Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 603f · 603f
Bring the cup slowly
Read the full text in our reader
Ion of Chios — ποιητῇ ἐν Χίῳ συνήντησα, ὅτε ἔπλει εἰς Λέσβον στρατηγός, ἀνδρὶ παιδιώδει παρ’ οἶνον καὶ δεξιῷ. Ἑρμησίλεω δὲ ξένου οἱ ἐόντος καὶ προξένου Ἀθηναίων ἑστιῶντος αὐτόν, ἐπεὶ παρὰ τὸ πῦρ ἑστεὼς ὁ τὸν οἶνον ἐγχέων παῖς.... ἐὼν δῆλος ἦν εἶπέ τε·
Sophocles — ‘ βούλει με ἡδέως πίνειν;’
Ion of Chios — φάντος δ’ αὐτοῦ
Sophocles — ‘ βραδέως τοίνυν καὶ πρόσφερέ μοι καὶ ἀπόφερε τὴν κύλικα.’
Ion of Chios — ἔτι πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐρυθριάσαντος τοῦ παιδὸς εἶπε πρὸς τὸν συγκατακείμενον·
Sophocles — ‘ ὡς καλῶς Φρύνιχος ἐποίησεν εἴπας·
“…the poet I met on Chios, when he was sailing to Lesbos as general: a playful man over wine, and clever. Hermesilaus, his friend and the Athenians' consul there, was hosting him, and the boy who poured the wine stood by the fire, plainly … (some words are lost). Sophocles said, “Do you want me to enjoy my drink?” When the boy said yes: “Then bring me the cup slowly, and take it away slowly.” The boy blushed even more, and Sophocles said to the man reclining beside him, “How finely Phrynichus put it when he said:
Word by word
The setting
Ion of Chios, a tragic poet of the 5th century BC, describes a dinner on Chios around 440 BC. Sophocles was on his way to the war against Samos as one of Athens' generals.
A note on this passage
This is the rarest kind of source: a man writing down what he saw at dinner with Sophocles. Ion of Chios was a younger poet, and his Visits, a book of encounters with famous people, is lost except for quotations like this one. He even writes in his own Ionic dialect (<i>ἐόντος</i>, <i>ἑστεώς</i>), and Athenaeus keeps it.<br><br>A few words are lost where Ion describes the boy. The next sentence, “the boy blushed even more,” shows he was already blushing. Sophocles' line is the whole joke: if the cup comes slowly and goes slowly, the boy stays longer by his couch. Ion calls him playful and clever, and the story shows both.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 603f in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 603f — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/deipnosophistae/603f/