#and totally not helpful

“Clytemnestra’s language becomes overtly erotic in 1439ff. as F admits. She describes Agamemnon as ’the soothing thing (meiligma, used in Odyssey 10,217 of bits thrown to dogs) of the Chryseids (contemptuous plural) at Troy’. Then, with no justification — Cassandra had no choice, poor girl. — she lashes out at Cassandra’s reputation calling her, in a unique phrase ‘mast-rubber’ (histotribēs: attempts to emend this word are convincingly rejected by F, DP and R).    

Several editors (see F) have assumed a sexual kakemphaton here, but they have generally, like F, held that the less said about that the better: Ll-J, DP and R, find the reference to a mast unintelligible. But the fact that the terms ‘mast’ and ‘rubbing’ have clear and obvious erotic implications elsewhere in Greek literature (See G. L. Koniaris, W. B. Tyrrell, and E. K. Borthwick, in AJP 101-2 (1980, 1981), 42-4, 44-6, and 1-2: also Henderson 49, 161-4, 176 and Young as cited on 1056: to their references add the testimony of the Archbishop of Thessalonica, Eustathius 1760, 24-7).” 

 – Stanford, W. B., (1983:155) Greek Tragedy and the Emotions

Ahahhahahah. Prudish classics scholars totallybaffled by term literally any teenager could explain to them. What could it mean? Gosh, who knows. 

also, lol at the fact that scholars have been squeamish enough about this to actually try and “emend” (read: change the text to something they like better) the text.