Ctesias describes the softness of camels’-hair by comparing it to Milesian fleeces[264]. A woman in Aristophanes (Lysist. 732.) says, she must go home to spread her Milesian fleeces on the couch, because the worms were gnawing them. In a fragment of a Greek comedy, called Procris, of a somewhat later age (ap. Athen. l. xii. p. 553), a favorite lap-dog is described, lying on Milesian fleeces:
Οὐκοῦν ὑποστορεῖτε μαλακῶς τῷ κυνί·
Κάτω μὲν ὑποβαλεῖτε τῶν Μιλησίων
Ἐρίων.
Therefore make a soft bed for the dog: throw down for him Milesian fleeces.
[264] Ctesiæ fragmenta, a Bähr, p. 224.
The Sybarites wore shawls of Milesian wool[265]. Palæphatus explains the fable of the Hesperides by saying, that their father Hesperus was a Milesian, and that they had beautiful sheep, such as those which were still kept at Miletus[266]. Eustathius says, the “Milesian carpets[267]” had become proverbial. Virgil represents the nymphs of Cyrene spinning Milesian fleeces, dyed of a deep sea-green color:
The nymphs, around her placed, their spindles ply,
And draw Milesian wool, of glassy dye.
Georg. iv. 334.