Book 11
99
There is also the scyphus. Now some people form the genitive of this word σκύθος with a ς invariably; but they are mistaken: for sometimes σκύθος is masculine, like λύχνος, and then we form its genitive case without ς but when σκύθος is neuter, then we must decline with the ς, σκύθος σκύθος, like τεῖχος τείχος.. But the Attic writers use the nominative case in both the masculine and neuter genders. And Hesiod, in the second book of his Melampodia, writes the word with a π, σκύπθοσ-— To him came Mares, a swift messenger, Straight from his house; he fill'd a silver cup ʽσ̔κύθοσ̓, And brought it in his hand, and gave it to the king. And in another place he says— And then the prophet in his right hand took The chain that held the bull; and on his back Iphiclus laid his hand: and following then, Holding a cup σκύπθος in one hand, in the other Raising a staff, brave Phylacus advanced, And, standing amid the servants, thus he spoke. And in the same manner Anaximander in his Heroology speaks, where he says, But Amphitryon, when he had divided the booty among his allies, and having the cup ʽσ̔κύπθοσ̓ which he had selected for himself, . . .And in another place he says—But Neptune gives his σκύπθος to Teleboas his own son, and Teleboas to Pteselaus; and he when he received it sailed away. And in the same manner Anacreon has said— But I, in my right hand holding A σκύπθος full of wine, Drank to the health of the white-crested Erxion. (And in this last line he uses the verb ἐξέπινον instead of προέεπινον For properly speaking προπίνω means to give to some one else to drink before yourself. And so Ulysses, in Homer,— Gave to Arete first the well-fill'd cup. And in the Iliad he says— And first he fill'd a mighty cup of wine, Then pledg'd the hero, Peleus' son divine; for they used, when they had filled their cups, to pledge one another with a friendly address.) Panyasis, in the third book of his Heraclea, says— This wine he pour'd into an ample bowl, Radiant with gold, and then with frequent draughts He drain'd the flowing cup. Euripides, in his Eurystheus, uses the word in the masculine gender— And a long cup σκύφος τε μακρός And so does Achæus, in his Omphale— The goblet of the god invites me ʽὁδὲ σκύθος με τοῦ θεοῦ ʽἈλεἶ. And Simonides too, speaking of a cup with handles, says, οὐατόεντα σκύφον. But Ion, in his Omphale, says— There is no wine in the cup οἶνος οὐκ ἔνι ἐν τῷ σκύφεἰ, forming σκύφελ regularly from σκύφος, as a neuter noun. And in the same way Epicharmus, in his Cyclops, says— Come, pour the wine into the cup ʽἑ̓ς τὸ σκύφοσ̓. And Alexis, in his Leucadia, says— And with his aged lips he drank A mighty cup ʽμ̔έγα σκύφοσ̓ of fragrant wine. And Epigenes, in his Bacchea, says— I rejoiced when I received τὸ σκύφος. And Phædimus, in the first book of his Heraclea, says— A mighty cup ʽἑὐρὺ σκύφοσ̓ of well-grain'd timber framed, And fill'd with honied wine. And also in Homer, Aristophanes the Byzantian writes— But having filled a cup ʽσ̔κύφοσ̓, he gave it him, Having himself drunk from the same. But Aristarchus in this line writes σκύφον, not σκύφος.
