Book 14
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Eggs too often formed a part of the second course, as did hares and thrushes, which were served up with the honey-cakes; as we find mentioned by Antiphanes in the Leptiniscus, where he says,— A. Would you drink Thasian wine? B. No doubt, if any one Fills me a goblet with it. A. Then what think you Of almonds? B. I feel very friendly to them, They mingle well with honey. A. If a man Should bring you honied cheesecakes? B. I should eat them, And swallow down an egg or two besides. And in his Things resembling one another, he says,— Then he introduced a dance, and after that he served up A second course, provided well with every kind of dainty. And Amphis, in his Gynæcomania, says,— A. Did you e'er hear of what they call a ground βίος ἀληλεσμένος, a civilised life, in which one uses ground corn, and not raw fruits.—Liddell and Scott in voc. ἀλέω. life? . . . . . . . . 'tis clearly Cheesecakes, sweet wine, eggs, cakes of sesame, Perfumes, and crowns, and female flute-players. B. Castor and Pollux! why you have gone through The names of all the dozen gods at once. Anaxandrides, in his Clowns, says,— And when I had my garland on my head, They brought in the dessert (ἡ τράπεζα), in which there were So many dishes, that, by all the gods, And goddesses too, I hadn't the least idea There were so many different things i' th' house; And never did I live so well as then. Clearchus says in his Pandrosus,— A. Have water for your hands: B. By no means, thank you; I'm very comfortable as I am. A. Pray have some; You'll be no worse at all events. Boy, water! And put some nuts and sweetmeats on the table. And Eubulus, in his Campylion, says,— A. Now is your table loaded well with sweetmeats. B. I am not always very fond of sweetmeats. Alexis, too, says in his Polyclea, (Polyclea was the name of a courtesan,)— He was a clever man who first invented The use of sweetmeats; for he added thus A pleasant lengthening to the feast, and saved men From unfill'd mouths and idle jaws unoccupied. And in his Female Likeness (but this same play is attributed also to Antidotus) he says,— A. I am not one, by Aesculapius! To care excessively about my supper; I'm fonder of dessert. B. 'Tis very well. A. For I do hear that sweetmeats are in fashion, For suitors when they're following . . . B. Their brides,— A. To give them cheesecakes, hares, and thrushes too, These are the things I like; but pickled fish And soups and sauces I can't bear, ye gods! But Apion and Diodorus, as Pamphilus tells us, assert that the sweetmeats brought in after supper are also called ἐπαίκλεια.
