166

A Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, iii. 219, says:—

'Sappho said πολυΐδριδι of much knowledge as the dative of πολύϊδρις.'

167

Photius, in his Lexicon, about the ninth century A.D., says:—

'Θάψος is a wood with which they dye wool and hair yellow, which Sappho calls Σκυθικόν ξύλον Scythian wood.'

And the Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyl ii. 88, says:—

'Θάψος is a kind of wood which is also called σκυθάριον or Scythian wood, as Sappho says; and in this they dip fleeces and make them of a quince-yellow, and dye their hair yellow; among us it is called χρυσόξυλον gold-wood.'

Ahrens thinks that here the Scholiast quoted Sappho, and he thus restores the verses:—