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

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Formerly the entrance of garlands and perfumes into the banqueting rooms, used to herald the approach of the second course, as we may learn from Nicostratus in his Pseudostigmatias, where, in the following lines, he says—

And you too,
Be sure and have the second course quite neat;
Adorn it with all kinds of rich confections,
Perfumes, and garlands, aye, and frankincense,
And girls to play the flute.

[p. 1095] But Philoxenus the Dithyrambic poet, in his poem entitled The Banquet, represents the garland as entering into the commencement of the banquet, using the following language:

Then water was brought in to wash the hands,
Which a delicate youth bore in a silver ewe,
Ministering to the guests; and after that
He brought us garlands of the tender myrtle,
Close woven with young richly-colour'd shoots.

And Eubulus, in his Nurses, says—

For when the old men came into the house,
At once they sate them down. Immediately
Garlands were handed round; a well-fill'd board
Was placed before them, and (how good for th' eyes!)
A closely-kneaded loaf of barley bread.

And this was the fashion also among the Egyptians, as Nicostratus says in his Usurer; for, representing the usurer as an Egyptian, he says—

A. We caught the pimp and two of his companions,
When they had just had water for their hands,
And garlands.
B. Sure the time, O Chærophon,
Was most propitious.

But you may go on gorging yourself, O Cynulcus; and when you have done, tell us why Cratinus has called the melilotus “the ever-watching melilotus.” However, as I see you are already a little tipsy (ἔξοινον）—for that is the word Alexis has used for a man thoroughly drunk (μεθύσην), in his Settler— I won't go on teasing you; but I will bid the slaves, as Sophocles says in his Fellow Feasters,

Come, quick! let some one make the barley-cakes,
And fill the goblets deep; for this man now,
Just like a farmer's ox, can't work a bit
Till he has fill'd his belly with good food.

And there is a man of the same kind mentioned by Aristias of Phlius; for he, too, in his play entitled The Fates, says—

The guest is either a boatman or a parasite,
A hanger-on of hell, with hungry belly,
Which nought can satisfy.

However, as he gives no answer whatever to all these things which have been said, I order him (as it is said in the Twins of Alexis) to be carried out of the party, crowned with χύδαιοι garlands. But the comic poet, alluding to χύδαιοι garlands, says—

These garlands all promiscuously (χύδην) woven.

[p. 1096] But, after this, I will not carry on this conversation any fur- there to-day; but will leave the discussion about perfumes to those who choose to continue it: and only desire the boy, on account of this lecture of mine about garlands, as Antiphanes. . . . .

To bring now hither two good garlands,
And a good lamp, with good fire brightly burning;

for then I shall wind up my speech like the conclusion of a play.

And not many days after this, as if he had been prophesying a silence for himself [which should be eternal], he died, happily, without suffering under any long illness, to the great affliction of us his companions.