diphilus]], ''Ganymede'', ''On Love'' by Heraclides of Pontus, ''The Effeminates'' by [[Cratinus]], with sidelights on [[Aeschylus]] and [[Sophocles]].
==Survival and reception==
The ''Deipnosophistae'' was originally in fifteen books. The work survives in one manuscript from which the whole of books 1 and 2, and some other pages too, disappeared long ago. An ''Epitome'' or abridgment was made in medieval times, and survives complete: from this it is possible to read the missing sections, though in a disjointed form. The encyclopaedist [[Sir Thomas Browne]] wrote a short essay on [[Athenaeus]] which reflects a revived interest in the ''Banquet of the Learned '' amongst scholars following the publication of the ''Deipnosophistae'' in 1612 by the Classical scholar [[Isaac Casaubon]]. Browne wrote of it:
:Would that a little part survived of the writers from whom Athenaeus quotes, scattered here and there, notable, startling or amusing sayings, and whets the appetite of his eager reader..... Mimes, fools, parasites, lute-girls are bearable and not inappropriate amusement for a drinking party. There is a most amusing story in Athenaeus about the boys in the inn at Agrigentum. They are so mad with drink that they think they are sailing in a ship tossed about by a wild storm. To lighten the ship they throw out all the carpets and crockery, call the police 'mermen', offer rewards for their rescue to those who reproach them, and do not even return to their senses when the onlookers take their things.
Writing in 1867, poet [[James Russell Lowell]] characterized the ''Deipnosophists'' and its author thus:
:the somewhat greasy heap of a literary rag-and-bone-picker like Athenaeus is turned to gold by time.
Modern readers question whether the ''Deipnosophistae'' genuinely evokes a literary symposium of learned disquisitions on a range of subjects suitable for such an occasion, or whether it has a satirical edge, rehashing the cultural clichés of the urbane literati of its day.
==References==
*Athenaeus, ''The Deipnosophists'' ed. and tr. C. B. Gulick. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927-41. 7 vols.
*''Athenaei Dipnosophistarum epitome'' ed. S. P. Peppink. Leiden, 1937-9.
*''Athenaeus and his world: reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire'' ed. David Braund, John Wilkins. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
*''Food in antiquity'' ed. John Wilkins, David Harvey, Mike Dobson. Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1995.
*Andrew Dalby, ''Siren feasts: a history of food and gastronomy in Greece'' (London: Routledge, 1996) especially pp. 168-180.
*''Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a sourcebook of basic documents'' ed. Thomas K. Hubbard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) pp. 76-82 (translation of a passage from book 13).
*Warren Johansson, 'Athenaeus' in ''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'' ed. Wayne R. Dynes (Garland Publishing, 1990) p. 87.
==External links==
{{wikiquote|Athenaeus}}
*[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Literature.DeipnoSub The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus] presented online by the [http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center]
*[[s:From a reading of Athenaeus|From a reading of Athenaeus, British Museum Sloane MS no. 1827]]
*[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/athenaeus13.html Extracts from book 12 of the ''Deipnosophists'' concerning homosexuality]
*[http://members.aol.com/heliogabby/deipnon/deipnon.htm Extracts from book 13 of the ''Deipnosophists'']
*[http://williamapercy.com/pub-EncyHom.htm on-line version of the ''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'' article referenced above]
*[http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Literature/subcollections/DeipnoSubAbout.shtml Searchable text]
[[Category:2nd century books]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek works]]
[[Category:Pederasty in ancient Greece]]
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