Deipnosophistae

On which account, when we are met together in these Dionysiac conversaziones, no one, as is said in the Tarentines of Alexis—

1. No one can find a just pretence to grudge us
2. Our harmless pleasure, since we never injure
3. One of our neighbours. Know you not, my friend,
4. That what is called life is but a name,
5. Well soften'd down (to make it palatable),
6. For human fate? And whether any one
7. Thinks that I'm right or wrong in what I say,
8. I cannot change a word; for well I know,
9. And long have I consider'd the whole matter,
10. That all th' affairs of men are full of madness,
11. And we who live are only sojourners,
12. Like men who go to some great festival,
13. Starting from death and darkness to a pastime,
14. And to this light which we behold before us.
15. But he who laughs and drinks most cheerfully,
16. And most enjoys the charming gifts of Venus,
17. And most attends on feasts and festivals,
18. He goes through life, and then departs most happily.

And, in the words of the beautiful Sappho,—

1. Come, O Venus, hither come,
2. Bringing us thy goblets fair,
3. Mingled with the merry feast;
4. And pour out sparkling wine, I pray,
5. To your and my companions gay.

And we may add to all this, that different cities have peculiar fashions of drinking and pledging one another; as Critias mentions, in his Constitution of the Lacedæmonians, where he says—

The Chian and the Thasian drink out of large cups, passing them on towards the right hand; and the Athenian also passes the wine round towards the right, but drinks out of small cups. But the Thessalian uses large cups, pledging whoever he pleases, without reference to where he may be; but among the Lacedæmonians, ever one drinks out of his own cup, and a slave, acting as cupbearer, fills up again the cup when each has drained it.

Andnaxandrides also mentions the fashion of passing the cup round towards the right hand, in his Countrymen, speaking as follows:—

1. A. In what way are you now prepared to drink?
2. Tell me, I pray.
3. B. In what way are we now
4. Prepared to drink? Why any way you please.
5. A. Shall we then now, my father, tell the guests
v.2.p.732
6. To push the wine to the right
7. B. What! to the right?
8. That would be just as though this were a funeral.[*]("The following is the note of Dalecampius on this line:—While the corpse of a dead person was being burnt, those who attended the funeral, going round the funeral pile, in order to see the face of the corpse from all sides, walked round as the undertaker bade them, sometimes turning ἐπὶ δεξιὰ, sometimes ἐπʼ ἀριστερά. The writers on Greek antiquities have observed that those who were following a corpse to the tomb went round the funeral pile from right to left, and when the funeral was over, returned going from left to right."—Schweig. )

But we may decline entering on the subject of goblets of earthenware; for Ctesias says–

Among the Persians, that man only uses an earthenware who is dishonoured by the king.

And Chœrilus the epic poet says—

1. Here in my hands I hold a wretched piece
2. Of earthen goblet, broken all around,
3. Sad relic of a band of merry feasters;
4. And often the fierce gale of wanton Bacchus
5. Dashes such wrecks with insult on the shore.

But I am well aware that earthenware cups are often very pleasant, as those which are imported among us from Coptus; for they are made of earth which is mixed up with spices. And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says—

The cups which are called Rhodiacan are brought into drinking parties, because of the pleasure which they afford, and also because, when they are warmed, they deprive the wine of some of its intoxicating properties; for they are filled with myrrh and rushes, and other things of the same sort, put into water and then boiled; and when this mixture is put into the wine, the drinkers are less apt to become intoxicated.

And in another place he says—

The Rhodiacan cups consist of myrrh, flowery rushes, saffron, balsam, spikenard, and cinnamon, all boiled together; and when some of this compound is added to the wine, it has such effect in preventing intoxication, that it even diminishes the amorous propensities, checking the breath in some degree.

We ought not, then, to drink madly, looking at the multitude of these beautiful cups, made as they are with every sort of various art, in various countries.

But the common people,

says Chrysippus, in the introduction to his treatise on what is Good and Evil, "apply the term madly to a great number of things; and so they call a desire for women γυναικομανία, a fondness for quails ὀρτυγομανία; and some also call those who are very anxious for fame δοξομανεῖς; just as they call those who are fond of women γυναικομανεῖς, and those who are fond of birds ὀρνιθομανεῖς: all these nouns having the same notion of a propensity to the degree of madness. So that there is nothing inconsistent in other feelings and circumstances having this name applied to them; as a person who is very fond of delicacies, and who is properly called φίλοψος and ὀψοφάγος, may be called ὀψομανής; and a man very fond of wine maybe called οἰνομανής; and so in similar instances. And there is nothing unreasonable in attributing madness to such people, since they carry their errors to a very mad pitch, and wander a great distance from the real truth.

Let us, then, as was the custom among the Athenians, drink our wine while listening to these jesters and buffoons, and to other artists of the same kind. And Philochorus speaks of this kind of people in these terms—

The Athenians, in the festivals of Bacchus, originally used to go to the spectacle after they had dined and drunk their wine; and they used to witness the games with garlands on their heads. But during the whole time that the games were going on, wine was continually being offered to them, and sweetmeats were constantly being brought round; and when the choruses entered, they were offered wine; and also when the exhibition was over, and they were departing, wine was offered to them again. And Pherecrates the comic poet bears witness to all these things, and to the fact that down to his own time the spectators were never left without refreshment.

And Phanodemus says—"At the temple of Bacchus, which is in the Marshes (ἐν λίμναις), the Athenians bring wine, and mix it out of the cask for the god, and then drink of it themselves; on which account Bacchus is also called λιμναῖος, because the wine was first drunk at that festival mixed with water. On which account the fountains were called Nymphs and te Nurses of Bacchus, because the water being mingled with the wine increases the quantity of the wine.

Accordingly, men being delighted with this mixture, celebrated Bacchus in their songs, dancing and invoking him under the names of Euanthes, and Dithyrambus, and Baccheutes, and Bromius." And Theophrastus, in hi treatise on Drunkenness, says—

The nymphs are really the nurses of

v.2.p.734

Bacchus; for the vines, when cut, pour forth a great deal of moisture, and after their own nature weep.

On which account Euripides says that one of the Horses of the Sun is

1. Aethops, who with his fervent heat doth ripen
2. Th' autumnal vines of sweetly flow'ring Bacchus,
3. From which men also call wine Aethops (αἴθοπα οἶνον).

And Ulysses gave

1. Twelve large vessels of unmix'd red wine,
2. Mellifluous, undecaying, and divine,
3. Which now (some ages from his race conceal'd)
4. The hoary sire in gratitude reveal'd.
5. Such was the wine, to quench whose fervent steam
6. Scarce twenty measures from the living stream
7. To cool one cup sufficed; the goblet crown'd,
8. Breathed aromatic fragrancies around.[*](Odyss. xi. 209.)

And Timotheus, in his Cyclops, says—

1. He fill'd one cup, of well-turn'd iv'ry made,
2. With dark ambrosial drops of foaming wine;
3. And twenty measures of the sober stream
4. He poured in, and with the blood of Bacchus
5. Mingled fresh tears, shed by the weeping nymphs.

And I know, my messmates, of some men who were proud, not so much of their wealth in money as of the possession of many cups of silver and gold; one of whom is Pytheas the Arcadian, of the town of Phigalea, who, even when dying, did not hesitate to enjoin his servants to inscribe the following verses on his tomb:—

1. This is the tomb of Pytheas, a man
2. Both wise and good, the fortunate possessor
3. Of a most countless number of fine cups,
4. Of silver made, and gold, and brilliant amber.
5. These were his treasures, and of them he had
6. A store, surpassing all who lived before him.

And Harmodius the Lepreatian mentions this fact in his treatise on the Laws and Customs subsisting in Phigalea. And Xenophon, in the eighth book of his Cyropædia, speaking of the Persians, writes as follows—

And also they pride themselves exceedingly on the possession of as many goblets as possible; and even if they have acquired them by notorious malpractices, they are not at all ashamed of so doing; for injustice and covetousness are carried on to a great degree among them.

But Œdipus cursed his sons on account of some drinking-cups (as the author of the Cyclic poem called the Thebais says), because they set before him a goblet which he had forbidden; speaking as follows:—

1. But the divine, the golden-hair'd hero,
2. Great Polynices, set before his father first
3. A silver table, beautifully wrought,
4. Whilome the property of th' immortal Cadmus;
5. And then he fill'd a beauteous golden cup
6. Up to the brim with sweet and fragrant wine;
7. But Œdipus, when with angry eyes he saw
8. The ornaments belonging to his sire
9. Now set before him, felt a mighty rage,
10. Which glow'd within his breast, and straightway pour'd
11. The bitterest curses forth on both his sons,
12. (Nor were they by the Fury all unheard,)
13. Praying that they might never share in peace
14. The treasures of their father, but for ever
15. With one another strive in arms and war.

And Cæcilius the orator who came from Cale Acte, in his treatise on History, says that Agathocles the Great, when displaying his golden drinking-cups to his companions, said that he had got all these from the earthenware cups which he had previously made. And in Sophocles, in the Larissæans, Acrisius had a great many drinking-cups; where the tragedian speaks as follows:—

1. And he proclaims to strangers from all quarters
2. A mighty contest, promising among them
3. Goblets well wrought in brass, and beauteous vases
4. Inlaid with gold, and silver drinking-cups,
5. Full twice threescore in number, fair to see.

And Posidonius, in the twenty-sixth book of his Histories, says that Lysimachus the Babylonian, having invited Himerus to a banquet (who was tyrant not only over the people of Babylon, but also over the citizens of Seleucia), with three hundred of his companions, after the tables were removed, gave every one of the three hundred a silver cup, weighing four mince; and when he had made a libation, e pledged them all at once, and gave them the cups to carry away with them. And Anticlides the Athenian, in the sixteenth book of his Returns, speaking of Gra, who, with other kings, first led a colony into the island of Lesbos, and saying that those colonists had received an answer from the oracle, bidding them, while sailing, throw a virgin into the sea, as an offering to Neptune, proceeds as follows:—

And some people, who treat of the history and affairs of Methymna, relate a fable

v.2.p.736

about the virgin who was thrown into the sea; and say that one of the leaders was in love with her, whose name was Enalus, and that he dived down, wishing to save the damsel; and that then both of them, being hidden by the waves, disappeared. But that in the course of time, when Methymna had now become populous, Enalus appeared again, and related what had happened, and how it had happened; and said that the damsel was still abiding among the Nereids, and that he himself had become the superintendent of Neptune's horses; but that a great wave having been cast on the shore, he had swam with it, and so come to land: and he had in his hand a goblet made of gold, of such wondrous workmanship that the golden goblets which they had, when compared with his, looked no better than brass.

And in former times the possession of drinking-cups was reckoned a very honourable thing. Accordingly, Achilles had a very superb cup as a sort of heirloom:—

1. But, mindful of the gods, Achilles went
2. To the rich coffer in his shady tent,
3. (There lay the presents of the royal dame;)
4. From thence he took a bowl of antique frame,
5. Which never man had stain'd with ruddy wine,
6. Nor raised in offerings to the pow'rs divine,
7. But Peleus' son; and Peleus' son to none
8. Had raised in offerings but to Jove alone.[*](Iliad, xvi. 225, Pope's version.)

And Priam, when offering ransom for his son, amid all his most beautiful treasures especially offers a very exquisitely wrought cup. And Jupiter himself, on the occasion of the birth of Hercules, thinks a drinking-cup a gift worthy to be given to Alcmena; which he, having likened himself to Amphitryon, presents to her:—

1. And she received the gift, and on the bowl
2. Admiring gazed with much delighted soul.

And Stesichorus says that the sun sails over the whole ocean in a bowl; in which also Hercules passed over the sea, on the occasion of his going to fetch the cows of Geryon. We are acquainted, too, with the cup of Bathycles the Arcadian, which Bathycles left behind him as a prize of wisdom to him who should be pronounced the best of those who were called the wise men.

And a great many people have handled the cup of Nestor;

for many have written books about it. And drinking-cups were favourites even among the Gods; at all events—

1. They pledged each other in their golden cups.[*](Iliad, iv. 3.)

But it is a mark of a gentleman to be moderate in his use of wine, not drinking too greedily, nor drinking large draughts without drawing one's breath, after the fashion of the Thra- cians; but to mingle conversation with his cups, as a sort of wholesome medicine.

And the ancients affixed a great value to such goblets as had any story engraved upon them; and in the art of engraving cups in this manner, a high reputation was enjoyed by Cimon and Athenocles. They used also drinking-cups inlaid with precious stones. And Menander, somewhere or other, speaks of drinking-cups turned by the turning-lathe, and chased; and Antiphanes says—

1. And others drain with eager lips the cup,
2. Full of the juice of ancient wine, o'ershadow'd
3. With sparkling foam,—the golden-wrought rich cup,
4. Which circled round they raised: one long, deep draught
5. They drain, and raise the bottom to the skies.

And Nicomachus says to some one—

1. O you, who . . . . . and vomit golden . . .

And Philippides says—

1. Could you but see the well-prepared cups,
2. All made of gold, my Trophimus; by heaven,
3. They are magnificent! I stood amazed
4. When I beheld them first. Then there were also
5. Large silver cups, and jugs larger than I.

And Parmenio, in his letter to Alexander, summing up the spoils of the Persians, says,

The weight of goblets of gold is seventy-three Babylonian talents, and fifty-two mitæ.[*](The Attic talent weighed within a fraction of fifty-seven pounds and the Babylonian talent was to the Attic as seven to six; but Boeckh considers the Babylonian talent as equal to the Aeginetan, which was about eighty-two pounds and a quarter. The Attic mina was not quite a pound; the Aeginetan not quite one pound six ounces, being always one-sixteenth part of a talent.) The weight of goblets inlaid with precious stones, is fifty-six Babylonian talents, and thirty-four minæ.