[231] ἐθύσαμεν, i. e. an offering to the gods of part of the cheeses, before they began to take them for themselves, cp. Od.15. 222 of Telemachus “θῦε δ᾽ Ἀθήνῃ νηὶ πάρα πρύμνῃ”. Comparing this with ib. 258 we find “θῦε” interpreted by “σπένδειν”. Similarly Od.14. 446“ἄργματα θῦσε θεοῖς”, and Il.9. 219“θεοῖσι δὲ θῦσαι ἀνώγει”
“Πάτροκλον ὃν ἑταῖρον: ὁ δ᾽ ἐν πυρὶ βάλλε θυηλάς”. This agrees with the remark of the Schol. T. “μέλλοντες ἐσθίειν πρότερον ἐθύσαμεν”. Lehrs (de Stud. Aristarch.82) gives as a rule ‘“θύειν” nusquam apud Homerum dicitur de immolanda hostia, sed de offerendis “ἀπαρχαῖς”, et “θυηλαί” sunt “ἀπαρχαί”.’ See Athen. 5. 7 “καὶ πρὸ τοῦ θοινᾶσθαι δὲ ἃ δεῖ ποιεῖν ἡμᾶς διδάσκει πάλιν Ὅμηρος ἀπαρχὰς τῶν βρωμάτων νέμειν τοῖς θεοῖς: οἱ γοῦν περὶ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα, καίπερ ὄντες ἐν τῷ τοῦ Κύκλωπος σπηλαίῳ ‘ἐνθάδε πῦρ κείαντες ἐθύσαμεν, ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ”“τυρῶν αἰνύμενοι φάγομεν”.’ The later Epicists did not maintain this accurate usage, as e. g. we have in Apoll. Rhod. 1. 420; 2. 156 “θυηλή” used of slaughtered victims, joined with the word “ῥέζειν”, the proper term for sacrificing. For a similar make-shift sacrifice, where water and not wine was used for the libation, and leaves were substituted for the “οὐλοχύται” of meal, see inf. 12. 356 foll.
