And Aristophanes says—
I would be content
To lose two membranes of the ἐγκέφαλον.
And others, too, use the word. So that it must have been for the sake of the poetical expression that Sophocles said "white marrow." But Euripides not choosing openly to display to sight an unseemly and disgusting object, revealed as much as he chose. And they thought the head sacred, as is plain by their swearing by it; and by their even venerating sneezes, which proceed from the head, as holy. And we, to this day, confirm our arrangements and promises by nodding the head. As the Jupiter of Homer says—
Come now, and I will nod my head to you.
73. Now all these things were put into the dishes which were served up as propomata: pepper, green leaves, myrrh, galingal, Egyptian ointment. Antiphanes says—
If any one buys pepper and brings it home,
They torture him by law like any spy.
And in a subsequent passage he says—
Now is the time for a man to go and find pepper,
And seed of orach, and fruit, and buy it, and bring it here.
And Eubulus says—
Just take some Cnidian grains, or else some pepper,
And pound them up with myrrh, and strew around.