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The Refusal of Callisthenes to drink the Health of Alexander

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Grace H. Macurdy
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Extract

In his recent article on The Hellenistic Ruler-Cult and the Daemon W. W. Tarn regards the story of Callisthenes' refusal to drink the cup of unmixed wine at a banquet of Alexander's as apocryphal, having its sources, as he says, only in the later literature of gastronomy. His reason for doubting the authenticity of the story is that ‘Chares in both versions (i.e. of the Banquet at Bactra, where the proskynesis was performed by all but Callisthenes) is clear that Callisthenes did drink.’ Assuming for the moment that the story is true, he says of it: ‘The Greeks as a rule disliked unmixed wine; and Callisthenes was thus able to veil his refusal to drink “The King” by saying that if he drank Alexander's health (in unmixed wine) he would be ill.’ He argues that since Chares attests that Callisthenes did drink the King's health on the important occasion at Bactra, that Chares and probably Aristobulus, who are given as sources by Athenaeus, are both wrong in vouching for this remark, and the sole remaining authority Lynceus is only a third-century writer on gastronomy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , November 1930 , pp. 294 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1930

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References

1 J.H.S. xlviii. 206 ff.

2 Cf. Taylor, L. R., ‘The Proskynesis and the Hellenistic Ruler Cult,’ J.H.S. xlvii. 53–62.Google Scholar

3 Plut, . Quaest. Conviv. 623Google Scholar F—624 A; De cohibenda ira, 454 E; Athen. x. 434 A—D.

4 Cf. the during the at the banquet of Caranus, and the wild scramble for drinking-cups. When Caranus begins the drinking in little cups, it comes as a relief to the guests, an Athen. iv. 329 E—330 C. See also Berve, , Alexanderreich, 1. 14 f.Google Scholar

5 Quaest. Conviv. 623 F—624 D.

6 Plut., Alex. 23Google Scholar.

7 The verb is frequently used of physical loathing and dislike of eating, drinking, etc. Cf. Aristotle, , H.A. 8. 8Google Scholar: Plut., Mor. 101 CGoogle Scholar: et pasaim.

8 These entries may refer to the last days only of Alexander's life. Cf. Plut., Alex. 75–76Google Scholar, and Wilcken, , Philologus 53Google Scholar, especially p. 120.

9 Plut., Alex. 23Google Scholar. Evelyn's translation.

10 Plutarch calls Medius the leader of the chorus around Alexander and the sophistcoryphaeus of those who were banded together against better men.

11 Schwartz, , Kallisthenes' Hellenika, Hermes, 35Google Scholar, 1. 27.

12 Plut., Alex. 4.Google Scholar

13 Alexanderreich, 1. 14: Man begann mit der aus einer Opferschale gegossenen Götterspende, die von jedem Theilnehmer dargebracht (Chares, b. Plut. 54; Arr. IV. 12. 2; Plut. 70; vgl. de f. Al. p. 338 D) vom Könige anscheinend unter Trompetentusch (Chares, frg. 16) geweiht wurde. In the first two references given here only drinking of healths is in question; in Plut. 70 there is the and the drinking match after the return from the funeral pyre of Calanus, and also the account of the wedding feast at Susa, of Alexander and Statira, at which Alexander presented each one of his nine thousand guests with a gold for libation. Berve rightly recognises in his article in Klio (20, 1925–6, p. 181) that the expressions in Arrian's account, and refer to quite definite ‘Trinksitten.’

14 The word φιάλη is used by Plutarch and Arrian in the tale of the banquet at Bactra; the cup of unmixed wine is called κύλιξ in all the descriptions of the refusal of Callisthenes to drink Alexander's health. I cannot agree with Tarn (op. cit. p. 212) in his belief that the big gold cylix which held the unmixed wine was the same as a gold φιάλη used for libations on various occasions and finally flung into the Indian Ocean. Alexander had many gold cups, and his father had an enormous one that he so cherished that he took it to bed with him and put it under his pillow (Athen. 155 D and 231 B). Alexander says he inherited from his father only debts and some gold cups (Arrian, 7, 9, 10). The big cup may have been one of these.