DRINKING-CUPS. For amusing oneself with wine exalts, and cherishes, and elevates the mind, since it inflames and arouses the soul, and fills it with lofty thoughts, as Pindar says—
When the sad, laborious cares
Flee from the weary hearts of men,
And in the wide, expansive ocean
Of golden wealth we all set sail,
Floating towards the treacherous shore.
E'en he who is poor, is rich when he
Has fill'd his soul with rosy wine;
And he who's rich. . . .
And then he goes on—
becomes elated
Beneath the glad dominion of the vine.
22. There is a kind of drinking-cup also called ancyla, or curved; a kind especially useful for the play of the cottabus. Cratinus says—
'Tis death to drink of wine when water's mix'd:
But she took equal shares, two choes full
Of unmix'd wine, in a large ancyla:
And calling on her dear Corinthian lover
By name, threw in his honour a cottabus.
And Bacchylides says—
When she does throw to the youths a cottabus
From her ancyla, stretching her white arm forth.
And it is with reference to this ancyla that we understand the expression of Æschylus—
The cottabus of th' ancyla ([Greek: ankylêtous kottabous]).
Spears are also called [Greek: ankylêta], or curved; and also [Greek: mesankyla], held by a string in the middle. There is also the expression [Greek: ap' ankylês], which means, from the right hand. And the cup is called [Greek: ankylê], from the fact that the right hand is curved, in throwing the cottabus from it. For it was a matter to which great attention was paid by the ancients—namely, that of throwing the cottabus dexterously and gracefully. And men in general prided themselves more on their dexterity in this than in throwing the javelin skilfully. And this got its name from the manner in which the hand was brandished in throwing the cottabus, when they threw it elegantly and dexterously into the cottabium. And they also built rooms especially designed for this sport.
23. In Timachides there is also a kind of drinking-cup mentioned, called the æacis.
