DRINKING-CUPS.
- hibited for this amusement, that men even introduced into
entertainments contests, which were called cottabian games; and then cups of the form which appeared to be most suitable for such an exercise were made, called cottabides. And besides all this, rooms were built of a round figure, in order that all, the cottabus being placed in the middle, might contest the victory, all being at an equal distance, and in similar situations. For they vied with one another, not only in throwing their liquor at the mark, but also in doing everything with elegance; for a man was bound to lean on his left elbow, and, making a circuit with his right hand, to throw his drops ([Greek: tên lataga]) over gently—for that was the name which they gave to the liquor which fell from the cup: so that some prided themselves more on playing elegantly at the cottabus than others did on their skill with the javelin."
59. There is also the cratanium. But perhaps this is the same cup, under an ancient name, as that which is now called the craneum: accordingly, Polemo (or whoever it is who wrote the treatise on the Manners and Customs of the Greeks), speaking of the temple of the Metapontines which is at Olympia, writes as follows:—"The temple of the Metapontines, in which there are a hundred and thirty-two silver phialæ, and two silver wine-jars, and a silver apothystanium, and three gilt phialæ. The temple of the Byzantians, in which there is a figure of Triton, made of cypress-wood, holding a silver cratanium, a silver siren, two silver carchesia, a silver culix, a golden wine-jar, and two horns. But in the old temple of Juno, there are thirty silver phialæ, two silver cratania, a silver dish, a golden apothystanium, a golden crater (the offering of the Cyrenæans), and a silver batiacium."
There is also the crounea. Epigenes, in his Monument, says—
A. Crateres, cadi, holcia, crounea,
B. Are these crounea?
A. Yes, indeed these are.
There is the cyathis also. This is a vessel with a great resemblance to the cotyla. Sophron, in his play entitled the Buffoon, represents the women who profess to exhibit the goddess as present, as saying—
Three sovereign antidotes for poison
Are buried in a single cyathis.
