Laudator Temporis Acti

Demosthenes, Against Conon 14 (Ariston is the plaintiff, and the action is for assault; tr. A.T. Murray, with his note):

He will tell you that there are many people in the city, sons of respectable persons, who in sport, after the manner of young men, have given themselves nicknames, such as Ithyphalli or Autolecythi,^a and that some of them are infatuated with mistresses; that his own son [Ctesias] is one of these and has often given and received blows on account of some girl; and that things of this sort are natural for young men.

^a These words are best left untranslated (Kennedy, following Auger, renders them "Priapi and Sileni"). The former suggests gross licentiousness, and the latter, for which various meanings have been proposed, has been plausibly interpreted by Sandys as indicating one who carried his own oil-flask (λήκυθος). He would thus dispense with the customary slave, and be freed from having even such an one as witness to his wanton doings.

καὶ ἐρεῖν ὡς εἰσὶν ἐν τῇ πόλει πολλοί, καλῶν κἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν υἱεῖς, οἳ παίζοντες οἷ᾿ ἄνθρωποι νέοι σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἐπωνυμίας πεποίηνται, καὶ καλοῦσι τοὺς μὲν ἰθυφάλλους, τοὺς δ᾿ αὐτοληκύθους, ἐρῶσι δ᾿ ἐκ τούτων ἑταιρῶν τινές, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ εἶναι τούτων ἕνα, καὶ πολλάκις περὶ ἑταίρας καὶ εἰληφέναι καὶ δεδωκέναι πληγάς, καὶ ταῦτ᾿ εἶναι νέων ἀνθρώπων.

Id. 39:

The contempt, however, which this fellow feels for all sacred things I must tell you about; for I have been forced to make inquiry. For I hear, then, men of the jury, that a certain Bacchius, who was condemned to death in your court, and Aristocrates, the man with the bad eyes, and certain others of the same stamp, and with them this man Conon, were intimates when they were youths, and bore the nickname Triballi^a; and that these men used to devour the food set out for Hecatê^b and to gather up on each occasion for their dinner with one another the testicles of the pigs which are offered for purification when the assembly convenes,^c and that they thought less of swearing and perjuring themselves than of anything else in the world.

^aThe Triballi were a wild Thracian people. Many parallels for the use of the name to denote a club of lawless youths at Athens might be cited. Sandys refers to the Mohock club of eighteenth century London.

^bThe witch-goddess worshipped at cross roads. Portions of victims which had served for purification were set out for her. To take and eat this food might connote extreme poverty, but suggested also an utter disregard for sacred things.

^cYoung pigs were sacrificed in a ceremonial purification of the place of meeting before the people entered the ἐκκλησία (the popular assembly).

τὴν δὲ τούτου πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτ᾿ ὀλιγωρίαν ἐγὼ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐρῶ· πέπυσμαι γὰρ ἐξ ἀνάγκης. ἀκούω γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, Βάκχιόν τέ τινα, ὃς παρ᾿ ὑμῖν ἀπέθανε, καὶ Ἀριστοκράτην τὸν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς διεφθαρμένον καὶ τοιούτους ἑτέρους καὶ Κόνωνα τουτονί, ἑταίρους εἶναι μειράκι᾿ ὄντας καὶ Τριβαλλοὺς ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχειν· τούτους τά θ᾿ Ἑκαταῖα κατεσθίειν, καὶ τοὺς ὄρχεις τοὺς ἐκ τῶν χοίρων, οἷς καθαίρουσ᾿ ὅταν εἰσιέναι μέλλωσι, συλλέγοντας ἑκάστοτε συνδειπνεῖν ἀλλήλοις, καὶ ῥᾷον ὀμνύναι κἀπιορκεῖν ἢ ὁτιοῦν.

Lysias, fragment 53 Thalheim (tr. David A. Campbell):

Is this [Cinesias] not the man with whom Apollophanes and Mystalides and Lysitheus used to dine at one time, arranging their feast for one of the forbidden days and calling themselves not the New-mooners but the Fellowship of the Evil Spirit—a title that fitted their fortunes; not that they thought it up in the belief that they would bring this about: rather they were mocking the gods and your laws.

οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τοιαῦτα περὶ θεοὺς ἐξαμαρτάνων ἃ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις αἰσχρόν ἐστι καὶ λέγειν, τῶν κωμῳδοδιδασκάλων <δ᾿> ἀκούετε καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτόν; οὐ μετὰ τούτου ποτὲ Ἀπολλοφάνης καὶ Μυσταλίδης καὶ Λυσίθεος συνειστιῶντο, μίαν ἡμέραν ταξάμενοι τῶν ἀποφράδων, ἀντὶ δὲ νουμηνιαστῶν κακοδαιμονιστὰς σφίσιν αὐτοῖς τοὔνομα θέμενοι, πρέπον μὲν ταῖς αὑτῶν τύχαις· οὐ μὴν ὡς τοῦτο διαπραξόμενοι τὴν διάνοιαν ἔσχον ἀλλ᾿ ὡς καταγελῶντες τῶν θεῶν καὶ τῶν νόμων τῶν ὑμετέρων.

See:

• J.E. Sandys, ed., Demosthenes, Select Private Orations, 4th ed., Part II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), Excursus C ("On the meaning of αὐτολήκυθος"), pp. 240-242, and Excursus D ("On the club called the Τριβαλλοί"), pp. 242-244
• George Miller Calhoun, Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation (diss. University of Chicago, 1913), pp. 31-33
• W.A. Goligher, "Athenian Clubs," Hermathena 17 (1913) 295-311 (review of Calhoun)
• Nicholas F. Jones, The Associations of Classical Athens: The Response to Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 224-227