Book 14
77
For cooks are very frequently represented on the stage as jesting characters; as, for instance, in the Men selecting an Arbitrator, of Menander. And Philemon in one of his plays says— 'Tis a male sphinx, it seems, and not a cook, That I've brought home; for, by the gods I swear, I do not understand one single word Of all he says; so well provided is he With every kind of new expression. But Polemo says, in his writings which are addressed to Timæus, that Mæson was indeed a Megarian, but from Megara in Sicily, and not from Nisæa. And Posidippus speaks of slaves as cooks, in his Woman Shut out, where he says— Thus have these matters happen'd: but just now, While waiting on my master, a good joke Occurr'd to me; I never will be caught Stealing his meat. And, in his Foster Brothers, he says— A. Did you go out of doors, you who were cook? B. If I remain'd within I lost my supper. A. Let me then first . . . . B. Let me alone, I say; I'm going to the forum to sacrifice: A friend of mine, a comrade too in art, Has hired me.
