DRINKING-CUPS. for many have written books about it. And drinking-cups were favourites even among the Gods; at all events—
They pledged each other in their golden cups.[1]
But it is a mark of a gentleman to be moderate in his use of wine, not drinking too greedily, nor drinking large draughts without drawing one's breath, after the fashion of the Thracians; but to mingle conversation with his cups, as a sort of wholesome medicine.
17. And the ancients affixed a great value to such goblets as had any story engraved upon them; and in the art of engraving cups in this manner, a high reputation was enjoyed by Cimon and Athenocles. They used also drinking-cups inlaid with precious stones. And Menander, somewhere or other, speaks of drinking-cups turned by the turning-lathe, and chased; and Antiphanes says—
And others drain with eager lips the cup,
Full of the juice of ancient wine, o'ershadow'd
With sparkling foam,—the golden-wrought rich cup,
Which circled round they raised: one long, deep draught
They drain, and raise the bottom to the skies.
And Nicomachus says to some one—
O you, who . . . and vomit golden. . . .
And Philippides says—
Could you but see the well-prepared cups,
All made of gold, my Trophimus; by heaven,
They are magnificent! I stood amazed
When I beheld them first. Then there were also
Large silver cups, and jugs larger than I.
And Parmenio, in his letter to Alexander, summing up the spoils of the Persians, says, "The weight of goblets of gold is seventy-three Babylonian talents, and fifty-two minæ.[2] The weight of goblets inlaid with precious stones, is fifty-six Babylonian talents, and thirty-four minæ."
18. And the custom was, to put the water into the cup first, and the wine afterwards. Accordingly, Xenophanes says—
- ↑ Iliad, iv. 3.
- ↑ The Attic talent weighed within a fraction of fifty-seven pounds, and the Babylonian talent was to the Attic as seven to six; but Boeckh considers the Babylonian talent as equal to the Æginetan, which was about eighty-two pounds and a quarter. The Attic mina was not quite a pound; the Æginetan not quite one pound six ounces, being always one-sixtieth part of a talent.
