AMYSTIS
AMYSTIS (
ἀμυστὶ πίνειν,
ἄμυστιν πίνειν,
ἀμυστίζειν), from
ἀ and
μύω, a draught taken without drawing breath
(
Ath. 11.25, 783d). It was a favourite amusement with the Greeks to try how much
they could swallow in this way, and very large quantities are said to have
been drunk. Plato (
Symp. 214 A) represents Socrates and
Alcibiades as draining off the contents of a wine-cooler holding eight
κοτύλαι, or nearly two quarts, while
Alexander the Great is said to have greatly exceeded this amount. Ephippus
(ap.
Ath. 10.434 a) relates that he succeeded
in emptying a vessel containing two
χόες,
or more than two gallons and a half, and afterwards attempted to drink a
second in the same way. This, however, affected him so much as to bring on
the illness which resulted in his death. The name was also applied to a kind
of vessel adopted for this kind of drinking. (
Ath.
10.60, p. 442 f; 67, p. 447.)
[
J.H.O]
