Here in my hands I hold a wretched piece
Of earthen goblet, broken all around,
Sad relic of a band of merry feasters;
And often the fierce gale of wanton Bacchus
Dashes such wrecks with insult on the shore.
But I am well aware that earthenware cups are often very pleasant, as those which are imported among us from Coptus; for they are made of earth which is mixed up with spices. And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says—"The cups which are called Rhodiacan are brought into drinking-parties, because of the pleasure which they afford, and also because, when they are warmed, they deprive the wine of some of its intoxicating properties; for they are filled with myrrh and rushes, and other things of the same sort, put into water and then boiled; and when this mixture is put into the wine, the drinkers are less apt to become intoxicated." And in another place he says—"The Rhodiacan cups consist of myrrh, flowery rushes, saffron, balsam, spikenard, and cinnamon, all boiled together; and when some of this compound is added to the wine, it has such effect in preventing intoxication, that it even diminishes the amorous propensities, checking the breath in some degree."
ATHENIAN BANQUETS.
12. We ought not, then, to drink madly, looking at the multitude of these beautiful cups, made as they are with every sort of various art, in various countries. "But the common people," says Chrysippus, in the introduction to his treatise on what is Good and Evil, "apply the term madly to a great number of things; and so they call a desire for women γυναικομανία, a fondness for quails ὀρτυγομανία; and some also call those who are very anxious for fame δοξομανεῖς; just as they call those who are fond of women γυναικομανεῖς, and those who are fond of birds ὀρνιθομανεῖς: all these nouns having the same notion of a propensity to the degree of madness. So that there is nothing inconsistent in other feelings and circumstances having this name applied to them; as a person who is very fond of delicacies, and who is properly called φίλοψος and ὀψοφάγος, may be called ὀψομανής; and a man very fond of wine maybe called οἰνομανής; and so in similar instances. And there is nothing unreasonable in attributing madness to such people, since they carry their errors to a very mad pitch, and wander a great distance from the real truth.
13. Let us, then, as was the custom among the Athenians, drink our wine while listening to these jesters and buffoons, and to other artists of the same kind. And Philochorus speaks of this kind of people in these terms—"The Athenians, in the festivals of Bacchus, originally used to go to the spectacle after they had dined and drunk their wine; and they used to witness the games with garlands on their heads. But during the whole time that the games were going on, wine was continually being offered to them, and sweetmeats were constantly being brought round; and when the choruses entered, they were offered wine; and also when the exhibition was over, and they were departing, wine was offered to them again. And Pherecrates the comic poet bears witness to all these things, and to the fact that down to his own time the spectators were never left without refreshment." And Phanodemus says—"At the temple of Bacchus, which is in the Marshes (ἐν Λίμναις), the Athenians bring wine, and mix it out of the cask for the god, and then drink of it themselves; on which account Bacchus is also called Λιμναῖος,because the wine was first drunk at that festival mixed with water. On which account the fountains were called Nymphs and the Nurses of Bacchus, because the water being mingled with the wine increases the quantity of the wine.
Accordingly, men being delighted with this mixture, celebrated Bacchus in their songs, dancing and invoking him under the names of Euanthes, and Dithyrambus, and Baccheutes, and Bromius." And Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says—"The nymphs are really the nurses of Bacchus; for the vines, when cut, pour forth a great deal of moisture, and after their own nature weep." On which account Euripides says that one of the Horses of the Sun is
Æthops, who with his fervent heat doth ripen
Th' autumnal vines of sweetly flow'ring Bacchus,
From which men also call wine Æthops (αἴθοπα οἶνον).
And Ulysses gave
Twelve large vessels of unmix'd red wine,
Mellifluous, undecaying, and divine,
Which now (some ages from his race conceal'd)
The hoary sire in gratitude reveal'd.
Such was the wine, to quench whose fervent steam
Scarce twenty measures from the living stream
To cool one cup sufficed; the goblet crown'd,
Breathed aromatic fragrancies around.[55]
And Timotheus, in his Cyclops, says—