Note 152 — Chapter XII

A line of Euripides might appear conclusive against me;

καὶ τορὸς ὀπίας ἐστὶ καὶ βοὸς γάλα.-— Cycl. v. 136.

But he is speaking of the food, not of common men, but of Silenus. However, Athenæus will no way admit the thing, or even the word. He corrects it (l. 14), Διὸς γάλα, or milk fit for Jupiter, meaning goats’, not cows’ milk; so unnatural did the latter seem. Consult Eustath. in Odyss. δʹ. Homer calls the Hippomolgians galactophagoi, and otherwise commends them, (Il. νʹ. 6). He only twice mentions milk, and both times speaks of it as that of ewes or goats;—-πίονα μῆλα ἔμελγα, Od. ιʹ. 237; δ’ ἔμελγεν ὄϊς καὶ μηκάδας αἶγας, Od. ιʹ. 244. He mentions cheese twice (Od. κʹ. 234; Il. λʹ. 638): on the last occasion, he calls it goats’ cheese, αἴγειον τυρὸν, and it was hard, for it was raped with a bronze rape, κνήστι χαλκείῃ.