Book 15
47
This, now, is what was said about perfumes and unguents. And after this most of them asked for wine, some demanding the Cup of the Good Deity, others that of Health, and different people invoking different deities; and so they all fell to quoting the words of those poets who had mentioned libations to these different deities; and I will now recapitulate what they said, for they quoted Antiphanes, who, in his Clowns, says— Harmodius was invoked, the paean sung, Each drank a mighty cup to Jove the Saviour. And Alexis, in his Usurer, or The Liar, says— A. Fill now the cup with the libation due To Jove the Saviour; for he surely is Of all the gods most useful to mankind. B. Your Jove the Saviour, if I were to burst, Would nothing do for me. A. Just drink, and trust him. And Nicostratus, in his Pandrosos, says— And so I will, my dear; But fill him now a parting cup to Health; Here, pour a due libation out to Health. Another to Good Fortune. Fortune manages All the affairs of men; but as for Prudence,— That is a blind irregular deity. And in the same play he mentions mixing a cup in honour of the Good Deity, as do nearly all the poets of the old comedy; but Nicostratus speaks thus— Fill a cup quickly now to the Good Deity, And take away this table from before me; For I have eaten quite enough;—I pledge This cup to the Good Deity;—here, quick, I say, And take away this table from before me. Xenarchus, too, in his Twins, says— And now when I begin to nod my head, The cup to the Good Deity * * * * * * That cup, when I had drain'd it, near upset me; And then the next libation duly quaff'd To Jove the Saviour, wholly wreck'd my boat, And overwhelm'd me as you see. And Eriphus, in his Melibœa, says— Before he'd drunk a cup to the Good Deity, Or to great Jove the Saviour.
