THE COTTABUS.
The golden-colour'd drop of Venus
Descends on all the houses.
And Euripides, in his Pleisthenes, says—
And the loud noise o' the frequent cottabus
Awakens melodies akin to Venus
In every house.
And Callimachus says-
Many hard drinkers, lovers of Acontius,
Throw on the ground the wine-drops ([Greek: latagas]) from their cups.
7. There was also another kind of way of playing at the cottabus, in the feasts which lasted all night, which is mentioned by Callippus in his Festival lasting all Night, where he says—
And he who keeps awake all night shall have
A cheesecake for his prize of victory,
And kiss whoe'er he pleases of the girls
Who are at hand.
There were also sweetmeats at these nocturnal festivals, in which the men continued awake an extraordinary time dancing. And these sweetmeats used to be called at that time [Greek: charisioi], from the joy ([Greek: chara]) of those who received them. And Eubulus, in his Ancylion, mentions them, speaking as follows—
For he has long been cooking prizes for
The victors in the cottabus.
And presently afterwards he says—
I then sprang out to cook the [Greek: charisios].
But that kisses were also given as the prize Eubulus tells us in a subsequent passage—
Come now, ye women, come and dance all night,
This is the tenth day since my son was born;
And I will give three fillets for the prize,
And five fine apples, and nine kisses too.
But that the cottabus was a sport to which the Sicilians were greatly addicted, is plain from the fact that they had rooms· built adapted to the game; which Dicæarchus, in his treatise on Alcæus, states to have been the case. So that it was not without reason that Callimachus affixed the epithet of Sicilian to [Greek: latax]. And Dionysius, who was surnamed the Brazen, mentions both the [Greek: latages] and the [Greek: kottaboi] in his Elegies, where he says—
Here we, unhappy in our loves, establish
This third addition to the games of Bacchus,
