THEME: Ancient luxury THEME LUXURY, COMPETITION, & AUSTERITY
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ‘sybarite' as “A person devoted to luxury or pleasure; an effeminate voluptuary or sensualist.” The word is a common one, often used by journalists and laypersons alike to characterize the decadent exploits of the rich and powerful. The Oxford English Dictionary also notes that, with a capital S, ‘Sybarite' indicates “A native or citizen of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city of southern Italy, traditionally noted for its effeminacy and luxury.” The shift in the meaning of the word from indicating the inhabitants of Sybaris, an Achaean colony founded in the second half of the eighth century BC on the Gulf of Taranto, in what is now northern Calabria, to describing “a person devoted to luxury or pleasure” happened a long time ago.
In the English language, the latter usage is attested already in Elizabethan times, with Henry Hutton, in his bestseller , for instance, writing of “this depraved age” that “His belly is a Cesterne of receipt …. A Sabariticke Sea, a depthlesse Gulfe”. In the ancient world, the verb could be used to mean ‘living like an inhabitant of Sybaris', and therefore ‘living decadently, luxuriously', long after the actual city of Sybaris had been razed to the ground in a war against its neighbour Croton in 510 BC. ‘Sybaritic Fables' remained for much of the ancient a stitch in my side.'” And: “Once upon a time, a Sybarite complained that he felt rather uncomfortable because the rose petals on which he reclined were folded double.”
