108
FEASTS, FESTIVALS, &.C.
monly intoxicated before they suffered. 61 Several other in-gredients were mixed with wine; sometimes meal, which wasvery much used by the Persians . f+ They had many sorts ofwines, as oT*o« xpiSbo;, cerevisia, wine made of barley; o’»o ;l-knlf, palm wine, sometimes termed o|o? for o| 0{ was
a general name for all made wines.
Ceremonials observed before, at, and after Entertainments.—For the person who gave the entertainment, the partiesinvited, and those by w'hom the invitations were delivered,the Greeks had several appropriate names. They werelikewise very particular in naming upon the card of invita-tion the exact time when the entertainment was to takeplace: the ancient Greeks reckoned time by the shade ofthe sun; their dials were distinguished into distinct periodsby letters, whence axA, shade, and ro»%-=~o>, the letter of thedial, frequently appear upon these occasions. Aristophanes 64notices it in these verses :
- act S) {itXxati,
Orctv ^ Stxctimv rot^iToy %ufitv lx) Sttxvor.
The number of guests seldom exceeded four or five; in-dependent of whom, certain favourites of princes and otherdependents of great men usually accompanied their patrons,and were generally denominated <wai, 5 shades, from theirclosely following their patrons as shades do bodies: theRomans called them umbra, whence Horace,' * * * * 6- quos Mtecenas addnxerat umbras.
In another place the same poet says, 67i ■ ■ - loctis est ct pluribus umbris.
Those who usually intruded themselves into other men’sentertainments the Greeks called ftvictt, and the Latins namedmii$C(r , flies, a general term of reproach for unwelcome per-sons among both people.
It was also customary for relations of the party making-,afeast to go to it unasked, as we learn from Homer ': 68
AuTopictTos 5s oJ /So*}* o.y<x$o<;
61 The criminal laws of this kingdom also permitted this practice, which wts at
one time universal, but the place where it was last used was at York;—whence the
anecdote of the saddler of Bawtree, who was hung for leaving his ale behind him
because, had he stopped to have taken it, a reprieve would have saved his life.
6 3 Atherueus , lib. x. initio, cap. 9.
Conciouatricibus, p. 744. Conf. ibi scholiastes, item Suidas , v. Aixtiracaxis, et Hesychius , v. hxxtruv r«i^iTo».
63 Plutarchus Sympos t lib. vii. quaest. 6. 66 Lib. ii. Sat. ▼iii. v. 22 .