For she was always in the company
Of young men, who did nothing else but drink;
And with a lot of aged women too,
Who always do delight in good-sized cups.
And Theopompus says in his Pamphila—
A sponge, a dish, a feather; and, besides,
A stout lepaste, which, when full, they drain
To the Good Deity, raising loud his praises,
As chirps a grasshopper upon a tree.
And in his Mede he says—
Callimachus, 'tis stated, once did charm
The Grecian heroes by some promised gain,
When he was seeking for their aid and friendship.
The only thing he fail'd in was th' attempt
To gain the poor, thin-bodied Rhadamanthus
Lysander with a cothon, ere he gave him
A full lepaste.
But Amerias says that the ladle with which the wine is poured into the cups is called lepaste; but Aristophanes and Apollodorus say that it is a sort of cup of the class κύλιξ. Pherecrates, in his Crapatalli, says—
DRINKING-CUPS.
If there was one of the spectators thirsty,
He would a full lepaste seize, and drain
The whole contents.
But Nicander the Colophonian says that "the Dolopians give the name of λεπαστὴ to the κύλιξ; but Lycophron, in the ninth book of his treatise on Comedy, quoting this passage of Pherecrates, himself also asserts the lepaste to be kind of κύλιξ; but Moschus, in his Interpretation of Rhodiat Words, says that it is an earthenware vessel resembling those which are called ptomatides, but flatter and wider: but Artemidorus, the pupil of Aristophanes, says that it is some sort of drinking-cup. And Apollophanes, in his Cretans, says—
And the lepasta, fill'd with fragrant wine,
Shall fill me with delight the livelong day.