The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men (14-15)

Possibly, said Chersias, but since talk of household management has come up again, who among you will tell us about what was omitted? The topic omitted was, I think, the acquisition of some measure of property which shall be sufficient in itself and adequate.

But, said Cleobulus, for the wise the law has given the measure, but with reference to those of the baser sort I will tell a story of my daughter’s which she told her brother. She said that the moon wanted her mother to weave for her a garment to fit her measure; and the mother said, How can I weave it to fit your measure? For now I see you full and round, and at another time crescent-shaped, and at still another but little more than half your full size. And in the same way you see, my dear Chersias, there is no measure of possessions that can be applied to a foolish and worthless man. Sometimes he is one man and sometimes another in his needs, which vary according to his desires and fortunes; he is like Aesop’s dog, who, as our friend here says, in the winter-time curled up as closely as possible because he was so cold, and was minded to build himself a house, but when summer returned again, and he had stretched himself out to sleep, he appeared to himself so big that he thought it was neither a necessary nor a small task to construct a house large enough to contain him. Have you not often noticed also, Chersias, he continued, those detestable people who at one time restrict themselves to utterly small

limits as though they purposed to live the simple Spartan life, and at another time they think that, unless they have everything possessed by all private persons and kings as well, they shall die of want?

As Chersias lapsed into silence, Cleodorus took up the conversation and said, But we see that the possessions which even you wise men have are distributed by unequal measure, if you be compared one with another.

And Cleobulus said, Yes, for the law, my good sir, like a weaver, assigns to each one of us so much as is fitting, reasonable, and suitable. And you, using reason as your law in prescribing diet, regimen, and drugs for the sick, do not apportion an equal amount to each one, but the proper amount in all cases.

Ardalus then joined in and said, Well, then, is there some law which commands that comrade of all of you, Solon’s foreign friend, Epimenides, to abstain from all other kinds of food, and by taking into his mouth a bit of the potent no-hunger, [*] which he himself compounds, to go all day without luncheon and dinner?

This remark arrested the attention of the whole company, and Thales said jestingly that Epimenides showed good sense in not wishing to have the trouble of grinding his grain and cooking for himself like Pittacus. For, said he, when I was at Eresus, I heard the woman at whose house I stayed singing at the mill:

Grind, mill, grind; Yes, for Pittacus used to grind King of great Mytilene.

[*]

Solon said that he was surprised at Ardalus if he had not read the regulations governing the manner of living of the man in question, which are given in writing in Hesiod’s verses. For Hesiod is the one who first sowed in the mind of Epimenides the seeds of this form of nourishment, inasmuch as it was he who taught that one should seek to find

How in mallow and asphodel lies an immense advantage.[*]

Do you really think, said Periander, that Hesiod ever had any such idea in mind? Do you not rather think that, since he was always sounding the praises of frugality, he was also summoning us to the simplest of dishes as being the most pleasant? For the mallow is good eating, and the stalk of the asphodel is luscious; but these no-hunger and nothirst drugs (for they are drugs rather than foods), I understand, include in their composition a sweet gum and a cheese found among barbarian peoples, and a great many seeds of a sort hard to procure. How, then, can we concede to Hesiod his

Rudder on high in the smoke[*]

suspended, and

All the labours of oxen and stout-toiling mules be abolished,[*]

if there is to be need of all this preparation? I am surprised at your friend from abroad, Solon, if, when he was recently carrying out his great purification for the people of Delos,[*] he did not note the memorials and examples of the earliest forms of food being brought into the temple there, including, among other inexpensive and self-propagated foods, mallow and asphodel, whose plainness and simplicity it is most likely that Hesiod recommends to us.

Not merely that, said Anacharsis, but both are commended as herbs that contribute to health also in greatest measure.

You are quite right, said Cleodorus; for it is clear that Hesiod has knowledge of medicine, since there is no lack of attention or experience shown in what he has to say about the daily course of life,[*] mixing wine,[*] the great value of water,[*] bathing,[*] women,[*] the proper time for intercourse,[*] and the way in which infants should sit.[*] But it seems to me that Aesop with better right than Epimenides can declare himself the pupil of Hesiod. For the words of the hawk to the nightingale[*] first suggested to Aesop the idea of this beautiful and ingenious wisdom uttered by many different tongues. But I should be glad to listen to Solon; for it is likely that he, having been associated with Epimenides for along time at Athens,[*] has learned what experience of his or what sophistical argument induced him to resort to such a course of living.

Solon said, What need was there to ask him this? For it is plain that the next best thing to the greatest and highest of all good is to require the minimum amount of food; or is it not the general opinion that the greatest good is to require no food at all?j

Not mine by any means, said Cleodorus, if I must tell what lies in my mind, especially as a table

stands here now, which they do away with when food is done away with, and it is an altar of the gods of friendship and hospitality. And as Thales says that, if the earth be done away with, confusion will possess the universe, so this is the dissolution of the household. For when the table is done away with, there go with it all these other things: the altar fire on the hearth, the hearth itself, wine-bowls, all entertainment and hospitality,—the most humane and the first acts of communion between man and man; rather is all real living abolished, if so be that living is a spending of time by man which involves carrying on a series of activities,[*] most of which are called for by the need of food and its procurement. And a dreadful situation ensues, my friend, regarding agriculture itself. For let agriculture be destroyed, and it leaves us our earth again unsightly and unclean, filled with unfruitful forests and with streams sweeping on unchecked, all owing to man’s inaction. And with the destruction of agriculture goes also the destruction of all arts and crafts which she initiates, and for which she supplies the basis and the material; and these all come to naught if she vanishes from the earth. Abolished too are the honours paid to the gods, since men will have but little gratitude to the Sun, and still less to the Moon, for merely light and warmth. Where will there be an altar or where a sacrifice offered to Zeus who sends the rain, or to Demeter who initiates the ploughing, or to Poseidon who watches over the tender crops? How shall Dionysus be the giver of delights, if we shall require none of the gifts which he gives? What shall we offer as a sacrifice or libation, and what shall we dedicate as first-fruits? All this means the over turning and confusion of our highest concerns. To cling to every form of pleasure is utterly irrational, but to avoid every form of pleasure is utterly insensate. Let it be granted that there exist some other superior pleasures for the soul to enjoy, yet it is not possible to discover a way for the body to attain a pleasure more justifiable than that which comes from eating and drinking, and this is a fact which no man can have failed to observe; for this pleasure men put forward openly before all, and share together banquets and table, whereas their carnal delights they veil behind the screen of night and deep darkness, feeling that to share this pleasure openly is shameless and bestial, as it is also not to share the other. [*]

I took up the conversation as Cleodorus left off, and said, But there is another point you do not mention, that we banish sleep along with food; and with no sleep there can be no dream, and our most ancient and respected form of divination is gone for ever. Life will have a monotonous sameness, and we might say that the encasement of the soul in the body will lack all purpose and effect. The most, and the most important, of the bodily organs, tongue, teeth, stomach, and liver, are provided as instruments of nutrition, no one of them is inactive, nor is it framed for any other form of usefulness. So he who has no need of food has no need of a body either; and that again would mean having no need of himself! For it is with a body that each one of us exists. This then, said I, makes up the contributions which we offer to the belly; and if Solon or anybody else desires to impeach them in any way, we will listen.