In my Alexandria a festival called Lagunophoria was celebrated, concerning which Eratosthenes has some discussion in his book on Arsinoe. He says as follows: While Ptolemy was in the habit of celebrating all sorts of festivals and sacrifices, especially ones for Dionysos, Arsinoe did not usually attend. One day she and her retinue were walking in an area near the palace and they met a man bearing green boughs who was rushing off as if to an important engagement. The queen stopped him and inquired what festival he was celebrating and who with. ‘The king,’ he replied, ‘Is hosting a Lagunophoria so that all may feast on food brought to us as we recline on rustic couches and each drinks from his own flask or lagunos, which we have all brought with us.’ When he had gone she looked at us and said, ‘These are dirty feasts, for it means that there is a gathering of an undifferentiated crowd, offering stale and unattractive food.’ And she deplored the declining standards of her father’s once great kingdom. If, however, the type of food had pleased her, the queen would not have become irritated, since they were doing the very same things as are done during the Choes. For during that festival they feast in private and the one who invited them to the feast provides these things.
-– Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 7.276a
Tagged: dionysos, heroes, may you never thirst, ptolemies
