Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/352

 And Alexis, in his Spinners, says—

And then he hurl'd a four-pint cothon at me, An ancient piece of plate, an heirloom too.

And it is from this cup that they call those who drink a great deal of unmixed wine ([Greek: akraton]) [Greek: akratokôthônes], as Hyperides does in his oration against Demosthenes. But Callixenus, in the fourth book of his History of Alexandria, giving an account of the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and giving a catalogue of a number of drinking-cups, adds these words: "And two cothons, each holding two measures of wine."

67. But with respect to drinking, (which from the name of this kind of cup is sometimes called in the verb [Greek: kôthônizomai], and in the substantive [Greek: kôthônismos],) that occasional drinking is good for the health is stated by Mnesitheus the Athenian physician, in his letter on the subject of Drinking ([Greek: kôthônismos]), where he speaks as follows: "It happens that those who drink a great quantity of unmixed wine at banquets often receive great injury from so doing, both in their bodies and minds; but still occasional hard drinking ([Greek: kôthônizesthai]) for some days appears to me to produce a certain purging of the body and a certain relaxation of the mind. For there are some little roughnesses on the surface, arising from daily banquets; now for getting rid of these there is no easier channel than the wine. But of all modes of purging, that which is caused by hard drinking is the most advantageous; for then the body is as it were washed out by the wine; for the wine is both liquid and heating: but the wine which we secrete is harsh; accordingly, fullers use it as a cleanser when they are cleaning garments. But when you are drinking hard, you should guard against three things,—against drinking bad wine, against drinking unmixed wine, and against eating sweetmeats while you are drinking. And when you have had enough, then do not go to sleep, until you have had a vomit, moderate or copious as the case may be; and when you have vomited, then go to sleep after having taken a slight bath. And if you are not able to empty yourself sufficiently, then you must take a more copious bath, and lie down in the bath in exceedingly warm water." But Polemo, in the fifth book of his treatise addressed to Antigonus and Adæus, says—"Bacchus being full grown, sitting