who was the author of the dinner party talk?

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daivid
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who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by daivid »

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. :(
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anphph
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Re: 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?

Post by Cathexis »

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
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Aetos
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by Aetos »

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.

daivid
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by daivid »

Thanks, it was indeed the Deipnosophistae that I was trying to recall.

Much appreciated.
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Cathexis
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by Cathexis »

@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. :D

Andrew/Cathexis
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Aetos
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by Aetos »

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.

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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by jeidsath »

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
“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

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Cathexis
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Re: who was the author of the dinner party talk?

Post by Cathexis »

@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.
Romani ite Domum

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