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Cookery Among the Ancients: Greek

Athenæus, in particular, presents the Greek and Oriental kitchens in all their aspects, and, with his marvellous erudition, proves himself a very Burton of gastronomy-the most accomplished Master of Feasts that antiquity has produced. To turn the pages of the "Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned" is to enter a larder of which he only holds the key. Thus he introduces Damoxenus, the old Greek comic writer, who picturesquely portrays a master cook of the period, superintending his saucepans and direct ing the preparation of the feast: "I never enter in my kitchen, I!

But sit apart, and in the cool, direct, Observant of what passes, scullions toil.

I guide the mighty whole, Explore the causes, prophesy the dish. 'T is thus I speak: 'Leave, leave that ponderous ham; Keep up the fire, and lively play the flame Beneath those lobster patties;' 'Patient here, Fix't as a statue, skim, incessant skim.' 'Steep well this small glociscus in its sauce, And boil that sea-dog in a cullender.' 'This eel requires more salt and marjoram;' 'Roast well that piece of kid on either side Equal;' 'That sweetbread boil not over much.' 'T is thus, my friend, I make the concert play.

And then no useless dish my table crowds.

Harmonious ranged, and consonantly just, As in a concert instruments resound, My ordered dishes in their courses chime."

The ideal cook is depicted with equal picturesqueness in a lengthy tribute by Dionysius wherein he thus sums up his qualifications, — "Know on thyself thy genius must depend.

All books of cookery, all helps of art, All critic learning, all commenting notes, Are vain, if void of genius thou wouldst cook!"

Cratinus, in his play of the "Giants," extols the merits of Sicilian cookery: "Consider now how sweet the earth doth smell, How fragrantly the smoke ascends to heaven:

There lives, I fancy, here within this cave, Some perfume-seller, or Sicilian cook."

And Hegesander, in his "Brothers," presents an archimagirus, proud as Lucifer, who sings his own praises in the following grandiloquent strain: "When I am call'd to serve a funeral supper, The mourners just return'd, silent and sad, Clothed in funereal habits-I but raise The cover of my pot, and every face Assumes a smile, the tears are wash'd away.

Charm'd with the grateful flavour, they believe They are invited to a wedding-feast. • Let me but have the necessary means, A kitchen amply stored, and you shall see That like enchantment I will spread around A charm as powerful as the siren's voice.

You know not yet The worth of him you speak to look on those Whom you see seated round, not one of them But would his fortune risk to make me his."

Philemon, in turn, the witty Athenian bard, represents a cook as pluming himself upon his cunning, and saying: "Those who are dead already, when they 've smelled One of my dishes, come to life again."

Anthippus, too, presents a graduate of the range who was no less proficient in the resources of his art, and who devised his dishes according to the age of those who were to partake of them,- "Insensible the palate of old age, More difficult than the soft lips of youth To move, I put much mustard in their dish; With quickening sauces make their stupor keen, And lash the lazy blood that creeps within."

Nor does Athenæus fail to depict a glutton of the period, transcribed from Pherecrates: "A. I-scarcely in one day, unless I 'm forced, Can eat two bushels and a half of food.

B.

A most unhappy man! how have you lost Your appetite, so as now to be content With the scant rations of one ship of war?"

Milo of Crotona, Titormus the Ætolian, and Astydamas the Milesian were still more celebrated; and even Ulysses in his old age is represented by Homer as eating "endless dishes" and quaffing "unceasing cups of wine." Gargantua and Pantagruel evidently existed long before the days of Rabelais, and time will run back to fetch the age of gluttony, as well as that of gold.

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