Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists
C. D. Yonge, B.A., Ed.

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There is also the rhytum—ῥυτόν. The υ is short, and the word has an acute accent on the last syllable. Demosthenes, in his speech against Midias, speaks of “rhyta, and cymbia, and phialæ.” But Diphilus, in his Eunuch, or The Soldier, (and this play is a new edition of his Stormer of Walls,) says—

And they intend to drink more plenteously
Than rhodiaca or rhyta can supply.

And Epinicus, in his Supposititious Damsels, says—

A. And of the large-sized rhyta three are here;
To-day one will be forced to drink more steadily,
By the clepsydra.
B. This, I think, will act
Both says.
A. Why, 'tis an elephant!
B. Yes, he
Is bringing round his elephants.
A. A rhytus,
Holding two choes, such as e'en an elephant
Could hardly drink; but I have drunk it often.
B. Yes, for you're very like an elephant.
A. There is besides another kind of cup,
Its name a trireme; this, too, holds one choeus.

And, speaking of the rhytum, he says—

A. Bellerophon, on Pegasus's back,
Fought and subdued the fire-breathing Chimænra.
B. Well, take this cup.

But formerly a drinking-horn was also called a rhytum; and it appears that this kind of vessel was first made by Ptolemy Philadelphus the king, to be carried by the statues of Ar- sinoe: for in her right hand she bears a vessel of this kind, full of all the fruits of the season; by which the makers of it designed to show that this horn is richer than the horn of Amalthea. And it is mentioned by Theocles, in his Ithyphallics, thus—

For all the journeymen to-day
Have sacrificed Soteria;
And in their company I've drunk this cup,
And now I go to my dear king.

But Dionysius of Sinope, in his Female Saviour, giving a list of some cups, has also mentioned the rhytus, as I have said [p. 795] before; but Hedylus, in his Epigrams, mentioning the rhytum made by Ctesibius the engineer or machinist, speaks thus—

Come hither, all ye drinkers of sheer wine,—
Come, and within this shrine behold this rhytus,
The cup of fair Arsinoe Zephyritis,
The true Egyptian Besa, which pours forth
Shrill sounds, what time its stream is open'd wide,—
No sound of war; but from its golden mouth
It gives a signal for delight and feasting,
Such as the Nile, the king of flowing rivers,
Pours as its melody from its holy shrines,
Dear to the priests of sacred mysteries.
But honour this invention of Ctesibius,
And come, O youths, to fair Arsinoe's temple.

But Theophrastus, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says that the cup called the rhytum is given to heroes alone. Dorotheus the Sidonian, says that the rhyta resemble horns, but are perforated at both ends, and men drink of them at the bottom as they send forth a gentle stream; and that it derives its name from the liquor flowing from them ἀπὸτῆς ῥύσεως