And Herodotus, in the second book of his History, speaks in a similar manner. But Xenophon, in the first book of his Cyropædia, writes—"But when you have touched any one of these things, you immediately wipe your hands in a towel, as if you were greatly annoyed at their having been polluted in such a manner." And Polemo, in the sixth book of his books addressed to Antigonus and Adæus, speaks of the difference between the two expressions κατὰ χειρὸς and νίψασθαι. And Demonicus, in his Achelonius, uses the expression κατὰ χειρὸς, of water used before a meal, in these lines:—
But each made haste, as being about to dine
With one who'd always a good appetite,
And who had also but Bœotian manners.
And so they all neglected washing their hands (κατὰ χειρὸς),
Because they could do that when they had dined.
And Cratinus also mentions towels, which he calls ὠμόλινον, in his Archilochi,—
With her hair cover'd with a linen towel,
Token of slovenly neglect.
And Sappho, in the fifth book of her Melodies addressed to Venus, when she says—
And purple towels o'er your knees I'll throw,
And do not you despise my precious gifts
* * * * * *
speaks of these towels as a covering for the head; as Hecatæus shows, or whoever else it was who wrote those Descriptions of the World in the book entitled Asia,—"And the women wear towels (χειρόμακτρα) on their heads." And Herodotus, in his second book, says, "And after this they said that this king descended down alive into the lower regions, which the Greeks call αἵδης, and that there he played at dice with Ceres, and that sometimes he won and sometimes he lost; and that after that he returned to earth with a gold-embroidered towel, which he had received as a present from her."
80. And Hellanicus, in his Histories, says that the name of the boy who, when he had given Hercules water to wash his hands, and poured it over his hands from the basin, was afterwards slain by Hercules with a blow of his fist, (on which account Hercules left Calydon,) was Archias; but in the second book of the Phoronis he calls him Cherias: but Herodorus, in the seventeenth book of his account of the Exploits of Hercules, calls him Eunomus. And Hercules also, without intending it, killed Cyathus, the son of Pyles and brother of Antimachus, who was acting as his cupbearer, as Nicander relates in the second book of his History of Œta; to whom also he says that a temple was dedicated by Hercules in the Proschium, which to this day is called the Temple of the Cupbearer.
But we will stop this conversation at this point, and begin the next book with an account of the voracity of Hercules.
Footnotes
[24] The fragment here given appears to be hopelessly corrupt.
[25] Hom. Iliad, ix. 323, Pope's translation.
[26] Hom. Odyss. xiv. 80.
[27] This is very obscure and corrupt. Casaubon suspects the genuineness of the last four lines altogether.
[28] Μέροπες means properly men speaking articulately, in contradistinction to brutes. It is a favourite word with Homer.
[29] These are words applied by Homer to sacrifices.—Μοιρα is a portion, and ὀβελὸς a spit; but μιστυλλα is only a word derived from Homer's verb μιστύλλω, (from which Æmilianus, a friend of Martial, called his cook _Mistyllus_,) and δίπτυχα is used by Homer as an adverb.
[30] I have translated ἀτταγᾶς as the woodcock, because that is always considered to be the bird meant, but it is plain that the description here given does not apply in the least to the woodcock. In some particulars it is more like the landrail.
[31] Schweighaeuser thinks, with apparent reason, that there is some corruption in the text here.
[32] Athenæus here does not arrange his conjugations as we do; nor is it very plain what he means by an immutable consonant.
[33] The same as Puteoli.
[34] The cordax was a lascivious dance of the old comedy; to dance it off the stage was considered a sign of drunkenness and indecency.
[35] As being thrown to the dogs; from κυὼν, a dog.