Ephippus, too, mentions the Phoenician wine, saying, “Nuts, pomegranates, dates, and other sweetmeats, and small casks of Phœnician wine.” And again,—
A cask of good Phœnician wine was tapp'd.Xenophon, too, mentions it in his Anabasis. The Mendæan wine is mentioned by Cratinus:—
When a man tastes Mendæan wine,And Hermippus somewhere introduces Bacchus as mentioning several different kinds of wine:— [p. 49]
How rich, says he, how sweet, how fine!
I wonder where it can be bought, or
What's the right quantity of water.
Mendæan wine such as the gods distil,And Phanias the Eresian poet says that the Mendæans are in the habit of syringing the grapes with opening medicine, even while still on the vine; and that this makes the wine soft.
And sweet Magnesian, cures for every ill,
And Thasian, redolent of mild perfume;
But of them all the most inviting bloom
Mantles above old Homer's Chian glass;
That wine doth all its rivals far surpass.
There is a wine, which Saprian they call,
Soon as the seals from whose rich hogshead fall,
Violets and roses mix their lovely scent,
And hyacinths, in one rich fragrance blent;
You might believe Jove's nectar sparkled there,
With such ambrosial odour reeks the air.
This is the wine I'll to my friends disclose;
The Peparethian trash may suit my foes.
