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CHOUS (χοεὺς, χοῦς), a Greek liquid measure containing 12 κοτύλαι or 5.76 English pints. It was equal to the Roman congius of six sextarii. At first the name seems to have meant simply a pitcher or flagon (from χέω); hence the χόες or “pitcher feast” on the second day of the Anthesteria [DIONYSIA]. According to the grammarian Crates of Mallus (περὶ Ἀττικῆς διαλέκτου, ap. Ath. 11.495 a, b), the χοῦς had originally a similar form to the Panathenaic amphorae, and was also called πελίκη: but afterwards took the shape of the οἰνοχόη or ὄλπη. This use of the word throws light on some statements which might otherwise surprise us. At an ἔρανος or contributory feast each guest brought his provisions in a κίστη, his wine in a χοῦς (Aristoph. Ach. 1086): in the comic poet Eubulus a man orders a χοῦς of mixed wine from a καπηλεῖον, and a κάνθαρος to drink it out of (Fragm. 80-82, Meineke); on the day of the χόες a prize was given to the person who first emptied his χοῦς: and Milo of Croton is said to have drunk off three χόες of wine at one draught. In these cases it is not the large measure here described, but a jug or pitcher that is to be thought of. The distinction drawn by Suidas, alone among the grammarians, between a χοῦς of four κοτύλαι and a χοεὺς of twelve, has not found much favour: on the forms of the word, see L. and S. (Pollux, 10.73; Wurm, de Pond. &c., pp. 127, 136, 141, 198; Hussey, Ancient Weights, pp. 211-213; Hultsch, Metrologie, pp. 80, 82, 87.)
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
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