With sweet megallium, and also burn
The royal mindax.
B. Where did you, O master,
E'er hear the name of such a spice as that?
Anaxandrides, too, in his Tereus, says—
And like the illustrious bride, great Basilis,
She rubs her body with megallian unguent.
Menander speaks of an unguent made of spikenard, in his Cecryphalus, and says—
A. This unguent, boy, is really excellent.
B. Of course it is, 'tis spikenard.
43. And anointing oneself with an unguent of this description, Alcæus calls [Greek: myrisasthai], in his Palæstræ, speaking thus—
Having anointed her ([Greek: myrisasa]), she shut her up
In her own stead most secretly.
But Aristophanes uses not [Greek: myrismata], but [Greek: myrômata], in his Ecclesiazusæ, saying—
I who 'm anointed ([Greek: memyrismai]) o'er my head with unguents ([Greek: myrômasi]).[1]
There was also an unguent called sagda, which is mentioned by Eupolis in his Coraliscus, where he writes—
And baccaris, and sagda too.
And it is spoken of likewise by Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis; and Eupolis in his Marica says—
And all his breath is redolent of sagda:
which expression Nicander of Thyatira understands to be meant as an attack upon a man who is too much devoted to luxury. But Theodoras says, that sagda is a species of spice used in fumigation.
44. Now a cotyla of unguent used to be sold for a high price at Athens, even, as Hipparchus says in his Nocturnal Festival, for as much as five minæ; but as Menander, in his Misogynist, states, for ten. And Antiphanes, in his Phrearrus, where he is speaking of the unguent called stacte, says—
The stacte at two minæ's not worth having.
Now the citizens of Sardis were not the only people addicted to the use of unguents, as Alexis says in his Maker of Goblets—
The whole Sardian people is of unguents fond;
but the Athenians also, who have always been the leaders of every refinement and luxury in human life, used them very
- ↑ Aristoph. Eccl. 1117.
