_B._ Just take the cup and show me how 'tis done. _A._ Now bend your fingers like a flute-player, Pour in a little wine, and not too much, Then throw it. _B._ How? _A._ Look here; throw it like this. _B._ O mighty Neptune, what a height he throws it! _A._ Now do the same. _B._ Not even with a sling Could I throw such a distance. _A._ Well, but learn. 5. For a man must curve his hand excessively before he can throw the cottabus elegantly, as Dicæarchus says; and Plato intimates as much in his Jupiter Ill-treated, where some one calls out to Hercules not to hold his hand too stiff, when he is going to play the cottabus. They also called the very act of throwing the cottabus ἀπ' ἀγκύλης, because they curved (ἀπαγκυλόω) the right hand in throwing it. Though some say that ἀγκύλη, in this phrase, means a kind of cup. And Bacchylides, in his Love Poems, says— And when she throws ἀπ' ἀγκύλης, Displaying to the youths her snow-white arm. And Æschylus, in his Bone Gatherers, speaks of ἀγκυλητοὶ κότταβοι, saying— Eurymachus, and no one else, did heap No slighter insults, undeserved, upon me: For my head always was his mark at which To throw his cottabus....[115] Now, that he who succeeded in throwing the cottabus properly received a prize, Antiphanes has shown us in a passage already quoted. And the prize consisted of eggs, sweetmeats, and confectionery. And Cephisodorus, in his Trophonius, and Callias or Diocles, in the Cyclopes, (whichever of the two is the author,) and Eupolis, and Hermippus, in his Iambics, prove the same thing. Now what is called the κατακτὸς cottabus was something of this kind. There is a high lamp, having on it what is called the Manes, on which the dish, when thrown down, ought to fall; and from thence it falls into the platter which lies below, and which is struck by the cottabus. And there was room for very great dexterity in throwing the cottabus. And Nicochares speaks of the Manes in his Lacedæmonians. 6. There is also another way of playing this game with a platter. This platter is filled with water, and in it there are floating some empty saucers, at which the players throw their drops out of their cups, and endeavour to sink them. And he who has succeeded in sinking the greatest number gains the victory. Ameipsias, in his play entitled The Men playing at the Cottabus or Mania, says— Bring here the cruets and the cups at once, The foot-pan, too, but first pour in some water. And Cratinus, in his Nemesis, says— Now in the cottabus I challenge you, (As is my country's mode,) to aim your blows At the empty cruets; and he who sinks the most Shall, in my judgment, bear the palm of victory. And Aristophanes, in his Feasters, says—