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
But come now, with your cothon in your hand,
Move o'er the benches of the speedy ship,
And lift the covers from the hollow casks,
And drain the rosy wine down to the dregs;
For while we're keeping such a guard as this,
We shan't be able to forego our wine;
as if the κύλιξ were here called κώθων. Aristophanes, in his Knights,
says—
They leapt into th' horse-transports gallantly,
Buying cothones; but some bought instead
Garlic and onions.
And Heniochus, in his Gorgons, says—
Let a man give me wine to drink at once,
Taking that capital servant of the throat,
The ample cothon,—fire-wrought, and round,
Broad-ear'd, wide-mouth'd.
And Theopompus, in his Female Soldiers, says—
Shall I, then, drink from out a wryneck'd cothon,
Breaking my own neck in the hard attempt?
And Alexis, in his Spinners, says—
And then he hurl'd a four-pint cothon at me,
An ancient piece of plate, an heirloom too.
And it is from this cup that they call those who drink a great deal
of unmixed wine (ὐκράτον) ἀκρτοκώθωνες, as Hyperides does in his
oration against Demosthenes. But Callixenus, in the fourth book of his
History of Alexandria, giving an account of the procession of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, and giving a catalogue of a number of drinking-cups, adds
these words: "And two cothons, each holding two measures of wine."
67. But with respect to drinking, (which from the name of this kind of
cup is sometimes called in the verb κωθωνίζομαι, and in the substantive
κωθωνισμὸς,) that occasional drinking is good for the health is stated
by Mnesitheus the Athenian physician, in his letter on the subject of
Drinking (κωθωνισμὸς), where he speaks as follows: "It happens that
those who drink a great quantity of unmixed wine at banquets often
receive great injury from so doing, both in their bodies and minds; but
still occasional hard drinking (κωθωνιζεσθαι) for some days appears to
me to produce a certain purging of the body and a certain relaxation
of the mind. For there are some little roughnesses on the surface,
arising from daily banquets; now for getting rid of these there is no
easier channel than the wine. But of all modes of purging, that which
is caused by hard drinking is the most advantageous; for then the body
is as it were washed out by the wine; for the wine is both liquid and
heating: but the wine which we secrete is harsh; accordingly, fullers
use it as a cleanser when they are cleaning garments. But when you are
drinking hard, you should guard against three things,—against drinking
bad wine, against drinking unmixed wine, and against eating sweetmeats
while you are drinking. And when you have had enough, then do not go
to sleep, until you have had a vomit, moderate or copious as the case
may be; and when you have vomited, then go to sleep after having taken
a slight bath. And if you are not able to empty yourself sufficiently,
then you must take a more copious bath, and lie down in the bath in
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