Fragment 167
167Photius, in his Lexicon, about the ninth century A.D., says:—
‘Θάψος is a wood with which they dye wool and hair yellow, which Sappho calls Σκυθικὸν ξύλον Scythian wood.’
And the Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyl ii. 88, says:—
‘Θάψος is a kind of wood which is also called σκυθάριον or Scythian wood, as Sappho says; and in this they dip fleeces and make them of a quince-yellow, and dye their hair yellow; among us it is called χρυσόξυλον gold-wood.’
Ahrens thinks that here the Scholiast quoted Sappho, and he thus restores the verses:—
–⏑– Ζκύθικον ξύλον,
τῷ βάπτοισί τε τἤρια
ποΐεισι δὲ μάλινα
ξανθίσδοισί τε τὰς τρίχας.
Scythian wood, in which they dip fleeces and make them quince-coloured, and dye their hair yellow.
Thapsus may have been box-wood, but it is quite uncertain.