Book 2
10
On which account Bacchylides says:— Sweet force, from wine proceeding, Now warms my soul with love, And on my spirit leading, With hopes my heart does move. It drives dull care away, And laughs at walls and towers; And bids us think and say, That all the world is ours. The man who drinks plenty of wine, Will never for wealth be wishing; For his cellar's a ceaseless mine, And an undisturb'd heart he is rich in. And Sophocles says— Drinking is a cure for woe. And other poets call wine— Fruit of the field, which makes the heart to leap. And the king of all poets introduces Ulysses saying— Let generous food supplies of strength produce, Let rising spirits flow from sprightly juice, Let their warm heads with scenes of battle glow,Iliad, xvii. 180. and so on.
11
It is in consequence of wine that both comedy and tragedy were discovered in Icarium, a village of Attica; and it was at the time of the grape harvest that these inventions were first introduced, from which comedy was at first called τρυγῳδία.
