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greek-customsfeatured in 8 works

Libation (Sponde)

The ritual pouring out of wine, oil, milk, or honey to the gods or the dead, accompanying prayers, oaths, meals, and departures.

How it traveled

  1. Histories
    Thurii (Magna Graecia) · -425
    explains
  2. Cyropaedia
    Athens · -354
    explains
  3. Anabasis
    Athens · -354
    explains
  4. Hellenica
    Athens · -354
    explains
  5. Quaestiones Convivales
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  6. Quaestiones Romanae
    Chaeronea · 120
    explains
  7. Description of Greece
    · 180
    explains
  8. Deipnosophistae
    Naucratis · 230
    explains

Key passages(20)

Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

Very high

But the habit of pouring libations of pure wine, as Theophrastus says, in his treatise on Drinking, was not ancient; but originally libations were what is given to the Gods, and the cottabus, what was

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

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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 diff

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

Very high

And again Homer instructs us as to what we ought to do before a banquet, namely how we ought to allot the first-fruits of the dishes to the gods. At all events Ulysse and his friends, although in the

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Very high

So the last in line, Psammetichus, as he had no vessel, took off his bronze helmet and held it out and poured the libation with it. All the kings were accustomed to wear helmets, and were then helmete

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Very high

At sunrise Xerxes poured a libation from a golden phial into the sea, praying to the sun that no accident might befall him which would keep him from subduing Europe (continent)Europe before he reached

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Very high

Upon hearing this report Xenopohon immediately proceeded to pour a libation himself, and directed his attendants to fill a cup for the young men and to pray to the gods who had revealed the dream and

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

Very high

Before each one of the guests in Homer is placed a separate cup. Demodocus has a basket and a table and a cup placed before him, To drink whene'er his soul desired. Again the goblets are crowned with

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

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Let us, then, now, as Plato says in his Philebus, pray to the gods, and pour libations to them, whether it be Bacchus, or Vulcan, or whoever else of the gods it may be, who has had the honour of havin

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

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But the word ἀκρατέστερον, meaning the same as ζωρότερον, is used by Hyperides in his oration against Demosthenes; where he writes thus—If any one drank any wine of much strength (ἀκρατέστερον), it gr

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

Very high

There is also the loibasium. This, too, is a κύλιξ, as Clearchus and Nicander of Thyatira say; with which they pour libations of oil over the sacred offerings and victims. Spondeum is the name given t

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

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There is also the mele. This is a name given to some cups which are mentioned by Anaxippus in his Well, where he says— And you, Syriscus, now this mele take, And bring it to her tomb—do you understand

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

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And after this, when we also were about to leave the party, the slaves came in bringing, one an incense burner, and another. . . . . . . . . . For it was the custom for the guests to rise up and offer

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While Xerxes was at Acanthus, it happened that Artachaees, overseer of the digging of the canal, died of an illness. He was high in Xerxes' favor, an Achaemenid by lineage, and the tallest man in Iran

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Description of Greece · Pausanias

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The traditional words spoken by them in the Town Hall at the libations, and the hymns which they sing, it were not right for me to introduce into my narrative. They pour libations, not only to the Gre

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Description of Greece · Pausanias

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The Eleans also pour libations to all heroes and wives of heroes who are honored either in Elis or among the Aetolians. The songs sung in the Town Hall are in the Doric dialect, but they do not say wh

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Quaestiones Romanae · Plutarch

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Why is it that while the other Romans make libations and offerings to the dead in the month of February, Decimus Brutus, as Cicero has recorded, used to do so in the month of December? This was the Br

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Quaestiones Romanae · Plutarch

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Why on the festival of the Veneralia do they pour out a great quantity of wine from the temple of Venus? Is it true, as most authorities affirm, that Mezentius, general of the Etruscans, sent to Aenea

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Description of Greece · Pausanias

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Each month the Eleans sacrifice once on all the altars I have enumerated. They sacrifice in an ancient manner; for they burn on the altars incense with wheat which has been kneaded with honey, placing

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

High

Plutarch having said this, and being applauded by every one, asked for a phiala, from which he made a libation to the Muses, and to Mnemosyne their mother, and drank the health of every one present, s

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Deipnosophistae · Athenaeus of Naucratis

High

And the exquisite Anacreon says— I do not love the man who, 'midst his cups, Says nothing but old tales of war and strife, But him who gives its honour due to mirth, Praising the Muses and the bright-

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