DRINKING-CUPS [Greek: kôthôn], which is a kind of drinking-cup most convenient when one is on an expedition, and the most easily carried in a knapsack. And the reason why it is so peculiarly well-suited to a soldier is, because a soldier often is forced to drink water which is not very clean; and, in the first place, this cup is not one in which it can be very easily seen what one is drinking; and, secondly, as its brim is rather curved inwards, it is likely to retain what is not quite clean in it." And Polemo, in his work addressed to Adæus and Antigonus, says that the Lacedæmonians used to use vessels made of earthenware; and proceeds to say further—"And this was a very common practice among the ancients, such as is now adopted in some of the Greek tribes. At Argos, for instance, in the public banquets, and in Lacedæmon, they drink out of cups made of earthenware at the festivals, and in the feasts in honour of victory, and at the marriage-feasts of their maidens. But at other banquets and at their Phiditia[1] they use small casks." And Archilochus also mentions the cothon as a kind of cup, in his Elegies, where he says—
But come now, with your cothon in your hand,
Move o'er the benches of the speedy ship,
And lift the covers from the hollow casks,
And drain the rosy wine down to the dregs;
For while we're keeping such a guard as this,
We shan't be able to forego our wine;
as if the [Greek: kylix] were here called [Greek: kôthôn]. Aristophanes, in his Knights, says—
They leapt into th' horse-transports gallantly,
Buying cothones; but some bought instead
Garlic and onions.
And Heniochus, in his Gorgons, says—
Let a man give me wine to drink at once,
Taking that capital servant of the throat,
The ample cothon,—fire-wrought, and round,
Broad-ear'd, wide-mouth'd.
And Theopompus, in his Female Soldiers, says—
Shall I, then, drink from out a wryneck'd cothon,
Breaking my own neck in the hard attempt?
: (to spare), but probably being rather a corruption of
[Greek: philitia] (love feasts), a term answering to the Cretan [Greek: hetaireia], from which they were said to be borrowed. Anciently they were called [Greek: andreia], as in Crete.—Vide Smith, Dict. Ant. v. Syssitia.]
- ↑ This was the name given to the Spartan syssitia; apparently derived from [Greek: pheidoma
