Alcetas the Macedonian also used to drink a great deal, as Aristos the Salaminian relates; and so did Diotimus the Athenian: and he was the man who was surnamed the Funnel. For he put a funnel into his mouth, and would then drink without ceasing while the wine was being poured into it, according to the account of Polemo. And it has been already mentioned that Cleomenes the Lacedæmonian was a great drinker of unmixed wine; and that in consequence of his drunkenness he cut himself to pieces with a sword, is related by Herodotus. And Alcæus the poet also was very fond of drinking, as I have already mentioned. And Baton of Sinope, in his essay on Ion the poet, says that Ion was a man fond of drinking and amorous to excess; and he himself, too, in his Elegies, confesses that he loved Chrysilla the Corinthian, the daughter of Teleas, with whom Teleclides, in his Hesiods, says that the Olympian[47] Pericles also was in love. And Xenarchus the Rhodian, on account of the excessive way in which he used to drink, was surnamed "The Nine-gallon Cask;" and Euphorion the Epic poet mentions him in his Chiliades.
49. And Chares the Mitylenæan, in his History of Alexander, speaking of Calanus the Indian philosopher, and saying that he threw himself on a funeral pile that had been raised, and so died, says also that Alexander instituted some gymnastic games at his tomb, and also a musical contest of panegyrics on him.—"And he instituted," says Chares, "because of the great fondness of the Indians for wine, a contest as to who should drink the greatest quantity of unmixed wine; and the prize was a talent for the first, and thirty minæ for the second, and ten minæ for the third. And of those who entered for the prize and drank the wine, thirty-five died at once by reason of the cold; and a little afterwards six more died in their tents. And he who drank the greatest quantity and won the prize, drank four choes of unmixed wine, and received the talent; and he lived four days after it; and he was called the Champion." And Timæus says that "Dionysius the tyrant gave, at the festival of the Choes, to the first man who should drink a choeus, a golden crown as a prize:" and he says also that "Xenocrates the philosopher was the first person who drank it; and that he, taking the golden crown, and departing, offered it up to the Mercury who was placed in his vestibule, on which statue he was always accustomed on every occasion to offer up the garlands of flowers which he had, every evening as he returned home; and he was much admired for this conduct." And Phanodemus says, that the festival of the Choes was established at Athens by Demophoon the king, when he was desirous to receive Orestes in hospitality on his arrival at Athens. And that, as he did not like him to come to the temples, or to share in the libations offered to the gods, before his trial was decided, he ordered all the temples to be shut, and a choeus of wine to be set before everybody, saying that a cheesecake should be given as a prize to the first person who drank it up. And he bade them, when they had finished drinking, not to offer up the garlands, with which they had been crowned, in the temples, because they had been under the same roof with Orestes; but he desired each man to place his garland round his own cup, and so to bring them to the priestess at the temple which is in the Marshes, and after that to perform the rest of the sacred ceremonies in the temple. And from thence it was that this festival got the name of the Choes. But on the day of the festival of the Choes, it is customary for the Athenians to send presents and pay to the sophists, who also themselves invite their acquaintances to a banquet, as Eubulides the dialectician shows us in his drama entitled the Revellers, where he says—
DIONYSIUS.
You're acting like a sophist now, you wretch,
And long for the pay-giving feast of Choes.
* * * *
50. But Antigonus the Carystian, in his essay on the Life of Dionysius of Heraclea, who was called the Turncoat, says that Dionysius, when he was feasting with his slaves at the festival of the Choes, and was not able, by reason of his old age, to avail himself of the courtesan whom they brought him, turned round and said to those who were feasting with him—
I cannot now, so let another take her.
But Dionysius, as Nicias of Nicæa tells us in his Successions, had been from the time he was a boy very furious in the indulgence of his amorous propensities; and he used to go to all the common women promiscuously. And once, when walking with some of his acquaintances, when he came near the house where the girls are kept, and where, having been there the day before, he had left some money owing, as he happened to have some with him then, he put out his hand and paid it in the presence of all of them. And Anacharsis the Scythian, when a prize for drinking was proposed at the table of Periander, demanded the prize, because he was the first man to be drunk of all the guests who were present; as if to get to the end were the goal to be aimed at, and the victory to be achieved in drinking as in running a race. But Lacydes and Timon the philosophers, being invited to an entertainment which was to last two days, by one of their friends, and wishing to adapt themselves to the rest of the guests, drank with great eagerness. And accordingly, in the first day, Lacydes went away first, as soon as he was quite satiated with drink. And Timon, seeing him as he was departing, said—
Now have we gain'd immortal praise and fame,
Since we have slain great Hector. . . .
But on the next day Timon went away first because he could not drink up the goblet in which he had been pledged, and Lacydes seeing him departing, said—
Wretched are they who dare encounter me.