Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/226

 And Dromo, in his Female Harp-player, says—

And then, as soon as we had breakfasted, One handmaid took away the empty tables, Another brought us water for our hands; We wash'd, and took our lily wreaths again, And crown'd our heads with garlands.

78. But they called the water in which they washed either their hands or their feet equally [Greek: aponiptron], Aristophanes says—

Like those who empty slops ([Greek: aponiptron]) at eventide.

And they used the word [Greek: lekanê], or basin, in the same way as they used [Greek: cheironiptron] (a wash-hand basin); but the word [Greek: aponimma] is used in a peculiar sense by the Attic writers only for the water used to do honour to the dead, and for purifying men who have incurred some religious pollution. As also Clidemus tells us, in his book entitled Exegeticus; for he, having mentioned the subject of Offerings to the Dead, writes as follows:—"Dig a trench to the west of the tomb. Then look along the side of the trench towards the west. Then pour down water, saying these words,—'I pour this as a purifying water for you to whom it is right to pour it, and who have a right to expect it.' Then after that pour perfume." And Dorotheus gives the same instructions; saying, that among the hereditary national customs of the people of Thyatira, these things are written concerning the purification of suppliants,—"Then having washed your hands yourself, and when all the rest of those who have joined in disembowelling the victim have washed theirs, take water and purify yourselves, and wash off all the blood from him who is to be purified: and afterwards stir the purifactory water, and pour it into the same place."

79. But the cloth of unbleached linen with which they used to wipe their hands was called [Greek: cheiromaktron], which also, in some verses which have been already quoted, by Philoxenus of Cythera, was called [Greek: ektrimma]. Aristophanes, in his Cook's Frying, says—

Bring quickly, slave, some water for the hands ([Greek: kata cheiros]), And bring at the same time a towel ([Greek: cheiromaktron]) too.

(And we may remark here, that in this passage he uses the expression [Greek: kata cheiros] with reference to washing the hands after eating; not, as Aristophanes the grammarian says, that