Arsenic Cheese.............???!

I was looking around a shop in Greece, an old-fashioned shop selling herbs, oils, and wines as well as local cheeses. A notice on the outside wall caught my eye: "Arseniko cheese". Arsenic? Poisonous cheese? I asked about the cheese and was told "male cheese". Male cheese? Another conundrum!

The word arsenic is from the Greek arsenikon, meaning yellow orpiment, the mineral arsenic trisulphide. Orpiment is from the Latin auripigmentum (aurum, gold and pigmentum, pigment). Pigment is from the same root as paint.

But there is another Greek word arsenikos, meaning masculine or strong. The cheese I had seen advertised was strongly flavoured mature cheese, not poisonous at all!