And you shall have a gift worth running for,
A finger-handled cup, not touch'd by fire,
The mighty prize once given by Pelias,
And by swift Castor won.
But by this expression Epigenes understands merely having two ears, into which a person could put his fingers on each side. Others, again, explain it as meaning, having figures like fingers engraved all round it; or having small projections like the Sidonian cups;—or, again, some interpret the word as meaning merely smooth. But when he says, untouched by fire, that has the same meaning as Homer's phrase—
ἄπυρον κατέθηκε λέβητα,
meaning a caldron fit for the reception of cold water, or suitable for drinking cold drinks out of. But by this expression some understand a horn; and about the Molossian district the oxen are said to have enormous horns; and the way in which they are made into cups is explained by Theopompus: and it is very likely that Pelias may have had cups made of these horns; and Iolcos is near the Molossian district, and it was at Iolcos that these contests spoken of were exhibited by Pelias.—"But," says Didymus, in his Explanation of the play here spoken of, "it is better to say that Ion misunderstood Homer's words, where he says—
And for the fifth he gave a double bowl,
Which fire had never touch'd;
for he fancied that this meant a drinking-cup, while it was in reality a large flat vessel made of brass in the form of a caldron, suitable to receive cold water. And he has spoken of the dactylotus cup, as if it were a goblet that had a hollow place all round the inside of it, so as to be taken hold of inside by the fingers of the drinkers. And some say that the cup which has never been touched by fire means a cup of horn; for that that is not worked by the agency of fire. And perhaps a man might call a φιάλη a drinking-cup by a metaphorical use of the word." But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Nouns and Attic Dialects, under the word καλπὶς says, "The dactylotus cup is the same as the two-headed cup into which a person can insert his fingers on both sides. But some say that it is one which has figures in the shape of fingers carved all round it."
DRINKING-CUPS.
35. There is also the elephant; and this was the name of a kind of cup, as we are told by Damoxenus, in the Man who laments himself—
A. If that is not enough, here is the boy
Bringing the elephant.
B. In God's name tell me,
What beast is that?
A. 'Tis a mighty cup,
Pregnant with double springs of rosy wine,
And able to contain three ample measures:
The work of Alcon. When I was at Cypseli,
Adæus pledged me in this self-same cup.
And Epinicus also mentions this cup, in his Supposititious Damsels; and I will quote his testimony when I come to speak of the rhytum.