Book 14
76
But since we have here fresh cheese (τρόφαλις), the glory of fair Sicily, let us, my friends, also say something about cheese (τυρός). For Philemon, in his play entitled The Sicilian, says— I once did think that Sicily could make This one especial thing, good-flavour'd cheese; But now I've heard this good of it besides, That not only is the cheese of Sicily good, But all its pigeons too: and if one speaks Of richly-broider'd robes, they are Sicilian; And so I think that island now supplies All sorts of dainties and of furniture.
76
The TromilicanThere is a dispute whether this word ought to be written Tromilican or Stromilican. The city of Tromilea is mentioned nowhere else. cheese also has a high character, respecting which Demetrius the Scepsian writes thus in his second book of the Trojan Array—"Tromilea is a city of Achaia, near which a delicious cheese is made of goat's milk, not to be compared with any other kind, and it is called Tromilican. And Simonides mentions it in his Iambic poem, which begins thus— You're taking wondrous trouble beforehand, Telembrotus: and in this poem he says— And there is the fine Achaian cheese, Called the Tromilican, which I've brought with me. And Euripides, in his Cyclops, speaks of a harsh-tasted cheese, which he calls ὀπίας τυρὸς, being curdled by the juice (ὀπὸς) of the fig-tree— There is, too, τυρὸς ὀπίας, and Jove's milk. Eur. Cycl. 136.
