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
exceedingly warm water." But Polemo, in the fifth book of his treatise
addressed to Antigonus and Adæus, says—"Bacchus being full grown,
sitting on a rock, and on his left hand a satyr, bald, holding in his
right hand a cothon of striped colours, with one handle."
[Sidenote: DRINKING-CUPS]
68. There is also the labronia. This is a species of Persian
drinking-cup, so named from the eagerness (λαβρότης) with which people
drink: and its shape is wide, and its size large, and it has large
handles. Menander, in his Fisherman, says—
We are abundantly well off at this time
For golden cylinders; and all those robes
From Persia, all those quaintly carved works,
Are now within, and richly-chased goblets,
Figures and faces variously carved,
Tragelaphi and labronia.
And in his Philadelphi he says—
And now the drinking of healths began, and now
Labroniæ, inlaid with precious stones,
Were set upon the board; and slaves stood round
With Persian fly-flappers.
And Hipparchus, in his Thais, says—
But this labronius is an omen now.
O Hercules! it is a cup which weighs
Of standard gold more than two hundred pieces.
Just think, my friend, of this superb labronius.
And Diphilus, in his Pithraustes, giving a catalogue of other kinds of
cups, says—
_A._ The tragelaphus, and likewise the pristis,
The batiace, and labronius too.
_B._ These seem to me to be the names of slaves.
_A._ By no means; they are all the names of cups;
And this labronius is worth twenty pieces.
And Didymus says that it resembles the bombylium and the batiacium.
69. There is also the lacæna. And this is a kind of cup so called
either from the potter, as the Attic vessels usually are, or from the
form which is usual in that district, on the same principle as the
thericlean cups derive their name. Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis,
says—
He gladly shared the Sybaritic feasts,
And drank the Chian wine from out the cups
Called the lacænæ, with a cheerful look.
70. Then there is the lepaste. Some mark this word λεπαστη with an
acute accent on the last syllable, like καλή; but some mark the
penultima with an acute, as μεγάλη. And this kind of cup derived its
name from those who spend a great deal of money on their drinking and
intemperance, whom men call λάφυκται. Aristophanes, in his Peace, says—
What will you do, then, when you've drunk
One single lepaste full of new wine?
And it is from this word λεπαστὴ that the verb λάπτω comes, which
means to swallow all at once, having a meaning just opposite to the
bombylium; for the same author says, somewhere or other,—
You've drunk up all my blood, O king, my master!
which is as much as to say, you have utterly drained me. And in his
Gerytades he says—
But there was then a festival: a slave
Went round, and brought us all a lepaste,
And pour'd in wine dark as the deep-blue sea;
but the poet means here to indicate the depth of the cup. And
Antiphanes, in his Æsculapius, says—
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