15. 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:— And he proclaims to strangers from all quarters A mighty contest, promising among them Goblets well wrought in brass, and beauteous vases Inlaid with gold, and silver drinking-cups, 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 minæ; and when he had made a libation, he 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 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." 16. 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:— But, mindful of the gods, Achilles went To the rich coffer in his shady tent, (There lay the presents of the royal dame;) From thence he took a bowl of antique frame, Which never man had stain'd with ruddy wine, Nor raised in offerings to the pow'rs divine, But Peleus' son; and Peleus' son to none Had raised in offerings but to Jove alone.[56]