Note 904 — OMPHI,

One species of sacred bread, which used to be offered to the Gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun. The Greeks, who changed the Nu final into a Sigma, expressed it in the nominative, βους; but, in the accusative, more truly boun, βουν. Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it, ειδος πεμματος κερατα εχοντος; a kind of cake, with a representation of two horns. Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner: βουν, ειδος πεμματος κερατα εχοντος; a sort of cake with horns. Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed: [904]Βουν εθυσε—εκ μελιτος και αλφιτων. He offered up one of the sacred liba, called a boun, which was made of fine flour and honey. It is said of Cecrops, [905]πρωτος βουν εθυσε: He first offered up this sort of sweet bread. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred. The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering, when he is speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros in Egypt, and of their base idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: Since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things; and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burnt incense to the Queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her without our [906]men? The prophet, in another place, takes notice of the same idolatry. [907]The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of heaven. The word, in these instances, for sacred cakes, is כונים, Cunim. The Seventy translate it by a word of the same purport, Χαυωνας, Chauonas; of which I have before taken notice: [908]Μη ανευ των ανδρων ἡμων εποιησαμεν αυτῃ Χαυωνας. κτλ.