[Meaning using] the leaves of garlic[-plants]. Aristophanes in Wealth [writes]: "and we no longer wipe ourselves clean with stones, but because of daintiness [we use] garlic-leaves."[1] Amusingly [sc. said] instead of linen-cloths. Since they used to eat garlic every time, he says this because when they had become rich they looked down on their old way of life. And it is called garlic [sko/rodon] perhaps because it is some sort of "inauspicious [skaio/s] rose [r(o/don];" from the fact that it smells inauspicious.[2] Some [sc. understand] skorodi/ois as the stalks of garlic[-plants]. When they were afflicted by famine the Athenians used these things. And he does not [sc. say] this simply, but rather so that he might show that "we had undergone so great a change, that those things which we would gladly eat before, we now use to wipe ourselves clean when defecating." But perhaps he is talking about the stalk of the garlic. For that plant is like an asphodel, [sc. and thus] suitable for this. And surely if it has some sting, he might easily have said this by way of innuendo.
And elsewhere: "I am perishing, being robbed of my garlics."[3] He comes from the fields bearing a bundle of garlics and he is assaulted by some hungry foreigners who also steal it; to the extent that those who are robbed are 'perishing'. The Thracians not unreasonably take pleasure in garlic: for it is hot, and the Thracians live in a cold country.
Also [sc. attested is] a saying: "a garlic in nets."[4] The Athenians when intending to sail and go out [sc. on campaign] used to buy these and put [them] in linen [nets].
See sko/rodon under basani/sas ["having put to the test"].[5]