Note 21 — Second Part.

Μύζουσις is cited by Eustathius on Homer, Odyssey XVII. p. 1821. 52. and XIV. p. 1921. end, as also ἀπομύζουρις on Iliad XI. p. 867. 44., in the sense of fellatrix, παρὰ τὸ μυζᾶν, ἤγουν θηλάζειν οὐράν. (connected with μυζᾶν, to suck, that is to say to suck like an infant a man’s member). Suidas says: μυζεῖ καὶ μύζει, θηλάζει λείχει μῦ, μύζει· ἀπὸ τοῦ μῦ παρῆκται τὸ μύζειν, πολλοῖς ἄλλοις ὁμοίως· μύζειν δέ ἐστι τὸ τοῖς μυκτῆρσιν ἦχον ἀποτελεῖν. Ἀριστοφάνης τί μύζεις,—(μυζεῖ and μύζει,—sucks like an infant, licks with a mooing noise, moos); from this mooing noise is derived μύζειν as is the case with other similar words; now μύζειν is to produce the noise made in the nostrils in the act of sucking. Aristophanes has τί μύζεις; (what is the mooing noise you make?) On this passage of Aristophanes (Thesmoph. 238.) the Scholiast observes: τοῦτο δὲ φώνημα σημαίνει ἔκλυσίν τινα ἀφροδισιαστικήν· ὅθεν καὶ μύται ἐλέγοντο τὸ παλαιὸν ἀφροδισιασταὶ καὶ γυναικομανεῖς. (Now this sound proclaims a certain dissoluteness in lovemaking; whence of old voluptuaries and men mad after women were called also μύται). Μῦς, the mouse, also comes from the same stem, from its picking and gnawing; so does μυῖα, the fly, and as Aelian, Hist. Anim. bk. XV. ch. 1., says of a fish, ὑποχανὼν κατέπιε τῆν μυῖαν (it gaped its mouth and swallowed down the fly), we might perhaps read μυιοχάνη after flies, as if she wanted to catch flies, a fly-catcher, fly-trap, unless indeed we prefer to take μυιοχάνη as being a compound-word expressing a high degree of lecherousness. The lecherous nature of the fly is well-known, as well as their habit of licking, which makes Varro, de Re Rust. III. ch. 15., say: Non ut muscae liguriunt. (They do not lick, like flies). Ligurire (to lick) is used in the sense of fellare and cunnilingere. Aelian, Hist. Anim. bk. IV. ch. 5., mentions a fish, χάνη, which is particularly lustful: χάνη δὲ ἰχθὺς λαγνίστατος (Now the χάνη is a most lustful fish). Again μυσαροχάνη (μυσαρὸς, filthy) would be a significant word for a fellatrix.