Here the sons of the forest have gathered of yore, as a challenge to drink deep, in which case, it was To defy the tyrant's rude sway; announced by 'Ekɛ, "come," or i, "drink." It

But their pride,-it is gone, their tribes are no more; was esteemed disreputable not to respond promptly, Like its leaves, they've all past away.

in a cup of equal size. Bad as this custom was, and disastrous as were the results of the deep drinking

And where are the scenes where they spent their to which it led, it was one of the commonest at

rude childhood,

Μούσας λιγαίνειν 'ρχεται.

[Continued from p. 630.]

[Anacreon.

a Greek Symposium. Thus, Anacreon, Ode 37

ὁ μὲν θέλων μάχεσθαι
παρέστω καὶ μαχέσθω.

ἐμοὶ κύπελλον, ὦ παῖ,
ἐγκεράσας φόρησον.

Is there a warrior here to-night?
Let him step forth, with him I'll fight.
Boy! bring my weapons-yonder cup,
Filled with the sparkling nectar up.

But these fierce contentions did not suit the more moderate and refined drinkers. Sophocles thus enters his protest against such treatment

I do dislike to drink against my will,
As much as to be forced to go athirst.

It may readily be supposed, that where such customs prevailed, free livers suffered much from drunkenness, and its effects. To remove some of The customs of the Greek Symposium, with resthe unpleasant consequences of excess, they repect to drinking, were neither so numerous, nor sorted to many expedients. Various substances so different from our own, as to require a long de- were supposed to possess the power of alleviating, lay. After the rage of hunger was satisfied, and or preventing the disagreeable effects of wine, and the wine brought in, the King of the banquet were frequently employed for that purpose. The took a goblet, which he touched to his lips, and Illyrians had a custom of tying a band round the passed round among the guests, each tasting it, as stomach, at the commencement of a debauch, loosethe sign and bond of good fellowship. After this, ly at first, and gradually tightening it, as the evenPressure of the head was also supa full cup of pure wine was emptied round, in ing wore on. honor of Jupiter Servator, and the business of the posed to relieve the headache, which follows too entertainment began. When a guest proposed a free a use of wine, and to effect this permanently, general toast, he emptied the bowl, and passed it bands were tied tightly round it. round by a boy for each in his turn. This was gant taste of the Greeks, which generally done to the right, though the party, flowers to such an extent, and to before commencing, might decide on this, or any other doubtful points, and adopt rules for the lation of the day. Thus, Anaxandrides

regu

Frequently one of the guests would drink to another, who was immediately to respond in a cup of equal size. If he refused the pledge, he was forced to leave the room, or to commute the punishment, by allowing the rest to pour on his head the wine that he should have taken. In thus drinking to each other, it was sometimes merely as a health, either of the person addressed, or of some absent friend; and when full honor was intended, a brimmer was emptied, for every letter in his

name.

The natural elemade them love employ them so universally, soon induced them to make use of wreaths and garlands for compressing the head. For this purpose, roses were the flowers most commonly sought, as there was supposed to be a peculiar virtue in their fragrance, which relieved intoxication. Ivy, the plant of Bacchus, was also in request, and, at Athens, the city of the violetcrown, violets were in especial favor. Thus Alcibiades, in Plato's banquet, is represented as entering the room with a thick fillet of ivy and violets around his head. Other means, less poetical, were also tried. Cabbage was supposed to have an inherent power of alleviating the effects of ebriety, particularly when boiled. Thus, Alexis-

Too much of wine thou drankest yesterday,
And now thy head is racked with pain, and heavy.
Would'st have it cured? Let some one bring to thee,
Boiled cabbage quickly!

Its effects were supposed to be so potent, that,

Often, however, the salutation was merely in Egypt, feasts always began with a course of

boiled cabbage; indeed, there was a law to that effect. Byron recommends to us "hock and sodawater," as the best palliative; but unfortunately, both of these agreeable remedies were out of the reach of the Athenian devotee of Bacchus.

After the guests had imbided as much wine as they could conveniently carry, or as they desired, a bumper passed round in honor of Mercury, invoking his aid for sound repose and pleasant dreams; and the party broke up, as best they could.

But it was not merely to drink, that the Greeks assembled over the social board. They were of the same opinion as old Phocylides, who remarks,

Χρὴ δ ̓ ἐν συμποσίω, κυλίκων περινισσομενάων,
ἡδέα κωτίλλοντα καθήμενον οἰνοποτάζειν.

Or, as Christopher North translates it,

'Tis good for all wine-bibbing people, Not to let the jug pace round the board like a cripple, But gaily to talk, while enjoying their tipple.

No! they alone our friends shall be,
Whose souls are formed for love and mirth;
Whose laugh and song, and revelry,

Release us from all cares of earth.

But the opinion of this careless bard of old, was not generally entertained. Frequent were the lively sallies, the laughing retorts, the ingenious puzzles, the keen wit, or the beautiful speculations poured forth round the board, where the kindling soul of the Athenian was elevated by the inspiration of the vintage of Chios, or Rhodes. An old forgotten poet, quoted by Athenæus, speaks to the point.

From food unmixed with copious draughts of wine,
There springs not pleasant mirth, nor sparkling wit,
Nor verses made upon the moment. Where
Bacchus is not, our soul's ne'er mount to heaven.

Among the lighter amusements of the Symposium, one of the greatest favorites was the griphus, or enigma. This was an exercise peculiarly suited to the liveliness and ingenuity of Grecian wit, and accordingly, we find it highly praised by vaThey carried it even further. Frequently knot- rious writers. Clearchus tells us, tŵv ypipwv ĥ Córnols ty questions of philosophy and metaphysics were ov× åddorpía pidocopias corì,-"the guessing of enigdiscussed over the circling bowl; and the glorious-mas is not unallied to philosophy;" and he proly beautiful discussions of the Symposium of Plato, nounces it far better than idle talk or learned disquiwere but the types of the convivial entertainments sition. Still, notwithstanding our expectations, the of the time. Their philosophers were men of the few of these little trifles, that have been handed world, and of sense, who understood and appre-down to us, are by no means as good as we should ciated the distich of Sophocles.

Διψῶντι γάρ τοι πάντα προσφέρων σοφά,
Οὐκ ἄν πλέον τέρψειας μὴ πιεῖν διδους.

Go, talk your wisest to a thirsty man,
You'll teach him naught, until you give him wine.

They followed out this precept, and, after inundating their fortunate disciples with mighty Maronean, or delicious Thasian, their no less delightful arguments would fall, with tenfold effect, on the arrested ears of their auditory. It must be confessed, that occasionally this might be carried to an undue extent, and the pleasure of an uninterrupted enjoyment of the bowl, be interfered with by some unscrupulous dogmatist, or long-winded proser, like one or two of the interlocutors in delightful old Athenæus, or the Telephus of Horace's "Quantum distet ab Inacho;" but, on the whole, a Grecian Symposium must have been an unsurpassable entertainment, where every sense was gratified, and the intellect left not unsatisfied. In the only good epigram of Anacreon's, that time has spared us, the poet has left us his opinion, as to the proper subjects to be discussed at a banquet.

Οὐ φίλος, ὃς κρατηρι, κ. τ. λ.

I love not him, who, when the bowl
Is circling gaily round our board,

Will quench the sparkling of the soul,
With tales of blood, and war abhorred.

have supposed. The most ingenious of them,
however, are not such as are exactly presentable
to a modern reader, and we must content ourselves
with one or two rather indifferent ones. Alexis,
in one of his comedies, gives the following-
A. "I am not mortal, yet I cannot boast
Of immortality. With men I dwell,

E'en while I converse hold with the celestials,
And yet I am new born with every hour."
B. You do amuse yourself with my simplicity.
A. Nay, what I say is easy to be guessed.
B. Who is there that can boast such double nature?
A. Thou simple one! 'Tis SLEEP, the balm for cares,

Antiphanes puts into the mouth of Sappho

There is a girl,* who, in her breast,
Keeps many children dearly pressed;
And they, though mute and dumb from birth,
Speak to be heard o'er all the earth,
It matters not, or far, or near;

And whom they please, though deaf, can hear.

One or two unsuccessful attempts are made to answer it, and she finally resolves it herself.

The girl doth mean a letter, holding
Words in its breast, in close enfolding,
Which speak, though mute, to all, at will,
Though absent far, o'er sea and hill.

* We have thus endeavored to render the original péris Ondeta, an ambiguous expression, which loses its double meaning in the English, and which improves the point of the enigma.

And speak so softly, none may tell,
Save those they please, the secret spell.

life itself for the safety or advancement of the mistress of the seas, who can imagine it to want interest, or enthusiasm ?

Παλλὰς Τριτογένει, κ. τ. λ.

Pallas, fair Athens' guardian queen,
Preserve thy favorite city still,
From dread sedition's threatening mein,
From sudden pest, or 'whelming ill.
Be thou, and thy dread father, Jove,
Our bulwarks, 'mongst the powers above!

When a person was challenged with a griphus, and unable to solve it, the punishment was a draught of wine, copiously intermingled with salt and water. But the crowning glory of the Greek Symposium, was the SCOLIUM. This was the song intended for entertainments, and sung in succession by the guests, each holding a branch of myrtle in the hand, and passing it from one to the other. The name has caused the waste of much learned and ingenious disquisition among both ancient and modern grammarians. Its root is evidently the a charming little one, addressed to Pan, and intendword σkotów, crooked, or irregular, but etymologists have been much puzzled to discover the rea-ed, we presume, to be sung at the feast of the victors in the Pandrosian games. It is attributed to son for this appellation. Artemon Cassandreus, several poets, none of whom seem to have any in the second book "De usu Carminum Scoliorightful claim over it.

rum," explains it, by the manner in which the song was recited, commencing with the guest who sat at the head of the table, and the myrtle branch passing round among those who occupied the first place on each couch, then again round the second series of guests, and finally round the third. Sometimes a lyre was passed round with the myrtle, in which case, only those who were skilled were expected to perform; and occasionally musicians were hired to give eclât to the feast. There were several other methods of passing the Scolium round, all irregular enough to merit the title, though the true reason for employing the term, would appear rather to be the irregularity and carelessness of the metre usually employed in these little compositions. This seems, indeed, to be the principal criterion of a Scolium; for the odes of Anacreon, though chiefly drinking songs, and unquestionably often sung at Symposia, are never classed as Scolia by the grammarians, while many little hymns and moral epigrams, from their use and structure, are most certainly to be considered as such. It was from a feeling similar to that, which induced the Egyptians of old to place a skeleton at the head of the banquet table, as an emblem of mortality, that caused the Athenians to interrupt the course of mirth and conviviality by some distich on morality or religion.

According to Artemon, after the principal and more solid part of the feast was disposed of, he who sat at the head of the table commenced the singing, by a short pæan to some God, in which the rest of the company joined. Several of these little productions have been preserved, and though many of them may seem to us short and pointless, yet we should reflect, that in those days, the names of the Gods and heroes called upon, in themselves excited deep feelings, and needed not poetical ideas and expressions to give them interest. For instance, the following little hymn has no peculiar beauty to our ears, and yet, when sung by a chorus of glowing Athenians, each one ready to peril'

But there are some of them that are quite pretty, Here is independently of their old associations.

Ιὼ Πὰν Αρκαδίας, κ. τ. λ.

Io Pan! to thee we sing,
Fair Arcadia's sylvan king!
Thou, who lovest the merry dance,
Thou, who eyest the nymphs askance,
And chasest them through stream and wood,
Loving to be thus pursued!

Io Pan! propitious be,

While we raise the song to thee,-
While the festive couch we press,
And drain the bowl in sweet excess!
With victor wreaths our brows are bound,
For Jove our every wish has crowned,
And Pandrosos, Minerva's care,
To every God in heaven is dear.

The following beautiful little hymn to Virtue is by Aristotle, the philosopher. The Hermeias mentioned in it was much beloved by him. He was the tyrant of Atarnea, and was treacherously murdered by the Persians.

Αρητὰ πολύμοχθε, κ. τ. λ.

O Virtue! heavenly maid, although
Thou bringest many a toil to man,
Yet thou to him dost ever show
How best to pass his narrow span,
For thy dear sake, O Virgin fair!

In Greece we hold it bliss to die,
Or fiercest toils unmoved to bear,

Or sternest griefs without a sigh.

Thou to the immortal soul dost bring,

Gifts worthier than ought else on earth,
Than wealth, or sleep, care-lessening,

Or e'en than those who gave us birth!

For thee, Alcmena's offspring bore

The direst labors heaven could show;
For thee, fair Leda's twins, of yore,
Contemned the thoughts of earthly woe.
Through love for thee, O Heavenly One!
Achilles sought the Stygian shore,
With glorious Ajax Telamon,

And many a deathless hero more.

Another of the amusements of the Greeks, at their Symposia, was in singing impromptu songs. Some of these have been handed down to us, but they have little intrinsic merit, and of course de- But as a seraph, sanctified and sainted,— rived their principal interest from the circum-"