[1] In classical Greek the verb more commonly reflects its literal sense of 'sending down', 'letting down', etc. The figurative meanings here are typical of later Greek.
[2] Aelian fr. 70d Domingo-Forasté (67 Hercher). "The business among the Lydians..." is evidently a reference to Herodotus 1.48 (Web address 1), where King Croesus of Lydia (kappa 2497, kappa 2498, kappa 2499, kappa 2500) tests the oracles of the world by boiling the animals in question in a bronze cauldron and instructing his envoys to ask the oracles what he is doing.