When Cynulcus had said this, and when no one applauded him, he got out of temper; and said,—But since these men, O you master of the feast, are made so uncomfortable by a Diarrhœa of words as to feel no hunger; or perhaps, it may be that they laugh at what is said about lentils, (having in their mind what is said by Pherecrates, in his Coriander—
A. Come now, I'll sit me down; and bring me here,Since then, on this account, these wise men guard against the lentils, at all events cause some bread to be given to us, with a little plain food; no expensive dishes, but any of those vulgar lentils, if you have them, or what is called lentil soup. And when every one laughed, especially at the idea of the lentil soup, he said, You are very ignorant men, you feasters, never having read any books, which are the only things to instruct those who desire what is good. I mean the books of the Silli of Timon the Pyrrhonian. For he it is who speaks of lentil soup, in the second book of his Silli, writing as follows:—
O slave, a table, and a cup of wine,
That I may eat to flavour what I drink.
B. Here is a cup, a table, and some lentils.
A. No lentils bring to me, I like them not:
For if one eats them, they do taint the breath.)—
The Teian barley-cakes do please me not,For though the barley-cakes of Teos are preeminently good, (as also are those from Eretria, as Sopater says, in his Suitors of Bacchis, where he says—
Nor e'en the Lydian sauces: but the Greeks,
And their dry lentil soup, delight me more
Than all that painful luxury of excess.
We came to Eretria, for its white meal famed;)and also, the Lydian sauces; still Timon prefers the lentil soup to both of them put together.
