Deipnosophistae

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 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—

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 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,
v.2.p.744
4. Then u came next, and after that a sigma
5. 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.'