The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
And you find some people say that the expression in Homer—
Take care and give less water (ζωρότερον κέραιρε),
does not mean that there is to be less water, but that the draught is
to be hot; urging that ζωρὸς is derived from ζωτικὸς (giving life),
and from ζέσις (boiling);—for that, as there were companions present,
it would have been absurd to begin mixing the cups of wine over again.
But some say that the word is to be understood as equivalent to
εὔκρατον (well-mixed); just as we find the form δεξιτερὸν used instead
of δεξιόν. And some say that, since the year is called ὧρος, and since
the particle ζα indicates magnitude or number, ζῶρος means merely what
has been made many years. And Diphilus, in his Pederastæ, says—
Pour me now out a cup of wine to drink;
Give it, by Jove! εὐζωρότερον than that;
For wat'ry things are ruinous to the stomach.
And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says that ζωρότερον
means mixed; quoting the following lines of Empedocles;—
And soon the things which formerly they learnt
Immortal were, did mortal now become,
And things unmix'd before became now mix'd (ζωρὰ,)
Changing their previous ways and habits all.
23. And Plato has used the word κύαθος in the sense of a ladle, in his
Phaon, where he says—
Taking up thus the ladle (κύαθος) in their mouths.
And in his Ambassadors he says—
He stole the ladles (κύαθοι) every time he could.
And Archippus, in his Fishes, says—
I bought a ladle (κύαθος) there from Dæsias.
And there is a similar use of the word in the Peace of Aristophanes:—
All having fought till they had got black eyes,
Lying all on the ground around the κύαθοι;
for black eyes are reduced by having κύαθοι (cupping glasses) applied
to them. Xenophon also speaks of the κύαθος in the first book of his
Cyropædia; and so does Cratinus; and, besides, so does Aristophanes
in many places, and Eubulus in his Orthanna; and Pherecrates, in his
Triflers, has spoken of a κύαθος made of silver. But Timon, in the
second book of his History of the Silli, has called κύαθοι, ἀρύσαναι;
speaking thus:—
And ἀρύσαναι, hard to fill with wine;
naming them so from the verb ἀρύομαι, to draw. And they are called
also ἀρυστῆρες and ἀρίστιχοι. Simonides says—
[Sidenote: CUPBEARERS.]
And no one gave me even one ἀρυστὴρ
Of the mere dregs and lees.
And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—
For I had these ἀρύστιχοι near me.
And Phrynichus, in his Weeding Women, says—
(A cup) κύλικ᾽ ἀρύστιχον:
and from this comes the word ἀρύταινα. They also called this vessel
ἔφηβος, as Xenophanes did in his Relationship; and Polybius, in the
ninth book of his Histories, says that there is a certain river called
the Cyathus, near Arsinoe, a city in Ætolia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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