There is a text that purports to be a talk at a dinner party in which the author flits from topic to topic displaying how well read and erudite he is. It dates from era of the Roman conquest.
It is a source for estimates on the number of slaves owned by Ancient Greeks - a source that needs to be used with caution as the author is likely cherry picking his references to prove his point.
But who was that author?
I can't for the life of me remember.
who was the author of the dinner party talk?
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- Cathexis
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
All 7 volumes of, "The Learned Banqueters" are available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... Aathenaeus
This link even shows a Delphi Classics vers. of Complete Athenaeus in Kindle for $2.51!
Supposedly Greek/English and illustrated too! But I haven't tried them, though maybe now
I will. They seem to have lots of titles.
Hope this helps,
Andrew/Cathexis
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... Aathenaeus
This link even shows a Delphi Classics vers. of Complete Athenaeus in Kindle for $2.51!
Supposedly Greek/English and illustrated too! But I haven't tried them, though maybe now
I will. They seem to have lots of titles.
Hope this helps,
Andrew/Cathexis
Romani ite Domum
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
I have a couple of the Delphi Series pubs. Basically, they present the English versions of the collected works of the author, then the collection of Greek texts. No commentary, no critical apparatus.
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
Thanks, it was indeed the Deipnosophistae that I was trying to recall.
Much appreciated.
Much appreciated.
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
@Aetos,
You are correct about the lack of commentary or analysis. On a lark I gave up $1.99 to find out.
A copy of, "Complete Works of Sappho(Translated)" was sent to my Kindle. It presents all 117
texts I know of in a legible Greek verse followed by a English prose translation. It claims it's
bookmark-able and all 117 entries were hyperlinked on the contents page. I went straight to
Frag. 31 and found the translation a bit meh! but otherwise ok. IMHO the real value in, tablets
as book substitutes, is portability and ease of access. I hold no great devotion to them but they
have their uses such as when I'm travelling or otherwise away from my bookshelves.
Most Loebs I'm aware of have a Preface/Introduction and perhaps footnotes. Loeb's "The Learned
Banqueters" is a seven volume set (7 x $26 = $182US versus $2.51 for Kindle Ed). It could be argued
you're better off cost-wise to buy the Kindle version and then spend your coin on the commentaries.
But then, I like books as much as anybody else.
Andrew/Cathexis
You are correct about the lack of commentary or analysis. On a lark I gave up $1.99 to find out.
A copy of, "Complete Works of Sappho(Translated)" was sent to my Kindle. It presents all 117
texts I know of in a legible Greek verse followed by a English prose translation. It claims it's
bookmark-able and all 117 entries were hyperlinked on the contents page. I went straight to
Frag. 31 and found the translation a bit meh! but otherwise ok. IMHO the real value in, tablets
as book substitutes, is portability and ease of access. I hold no great devotion to them but they
have their uses such as when I'm travelling or otherwise away from my bookshelves.
Most Loebs I'm aware of have a Preface/Introduction and perhaps footnotes. Loeb's "The Learned
Banqueters" is a seven volume set (7 x $26 = $182US versus $2.51 for Kindle Ed). It could be argued
you're better off cost-wise to buy the Kindle version and then spend your coin on the commentaries.
But then, I like books as much as anybody else.
Andrew/Cathexis
Romani ite Domum
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
Hi Andrew
That's basically why I sprang for the Xenophon collection-the price and the portability. I was usually away from home 4 days a week, every week, so I liked to carry my library with me. This is way off topic, but another thing I did was use Microsoft OneDrive to connect to my home PC and download the books I wanted from my hard drive at home to my laptop or my iPad/iPhone. Having retired I no longer really need the portability, but I like to have a read at bedtime and iPad is perfect for that.
That's basically why I sprang for the Xenophon collection-the price and the portability. I was usually away from home 4 days a week, every week, so I liked to carry my library with me. This is way off topic, but another thing I did was use Microsoft OneDrive to connect to my home PC and download the books I wanted from my hard drive at home to my laptop or my iPad/iPhone. Having retired I no longer really need the portability, but I like to have a read at bedtime and iPad is perfect for that.
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
I discovered the University of Oxford podcast lectures today. Here is S. Douglas Olson on Athenaeus' quotations of fragmentary prose authors:
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/fragmentary-p ... -naucratis
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/fragmentary-p ... -naucratis
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?
@Joel - Excellent, another bookmark to go through. Thank you! I have a paid copy of iSkysoft iMedia
Converter Deluxe that let's me grab any podcast or You-Tube type of file and convert for my own use.
I prefer working through media material that way as opposed to just staring at the PC. I don't distribute
and consider my private viewing a "Fair Use" of the material.
@Aetos - You read my mind! I do much the same thing, like when someone links to a .pdf that
interests me, I download it to my desktop and then drag & drop into my Kindle. I have done the
same for my Android but the tablet is much more eye-friendly in the bed for my money.
Converter Deluxe that let's me grab any podcast or You-Tube type of file and convert for my own use.
I prefer working through media material that way as opposed to just staring at the PC. I don't distribute
and consider my private viewing a "Fair Use" of the material.
@Aetos - You read my mind! I do much the same thing, like when someone links to a .pdf that
interests me, I download it to my desktop and then drag & drop into my Kindle. I have done the
same for my Android but the tablet is much more eye-friendly in the bed for my money.
Romani ite Domum