Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/269

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And again, in the play entitled the Sphinx, he says—

Give the stranger a [Greek: stephanos] (garland), the ancient [Greek: stephos],— This is the best of chains, as we may judge From great Prometheus.

But Sappho gives a more simple reason for our wearing garlands, speaking as follows—

But place those garlands on thy lovely hair, Twining the tender sprouts of anise green With skilful hand; for offerings of flowers Are pleasing to the gods, who hate all those Who come before them with uncrownèd heads.

In which lines she enjoins all who offer sacrifice to wear garlands on their heads, as they are beautiful things, and acceptable to the Gods. Aristotle also, in his Banquet, says, "We never offer any mutilated gift to the Gods, but only such as are perfect and entire; and what is full is entire, and crowning anything indicates filling it in some sort. So Homer says—

The slaves the goblets crown'd with rosy wine;

And in another place he says—

But God plain forms with eloquence does crown.

That is to say, eloquence in speaking makes up in the case of some men for their personal ugliness. Now this is what the [Greek: stephanos] seems intended to do, on which account, in times of mourning, we do exactly the contrary. For wishing to testify our sympathy for the dead, we mutilate ourselves by cutting our hair, and by putting aside our garlands."

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