ARCHESTRATUS

'Archestratus' (''Archestratos'') (fl. 330 BCE) was an Ancient Greek poet of Gela or Syracuse, in Sicily, who wrote some time in the mid 4th century BCE. His humorous didactic poem ''Hedypatheia'' ("Life of Luxury"), written in classical Greek hexameters, seems to advise a gastronomic reader on where to find good food in the Mediterranean world. The poem had a certain notoriety among Greek readers in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC: it was referred to by the comedy authors Plato, Antiphanes and Lynceus of Samos and by the philosophers Aristotle, Chrysippus and Clearchus of Soli.
The writer, who has been styled the Hesiod or Theognis of gluttons, parodies the style of the old gnomic poets; chief attention is given to details concerning fish. It has been said that his descriptions of objects for the table were so accurate that Aristotle referred to his work in giving an account of the natural history of fishes. In nearly every case these references are disparaging, implying that Archestratus's poem -- like the sex manual by Philaenis -- was likely to corrupt its readers. This attitude is exemplified in the ''Deipnosophistae'' with citations of Chrysippus:
62 fragments from Archestratus's poem (including two doubtful items) survive, all of them in the form of quotations by Athenaeus in the ''Deipnosophistae''. The poem was translated or imitated in Latin by Ennius. The standard edition of the fragments, with commentary and translation, is by Olson and Sens.

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Bibliography

Bibliography

★ Andrew Dalby, "Archestratos: where and when?" in ''Food in antiquity'' ed. John Wilkins and others (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1995) pp. 400-412.

★ S. Douglas Olson and Alexander Sens, ''Archestratos of Gela: Greek Culture and Cuisine in the Fourth Century BCE''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. [Text, translation, commentary.]

★ John Wilkins, Shaun Hill, ''Archestratus: The life of luxury''. Totnes: Prospect Books, 1994. [Introduction, translation, commentary.] Online text of introduction

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