Book 11
48
And Sosicrates, in his Philadelphi, says— A gentle breeze mocking the curling waves, Sciron's fair daughter, gently on its course Brought with a noiseless foot the cantharus; here cantharus evidently means a boat. And Phrynichus, in his Revellers, says– And then Chærestratus, in his own abode, Working with modest zeal, did weep each day A hundred canthari well fill'd with wine. And Nicostratus, in his Calumniator, says— A. Is it a ship of twenty banks of oars, Or a swan, or a cantharus? For when I have learnt that, I then shall be prepared Myself t' encounter everything. B. It is A cycnocantharus, an animal Compounded carefully of each. And Menander, in his Captain of a Ship, says— A. Leaving the salt depths of the Aegean sea, Theophilus has come to us, O Strato. How seasonably now do I say your son Is in a prosperous and good condition, And so's that golden cantharus. B. What cantharus? A. Your vessel. And a few lines afterwards he says— B. You say my ship is safe? A. Indeed I do, That gallant ship which Callicles did build, And which the Thurian Euphranor steer'd. And Polemo, in his treatise on Painters, addressed to Antigonus, says—"At Athens, at the marriage of Pirithous, Hippeus made a wine jug and goblet of stone, inlaying its edges with gold. And he provided also couches of pinewood placed on the ground, adorned with coverlets of every sort, and for drinking cups there were canthari made of earthenware. And moreover, the lamp which was suspended from the roof, had a number of lights all kept distinct from one another. And that this kind of cup got its name originally from Cantharus a potter, who invented it, Philetærus tells us in his Achilles— Peleus—but PeleusThere is a pun here on the name, as if Peleus were derived from πηλὸς, clay. is a potter's name, The name of some dry withered lamp-maker, Known too as Cantharus, exceeding poor, Far other than a king, by Jove. And that cantharus is also the name of a piece of female ornament, we may gather from Antiphanes in his Bœotia.
