Κοτταβίζειν

[Meaning] to play a game. They used to toss a drink up, throwing it into bronze bowls, which are called latageia;¹ and if a louder sound occurred, they thought that [the player] was loved by his lovers. Kottabos is what they call the dregs of the cup, which they used to toss into the bowls [latages]. Such was a game among Athenians: a long staff fixed in the earth and another on top of it, moved as on a draft-animal -- it had two disks hung from it and two mixing-bowls of water below the disks and under the water a gilded bronze statuette. This was [done] in the symposia. And when all were playing, [one] stood up holding a bowl filled with unmixed wine and standing at a distance sent all the wine in one drop into the disk, so that being filled it would be weighed down and would fall down, and when it fell would strike against the head of the statuette which was hidden under the water and would make a noise. And if it was not poured out of the wine, he won and he knew that he was loved by his beloved [girl]; but if not, he was defeated. The statuette under the water was called manes.²