Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/327

 

(Book iv. § 13, p. 220.)

The feast, for cookery's various cates renown'd, By Attic host bestow'd, O Muse! resound. There too I went, with hunger in my train, And saw the loaves by hundreds pour'd amain, Beauteous to view, and vast beyond compare, Whiter than snow, and sweet as wheaten fare.

Then all to pot-herbs stretch'd their hands in haste, But various viands lured my nicer taste; Choice bulbs, asparagus, and, daintier yet, Fat oysters help my appetite to whet.

Like Thetis' self, the silver-footed dame— Great Nereus' daughter, curly cuttle came; Illustrious fish! that sole amid the brine With equal ease can black and white divine; There too I saw the Tityus of the main, Huge conger—countless plates his bulk sustain. And o'er nine boards he rolls his cumbrous train!

Right up stairs, down stairs, over high and low, The cook, with shoulder'd dishes marches slow, And forty sable pots behind him go.

With these appear'd the Salaminian bands, Thirteen fat ducklings borne by servile hands; Proudly the cook led on the long array, And placed them where the Athenian squadrons lay.

When now the rage of hunger was represt, And the pure lymph had sprinkled every guest, Sweet lilied unguents brought one blooming slave, And one from left to right fresh garlands gave; With Lesbian wine the bowl was quick supplied, Man vied with man to drain the racy tide;