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Athenaeus: Deipnosophists    


Athenaeus was a native of Naucratis, a Greek city in Egypt, and he wrote the Deipnosophists in the early part of the 3rd century A.D.  It is a long and extremely diffuse work, which is presented as a series of erudite discussions over dinner.  Athenaeus includes frequent quotations from earlier authors, especially from the writers of comedies, which give us a fascinating glimpse of a wide range of ancient Greek life and literature that would otherwise be unknown.  Naturally, food and drink are the most common topic of conversation throughout, but often that is merely the starting point for long digressions. 

The Deipnosophists is traditionally split into fifteen books, some of which have survived only in an abbreviated form.  All of these books are available in translation online, either in the the translation by C.B.Gulick (1927-1930) on the LacusCurtius website, or in the translation by C.D.Yonge (1854) on this website. Because the individual books are quite long, most of them have been split into several different parts for reading on the web, as shown in the following table.

      
  → Go to page number (in range 1 - 702):      
     


Book:   1 -   2 -   3 -   4 -   5 -   6 -   7 -   8 -   9 -   10 -   11 -   12 -   13 -   14 -   15


  GULICK   YONGE
Book 1     1-11          Introduction; food in Homer
Book 1     12-24          Banquets and entertainments in Homer
Book 1     24-34          Types of wine
Book 2     35-47          Wine and water
Book 2     47-60          Fruit and nuts
Book 2     60-71          Salads
Book 3     72-85          Fruit
Book 3     85-94          Shell-fish
Book 3     94-106          Meat; seafood
Book 3     106-116          Types of bread
Book 3     116-127          Salt-fish
Book 4     128-138          Macedonian and Greek dinners
Book 4     138-148          Spartan and Cretan dinners
Book 4     149-160          145-155   Dinners of other nations
Book 4     160-170          Extravagance and prodigality
Book 4     170-184          Musical instruments
Book 5     185-193          Symposia in Homer
Book 5     193-203          193-203   Royal processions
Book 5     203-209          203-210   Enormous ships
Book 5     209-215          210-222   Degenerate philosophers
Book 5     215-222            Faults of philosophers
Book 6     222-228          Fishmongers
Book 6     228-234          229-234   Silver and gold
Book 6     234-248          234-248   Parasites
Book 6     248-262          248-262   Flatterers
Book 6     262-275          262-275   Slaves
Book 7     275-281          Pleasure-lovers
Book 7     281-288        Catalogue of fish
Book 7     288-294        Fish (continued)
Book 7     294-306        Fish (continued)
Book 7     306-319        Fish (continued)
Book 7     319-330        Fish (last part)
Book 8     330-337          Stories about fish
Book 8     337-347          Fish-eaters and epicures
Book 8     347-352          Anecdotes about Stratonicus
Book 8     352-358          Types of meat
Book 8     358-365          Festivals and feasts
Book 9     366-376          Meat and vegetables
Book 9     376-383          Erudite cooks
Book 9     384-398          Edible birds
Book 9     399-403          Types of meat
Book 9     403-410          Boastful cooks; washing of hands
Book 10     411-422          Gluttons
Book 10     422-429          Toasts ; drunkenness
Book 10     429-440          Famous drinkers
Book 10     440-448          Drunken behaviour
Book 10     448-459          Riddles
Book 11      459-469     Cups and bowls : intro and A-D
Book 11          469-484     Cups and bowls : E-K
Book 11          484-496     Cups and bowls : L-P
Book 11          496-509     Cups and bowls ; malignity of Plato
Book 12          510-528   Luxury of states
Book 12          528-544   Luxury of individuals
Book 12          544-554   Hedonism and obesity
Book 13          555-571   Women and love
Book 13          571-589   Prostitutes and courtesans
Book 13          589-599   Mistresses of famous men
Book 13          599-612   Love of boys
Book 14          613-628   Entertainers and musicians
Book 14          628-638   Dance; musical instruments
Book 14          639-649   Desserts and cakes
Book 14          649-664   Fruit; fowls; cooks
Book 15          665-680   Kottabos; garlands
Book 15            680-692   Perfumes and unguents
Book 15            692-702   Drinking songs and parodies



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