Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/306

 people of Ithaca, and while he was sitting down, (for the men of that time ate their meals while sitting down,) the nurse took Ulysses, (as the poet says—

His course to Ithaca the hero sped When first the product of Laertes' bed Was new disclosed to birth; the banquet ends When Euryclea from the queen descends, And to his fond embrace the babe commends:)

and placed him on his knees, not near his knees. So let us not waste time now, but let us lie down, that Plutarch may lead the way in the lecture which he promised us on the subject of goblets, and that he may pledge us all in bumpers.

2. But I imagine that Simonides of Amorgus is the first poet who has spoken of drinking cups ([Greek: potêria]) by name in his iambics, thus—

The cups away did lead him from the table.

And the author of the poem called the Alcmæonis says—

He placed the corpses lowly on the shore On a broad couch of leaves; and by their side A dainty feast he spread, and brimming cups, And garlands on their noble temples wreathed.

And the word [Greek: potêrion] comes from [Greek: posis], drink, as the Attic word [Greek: ekpôma] also does; but they form the word with [Greek: ô], as they also say [Greek: hydropôteô], to drink water, and [Greek: oinopôteô], to drink wine. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—

A stupid serpent drinking deep of blood ([Greek: haimatopôtês]).

But he also says in the same play—

Much then did Bacis use the cup ([Greek: potêrion]).

And Pherecrates, in his Tyranny, says—

One is better than a thousand cups ([Greek: potêria]).

And Anacreon said—

I am become a wine-bibber ([Greek: oinopôtês]).

And the verb occurs also in the same poet, for he says [Greek: oinopôtazôn]. And Sappho, in her second Ode, says—

And many countless cups ([Greek: pôtêria]), O beauteous Iphis.

And Alcæus says—

And from the cups ([Greek: pôtêria])

And in Achaia Ceres is honoured under the title of [Greek: Dêmêtêr pôtêriophoros] in the territories of the Antheans, as Autocrates informs us in the second book of his History of Achaia.