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

---

And that it used to be served up after all the rest of the banquet was over, is plainly stated by Nicostratus, in his Man expelled. And it is a cook who is relating how beautiful and well arranged the banquet was which he prepared; and having first of all related what the dinner and supper were composed of, and then mentioning the third meal, proceeds to say—

Well done, my men,—extremely well! but now
I will arrange the rest, and then the ματτύη;
So that I think the man himself will never
Find fault with us again.

And in his Cook he says—

Thrium and candylus he never saw,
Or any of the things which make a ματτύη.

And some one else says—

They brought, instead of a ματτύη, some paunch,
And tender pettitoes, and tripe, perhaps.

But Dionysius, in his Man shot at with Javelins (and it is a cook who is represented speaking), says—

So that sometimes, when I a ματτύη
Was making for them, in haste would bring
(More haste worse speed) . . . . . ¹

Philemon, also, in his Poor Woman—

When one can lay aside one's load, all day
Making and serving out rich μάττυαι.

But Molpis the Lacedæmonian says that what the Spartans call ἐπαίκλεια, that is to say, the second course, which is served up when the main part of the supper is over, is called [p. 1062] μάττυαι by other tribes of Greece. And Menippus the Cynic, in his book called Arcesilaus, writes thus:—“There was a drinking party formed by a certain number of revellers, and a Lacedæmonian woman ordered the ματτύη to be served up; and immediately some little partridges were brought in, and some roasted geese, and some delicious cheesecakes.”

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.