Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/256

 treatise on Alcæus, says that the word [Greek: latagê] is also a Sicilian noun. But [Greek: latagê] means the drops which are left in the bottom after the cup is drained, and which the players used to throw with inverted hand into the [Greek: kottabeion]. But Clitarchus, in his treatise on Words, says that the Thessalians and Rhodians both call the [Greek: kottabos] itself, or splash made by the cups, [Greek: latagê].

3. The prize also which was proposed for those who gained the victory in drinking was called [Greek: kottabos], as Euripides shows us in his Œneus, where he says—

And then with many a dart of Bacchus' juice, They struck the old man's head. And I was set To crown the victor with deserved reward, And give the cottabus to such.

The vessel, too, into which they threw the drops was also called [Greek: kottabos], as Cratinus shows in his Nemesis. But Plato the comic poet, in his Jupiter Ill-treated, makes out that the cottabus was a sort of drunken game, in which those who were defeated yielded up their tools to the victor. And these are his words—

A. I wish you all to play at cottabus While I am here preparing you your supper.

Bring, too, some balls to play with, quick,—some balls, And draw some water, and bring round some cups.

B. Now let us play for kisses. A. No; such games I never suffer I challenge you all to play the cottabus, And for the prizes, here are these new slippers Which she doth wear, and this your cotylus.

B. A mighty game! This is a greater contest Than e'en the Isthmian festival can furnish.

4. There was a kind of cottabus also which they used to call [Greek: kataktos], that is, when lamps are lifted up and then let down again. Eubulus, in his Bellerophon, says—

Who now will take hold of my leg below? For I am lifted up like a [Greek: kottabeion].

And Antiphanes, in his Birthday of Venus, says—

A. This now is what I mean; don't you perceive This lamp's the cottabus: attend awhile; The eggs, and sweetmeats, and confectionery Are the prize of victory. B. Sure you will play ) were the [Greek: krêpides] (boots) and [Greek: kotylos] (small cup) mentioned in the following iambics.]