39. And Mimnermus, in his Nannus, says that the Sun when asleep is borne round to the east, lying on a golden bed which was made for this express purpose by Vulcan; by which enigmatical statement hie indicates the hollow form of the cup; and he speaks thus— [Sidenote: DRINKING-CUPS.] For the Sun labours every day, nor ever Do he or his fleet steeds know pleasing rest From that bright hour when the rosy Morn, Leaving her ocean-bed, mounts up to heaven. For all across the sea, a lovely bed Of precious gold, the work of Vulcan's hands, Conveys the god; passing on rapid wings Along the water, while he sleeps therein, From the bright region of th' Hesperides, To th' Ethiopian shore, where his swift car And fiery horses wait within their stalls Till bright Aurora comes again and opes Her rosy portals. Then Hyperion's son Ascends again his swift untiring car. But Theolytus, in the second book of his Annals, says that the Sun crosses the sea in a cup, and that the first person who invented this statement was the author of the poem called the Battle of the Titans. And Pherecydes, in the third book of his Histories, having previously spoken about the ocean, adds—"But Hercules drew his bow against him, as if he meant to shoot him: and the Sun bade him desist, and so he, being afraid, did desist. And in return for his forbearance, the Sun gave him the golden cup in which he himself used to travel with his horses when he has set, going all night across the ocean to the east, where he again rises. And so then Hercules went in this cup to Erythea. And when he was at sea, Oceanus, to tempt him, appeared to him in visible form, tossing his cup about in the waves; and he then was on the point of shooting Oceanus; but Oceanus being frightened desired him to forbear." 40. There is also a cup of the name of ethanion. Hellanicus, in his account of the History and Manners of the Egyptians, writes thus—"In the houses of the Egyptians are found a brazen φιάλη, and a brazen κύαθος, and a brazen ἠθάνιον." There is another kind called hemitomus; a sort of cup in use among the Athenians, so called from its shape; and it is mentioned by Pamphilus, in his Dialects. 41. Then there is the cup called the thericlean cup; this kind is depressed at the sides, sufficiently deep, having short ears, as being of the class of cup called κύλιξ.[61] And, perhaps, it is out of a thericlean cup that Alexis, in his Hesione, represents Hercules to be drinking, when he speaks thus— And when he had, though scarcely, come t' himself, He begg'd a cup of wine (κύλικα), and when he'd got it, He drank down frequent draughts, and drain'd it well; And, as the proverb says, the man sometimes Is quite a bladder, and sometimes a sack.