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[355] μυληφάτου, ‘mill-crushed’ (“φένω”). Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 109 (asking why the Flamen Dialis may not touch meal or yeast), after suggesting that grinding destroys the nature of the grain, which thereby becomes “ἀτελής”, &c., goes on—“Διὸ καὶ μυλήφατον ὁ ποιητὴς ἄλφιτον ἐκ μεταφορᾶς ὠνόμασεν, ὥστε φονεύσμενον ἐν τῷ ἀλέτῳ καὶ φθειρόμενον: ἡ δὲ ζύμη καὶ γέγονεν ἐκ φθορᾶς αὐτὴ, καὶ φθείρει τὸ φύραμα μιγνύμενον. ἀκτή” is generally rendered, proleptically, ‘meal,’ i. e. the coarsely-broken grain, from “ἄγνυμι”. But in Hesiod, Opp. et D. 466 “ἀκτή” is used for standing crops, “εὔχεσθαι δὲ Διὶ χθονίῳ Δημήτερί θ᾽ ἁγνῇ”

“ἐκτελέα βρίθειν Δημήτερος ἱερὸν ἀκτήν”. It may then be better to refer “ἀκτή” to the root “ἀκ”, as in “ἀκή”, with general allusion to the spiky ears of wheat. μυληφάτου ἀλφίτου is genitive after “ἀκτῆς”.

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

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    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 466
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