[A sober sacrifice] was offered among [the] Athenians to Mnemosyne, Dawn, Sun, Moon, Nymphs, Aphrodite Ourania, as Polemon says.[1] And xu/la nhfa/lia ["sober timbers"] [is what they call timbers] which are not from grapevines or fig trees,[2] but those which are from thyme.[3] And this is the first [kind of] wood for sacrifices with fire, from which also thyme takes its name, as the sound [of the word] is made from qumi/asis ["fumigation"] and qu/h ["sacrifice"]. But there are some sacrifices altogether without libations, which became customary by chance.
Sophocles [writes]: "for I would never have met first with you[4] in my travels, sober as I am with you abstainers from wine." [He is] addressing the Eumenides,[5] who are called a)/oinoi ["wineless"] because they are always sober and do not allow drunkenness.[6] But this is because of the sleeplessness of divine justice.[7]