Thesauros Literature miscellany Δειπνοσοφισταί

Δειπνοσοφισταί

Δειπνοσοφισταί Athenaeus of Naucratis

Book 15

17 Now Philonides the physician, in his treatise on Ointments and Garlands, says, "After the vine was introduced into Greece from the Red Sea, and when most people had become addicted to intemperate enjoyment, and had learnt to drink unmixed wine, some of them became quite frantic and out of their minds, while others got so stupified as to resemble the dead. And once, when some men were drinking on the sea-shore, a violent shower came on, and broke up the party, and filled the goblet, which had a little wine left in it, with water. But when it became fine again, the men returned to the same spot, and tasting the new mixture, found that their enjoyment was now not only exquisite, but free from any subsequent pain. And on this account, the Greeks invoke the good Deity at the cup of unmixed wine, which is served round to them at dinner, paying honour to the Deity who invented wine; and that was Bacchus. But when the first cup of mixed wine is handed round after dinner, they then invoke Jupiter the Saviour, thinking him the cause of this mixture of wine which is so unattended with pain, as being the author of rain. Now, those who suffered in their heads after drinking, certainly stood in need of some remedy; and so the binding their heads was what most readily occurred to them, as Nature herself led them to this remedy. For a certain man having a headache, as Andreas says, pressed his head, and found relief, and so invented a ligature as a remedy for headache.

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