In Greece and Italy 303 



" But praise the cheesecakes which from Athens come; 

 And if there are none, still of any country 

 Cheesecakes are to be eaten ; also ask 

 For Attic Honey, the feasts' crowning dish — 

 For that it is which makes a banquet noble." 



Antiphanes, in his " Lemnian Women," thus feelingly 

 does justice to the subject : — 



" A three-legg'd table now is laid, and on it 

 A luscious cheesecake, O ye honored gods, 

 And this year's honey in a silver dish." 



Cheesecakes steeped in honey or covered with honey 

 were regarded with great favor for dessert, and we are in- 

 formed of the manner in which a guest should express 

 appreciation at a well-ordered table : " One of the guests 

 would say of the dessert (which was the second course) 

 as Euripides says in his 'Cretan Women,' — 



" ' Certainly, second thoughts are much the best ; 

 For what now can the table want ? or what 

 Is there with which it is not amply loaded ? 

 'T is full of fish fresh from the sea, besides 

 Here 's tender veal, and dainty dishes of goose, 

 Tartlets, and cheesecakes steeped most thoroughly 

 In the rich honey of the golden bee. ' " 



Right here let us turn for a moment from the feast of 

 Athenaeus to enjoy one of Martial's witty epigrams, written 

 to Charinus : — 



"Thirty times in this one year, Charinus, while you 

 have been arranging to make your will, have I sent you 

 cheesecakes dripping with Hyblaean thyme. I am ruined : 

 have pity on me at length, Charinus. Make your will less 

 often, or do that once for all for which your cough is ever 

 falsely leading us to hope. I have emptied my coffers and 

 my purse. Had I been richer than Croesus, Charinus, I 



