[Footnote 49: This is a mistake of Athenæus. The passage referred to occurs in the fifth book of the De Republica.] [Footnote 50: A line or two is lost here, containing probably the enigmatical sentence subsequently referred to.] [Footnote 51: The Greek is ἐν γάστρι ἔχει, which also signifies to be pregnant.] [Footnote 52: There is probably some corruption in the text here.] [Footnote 53: There is some mistake here, for they consist of eleven.] BOOK XI. 1. Come now, where shall our conversation rise? as Cephisodorus the comic poet says, my good friend Timocrates; for when we were all met together at a convenient season, and with serious minds, to discuss the goblets, Ulpian, while every one was sitting still, and before any one began to speak at all, said,—At the court of Adrastus, my friends, the chief men of the nation sup while sitting down. But Polyidus, while sacrificing on the road, detained Peteos as he was passing by, and while lying on the grass, strewing some leaves which he had broken off on the ground by way of a table, set before him some part of the victim which he had sacrificed. And when Autolycus had come to the rich people of Ithaca, and while he was sitting down, (for the men of that time ate their meals while sitting down,) the nurse took Ulysses, (as the poet says— His course to Ithaca the hero sped When first the product of Laertes' bed Was new disclosed to birth; the banquet ends When Euryclea from the queen descends, And to his fond embrace the babe commends:) and placed him on his knees, not near his knees. So let us not waste time now, but let us lie down, that Plutarch may lead the way in the lecture which he promised us on the subject of goblets, and that he may pledge us all in bumpers. 2. But I imagine that Simonides of Amorgos is the first poet who has spoken of drinking-cups (ποτήρια) by name in his iambics, thus— The cups away did lead him from the table. And the author of the poem called the Alcmæonis says— He placed the corpses lowly on the shore On a broad couch of leaves; and by their side A dainty feast he spread, and brimming cups, And garlands on their noble temples wreathed. And the word ποτήριον comes from πόσις, drink, as the Attic word ἔκπωμα also does; but they form the word with ω, as they also say ὑδροπωτέω, to drink water, and οἰνοπωτέω, to drink wine. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says— A stupid serpent drinking deep of blood (αἱματοπώτης). But he also says in the same play— Much then did Bacis use the cup (ποτήριον). And Pherecrates, in his Tyranny, says— One is better than a thousand cups (ποτήρια). And Anacreon said— I am become a wine-bibber (οἰνοπώτης). And the verb occurs also in the same poet, for he says οἰνοποτάζων. And Sappho, in her second Ode, says— And many countless cups (ποτήρια), O beauteous Iphis. And Alcæus says— And from the cups (ποτηρία) . . . . . .