The feast is the feast of strife, and many feasts have gone down in history, at which they not only ate, but also did something unusual. For the most part, in the spirit of "Game of Thrones", they cut the guests. But sometimes surprises at balls and feasts were more sophisticated.
Roman feasts
The founding fathers of Ancient Rome bequeathed to descendants moderation in food, but as soon as the colonies were conquered and other people's riches flowed into Rome, all the covenants were forgotten. Wealthy Romans ate in three throats, each dinner turned into a feast not only with delicacies, but also with entertainment such as musical performances. Some feasting lovers caused themselves to vomit right during dinner - for this, a slave ran up to them with a basin and a feather, tickle their throats - in order to try as many dishes as possible.
The feasts of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, a retired military leader, became the standard of the mad feast. It was for his table, according to rumors, that a dish of nightingale tongues was invented. For one serve, it was required to kill several thousand birds, since their tongues are tiny, so they rarely indulged in a delicacy.
Even the murders at Roman feasts were subtle. According to legend, the insane and dissolute emperor Heliogabalus at one of the dinner bombarded the guests with several quintals of rose petals. The guests suffocated, the emperor had fun.
Roses of Heliogabalus. Painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
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Russian sovereigns
Peter I was a great inventor. One of his undertakings was pies with dwarfs. No cannibalism: the dwarfs were alive. They were hidden in full dress in special pies, which were then carefully cut on the table. Women went out and recited poetry. As noted by foreign guests, they did it as well and naturally as the performers on stage. At other feasts, little pie beauties danced the minuet gracefully on the table. Lilliputian men were served on the table for the ladies. In addition to people, they hid birds in the pies so that they would fly noisily. Sometimes people came out of the pies naked; it was considered more amusing than erotic.
The daughter of the emperor and the empress of Russia herself, Elizaveta Petrovna was remembered by contemporaries not for complicated banquet fun, but for “transvestite” parties. Tall and stately, Elizabeth looked great in a man's suit, and knowing this, she came up with dressing-up dinners to show off once again. For these dinners, ladies were obliged to appear in men's, and men - in ladies'. Men were unhappy most of all, because low-cut dresses looked ridiculous on them, and the need to tighten into corsets was a real torment. Not to mention the fact that you can't eat without the habit of wearing a corset, and the gentlemen could only look with envy as their ladies were filling the dishes from the imperial table.
Portrait of Elizabeth Petrovna in a man's dress, Louis Caravac.
Beauties on a platter
Courtesan Cora Pearl, daughter of the composer Frederick Crouch, argued with her guests that they would be served such an expensive dish that they would not dare to taste even a bite. After the bets were made, Cora left, and after a while a huge silver dish was served on the table … with herself lying naked. Of course, no one dared to cut off even a small piece from the beauty.
But Kore was lucky. Not all participants in the feasts were so scrupulous. According to legend, when China was conquered by the next nomads, the country was also overtaken by a great famine. This did not stop the conquerors from throwing luxurious feasts. At one of the feasts in the first section, a girl of amazing grace and skill danced, and in the third section she was served whole baked on the table. Neither skill nor beauty saved the girl, the feastingers wanted meat.
Courtesan Cora Pearl was famous for her extravagant antics.
Already in our times, the emperor of the Central African Republic Bokassa was distinguished by such feasts. Former Soviet pilot Anatoly Korablev served in the republic under this dictator and then recalled his feast with shudder. So, under Bokassa, a beauty contest was held for the first time in the country. The winner was soon served on the table, baked and stuffed with rice so skillfully that, according to Korablev, she looked completely alive.
To hide his nausea, the pilot walked over to a roasted camel, but as soon as he cut the animal, he saw human hands inside. Service at Bokassa seriously injured the pilot, after which he became a vegetarian - he could not look at meat at all.
The misfortune of the eaten girl was the dictator's addiction to taste representatives of different professions. It was on his desk that the only mathematician and dentist in the country ended their lives. Perhaps the competition was organized on purpose so that the beauty queen would replenish the collection.
Bokassa enthusiastically ate people. But, by the way, he did not give human flesh to children. I thought it was harmful.
Some like it hot
Alexander the Great conquered many legendary cities, and among them was Persepolis (Parsa), the capital of the kingdom of Xerxes. In honor of the victory, he threw a feast with his commanders and getters, and one of them, Thais, set fire to the palace. From the palace the fire spread throughout the city. Not only beautiful houses were burnt down, but also unique copies of the Zoroastrian scripture, the Avesta, written in gold ink on bull skins. It is believed that Thais took revenge for the burning of the Greek Acropolis by the Persians.
The Swedish king Ingjald also grabbed the tinder and the armchair at the feast. When his father died, leaving Ingjald his title and his lands, the young king summoned the neighboring kings and jarls (kings and chiefs) for a feast. Having drunk them under beautiful toast, Ingjald left the chambers and set them on fire. In general, for this he received the nickname Insidious.
The reason for the act lay on the surface. One of Ingjald's toasts was the promise to quadruple his father's land. After the death of the neighboring kings, taking advantage of the confusion, Ingjald seized their fiefdoms.
King Ingjald had a peculiar sense of humor.
Lilith Mazikina
