opsoPHAay. 529 



and frequently laid their hands upon whatever could be 

 carried off^ like Frenchmen upon coffee-house sugar. 

 Homer, who mentions both these modes of entertain- 

 ment, represents Minerva as knowing at a glance, by 

 the uproarious conduct of Penelope's suitors, that the 

 feast at which they gambled and gorged was not an 

 epavo'i, or club feast, but an etKairlvT), or supper, at the 

 expense of another party. 



Light is the dance, and doubly sweet the lays, 

 When for the dear delight another pays.* 



The Greeks, in subsequent and more luxurious days 

 than the heroic (when fish and fowl had been added to 

 beef and mutton, and these meats were boiled, hashed, 

 and stewed, as well as simply roasted), sat down some- 

 times to four meals a day rf observing, as to their times 

 for eating, a correspondence rather with continental 

 usage than our own. They appear to have begun the 

 day with a sort of ' chittering crust,' or snatch before 

 breakfast {aKpaTicrfjua) , taken immediately on rising; 

 this consisted of a bit of bread sopped in wine, like the 

 French auroral ' biscuit de Rheims' with a small cup of 

 'cafe noir;' the next meal {apicrrov) was a late meat 

 breakfast, or ' dejeuner li la fourchette,' and is said to be 

 etymologicaUy derived from apiaToa, to take pluck or 

 courage, because after it men, in the pugnacious periods 

 of the world, were wont to buckle on their armour and 

 go into battle, where they were expected by the State to 

 do their duty for that day at least on the strength of it. 

 The third repast was the ea-irkpoaiJia, or vesper meal, a 

 kind of go4te, or early tea; J and lastly — ^before dinners 

 were introduced ('dum in usum non erant prandia') — the 



* Pope. So Wicomaohus says to the same purpose, Seirrvav Si 

 nas t' aXXoTpia yiver' o^^eipc k ovic iyKparfis. 

 t Isidorus. 

 J Suffolkcfe bever, Norfolkcfe fowes. 



2a 



