Dio Chrysostom, The Euboean Discourse 5

Now he had hardly ended when we were at the huts, and laughing I said, "But you have hidden from your fellow-citizens one thing, the fairest of your possessions." "What is that?" said he. "This garden," I replied, "very pretty indeed with all its vegetables and trees." "There was not any then," he said; "we made it afterwards." 

Then we entered and feasted the rest of the day, we reclining on boughs and skins that made a high bed and the wife sitting beside her husband. But a daughter of marriageable age served the food and poured us a sweet dark wine to drink; and the boys prepared the meat, helping themselves as they passed it around, so that I could not help deeming these people fortunate and thinking that of all the men that I knew, they lived the happiest lives.⁠ 

And yet I knew the homes and tables of rich men, of satraps and kings as well as of private individuals; but then they seemed to me the most wretched of all; and though they had so appeared before, yet I felt this the more strongly as I beheld the poverty and free spirit⁠ of the humble cottagers and noted that they lacked naught of the joy of eating and drinking, nay, that even in these things they had, one might almost say, the better of it. 

We were almost already well enough supplied when that other man entered, accompanied by his son, a prepossessing lad who carried a hare. The latter on entering commenced to blush; and while his father was welcoming us, he himself kissed the maiden and gave her the hare. The child then ceased serving and sat down beside her mother while the boy served in her stead. 

"Is she the one," I enquired of my host, "whose tunic you took off and gave to the shipwrecked man?" "No," said he with a smile, "that daughter was married long ago and already has grown‑up children. Her husband is a rich man living in a village." 

"And do they help you when you need anything?" I enquired. "We do not need anything," replied the wife, "but they get game from us whenever we catch any, and fruit and vegetables, for they have no garden. Last year we borrowed some wheat just for seed, but we repaid them as soon as harvest time was come." 

"Tell me," said I, "do you intend to marry this girl also to a rich man that she too may lend you wheat?" At this the two blushed, the girl as well as the boy. 

"She will have a poor man for a husband," said the father, "a hunter like ourselves," and with a smile he glanced at the young man. And I said, "But why do you not give her away at once? Must her husband come from some village or other?" 

"I have an idea," he replied, "that he is not far off; nay, he is here in this house, and we shall celebrate the marriage when we have picked out a good day." "And how do you determine the good day?" said I. And he replied, "When the moon is not in a quarter;⁠ the air must be clear too, and the weather fine." 

And then I said, "Tell me, is he really a good hunter?" "I am," cried the youth; "I can run down a deer and face the charge of a boar. You shall see tomorrow, stranger, if you wish it." 

"And did you catch this hare?" said I. "Yes," he replied, laughing—"with my net during the night, for the sky was very beauti­ful, and the moon was never so big before." Then the two men laughed, not only the girl's father but his also. As for him, he felt ashamed and became silent.

Then the girl's father said, "Well, my boy, it is not I who am delaying you, but your father is waiting until he can go and buy a victim, for we must sacrifice to the gods." At this point the girl's younger brother interrupted, saying, "Why, this fellow got a victim long ago. It is being fattened in there behind the hut, and a fine animal it is." 

"Is it really so?" they asked him, and he said "Yes." "And where did you get it?" they enquired. "When we caught the wild sow that had the young ones, they all escaped but one. They ran more swiftly than the hare," he added. "One, however, I hit with a stone, caught, and covered with my leather jerkin. I exchanged it in the village and got a young pig for it. Then I made a sty out behind and raised it." 

"So that is the reason why your mother would laugh," exclaimed the father, "when I used to wonder on hearing the pig grunt, and you were using the barley so freely." "Well," he replied, "the chestnuts⁠ were not enough to fatten her,⁠ supposing she had been willing to eat nuts without anything else. But if you wish to see her, I will go and fetch her in." And they bade him do so. 

So he and the boys were off at once on the run full of glee. Meanwhile the girl had risen and brought from another hut some sliced sorb apples, medlars, winter apples, and swelling clusters of fine grapes, and placed them on the table after wiping off the stains from the meat with leaves and putting some clean fern beneath. 

Then the boys came in laughing and full of fun, leading the pig, and with them followed the young man's mother and two small brothers. They brought white loaves of wheaten bread, boiled eggs in wooden platters, parched chickpeas. 

After the woman had greeted her brother and her niece, his daughter, she sat down beside her husband and said, "See, there is the victim which that boy has long been feeding for his wedding day, and everything else is ready on our side. The barley and wheaten flour have been ground; only perhaps we shall need a little more wine. This too we can easily get from the village." 

And close beside her stood her son, glancing at his future father-in‑law. He smiled at the lad and said, "There is the one who is holding things up. I believe he wants to fatten the pig a bit more." The young man replied, "Why, she is ready to burst with fat." 

And wishing to help him, I said, "take care that your young man doesn't get thin while the pig gets fat." "Our guest speaks well," said the mother, "for he has already grown thinner than I have ever seen him before; and I noticed a short time ago that he was wakeful in the night and went out of the hut." 

"The dogs were barking," the young man interrupted, "and I went out to see." "No, you did not," said she, "but you were walking around distraught. So don't let us permit him to be tortured any longer." 

And throwing her arms about the girl's mother she kissed her; and the latter, turning to her husband, said, "Let us do as they wish." This they decided to do and said, "Let us have the wedding the day after tomorrow." 

They also invited me to stay over,  and I did so gladly, at the same time reflecting on the character of weddings and other things among the rich, on the matchmakers, the scrutinies of property and birth, the dowries, the gifts from the bridegroom, the promises and deceptions, the contracts and agreements, and, finally, the wranglings and enmities that often occur at the wedding itself. . . .