76. But Aristophanes the grammarian, in his Commentary on the Tablets of Callimachus, laughs at those who do not know the difference between the two expressions, κατὰ χειρὸς and ἀπονίψασθαι; for he says that among the ancients the way in which people washed their hands before breakfast and supper was called κατὰ χειρὸς, but what was done after those meals was called ἀπονίψασθαι. But the grammarian appears to have taken this observation from the Attic writers, since Homer says, somewhere or other—
Marshall'd in order due, to each a ewer
Presents, to bathe his hands (νίψασθαι), a radiant ewer;
Luxuriant then they feast.
And somewhere else he says—
The golden ewer a maid obsequious brings,
Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs,
With copious water the bright vase supplies,
A silver laver of capacious size;
They wash (ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔχευαν). The tables in fair order spread,
They heap the glittering canisters with bread.
And Sophron, in his Female Actresses, says—
O hard-work'd Cæcoa, give us water for our hands (κατὰ χειρὸς),
And then prepare the table for our food.
And among both the tragic and comic writers the word χερνίβα is read with an acute accent on the penultima. By Euripides, in his Hercules—
Which great Alcmena's son might in the basin (χερνίβα) dip.
And also by Eupolis, in his Goats—
Here make an end of your lustration (χερνίβα).