The mule and the ass were much employed in rural labours, the former both at the cart and the plough, the latter in drawing small tumbrils, and in bearing wood[[1162]] or other produce of the farm to the city.[[1163]] The wild ass[[1164]] was sometimes resorted to for improving the breed of mules, which, in the Homeric age, were found in a state of nature among the mountains of Paphlagonia.[[1165]]

But their cares extended even to swine, which, if King Ptolemy may be credited, were sometimes distinguished in Greece for their great size and beauty. He, in fact, observes in his Memoirs, that in the city of Assos he saw a milk-white hog two cubits and a half in length, and of equal height; and adds, that King Eumenes had given four thousand drachmæ, or nearly two hundred pounds sterling, for a boar of this enormous size, to improve the breed of pigs in his country.[[1166]] So that we perceive those great generals, whom posterity usually contemplates only in the cabinet or in the battle-field, were, at the same time, in their domestic policy, the rivals of the Earls Spencer and Leicester. Superstition, among the Cretans, prevented the improvement of bacon; for as a sow was said to have suckled the infant Jupiter, and defended his helpless infancy, they, in gratitude,[[1167]] abstained from hog’s flesh.

In all farms the care of cattle necessarily formed a principal employment. The oxen[[1168]] were used in ploughing, treading out the corn, drawing manure to the fields, and bringing home the produce of the harvest. To prevent their being overcome by fatigue while engaged in their labours, the husbandmen of Greece had recourse to certain expedients, one of which was, to smear their hoofs with a composition of oil and terebinth, or wax, or warm pitch:[[1169]] while, to protect them from flies, their coats were anointed with their own saliva, or with a decoction of bruised laurel berries and oil.[[1170]] Their milch cows, in the selection of which much judgment was displayed,[[1171]] were commonly fed on cytisus and clover; and, still further to increase their milk, bunches of the herb dittany were sometimes tied about their flanks. The usual milking-times[[1172]] were, in the morning immediately after the breaking-up of the dawn, and in the evening about the close of twilight; though, occasionally, both cows, sheep, and goats were milked several times during the day. In weaning calves they made use of a species of muzzle,[[1173]] as the Arabs do in the case of young camels. Their pails, like our own, were of wood,[[1174]] but somewhat differently shaped, being narrow above, and spreading towards the bottom. When conveyed into the dairy the milk was poured into pans,[[1175]] on the form of which I have hitherto found no information.[[1176]] That they skimmed their milk is evident (whatever they may have done with the cream), from the mention of that thin pellicle which is found on it only when skimmed, whether scalded or not. “Here, drink this!” said Glycera to Menander, when he had returned one day in exceeding ill-humour from the theatre. “I don’t like the wrinkled skin,” replied the poet to the lady, whose beauty, it must be remembered, was at this time on the wane. “Blow it off,” replied she, immediately comprehending his meaning, “and take what is beneath.”[[1177]] Milk, in those warm latitudes, grows sour more rapidly than with us; but the ancients observed that it would keep three days when it had been scalded, and stirred until cold with a reed or ferula.[[1178]]

The Greeks of classical times appear to have made no use of butter,[[1179]] though so early as the age of Hippocrates they were well enough acquainted with its existence and properties.[[1180]] Even in the present day butter is much less used in Greece than in most European countries, its place being supplied by fine olive oil. For cheese, however, they seem to have entertained a partiality, though it is probable that the best they could manufacture would have lost very considerably in comparison with good Stilton or Cheshire, not to mention Parmasan. It was a favourite food, however, among soldiers in Attica, who during war used to supply themselves both with cheese and meal.[[1181]] Their cheese-lope or rennet in most cases resembled our own, consisting of the liquid substance found in the ruen of new-born animals, as calves, kids, or hares, which was considered superior to lamb’s rennet.[[1182]] Occasionally they employed for the same purpose burnt salt or vinegar, fowl’s crop or pepper, the flowers of bastard saffron, or the threads which grow on the head of the artichoke. For these again, was sometimes substituted the juice of the fig-tree;[[1183]] or a branch freshly cut[[1184]] was used in stirring the milk while warming on the fire. This cheese would seem, for the most part, to have been eaten while fresh and soft,[[1185]] like that of Neufchatel, though they were acquainted with various means of preserving it for a considerable space of time. Acidulated curds were kept soft by being wrapped in the leaves of the terebinth tree, or plunged in oil, or sprinkled with salt. When desirous of preserving their cheese for any length of time, they washed it in pure water, and, after drying it in the sun, laid it upon earthen jars with thyme and summer savory. Some other kinds were kept in a sort of pickle, composed of sweet vinegar or oxymel or sea-water, which was poured into the jars until it entirely penetrated and covered the whole mass. When they wished to communicate a peculiar whiteness to the cheese, they laid it up in brine. Dry cheese was rendered more solid and sharp-tasted by being placed within reach of the smoke. If from age it were hard or bitter, it was thrown into a preparation of barley-meal, then soaked in water, and what rose to the top was skimmed off.[[1186]]

That the milk-women in Greece understood all the arts of their profession may be gathered from the instructions which have been left us on the best methods of detecting the presence of water in milk. If you dip a sharp rush into milk, says Berytios, and it run off easily, there is water in it. And again, if you pour a few drops upon your thumb-nail, the pure milk will maintain its position, while the adulterated will immediately glide away![[1187]]

Their mode of fattening cattle[[1188]] was as follows: first they fed them on cabbage chopped small and steeped in vinegar, to which succeeded chaff and gurgions during five days. This diet was then exchanged for barley, of which for nearly a week they were allowed four cotylæ a-day, the quantity being then gradually augmented for six other days. As of necessity the hinds were stirring early, the cattle began even in winter to be fed at cock-crowing; a second quantity of food was given them about dawn, when they were watered, and their remaining allowance towards evening. In summer their first meal commenced at day-break, the second at mid-day, and the third about sunset. They were at this time of the year suffered to drink at noon and night of water rendered somewhat tepid; in winter it was considerably warmer.

About Mossynos, in Thrace, cattle were sometimes fed upon fish, which was likewise given to horses, and even to sheep. Herodotus, who mentions a similar fact, calls food of this description χόρτος, “fodder,”[[1189]] though hay or dried straw was, doubtless, its original meaning. The provender of cattle in the district about Ænia appears to have been so wholesome, that the herds which fed upon it were never afflicted by the mange.[[1190]]

Among the animals domesticated and rendered useful by the Greeks we must, doubtless, reckon bees,[[1191]] which, in the heroic ages, had not yet been confined in hives. For, whenever Homer describes them, it is either where they are streaming forth from a rock,[[1192]] or settling in bands and clusters on the spring flowers. So, likewise, in Virgil, they

Hunt the golden dew;

In summer time on tops of lilies feed,