A differently-worded version of this proverb was given by
Sophocles, fr. 776 Pearson (= 709 Radt):
*)/aqws skia/zei nw=ta *lhmni/as boo/s, "
Athos↗ shades the back of a Lemnian cow". LSJ (s.v.
Athos↗; web address 1 below) glosses it differently - "prov. of those whose influence is felt at a distance, from the shadow cast by
Athos↗" - and, one is bound to say, more intelligibly. (Adler identified no textual corruption here, but it ought to be the mountain, not the cow, that is "made of white stone".)
For confirmation that the 2000-meter-high Mt.
Athos↗ (cf.
alpha 745) does, at sunset, cast its shadow as far as the island of
Lemnos↗ (cf.
lambda 448,
lambda 449,
lambda 450,
lambda 451,
lambda 452,
lambda 453), see OCD(4) s.v. (p.199).