Abstract

That fat animals are bad breeders was well known to the ancients; Aristotle insists upon it several times. S0009838800017511_inline2 is, as Dr. Hunt observes, an epithet of the willow in Homer, but the explanations he quotes from Hesychius do not look very satisfactory; the willow was thought to ‘lose its fruit’ because it was supposed never to produce seed at all. Hence S0009838800017511_inline3 means ‘barren willows,’ and so Cercidas means ‘barren fat,’ i.e., fat which prevents a man from breeding