Book 4
70
But there was another class of men somewhat different from the cooks, called τραπεζοποιοὶ, setters out of tables. But what their office was is plainly stated by Antiphanes, in his Sojourner— Hither I come, and bring this table-setter, Who soon shall wash the cloths, and trim the lamps, Prepare the glad libations, and do every thing Which to his office may pertain. And it is worth inquiring whether the τραπεζοκόμος is the same person as the τραπεζοποιός. For king Juba, in his treatise on Similitudes, says that the τραπεζοκόμος is the same person who is called by the Romans structor, quoting from the play of Alexander, which is entitled Potation— Now for to-morrow I must get a flute-player, A table-setter, and a workman too. This was my master's reason for despatching me On this commision from his country seat. But they called him τραπεζοποιὸς who took care of the tables, and of everything else which required order and good mnagement. Philemon says, in his The Uninvited Guest— There is no need of long deliberation About the kitchen, for the table-setter Is bound to look to that; that is his office. They also used the word ἐπιτραπεζώματα, meaning by th s the food which was placed upon the table. Plato says, in the Menelaus— How little now is left of the ἐπιτραπεζώματα. They also called the man who bought the meat, the Ἀγοραστὴς, but now they call him ὀψωνάτωρ, an officer whom Xenophon mentions, in the secondThis is a mistake; the passage occurs in the first book. book of the Memorabilia, speaking thus:—Could we expect to get a steward and buyer of such a character for nothing But the same word is used in a more general sense by Menander, in his Phanius— He was a thrifty and a moderate buyer (ἀγοραστής): And Aristophanes calls him ὀψώνης, in his Tagenistæ, saying— How the purveyor (ὀψώνης) seems to delay our supper. Cratinus, too, uses the verb παροψωνέω, in his Cleobulinæ, where he says * * * * * * And Alexis uses the verb παραγοράζω, in the same sense, (to buy dainty side-dishes,) in his Dropidas.
