Ægypt has its mad recluses, Book-bewilder'd anchorites, In the hen-coop of the Muses Keeping up their endless fights. . . . . till these table orators got cured of their diarrhœa of words; a pack of men, who from their itch for talking appear to me to have forgotten the Pythian oracle, which Chamæleon quotes-- Three weeks ere Sirius burns up the wheat, And three weeks after, seek the cool retreat Of shady house, and better your condition By taking Bacchus for your sole physician. And so Mnesitheus the Athenian says that the Pythia enjoined the Athenians to honour Bacchus the physician. But Alcæus, the Mitylenæan poet, says-- Steep your heart in rosy wine, for see, the dogstar is in view; Lest by heat and thirst oppress'd you should the season's fury rue. And in another place he says-- Fill me, boy, a sparkling cup; See, the dogstar's coming up. And Eupolis says that Callias was compelled to drink by Protagoras, in order that his lungs might not be melted away before the dogdays. But at such a time I not only feel my lungs dried up, but I may almost say my heart too. And Antiphanes says-- _A._ Tell me, I pray you, how you life define. _B._ To drink full goblets of rich Chian wine. You see how tall and fine the forest grows Through which a sacred river ceaseless flows; While on dry soils the stately beech and oak Die without waiting for the woodman's stroke. And so, says he, they, disputing about the dogstar, had plenty to drink. Thus the word βρέχω, to moisten or soak, is often applied to drinking. And so Antiphanes says-- Eating much may bring on choking, Unless you take a turn at soaking. And Eubulus has-- _A._ I Sicon come with duly moisten'd clay. _B._ What have you drunk then? _A._ That you well may say. 42. Now the verb ἀναπίπτω, meaning _to fall back_, has properly reference to the mind, meaning to despair, to be out of heart. Thucydides says in his first book, "When they are defeated they are least of all people inclined to ἀναπίπτειν." And Cratinus uses the same expression of rowers-- Ply your oars and bend your backs. And Xenophon in his Œconomics says, "Why is it that rowers are not troublesome to one another, except because they sit in regular order, and bend forward in regular order, and (ἀναπίπτουσιν) lean back in regular order?"--The word ἀνακεῖσθαι is properly applied to a statue, on which account they used to laugh at those who used the word of the guests at a feast, for whom the proper expression was κατακεῖμαι. Accordingly Diphilus puts into the mouth of a man at a feast-- I for a while sat down (ἀνεκείμην): and his friend, not approving of such an expression, says, Ἀνάκεισο. And Philippides has-- I supped too ἀνακειμένος in his house. And then the other speaker rejoins-- What, was he giving a dinner to a statue?