saying that the dragons came up to the table, and took up a position between the meats and the carchesia, or cups of wine. For it was the fashion among the ancients to place upon the table goblets containing mixed wine; as Homer also represents the tables in his time. And the carchesium was named so from having on it rough masses like millet (κεγχροειδὴς), and the α is by enallage instead of ε, καρχήσιον for κερχήσιον. On which account Homer calls those who are overcome by thirst καρχαλέους. And Charon of Lampsacus, in his Annals, says that among the Lacedæmonians there is still shown the very same cup which was given by Jupiter to Alcmena, when he took upon himself the likeness of Amphitryon.
There is another kind of cup called calpium, a sort of Erythræan goblet, as Pamphilus says; and I imagine it is the same as the one called scaphium.
50. There is another kind of cup called celebe. And this description of drinking-cup is mentioned by Anacreon, where he says—
Come, O boy, and bring me now
A celebe, that I may drink
A long deep draught, and draw no breath.
It will ten measures of water hold,
And five of mighty Chian wine.
But it is uncertain what description of cup it is, or whether every cup is not called celebe, because one pours libations into it (ἀπὸ τοῦ χέειν λοιβὴν),or from one's pouring libations (λείβειν). And the verb λείβω is applied habitually to every sort of liquid, from which also the word λέβης is derived. But Silenus and Clitarchus say that celebe is a name given to drinking-cups by the Æolians. But Pamphilus says that the celebe is the same cup which is also called thermopotis, a cup to drink warm water from. And Nicander the Colophonian, in his Dialects, says that the celebe is a vessel used by the shepherds in which they preserve honey. For Antimachus the Colophonian, in the fifth book of his Thebais, says—
He bade the heralds bear to them a bladder
Fill'd with dark wine, and the most choice of all,
The celebea in his house which lay,
Fill'd with pure honey.
And in a subsequent passage he says—
But taking up a mighty celebeum
In both his hands, well fill'd with richest honey,
Which in great store he had most excellent.
And again he says—
And golden cups of wine, and then besides,
A celebeum yet untouch'd by man,
Full of pure honey, his most choice of treasures.