THE DOLE-BASKET.
68. And the ancients call some feasts [Greek: epidosima], that is to
say, given into the bargain,—the same which the Alexandrians
call [Greek: ex epidomatôn]. Alexis, at all events, in his Woman
at the Well, says—
A. And now the master here has sent a slave
To bring to me a jar of his own wine.
B. I understand; this is [Greek: epidosimos],
A gift into the bargain, as a makeweight;
I praise the wise old woman.
And Crobylus, in his Supposititious Son, says—
A. Laches, I come to you; proceed.
B. Which way?
A. How can you ask? Why, to my mistress, who
Has a feast [Greek: epidosimos] prepared;
And in her honour only yesterday
You made the guests drink down twelve glasses each.
The ancients, also, were acquainted with the banquets which are now called dole-basket banquets; and Pherecrates mentions them in his Forgetful Man, or the Sea, saying—
Having prepared a small dole-basket supper
He went away to Ophela.
And this clearly points to the dole-basket supper, when a man prepares a supper for himself, and then puts it in a basket, and goes off to sup with some one. And Lysias has used the word [Greek: syndeipnon] for a banquet, in his speech against Micinus, on his trial for murder; for he says that he had been invited to a [Greek: syndeipnon]: and Plato says—"Those who had made a [Greek: syndeipnon]:" and Aristophanes, in his Gerytades, says—
Praising great Æschylus in his [Greek: syndeipna],
on which account some people wish to write the title of Sophocles's play in the neuter gender, [Greek: Syndeipnon]. Some people also use the expression [Greek: synagôgima deipna], picnic feasts; as Alexis does, in his Man fond of Beauty, or the Nymphs, where he says—
Come, sit you down, and call those damsels in;
We've got a picnic here, but well I know
That your's is but a skin-flint disposition.
And Ephippus says, in his Geryones,—
They also celebrate a picnic feast.
They also use the verb [Greek: synagô] for to drink with one another, and the noun [Greek: synagôgion] for a drinking party. Menander, in his Angry Woman, says—
And for this reason now they drink ([Greek: synagousi]) alone:
