Or was their form different also? For this kind has not the character of the amphicupellum, as the depas and aleison have, but is only of a curved form. For the κύπελλον is so called from its curved shape, as also is the ἀμφικύπελλον. Or is it so called as being in shape like a milk-pail (πέλλα), only contracted a little, so as to have an additional curve? And the word ἀμφικύπελλα is equivalent to ἀμφίκυρτα, being so called from its handles, because they are of a curved shape. For the poet calls this cup— Golden, two-handled. But Antimachus, in the fifth book of his Thebais, says— And heralds, going round among the chiefs, Gave each a golden cup (κύπελλον) with labour wrought. And Silenus says, the κύπελλα are a kind of cup resembling the σκύφα, as Nicander the Colophonian says— The swineherd gave a goblet (κύπελλον) full to each. And Eumolpus says that it is a kind of cup, so called from its being of a curved shape (κυφόν). But Simaristus says that this is a name given by the Cyprians to a cup with two handles, and by the Cretans to a kind of cup with two handles, and to another with four. And Philetas says that the Syracusans give the name of κύπελλον to the fragments of barley-cakes and loaves which are left on the tables. There is also the κύμβη. Philemon, in his Attic Dialect, calls it "a species of κύλιξ." And Apollodorus, in his treatise on Etymologies, says, that the Paphians call a drinking-cup κύμβα. [Sidenote: DRINKING-CUPS] 66. Then there is the κωθων, which is mentioned by Xenophon, in the first book of his Cyropædia. But Critias, in his Constitution of the Lacedæmonians, writes as follows—"And other small things besides which belong to human life; such as the Lacedæmonian shoes, which are the best, and the Lacedæmonian garments, which are the most pleasant to wear, and the most useful. There is also the Lacedæmonian κωθων,which is a kind of drinking-cup most convenient when one is on an expedition, and the most easily carried in a knapsack. And the reason why it is so peculiarly well-suited to a soldier is, because a soldier often is forced to drink water which is not very clean; and, in the first place, this cup is not one in which it can be very easily seen what one is drinking; and, secondly, as its brim is rather curved inwards, it is likely to retain what is not quite clean in it." And Polemo, in his work addressed to Adæus and Antigonus, says that the Lacedæmonians used to use vessels made of earthenware; and proceeds to say further—"And this was a very common practice among the ancients, such as is now adopted in some of the Greek tribes. At Argos, for instance, in the public banquets, and in Lacedæmon, they drink out of cups made of earthenware at the festivals, and in the feasts in honour of victory, and at the marriage-feasts of their maidens. But at other banquets and at their Phiditia[66] they use small casks." And Archilochus also mentions the cothon as a kind of cup, in his Elegies, where he says—