Hecamede now drew up for them a polished table / With blue enamelled feet, and set on it / A bronze basket, and next to it an onion / Grated for their drink, and pale green honey, / And sacred barley meal. Then she set down / A magnificent cup the old man had brought from home, / Studded with gold rivets. It had four handles, / With a pair of golden doves pecking at each, / And a double base beneath. . . . / Into this cup Hecamede, beautiful as a goddess, / Poured Pramnian wine, grated goat cheese into it / With a brazed grater, and sprinkled white barley on top. / She motioned for them to drink.
—Homer, The Iliad, translated by Stanley Lombardo, 1997.
by 
