i84 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



slew him. To this fact Attica and Peloponnesus 

 are witnesses. For it is to the ox that Buzuges ^ at 

 Athens and Homogyros ^ at Argos owe their fame. 

 I know well, answered Vaccius, the dignity of oxen, 

 and that many great things are called after them, 

 as busy cos (bull-fig), bupaida (bull-boy, lump of a 

 boy), hulimos (bull-hunger), hoopis (cow-eyed, great- 



of iron men took to eating the domestic ox (cf. Aratus Phae- 



nom., 134) which Cicero translates thus: 



Ferrea turn vero proles exorta repente est 

 Ausaque funestum prima est fahricarier ensem 

 Et gustare manu vinctum domitumque iuvencum. 

 Vergil (Georg. , il, 537) imitates Aratus : 



Et ante 

 Impia quam caesis gens est epmlata iuvencis. 



Aristotle in the Oeconomica calls the ox "the poor man's 

 slave " — ^ovQ avTi o'lKiTov toIq TrsvTjffiv koTiv. At Athens he was 

 not allowed to be sacrificed on the ground that "he was a 

 cultivator and shared in the toil of men." yewpyde ^tl kuI rdSv 



iv dvOpwTToig KafiaTUJV koivujvoi^. 



^ Buzuges was he who first yoked oxen — Triptolemus or 

 Epimenides. Afterwards it was the name of the keeper of the 

 sacred cattle at Eleusis or Athens. 



^ Homogyros. Both these statements Varro took from a 

 previous book of his, De gente populi Romani. His words 

 — or the substance of them — are preserved for us by Saint 

 Augustine (De Civ. Dei, xviii, 6) : Qui honor . . . delatus est 

 homini privato et fulminato cuidain Homogyro eo quod primus 

 ad aratrum boves iunxerit (Keil). There is another passage 

 (Isidor. Or., xvii, i), which seems to have escaped the com- 

 mentators : Primum ad aratrum bovis iunxisse ferunt quendam 

 privatum hominem etfulminatum nomine Homogirum. Quidam 

 autem Osirim dicunt huius artis esse inventorem, quidam Trip- 

 tolemum. 



