Note 369 — Chapter XIV · ÆOLIC GREEKS IN ASIA.

Aristot. Polit. ii, 9, 9; Rhetoric ii, 27, 2.

A ditty is said to have been sung by the female grinding-slaves in Lesbos, when the mill went heavily: Ἄλει, μύλα, ἄλει· καὶ γὰρ Πιττακὸς ἀλεῖ, Τᾶς μεγάλας Μιτυλάνας βασιλεύων,—“Grind, mill, grind; for Pittakus also grinds, the master of great Mitylênê.” This has the air of a genuine composition of the time, set forth by the enemies of Pittakus, and imputing to him (through a very intelligible metaphor) tyrannical conduct; though both Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conv. c. 14, p. 157) and Diogenes Laërt. (i, 81) construe it literally, as if Pittakus had been accustomed to take bodily exercise at the hand-mill.