Come now, what shall be the beginning of our recital” as the comic poet Cephisodorus puts it, friend Timocrates? For we had gathered early, spurred to eagerness for the cups; and while all the guests were still seated, and before conversation had begun, Ulpian said : “At the table of Adrastus, my friends, the nobles dine seated ; but Polyidus, when offering sacrifices on a highway, made Peteōs, who was walking by,
stop and recline in the grass ; he then broke up some green twigs to serve as a table and placed before Peteōs some of the sacrificial meat. [460] Again, Autolycus once went ‘to the rich land of Ithaca,’ and the nurse (served him) while he was seated, of course, for that is the way in which the men of that time dined; and, says the poet,
‘He found his daughter’s son Odysseus a child new-born, and when he was making an end of supper, then Eurycleia placed the child on his knees’; she seated him, I say, on his knees and did not stand him beside his knees. However that may be, let us not dally, but recline forthwith, for I want Plutarchus to render to us the account of cupsas he has promised, and drink the health of all in the cups filled to the brim.
