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
54. There is also the ciborium. Hegesander the Delphian says that
Euphorion the poet, when supping with the Prytanis, when the Prytanis
exhibited to him some ciboria, which appeared to be made in a most
exquisite and costly manner, . . . . . . . . And when the cup had gone
round pretty often, he, having drunk very hard and being intoxicated,
took one of the ciboria and defiled it. And Didymus says that it is
a kind of drinking-cup; and perhaps it may be the same as that which
is called scyphium, which derives its name from being contracted to a
narrow space at the bottom, like the Egyptian ciboria.
55. There is also the condu, an Asiatic cup. Menander, in his play
entitled the Flatterer, says—
Then, too, there is in Cappadocia,
O Struthion, a noble golden cup,
Call'd condu, holding ten full cotylæ.
And Hipparchus says, in his Men Saved,—
_A._ Why do you so attend to this one soldier?
He has no silver anywhere, I know well;
But at the most one small embroider'd carpet,
(And that is quite enough for him,) on which
Some Persian figures and preposterous shapes
Of Persian griffins, and such beasts, are work'd.
_B._ Away with you, you wretch.
_A._ And then he has
A condu, a wine-cooler, and a cymbium.
And Nicomachus, in the first book of his treatise on the Egyptian
Festivals, says—"But the condu is a Persian cup; and it was first
introduced by Hermippus the astrologer.[64] . . . . . . . . . . . . .
on which account libations are poured out of it." But Pancrates, in the
first book of his Conchoreis, says—
But he first pour'd libations to the gods
From a large silver condu; then he rose,
And straight departed by another road.
There is also the cononius. Ister, the pupil of Callimachus, in the
first book of his History of Ptolemais, the city in Egypt, writes
thus:—"A pair of cups, called cononii, and a pair of thericlean cups
with golden covers.
56. There is also the cotylus. The cotylus is a cup with one handle,
which is also mentioned by Alcæus. But Diodorus, in his book addressed
to Lycophoron, says that this cup is greatly used by the Sicyonians and
Tarentines, and that it is like a deep luterium, and sometimes it has
an ear. And Ion the Chian also mentions it, speaking of "a cotylus full
of wine." And Hermippus, in his Gods, says—
He brought a cotylus first, a pledge for his neighbours.
And Plato, in his Jupiter Afflicted, says—
He brings a cotylus.
Aristophanes also, in his Babylonians, mentions the cotylus; and
Eubulus, in his Ulysses, or the Panoptæ, says—
And then the priest utt'ring well-omen'd prayers,
Stood in the midst, and in a gorgeous dress,
Pour'd a libation from the cotylus.
[Sidenote: DRINKING-CUPS.]
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