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Re: You rang?
Oh Doctor, I'm in trouble -
(Well, goodness gracious me)Have I been wrong about Amaltheia all these decades? Thought she was the she-goat who suckled the infant Zeus and had a horn turned into the cornucopia for her trouble! Massage?? (Maybe the action of milking the virtuous beast?)
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...reaching for his stephoscope...Aha! My diagnosis: You are fit as a Strativarius!You are right, Amaltheia/Amalthea is the said she-goat (pls no gratuitous laughs about Greeks and bucolic quadrupeds!). She was always identified with plentiness and bountifulness (nudge-nudge wink-wink say no more!). Indeed, the Greek word for "cornucopia" is "to keras tes Amaltheias" (The horn of amaltheia).And now for the bizarre part.
Amaltheia is derived from the greek verb malasso meaning "to soften by manipulating". "Malasso" is also believed to be the anscestor of words such as the French "masser" and the Portuguese "amassar" (to knead) who are more recent progenitors of "massage".Excuse me I gotta go, I'm late for my massage...
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