Book 11
43
But Timæus, in the twenty-eighth book of his History, calls the cup thericlea, writing thus:—There was man of the name of Polyxenus who was appointed one of the ambassadors from Tauromenium, and he returned having received several other presents from Nicodemus, and also a cup of the kind called thericlea. And Adæus, in his treatise on Descriptions, considers that the thericleum and the car- chesium are the same. But that they are different is plainly shown by Callixenus, who, in his Account of Alexandria and its customs, says—And some people marched in the procession, bearing thericlea (and he uses the masculine form θηρικλείους), and others bearing carchesia. And what kind of cup the carchesium was, shall be explained in due time. There is also another kind called the thericlean bowl (θηρίκλειος κρατὴρ), which is mentioned by Alexis, in his Cycnus— And in the midst a thericlean bowl Resplendent stood; full of old clear white wine, And foaming to the brim. I took it empty, And wiped it round, and made it shine, and placed it Firm on its base, and crown'd it round with branches Of Bacchus' favourite ivy. Menander also has used the form θηρίκλειος as feminine, in his Fanatic Woman, when he says— And being moderately drunk, he took And drain'd the thericleum (τὴν θηρίκλειον). And in his Begging Priest he says— Drinking a thericleum of three pints. And Deoxippus, in his Miser, says— A. I want now the large thericlean cup (τῆς θηρικλείου τῆς μεγάλης). B. I know it well. A. Likewise the Rhodian cups; For when I've pour'd the liquor into them, I always seem to drink it with most pleasure. And Polemo, in the first book of his treatise on the Acropolis at Athens, has used the word in the neuter gender, saying— Neoptolemus offered up some golden thericlean cups (τὰ θηρίκλεια) wrought on foundations of wood.
