Deipnosophistae

Let us, then, now,

as Plato says in his Philebus,

pray to the gods, and pour libations to them, whether it be Bacchus, or Vulcan, or whoever else of the gods it may be, who has had the honour of having our cups mixed for his sake. For there are two fountains by us, as if we were cupbearers to mix the wine: and a person might compare a fountain of pleasure to honey; but the fountain of wisdom, which is a sober and wine-eschewing spring, to that of some hard but wholesome water, which we must be very earnest to mix as well as possible.

It is, then, time for us now to drink wine; and let some one of the slaves bring us goblets from the sideboard, for I see here a great variety of beautiful and variously-ornamented drinking-cups. Accordingly, when a large cup had been given to him, he said,—But, O boy, draw out and pour into my cup a liquor with not quite so much water in it; not like the man in the comic poet Antiphanes, who, in the Twins, says—

1. He took and brought me an enormous cup,
2. And I pour'd into it unmixed wine,
3. Not to the honour of a boy, but all
4. My cups, and they were numberless, I quaff'd
5. To all the gods and goddesses of heaven.
6. Then, after them, I drank twice as much more
7. To the great goddess and the noble king.

So do you now, O boy, pour me out something stronger; for I do not prescribe to you the exact number of cyathi.[*](The cyathus held the twelfth part of a sextarius, which was about a pint; and the Romans who wished to preserve a character for moderation used to mix their wine in the proportion of nine cyathi of water to three of wine. Poets, who, according to Horace, were good for nothing till they were inebriated, reversed these proportions:— Tribus aut novemMiscentur cyathis pocula commodis.Qui Musas amat impares,Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petitVates. Tres prohibet supraRìxarum metuens tangere Gratia,Nudis juncta sororibus.—Hor. iii. 19. 11. ) But I will show you that the words κύαθος and ἀκρατέστερον (wine with less water in it) are both used: and then, too, I will give you a lecture about cupbearers.

But, first of all, I will speak about the habit of drinking strong drinks, with reference to which we find the word ζωρότερον. Antiphanes, in his Milanion, says—

1. I think this man does drink the cup of health,
2. Making his cupbearer shun too much water (ζωροτέρῳ χρώμενον οἰνοχόῳ).

And in his Lampon he says—

1. My friend Iapyx, mix it somewhat stronger (εὐζωρέστερον).

And Ephippus, in his Ephebi, says—

1. He gave him in each hand a brimming flagon,
2. Mixing in strong wine (ζωρότερον), in Homer's fashion.

And you find some people say that the expression in Homer—

1. Take care and give less water (ζωρότερον κέραιρε),

does not mean that there is to be less water, but that the draught is to be hot; urging that ζωρὸς is derived from ζωτικὸς (giving life), and from ζέσις (boiling);—for that, as there were companions present, it would have been absurd to begin mixing the cups of wine over again. But some say that the word is to be understood as equivalent to εὔκρατον (well-mixed); just as we find the form δεξιτερὸν used instead of δεξιόν. And some say that, since the year is called ὧρος, and since the particle ζα indicates magnitude or number, ζῶρος means merely what has been made many years. And Diphilus, in his Pederastæ, says—

1. Pour me now out a cup of wine to drink;
2. Give it, by Jove! εὐζωρότερον than that;
3. For wat'ry things are ruinous to the stomach.

And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says that ζωρότερον means mixed; quoting the following lines of Empedocles;—

1. And soon the things which formerly they learnt
2. Immortal were, did mortal now become,
3. And things unmix'd before became now mix'd (ζωρὰ,)
4. Changing their previous ways and habits all.

And Plato has used the word κύαθος in the sense of a ladle, in his Phaon, where he says—

1. Taking up thus the ladle (κύαθος) in their mouths.

And in his Ambassadors he says—

1. He stole the ladles (κύαθοι) every time he could.

And Archippus, in his Fishes, says—

1. I bought a ladle (κύαθος) there from Dæsias.

And there is a similar use of the word in the Peace of Aristophanes:—

1. All having fought till they had got black eyes,
2. Lying all on the ground around the κύαθοι;

for black eyes are reduced by having κύαθοι (cupping glasses) applied to them. Xenophon also speaks of the κύαθος in the first book of his Cyropædia; and so does Cratinus; and, besides, so does Aristophanes in many places, and Eubulus in his Orthanna; and Pherecrates, in his Triflers, has spoken of a κύαθος made of silver. But Timon, in the second book of his History of the Silli, has called κύαθοι, ἀρύσαναι; speaking thus:—

1. And ἀρύσαναι, hard to fill with wine;

naming them so from the verb ἀρύομαι, to draw. And they are called also ἀρυστῆρες and ἀρίστιχοι. Simonides says—

1. And no one gave me even one ἀρυστὴρ
2. Of the mere dregs and lees.

And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—

1. For I had these ἀρύστιχοι near me.

And Phrynichus, in his Weeding Women, says—

1. (A cup) κύλικʼ ἀρύστιχον·

and from this comes the word ἀρύταινα. They also called this vessel ἔφηβος, as Xenophanes did in his Relationship; and Polybius, in the ninth book of his Histories, says that there is a certain river called the Cyathus, near Arsinoe, a city in Aetolia.

But the word ἀκρατέστερον, meaning the same as ζωρότερον, is used by Hyperides in his oration against Demosthenes; where he writes thus—

If any one drank any wine of much strength (ἀκρατέστερον), it grieved you.

And a similar form is ἀνιαρέστερον, and also the expression in the Heliades of Aeschylus—

1. ἀφθονέστερον λίβα.

And Epicharmus, in his Pyrrha, has the word εὐωνέστερον (cheaper); and Hyperides, in his Oration against Demades, has used the expression—

1. ῥαδιεστέραν τὴν πόλιν.

And as for the word κεραννύω (to mix), that is used by Plato in his Philebus—

Let us, O Protarchus, pray to the gods, and mingle cups (κεραννύωμεν) to pour libations to them.

And Alcæus, in his Sacred Marriage, says—

1. They mix the cups (κεραννύουσιν) and drink them.

And Hyperides, in his Delian Oration, says—

And the Greeks mix (κεραννύουσι) the Panionian goblet all together.

And among the ancients they were the most nobly born youths who acted as cupbearers; as, for instance, the son of Menelaus:—

1. And the king's noble son pour'd out the wine.

And Euripides the poet, when he was a boy, acted s cupbearer. Accordingly, Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says—

But I hear that Euripides the poet also acted as a cupbearer at Athens, among those who are called the dancers.: and these men were they who used to dance around the temple of the Delian Apollo, being some of the noblest of the Athenians, and they were clothed in garments

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of the Theræans. And this is that Apollo in whose honour they celebrate the Thargelian festival; and a writing concerning them is kept at Phylæ, in the Daphnephorium.

And Hieronymus the Rhodian gives the same account, who was a disciple of Aristotle, and that too in a book of his entitled a Treatise on Drunkenness. And the beautiful Sappho often praises her brother Larichus, as having acted as cupbearer to the Mitylenæans in the Prytaneum. And among the Romans, the most nobly born of the youths perform this office in the public sacrifices, imitating the Aeolians in everything, as even in the tones of their voices.

And so great was the luxury of the ancients in respect of their sumptuous meals, that they not only had cupbearers, but also men whom they called œnoptæ (inspectors of wines). At all events, the office of œnoptæ is a regular office among the Athenians; and it is mentioned by Eupolis, in his play called The Cities, in the following lines—

1. And men whom heretofore you'd not have thought
2. Fit e'en to make œnoptæ of, we now
3. See made commanders. But oh, city, city!
4. How much your fortune does outrun your sense.

And these œnoptæ superintended the arrangement of banquets, taking care that the guests should drink on equal terms. But it was an office of no great dignity, as Philinus the orator tells us, in his debate on the Croconidæ. And he tells us, too, that the œnoptæ were three in number, and that they also provided the guests with lamps and wicks. And some. people called them

eyes;

but among the Ephesians, the youths who acted as cupbearers at the festival of Neptune were called

bulls,

as Amerias tells us. And the people of the Hellespont call the cupbearer ἐπεγχύτης, or the pourer out; and they call carving, which we call κρεωνομία, κρεωδαισία, as Demetrius of Scepsis tells us, in the twenty-sixth book of his Arrangement of the Trojan Forces. And some say that the nymph Harmonia acted as cupbearer to the gods; as Capito the epic poet relates (and he was a native of Alexandria by birth), in the second book of his Love Poems. But Alcæus also represents Mercury as their cupbearer; as also does Sappho, who says—

1. And with ambrosia was a goblet mix'd,
2. And Mercury pour'd it out to all the gods.

But the ancients used to call the men who discharged this office, heralds (κήρυκες). Homer says—

1. Meanwhile the heralds through the crowded town
2. Bring the rich wine and destined victims down.
3. Idæus's arms the golden goblets prest,
4. Who thus the venerable king addrest.

And a few lines further on he says—

1. On either side a sacred herald stands;
2. The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands
3. Pour the full urn.

But Clidemus says that the cooks used to be called heralds. And some people have represented Hebe as acting as cupbearer to the gods, perhaps because their banquets were called Hebeteria. And Ptolemy, the son of Agesarchus, speaks of a damsel named Cleino as the cupbearer of Ptolemy the king, who was surnamed Philadelphus, mentioning her in the third book of his History of Philopator. But Polybius, in the fourteenth book of his History, adds that there are statues of her in Alexandria, in many parts of the city, clad in a tunic alone, holding a cup in her hand.

And so, after this conversation, Ulpian drinking a goblet of wine, said—

1. I drink this cup, a pledge of friendship dear,
2. To all my kinsmen, naming them.

And while he was still drinking, one of those who were present quoted the rest of the passage—

1. When I have drunk, I'll say
2. The rest; for I am choked: but now drink this.

And Ulpian, when he had drunk it up, said,—Clearchus has these lines in his Harp Player; but I, as is said in the Wool-spinners of Amphis, recommend—

1. Let the boy wait on all with frequent goblets.

And again—

1. You fill for me, and I will give you drink;
2. So shall the almond with the almond play:

as Xenarchus says, in his Twins. And accordingly, where some of the guests asked for more wine, and others wished to have it mixed half-and-half, and when some one mentioned that Archippus, in the second edition of his Amphitryon, said—

1. Wretch, who has mix'd for you this half-and-half?

and that Cratinus had said—

1. Giving him half-and-half; but I'm undone;

every one seemed to agree to speak of the way of mixing wine among the ancients.

And when some one mentioned that Menander, in his Hero, said—

1. Here is a measure of well-temper'd wine;
2. Take it, and drink it up;—

Democritus said—Hesiod, my friends, recommends men

1. To pour three parts of water in the cup,
2. And let the fourth part be the vinous juice.

And, perhaps, it was on account of Hesiod that Anaxilas said, in his Nereus,—

1. And this is much more pleasant; for I'd never
2. Have drunk one part of wine to three of water.

And Alexis, in his Nurse, recommends even a more moderate mixture than this—

1. See, here is wine. Shall I, then, give to Criton
2. Equal proportions? This is better far,
3. One part of wine to four of limpid water:
4. Perhaps you'll call that weak; but still, when you
5. Have drunk your fill of this, you'll find your head
6. Clear for discussion,—and the drink lasts longer.

And Diocles, in his Bees, says—

1. A. In what proportions should the wine be mix'd?
2. B. Four parts of water to two parts of wine.

And this mixture, as it is not that in ordinary use, put the questioner in mind of the well-known proverb,—

1. Drink waters three or five; but never four.

That they mean is, You had better take two parts wine with five of water, or one of wine to three of water. But, concerning this mixture, Ion the poet, in his book on Chios, says that Palamedes the soothsayer discovered and prophesied to the Greeks, that they would have a favourable voyage if they drank one portion of wine to three of water. But they, applying themselves to their drink very vigorously, took two pints of wine to five of water;—accordingly Nicochares in his Amymone, playing on the name, says—

1. Here, you Œnornaus,—here. you two and five,—
2. Let you and I now have a drink together.

And he said nearly the same in his Lemnian Women: and Ameipsias, in his Men Playing the Cottabus, says—

1. But I (it is Bacchus who is represented as speaking) am five and two to all of you.

And Eupolis says, in his Goats,—

1. Hail, my friend Bacchus, are you two to five?

And Hermippus says, in his Gods,—

1. A. Then, when we drink, or when we thirsty are,
2. We pray our wine may be in due proportion.
3. B. I do not bring it from a roguish wine-vault,
4. Meaning to mock you: this which I do bring
5. Is, as before, the proper two and five.

But in Anacreon we find one measure of wine to two of water spoken of—

1. Come, my boy, and bring to me
2. Such a cup as I may drink
3. At one easy draught: pour in
4. Ten cyathi of water pure,
5. And five of richest Chian wine;
6. That I may drink, from fear removed,
7. And free from drunken insolence.

And going on presently, he calls the drinking of unmixed wine, a Scythian draught—

1. Come hither, now, and let us not
2. Give way to vulgar shouts and noise,
3. Indulging in the Scythian draughts
4. While o'er our wine; but let us drink,
5. Singing well-omen'd, pious hymns.

And the Lacedæmonians, according to the statement of Herodotus, in his sixth book, say that Cleomenes the king, having lived among the Scythians, and got the habit of drinking unmixed wine, became perfectly mad from his habit of drunkenness. And the Lacedæmonians themselves, when they take it into their heads to drink hard, say that they are Episcythising. Accordingly, Chamæleon of Heraclea, in his book on Drunkenness, writes thus concerning them:—

Since the Lacedæmonians say also, that Cleomenes the Spartan became ma d from having lived among the Scythians, and there learnt to drink unmixed wine; on which account, when they take a fancy to drink unmixed wine they desire their slaves to pour out in the Scythian fashion.

And Achæus, in his Aethon, a satyric drama, represents the Satyrs as indignant at being compelled to drink their wine watered, and as saying—

1. Was the whole Achelous in this wine?
2. But even then this race would not cease drinking,
3. For this is all a Scythian's happiness.

But the habit of pouring libations of pure wine, as Theophrastus says, in his treatise on Drinking, was not ancient; but originally libations were what is given to the Gods, and the cottabus, what was devoted to the object of one's love. For men practised throwing the cottabus with great care, it being originally a Sicilian sport, as Anacreon - the Teian says—

1. Throwing, with his well-bent arm
2. The Sicilian cottabus.

On which account those songs of the ancient poets, which are called scolia, are full of mention of the cottabus.[*](The cottabus was a Sicilian game, much in vogue at the drinking-parties of young men in Athens. The simplest mode was when each threw the wine left in his cup so as to strike smartly in a metal basin, at the same time invoking his mistress's name. If all fell in the basin, and the sound was clear, it was a sign that he stood well with her. The basin was called κοτταβεῖον, the action of throwing ἀποκοτταβίζειν, and the wine thrown λάταγες, or λαταγή. The game afterwards became more complicated, and was played in various ways; sometimes a number of little cups (ὀξύβαφα) were set floating, and he who threw his cottabus so as to upset the greatest number, in a given number of throws, won the prize, which was also called κοτταβεῖον. Sometimes the wine was thrown upon a scale (πλάστιξ), suspended over a little image (μάνης) placed in water: here the cottabus was to be thrown so as to make the scale descend upon the head of the image. It seems quite uncertain what the word is derived from.—Vide L. & S. Gr. Eng. Lex. υ. κότταβος. ) I mean, for instance, such a scolion as Pindar composed—

1. And rightly I adore the Graces,
2. Nymphs of Venus and of Love,
3. While drinking with a loving heart
4. This sounding cottabus I pour
5. To Agathon, my heart's delight.

And they also consecrated to those of their friends who were dead, all that portion of their victuals which fell from their tables. On which account Euripides says of Sthenoboea, when she thinks that Bellerophon is dead—

1. Nothing escaped her from her hand which fell,
2. But in a moment she did couple it
3. With the loved name of the Corinthian stranger.

But the ancients were not in the habit of getting drunk. But Pittacus recommended Periander of Priene not to get drunk, nor to become too much addicted to feasting,

so that,

says he,

it may not be discovered what sort of a

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person you really are, and that you are not what you pretend to be.

—

1. For brass may be a mirror for the face,—
2. Wine for the mind.

On which account they were wise men who invited the proverb,

Wine has no rudder.

Accordingly, Xenophon the son of Gryllus, (when once at the table of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily, the cupbearer was compelling the guests to drink,) addressed the tyrant himself by name, and said,

Why, O Dionysius, does not also the confectioner, who is a skilful man in his way, and one who understands a great many different recipes for dressing things, compel us also, when we are at a banquet, to eat even when we do not wish to; but why, on the contrary, does he spread the table for us in an orderly manner, in silence?

And Sophocles, in one of his Satyric dramas, says—

1. To be compell'd to drink is quite as hard
2. As to be forced to bear with thirst.

From which also is derived the saying—

1. Wine makes an old man dance against his will.

And Sthenelus the poet said very well—

1. Wine can bring e'en the wise to acts of folly.

And Phocylides says—

1. It should be a rule for all wine-bibbing people
2. Not to let the jug limp round the board like a cripple,
3. But gaily to chat while enjoying their tipple:

and to this day this custom prevails among some of the Greeks. But since they have begun to be luxurious and have got effeminate they have given up their chairs and taken to couches; and having taken indolence and laziness for their allies, they have indulged in drinking in an immoderate and disorderly manner; the very way in which the tables were laid contributing, as I imagine, to luxury.

And it is on this account that Hesiod, in his Eoæ, has said—

1. What joys and also what exceeding pains
2. Has Bacchus given to mortal men who drink,
3. Indulging in excess: for to such men
4. Wine is an insolent master, binding fast'
5. Their feet and hands, their tongues and intellects,
6. With chains unspeakable, unnoticeable;
7. And tender sleep loves on their eyes to fall.

And Theognis says—

1. I come like wine, the sweetest drink of men,—
2. I am not sober, nor yet very drunk;
3. But he who goes to great excess in drink
4. Is no more master of his mind or senses;
5. Then he talks unintelligible nonsense,
6. Which seems to sober men a shameful thing;
7. But he, when drunk, is not ashamed of anything,
8. E'en though at other times a modest man
9. And gentle-minded. Mind you this, my friend,
10. And don't indulge in drinking to excess,
11. But rise from table ere the wine begins
12. To take effect; nor let your appetite
13. Reduce you to become its daily slave.

But Anacharsis the philosopher, wishing to exhibit the power of the vine to the king of the Scythians, and showing him some of its branches, said that if the Greeks did not prune it every year it would by this time have reached to Scythia.

But those men do not act wisely who represent and describe Bacchus in their statues or pictures, and who also lead him through the middle of the market-place on a waggon, as if he were drunk; for, by so doing, they show the beholders that wine is stronger than the god. And I do not think that even a good and wise man could stand this. And if they have represented him in this state because he first showed us the use of wine, it is plain that for the same reason they should always represent Ceres as reaping corn or eating bread. And I should say that Aeschylus himself erred in this particular; for he was the first person (and not Euripides, as some people say,) who introduced the appearance of drunken people into a tragedy. For in his Cabiri he introduces Jason drunk. But the fact is, that the practices which the tragedian himself used to indulge in, he attributed to his heroes: at all events he used to write his tragedies when he was drunk; on which account Sophocles used to reproach him, and say to him,

O Aeschylus,[*](Schlegel gives a very different interpretation to this story. He says—In Aeschylus the tragic style is as yet imperfect, and not unfrequently runs into either unmixed epic or lyric. It is often abrupt, irregular, and harsh. To compose more regular and skilful tragedies than those of Aeschylus was by no means difficult; but in the more than mortal grandeur which he displayed, it was impossible that he should ever be surpassed, and even Sophocles, his younger and more fortunate rival, did not in this respect equal him. The latter, in speaking of Aeschylus, gave a proof that he was himself a thoughtful artist;— Aeschylus does what is right, without knowing it.' These few simple words, exhaust the whole of what we understand by the phrase, powerful genius working unconsciously. This is the comment of a man of real sense, learning, taste, and judgment.—Dramatic Literature, p. 95. (Bohn's Standard Library.))

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even if you do what you ought, at all events you do so without knowing it;

as Chamæleon tells us, in his treatise on Aeschylus. And they are ignorant people who say that Epiharmus was the first person who introduced a drunken man on the stage, and after him Crates, in his Neighbours. And Alcæus the lyric poet, and Aristophanes the comic poet, used o write their poems when they were drunk. And many other men have fought with great gallantry in war when they were drunk. But among the Epizephyrian Locrians, if any one drank untempered wine, except by the express command of his physician for the sake of his health, he was liable to be punished with death, in accordance with a law to that effect passed by Zalericus.

And among the people of Massilia there was a law that the women should drink water only. And Theophrastus says, that to this day that is the law at Miletus. And among the Romans no slave ever drank wine, nor any free woman, nor any youth born of free parents till he was thirty years of age. And Anacreon is very ridiculous for having referred all his poems to the subject of drunkenness; for, owing to this, he is found fault with as having in his poems wholly abandoned himself to effeminacy and luxury, as the multitude are not aware that while he wrote he was a sober and virtuous man, who pretended to be a drunkard, when there was no necessity at all for his doing so.

And men who are ignorant of the power of wine, say that Bacchus is the cause of madness to men; in saying which they abuse wine in a very senseless manner. On which account Melanippides says—

1. All men have detested water
2. Who did not before have wine;
3. And though some have enjoy'd their cups,
4. Others have turn'd to ravings wild.

And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drinking, says,

If the wine be moderately boiled, then when it is drunk, it is less pt to intoxicate; for, as some of its power has been boiled away, it has become weaker.

And he also says, "Old men become drunk more quickly on account of the small quantity of natural warmth which there is in them, and also of the weak ness of what there is. And again, those who are very young get drunk very quickly, on account of the great quantity of natural warmth that there is in them; for, in consequence, they are easily subdued by the warmth proceeding from the wine which is added to their natural warmth. And some of the brute beasts are also capable of becoming intoxicated; such as pigs when they are filled with the husks of pressed grapes; and the whole race of crows, and of dogs, when they have eaten of the herb called cenussa: and the monkey and the elephant get intoxicated if they drink wine; on which account they hunt monkeys and crows when the former have been made drunk with wine, and the latter with œnussa.

1. But to drink unceasingly—

as Crobylus says, in his Woman who deserted her Husband—

1. Can have
2. No pleasure in it, surely; how should it,
3. When it deprives a living man of power
4. To think as he should think? and yet is thought
5. The greatest blessing that is given to man.

And Alexis, in the revised edition of his Phrygian, says—

1. If now men only did their headaches get
2. Before they get so drunk, I'm sure that no one
3. Would ever drink more than a moderate quantity:
4. But now we hope t' escape the penalty
5. Of our intemperance, and so discard
6. Restraint, and drink unmixed cups of wine.

And Aristotle says, that the wine called the Samagorean wine was so strong that more than forty men were made drunk with a pint and a half of it after it had been mixed with water.

Democritus having said this, and having drunk, said,— Now if any one can gainsay any of these statements let him come forward: and then he shall be told, as Evenus says—

1. That may be your opinion; this is mine.

But I, since I have now made this digression about the mix- tures of the ancients, will resume the thread of my original discourse where I let it drop; considering what was said by Alcæus the lyric poet. For he speaks, somewhere or other, in this way—

1. Pour out, in just proportion, one and two.

For in these words some people do not think that he is alluding to the mixture of wine and water at all; but that, being a moderate and temperate man, he would not drink more than one cyathus of pure wine, or perhaps, at the most, two. And this is the interpretation given to the passage by Chameleon of Pontus, who was ignorant how fond of wine Alcæus had been. For this poet will be found to have been in the habit of drinking at every season and in every imaginable condition of affairs. In winter he speaks thus—

1. Now the storm begins to lower,
2. And Jove descends in heavy snow,
3. And streams of water stand congeal'd
4. In cruel ice: let's drive away
5. The wintry cold, and heap up fire,
6. And mingle with unsparing hand
7. The honied cup, and wreathe our brows
8. With fragrant garlands of the season.

And in summer, he writes—

1. Now it behoves a man to soak his lungs
2. In most cool wine; for the fierce dogstar rages,
3. And all things thirst with the excessive heat.

And in spring he says—

1. Now does the flowery spring return,
2. And shed its gifts all o'er the land;

and he continues—

1. Come then, my boy, and quickly pour
2. A cup of luscious Lesbian wine.

And in his misfortunes he sings—

1. One must not give one's thoughts up wholly
2. To evil fortune; for by grieving
3. We shall not do ourselves much good.
4. Come to me, Bacchus; you are ever
5. The best of remedies, who bring
6. Us wine and joyous drunkenness.

And in his hours of joy he says—

1. Now is the time to get well drunk,
2. Now e'en in spite of self to drink,
3. Since Myrsilus is dead at last.

And, giving some general advice, he says—

1. Never plant any tree before the vine.

How, then, could a man who was so very devoted to drinking be a sober man, and be content with one or two cups of wine? At all events, his very poem, says Seleucus, testifies against those people who receive the line in this sense. For he says, in the whole passage—

1. Let us now drink,—why put we out the light?
2. Our day is but a finger: bring large cups,
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3. Fili'd with the purple juice of various grapes;
4. For the great son of Semele and Jove
5. Gave wine to men to drive away their cares.
6. Pour on, in just proportion, one and two,
7. And let one goblet chase another quickly
8. Out of my head.

In which words he plainly enough intimates that his meaning is, that one cup of wine is to be mixed with two of water.

But Anacreon likes his liquors stronger still; as is shown by the verses in which he says—

1. Let the cup well be clean'd, then let it hold
2. Five measures water, three of rosy wine.

And Philetærus, in his Tereus, speaks of two measures of water to three of wine. And he speaks thus,—

1. I seem to have drunk two measures now of water,
2. And only three of wine.

And Pherecrates, in his Corianno, speaks even of two measures of water to four of wine, and says—

1. A. Throw that away, my dear; the fellow has
2. Given you such a watery mixture.
3. B. Nay rather, 'tis mere water and nought else.
4. A. What have you done?—in what proportions,
5. You cursed man, have you this goblet mix'd?
6. B. I've put two waters only in, my mother.
7. A. And how much wine?
8. B. Four parts of wine, I swear.
9. A. You're fit to serve as cupbearer to the frogs.

And Ephippus, in his Circe, says—

1. A. You will find it a much more prudent mixture,
2. To take three parts of one, and four of th' other.
3. B. That's but a watery mixture, three to four.
4. A. Would you, then, quite unmix'd your wine prefer?
5. B. How say you?

And Timocles speaks of half and half in his Conisalus,—

1. And I'll attack you straight with half and half,
2. And make you tell me all the truth at once.

And Alexis, in his Dorcis, or the Caressing Woman, says—

1. I drink now cups brimming with love to you,
2. Mixed in fair proportions, half and half.

And Xenarchus, or Timocles, in his Purple, says—

1. By Bacchus, how you drink down half and half!

And Sophilus, in his Dagger, says,—

1. And wine was given in unceasing flow,
2. Mix'd half and half; and yet, unsatisfied,
3. They ask'd for larger and for stronger cups.

And Alexis, in his play entitled The Usurer, or Liar, says—

1. A. Don't give him wine quite drown'd in water, now;—
2. Dost understand me? Half and half, or nearly:
3. That's well.
4. B. A noble drink: where was the land
5. That raised this noble Bacchus by its flavour,
6. I think he came from Thasos.
7. A. Sure 'tis just
8. That foreigners should foreign wines enjoy,
9. And that the natives should drink native produce.

And again, in his Supposititious Son, he says—

1. He drank and never drew his breath, as one
2. Would quaff rich wine, mix'd half and half with care.

And Menander, in his Brethren—

1. Some one cried out to mingle eight and twelve,
2. Till he with rivalry subdued the other (κατέσεισε).

And the verb κατασείω was especially used of those who fell down from drinking, taking its metaphor from the shaking down fruit from the tree.

And Alexis, in his Man cut off, says—

1. He was no master of the feast at all,
2. But a mere hangman, Chæreas his name;
3. And when he'd drunk full twenty cups of wine,
4. Mix'd half and half, he ask'd for more, and stronger.

And Diodorus of Sinope, in his Female Flute-player, says—

1. When any one, O Crito, drinks ten cups,
2. Consider, I do beg you, whether he
3. Who never once allows the wine to pass
4. Is in a fit state for discussion.

And it was not without some wit that Lysander the Spartan, as Hegesander relates in his Commentaries, when some vintners sold wine which had been much watered in hi camp, ordered some one to supply it properly tempered, that his men might buy it with less water in it. And Alexis has said something which comes to nearly the same thing, in his Aesop; thus—

1. A. That is a good idea of yours, O Solon,
2. And cleverly imagined, which you have
3. Adopted in your city.
4. S. What is that?
5. A. You don't let men drink neat wine at their feasts.
6. S. Why, if I did, 'twould not be very easy
7. For men to get it, when the innkeepers
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8. Water it ere it comes out of the waggon.
9. No doubt they do not do so to make money,
10. But only out of prudent care for those
11. Who buy the liquor; so that they may have
12. Their heads from every pang of headache free.
13. This now is, as you see, a Grecian drink;
14. So that men, drinking cups of moderate strength,
15. May chat and gossip cheerfully with each other:
16. For too much water is more like a bath
17. Than like a wine-cup; and the wine-cooler
18. Mix'd with the cask, my friend, is death itself.

But to drink to the degree of drunkenness,

says Plato, in his sixth book of the Laws, is neither becoming any- Where—except perhaps in the days of festival of the god who gave men wine for their banquets,—nor is it wholesome: and, above all, a man ought to guard against such a thing who has any thoughts of marriage; for at such a time, above all other times, both bride and bridegroom ought to be in full possession of their faculties; when they are entering upon what is no small change in the circumstances of their life; and also they ought to be influenced by anxiety that their offspring shall be the offspring of parents in the fullest possible possession of all their faculties; for it is very uncertain what day or what night will be the originating cause of it.

And in the first book of his Laws he says—

But respecting drunkenness it may be a question, whether we ought to give way to it as the Lydians do, and the Persians, and the Carthaginians, and the Celtæ, and the Spaniards, and the Thracians, and other nations like them; or whether like you, O Lacedæmonians, one ought wholly to abstain from it. But the Scythians and the Thracians, who indulge altogether in drinking unmixed wine, both the women and all the men, and who spill it all over their clothes, think that they are maintaining a very honourable practice, and one that tends to their happiness. And the Persians indulge to a great extent in other modes of luxury which you reject; but still they practise them with more moderation than the Scythians and Thracians.

And a great many of the guests were drinking, and putting lumps of meal into their wine, a custom which Hegesander of Delphi mentions. Accordingly Epinicus, when Mnesiptolemus had given a recitation of his history, in which it was written how Seleucus had used meal in his

wine, having written a drama entitled Mnesiptolemus, and having turned him into ridicule, as the comic poets do, and using his own words about that sort of drink, represents him as saying:—

1. Once I beheld the noble king Seleucus,
2. One summer's day, drinking with mighty pleasure
3. Some wine with meal steep'd in it. (So I took
4. A note of it, and show'd it to a crowd,
5. Although it was an unimportant thing,
6. Yet still my genius could make it serious.)
7. He took some fine old Thasian wine, and eke
8. Some of the liquor which the Attic bee
9. Distils who culls the sweets from every flower;
10. And that he mingled in a marble cup,
11. And mix'd the liquor with fair Ceres' corn,
12. And took the draught, a respite from the heat.

And the same writer tells us that in the Therades islands men mash lentils and pease into meal, instead of ordinary corn, and put that into the wine, and that this drink is said to be better than that in which the meal is mixed.