MEANING OF PARTICULAR WORDS. that both these ingredients are stirred up ([Greek: kykômena]) together and so drunk:—
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 [Greek: hos] to Machaon, taking it as if it were [Greek: ho], and say,
[Greek: All' hos men mogeôn apokinêsaske trapezês],—
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 [Greek: allos], 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 [Greek: heteros]. For [Greek: heteros] is the proper word for the other of two, as in this line—
[Greek: oisete d' arn' heteron leukon, heterên de melainan],—
And bring two lambs, one male, with snow-white fleece,
The other black, who shall the breed increase.
Besides, Homer never uses [Greek: hos] for the demonstrative pronoun [Greek: ho]; but, on the contrary, he sometimes uses the demonstrative [Greek: ho] for the relative [Greek: hos], as in the line—
[Greek: entha de Sisyphos esken ho kerdistos genet' andrôn],—
There Sisyphus, who of all men that lived
Was the most crafty, held his safe abode.
