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αἰγοπρόσωπον: translate ‘with goat's head and a he-goat's legs’; τράγος is used because αἴξ is common in gender, v. i. σέβονται πάντας τοὺς αἶγας κτλ.

ἥδιον: a weakened comparative; cf. Latin ‘non erit melius’; the meiosis is characteristic of Greek courtesy; cf. 47. 2; i. 187. 2 for similar uses.

αἷγας. H. and other Greeks (e.g. Diod. i. 84; Pindar v. i.) say the beast was a goat, and they are confirmed by the nome coins (cf. B. M. Cat. Alexandria, p. 347); the monuments, however, show the beast as a ram. Perhaps the monuments are wrong (Sourdille, R. p. 166); cf. the mistake of representing both wolf and dog by a jackal.

The beast was the incarnation (not the symbol as H. thinks; cf. οὔτι τοιοῦτον) of Osiris, considered as the giver of fruitfulness; so it is called ‘the lord of maidens, the begetting ox’. H. is wrong in connecting it with Pan; the confusion is due to the fact that Min of Chemmis (c. 91 n.), whom the Greeks usually identified with Pan, is goat-headed.

τούτων: i.e. τῶν αἰγῶν; the sentence repeats σέβονται κτλ.

ἐκ δὲ τούτων εἷς, si vera lectio, translate ‘Of the he-goats there is one especially honoured, and when he dies, great mourning’, &c.; but this is very harsh.

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