Deipnosophistae

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

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.

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 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 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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5. For all across the sea, a lovely bed
6. Of precious gold, the work of Vulcan's hands,
7. Conveys the god; passing on rapid wings
8. Along the water, while he sleeps therein,
9. From the bright region of th' Hesperides,
10. To th' Ethiopian shore, where his swift car
11. And fiery horses wait within their stalls
12. Till bright Aurora comes again and opes
13. Her rosy portals. Then Hyperion's son
14. 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.