The Deipnosophistae (deipnon, "dinner", and sophistai, "professors"; original Greek title Deipnosophistai, English Deipnosophists) may be translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner or The Gastronomers.

The Deipnosophists is a long work of literary and antiquarian research by the Hellenistic author Athenaeus of Naucratis in Egypt, written in Rome in the early second century. The protagonist is Ulpian, the host of a leisurely banquet whose main purpose is literary, historical and antiquarian conversation. Characters include grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians and hangers-on. The Hellenistic period of Greek history was the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which... Athenaeus (ca. ... Naucratis (nŏk´retĬs), was an ancient city of Egypt, on the Canopic branch of the Nile, 45 mi (72 km) SE of Alexandria. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 km²  (496. ...

Contents

The Deipnosophistae professes to be an account given by the author to his friend Timocrates of a series of banquets (apparently three) held at the house of Larensius, a scholar and wealthy patron of art. It is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, although each conversation is so long that, realistically, it would occupy several days. Among the twenty-nine guests, Galen, Ulpian and Plutarch are named, but all are probably to be taken as fictitious personages, and the majority take little or no part in the conversation. If Ulpian is identical with the famous jurist, the Deipnosophistae must have been written after his death in 228; but the jurist was murdered by the praetorian guards, whereas Ulpian in Athenaeus dies a natural death. Greek: Γαληνός, Latin: Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (129 – 200 AD), better known in English as Galen, was an ancient Greek physician. ... Domitius Ulpianus, Anglicized as Ulpian, (died 228) was a Roman jurist of Tyrian ancestry. ... Plutarch Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46- 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was an Hellenistic historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ... The Praetorian Guard of Augustus - 1st century. ...

The work is invaluable for providing fictionalized information about the Hellenistic literary world of the leisured class during the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. ...

To the majority of modern readers, even more useful is the wealth of information provided in the Deipnosophists about earlier Greek literature. In the course of discussing classic authors, the participants make quotations, long and short, from the works of about 700 earlier Greek authors and 2,500 separate writings, many of them otherwise unrecorded. Food and wine, luxury, music, sexual mores, literary gossip and philology are among the major topics of discussion, and the stories behind many artworks such as the Venus Kallipygos are also transmitted in its pages. Callipygian-type Venus, Naples The Callipygian Venus or Venus Kallipygos, (In Greek, Aphrodite Kallipygos: Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks), is a type of nude female statue of the Hellenistic era. ...

Food and cookery

The Deipnosophists is an important source of cookery recipes in classical Greek. It quotes the original text of one recipe from the lost cookbook by Mithaecus, the oldest in Greek and the oldest recipe by a named author in any language. Other authors quoted for their recipes include Glaucus of Locri, Dionysius, Epaenetus, Hegesippus of Tarentum, Erasistratus, Diocles of Carystus, Philistion of Locri, Euthydemus of Athens, Chrysippus of Tyana and Paxamus. Erasistratus of Chios (330? BC - 250? BC) was a Greek anatomist. ... Diocles of Carystus (in Greek Διοκλης o Καρυστιος; lived 4th century BC), a very celebrated Greek physician, was born at Carystus in Euboea, lived not long after the time of Hippocrates, to whom Pliny says he was next in age and fame. ...

Homosexuality

In addition to its main focuses, the text offers an unusually clear portrait of pederasty in late Hellenism. Book XIII holds a wealth of information for studies of homosexuality in Roman Greece. The subject is discussed without restraint; many famous boy-lovers are mentioned, including Alcibiades, Charmides, Autolycus, Pausanias and Sophocles. Furthermore, numerous books and plays on the subject are mentioned, including The Pederasts by Diphilus, Ganymede, On Love by Heraclides of Pontus, The Effeminates by Cratinus, with sidelights on Aeschylus and Sophocles. The term pederasty or paederasty embraces a wide range of erotic practices between adult males and adolescent boys. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual and romantic attraction between two individuals of the same sex. ... Roman Greece is the period of Greek history following the Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC until the reestablishment of the city of Byzantium and the naming of the city by Emperor Constantine I as the capital of the Roman Empire (as Nova... Alcibiades Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (also Alkibiades) (Greek: Αλκιβιάδης Κλεινίου Σκαμβωνίδης)¹ (c. ... The Charmides is a dialogue of Plato, discussing the nature and utility of temperance. ... The name Autolycus refers to several people: In Greek mythology, Autolycus, or Autólykos was the son of Chione and Hermes and father of Anticlea and several sons, of whom only Aesimus is named. ... Pausanias is the name of several ancient people: Pausanias was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC. Pausanias of Sparta was King of Sparta from 409 BC-395 BC. Pausanias was the servant/lover who assassinated Philip II of Macedon in 336 BC Pausanias, Greek traveller and geographer of... Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk familjebok. ... Diphilus, of Sinope, poet of the new Attic comedy and contemporary of Menander (342-291 BC). ... Cratinus (c. ... Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Ασχύλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. ... Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk familjebok. ...

Survival and reception

The Deipnosophistae was originally in fifteen books. The work survives in one manuscript from which the whole of books 1 and 2, and some other pages too, disappeared long ago. An Epitome or abridgment was made in medieval times, and survives complete: from this it is possible to read the missing sections, though in a disjointed form.

The encyclopaedist Sir Thomas Browne wrote a short essay on Athenaeus which reflects a revived interest in the Banquet of the Learned amongst scholars following the publication of the Deipnosophistae in 1612 by the Classical scholar Isaac Casaubon. Browne wrote of it: Sir Thomas Browne (October 19, 1605 - October 19, 1682) was an English author of varied works that disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. ... Athenaeus (ca. ... Isaac Casaubon (February 18, 1559 - July 1, 1614) was a classical scholar, first in France then later in England, regarded by many at the time as the most learned in Europe. ...

Would that a little part survived of the writers from whom Athenaeus quotes, scattered here and there, notable, startling or amusing sayings, and whets the appetite of his eager reader..... Mimes, fools, parasites, lute-girls are bearable and not inappropriate amusement for a drinking party. There is a most amusing story in Athenaeus about the boys in the inn at Agrigentum. They are so mad with drink that they think they are sailing in a ship tossed about by a wild storm. To lighten the ship they throw out all the carpets and crockery, call the police 'mermen', offer rewards for their rescue to those who reproach them, and do not even return to their senses when the onlookers take their things.

In the Victorian era a critic characterized the Deipnosophists and its author thus: Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian Era of Great Britain marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ...

the somewhat greasy heap of a literary rag-and-bone-picker like Athenaeus is turned to gold by time.

Modern readers question whether the Deipnosophistae genuinely evokes a literary symposium of learned disquisitions on a range of subjects suitable for such an occasion, or whether it has a satirical edge, rehashing the cultural clichés of the urbane literati of its day.

References

• Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists ed. and tr. C. B. Gulick. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927-41. 7 vols.
• Athenaei Dipnosophistarum epitome ed. S. P. Peppink. Leiden, 1937-9.
• Athenaeus and his world: reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire ed. David Braund, John Wilkins. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
• Food in antiquity ed. John Wilkins, David Harvey, Mike Dobson. Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1995.
• Andrew Dalby, Siren feasts: a history of food and gastronomy in Greece (London: Routledge, 1996) especially pp. 168-180.
• Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a sourcebook of basic documents ed. Thomas K. Hubbard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) pp. 76-82 (translation of a passage from book 13).
• Warren Johansson, 'Athenaeus' in Encyclopedia of Homosexuality ed. Wayne R. Dynes (Garland Publishing, 1990) p. 87.

External links

• The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus presented online by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
• From a reading of Athenaeus, British Museum Sloane MS no. 1827
• Extracts from book 12 of the Deipnosophists concerning homosexuality
• Extracts from book 13 of the Deipnosophists
• on-line version of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality article referenced above
• Searchable text