Note 576 — Chapter III · SYMPATHETIC MAGIC (continued 3)
Reading edition
The king was Iphiclus; the wise man was Melampus. See Apollodorus, i. 9. 12; Eustathius on Homer, Od. xi. 292; Schol. on Theocritus, iii. 43. The way in which the king’s impotence was caused by the knife is clearly indicated by the scholiast, on Theocritus: συνέβη ἐπενεγκεῖν αὐτὴν [scil. τὴν μάχαιραν] τοῖς μορίοις τοῦ παιδός. In this scholium we must correct ἐκτέμνοντι . . . δένδρον into ἐκτέμνοντι . . . ζῷα. Eustathius (l.c.) quotes the scholium in this latter form. The animals were rams, according to Apollodorus.