Volume 1

The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenæus / literally translated by C.D. Yonge, B.A. ; with an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors, and a general index.

  • Athenaeus
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenæus / literally translated by C.D. Yonge, B.A. ; with an appendix of poetical fragments, rendered into English verse by various authors, and a general index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    without being invited, and sitting down the last of all, when the gynteconomi had counted those who were invited, and desired him to depart as having made the uumber of guests to exceed the legitimate number of thirty, said, ‘ Count us over again, and begin witli me.’ ” 46. And that it was a custom for the officem called gjmac- conomi’ to superintend the bancpiets, and to examine into the number of those who had been invited, and see whether it was in accordance with the law, wc may learn from Timocles in his Litigious Mau, where he says— Open the doors at once, that we may be More in the light against the gynceconoinus Shall enter and begin to count the guests. As he is hound to do by this new law, A marvellous statute. It were better far That he should ask who are without a dinner. And Menander says in his Cecryphalus— Knowing that by some new law lately pass’d, The cooks who minister at marriage feasts Have given in their names and are enroll’d In the books of the gj'nmconomi, So that they may the number learn of those Who are invited, lest a man should feast Alore than the legal number. And Philochorus, in the seventh book of his history of the Affairs of Attica, says—The gynteconomi used, in conjunction with the judges of the Areopagus, to examine the parties in ])rivate houses, and at manuage feasts, and at all other fes- tivals and siicrifices. 47. And Lynceus records the following sayings of Cory- dus:—“ Once when a courtesan whose name was Gnome was supping with Corydus, the wine ran short, on which ho desired every one to contribute two obols; and said that Gnome should contribute whatever the people thought fit. And once when I’olyctor the hai'p-player was eating lentil pon-idge, and had got a stone between his teeth, ‘ O you unhappy man!’ said Corydus, ‘even a lentil strikes you.’” ’ Wc know little more of the gynoeconomi, or ’yvvaiKSKoc/jLoi as they were also called, than what is derived from this passage. It appears probable that they existed from the time of Solon; though the duties here attributed to them may not have formed a part of their original business. Vide Smith, Diet. Ant. in voc. VOL. 1. ATH. C C