Ch. 2
[sect. 1]
dou/lous. The information in this chapter is better than the logic;
Stein suggests with reason that it is a later addition.
The idea that the slaves were blind may be due to a mistaken
etymology for some Scythian word for slave (Stein; cf. 86. 4 n.),
and perhaps to the fact that blindness is common in South Russia.
Blind slaves obviously would be useless, nor does H. explain why
they were blinded.
fushth=ras. Pallas (Nachr. Mong. Vlk. i. 119) in the eighteenth
century describes a similar operation among the Calmucks to induce
obstinate cows to give milk.
qhle/wn i(/ppwn. The Greeks were early struck by the Northern use
of mares' milk. Cf. Il. 13.5 Ἱππημολγῶν γλακτοφάγων, Ἀβίων τε δικαιοτάτων
ἀνθρώπων. The Hippemolgi and the Abii were supposed to
be nations, and credited with all the virtues of the noble savage;
these vain imaginations are not found in H., but they lasted as late
as Ammianus (fourth century A. D.): even Arrian says (Anab. iv. 1)
they were αὐτόνομοι διὰ πενίαν καὶ δικαιότητα.
