“Says Hippo the Atheist, ’But the divine Heraclitus also says, ’A great variety of information does not usually give wisdom.’  And Timon said, ...  ’For what is the use of so many names, my good grammarian, which are more calculated to overwhelm the hearers than to do them any good?’”

This passage shows the redundancy of expression which disfigures so much of Athenaeus.  It is also typical of the cudgel-play of repartee between his characters, which takes the place of agile witticism.  But if he heaps up vast piles of scholastic rubbish, he is also the Golden Dustman who shows us the treasure preserved by his saving pedantry.  Scholars find the ‘Feast of the Learned’ a quarry of quotations from classical writers whose works have perished.  Nearly eight hundred writers and twenty-four hundred separate writings are referred to and cited in this disorderly encyclopedia, most of them now lost and forgotten.  This literary thrift will always give rank to the work of Athenaeus, poor as it is.  The best editions of the original Greek are those of Dindorf (Leipzig, 1827), and of Meineke (Leipzig, 1867).  The best English translation is that of C.D.  Yonge in ‘Bonn’s Classical Library,’ from which, with slight alterations, the appended passages are selected.

WHY THE NILE OVERFLOWS

From the ‘Deipnosophistae’

Thales the Milesian, one of the Seven Wise Men, says that the overflowing of the Nile arises from the Etesian winds; for that they blow up the river, and that the mouths of the river lie exactly opposite to the point from which they blow; and accordingly, that the wind blowing in the opposite direction hinders the flow of the waters; and the waves of the sea, dashing against the mouth of the river, and coming on with a fair wind in the same direction, beat back the river, and in this manner the Nile becomes full to overflowing.  But Anaxagoras, the natural philosopher, says that the fullness of the Nile arises from the snow melting; and so too says Euripides, and some others of the tragic poets.  Anaxagoras says this is the sole origin of all that fullness; but Euripides goes further and describes the exact place where this melting of the snow takes place.

HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH

From the ‘Deipnosophistae’

One ought to avoid thick perfumes, and to drink water that is thin and clear, and that in respect of weight is light, and that has no earthy particles in it.  And that water is best which is of moderate heat or coldness, and which, when poured into a brazen or silver vessel, does not produce a blackish sediment.  Hippocrates says, “Water which is easily warmed or easily chilled is alway lighter.”  But that water is bad which takes a long time to boil vegetables; and so too is water full of nitre, or brackish.  And in his book ‘On Waters,’ Hippocrates calls good water drinkable; but stagnant water he calls bad, such as that from ponds or marshes.  And most spring-water is rather hard.