[227] κοὔ: objections have been raised to the crasis, which, however, is perfectly tolerable; cf. n. on 13.
228-230. ἐΠηλυσίη, “witchcraft,” is certain (cf. h. Herm. 37), but “ὑποταμνόν” and “ὑλοτόμοιο” are puzzling. The former has been explained as a “cut herb,” used in sorcery, but the formation hardly allows such a meaning. Voss's “οὔτε τομαῖον” (sc. “φάρμακον”) is too violent. The same editor altered “ὑλοτόμοιο” to “οὐλοτόμοιο” (a non-existing word), i.e. herbs cut for harmful purposes. In the Class. Rev. 1895, p. 13 it was suggested that “ὑποταμνόν” and “ὑλοτόμοιο” are superstitious paraphrases for the worm (“ἕλμινς” or “σκώληξ”), and that Demeter knows of a remedy against this children's complaint. For such paraphrases cf. Aratus 959 “σκώληκες”, “κεῖνοι τοὺς καλέουσι μελαίνης ἔντερα γαίης”, and Hesiod's “φερέοικος” “snail,” “ἀνόστεος” “cuttle-fish,” “ἴδρις” “ant.” See A. Cook B. “Descriptive Animal Names in Greece,” Class. Rev. 1894, pp. 381 f., where a large number of similar substantives or epithets are collected. If this view is correct, the translation will be: “neither shall witchcraft hurt him, nor the Undercutter (Borer); for I know an antidote far stronger than the Woodcutter.” This involves the accentuation “ὑποτάμνον”, a participle used as a substantive, like “ἀμείβοντες, ἀμφιφῶν, Ἔμπουσα, κελέοντες”. The objection is that “ὑλοτόμοιο”, the wood-cutter appears unsuitable as a paraphrase for the parasitic worm. In Hermath. i. p. 142 Davies retained “ὑποταμνόν”, and suggested “οὐλοτόμοιο” from “οὖλα” “gums,” i.e. gumcutting. But as Tyrrell notes, these words are strangely formed if they denote a process. “οὐλοτόμοιο” should be active, and mean “gum-cutter.”Davies is, however, probably right in seeing an allusion to “teething,” the first inevitable trouble of childhood. It may therefore be suggested that the “ὑποτάμνον” and “οὐλοτόμος”, or gum-cutter, is a worm, which, according to the belief of many peoples, causes toothache. Although teething itself could hardly be attributed to a worm, the incidental aches could be referred to that agency, i.e. the absence of a worm would result in easy teething. This explanation would be more certain, if we accept the correction “οὐλοτόμοιο”, but it may still hold good with the retention of “ὑλοτόμοιο” (a general word for a worm), as suggested above. For the worm as the cause of toothache cf. Shakespeare Much Ado iii. 2. 28; the belief is very common, e.g. in Scotland, County Folk-Lore iii. (Orkney), p. 140; India, Crooke Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of N. India i. p. 151 (where women of the gipsy tribes know charms to extract the worm); Finland, Abercromby Pre- and Proto-historic Finns i. p. 328. Dyer Folklore of Shakespeare p. 273 f. gives parallels from Germany and China. In the Geopon. xii. 27 and 35 the same remedies are assigned to worms and toothache.
