The other deities keep far from earth;
Have no ears, though mighty;
They are not, or they will not hear us wail:
Thee our eye beholdeth;
Not wood, not stone, but living, breathing, real,
Thee our prayer enfoldeth.
First give us peace! Give, dearest, for thou canst;
Thou art Lord and Master!
The Sphinx, who not on Thebes, but on all Greece
Swoops to gloat and pasture;
The AEtolian, he who sits upon his rock,
Like that old disaster;
He feeds upon our flesh and blood, and we
Can no longer labor;
For it was ever thus the AEtolian thief
Preyed upon his neighbor;
Him punish Thou, or, if not Thou, then send
Oedipus to harm him,
Who'll cast this Sphinx down from his cliff of pride,
Or to stone will charm him."

The Swallow song, which is cited, is an example of the folk-lore and old
customs which Athenaeus delighted to gather; and he tells how in
springtime the children used to go about from door to door, begging
doles and presents, and singing such half-sensible, half-foolish
rhymes as--

"She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese;
Or, if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
What shall we have? or must we hence away!
Thanks, if you give: if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry;
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small,
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open, to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we!"

The 'Feast of the Learned' professes to be the record of the sayings at
a banquet given at Rome by Laurentius to his learned friends. Laurentius
stands as the typical Maecenas of the period. The dialogue is reported
after Plato's method, or as we see it in the more familiar form of the
'Satires' of Horace, though lacking the pithy vigor of these models. The
discursiveness with which topics succeed each other, their want of logic
or continuity, and the pelting fire of quotations in