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76"
OUR
ANCESTORS.
the
first
was
fish
and
meat,
with
the
vegetables
and
other
hors-d'oeuvres,
and
the
second
the
dessert
of
pastry,
cakes,
and
fruit.
While
the
meal
proper
continued,
there
was
no
drinking,
nor
was
it
the
custom
to
converse
while
eat-
ing.
Conversation
began
with
the
second
part of
the
entertainment,
the
symposion
or
carousal,
for
which
the
tables
were
removed,
and
the
floor
cleansed
of
all
fragments.
Other
tables
were
then
brought
in
by
the
servants,
covered
with
salted
cakes
a
kind
of
bretzels
cheese
and
other
viands
provocative
of
thirst.
The
great
mixing
bowls
were
brought
in,
also
pitchers
of
water
cooled
in
snow,
and
jugs
of
unmixed
wines,
ladle-shaped
dippers,
beakers,
and
cups
deep
and
shallow,
of
graceful
forms,
and
the
queer horn-
shaped
vessels,
called
rhyta.
The
youngest
and
hand-
somest
slaves
were
chosen
to
wait
on
the
guests,
who
crowned
their
heads
and
garlanded
their
breasts
with
myrtle
and
violets,
ivy
and
roses,
not
merely
as
a
sign
of
festivity,
but
to
cool
their
glowing
temples,
and,
as
they
thought,
to
counteract
the
heady
qualities
of
the
wine.
Music
was
then
brought
in,
song
and
dance
de-
lighted
ear
and
eye,
and
Bacchos,
attended
by
the
Muses
and
the
Graces,
ruled
the
hour,
often
until
all
were
sunk
in
intoxication.
The
Greek
loved
wine,
and
hanored
it
in
art
and
song.
He
loved
it
not
merely
as
a
means
of
sensual
enjoyment:
he
used
it
as
the
care-dispeller,
the
bring-