Throwing, and dropping, breaking, too, and naming (λέγοντες),
O Hercules, the well-thrown drop of wine!
And the poet uses λέγοντες here, because they used to utter the names of their sweethearts as they threw the cottabi on the saucers. On which account Sophocles, in his Inachus, called the drops which were thrown, sacred to Venus—
THE COTTABUS.
The golden-colour'd drop of Venus
Descends on all the houses.
And Euripides, in his Pleisthenes, says—
And the loud noise o' the frequent cottabus
Awakens melodies akin to Venus
In every house.