DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0018
ANCIENT ATHENIAN FAMILIES. 11
The Athenian corn is mingled with a great quantity of the bane-
ful herb lolium,1 which among the Greeks retains the ancient name
atooc; of which a long account is given by Theophrastus2 and Ga-
lenus.3 The former4 terms it very properly, aqa /3apu kcci KtcpaXuXytq.
If the wheat is not cleaned and picked before it is ground into flour,
it is so much vitiated by the darnel, as to occasion when eaten vio-
lent pains in the head, and a giddiness, which resembles the effects
of intoxication. The Athenian bread is generally gritty, and some-
times mixed, with bean flour, which makes it heavy and unwhole-
some, while it -communicates an unpalatable taste. Strabo5 mentions
a plant, called Qpvov, Avhich grew among the corn in Triphyllia, and
which was not less noxious than the uipct. This was probably the
carax of the Latins, or, as some imagine, the solanum insanum, or
night-shade. According to Atheneeus,6 Antiphanes asserts, that
Attica produced the best bread in the world.
As in the time of Ion,7 the modern Athenians are divided into the
four distinct classes of cultivators, craftsmen, military, and priests.
The Albanians cultivate the land ; the Greeks engage in commerce
and the mechanical arts. The Turks garrison the city, and smoke.
The priests do nothing ! Some few Turks indeed direct their atten-
tion to commerce and the arts; but not one of them tills the ground.
In other parts of Greece, particularly in Eleia, where the Greek
population is small, the Turks make a virtue of necessity, and be-
come.industrious husbandmen.
There are few families in Athens, or indeed in any other part of
1 Iofelix lolium et steriles nascuntur averts. Virgil Bucolic. Eclog. 5. v. S7. It is the
Darnel, Cockle, or Ray, of the English; the Gioglio of the Italians, and the Ivraie of the
French.
* Hist. Plant, b. 2. c. 5. "' De Aliment. Facult. last chapter.
4 B. 8. c. 5. s J3. s. p. 344. 6 Deipnosoph. b. 3. c. 2.
IT Strabo, b. 8. p. 383. According to Plutarch, the Athenian tribes took their names from
their different occupations. The military were the Hoplitae ; the craftsmen, Ergata?; the
cultivators, Teleontes; and the shepherds and graziers, Aigicores; Life of Solon.
c 2
The Athenian corn is mingled with a great quantity of the bane-
ful herb lolium,1 which among the Greeks retains the ancient name
atooc; of which a long account is given by Theophrastus2 and Ga-
lenus.3 The former4 terms it very properly, aqa /3apu kcci KtcpaXuXytq.
If the wheat is not cleaned and picked before it is ground into flour,
it is so much vitiated by the darnel, as to occasion when eaten vio-
lent pains in the head, and a giddiness, which resembles the effects
of intoxication. The Athenian bread is generally gritty, and some-
times mixed, with bean flour, which makes it heavy and unwhole-
some, while it -communicates an unpalatable taste. Strabo5 mentions
a plant, called Qpvov, Avhich grew among the corn in Triphyllia, and
which was not less noxious than the uipct. This was probably the
carax of the Latins, or, as some imagine, the solanum insanum, or
night-shade. According to Atheneeus,6 Antiphanes asserts, that
Attica produced the best bread in the world.
As in the time of Ion,7 the modern Athenians are divided into the
four distinct classes of cultivators, craftsmen, military, and priests.
The Albanians cultivate the land ; the Greeks engage in commerce
and the mechanical arts. The Turks garrison the city, and smoke.
The priests do nothing ! Some few Turks indeed direct their atten-
tion to commerce and the arts; but not one of them tills the ground.
In other parts of Greece, particularly in Eleia, where the Greek
population is small, the Turks make a virtue of necessity, and be-
come.industrious husbandmen.
There are few families in Athens, or indeed in any other part of
1 Iofelix lolium et steriles nascuntur averts. Virgil Bucolic. Eclog. 5. v. S7. It is the
Darnel, Cockle, or Ray, of the English; the Gioglio of the Italians, and the Ivraie of the
French.
* Hist. Plant, b. 2. c. 5. "' De Aliment. Facult. last chapter.
4 B. 8. c. 5. s J3. s. p. 344. 6 Deipnosoph. b. 3. c. 2.
IT Strabo, b. 8. p. 383. According to Plutarch, the Athenian tribes took their names from
their different occupations. The military were the Hoplitae ; the craftsmen, Ergata?; the
cultivators, Teleontes; and the shepherds and graziers, Aigicores; Life of Solon.
c 2