A Lemnian crime

Explanation

proverb said to have spread from the lawless deeds done against the men in Lemnos by the women. Or because the women carried off from Attica by the Pelasgians were taken to Lemnos; and they, having borne children, taught their sons Athenian ways and language, and these sons defended one another and got the upper hand of those born of the Thracian women; the Pelasgians, taking this ill, killed both them and their mothers. Or because the proverb spread from the foul smell of the Lemnian women. — "With Lemnian hand": cruel and lawless, from their lawlessness.