Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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But Homer, though he was well acquainted with the nature of perfume, has never introduced any of his heroes as perfumed except Paris; when he says, “glittering with beauty,” as in another place he says that Venus—

With every beauty every feature arms,
Bids her cheeks glow, and lights up all her charms.¹

Nor does he ever represent them as wearing crowns, although by some of his similes and metaphors he shows that he knew of garlands. At all events he speaks of

That lovely isle crown'd by the foaming waves,²

And again he says—

For all around the crown of battle swells.³

We must remark, too, that in the Odyssey he represents his characters as washing their hands before they partake of food. But in the Iliad there is no trace of such a custom. For the life described in the Odyssey is that of men living easily and luxuriously owing to the peace; on which account the men [p. 31] of that time indulged their bodies with baths and washings. And that is the reason why in that state of things they play at dice, and dance, and play ball. But Herodotus is mistaken when he says that those sports were invented in he time of Atys to amuse the people during the famine. For the heroic times are older than Atys. And the men living in the time of the Iliad are almost constantly crying out—

Raise the battle cry so clear,
Prelude to the warlike spear.