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The Deipnosophistae (deipnon, "dinner", and sophistai, "professors"; original Greek title 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 author Athenaeus of Naucratis in Egypt, written in Rome in the early 2nd century AD. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Athenaeus ( Ancient Greek - Athếnaios Naukratios Latin Athenaeus Naucratita of Naucratis in Egypt Greek rhetorician and grammarian flourished Naucratis or Naukratis, (Ναύκρατις loosely translated as "(the city that wields power over ships" (Piemro in Egyptian, now Kom Gieif was a Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. 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

Contents

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. Galen ( Greek: Γαληνός Galēnos; Latin: Claudius Galenus, Aelius Galenus, Claudius Aelius Galenus, or Domitius Ulpianus (died 228 anglicized as Ulpian, was a Roman Jurist of Tyrian ancestry Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c 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 guards, whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death. Events By Place Roman Empire The Praetorian guard kill Ulpian, Praetorian prefect, who had wanted to reduce their The Praetorian Guard ( Latin: PRÆTORIANI was a special force of Guards used by Roman Emperors Before being appropriated

The work is invaluable for providing fictionalized information about the Hellenistic literary world of the leisured class during the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial 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. The Callipygian Venus or Venus Kallipygos, (Ἀφροδίτη Καλλίπυγος Aphrodite Kallipygos, " Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks"

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. Mithaecus (in Greek Mithaikos) was a cook and cookbook author of the late 5th century BC. Other authors quoted for their recipes include Glaucus of Locri, Dionysius, Epaenetus, Hegesippus of Tarentum, Erasistratus, Diocles of Carystus, Timachidas of Rhodes, Philistion of Locri, Euthydemus of Athens, Chrysippus of Tyana and Paxamus. Epaenetus may refer to the following persons Epaenetus ( Greek:Ἐπαίνετος praised) a Christian at Rome to whom Paul Erasistratus of Chios (304 BC- 250 BC was a Greek anatomist and royal physician under Seleucus I Nicator of Syria Diocles of Carystus (in Greek Διοκλῆς ὁ Καρύστιος; lived 4th century BC) a very celebrated Greek physician was born at Timachidas of Rhodes in Lindos was a Grammarian of about 100 BC.

Homosexuality

In addition to its main focuses, the text offers an unusually clear portrait of pederasty in late Hellenism. Pederasty or paederasty refers to an erotic relationship sexually expressed or not between an adolescent boy and an adult male outside his immediate family Book XIII holds a wealth of information for studies of homosexuality in Roman Greece. Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Roman Greece is the period of Greek history (of Greece proper as opposed to the other centers of Hellenism in the Roman world following the Roman victory over The subject is discussed without restraint; many famous boy-lovers are mentioned, including Alcibiades, Charmides, Autolycus, Pausanias and Sophocles. Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (ˌælsɨˈbaɪədiːz (pronunciation Greek:, transliterated Alkibiádēs Kleiníou Skambōnidēs) meaning Alcibiades Charmides was an Athenian statesman and one of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War. In Greek mythology, Autolycus (in Greek, &ndash " Lone Wolf " was a son of Hermes and Chione. Pausanias, an Athenian of the Deme Kerameis, was the lover of the poet Agathon. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa 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. Diphilus, of Sinope, was a poet of the new Attic comedy and contemporary of Menander ( 342 - 291 BC) Cratinus ( Greek Κρᾰτῖνος, ca 520 BC- after 423 BC Athenian comic Poet. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa

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. Sir Thomas Browne ( October 19, 1605 &ndash October 19, 1682) was an English author of varied works which disclose his wide learning Athenaeus ( Ancient Greek - Athếnaios Naukratios Latin Athenaeus Naucratita of Naucratis in Egypt Greek rhetorician and grammarian flourished Isaac Casaubon ( February 18 1559 &ndash July 1 1614) was a classical scholar and Philologist, first in France 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. James Russell Lowell (February 22 1819 – August 12 1891 was an American Romantic poet critic editor and Diplomat.

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

External links

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