The story appears in the form of a short anecdote in the collection of Phaedrus and concerns an old woman who comes across an empty wine jar, the lingering smell of which she appreciatively sniffs and praises, saying 'Oh sweet spirits, I do declare, how excellent you must once have been to have left behind such fine remains!'[1] Phaedrus is playing with the comic stereotype of the drunken old woman, who was a stock figure of both Greek and Roman comedy, as illustrated in the statue here.