*
CUPBEARERS.
And no one gave me even one [Greek: arystêr]
Of the mere dregs and lees.
And Aristophanes, in his Wasps, says—
For I had these [Greek: arystichoi] near me.
And Phrynichus, in his Weeding Women, says—
(A cup) [Greek: kylik' arystichon;]
and from this comes the word [Greek: arytaina]. They also called this vessel [Greek: ephêbos], as Xenophanes did in his Relationship; and Polybius, in the ninth book of his Histories, says that there is a certain river called the Cyathus, near Arsinoe, a city in Ætolia.
24. But the word [Greek: akratesteron], meaning the same as [Greek: zôroteron], is used by Hyperides in his oration against Demosthenes; where he writes thus—"If any one drank any wine of much strength ([Greek: akratesteron]), it grieved you." And a similar form is [Greek: aniaresteron], and also the expression in the Heliades of Æschylus—
[Greek: aphthonesteron liba].
And Epicharmus, in his Pyrrha, has the word [Greek: euônesteron] (cheaper); and Hyperides, in his Oration against Demades, has used the expression—
[Greek: rhadiesteran tên polin].
And as for the word [Greek: kerannyô] (to mix), that is used by Plato in his Philebus—"Let us, O Protarchus, pray to the gods, and mingle cups ([Greek: kerannyômen]) to pour libations to them." And Alcæus, in his Sacred Marriage, says—
They mix the cups ([Greek: kerannyousin]) and drink them.
And Hyperides, in his Delian Oration, says—"And the Greeks mix ([Greek: kerannyousi]) the Panionian goblet all together."
And among the ancients they were the most nobly born youths who acted as cupbearers; as, for instance, the son of Menelaus:—
And the king's noble son pour'd out the wine.
And Euripides the poet, when he was a boy, acted as cupbearer. Accordingly, Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drinking, says—"But I hear that Euripides the poet also acted as a cupbearer at Athens, among those who are called the dancers: and these men were they who used to dance around the temple of the Delian Apollo, being some of the noblest of the Athenians, and they were clothed in garments