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
59. There is also the cratanium. But perhaps this is the same cup,
under an ancient name, as that which is now called the craneum:
accordingly, Polemo (or whoever it is who wrote the treatise on the
Manners and Customs of the Greeks), speaking of the temple of the
Metapontines which is at Olympia, writes as follows:—"The temple of
the Metapontines, in which there are a hundred and thirty-two silver
phialæ, and two silver wine-jars, and a silver apothystanium, and three
gilt phialæ. The temple of the Byzantians, in which there is a figure
of Triton, made of cypress-wood, holding a silver cratanium, a silver
siren, two silver carchesia, a silver culix, a golden wine-jar, and two
horns. But in the old temple of Juno, there are thirty silver phialæ,
two silver cratania, a silver dish, a golden apothystanium, a golden
crater (the offering of the Cyrenæans), and a silver batiacium."
There is also the crounea. Epigenes, in his Monument, says—
_A._ Crateres, cadi, holcia, crounea,
_B._ Are these crounea?
_A._ Yes, indeed these are.
There is the cyathis also. This is a vessel with a great resemblance to
the cotyla. Sophron, in his play entitled the Buffoon, represents the
women who profess to exhibit the goddess as present, as saying—
Three sovereign antidotes for poison
Are buried in a single cyathis.
60. Then there is the κύλιξ. Pherecrates, in his Slave-Tutor, says—
Now wash the κύλιξ out; I'll give you then
Some wine to drink: put o'er the cup a strainer,
And then pour in some wine.
But the κύλιξ is a drinking-cup made of earthenware, and it is so
called from being made circular (ἀπὸ τοῦ κυλίεσθαι) by the potter's
wheel; from which also the κυλικεῖον, the place in which the cups are
stored up, gets its name, even when the cups put away in it are made
of silver. There is also the verb κυλικηγορέω, derived from the same
source, when any one makes an harangue over his cups But the Athenians
also call a medicine chest κυλικὶς, because it is made round in a
turning-lathe. And the κύλικες, both at Argos and at Athens, were in
great repute; and Pindar mentions the Attic κύλικες in the following
lines—
O Thrasybulus, now I send
This pair of pleasantly-meant odes
As an after-supper entertainment for you.
May it, I pray, be pleasing
To all the guests, and may it be a spur
To draw on cups of wine,
And richly-fill'd Athenian κύλικες.
61. But the Argive κύλικες appear to have been of a different shape
from the Athenian ones. At all events, they tapered towards a point at
the brims, as Simonides of Amorgos says—
But this is taper-brimm'd (φοξίχειλος),
that is to say, drawn up to a point towards the top; such as those
which are called ἄμβικες. For they use the word φοξὸς in this sense, as
Homer does when speaking of Thersites—
His head was sharp at top.
And the word is equivalent to φαοξὸς,—it being perceived to be sharp
(ὀξὺς) in the part where the eyes (τὰ φάη) are.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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