about the virgin who was thrown into the sea; and say that one of the leaders was in love with her, whose name was Enalus, and that he dived down, wishing to save the damsel; and that then both of them, being hidden by the waves, disappeared. But that in the course of time, when Methymna had now become populous, Enalus appeared again, and related what had happened, and how it had happened: and said that the damsel was still abiding among the Nereids, and that he himself had become the superintendent of Neptune's horses; but that a great wave having been cast on the shore, he had swam with it, and so come to land: and he had in his hand a goblet made of gold, of such wondrous workmanship that the golden goblets which they had, when compared with his, looked no better than brass."
16. And in former times the possession of drinking-cups was reckoned a very honourable thing. Accordingly, Achilles had a very superb cup as a sort of heirloom:—
But, mindful of the gods, Achilles went
To the rich coffer in his shady tent,
(There lay the presents of the royal dame;)
From thence he took a bowl of antique frame,
Which never man had stain'd with ruddy wine,
Nor raised in offerings to the pow'rs divine,
But Peleus' son; and Peleus' son to none
Had raised in offerings but to Jove alone.[1]
And Priam, when offering ransom for his son, amid all his most beautiful treasures especially offers a very exquisitely wrought cup. And Jupiter himself, on the occasion of the birth of Hercules, thinks a drinking-cup a gift worthy to be given to Alcmena; which he, having likened himself to Amphitryon, presents to her:—
And she received the gift, and on the bowl
Admiring gazed with much delighted soul.
And Stesichorus says that the sun sails over the whole ocean in a bowl; in which also Hercules passed over the sea, on the occasion of his going to fetch the cows of Geryon. We are acquainted, too, with the cup of Bathycles the Arcadian, which Bathycles left behind him as a prize of wisdom to him who should be pronounced the best of those who were called the wise men.
And a great many people have handled the cup of Nestor;
- ↑ Iliad, xvi. 225, Pope's version.
