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[234] ἐν … ἐκύκα. This mess, which must have been somewhat of the consistency of porridge, and therefore called here “σῖτος”, is not a regular article of food, but a sort of stimulant, where special strengthening or refreshment was required. So in Il. 11. 624 foll. Hecamede makes a “κυκεών” for Nestor and Machaon, leaving out however the honey, which is an ingredient here. Pramnian wine was called so, according to some ancient authorities, from Mount Pramnon or Pramne in the island of Icaria; others suppose it to have come from the neighbourhood of Ephesus or Smyrna. Athenaeus (1. 28-30) quotes a fragment from the comedian Ephippos, “φιλῶ γε Πράμνιον οἶνον Λέσβιον”, and from Demetrius of Troezen, “οἶνον δὲ πίνειν οὐκ ἐάσω Πράμνιον”,

“οὐ Χῖον, οὐχὶ Θάσιον, οὐ Πεπαρήθιον”, the latter passage seeming to decide on a local meaning for the epithet. It is probable that “πράμνιος”, though originally a local name, came to signify a particular quality of grape-vine, as we speak now of a ‘Black-Hamburg.’ Galen describes the Pramnian wine as “οἶνός τις οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενος μέλας καὶ αὐστηρός” and this quality may have suggested the derivation proposed by Eustath. and others, from “παραμένειν”, because of its power of ‘keeping’ a long time.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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