But, my friends, though I admire Chrysippus, the leader of the sect of the Stoics, on many accounts, I also praise him especially for having always classed Archestratus, that man who is so famous for his treatise on Cookery, with Philenis, to whom that indelicate composition about Amatory Pleasures is attributed; which, however, Aeschrion, the iambic poet of Samos, says was written by Polycrates the sophist, and attributed to Philænis for the sake of calumniating her, when she was a most respectable woman. And the iambics, in which this is stated, run as follows:—
I am Philænis, famous among men;Therefore that admirable Chrysippus, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, says—“The books, too, of Philænis, and the Gastronomy of Archestratus, and all the drugs calculated to provoke appetite or sensual desires, and also all the servants who are skilled in such motions and such figures, and whose occupation it is to attend to these things.” And again he says —“That they learn such things, and get hold of the books written on such subjects by Philænis and Archestratus, and by those who have written similar works.” And in his seventh book he says—“Just as it would not be advisable to study the writings of Philænis or the Gastronomy of Archestratus, as tending to make a person live better.”
And here I lie, o'erwhelm'd by long old age.
Do not, O foolish sailor, pass this cape
Laughing and scorning and reproaching me.
For. now I swear by Jove, and by the gods
Who reign below, I never lustful was,
I never made myself a sport to man.
But one Polycrates, of Attic race,
A trashy chatterer, and a false accuser,
Wrote what he wrote; I know not what it was.
