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The Deipnosophistes variously translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner is work of some 15 books (the last two summaries only) by the ancient Greek author Athenaeus of circa 200 CE. The Deipnosophistes protagonist and archsymposium is 'Ulpian' the host of a leisurely banquet in which food, music, sexual mores, pornography and philology, amongst other topics are discussed. Characters include a handful of grammarians, lexiconographers, jurists, musicians and hangers-on. The work is invaluable for providing much information about both the Roman and Greek world in late antiquity.
The encyclopaedist Sir Thomas Browne wrote a short essay upon Athenaeus which reflects a revived interest in the Banquet of the Learned amongst scholars following the publication of the Deipnosophistae in 1612 by the Classical scholar Isaac Casaubon. Browne wrote of it—
- Would that a little part survived of the writers from whom Athenaeus quotes, scattered here and there, notable, startling or amusing sayings, and whets the appetite of his eager reader..... Mimes, fools, parasites, lute-girls are bearable and not inappropriate amusement for a drinking party. There is a most amusing story in Athenaeus about the boys in the inn at Agrigentum. They are so mad with drink that they think they are sailing in a ship tossed about by a wild storm. To lighten the ship they throw out all the carpets and crockery, call the police 'mermen', offer rewards for their rescue to those who reproach them, and do not even return to their senses when the onlookers take their things.
Full essay at http://sources.wikipedia.org/From_a_reading_of_Athenaeus
By the Victorian era, literary criticism described The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner and its author as—
- 'the somewhat greasy heap of literary rag-and-bone-picker like Athenaeus, is turned to gold by time'.
External links
- Extracts Extracts from The Deisophistes concerning homosexuality from Book 12 (This is mislabeled as from book XIII in the header.)
- Extracts from The Deisophistes (Book 13 3 pages)