Archestratus ( grc-gre, Ἀρχέστρατος ''Archestratos'') was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

poet of

Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province of Ca ...

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

, in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, who wrote some time in the mid 4th century BCE, and was known as "the

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdi ...

of tasty dishes". His humorous didactic poem ''Hedypatheia'' ("Life of Luxury"),prospectbooks.co.uk
written in hexameters but known only from quotations, advises a gastronomic reader on where to find the best food in the Mediterranean world. The writer, who was styled in antiquity the

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

Theognis Theognis of Megara ( grc-gre, Θέογνις ὁ Μεγαρεύς, ''Théognis ho Megareús'') was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, ...

of gluttons, parodies the pithy style of older

gnomic poet : ''For the map projection see Gnomonic projection; for the game, see Nomic; for the mythological being, see Gnome.'' Gnomic poetry consists of meaningful sayings put into verse to aid the memory. They were known by the Greeks as gnomes (c.f. the ...

s; most of his attention is given to fish, although some fragments refer to appetizers, and there was also a section on wine. His poem had a certain notoriety among readers in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE: it was referred to by the comic poet Antiphanes, by Lynceus of Samos and by the philosophers

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

Chrysippus Chrysippus of Soli (; grc-gre, Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύς, ; ) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes. When C ...

and

Clearchus of Soli Clearchus of Soli ( el, Kλέαρχoς ὁ Σολεύς, ''Klearkhos ho Soleus'') was a Greek philosopher of the 4th–3rd century BCE, belonging to Aristotle's Peripatetic school. He was born in Soli in Cyprus. He wrote extensively on eastern cul ...

. In nearly every case these references are disparaging, implying that Archestratus's poem—like the sex manual by

Philaenis Philaenis of Samos was supposedly the author of a famous ancient sex manual. According to a surviving fragment of a treatise which claims to have been written by her, she was from Samos, and her father was called Ocymenes. However, many modern s ...

- was likely to corrupt its readers. This attitude is exemplified in the ''

Deipnosophistae The ''Deipnosophistae'' is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work ( grc, Δειπνοσοφισταί, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. "The Dinner Sophists/Philosophers/Experts") by the Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of lit ...

'' with citations of Chrysippus: Sixty-two fragments from Archestratus's poem (including two doubtful items) survive, all via quotation by Athenaeus in the ''Deipnosophistae''. The poem was translated or imitated in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Ennius Quintus Ennius (; c. 239 – c. 169 BC) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce, Apulia, (Ancient Calabri ...

, a work that has not survived. The standard edition of the fragments, with commentary and translation, is by Olson and Sens (2000).

References

*Andrew Dalby, "Archestratos: where and when?" in ''Food in antiquity'' ed. John Wilkins and others (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1995) pp. 400–412. * Kathryn Koromilas,
Feasting with Archestratus
in ''Odyssey'' (November/December 2007) *S. Douglas Olson and Alexander Sens, ''Archestratos of Gela: Greek Culture and Cuisine in the Fourth Century BCE''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ext, translation, commentary.*John Wilkins, Shaun Hill, ''Archestratus: The life of luxury''. Totnes: Prospect Books, 1994. [Introduction, translation, commentary.
Online text of introduction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archestratus Ancient Greek poets Ancient Geloans Ancient Syracusans Ancient Greek food writers 4th-century BC Greek people 4th-century BC poets Ancient Greek didactic poets Poets of Magna Graecia Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown