Deipnosophistae

CupsDrinking PledgesAthenian Banquets DrinkingcupsThe PleiadesMeaning of particular WordsDrinkingcupsPlato

1. Come now, where shall our conversation rise?

as Cephisodorus the comic poet says, my good friend Timocrates; for when we were all met together at a convenient season, and with serious minds, to discuss the goblets, Ulpian, while every one was sitting still, and before any one began to speak at all, said,—At the court of Adrastus, my friends, the chief men of the nation sup while sitting down. But Polyidus, while sacrificing on the road, detained Peteos as he was passing by, and while lying on the grass, strewing some leaves which he had broken off on the ground by way of a table, set before him some part of the victim which he had sacrificed. And when Autolycus had come to the rich people of Ithaca, and while he was sitting down, (for the men of that time ate their meals while sitting down,) the nurse took Ulysses, (as the poet says—

1. His course to Ithaca the hero sped
2. When first the product of Laertes' bed
3. Was new disclosed to birth; the banquet ends
4. When Euryclea from the queen descends,
5. And to his fond embrace the babe commends:)

and placed him on his knees, not near his knees. So let us not waste time now, but let us lie down, that Plutarch may lead the way in the lecture which he promised us on the subject of goblets, and that he may pledge us all in bumpers.

But I imagine that Simonides of Amorgus is the first poet who has spoken of drinking cups (ποτήρια) by name in his iambics, thus—

1. The cups away did lead him from the table.

And the author of the poem called the Alcmæonis says—

1. He placed the corpses lowly on the shore
2. On a broad couch of leaves; and by their side
3. A dainty feast he spread, and brimming cups,
4. And garlands on their noble temples wreathed.

And the word ποτήριον comes from πόσις, drink, as the Attic word ἔκπωμα also does; but they form the word with ω, as they also say ὑδροπωτέω, to drink water, and οἰνοπωτέω, to drink wine. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—

1. A stupid serpent drinking deep of blood (αἱματοπώτης).

But he also says in the same play—

1. Much then did Bacis use the cup (ποτήριον).

And Pherecrates, in his Tyranny, says—

1. One is better than a thousand cups (ποτήρια).

And Anacreon said—

1. I am become a wine-bibber (οἰνοπώτης).

And the verb occurs also in the same poet, for he says οἰνοποτάζων. And Sappho, in her second Ode, says—

1. And many countless cups (ποτήρια), O beauteous Iphis.

And Alcæus says—

1. And from the cups (ποτηρία). . . . .

And in Achaia Ceres is honoured under the title of δημήτηρ ποτηριοφόρος, in the territories of the Antheans, as Autocrates informs us in the second book of his History of Achaia.

And I think it right that you should inquire, before we begin to make a catalogue of the cups of which this sideboard (κυλικεῖον) is full,—(for that name is given to the cupboard where the cups are kept, by Aristophanes, in his Farmers—

1. As a cloth is placed in front of a sideboard (κυλικεῖον);

and the same word occurs also in Anaxandrides in his Melilotus; and Eubulus in his Leda says—

1. As if he had been offering a libation,
2. He's broken all the goblets in the sideboard (κυλικεῖον).

And in his Female Singer he says—

1. And he found out the use of sideboards (κυλικεῖα) for us.

And in his Semele or Bacchus he says—

1. Hermes the son of Maia, polish'd well
2. Upon the sideboard. . . . .

And the younger Cratinus, in his Chiron, says—

1. But, after many years, I now have come
2. Home from my enemies; and scarce have found
3. Relations who would own me, or companions
4. Of the same tribe or borough. I enroll'd
5. My name among a club of cup-collectors (κυλικεῖον):
6. Jupiter is the guardian of my doors—
7. Protector of my tribe. I pay my taxes.)

It is worth while, I say, to inquire whether the ancients drank out of large cups. For Dicæarchus the Messenian, the pupil of Aristotle, in his Essay on Alcæus, says that they used small cups, and that they drank their wine mixed with a good deal of water. But Chamæleon of Heraclea, in his essay on Drunkenness, (if I only recollect his words correctly,) says—

But if those who are in power and who are rich prefer this drunkenness to other pleasures, it is no great wonder, for as they have no other pleasure superior to this, nor more easy to obtain, they naturally fly to wine: on which account it has become customary among the nobles to use large drinking-cups. For this is not at all an ancient custom among the Greeks; but one that has been lately adopted, and imported from the barbarians. For they, being destitute of education, rush eagerly to much wine, and provide themselves with all kinds of superfluous delicacies. But in the various countries of Greece, we neither find in pictures nor in poems any trace of any cups of large size being made, except indeed in the heroic times. For the cup which is called ῥυτὸν they

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attributed only to the heroes, which fact will appear a per- plexing one to some people; unless indeed any one should choose to say that this custom was introduced because of the fierceness of the appearance of these demigods. For they think the heroes irascible and quarrelsome, and more so by night than by day. In order, then, that they may appear to be so, not in consequence of their natural disposition, but because of their propensity for drinking, they represent them as drinking out of large cups. And it appears to me not to have been a bad idea on the part of those people who said that a large cup was a silver well.

In all this Chamæleon appears to be ignorant that it is not a small cup which in Homer is given to the Cyclops by Ulysses; for if it had been a small one, he would not have been so overcome with drunkenness after drinking it three times only, when he was a man of such a monstrous size. There were therefore large cups at that time; unless any one chooses to impute it to the strength of the wine, which Homer himself has mentioned, or to the little practice which the Cyclops had in drinking, since his usual beverage was milk; or perhaps it was a barbaric cup, since it was a big one, forming perhaps a part of the plunder of the Cicones. What then are we to say about Nestor's cup, which a young man would scarcely have had strength enough to carry, but which the aged Nestor lifted without any labour; concerning which identical cup Plutarch shall give us some information. However, it is time now to lie down at table.

And when they had all laid themselves down;-But, said Plutarch, according to the Phliasian poet Pratinas—

1. Not ploughing ready-furrow'd ground,
2. But, seeking for a goblet,
3. I come to speak about the cups (κυλικηγορήσων).

Nor indeed am I one of those κυλίκρανοι whom Hermippus, the comic poet, ridicules in his iambics, where he says—

1. I've come now to the vineyard of the Cylicranes,
2. And seen Heraclea, a beauteous city.

But these are Heracleans who live at the foot of Mount Œta, as Nicander of Thyatira says; saying that they are so named from a certain Cylix, a Lydian by birth, who was one of the comrades of Hercules. And they are mentioned also by Scythinus the Teian, in his work entitled The History, where he says,

Hercules, having taking Eurytus and his son, put them to death for exacting tribute from the people of Eubœa. And he laid waste the territory of the Cylicranes for behaving like robbers; and there he built a city called Heraclea of Trachis.

And Polemo, in the first of his books, addressed to Adæus and Antigonus, speaks thus—

But the inhabitants of the Heraclea which is at the foot of Mount Œta, and of Trachis, are partly some Cylicranes who came with Hercules from Lydia, and partly Athamanes, some of whose towns remain to this day. And the people of Heraclea did not admit them to any of the privileges of citizenship, considering them only as foreigners sojourning amongst them; and they were called Cylicranes, because they had the figure of a cup (κύλιξ) branded on their shoulders.

I am aware, too, that Hellanicus says, in his treatise on the Names of Races, that

Some of the Libyan nomades have no other possessions than a cup, and a sword, and a ewer, and they have small houses made of the stalks of asphodel, merely just to serve as a shade, and they even carry them about with them wherever they go.

There is also a spot amongst the Illyrians, which has been celebrated by many people, which is called κύλικες, near to which is the tomb of Cadmus and Harmonia, as Phylarchus relates in the twenty-second book of his Histories. And Polemo, in his book on Morychus, says that at Syracuse, on the highest spot of the part called the Island, there is an alter near the temple of Olympia, outside the walls, from which he says that people when putting to sea carry a goblet with them, keeping it until they get to such a distance that the shield in the temple of Minerva cannot be seen; and then they let it fall into the sea, being an earthenware cup, putting into it flowers and honeycombs, and uncut frankincense, and all sorts of other spices besides.

And since I now see your banquet, as Xeophanes the Colophonian says, full of all kinds of pleasure—

1. For now the floor and all men's hands are clean,
2. And all the cups, and since the feasters' brows
3. Are wreathed with garlands, while the slaves around
4. Bring fragrant perfume in well-suited dishes;
5. And in the middle stands the joyful bowl.
6. And wine's at hand, which ne'er deserts the guests
7. Who know its worth, in earthen jars well kept,
8. Well flavour'd, fragrant with the sweet fresh flowers;
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9. And in the midst the frankincense sends forth
10. Its holy perfume; and the water's cold,
11. And sweet, and pure; and golden bread's at hand,
12. And duly honour'd tables, groaning under
13. Their weight of cheese and honey;—then an altar,
14. Placed in the centre, all with flow'rs is crown'd.
15. And song and feasting occupies the house,
16. And dancing, and all sorts of revelry:—
17. Therefore it does become right-minded men
18. First with well-omen'd words and pious prayers
19. To hymn the praises of the Gods; and so,
20. With pure libations and well-order'd vows,
21. To win from them the power to act with justice-
22. For this comes from the favour of the Gods;
23. And you may drink as much as shall not hinder
24. You from returning home without assistance,
25. Unless, indeed, you're very old: and he
26. Deserves to be above his fellows lauded
27. Who drinks and then says good and witty things,
28. Such as his memory and taste suggests,—
29. Who lays down rules, and tells fine tales of virtue;
30. Not raking up the old Titanic fables,
31. Wars of the Giants, or the Lapithæ,
32. Figments of ancient times, mere pleasing trifles,
33. Full of no solid good; but always speaking
34. Things that may lead to right ideas of God.

And the exquisite Anacreon says—

1. I do not love the man who, 'midst his cups,
2. Says nothing but old tales of war and strife,
3. But him who gives its honour due to mirth,
4. Praising the Muses and the bright-faced Venus.

And Ion of Chios says—

1. Hail, our great king, our saviour, and our father!
2. And let the cupbearers now mix us wine
3. In silver jugs: and let the golden bowl
4. Pour forth its pure libations on the ground,
5. While duly honouring the mighty Jove.
6. First of the Gods, and first in all our hearts,
7. We pour libations to Alcmena's son,
8. And to the queen herself,—to Procles too,
9. And the invincible chiefs of Perseus' line.
10. Thus let us drink and sport; and let the song
11. Make the night cheerful; let the glad guests dance;
12. And do thou willingly preside among us:
13. But let the man who's a fair wife at home
14. Drink far more lustily than those less happy.

Those also who were called the seven wise men used to make drinking parties;

for wine comforts the natural moroseness of old age,

as Theophrastus says, in his treatise on Drunkenness.