on which account some people wish to write the title of Sophocles's play in the neuter gender, σύνδειπνον. Some people also use the expression συναγώγιμα δεῖπνα, picnic feasts; as Alexis does, in his Man fond of Beauty, or the Nymphs, where he says—
Come, sit you down, and call those damsels in;
We've got a picnic here, but well I know
That your's is but a skin-flint disposition.
And Ephippus says, in his Geryones,—
They also celebrate a picnic feast.
They also use the verb συνάγω for to drink with on another, and the noun συναγώγιον for a drinking party. Menander, in his Angry Woman, says—
And for this reason now they drink (συνάγουσι) alone:
and presently afterwards he says—
And so they ended the entertainment (συναγώγιον).
And probably the συναγώγιον is the same as that which was also called τὸ ἀπὸ συμβολων δεῖπνον. But what the συμβολαὶ, or contributions, are, we learn from Alexis, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, where he says—
A. I'll come and bring my contributions now.
B. How, contributions?
A. The Chalcidians
Call fringes, alabaster, scent boxes,
And other things of that kind, contributions.