Pour out ten cups of the purple wine, To crown Lycidicè’s charms divine; One for Euphrantè, young and fair, With the sparkling eye and the raven hair. Then I love Lycidicè more, you say? By this foaming goblet I say ye nay. More valued than ten is Euphrantè to me, For, as when the heavens unclouded be, And the stars are crowding far and nigh On the deep deep blue of the midnight sky, The moon is still brighter and lovelier far Than the loveliest planet or brightest star; So, ’mid the stars of this earthly sphere, None are so lovely or half so dear As to me is Euphrantè young and fair, With the sparkling eye and the raven hair.[796] ----- Footnote 795: Antiq. ii. 394, seq. Footnote 796: Marc. Argent. ap. Anthol. Græc. v. 110. ----- But the Macedonians entertained no respect for poetical goblets: they loved to scent their moustachios with the aroma of the real rosy wine when it sparkled in the cup,—when it moved itself aright, as the wise king of Judah expresses it. Plutarch describes briefly one of their drinking-bouts which took place on the evening of the day wherein old Kalanos, the Hindù Yoghi, burnt himself alive to escape the colic. Alexander, on returning from the funeral pile, invited a number of his friends and generals to sup with him, and, proposing a drinking contest, appointed a crown for the victor. Prodigious efforts were made by all present to achieve so enviable a triumph; but the man who proved himself to possess the most capacious interior was Promachos, who is said to have swallowed upwards of two gallons. He obtained the prize, which was a golden crown, valued at a talent, but died within three days.[797] Chares, the Mitylenian, relates the matter somewhat differently. According to him, Alexander celebrated funeral games in honour of Kalanos, at his barrow, where horseraces and gymnastic contests took place,[798] and a poetical encomium was pronounced upon the Yoghi, who, like the rest of his countrymen, was, doubtless, a great toper, and thence the drinking-match instituted in the evening. Chares says there were three prizes; the first, in value, a talent; the second, thirty minæ, or about a hundred and twenty pounds sterling; the third, three minæ. The number of aspirants is not stated, but thirty-five (Plutarch says forty-one) perished in cold shiverings on the spot, and six more died shortly after in the tents.[799] ----- Footnote 797: Plut. Alexand. Magn. §§ 69, 70. Footnote 798: Ælian. Var. Hist. ii. 41. Periz. Footnote 799: Athen. x. 49. -----