Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/376

 nominative case in both the masculine and neuter genders. And Hesiod, in the second book of his Melampodia, writes the word with a [Greek: p], [Greek: skypphos]—

To him came Mares, a swift messenger, Straight from his house; he fill'd a silver cup ([Greek: skypphos]), And brought it in his hand, and gave it to the king.

And in another place he says—

And then the prophet in his right hand took The chain that held the bull; and on his back Iphiclus laid his hand: and following then, Holding a cup ([Greek: skypphos]) in one hand, in the other Raising a staff, brave Phylacus advanced, And, standing amid the servants, thus he spoke.

And in the same manner Anaximander in his Heroology speaks, where he says, "But Amphitryon, when he had divided the booty among his allies, and having the cup ([Greek: skypphos]) which he had selected for himself," And in another place he says—"But Neptune gives his [Greek: skypphos] to Teleboas his own son, and Teleboas to Pteselaus; and he when he received it sailed away." And in the same manner Anacreon has said—

But I, in my right hand holding A [Greek: skypphos] full of wine, Drank to the health of the white-crested Erxion.

(And in this last line he uses the verb [Greek: exepinon] instead of [Greek: proepinon]. For properly speaking [Greek: propinô] means to give to some one else to drink before yourself. And so Ulysses, in Homer,—

Gave to Arete first the well-fill'd cup.

And in the Iliad he says—

And first he fill'd a mighty cup of wine, Then pledg'd the hero, Peleus' son divine;

for they used, when they had filled their cups, to pledge one another with a friendly address.) Panyasis, in the third book of his Heraclea, says—

This wine he pour'd into an ample bowl, Radiant with gold, and then with frequent draughts He drain'd the flowing cup.

Euripides, in his Eurystheus, uses the word in the masculine gender—

And a long cup ([Greek: skyphos te makros]).

And so does Achæus, in his Omphale—

The goblet of the god invites me ([Greek: ho de skyphos me tou theou kalei]).