[*]It is with such a white fib that the host Agathon salutes Aristodemus, Socrates’s companion in Plato’s “Symposium.”

[+]Of these “Parasites” or “Flies” (as owing to their migratory habits they were sometimes called), countless stories were told, whereof the following is a sample:  there was once a law in Athens that not over thirty guests were to be admitted to a marriage feast, and an officer was obliged to count all the guests and exclude the superfluous.  A “fly” thrust in on one occasion, and the officer said:  “Friend, you must retire.  I find one more here than the law allows.”  “Dear fellow,” quoth the “fly,” “you are utterly mistaken, as you will find, if you kindly count again—­only beginning with me.”

163.  The Dinner Proper.—­The Greeks have not anticipated the Romans in their custom of making the standard dinner party nine persons on three couches,—­three guests on each.  Prodicus has about a dozen guests, two on a couch.  They “lie down” more or less side by side upon the cushioned divans, with their right arms resting on brightly striped pillows and the left arms free for eating.  The slaves bring basis of water to wash their hands, and then beside each couch is set a small table, already garnished with the first course, and after the casting of a few bits of food upon the family hearth fire,—­the conventional “sacrifice” to the house gods,—­the dinner begins.

Despite the elaborate preparations of the Sicilian cook, Prodicus offers his guests only two courses.  The first consists of the substantial dishes—­the fish, the vegetables, the meat (if there is any).  Soups are not unknown, and had they been served might have been eaten with spoons; but Athens like all the world is innocent of forks, and fingers take their place.  Each guest has a large piece of soft bread on which he wipes his fingers from time to time and presently casts it upon the floor.[*] When this first course is finished, the tables are all taken out to be reset, water is again poured over the hands of the guests, and garlands of flowers are passed.  The use of garlands is universal, and among the guests, old white headed and bearded Sosthenes will find nothing more undignified in putting himself beneath a huge wreath of lilies than an elderly gentleman of a later day will find in donning the “conventional” dress suit.  The conversation,—­which was very scattering at first,—­becomes more animated.  A little wine is now passed about.  Then back come the tables with the second course—­fruits, and various sweetmeats and confectionary with honey as the staple flavoring.  Before this disappears a goblet of unmixed wine is passed about, and everybody takes a sip:  “To the Good Genius,” they say as the cup goes round.

[*]Napkins were not used in Greece before Roman days.

164.  Beginning the Symposium.—­Prodicus at length gives a nod to the chief of his corps of servers.