THE PROPORTIONS OF MIXED WINE.
But I (it is Bacchus who is represented as speaking) am five and two to all of you.
And Eupolis says, in his Goats,—
Hail, my friend Bacchus, are you two to five?
And Hermippus says, in his Gods,—
A. Then, when we drink, or when we thirsty are,
We pray our wine may be in due proportion.
B. I do not bring it from a roguish wine-vault,
Meaning to mock you: this which I do bring
Is, as before, the proper two and five.
29. But in Anacreon we find one measure of wine to two of water spoken of—
Come, my boy, and bring to me
Such a cup as I may drink
At one easy draught: pour in
Ten cyathi of water pure,
And five of richest Chian wine;
That I may drink, from fear removed,
And free from drunken insolence.
And going on presently, he calls the drinking of unmixed wine, a Scythian draught—
Come hither, now, and let us not
Give way to vulgar shouts and noise,
Indulging in the Scythian draughts
While o'er our wine; but let us drink,
Singing well-omen'd, pious hymns.
And the Lacedæmonians, according to the statement of Herodotus, in his sixth book, say that Cleomenes the king, having lived among the Scythians, and got the habit of drinking unmixed wine, became perfectly mad from his habit of drunkenness. And the Lacedæmonians themselves, when they take it into their heads to drink hard, say that they are Episcythising. Accordingly, Chamæleon of Heraclea, in his book on Drunkenness, writes thus concerning them:—"Since the Lacedæmonians say also, that Cleomenes the Spartan became mad from having lived among the Scythians, and there learnt to drink unmixed wine; on which account, when they take a fancy to drink unmixed wine they desire their slaves to pour out in the Scythian fashion." And Achæus, in his Æthon, a satyric drama, represents the Satyrs as indignant at being compelled to drink their wine watered, and as saying—
Was the whole Achelous in this wine?
But even then this race would not cease drinking,
For this is all a Scythian's happiness.
