He fill'd one cup, of well-turn'd iv'ry made,
With dark ambrosial drops of foaming wine;
And twenty measures of the sober stream
He poured in, and with the blood of Bacchus
Mingled fresh tears, shed by the weeping nymphs.
14. And I know, my messmates, of some men who were proud, not so much of their wealth in money as of the possession of many cups of silver and gold; one of whom is Pytheas the Arcadian, of the town of Phigalea, who, even when dying, did not hesitate to enjoin his servants to inscribe the following verses on his tomb:—
This is the tomb of Pytheas, a man
Both wise and good, the fortunate possessor
Of a most countless number of fine cups,
Of silver made, and gold, and brilliant amber.
These were his treasures, and of them he had
A store, surpassing all who lived before him.
And Harmodius the Lepreatian mentions this fact in his treatise on the Laws and Customs subsisting in Phigalea. And Xenophon, in the eighth book of his Cyropædia, speaking of the Persians, writes as follows—"And also they pride themselves exceedingly on the possession of as many goblets as possible; and even if they have acquired them by notorious malpractices, they are not at all ashamed of so doing; for injustice and covetousness are carried on to a great degree among them." But Œdipus cursed his sons on account of some drinking-cups (as the author of the Cyclic poem called the Thebaïs says), because they set before him a goblet which he had forbidden; speaking as follows:—
DRINKING-CUPS.
But the divine, the golden-hair'd hero,
Great Polynices, set before his father first
A silver table, beautifully wrought,
Whilome the property of th' immortal Cadmus;
And then he fill'd a beauteous golden cup
Up to the brim with sweet and fragrant wine;
But Œdipus, when with angry eyes he saw
The ornaments belonging to his sire
Now set before him, felt a mighty rage,
Which glow'd within his breast, and straightway pour'd
The bitterest curses forth on both his sons,
(Nor were they by the Fury all unheard,)
Praying that they might never share in peace
The treasures of their father, but for ever
With one another strive in arms and war.
15. And Cæcilius the orator who came from Cale Acte, in his treatise on History, says that Agathocles the Great, when displaying his golden drinking-cups to his companions, said that he had got all these from the earthenware cups which he had previously made. And in Sophocles, in the Larissæans, Acrisius had a great many drinking-cups; where the tragedian speaks as follows:—
And he proclaims to strangers from all quarters
A mighty contest, promising among them
Goblets well wrought in brass, and beauteous vases
Inlaid with gold, and silver drinking-cups,
Full twice threescore in number, fair to see.
And Posidonius, in the twenty-sixth book of his Histories, says that Lysimachus the Babylonian, having invited Himerus to a banquet (who was tyrant not only over the people of Babylon, but also over the citizens of Seleucia), with three hundred of his companions, after the tables were removed, gave every one of the three hundred a silver cup, weighing four minæ; and when he had made a libation, he pledged them all at once, and gave them the cups to carry away with them. And Anticlides the Athenian, in the sixteenth book of his Returns, speaking of Gra, who, with other kings, first led a colony into the island of Lesbos, and saying that those colonists had received an answer from the oracle, bidding them, while sailing, throw a virgin into the sea, as an offering to Neptune, proceeds as follows:—"And some people, who treat of the history and affairs of Methymna, relate a fable about the virgin who was thrown into the sea; and say that one of the leaders was in love with her, whose name was Enalus, and that he dived down, wishing to save the damsel; and that then both of them, being hidden by the waves, disappeared. But that in the course of time, when Methymna had now become populous, Enalus appeared again, and related what had happened, and how it had happened: and said that the damsel was still abiding among the Nereids, and that he himself had become the superintendent of Neptune's horses; but that a great wave having been cast on the shore, he had swam with it, and so come to land: and he had in his hand a goblet made of gold, of such wondrous workmanship that the golden goblets which they had, when compared with his, looked no better than brass."
16. And in former times the possession of drinking-cups was reckoned a very honourable thing. Accordingly, Achilles had a very superb cup as a sort of heirloom:—