Home › In Greece and Italy › In Greece and Italy: Philetas

In Greece and Italy: Philetas

At Argos, we are told, was a kind of cheesecake brought to the bridegroom from the bride, - "It is roasted on the coals, and the friends of the bridegroom are invited to eat it; it is served up with honey, as Philetas tells us in his 'Miscellanies."

Magnes in his "Bacchus" inquires, with what unction one can imagine, — "Have you ne'er seen the fresh cheese-cakes hissing When you pour honey over them?"

In the "Leptiniscus " of Antiphanes, Athenæus tells us, occurs the following pleasant dialogue: - "A. Then what think you of almonds?

B. I feel very friendly to them, They mingle well with honey.

A. If a man should bring you honied cheese-cakes?

B. I should eat them, And swallow down an egg or two besides."

In Antiphanes are found also these lines, - "To eat ducks, and honey-combs of wild bees, and eggs, And cheese-cakes, and unwash'd radishes, And rape, and oat-meal groats, and honey."

Honeyed cheesecakes were considered a worthy offering to the gods, as says Semus in the second book of the "Deliad," - "In the island of Hecate the Delians sacrifice to Iris, offering her the cheesecakes called basyniæ; and this is a cake of wheat-flour, and suet, and honey, boiled up together."