The Carousal, or the Lapiths (43-45)

LYCINUS

Hermon and Zenothemis were lying side by side, as I have said, Zenothemis above and Hermon below him. The shares served them were identical in all but one point, and they began to take them

peaceably. But the bird in front of Hermon was the plumper, just by chance, no doubt. In that case too each should have taken his own, but at this juncture Zenothemis—follow me closely, Philo, for we have now reached the crisis of events—Zenothemis, I say, let the bird beside him alone and proceeded to take the one before Hermon, which was fatter, as I have said. Hermon, however, seized it also and would not let him be greedy. Thereat there was a shout: they fell on and actually hit one another in the face with the birds, and each caught the other by the beard and called for help, Hermon to Cleodemus, and Zenothemis to Alcidamus and Diphilus. The philosophers took sides, some with one, and some with the other, except Ion alone.

LYCINUS

That man kept himself neutral, and they pitched in and fought. Zenothemis picked up a bowl that was on the table in front of Aristaenetus and threw it at Hermon,

And him it missed and went another way;

Cf. Iliad 11, 233 but it cracked the crown of the bridegroom, inflicting a wound that was generous and deep. Consequently there was an outcry from the women, and most of them sprang to the battle-field, especially the lad’s mother when she saw the blood; and the bride also sprang from her place in alarm over him. Meanwhile Alcidamas distinguished himself on the side of Zenothemis. Laying about him with his staff, he broke the head of Cleodemus and the jaw of Hermon, and he disabled several of the servants who were trying to rescue them. But the -other side did not give way, for Cleodemus with a stifl finger gouged out the eye of Zenothemis and got him by the nose and bit it off, while as for Hermon, when Diphilus was coming to the support of Zenothemis he threw him head first from the couch.

LYCINUS

Histiaeus the grammarian was wounded, too, in trying to separate them—he was kicked .in the teeth, I think, by Cleodemus, who supposed him to be Diphilus. At all events the poor fellow was laid low, “vomiting gore,” as his own Homer says. The whole place, however, was full of noise and tears, and the women, gathered about Chaereas, were wailing, while the rest of the men were trying to quiet things down. Alcidamas wes the greatest nuisance in the world, for when he had once routed his opponents he hit everybody that fell in his way. Many would have gone down before him, you may be sure, if he had not broken his staff. As for me, I stood by the wall and watched the whole performance without taking part in it, for Histiaeus had taught me how - tisky it is to try to part such fights. You would have said they were Lapiths and Centaurs, to see tables going over, blood flowing and cups flying.