There is another kind also, called the [Greek: akatos], or boat, being
shaped like a boat. Epicrates says—
Throw down th' acatia,
(using here the diminutive form,)
and take instead
The larger goblets; and the old woman lead
Straight to the cup; . . . the younger maiden . . .
. . . fill it; have your oar
All ready, loose the cables, bend the sails.
Among the Cyprians there is also a kind of cup called the aotus, as Pamphilus tells us: and Philetas says, this is a cup which has no ears ([Greek: ôtous]).
There is also a kind of cup called aroclum, which is mentioned by Nicander the Colophonian.
24. The cup called [Greek: aleison], is the same as that called [Greek: depas]. Homer, in his Odyssey, speaking of Pisistratus, says—
In a rich golden cup he pour'd the wine;[1]
and proceeding, he says, in the same manner—
To each a portion of the feast he bore,
And held the golden goblet ([Greek: aleison]) foaming o'er;
and presently afterwards he says—
And gave the goblet ([Greek: depas]) to Ulysses' son.
And, accordingly, Asclepiades the Myrlean says—"The [Greek: depas] appears to me to have been much of the same shape as the [Greek: phialê]. For men make libations with it. Accordingly, Homer says, [Greek: depas]—
The cup which Peleus' son
Had raised in offerings to Jove alone.
And it is called [Greek: depas], either because it is given to all ([Greek: didotai pasi]) who wish to make libations, or who wish to drink; or because it has two ears ([Greek: dyo ôpas]), for [Greek: ôpes] must be the same as [Greek: ôta]. And it has the name of [Greek: aleison], either from being very smooth ([Greek: agan leion]), or because the liquor is collected ([Greek: halizetai]) in it. And that it had two ears is plain—
High in his hands he rear'd the golden bowl
By both its ears.
But when he applies the word [Greek: amphikypellon] to it, he means nothing more than [Greek: amphikyrton], curved on both sides." But Silenus interprets the word [Greek: amphikypellon] to mean devoid of ears, while others say that [Greek: amphi] here is equivalent to [Greek: peri], and that it means a cup which you may put to your mouth all round, at any part of it. But Parthenius says that it
- ↑ Odyss. iii. 40.