83. But as for those people who contend that there is no appropriateness in embossing the Pleiades on this cup, as they are rather indicative of dry food, we must state that this kind of cup is calculated to receive both solid and liquid food; for κυκεὼν[67] is made in it; and this is a kind of potion, having mixed in it cheese and meal; and the poet tells us that both these ingredients are stirred up (κυκωμένα) together and so drunk:—
MEANING OF PARTICULAR WORDS.
The draught prescribed fair Hecamede prepares,
Arsinous' daughter, graced with golden hairs
(Whom to his aged arms a royal slave
Greece, as the prize of Nestor's wisdom, gave):
A table first with azure feet she placed,
Whose ample orb a brazen charger graced;
Honey, new press'd, the sacred flour of wheat,
And wholesome garlic crown'd the savoury treat.
Next her white hand a spacious goblet brings,
A goblet sacred to the Pylian kings;
Temper'd in this, the nymph of form divine
Pours a large portion of the Pramnian wine;
With goats'-milk cheese a flavorous taste bestows,
And last with flour the smiling surface strows.
This for the wounded prince the dame prepares;
The cordial beverage reverend Nestor shares.
84. And as for the lines—
A massy weight, yet heav'd with ease by him,
Though all too great for men of smaller limb;
we are not to understand this as referring only to Machaon and Nestor, as some people think, who refer ὃς to Machaon, taking it as if it were ὁ, and say,
Ἀλλ᾽ δ̓ς μὲν μογέων ἀποκινήσασκε τραπέζης,—
thinking that "heaved with ease by him" is said of Machaon, as he was the person for whom the cup has been mixed, as he had been wounded; but we shall show hereafter that Machaon is never represented in Homer as wounded. But these men do not perceive, that when Homer says ἄλλος, he is not speaking of Machaon and Nestor alone (for these two are drinking of the cup), for in that case he would have said ἕτερος. For ἕτερος is the proper word for the other of two, as in this line—
οἴσετε δ᾽ ἄρν᾽ ἕτερον λευκὸν, ἑτέρην δὲ μέλαιναν,—
And bring two lambs, one male, with snow-white fleece,
The other black, who shall the breed increase.