mustax

• a kind of laurel, Plin. 15, 30, 39, § 127.

MUSTAX(μύσταξ), moustaches. The different parts of the beard [BARBA] had different names, which also varied with its age and appearance. The young beard, first appearing on the upper lip, was called ὑπήνη or ὑπήνη πρώτη (Diod. 5.28; Philostr. Sen. Imag. 1.30, 2.7, 9), and the youth just arrived at puberty, who was graced with it, was πρῶτον ὑπηνήτης. (Hom. Il. 24.348, Od. 10.279; Schol. in loc.; Brunck, Anal. 3.44; Aelian, Ael. VH 10.18.) By its growth and development it produced the moustaches, which the Greeks generally cherished as a manly ornament. (Theocrit. 14.4; Antiphanes, ap. Athen. 4.21; Pollux, 2.80, 10.120; Aristoph. Lys. 1072; Vesp. 476.) To this practice, however, there seems to have been one exception. The Spartan EPHORIwhen they were inducted, made a proclamation requiring the people to shave their moustaches and obey the laws. (Plut. Cleom. 9.) For what reason they gave the former command does not appear, nor how it is to be reconciled with the passages cited from Aristophanes and Antiphanes, unless we understand it to refer to the young only, which the succeeding sentence seems to imply. (Proclus in Hes. Op. et Dies, 722; Müller, Dor. 3.7.7, 4.2.5; Becker-Göll, Charikles, 3. p. 296.)

(μύσταξ). A moustache; also called ὑπήνη. The Greeks took pride in well-developed moustaches, as indicative of manly vigour (Theocr. xiv. 4; Pollux, ii. 80, x. 120). At Sparta, however, the people were required by the ephors to shave their moustaches (Plut. Cleom. 9). See barba.