Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

Now among the Cretans, the epithet κλεινὸς, illustrious, is often given to the objects of one's affection. And it is a matter of great desire among them to carry off beautiful boys; and among them it is considered discreditable to a beautiful boy not to have a lover. And the name given to the boys who are carried off in that manner is παρασταθέντες. And they give to the boy who has been carried off a robe, and an ox, and a drinking-cup. And the robe they wear even when they are become old, in order to show that they have been κλεινοί.

  1. You see that when men drink, they then are rich;
  2. They do whate'er they please,—they gain their actions,
  3. They're happy themselves, and they assist their friends.
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For amusing oneself with wine exalts, and cherishes, and elevates the mind, since it inflames and arouses the foul, and fills it with lofty thoughts, as Pindar says—
  1. When the sad, laborious cares
  2. Flee from the weary hearts of men,
  3. And in the wide, expansive ocean
  4. Of golden wealth we all set sail,
  5. Floating towards the treacherous shore.
  6. E'en he who is poor, is rich when he
  7. Has fill'd his soul with rosy wine;
  8. And he who's rich. . . .
And then he goes on—
  1. becomes elated
  2. Beneath the glad dominion of the vine.

There is a kind of drinking-cup also called ancyla, or curved; a kind especially useful for the play of the cottabus. Cratinus says—

  1. 'Tis death to drink of wine when water's mix'd:
  2. But she took equal shares, two choes full
  3. Of unmix'd wine, in a large ancyla:
  4. And calling on her dear Corinthian lover
  5. By name, threw in his honour a cottabus.
And Bacchylides says—
  1. When she does throw to the youths a cottabus
  2. From her ancyla, stretching her white arm forth.
And it is with reference to this ancyla that we understand the expression of Aeschylus—
  1. The cottabus of th' ancyla (ἀγκυλήτους κοττάβους).
Spears are also called ἀγκύλητα, or curved; and also μεσάγκυλα, held by a string in the middle. There is also the expression ἀπʼ ἀγκύλης, which means, from the right hand. And the cup is called ἀγκύλη, from the fact that the right hand is curved, in throwing the cottabus from it. For it was a matter to which great attention was paid by the ancients—namely, that of throwing the cottabus dexterously and gracefully. And men in general prided themselves more on their dexterity in this than in throwing the javelin skilfully. And this got its name from the manner in which the hand was brandished in throwing the cottabus, when they threw it elegantly and dexterously into the cottabium. And they also built rooms especially designed for this sport.

In Timachides there is also a kind of drinking-cup mentioned, called the æacis.

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There is another kind also, called the ἄκατος,or boat, being shaped like a boat. Epicrates says—

  1. Throw down th' acatia,
(using here the diminutive form,)
  1. and take instead
  2. The larger goblets; and the old woman lead
  3. Straight to the cup; . . . the younger maiden . . . .
  4. . . . . . . . fill it; have your oar
  5. All ready, loose the cables, bend the sails.
Among the Cyprians there is also a kind of cup called the aotus, as Pamphilus tells us: and Philetas says, this is a cup which has no ears (ὤτους).

There is also a kind of cup called aroclum, which is mentioned by Nicander the Colophonian.

The cup called ἄλεισον, is the same as that called δέπας. Homer, in his Odyssey, speaking of Pisistratus, says—

  1. In a rich golden cup he pour'd the wine;[*](Odyss. iii. 40.)
and proceeding, he says, in the same manner—
  1. To each a portion of the feast he bore,
  2. And held the golden goblet (ἄλεισον) foaming o'er;
and presently afterwards he says—
  1. And gave the goblet (δέπας) to Ulysses' son.
And, accordingly, Asclepiades the Myrlean says—
The δέπας appears to me to have been much of the same shape as the φιάλη. For men make libations with it. Accordingly, Homer says,—
  1. The cup which Peleus' son
  2. Had raised in offerings to Jove alone.
And it is called δέπας, either because it is given to all (δίδοται πᾶσι) who wish to make libations, or who wish to drink; or because it has two ears (δύο ὦπας), for ὦπες must be the same as ὦτα. And it has the name of ἄλεισον, either from being very smooth (ἄγαν λεῖον), or because the liquor is collected (ἁλίζεται) in it. And that it had two ears is plain—
  1. High in his hands he rear'd the golden bowl
  2. By both its ears.
But when he applies the word ἀμφικύπελλον to it, he means nothing more than ἀμφίκυρτον curved on both sides.
But Silenus interprets the word ἀμφικύπελλον to mean devoid of ears, while others say that ἀμφὶ here is equivalent to περὶ, and that it means a cup which you may put to your mouth all round, at any part of it. But Parthenius says that it
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means that the ears are curved (περικεκυρτῶσθαι), for that is synonymous with κυρτός. But Anicetus says that the κύπελλον is a kind of cup (φίαλη), and that the word ἀμφικύπελλον is equivalent to ὑπερφίαλον, that is to say, superb and magnificent; unless, indeed, any one chooses to interpret the word ἄλεισον as something very highly ornamented, and therefore not at all smooth (α,λεῖον). And Pisander says, Hercules gave Telamon a cup (ἄλεισον) as the prize of his preeminent valour in the expedition against Troy.

There is also a kind of cup called the horn of Amalthea, and another called ἐνιαυτὸς, or the year.

There is also a kind of cup made of wood, called ἄμφωτις, which Philetas says that the countrymen use, who milk their cattle into it, and then drink the milk.

There is also a kind of drinking called ἄμυστις, when any one drinks a long draught without taking breath and without winking (μὴ μύσαντα). And they give the same name to the goblets from which it is easy to drink in this manner. And they also use a verb (ἐκμυστίζω) for drinking without taking breath, as Plato the comic poet says—

  1. And opening a fair cask of fragrant wine,
  2. He pours it straight into the hollow cup;
  3. And then he drank it sheer and not disturb'd,
  4. And drain'd it at one draught (ἐξεμύστισε).
And they also drank the ἄμυστις draught to an accompaniment of music; the melody being measured out according to the quickness of the time; as Ameipsias says—
  1. Gentle musician, let that dulcet strain
  2. Proceed; and, while I drink this luscious draught,
  3. Play you a tune; then you shall drink yourself.
  4. For mortal man has no great wants on earth,
  5. Except to love and eat;-and you're too stingy.

There is also a kind of cup called Antigonis, from the name of king Antigonus: like the Seleucis from kin Seleucus; and the Prusis, from king Prusias.

There is also a kind of cup known in Crete, and called anaphæa, which they use for hot drinks.

There is also a kind of cup called aryballus. This kind of cup is wider at the bottom, and contracted at to like a purse when it is drawn together; and, indeed, some people call purses ἀρύβαλλοι, from their resemblance to this kind of cup. Aristophanes says, in his Knights—

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  1. He pour'd upon his head
  2. Ambrosia from a holy cup (ἀρύβαλλος).
And the aryballus is not very different from the arystichus, being derived from the verbs ἀρύτω and βάλλω; they also call a jug ἄρυστις. Sophocles says—
  1. You are most accursed of all women,
  2. Who come to supper with your ἀρύστεις.
There is also a city of the Ionians called arystis.

There is another kind of cup called argyris, which is not necessarily made of silver. Anaxilas says—

  1. And drinking out of golden argyrides.

Then batiacium, labronius, tragelaphus, pristis, are all names of different kinds of cups. The batiaca is a Persian goblet. And among the letters of the great Alexander to the Satraps of Asia there is inserted one letter in which the following passage occurs:—

There are three batiacæ of silver gilt, and a hundred and seventy-six silver condya; and of these last thirty-three are gilt. There is also one silver tigisites, and thirty-two silver-gilt mystri. There is one silver vegetable dish, and one highly wrought wine-stand of silver ornamented in a barbaric style. There are other small cups from every country, and of every kind of fashion, to the number of twenty-nine: and other small-sized cups called rhyta, adbatia, and Lycurgi, all gilt, and incense-burners and spoons.

There is a cup used by the Alexandrians named bessa, wider in the lower parts, and narrow above.

There is also a kind of cup called baucalis: and this, too, is chiefly used in Alexandria, as Sopater the parodist says—

  1. A baucalis, with four rings mark'd on it.
And in another passage he says—
  1. 'Tis sweet for men to drink (καταβαυκαλίσαι)
  2. Cups of the juice by bees afforded,
  3. At early dawn, when parch'd by thirst,
  4. Caused by too much wine overnight.
And the men in Alexandria, it is said, have a way of working crystal, forming it often into various shapes of goblets, and imitating in this material every sort of earthenware cup which is imported from any possible country. And they say that Lysippus the statuary, wishing to gratify Cassander, when he was founding the colony of Cassandria, and when he
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conceived the ambition of inventing some peculiar kind of utensil in earthenware, on account of the extraordinary quantity of Mendean wine which was exported from the city, took a great deal of pains with that study, and brought Cassander a great number of cups of every imaginable fashion, all made of earthenware, and taking a part of the pattern of each, thus made one goblet of a design of his own.

There is also a kind of cup called bicus. Xenophon, in the first book of his Anabasis, says:—"And Cyrus sent him a number of goblets (βίκους) of wine half full; and it is a cup of a flat shallow shape, like a φιάλη, according to the description given of it by Pollux the Parian.

There is another kind of cup called the bombylius; a sort of Rhodian Thericlean cup; concerning the shape of which Socrates says,—

Those who drink out of the phiale as much as they please will very soon give over; but those who drink out of a bombylius drink by small drops.
There is also an animal of the same name.

There is also a kind of drinking-cup called the bromias, in form like the larger kind of scyphus.

There is another kind called the lettered cup, having writing engraved round it. Alexis says—

  1. A. Shall I describe to you the appearance first
  2. O' the cup you speak of? Know, then, it was round;
  3. Exceeding small; old, sadly broken too
  4. About the ears; and all around the brim
  5. Were carved letters.
  6. B. Were there those nineteen
  7. Engraved in gold,—To Jupiter the Saviour?[*](The Greek has ἕνδεκα, eleven, being the number of letters in διὸς σωτῆρος. I have altered the number to make it correspond to the letters in To Jupiter the Saviour. )
  8. A. Those, and no others.
And we have seen a lettered cup of this kind lying at Capua in Campania, in the temple of Diana; covered with writing taken from the poems of Homer, and beautifully engraved; having the verses inlaid in golden characters, like the drinking-cup of Nestor. And Achæus the tragic poet, in his Omphale, himself also represents the Satyrs speaking in the following manner about a lettered drinking-cup—
  1. And the god's cup long since has call'd me,
  2. Showing this writing,—delta, then iota,
  3. The third letter was omega, then nu,
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  5. Then u came next, and after that a sigma
  6. And omicron were not deficient.
But in this passage we want the final v which ought to have ended the word. Since all the ancients used the omicron not only with the power which it has now, but also when they meant to indicate the diphthong ει they wrote it by o only. And they did the same when they wished to write the vowel ε, whether it is sounded by itself, or when they wish to indicate the diphthong ει by the addition of iota. And accordingly, in the above-cited verses, the Satyrs wrote the final syllable of the genitive case διονύσου with ο only; as being short to engrave: so that we are in these lines to understand the final upsilon, so as to make the whole word διονύσου. And the Dorians called sigma san; for the musicians, as Aristoxenus often tells us, used to avoid saying sigma whenever they could, because it was a hard-sounding letter, and unsuited to the flute; but they were fond of using the letter rho, because of the ease of pronouncing it. And the horses which have the letter ς branded on them, they call samphoras. Aristophanes, in his Clouds, says—
  1. Neither you, nor the carriage-horse, nor samphoras.
And Pindar says—
  1. Before long series of songs were heard,
  2. And the ill-sounding san from out men's mouths.
And Eubulus also, in his Neottis, speaks of a lettered cup as being called by that identical name, saying—
  1. A. Above all things I hate a letter'd cup,
  2. Since he, my son, the time he went away,
  3. Had such a cup with him.
  4. B. There are many like it.

There is a kind of cup also called gyala. Philetas, in his Miscellanies, says that the Megarians call their cups gyalæ. And Parthenius, the pupil of Dionysius, in the first book of his Discussions upon Words found in the Historians, says—

The gyala is a kind of drinking-cup, as Marsyas the priest of Hercules writes, where he says, 'Whenever the king comes into the city, a man meets him having a cup (γυάλην) full of wine; and the king takes it, and pours a libation from it.'

There is another sort of cup called the deinus. And that this is the name of a cup we are assured by Dionysius of Sinope, in his Female Saviour, where he gives a catalogue

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of the names of cups, and mentions this among them, speak- ing as follows—
  1. And as for all the kinds of drinking-cups,
  2. Lady, all fair to see,—dicotyli,
  3. Tricotyli besides, the mighty deinus,
  4. Which holds an entire measure, and the cymbion
  5. The scyphus and the rhytum; on all these
  6. The old woman keeps her eyes, and minds nought else.
And Cleanthes the philosopher, in his book on Interpretation, says, that the cups called the Thericlean, and that called the Deinias, are both named from the original makers of them. And Seleucus, saying that the deinus is a kind of cup, quotes some lines of Stratis, from his Medea—
  1. Dost know, O Creon, what the upper part
  2. Of your head doth resemble? I can tell you:
  3. 'Tis like a deinus turned upside down.
And Archedicus, in his Man in Error, introducing a servant speaking of some courtesans, says—
  1. A. I lately introduced a hook-nosed woman,
  2. Her name Nicostrata; but surnamed also
  3. Scotodeina, since (at least that is the story)
  4. She stole a silver deinus in the dark.
  5. B. A terrible thing (δεινὸν), by Jove; a terrible thing!

The deinus is also the name of a kind of dance, as Apollophanes tells us in his Dalis, where he says—

  1. A strange thing (δεινὸν) is this deinus and calathiscus.
And Telesilla the Argive calls a threshing-floor also δεῖνος. And the Cyrenæans give the same name to a foot-tub, as Philetas tells us in his Attic Miscellanies.

There is also a kind of drinking-cup called δέπαστρον. Silenus and Clitarchus, in their Dialects, say that this is a name given to drinking-cups among the Clitorians; but Antimachus the Colophonian, in the fifth book of his Thebais, says— And carefully they all commands obey'd Which wise Adrastus laid on them. They took A silver goblet, and they pour'd therein Water, and honey pure, compounding deftly; And quickly then they all distributed The cups (δέπαστπα) among the princes of the Greeks, Who there were feasting; and from a golden jug They pour'd them wine for due libations. And in another place he says—

  1. Let others bring the bowl of solid silver,
  2. Or golden cups (δέπαστρα), which in my halls are stored.
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And immediately afterwards he says—
  1. And golden cups (δέπαστρα), and a pure untouch'd vessel
  2. Of honey sweet, which will be beat for him.

There is also a kind of cup called δακτυλωτὸν, with finger-like handles; and it is called so by Ion, in the Agamemnon—

  1. And you shall have a gift worth running for,
  2. A finger handled cup, not touch'd by fire,
  3. The mighty prize once given by Pelias,
  4. And by swift Castor won.
But by this expression Epigenes understands merely having two ears, into which a person could put his fingers on each side. Others, again, explain it as meaning, having figures like fingers engraved all round it; or having small projections like the Sidonian cups;—or, again, some interpret the word as meaning merely smooth. But when he says, untouched by fire, that has the same meaning as Homer's phrase—
  1. ἄπυρον κατέθηκε λέβητα,
meaning a caldron fit for the reception of cold water, or suitable for drinking cold drinks out of. But by this expression some understand a horn; and about the Molossian district the oxen are said to have enormous horns; and the way in which they are made into cups is explained by Theopompus: and it is very likely that Pelias may have had cups made of these horns; and Iolcos is near the Molossian district, and it was at Iolcos that these contests spoken of were exhibited by Pelias.—
But,
says Didymus, in his Explanation of the play here spoken of,
it is better to say that Ion misunderstood Homer's words, where he says—
  1. And for the fifth he gave a double bowl,
  2. Which fire had never touch'd;
for he fancied that this meant a drinking-cup, while it was in reality a large flat vessel made of brass in the form of a caldron, suitable to receive cold water. And he has spoken of the dactylotus cup, as if it were a goblet that had a hollow place all round the inside of it, so as to be taken hold of inside by the fingers of the drinkers. And some say that the cup which has never been touched by fire means a cup of horn; for that that is not worked by the agency of fire. And perhaps a man might call a φιάλη a drinking-cup by a metaphorical use of the word.
But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Nouns and Attic Dialects, under the word καλπὶς says, "The dactylotus cup is the same as the two-headed cup into
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which a person can insert his fingers on both sides. But some say that it is one which has figures in the shape of fingers carved all round it."

There is also the elephant; and this was the name of a kind of cup, as we are told by Damoxenus, in the Man who laments himself—

  1. A. If that is not enough, here is the boy
  2. Bringing the elephant.
  3. B. In God's name tell me,
  4. What beast is that?
  5. A. 'Tis a mighty cup,
  6. Pregnant with double springs of rosy wine,
  7. And able to contain three ample measures;
  8. The work of Alcon. When I was at Cypseli,
  9. Adæus pledged me in this selfsame cup.
And Epinicus also mentions this cup, in his Supposititious Damsels; and I will quote his testimony when I come to speak of the rhytum.

There is another kind of cup called the Ephebus. And Philemon the Athenian, in his treatise on Attic Nouns and Attic Dialects, says that this cup is also called the embasicoitas; but Stephanus the comic poet, in his Friend of the Lacedæmonians, says—

  1. Sos. The king then pledged him in a certain village.
  2. B. A wondrous thing. What can you mean? Is this
  3. A kind of goblet?
  4. Sos. No; I mean a village
  5. Near Thyria.
  6. B. Why, my whole thoughts were borne
  7. Off to the Rhodian cups, O Sosia,
  8. And to those heavy bowls they call ephebi.

There are also some cups which are called ἡδυποτίδες.

These,
says Lynceus the Samian, "were made by the Rhodians in emulation of the Thericlean goblets which were in use at Athens. But as the Athenians, on account of the great weight of metal employed in them, only made this shape for the use of the richer classes, the Rhodians made theirs so light that they were able to put these ornaments within the reach even of the poor. And Epigenes mentions them, in his Heroine, in these words—
  1. A psycter, and a cyathus, and cymbia,
  2. Four rhyta, and three hedypotides,
  3. A silver strainer, too.
And Sermus, in the fifth book of his Delias, says that there is
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among the offerings at Delos a golden hedypotis, the gift of Echenica, a woman of the country, whom he mentions also, in his eighth book. And Cratinus the younger says, using the diminutive form,—
  1. And Archephon had twelve ἡδυπότια.

There was another kind of cup called the Herculeum. Pisander, in the second book of his Herculead, says that the cup in which Hercules sailed across the ocean belonged to the Sun; and that Hercules received it from Oceanus for that purpose. But, perhaps, as the hero was fond of large cups, the poets and historians jesting because of the great size of this one, invented the fable of his having gone to sea in a cup. But Panyasis, in the first book of his Herculead, says that Hercules obtained the cup of the Sun from Nereus, and sailed even to Erythea in it. And we have said before that Hercules was one of the inordinate drinkers. And that the sun was borne on towards his setting in a cup, Stesichorus tells us, where he says—

  1. And then the Sun, great Hyperion's offspring,
  2. Embarked in his golden cup, that he
  3. Might cross the ocean's wide expanse, and come
  4. To the deep foundations of immortal Night;
  5. To his fond mother, and his virgin bride,
  6. And his dear children. And the son of Jove
  7. Came to the grove
  8. Shaded with laurels and with bays.
And Antimachus speaks thus—
  1. And then the most illustrious Erythea
  2. Sent the Sun forth in a convenient cup.
And Aeschylus, in his Daughters of the Sun, says—
  1. There in the west is found the golden cup,
  2. Great Vulcan's work, your father's property,
  3. In which he's borne along his rapid course
  4. O'er the dark waters of the boundless sea.
  5. When, his work done, he flies before dark Night,
  6. Borne on her black-horsed chariot.

And Mimnermus, in his Nannus, says that the Sun when asleep is borne round to the east, lying on a golden bed which was made for this express purpose by Vulcan; by which enigmatical statement he indicates the hollow form of the cup; and he speaks thus—

  1. For the Sun labours every day, nor ever
  2. Do he or his fleet steeds know pleasing rest
  3. From that bright hour when the rosy Morn,
  4. Leaving her ocean-bed, mounts up to heaven.
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  6. For all across the sea, a lovely bed
  7. Of precious gold, the work of Vulcan's hands,
  8. Conveys the god; passing on rapid wings
  9. Along the water, while he sleeps therein,
  10. From the bright region of th' Hesperides,
  11. To th' Ethiopian shore, where his swift car
  12. And fiery horses wait within their stalls
  13. Till bright Aurora comes again and opes
  14. Her rosy portals. Then Hyperion's son
  15. Ascends again his swift untiring car.
But Theolytus, in the second book of his Annals, says that the Sun crosses the sea in a cup, and that the first person who invented this statement was the author of the poem called the Battle of the Titans. And Pherecydes, in the third book of his Histories, having previously spoken about the ocean, adds—
But Hercules drew his bow against him, as if he meant to shoot him: and the Sun bade him desist, and so he, being afraid, did desist. And in return for his forbearance, the Sun gave him the golden cup in which he himself used to travel with his horses when he has set, going all night across the ocean to the east, where he again rises. And so then Hercules went in this cup to Erythea. And when he was at sea, Oceanus, to tempt him, appeared to him in visible form, tossing his cup about in the waves; and he then was on the point of shooting Oceanus; but Oceanus being frightened desired him to forbear.