Plutarch Septem sapientium convivium 14

[14] Possibly, said Chersias, but since talk of household management has come up again, who among you will tell us about what was omitted? The topic omitted was, I think, the acquisition of some measure of property which shall be sufficient in itself and adequate.

But, said Cleobulus, for the wise the law has given the measure, but with reference to those of the baser sort I will tell a story of my daughter’s which she told her brother. She said that the moon wanted her mother to weave for her a garment to fit her measure; and the mother said, How can I weave it to fit your measure? For now I see you full and round, and at another time crescent-shaped, and at still another but little more than half your full size. And in the same way you see, my dear Chersias, there is no measure of possessions that can be applied to a foolish and worthless man. Sometimes he is one man and sometimes another in his needs, which vary according to his desires and fortunes; he is like Aesop’s dog, who, as our friend here says, in the winter-time curled up as closely as possible because he was so cold, and was minded to build himself a house, but when summer returned again, and he had stretched himself out to sleep, he appeared to himself so big that he thought it was neither a necessary nor a small task to construct a house large enough to contain him. Have you not often noticed also, Chersias, he continued, those detestable people who at one time restrict themselves to utterly small limits as though they purposed to live the simple Spartan life, and at another time they think that, unless they have everything possessed by all private persons and kings as well, they shall die of want?

As Chersias lapsed into silence, Cleodorus took up the conversation and said, But we see that the possessions which even you wise men have are distributed by unequal measure, if you be compared one with another.

And Cleobulus said, Yes, for the law, my good sir, like a weaver, assigns to each one of us so much as is fitting, reasonable, and suitable. And you, using reason as your law in prescribing diet, regimen, and drugs for the sick, do not apportion an equal amount to each one, but the proper amount in all cases.

Ardalus then joined in and said, Well, then, is there some law which commands that comrade of all of you, Solon’s foreign friend, Epimenides, to abstain from all other kinds of food, and by taking into his mouth a bit of the potent no-hunger, ¹ which he himself compounds, to go all day without luncheon and dinner?

This remark arrested the attention of the whole company, and Thales said jestingly that Epimenides showed good sense in not wishing to have the trouble of grinding his grain and cooking for himself like Pittacus. For, said he, when I was at Eresus, I heard the woman at whose house I stayed singing at the mill:

Grind, mill, grind; Yes, for Pittacus used to grind King of great Mytilene.

²

Solon said that he was surprised at Ardalus if he had not read the regulations governing the manner of living of the man in question, which are given in writing in Hesiod’s verses. For Hesiod is the one who first sowed in the mind of Epimenides the seeds of this form of nourishment, inasmuch as it was he who taught that one should seek to find

Do you really think, said Periander, that Hesiod ever had any such idea in mind? Do you not rather think that, since he was always sounding the praises of frugality, he was also summoning us to the simplest of dishes as being the most pleasant? For the mallow is good eating, and the stalk of the asphodel is luscious; but these no-hunger and nothirst drugs (for they are drugs rather than foods), I understand, include in their composition a sweet gum and a cheese found among barbarian peoples, and a great many seeds of a sort hard to procure. How, then, can we concede to Hesiod his

Rudder on high in the smoke ⁴

suspended, and

All the labours of oxen and stout-toiling mules be abolished, ⁵

if there is to be need of all this preparation? I am surprised at your friend from abroad, Solon, if, when he was recently carrying out his great purification for the people of Delos, ⁶ he did not note the memorials and examples of the earliest forms of food being brought into the temple there, including, among other inexpensive and self-propagated foods, mallow and asphodel, whose plainness and simplicity it is most likely that Hesiod recommends to us.

Not merely that, said Anacharsis, but both are commended as herbs that contribute to health also in greatest measure.

You are quite right, said Cleodorus; for it is clear that Hesiod has knowledge of medicine, since there is no lack of attention or experience shown in what he has to say about the daily course of life, ⁷ mixing wine, ⁸ the great value of water, ⁹ bathing, ¹⁰ women, ¹¹ the proper time for intercourse, ¹² and the way in which infants should sit. ¹³ But it seems to me that Aesop with better right than Epimenides can declare himself the pupil of Hesiod. For the words of the hawk to the nightingale ¹⁴ first suggested to Aesop the idea of this beautiful and ingenious wisdom uttered by many different tongues. But I should be glad to listen to Solon; for it is likely that he, having been associated with Epimenides for along time at Athens, ¹⁵ has learned what experience of his or what sophistical argument induced him to resort to such a course of living.

[14] I am satisfied, quoth Chersias, and since we are fallen upon our old discourse of housekeeping, which of the company can remember what remains to be said thereof? There remains, if I mistake not, to show what that measure is which may content any man. Cleobulus answered: The law has prescribed a measure for wise men; but as touching fools, I will tell you a story I once heard my mother relate to my brother. On a certain time the moon begged of her mother a coat that would fit her. How can that be done, quoth the mother, for sometimes you are full, sometimes the one-half of you seems lost and perished, sometimes only a pair of horns appear. So, my Chersias, to the desires of a foolish immoderate man no certain measure can be fitted; for, according to the ebbings and flowings of his lust and appetite, and the frequent or seldom casualties that befall him, accordingly his necessities ebb or flow, not unlike Esop’s dog, who, being pinched and ready to starve with cold in winter, was of mind to build himself a house; but when summer came on, he lay all along upon the ground, and stretching himself in the sun thought himself monstrous big, and thought it a needless thing and besides no small piece of work to build him a house proportionable to that bulk and bigness. And do you not observe, O Chersias, continues he, many poor men,— how one while they pinch their bellies, upon what short commons they live, how sparing and niggardly and miserable they are; and another while you may observe the same men as distrustful and covetous withal, as if the plenty of city and country, the riches of king and kingdom were not sufficient to preserve them from want and beggary.

When Chersias had concluded this discourse, Cleodemus began thus: We see you that are wise men possessing these outward goods after an unequal manner. Good sweet sir, answered Cleobulus, the law weaver-like hath distributed to every man a fitting, decent, adequate portion, and in your profession your reason does what the law does here,—when you feed, or diet, or physic your patient, you give not an equal quantity to all, but what you judge to be convenient for each in his circumstances. Ardalus enquires: I pray what law compels our friend and Solon’s host, Epimenides, to abstain from all other victuals, and to content himself with a little composition of his own, which the Greeks call ἄλιμος ( hunger-relieving)? This he takes into his mouth and chews, and eats neither dinner nor supper. This instance obliged the whole company to be a little while silent, until Thales in a jesting way replied, that Epimenides did very wisely, for hereby he saved the trouble and charge of grinding and boiling his food, as Pittacus did. I myself sojourning at Lesbos overheard my landlady, as she was very busy at her hand-mill, singing as she used to do at her work, Grind mill; grind mill; for even Pittacus, the prince of great Mitylene, grinds. ¹ Quoth Solon Ardalus, I wonder you have not read the law of Epimenides’s frugality in Hesiod’s writings, who prescribes him and others this spare diet; for he was the person that gratified Epimenides with the seeds of this nutriment, when he directed him to enquire how great benefit a man might receive by mallows and asphodel. ² Do you believe, said Periander, that Hesiod meant this literally; or rather that, being himself a great admirer of parsimony, he hereby intended to exhort men to use a mean and spare diet, as most healthful and pleasant? For the chewing of mallows is very wholesome, and the stalk of asphodel is very luscious; but this expeller of hunger and thirst I take to be rather physic than natural food, consisting of honey and I know not what barbarian cheese, and of many and costly seeds fetched from foreign parts. If to make up this composition so many ingredients were requisite, and so difficult to come by and so expensive, Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage, and never blessed the world with the discovery. And yet I admire how your host, when he went to perform the great purification for the Delians not long since, could overlook the monuments and patterns of the first aliment which the people brought into the temple,—and, among other cheap fruits such as grow of themselves, the mallows and the asphodel; the usefulness and innocency whereof Hesiod seemed in his work to magnify. Not only that, quoth Anacharsis, but he affirms both plants to be great restoratives. You are in the right, quoth Cleodemus; for it is evident Hesiod was no ordinary physician, who could discourse so learnedly and judiciously of diet, of the nature of wines, and of the virtue of waters and baths, and of women, the proper times for procreation, and the site and position of infants in the womb; insomuch, that (as I take it) Esop deserves much more the name of Hesiod’s scholar and disciple than Epimenides, whose great and excellent wisdom the fable of the nightingale and hawk demonstrates. But I would gladly hear Solon’s opinion in this matter; for having sojourned long at Athens and being familiarly acquainted with Epimenides, it is more than probable he might learn of him the grounds upon which he accustomed himself to so spare a diet.