Book 14
79
And that in those days the cook's profession was a respectable one, we may learn from the Heralds at Athens. For these men used to perform the duties of cooks and also of sacrificers of victims, as Clidemus tells us, in the first book of his Protogony; and Homer uses the verb ῥέζω, as we use θύω; but he uses θύω as we do θυμιάω, for burning cakes and incense after supper. And the ancients used also to employ the verb δράω for to sacrifice; accordingly Clidemus says, The heralds used to sacrifice (ἕδρων) for a long time slaying the oxen, and preparing them, and cutting them up, and pouring wine over them. And they were called κήρυκες from the hero Ceryx; and there is nowhere any record of any reward being given to a cook, but only to a herald. For Agamemnon in Homer, although he is king, performs sacrifices himself; for the poet says— With that the chief the tender victims slew, And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw; The vital spirit issued at the wound, And left the members quivering on the ground. Homer, Iliad, iii. 292.
