P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 8.654–678

The description continues at the table itself and the courses of a modest country meal, from the couch and its covering through to a second course of fruit. A passage built almost wholly of homely, concrete detail.

 

Tier 1

intereā dī et hominēs colloquēbantur. Baucis lectum parāvit. supra lectum vestēs posuit, quās in diēbus fēstīs sōlēbat pōnere. illae vestēs vetustae et vīlēs erant, sed lectō nōn indignae.

 

tum dī accubuērunt. Baucis senex et tremēns mēnsam posuit. sed ūnus pēs mēnsae brevior erat. Baucis testam sub pede posuit, et mēnsa aequa facta est. menta virēns mēnsam tersit.

 

tum cibōs posuit: olīvās bicolōrēs, et corna autumnālia in vīnō condita, et intuba, et rādīcēs, et cāseum, et ōva leviter in cinere versāta. omnia in vāsīs fictilibus erant. tum crātēr quoque in mēnsā erat. pōcula erant ex lignō facta.

 

parva mora erat, et cibī calidī ē focō vēnērunt. tum vīnum (nōn vetus) reportātum est. paulum cibī remōtī sunt et secunda mēnsa apposita est: nucēs, fīcūs, palmae, prūna, māla in canistrīs, ūvae dē vītibus purpureīs collēctae.

 

in mediō favus candidus erat. super omnia vultūs bonī accessērunt et voluntās nōn iners nec pauper.

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