Plutarch, Septem sapientium convivium, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 13

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[13] When this discussion had come to its end, Eumetis withdrew, accompanied by Melissa. Then Periander drank to Chilon in a big beaker, and Chilon did the same to Bias, whereupon Ardalus arose, and addressing himself to Aesop, said, Won’t you send the cup over here to us, seeing that these people are sending it to and fro to one another as though it were the beaker of Bathycles,¹ and are not giving anybody else a chance at it ?

And Aesop said, But this cup is not democratic either, since it has been resting all the time by Solon only.

Thereupon Pittacus, addressing Mnesiphilus, asked why Solon did not drink, but by his testimony was discrediting the verses in which he had written ²

Give me the tasks of the Cyprus-born goddess and Lord Dionysus, Yea, and the Muses besides; tasks which bring cheer among men.

Before the other could reply Anacharsis hastened to say, He is afraid of you, Pittacus, and that harsh law of yours in which you have decreed, If any man commit any offence when drunk, his penalty shall be double that prescribed for the sober.³

And Pittacus said, But you at any rate showed such insolent disregard for the law, that last year, at the house of Alcaeus’s brother, you were the first to get drunk and you demanded as a prize a wreath of victory.⁴

And why not? said Anacharsis. Prizes were offered for the man who drank the most, and I was the first’to get drunk; why should I not have demanded the reward of my victory? Else do you instruct me as to what is the aim in drinking much strong wine other than to get drunk.

When Pittacus laughed at this, Aesop told the following story: A wolf seeing some shepherds in a shelter eating a sheep, came near to them and said, What an uproar you would make if I were doing that!

Aesop, said Chilon, has very properly defended himself, for a few moments ago ⁵ he had his mouth stopped by us, and now, later, he sees that others have taken the words out of Mnesiphilus’s mouth; for it was Mnesiphilus who was asked for a rejoinder in defence of Solon.

And I speak, said Mnesiphilus, with full knowledge that it is Solon’s opinion that the task of every art and faculty, both human and divine, is the thing that is produced rather than the means employed in its production, and the end itself rather than the means that contribute to that end. For a weaver, I imagine, would hold that his task was a cloak or a mantle rather than the arrangement of shuttle-rods or the hanging of loom weights; and so a smith would regard the welding of iron or the tempering of an axe rather than any one of the things that have to be done for this purpose, such as blowing up the fire or getting ready a flux. Even more would an architect find fault with us, if we should declare that his task is not a temple or a house, but to bore timbers and mix mortar. And the Muses would most assuredly feel aggrieved, if we should regard as their task a lyre or flutes, and not the development of the characters and the soothing of the emotions of those who make use of songs and melodies. And so again the task of Aphrodite is not carnal intercourse, nor is that of Dionysus strong drink and wine, but rather the friendly feeling, the longing, the association, and the intimacy, one with another, which they create in us through these agencies. These are what Solon calls tasks divine, and these he says he loves and pursues above all else, now that he has become an old man. And Aphrodite is the artisan who creates concord and friendship between men and women, for through their bodies, under the influence of pleasure, she at the same time unites and welds together their souls.⁶ And in the case of the majority of people, who are not altogether intimate or too well known to one another, Dionysus softens and relaxes their characters with wine, as in a fire, and so provides some means for beginning a union and friendship with one another. However, when such men as you, whom Periander has invited here, come together, I think there is nothing for the wine-cup or ladle to accomplish, but the Muses set discourse in the midst before all, a non-intoxicating bowl as it were, containing a maximum of pleasure in jest and seriousness combined; and with this they awaken and foster and dispense friendliness, allowing the ladle, for the most part, to lie untouched atop of the bowl—a thing which Hesiod ⁷ would prohibit in a company of men better able to drink than to converse. As a matter of fact, he continued, as nearly as I can make out, among the men of olden time the practice of drinking healths was not in vogue, since each man drank one goblet, as Homer ⁸ has said, that is a measured quantity, and later, like Ajax,⁹ shared a portion with his neighbour.

When Mnesiphilus had said this, Chersias the poet ¹⁰ (having been already absolved from the charge against him, and recently reconciled with Periander at Chilon’s solicitation) said, Is it to be inferred, then, that Zeus used to pour out the drink for the gods also in measured quantity, as Agamemnon did for his nobles, when the gods, dining with Zeus, drank to one another?

And Cleodorus said, But, Chersias, if certain doves ¹¹ bring to Zeus his ambrosia, as you poets say, and with great difficulty hardly manage to fly over the clashing rocks, do you not believe that his nectar is hard for him to get and scarce, so that he is sparing of it, and doles it out charily to each god?

Septem sapientium convivium. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πων επτά σοφών συμπόσιον Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N,, editor. Leipzig. Teubner, 1888.) — 13 focus

[13] ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ οὗτος ἔσχεν ὁ λόγος τέλος, ἡ μὲν Εὔμητις ἐξῆλθε μετὰ τῆς Μελίσσης, τοῦ δὲ Περιάνδρου τῷ Χίλωνι προπιόντος εὐμεγέθη κύλικα, τῷ δὲ Βίαντι τοῦ Χίλωνος, Ἄρδαλος ἐπαναστὰς καὶ 25 προσαγορεύσας τὸν Αἴσωπον σὺ δʼ οὐκ ἄν ἔφη διαπέμψαιο δεῦρο τὸ ποτήριον πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὁρῶν τούτους ὥσπερ τὴν Βαθυκλέους κύλικα διαπεμπομένους ἀλλήλοις, ἑτέρῳ δὲ μὴ μεταδιδόντας; Καὶ ὁ 155f Αἴσωπος ἀλλʼ οὐ δεῖ¹ τοῦτʼ ἔφη τὸ ποτήριον δημοτικὸν εἶναι· Σόλωνι γὰρ ἔκπαλαι παράκειται μόνῳ. Τὸν οὖν Μνησίφιλον προσαγορεύσας ὁ Πιττακὸς 5 ἠρώτησε τί οὐ πίνει Σόλων ἀλλὰ καταμαρτυρεῖ τῶν ποιημάτων ἐν οἷς γέγραφεν

ἔργα δὲ Κυπρογενοῦς νῦν μοι φίλα καὶ Διονύσου

καὶ Μουσέων, ἃ τίθησʼ ἀνδράσιν εὐφροσύνας

ὑποφθάσας δʼ Ἀνάχαρσις σὲ γάρ , ὦ Πιττακέ, καὶ 10 τὸν σὸν ἐκεῖνον τὸν χαλεπὸν φοβεῖται νόμον, ἐν ᾧ γέγραφας Ἐάν τις ὁτιοῦν μεθύων ἁμάρτῃ, διπλασίαν ἢ τῷ νήφοντι τὴν ζημίαν εἶναι Καὶ ὁ Πιττακός σὺ δὲ γʼ εἶπεν οὕτως ἐξύβρισας εἰς τὸν νόμον, 156a ὥστε πέρυσι παρὰ λίβυτʼ ἀδελφῷ³ μεθυσθεὶς ἆθλον 15 αἰτεῖν καὶ στέφανον. τί δʼ οὐκ ἔμελλον ἔφη ὁ Ἀνάχαρσις τῷ πλεῖστον πιόντι προκειμένων ἄθλων πρῶτος μεθυσθεὶς ἀπαιτεῖν τὸ νικητήριον; ἢ διδάξατέ μʼ ὑμεῖς, τί τέλος ἐστὶ τοῦ πολὺν πιεῖν ἄκρατον ἢ τὸ μεθυσθῆναι. τοῦ δὲ Πιττακοῦ γελάσαντος 20 ὁ Αἴσωπος λόγον εἶπε τοιοῦτον· λύκος ἰδὼν ποιμένας ἐσθίοντας ἐν σκηνῇ πρόβατον ἐγγὺς προσελθών ἡλίκος ἂν ἦν ἔφη θόρυβος ὑμῖν, εἰ ἐγὼ τοῦτʼ ἐποίουν. καὶ ὁ Χίλων ὀρθῶς ἔφη Αἴσωπος ἠμύνατο, μικρὸν ἔμπροσθεν ἐπιστομισθεὶς ὑφʼ 25 ἡμῶν, εἶτα νῦν ὁρῶν ἑτέρους τὸν Μνησιφίλου λόγον ὑφηρπακότας· Μνησίφιλος γὰρ τὴν ὑπὲρ Σόλωνος ἀπόκρισιν καὶ λέγω⁴ ὁ Μνησίφιλος εἶπεν 156b εἰδὼς ὅτι Σόλωνι δοκεῖ πάσης τέχνης καὶ δυνάμεως ἀνθρωπίνης τε καὶ θείας ἔργον εἶναι τὸ γιγνόμενον μᾶλλον ἢ διʼ οὗ γίγνεται, καὶ τὸ τέλος ἢ τὰ πρὸς 5 τό τέλος. ὑφάντης τε γὰρ ἂν οἶμαι χλαμύδα ποιήσαιτο⁵ μᾶλλον ἔργον αὑτοῦ καὶ ἱμάτιον ἢ κανόνων διάθεσιν καὶ ἀνέγερσιν ἀγνύθων, χαλκεύς τε κόλλησιν σιδήρου καὶ στόμωσιν πελέκεως μᾶλλον ἤ τι τῶν ἕνεκα τούτου γιγνομένων ἀναγκαίων, οἷον ἀνθράκων 10 ἐκζωπύρησιν ἢ λατύπης παρασκευήν. ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον ἀρχιτέκτων μέμψαιτʼ ἂν ἡμᾶς ἔργον αὐτοῦ μὴ ναῦν μηδʼ οἰκίαν ἀποφαίνοντας, ἀλλὰ τρυπῆσαι 156c ξύλα καὶ φυρᾶσαι πηλόν· αἱ δὲ Μοῦσαι καὶ παντάπασιν, εἰ νομίζοιμεν αὐτῶν ἔργον εἶναι κιθάραν 15 καὶ αὐλούς, ἀλλὰ μὴ τὸ παιδεύειν τὰ ἤθη καὶ παρηγορεῖν τὰ πάθη τῶν χρωμένων μέλεσι καὶ ἁρμονίαις. οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἔργον ἐστὶ συνουσία καὶ μῖξις, οὐδὲ τοῦ Διονύσου μέθη καὶ οἶνος, ἀλλʼ ἣν ἐμποιοῦσι διὰ τούτων φιλοφροσύνην 20 καὶ πόθον καὶ ὁμιλίαν ἡμῖν καὶ συνήθειαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους· ταῦτα γὰρ ἔργα θεῖα καλεῖ Σόλων, καὶ ταῦτά φησιν ἀγαπᾶν καὶ διώκειν μάλιστα πρεσβύτης γενόμενος. ἔστι δὲ τῆς μὲν πρὸς γυναῖκας ἀνδρῶν ὁμοφροσύνης καὶ φιλίας δημιουργὸς ἡ Ἀφροδίτη, 25 156d τοῖς σώμασιν ὑφʼ ἡδονῆς ἅμα συμμιγνύουσα καὶ συντήκουσα τὰς ψυχάς· τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς καὶ μὴ πάνυ συνήθεσι μηδʼ ἄγαν γνωρίμοις ὁ Διόνυσος ὥσπερ ἐν πυρὶ τῷ οἴνῳ μαλάττων τὰ ἤθη καὶ ἀνυγραίνων ἀρχήν τινα συγκράσεως πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ φιλίας ἐνδίδωσιν. ὅταν δὲ τοιοῦτοι συνέλθωσιν ἄνδρες, οἵους ὁ Περίανδρος ὑμᾶς παρακέκληκεν, οὐδὲν ἔργον ἐστὶν οἶμαι κύλικος οὐδʼ οἰνοχόης, ἀλλʼ αἱ 5 Μοῦσαι καθάπερ κρατῆρα νηφάλιον ἐν μέσῳ προθέμεναι τὸν λόγον, ᾧ πλεῖστον ἡδονῆς ἅμα καὶ παιδιᾶς καὶ σπουδῆς ἔνεστιν, ἐγείρουσι τούτῳ καὶ κατάρδουσι καὶ διαχέουσι τὴν φιλοφροσύνην, ἐῶσαι 156e τὰ πολλὰ τὴν οἰνοχόην ἀτρέμα κεῖσθαι κρητῆρος⁶ 10 ὕπερθεν, ὅπερ ἀπηγόρευσεν Ἡσίοδος⁷ ἐν τοῖς πίνειν μᾶλλον ἢ διαλέγεσθαι δυναμένοις. ἐπεὶ τάς γε⁸ προπόσεις αὐτάς ἔφη πυνθάνομαι λέγειν τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἐνδεῖν,⁹ δαιτρόν, ὡς Ὅμηρος¹⁰ ἔφη, καὶ μετρητὸν ἑκάστου πίνοντος, εἶθʼ ὥσπερ Αἴας¹¹ μερίδος μεταδιδόντος 15 τῷ πλησίον Εἰπόντος δὲ ταῦτα τοῦ Μνησιφίλου Χερσίας ὁ ποιητής ἀφεῖτο γὰρ ἤδη τῆς 156f αἰτίας καὶ διήλλακτο τῷ Περιάνδρῳ νεωστί, Χίλωνος δεηθέντος ἆρʼ οὖν ἔφη καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς ὁ Ζεύς, 20 ὥσπερ τοῖς ἀριστεῦσιν ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων, μετρητὸν ἐνέχει τὸ ποτόν, ὅτε προύπινον ἀλλήλοις ἑστιώμενοι παρʼ αὐτῷ; Καὶ ὁ Κλεόδωρος σὺ δʼ ὦ Χερσία εἶπεν, εἰ τὴν ἀμβροσίαν τῷ Διὶ πελειάδες τινὲς κομίζουσιν, ὡς ὑμεῖς λέγετε, τὰς Πλαγκτὰς ὑπερπετόμεναι χαλεπῶς καὶ μόλις, οὐ νομίζεις καὶ τὸ 25 157a νέκταρ αὐτῷ δυσπόριστον εἶναι καὶ σπάνιον, ὥστε φείδεσθαι καὶ παρέχειν ἑκάστῳ τεταμιευμένον;

Translations (1)

The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Davis, Roger, translator. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] When they had all given in their opinions upon this point, Eumetis and Melissa withdrew. Then Periander called for a large bowl full of wine, and drank to Chilo; and Chilo likewise drank to Bias. Ardalus then standing up called to Esop, and said: Will you not hand the cup to your friends at this end of the table, when you behold those persons there swilling up all that good liquor, and imparting none to us here, as if the cup were that of Bathycles. But this cup, quoth Esop, is no public cup, it hath stood so long by Solon’s trenchard. Then Pittacus called to Mnesiphilus: Why, saith he, does not Solon drink, but act in contradiction to his own verses?—

I love that ruby God, whose blessings flow

In tides, to recreate my thirsty maw;

Venus I court, the Muses I adore,

Who give us wine and pleasures evermore.

Anacharsis subjoined: He fears your severe law, my friend Pittacus, wherein you decreed the drunkard a double punishment. You seem, said Pittacus, a little to fear the penalty, who have adventured heretofore, and now again before my face, to break that law and to demand a crown for the reward of your debauch. Why not, quoth Anacharsis, when there is a reward promised to the hardest drinker? Why should I not demand my reward, having drunk down all my fellows?—or inform me of any other end men drive at in drinking much wine, but to be drunk. Pittacus laughed at this reply, and Esop told them this fable: The wolf seeing a parcel of shepherds in their booth feeding upon a lamb, approaching near them,—What a bustle and noise and uproar would you have made, saith he, if I had but done what you do! Chilo said: Esop hath very justly revenged himself upon us, who awhile ago stopped his mouth; now he observes how we prevented Mnesiphilus’s discourse, when the question was put why Solon did not drink up his wine.

Mnesiphilus then spake to this effect: I know this to be the opinion of Solon, that in every art and faculty, divine and human, the work which is done is more desired than the instrument wherewith it is done, and the end than the means conducing to that end; as, for instance, a weaver thinks a cloak or coat more properly his work than the ordering of his shuttles or the divers motions of his beams. A smith minds the soldering of his irons and the sharpening of the axe more than those little things preparatory to these main matters, as the kindling of the coals and getting ready the stone-dust. Yet farther, a carpenter would justly blame us, if we should affirm it is not his work to build houses or ships but to bore holes or to make mortar; and the Muses would be implacably incensed with him that should say their business is only to make harps, pipes, and such musical instruments, not the institution and correction of manners and the government of those men’s passions who are lovers of singing and masters of music. And agreeably copulation is not the work of Venus, nor is drunkenness that of Bacchus; but love and friendship, affection and familiarity, which are begot and improved by the means of these. Solon terms these works divine, and he professes he loves and now prosecutes them in his declining years as vigorously as ever in his youthful days. That mutual love between man and wife is the work of Venus, the greatness of the pleasure affecting their bodies mixes and melts their very souls; divers others, having little or no acquaintance before, have yet contracted a firm and lasting friendship over a glass of wine, which like fire softened and melted their tempers, and disposed them for a happy union. But in such a company, and of such men as Periander hath invited, there is no need of can and chalice, but the Muses themselves throwing a subject of discourse among you, as it were a sober cup, wherein is contained much of delight and drollery and seriousness too, do hereby provoke, nourish, and increase friendship among you, suffering the can to rest quietly upon the bowl, contrary to the rule which Hesiod¹ gives for those who have more skill for carousing than for discoursing.

Though all the rest with stated rules we bound,

Unmix’d, unmeasured, are thy goblets crown’d:

for it was the old Greek way, as Homer here tells us, to drink one to another in course and order. So Ajax gave a share of his meat to his next neighbor.

When Mnesiphilus had discoursed after this manner, in comes Chersias the poet, whom Periander had lately pardoned and received into favor upon Chilo’s mediation. Saith Chersias: Does not Jupiter distribute to the Gods their proportion and dividend sparingly and severally, as Agamemnon did to his commanders when his guests drank to one another? If, O Chersias, quoth Cleodemus, as you narrate, certain doves bring him his ambrosia every meal, flying with a world of hardship through the rocks called Planctae (or wandering), can you blame him for his sparingness and frugality and dealing out to his guests by measure?

Notes on the current edition

The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men

1. Bathycles in his will left his beaker to the most helpful of the wise men. It was given to Thales, and he passed it on to another of the wise men, who in turn gave it to another until finally it came back to Thales again, and he dedicated it to Apollo. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, i. 28, and Plutarch, Life of Solon, chap. iv. (p. 80 E).

2. Plutarch quotes these lines also in Moralia, 751 E, and Life of Solon, chap. xxxi. (p. 96 E); cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. ii. p. 430, Solon, No. 26.

3. Pittacus’s law is often referred to; for example, Aristotle, Politics, ii. 12, 13; Nicomachean Ethics, iii. 5, 8.

4. Cf. Athenaeus, 437 f.

5. Supra, 150 B.

6. Cf. Moralia, 769 A.

7. Works and Days, 744.

8. Homer, Il. iv. 262.

9. Plutarch seems to have made a natural slip in referring this to Ajax, when, in fact, Homer records this of Odysseus ( Od. viii. 475); Ajax, of course, was the great eater, as witness Il. vii. 321, where Agamemnon favours Ajax with the sirloin and tenderloin entire. Cf. also Athenaeus, 14 a.

10. From Orchomenos in Boeotia; he is known only from this essay and Pausanias, ix. 38, 9-10, where two lines of his (?) are quoted.

11. Homer, Od.xii. 62.

Plutarch Septem sapientium convivium 13

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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