Hippemolgi

HIPPEMOLGI (Ἱππημολγοί), mare-milkers,a general name applied by the Greeks to the nomad tribes who moved about with their tents and herds over the steppes of Northern Europe and Asia. Thus Zeus, in the Iliad (13.4), when he turns away his eye from Troy towards Thrace, sees, besides the Thracians and Mysians, other tribes, whose names cannot be made out; but are known as milkeaters, and mare-milkers. The same characteristic attributes appear in Hesiod (Fr. 63--64, ed. Marktscheffel), connected with the Scythians. (Comp. Strab. vii. pp. 300--302; Niebuhr, Kleine-Schrift. vol. 1. p. 365; Schafarik, Slav. Alt. vol. 1. p. 272.) The mares' milk was made into cheese (Hippocrat. vol. 1. p. 556, ed. Kühn), and, as Mr. Grote (Hist. of Greece, vol. 3. p. 323) remarks, probably served the same purpose of procuring the intoxicating drink called kumiss, as at present among the Bashkirs and the Kalmucks. [E.B.J]