On Simples, Attributed to Dioscorides: Introduction, Translation, Concordances (Studies in Ancient Medicine) 2022006176, 2022006177, 9789004513716, 9789004513723, 900451371X

Table of contents :
‎Contents
‎Introduction
‎1. The Nature of the Work
‎2. Title and Focus: On Simples or Euporista?
‎3. Sources and Compilation (1): An Alphabetical Source
‎4. Sources and Compilation (2): Additions to the Alphabetical Source
‎5. Relationship to Dioscorides
‎6. The Compiler
‎7. Date
‎8. Previous Scholarship
‎9. Future Research
‎10. Identifications of Plants
‎11. This Translation
‎Weights and Measures
‎On Simples
‎Book 1. External Medicine
‎Preface
‎Head
‎Eyes
‎Ears
‎Teeth and Gums
‎Mouth and Throat
‎Hair
‎Skin of Head and Body
‎Breasts
‎Testicles
‎Swellings and Tumours
‎Wounds
‎Skin Conditions
‎Lesions
‎Haemorrhages
‎Anus
‎Sinews and Joints
‎Book 2. Internal Medicine
‎Preface
‎Stomach and Abdomen
‎Fevers
‎Lungs and Chest
‎Intestines
‎Gall-Bladder, Liver and Spleen
‎Parasitic Worms
‎Reproductive Organs
‎Kidneys and Bladder
‎Poisonous Bites and Stings
‎Other Poisons (Chiefly Ingested)
‎Envoi
‎Concordances, Appendices, Indices
‎Concordance Of Medications 1. English To Greek
‎Concordance of Medications 2. Greek To English
‎Appendix 1. Divergences from Wellmann’s Greek Text
‎Appendix 2. Textual Notes
‎Appendix 3. Alphabetical Sequences
‎Bibliography
‎Index of Ailments and Body Parts
‎Index of Medications
‎General Index

Citation preview

On Simples, Attributed to Dioscorides

Studies in Ancient Medicine Managing editor Philip J. van der Eijk (Humboldt-Universitä t zu Berlin)

Editors Ann Ellis Hanson (Yale University) Brooke Holmes (Princeton University) Orly Lewis (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) John Scarborough (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Joseph Ziegler (University of Haifa)

volume 57

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sam

On Simples, Attributed to Dioscorides Introduction, Translation, Concordances

By

John G. Fitch

leiden | boston

Cover illustration: The cover photograph is of the Mastic Tree (Pistacia lentiscus), whose resin and other products are frequently recommended by the author of On Simples. Photo by John G. Fitch. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fitch, John G., author. Title: On simples, attributed to Dioscorides : introduction, translation, concordances / by John G. Fitch. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2022. | Series: Studies in ancient medicine, 0925-1421 ; volume 57 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2022006176 (print) | lccn 2022006177 (ebook) | isbn 9789004513716 (hardback) | isbn 9789004513723 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. De materia medica. | Medicine, Greek and Roman. | Materia medica–Early works to 1800. | Medicine–Early works to 1800. | Botany, Medical–Early works to 1800. | Herbals–Early works to 1800. Classification: lcc r126.d7 f58 2022 (print) | lcc r126.D7 (ebook) | ddc 610.938–dc23/eng/20220302 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022006176 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022006177

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn 0925-1421 isbn 978-90-04-51371-6 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-51372-3 (e-book) Copyright 2022 by John G. Fitch. Published by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill nv reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill nv via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents Introduction 1 1 The Nature of the Work 1 2 Title and Focus: On Simples or Euporista? 3 3 Sources and Compilation (1): An Alphabetical Source 6 4 Sources and Compilation (2): Additions to the Alphabetical Source 5 Relationship to Dioscorides 11 6 The Compiler 13 7 Date 14 8 Previous Scholarship 15 9 Future Research 18 10 Identifications of Plants 19 11 This Translation 22 Weights and Measures

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On Simples Book 1: External Medicine 27 Preface 27 Head (1–28) 27 Eyes (29–53) 34 Ears (54–65) 40 Teeth and Gums (66–77) 43 Mouth and Throat (78–88) 47 Hair (89–98) 50 Skin of Head and Body (99–124) 52 Breasts (125–131) 59 Testicles (132–134) 61 Swellings and Tumours (135–153) 62 Wounds (154–159) 67 Skin Conditions (160–170) 69 Lesions (171–197) 73 Haemorrhages (198–201) 79 Anus (202–217) 80 Sinews and Joints (218–235) 83

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vi Book 2: Internal Medicine 91 Preface 91 Stomach and Abdomen (1–17) 91 Fevers (18–28) 95 Lungs and Chest (29–41) 97 Intestines (42–57) 104 Gall-Bladder, Liver and Spleen (58–66) 110 Parasitic Worms (68–70) 117 Reproductive Organs (71–105) 118 Kidneys and Bladder (106–119) 127 Poisonous Bites and Stings (120–138) 132 Other Poisons (Chiefly Ingested) (139–168) 138 Envoi 143

Concordances, Appendices, Indices Concordance of Medications 1: English to Greek 147 Concordance of Medications 2: Greek to English 176 Appendix 1: Divergences from Wellmann’s Greek Text 203 Appendix 2: Textual Notes 205 Appendix 3: Alphabetical Sequences 208 Bibliography 213 Index of Ailments and Body Parts 215 Index of Medications 219 General Index 235

contents

Introduction On Simples is the most intriguing pharmaceutical work to have survived from the classical world. It is attributed in the manuscripts to the famous Dioscorides, but although it has similarities to his De Materia Medica, it is certainly not by him. Its very title has been debated. The work has usually been shrouded in obscurity: while the De Materia Medica has always been widely known and circulated, On Simples disappeared in late antiquity behind the walls of monasteries and libraries; it re-emerged only in the sixteenth century with the discovery of a single manuscript in a library in Augsburg, Bavaria. And finally On Simples contains valuable and substantial evidence about the content of earlier pharmaceutical works, but it does not reveal their authors’ names. Any work that has been wrongly attributed to a certain author, for whatever reason, runs the risk of being called ‘spurious’, and its author is typically identified as pseudo-Aristotle, pseudo-Dioscorides, pseudo-Galen etc. Even if these terms are used in a technical sense, they do inevitably carry pejorative overtones. Consequently such works tend to be devalued or disregarded. But as Vivian Nutton has said in regard to the canon of Galen’s writings, “the fact that a treatise is clearly not by Galen should not be a reason for discarding it entirely, for it may contain much that is valuable.” Such works, Nutton continues, “are an important resource for many aspects of ancient medicine and for Greek culture in the Roman world. They do not deserve the neglect of historians put off by the mere philological observation that they were not written by the great doctor from Pergamum.”1

1

The Nature of the Work

The modus operandi of On Simples is to proceed ailment by ailment, listing the medications which it recommends for each ailment in turn. The work has a two-book structure. Book 1 deals chiefly with external ailments, starting with the head and working down to the feet. Book 2 is concerned with internal medicine, starting with the stomach and abdomen, and ending with antidotes to poisons. General works on pharmacy in the Greco-Roman world tend to fall into two groups. On the one hand there are works that proceed medication by medica-

1 Nutton 2021.1, citing similar views expressed by Otto Brunfels in the C16.

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_002

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tion, explain the properties of each in turn, and listing the ailments for which they may be used; the best known treatise of this kind, though one among many, is Dioscorides’De Materia Medica. On the other hand there are works like our On Simples which proceed ailment by ailment, listing the various medications that can be used to treat each in turn. Galen in the second century a.d. provides examples of both types: his treatise on the properties of individual medications belongs to the first group, while the second group is represented by his treatise explaining “how one can direct the properties of medications appropriately for each part of the body”, starting with the head.2 In effect the two groups are complementary, in that each supplements the disadvantages of the other. Works belonging to the first group are not easy to use in the treatment of a particular illness, because the medications which they recommend for that illness will be scattered throughout such works. On the other hand, works belonging to the second group cannot conveniently provide explanations for the use of a particular medication, since such explanations would need to be repeated wherever that medication is used throughout the work. The consequence is that works in the second group tend to have a practical orientation, and to offer little in the way of theoretical explanation as to why specific drugs should be used in the treatment of particular ailments. This orientation towards practice rather than theory is explicit in the Euporista or Readily-Obtainable Drugs attributed to Galen. The author writes, “Therefore I do not propose to speak here precisely and scientifically about therapeutic method, fully furnished with the relevant theories, but rather to explain how even a lay person can promptly help those endangered or suffering, with regard to what is possible.” Again, a little later: “The most complete and accurate theory about them [the eyes] belongs to another work; the aim of the present work is to impart what is useful, with regard to what is possible”.3 The absence of medical theory from our On Simples will be immediately apparent. Most of its chapters, in fact, consist simply of lists, often lengthy, of drugs recommended for the ailment in question. True, in the chapter on periodic fevers with shivering (2.23) the author tells us that certain liniments, which he specifies, are helpful “since they warm the body and induce sweating”. Similarly in 2.12 he says a certain prescription “is marvellously effective for patients

2 These treatises are known respectively as De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis ac Facultatibus (“On the Mixtures and Properties of Simple Medications”) and De Compositione Medicamentorum Secundum Locos (“On the Composition of Medications according to Places [in the body]”.) 3 [Galen] Euporista, respectively 14.312 and 14.341. All my references to Galen are to the standard edition by Karl Gottlob Kühn.

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with internal obstructions and any pain caused by wind; for by belching and breaking wind they regain health.” But even this limited amount of explanation is unusual. For the most part the author clearly did not consider it appropriate, or even feasible, to provide explanations of how his many recommendations would aid the ailment in question. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that in many cases the explanation would have been readily inferred by his readers. For halitosis, for example, he recommends various scented substances such as myrrh (1.80). For reduction of the spleen he recommends a plant whose name literally means ‘no-spleen’ (asplenos, 2.63), and for wounds to the tendons (neura) he recommends a plant called neuras (1.157); the names suggest that each plant was widely regarded as effective for the condition in question. A present-day reader is also likely to be surprised by the wide range of drugs recommended by On Simples for any particular ailment. Because of the standardisation and wide availability of drugs today, we tend to associate any condition with a narrow range of drugs which are particularly efficacious for it. But the fact is that any chemically active substance is likely to have multiple effects, and multiple possible medical applications. In the ancient world one could not count on obtaining the preferred herb or mineral when required, and it was therefore necessary to be aware of as many alternatives as possible. In illness one had to use what was readily available: hence the phrase “with regard to what is possible” in the passages quoted above. The tone of On Simples is thoroughly businesslike and rationalist. There are no references to religion, and few recommendations that verge on what we would consider magic. Admittedly there is a magical component in the prescription of three leaves of cinquefoil or three seeds of heliotrope for a three-day fever, and four for a four-day fever (1.19–20); the same prescription is found in Dioscorides’ M.M. (4.42, 190). For the most part, however, our author indicates reservations about magical cures by saying that they are allegedly effective: e.g. “they say that nosebleeds are checked if withered mulberry flowers before falling are tied in a box and hung from the neck” (1.200.3).

2

Title and Focus: On Simples or Euporista?

The manuscripts agree in entitling the work Περὶ ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων, On Simple (or ‘Single’) Drugs. Because of the possible ambiguities of the English adjectives ‘simple’ and ‘single’, I have translated this title as On Simples. This title is in accord with the declaration in the preface of Book 1: the work is to be about simples, which are relatively easy to study and readily obtainable, and not about compound medications, which are more recherché in both respects.

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This definition of the subject is repeated in the preface to Book 2: “I have recorded the activity of simple drugs in two books.” However, Conrad Gesner, one of the editors of the editio princeps of 1565, changed the title to Εὐπόριστα (Euporista), meaning ‘readily-obtainable’ drugs. In the fourth century a.d. Oribasius was asked by a friend to prepare a medical handbook suitable for the layman, with “simple and readily-obtainable treatments”. He responded as follows: “If the writings of the wonderful Galen on readily-obtainable (euporista) drugs were still preserved, you would have from them what you desire; but since they have not come down to us, and the euporista written by Dioscorides [i.e. the present work] and Apollonius and all the others are completely imprecise, and seem to me to be neither safe nor adequate, I have therefore readily complied with your wish.” Clearly euporista in the second use here is a generic term characterising the content of such handbooks, and it does not mean that they all carried the same title. Some two centuries later, Aëtius of Amida wrote that for chronic cases of hupopia (black eye) one should use remedies “such as Dioscorides has written about in the Euporista.” It appears that Aëtius misread Oribasius, on whom he relied heavily, to mean that Euporista was the actual title of the work attributed to Dioscorides. On the basis of this passage in Aëtius, Gesner published the work under the title Euporista, and this title stuck until Max Wellmann restored the more correct title On Simples in his definitive edition of 1914.4 Nevertheless it is clear that On Simples has a close relationship to the genre of works that Oribasius calls euporista; indeed, it acknowledges as much by saying in its preface that a characteristic of simple drugs is their ready availability, to euporiston. The earliest author of whom we know in this genre is that Apollonius to whom Oribasius refers, nicknamed Mus (‘the mouse’), who lived in the second half of the first century b.c. and probably into the first century a.d. His writings are lost, but Galen quotes extensively from his Euporista: since Apollonius treated headaches “at the start” of the work, and treated ailments of the ears, eyes, teeth and throat all in Book 1 of the work, it seems likely that he adopted the ‘head-to-foot’ sequence, and discussed ailments of each part of the body in that sequence. Simp. does the same in Book 1, and so do other works in this genre.5

4 References: Oribasius Ad Eunapium praef. 5 (Raeder vol. 6 pp. 317–318); Aëtius 8.2 (Olivieri vol. 2 p. 404.20). Wellmann’s discussion: 1914.1–3. The ninth edition of LSJ (1925–1940) continued to cite Simp. as “Dsc. Eup.” 5 On Apollonius’ Euporista see von Staden 1989.543–544. Headaches “at the start” of the work: Galen 12.612. Ailments discussed in Book 1: Galen 12.475, 502, 582, 646, 814, 979, 995.

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In view of these similarities, is it possible that the compiler of Simp. drew on Apollonius’ work as a source? Let us take the treatment of hupopia (black eye) as an example. Apollonius recommends fomentation with seawater, and use of a poultice based on one of the following: wormwood, hyssop, origanum, radish, tassel hyacinth bulbs, linseed, silphium, marjoram, myrtle, fennel, unslaked lime, mustard, cuckoo-pint (Galen 12.814–815). Of these, only linseed, myrtle and lime are not employed by Simp. for this ailment (1.53). There are also similarities of detail; the fennel is to be used with a cerate; the tassel hyacinth bulbs are to be combined with egg yolk. In addition, cuckoo-pint comes at the end of the list both in Apollonius and in Simp., for use specifically in chronic conditions. But the majority of these remedies had no doubt been passed down through generations of pharmaceutical texts, and we cannot now say whether Simp. drew any of them directly from Apollonius. Of later works in the euporista tradition, we know of a medical text by Rufus of Ephesus written for the layman, and of a text by Galen which had already been lost by Oribasius’ time, as he records in the passage quoted above. The fourth century a.d. produced a cluster of such texts: Oribasius’ own work To Eunapius; a Greek text by Theodorus Priscianus, which the author himself translated into Latin; and the Latin text known as the Medicina Plinii. There is also the Euporista text preserved in the Galenic corpus, from which I quoted in the previous section; some of it may by Galen, but other parts are clearly much later.6 All of the surviving texts in this group engage with the implications of the term euporista, ‘readily available’: they are addressed to a lay audience, and envisage a situation where the reader is travelling, or living remotely, and does not have access to professional doctors—or does not trust them. This consensus illustrates the rather different nature of On Simples: it is not explicitly or implicitly directed at lay readers,7 it does not hint at distrust of the medical profession, and it regards the study of simples as just one branch of pharmacy. In these respects its title On Simples is appropriate and accurate.

6 On the Medicina Plinii see Hunt 2020, with an introduction on the euporista tradition by Kai Brodersen. The pseudo-Galenic Euporista, in three books, is found at Galen 14.311–581. Totelin 2021 believes, like some much earlier scholars, that Book 1 may be authentically Galenic, but that Books 2 and 3 are clearly spurious. Brodersen 2020.12–13 believes that Book 1 at least reflects the spirit and the world of Galen. 7 A recommendation such as “with an astringent decoction” (not specified) suggests an audience with some medicinal knowledge (2.54, cf. 1.202, 2.50.1, 2.53). Similarly “refrigerants” 2.126.3.

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Sources and Compilation (1): An Alphabetical Source

Many of the chapters in On Simples contain sequences of pharmaceutical items that are alphabetically ordered.8 There are some 135 such sequences in the work, containing some 1590 entries. They are listed in Appendix 3. The use of alphabetical organisation is not in itself surprising: Dioscorides refers to certain authors (unnamed) who organised their pharmaceutical works in this way, and Book 27 of Pliny’s Natural History, for example, consists of a list of minor medicinal herbs in alphabetical order. The striking feature of On Simples, however, is that in almost all cases the alphabetical sequences have been disrupted in some way. Some lists of medications are primarily alphabetical, but non-alphabetical items have been inserted into them, and/or tacked on at the beginning or the end. In other cases the order is so muddled that only partial alphabetical sequences survive. An example of the latter situation is found in 2.50.2: first comes an alphabetical sequence of eight items from alpha to epsilon (but even here one item is misplaced); then comes a run of 17 items where alphabetisation can be glimpsed but is thoroughly disrupted. More intriguing still, there is also evidence of deliberate attempts by the compiler of On Simples to conceal alphabetical ordering. In 2.113, for example, a sequence of 13 items whose initial letters run from pi to omega is followed by a sequence of 28 items with initial letters running from alpha to omikron. In other words, an original list running right through the alphabet from alpha to omega has been cut between omikron and pi, and the order of the two sections inverted. In 1.99 there are three alphabetical sequences, the first from alpha to beta, the second from mu to sigma, and the third from epsilon to lambda: here the original list has been chopped into three, and the middle section (epsilon to lambda) has been shifted to the end. There is another aspect to this chopping-up of alphabetical lists. It can be illustrated in chapters 2.79–80, which catalogue medications that draw out the menses and the afterbirth: those in 2.79 are said to do so “quite well”, those in 2.80 “more effectively”. The first list consists essentially of an alphabetical sequence from xi to sigma, and the second from alpha to kappa (albeit both exhibit the typical insertions and disruptions noted above). The compiler, then, is up to his obfuscatory trick of chopping up an alphabetical list and reversing the order of its parts; but here he has taken advantage of the process to give an 8 For a fuller discussion of this subject see Fitch 2022. Strange to say, the alphabetical ordering is unremarked in earlier scholarship, although it is a prominent feature of Simp. and an important clue about its sources.

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impression of greater precision, by claiming that the items from the first half of the alphabet are more effective. It is clear, then, that the compiler had a policy of disrupting and disguising alphabetical sequences, by cutting them up or by adding items out of alphabetical order. What could be the motive for such a policy? Perhaps he wished to conceal his indebtedness to a predecessor whose work was alphabetically organised. There may, however, be another explanation. Dioscorides in the preface to De Materia Medica criticised authors who listed medications in alphabetical order, on the grounds that this system separated medications and properties that properly belonged together. Perhaps the compiler of On Simples, who was probably a contemporary of Dioscorides, felt pressure to avoid such criticism. It seems likely, then, that the earliest stratum, so to speak, of On Simples consisted of alphabetical lists under each ailment. This stratum no doubt underlies even chapters where it is now invisible as a result of deliberate muddling: we shall see evidence below that these chapters too have undergone later insertions, just like the alphabetical sequences. Since the compiler treats the original alphabetisation in such a cavalier way, it seems improbable that he himself was responsible for it, i.e. that he had created the alphabetical lists de novo; more probably he had drawn them from some preceding work. The likelihood is that his source was an alphabetical catalogue that listed each medication in turn and itemised its applications. Under birthwort (ἀριστολοχεία), for example, this catalogue will have itemised inter alia its uses for periodontal disease, for fresh wounds and for spreading ulcers. One can envisage that the compiler of Simp. had a separate sheet for each ailment, including these three (respectively 1.75, 1.154, 1.190), and transferred ‘birthwort’ to each relevant sheet. This would result in an alphabetical list of medications for each ailment. This process, incidentally, could explain the odd placement of later additions to the lists, if they were added in the top, side or bottom margins of the individual sheets, and then inserted into the lists in those positions when a fair copy was made; in keeping with his new-found disdain for alphabetisation, the compiler made no attempt to insert these items alphabetically. Fortunately we can observe an example of the process just envisaged. Myrrh (σμύρνα / smurna) is listed in its own right (i.e. not as an addition to another medication) seven times in the surviving alphabetical sequences, but always out of alphabetical order. Perfoliate alexanders (σμύρνιον / smurnion) occurs six times, again always out of alphabetical order. In three of these places σμύρνα is closely followed by σμύρνιον, though they have no connection except a purely alphabetical one. Clearly, when the compiler was extracting material from the

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alphabetical catalogue, he accidentally omitted σμύρνα and σμύρνιον: once he realised the omission, he inserted the uses of these medications in the margins of the relevant sheets, and as a result they appear within the alphabetical sequences, but out of order. It follows from the above that the source of the alphabetical lists in On Simples was not Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica, since the latter is not alphabetically ordered. In fact something like 15% of the entries in the surviving alphabetical sequences of Simp. have no parallel at all in M.M., i.e. the medication in question is not used for a remotely similar medical condition. Even for the other 85% of entries, the parallel in M.M. is often only approximate: a medication may be applied in a different way (e.g. wormwood as an ointment for purulent ears at Simp. 1.57.1, but as a fumigant in M.M. 3.23.2), or used for a different condition (opium poppy used for prolapse of the eye at Simp. 1.38, but for inflammation of the eye at M.M. 4.64.4). It is also worth noting here that Simp. agrees with Pliny on certain treatments, or details of treatments, that are not found in M.M., which shows that they are drawing on a common source that is not Dioscorides.9 The source, then, must have been an extensive work which listed medications in alphabetical order—a work such as Dioscorides criticises in his preface. It will have catalogued, under each medication, the ailments for which it could be used, and the methods of application. It must have included medications derived from animals and minerals as well as plants, since such medications appear in the alphabetical sequences of On Simples. One candidate as the source of the alphabetical sequences is Crateuas (early first century b.c.), who compiled two pharmaceutical works: one was a Rhizotomikon in at least three books, the other a handbook in which an illustration of each plant was provided above a list of its medicinal properties (Pliny 25.8). Wellmann supposed that both these works were organised alphabetically. His argument was tenuous,10 but his supposition receives some support from the

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Here I list only instances found in the alphabetical sequences of Simp. ‘Ground-fig’ (χαμαισύκη) for breathing difficulty (Simp. 2.41.4 = Pliny 24.134); ageraton (ἀγήρατον) in sitz baths to purge the womb (Simp. 2.85 = Pliny 27.13); bark or leaves of grapevine (ἄμπελος / vitis) for bleeding wounds (Simp. 1.198 = Pliny 23.4); juice of basil (ὤκιμον) added to goose fat for ear ailments (Simp. 1.55 = Pliny 28.175); sage (ἐλελίσφακος) added to bitter almonds for coughs (Simp. 2.34.1 = Pliny 23.145); three-month duration specified for skin treatment with telephion (τηλέφιον) (Simp. 1.112.1 = Pliny 27.137). Outside the alphabetical sequences there are many more examples of such agreement between Simp. and Pliny on details not found in M.M. Wellmann believed that, of all the predecessors named in the preface to M.M., Dioscorides made use only of Crateuas and Sextius Niger. The preface criticises some predecessors

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fact that the ten surviving fragments of the handbook, preserved in the Vienna codex of Dioscorides, all concern plant names that begin with alpha. While this undoubtedly reflects the alphabetical ordering of the codex itself, it would have been easier for the compiler of the codex to access these descriptions by Crateuas, if they too were alphabetically ordered. It is conceivable, then, that the alphabetical sequences of On Simples provide a substantial testimony to the content of Crateuas’ work.11

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Sources and Compilation (2): Additions to the Alphabetical Source

The original stratum of On Simples, then, consisted of alphabetical lists of medications. Some of these lists survive in their alphabetical order, in toto or in part. In these lists we can easily identify items that were later tacked on or inserted unalphabetically; their numbers in each list are given in Appendix 3 (column five). One would tend to assume that these items have been imported from a different source or sources than that of the alphabetical items. This assumption is strengthened by the fact that 30% of the inserted items (108 out of 355) have no parallel in Dioscorides M.M., as opposed to 15 % of the alphabetical items. The process of insertion has not infrequently led to repetition, when the compiler failed to notice that an item was already present in a list. For example, τέφρα κληματίνη (ash from vine prunings) appears in its correct alphabetical position in 1.218.3, but it has also been inserted earlier in the chapter, out of order, between ἀμόργη and ἄφοδος. Similarly ἀπαρίνη (cleavers) occurs near the start of an alphabetical list at 1.57, correctly placed among items beginning with alpha, but then recurs later in the list between a mu and an omikron. In many other lists the original alphabetical order has been deliberately jumbled, over a part or the whole of the list. We can reasonably assume that in these lists, too, items were inserted or tacked on, though we do not have the criterion of alphabetical order with which to identify them. There is, however,

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for juxtaposing unrelated properties, and others for using alphabetical order; Wellmann thought the first criticism applied to Niger, since his fragments give an impression of disorganisation, and consequently the second applied to Crateuas (1897.21). Wellmann edited the testimonia and fragments of Crateuas in vol. 3 of his edition of Dioscorides, pp. 139– 146, and discussed the individual fragments at 1897.11–20. We know from the preface to M.M. and from Galen 15.134 that Crateuas did discuss medications derived from minerals as well as plants. Wellmann 1897.4 argued that this could not have been in his Rhizotomikon because of the title of that work; but this perhaps places too much weight on the title. Galen 19.64 tells us that Crateuas also treated medications derived from fish and animals.

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the criterion of repetition: if an item occurs more than once in the same list, one of the occurrences is likely to be a later insertion and from a different source. A classic example is 1.14, a list of olfactory stimulants, which includes liquid pitch (πίσσα ὑγρά) and later raw pitch (πίττα ὠμή). The latter reveals itself as an addition by its use of the Attic πίττα / pitta in place of Simp.’s usual πίσσα / pissa, and of ‘raw’ rather than the synonymous ‘liquid’ which is standard in M.M. and elsewhere in Simp. A possible indication of added material is provided by the formulae “also effective is” (ποιεῖ καί) or “also helpful is” (ὠφελεῖ καί). Here we must be cautious, since these formulae are often used simply to resume a list after a longer-thanusual entry for some item. But if these formulae occur at the end of a chapter, as at for example 1.20.3, 1.54.5 and 1.232.2, they may signal that something is being added. At 1.20.3 one of the “also helpful” remedies is unusual in being surgical rather than pharmaceutical (section of a vein under the tongue), which increases the impression of a disparate source. Similarly at 1.54.4 “also helpful is” introduces two distinctively Roman remedies, dormice and Spanish garum, both with reference to their Latin names. Another group of probable additions is represented by items that are introduced by ‘or’ (ἤ) and contain one or more imperative verbs. Here is an example, from the treatments for shingles: “or make a liniment of one oungia of sulphur and two oungiai of litharge ground up with wine” (1.161.3). Such entries tend to be tacked onto the end of sequences of more typical entries, i.e. those consisting of short phrases. They are notably more expansive and detailed; furthermore they often contain medicinal compounds of various items, and they are more inclined than other types of entries to specify quantities.12 Significantly, the recommendations made in these entries are rarely paralleled in Dioscorides,13 in contrast to the shorter, more typical entries. These characteristics combine to suggest that such entries are derived from a different source than other material in Simp. This pattern is illustrated in the chapter on preventing hair loss (1.90). Dioscorides recommends maidenhair fern for this purpose: one can use it with various lubricants as a liniment, or one can boil it and use the decoction (M.M. 4.134.2). Simp. gives the first use in almost the same words as Dioscorides. Later in the same chapter we read, “Or boil maidenhair fern in dark wine for a considerable time, and separately

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Examples include the following; each example does not necessarily contain all the characteristics mentioned above): 1.2.3, 1.19.1, 1.60.1–2, 1.74.2, 1.90, 1.112.3, 1.145.2, 1.161.2, 1.161.3, 1.166, 1.176, 1.180, 1.196, 2.30.2, 2.47.2, 2.68.2, 2.120.2. An exception is the recommendation of maidenhair fern to stop falling hair; but even here Simp.’s instructions (1.90) are much more detailed than Dioscorides’ (4.134.2).

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burn sweet flag …”; this matches Dioscorides’ second use, but it is given in more detail, and different detail, from Dioscorides, and is clearly taken from a different source. The hypothesis of a different source is strengthened by a linguistic detail. A poultice of dried root of iris (ἴριδις) is recommended for a chronic headache in 1.2.2; then in an ‘or + command’ entry at 1.2.3 a similar recommendation is made, but with the form ἴρεως pointing to a different source. The final chapter of Book 1 is striking in two respects. First, it gives instructions for cauterising sciatica patients—an oddity in itself in a work on pharmacy. Second, it delves into medical anthropology, describing how such cautery is carried out among the peoples of North Africa and of Parthia. This chapter stands out like a foreign body in Simp., and provides a further indication that the compiler made use of a variety of sources. In conclusion, it appears that the compiler of Simp. laid down an original stratum of medications for each ailment from an alphabetical source; we can glimpse this stratum where alphabetical sequences survive. Other material was added, no doubt from a variety of sources, by a process of accretion which disrupted the original alphabetical order. In addition, there was a deliberate programme of disrupting the alphabetical order by jumbling the order of items, and by chopping up alphabetical sequences and re-ordering them.

5

Relationship to Dioscorides

The possibility that Dioscorides was the author of On Simples, then, may be ruled out. As we have seen, Dioscorides explicitly criticises the alphabetical ordering of drugs in the preface to his De Materia Medica. It seems highly unlikely, therefore, that he would have employed it in another work. If he had inherited an alphabetical organisation of material from a predecessor, he would certainly not have allowed a half-hearted attempt to conceal it, such as we find in Simp., to stand under his name. Everything about his M.M. speaks of sophisticated and precise ordering of material, as John Riddle (1985) demonstrated in detail. Dioscorides is careful to distinguish between varieties of plants that bear the same Greek name. This is particularly important when some varieties are dangerous. In his discussion of henbane (ὑοσκύαμος) he notes that one type (with white seeds) can safely be used in pharmacy; a second type (with yellow seeds) may be used with caution if the first is unavailable; a third type (with black seeds) is absolutely to be avoided as toxic (M.M. 4.68). Simp., however, prescribes henbane some 19 times, without once making these distinctions. Similarly Dioscorides distinguishes between four plants called στρύχνον (night-

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shade): two are safe pharmaceutically; one has medicinal uses but causes mental distress in an overdose; one causes madness or death (M.M. 4.70–73). But Simp. in some nine places prescribes στρύχνον without distinction. One cannot believe that the careful Dioscorides would have recommended these potentially toxic plants without specifying the type to be used.14 Why, then, does Oribasius in the fourth century ascribe On Simples to Dioscorides? Despite the differences noted above, there are many similarities of approach and terminology between the two texts; they clearly belong to the same world, which is different from the world of the Hippocratic corpus, for example. They are probably also chronologically close, as we shall see below. And there are various reasons why a text might be ascribed to a prestigious author—“by accident, through negligence, or deliberately” (Petit 2021.xii). In fact there exist some 10 other texts attributed to Dioscorides, none of which is now considered to be authentic.15 The verbal similarities between these two texts are sometimes striking. On a prescription for intestinal worms (male fern with scammony), Simp. 2.68.1 says “the one intending to drink it should first eat garlic”; Dioscorides, “those taking it must first eat garlic” (Μ.Μ. 4.184). For a cough, Simp. 2.31.4 recommends “silphium juice taken with a runny egg”; Dioscorides, “silphium juice given in a runny egg” (M.M. 3.80.5). Simp. 1.125 refers to iron filings as “the powder from Naxian whetstone, produced when iron is honed against it”; Dioscorides has the same wording, with only a slight difference in word-order (M.M. 5.149). There are many other such examples. If we were dealing with non-technical texts, these similarities of phrasing would be evidence that one of the two texts is drawing on the other at these points. But a study of classical pharmaceutical texts shows that they are highly tralatician; in other words, it is quite possible that Simp. and M.M. are drawing on a common source or sources. Is it nevertheless possible at least to eliminate one possibility, i.e. that M.M. is sometimes dependent on Simp., or conversely that Simp. sometimes draws on M.M.? A comparison of parallel passages is helpful in this regard. For facial cleansing M.M. 1.84.1 recommends “the moisture found in the seed-capsules [of elm] when the leaves first bud”; Simp. 1.104 says simply “the moisture in elm seed-capsules”. For toothache M.M. 4.176.2 recommends coating a colocynth rind in clay and seething vinegar in it as a mouthwash; Simp. 14

15

Similarly Dioscorides 5.118 discriminates between five types of ἀλκυόνιον / alkuonion, with distinct medicinal uses; Simp. uses the term (in the form ἁλκυόνιον / halkuonion) mostly without differentiation, though it does sometimes distinguish one type, the Milesian. These spurious texts are listed and described by Riddle 1980.116–142.

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1.66.2 omits the rather important clay coating. On facial colour M.M. 3.59.2 says that cumin alters one’s skin colour to a paler tone; Simp. 1.106 says it alters one’s skin, but not in what way. In such cases it is clear that Simp. is characteristically abbreviating its source, with the result that useful information is lost. In view of this missing information, Simp. cannot be the source of M.M. In sum, it is clear that Dioscorides was not the author of On Simples. In addition, the possibility that Dioscorides drew material from On Simples can be excluded. The contrary possibility, that the author of On Simples, whoever he was, drew material from the De Materia Medica at certain points, is quite conceivable; in terms of chronology, that would identify On Simples as the later of the two texts. But in view of the tendency of classical pharmaceutical texts to show close similarities at certain points, it is entirely possible that On Simples is echoing another text or texts on which Dioscorides also drew.16

6

The Compiler

It follows from the above that we can say very little about the compiler of On Simples. Clearly he was a medical practitioner. He includes himself in this category by the occasional use of first-person verbs, e.g. “we use these remedies for headaches that have become chronic” (1.3), “We make use of these remedies for patients with phrenitis too” (1.6). He also claims in the epilogue that his compilation is based on practical experience of simples, though this claim is admittedly somewhat formulaic. The preface to Simp. indicates that he had come from elsewhere to Rome, and had been accepted into the professional circle of Andromachus. Conceivably he hailed from Asia Minor, like many medics including Dioscorides himself: the casual reference at 2.24 to a mineral from Comana, unattested elsewhere in Greco-Roman literature, may indicate local knowledge. On the basis of certain pseudo-Galenic texts, Nutton describes the process of “a wellconnected young doctor or medical student from the Greek East coming to Rome and attaching himself to a leading figure there” (2021.5). Nutton is refer-

16

Stroppiana (1973) attempted to solve the issue of the authorship of On Simples by attributing it to another physician called Dioscorides, identified as “the younger” by Galen (14.106 K). But this goes against the MSS tradition, which specifies that the author is Dioscorides of Anazarbus, and which is the chief reason for ascribing the work to a Dioscorides at all. Furthermore, “as far as we know, Stroppiana’s Dioscorides was not interested in pharmacology” (Oberhelman 1994.949).

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ring the the second or early third century, but Simp., if correctly dated, gives evidence of the same process in the first century. We can conclude that the compiler was a second-rank figure in the medical world. The brevity of his preface, in contrast to that of M.M., suggests that he had few thoughts about pharmaceutical practice or writing. In fact the sole general idea detectable anywhere in Simp. is that newly developing ailments are to be treated differently from established ones. His attempts to conceal the original alphabetical ordering of portions of his material are half-hearted and naïve. He is also sometimes less than honest in chopping up alphabetical lists and arbitrarily assigning different functions to different portions. The fact that authorship of Simp. was transferred from him to Dioscorides suggests that his was not a name to be conjured with.

7

Date

The work is dedicated to “the most honoured Andromachus”. Two prominent physicians of that name are known, father and son. The father, Andromachus of Crete, was chief physician to the emperor Nero (ruled a.d. 54–68). The son, also of Crete, composed three books (or a work in three books) on medicine, and flourished c. a.d. 70–80. There is no means of ascertaining whether the dedicatee is the father or son. But the dedication does helpfully place the work in the middle or second half of the first century a.d. This makes it probable that the author was a contemporary of Dioscorides, whose M.M. is thought to have been written in the middle of the first century or a little later. At the stage when he considered Simp. to be spurious, Max Wellmann (1903. 1140) postulated that the unknown author compiled the work in the third or fourth century a.d. with the deliberate intention of passing it off as by Dioscorides, and that he added the dedication to Andromachus in order to lend some verisimilitude to this false attribution. But it seems more likely that the unknown author did indeed compile the work in the first century a.d. and dedicate it to Andromachus (father or son), and that the attribution to Dioscorides happened considerably later. For Wellmann’s later claims that linguistic evidence supports a first-century date, see below on ‘Future Research’. In his monograph of 1914 Wellmann drew attention to the parallels between passages in Simp. and in Archigenes of Apamea, who flourished in the reign of the emperor Trajan (ruled 98–117a.d.). In some of these passages it looks at first sight as if Simp. is borrowing from Archigenes, with characteristic abbreviation and loss of detail (full discussion in Fitch 2022). That would place Simp. in the second century or later. But since the information and phrasing of ancient

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pharmaceutical works is often standard and traditional, one cannot be sure that Simp. is drawing on Archigenes at these points: they may be working from a common source or sources. On balance a first-century date for Simp. remains probable, though by no means certain.

8

Previous Scholarship

8.1 Moibanus—Gesnerus 1565 The story of the editio princeps is a dramatic one. Johannes Moibanus (1527– 1562) was a man of many parts, scholar, medical doctor and portrait painter. In 1558 he discovered, in the city library at Augsburg, a manuscript which contained the previously unknown On Simples, which it attributed to Dioscorides.17 Since the sixteenth century was a period of intense interest in Dioscorides’De Materia Medica, the excitement of this new discovery can be imagined. Moibanus started to prepare an edition of the Greek text, furnished with a Latin translation and commentary. Very soon he considered abandoning the project, doubting the ascription to Dioscorides and believing the work to be a post-classical compilation; eventually, however, he became convinced of its authenticity, and took up the task again. But then disaster struck. In 1562 his wife died, shortly after giving birth to their third son. This loss, combined with the strain of his work on Simp., led to a fever from which Moibanus died just four weeks after his wife, at the age of 35. Having previously consulted the leading scholar Conradus Gesnerus (Conrad Gessner) about his project, Moibanus on his deathbed charged a close friend to ask Gesnerus to complete the edition, and Gesnerus agreed. Gesnerus (1516–1565) had already published major works on bibliography, zoology and botany; he had drawn heavily on Dioscorides in his Historia plantarum et vires (1541) and his Catalogus plantarum (1542). On Simp. he took up the drafting of the commentary at 2.44, but he also revised Moibanus’ earlier work; conversely Moibanus had already corrected the Greek text and drafted a Latin translation to the end of Book 2. In other words, the editio princeps is a collaboration between its two authors, though not a simultaneous one.18 The most striking feature of this edition is its commentary, which remains to this day the only detailed commentary on Simp. It aims to amplify and clarify the medical recommendations of the text, using the methodology of the 17 18

The manuscript is now Monacensis gr. 389. The material in these two paragraphs is drawn from epistles by Moibanus’ friends, and by Gesnerus, that are printed in the front matter of the editio princeps.

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time, i.e. per auctores, through citations of relevant entries in Galen, Oribasius, Aëtius, and Paul of Aegina, as well as Dioscorides. A still useful feature is the system of four symbols devised by Moibanus to indicate the relationship of each individual recommendation to the De Materia Medica.19 Also of permanent value is the work of both editors on the corrupt Greek text, which they corrected by the requirements of sense and their knowledge of the classical medical authorities: “corr. Moib.” (corrected by Moibanus) is a frequent entry in Wellmann’s apparatus criticus throughout, and “corr. Ges.” also in Book 2. 8.2 Saracenus 1598 Because of the date of its discovery, Simp. was not included in the early composite edition of works attributed to Dioscorides, such as the Aldine edition of 1499 or Johannes Ruellius’ much-reprinted Latin translation, first published in 1516. The first composite edition to include Simp. was that of Janus Antonius Saracenus (1547-?1602), who had been Professor of Medicine at Geneva. For Simp. he included a commentary on textual difficulties, which made numerous further improvements to the Greek text, and a new Latin translation which is more stylish than the original Greek. Saracenus acknowledged the usual doubts about the authenticity of Simp., but he accepted the arguments of the first editors in its favour. A medical benefit that he saw in publishing the work was that it contains many remedies not found in M.M., but confirmed by Paulus, Oribasius, Aëtius and Pliny; as easily obtainable, these remedies could be prescribed for the poor particularly, to reduce their expenses. 8.3 Sprengel 1829–1830 The next edition of Dioscorides to include Simp. was that of Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (1766–1833), who was professor of medicine and botany at the University of Halle, and published widely in the history of both fields. His two-volume edition was prepared to fill a gap in Carl Gottlob Kühn’s collection Medicorum Graecorum Opera; it is actually not a new edition, but a lightly revised reprint of Saracenus. With regard to Simp., it shows no independent 19

The symbols are as follows: Δ The same medication is used for same ailment in almost same words. Δ/ Ditto, but the recommendation is better and more detailed in M.M. δ Ditto, but the recommendation is better and more detailed in Simp. // The recommendation is not found in M.M. for that ailment. These symbols were applied to each of the thousands of recommendations contained in Simp. Part of Moibanus’ purpose was to show that Simp. contained a considerable amount of material that was independent of M.M. The system remains useful since it shows at a glance how close any given chapter of Simp. is to M.M.

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knowledge of the all-important editio princeps, and its translation is that of Saracenus, unattributed. In fact Sprengel’s interests had shifted from medicine to botany after 1800. His chief contribution in the edition of 1829–1830, and one still valuable today, is his botanical commentary on M.M.: see below on ‘Identifications’. 8.4 Berendes 1907 Julius Berendes (1837–1914) was a pharmacist and an historian of pharmacy. In 1902 he published a German translation of M.M., with useful discussions of identifications of plants, animals and minerals (see below on ‘Identifications’). He followed this with a German translation of Simp., which was published seriatim in the journal Janus in 1907. This translation had minimal explanatory notes, and occasional longer notes on identification, which largely repeated what he had said in 1902. Both these translations were based on Sprengel’s Greek text; it was unfortunate that Wellmann’s far superior text appeared too late for Berendes to use it. 8.5 Wellmann 1914 Max Wellmann (1863–1933) was a classical philologist and historian of ancient medicine. He first regarded Simp. as a composition of the third of fourth century, deliberately foisted onto Dioscorides by means of the dedication to Andromachus (Wellmann 1903). Later, however, he underwent the familiar damascene conversion to belief in the work’s authenticity. Consequently he included Simp. in volume 3 (1914) of his edition of Dioscorides. In the same year he published a monograph, Die Schrift des Dioskurides Περὶ ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων, in which he vigorously defended the authenticity of the work Wellmann knew of nine manuscripts of Simp. and was able to use eight of them, in contrast to the single manuscript used by his predecessors. As a result he was much better placed to evaluate textual readings. This fact, combined with his deep knowledge of other ancient pharmaceutical works, means that his text of Simp. is superior to that of earlier editions. In his monograph he describes the individual manuscripts and analyses their stemmatic relationships. He then discusses the various kinds of evidence, historical, literary and linguistic, that bear on the question of authenticity. Much of this material has been assessed in earlier sections of this Introduction. While Wellmann writes with the enthusiasm of a convert to authenticity, and some of his arguments are clearly circular, his collection of evidence is nevertheless indispensible for any assessment of Simp.

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Future Research

The chief desideratum is a detailed commentary on the text. (There is also a great need of such a commentary on the De Materia Medica.) The primary focus of such a commentary would be to compare the therapeutic recommendations of On Simples with those of other classical pharmaceutical texts. It would be particularly helpful to make critical comparisons with texts of the first century b.c. and the first two centuries a.d., including Celsus, Scribonius Largus, Dioscorides himself, Pliny, Archigenes of Apamea, Apollonius Mus, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, and Galen. Some starting-points are given, at the chapter level, by the references provided by Wellmann below his Greek text, and at the level of individual items by the Moibanus-Gesnerus commentary. A useful first step would be to collect those numerous passages where Simp. and Pliny agree on a treatment, or a detail of treatment, that is not found in M.M. (A few of these are listed above on ‘Sources and Compilation’; see also Wellmann 1914.54–57.) An analysis of such passages might shed light not only on the common sources of Simp. and Pliny, but also on their working methods, and (through his silences) on those of Dioscorides himself. Such comparisons, if carried out rigorously and systematically, should make it possible to identify the distinctive features and tendencies of Simp.’s recommendations.20 A characterisation of this sort would provide a sound basis for making a therapeutic assessment of the text. This would need to be done, of course, within the therapeutic context of ancient pharmacy. To what extent do Simp.’s recommendations make sense within that context? To what extent are they responsible, and to what extent (if at all) wilful or arbitrary? It is also possible that modern scientific pharmacy can shed light on these questions. John Riddle has shown the possibilities of this approach in his 1985 study of Dioscorides (even while acknowledging its many pitfalls, pp. xx–xxv). Does the chemical analysis of certain plants explain why they might have been found useful for certain ailments? Of course, a chemical approach needs to be combined with awareness of cultural factors, and in particular of the placebo effect. Even if a drug does not contain an active ingredient that is relevant to the ailment in question, belief in its efficacy could have led to therapeutic benefit from its use. 20

For example, what proportion of Simp.’s recommendations are based on what might be called a doctrine of signatures? Dioscorides distances himself from the practice of giving three leaves or seeds of pitch trefoil for a tertian fever (3.109.2), whereas Simp. not only recommends three pills but has the dose taken thrice (2.19). On the other hand, Simp. and Dioscorides agree in using three leaves of cinquefoil, and the third joint from the ground of ‘holy plant’ (M.M. 4.42.3, 4.60.2, Simp. 2.19).

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Another line of enquiry would extend beyond Simp. itself to the Euporista genre. As we saw earlier in this Introduction, Simp. does not have the defining features of that genre, and yet it declares a relationship to it by asserting the ‘ready availability’, to euporiston, of simple medications. What exactly is that relationship? And how many of the 500-odd plants named in Simp. were readily available? What of seemingly recherché items such as camel’s droppings (1.91) or lammergeier’s stomach (2.117)? Were they sold (perhaps labelled ‘guaranteed genuine’) in the marketplaces of the ancient world? After his conversion to Dioscoridean authorship, Wellmann adduced linguistic details which in his view supported a first-century date, and indeed supported the attribution to Dioscorides.21 It would be beneficial if this evidence were to be reviewed systematically by a linguistic expert, who could also search the work for further linguistic evidence of date and authorship. For example, do the frequent changes in the prefix and tense of participles with no apparent difference in meaning (e.g. 1.150 καταχρισθεῖσα, διαχριόμενος) have some bearing on the date of composition?

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Identifications of Plants

As a result of the cumulative efforts of botanists and classicists over the centuries, it is possible to identify a good number of the plants named by ancient Greek authors.22 Of some 500 plants named in On Simples, perhaps 80 % can be given botanical identifications, as to species or at least as to genus, with reasonable certainty; these identifications are listed in the third column of Concordance 1. For the remaining 20% I have indicated varying degrees of doubt by use of the words ‘probably’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘uncertain’. Where the identification is uncertain (or where there is no suitable common name in English) I have simply transliterated the Greek name and italicised it, e.g. bettonike or libanotis. But if the Greek name has a clear meaning, I have sometimes used a literal translation in single quotes, e.g. ‘riverside’ for ποταμογείτων / potamogeiton and ‘bonnyhair’ for καλλίτριχον / kallitrikhon. The process of identification can be extremely challenging. It requires, first, philological expertise to cope with scribes’ mis-spellings and corruptions of unfamiliar plant names. Second, it requires mastery of ancient medical and 21 22

Wellmann 1914.43, 66–75; brief comments by Fitch 2022. A good brief discussion of the issues involved in identification is found in Hardy and Totelin 2016.93–95. For a detailed historical bibliography of the topic, see Touwaide 1997– 1998.

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botanical texts (some obscure and even unedited), and familiarity with the vast post-classical scholarship on them. Third, it requires botanical knowledge of the structure and appearance of plants, their interrelationships, habitat and distribution. A scholar who combines these abilities is Suzanne Amigues, who has published a multi-volume edition with commentary of Theophrastus’ Enquiry into Plants and his other works; she has also written many articles on related topics, collected in her Études de Botanique Antique (2002). Her identifications of plants are supported by detailed and persuasive discussions. Consequently, where Amigues provides an identification, I have almost always adopted it. Many of the plants in On Simples and in Dioscorides, however, are not mentioned in Theophrastus, and consequently we do not have Amigues’ guidance on them. One useful resource is Jacques André’s Les Noms des Plantes dans la Rome Antique (1985); although its subject is Latin names, a high proportion of these are simply transliterations of Greek names. André is keenly aware that a single name can refer to different plants in different authors, and accordingly he often provides multiple identifications. Although primarily a philologist, he knows the research of earlier botanists such as Sprengel and Fraas (see below), and gives bibliographical references to publications that could easily be missed. For the rendering of Greek words one turns instinctively to the great GreekEnglish lexicon of Liddell, Scott and Jones, known generally as LSJ. It contains entries for virtually all plant names found in ancient Greek texts. Their identifications, by both common and botanical names, were contributed to the lexicon in the early 1900s by William Thiselton-Dyer, a botanist and Director of Kew Gardens. The dictionary format precluded Thiselton-Dyer from explaining his identifications, though he did publish elsewhere useful discussions of 35 plant names. Among the vast number of Greek plant names, it was inevitable that not all his proposals would meet with acceptance. Nevertheless it is clear that a number of his identifications were simply wrong-headed, and they have been vigorously criticised by both John Raven and Susanne Amigues. In addition, many of his identifications are now outdated, as a result of changes in both botanical and common names. Consequently one must use caution in consulting LSJ for plant names.23

23

The 1925 preface to the lexicon at p.vii attributes the plant identifications to ThiseltonDyer. Criticisms of them: Raven 2000.5–10, Amigues 2003–2006 vol. 1 p.l. Amigues appears to attribute the identifications to Arthur Hort, editor of Theophrastus’ Enquiry into Plants in the Loeb Library; but Hort indicates (preface p.ix) that the identifications in that edition’s Index of Plants are entirely the work of Thiselton-Dyer.

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The work of two earlier botanists remains valuable, not least because they provide detailed discussions of proposed identifications. Carl Fraas was professor of botany at Athens from 1836 to 1842, before returning to Munich. The outcome of his residence was his Synopsis plantarum florae classicae (1845), which organised the ancient names under the Linnaean system of families, genera and species, from Papilionaceae to Gramineae. Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (1766–1833) devoted much of his life to ancient botany, for example in his Historia Rei Herbariae (1807–1808) and in his translation of Theophrastus (1822). In 1830 he writes, “Having begun these studies as a young man, I continued them in adulthood, and now that I have grown old, I shall not abandon them.” These words are found in his botanical commentary on Dioscorides’ M.M., which is in some respects the best source for his identifications, since it represents his latest thoughts, and draws on knowledge of the flora of the Balkans which was rapidly increasing at that time. On should mention also Julius Berendes’ discussions of plants in his German translation of M.M. (1902); primarily he draws on Sprengel and Fraas, but with independent judgment which sometimes results in original suggestions. On minerals he was the first commentator to particularise his identifications with chemical formulae. The work of both Sprengel and Berendes on Simp. itself has been discussed above in the section on ‘Earlier Scholarship’. Readers using the present volume and Lily Beck’s Dioscorides (2020) will find considerable differences between them in the common names applied to specific plants; a glance at the concordances of each volume will highlight these differences. Beck tells us that for the botanical identifications of plants she relies primarily on André, and secondarily on LSJ. For common names, however, because André gives French common names (or none), Beck draws heavily on the English names offered in LSJ. As noted above, these are now sometimes outdated. For example, she follows LSJ in calling acanthus ‘bear’sfoot’, but that name is nowadays applied to species of hellebore. Similarly for Thymus capitatus she uses LSJ’s ‘Cretan thyme’, though that is not a species name today. What is more serious, Beck sometimes adopts André’s botanical identification of a plant in preference to LSJ’s, yet retains LSJ’s common name, which refers to a different plant. For example, for bakkharis (βάκχαρις) she follows André in adopting the old identification Gnaphalium sanguineum, yet she Englishes the plant as ‘sowbread’, which LSJ uses because it identifies the plant as a cyclamen. Similarly she identifies aron (ἄρον) with André as Colocasia antiquorum, yet calls it cuckoopint (= Arum italicum) with LSJ.24 It is unfortu-

24

Similar examples, taken at random: 3.128 Fritillaria graeca but ‘man orchis’ (LSJ Acera

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nate that Beck’s translation, though useful in many ways, nevertheless suffers from these and other flaws that reduce its value.25

11

This Translation

This translation of On Simples is the first into English, and the second into any modern language. It has benefited considerably from the Latin translation by Saracenus (see above on ‘Earlier Scholarship’). My translation is based on the authoritative edition of the Greek text by Max Wellmann. The reader is encouraged to consult Wellmann’s text in combination with my translation: it is accessible at http://cmg.bbaw.de/epubl/online/wa_dioscurides_mat_med_lib_5_crat_se xt_nig_simpl.php?p=156 or at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6254651p/f168.item or at http://archive.org/details/b21459162_0003/page/150. On every page of the Greek manuscripts there are numerous corruptions that arose during the centuries of copying by hand. Inevitably I occasionally differ from Wellmann over the solution to such corruptions. These differences are listed in Appendix 1, and are reflected in the translation. Angle brackets ⟨⟩ in the translation mark places where it is necessary to make a conjectural insertion of a lost word or words into the text. They serve as a further reminder that a modern printed text or translation of an ancient author is by no means as stable or secure as it may appear. The footnotes to the translation aim to explain what might seem unclear or puzzling to a modern reader. Occasionally they indicate a possible alternative interpretation of the Greek original. Sometimes they record synonyms for a particular plant which stand in the Greek text but would be cumbersome in the translation. Where an explanation pertains to a particular medication (e.g. ‘axe-weed’ or ‘copper flakes’) I have tended to place the footnote in Concordance 1 rather than at multiple points in the translation. A note on wording: ‘juice’ (χυλός / khulos) does not normally mean fruit juice, but rather the liquid extracted from the leaves or roots. ‘Fruit’ (καρπός / kar-

25

anthropophora, now Orchis anthropophora); 4.9 Symphytum tuberosum but ‘low pine’ (LSJ’s name for Coris monspeliensis); 4.59 Lycopus europaeus but ‘vervain’ (LSJ Verbena officinalis). A reviewer of the first edition noted “the hundreds of typos that mar the production”. Such typos are particularly abundant in words in Greek font, and most of them have not been corrected in subsequent editions.

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pos) will often look surprising (e.g. “fruit of carrot”), but in such cases it has its botanical sense of the seeds and their container; there is also a separate word for ‘seed’ (σπέρμα / sperma).

Weights and Measures These equivalents are drawn from Berendes 1902.16. My thanks are due to Roger Bagnall and John Oleson for help with the symbols used in the Greek text for various measures.

Weights Obol Drachma Oungia Xestes Litra

0.568g 3.411g 27.29g 54.58g 327.45g

Volumes Kokhliarion (‘spoon’) Kuathos (‘cup’) Oxubaphon (‘saucer’) Kotule (‘bowl’) Xestes Khous (‘pitcher’)

0.012l 0.0456l 0.0684l 0.274l 0.547l 3.282l

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_003

On Simples

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External Medicine Preface The subject of simple drugs, most honoured Andromachus, is naturally more agreeable than that of compounds, since it is readily understood and its materials are readily available. In addition, the effect of each drug exhibited, being separate and not mixed with something different, is evident to those exhibiting and using it, and its interaction with particular ailments is easily understood— something that cannot be perceived in the case of more composite medicines. For their effect is not attributed to the distinct actions of individual items in the mixture, but to the inexplicable synthesis generated by the mixture. I am dedicating these books to you as one capable of judging them through the experience that you have of my labours, and because a recompense of this kind is due to a man who has welcomed me. I shall make a start with ailments affecting the head. Let me predicate that when I adopt remedies to be taken in drink for internal complaints, I approve them generally for conditions that are chronic and (so to speak) hardened, being well aware that fresh ailments are healed with common and simple treatments.

Head Fresh Headaches 1. For fresh headaches without fever, the following are helpful: embrocation with the oil from wild olives, or oil of rose, myrtle, almond, quince, wild grapevine flower. These are effective with vinegar, or sometimes with a mixture of juice of purslane, ‘everliving’, pellitory-of-the-wall, nightshade, green small caltrops, ‘mouse-ear’. Also effective is fleawort moistened with vinegar and rose oil, and fenugreek moistened in water and cooked briefly to a thick mucilage, used as an embrocation with rose oil and vinegar. Chronic Headaches 2. For chronic headaches the following embrocations are beneficial with vinegar and rose oil: hogweed; sulphurwort; chaste tree seed made into a paste with vinegar and rose oil; basil; Nepal cardamom; bay berries; creeping thyme; calamint; small fleabane; rue; bitter almonds; and the decoctions of each of

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_004

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these. They are effective when mixed with vinegar and rose oil. In addition to these, sap of scammony or mulberry,1 applied as a poultice to the forehead and temples, and sometimes to the whole head in urgent cases. §2 The following are suitable with barley groats or bread: mint, fresh or dried; purslane; leaves of henbane, nightshade, coriander, endive, knotgrass, ‘everliving’, watercress.2 These are used as poultices, mixed with vinegar and rose oil: chaste tree leaves; aloe; bitter almonds; melilot; myrtle berries; fruit of butcher’s broom; wild grapevine flowers; roses; dried iris root; wild olive flowers; black cumin; stavesacre with bay berries, especially for chronic cases; sesame seed likewise; darnel meal with goose fat or by itself for headaches that have already become chronic. §3 Or, after roasting cardamom, grind it, prepare it with vinegar and rose oil, make a poultice and apply it to the forehead; or hazelnuts and a little rue ground up with rose oil likewise; or myrrh, spikenard and cardamom in equal quantities, with rose oil; or blend ground origanum in vinegar and rose oil; or dry root of wild fig ground up with Aminnean wine;3 or an oxubaphon of ground-up iris; ⟨or⟩ seven grains of pepper with vinegar and rose oil. Remedies of Last Resort 3. When poured into the nostrils with honey, the following helpfully purge through the mouth—but we use them for headaches that have become chronic and do not respond to any of the other remedies: juice of pimpernel, of horehound, of cyclamen root, of anemone root, of squirting cucumber root, of lesser celandine root, of ivy leaves, of cabbage leaves, of white beet; and unguent of iris. The following dry items are ground up and poured in with honey: soapwort, spurge-laurel seed, dried iris, white hellebore, castor, soda, marjoram, pepper, stavesacre, black cumin with iris unguent, squirting cucumber extract with water. Other Nasal Remedies 4. It is helpful to fumigate the nostrils with dill, through the vapours it gives off. Also helpful, if taken at the appropriate times, are the drugs that induce sneez-

1 “Sap of mulberry” here and elsewhere in Simp. probably refers to sap of the Sycamore fig: see footnote on mulberry in Concordance 1. 2 “Sisumbrion, also called kardamine”. In Diosc. 2.128 this combination of names designates watercress, but it is the other sisumbrion, lesser calamint, that Diosc. 3.41 uses as a poultice for headaches (cf. footnote below on 2.127.2). However, Pliny 20.247 says both plants relieve headaches. 3 An Italian wine, made from a widely grown grape of the same name.

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ing. They are ⟨white⟩ hellebore, castor, pepper, soapwort, mustard, scrapings of rust, ground maidenhair spleenwort placed in the nostrils, and the herb called sneezewort. Anti-Phlegm Remedies Used for Headaches 5. Anti-phlegm remedies are also transferred, not unsuccessfully, to treat those with chronic headaches. The treatment involves chewing the following: spurgelaurel seed, the fruit from the ‘pears’ of caper,4 samphire, fruit of garden cress, mastic, mustard, pepper (round or long), pellitory and stavesacre with soda and pepper—but this burns the windpipe. Anemone root; deseeded raisins with pepper; thyme; hyssop; soapwort.5 Vapour Treatment and Douches 6. Hot seawater boiled with vinegar is of help as a vapour treatment. If we should ever be forced by excessive pain to resort to even more varied remedies, in addition to what has been mentioned we shall also make use, after shaving the head, of douches: decoction of Italian cypress, of bay, of dried opium poppy capsules, of chaste tree leaves and fruit, and of the heads of the common poppy. We make use of these for patients with phrenitis too, for they are extremely soporific. Catarrh 7. Streaming catarrh in the nostrils is checked by fumigation with asphalt; myrrh rubbed on the nostrils; bean meal in a gruel with garlic; and by smelling black cumin. Very helpful is the seed from the globules of Italian cypress, bruised with wine and sucked up in the nostril. Sneezing 8. Sneezes are halted by squeezing the nostrils and the veins at the inner corner of the eye with the fingers. Continuous sneezing is stopped by ground-up basil seed, and by smelling the herb itself.

4 This use of ‘pears’, repeated several times in Simp., refers to the pear-shaped flower buds of caper, which eventually produce caper berries. 5 These five items have clearly been tacked on, since they are in the nominative case and not in alphabetical order, whereas the preceding items are alphabetically ordered, and in the genitive.

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Head-Shaking and Heatstroke 9. ⟨For head-shaking, give lavender to drink in water or honeywater, and it will be relieved.⟩6 For children with heatstroke it is helpful to lay on the front of the head the leaves of the heliotrope called ‘scorpion-tail’; shavings of squash; the skin that covers the flesh of a melon; juice of the leaves of black nightshade with rose oil. Fever, Phrenitis, Lethargy 10. For those suffering in the head with fever, as for those with phrenitis and lethargy, the following are specifically suitable: chaste tree seed cooked with olive oil as an embrocation; bitter almonds with vinegar and rose oil; rue with vinegar and rose oil, and creeping thyme likewise; juice of ivy leaves; castor or sulphurwort or hogweed with rose oil and vinegar; rue and lightly roasted linseed made up with cerate and placed on the head and forehead. Soporifics 11. The following are soporific if set as a poultice on the forehead or brought close to the nostrils: fruit of basil or woolly carthamus; opium poppy sap; henbane fruit and leaves; those of halikakkabon likewise and the leaves of the ‘male’ kind of mandrake; bark from Indian ginseng root; leaves of bakkharis (they are fragrant); malabathron leaves boiled in wine and rubbed on the nostrils; saffron oil; metopion unguent; flowers of the henna tree; mandrake sap and root and fruit, and those of opium poppy likewise; castor; myrrh. Other Soporifics 12. These drinks induce sleep: one drachma of opium poppy extract with equal amounts of storax and myrrh—a dose is three vetch-seed sized pills; or two obols of mandrake with equal amounts of the aforementioned items; or the infusion of the roots, two kuathoi being the dose; or a vetch-seed sized amount of opium poppy sap in drink; or opium poppy leaves eaten; sap of wild or cultivated lettuce as a drink, and the plants themselves eaten. We use soporifics for chronic conditions also, if someone undergoing amputation or cautery should wish to be anaesthetised to the pain. 13. Sleep is induced by applying to the anus sap of mandrake or opium poppy, diluted and put in place with wool.

6 These words are inserted by Wellmann from Oribasius 5.430, who attributes them to Dioscorides.

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Stimulants 14. The following have a stimulating effect on lethargic patients, if applied to the nostrils: vinegar, white hellebore, mustard, pepper, castor, soapwort, hogweed, sulphurwort, seal’s rennet, kedros resin, liquid pitch, rue, habrotonon, charred lamp wick, cardamom, raw pitch, silphium sap, onion, garlic, galbanum, asphalt, nettles applied to the legs and forehead, a douche with much cold water ⟨or⟩ with vinegar, an ointment of ground mustard with vinegar applied to the legs and backs of the hands. 15. When used for fumigation, these are stimulants: lignite, castor, sulphurwort, asphalt, sulphur, galbanum, hogweed, sagapenon gum, horse or ass chestnuts, elephant’s nails or teeth filings, stag’s horn, rennet of seal or kid, dirt from a he-goat, crocodile fat, habrotonon, silphium. 16. Stimulants taken in drink are: the stone found in Samian earth; the infusion made with sawdust from the nettle tree; castor; fruit of the balsam tree with water. Dizziness 17. Sufferers from dizziness, too, are helped by the infusions listed above for those suffering headaches; and the same stimulants work for them as for lethargics. Madness For those who are mad one should also use the infusions aforesaid for headache. 18. Drinks that help those who are mad are: root and seed of horse fennel with water; one drachma of bryony root with water daily, or with honeywater; the stone found in Samian earth; one drachma of Libyan resin7 drunk with water. The same fumigants are helpful for them as were recorded for lethargics. Epilepsy (19–23) 19. Epileptics are helped if one rubs their scrofulous swellings up to the throat with weasel’s blood.8 It is also helpful to eat the cooked flesh of the weasel apart from the feet and head, and to drink its liver with water. Also helpful is to eat 7 I.e. terebinth resin (turpentine), imported from Libya (Diosc. 1.71). 8 Diosc. 2.25 writes that weasel’s blood “is a useful liniment for scrofulous swellings; it also helps epileptics”. The author of Simp. apparently misunderstands some such statement (pre-

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the ⟨roasted⟩ liver of an ass; this should be taken while fasting. Or mix a lion’s gall with honey and set it aside, and then give one kokhliarion with water for seven days, first purging as follows. §2 Make up with honey two obols of saffron, two obols of nard, one obol of black hellebore, four drachmas of scammony, two drachmas of soda, and give a dose of two drachmas with honeywater. Also effective is stork’s excrement with water; or, with honeyed vinegar, two obols of agarikon, the same amount of sulphurwort, and one obol of seal’s rennet, combined and ground up; or restharrow root in honeyed vinegar, reduced by boiling to one half. 20. The following are helpful taken in drink with diluted sour wine: fruit of the black poplar; one drachma of ammoniac incense (this draws off blood);9 seed of wild rue; the powder from Naxian whetstone, produced when iron is honed against it with olive oil; rennet of hare or fawn; hogweed with water; one drachma of bryony root taken daily for a year; dried root of the orangefruited strukhnon; six drachmas of balsam-tree fruit; § 2 or seal’s rennet with equine chestnuts, or the chestnuts by themselves; wild violet flowers; ⟨flower⟩ of Assian stone,10 especially for children; one drachma of cardamom; the infusion made with sawdust from the nettle tree; 30 leaves of cinquefoil drunk by themselves daily for 30 days. Also taken as a drink is the blood of a tortoise or turtle (⟨the flesh⟩ is also effective, boiled and taken as a lozenge); plantain eaten; squill vinegar11 swallowed down; silphium seed or sap taken with food (⟨one must⟩ drink honeyed water with it). §3 Also effective is this: fill a weasel’s stomach with coriander, dry it, and give doses of it with water or vinegar. Or scrape moonstone and give it; or an oxubaphon of the fruit of bladder campion; two kokhliaria of burnt ass’s hoof. Also helpful is cutting the vein under the tongue on the right side for a finger’s space; a poultice of ground nettles; and it helps to place the gall of a turtle in the nostrils. 21. This amulet gives considerable help to epileptics: if you cut open a swallow’s nestling from the first brood you will find two stones in the belly, one mottled and one plain. Tie the two, before they touch the ground, in the skin of a weasel

9 10 11

sumably originating in a common source) to mean that scrofulous swellings are a standard symptom of epilepsy. Perhaps an abbreviation of Diosc. 3.84.2 (on gum ammoniac) “it also draws off bloody urine”. “Its flower is the saltiness that sits on the surface of the stones” (Diosc. 5.124.1). Vinegar in which squill bulbs have been steeped (Diosc. 5.17).

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or flat-horned stag, and fasten them on the neck or arm. Let him keep this on continuously, and never put it on the ground. Take the stones in the middle of the moon’s waxing. If you apply this to a person in an epileptic fit, he will be roused. 22. Epileptics are revived by smelling mustard with vinegar, or by a fumigation with galbanum. And if you cut the patients’ body in any part and rub the flowing blood onto the mouth, they will straightway be roused. 23. Epileptics are identified by the smoke from burning pitch, lignite or stag’s horn; by eating goat’s liver, and by the smell wafting from it as it is roasted. Intoxication 24. Remedies against intoxication are: drinking in advance one kuathos of infusion of bitter almonds; eating in advance pickled roasted deer’s ⟨liver⟩; or drinking in advance wormwood wine, or taking myrtle wine likewise, and eating the myrtle berries ⟨themselves⟩ in advance, and drinking decoction of rue. 25. If drunk afterwards, the following quell drunkenness: decoction of ‘small centaury’; seed of ‘holy plant’ drunk with water; and eating cabbage and rhaphanos. Dangers for the Head 26. With regard to ailments of the head, one must carefully watch out for things that affect it, and often lead its condition into relapses and severe states. ⟨Those⟩ taken in drink are chaste tree seed, wormwood juice, and sweet milk; taken as food, acorns, black olives, fruit of the strawberry tree if eaten, and bitter vetch seed (the last even paralyses the limbs frequently). § 2 Items that affect the head even more, so as to induce stupor, are myrrh taken in drink, frankincense (even causes madness), clusters of ivy berries (also confuse the intellect), fruit of the club-rush called euripic12 (⟨causes stupor⟩, such that it often impairs the intellect), saffron, sulphurwort, and dried cyclamen drunk with wine. A little storax taken in drink relieves melancholy, but a large amount produces ⟨troubled sleep⟩.

12

Beck in her footnote on Diosc 4.52 suggests that the name may mean ‘of canals/ditches’ or specifically ‘of the Euripus strait’.

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27. Troubled sleep results from drinking the fruit of puknokomon with wine or that of ‘lion’s-foot’ likewise, or eating a lot of bruised beans. 28. For those who are continually throttled by nightmares13 a cure is provided by frequently drinking 15 of the black seeds of peony14 with water.

Eyes Discharge, Inflammation, Ulcers (29–36) 29. If eyes are tending to suffer from a flux, it is checked by rinsing with plenty of cold water, sometimes with the addition of vinegar, particularly in summer. Worn around the neck, root of small caltrops and likewise of knotgrass permanently prevent ophthalmia.15 If people drink small pomegranate flowers that have not yet opened, it appears that they are kept free of ophthalmia for a year. 30. For inflammations of the eyes, these poultices are suitable: a poultice of barley groats with plantain; leaves of bramble or plantain or ‘mouse-ear’ or fresh small caltrops, purslane, ‘everliving’, Nepal cardamom, daylily, violet, castor-oil tree; leaves of toadflax; leaves of knotgrass, endive, celery, coriander; ground-up leaves of Italian cypress; shavings of colocynth; flesh of melon; tender leaves of rush; leaves of henbane; quince flowers; §2 decoction of opium poppy capsules as a douche, and the capsules themselves ground up as a poultice; fresh butter applied with wool; cabbage leaves applied warm; saffron with melilot and grape syrup; leaves of mullein cooked with wine, combined with finest meal made from barley groats; habrotonon with cooked quince; fresh cheese ground up. 31. As poultices placed on the forehead, these are helpful: beet with a little ground-up alum; leaves of malabathron simmered in wine; bean meal with warm water; flesh of melon; leaves of rue boiled in wine. 32. Swellings are soothed by ajwain with linseed; root of dill ground up with water; bean meal with ground-up frankincense and the white of an egg. 13 14 15

A nightmare (ἐφιάλτης) was “conceived as a throttling demon” (LSJ). Diosc. 3.140 distinguishes the black from the red (unripe?) seeds of peony; the latter are used below at Simp. 2.87.1. In Greek usage ophthalmia is characterised chiefly by discharge from the eyes.

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33. Specifically effective for the synchysis and inflammation arising from a blow is the fruit of thorny burnet, cooked in wine, ground up and applied. 34. Fluxes are halted by adhesive plasters applied to the forehead: egg white, fine wheatmeal, frankincense, mixed together and smeared on a linen cloth; or ⟨the⟩ soot from commercial kitchens softened with saliva as a liniment. This for inflammations and fluxes: one drachma of juice of asphodel root, one drachma of saffron, one drachma of myrrh, two and a half xestai of old grape syrup: cook until they are combined and have the thickness of a liniment. Also effective is juice of red horned poppy with water; saffron with milk; extracted juice of hemlock; extract of buckthorn; boiled juice of roses. 35. The following instillations, which are simple and uncomplicated, are helpful in disposing quickly of cases of epiphora, and cleansing ulcers and restoring flesh: metal oxide and ⟨silphium⟩ sap mixed together in equal quantities to form pastilles; juice of ‘everliving’ and purslane instilled in their fresh state, or formed as pastilles with half quantities of gum and metal oxide as ointment; and juice of plantain, juice of Egyptian acacia, juice of red horned poppy, ⟨juice⟩ of basil with wine. §2 Excessive pain is stopped by saffron with milk; metal oxide with expressed juice of hemlock; opium likewise; burnt copper; ⟨haematite⟩ with woman’s milk, particularly when instilled in children’s eyes. The following embrocation is extremely effective: equal quantities of Parnassian agrostis and melilot, a half quantity of myrrh, a one-third quantity of pepper and frankincense, and a suitable quantity of wine and honey: boil in a copper vessel, and use. 36. For chronic ulcers and fluxes, the following are suitable when ground up as liniments: milkstone, the stone called thuites, lapis lazuli with milk, burnt copper with milk; sap of wild lettuce with woman’s milk (this also treats burns); extracted juice of olive leaves; pipe clay with milk (this is ⟨also⟩ effective for ulcers and for burns). As a drink, cumin halts chronic fluxes when taken with wine and water. Special Conditions of the Eyeball (37–39) 37. Bloody suffusions are treated with a liniment consisting of fresh blood of a pigeon, turtle dove, partridge or woodpigeon; woman’s milk with frankincense; kermes oak gall with milk likewise; haematite with woman’s milk; hyssop ground up, tied in a linen cloth, and plunged in hot water, with which the eye is fomented; asphalt and frankincense in equal quantities as a fumigation.

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38. Prolapses of the eyes are treated with poultices of linseed and fenugreek cooked with honeywater, if there is pain. But if the pain has passed its peak or has not occurred, one must have recourse immediately to medications with astringent and cooling properties, such as: bramble leaves; melilot with grape syrup and yolk of a boiled egg and saffron; bean meal with roses; linseed with water and frankincense and myrrh; black cumin ground up with barley groats; opium poppy extract with yolk of a baked egg and cerate; rue with barley groats. 39. Cases of staphyloma are dealt with by wiping on the moist part of a fresh blister beetle that has been crushed, or the beetle itself. Reduced Vision (40–43) 40. These liniments remove matter that dims the eyes ⟨and⟩ albugo and opacity and cloudiness, and they confer sharp vision on the dim-sighted: extracted juice of yellow iris; ground-up seed of libanotis with milk; instillation of juice of yellow horned poppy leaves, or of the flowers as well (this removes albugo in cattle too); juice of the root bark and fruit of halikakkabon likewise, or its sap with honey; §2 sap of sulphurwort likewise; sagapenon gum likewise; juice of anemone likewise; seed of wild annual clary likewise; kestrels’ dung likewise; exuded sap of the African olive; white hellebore; burnt woolin-the-grease; juice of resin spurge; burnt rust; ivy; cinnamon; willow juice or sap; juice of ‘small centaury’; pumice baked and ground up; onion juice; juice of cyclamen root; juice of fennel root; juice of black cumin or lemon balm; §3 juice of groundsel; juice of unripe grapes; silphium sap; opopanax gum; juice of wild rue; juice of dragon arum root; juice of wild lettuce; wormwood ground up; juice of the herb lotos;16 juice of wall germander; juice of basil; juice of horehound; soda, ginger, soapwort, burnt alum, haematite, coral, burnt snail, ash of burnt swallow nestlings—each of these well ground up with Attic honey; §4 ebony filings with wine; a pure boy’s urine boiled in a copper vessel with honey; sediment of human urine with henna flower oil; groundup flower of copper applied with olive oil; old olive oil; balsam-tree sap and henna flower oil mixed in equal quantities; pitch oil; sakkharis; fat of river fish melted in the sun and mixed with honey; galls of wild partridge, of the ‘fine-named’ fish, of scorpion fish, of turtle, of hyena, of wild goat, each with honey.

16

The reference is to what Diosc. 4.110 calls the horticultural lotos, and recommends for sharpening the eyesight.

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41. Specific liniments for clearing off scars are: Milesian halkuonion17 with honey; gum ammoniac triturated with wine and honey; root of the round anemone18 with honey; juice of the scarlet pimpernel likewise; juice of wild rue as a liniment. 42. The following, taken as food, are appropriate for the dim-sighted: cooked flesh of viper, thyme, uncooked stalks of cabbage, rhaphanos, fennel, onion, garden cress seed, and in general all sharp foods, squill vinegar. But one must guard against those things that strengthen dim-sightedness if eaten: they are dill and its seed, lentils, black olives, lettuce, headed leek, celery, basil. 43. Day-blindness19 is helped by these liniments: blood of turtle dove, woodpigeon, pigeon, partridge or wild she-goat and he-goat; the juices that run from a goat’s liver in cooking as a liniment, and the liver itself as food, and the steam from its cooking as a fumigant for the open eyes; also helpful is ground-up extract of squirting cucumber as a liniment with honey. Eyelids and Eyelashes (44–50) 44. Pterygia20 on the eyes are dissolved by administration of the following: pumice baked and ground up, cuttlefish shell ground up, salt and calamine ground up, all in equal quantities. Rough eyelids are smoothed by these materials, ground up as liniments with honey—but one must rinse with water after use of the liniment, until they stop smarting: verdigris and burnt dross of iron; burnt copper sulphate; burnt copper ore; burnt rock alum; §2 juice of unripe grapes; flakes of copper and iron; calamine burnt and quenched in wine; burnt alum of any kind, especially split alum; burnt lanolin; sediment of a man’s urine with henna myrrh. The calluses that evert the eyelids should be abraded with rough leaves of the wild fig or with smilion salve or cuttlefish shell formed into an eye salve, or rust made up with gum into an eye salve. 45. Falling eyelashes and pitted eyelids are helped by a liniment of boiled olivelees; or ⟨Indian⟩ lukion; azurite (⟨which⟩ also encourages hair growth as a liniment with water); juice of olive tree foliage; iron rust pounded for several

17 18 19 20

See footnote on halkuonion in “Animal and Human Products” in Concordance 1. There are various types of anemone in Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Pliny, but none characterised as ‘round’. I.e. hemeralopia, the inability to see clearly in daylight. Here the word refers to overgrowths of tissue from the inner corner of the eye.

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days in the sun with wine and myrrh, ⟨and⟩ formed into an eye salve; onion juice made up with metal oxide; copper flakes; or light calamine made up with honey and burnt in a new vessel sealed with ceramic clay, then baked on a charcoal fire after an equal quantity of burnt copper and a half quantity of antimony have been mixed with it. 46. You will cure dry eye and itching by applying ground-up itch-salve; or copper flakes, ground up and washed, with burnt calamine and pepper; or aloe with pepper; or dry iron rust; or juice of unripe grapes, dried and ground up likewise. 47. Leprous conditions of the eyelids are healed with a liniment of fig tree sap. 48. Phthiriasis on the eyelids and eyebrows is treated with a liniment of realgar or stavesacre with honey or water. 49. Stabbing eyelashes21 that occur without chronic flux, once plucked out, are generally prevented from growing if these liniments are used immediately after plucking: fresh blood of the green frogs, by itself or mixed with atractylis that has been burnt until carbonised; or blood of bed bugs by itself; or juice of the fumitory mixed with gum; or pickled clams burnt and ground up with kedros resin; ⟨or⟩ ash of burnt lotos; or the phorime kind of alum. 50. Eyelashes that grow inwards or sideways ⟨are glued⟩ by mastic placed onto them with a heated probe, so that they are glued in their proper place; or by asphalt likewise, or stone glue22 likewise, or the glutinous part of a snail taken up on a needle, or gum succory likewise. Lacrimal Fistulas 51. Lacrimal fistulas are treated, as long as the bone is not deeply destroyed, by the following: leaves of chamomile chewed and applied; juice of the ovate goatgrass23 that grows among the grain, used with meal of spring wheat as a poultice; leaves of plantain chewed and applied. Or soak ground-up mallow leaves with bull’s gall to make a moist compound, apply a linen pad ⟨or⟩ cloth and moisten it with the medication; as it dries, change it twice or thrice each 21 22 23

The condition treated in 1.49–50 is now called trichiasis. “A mixture of marble or Parian stone and bull’s hide glue” (Diosc. 5.145). The plant has the same name (αἰγίλωψ / aigilōps) as the medical condition being discussed.

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day. §2 Or chew the mallow leaves themselves ⟨and apply them⟩ with salt, and when the fistulas open up, use the mallow ⟨itself⟩24 ground up until scars form. Or chew the flesh of walnuts and apply, or myrtles likewise, or wild grapes likewise; ⟨use⟩ the leaves of ‘mouse-ear’ likewise with salt. ⟨Also⟩ effective is black nightshade, and especially the nightshade called halikakkabos, low-growing, with red fruit in bladders;25 § 3 or frankincense and pigeon excrement ground up and mixed (this hardens and remains in place until scars form); or ‘everliving’, by itself or with honey; split alum made up with as much turpentine as possible; propolis and turpentine and groats of spelt in equal quantities on a lint pad; or salt ⟨or⟩ mastic softened with myrrh oil; or frankincense powder made up with the milky juice of sow-thistle. Also effective are burnt acorns with vinegar, or grapevine ash likewise, or bitter vetch seed with honey, or fat dried figs softened with equal quantities of Bruttian pitch.26 Cysts 52. Cysts on the eyelids are dispersed by a poultice of cooked wild figs, or the leaves of the fig tree. Black Eye 53. These poultices remove black eye and livid marks: anise with Attic honey; likewise origanum, bark of rhaphanos,27 marjoram, these with honey; burnt garlic with honey; root of bryony as a liniment with wine; tassel hyacinth as a poultice with egg yolks; wormwood likewise; meal of beans or darnel; cumin seed with salt and olive oil; seawater as a fomentation; deadly carrot juice used briefly as a liniment, or the root with cerate; § 2 meal of lupins with barley groats; calamint simmered in wine; walnut flesh ground up; wild cumin masticated and used with vinegar and honey or raisins; fennel seed with cerate; mustard with cerate or honey; silphium root with olive oil; or hyssop as a poultice, or tied in a linen cloth, with the package dipped in hot water and used to foment the black eye. §3 But with all the liniments one should foment after their removal; for this disperses the swelling and the livid marks together. And 24 25 26 27

I.e. without salt: Wellmann’s insertion from Aëtius and Diosc. 2.118. Above, ⟨and apply them⟩ is either to be understood, or has been omitted by scribal error. A reference to the inflated calyx of Physalis alkekengi (Physalis means ‘bladder-plant’). Bruttian pitch (named for Bruttium, the toe of Italy) was processed by boiling, and was more viscous and greasy than regular pitch (Diosc. 1.72.5, Pliny 16.53–54). ‘Bark of rhaphanos’ may be an error by the compiler or a transcriptional error for ‘bark (i.e. peel) of rhaphanis’ (radish), which is used for black eye by Apollonius ap. Galen 12.815 and by Diosc. 2.112.1. For the possible confusion cf. Simp. 1.191 with footnote.

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besides, there is a poultice of salty cheese; this removes the marks straightway. But if they remain, onion juice should be mixed in. They are also removed by applying cuckoo-pint root, or powdered cuttlefish shell as a liniment with vinegar, or mustard made up with cerate.

Ears Pain and Inflammation 54. Pain and inflammation around the ears are soothed by these drops, used warm: juice of pellitory-of-the-wall;28 that of ‘mouse-ear’ likewise; juice of Achillea or mint with honeywater; juice of dragon arum dissolved in olive oil; juice of pellitory-of-the-wall with rose oil; juice of fresh seeds of hemp; juice of ivy berry clusters with rose oil, poured in the opposite ear also; juice from shavings of colocynth likewise; juice of white poplar leaves likewise, with rose oil; juice of narcissus leaves likewise, or of the root; § 2 juice of fresh origanum with woman’s milk; juice of rue or knotgrass heated in a pomegranate shell; juice of leek leaves with rose oil; juice of beet; juice of hogweed flowers; sap of sulphurwort with rose oil or with opium poppy extract; juice of willow leaves. Fox fat warmed and dripped in; quarried salt ground up with honey; oil of almond, iris, bay, castor oil plant, saffron, sesame, henbane (the almond oil with a little aloe and saffron); frankincense fruit with almond oil likewise; § 3 the bitter inside of Egyptian beans with rose oil; copper burnt and ground up with vinegar and rose oil; frankincense with wine; opium poppy extract with myrrh, rose oil, saffron and woman’s milk; urine of an ass, bull, wild boar or goat with rose oil; pitch oil; kedros resin with rose oil; alum made up with juice of knotgrass or pomegranate; §4 nard made up with Libyan snails29 and poured in after being cooked. Also helpful is tallow from the dormouse which is called glēris ⟨in Latin⟩,30 and Spanish garum which is called sokiōron,31 these poured in, or the insides of 28

29 30 31

The name παρθένιον / parthenion, used here, can refer either to feverfew (Diosc. 3.138) or pellitory-of-the-wall (Diosc. 4.85). Since Diosc. uses the latter but not the former for earache, I take it to be the reference here. Pellitory-of-the-wall is repeated two lines below under its synonym ἑλξίνη / helxīnē, but such repetitions are not uncommon in Simp. Diosc. 2.9 lists snails from Libya (i.e. NE Africa) as among the best available. The standard nominative in Latin is glīs, genitive glīris. I.e. garum sociorum, a highly regarded and expensive garum produced at Carthago Nova (modern Cartagena): Pliny 31.94.

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domestic cockroaches ground up and used as drops with rose oil; or woodlice ground up with rose oil or olive oil and heated; or a snakeskin cooked in olive oil or unguent with a capsule of opium poppy; § 5 a spider ground up with rose oil and vinegar. Oak gall ground up, tied in linen cloth and simmered in wine is an analgesic. Helpful too is cold water poured in the opposite ear, and the juices from roast beef poured in the painful ear, and kedros resin mixed with unguent of nard, either to an equal amount or to a double amount. Burst Eardrum 55. When bursting of the ears occurs, the following are appropriately infused: anise with rose oil; juice of cleavers; juice of plantain; juice of nightshade likewise; kedros resin melted with terebinth resin; juice of sow-thistle, and the root cooked with olive oil and pomegranate peel; ox gall with milk or leek juice; basil juice with goose fat. Pain and Ringing in the Ears 56. These vapours are introduced through a reed tube for pain and ringing in the ears: decoction of wormwood ⟨or⟩ hyssop or bay berries or habrotonon, brought to a boil with vinegar by means of heated pebbles; or hot seawater, ⟨or⟩ unfired sulphur burnt for fumigation. One needs to put a lid on the vessel and seal its edges with clay, then pierce a hole in the middle of the lid so the vapour is received in the orifice of the ear. The following fomentation is also suitable to address the pain. Pour into vinegar olive oil heated in an ear syringe; wrap wool around an ear probe, dip it in the hot vinegar and insert the wool while hot ⟨into the ear⟩ for as long as the patient can endure.32 Pus and Ulcers 57. For discharge of pus or ulceration the following are suitable, instilled or else inserted with soft wool: juice of wild olive; juice of cleavers likewise; olive-lees cooked in olive oil; buckthorn extract, ⟨and⟩ especially the Indian lukion; juice of asphodel, by itself or with frankincense and honey and myrrh and wine,

32

I have translated Wellmann’s text, but it presents obvious difficulties, whether through authorial confusion or textual corruption. Why should the oil be heated in a specialised instrument, an ear syringe, if this instrument has no further purpose? In Galen 12.603 the syringe is used to inject medication into the ear, and the probe appears to be used for a separate procedure.

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used warmed; wormwood ground up with honey; earthworms cooked with pig fat or olive oil; §2 or juice of bramble leaves in olive oil; snakeskin cooked in wine; twice-roasted copper pyrite with honey; juice of the olive tree; myrrh with castor and opium poppy extract and juice of red horned poppy; juice of yellowberried ivy with olive oil; that of onions likewise; copper ore with rose oil; juice or decoction of cleavers; juice of unripe grapes with honey; a pure boy’s urine simmered in a pomegranate shell; §3 pearl ash of fig used as a cleanser; liquid pitch likewise, or pitch itself simmered with a little rose oil in a pomegranate shell; simmered juice of knotgrass; fruit of thorny burnet cooked in wine; any kind of alum with juice of knotgrass; copper sulphate simmered with honey; ox gall with honey. Worms in Ulcers 58. The worms that are generated in chronic ear ulcers are killed by pouring in almond oil; juice of calamint; juice of caper leaves, or of the fresh fruit; kedros resin; stale human urine; white hellebore ground up with honey. And one should use the remedies written up for ulcers.33 Overgrowths of Flesh 59. Overgrowths of flesh occurring in the ears are reduced by sprinkling on black hellebore, dried and ground up. They are speedily removed by wine lees ground up ⟨with unslaked lime and lye⟩, applied as an ointment with wool and a probe. Ringing in the Ears 60. Ringing in the ears is helped by ground figs made up with mustard and soda, inserted and left for ⟨five⟩ days; grated black hellebore inserted fresh daily. Or stir in the same ⟨vessel⟩ bay and almond oil, equal quantities of each, a little castor, three drops of vinegar, warm and instill. § 2 Or pour in juice of radish skin for three days, and on the fourth day pour out the juice, place a reed tube bored right through in the ear, and let the projecting part of the tube hold a burning lamp wick; for this method of fomentation helps greatly. The ear is rinsed straightway with soda and water. §3 Also effective is garum, honey and rose oil in equal quantities; or almond oil with honey; or moringa oil with goose fat; pressing of bay berries, instilled with wine and rose oil; kedros resin with hyssop; onion juice; wild cumin with calf’s marrow and juice of rue; unguent of henna flower or iris with vinegar and

33

A cross-reference to 1.187.

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rue and bitter almonds; soda; ‘soda foam’ with vinegar and frankincense; leek juice; Attic honey with vinegar; the inside of persea instilled warm with rose oil. Chronic Deafness 61. Chronic deafness is treated with ground-up flower of copper blown into the ear canal through a small pipe; asphodel root cooked in olive oil, with the oil being instilled; juice of onions; juice of the leaves of squirting cucumber in vinegar; warm goat urine injected repeatedly as a rinse; and insertion of the salve made from mustard and soda and fig. Water Retained in the Ears 62. For retention of water in the ears, instillation of onion juice cuts through the obstruction of the airway. Then suck out the water by inserting in the ear a reed tube bored right through. Bruising 63. When ears have been bruised, the following cure them by preventing suppuration, or dispersing it if it occurs: a poultice of tassel hyacinth bulbs with barley groats; myrrh with snails’ flesh; unfired sulphur as a liniment with myrrh and wine and frankincense and pitch. But if there are patches of redness or large inflammations, poultice with ground-up sesame or groats of spelt cooked in vinegar. Foreign Objects in the Ears 64. If a creature falls into the ear, these instillations force it out: juice of mallow; decoction of centaury with vinegar; sap of sulphurwort; juice of wormwood; sap of scammony with soda and water; extract of squirting cucumber; soda made up with juice of ⟨rhaphanos⟩; unfired sulphur with vinegar; mouse or frog gall dissolved in vinegar; leek juice with honey; sulphur dissolved in a pure boy’s urine. 65. If a stone or bean or anything else falls in, wrap wool around a probe, steep it in resin or bull’s-hide glue, insert it and gently fasten on the object.

Teeth and Gums Gargles and Mouth-Washes for Toothache 66. The following are suitable for toothache, when made into a decoction with vinegar and used as a gargle. They must be used warm, and held in the mouth as

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long as possible around the painful tooth. Root of henbane; root of cinquefoil; root of marsh mallow; pellitory; root of restharrow; likewise that of plantain; pinewood pieces and black cumin;34 stavesacre; black hellebore; root of caper and the fruit of its ‘pears’; stag’s horn raw or burnt; a small amount of unfired sulphur with origanum and pinewood; lemon balm; pennyroyal; leaves and root of mulberry; §2 silphium sap with hyssop and fig; foliage of Aleppo pine and white poplar; root of squirting cucumber; cloves of garlic with frankincense; ⟨root⟩ of spurge; peach stones; oak gall with salt and kedros resin. Each of the above with vinegar. Alternatively, hollow out a colocynth, simmer vinegar in it, and give it as a mouth-wash; this also extracts decayed teeth. § 3 Also helpful is the juice of Parnassian agrostis with vinegar-and-brine, or the juice of plantain leaves. The following are boiled in wine ⟨and given⟩ for the same application: root of mullein; root of Indian ginseng; root of asparagus; soda with pepper; rue; plane-tree globules; root of butcher’s broom; silphium sap; dried roses boiled down to one-third in wine. Give these as a mouth-wash according to need. Contact Remedies for Toothache 67. When chewed or bitten into, these can cure ailing teeth: root of leukakantha; the interior of oak gall; root of pellitory. You will give effective help against toothache if you rub the painful tooth with the tip of a sting-ray’s spike; but the ailing part of the tooth decomposes. Some people conceal the spike in a reed tube and use it that way, supposing that this contributes to the pain relief. Salves for Toothache 68. Placed in the cavity, or spread around the tooth, the following are helpful for toothache (but some of them break up the tooth or decompose it): olivelees boiled down ⟨with⟩ oil from unripe olives to the consistency of honey (if rubbed round the tooth, this actually ejects it); root of buttercup, prepared the same way, shatters the tooth; exuded vine sap placed in the tooth with opopanax gum and silphium; liquid asphalt kneaded with soda; § 2 pellitory pickled in vinegar for 40 days; exuded sap of the African olive-tree; exuded sap of tanner’s sumach; sap of wild or cultivated fig tree; sap of spurge (but place wax above, to isolate the cavity); galbanum (also spread round the tooth); kedros resin (actually shatters the tooth); the interior of oak gall; sap from mulberry root; silphium sap with flesh of raisins or with pine resin or wax (this is also

34

Pieces of pinewood boiled in vinegar for toothache, Diosc. 1.69.2; with black cumin, Diosc. 3.79.2.

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spread around, or it is smeared on a bandage with sulphur and frankincense and placed round the tooth); §3 opopanax gum, treated in the same way, with realgar; Egyptian melanterite made up with pine resin; liver of a lizard placed in the cavity; sap of sulphurwort or ⟨unfired⟩ sulphur or ground-up oak gall with buckthorn extract spread round the tooth after cleaning; or pepper and saffron made up with terebinth resin. Or burn a cast snakeskin, mash it with oil and smear it round as a gum, after first trenching round the tooth; or push in garden cress and mustard; or boil the alum called phorime with honey and rub the tooth; or place a shed snakeskin on it; §4 or boil ground oak gall and myrrh and insert it with honey; or use asphalt, pitch, alum, ⟨mastic⟩ from Chios, kedros resin likewise, galbanum, pepper, Cnidian berry; or boil frog’s liver and tanner’s sumach in water to the consistency ⟨of honey⟩, then throw away the refuse and boil the decoction down to an ointment, and insert it; or soften propolis and spread it round the tooth. Non-contact Remedies for Toothache 69. Into the ear on the opposite side from the painful tooth is instilled juice of asphodel; juice of fresh garden cress; five berries of golden-berried ivy35 crushed and heated with rose oil in a pomegranate peel; juice of beet with three cumin seeds; a shed snakeskin crushed and boiled with rose oil. Into the opposite nostril it is helpful to instill juice extracted from pimpernel. Root of pepperwort is claimed to stop toothache if worn as an amulet. Extraction of Teeth 70. You will remove a tooth without trouble, if you trench around it and then plaster it with sulphur, or make up ground galena with wax and plaster that on, or pickle pellitory in vinegar for 40 days and plaster it on (after protecting the other teeth with wax), or grind up melanterite in vinegar. Alternatively make up four drachmas of melanterite and six of galena with a sufficient amount of kedros resin. Teething 71. Teething in children and its irritation is soothed by smearing the gums with butter, by itself or with honey; by roasted hare’s brain rubbed on or eaten; by domestic mice boiled and eaten. Live domestic mice, brought close to children’s mouths, prevent an excessive flow of saliva.

35

A golden-berried variety of ivy is also mentioned by Pliny 16.147.

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Teeth ‘on Edge’ 72. This feeling in the teeth is stopped by chewing purslane or rubbing on olive oil. Cleaning Teeth 73. Teeth are cleaned with the following: root of birthwort; burnt stag’s horn mixed with a little mastic; white salt mixed with honey and burnt in a pot until carbonised; trumpet shells filled with salt and burnt; pumice roasted and quenched with wine; land snails burnt with honey; Arabian stone burnt with honey; mussels burnt with ⟨honey⟩; or burnt cuttlefish shell. With each of these is mixed a little spikenard or flower of camel grass for fragrance; or woolin-the-grease, burnt and ground fine with a little salt mixed in. Loose Teeth and Soft Gums 74. Loose teeth and flaccid gums are strengthened by the following, used as mouth-washes and kept in the mouth for a considerable time: decoction of olive leaves; ass’s milk; juice of olives pickled in brine; myrrh as a mouthwash with wine and olive oil; lignite boiled with wine; plane tree leaves boiled with vinegar; squill vinegar; bramble36 chewed thoroughly; mallow root used likewise; iron rust applied dry; pomegranate flowers used likewise; § 2 split alum mixed with myrrh or (failing myrrh) with vinegar or honey; burnt melanterite likewise; storax applied with salt. Or equal quantities of myrrh, split alum, zinc oxide and starch ground up dry. Or equal quantities of pomegranate rind, oak gall and copper sulphate wetted with vinegar and used as a mouth-wash. Or 10 frogs, half a chous of vinegar, four drachmas of flower of copper, six drachmas of mandrake root, boiled down to one-third and used as a mouthwash. Also effective against pain is the following: four drachmas of aloe, one of frankincense, four of split alum, mixed with honey and rubbed on firmly. Gums (75–77) 75. For gums that are swollen and losing flesh37 or purulent the following are suitable, used as mouth-washes and held in the mouth: juice of purslane, decoction of root of milk vetch in wine, brine from pickled olives, oil held in the

36 37

Diosc. 4.37 specifies bramble leaves, chewed to strengthen the gums. The verb ἐκσαρκόω can mean to lose flesh or to grow an excess of flesh. Here and in § 2 below I adopt the first meaning, in view of Archigenes ap. Galen 12.875 “For gums that produce flux and are corroded with swelling and pain and undermined, the following cleansing is effective” (use of hot olive oil).

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mouth from unripe olives or from quinces or mastic, myrrh with wine and olive oil, kedros resin with vinegar or oil-lees, decoction of oak gall, plum-tree leaves boiled in wine, decoction of pomegranate flowers, decoction of mulberry bark and leaves, squill vinegar. §2 The following are helpful, when ground fine and applied dry: root of birthwort, dry seed of plantain, dry camelthorn, burnt fennel root, twiceroasted copper pyrite, verdigris and iron rust, baked copper sulphate, oak gall, kuperos, pomegranate flowers, rose flowers, buckthorn extract, dry mastic, copper ore with vinegar, burnt papyrus sheets with a little yellow orpiment, green twigs of mastic rubbed on the areas between the teeth. It is suitable, especially for gums that are losing flesh, to cleanse them with boiled olive oil. One will need to wrap wool around a probe, dip it in the oil and apply it until the gums become white. For ⟨in this way⟩ their flux is checked and dried up. 76. Growths on the gums are checked by burnt alum of all kinds or melanterite, ground up and applied dry. 77. When gums are denuded, flesh is restored by two parts rose flowers with one part sweet flag, applied dry.

Mouth and Throat Oral Thrush and Ulcers 78. Thrush and spreading ulcers are treated with honey and the medications listed above for gums that are swollen and losing flesh, but particularly and specifically with the following: leaves of chaste tree or henna tree rubbed on with honey; juice of small caltrops; juice of Egyptian acacia likewise; juice of cytinus or tanner’s sumach likewise; juice of unripe grapes; origanum; culinary sumach similarly; §2 wild pomegranate flower used likewise, or applied when dry, or its decoction as a mouthwash; realgar with rose oil as a mouth wash; juice of bettonike; leaves of wild olive likewise; one part yellow orpiment, three parts burnt papyrus sheets, use dry or with honey; garum made from blotched picarel as a mouthwash; plantain juice as a mouthwash; oak gall with olive oil as a mouthwash; moist alum likewise. Putrefaction 79. Putrefaction in the mouth is checked by the things listed above for spreading ulcers, and specifically by these: ash from the burnt root of wild fennel; or

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two parts burnt blotched picarel, one part aloe, used dry; or four drachmas of yellow orpiment and 12 drachmas of burnt papyrus sheets, used dry; or raisins without pips ground up as a poultice; olive oil lees boiled as a liniment; juice of bettonike. Halitosis 80. Bad smells in the mouth are removed by using an infusion or decoction of eagle-wood as a mouthwash; chewing myrrh or flowers of camel grass or cinnamon; putting a leaf of malabathron under the tongue; squill vinegar; or decoction of kedros wood. Infections of the Fauces 81. For inflammations within the fauces we use gargles: honeywater with decoction of bran or roses or lentil soup; or plum tree leaves cooked in wine. For ulcerated fauces: juice of pellitory-of-the-wall, or decoction of ‘holy plant’. And as liniments with honey: extracted juice of Egyptian acacia; aloe; boiled lees; boiled juice of bramble; salt likewise; extract of buckthorn; liquid pitch; copper ore; juice of origanum; flower of copper; boiled mulberry juice with honey and a little alum. Also effective is almond oil simmered and poured in the ears. Uvula 82. A relaxed uvula is tightened by gargles: honey, nettle juice, diluted sour wine, decoction of plum tree leaves with wine, decoction of origanum with wine. These liniments with honey are helpful: salt, juice of unripe grapes, silphium sap, alum, oak gall with salt and pepper and honey. Applied dry, the following are helpful: wild pomegranate flower, flower of copper, ground-up rock alum, split alum, copper ore, oak gall, silphium sap from Parthia,38 exuded sap of African olive, soot from coals, salt. Sore Throats 83. Acute throat infections are helped by those medications that can draw off39 moisture; for in this way the dryness and condensation of the particles is relaxed. ⟨These⟩ are gargles: hyssop cooked with figs in water; frankincense with grape syrup and honey or honeyed vinegar; rhaphanos seed ground up with honeyed vinegar; two kuathoi of edible mustard with one kuathos of warm honey. And liniments: ash of burnt swallows with honey; ox gall with honey. 38 39

Pliny speaks of silphium imported from Parthia as the best available in his time (22.100). The transmitted text is puzzling: one would expect a recommendation of medications that would induce a moist condition.

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§2 Specifically effective are turtle’s ⟨gall⟩; malachite with honey (it also promotes vomiting); salt mixed with vinegar and honey and soda; extract of squirting cucumber with old olive oil or honey or bull’s gall; juice of onions with olive oil; centaury juice with honey; woodlice with honey; pitch with honey. A helpful application on the throat and windpipe is salt ground up with pitch in a linen cloth. Also helpful for acute throat infections is one drachma of dried swallows given in drink; or dried caterpillars brayed and drunk with honeywater. Foreign Bodies in the Gullet 84. If bones or thorns have been swallowed and stuck in the gullet, you will treat the case by fastening half-cooked fat to a thread bored through it, forcing the patient to swallow it, and then drawing it up with a jolt by means of the attached thread; for it usually pulls the lodged or fixed item with it. The same can be done by means of a soft sponge or wool, or cubed pieces of meat. The patient should swallow it with water, or be given the inside of a soft bread loaf to swallow, or dried figs that have been chewed. Loss of Voice 85. Those whose voice has been cut off are helped by quaffing juice of leek; chewing dry cabbage, with the juice quaffed as a chaser; taking gruel with cumin or leek or meal; swallowing a bean-sized piece of galbanum thoroughly mixed with honey. Cleansing the Throat 86. The throat is cleansed by using squill vinegar as a gargle, or the mustard prepared for food as a gargle. After this one should gargle with honeywater. This also treats calluses around the windpipe and fauces. Enhancing the Voice 87. The voice is brightened by eating cooked or raw garlic, by the fruit of headed leek, by drinking storax, and by eating pickled sheatfish. Curing Hoarseness 88. Chronic hoarseness40 is cured by drinking root of silver sage with wine, extracted juice of licorice, extracted juice of myrrh, swallowing a lukewarm raw egg, drinking sumphuton with honeywater, or gargling with decoction of cinquefoil root. 40

In the Greek, μέν “on the one hand” suggests a following δέ “on the other hand” concerning treatment of fresh hoarseness, which however does not materialise.

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Hair Alopecia 89. Bald patches on the head and chin are cured by the following ointments, with the places first being cleaned with soda and the bare areas rubbed with a linen cloth using vinegar: the powder from Naxian whetstone, produced when iron is honed against it, with olive oil; halkuonion burnt and ground up, with vinegar or wine or olive oil; goat’s droppings likewise; mouse-droppings or cat’s leavings with mustard and pepper and vinegar; maidenhair fern applied in a linen poultice; yellow orpiment or realgar made up with turpentine as a compress; the ash of burnt asphodel root, with the bald area first scarified; buttercup ground up and applied as a poultice for a short time; pepperwort likewise; § 2 castor oil with burnt trumpet shells; hedgehog skin burnt and quenched in liquid pitch; or ash of burnt frogs likewise; or burnt seahorses likewise; or juice of deadly carrot as a liniment; or iron rust with vinegar or bear’s fat or grease; or burnt bark of giant reed with vinegar; burnt walnut shell with wine; hazelnuts burnt whole used likewise or with grease or bear’s fat; § 3 or ground-up onion as a liniment or poultice; cyclamen root likewise; mustard with vinegar; silphium sap with saffron and wine and pepper; burnt goat’s hooves with vinegar; the whey of pitch41 as a poultice with barley meal; the outside of rhaphanos rubbed against the skin; burnt garlic as a poultice with oil of spikenard; beet likewise; heads of mice rubbed on the skin, or the whole mice after the place has been cleaned with soda; burnt sole of a sandal ground up and taken with vinegar. Falling Hair 90. Hair falling from the head is checked by maidenhair fern, ground and used as liniment with labdanum gum and wine and hyssop and myrtle oil; and by ‘bonnyhair’ used likewise; aloe with dry dark wine; opercula of murex boiled with oil; myrtle oil and that from the wild olive; myrrh with wine and labdanum gum and myrtle oil; ground cardamom with myrtle oil. Or boil maidenhair fern in dark wine for a considerable time, and separately burn sweet flag with willow wood, mix rainwater with it and after steeping strain it and mix it with the maidenhair fern decoction and use it. Or burn goat droppings on shells, grind them and use them with olive oil to anoint the head if it has become bald.42

41 42

I.e. pitch oil, πισσέλαιον. Or perhaps “the head after abrading it” (so Saracenus).

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Children’s Hair 91. For children, the following produce lovely thick hair: burnt and pounded walnut shells as an ointment with wine; pig fat as a liniment; raw cabbage as a poultice; leaves of the nettle tree; hogweed root as a liniment after wiping the head clean; camel droppings, burnt and used as a poultice with olive oil. Lightening Hair 92. Hair is turned yellow by lupin hulls steeped with soda for 10 days and then wiped on; ground-up henna tree leaves plastered on with soapwort juice; buckthorn juice in water, continually wiped on; decoction of henna tree sawdust; rough cocklebur43 plastered on after ⟨the hair⟩ has first been cleaned with soda. Cattle fat also works, cooked with ash of oak or Valonia oak wood, then moulded into balls, and liquefied with water when needed and smeared on in the sun; or burnt lees of vinegar, smeared on with oil from the mastic or moringa tree for the whole of the night. Darkening Hair 93. Hair is turned dark if the following are wiped onto it: infusion of oak gall and copper sulphate and pomegranate peel; the extracted juice of Egyptian acacia, taken from the pods and leaves of that thorny tree, or else the juice from its ripe seeds rubbed on the hair; bramble leaves boiled up and wiped on, and the ripe fruit boiled with oil of unripe olives; myrtle wine with boiled-down new wine; decoction of sage wiped on; that of date palm spathe likewise; § 2 myrrh with Egyptian acacia and vinegar and oak gall; berry clusters of ivy and roots of kuperos boiled with bean pods; leaves of black fig and grapevine with rainwater; labdanum gum with myrtle oil; juice and infusion of black myrtles; boiled tanner’s sumach; decoction of the mastic tree with melanterite; flowers and leaves of Jerusalem sage plastered on; root bark of holm oak boiled in water and plastered on for the whole of the night, then washed off in the morning. How to Slow Greying 94. Greying is slowed if one rubs on ⟨oil⟩ from the wild olive daily (more so if one steeps myrtles in it), or myrtle oil mixed with labdanum gum. Washing Hair 95. Hair washes: burnt soda, burnt lees, unslaked lime, fenugreek, ‘soda foam’, Melian earth, Egyptian earth, decoction of stag’s horn, ground pumice, egg white. 43

This plant’s name ξάνθιον looks as if it is related to ξανθός ‘yellow’.

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Thinning Hair 96. Hair is thinned if the following are ground and rubbed on: ash from vine twigs or grape pips; baked pumice ground up; white hellebore; cuttlefish shell; oak gall; soda; litharge; split alum; dry dog dung. Removing Hair 97. Hair is removed by the following liniments: unslaked lime and realgar boiled in water and mixed with Cimolian earth; toad’s blood; sap of kharakias spurge; ‘oak fern’ used as a poultice with its leaves and root until they perspire, with the poultice being changed frequently; ivy leaves as a poultice; root of turmeric (this removes the hair immediately); ‘sea hare’ ground up as a poultice; salamander liquefied in olive oil; ‘pine caterpillars’ ground briefly and used as a liniment with honey; bean pods as a poultice; or ‘sea scolopendra’ cooked in olive oil. Young Boys’ Hair 98. The growth of pre-pubertal boys’ hair is slowed if one uses as a liniment the tears from a grapevine with olive oil, or the moisture sweated from green vinetwigs when burnt; a poultice of bean meal; a poultice of alpine squill root with grape syrup or white wine.

Skin of Head and Body Scurf, Dandruff, Spots (99–100) 99. ⟨For⟩ scurf or dandruff and superficial eruptions on the head: decoction of maidenhair fern wiped on, or pounded up with wine and rose oil as a poultice;44 bitter almonds as a liniment with honey; juice of purslane as a liniment with wine; juice of bramble with olive oil; tassel hyacinth bulbs wiped on with soda; decoction of fenugreek likewise; plantain as a poultice; juice of wild olive as a rinse; mallow ground up as a poultice with urine; melilot as a poultice with fenugreek and wine; myrtle oil as a wipe; stale human urine likewise; juice of rue as a salve; squill boiled with olive oil as a liniment; garlic with honey as a wipe; juice of beet likewise; §2 salt with calf fat as a liniment; fig ⟨leaves⟩ ground up with vinegar; decoction of chickpeas, and the chickpeas themselves boiled as a poultice; decoction of lupins as a wipe; willow flowers and leaves

44

Presumably the plant is pounded, rather than the decoction.

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ground up as a poultice; sweet flag cooked up with water and myrrh as a wipe; root of Madonna lily as a wipe; labdanum gum with wine as a liniment; frankincense with soda and water likewise; juice of dwarf elder. 100. For very red eruptions: white lead as a liniment with bay oil and sulphur; Aleppo pine bark with cerate; rock alum with vinegar and olive oil; cinnabar with cerate; potsherds from the furnace with vinegar; cooked beet. After cleansing with these things, one must anoint the place with oil of fenugreek or myrtle or rose or wild vine. Prurigo 101. Pruritic areas that develop on the head or anywhere on the body should be treated with the following liniments: stavesacre or realgar with olive oil; or juice of ivy with honey; Sinopic red ochre with vinegar; kedros resin by itself; the whey of pitch with alum; pulp of pressed bay berries; rhaphanos oil or soda or ‘soda foam’ with Samian earth and olive oil; juice of pellitory-of-the-wall used as a liniment for the whole night; decoction of tamarisk; or washing in warm seawater. Patients are helped by drinking ground coriander with origanum and wine. Cleansers 102. Cleansers. One can cleanse the skin with fig tree sap, or its expressed juice with meal of bruised beans; bitter almonds with honey; ash of vine-twigs and that from Valonia oak wood with water (but it is better to use the pearl ash made from them); pulp of pressed moringa; root of cuckoo-pint; Chian earth used like soda; birthwort with soda; seed of wild turnip with bruised beans and egg white; egg white by itself; meal of bruised beans, of bitter vetch seed, and of lupines; flesh of melon; juice of cucumber with the seed, with meal of spring wheat; soda dried in the sun during the dog days and ground up; root of squirting cucumber with bruised beans; root of bryony likewise. Smoothing the Skin 103. The skin and face is tightened by bryony root (white or black) cooked in oil, with the oil used as liniment (it is also effective as a poultice with ripe fig and bitter vetch seed, worn for the time taken to walk a stade,45 but one should wash with cold water after its removal); monitor lizard’s dung with water; Chian

45

A somewhat variable measure of distance, approximately 200 metres.

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earth likewise; Selinuntian earth likewise; seeds of Indian ginseng ground up with cerate and used as liniment; root of Madonna lily in a cleanser; cyclamen likewise with mastic. Brightening the Face 104. The following liniments brighten the face: Chian earth; Selinuntian ⟨earth⟩ used likewise; monitor lizard’s dung used likewise; mastic; fenugreek unguent; rose oil that has been whitened in the sun, used likewise; the moisture in elm seed-capsules; Sikyonian olive oil.46 Complexion 105. A healthy complexion results from eating cooked chickpeas, or from drinking three obols’ weight of Egyptian acacia gum, or that from almond or cherry or plum trees, with mixed wine. Colour 106. The following change one’s colour,47 when drunk or anointed: ajwain with water; cumin also; likewise wheat chaff; perfoliate alexanders as liniment; pomegranate flowers likewise. Body Odour 107. For bad odours in the armpits and goatish smells one should sprinkle on the following, ground up as powders; eagle-wood, bakkharis root, ground rose pastilles from the baths. And one should use a liniment of myrrh with alum, or saffron residuum likewise; or sawdust of Italian cypress with alum and fragrant wine; Chian earth burnt and quenched with wine. Root of golden thistle, cooked and taken in drink.48 Scars (108–109) 108. Dark scars are removed by these liniments: the oil from cooking bryony root (white or black) in oil until the juice emerges, with the oil used as ointment; moringa ground up with white wine; tassel hyacinth bulbs burnt with halkuonion and mixed with wine; calamint cooked in wine; washed litharge with white unguent of rose; squirting cucumber root as a cleansing unguent.

46 47 48

See footnote on ‘olive oil, Sikyonian’ in Concordance 1. More explicitly, Dioscorides says that skin colour is lightened by ajwain and cumin (respectively 3.62 and 3.59.2). This item has been tacked on, since it is in the nominative, whereas the preceding items are in the dative. Cf. footnote on 1.5.

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109. Scars from ‘lichens’ and other scars ⟨can⟩ be made the same colour as the skin by a liniment of ass’s fat; seed of rocket ground up and used as liniment with gall of goat or sheep or cattle, then wiped off when it dries; juice from the rocket plant49 as a liniment with litharge; or cook the root of squirting cucumber in honeywater, grind it smooth like cerate and use it likewise as liniment; or make up two parts litharge and one part unfired sulphur with juice of rocket and apply it, then rub it off in the bath, and after bathing apply litharge with juice of rocket. Tattoo Marks 110. Tattoo marks50 are removed by buttercup as a poultice; juice expressed from caper leaves, used likewise; that of mandrake, rubbed on for four days, or mandrake leaves pickled in brine and used as a salve for 40 or 50 days; likewise the herb called thrift rubbed on; or root of squirting cucumber cooked in honeywater and ground up as a liniment; or white lead in vinegar as a liniment— but this takes time to remove the marks. Bruises 111. Bruises are quickly turned the same colour as the rest of the skin by being anointed continually with Madonna lily oil. White Skin Diseases 112. White ‘leprosies’ and patches of leuke51 are removed if the following are applied as liniment in the sun or cleansers in the bath: juice of dragon arum; root of cuckoo-pint with vinegar and barley meal; juice of caper likewise; rue with cerate and pepper; terminal sprays and tender branches of black fig ground up as a poultice, and the leaves likewise; and root of beet as a poultice; leaves of telephion used as a poultice for three months, applied daily for six hours (§2 on removal, apply a poultice of meal of bruised raw grain); chaste tree seed ground up with ‘soda foam’ and vinegar; marsh mallow seed likewise; halkuonion with vinegar; white or black bryony root cooked with olive oil until the juice emerges; juice of asphodel root; moringa as liniment; ground-up tassel hyacinth bulbs used with cooked soda as cleansers, or by themselves as a poultice; §3 white hellebore cooked with vinegar as a cleansing salve, or rubbed on dry until it causes sweating (then one must use a liniment of realgar and Melian earth); root of cardopatium with sulphur and soda and vinegar (one must first 49 50 51

I.e. the herbage, as distinct from the seed mentioned just above. Not used for self-decoration, but to mark slaves in particular. An unidentified cutaneous disease, so called from its white (λευκός) colour.

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clean the skin with soda). Or mix two parts of litharge, one part of ⟨unfired⟩ sulphur and rub this on in the bath, and after washing use a liniment of litharge with juice of rocket. Dark Skin Diseases 113. Dark ‘leprosies’ are turned the same colour as the skin by Melian earth used as a liniment; white or black hellebore cooked with vinegar and used as a cleanser; land snails burnt and made into a liniment with honey; juice of onion with vinegar; Madonna lily root as a cleanser; bean meal likewise; wild cumin with vinegar; frankincense fruit likewise; moringa in wine; or narcissus root with nettle seed and vinegar; cuttlefish shell with vinegar; or root of squirting cucumber as a cleanser; telephion as a liniment with vinegar; gum succory root pounded with soda and used in a cleanser; litharge, yellow orpiment and sulphur in equal quantities used with olive oil as a cleanser in the baths. Other Skin Blemishes (114–116) 114. Birthmarks and facial rough spots and acne are cleared up by these liniments: sea-salt efflorescence with water; yellow iris with honey; costus-thistle root with water or honey; biscutella with honey; sap of spurge (but one must be careful, for if left too long it ulcerates deeply); halkuonion with vinegar; ripe fruit of the wild vine, ground up; white or black root of bryony cooked with olive oil until the juice emerges. Acne is also removed by almond oil with cerate and Madonna lily root. 115. Facial rough spots are removed by: cuckoo-pint root with honey; moringa as a liniment with wine. Raw tassel hyacinth bulbs by themselves or with egg yolk and vinegar or honey, or burnt with halkuonion, clear off facial rough spots particularly well. Galbanum with vinegar and soda removes birthmarks particularly, as does gum of Egyptian acacia with soda and honey. §2 More specific for removing facial rough spots are: two parts white hellebore and ⟨one part⟩ honey; extract of squirting cucumber as a liniment; cassia with honey; cinnamon likewise; cabbage seed with vinegar; ⟨meal of⟩ bitter vetch seeds; rhaphanos bark with darnel meal; or a poultice of garden cress worn all night for five days (wash off the cleansed areas in the morning); root of deadly carrot with honey; ivy leaves cooked with wine; fruit of the castor-oil tree used as a poultice for three days. 116. Specific for removing acne are: Madonna lily root in a cleanser; cyclamen root with honey; narcissus root likewise; two parts of burnt cuttlefish shell

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and one part of moringa, ground up as a liniment with water—moisten it when it dries, and foment after six days; meal of spring wheat as a poultice with olive oil; pennyroyal made up with cerate; myrrh with cassia and honey; onion juice with metal oxide; galena with vinegar; burnt melanterite with vinegar. Itching (117–119) 117. Psoriatic itching over the whole body or some part of it is treated by liniments: stavesacre pre-cooked with realgar and olive oil and vinegar, and then triturated; moist alum cooked with honey and used as a liniment ⟨with⟩ myrrh; salt with vinegar and olive oil as a liniment, until they perspire; mustard with vinegar; pulp of pressed moringa with vinegar and a little olive oil; decoction of root of wild dock mixed with the bathwater; a douche of warm vinegar; decoction of bitter vetch or origanum or pennyroyal used as a douche; whey taken as a drink. 118. ⟨Itching⟩ around the genitals ⟨is treated by⟩ fomenting with seawater; powdering with sulphur; grinding up soda with olive oil and vinegar and stavesacre and alum, for use as liniment in the baths, especially on the testicles; and pounding dry lees of vinegar with wine as a liniment on the testicles. After these treatments, use a liniment of egg white with honey. 119. For itching pustules these liniments are suitable: twice-roasted copper pyrite with vinegar; iron rust with vinegar; mulberry root with vinegar; copper ore with rose oil; galena with vinegar; burnt goats’ hooves with vinegar; any type of alum cooked with honey; rue with salt and olive oil; or white lead and litharge with vinegar; §2 myrtle oil; pulp of pressed bay berries used in washing; myrtle berries with myrtle cerate applied on a linen cloth; cinnabar with myrtle cerate; soda with pig fat; rue with a fourfold amount of myrtle cerate; ivy leaves boiled with olive oil as a poultice; burnt barley ground up as a poultice; soda with unfired sulphur and lees as a cleanser. Skin Infections 120. For ‘lichens’ and scaly and scabby conditions, these liniments are appropriate: chaste tree seed with ‘soda foam’ and vinegar; the ichor that flows from wild olive wood when it is burnt green; likewise that from the wood of Cornelian cherry; root of dyer’s alkanet ground up as a poultice with vinegar; sea-salt efflorescence with water; fruit of madder in vinegar; darnel meal as a poultice with vinegar. Fierce ‘lichens’ are removed by bran cooked with vinegar and used as a hot poultice, and groats of spelt used likewise.

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Scaly Eruptions 121. Scaly eruptions are treated by liniment of darnel meal with sulphur and vinegar; poultice of bryony fruit with vinegar; asphalt with sulphur and vinegar (but some ⟨substitute⟩ pitch for asphalt); liniment of moringa with vinegar; poultice of buttercup. They are ⟨also⟩ removed by root of squirting cucumber with vinegar; burnt melanterite used likewise; tears of African olive tree with vinegar (African olive is a name given to the wild olive); white or black hellebore with vinegar as a poultice; §2 myrrh with vinegar; fig tree sap as a liniment; poultice of cooked chickpea with vinegar; frankincense used likewise; gum ammoniac likewise; bitter almonds with vinegar; bull’s-hide glue likewise; juice and root of deadly carrot with vinegar; unfired sulphur made up with vinegar or terebinth resin; decoction of lupins used as a douche; two parts of rust made up with one part of terebinth resin (this medication becomes more forceful if a little soda or copper sulphate is mixed in); cardamom or garden cress with vinegar; clematis burnt with vinegar as a poultice. They are also removed by blister beetle, ‘ox-sweller’, ‘pine caterpillar’, made up with resin and mixed with pitch; §3 ⟨juice⟩ of deadly carrot root; gum of bitter almond or cherry ⟨or⟩ plum tree or grapevine with vinegar; land snails burnt with vinegar as a liniment with honey; root of wild dock, raw or cooked with vinegar, ground up as a poultice; rock lichen as a liniment, or as a poultice with vinegar; cardopatium root boiled with vinegar, the decoction being used as a liniment mixed with sulphur and asphalt or without these; a mixture of seal fat and copper sulphate and kedros oil;52 black cumin with unfired sulphur and bull’s-hide glue and vinegar; silphium sap with vinegar. Fresh Scaly Eruptions 122. Fresh eruptions are treated by root of pitch trefoil used with vinegar as a poultice; rue used likewise with honey and alum; liquid pitch melted with an equal amount of wax and resin and sulphur as a salve; leaves of horehound cooked with vinegar as a poultice; leaves or twigs of elm likewise; pomegranate with vinegar as a liniment; sap of scammony, boiled with vinegar to a honey-like consistency, as a liniment; § 2 garlic with honey likewise; root of soapwort with barley groats and vinegar as a poultice; burnt alum with cabbage juice, ⟨or⟩ moist alum cooked with honey, as a liniment; spurge sap as a liniment; burnt wine lees as a liniment with decoction of fig; root of lesser celandine as a poultice; turnip ground up and applied; § 3 burnt wil-

52

I.e. the oil that is separated from kedros resin (Diosc. 1.77.3).

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low leaves as a poultice with water; burnt leaves of dyer’s alkanet ground up; dyer’s alkanet made up with butter; unfired sulphur; black cumin; bull’s-hide glue as a liniment with vinegar; gum ammoniac used likewise with vinegar; bitter almonds applied with vinegar; raw rock alum with henna cerate; burnt bark of manna ash with iris unguent or kedros resin; propolis applied as a salve. Nail Psoriasis 123. Psoriasis on the nails53 is removed if the following are applied: asphodel root ground up; cuckoo-pint root likewise; buttercup as a poultice; blister beetle or ‘ox-sweller’ ⟨or⟩ ‘pine caterpillar’ made up with terebinth resin, or mixed with liquid pitch; deadly carrot root and mustard with vinegar; or kernels of wild olive pits made up with fat; §2 unfired sulphur with wax and resin; root of ‘horse dock’ or wild dock, raw or cooked, with vinegar; garden cress with vinegar; green globules of Italian cypress, cooked with vinegar and pounded, with bitter lupins; linseed with ⟨an equal amount⟩ of garden cress and honey; pitch boiled in vinegar and applied; realgar, unslaked lime and burnt lees with pitch or mistletoe pulp; alum with water; liquid pitch with wax; yellow orpiment with vinegar; mistletoe pulp with pearl ash. Scabies 124. Scabies is cleaned off by soda; ‘soda foam’; ox gall with soda ⟨and⟩ Cimolian earth; Melian earth; land snails burnt with honey; ground-up dry root of Madonna lily; moringa used likewise, or the pulp of its pressed fruit.

Breasts Breast Size 125. Breasts are prevented from growing large if the following are used as poultices, on girls particularly: succulent seeds of hemlock, ground up, with a linen band put in place first, or the plant itself used likewise; moist alum with honey; iron rust with olive oil; leaves of epimedion used likewise as a poultice; the powder from Naxian whetstone, produced when iron is honed against it, used as a liniment with vinegar.

53

The Greek is ὄνυχας λεπρούς, i.e. scabby or ‘leprous’ nails.

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Swollen Breasts 126. Swelling of the breasts is reduced by: lentils boiled in seawater and used as a poultice; mint with barley groats; grape pulp ground up with salt; fomentation with brine. Drying Up Milk 127. ⟨Milk⟩ is dried up, even after childbirth, by the following: bean meal, by itself or with barley groats, as a poultice; Cimolian earth as a liniment with vinegar or water or rose oil; moist alum with water containing vinegar-and-rose oil; the aster type of Samian earth; Melian earth likewise; a poultice of woman’s milk with hemlock juice; a poultice of vinegar lees or wine lees with barley groats; henbane seed ground up with wine, used likewise; a douche of seawater; a poultice of hemlock leaves; fomentation with brine; a poultice of walnuts. Breasts with Milk Clots 128. Swelling of the breasts with clots of milk is stopped by the following: a poultice of bran simmered in vinegar and decoction of rue; ⟨a poultice of⟩ mint with barley groats; a poultice of daylily leaves; fomentation with brine; walnuts with honey and rue; ground-up castor-oil tree leaves; a liniment of saffron with milk; poultice of redshank; bean meal by itself or with barley groats; earthlike stone with water; clay stone with honey; a poultice of quinces boiled with honey. A poultice of ⟨green⟩ celery also helps with breasts containing clots. 129. Wetnurses’ milk is prevented from curdling if they are given daily 10 pieces of white wax the size of millet grains. Drawing Down Milk 130. Milk is drawn down in greater quantity by the following: decoction of horse fennel or fennel, drunk with wine; frankincense fruit, chickpea, basil, mallow, dill cooked up together with a gruel; fruit of kirkaia likewise; a little black cumin swallowed in drink for a number of days, or taken in gruel; restharrow root cooked with gruel and taken. Cook the stems and leaves and flowers of the plant glaux and give them in gruel. §2 Give two kuathoi of juice of shrubby orache or sow-thistle or alkanet or lettuce and one kuathos of honeywater for seven days. As well, ⟨these⟩ pot-herbs are effective when cooked in bean meal and taken: milkwort taken in drink, and horehound leaves in food. Used as poultices with barley meal, the following draw down milk: fennel; black cumin; ⟨juice⟩ of steeped barley with purslane; wax and myrrh and goose fat and sulphur combined; elm leaves; gall and liver of a bull; ass’s spleen with vinegar.

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Inflammation 131. Inflammation of the breasts is allayed by a poultice of asphodel root and leaves boiled in wine, or a poultice of bakkharis leaves.

Testicles Inflammation 132. Inflammation of the testicles is healed by a poultice of wine lees with salt, or a liniment of fruit of henbane ground up with wine, or of Cimolian earth made into a paste with vinegar and rose oil. Likewise a liniment of the aster type of Samian earth, or earth-like stone with water, or chickpea meal cooked in honeywater; a poultice of cooked chickpeas; groundsel flowers with grape syrup and a poultice of the plant or of the seed-down used likewise; §2 coriander leaves with raisins; root of Madonna lily with henbane leaves and wheatmeal; bean meal cooked in wine with cumin and raisins or coriander or henna cerate; or linseed cooked in honeyed wine; or melilot cooked in grape syrup; myrtle leaves with cerate; white raisins with soda or ‘soda foam’; rue with soft bay twigs; a poultice of savin leaves with water; the tree lichen called bruon, or sea lettuce;54 seed of chaste tree with butter and vine leaves; leaves of elder likewise; leaves and root of asphodel cooked in wine. Chronic Inflammations of the Testicles 133. Chronic inflammations of the testicles are resolved by the following: Assian stone as a powder in dry wool clothing; cooked marsh mallow root as a poultice; hedge mustard cooked and ground; baked soda dissolved in olive oil; egg yolk laid on in a compress; barley meal with liquid pitch. Fomentation with decoction of Italian cypress is helpful. Fleshy Excrescences 134. Fleshy excrescences on the testicles are cured by a poultice of ash from vine twigs kneaded with soda and water.

54

Literally “or sea bruon” (i.e. either bruon can be used).

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Swellings and Tumours Boils 135. Boils are quickly matured and burst by the following: seed or leaves of annual clary as a poultice with barley groats; ground narcissus root with meal and olive oil; salt with ox fat and raisins; origanum with myrrh and salt; mistletoe pulp melted with equal amounts of resin and wax; garden cress with brine; galbanum by itself; terebinth resin likewise; labdanum gum likewise; propolis likewise; §2 leaves of ‘lion’s-foot’ with barley groats; linseed with root of squirting cucumber; Assian stone with cerate; soda or ‘soda foam’ with resin or fat; leaves or tender twigs of fig with cerate; leaves of puknokomon chopped up with barley groats or with soda; leaven with salt or soda; raisins with salt; sulphur and rue with cerate; ⟨ground-up⟩ leaves of henbane with butter. Fresh Inflammations 136. For inflammations at their onset, in any part of the body, the following are appropriate when ground up with barley groats as poultices: ‘everliving’; grapevine tendrils and leaves; duckweed; purslane; coriander; cabbage with bread, or cooked with barley groats; violet leaves; nightshade ⟨leaves⟩; green leaves of reed; ground-up kedros berries; plantain; pellitory-of-the-wall; mint; meal of lupin; leaves of fleabane; uncooked squash; § 2 navelwort; redshank; foliage and green globules of Italian cypress; mandrake root; fruit of rough cocklebur; leaves of puknokomon with honeyed vinegar; meal of barley or of zea wheat cooked in vinegar or in decoction of quince; sow-thistle as a poultice; split alum, and all kinds of it with honey; tender leaves of chickpea as a poultice. 137. Specific for dispatching inflammations in the membrane55 are liniment of the juice of elder leaves, and an application of fresh butter with rose oil. Chronic Swellings 138. Chronic swellings are healed by these poultices: root of white thistle ground up with water, or ⟨that⟩ of Arabian thistle; leaves and seed of celery with barley groats; droppings of male or female goat in warm vinegar; leaves of coltsfoot by themselves; ground narcissus root with meal and olive oil; leaves of pellitory-

55

Perhaps of the eye. The word can refer to the brain membrane (dura mater), but Book 1 is concerned with external ailments. Beck argues that ‘membrane’ (μῆνιγξ) in Dioscorides regularly refers to an external membrane (her footnote on Diosc. 1.68.2).

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of-the-wall;56 leaves of water-plantain likewise; cooked root of halikakkabon; cuckoo-pint leaves with barley groats; ground-up arkeuthos berries; leaves of wild or cultivated woad; willow leaves; §2 sweet flag ground up with barley groats; bay berries with finest barley meal; dittany with barley groats; cooked or raw roots of madder; white hellebore with barley groats; acorns, cooked or raw; hedge mustard with water or honey; roots of perfoliate alexanders; leaven with salt; mistletoe pulp with equal quantities of resin and wax; fomentation with seawater; ground garden cress seed; barley meal with ashes of fig or with split alum; ground ‘lion’s-foot’ with barley groats; root and leaves of libanotis; linseed with honey and goat fat; black cumin with vinegar; § 3 cooked chickpea root; water lettuce with frankincense; goat’s marjoram with barley groats; wine lees with barley groats or barley meal and frankincense powder, cooked in wine; cooked leaves of mullein; ground-up seed of fleawort; dried figs with soda or unslaked lime or iris; cinquefoil root cooked in wine; baked squill (⟨one should⟩ unfasten it57 after the fourth day); root of squirting cucumber cooked as a poultice; ‘mouse-ear’ with rose cerate; pellitory-of-the-wall likewise; and duckweed ground up. Parotid Swellings 139. Parotid swellings are resolved at their onset by butter applied in wool; linseed with honey and goat fat; nettle leaves with salt; ⟨ground-up⟩ plantain likewise; black horehound with old swine fat, applied with vinegar; hedge mustard with water; fomentation with seawater; mistletoe pulp with resin and wax; bean meal with meal of fenugreek and honey; root of patience dock cooked in wine; nightshade leaves with salt; ground rue made up with rose cerate; unfired sulphur likewise. §2 Or two parts of resin and one part of galbanum, softened with as much soda as possible; or pellitory or white lead or copper sulphate made up with figs and wine; unslaked lime with honey; ashes of a weasel burnt alive, mixed with cerate of iris; the brain of a little owl as liniment; fruit from the wild fig cooked in wine ⟨and⟩ ground up as a poultice. Dispersing Tumours 140. Tumours are dispersed by the following, ⟨ground up⟩ as poultices: maidenhair fern; orache; bull’s blood with barley groats; elder root; that of pellitory-of-

56

57

The Greek is παρθένιον (parthenion). In Dioscorides this is an alternative name for pellitory-of-the-wall (4.85) and the primary name for feverfew (3.138). I have chosen the first here because Dioscorides recommends it for swellings. However, he does recommend both for inflammations. I.e. the poultice (Pliny 20.101).

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the-wall likewise; marsh mallow root cooked in wine; henbane leaves ground up with salt; root of white or black bryony with finest barley meal; root of squirting cucumber likewise; gum ammoniac softened with honey and applied; cattle droppings warmed in vinegar and applied; plantain ground up with salt; § 2 root or leaves of asphodel cooked in wine lees; thyme or savory with finest barley meal; Cimolian earth as a liniment with vinegar; eryngo root as a poultice; mistletoe pulp with resin and wax; willow leaves made up in cerate; leaves of fleabane; silphium root with cerate; sap of scammony with honey; ground-up soapwort root cooked with barley meal; §3 bull’s fat with frankincense powder; aged swine fat washed clean ⟨in⟩ wine and made up with ash or unslaked lime; sap of the mulberry tree with cerate; meal of lupins as a poultice; simmered honey applied with a mixture of unslaked lime; coriander leaves with bruised beans; redshank as a poultice; raw cabbage with barley groats; globules of the Italian cypress chopped up with egg. Indurations 141. Also indurations are softened by copper pyrite, burnt and made up with terebinth resin; twice-roasted copper pyrite used likewise; Assian stone likewise; buckthorn extract likewise; juice of the mulberry tree (the root is incised strongly, and the following day the hardened juice is found); root of field gladiolus with honeyed vinegar; cock’s head sainfoin as a poultice; warm vinegar as a douche; a sponge wetted with vinegar, especially for bloodless abscesses; § 2 origanum with honey or finest barley meal; opopanax gum with honey; root of Christ’s thorn likewise; liquid pitch melted with wax; plane tree bark boiled, the leaves too; terebinth resin with fat; aubretia; ⟨leaves⟩ of mullein; cinquefoil root; fat dried figs cooked in seawater and ground up. Ripening Tumours 142. Tumours are ripened by habrotonon cooked with meal of bruised raw grain; chaste tree seed used likewise; dried figs with soda or fig cooked in honeywater, used likewise; meal of wheat or fenugreek or zea wheat ⟨or⟩ darnel cooked with pigeon excrement and soda; linseed cooked with honeyed wine; fine wheatmeal cooked with pitch and olive oil and water or vinegar; leaven with salt; lupins cooked in vinegar as a poultice; galbanum by itself; linseed with sulphur and iris; Assian stone with cerate, which also dries out black eyes. Puncturing Tumours 143. Tumours are punctured by a liniment of deadly carrot juice with sulphur; a poultice of narcissus root with honey and darnel meal; propolis; a poultice of lupins cooked with vinegar; root of squirting cucumber made up with terebinth

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resin; root of caper likewise; soda with leaven or figs; salt likewise; blister beetle made up with resin. 144. Internal abscesses are punctured by drinking seawater with honeyed water. Glandular Swellings 145. Glandular swellings are dispersed by unslaked lime made up with honey or gymnasium scrapings or olive oil or grease, and applied; asphalt with gymnasium scrapings; goat droppings boiled in vinegar or wine and applied warm likewise; a poultice of plantain with salt; maidenhair fern likewise; marsh mallow cooked in wine; barley meal cooked in pitch and a pure boy’s urine and olive oil and wax; §2 darnel meal with pigeon excrement and linseed cooked in wine; mandrake root likewise; lemon balm with salt. Or secure a viper with a string and hang it until it dies, then untie the string and fasten it round your throat. Other dispersents are gum ammoniac soaked in wine and applied; black horehound, which some people call melan prasion, with salt; cleavers used likewise; pellitory-of-the-wall likewise; hooves of cattle or asses or horses burnt and combined with olive oil; §3 potsherds ⟨from⟩ the furnace made up with cerate; cinquefoil root likewise, ground up with frankincense and a little salt; pepper with pitch; silphium root with cerate; baked squill with cerate (unfasten it after the fourth day); wild or cultivated figs cooked and ground as a poultice (they also disperse all kinds of gatherings); storax softened and applied; cleavers with grease; iris cooked as a poultice; hedge mustard with water or honey; a viper cooked and eaten; §4 fomentation with seawater; lupins cooked and ground up; mistletoe pulp with resin and wax; root and green leaves of caper ground up with finest barley meal; river crabs burnt with honey; coriander leaves with bruised beans; pods of Greek beans with split alum and olive oil and finest barley meal; root of wild dock cooked with wine; libanotis leaves; linseed with soda or salt or pearl ash; copper pyrite burnt and made up with terebinth resin; Assian stone likewise; lentils cooked in vinegar. Weasel’s blood is also a helpful liniment for glandular swellings. Amulets against Glandular Swellings 146. These amulets are worn against glandular swellings: plantain root collected with the left hand and fastened to the body; root of wild dock likewise; asphodel root likewise; eryngo root ⟨likewise⟩. First state for whom it is collected, then take it in the evening from the 28th to the 30th of the lunar month, and wear it so.

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‘Honeycombs’ 147. ‘Honeycombs’58 are dispersed by a poultice of melilot with meal of fenugreek or wheat; ground-up root or leaves of wild dock; plantain leaves used likewise. Sebacious Cysts 148. Sebaceous cysts are dispersed by ‘ox-eye’ flowers ground up with cerate, or cyclamen ground up as a poultice. Throat Tumours 149. Throat tumours are dispersed by bdellium, applied after being softened by the saliva of the patient when fasting; or by unslaked lime with grease. They are also dispersed if a lizard or praying mantis (this is the same as the Indian cricket) is struck against the throat tumour, then hung in the area where it lies. Nasal Polyps 150. Nasal polyps that have ulcerated are eroded by dragon arum root or its juice used as a liniment; a poultice of sage; globules of Italian cypress pounded, made up with the flesh of figs and used as a poultice or applied; silphium sap with rust or copper sulphate. Pale ⟨excrement⟩ from dogs, triturated with vinegar, works perfectly as a liniment or infusion. Fetid Nasal Polyps 151. Fetid nasal polyps are soothed by birthwort root with kuperos. Juice of ivy berry clusters used as a jet also cleans out decayed matter; cinnamon with white hellebore and soapwort introduced together with a sternutatory; ⟨white⟩ hellebore with cardamom likewise. Introduce a sternutatory for 10 days, then anoint with the lozenge called Polyeides’ seal,59 until they ripen; or squirt in calamint juice; or blow ground dry calamint into the cavity through a tube; or use a liniment of buttercup juice combined with alum and vinegar, or combined with copper sulphate or itch-salve with honey. Nasal Abscesses 152. Effective against nasal abscesses are olive-lees boiled and used as liniment; buckthorn extract likewise, and ⟨especially⟩ the Indian lukion, dissolved in 58 59

A skin infection, probably so named for its appearance: perhaps impetigo contagiosa. One of many medications named after their developers; this one is mentioned also at Celsus 5.20.2 and Galen 13.834. It was no doubt certified by an impression of Polyeides’ signet-ring, hence ‘seal’.

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wine as a liniment; realgar made into a paste with rose oil; litharge, frankincense, split alum, white lead in equal quantities, used with wine and rose oil. Fleshy Nasal Excrescences 153. Fleshy excrescences in the nostrils are repressed or reduced if the following are applied: yellow orpiment and realgar and camelthorn root ground up; silphium sap with egg; burnt copper sulphate made into a paste with wine.

Wounds Fresh Wounds 154. Fresh open wounds are glued together, and their hollows reduced and tightened up, by the following, ground up as poultices: ‘everliving’; ‘spearhead’; ground-pine; Herakleia; sage; grapevine tendrils; pimpernel; ‘man’s-blood’; plantain; bramble leaves; aloe with vinegar and sweet chestnuts or by itself; olive-lees boiled with sweet chestnuts; marsh mallow root boiled with wine; wild olive ⟨leaves⟩ with honey; ground-up elder leaves; birthwort root with vinegar; fresh licorice pounded as a poultice or boiled in water; ground-up root of parsnip; myrrh as a liniment with water, or sprinkled on dry; frankincense likewise; §2 root of perfoliate alexanders as a poultice; groundsel root with vinegar; iron rust triturated for a long time with wine and myrrh in the sun; ground-up leaves of horsetail; leaves of woad, cultivated or wild; juice from large centaury root, or the fresh root of ‘small centaury’ ground up; leaves of fleabane; earthworms ground up and applied (they even glue together severed tendons); cyclamen with vinegar and honey; ground-up ⟨foliage⟩ of Italian cypress; fresh leaves of libanotis; loosestrife; spiked water milfoil as a poultice; root of sarapias orchid; root of sulphurwort; cinquefoil leaves with honey; pigeon’s blood. Shallow Wounds 155. For shallow wounds: ziziphora ground up; the moisture in elm seedcapsules; and the tree’s bark as a bandage—for it is like the lime tree60— agglutinates wounds and prevents inflammation; bark of holm oak ground up; rhubarb ground up with wine; sumphuton ground up; ‘pigeon-plant’ ground up;

60

The bark of the lime tree or linden was prized in antiquity for its thinness and smoothness (e.g. Theophrastus History of Plants 3.13.1).

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burnt garlic heads as a poultice. Surprisingly, severed tendons and fresh wounds are agglutinated by a poultice of dyer’s alkanet. Surgical Wounds 156. For surgery on the throat of the bladder or the tendons or membrane, and the associated inflammation, it is appropriate to apply butter on a lint pledget. For surgery to remove stones one must rinse immediately with vinegar-andbrine. Wounds to the Tendons 157. Wounds involving the tendons without inflammation are taken care of by these poultices: kermes oak gall ground up with vinegar and honey; redshank ground up; Madonna lily root cooked in wine and triturated; flowers of the wild grapevine likewise; silphium sap applied with any one of the warming decoctions; root of neuras,61 which they also call potirrhion; dyer’s alkanet as a poultice. Bone Splinters 158. Bone splinters are raised and removed by an application of dried root of allheal, or that of birthwort used likewise; root of white or black bryony likewise; dried iris; meal of bitter vetch seed; fig leaves and tender branch-tips as a poultice with leaves of wild opium poppy; linseed with anise; iris with copper sulphate and centaury; root of sulphurwort; copper sulphate with henbane seed; cardopatium. Splinters and Thorns 159. Splinters and thorns are drawn by these poultices: leaves and seed of annual clary with barley groats; root of field gladiolus with water or by itself or with frankincense and wine; root of iris; fruit and leaves of ‘lion’s-foot’ with barley groats; gum ammoniac with honey; orchid as a poultice; pimpernel likewise; root of birthwort similarly; ground-up root of phragmites reed or leaves of giant reed; snails with their flesh; narcissus root or tassel hyacinth with honey; mustard with leaven; root of firethorn; dittany—goats that have grazed on this in Crete, they say, if shot by someone, expel the arrows; an application of propolis; ground-up fruit of puknokomon; ground-up head of a lizard; flesh of pickled sheatfish; fawn’s rennet; trageion taken in drink.

61

This name is cognate with νεῦρον / neuron (tendon). The reference is probably to Astragalus sp.

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Skin Conditions Erysipelas 160. Erysipelas is cured by the following, mixed with vinegar and rose oil as liniments: white lead, litharge, or Cimolian or Chian or Selinuntian earth. Added to the mixture is juice of plantain or endive or knotgrass or wild olive or purslane or ‘everliving’ or nightshade or henbane or coriander or rue or celery or pellitory-of-the-wall or mint. Also effective is litharge ground up with rose oil; yellow ochre with vinegar; iron rust with vinegar and white lead and sulphur and litharge; §2 litharge with rue juice and vinegar and rose oil; opium poppy extract with vinegar; or Egyptian acacia, baked twice-roasted copper pyrite, split alum, in equal quantities, with vinegar—this is extremely effective. As poultices with finest barley meal, these are effective against erysipelas: plantain; coriander; celery; purslane; ‘everliving’; ‘mouse-ear’; nightshade; henbane leaves; pellitory-of-the-wall; root of dyer’s alkanet;62 navelwort; cabbage leaves; henna tree leaves; those of Italian cypress likewise; leaves of pale bugloss; basil leaves; those of henbane ⟨likewise⟩; § 3 ground-up green bark of reed; castor-oil tree leaves ground up, by themselves or with vinegar; Madonna lily flower and leaves with wine; pomegranate flowers cooked with wine and ground up, used with lentils and dried roses; green hemlock ground up; mandrake root ground up with vinegar; mallow leaves cooked and mixed with olive oil; leaves of white chamomile by themselves; ground-up duckweed; ground-up leaves of basil thyme with ground-up leaves of ‘holy plant’ and vinegar; water lettuce; mastic tree leaves; beet cooked with wine and olive oil, and ground up; § 4 ‘dark-leaf’, also called paideros, and by others acanthus, ground up green by itself or with vinegar and rose oil and bread works splendidly; ash with cabbage juice. As douches these help against erysipelas: juice of pickled olives; decoction of pomegranate peels ⟨or⟩ flowers or myrrh ⟨or⟩ marsh mallow or bramble or wild pomegranate flower or ivy or camel grass or chickpea or elm tree roots. Shingles 161. Those with shingles are helped both by the items listed above for erysipelas, and especially by those that are intensely astringent as liniments and poultices: ground-up leaves of woad as a poultice with water; bramble leaves likewise; goat droppings as a poultice with vinegar; coltsfoot leaves with water; myrtle

62

Named by synonyms: “kalux aka onokleia”.

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leaves with barley groats; cinquefoil root with barley groats; hogweed ground up with rue and vinegar. §2 Helpful as liniments are unslaked lime with vinegar for patients without ulceration, but with cerate if they are ulcerated; twice-roasted copper pyrite with vinegar; Cimolian earth likewise; buckthorn extract; two drachmas of Aleppo pine bark with one drachma of flower of copper, combined with cerate; or grind up decayed wood, mix in an equal quantity of anise and some olive oil and combine them, tie them in a linen cloth ⟨and⟩ burn them, then grind them smooth and sprinkle on so. §3 Also effective are burnt melanterite with vinegar; copper ore with water; Aleppo pine bark made up with henna cerate; writing ink with vinegar, applied and left on; cabbage leaves. Or make a liniment of one oungia of sulphur and two oungiai of litharge ground up with wine; or combine one drachma of garlic, two drachmas of bitter almonds, half a drachma of saffron as a liniment; for a douche, use warm vinegar. Night Pustules 162. Treat night pustules63 with a poultice of wild olive flowers, or leaves of rhamnos or chaste tree with honey; bitter almonds with wine; sheep excrement by itself; plantain by itself; raisins with rue; wormwood with water; ground-up green coriander; marjoram with water; cucumber leaves likewise. ‘Honeycombs’ 163. For ‘honeycombs’64 these are suitable: raisins with rue; tender fig leaves with honey; cardamom with honey and linseed; cultivated cucumber root with honey; unfired sulphur with a little cerate or terebinth resin. Abrasions on Feet 164. Painful abrasions caused by wearing sandals are freed from pain and inflammation by applying the lung of a pig or lamb; onion ground up with chicken fat or barley groats; old sandal soles burnt and sprinkled on. Deep Abrasions 165. Deep abrasions are kept free of inflammation by ⟨ground-up⟩ red sumach as a poultice with honey; leaves of the ironwort also called Herakleia, as a poultice; water germander; foliage of the mastic tree burnt and applied with honey; water lettuce with vinegar.

63 64

Pustules that are particularly painful at night. See footnote on 1.147.

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Warts 166. Warts are removed by a poultice of buttercup, after the wart has briefly been scraped beforehand. One must cover accurately the surrounding areas with fat or wax in applying the poultice, for it also eats through healthy areas. Applied briefly as a poultice, buttercup also removes large warts and thinnecked warts. They are ⟨also⟩ removed by a burnt head of salted picarel; fresh willow bark, burnt and applied with vinegar; labdanum gum with a little castor; black cumin with urine; silphium with wax (also removes calluses), or silphium sap with resin; ground-up lizard’s head as a poultice, or dried sap of the fig tree; fresh lizard blood dripped on, or applied in soaked wool. Soften gum ammoniac in a fasting person’s saliva and apply it after scraping ⟨the wart⟩ for a certain time. More on Warts 167. Underskin warts, thin-necked warts and warty excrescences are removed by the following with cerate: ground-up unslaked lime; ground-up teasel root as a poultice; extract of squirting cucumber ground up with salt and touched on; cooked chickpeas ground up as a poultice. They say that if one touches each wart at the new moon with a single chickpea, and ties this in a cloth and throws it behind one, they fall off spontaneously or become invisible. § 2 Also effective are the fruit of heliotrope in wine as a poultice; wild basil cooked with water and applied; rue as a poultice with soda and pepper; frankincense with vinegar likewise; wild figs likewise with soda and meal, or the sap of the fig tree as a liniment; a lizard’s head ground and applied; a salted picarel head ground as a poultice; §3 thyme or savory as poultices; rust burnt with copper ore; spurge sap as a liniment; basil leaves with copper sulphate as a poultice; a liniment of the moisture sweated from green grapevine twigs when being burnt; sheep droppings with vinegar; ‘ground-fig’ ground up as a poultice; gall of a wild shegoat or he-goat as a liniment. Thin-Necked Warts 168. Thin-necked warts in any area are removed by the juices from a roasted ⟨sheep’s⟩ lung used as a liniment. Pound sulphur, frankincense and fig leaves in equal quantities and apply, after rinsing with decoction of wheat. Or use earth on which a black dog has urinated, or dwarf elder, as liniments. Burns 169. Burns are helped at the outset by the following, so that if one uses them straightway, there is no blistering: writing ink as a liniment in water; moist alum; mulberry leaves with olive oil; narcissus root with honey; ground-up

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elder leaves; leaves and stalk and roots of arktion cooked with wine; mullein roots and leaves likewise; cooked leaves of the olive tree; salt with olive oil as a poultice; ‘man’s-blood’ ground up; plantain leaves; fresh leaves of St. John’s-wort; ground-up mallow cooked or raw as a poultice; § 2 Cimolian earth as a liniment with water; pale olives in brine ground up as a poultice, and black ones likewise; also a poultice of pellitory-of-the-wall or bramble or camel grass or myrtle or roses or pomegranate flowers used likewise; or beet leaves cooked briefly in wine; moringa with water; leaves of immortelle with honey or wine; myrrh as a liniment with wine; trumpet shells filled with salt and burnt as a poultice (for they dry like pottery, until there is cicatrisation);65 § 3 sandal soles burnt and powdered on; Egyptian acacia gum with egg white as a liniment; bull’s-hide glue made up with warm water; Madonna lily leaves cooked in wine, or the root cooked and ground up with rose oil; leaves of sea beet likewise; frankincense as a liniment with water; antimony with fresh fat as a liniment; §4 any kind of alum with water or egg white; the moisture in elm seed-capsules and the decoction of the leaves do well as a douche; rock lichen ground up and applied; juice of unripe mulberries; or olive-lees and honey and litharge in equal quantities, ground up and cooked until they have the thickness of honey. As liniments: lead cooked in olive oil, until it has the thickness of honey; fig ash with honey; liquid pitch with linen dressings. Scar Formation on Burns 170. Scars are formed on burns by root of dyer’s alkanet cooked with rose or myrtle cerate; sheep droppings mixed with rose cerate; pigeon excrement burnt in a linen cloth and triturated with olive oil; one drachma of litharge and one kotule of old olive oil (it is boiled over a bright fire until it glows, then used as liniment, and ivy leaves are applied on top of it); or cinnabar with white lead and burnt barley in equal quantities, combined with myrtle cerate; § 2 litharge made up with goat fat, until it has the consistency of a salve; cyclamen root hollowed out, with ⟨olive oil⟩ and wax simmered in it; mallow leaves cooked with olive oil; myrtle leaves burnt with cerate; bark of pine or Aleppo pine with myrtle cerate, or ground up as a poultice by itself, or the leaves cooked in wine; cooked beet as a poultice; unslaked lime dissolved with olive oil—this prevents blistering, and forms scars on ulcerated areas.

65

This is clearer, because less compressed, in Diosc. 2.4.1 “One must allow the application to dry like pottery; for it falls off of its own accord once the burn has cicatrised.”

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Lesions Chilblains 171. Chilblains are healed by these douches: decoction of cyclamen root; that of asphodel roots likewise; turnip cooked in seawater or brine; buttercup with water; leaves and stalk and root of arktion cooked in wine, or used themselves as a poultice; bryony from the tanners66 as a douche; decoction of silphium; decoction of bitter vetch; seawater by itself. §2 These liniments are helpful if used before the chilblains ulcerate: juice of Egyptian acacia; that of leek; juice of tanner’s sumach; extract of buckthorn; boiled olive-lees; heated layers of wax applied successively as a hot poultice; alum with white lead and cerate; or ash of burnt bramble with cerate. As a poultice before ulceration turnip is used, cooked in brine. For those that have ulcerated, these are effective: cerate cooked in a hollowed-out raw turnip over hot embers, or in a cyclamen root that is similarly hollowed out; §3 cooked leaves of dragon arum; river crabs burnt with honey; ground-up navelwort; frankincense with bear fat; litharge with myrtle cerate; or galena likewise; or asses’ hooves burnt, ground and sprinkled on; jellyfish ground up as a poultice; horehound ground as a poultice likewise; § 4 dried figs with cerate, or raw figs ground up with warm olive oil; duckweed; Madonna lily root cooked and ground as a poultice with unsalted pig fat; pomegranate peel cooked in wine; silphium ground up with olive oil; fat ⟨and⟩ wax ⟨with oil⟩ of myrtle; or cooked lentils ground up with warm olive oil. Ulcers (172–179) 172. Fresh ulcers are cicatrised by pimpernel with cerate; cuckoo-pint leaves cooked in wine and applied; burnt barley and white lead with thrice as much myrtle cerate; egg yolks and litharge likewise made up with cerate; cerate with burnt lead; myrtle; Aleppo pine bark used likewise. 173. Chronic ulcers are cicatrised by Aleppo pine bark with myrtle cerate; or twice-roasted copper pyrite ground and sprinkled on; ground-up leaves of agrimony with grease; ground-up root of bracken; mistletoe pulp with frankincense; rust with an equal amount of twice-roasted copper pyrite and with myrtle cerate; calamine with cerate; ‘⟨small⟩ centaury’ ground up green; ivy

66

It was used to remove hair from pelts (Diosc. 4.182.1).

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flowers with cerate; §2 Madonna lily root ground up with rose cerate (and the juice of the leaves itself, cooked in a copper vessel with honey and vinegar, turns into an excellent unguent for a dressing); labdanum gum and myrrh and honey with myrtle cerate; or old olive oil with a lint poultice. 174. Hard-to-cure ulcers on the extremities are brought to order by these poultices: myrtle berries with wine; root of sarapias orchid as a poultice; propolis as an application; decayed wood as a poultice; leaves of arktion as a poultice; asphodel root with barley groats; milk vetch root likewise; black horehound leaves likewise; savin leaves in the same way; cabbage leaves with fenugreek meal and vinegar; libanotis leaves and the plant itself; lemon balm as poultice; also sulphurwort; wall germander with honey; ‘holy plant’ likewise; leaves of ironwort aka Herakleia with honey. 175. Putrid leg ulcers are healed by a poultice of caper root; ‘small centaury’ ground up; meal of bitter vetch seeds with honey; orchid root with honey; sulphurwort root likewise; liquid pitch; ‘riverside’ in the same way; sakkharon in a dressing; dry powdery decayed wood; dried carrot root, ground up and burnt in a cloth with honey and barley groats until carbonised; § 2 dried figs with copper sulphate; rust, copper flakes, turpentine, wax in equal quantities; shavings from tender fig branches cooked in water with wheatmeal until like a salve, then applied as a compress and let be for three days. 176. ⟨Foul⟩ ulcers are cleansed by horehound with honey; nettle leaves with salt; birthwort with honey; gentian; iris with honey; pickled olives as a poultice; ground-up sage; burnt sea urchin shells; narcissus root with bitter vetch seeds and honey; or mix ‘soda foam’ with honey, burn it in a new pot, mix in an appropriate amount of iris, and use; or eight drachmas of burnt papyrus sheets, four drachmas of yellow orpiment with rose oil or honey or wax. 177. Scars resulting from a burn are eroded at the edges by these applications: iris; restharrow leaves; cooked bitter vetch seeds; lupines; plantain leaves; ‘holy plant’; olive tree foliage; leaves and flowers of yellow horned poppy; leaves of headed leek with salt and vinegar; burnt melanterite; spurge sap; ground-up root of cuckoo-pint. 178. Flesh is restored to ulcers by butter, wax, resin, rose oil, root and flowers of bounion, birthwort by itself or with iris and ⟨honey⟩, allheal root with honey.

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179. Ulcers are reduced by unslaked lime, frankincense powder, and copper flakes in equal quantities; burnt sea urchin;67 burnt head of salted picarel; kedros resin; oak gall; burnt trumpet shells; lapis lazuli; burnt lead; metal oxide; any kind of burnt alum; melanterite (even melts away flaccid ulcers); ground-up water germander; rock alum; copper sulphate; copper ore; twice-roasted copper pyrite; burnt linen cloth. ‘Little Wings’ 180. ‘Little wings’68 are treated with extracted juice of Egyptian acacia as a liniment; dried aloe sprinkled on; two parts rust with one part litharge; cinquefoil root as a poultice; spurge sap as a liniment; dried licorice sprinkled on; iron rust with vinegar; filings of elephant bone likewise; horehound with honey; alum with water; dried figs with cooked pomegranate peel and honey, with rock alum and copper flakes mixed in, applied as a salve. Or mix as a poultice equal quantities of split alum, realgar, unslaked lime, and twice-roasted copper pyrite. Ground-up Cyprian copper flakes sprinkled on ‘little wings’ dry them up amazingly.69 Whitlows 181. Whitlows are treated by frankincense with honey, or burnt myrtle with cerate. Or use a poultice of the ⟨ground-up⟩ leaves likewise, or of raisins with frankincense powder. Hardened Ulcers 182. The closed lips of hardened and chronic ulcers are opened by the insides of squill used in honey. Lesions on the Pudenda (183–186) 183. Cracks in the skin of the pudenda are relieved by roasted resin ground up with rose oil to a paste, with a cooked egg yolk also mixed in; dry ivy leaves burnt and their ash pounded with olive oil in a mortar of lead; this is also effective for fistulas around the anus, if inserted with papyrus.

67 68

69

Unspecified ἐχῖνος stands here for ἐχῖνος θαλάσσιος ‘sea urchin’, which is used against ulcers at Simp. 1.176 and Diosc. 2.1. This term (πτερύγια / pterygia) designates overgrowths of tissue on the inner corners of the eyes, or on the fingernails. Since those of the eyes were treated at 1.44, the fingernails must be meant here. This sentence, wrongly placed in 1.182 in the MSS, was transposed back to 1.180 by Moibanus.

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184. Ulcers on the pudenda are treated with these as poultices: wild pomegranate flower; aloe; Aleppo pine bark with frankincense; camelthorn wood; expressed juice of Egyptian acacia; juice of wild pomegranate. 185. The pain is stopped by warm wine (without seawater)70 or goat’s gall used as liniments. 186. Spreading ulcers on the pudenda are relieved by copper ore with vinegar as a douche, and by the medications that will be recorded on spreading ulcers.71 Parasitic Grubs 187. The grubs that breed on ulcers are expelled by plantain ground up as a poultice, or by sprinkling on the ash from burnt wild fig wood. Carbuncles (188–189) 188. Carbuncles are treated by the following poultices: wild olive leaves with honey, or the fruit roasted and ground up with honey; ‘everliving’ by itself; plantain likewise; darnel meal with rhaphanos and salt; ground-up root of bryony with wine; cuckoo-pint root likewise; dried pig dung as a poultice; pigeon dung with linseed and honey; camelthorn ground up as a poultice; raisins ⟨ground up⟩ with rue or silphium sap; savin leaves ground up with honey; lupins cooked and ground up; green garden cress and its seed. 189. Pus is produced, and the edges ⟨of carbuncles⟩ eroded, by the inner part of walnuts (old or fresh); the inner part of stone pine cones likewise; coriander leaves with raisins; leaves and flowers of yellow horned poppy; silphium sap with rue and soda and honey, or by itself (⟨but one must⟩ cover it over with ‘everliving’, so that it stays in place); bitter vetch seed ground up with wine; liquid pitch with raisins and fat; ground-up cabbage leaves with water. Spreading Ulcers 190. Spreading ulcers and putrefactions that supervene are treated with yellow orpiment or unslaked lime with realgar and burnt papyrus sheets; soda with unslaked lime and lees or vinegar or water; any kind of alum burnt with twice as much salt; burnt melanterite; copper flakes and pumice burnt in equal quant-

70 71

Seawater was sometimes mixed into wine as a preservative: bad for the health (Diosc. 5.6.3), and no doubt for flavour. A cross-reference to 1.190.

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ities; abundant salt made up with liquid pitch; § 2 birthwort root with resin; a poultice of plantain; darnel meal with rhaphanos and salt; bitter almonds with honey; raisins with rue; nettle-leaved figwort with salt; olive foliage with honey; burnt head of pickled picarel; rust with burnt copper ore; oak gall burnt and quenched in vinegar; burnt trumpet shells; henna flowers burnt as a poultice by themselves or with honey; § 3 or Italian cypress by itself or with barley groats; lead burnt and ground up; iron flakes with olive oil; leaves of Sipylean origanum as a poultice; cooked beet as a poultice; ‘pigeonplant’ with honey; spurge sap; burnt copper; cooked lentils with pomegranate peel; ground-up olive foliage with brine or with salt; or pomegranate peel and salt. Douche with decoction of pomegranate flowers, camel grass, Italian cypress, myrtle, or with garum from sheatfish or general fish. Gangrene 191. Areas of gangrene are demarcated by darnel meal as a poultice with rhaphanos72 and salt; savin leaves; raisins with rhaphanos bark, or rhaphanos bark with honey; the inside part of old walnuts; pomegranate flowers cooked with pomegranate peel; clay stone with honey; myrtle leaves cooked in wine and ground up with honey; bitter vetch seeds with honey. § 2 A poultice of rhaphanos seeds with vinegar breaks up eschars down to the bone. Horehound ⟨with⟩ honey actually clears ⟨them⟩ away. Cut up spurge sap and insert it in the wounds, or use silphium sap likewise. Douche with decoction of lupins continually, or with human urine or vinegar. Malignant and Pernicious Ulcers (192–193) 192. Specific for dispatching malignant ulcers are ground-up cardopatium;73 burnt Attic yellow ochre; yellow orpiment and unslaked lime in equal quantities washed with water for 30 days, with the scum poured away daily. 193. Pernicious ulcers and malignant indurations are treated with the flesh of acorns, ground up and applied with grease; juice of the root of dragon arum (and the root as a poultice for suppurated cases); that of cuckoo-pint root like-

72 73

At Diosc. 2.112.2 it is rhaphanis (radish) not rhaphanos that is used to demarcate areas of gangrene. For the possible confusion cf. Simp. 1.53.1 with footnote. The text says χαμαιλέων, but omits to specify whether the pale type (atractylis) or dark type (cardopatium) is meant: no doubt the dark, recommended by Diosc. 3.9.3 for malignant ulcers. The omission by Simp. of ‘dark’ (μέλας) may be the fault of the author or a copyist.

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wise; leaves and juice of lady’s bedstraw with vinegar; root of white bryony and dragon arum with honey; chickpeas or bitter vetch seeds cooked with honey; mistletoe pulp with frankincense; ash of river crabs with honey; ivy ground up as a poultice. §2 Assian stone or its flower74 cicatrises when sprinkled on, and cleanses with honey; the operculum of the murex as a poultice also cicatrises malignant ulcers. Dried root of the wild wheat called ‘swallow’s wheat’;75 root of Philetairos’ plant as a poultice; ‘pigeon-plant’ with honey; decoction of lupins used continually as a douche. Cancerous Sores 194. The items that have been listed above for malignant and pernicious ulcers also work for cancerous sores, and the following are also appropriate: asphodel root cooked with olive oil as a poultice; nettle leaves with salt; salt with honey and barley groats, burnt in a linen cloth until carbonised; § 2 leaves and stems of white or black bryony as a poultice with salt; fig leaves ground up in wine; leaves of woad, wild or cultivated; garden cress with honey. Cleansers are Assian stone with cerate; leaves of tanner’s sumach with honey; dried root of wild carrot as a poultice; burnt alum of any kind with oak gall and vinegar lees. Also effective is vinegar used continually as a douche. Elephantiasis 195. Helpful for elephantiasis are plantain with honey ⟨as a poultice⟩ on the swollen parts; ‘holy plant’ likewise; wild she-goat’s or he-goat’s gall as a liniment. It also helps elephantiasis patients to drink quantities of whey; it helps too to eat calamint or to drink its juice, with milk whey as a chaser, or to suck a lozenge of kedros resin. Wonderfully effective is horse’s fat as an ointment on the swollen parts. Chaps in the Feet 196. Chaps in the feet are treated by these applications: the inside of a squill bulb simmered with olive oil and combined with terebinth resin; river crabs burnt and ground up with honey; polypody root as a poultice; goat horn burnt and made up with goat fat. Or a litra of honey, equal amounts of wax and olive oil melted together, and four oungiai of litharge, all cooked to the consistency of a paste. One should first clean around the calluses, and ⟨then⟩ use the medications.

74 75

“Its flower is the salty deposit that forms on the surface of the stones” (Diosc. 5.124.1). So named for its reddish-brown colour like a swallow’s throat (LSJ).

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Fistulous Sores 197. Fistulous sores are dissolved and cleansed by two drachmas of rust and two drachmas of ammoniac incense made into a pessary and inserted in the fistulas with vinegar or water; olive-lees boiled and used as a clyster; decoction of iris root as a clyster (also works for fistulous cavities); fruit of cuckoo-pint or friar’s cowl inserted, and the root and leaves of these ground up and shaped into pessaries. §2 Also effective is insertion of a tender little shoot of horehound; insertion of navelwort with deer’s marrow; extracted juice of gentian; insertion of extracted juice from teasel root; sap of spurge; rock alum burnt and made up with gum ammoniac as a pessary; black hellebore inserted and removed after three days; ground-up globules of Italian cypress combined with groundup figs as a clyster with vinegar; yellow ochre used likewise; § 3 melanterite, raw or burnt, as a clyster with a little watered wine and honey (this also rebuilds flesh); juice of unripe grapes as a clyster; cinquefoil leaves with salt and honey; pearl ash of figwood as a clyster; leaves of telephion ground up as a poultice; hogweed root shredded and inserted. One must first open up the fistulas with a dried sponge or paper, and then one may use the aforesaid medications.

Haemorrhages Haemorrhages from Wounds 198. Haemorrhages from wounds are halted by root of silver sage ground up as a poultice with vinegar; loosestrife likewise; aloe ground up as a poultice; groundup bark of the grapevine, or the dry leaves ground up; almonds; ‘man’s-blood’ as a poultice; leaves of cleavers likewise; unburnt droppings of a goat or horse or ass used like barley groats as a poultice, with lint dressings soaked in vinegar and laid over them (these droppings are also effective burnt, whether used by themselves or made up with vinegar); ground-up plantain; spider’s web. Other Bleeding 199. Bleeding from the surface of the skin is stopped by a poultice of milk vetch; dry asphalt; a poultice of Achillea leaves; ash from burnt frogs sprinkled on; that from burnt linen cloths or from twice-roasted copper pyrite sprinkled on likewise; ground-up olive foliage, and sage likewise; § 2 unfired sulphur; ‘Idaian root’; iron rust and flakes; ⟨rock alum⟩; leaves of woad, wild or cultivated; ground-up calamine; ground-up oak gall; kuperos; globules of Italian cypress with vinegar; frankincense; frankincense powder; rock lichen; myrtle, dried or green; cinquefoil root; any kind of alum, the moist kind burnt; and open-textured sponge soaked in pitch, burnt, ground up and sprinkled on.

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Nosebleeds 200. Nosebleeds are suppressed by insertion of ground-up sharp rush; insertion of juice of nettle leaves on lint, or application of the ground-up leaves themselves on the forehead; rock alum; burnt copper sulphate; or dry inflorescence of reed burnt and inserted on lint; likewise the mullein used for lamp wicks, and ground-up sage leaves; ground-up tassel hyacinth bulbs as a poultice on the forehead in leek juice or vinegar; ass’s dung likewise; § 2 gypsum with ⟨vinegar or⟩ water or egg white over the whole of the head (which has been shaved) and forehead; juice of horsetail or honeysuckle made up with lint; snail’s flesh in vinegar, and whole snails pounded up with the shells as a poultice over the whole forehead or the nostril; cumin ground up and applied with vinegar; the pith of giant fennel with vinegar; ground-up rue inserted; onion peeled and inserted dry; rennet triturated as a poultice. §3 They are also checked by poulticing the ears carefully with very soft wax, by washing in the bathhouse, and by tying a thread around the foreskin. It also helps to drip cold water into the ear. They say that nosebleeds are checked if withered mulberry flowers before falling are tied in a box and hung from the neck—but one must take the first flower found or seen that summer. Blood Clots 201. The following dissolve clots of blood that arise from deep wounds either ⟨in⟩ the stomach or the bladder: pearl ash from the fig tree, drunk with water;76 savory ⟨or⟩ thyme in diluted sour wine; decoction of immortelle in honeyed wine; silphium sap ground up and drunk with diluted sour wine or water.

Anus Haemorrhoids (202–205) 202. Haemorrhoids are prevented from multiplying by sprinkling on aloe, flakes of iron, leaves of libanotis, Arabian stone (it is like ivory), or burnt lead; or by douches using diluted sour wine or the other astringents. 203. Haemorrhoids are opened by eating tapenade or smearing on marjoram unguent or iris unguent. They are irritated by applying ox bile as a pessary and 76

Similarly at Diosc 1.128.7 pearl ash from fig wood is drunk to dissolve internal blood clots, πρὸς αἵματος ἐκθρόμβωσιν. LSJ followed by Beck translates ἐκθρόμβωσις as ‘coagulation’, but Simp. here shows that it means ‘dissolving clots’, cf. Pliny 23.124 on ash from fig wood, bibitur et ad discutiendum sanguinem concretum.

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smearing it on before surgery; this controls them and prevents them from turning aside. Cyclamen juice works likewise. 204. Haemorrhoids are removed wonderfully well by this: two drachmas of dry hemlock, four drachmas of expressed juice of henbane, two drachmas of split alum, two drachmas of burnt copper sulphate, one drachma of Sinopic red ochre, one drachma of white lead, all made up in rose cerate and applied; or rind of sour pomegranate ground up as a poultice with vinegar. If they are further in, form the mixture as a ball and insert. § 2 The following also works wonderfully: eight drachmas of realgar and eight of the gold-coloured yellow orpiment, smear on a haemorrhoid that has first been protruded;77 it necrotises and falls off in half an hour, being dried up and rolled away from its base; it is softened with oil of myrrh ⟨and⟩ anointed in a circle with cerate. This is done either in the sun or by a fire. 205. Haemorrhoids are quickly checked by four drachmas of the tawny juice of Egyptian acacia,78 four drachmas of galena, two drachmas of tragacanth: grind them up separately, then mix, moisten with water, place on a lint bandage or wool as a poultice, and apply. As a fomentation use copper sulphate or oak gall ⟨and⟩ alum in equal amounts, ground up, soaked in warm diluted sour wine or water, and used to foment. Inflammations (206–207) 206. Inflammations of the anus are helped by a poultice of bread in honeywater; an application of sow-thistle juice in wool; a poultice of mallow, cooked or raw; root of marsh mallow (the Romans call it ebiskos)79 cooked in honeywater and used likewise; liniment of marjoram unguent; melilot with lanolin and butter; silphium ⟨root⟩ cooked with vinegar in pomegranate peel; liquid pitch with honeycomb in equal amounts; iron rust with cerate. 207. The pain is helped by sap of sulphurwort as a liniment; myrrh with honey; flowers of groundsel with sweet wine; ivy flowers used likewise; pellitory-ofthe-wall by itself or with bread.

77

78 79

I.e. made more prominent by emptying the bowel: Celsus 7.30.3A. This interpretation requires correction of Wellmann’s reading προεσχηματισμένῳ (from Oribasius) to προεσχηματισμένῃ. The extracted juice is black (when dried) from ripe fruit, but tawny from unripe (Diosc. 1.101.1). Variously spelled (h)ibiscus or –um, ebiscus etc. in Latin.

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Growths (208–211) 208. Callous lumps are dispatched by a poultice of olive-tree flowers with water; a liniment of aloe with grape syrup; a poultice of black horehound leaves; bramble leaves ⟨used likewise⟩, or the juice as a liniment or applied with rose cerate; cinquefoil root as a poultice; henna tree leaves used likewise; Italian cypress leaves likewise with barley groats, and fomentation with a decoction of it; leaves of libanotis likewise; §2 melilot cooked with sweet wine, mixed with egg yolks or flowers of melilot and camel grass, with butter or linseed or endive or fenugreek or poppy capsules. Or quinces cooked with bread or barley groats; burnt myrtle leaves with cerate; buckthorn extract rubbed on; boiled olive-lees likewise; brine as a fomentation likewise. § 3 Use the foam from boiling honey also as a liniment. ⟨Also⟩ effective is melilot ⟨or⟩ camel grass as a poultice with butter; or plantain leaves as a poultice with salt; wool-in-thegrease burnt and made up with rose oil and goose fat; propolis pre-softened and applied. 209. Callous lumps and fig-like growths are removed by a poultice of yellow orpiment; tassel hyacinth bulbs baked on hot ashes, ground up and sprinkled on with burnt heads of blotched picarel; unslaked lime and lees made up with mistletoe pulp and applied as a compress. 210. Oversized fig-like growths are cast off by fumigation with frankincense pursued over six days; liniment of iron rust with sweet wine; ash from burnt dill seed sprinkled on; copper sulphate and pomegranate peel ground up with vinegar; split alum burnt and likewise ground up with vinegar; black pigment80 with salt; moist alum with bread and wine and celery. 211. After removal, fig-like growths and warty excrescences and callous lumps are cured and prevented from growing again by ash from vine twigs, or by that from grape pips, used as a poultice with vinegar. Chaps, Wounds, Ulcers (212–214) 212. Chaps are treated by twice-roasted copper pyrite with rose oil; aloe with grape syrup as a liniment; teasel root ground and made up with cerate; ash from burnt river crabs applied with rose cerate; lanolin with melilot and butter;

80

This translates Moibanus’ conjecture μελαντηρία (black pigment, a sulphate used to contract and reduce: Diosc. 5.101). Most MSS have the meaningless reading πελατήριον; one MS has ἐλατήριον (‘extract of squirting cucumber’, which was used as a purgative).

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liquid pitch by itself; endive juice with frankincense powder; burnt murex shell and myrrh in equal quantities, made up with moist cerate. 213. For wounds on the anus: black cumin pounded with rose oil, ground up and applied. 214. Ulceration inside the anus is helped by olive-lees boiled up as a clyster, or stinking bean trefoil injected through a surgical drain.81 Parasitic Worms 215. Skolex and askarid worms82 are destroyed by an application of kedros resin, or old grease inserted as a pessary. Rectal Prolapse 216. Rectal prolapse is reduced by these liniments: expressed juice of Egyptian acacia; juice of bramble, or a poultice of the leaves; a poultice of the dark-flowered pimpernel (the red-flowered irritates and everts); a sitz bath in decoction of oak gall or quinces or myrtle or pomegranate peel, or in diluted sour wine; a poultice of libanotis leaves; cooked quinces ground up and applied; myrtle likewise as a poultice; the electric ray fish applied;83 a poultice of wild grapevine flowers or henna tree leaves. Chafing 217. Chafed areas that have already ulcerated are helped immediately by rock alum pounded with water and applied as a liniment; ground-up galena with vinegar and rose oil, or litharge used likewise; Aleppo pine ⟨bark used likewise⟩.

Sinews and Joints Sprains 218. Sprains are healed by these poultices: chaste tree seed with salt and soda and cerate; dyer’s alkanet leaves with honey and barley groats; leaves of smooth

81 82 83

The name πυουλκός indicates that this instrument was designed for drawing off pus. Skolex worms, indicated by the context to be found around the anus, are probably threadworms aka pinworms. For askarid worms cf. 2.69. The shock from the electric ray was used to make the prolapsed rectum revert to its normal position (Diosc. 2.15).

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acanthus; nettle leaves with a lot of salt; salt with meal and honey; cooked olivelees applied with wool-in-the-grease; ash from vine twigs, or that from grape pips, used with vinegar; dried pig dung with cerate; burdock root; unslaked lime with pitch or old grease; §2 tassel hyacinth bulbs with honey, sometimes with bread too mixed in, especially for those with tender skin; meal cooked with vinegar, ground up with pig dung; heliotrope ground up; root of phragmites reed with vinegar; almonds with rue and honey; Madonna lily root cooked in wine or triturated in honey; fenugreek meal with meal of bruised raw grain; narcissus root ground with honey; §3 soda with cerate; cooked root of firethorn; root of polypody likewise; sumphuton with cerate; ash of vine twigs with old grease. Very ⟨longstanding⟩ sprains are cured by ⟨cattle⟩ droppings as a warm poultice, or decoction of henna tree as a douche. Weakened Ankles 219. Weakened ankle joints: juice of Egyptian acacia made up in water as a douche; decoction of thorn or bramble or myrtle ⟨or pomegranate peel⟩ or mastic tree or Valonia oak or elm roots or bark; date palm spathe ground up with cerate; oil of myrtle or of mastic tree used continually as a liniment; pomegranate peel as a poultice; myrtle leaves applied with myrtle cerate. Fatigue 220. Fatigue is dispelled by these applications: gum ammoniac with vinegar and henna flower oil and a little soda; tuberous spurge84 seed with olive oil; oil of bay; saffron unguent; marjoram unguent; ‘soda foam’ ⟨or⟩ soda with olive oil or wine or vinegar. And they say that on journeys the groin is not affected by intertrigo if one holds a stick of chaste tree or sea ⟨Artemisia⟩.85 Convulsion 221. For sufferers from tetanus and other kinds of convulsion the following are appropriate: pennyroyal taken in drink with salt and honeywater; two drachmas of iris with honeywater; dried flesh of hedgehog taken likewise; henna flower unguent, or castor; eating cooked cabbage; sorrel root with wine; silphium sap coated in wax as a pill; hartwort; root ⟨and⟩ seed of wild carrot; seed of white thistle.

84 85

Apios (ἄπιος) can also mean ‘pear’ or ‘pear tree’, but probably refers here to the spurge. Artemisia is supplied here by Saracenus: Pliny 26.150 says that Artemisia prevents fatigue on journeys. If the supplement is correct, ‘sea’ here must mean ‘coastal’.

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222. Children with convulsions are helped by a drachma of water-plantain leaves in honeywater; broth of frogs prepared with salt and olive oil and eaten, or the frogs themselves; broth of crabs likewise; three obols of balsam-wood in wine. 223. Newly started convulsions are treated by drinking hartwort with honeywater. These liniments are appropriate for tetanus and convulsive tremors: castor with olive oil; St. John’s-wort likewise; sulphurwort sap; pitch oil; marjoram with meal of bruised raw grain; fig ash with olive oil. It is also appropriate to pour olive oil continually down the neck, or get into a bath of olive oil. If the rigidity remains for a considerable time, they are helped by cautery of the skin over the tendon. Tremors 224. For tremors these are appropriate as drinks: castor with honeywater; hare’s brain cooked and eaten; cabbage cooked and eaten; decoction of marsh mallow root; a drachma of water-plantain leaves with honeywater; agrimony drunk plentifully with water. Paralysis (225–226) 225. If the tongue is paralysed it is appropriate to take silphium sap and seed with a thick gruel, or to chew stavesacre or pepper or mustard. 226. For those with paralysis these drinks are effective: one drachma of cardamom with water or wine; two drachmas of the fruit of caper ‘pears’ with wine, ⟨and⟩ likewise of the root; castor in water or honeywater or wine; juice of cinquefoil root. ⟨The⟩ liniments appropriate for arthritics are also adopted suitably for paralysis, ⟨as well as⟩ costus-thistle root with olive oil, and those anti-fatigue medications that are warming. Gout or Arthritis (227–228) 227. For those with gout or arthritis these drinks are helpful: decoction of Nepal cardamom; ‘man-heal’ with water; expressed juice of ‘small centaury’; decoction of spignel; wild rue simmered with dill; silphium seed and sap taken with food; decoction of wall germander; bettonike drunk with wine. Also helpful is eating vipers. 228. The following liniments or poultices help cases of gout and arthritis: unslaked lime ground up, mixed with vinegar and applied (but one must use a

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liniment of olive oil or cerate to avoid ulceration); or unslaked lime and shells in equal measures made up with vinegar and rose oil or grease; sap of opium poppy as a liniment with vinegar and rose oil (but it makes the feet heavy and difficult to move). §2 The following immediately stops pain: the softest of mullein leaves with tassel hyacinth bulbs and barley groats and water as a poultice. Also the caper that we eat,86 steeped in water and pounded, then warmed with olive oil like a cerate and applied in lint; ovate goatgrass or ‘everliving’ as a poultice with barley meal; horehound with salt; tassel hyacinth bulbs with honey; black poplar leaves cooked in vinegar; menstrual blood as a liniment; § 3 stems of elder with their leaves ground up with horehound and fat; henbane leaves; salt with olive oil; fresh olive-oil lees used warm as a douche or uncooked as a liniment; gum ammoniac softened with dry pitch; ‘man-heal’ as a poultice; cattle droppings as a warm poultice; goat droppings ground up with grease or old goat fat; ‘soda foam’ and frankincense with grease; §4 myrrh, sulphurwort, storax, opium, henbane, in equal quantities with cerate: cuckoo-pint root with cowdung and vinegar; walnut leaves with grease; asphodel root with barley groats and rose oil and water; hemlock seed with litharge; roots of hoary stock cooked with vinegar; libanotis leaves with vinegar and darnel meal; Assian stone ground up in bruised beans; opium poppy sap with woman’s milk and saffron and rose cerate, all mixed and applied; or the leaves and capsules as a poultice with henbane leaves too mixed in; §5 (one should make them up with barley meal and dry them as little globes, then liquefy them in vinegar when needed); opopanax gum with raisins; ground-up root of the celandine called ‘wild wheat’;87 sagapenon gum as a liniment with olive oil; endive with finest barley meal, or celery or wild chicory or purslane or nightshade or pellitoryof-the-wall or sesame oil; §6 squirting cucumber root cooked in vinegar; iron rust in vinegar and rose oil; iron dross simmered in vinegar as a douche; water germander as a liniment with sharp vinegar, or as a poultice with water; goat fat with goat droppings and saffron and storax or with ground-up leaves of ivy or pellitory-of-the-wall; fig tree sap with meal of spring wheat and vinegar; deseeded raisins with milk; asphalt as a liniment, cooked with meal of bruised raw grain; soft cheese as a poultice; leaves of the bitterest cabbage burnt and made up with henna cerate. §7 Also effective is a liniment of juice of white olives, and a poultice of white olives; a turnip buried in a fire and baked, and its interior then ground up as

86 87

As distinct from inedible varieties of caper (Diosc. 2.174.3). This is the lesser celandine (Diosc. 2.181).

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a poultice; moringa as a poultice with darnel meal and honeywater; seaweed or sea lettuce; viper roasted and eaten. §8 ⟨Also⟩ helpful is a poultice of mandrake root with barley groats; lemon balm or rue; mustard with honey; moringa with finest barley meal; woman’s milk with hemlock; ash of a burnt weasel with vinegar; pennyroyal with barley groats; pellitory-of-the-wall with goat fat or cerate; leaves of heliotrope, along with the stems; juice of deadly carrot used briefly as a liniment on those surfaces that you want to discharge humours;88 § 9 unfired sulphur with water, and soda likewise; castor as a liniment with olive oil; scrapings of squash ground up as a poultice; juice of raw cabbage with meal of fenugreek or lentil and vinegar; or wild pears with barley meal and vinegar; darnel meal combined with decoction of poppy capsules. A helpful douche for the joints is decoction of turnips cooked with brine; warm seawater; decoction of willow leaves and bark. Chalkstones 229. Chalkstones in cases of gout and twisting of the sinews are resolved by gum ammoniac applied with dry pitch; bdellium softened by the saliva of someone fasting; a poultice of palm-leaf marsh mallow; storax softened in saliva; a poultice of sesame. Sciatica (230–235) 230. People with sciatica are helped by these drinks: decoction of immortelle; madder with wine (it draws down blood through the urine, and the person drinking it must bathe daily); hedge mustard with wine; seed of perfoliate alexanders likewise; one drachma of garden cress with wine; St. John’s-wort; two drachmas of the fruit of caper ‘pears’ (it draws the blood) or the same quantity of the root bark; an oxubaphon of the root or plant of yellow horned poppy, cooked with four kotulai of water until reduced to a half; § 2 iris root with grape syrup; one drachma of wild or cultivated rue with decoction of dill and wine. Soak stems of Spanish broom with their leaves in vinegar for several days, then pound them up, extract the juice and give one kuathos to drink. Rock sumphuton cooked with honeywater; juice of cinquefoil root; decoction of habrotonon or one drachma of its fruit with wine; one xestes89 of agarikon with wine; decoction of silver sage with wine; knotgrass with wine; root of arktion with wine, or its decoction; decoction of ‘⟨small⟩ centaury’; decoction of marsh mallow root; §3 one drachma of gum ammoniac with honeywater or 88 89

I.e. as a liniment to draw humours to the surface from deep within (Diosc. 4.153.3). There may be textual corruption here, as one xestes is a phenomenal amount (54.58 g); the dose recommended by Diosc. 3.1.4 is three obols (1.7 g).

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water (it draws down blood through the urine); two drachmas of St. John’s-wort aka ‘man’s-blood’ with three kotulai of honeywater (this draws much excrement and phlegm); arkeuthos berries with wine; decoction of asparagus root, or the fruit; asphalt taken as a pill; six ⟨drachmas⟩ of balsam-tree fruit with honeywater; three ⟨obols⟩ of leaves of ground ivy for 40 days; two drachmas of khamaipeuke90 with wine; two drachmas of sagapenon gum with water taken for three days. 231. These enemas are suitable for people with sciatica: the garum made from pickled fish or sheatfish; decoction of iris; that of ‘small centaury’, colocynth, or birthwort likewise in water; seed of shepherd’s purse ground up and injected, or first cooked in water; root of ‘lion’s-foot’ cooked in water; salt or soda with honeywater; salt with the liquid from barley gruel. Soak Spanish broom in seawater for several days, then pound it, extract the juice and inject it (it draws the blood). The inner part of colocynth steeped in decoction of bran. §2 They are helped greatly, if one first cleanses them with an enema of wine, then squeezes squirting cucumber into the anus; for this draws the blood. After the enema it is effective to use an insertion of mustard until inflammation occurs, and then the following cerate: one litra of wax, three litrai of henna flower unguent, two oungiai of opopanax gum. 232. Poultices for people with sciatica are: meal of wheat or barley cooked with diluted sour wine and pitch; meal of darnel cooked with honeywater and linseed and soda and cooked figs; or seed of lesser calamint91 and ⟨seed⟩ of colocynth in equal quantities; moringa with honeywater and meal of darnel; fenugreek with meal of darnel and fig tree sap and vinegar; pitch with vinegar on a lint bandage, and cooked fine wheatmeal; § 2 root of phragmites reed with vinegar; calamint with wine (but it burns the surface); pepperwort likewise, applied for as much as a quarter of an hour (but patients must be then washed in warm water). Also effective is cardamom with vinegar and barley groats; celery leaves cooked with wine; meal of lupins with vinegar.

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Written here in error for khamaipitus, which is recommended by Diosc. 3.158.1 for sciatica. Both names literally mean ‘ground-pine’: hence the confusion. However, khamaipeuke is a quite different plant according to Diosc. 4.126, not recommended by him for sciatica. Wellmann prints Moibanus’s conjecture σισυμβρίου / sisumbriou (lesser calamint) here for the corrupt readings of the MSS. However, no classical authorities are cited for use of this plant against sciatica.

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233. Incipient cases of sciatica are treated by beating with rods until relieved, and the following mixed liniment: ⟨equal quantities⟩ of myrrh, ‘soda foam’, pepper, sediment of iris oil, and sufficient vinegar; or equal quantities of fig, mustard, soda, colocynth, boiled and combined; or thyme or savory with wine and barley groats; or juice of fresh colocynth rubbed on; ground-up silphium or sulphurwort rubbed on with olive oil; scammony root as a poultice with meal of barley; §2 Spanish broom steeped in vinegar for several days, pounded, the juice extracted and mixed with soda and olive oil as a liniment—also effective for strained sinews. Also effective is the slave-dealers’ pitch-plaster applied repeatedly—it is liquid pitch boiled with dry pitch to an equal amount; § 3 leaves and capsules of wild opium poppy as a poultice with barley groats (one should dry these, mixing them with meal, make little globes and store them, then liquefy them in vinegar when needed). Also effective is barley meal with decoction of poppy capsules or with honeywater. 234. Fomentations that work quite well for sciatica and other painful conditions: wrap fresh droppings from grazing cattle in leaves, heat them in hot ashes, plaster them onto a bandage and apply. Salt roasted in a bag, or millet, ⟨or⟩ both mixed together, or foxtail millet likewise; or bran cooked with bay leaves and brine or seawater or honeywater, likewise tossed into a bag made of thick rags. 235. These methods of cauterising sciatica patients are helpful. Heat goat droppings and apply them to the hollow between the sinews of the thumb, after first pouring on olive oil or soaking wool in olive oil; place it underneath and apply the heat until the sensation travels through the arm and reaches the hip joint. Or make a clay disk the size of an assarion92 and one finger deep, and apply it to the painful spot: §2 press onto it a heated branding iron until the feeling is unendurable. Or stretch the skin over the painful spot and cut it with a heated graving tool for a space of two fingers. The people of Libya93 make a pyramid from nettle tree sawdust and unslaked sulphur and squirting cucumber extract, and place it on the painful area, after first applying a doubled linen cloth or bandage or thin piece of bone, on which they place the lighted pyramid. §3 The Marmaridae94 cauterise with moist pieces of olive wood spread round the area, heating them so they do not burn 92 93 94

A coin whose size and value was small, though it varied by time and place. Here perhaps used in a restricted sense, of the North African coast immediately west of Egypt. A people of North Africa in the area between Egypt and the Gulf of Sirte.

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but become hot and humid. The Parthians make a lead pipe without a base but with handles and place it on the painful areas, first greasing the bottom of the pipe with fat so the olive oil does not run out;95 they surround it carefully with cloaks to prevent harm from the drops that spurt out; § 4 then they drop in 40 or 50 heated irons, until there is some sensation around the spot. They also wipe the face with cold water because of the sweat arising from the heat; for this reason the patient should be covered, ⟨and⟩ the pipe should also not be filled too full, for it overflows as it boils. So much, then, on these subjects; what remains we shall work through in what follows. 95

Presumably the grease makes a seal between the pipe and the skin.

book 2

Internal Medicine Preface I have recorded the activity of simple drugs in two books, most honoured Andromachus, and dedicated them both to you. In the preceding book I covered resources appropriate to ailments affecting the head and eyes and joints and the rest of the body’s surface; in this one I shall make a thorough examination of what remains, starting with ailments affecting the stomach. Let me predicate that in regard to medicines taken as drinks for which I do not include quantities, a very small dose is three obols, a medium dose one drachma, and a full dose two drachmas.

Stomach and Abdomen Heartburn (1–2) 1. Those with chronic heartburn are helped, and their thirst dispelled at the same time, by drinking juice of licorice, or the root ⟨itself⟩ with water; infusion of grapevine tendrils; juice of purslane, and eating the plant itself; swallowing endive juice; and juice of knotgrass likewise. For those recovering from sickness, their thirst is quenched by eating barely-cooked cabbage, eating soft figs or stone pine nuts, or chewing rock sumphuton. 2. These poultices help those with heartburn, used by themselves or with barley groats: root of ‘everliving’, navelwort leaves, henna tree leaves, knotgrass, endive, sow-thistle, celery, black nightshade, grapevine tendrils and leaves, purslane with barley groats or bread, grapevine leaves by themselves with cold water, date palm spathe ground up with barley groats. Burning Sensation 3. Those with a burning feeling on the surface are helped by juice extracted from shavings of squash with rose oil, or juice of unripe grapes. Black Bile 4. Those who produce black bile, with inflation of the stomach and intestines, are helped by drinking the decoction or infusion of pennyroyal, and water

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_005

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heated by hot iron. Also appropriate are sponges with vinegar as poultices, ⟨and⟩ especially for inflation of the entrails and for mental aberration. § 2 If the condition persists, lay on moist alum with ⟨ground⟩ copper sulphate and aloe and honey, after mixing them with cerate; or plaster on cooked ivy leaves with wine, or ground plantain with salt; or use dried cowdung boiled in wine, or horehound with bread and rose oil; or tassel hyacinth bulbs ground up with alum. Hiccups 5. For hiccups these drinks are suitable: decoction of biscutella herb (or holding the plant itself); dill seed drunk or smelled; root of birthwort with water; rustyback fern with diluted sour wine; ⟨three⟩ twigs of mint with juice of sour pomegranate; castor with vinegar; cumin with vinegar; rhubarb with water; juice and seed of lesser calamint; application of a sternutatory. §2 Hiccups caused by cold are dispelled by dipping one’s fingertips in hot water; swallowing hot water; applying a sponge dipped in boiled water to the stomach; massaging the extremities with Sikyonian olive oil. Stomach Pain (6–7) 6. For stomach pains, effective remedies are woman’s milk or milk of a cow or ass, suckled or drunk after being boiled down with pebbles;1 one drachma of gentian with water; one kokhliarion of mastic daily, either drunk or chewed with the juice being swallowed; leaves of three sprigs of mint swallowed with juice of sour pomegranate; pennyroyal with diluted sour wine. 7. For biting pains in the stomach: boiled terebinth leaves; likewise extracted juice of water germander; sow-thistle juice with stone pine nuts and bitter almonds and seed of ⟨squirting⟩ cucumber; pine nuts eaten by themselves. These poultices help stomach pains: melilot cooked in wine with meal of fenugreek or fine wheatmeal; quince cooked with flowers of wild grapevine; rue with honey. Throwing Up Food 8. For those who throw up their food, it is helpful to lay on their feet and arms a sponge containing sharp vinegar, until blistering starts. The chest should

1 I.e. with heated pebbles dropped into the liquid.

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be plastered with fresh cheese together with barley groats or celery leaves, or endive ⟨leaves⟩ with vinegar and barley groats, or those of purslane similarly, or shavings of squash likewise. Upset Stomach (9–11) 9. Nausea and likewise a runny stomach and vomiting are checked by these: barley groats drunk with wine; fresh sweet almonds eaten with their skin; seed of Parnassian agrostis; Ethiopian cumin; dill seed; juice of knotgrass; eating wild chicory or endive, and drinking their juice; §2 lesser calamint taken in drink; sweet lupins ground up in drink with vinegar; unwashed lettuces eaten, or their seed in drink with water; that of sow-thistle likewise; flowers of violet with water; one drachma of costus-thistle root with wine; flesh of a Libyan land snail swallowed whole on an empty stomach also stops stomach pains, and if eaten first2 almost raw for two or three days they do the same (§ 3 this also works if swallowed whole with the shell which has been sprinkled around); grape pips roasted and sprinkled on instead of barley groats; pennyroyal in diluted sour wine as a poultice; cumin drunk with diluted sour wine ⟨or⟩ with vinegar; two or three obols of ⟨wild⟩ dock seed; Egyptian acacia with water; the stone found in Samian earth; seed or extracted juice of fennel, especially for those whose food turns sour or is thrown up. 10. Fluxes of the stomach are checked by drinking wild pomegranate flower with vinegar; juice of bramble by itself or with water; water heated by hot iron; swallowing squill vinegar (one must start with a little, and work up to drinking a kuathos); §2 pomegranate with cold water; decoction of shepherd’s needle; three obols of cooked squill in diluted sour wine; one drachma of cytinus in water; roasted lentils sprinkled on food instead of barley groats; 30 winnowed lentils taken in drink; rose flowers sprinkled on drink. One should embrocate stomachs suffering from flux with wool-in-the-grease together with pomegranate juice. 11. Upsets of the stomach are treated with sparrows’ excreta given in drink. Runny stomachs are strengthened by the following, applied with myrtle or rose cerate: bramble leaves, wormwood, Italian cypress leaves, coriander, frankincense fruit, dates, quince, date palm spathe with dates.

2 I.e. before food.

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Bloating 12. Bloating of the stomach, especially in those who digest slowly, is helped by drinking the following: one drachma of eagle-wood with wine; one drachma of birthwort with wine; seed of perfoliate alexanders with wine; root of white thistle with wine; agarikon chewed, with undiluted wine as a chaser. § 2 For bloating of the stomach grind leaves of the thorny rhamnos, shape them into balls of three obols weight, ⟨and⟩ give one of these with one kotule of diluted honeywater for those with fever, but with diluted wine for those without fever. This is also marvellously effective for patients with internal obstructions and any pain caused by wind; for by belching and breaking wind they regain health. Digestion 13. Digestion is brought about by chewing agarikon and swallowing it after dinner without drinking anything afterwards; one drachma of aloe with water, actually before food; ground-up arkeuthos berries with wine; infusion of ⟨quinces⟩; decoction of balsam-wood with hartwort, or of Celtic nard taken with oxudion;3 decoction of flower of camel grass drunk with rose flowers; hartwort taken in drink. 14. The stomach is strengthened by raisins, and by boiled squill taken as a lozenge with honey. Good digestion is promoted by swallowing endive juice. Pregnancy Cravings 15. Women’s craving for strange food is helped by eating purslane, drinking an infusion of grapevine tendrils, or eating citrons. Hardening of the Abdomen 16. Chronic hardening of the abdomen4 is helped by drinking fennel, and by these poultices; wormwood with henna cerate or dates; leaves of white chamomile; water germander with cerate; fenugreek or linseed with honeywater; or marjoram in cerate. Rough Tongue 17. Roughnesses of the tongue5 are softened by ground-up mint with honey; red sumach likewise; rose oil with water; honey by itself. 3 This word is not known elsewhere in Greek, and may be corrupt. 4 I.e. probably chronic inflammation, for which Diosc. 3.111.2 similarly uses a poultice of water germander with cerate. 5 If this entry is correctly placed in the MSS, the implication is possibly that such roughness is a

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Fevers Quotidian Fevers 18. Chronic intermittent quotidian fevers are treated with ground-up leaves of wall germander taken one hour before the onset, and by the medications we shall discuss in a moment for tertian fevers. Tertian Fevers 19. For tertian fevers these drinks are suitable, taken one hour before the access, with the body’s extremities first being anointed and rubbed: three pills of pitch trefoil seed coated in wax and swallowed thrice, nine in all; three stout plantain roots taken in drink with wine; the third joint from the ground of ‘holy plant’ picked and given. §2 Also effective is silphium coated in white wax and taken in drink—they should follow this by swallowing warm water or wine; three seeds of heliotrope with wine; cock’s head sainfoin with wine; three leaves of cinquefoil drunk with wine or honeywater; ground pepper drunk with water. Quartan Fevers 20. Quartan fevers are helped by ⟨four ground-up⟩ plantain roots drunk in wine; the fourth joint from the ground of ‘holy plant’ picked, ground smooth with wine and given; one drachma of asphalt with an obol of castor; two drachmas of licorice with one kotule of water; four heliotrope seeds with wine; four bed bugs inserted in the cavities of beans and swallowed; § 2 four leaves of cinquefoil with honeywater or wine; seed of the St. John’s-wort called koris with wine. They say it also helps to drink four kuathoi of one’s own urine after first vomiting; one should keep it in an earthen jar. It has the same effect to drink a pure boy’s urine up to five times. §3 A quartan fever is stopped by anointing the whole body with a quickacting6 medicine before the access, and after this drinking the same medicine; or one drachma of libanotis root in a half-kotule of wine a little before the access. Cover him all over, leave him to be quiet, and let him not get cold. But he ⟨should⟩ first be rubbed with lard, and he will sweat a great deal. All Intermittent Fevers 21. The following have a general effectiveness for all intermittent fevers and shivering fits, by instigating sweating: seed of perfoliate alexanders with wine; symptom of stomach disorder. But at Diosc. 3.34.2 (mint) and 1.108.3 (sumach) rough tongue seems to be regarded as an independent condition. 6 At Diosc. 3.51.3 this term (ὀξύπορος) is used of carminative medicines that promote digestion.

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sap of wild or cultivated silphium ⟨with⟩ simmered honey, as a liniment or taken in drink; seed of wild or cultivated rue with wine; one drachma of birthwort root with wine; a bean ⟨sized⟩ piece of myrrh; pepper with wine; two drachmas of iris with wine; one drachma of seed of alexanders with wine, or of St. John’s-wort likewise; §2 decoction of calamint with castor; silphium seed with cardamom and egg or pepper and rue; one drachma of opopanax gum or two drachmas of allheal; hartwort with allheal and pepper, drunk with wine; seed of giant fennel likewise; root of mullein in wine; juice of cinquefoil root with wine; the amount you judge appropriate of dried dog’s excrement drunk with vinegar. Irregular Fevers 22. For chronic and irregular fevers a suitable treatment is to drink soup made from an old rooster, after salt or preserved meat have been left for some time in its stomach and then cooked with it. Periodic Fevers with Shivering 23. The following, ground up as liniments with olive oil, are helpful for periodic fevers with shivering fits if used before the access, since they warm the body and induce sweating: chaste tree seed, libanotis seed, flower of salt, pearl ash of fig, soda or ‘soda foam’, bay berries, pellitory, seed of alexanders, § 2 St. John’s-wort, calamint, a little libanotis fruit, castor, fleabane, costus-thistle root, sagapenon gum, Cnidian berry with soda and olive oil and vinegar, pale bugloss with warm water, unguent of marjoram or iris, metopion, unguent of sweet new wine or henna, wall germander, ground-pine, mulberry sap, stavesacre. Fatigue 24. Mixed ⟨with olive oil⟩, the following help fatigue: salt, soda, cock’s head sainfoin, lesser calamint, khamaileon,7 gum ammoniac, horehound, origanum, caper root, squirting cucumber root, ash of vine twigs, potsherds from the furnace, birthwort with finest meal, balsam-tree sap, burnt copper, copper flakes, and the harsh aromatics; tassel hyacinth bulbs ground up as a liniment with pepper and gum ammoniac or moist henna cerate; stone from Comana8 powdered into olive oil and used as a liniment.

7 As at 1.192 the author does not specify whether he means χαμαιλέων λευκός (atractylis) or χαμαιλέων μέλας (cardopatium). Neither is recommended for fatigue by Dioscorides (3.8–9); nor are most of the items in this list. 8 It is not known whether this is the Comana in Cappadocia or in Pontus.

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Amulets 25. Worn on one’s person, these are helpful for tertian fevers: an equine chestnut excised and worn; or knead three spiders into a plaster, and apply in a linen cloth to the forehead and temples. Phthisis 26. Those wasting away are helped by a dose, the size of a hazelnut, of roasted bitter vetch seed, given in honey before food. Sweating 27. Sweating is checked, for those depleted by it, if one sprinkles on these: Samian earth, gypsum, litharge, oak gall, split alum, myrtle, unfired sulphur, oil from the wild olive, and these oils: myrtle, terebinth, wild grapevine flowers, rose, quince, mastic. §2 These liniments check it: frankincense powder and starch with egg white, or tassel hyacinth bulbs ground up with pepper and nettle seed and a little wax and gum and restharrow seed and a little soda. ‘Cardiac’ Disease 28. Those with ‘cardiac’ disease9 are helped by these poultices on the stomach: bramble leaves with a little cerate or bread, ⟨or⟩ myrtle leaves, or myrtle berries, or grapevine tendrils, or plantain with bread and a little cerate; ⟨or⟩ quinces, dates, wild or cultivated endive. §2 And these enemas are helpfully employed: the liquid from barley gruel in which animals’ extremities or feet have been cooked with wine; or raw eggs with wine. A helpful liniment for their extremities is moist cerate used with ground-up mustard or dissolved in a dry wine.

Lungs and Chest Bringing Up Blood 29. Bringing-up of blood is cured by drinking the following: three obols weight of agarikon in wine; as much as one kuathos of juice of maidenhair fern swallowed with vinegar, whether at intervals or the reverse;10 or similarly juice of knotgrass or juice of ‘everliving’ or plantain or bramble or purslane or vine tendrils; or wild pomegranate flowers with diluted sour wine; or juice of 9 10

Clearly related to digestion, and therefore perhaps to the cardiac orifice; distinct from the ‘heartburn’ discussed in 2.1–2. The interpretation of this phrase (ἢ πάλιν) is uncertain.

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mint, by itself or with diluted sour wine or water; three obols of honeysuckle juice with water; globules of Italian cypress ground up and drunk with water; loosestrife, the herb and its juice; tamarisk fruit and its bark, ground up; the inner part of giant fennel; dried flowers of wild grapevine. Chronic Bringing-Up of Blood 30. If the bringing-up of blood is longstanding, it is checked by the following: fruit of leek;11 myrtle seed drunk with water or better with juice of myrtle berries; three obols of chaste tree with diluted sour wine; rose hips ground up and taken with water; rock sumphuton and its fruit; one drachma of white thistle root with diluted sour wine; decoction of marsh mallow root. The glue made from boiling down zea wheat, as used in books, is suitable as a lozenge, with mint added. §2 Or extract the juice of five kuathoi of barley meal through a cloth and give it mixed with mint. Juice of cytinus with a little frankincense; ⟨gum⟩ of the almond tree drunk with cold water; bitter almonds drunk with starch and mint in water; purslane eaten; three obols of arktion with diluted sour wine and 40 pine nuts; juice of camelthorn with diluted sour wine; juice of bramble; the aster type of Samian earth with water; §3 the membrane-like part of the oak between the trunk and the bark, in decoction, or the membrane around the acorn, likewise in decoction; burnt stag’s horn with diluted sour wine; decoction of chestnuts; the fruit of willow with wine; two drachmas of large centaury with wine; two drachmas of betony leaves with wine; a drachma of coral with water; a drachma of pipe clay taken likewise; haematite with pomegranate juice; a drachma of clay stone with water; §4 mastic chewed, with the juice drunk also; quince flowers ground up with diluted sour wine; a drachma of Lemnian red ochre with vinegar; tragacanth juice-extracted;12 fruit of tragion with wine; juice of cinquefoil root with diluted sour wine; cork from soles of old sandals, burnt or not, ground up and drunk with diluted sour wine; pearl ash taken in drink; woman’s milk suckled, especially for patients with phthisis. §5 For those spitting blood it is helpful to place a sponge containing diluted sour wine on the chest if the discharge is copious, and astringents such as endive, knotgrass, purslane, quinces, bramble, dates, pomegranate peels, myrtle—these with bread or barley groats.

11 12

‘Fruit’ is an error for ‘juice’ (Diosc. 2.149.2); the error could be the author’s or his copyists’. An excessive abbreviation. Diosc. 3.20.2 recounts that the sap from tragacanth root is formed into lozenges with honey, “and the juice is extracted when placed under the tongue”.

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Chronic Cough 31. Chronic coughs are helped—for it is inexpedient to administer drugs for fresh coughs, since it is easy to treat them through drinking water and a home diet based on porridge, but chronic ones are cured by the following, taken in drink: one drachma of root of thorn with honey; arkeuthos berries (five or six or seven or eight) and kedros berries drunk with wine or honeywater; one drachma of asphodel root with wine; asphalt taken as a pill; § 2 decoction of bakkharis with water; a drachma of balsam-tree fruit with honeyed wine; two bay berries ground up, taken with water; about a kuathos of pellitory-of-thewall juice swallowed down; a bean-sized piece of myrrh taken in drink; root of perfoliate alexanders in drink; decoction of thyme or savory or hyssop with honey and dried figs; §3 juice or decoction of horsetail or isopuron with honeywater; or hazelnuts drunk with honeywater and pepper; root of Indian ginseng chewed up; galbanum taken as a pill; two drachmas of large centaury root with wine; gum of bitter almond or cherry or plum with diluted wine; labdanum gum with storax as a pill, and storax by itself; a bean-sized amount of Indian lukion, taken the same way. §4 Opium poppy extract with equal amounts of storax and myrrh is safely given if formed into pills the size of bitter vetch seeds and taken three at a time after food with draughts of water towards bedtime. Ground-up mastic is effective, with the juice taken in drink; fruit and leaves and stem of the wild grapevine with wine or honeyed wine; silphium seed with leek and vinegar; or unfired sulphur; or sagapenon gum; silphium sap taken with a runny egg; sage taken in thick gruel; §5 boiled root of cuckoo-pint in thick gruel, or the boiled root eaten by itself, or dragon arum root likewise; raisins eaten with the pips removed; boiled honey taken as a pill; squill vinegar drunk (but vinegar irritates a fresh cough); decoction of root of allheal or sulphurwort, or the juice of these plants drunk; §6 decoction of horehound with honey; boiled leek eaten and its juice drunk; realgar with wax as a pill; hartwort drunk with wine; a drachma of boiled squill with honeyed vinegar or honeyed wine; garlic eaten boiled or raw; dry figs roasted over coals and sprinkled with pepper; § 7 decoction of wall germander; Syrian dates steeped in wine, then sprinkled with pepper and roasted; dried white root of bryony ground and made up in a small quantity as a pill with boiled honey, since it is bitter; a kuathos of fenugreek boiled in water and drunk for 15 days; hedge mustard or garden cress first steeped for one day, then boiled ⟨in⟩ barley gruel and swallowed down. Severe Coughs 32. Coughs accompanied by a heavy discharge are helped by drinking the froth from horses with a half-kotule of water. Violent attacks of coughing are helped

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by wine kept overnight in a hollowed-out squill bulb and given at the onset of coughing; let it be taken, however, through a tube and in small quantities because of its harshness. It is also helpful to swallow squill vinegar, or heated wine. Butter for Coughs 33. For all those with a cough, butter is suitable with honey and a little cumin. The butter is simmered with an equal quantity of honey, which has first been foamed, and then the cumin is added. This is also effective for those with tuberculosis. Lozenges for Coughs 34. As lozenges the following are helpful: boiled root of dragon arum taken with honey; bitter almonds with sage, warmed in honey; ⟨thyme⟩ or savory or hyssop or lavender with honey; ground linseed with iris and bitter almonds and honey; nettle seed taken likewise; pitch; pitch oil likewise; horehound, ground up dry or moist, with honey; §2 lozenges of moist pine resin or terebinth resin; water germander with garden cress or resin and honey; a kokhliarion of soapwort with honey; goat’s marjoram with honey; tragacanth juice-extracted;13 mullein root with honey; ground black cumin, steeped and made up with the flesh of grapes or sweet dates. Fumigation 35. When burnt for fumigation, the following are helpful for chronic coughs; they are taken by means of a reed tube and a cup with a hole pierced at its base, through which the tube is inserted and brings the smoke up to the mouth:14 yellow orpiment ⟨and⟩ realgar, both ground up, steeped in water and plastered onto the pierced cup, and with the cup surrounded by fire; § 2 leaves of coltsfoot burnt for smoke; unfired sulphur; sweet flag by itself or with terebinth resin; propolis; realgar with terebinth resin; asphalt; frankincense with resin; dried squill; hedge mustard; kedros oil; centaury root; fruit of fennel. Ruptures and Wrenches 36. Ruptures and wrenches are cured by the following, as drinks: decoction of habrotonon, or one drachma of the ground fruit with water; three obols of

13 14

See footnote above on 2.30.4. For a similar procedure cf. 1.56, where however the hole is bored through the lid of the cup.

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agarikon with honeywater; juice of ‘everliving’; root of smooth acanthus; decoction of yellow iris root, and the dried root itself; juice of knotgrass; decoction of wall germander; root of wild nard likewise; large centaury root likewise; § 2 mallow root with water; wild basil with wine; fruit and root of hartwort with wine; marsh mallow root; malope with honeywater; wild rue seed in wine; one drachma of shrubby orache root in honeywater; juice of bryony root as a lozenge in honey; pig’s dung dissolved in vinegar and drunk; root of birthwort with rue; five or six (up to eight) arkeuthos berries drunk with honeywater; § 3 one drachma of asphodel root with wine; decoction of bakkharis in water; tassel hyacinth bulbs cooked and eaten with olive oil; mullein root with wine; two drachmas of gentian root or a drachma of the juice with water; decoction of elecampane root; roots and leaves of immortelle or creeping thyme or horsetail with water or wine; two obols of sweet flag with wine; decoction of calamint; galbanum as a pill; two drachmas of centaury root with wine; kedros berries likewise; §4 a drachma of betony leaves with honeywater; decoction of wild basil; a drachma of costus-thistle root with wine and wormwood; root of white lily with honey; decoction of libanotis; lapis lazuli taken in drink; iris root with grape syrup; silphium sap with sieved pearl ash; opopanax gum with decoction of horehound ⟨or⟩ origanum; ground molu with pepper and a little myrrh, taken with a little wine or water; a drachma of sagapenon gum with honeywater; hartwort with wine; water germander with resin and garden cress and honey. Pleurisy 37. For those with pleurisy, the following are helpful when taken as drinks: one drachma of eagle-wood with honeywater; root of silver sage boiled in honeywater; one drachma of yellow iris root with an equal quantity of fruit of pitch trefoil, prepared likewise; one drachma of centaury root likewise; decoction of habrotonon with honeywater; one drachma of sagapenon gum likewise; nettle seed as a lozenge with honey; bryony root with honey likewise; St. John’s-wort seed drunk with water; §2 pig’s dung, dissolved in water and drunk, clears up even extremely long-lasting pains; birthwort root drunk with water; cuckoopint root boiled and eaten, and dragon arum root likewise; asphodel root with wine. For chronic conditions, a drachma of balsam-tree fruit with honeywater; two drachmas of large centaury root with wine; one kuathos of leukakantha root juice with honeywater; root of sulphurwort as a lozenge with honey, and that of parsley likewise; §3 decoction of rue ⟨or⟩ dill or lavender or sumphuton with honeywater; fruit and leaves of pitch trefoil with honeywater; macerated goat’s marjoram also helps lung inflammation when taken with honeywater; three

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sprays of pseudobounion likewise; one drachma of sagapenon gum with decoction of rue. §4 As poultices the following are helpful for people with pleurisy: barley meal with melilot and opium poppy capsules cooked in honeywater; galbanum or terebinth resin applied by themselves as emollients; cabbage root burnt with its stalks, the ash being made up with old lard and applied; Italian cypress with leaves of rue; sagapenon gum made up with myrtle cerate; horehound likewise; ash of vine-twigs with lard; tender foliage of Italian cypress and figs and lard in equal amounts; or spread deadly carrot juice over the chest for a short time. Inflammation of the Lungs 38. For those with inflammation of the lungs, the following are helpful: root of dragon arum or cuckoo-pint boiled and eaten with honey; nettle seed as a lozenge with honey; bitter almonds drunk with water ⟨or⟩ as lozenges with terebinth resin; a drachma of the fruit of the balsam tree with water; decoction of wormwood with iris, or that of hyssop likewise; nettle leaves with decoction of rue or with honey as a lozenge; juice of knotgrass drunk regularly; or honeywater boiled down and drunk. 37.515 Particularly effective for those with inflammation of the lungs is a sheepskin smeared with liquid pitch and placed on the chest, with unfired sulphur smeared and sprinkled on the pitch. One should smear the material on the middle of the fleece, so the pitch does not run off. Also helpful is the slavedealers’ pitch-plaster coated with pitch, and unslaked lime turned into a paste with vinegar and made up with henna cerate, ⟨and⟩ goat droppings in vinegar with a little Median silphium sap16 mixed in. Matter on the Chest 39. For so-called anaphorics17 the following remove matter from the chest: baked squill as a lozenge with honey; garlic ⟨eaten⟩ boiled or roasted, and the tapenade made from it;18 juice of sulphurwort root as a lozenge; headed leek and pigs’ trotters boiled together in a stew, or felty germander prepared

15 16

17 18

This paragraph on inflammation of the lungs clearly belongs at the end of 2.38 not 2.37. Perhaps it was omitted by a scribe and then re-inserted at the wrong point. Diosc. 3.80.2 describes silphium sap from Media as weaker than that from Cyrene. But the silphium sap from neighbouring Parthia (mentioned at Simp. 1.82) is evaluated by Pliny as the best available in his time (22.100). From ἀναφέρω / anaphero, ‘to bring up’. Usually with black olives (Diosc. 2.152.3).

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likewise; decoction of lavender; decoction of rock sumphuton taken with honeywater; dry figs eaten with hyssop, or decoction of figs with hyssop; decoction of goldilocks aster with hyssop. §2 Also effective are the items listed above with regard to inflammation of the lungs, as well as the following: a whole fresh piece of stone pine, with the resin around it, carefully crushed up and boiled in grape syrup (but Skubelitan wine19 is better than grape syrup), taken daily; or pennyroyal with honey; roasted garden cress taken likewise; §3 thyme, savory and hyssop boiled in water; galbanum as a pill; bean chaff with dragon arum root or ground almonds in gruel, ⟨or⟩ in a lozenge with honey; root of sarapias orchid taken in drink; liquid pitch as a lozenge with honey; sagapenon gum with honeywater; water germander root taken likewise, and one drachma of the fruit with wine. Tuberculosis 40. For those with tuberculosis the following are suitable, taken as drinks: two obols of agarikon with grape syrup; the roots of smooth acanthus with honeywater; juice of plantain, or the plant boiled and eaten; drinking one drachma of burdock with water and 40 stone pine nuts; suckling woman’s milk, or drinking that of goats or sheep or cattle; bay berries ground and formed into lozenges with honey; §2 hedge mustard seed roasted and taken with honey or boiled in the liquid of barley gruel; two obols of the juice of deadly carrot root drunk with wine or taken in cooked vegetables; crabs simmered in their own juice and eaten; frogs likewise; redshank root with honey; sweet cicely root with gruel; a kuathos-sized lozenge of liquid pitch; leek juice, or horehound as a lozenge; rhubarb with water; fresh deer fat cooked in gruel; butter simmered with honey. Breathing Difficulties, Asthma, Orthopnea 41. Breathing difficulties and asthma and orthopnea ⟨are helped⟩ by the following, taken as drinks: a drachma of habrotonon with warm water; decoction of maidenhair fern with water; a drachma of evergreen honeysuckle for 40 days with wine; the fruit of nettle with honey; three drachmas of dried fox’s lung with honeywater; a drachma of the juice of bryony root with honey; one drachma of gum ammoniac with honeyed vinegar; one drachma of bean trefoil leaves in grape syrup; one drachma of birthwort root as a lozenge with honey; § 2 plantain boiled and eaten; asphalt taken as a pill; decoction of bakkharis in water; one drachma of balsam-tree fruit with honeyed vinegar; sticky goose-

19

From Skubela, a region in Pamphylia: its wines were renowned for their sweetness and dark colour.

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foot, called ambrosia by some, with wine; a kokhliarion of soapwort with honeywater; hogweed likewise; two bay berries ground up with honey, or the soft parts of the leaves likewise; the roots of dragon arum or cuckoo-pint boiled and eaten, with the decoction swallowed as well; §3 equal parts of deer’s lung, fox’s liver and lavender with water, or castor by itself with honey; iris with hyssop and honeywater, given in pill form; decoction of elecampane; a bean-sized piece of myrrh taken as a pill; decoction of perfoliate alexanders; one obol of the sap of deadly carrot, or a drachma of the juice; sulphur given in an egg; decoction of thyme or savory or hyssop, or the herbs ground up as lozenges with honey; § 4 juice of horsetail; decoction of calamint; galbanum as a pill; two drachmas of large centaury root with wine; one drachma of betony with honeyed wine; one drachma of dates with honeyed wine; a drachma of Etruscan honeysuckle with wine; globules of Italian cypress with wine; evergreen honeysuckle with diluted sour wine; ‘ground-fig’ taken in drink stops paroxysms; black cumin taken in drink with soda; or juice of lemon balm in a lozenge; or juice of ripe quinces; § 5 silphium seed with leek and vinegar; the urine of a pure child taken as a drink; decoction and juice of sulphurwort root; expressed juice of evergreen honeysuckle leaves; seed of wild rue with honeywater; liquid pitch as a lozenge with honey, and pitch oil likewise; decoction of horehound; expressed juice of rhaphanos bark as a lozenge with honey; realgar as a lozenge with terebinth resin; one drachma of baked squill with honeyed vinegar; decoction of allheal, and likewise of habrotonon; §6 ass’s milk as a drink and sulphur as a pill; 10 woodlice drunk with a half-kotyle of olive oil on an empty stomach. Or make pills of one drachma of squirting cucumber extract, one drachma of soda and one drachma of mustard, the dose being two pills; or rocket seed with honey. Also effective is drinking the infusion of heated iron quenched in vinegar. For those with asthma, fumigation is helpful with any of the items that we indicated for those with chronic coughs, to be taken through the pierced cup.20

Intestines Intestinal Pain (42–45) 42. For those with chronic griping pain the following are appropriate, taken in drink: two obols of agarikon with warm water; decoction of Parnassian agrostis root, or the root itself, dried, in wine or honeywater; peony root with wine or

20

The reference is to 2.35.

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honeywater; decoction of ground-pine; greater celandine with wine; libanotis seed with wine; fruit and root of hartwort with wine; § 2 one drachma of waterplantain with wine; Ethiopian or wild cumin21 with wine; iris as a lozenge with honey; olive oil drunk with decoction of rue; six ⟨ivy⟩ berry clusters with soda and honeywater; decoction of creeping thyme; one drachma of eryngo root with wine; decoction of calamint; castor with vinegar; two drachmas of large centaury root with wine; one drachma of betony leaves with wine; libanotis root with wine; §3 lovage with water, and its root likewise; infusion of spignel; lemon balm with wine; giant fennel seed with wine; root of sulphurwort likewise, ⟨or⟩ decoction or sap; soda or ‘soda foam’ with decoction of rue or cumin or wormwood, or with olive oil or wine or water; silphium seed in drink; decoction of marjoram; lesser calamint seed; a drachma of baked squill with honeyed vinegar; §4 ⟨leaves⟩ of Alexandrian ‘ground-laurel’ taken in drink with wine; four twigs of pseudobounion with water; parsley with wine; pepper with bay leaves; decoction of dill; fenugreek boiled with safflower seed and drunk; 10 bay berries boiled in two kuathoi of wine; decoction of allheal drunk with wine or olive oil. 43. For those suffering from flatulence with a certain amount of pain and distension these drinks are appropriate: ajwain and dry dill seed with honeywater, or decoction of the woody plant itself; decoction of patience dock taken in water; root of swallow-wort with wine; §2 decoction of wormwood given with hartwort and Celtic nard in vinegar or water; decoction of balsam-wood or the fruit with wine; decoction of elecampane; one drachma of eryngo root with wine; castor with vinegar; one drachma of betony leaves; one drachma of costus-thistle root with wine and wormwood; lovage with water; and application of sternutatories. 44. For gnawing pains in the bowels it is appropriate to eat purslane or drink its juice, or to eat mallow. These enemas, boiled, help biting pains: juice of rice or spelt groats or ‘goat’ or barley gruel or mallow or fenugreek or linseed. 45. This poultice helps those with griping pains: a decent quantity of ground cumin mixed with meal of bitter vetch seed, like meal of bruised raw grain. Also helpful is the following: walnuts heated with their shells, wrapped in wool or a linen cloth and applied to the navel. Bran with decoction of rue and vinegar;

21

According to Diosc. 3.59 the best cultivated cumin comes from Ethiopia, and wild cumin grows well at Cartagena in Spain.

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fenugreek or linseed with honeywater; hot ash tipped into a cup and simmered ⟨in⟩ vinegar—one must wrap a rough linen towel in a double layer round the cup and secure it to the painful part. Colic 46. Those with colic are treated with these drinks: ajwain with wine; hens’ dung broiled and taken with wine; arkeuthos berries in food or drink; fruit and leaves of willow with wine and a little pepper, or the decoction of the leaves; decoction of parsley or felty germander with water; Libyan snails ground up with their shells, taken in drink with a little myrrh and pepper and wine; two kokhliaria of ground fenugreek with water. Internal Obstructions 47. For those with internal obstructions, the following enemas are helpful: olive oil with rue or wormwood cooked in it: dried figs cooked with olive oil and rue; cumin cooked with olive oil. Chronic sufferers are helped by colocynth cooked with water as a clyster, or four drachmas of asphalt used with water likewise as a clyster. §2 Those with internal obstructions are helped by drinking iris unguent or asphalt with water, or olive oil with water and soda. Mix two drachmas of allheal, one drachma of soda, two drachmas of cumin with honey, and give a dose the size of a hazelnut with warm water. Colic Attacks 48. For those with colic, during an actual paroxysm give burnt and groundup translucent stone, one kokhliarion in warm water, or that amount of burnt sea urchin likewise; or white dog ⟨excrement⟩ and soda dissolved in warm water with a little pepper sprinkled on; or ground-up swallows’ excrement likewise. Looseness of Bowel 49. Chronic looseness of the bowel is checked by drinking the following with wine: one drachma of chaste tree seed; one drachma of Parnassian agrostis root; leaves of dyer’s alkanet; juice of maidenhair fern; juice of ‘everliving’ with frankincense; one drachma of juice of Egyptian acacia; one drachma of cytinus; one drachma of sumach juice; one drachma of that of white thistle; root of smooth acanthus; seed of alpine squill; §2 yellow iris ground up; hare’s-foot clover; juice of knotgrass with wine; mallow root; bramble cooked in ⟨vinegar⟩, with tree-ripened dates; one drachma of water-plantain leaves; Nepal cardamom; roasted grape pips ground up like barley groats ⟨and sprinkled on drink⟩; anise; dill; roasted pigeon dung; dried white dog dung; § 3 plantain seed

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and juice, or two parts of the plant, one part roasted quinces, drunk towards bedtime with watered wine (you might also mix in barley groats occasionally); arkeuthos berries with wine; decoction of camelthorn; asphalt as a pill; one drachma of milk vetch root; meal of dried wild pear sprinkled on drink, or the decoction drunk; decoction of cinquefoil; § 4 one drachma of Samian earth with wild pomegranate flower or Cilician saffron; decoction of peony root; decoction of oak membrane,22 or of the membrane around the acorn; roasted foxtail millet used like barley groats; three drachmas of burnt stag’s horn; myrrh taken as a pill; seed and roots of fennel; juice of willow leaves; decoction of the skin of chestnuts; §5 ground-up oak gall sprinkled on water or dry wine; pearl ash of fig simmered with vinegar and swallowed; decoction of roots of ⟨parsley and⟩ patience dock; two kuathoi of pearl ash, two kuathoi of olive oil, one kuathos of vinegar, swallowed warm; three drachmas of birthwort, 49 pomegranate flowers, two drachmas of …23 with wine. Dysentery 50. Those with dysentery are helped by the items listed for those with bowel troubles. Specifically appropriate are these, taken with wine or some kind of astringent: one drachma of eagle-wood; sage; juice of agrimony, and the plant itself; juice of cinquefoil and the dried root; cytinus; juice of horehound; leaves and root of ironwort aka Herakleia; root of willow; root and fruit and leaves of sumphuton; §2 root of sorrel; root of white water-lily; decoction of marsh mallow root; decoction of Achillea; juice of bramble and decoction of the stems; boiled goat milk; malope root; cottonweed with dry wine; toadflax cooked with linseed and drunk; decoction of date palm spathe; one drachma of agrimony seed with wine; one drachma of stag’s horn as a lozenge with wine and previously simmered honey; ⟨juice of horsetail with grape syrup⟩; two and a half to five drachmas of horse fennel seed; flowers of yellow-berried ivy drunk with wine twice daily; §3 myrtle fruit with wine; extracted juice of evergreen honeysuckle; decoction of nettle tree sawdust with wine; one drachma of Lemnian or Sinopic red ochre in wine; dried flowers of wild grapevine drunk like barley groats; roasted fruit of club-rush; root of Philetairos’ plant with wine; juice of gum succory; ‘razor-plant’ with wine; two drachmas of mullein root; one drachma of fleawort in water; dried dog excrement sprinkled on wine; hare’s rennet in water.

22 23

Explained at Simp. 2.30.3. Text defective.

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Diet for Bowel Ailments 51. In regard to diet, it is helpful to give the following to those with bowel ailments or dysentery: unsalted mallows as a vegetable;24 fresh ripe olives; or blood of a he-goat or she-goat or deer or hare eaten ⟨broiled⟩ from the pan; grapes from the marc; dried unripe grapes pounded and made into bread with meal, and bread mixed with egg yolks and baked; also the dried grapes themselves, eaten pips and all; §2 starch cooked with groats of spelt and with milk; plantain leaves cooked with vinegar and olive oil; also oak gall or pomegranate sprinkled on the food; or roasted zea wheat; or roasted lentils ground up and drunk like groats; or grape pips used likewise, or barley groats, or millet; bramble tips cooked and taken with vinegar-and-oil dressing; likewise plantain; ripe bramble fruit eaten (and the unripe fruit is dried, ground and sprinkled on side dishes like pomegranate); §3 Aleppo oak gall cooked in the water with porridge, or grape pips or raisins likewise, then removed from the porridge when it is eaten; elecampane cooked and eaten; porridge made with foxtail millet or millet or zea wheat or roasted spelt groats or rice; or cooked perfoliate alexanders; walnuts; dried pods including those from the marc; ground-up oak gall swallowed with egg or sprinkled on wine; §4 root of buck’s-horn plantain eaten; Greek beans boiled in diluted sour wine and eaten with the pods; linseed roasted and eaten with simmered honey; fruit of the nettle ⟨tree⟩ eaten; honey simmered and drunk by itself or with pomegranate rinds that have been pounded and sifted; ripe medlars ⟨or⟩ quinces cooked with honey (or cut up the quinces with a reed,25 infuse them in water and give the infusion as a drink); § 5 myrtle wine drunk, or the juice of dried myrtles extracted; dried service berries as a decoction, and the ⟨meal⟩ from them taken in drink ⟨like⟩ barley groats, or that from wild pears likewise; cooked endives ⟨taken⟩ with vinegar; plantain likewise; celery stalks likewise; lentil soup boiled with plantain or purslane or endive or wild chicory or pomegranate peel or dates from the Thebaid;26 fresh deer fat cooked with cheese or barley groats; roasted liver of she-goat or he-goat fried in honey, the brain likewise; §6 scrapings of soft cheese pressed and then fried in honey; swallow nestlings baked and eaten like beccaficos; and chaste tree root cooked with lentil soup; wax or honeycomb cooked with a thick gruel;

24 25 26

‘Vegetable’ (λάχανον) is Gesner’s stop-gap for the MSS’ μίλητος, an unknown and perhaps corrupt word. Presumably to avoid discoloration through contact with an iron knife. Others used a cane or an ivory knife to cut quinces (Palladius Opus Agriculturae 3.25.25). Dates from the area of Thebes in Upper Egypt (mod. Luxor) are commended by Diosc. 1.109.2.

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cabbage cooked twice and eaten; unwashed lettuce eaten, especially for those with no appetite; rennet of fawn or hare or kid dissolved in water and drunk. Poultices 52. Helpful poultices for those with bowel ailments or dysentery are: wild olive flowers with warm meal of bruised raw grain; bramble leaves with quince and cerate; myrtle leaves ground up with wine and wild grapevine oil into a paste and applied on wool; barley meal with wine and bramble or wild pears or pomegranate peel or quince flowers; or the quince flowers with cerate; § 2 pomegranate rind cooked in wine and ground up with cerate; tanner’s sumach with cerate; tree-ripened dates or Syrian dates with quince and cerate; wild grapevine flowers or alum with aloe or Egyptian acacia or dates or seed of ‘everliving’; dried pigeon excrement with cooked figs in wine; or black cumin with cumin and bitter lupins and soda and honey; or garden cress with cooked pomegranate peel and wax and olive-lees. Enemas (53–55) 53. Appropriate enemas and doses for those with bowel ailments are: ⟨juice⟩ of grapevine leaves, or that of purslane, Egyptian acacia, cytinus, or plantain juice; wild pomegranate flowers; Sinopic red ochre with decoction of one of the astringents; decoction of sawdust of nettle tree or Valonia oak; extracted juice of tanner’s sumach, or the decoction of the leaves; lentil soup cooked with roses; barley gruel with decoction of brambles or myrtle or Italian cypress globules (and the decoctions by themselves without barley gruel are a helpful enema). 54. The enemas for people with bowel ailments are suitable for those with dysentery, but for people in great pain these are specific: fresh butter by itself, or the juice from boiling and stirring mallow or fenugreek or linseed or spelt groats or barley gruel or rice or ‘goat’. Suitable for those with a flux without pain are: brine with wine; burnt stag’s horn ground up with wine; zinc oxide with wine and rose oil; yellow orpiment burnt with twice the quantity of papyrus sheets, plus wine; § 2 lead dross or galena with myrtle oil; asphalt melted with barley gruel; decoction of thorny burnet with wine; garum from small fish or that from sheatfish as an enema for those with spreading ulcers; solution of pearl ash of fig; old urine; decoction of Greek bean pods with goat fat; juice of loosestrife; decoction of sawdust from nettle tree or Valonia oak with goat fat; juice of lemon balm; Sinopic red ochre with an astringent decoction or vinegar-and-brine.

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55. Biting pains from intense enemas are treated with an injection of milk or butter or decoction of spelt groats; or with bull’s fat treated with juice from barley gruel, or chicken fat used likewise or that of goose or deer, or marrow of deer or calf used warm by itself or with juice from barley gruel. Sitz-Baths 56. Sitz-baths for those with bowel ailments or dysentery use the following: garum of sheatfish or small fish mixed with vinegar; decoction of tanner’s sumach; decoction of pomegranate rind; that of marc likewise; and all the decoctions of astringents. It is appropriate to sit in them hot, relaxing the anus, spending some time, and separating the buttocks. Straining 57. To prevent continual straining, it will be necessary to immerse something made of felt in simmered olive oil or water or vinegar, and apply it to the anus.

Gall-Bladder, Liver and Spleen Jaundice (58–59) 58. Those with jaundice should be given decoction of maidenhair fern to drink in wine; one drachma of dyer’s alkanet root with wine; three oungiai of orache or St. John’s-wort with honey and wine; horehound with wine; purple spurge. ⟨Also⟩ effective is hogweed root or seed with wine; one drachma of madder root with wine; one drachma of aloe with water; root and flowers of chamomile with wine; droppings of goats, and particularly wild ones, with wine, alone or with aromatics; one drachma of ‘holy plant’ leaves with half a drachma of frankincense and one kotule of ⟨warm⟩ old wine, taken on an empty stomach for four to six days; §2 fennel with wine; decoction of asparagus root, and the seed drunk likewise; cold-pressed wormwood with Indian or Celtic nard;27 leaves of celery or maidenhair fern or ‘ox-eye’ (drunk with wine after a bath, they produce a good skin colour opportunely); four drachmas of rape seed with wine; one drachma of peony with wine; one drachma of burnt stag’s horn with honey; black chickpeas taken in food, and the white ones too, and their decoction in drink; §3 hedge mustard with honeywater; a kokhliarion of unfired sulphur sprinkled on water or swallowed ⟨with an egg⟩; root or fruit

27

Indian nard is a variety of the basic nard Nardostachys jatamansi, whereas Celtic nard is a different species (Valeriana celtica).

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of horse fennel in drink; decoction of calamint; one drachma of betony with wine; one drachma of fleabane leaves with wine; three drachmas of cyclamen with water (lay the patient down in a warm house and use several layers of clothing, for he will exude bilious sweat); decoction of libanotis taken with chickpeas after walking around, or the root with wine; § 4 rock lichen as a liniment on the mouth and tongue; decoction of root of butcher’s broom with wine; decoction of tamarisk with wine; six woodlice with wine; sorrel roots cooked with wine; silphium seed eaten with preserved meat and honeyed wine; beet roots boiled or baked and eaten; juice of cinquefoil leaves taken in drink quickly restores health; felty germander in white wine; one drachma of cooked squill as a lozenge with honeyed vinegar or as a drink with honeywater; § 5 root of soapwort as a lozenge with honey or drunk with honeywater; juice of sprawling strukhnon (⟨the one⟩ called halikakkabon) drunk with wine; fruit of alpine squill drunk with habrotonon; decoction of ground-pine with water; one drachma of ground ivy taken with wine for six or seven days; blood of a puppy dog drunk with diluted sour wine (this also helps patients with edema); § 6 a walnut-sized piece of liverwort drunk with six kuathoi of honeyed wine for three days. Another very effective remedy: moisten two drachmas of ‘soda foam’ with two kuathoi of Aminnean wine,28 and after exposing it to the open air, give it before dawn on an empty stomach for two or three days. § 7 Also therapeutic is a piece of bear’s gall the size of a Greek bean taken in drink; one drachma of manna ash fruit with wine (it is gathered in autumn and stored); one drachma of bay berries or myrrh with wine; one drachma of saffron as a lozenge with honey; decoction or juice of pellitory-of-the-wall with wine; juice or decoction of greater celandine with wine; decoction of the libanotis called rosmarinon in Latin,29 with water. 59. Instilled in the nostrils, these have a cleansing effect for jaundice patients: juice of cyclamen, kept in the sun, as a cholagogue; extract of squirting cucumber with milk, instilled in the baths when the patient is in a bathing-tub; juice of horehound in honeywater instilled in the nostrils; black cumin pounded and soaked in vinegar, with the juice pressed out and instilled in the nostrils. When bathing they should mix vinegar-and-brine or decoction of origanum or osyris root with the bathwater; they should use almond oil, and avoid vegetables.

28 29

See footnote on 1.2.3. I.e. rosemary.

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Liver Complaints (60–61) 60. Those with chronic liver complaints are helped by drinking the following with honeywater: two obols of agarikon daily; decoction of maidenhair fern; decoction of yellow iris, and of ground-pine likewise; root of hogweed drunk with wine; decoction of rupturewort;30 Nepal cardamom; cassia; bitter almonds with sage and honeywater; juice of pimpernel; root and flowers of chamomile taken in drink; asarabacca with water; one drachma of gentian root with water, and of birthwort likewise; §2 one drachma of juice of licorice with water, or decoction of the root; one drachma of root bark of bay with honeywater; date palm spathe ground up and simmered with dates; decoction of creeping thyme; one drachma of eryngo with carrot seed; seed of isopuron with honeywater; betony leaves with honeywater; fennel seed; decoction of spikenard, or nard unguent taken in the amount of a kokhliarion; silphium seed with honeywater; one drachma of leaves of white chamomile or leaves of Aleppo pine with water; rhubarb likewise; § 3 decoction and fruit of celery; decoction of shepherd’s needle; juice of cinquefoil root; yellow germander and its juice in honeywater; decoction of goldilocks aster with honeywater; decoction of groundsel, or of felty germander likewise; one drachma of dry pitch, ground up and sprinkled on drink; one drachma of ground-up melilot fruit in honeywater; costus-thistle root likewise; decoction of pitch trefoil31 drunk likewise; §4 chaste tree seed; juice of ‘small centaury’, drunk or applied externally; roots and leaves of dried plantain; roots and leaves of asparagus;32 stone pine nuts; chickpeas; root of madder or agrimony; decoction of bitter lupins drunk with rue and pepper, or applied externally; iris; fruit of the pistachio. 61. These poultices help those with liver complaints: ground-pine with cooked poppy capsules, dried and pounded; barley meal with figs; marsh mallow root cooked in wine; tree-ripened dates cooked and ground up, with cerate; wormwood with henna cerate and Celtic nard; gum ammoniac made up with vinegar and an astringent cerate. For fresh cases: fenugreek with linseed and fine wheatmeal and honeywater; quinces cooked with barley meal and fenugreek.

30 31 32

“The epipaktis called elleborine”: both names are given by Diosc. 4.108. “The triphullon called oxuphullon” (cf. Diosc. 3.109): the second name distinguishes this triphullon from other plants of that name. Called here asparagos and muakanthos, as at Diosc. 2.125.

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Spleen Ailments 62. Those with spleen ailments are helped by drinking two obols of agarikon with honeyed vinegar; one drachma of chaste tree seed; one drachma of dyer’s alkanet root in wine; decoction of maidenhair fern in honeyed vinegar; yellow iris root cooked with wine or taken raw in drink. Reduction of the Spleen 63. The following are intensely reductive of the spleen: ‘no-spleen’ (asplenos), which they also call hemionion, the plant taken with vinegar; ‘spearhead’ likewise with wine; one drachma of evergreen honeysuckle fruit drunk with wine for 30 days is reductive; ground ivy with wine; sulphurwort with honeyed vinegar is reductive; the powder from Naxian ⟨whetstone⟩, produced when iron is honed against it, with vinegar; two obols of Milesian halkuonion with water; one drachma of bryony root with vinegar for 30 days reduces the spleen; § 2 one drachma of ammoniac incense with diluted sour wine (this draws blood through the urine); one drachma of birthwort with diluted sour wine; decoction of ‘no-spleen’, called skolopendrion, for 30 days is reductive;33 one drachma of moringa with diluted sour wine (⟨but⟩ it is bad for the stomach and an emetic); decoction of balsam-wood with wine; leaves of bounion juiced, and the root juiced with honeyed vinegar; fruit and root of madder with wine; one drachma of iris with diluted sour wine; dried hedgehog flesh with wine; seed of perfoliate alexanders with wine; decoction of lupins by itself; § 3 the fruit from caper ‘pears’ for 30 days with wine, and the root likewise (it draws the blood likewise, both through the bowel and the urine); one drachma of betony with vinegar; Aleppo oak gall with diluted sour wine; decoction of origanum; one drachma of coral with water; raw cabbage eaten with vinegar; root of krokodileion in drink (it draws blood through the nostrils); fruit of the Etruscan honeysuckle triturated when ripe and made up into tablets when dried, one drachma with wine for 40 days reduces the spleen which is removed through the urine34 and passed out through the colon; § 4 one drachma of iron flakes with vinegar; the decoction produced when ‘spearhead’ is simmered with vinegar; one drachma of Lemnian red ochre with diluted sour wine; decoction of tamarisk, or the seed drunk with wine (and one could also helpfully make use of a cup from tamarisk wood by drinking from it, and a basket woven of tamarisk withies to hold bread).

33 34

A repetition from the start of the chapter, but with a different synonym for ‘no-spleen’. A corrupt passage: the translation reflects the minimum correction required, with κούφως corrected to δι’οὔρων following Gesner.

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§5 Also effective is Celtic nard with wormwood; seed or root of white waterlily is reductive; one drachma of the fruit of endive with vinegar; felty germander with vinegar; one drachma of sagapenon gum with diluted sour wine; one drachma of soapwort with honeyed vinegar; root of polemonion with wine; the operculum of murex with wine; celery seed taken in drink, and the plant cooked in wine, taken with diluted sour wine; the water from the forges, where they quench the heated iron; §6 one drachma of baked squill with honeyed vinegar; decoction of yellow germander cooked in diluted sour wine; four drachmas of sumach ⟨juice⟩. Coat a squill ⟨with clay⟩ and bake it, clean and pound it, form pills from it and give one per day with honeywater. Decoction of wall germander with honeywater (⟨also⟩ pills are made from its leaves and given); decoction of goat’s marjoram with salt and vinegar; that of creeping thyme likewise. Poultices for Spleen Ailments 64. These poultices are helpfully adopted for those with spleen ailments: hyssop with figs; ash of vine twigs, or ash of grape pips, with vinegar and rose oil and rue; leaves of ground ivy or nettle leaves with cerate; bryony root with fig and vinegar; gum ammoniac with vinegar and an astringent cerate; § 2 ‘no-spleen’, the plant as a poultice with bitter vetch; eagle-wood in wine or water; wormwood cooked in vinegar, used with darnel meal and fig; pennyroyal with an equal amount of salt; origanum likewise; meal of lupins cooked with pitch and vinegar; warm mistletoe pulp made up with unslaked lime or Assian stone; leaves of wild woad; root of caper; horehound with cerate or meal of bruised raw grain; cardamom with figs; tender ivy leaves, and the berry clusters ground up; §3 root of wild patience dock with vinegar; linseed or fenugreek combined with vinegar, with an admixture of root of caper or of moringa or soda; quinces with cerate; ground-up tamarisk leaves with rose oil or cerate; felty germander with vinegar; alum with honey; cyclamen cooked with vinegar as a liniment; saffron residuum with vinegar as a liniment; ash from the forges made up with vinegar or rose oil into a paste; § 4 fenugreek and mustard and rocket and cardamom and myrrh and unslaked lime in equal quantities, with mistletoe pulp (one needs to heat the mistletoe pulp, and then mix in the rest); anise and ‘soda foam’ and unslaked lime in equal quantities, made up with honey; or fenugreek and mustard and rocket and cardamom and unslaked lime in equal quantities, with honey or vinegar or pearl ash; unslaked lime and myrrh in equal quantities with olive oil (heat the oil, and then mix in the rest).

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Edema Medications Taken Internally 65. For those with edema, these drinks are helpful: three obols of agarikon with wine; one drachma of chaste tree seed with wine; decoction of maidenhair fern; decoction of elder root, or one drachma of the ground-up fruit with two kuathoi of wine; Milesian halkuonion with water; the wild vine (called ouitikle35 in Latin), three kuathoi of decoction of the root with three kuathoi of winewith-seawater; §2 juice of blue pimpernel by itself; decoction of ‘man-heal’, the plant36—or pound it and give it with wine or vinegar or water (it stimulates much urine), and the fruit works likewise; a little plantain consumed daily after eating dry food, and thereafter let the rest of the meal be served; one drachma of dwarf elder bark; purple spurge drunk with wine. § 3 Also effective is cuckoopint with wine; one drachma of camel grass with an equal amount of pepper; dried figs eaten; seed of perfoliate alexanders with wine; one drachma of St. John’s-wort fruit; one drachma of betony leaves with wine; chickpeas cooked and eaten; squill vinegar swallowed down; origanum eaten with figs; § 4 decoction of rue drunk with vinegar; root of squirting cucumber in two kotulai of resinated wine (of this one should take three or four kuathoi every three or four days, until the swelling is sufficiently checked; it dissipates the watery fluid gently, does not hurt the stomach, and maintains the strength); dried river crabs ground up without the claws and feet, drunk with a little opium and water; § 5 coral with an equal amount of alum and with juice of calamint; decoction of lesser water parsnip with wine; one drachma of baked squill with honeyed vinegar; tapenade eaten, and cooked garlic as a savoury; dried hedgehog flesh given with wine; silphium seed drunk with wine; two kuathoi of goat’s urine with spikenard drunk daily on an empty stomach (a satisfactory quantity will be evacuated through the urine), or wild boar’s urine likewise; § 6 extracted juice of squill with meal of bitter vetch seed mixed in (give one drachma to drink with wine); felty germander simmered with wine; decoction of marjoram; rue eaten with figs. For edemas below the flesh: seed of wild carrot with wine; decoction of wall germander; dried savin ground up with wine is diuretic; two drachmas of pitch trefoil root in water or in wine; §7 two drachmas of atractylis root with grape syrup (and the decoction of the root is a roborant when taken); a handful of goldilocks aster ⟨root⟩, ground up raw, in wine; one drachma of fleawort seed with three kuathoi of water; one drachma of pitch trefoil root drunk with three

35 36

I.e. viticula, ‘little vine’. I.e. as distinct from the root (contrast “plant and root” 2.113.5, 2.118.1), and from the fruit (seed) which is mentioned next.

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or four kuathoi of undiluted wine; one drachma of flax-leaved daphne with one drachma of salt plus honeywater; dried eryngo root with wine (and drinking the decoction releases urine); one drachma of burnt copper with wine draws out the water painlessly; §8 pound 30 ripe castor-oil tree seeds and give them with water (but they are extremely hard on the stomach). It is also helpful to drink the blood of a puppy dog with diluted sour wine. And one can helpfully drink one drachma of alpine squill seed in three half-kotulai of white wine; this often draws out six xestai through the urine. But one must warm the wine and pound the flower and sprinkle it on like barley groats, and drink it that way. Some people make a practice of dyeing the skin with the flower. Poultices for Edema 66. These poultices help those with edema: tassel hyacinth bulbs with honey (these check the condition effectively); wormwood or hyssop with figs or vinegar and darnel meal; dried cowdung heated with diluted sour wine and honey (as well, sprinkle on a fourth part of unfired sulphur); goat’s droppings simmered in a pure boy’s urine; meal of lupines and ground-up leaves of ivy simmered in wine; or a double measure of figs added to ⟨equal measures⟩ of Italian cypress and soda; §2 mistletoe pulp heated with Assian stone or unslaked lime; black hellebore with wine and barley meal; duckweed dried on a hot tile, ground up and combined with wine; 15 snails ground up raw with the flesh (they are not removed until the moisture is drawn off); soda with figs or wormwood or hyssop; any kind of alum with fat; myrtle leaves with myrtle cerate; dried figs cooked in wine with barley meal and wormwood; fig, soda, castor, horehound, all ground up. Other Treatments for Edema 67. A diuretic is calamint with vinegar and pepper, made up in cerate and applied to the navel (the same remedy is effective for those with jaundice or kidney ailments); or a sheepskin smeared with olive-lees and applied. Also helpful is plenty of massage using salt and olive oil, sometimes mixed with pounded and sieved origanum. Sometimes a poultice is used, composed of salt and origanum in equal quantities made into a paste with old olive oil—and the poultice must be applied hot. Also helpful is percussion with inflated oiled bladders, performed daily.

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Parasitic Worms Flat Intestinal Worms 68. The flat intestinal worms are expelled by the following, taken as drinks: cardamom with water; bark of mulberry roots boiled in water; root and leaves of the ‘ass-lip’ called Alkibiadeion37 taken in water; four drachmas of male fern with two obols of scammony and with salt (but the person intending to drink it should first eat garlic); equal quantities of pepper and burnt stag’s horn with diluted sour wine, and the horn as a lozenge with honey; decoction of pomegranate roots; garlic eaten repeatedly; hyssop with garden cress, drunk with two obols of scammony; §2 dwarf heliotrope in drink; walnuts eaten in quantity; a little coriander seed drunk with olive oil and boiled-down new wine (but one must be careful about the quantity); an oxybaphon of atractylis with ⟨dry⟩ wine and decoction of origanum; a drachma of copper sulphate as a lozenge with honey. Give a drachma apiece of pepper and garden cress, and a drachma apiece of soda and scammony for three days to a patient who has first eaten garlic; he should drink two kuathoi of brine with it. Other Intestinal Worms 69. The round intestinal worms are drawn out by drinking olive oil, or castor oil with water; eating bitter lupins, and the meal made from them, the latter uncooked with honey as a lozenge; it also expels them quickly if drunk with vinegar ⟨or⟩ sprinkled on like barley groats. ⟨Also⟩ taken in drink is the decoction of lupins with rue and pepper; mustard with savory or mint; calamint boiled with salt and honey, or eaten raw. §2 Askarid worms are expelled by the juice of raw cabbage, swallowed with rainwater; rue simmered ⟨in⟩ olive oil and drunk; mint juice swallowed down; juice of ‘everliving’; decoction of habrotonon; cumin sprinkled like barley groats onto diluted sour wine; purslane eaten, or its juice drunk; decoction of seriphon, which some call sea wormwood, boiled down with salt and olive oil and wheat or figs or sebesten fruits, or sprinkled dry over wheat-meal or thick gruel; § 3 or mustard drunk with a little olive oil; or filings of stag’s horn sprinkled like barley groats on a decoction of mint, and drunk; or Santonikon chopped up and eaten with raisins or dates or figs; ⟨or⟩ bark of manna ash drunk like barley groats.

37

Diosc. 4.24 gives onokheiles (‘ass-lip’) and Alkibiadeion as synonyms of a kind of ankhousa; however, he attributes anthelmintic properties to a different kind of ankhousa (4.25).

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When placed on the surface of the stomach as a poultice, the following are helpful: meal of lupines with honeywater, or black cumin, or meal of darnel likewise, or woad. 70. Askarid worms are killed by inserting an acorn-sized amount of old grease in the anus.

Reproductive Organs Uterine Prolapse 71. Prolapse of the womb is checked by extracted juice of Egyptian acacia; or juice of bramble or mastic tree; or juice of culinary sumach as a liniment; application of a stem of nettle; violet leaves as a poultice; droppings of a pasturing bull used for fumigation; ground-up birthwort on a pessary with one of the astringents, or the decoction of it for a sitz-bath or inhalation; asphalt for fumigation; galbanum taken in drink; decoction of oak gall; decoction of myrtle or mastic tree or pomegranate peel for a sitz-bath. Uterine Pain and Ailments (72–78) 72. Inflammation, closure and pain in the womb are helped by these decoctions, used for sitz-baths: chaste tree seed, marsh mallow root, Artemisia, bakkharis root, pennyroyal, bay, iris, cassia, reed, camel grass, large centaury root, fleabane, kuperos, dried flowers of hoary stock, ⟨especially for chronic conditions⟩; mallow, melilot, Madonna lily flowers, white chamomile, foliage of headed leek, dried figs with fenugreek or barley gruel, fenugreek, linseed. As fumigations, these are helpful: chaste tree seed, bdellium, cassia, reed, labdanum gum, seed and root of libanotis. For cancers, terebinth resin and myrrh are effective. 73. Pessaries for inflammation and pain: chaste tree seed ground up; marsh mallow root cooked in honeywater and softened with fresh swine fat and turpentine; root of anthullion ground up with rose oil; juice of plantain in wool; juice of sow-thistle likewise; juice of swallow-wort, or the leaves as a pessary; butter likewise; §2 juice squeezed out of cooked fenugreek, mixed with swine fat or fresh butter; baked root of Madonna lily with rose oil, or the flowers with cerate and marrow and fat; linseed cooked with saffron and swine fat; hyssop with butter and melilot; sediment of human urine with henna unguent; ‘pigeon-plant’ with goose fat and turpentine likewise; deer marrow with lily unguent; storax dissolved in henna unguent.

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74. Suitable liniments for the same conditions: oil of iris, of henna flower, or of marjoram; fat from the dormouse called glēris in Latin.38 75. Injections that have a good softening effect are the juice from barley meal cooked with water; used likewise, the juice of ground zea wheat or rice or fenugreek or linseed or mallow. 76. These items, taken in drink, stop chronic inflammation and pain of the womb: decoction of silver sage root; 15 peony seeds with water; leaves of Asklepios’ allheal; yellow iris root; large centaury root; Nepal cardamom; arkeuthos berries; root of long birthwort with seed of perfoliate alexanders; one drachma of balsam-tree fruit with honeywater; one drachma of tuberous-rooted cranesbill root in honeywater; one drachma of betony leaves with honeywater; fruit of pitch trefoil, or the leaves likewise. 77. For ulceration of the womb a suitable liniment is simmered olive-lees with lily cerate, or buckthorn extract likewise, or juice of Egyptian acacia. 78. Irritation of the womb and itching of the breasts is stopped by juice of purslane as a douche; linseed cooked in honeywater; fenugreek likewise; lily or henna oil; tragacanth with water. Expellants (79–86) 79. The menses and afterbirth are drawn out quite well by the following, drunk with wine by those without fever, but with honeywater or water by those with fever: root of field gladiolus; fruit and leaves and stem of the wild vine; root and fruit of mountain parsley; lynx’s urine; mustard ground up and sprinkled on drink like barley groats; leaves of allheal; fruit and flowers of Asklepios’ allheal; § 2 leaves of evergreen honeysuckle; parsley; juice of leek, and the leek itself eaten; wild leek; rhaphanos eaten; cooked root of cuckoo-pint likewise; decoction of celery, and the seed; water germander drunk with wine; the tapenade made from garlic, eaten; leaves of woundwort drunk with wine; seed of wild carrot; decoction of lavender drunk for three days on an empty stomach. 80. More effective at drawing out are these, taken likewise in drink: agarikon; chaste tree seed with pennyroyal or pepper; maidenhair fern; wild nard; root of birthwort with perfoliate alexanders; sage; root and seed of hogweed; root

38

See footnote on 1.54.4.

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of libanotis; root and fruit of hartwort; decoction of goat’s marjoram; seed and root of horse fennel; decoction of nettle leaves with myrrh; water-plantain root; Nepal cardamom; chamomile root and leaves; § 2 goat droppings with one of the aromatics; Artemisia; asphalt; cold-pressed wormwood with Celtic nard; root of bounion, and the expressed juice of the stalks; decoction of the leaves and root of bakkharis in water; leaves of savin; decoction of pennyroyal; peony root; decoction or juice of licorice; root of spineless butcher’s broom; spurgelaurel; iris; decoction of elecampane; that of immortelle likewise; that of creeping thyme likewise; §3 a little fig-tree sap with a runny egg; chickpea in food and its decoction in drink; eryngo root; decoction of thyme or savory; root or fruit of alexanders; those of horse fennel likewise; cassia; cardamom; St. John’s-wort; stem and root ⟨of silphium⟩. 81. These have an intense drawing-out effect (so as actually to expel fetuses) if drunk with wine or honeywater, as has been said: juice of horehound for three days, or the decoction; fruit of evergreen honeysuckle; seed of wild rue; root of male fern; two drachmas of bryony root with water (but it disturbs the mind); one drachma of gum ammoniac; sagapenon gum likewise; silphium sap or seed with myrrh and pepper; opopanax gum likewise; § 2 leaves of bean trefoil (they even draw out dead fetuses); asphodel root; cuckoo-pint seed; tassel hyacinth bulbs with tender bay leaves; one drachma of dittany, taken with wine, also expels dead fetuses; decoction of dragon arum roots (even the smell of its leaves at flowering time is destructive of newly conceived fetuses); root of bracken; shepherd’s purse; galbanum; two drachmas of hoary stock seed in water; § 3 hartwort drunk daily with wine; lesser calamint with wine; rue and its seed likewise; castor with decoction of pennyroyal; rush. Fetuses slip out without pain, if you heat an egg with its shell and wipe on kedros resin, then heat and wipe again, then do the same a third time and give it to be swallowed; or if you burn old pitched cork in an earthenware pot, grind it, sprinkle it on wine and give it likewise to drink. §4 Also effective is two drachmas of the fruit from caper ‘pears’ with wine, or likewise of the root; juice of ‘small centaury’; kedros berries ground up; one drachma of betony leaves; root of kirkaia infused in grape syrup; cinnamon in drink; decoction of wild basil; fruit of samphire, or the root cooked in wine; one drachma of Etruscan honeysuckle fruit in wine; § 5 sawdust from Italian cypress; kuperos; root of wild patience dock; ‘spearhead’, the plant39 simmered in wine; seed of garden cress; one drachma of mandrake seed with wine; one

39

I.e. the foliage (Diosc. 1.100.4) rather than the root; cf. footnote above on 2.65.2.

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drachma of black cumin; root of butcher’s broom simmered in wine; marjoram seed; henna tree seed; stone parsley; tordylium; goat’s marjoram; decoction of wall germander; ground-pine with honey; dried earthworms in drink. Also effective is the decoction of fig leaves. 82. These pessaries draw down the menses and afterbirth and fetuses: lanolin on wool-in-the-grease used as a pessary for three days; basil thyme and its seed; mandrake root whittled to shape and used as a pessary; black or white hellebore; nettle leaves ground up with myrrh; Nepal cardamom; almonds or almond oil with wine; anemone ground up; birthwort with myrrh; bdellium; ground-up bay berries; squirting cucumber extract with honey; root of madder likewise; §2 root of daylily; leaves of ‘scorpion-tail’ heliotrope; meal of lupines with myrrh and honey; sap of wild lettuce; root of horse fennel; cassia with honey; sweet flag likewise; leaves of calamint; galbanum; juice of large centaury root, or the root itself; clusters of ivy berries—and the shoots smeared with honey are fine for drawing out fetuses; cinnamon with myrrh; costus-thistle root likewise; root of Madonna lily cooked with rose oil. 83. A retained afterbirth is induced without trouble by root of cyclamen with honey, or the juice; some say that if a woman even steps over the root of cyclamen while pregnant, she miscarries. Likewise they say of the plant called onosma that if a woman steps over it or tastes it while pregnant, she miscarries. Marjoram, annual mercury with honey, rue with myrrh and egg, juice of cabbage with darnel meal, juice of fleabane, oponanax gum and the root as a pessary, leaves of the ironwort called Herakleia, water germander, storax. §2 Even more effective at drawing down fetuses is root of dyer’s alkanet; Artemisia made up as a pessary with bay berries or myrrh or iris or fig or soda— or its tender shoots as a pessary; juice of bryony root as a pessary in wool; gentian root whittled into shape as a pessary; one drachma of dittany with honey; dragon arum root with diluted sour wine; iris; myrrh with infusion of wormwood or lupines, or with juice of rue; §3 flax-leaved daphne made up with fig; soda likewise; juice of ‘small centaury’; kedros resin; the inner part of colocynth with honey; juice of Etruscan honeysuckle with wine; frankincense and mandrake sap and iris unguent mixed in a pessary; opopanax gum as a pessary; felty germander with wine; horehound likewise; sap of scammony in wool as a pessary; soapwort root with honey; moist alum; § 4 ground-up seed of St. John’s-wort with honey; the mastic from gum succory40 with myrrh; juice of

40

Diosc. 2.133 says that χονδρίλη (Chondrilla species) exudes a gum “like mastic”.

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mullein with myrrh as a pessary on wool; a man’s urine made up as a pessary and applied; ground-up black cumin and myrrh made up with honey as a pessary the size of a Greek bean. 84. As fumigants these draw out the menses and afterbirth and fetuses: ajwain with terebinth resin; a small amount of bdellium; dittany; cardamom; galbanum; bark of pine or Aleppo pine; the operculum of the marine murex; garlic; head or flesh of sheatfish. 85. They are also drawn out by sitz baths using the following, boiled with water: ageraton; elder leaves; Artemisia; dittany; bay; fleabane; costus-thistle root; spignel; hoary stock; lemon balm; foliage of headed leek; and celery. 86. As a poultice to induce the afterbirth (also an emmenagogue), a large amount of Artemisia is placed on the abdomen. The following have an intense drawing-out effect (so as actually to expel fetuses): darnel meal combined with leek juice; juice of cyclamen with squirting cucumber extract or darnel meal; deer marrow and galbanum and gum ammoniac and olive oil in equal quantities. Oral Medications for Flux 87. The following stop a flux if drunk with wine; 10 or 12 red seeds41 of peony with wine; juice of cytinus; sulphurwort sap; leaves and fruit of rock sumphuton; thrift (also used as a potherb added to a meal); decoction of bramble; extracted juice of wild pomegranate flower or Egyptian acacia; decoction of the root of rush,42 or the extracted juice; Samian earth with wild pomegranate flower; decoction of date palm spathe; burnt stag’s horn with diluted sour wine; root of ‘Idaian plant’, or the leaves; juice of evergreen honeysuckle; pipe clay; haematite with juice of pomegranate; loosestrife, the plant and its juice; decoction of nettle tree sawdust made into lozenges; §2 one drachma of clay stone with wine; seed of dark poppy with wine or with honey; ground-up tamarisk bark, or the fruit; the fruit from the woolly hips of evergreen rose, after these have been carefully cleaned off and thrown away (for they scratch the windpipe); juice of knotgrass, or that of plantain likewise; decoction of holm oak bark; hare’s rennet; juice of tanner’s sumach; rose flowers with diluted sour wine; decoction of marc. 41 42

Diosc. 3.140 distinguishes the red (unripe?) from the black seeds of peony; the latter are used above at Simp. 1.28. Here and at 2.89, in view of its application (cf. Diosc. 4.52.2), σχοῖνος probably means ‘rush’

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Pessaries for Flux 88. As pessaries with water, these halt a flux: extracted juice of cytinus; that of tanner’s sumach likewise; ground-up wild pomegranate flowers; olive tree foliage and the juice from it; juice of Egyptian acacia; ‘everliving’; goat droppings with frankincense (one must wrap them in wool and apply); ash of vine twigs sieved as a pessary; §2 Achillea; ground-up acorns; iron rust; frankincense and its bark; pipe clay; loosestrife; buckthorn extract with milk; ground-up mandrake seed with unfired sulphur; melilot; knotgrass and its juice; the inside of oak gall with frankincense and water; the inside of a walnut burnt and mixed with an astringent. Other Treatments for Flux 89. In sitz baths a flux is halted by decoction of the following (the liquid must be used warm): wild olive tree, mastic tree, bramble, eagle-wood, leaves or bark or acorns of oak or holm oak, myrtle, marc, tanner’s sumach, pomegranate peels. To check a flux, barley meal is applied to the area over the stomach with ground-up oak gall ⟨or⟩ pomegranate peels or wild pomegranate flowers or bramble or lees of vinegar or holm oak acorns, or leaves of myrtle or rush, or ⟨dates⟩ from the Thebaid. Oral Medications for Uterine Suffocation 90. For cases of suffocation arising from the womb, these are appropriate in drink: one drachma of agarikon in wine; two obols of mandrake root with wine; root of wild nard with wine; fruit of mountain parsley; fruit of plantain, and the juice with wine; 15 black seeds of peony with honeywater; the operculum of a mollusk taken in drink; squill vinegar swallowed down. Other Treatments for Uterine Suffocation 91. These smelling agents arouse women suffering uterine suffocation: asphalt; castor; galbanum; mustard with squill vinegar; moist pitch; kedros resin; lamp wicks lit and quenched; leaves and sap of sulphurwort; burnt hair; hogweed; rue; silphium; onion; garlic; nettles applied to the legs and forehead. 92. These fumigants are used for the same conditions: lignite, operculum of murex, sulphurwort, sagapenon gum, hogweed, asphalt, castor, galbanum, equine chestnut, seal rennet, silphium, stag’s horn.

( Juncus acutus vel sim.), though elsewhere in Simp. it refers to ‘camel grass’ (Cymbopogon schoenanthus).

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93. Anal suppositories used are rue with honey, made up in wool; nettle seed with myrrh oil. Fertility Drugs 94. Taken in drink, these promote conception: redshank and its fruit, drunk by the man and woman for 40 days; or fruit of carrot, and the root taken in food; fruit and root of dog’s mercury; hawk’s excrement drunk in grape syrup by the woman before congress. 95. These pessaries help with conception: ajwain with marrow, before congress; hare’s rennet with butter; seed or juice of annual mercury as a pessary. Determinants of Gender 96. It is reported to bring about male births if a decoction of the larger ⟨root⟩ of an orchid is drunk with three kuathoi of water before congress and before dinner for 40 days, or if the root is eaten by men (the smaller root brings about female births if eaten by women); or if the testicles of a white rooster are taken in drink after conception before tasting anything else. §2 If the seed of the male annual mercury is used as a pessary immediately after conception, it is said to bring about male births, and the seed of the female, female births likewise. Reportedly it fashions the embryo as male if immediately after intercourse the root of ⟨long⟩ birthwort in ox flesh is used as a pessary.43 Pregnancy The stone found in Samian earth, ground up and used as a pessary, is reported to protect the implantation of the embryo. 97. Women with slippery wombs are brought to term and prevented from losing the fetus, if 41 seeds of black cumin are tied in a linen cloth and worn below the fringe of their hair. Childbirth 98. For women who have difficult deliveries, they say it is helpful to wear an amulet of bean trefoil leaves (but the amulet must be removed immediately after giving birth); or to fasten a jasper on the thigh, or dried cyclamen root

43

This last sentence is misplaced after 2.97 in the MSS, and was restored to its correct position by Gesner.

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likewise; or ⟨to drink⟩ one drachma of quince juice with one kuathos of honeywater, ⟨or⟩ ground-up maidenhair fern with wine or olive oil. It is also helpful to touch a sternutatory to the nostrils. Contraceptive Amulets 99. As amulets, these reportedly assist in preventing conception: woman’s menstrual blood dried and tied in a mule or deer skin as an amulet; or let her place it in the ground and step over it before coitus; rustyback fern as an amulet by itself or with a mule’s hoof (it must be dug up on a moonless night); tamarisk wood burnt and quenched ⟨in⟩ her own menstrual blood, as an amulet on the arm. Other Contraceptives 100. These are taken in drink as contraceptives: ‘mule’s plant’44 mixed with the inner material of a mule’s hoof; root of male fern drunk with grape syrup; that of bracken likewise; root of epimedion drunk in wine; iron rust; flowers and leaves of willow; cabbage flowers drunk with wine after conception; hare’s rennet drunk after menarche for three days; white poplar bark drunk after menstruation with diluted sour wine on an empty stomach; § 2 two drachmas of clay stone for four days. Pessaries to prevent contraception, used before congress: ground-up mint (and the juice used as a liniment on the man’s genitals); cabbage flower ground up as a pessary after conception prevents implantation ⟨of the seed; or⟩ fawn’s rennet used as a pessary for three days after menstruation; seed of ‘axe-weed’ before intercourse; moist alum likewise; or they should foment with decoction of fenugreek before intercourse. Aphrodisiacs 101. Intercourse is stimulated and an erection produced by the seed of annual clary.45 The thick upper root of field gladiolus stimulates when drunk with wine, but the thin root on the contrary slackens the stimulation. The large bulb of an orchid drunk with milk causes an erection, but the small one drunk with water slackens it. Wild nettle seed drunk with wine; anise with wine; cooked root of cuckoo-pint taken in food; mint likewise; § 2 garden cress and its seed taken in drink; a little coriander seed with water (drinking more leads to drowsi-

44 45

A synonym for rustyback fern (Asplenium ceterach). The author implies a connection between παρορμᾷ ‘stimulates’ and the name ὁρμίνου.

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ness); costus-thistle root with wine or honeyed wine; saffron likewise; linseed with honeyed wine and pepper taken as a lozenge; fennel gum; fruit of the leek eaten, or its juice drunk; seed of saturion of Erythrae (it is like that in pears or apples, but shinier, and glutinous when chewed); Indian skink taken in drink (but drinking a decoction of lentils afterwards stops the erection); seed of wild carrot; fruit of terebinth taken in food. Anaphrodisiacs 102. The impulse to have intercourse is blunted by eating purslane; eating wild or cultivated rue; drinking the seed of wild or cultivated lettuce; taking the dried root of dragon arum in drink (also stops erections); pine nuts with cucumber seeds and purslane juice; eating figs. Involuntary Ejaculation 103. For those who ejaculate involuntarily it is helpful to give two drachmas of iris with wine. As a poultice hemlock has a calming effect when applied to the penis, testicles and pubes; root of white water-lily given to eat with barley groats as a cake, an oxubaphon in quantity, or drunk by itself; dill seed in drink. The black berry clusters of ivy, taken in drink, quell generation.46 Wet Dreams (104–105) 104. For those with wet dreams, these poultices are suitable for immediate control: hemlock seed spread on the testicles (for if one spread it on the penis, it would be enfeebled); spread white water-lily root on the penis as well; as a liniment on the testicles, use juice of coriander or nightshade, or soda, or juice of rhamnos ⟨and⟩ pressing of purslane. Purslane is also used as a poultice by itself or ⟨with⟩ barley groats; or leaves of chaste tree with barley groats; or cumin ground up and combined with Cimolian earth. 105. Those with wet dreams are helped by taking root of white water-lily in drink before a meal, ⟨or⟩ the dried root mixed with food, and the seed likewise; or drinking decoction of calamint. Nocturnal emissions are cured by seed of lettuce or purslane drunk with water.

46

Or perhaps “slacken the organ of generation” (Beck on Diosc. 1.103).

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Kidneys and Bladder Bedwetting 106. Those who urinate in bed must be cured by rebuke, and by regular times for urination during the day with retention in between; by having them drink a burnt bladder of goat or sheep with diluted sour wine, or giving them one roasted with the urine over hot ashes, and forcing them to go without drink in the evening. Also effective is a chickpea-sized piece of hare’s brain, with an equal amount of goose fat and the same amount of gum, taken in drink, or combined with barley groats and eaten; a kokhliarion of ground-up boar’s hoof with honeywater, or the same quantity of castor or chaste tree or rue. Kidney Disease 107. Those with kidney disease are helped by these drinks: one drachma of agarikon with one kuathos of wine; one drachma of dyer’s alkanet root likewise; two obols of halkuonion with water; one drachma of Nepal cardamom with wine; bitter almonds with water, or as lozenges with terebinth resin; juice of pimpernel or knotgrass with wine; raisins eaten without the pips; juice of bounion leaves and root drunk for 12 days with grape syrup; § 2 or milk or decoction of peony; juice of licorice; decoction of date palm spathe; dried hedgehog flesh with wine; seed of perfoliate alexanders with grape syrup; cassia with wine; one drachma of cardamom with grape syrup; sweet flag likewise; cinnamon likewise; one drachma of betony leaves with grape syrup; decoction of arkeuthos likewise; infusion of spignel likewise; four drachmas of Lemnian red ochre likewise; §3 drinking ass’s urine is recorded as effecting a cure; sakkharon with water; decoction of shepherd’s needle; seed of wild carrot; eating pine nuts; decoction of rock sumphuton in honeywater; eating dried figs; decoction of ground-pine in honeywater. And if a person has a sore on the penis which causes stinging, effective help is provided by a lozenge of two drachmas of tragacanth steeped in water, taken on an empty stomach. Blood in the Urine 108. If a person actually passes blood in the urine, pound one drachma of split alum and two drachmas of tragacanth, and make up tablets of two obols’ weight each: the dose is one in grape syrup. Bleeding from the kidneys is halted by water lettuce taken in drink.

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Bladder Ailments (109–112) 109. Pain in the bladder is cured by raw linseed, sesame, annual clary, one kuathos of each drunk separately with grape syrup; seed of sharp rush, or seed of red tassel hyacinth likewise; seed of lotos47 likewise in wine; one drachma of seed of dark or pale poppy48 drunk with honeywater; one drachma of Italian cypress foliage drunk with warm water or honeywater; decoction of quince flowers or of grapevine tendrils or of purslane taken in drink; or juice of gentian with water. 110. Helpful poultices for a painful bladder are: root and seed of white water-lily; knotgrass; parsley; ground-pine cooked with wine and pig fat; barley ⟨meal⟩; fine wheatmeal; fenugreek; linseed; dates; cooked quinces; opium poppy capsules cooked and mixed with henbane meal. 111. For abscesses on the bladder, effective medications taken in drink are those listed above for kidney disease. The following are also suitable: root of Parnassian agrostis or the other agrostis, decocted and drunk in water; juice of purslane in grape syrup; sweet milk;49 decoction of date palm spathe; groundup foliage of Italian cypress drunk with myrrh. 112. A flux from the bladder is cured by eating mallow or eating myrtle berries. A stinging pain in the bladder is helped by drinking sakkharon or drinking decoction of shepherd’s needle; or the juice extracted from the plant called phaleris (which grows in grain crops) when pounded and pressed, drunk with wine; decoction of sumphuton; extracted juice of safflower; bitter almonds; roasted pine nuts; plum tree gum; tragacanth in grape syrup with burnt stag’s horn, mixed with a little split alum. Dysuria (113–115) 113. Dysuria is relieved by drinking the following: decoction of wild asparagus root, and the seed, with wine; allheal with honeywater (also effective for an itching bladder); juice of knotgrass; decoction of marjoram; hartwort; cleaned seed of cultivated cucumber with milk or grape syrup or bitter almonds—or

47 48

49

The reference is to what Diosc. 4.111 calls wild lotos, and recommends for pain in the bladder. The dark poppy is no doubt Papaver rhoeas, as elsewhere in Simp.; the pale poppy is presumably Glaucium flavum (yellow horned poppy), which Simp. elsewhere calls μήκων κερατῖτις. Diosc. 2.70 describes sheep’s milk as sweet, and women’s milk as very sweet.

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the almonds themselves in grape syrup; extracted juice of water germander in wine; seed of wild carrot; one drachma of root of Philetairos’ plant in watered wine; decoction of ‘phou’ valerian; that of ground-pine likewise; § 2 one or two drachmas of atractylis with decoction of origanum or with wine; four twigs of pseudobounion with water; seed of basil; that of habrotonon likewise, simmered in water until one-third is left; one drachma of agarikon with wine; decoction of licorice in drink; decoction of root of butcher’s broom ⟨aka⟩ wild ⟨myrtle⟩;50 one drachma of water-plantain root with wine; cleaned pine nuts with cucumber seed and grape syrup; §3 three drachmas of anthullion with wine; chamomile root and flowers likewise; decoction of camelthorn likewise; decoction of wormwood with an equal quantity of celery root; ⟨or⟩ camel grass or nard or fennel in water; bakkharis root cooked in water; leaves and root of bounion juiced and taken with honeywater; flowers of immortelle with the leaves in water; decoction of creeping thyme likewise; root of perfoliate alexanders drunk in wine; eryngo root with carrot seed and wine; root and seed of alexanders likewise; §4 cardamom with wine or water; sweet flag cooked in water with root of dog’s tooth grass or celery seed; kedros berries drunk with pepper and wine; cinnamon with wine; one drachma of coral; decoction of wild basil in water; juice from Italian cypress foliage drunk with wine; bark of white poplar tree with wine; fruit of common gromwell51 drunk likewise; § 5 haematite in wine; decoction of fennel with water; spiked water milfoil in drink likewise; root of elm with grape syrup; cock’s head sainfoin in wine; wild grapevine, plant and root; woodlice ground up and drunk; chicken droppings with wine. Ground-up bed-bugs are inserted in the urinary canal to draw out the urine. 114. Meal of bitter vetch seed with vinegar is used as a poultice for dysuria, and bound in place. Likewise urine is drawn out by ground-up spignel used as a poultice on the pubes. 115. Fumigants that draw the urine are bdellium, Artemisia, crickets, deer hair. There should be a spherical covering, to keep out movement of air. Also, use marjoram unguent as a liniment around the anus. Sitz Baths for Bladder Conditions 116. As sitz baths for conditions affecting the bladder, decoctions are made from chamomile, bay, sweet flag, Italian cypress foliage.

50 51

‘Wild myrtle’ is one of several names for butcher’s broom given at Diosc. 4.144. Synonyms are given: “exōnukhon aka lithospermon”.

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Bladder Stones (117–118) 117. Stones in the bladder are broken up by drinking the following with wine: maidenhair fern; two drachmas of root of Philetairos’ plant; seed of perfoliate alexanders; butcher’s broom root steeped in grape syrup, or its fruit with wine; seed and root of horse fennel; root and seed of marsh mallow; two obols of Milesian halkuonion with water; bitter almonds with grape syrup, or their oil; flower and root of the red-flowered chamomile; decoction of white chamomile; root of restharrow with honeyed wine; one drachma of bdellium with wine; juice of the unripe fruit of small caltrops; dried stomach of the lammergeier (which they call ossiphragos in Latin),52 drunk in small quantities; the red seeds of peony taken in food or drink. 118. For children with stones and for itching bladders, one drachma of the bark of bay root is suitable with a fragrant wine; navelwort root and plant taken in food; one drachma of cardamom with one drachma of bark of bay root, taken with wine; gum from bitter almond or grape vine or plum trees with grape syrup; root of ⟨patience dock⟩ cooked in wine; ground-up fruit of common gromwell; §2 stones from sponges ground up, taken with wine; bull’s urine taken in drink; the herbage of feverfew;53 seed of Christ’s thorn; Nepal cardamom taken in food (this also purifies waters that generate stones, if boiled with them); decoction of lesser calamint; soapwort root with allheal and caper root (also makes one pass ⟨the stone⟩ in urine); decoction of felty germander; Judean stone crushed with water and drunk; §3 rustyback fern (it is also diuretic); flower of camel grass taken daily in drink; mouse droppings with a tiny amount of saffron and with myrrh, given to be drunk with water, or taken with a little frankincense and honeyed wine; ground-up felty germander sprinkled on drink, or its decoction; or a stone from those passed in urine by the patient, crushed and drunk in wine. Diuretics 119. Diuretics include the items imparted for dysuria and stones. In addition the following, taken in drink with wine, help those with dysuria, and those for whom we want to promote urination, as for patients with edema or jaundice. One drachma of root of white thistle; root of smooth acanthus likewise;

52

53

The Latin name (ossifraga or –us) means ‘bone-breaker’ and refers to the lammergeier’s ability to crack animal bones in order to extract the marrow; there is an implied relevance to the breaking of bladder stones. Synonyms again: “parthenion aka leukanthemon”.

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yellow iris root; pitch trefoil fruit or juice or decoction; root of arktion and its decoction; §2 Egyptian acacia seed is extremely effective for those with stones, taken with pepper and honeyed wine;54 or root of Syrian nard; root and seed of daukos; fruit of rosemary; goat’s marjoram and the juice of marjoram and of parsley; iris; the fruit of celery; samphire; seed of wild rue; nettle seed; decoction of marsh mallow root; one drachma of root of white or black bryony, or ⟨its⟩ shoots eaten; §3 wild leek eaten; anise in drink; dill; dried root of cuckoo-pint in honeyed wine, or cooked and eaten, and that of dragon arum likewise; decoction of arkeuthos berries, and the berries themselves ground up and drunk with wine; one drachma of asphodel root with wine; asarabacca likewise; root of milk vetch; one drachma of balsam-tree fruit with grape syrup; maidenhair spleenwort; root of alpine squill; St. John’s-wort; ⟨juice⟩ of Alexandrian ‘ground-laurel’; sekakul; dittany; acorns eaten, or the decoction of them; decoction of elecampane; decoction of sage; §4 chickpeas eaten, or the decoction of them; madder; sea urchin; decoction of lupin roots; lettuce cooked as a vegetable and eaten; thyme or savory; leaves and root of horsetail; willow tree sap; fumitory eaten (draws down bile through the urine); decoction of calamint; libanotis fruit; ivy (draws out blood); costus-thistle root; saffron or its root with sweet wine; boiled onions; root or fruit of lovage; the stones from sponges; leaves of malabathron; black cumin; the upper root of field gladiolus; § 5 fruit of koris with wine; fruit of club-rush; cock’s head sainfoin; origanum; lynx urine ground up in water;55 goat urine likewise with spikenard; leaves of evergreen honeysuckle; pepper; rue; Aleppo pine bark; felty germander; horehound; cooked leek; raphanos and its seed; any kind of resin, especially that from the mastic tree; celery raw or cooked, and its seed; the ironwort called Herakleia; stone parsley; asarabacca; one drachma of cooked squill with honeyed vinegar; root or fruit of sow-thistle; root of soapwort; pine nuts when eaten are strongly diuretic.

54

55

After these words, most of the MSS have “Aretaeus wrote [what?] in his discussion of treatments for kidney problems”. This reference to the pneumatist Aristaeus of Cappadocia is clearly a later gloss, which was subsequently copied into the text. In addition to the arguments raised by Oberhelman 1994.946–949, a reference to a named medical authority would be quite uncharacteristic of On Simples. “Ground up” because, according to a belief dismissed by Diosc. 2.81.3, lynx’s urine was supposed to solidify into a gemstone (lingourion), perhaps a form of yellow amber.

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Poisonous Bites and Stings Mad Dog Bites 120. People bitten by a mad dog are helped by drinking the blood of the mad dog, or roasting and eating its liver; roasting the eyes of river crabs and drinking them with water, one kuathos; or one to four drachmas of the ash from burning the whole crabs; drinking one drachma of gentian and two drachmas of ash of white bryony with white wine for three days; or securing the canine tooth of the biting dog in a bladder and fastening it on one’s arm. § 2 It also helps to drink buckthorn extract. Or birthwort and gentian and bay berries and myrrh, make up equal quantities of each and give it to drink or apply it to the bite. Frogs dressed and eaten; dog’s rennet in boiled vegetable. One must poultice the wounds of those bitten with substances that can keep the sores ⟨inflamed⟩ for some time and not allow them to scar over. It is advisable in general and for the dog bites themselves to employ garlic, by itself or with honey; §3 nettle leaves with salt or honey; onion with salt or rue; ground-up silphium sprinkled on with salt, or a poultice of silphium sap; any kind of preserved meat; ash of vine twigs with olive oil; or water germander; leaves of elder with salt; bitter almonds with honey; leaves of black horehound or plantain with salt; mint likewise; § 4 walnuts with onion and salt and honey; lemon balm with salt; flesh of mussels; soda with pig fat; bitter vetch meal with honey; human urine as a rinse; rue with vinegar; raw wheat grains chewed and applied; leaves of cultivated cucumber with wine; fig tree sap dripped on; or leaves and tender leaf-sprays of the fig tree with honey; fig tree ash with cerate; pig dung boiled with vinegar; and peaches chewed and applied. Snake Bites 121. These drinks are given for reptiles in general: pepper with vinegar and opium poppy extract; wild rue seed; plane tree globules likewise; four drachmas of polemonion aka Philetairos’ plant with wine; puritis; pellitory; rennet of fawn or hare; one drachma of sagapenon gum; celery seed with two drachmas of water germander, or with one drachma of the extracted juice; root and fruit of bur-reed; sap of the mulberry; juice of yellow germander root; all these taken with wine. Also if a beast of burden has been bitten, puritis poured in through the mouth with wine effects a cure.

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Viper Bites: Oral Medicines 122. For viper bites, items taken in drink with wine or as food:56 the most effective resource against them is eating garlic and drinking unwatered wine, so that someone who tolerates a quantity of this food and drink needs no other remedy. Also effective is the dried blood of a turtle with wild cumin; hare’s rennet; one drachma of the dried penis of a stag; ⟨seed⟩ of white thistle; fig leaves; yellow iris root; ⟨leaves⟩ and root of ⟨Philetairos’ plant⟩; § 2 purple viper’s bugloss; wall germander; root of Syrian nard; root of long birthwort; perfoliate alexanders; juice of cleavers; root of libanotis; root of wild rue; root of white or black bryony; wild leek eaten; one drachma of agarikon; juice of pimpernel; anise; root of ‘holy plant’; decoction or seed of asparagus; arkeuthos berries; § 3 three drachmas of asphodel root; root of swallow-wort; flower of ‘Attic’ aster; about one drachma of distaff thistle flowers and leaves with pepper; groundup pistachios taken in drink; frogs boiled into a soup and eaten; one drachma of balsam-tree sap or fruit; or one drachma of bdellium; or give two drachmas of dried preserved weasel; two drachmas of gentian root with pepper and rue, or one drachma of the juice; §4 two drachmas of the aster type of Samian earth; two drachmas of daukos seed; hens’ brains taken in drink; acorns eaten; two drachmas of iris; decoction of elecampane; root and seed of parsnip; decoction of immortelle; decoction of creeping thyme; leaves and stems of madder; root and leaves and stem and seed of purple viper’s bugloss; one drachma of seed and leaves of pitch trefoil likewise; §5 goat’s marjoram; ground-up boar’s liver in wine; one drachma of eryngo root with carrot seed; root and seed of horse fennel; Nepal cardamom; cassia; cardamom; river crabs ground up and diluted with milk (sea crabs are less good); two drachmas of betony leaves; cinnamon; decoction of wild basil; two drachmas of costus-thistle root with two obols of pepper; origanum or its decoction; juice of cabbage; cyclamen root; globules of Italian cypress; §6 cumin, and ⟨especially⟩ the wild type; rennet of hare or fawn; root of ‘lion’s-foot’; decoction of tamarisk; fennel seed; root of sweet cicely; haematite with wine; equal quantities of birthwort root, myrrh, bay berries, gentian, made up with honey and taken in drink or applied to the wound; manna ash leaves with wine, or their juice. And if the patient is already at the point of death, his own urine, drunk and applied, is of great help. Or dyer’s alkanet, plane tree fruit, cardamom, Italian cypress, Aleppo pine bark with wine, heliotrope. Specifically suitable for horned vipers is two drachmas of ajwain with myrrh and wine.

56

The Greek here is unsyntactical, probably reflecting some textual disturbance.

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Viper Bites: Poultices 123. Poultices used for viper bites are: pitch trefoil leaves; manna ash leaves; rue; calamint leaves; linseed with salt or origanum and honey; hens cut up live and applied while warm (they must be changed frequently); goat droppings boiled in vinegar; root of long birthwort with water; asphodel root, flowers and leaves with wine; §2 kedros resin or liquid pitch with salt (also ⟨effective⟩ against horned vipers); bay leaves simmered with olive oil; leaves of tree heath with wine; leaves of purple viper’s bugloss likewise; wine lees with barley groats and vinegar; onions likewise; bitter vetch seed meal with wine; leaves of rue with salt and honey; bran boiled in vinegar; cutting leeks;57 bark of rhaphanos with honey; wormwood with salt and vinegar; §3 squill cooked in vinegar; garlic in vinegar; any kind of ash in vinegar, and especially that from the sycamore fig or manna ash. Wounds from Venomous Creatures (123.3–125) For wounds from venomous creatures the decoction of pitch trefoil is used as a douche, and specific applications on the wound are: butter; ground-up habrotonon with wine; chaste tree leaves; maidenhair fern (but it ulcerates the surface, if you leave it a long time); eryngo leaves. These should be drunk in honeyed vinegar. 124. For bites of the haimorrhois and prester,58 these are helpful: purslane as a poultice; plantain; leaves of ‘holy plant’; the head of the creature itself, burnt and applied; hyssop; unslaked lime; white garlic; leek; rue; nettle; garden cress and its seed; ground-up garlic drunk with wine; raisins eaten; uncooked nestlings eaten with wine. ⟨Specific⟩ for prester bites is pickled tuna flesh eaten in large quantities; but patients must wash it down with much wine, and vomit. 125. For poison of the asp or ‘spitter’59 it helps to swallow seven or eight bed bugs; to drink vinegar; continuous arousal of the patient; blows; movement of the whole body. It is helpful to douche with warm seawater.

57 58 59

These are leeks grown for their edible leaves, not the bulbous base (Columella 11.3.30). Types of venomous snake: the bite of the haimorrhois (‘blood-flow’) was said to cause bleeding from all parts of the body. A type of asp that spits out its poison (Pliny 28.65).

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Oral Medicines for Stings 126. Taken in drink with wine ⟨for the stings⟩ of scorpions and venomous spiders and wasps and bees: habrotonon; one drachma of agarikon; seed of ageraton; maidenhair fern; ‘everliving’; ‘scorpion-wort’ ⟨works⟩ specifically against scorpion stings; creeping thyme; one drachma of marsh mallow root; seed of rose campion. Specifically against spider bites: fruit and root of sorrel; four drachmas of onoguros;60 two drachmas of ajwain. § 2 Eminently effective are asphodel flower and fruit taken in drink; alpine squill root; decoction and juice of wall germander; pennyroyal; two drachmas of iris; wild lettuce seed; St. John’s-wort; fig-tree ash; juice of ivy root with vinegar; Italian cypress globules with wine; soup made from mallow drunk, and the plant itself cooked and eaten; one drachma of black cumin; lemon balm and its juice; § 3 sowthistle eaten; unripe myrtle berries; one drachma of tamarisk fruit; rue seed; knotgrass and its juice; fruit of terebinth; ground-up bay berries; ‘scorpion-tail’; cardamom; juice of pimpernel; garlic eaten. Then the items that induce cooling are appropriate for scorpion stings. Also effective is baking and eating the scorpion itself, and drinking the soot from the smoke-hole with wine. Poultices for Stings 127. The following poultices are suitable for stings of scorpions and bees and wasps and venomous spiders: cowdung as a poultice; creeping thyme; groundup salt with vinegar; Nepal cardamom with basil; boiled marsh mallow leaves with a little olive oil mixed in; any kind of preserved meat used as a poultice; the heliotrope called ‘scorpion-tail’; fleabane; origanum; leaves of Madonna lily; cyclamen leaves; §2 flowers of Asklepios’ allheal and leaves of Chiron’s; felty germander with vinegar; dried bay leaves; fig-tree sap instilled; mallow leaves, cooked or raw; mulberry leaves; watercress61 as a poultice with vinegar; lemon balm; mullein with vinegar; wall germander likewise; Italian cypress chewed by someone fasting, and applied; domestic mice cut up and applied; salty cheese as a poultice; §3 snails ground up with their shells; a gecko cut up forthwith and applied; unfired sulphur made up with terebinth resin and applied; gentian root likewise; dog’s tooth grass ground up and applied stops the pain forthwith.

60

61

This onoguros may be the same as the anaguros (bean trefoil) which Diosc. 3.150 recommends against poisonous spider bites. But see Wellmann’s apparatus criticus here and on Diosc. 4.117. The text gives alternative names, “sisumbrion or kardamine”. In Diosc. 2.118 this combination of names designates watercress; however, it is the other sisumbrion, lesser calamint, that Diosc. 3.41 recommends as a plaster for wasp and bee stings. Cf. footnote above on 1.2.2.

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Also effective is the scorpion itself ground up as a poultice; a field lizard cut up and applied; sow-thistle root with juice of cabbage; mulberry tree sap. A douche with hot seawater is helpful, and the place that was bitten should be lowered into warm olive oil. Other Venomous Wounds (128–131) 128. ⟨Effective⟩ poultices ⟨for⟩ scolopendra and spider-mouse ⟨bites⟩:62 salt with pitch and kedros resin and honey; garlic with fig leaves and cumin; calamint leaves; burnt barley with vinegar; garlic and fig tree branch-tips and leaves with bitter vetch seed meal and wine. For the spider-mouse, the mouse itself quickly pounded up with wine and applied. Drinks used in common for both are wormwood with wine; decoction of mint with wine. 129. For a strike by the sting-ray a helpful poultice is sage ground up with honey. 130. For a strike by the weever fish: the weever itself cut up and applied, and its brain taken in drink, and human urine as a douche on the strike, ⟨or⟩ creeping thyme as a poultice. 131. A strike by the scorpionfish is cured by rubbing on unfired sulphur with vinegar; or cutting up red mullet and applying it; drinking three ⟨ground-up⟩ bay berries. A gecko bite is cured by a poultice of ground-up sesame. Prophylactics (132–135) 132. Wild creatures are driven away by strewing these herbs: habrotonon, chaste tree, purple viper’s bugloss, calamint, fleabane, origanum, creeping thyme, felty germander, asphodel. And by fumigations: chaste tree leaves, asphalt, bdellium, stag’s horn, calamint, cardamom, galbanum, castor, fleabane, sawdust of Italian cypress or kedros, lignite, loosestrife, black cumin, rue, sagapenon gum, felty germander. 133. Wild creatures are killed by an application of galbanum with hogweed and olive oil. Crabs pounded up with basil and applied kill scorpions; corncockle placed next to scorpions stupefies them; an application of seed of wild carrot.

62

The scolopendra was a venomous centipede; the spider-mouse perhaps a shrew.

internal medicine

137

134. Worn as liniments, these prevent wild creatures from approaching, and drive them off: fruit of marsh mallow with olive oil and vinegar; bay berries with olive oil and vinegar; galbanum and kedros berries with deer marrow or fat; fruit and flowers of Asklepios’ allheal with olive oil and silphium sap. One who anoints himself with ground-up mallow leaves and olive oil remains unstung by wasps and bees. Also effective are the caterpillars found on vegetables, ground up as a liniment with olive oil. 135. People are kept unbitten by reptiles if they drink one drachma of a stag’s dried penis with wine; drink the root of purple viper’s bugloss; or eat wild carrot seed. If someone rubs his hands with the juice of dragon arum root, that person could pick up vipers without suffering harm—or if he rubs his whole body with sap of sulphurwort. More against Scorpion Stings 136. These amulets and antidotes are said to help those struck by scorpions: the root of the ‘scorpion-tail’ heliotrope worn as an amulet; leopard’s bane moved near a scorpion makes it moribund (but white hellebore revives it); seed of white thistle worn as an amulet; serpentine stone worn as an amulet drives off wild creatures; a liniment of deer marrow makes people invulnerable; root of sorrel applied; root of Philetairos’ plant worn as an amulet prevents one from suffering anything at all from a scorpion. Mosquitoes 137. Mosquitoes are prevented from approaching by a liniment of wormwood with olive oil; by fumigation with fleabane, Italian cypress globules and foliage and sawdust, cowdung. Leeches 138. Leeches that cling to the throat and gullet and oesophagus are detached by swallowing brine; by vinegar; by gargling with silphium sap with vinegar, or swallowing it or silphium seed; or gargling with copper sulphate with vinegar; or drinking juice of pimpernel; or let them drink sharp vinegar with ground-up thyme, or gargle with soda and salt with water. § 2 You will expel the leeches if you place the patient in a bathtub in the bathhouse, and give him very cold water to hold in his mouth; for they will emerge into the cold water through being overheated. And after gargling with one of the aforementioned, let him take in his mouth the slime from the water; for they will be attracted to the smell.

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Other Poisons (Chiefly Ingested) General (139–140) 139. Remedies for fatal poisons in general: drinking olive oil, or warmed butter when olive oil is not available—and the one drinking it must vomit; one drachma of habrotonon; fleabane with wine and carrot seed; two drachmas of betony leaves with wine (and if drunk in advance, they make people immune); § 2 decoction of the plant ‘spearhead’ with wine; ground-up citrons in wine; one drachma of Lemnian red ochre; two drachmas of Celtic nard; the inner part of giant fennel; flowers of oleander;63 silphium sap; testicle of a hippopotamus; opopanax gum with birthwort; fruit and flowers of Asklepios’ allheal, and roots of Chiron’s—each of these with wine; decoction of felty germander root; sap and root of sulphurwort; liquid pitch as a lozenge ⟨with honey⟩; extracted juice of horehound with wine; sagapenon gum likewise. 140. The following render fatal poisons ineffectual, if drunk in advance: rape seed; calamint taken in drink; walnuts eaten in advance with dried figs and rue leaves, or eaten afterwards with rue and olive oil. Leopard’s Bane 141. Specifically suitable for leopard’s bane are: flowers of the larger ‘everliving’ with wine; balsam-tree sap with milk; a lot of unwatered wine with wormwood; cinnamon with wine; fruit and flowers of Asklepios’ allheal; seed of wild rue (it renders the poison ineffectual if eaten, too);64 rennet of kid or hare or deer with vinegar; iron dross fired and quenched in honeyed vinegar, or an iron tool heated and quenched in honey; §2 beef soup; pearl ash with wine and habrotonon; horehound with wine; wild olive with wine; rue likewise; groundup fig leaves; ground-pine (very effective); pot marjoram; ziziphora with wine; soup made from a cooked chicken and all its juices; soup from fat flesh likewise; balsam-tree sap with woman’s milk or water; cook mulberry tree root with wine, mix with honey and give it; silver or gold fired and quenched in honey. Toxic Honey 142. The honey that originates at Herakleia on the Pontus causes madness if eaten. The condition is helped by good honeyed wine and by eating rue.

63 64

Two names are given here for oleander, nerion and rhododendron. I.e. as well as if swallowed with drink, the more usual method of taking wild rue seed.

internal medicine

139

Whenever the patient vomits, the honeyed wine should be offered. Pigs and dogs that eat the dung of people who ate the honey suffer the same condition. ‘Arrow-Poison’ 143. Effective against ‘arrow-poison’65 is the blood of a he-goat or she-goat or kid or duck or dog in wine; drinking the seed of cultivated turnip; galbanum with wine and myrrh; grape syrup; oak bark with cow’s milk; likewise the bark of Valonia oak ⟨or⟩ holm oak, or the juice of their roots offered as a drink ⟨with⟩ much wine; eating the fruit of wild apples, or ‘sparrow-apples’ likewise; pound quinces and give them in water with pennyroyal; or rose or iris unguent or Nepal cardamom and balsam-tree fruit with wine. Poisoned Arrows and Swords 144. For poisons on arrows, and those smeared on swords, an appropriate remedy is silphium sap drunk with wine or applied to the wounds, with a decoction of one of the warming agents. Poisons from Plants (145–155) 145. If cardopatium66 has been drunk, remedies are ground-up wormwood with vinegar; castor with vinegar; much unwatered wine with wormwood; honeyed vinegar; vinegar with wild rue seed; silphium root with vinegar; decoction of goat’s marjoram; terebinth or Aleppo pine resin; walnuts or shoots of the walnut tree; nard with castor and an obol of silphium with wine; goat’s marjoram with milk. Some even say that drinking juice of deadly carrot is helpful. 146. For those who have drunk hemlock: iris oil or wormwood drunk with much wine; cardamom likewise; one drachma of cinnamon with wine; drinking unwatered wine; warm vinegar; marjoram oil; wild rue seed; storax with wine; pepper with nettle seed and wine; silphium sap with olive oil and grape syrup. 147. If coriander has been drunk, a remedy is iris oil and unwatered wine with wormwood; or raw barley groats with seawater; snow-water with grape syrup. 148. If yew67 has been drunk, one should give much wine and vinegar, and adopt the remedies suitable for drinking hemlock, to use for yew. 65 66 67

So named because originally applied to arrows, but later used more widely. The plant is named by synonyms in the Greek: “the ixias called black khamaileon”. Synonyms once more: “smilax, which some call tithumallos, and the Romans taxos”. Each

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149. For those who have drunk fleawort the same remedies are appropriate as for those who have used coriander. 150. For those who have drunk pharikon,68 suitable remedies are: much unwatered wine with wormwood or cinnamon; much grape syrup; Cilician nard with wine; wild iris likewise; rue with barley meal and vinegar. 151. For opium poppy extract: olive oil with water; salt with honeyed vinegar; grape syrup; warmed honey with rose oil; much unwatered wine with wormwood; or cinnamon with honeyed vinegar; heated vinegar; origanum with pearl ash and grape syrup; wild rue seed; rose or iris unguent. 152. If the ‘same-day’ poison, which they also call Colchian, has been drunk, remedies are: the inner part of chestnuts ground up and taken with wine; decoction of polypody; origanum with pearl ash and grape syrup; grind the leaves of oak or Valonia oak or holm oak and give them with milk; juice and root of knotgrass with milk; juice of grapevine or bramble, or the ground-up stems with water; or the inner part of giant fennel with wine; or creeping thyme with wine; or the fruit of myrtle; or pomegranate rind infused in wine. Cow’s milk is a remedy, such that if someone takes milk forthwith, he needs no other remedy. 153. If doruknion69 has been drunk: milk; grape syrup; honeywater; fat chicken breast cooked and eaten, the juices too; urchins, mussels and murex, lobsters, pen shells, scallops, trumpet shells, all these eaten raw or cooked. 154. If thornapple has been drunk, appropriate remedies are: honeywater; bitter almonds eaten; anise taken in drink; fatty soup, or other things containing fat, drunk warm. 155. For henbane: milk; honeywater with ass’s milk; marjoram unguent; fenugreek with olive oil; nettle seed or leaves with wine; garden cress; mustard; wild chicory; raphanos. One must force ⟨them⟩ to be quiet, so that (as it were) they may digest the wine.

68 69

of the two Greek names separately can designate other plants, but the combination can only mean yew. An unidentified poison, mentioned also at Diosc. 5.6.4 and 5.6.10. Cf. Diosc. 4.74. Suggested identifications include species of Convolvulus, such as C. cneorum.

internal medicine

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Poisons from Animals (156–162) 156. If blister beetles have been drunk, remedies are olive oil with water, or iris or rose oil, or milk. Some say that the wings and feet of the blister beetles, drunk in grape syrup, are an antidote. Also effective is quince oil; rue with iris unguent, and its seed; taking soup made from deer lard; pennyroyal with water; let them eat linseed cooked with goat lard or flesh of sheep or goose; use milk as a clyster; pound up grapevine stems and give them with grape syrup; ‘scorpion-wort’ with honey; four drachmas of Samian ⟨earth⟩ with boiled-down new wine. 157. If ‘ox-sweller’ has been taken, give warm olive oil; pound up dried figs, cook them ⟨with⟩ wine and give them to drink; or milk with ground-up dates; many dried wild pears ground up with wine; fresh cow’s milk; woman’s urine is appropriate, drunk and vomited. 158. If ‘pine caterpillar’ has been taken, appropriate remedies are sweet milk; quince oil or iris oil. 159. If a salamander has been drunk, these are helpful: sweet milk with water; resin with honey; ground-pine boiled with pine nuts, taken with water; cook nettle seed or leaves with barley meal and olive oil, and give this; galbanum and turtle’s eggs cooked well together and taken; frogs cooked with eryngo root and taken. 160. If ‘sea hare’ has been drunk, these are helpful: woman’s milk or ass’s; kedros resin with grape syrup or wine; kedros berries eaten; cyclamen root with wine; ⟨decoction⟩ of mallow stems with the root; one drachma of black hellebore or scammony; wine-flavoured pomegranates70 eaten, including the seeds. They cannot endure any fish being offered to them—except river crabs, and these alone they can digest. §2 It is a sign that they can be saved, if they accept fish with pleasure. Also suitable is white hellebore, for with these patients one need not beware of vomiting. At the outset it also helps to drink human urine and disgorge it; and to drink goose blood immediately; and cyclamen root with wine. 161. For toad and dumb frog:71 dried blood of a turtle or tortoise with wine; one drachma of fresh water-plantain root with vinegar, or two drachmas of the 70 71

Diosc. 1.110 distinguishes three types of pomegranate fruit: sweet, sour, and wineflavoured. For this mysterious creature cf. Nicander Alexipharmaka 568 ff.

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dried root with wine. Also effective is drinking and vomiting much unwatered wine; root of reeds with wine; kuperos with wine. Hound them to take walks or runs, and cleanse them with vapour-baths. Specifically ⟨effective⟩ for the toad is a frog, boiled or baked and offered. 162. If bull’s blood has been drunk, these are helpful: wild figs drunk with vinegar or by themselves; vinegar; soda with silphium; rennet of a kid or hare with wine; one drachma of soda with wine; cabbage seed with vinegar; fleabane leaves with pepper; bramble juice with vinegar. One should also let blood and evacuate the stomach, but guard against vomiting as harmful. Clotted Milk 163. If milk has become clotted,72 it is helpful to give much grape syrup; wild figs with vinegar; vinegar; silphium sap with diluted sour wine or pearl ash; rennet of hare or fawn or kid or lamb or roe deer or antelope or calf with vinegar; grape syrup with vinegar; mint with vinegar—and evacuate the stomach; some give mint with urine; warm vinegar. Do not offer anything salty, for then the milk coagulates even more. They should also not vomit, on account of its being harder to help than the bull’s blood. Mushrooms 164. Effective against mushrooms are: hen dung with diluted sour wine; one drachma of birthwort with wine; drinking pearl ash from vine twigs or the wild pear tree; also wild figs and their leaves, cooked with the mushrooms, remove their choking effect; wormwood with vinegar; honey taken as a lozenge or drunk with water; lemon balm with soda; soda or pearl ash or salt with vinegar; §2 eating wild pears; drinking marjoram oil; drinking undiluted wine; root and fruit of Asklepios’ allheal; rue with vinegar; wine lees, burnt or uncooked, drunk with water; rhaphanos eaten; garden cress or mustard. Extremely effective is flower of copper with vinegar; firethorn root with vinegar. Mineral Poisons (165–168) 165. If gypsum has been drunk, milk is effective (the patient should vomit it); olive oil with honeywater or decoction of figs; pearl ash of fig trees with wine; origanum with pearl ash or vinegar; decoction of mallow.

72

Not milk in the breast, but milk that has been drunk. Curdled milk in the stomach is similarly listed among poisons at Nicander Alexipharmaka 364–375.

internal medicine

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166. For those who have drunk litharge, undiluted wine is effective if given in large quantities with wormwood; celery seed; St. John’s-wort; hyssop with wine; two obols of myrrh; seed of annual clary; seed of wild celery with wine; sea beet and celery and dried excrement of wild pigeons given with nard. 167. If white lead has been drunk: olive oil; honeywater; decoction of figs with warm olive oil; milk (the patient should vomit it); wild figs with vinegar; decoction of mallow with the roots; marjoram oil; iris oil; ground-up sesame with wine; pearl ash of vine twigs; persea stones with olive oil ⟨or⟩ decoction of barley; gum from plum trees; the moisture in elm seed-capsules. But after vomiting one ⟨should⟩ also make use of juice of deadly carrot or scammony. 168. If quicksilver has been drunk, it is appropriate to drink milk (the patient should vomit it); also effective are the items recorded for litharge. They are also helped immensely by drinking a small rounded flake of gold; for the quicksilver fuses with the gold through its affinity, and slips out with it through the anus.

Envoi This is as much as I have gathered73 for myself through experience of simples, my dearest Andromachus, in two books and sent off to you. 73

The text is less than secure here, but the gist is clear.

Concordances, Appendices, Indices

∵

concordance of medications 1

English To Greek Plants and Plant Products ‘Species’ (‘sp.’) indicates that the Greek name cannot be equated with a single modern species, and may in fact represent more than one modern species. On the botanical identification of Greek plant names, and on the handling of them in this translation, see the section on “Identifications of Plants” in the Introduction.

English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Acacia, Egyptian Acanthus

ἀκακία / akakia ἄκανθος / akanthos or μελάμφυλλον / melamphullon Acanthus, smooth1 ἄκανθος ὁ παιδέρως / akanthos ho paiderōs Achillea Ἀχίλλειος / Akhilleios Acorn βάλανος δρυίνη / balanos druinē Agarikon ἀγαρικόν / agarikon Ageraton ἀγήρατον / agēraton Agrimony εὐπατόριον / eupatorion Agrostis, Parnassian ἄγρωστις ἡ ἐν Παρνασσῷ / agrōstis hē en Parnassōi Ajwain ἄμι / ami Alexanders ἱπποσέλινον / hipposelīnon Alexanders, perfoliate σμύρνιον / smurnion Alkanet βούγλωσσον / bouglōsson Alkanet, dyer’s ἄγχουσα / angkhousa or κάλυξ / kalux or ὀνοκλεία / onokleia Alkibiadeion ἀλκιβιάδειον / alkibiadeion Allheal πάναξ / panax Allheal, Asklepios’ πάναξ Ἀσκληπιάδειος / panax Asklēpiadeios

Modern botanical Vachellia nilotica, syn. Acacia arabica etc. Acanthus mollis & A. spinosus Acanthus mollis Achillea species Quercus species (fruit) uncertain2 uncertain3 Agrimonia eupatoria uncertain Carum copticum Smyrnium olusatrum Smyrnium perfoliatum Anchusa species Alkanna tinctoria uncertain4 Prob. Opopanax hispidus Prob. Echinophora tenuifolia

1 See also footnote below on Paideros. 2 Probably a tree fungus. Dioscorides appears to have known it only as a commercial product, since he was unsure whether it was a root of a plant or tree, or a fungus of Valonia oaks or kedros trees (3.1). 3 Suggestions include Achillea ageratum and Origanum onites. 4 At Simp. 2.68.1 apparently a type of ‘ass-lip’ (ὀνοχειλές / onokheiles), which is itself a type of or synonym for alkanet (ἄγχουσα / ankhousa).

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_006

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(cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Allheal, Chiron’s πάναξ Χειρώνιος / panax Kheirōnios Almond ἀμυγδαλῆ / amugdalē Almonds, bitter κάρυα πικρά / karua pikra Aloe ἀλόη / aloē Ammoniac, see Gum ammoniac Anemone ἀνεμώνη / anemōnē Anise ἄνησσον / anēsson Anthullion ἀνθύλλιον / anthullion Apple μῆλον / mēlon Arkeuthos ἄρκευθος / arkeuthos Arktion Artemisia ⟨Artemisia⟩, sea Arum, dragon Asarabacca Ash (from burning) Ash, manna Asparagus Asphodel ‘Ass-lip’ Aster, ‘Attic’ Aster, goldilocks Astringent Atractylis Aubretia ‘Axe-weed’6 Bakkharis Balsam tree Balsam-tree sap Balsam-wood

Modern botanical Prob. Hypericum olympicum Prunus dulcis Prunus dulcis (nuts) Aloe vera

Anemone species Pimpinella anisum uncertain5 Malus species Juniperus species, prob. including J. phoenicea ἀρκτιον / arktion Prob. Verbascum species Ἀρτεμισία / Artemisia Prob. Artemisia arborescens ⟨Ἀρτεμισία⟩ ἡ θαλασσία / ⟨Artemisia⟩ hē Prob. Artemisia arborescens thalassia δρακόντιον / drakontion Dracunculus vulgaris ἄσαρον / asaron Asarum europaeum σποδιά / spodia or σποδός / spodos or τέφρα / tephra μελία / melia Fraxinus ornus ἀσπάραγος / asparagos or μυάκανθος / Asparagus species muakanthos ἀσφόδελος / asphodelos Asphodelus species ὀνοχειλές / onokheiles Echium species ἀστὴρ Ἀττικός / astēr Attikos Aster amellus χρυσοκόμη / khrūsokomē Aster linosyris, syn. Chrysocoma linosyris etc. στῦμμα / stūmma χαμαιλέων λευκός / khamaileōn leukos Atractylis gummifera σησαμοειδές / sēsamoeides Aubretia deltoidea πελεκῖνος / pelekīnos Coronilla securidaca, syn. Securigera securidaca βάκχαρις / bakkharis Perh. Helichrysum sanguineum, syn. Gnaphalium sanguineum βάλσαμον / balsamon Commiphora gileadensis ὀποβάλσαμον / opobalsamon or βαλσάμου Commiphora gileadensis (sap) ὀπός / balsamou opos ξυλοβάλσαμον / xulobalsamon Commiphora gileadensis (wood)

5 Diosc. 3.136 and Pliny 21.175, 26.84 say there are two forms of this plant. The traditional identifications are Cressa cretica and Ajuga iva. 6 Diosc. 3.130 says the name πελεκῖνος / pelekīnos refers to the resemblance of the seed to a two-edged axe (πέλεκυς / pelekus).

149

english to greek (cont.) English Bark Barley Barley groats Barley gruel Basil Basil thyme Bay Bay berry Bdellium Bean (Greek)

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

φλοιός / phloios κριθή / krīthē ἄλφιτον / alphiton πτισάνη / ptisanē ὤκιμον / ōkimon ἄκινος / akinos or κλεονίκιον / kleonīkion δάφνη / daphnē δαφνίς / daphnis βδέλλιον / bdellion κύαμος (Ἑλληνικός) / kuamos (Hellēnikos) Bean, Egyptian κύαμος Αἰγύπτιος / kuamos Aiguptios Beans, bruised ἐρεγμός / eregmos Bean trefoil, see trefoil, bean Bedstraw, lady’s γάλιον / galion Beet σεῦτλον (-ίον) / seutlon (-ion) or τεῦτλον (-ίον) / teutlon (-ion) Beet, sea λειμώνιον / leimōnion Berry, Cnidian, see Cnidian berry Betony κέστρον / kestron Bettonike βεττονική / bettonikē Birthwort ἀριστολοχεία / aristolocheia Birthwort, long ἀ. μακρά / a. makra or ἀ. δακτυλῖτις / a. daktulītis Biscutella ἄλυσσον / alusson ‘Bonnyhair’ καλλίτριχον / kallitrikhon Bounion βούνιον / bounion Bracken θηλυπτερίς / thēlupteris Bramble βάτος / batos Bran πίτυρα / pitūra Bread ἄρτος / artos Broom, Spanish σπάρτον / sparton Bryony βρυωνία / bruōnia Bryony, black βρυωνία μέλαινα / bruōnia melaina

Modern botanical

Hordeum vulgare (grain) Hordeum vulgare (product) Hordeum vulgare (from groats) Ocimum basilicum Acinos arvensis & A. rotundifolius Laurus nobilis Laurus nobilis (fruit) Commiphora wightii (product) Vicia faba Nelumbo nucifera Vicia faba (product) Galium verum Beta vulgaris Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima Betonica (Stachys) species uncertain Aristolochia species Aristolochia longa Biscutella didyma7 uncertain8 Bunium ferulaceum Pteridium aquilinum (= Pteris aquilina) Rubus species Triticum species (product) Triticum species (product) Spartium junceum unspecific9 Perhaps Tamus communis

7 Diosc. 3.91 describes the fruit of ἄλυσσον as resembling little double shields. Presumably the identification of his plant as Biscutella species (noted by André) goes back at least as far as Linnaeus, since his name Biscutella means ‘two little shields’. B. didyma is much the most widespread member of the genus in the Mediterranean area. 8 ‘Bonnyhair’ (καλλίτριχον / kallitrikhon) is used elsewhere, e.g. Pliny 22.62, as a synonym for maidenhair fern (ἀδίαντον / adianton), but at Simp. 1.90 these are clearly regarded as distinct plants. 9 Bryony (βρυωνία / bruōnia) unqualified probably refers indifferently to ‘white’ or ‘black’ bry-

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(cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Bryony, white

βρυωνία λευκή / bruōnia leukē or ἄμπελος λευκή / ampelos leukē or μάδος / mados Buckthorn (extract) λύκιον / lukion Bugloss, pale λύκαψος / lukapsos Bugloss, purple viper’s ἔχιον / ekhion Burdock ἄρκιον / arkion Burnet, thorny στοιβή / stoibē Bur-reed σπαργάνιον / sparganion Butcher’s broom ὀξυμυρσίνη / oxumursinē Butcher’s broom, δάφνη Ἀλεξάνδρεια / daphnē Alexandreia spineless Buttercup βατράχιον / batrakhion Cabbage κράμβη / krambē Calamint καλαμίνθη / kalaminthē Calamint, lesser σισύμβριον / sisumbrion Caltrops, small τρίβολος / tribolos Camelthorn ἀσπάλαθος / aspalathos Campion, bladder μήκων ἀφρώδης / mēkōn aphrōdēs Campion, rose λυχνίς / lukhnis Caper (see also ‘pear’) κάππαρις / kapparis Cardamom καρδάμωμον / kardamōmon Cardamom, Nepal ἄμωμον / amōmon Cardopatium ἰξίας / ixias or χαμαιλέων μέλας / khamaileōn melas Carrot σταφυλῖνος / staphulīnos Carrot, deadly θαψία / thapsia Carthamus, woolly ἀτρακτυλίς / atraktulis Cassia κασσία / kassia Castor oil κίκινον / kikinon Castor-oil tree κροτών / krotōn Celandine, greater χελιδόνιον / khelidonion Celandine, lesser χελιδόνιον τὸ μικρόν / khelidonion to mikron or πυρός ἄγριος / pūros agrios Celery σέλινον / selīnon Centaury (large) κενταύριον (τὸ μέγα) / kentaurion (to mega)

10

Modern botanical Bryonia cretica or sim. Prob. Rhamnus sp. (extract) Echium italicum Echium plantagineum Arctium lappa Sarcopoterium spinosum Sparganium species Ruscus aculeatus Ruscus hypoglossum Ranunculus species Brassica oleracea Calamintha species Calamintha nepeta Tribulus terrestris Alhagi maurorum Silene vulgaris Lychnis coronaria Capparis spinosa Elettaria cardamomum Amomum subulatum Cardopatium corymbosum Daucus carota Thapsia garganica Carthamus lanatus Cinnamomum cassia (product) Ricinus communis (product) Ricinus communis Prob. Chelidonium majus10 Ficaria verna Apium graveolens Centaurea species

ony: Diosc. 4.183.3 says their roots have much the same properties. ‘White’ and ‘black’ refer to the skin colours of the roots (Simp. 1.103, 114). Dioscorides lists a large khelidonion (2.180, Chelidonium majus) and a small (2.181, Ficaria verna). The unspecific khelidonion at Simp. 2.42.1 is probably the former, as at Theophrastus History of Plants 7.15.1.

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Modern botanical

‘Centaury, small’

κενταύριον τὸ λεπτόν / kentaurion to lepton or κ. τὸ μικρόν / k. to mikron ἄχυρα / akhura ἀνθεμίς / anthemis ἀνθεμίς ἡ πορφυρανθής / anthemis hē porphuranthēs λευκάνθεμον / leukanthemon ἄγνος / agnos or λύγος / lugos κεράσιον / kerasion κρανία / krania καστανίαι / kastaniai or μότα / mota ἐρέβινθος / erebinthos κιχόριον / kikhorion

Centaurium species11

Chaff Chamomile Chamomile, redflowered Chamomile, white Chaste tree Cherry Cherry, Cornelian Chestnuts Chickpea Chicory, wild (see endive) Cicely, sweet Cinnamon Cinquefoil Citron Clary, annual Cleavers Clematis Clover, hare’s-foot Club-rush Cnidian berry Cocklebur, rough Colocynth Coltsfoot Coriander Cork Corncockle Costus-thistle root Cottonweed Cranesbill, tuberousrooted

11 12 13 14

μυρρίς / murrhis κινάμωμον / kinamōmon πεντάφυλλον / pentaphullon κεδρόμηλον / kedromēlon ὅρμινον / hormīnon ἀπαρίνη / aparīnē κληματίς / klēmatis λαγώπουν / lagōpoun ὁλόσχοινος / holoskhoinos Κνίδιος κόκκος / Knidios kokkos ξάνθιον / xanthion κολοκυνθίς / kolokunthis or κολόκυνθα ἀγρία / kolokuntha agria βήχιον / bēkhion κόριον / korion φελλός / phellos λυχνίς ἀγρία / lukhnis agria κόστος / kostos γναφάλλιον / gnaphallion γεράνιον / geranion

several12 Prob. Anthemis rosea Matricaria chamomilla13 Vitex agnus-castus Prunus avium Cornus mas Castanea sativa (nuts) Cicer arietinum Cichorium intybus Myrrhis odorata Cinnamomum spp. (product) Potentilla species Citrus medica Salvia viridis = S. horminum Galium aparine Clematis species Trifolium arvense Scirpus holoschoenus Daphne gnidium (fruit)14 Xanthium strumarium Citrullus colocynthis Tussilago farfara Coriandrum sativum Quercus suber (product) Agrostemma githago Saussurea lappa (root) Perhaps Otanthus maritimus Geranium tuberosum

Often identified as Centaurium erythraea, but that is a species of dry soils, whereas Diosc. 3.7 and Pliny 25.68 specify wet habitats. A general term, no doubt including species of Anthemis, Chamaemelum and Matricaria. No doubt also Chamaemelum nobile. ‘Cnidian’ refers not to its botanical distribution, which is almost circum-Mediterranean, but to use of the berry by the medical school at Cnidus.

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Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Cress, Garden Cuckoo-pint Cucumber Cucumber, Squirting extract of Cumin Cumin, black

καρδάμον / kardamon ἄρον / aron σίκυος / sikuos σίκυος ἄγριος / sikuos agrios ἐλατήριον / elatērion κύμινον / kumīnon μελάνθιον / melanthion or μελάνσπερμον / melanspermon Cumin, Ethiopian15 κύμινον Αἰθιοπικόν / kumīnon Aithiopikon Cumin, wild16 κύμινον ἄγριον / kumīnon agrion Cyclamen κυκλάμινος / kuklamīnos Cypress, Italian κυπάρισσος / kuparissos Cytinus ὑποκιστίς / hupokistis Daphne, flax-leaved κνέωρος (or -ον) / kneōros (or -on) ‘Dark-leaf’ (acanthus) μελάμφυλλον / melamphullon Darnel αἶρα / aira Date palm spathe ἐλάτη / elatē Dates φοίνικες / phoinīkes Dates, tree-ripened φοινικοβάλανοι / phoinīkobalanoi Dates, Syrian17 καρυώτιδες / karuōtides or καρυωτοί / karuōtoi Daukos δαῦκος / daukos Daylily ἡμεροκαλλές / hēmerokalles Dill ἄνηθον / anēthon Dittany δίκταμνον / diktamnon ‘Dock, horse’ ἱππολάπαθον / hippolapathon Dock, patience λάπαθον / lapathon Dock, wild λάπαθον ἄγριον / lapathon agrion Dragon arum, see Arum Duckweed φακός ὁ ἀπὸ τῶν τελμάτων / phakos ho apo tōn telmatōn Eagle-wood ἀγάλοχον / agalokhon Ebony ἔβενος / ebenos Elder ἀκτῆ / aktē

15 16 17 18

Modern botanical Lepidium sativum Arum italicum and/or A. maculatum Cucumis sativus Ecballium elaterium ditto (product) Cuminum cyminum Nigella sativa Cuminum cyminum Lagoecia cuminoides Cyclamen species, esp. graecum Cupressus sempervirens Cytinus hypocistis Daphne gnidium See under Acanthus Lolium temulentum Phoenix dactylifera (spadix) Phoenix dactylifera (fruit) Phoenix dactylifera (fruit) Phoenix dactylifera (fruit) uncertain18 Prob. Hemerocallis flava Anethum graveolens Origanum dictamnus Rumex aquaticus Rumex patientia Rumex species Lemna minor Aquilaria malaccensis (wood) Diospyros and/or Dalbergia sp. Sambucus nigra

Considered the best kind of cultivated cumin by Diosc. 3.59, and identified by him with the kind called ‘royal’ at Hippocrates Humours 10 (Littré 5.190). Diosc. 3.60–61 lists two types of wild cumin, the second probably being Nigella arvensis, but Simp. and Pliny (e.g. 20.159) seem to know only one type. An extremely juicy variety: Pliny 13.44. Diosc. 3.72 lists three types of daukos; the first of these is traditionally identified as Athamanta cretensis. The term daukos probably includes varieties of carrot.

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Elder, dwarf Elecampane Elm Endive Epimedion Eryngo ‘Everliving’

χαμαιάκτη / khamaiaktē ἑλένιον / helenion πτελέα / ptelea σέρις / seris ἐπιμήδιον / epimēdion ἠρύγγη / ērungē or -ιον / -ion ἀείζωον / aeizōon

Modern botanical

Sambucus ebulus Inula helenium19 Ulmus species Cichorium intybus and C. endivia20 uncertain Eryngium campestre Aeonium or Sempervivum or Sedum species ‘Everliving’, larger ἀείζωον μείζον / aeizōon meizon Prob. Aeonium arboreum Fennel μάραθον / marathon Foeniculum vulgare Fennel, giant νάρθηξ / narthēx Ferula communis Fennel, horse ἱππομάραθον / hippomarathon Perhaps Cachrys ferulacea Fenugreek τῆλις / tēlis Trigonella foenum-graecum Fern, maidenhair ἀδίαντον / adianton or πολύτριχον / polut- Adiantum capillus-veneris rikhon Fern, male πτερίς / pteris Dryopteris filix-mas ‘Fern, oak’ δρυοπτερίς / druopteris uncertain21 Fern, rustyback ἄσπληνος / asplēnos or σκολοπένδριον / Asplenium ceterach skolopendrion or ἡμιόνιον / hēmionion or ἡμιόνειος πόα / hēmioneios poa Feverfew παρθένιον / parthenion or λευκάνθεμον / Tanacetum parthenium leukanthemon Fig σῦκον / sūkon Ficus carica (fruit) Fig, dried ἰσχάς / iskhas Ficus carica (fruit) Fig, sycamore συκόμορος / sūkomoros Ficus sycomorus Fig tree συκῆ / sūkē Ficus carica Fig, wild ἐρινεός / erineos Ficus carica var. caprificus Fig, wild, fruit ὄλυνθος / olunthos ditto (fruit) Figwort, nettle-leaved γαλήοψις / galēopsis Scrophularia peregrina Firethorn ὀξυάκανθος / oxuakanthos or πυράκανθος Pyracantha coccinea, syn. Cotoneaster / purakanthos pyracantha Flag, sweet κάλαμος ἀρωματικός (or –ίτης) / kalamos Acorus calamus arōmatikos (or -ītēs) Fleabane κόνυζα / konuza Dittrichia (syn. Inula) species

19 20 21

Theophrastus appears to apply the name helenion to a different plant. He does know Inula helenium, and calls it Panakes Cheironeion (History of Plants 9.11.1). The Greek word σέρις / seris covers both the wild chicory Cichorium intybus and the (closely related) cultivated endive C. endivia. Diosc. 4.187 describes it as growing on the mossy surfaces of old oaks. It is probably not what is commonly called oak fern, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, which actually does not have an association with Quercus.

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Fleabane, small

Modern botanical

κόνυζα λεπτόφυλλος / konuza leptophullos Dittrichia graveolens (syn. Inula graveolens) Fleawort ψύλλιον / psullion Plantago psyllium Frankincense λίβανος / libanos or λιβανωτός / libanōtos Boswellia sacra (gum) Frankincense powder μάννα / manna Boswellia sacra (powder) Friar’s cowl ἀρίσαρον / arisaron Arisarum vulgare Fumitory καπνὸς ὁ ἐν ταῖς κριθαῖς φυόμενος / kapnos Fumaria officinalis ho en tais krīthais phuomenos Galbanum χαλβάνη / khalbanē Ferula galbaniflua (gum resin) Gall, Aleppo oak κηκὶς ὀμφακίνη / kēkis omphakinē Quercus infectoria (gall) Gall, kermes oak κόκκος βαφική / kokkos baphikē Quercus coccifera (gall) Gall, oak κηκὶς / kēkis various species (gall) Garlic σκόροδον / skorodon Allium sativum Gentian γεντιανή / gentiānē Gentiana species Germander, felty πόλιον / polion Teucrium polium Germander, wall χαμαίδρυς / khamaidrūs or χαμαίδρωψ / Teucrium chamaedrys and T. divaricatum khamaidrōps Germander, water σκόρδιον / skordion Teucrium scordium Germander, yellow τεύκριον / teukrion Teucrium flavum Ginger ζιγγίβερι / zingiberi Zingiber officinale Ginseng, Indian κακκαλία / kakkalia or ἁλικάκκαβον Withania somnifera ἄγριον / halikakkabon agrion or στρύχνον ὑπνωτικόν / strukhnon hupnōtikon Gladiolus, field ξίφιον / xiphion or ξιφίδιον / xiphidion Gladiolus italicus Glaux, the plant22 γλαύξ ἡ βοτάνη / glaux hē botanē uncertain ‘Goat’ τράγος / tragos unidentified type of wheat Goatgrass, ovate αἰγίλωψ / aigilōps Aegilops geniculata Goosefoot, sticky βότρυς / botrus Chenopodium botrys Grape σταφυλή / staphulē Vitis vinifera (fruit) Grape pip γίγαρτον / gigarton Vitis vinifera (seed) Grapes, juice of unripe ὀμφάκιον / omphakion Vitis vinifera (product) Grapes, unripe ὄμφαξ / omphax Vitis vinifera (fruit) Grape syrup γλυκύς / glukus Vitis vinifera (product) Grapevine ἄμπελος / ampelos Vitis vinifera twig of κλῆμα / klēma wild οἰνάνθη / oinanthē or ἄμπελος ἄγρια / Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris (plant or ampelos agria flowers) Grass, camel σχοῖνος / skhoinos Cymbopogon schoenanthus Grass, dog’s tooth ἄγρωστις / agrōstis Cynodon dactylon

22

As distinct from ‘glaux the bird’ (little owl).

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Modern botanical

Gromwell, common

ἐξώνυχον / exōnukhon or λιθόσπερμον / lithospermon χαμαισύκη / khamaisūkē χαμαιδάφνη Ἀλεξανδρίνη / khamaidaphnē Alexandrinē χαμαίπιτυς / khamaipitus ἠριγέρων / ērigerōn ῥόφημα / rhophēma κόμμι / kommi

Lithospermum officinale

‘Ground-fig’ ‘Ground-laurel’, Alexandrian Ground-pine Groundsel Gruel, thick Gum Gum ammoniac24 (= ammoniac incense) Gum succory Habrotonon25 Halikakkabon Hartwort Hazelnuts Heath, tree Heliotrope

Heliotrope, dwarf Hellebore, black Hellebore, white Hemlock Hemp Henbane Henna tree Herakleia 23 24 25 26

27

28

ἀμμωνιακόν (θυμίαμα) / ammōniakon (thūmiāma) χονδρίλ(λ)η / khondrīl(l)ē ἁβρότονον / habrotonon ἁλικάκκαβον / halikakkabon σέσελι / seseli κάρυα Ποντικά / karua Pontika ἐρείκη / ereikē ἡλιοτρόπιον τὸ μέγα / hēliotropion to mega (or τὸ σκορπίουρον / to skorpiouron) ἡλιοτρόπιον τὸ μικρόν / hēliotropion to mikron ἐλλέβορος μέλας / elleboros melas ἐλλέβορος λευκός / elleboros leukos κώνειον / kōneion κάνναβις / kannabis ὑοσκύαμος / huoskuamos κύπρος / kupros ἡρακλεία / hērakleia

Euphorbia chamaesyce Ruscus species23 Ajuga chamaepitys Senecio vulgaris various grains (product) various trees, esp. Vachellia nilotica (product) Ferula marmarica (product) Chondrilla species Probably Artemisia species various26 Tordylium species Coryllus avellana (fruit) Erica arborea Heliotropium species

Heliotropium supinum27 Helleborus species Chiefly Veratrum album Conium maculatum Cannabis sativa Hyoscyamus species Lawsonia inermis Prob. Sideritis species28

Suggestions include Ruscus racemosus and R. hypophyllum. A gum produced at the oasis of Ammonion in North Africa, used for incense as well as medicinally. In Wellmann’s text of Diosc., and usually in other texts, this name is spelled ἀβρότονον / abrotonon. Simp. 1.51.2 and Diosc. 4.71 give halikakkabon as a synonym for one kind of στρύχνον / strukhnon, identifiable as Physalis alkekengi. Halikakkabon is also used at Simp. 1.66.3 and Diosc. 4.72 as a synonym for στρύχνον ὑπνωτικόν, i.e. Withania somnifera, Indian ginseng. So Fraas. Traditionally identified as Chrozophora tinctoria, but that is a plant of dry habitats, whereas Diosc. 4.191 says that his ‘small heliotrope’ “grows in swampy places and near marshes”. Several plants share the name ἡρακλεία / Hērakleia in Greek, but Simp. uses it only for the σιδερῖτις aka ἡρακλεία (probably a species of Sideritis) of Diosc. 4.33.

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Hogweed ‘Holy plant’

σφονδύλιον / sphondulion ἱερὰ βοτάνη / hiera botanē or περιστερεών / peristereōn Honeysuckle,29 κισσάνθεμον / kissanthemon or κυκλάEtruscan μινος ἡ κισσάνθεμος / kuklamīnos hē kissanthemos Honeysuckle, everκλύμενον / klumenon or περικλύμενον / green periklumenon Horehound πράσιον / prasion Horehound, black βαλλωτή / ballōtē Horsetail ἵππουρις / hippouris Hull λεπύχανον / lepūkhanon Hyacinth, tassel βολβός / bolbos Hyssop ὕσσωπος or -ον / hussōpos or -on ‘Idaian plant/root’ Ἰδαία / Idaia or Ἰδαία ῥίζα / Idaia rhiza Immortelle ἑλίχρυσος / helikhrūsos Incense, ammoniac, see Gum ammoniac Inner part (of plant) ἐντεριώνη / enteriōnē Ink, writing32 μέλαν γραφικόν / melan graphikon Iris ἶρις / īris Iris, yellow ἄκορον / akoron Ironwort σιδηρῖτις / sidērītis33 Isopuron ἰσόπυρον / isopuron Ivy κισσός / kissos Ivy berry cluster κόρυμβος / korumbos Ivy, ground χαμαίκισσος / khamaikissos Ivy, yellow-berried κισσός λευκός / kissos leukos Juice (extracted) χύλισμα / khūlisma or χυλός / khūlos Kedros κέδρος / kedros Kedros, berry of κεδρίς / kedris Kedros, resin of κεδρία / kedria

29 30 31 32 33 34

Modern botanical Heracleum sphondylium Prob. Verbena species Lonicera etrusca

Lonicera implexa Marrubium vulgare Ballota nigra Equisetum sylvaticum Muscari comosum uncertain30 Perh. Streptopus amplexifolius Helichrysum species31

Iris species Iris pseudacorus Prob. Sideritis species uncertain34 Hedera helix Hedera helix (fruit) Glechoma hederacea Hedera helix subsp. poetarum Prob. Juniperus excelsa

The identification of κισσάνθεμον and (περι)κλύμενον is less secure than is suggested here: see particularly Amigues 2002.301–308. Suggested identifications include Hyssopus officinalis, Satureia graeca, and various species of Origanum. Chiefly H. stoechas, H. conglobatum (syn. H. siculum, H. stoechas subsp. barrelieri) and perhaps H. orientale. Based on the soot from burnt pine bark and needles (Diosc. 1.69.3). Also called Hērakleia (Ἡρακλεία) in Simp. (cf. Diosc. 4.33) to distinguish it from other plants called sidērītis. Suggestions include Fumaria capreolata (Fraas) and Ceratocapnos claviculata (Sprengel).

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Modern botanical

Khamaipeuke Kirkaia Knotgrass Koris Krokodileion Kuperos Labdanum gum Lamp wick36 Laurel, see bay Lavender Leek Leek, wild Lees see also Olive-lees Lemon balm Lentil Lentil soup Leopard’s bane Lettuce Lettuce, sea Lettuce, water

χαμαιπεύκη / khamaipeukē κιρκαία / kirkaia πολύγονον / polugonon κόρις / koris κροκοδίλειον / krokodīleion κύπερος / kuperos λάδανον / lādanon ἐλλύχνιον / ellukhnion

uncertain35 Perh. Vincetoxicum nigrum Polygonum aviculare Hypericum empetrifolium uncertain Cyperus species Cistus creticus (gum)

στοιχάς / stoikhas πράσον / prason37 ἀμπελόπρασον / ampeloprason τρύξ / trux

Lavandula stoechas Allium ampeloprasum Allium ampeloprasum from wine or vinegar

μελισσόφυλλον / melissophullon φακός / phakos φακῆ / phakē ἀκόνιτον / akonīton θρίδαξ / thridax βρύον θαλάσσιον / bruon thalassion στρατιώτης ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὑδάτων / stratiōtēs ho epi tōn hudatōn θρίδαξ ἀγρία / thridax agria λευκάκανθα / leukakantha

Melissa officinalis Lens culinaris Lens culinaris (product) Doronicum species38 Lactuca species Ulva lactuca Pistia stratiotes

Lettuce, wild Leukakantha Libanotis Libanotis, fruit of Lichen, rock Lichen, tree Licorice Lily, Madonna Lily unguent Linseed

35 36 37 38 39

λιβανωτίς / libanōtis κάχρυ / kakhru λειχὴν ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν πετρῶν / leikhēn ho epi tōn petrōn σπλάγχνον / splankhnon or βρύον / bruon γλυκύρριζα / glukurrhīza κρίνον / krinon or λείριον / leirion σούσινον / sousinon λινόσπερμον / linospermon

Lactuca species Perhaps Cirsium tuberosum, syn. Cnicus tuberosus uncertain39 uncertain Usnea or Evernia species Glycyrrhiza glabra Lilium candidum Lilium candidum (product) Linum usitatissimum (seed)

See footnote to the translation at 1.230.3. Lamp wicks were made from the leaves of a type of mullein (Diosc. 4.103.2, Simp. 1.200.1). Usually called simply πράσον / prason in Simp., but sometimes called πράσον κεφαλωτόν, ‘headed leek’, the name used at Diosc. 2.149. The chief candidates are Doronicum pardalianches and D. orientale. This name was applied to several plants, perhaps unrelated, whose roots supposedly smelled of frankincense (libanos).

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‘Lion’s-foot’

λεοντοπόδιον / leontopodion or λεοντοπέ- Perh. Leontice leontopetalum ταλον / leontopetalon βρύον τὸ έπὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων λίθων / bruon to Marchantiophyla species epi tōn enudrōn lithōn λυσιμάχειος / lūsimacheios Lysimachia vulgaris and/or Lythrum salicaria40 λωτὸς (ἡ πόα) / lōtos (hē poa) uncertain41 λιγυστικόν / ligustikon Levisticum officinale λύκιον Ἰνδικόν / lukion Indikon Prob. Berberis sp. (extract) θέρμος / thermos Lupinus albus κονία στακτή / konia staktē έρυθρόδανον / eruthrodanon Rubia tinctorum μαλάβαθρον / mālabathron Cinnamomum species μολόχη42 / molokhē Prob. includes Malva & Lavatera species ἀλθαία / althaia Althaea officinalis κάνναβις ἀγρία / kannabis agria Althaea cannabina

Liverwort Loosestrife Lotos (the herb) Lovage Lukion, Indian Lupin Lye Madder Malabathron Mallow Mallow, marsh Mallow, palm-leaf marsh Malope Mandrake Mandrake, ‘male’ ‘Man-heal’ ‘Man’s-blood’ Marc Marjoram Marjoram, goat’s Marjoram, pot Mastic Mastic tree Meal Meal, finest Meal of bruised raw grain Medlar Melilot Melon

40 41 42

Modern botanical

ἀλκέα / alkea μανδραγόρας / mandragoras μώριον / mōrion ἀνδρόσακες / androsakes ἀνδρόσαιμον / androsaimon στέμφυλα / stemphula ἀμάρακος / amarakos or σάμψουχον (or -ος) / sampsoukhon (or -os) τραγορίγανος / tragoriganos ὀρίγανος ὀνῖτις / origanos onītis μαστίχη / mastikhē σχῖνος / skhīnos ἄλευρον / aleuron or ἄλφιτον / alphiton πάλη / palē ὠμὴ λύσις / ōmē lusis

Prob. Malope malacoides Mandragora species Perhaps Mandragora officinarum Acetabularia mediterranea Hypericum species Vitis vinifera (product) Origanum majorana, syn. Majorana hortensis Origanum or Thymus species Origanum onites Pistacia lentiscus (resin) Pistacia lentiscus various grains (product) various grains (product) various grains (product)

μέσπιλον / mespilon μελίλωτος / melilōtos σίκυος πέπων / sikuos pepōn or just πέπων / pepōn

Mespilus germanica (fruit) Melilotus species uncertain

Perhaps both are encompassed by the name λυσιμάχειος / lūsimacheios, just as the common name ‘loosestrife’ (a literal translation of λυσιμάχειος) encompasses both in English. An undifferentiated term for certain types of trefoil and/or melilot. In other Greek authors, often spelled malachē / μαλάχη.

159

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Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Membrane Mercury, annual Mercury, dog’s Metopion unguent Milfoil, spiked water Milk vetch Milkwort Millet Millet, foxtail Mint Mistletoe pulp Molu Moringa

ὑμένιον / humenion or ὑμήν / humēn λινόζωστις / linozōstis φύλλον / phyllon μετώπιον / metōpion μυριόφυλλον / mūriophullon ἀστράγαλος / astragalos πολύγαλον / polugalon κέγχρος / kenkhros ἔλυμος or -ον / elumos or -on ἡδύοσμον / hēduosmon ἰξός / ixos μῶλυ / mōlu βάλανος (μυρεψική) / balanos (murepsikē) or μυροβάλανος / murobalanos μυὸς ὠτίς / muos ōtis or μυόσωτον / muosōton συκάμινον / sūkaminon or μόρον / moron or μορέα / morea φλόμος / phlomos φλόμος ὁ εἰς τὰ ἐλλύχνια / phlomos ho eis ta ellukhnia νᾶπυ / nāpu or σίνηπυ / sinēpu ἐρύσιμον / erusimon σμύρνα / smurna στακτή / staktē μύρτος / murtos or μυρσίνη (μυρρ-) / mursinē (murrh-) μύρτον / murton μυρσίνινον / mursininon

‘Mouse-ear’ Mulberry Mullein Mullein, ‘lampwick’ Mustard Mustard, hedge Myrrh Myrrh oil Myrtle Myrtle berry Myrtle oil

43

44

45

Modern botanical

Mercurialis annua Mercurialis perennis A compound incl. galbanum Myriophyllum spicatum Perhaps Astragalus species Polugala venulosa Panicum miliaceum Setaria italica Mentha species Viscum album (from berries) Perhaps Allium nigrum43 Moringa species Various44 Morus nigra45 Verbascum species Verbascum lychnitis vel sim. Sinapis alba & Brassica nigra Sisymbrium species Commiphora myrrha (gum of) Commiphora myrrha (product) Myrtus communis Myrtus communis (fruit) Myrtus communis (product)

In Homer, molu is the herb which Odysseus receives from Hermes for protection from Circe’s witchcraft. In the technical writers from Theophrastus on, scholars have tentatively identified molu as Allium nigrum. Alternatively Amigues proposes Leucojum aestivum (2002.429–451). From the uses recommended it is clear that in Simp. ‘mouse-ear’ usually means the plant that Diosc. 4.86 calls alsine, with the synonym muos ota (‘mouse-ears’); this is probably to be identified as Theligonium cynocrambe, dog cabbage. But at Simp. 1.51 the recommended use points to the ‘mouse-ears’ of Diosc. 2.183, which is Asperugo procumbens, madwort. Diosc. 1.127 says that συκάμινον / sūkaminon ‘mulberry’ is also used by some as a name for συκόμορος / sūkomoros, the Sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus), whose sap was collected for medicinal use. When Simp. speaks of mulberry tree sap, the reference is probably to the Sycamore fig.

160

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(cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Narcissus ναρκίσσος / narkissos Nard νάρδος / nardos Nard, Celtic νάρδος Κελτική / nardos Keltikē Nard, Syrian νάρδος Συριακή / nardos Suriakē Nard, wild νάρδος ἀγρία / nardos agria Navelwort κοτυληδών / kotulēdōn Nettle κνίδη / knīdē Nettle tree λωτός / lōtos Neuras νευράς / neuras Nightshade στρύχνον / strukhnon Nightshade, black στρύχνον κηπαῖον / strukhnon kēpaion ‘No-spleen’, see Fern, rustyback Oak δρῦς / drūs Oak gall κηκίς / kēkis Oak, holm πρῖνος / prīnos Oak, kermes, gall κόκκος βαφική / kokkos baphikē Oak, Valonia φηγός / phēgos Oleander νήριον / nērion or ῥοδόδενδρον / rhododendron Olive (tree or fruit) ἐλαία / elaia Olive, African ἐλαία Αἰθιοπική / elaia Aithiopikē Olive-lees47 ἀμόργη / amorgē Olive oil ἔλαιον / elaion Olive oil, Sikyonian48 ἔλαιον Σικυώνιον / elaion Sikuōnion Olive, pickled κολυμβάς / kolumbas Olive, wild (tree) ἀγριελαία / agrielaia Onion κρόμυον / kromuon Onosma ὄνοσμα / onosma Opium ὄπιον / opion Opopanax gum ὀποπάναξ / opopanax Orache ἀνδράφαξυς / andraphaxus Orache, shrubby ἅλιμον / halimon Orchid ὄρχις / orchis Orchid, sarapias σαραπιάς / sarāpias Origanum ὀρίγανον / orīganon or ὀρίγανος (Ἡρακλεωτική) / orīganos (Hērakleiōtikē)

46

47 48

Modern botanical Narcissus poeticus or tazetta Nardostachys jatamansi Valeriana celtica uncertain uncertain46 Umbilicus rupestris Urtica species Celtis australis Probably Astragalus species Solanum species Solanum nigrum Quercus species Quercus ilex Quercus coccifera (gall) Quercus aegilops Nerium oleander Olea europaea Olea oleaster Olea europaea (product) Olea europaea (product) Olea europaea (product) Olea europaea (product) Olea oleaster Allium cepa Onosma echioides Papaver somniferum (product) Opopanax hispidus (gum of) Atriplex hortensis Atriplex halimus Orchis sp. or a similar genus Orchis or Ophrys species Origanum species

Diosc. 1.10–11 notes that ‘wild nard’ is an alternative name for both ἄσαρον / asaron (Asarum europaeum) and φοῦ / phou (Valeriana phu). At Simp. 2.36 it is uncertain which of these is meant by ‘wild nard’. This is the bitter and watery by-product of olive-pressing. This was oil from unripe olives, boiled with water (details of the process in Diosc. 1.30.5): it was produced primarily at Sikyon, and was thought to be warming.

161

english to greek (cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Origanum, Sipylean Osyris ‘Ox-eye’ Paideros Papyrus sheets Parsley Parsley, mountain Parsley, stone Parsnip Peach ‘Pear’ (of caper)51 Pear, wild Pearl ash Pellitory Pellitory-of-the-wall

μᾶρον / māron ὄσιρις / osīris βούφθαλμον / bouphthalmon παιδέρως / paiderōs χάρτης / khartēs πετροσέλινον / petroselīnon ὀρεοσέλινον / oreoselīnon σίνων / sinōn ἐλαφοβόσκον / elaphoboskon μῆλον Περσικόν / mēlon Persikon ἄπιον / apion ἀχράς / akhras κονία / konia πύρεθρον / purethron ἑλξίνη / helxīnē or περδίκιον / perdīkion or παρθένιον / parthenion γλήχων / glēchōn γλυκυσίδη / glukusīdē πέπερι / peperi λεπίδιον / lepidion περσέα / persea φαληρίς / phalēris φιλεταίριον / philetairion περιστέριον / peristerion ἀναγαλλίς / anagallis

Origanum sipylaeum Osyris alba Prob. Chrysanthemum coronarium Acanthus species49 Cyperus papyrus (product) Petroselinum crispum uncertain50 Sison amomum Pastinaca sativa Prunus persica

Pennyroyal Peony Pepper Pepperwort Persea Phaleris Philetairos’ plant54 ‘Pigeon-plant’ Pimpernel

49

50 51 52 53 54

55 56

Pyrus amygdaliformis52 Ficus carica (purified ash)53 Anacyclus pyrethrum Parietaria species Mentha pulegium Paeonia species Piper species Lepidium latifolium Mimusops schimperi Phalaris species uncertain55 Prob. Lycopus species56 Anagallis species

At 1.160.4 paideros is a synonym for acanthus generally, as at Diosc. 3.17; but at 2.36.1 and 2.40.1 it seems to designate a particular type, as at Pliny 22.76, i.e. Acanthus mollis. See above on ‘Acanthus, smooth’. Possibly Athamanta or Seseli species. This usage refers to the pear-shaped flower buds of caper, which eventually produce caper berries. The Greek term ἀχράς / akhras could also cover Pyrus pyraster and P. caucasica. Diosc. 1.128.6–7 explains this process. Diosc. 4.8 gives this name (φιλεταίριον) as a synonym for what he calls Polemon’s plant (πολεμόνιον). Both names refer to kings who allegedly claimed to be its ‘discoverer’ (Pliny 25.64). Leading suggestions are Hypericum olympicum (Fraas) and Polemonium caeruleum (Tournefort). The traditional identification is Verbena officinalis, common vervain. Fraas 179 proposed Lycopus exultatus, which is a better fit for Diosc’s description (4.59); André adds Lycopus europaeus.

162

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Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Pimpernel, blue

ἀναγαλλὶς κυανή / anagallis kuanē

Anagallis foemina, syn. Lysimachia foemina Anagallis arvensis Pinus species Pinus halepensis Pinus species (fruit) Pinus cembra (fruit)

Pimpernel, scarlet Pine Pine, Aleppo Pine nut Pine, stone, cone/nut

ἀναγαλλὶς φοινική / anagallis phoinīkē πεύκη / peukē πίτυς / pitus κῶνος / kōnos στρόβιλος / strobīlos or στροβίλιον / strobīlion Pinewood, piece of δᾳδίον / dāidion Pistachio πιστάκιον / pistakion Plane tree πλάτανος / platanos Plantain ἀρνόγλωσσον / arnoglōsson Plantain, buck’s-horn κορωνόπους / korōnopous Plum tree κοκκυμηλέα / kokkumēlea or κοκκύμηλος / kokkumēlos Pod (of beans etc.) λέπυρον / lepuron (of carob etc.) κεράτιον / keration Polemonion πολεμώνιον / polemōnion Polypody πολυπόδιον / polupodion Pomegranate ῥόα / rhoa Pomegranate flower κύτινος / kutinos Pomegranate peel σίδιον / sidion Pomegranate, wild, βαλαύστιον / balaustion flower Poplar, black αἴγειρος / aigeiros Poplar, white λεύκη / leukē Poppy capsule κωδύα / kōdua Poppy, common μήκων ἡ ῥοιάς / mēkōn hē rhoias Poppy, dark μήκων μέλαινα / mēkōn melaina Poppy, opium μήκων / mēkōn Poppy, opium, extract μηκώνιον / mēkōnion Poppy, red horned, γλαύκιον / glaukion juice Poppy, yellow horned μήκων κερατῖτις / mēkōn keratītis Potirrhion ποτίρριον / potirrhion Pseudobounion ψευδοβούνιον / pseudobounion Puknokomon πυκνόκομον / puknokomon Puritis πυρῖτις / purītis Purslane ἀνδράχνη / andrachnē Quince Κυδωνία / Kudōnia

57

Pinus species (wood) Pistacia vera Platanus orientalis Plantago major Plantago coronopus Prunus domestica

see Philetairos’ plant Perhaps Polypodium species Punica granatum Punica granatum (flower) Punica granatum (peel) Punica granatum (wild flower) Populus nigra Populus alba Papaver species (fruit) Papaver rhoeas Prob. Papaver rhoeas57 Papaver somniferum Papaver somniferum (product) Glaucium corniculatum (product) Glaucium flavum Prob. Astragalus species Perhaps Pimpinella cretica uncertain Prob. Valeriana dioscoridis Portulaca oleracea Cydonia oblonga (tree or fruit)

‘Dark’ is perhaps used, as apparently at Diosc. 4.64.3, to distinguish from the cultivated poppy Papaver somniferum.

163

english to greek (cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Quince (fruit) Quince oil Radish Raisins

(μῆλον) Κυδώνιον / (mēlon) Kudōnion μήλινον / mēlinon ῥαφανίς / rhaphanis σταφίδες / staphides or ἀσταφίδες / astaphides βουνιάς / bounias ξυρίς / xuris κραταιόγονον / krataiogonon

Cydonia oblonga (fruit) Cydonia oblonga (product) Raphanus sativus Vitis vinifera (fruit)

Rape ‘Razor-plant’ Redshank Reed Reed, inflorescence Reed, giant Reed, phragmites Resin Resin of kedros Restharrow Rhamnos Rhaphanos Rhubarb Rice ‘Riverside’ Rocket Rose Rose, evergreen Rosemary Rose oil Rose pastille Rue Rue, wild Rupturewort

58 59 60 61 62

κάλαμος / kalamos ἀνθήλη / anthēlē κάλαμος Κύπριος / kalamos Kuprios or κάλαμος μέγας / kalamos megas κάλαμος φραγμίτης / kalamos phragmītēs ῥητίνη / rhētīnē κεδρία / kedria ὀνωνίς / onōnis ῥάμνος / rhamnos ῥάφανος / rhaphanos ῥᾶ / rhā ὄρυζα / oruza ποταμογείτων / potamogeitōn εὔζωμον / euzōmon ῥόδον / rhodon ὀξυάκανθα / oxuakantha λιβανωτίς = ῥωσμαρῖνον / libanōtis = rhōsmarīnon ῥόδινον / rhodinon ῥοδίς / rhodis πήγανον / pēganon πήγανον ἄγριον / pēganon agrion ἐπιπακτίς / epipaktis or ἐλλεβορίνη / elleborīnē

Brassica napus uncertain58 Persicaria maculosa, syn. Polygonum persicaria various Arundo donax Arundo species various trees, esp. pine (product) see under kedros Ononis species uncertain59 Prob. Brassica sp.60 Rheum species Oryza sativa uncertain61 Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa Rosa species Rosa sempervirens Rosmarinus officinalis Rosa species (product) Rosa species (product) Ruta graveolens Ruta species62 Herniaria species

The traditional identification as Iris foetidissima is questioned by Sprengel on Diosc. 4.22 and by Amigues 2003–2006 vol. 5 pp. 125–127, the latter proposing Serapias vomeracea. Suggestions include Lycium europaeum (Sprengel) and Rhamnus species. Cabbage is ῥάφανος / rhaphanos in Attic Greek but κράμβη / krambē in other Greek dialects. But Simp. uses the two words as if they referred to different plants. Either Potamogeton natans, pondweed, or Ottelia alismoides, duck lettuce. Perhaps including Ruta chalepensis, R. montana, and even naturalised forms of R. graveolens.

164

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Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Rush, sharp Safflower Saffron Saffron residuum63 Sagapenon gum Sage

ὀξύσχοινος / oxuskhoinos κνῆκος / knēkos κρόκος / krokos κροκόμαγμα / krokomagma σαγάπηνον / sagapēnon ἐλελίσφακος / elelisphakos or λελίσφακος / lelisphakos φλόμος ὁ χρυσάνθεμος / phlomos ho khrūsanthemos Αἰθιοπίς / Aithiopis ὀνοβρυχίς / onobrukhis ὑπερικόν / huperikon

Juncus acutus vel sim. Carthamus tinctorius Crocus sativus Crocus sativus (product) Ferula persica (gum) Salvia fruticosa, syn. S. triloba

Sage, Jerusalem Sage, silver Sainfoin, cock’s head St. John’s-wort see also under koris and ‘man’s-blood’ Sakkharon or -is Samphire Santonikon Saturion of Erythrae Savin Savory Sawdust Scrapings from gymnasium67 Scammony ‘Scorpion-tail’ ‘Scorpion-wort’ Seaweed Sebesten Seed-capsule Sekakul Service berry Sesame Shell (of nut)

63 64 65 66 67 68

Phlomis fruticosa Salvia argentea Onobrychis caput-galli Hypericum species64

σάκχαρον or -ις / sakkharon or -is κρῆθμον / krēthmon Σαντονικόν / Santonikon σατύριον Ἐρυθραικόν / saturion Eruthraikon βράθυ / brathu θύμβρα / thumbra πρῖσμα / prīsma γλοιός / gloios

uncertain65 Crithmum maritimum Artemisia species66 Perhaps Fritillaria species

σκαμμωνία / skammōnia σκορπίουρον / skorpiouron σκορπιοειδές / skorpioeides φῦκος / phūkos μύξα / muxa θυλάκιον / thūlakion γιγγίδιον / gingidion οὖον / ouon σήσαμον / sēsamon λέπυρον / lepuron

Convolvulus scammonia Heliotropium species Prob. Scorpiurus species68 unspecific Cordia myxa

Juniperus sabina Satureja thymbra

Malabaila sekakul Sorbus domestica Sesamum indicum (seed)

The material left over from making saffron unguent (Diosc. 1.27 and 1.54). Probably including H. triquetrifolium (syn. H. crispum) and short forms of H. perforatum. This is either our familiar sugar, or more probably tabasheer, a product of certain species of bamboo. So named because it grew in the territory of the Santones in Gaul, according to Diosc. 3.23.6. Oil, sweat and dust scraped from walls and athletes’ bodies. Another suggestion is Coronilla scorpioides (so André).

165

english to greek (cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Shell (of plants/animals) Shepherd’s needle Shepherd’s purse Shoot (of plant)

κέλυφος / kelūphos

Silphium Silphium sap Silphium seed Smilion salve70 Sneezewort Soapwort Sorrel Sow-thistle ‘Sparrow-apples’ ‘Spearhead’ Spelt, groats of Spignel Spikenard Spleenwort, maidenhair Spurge Spurge, kharakias Spurge, purple Spurge, resin Spurge, tuberous Spurge-laurel Squash Squill Squill, alpine Starch Stavesacre Stock, hoary Stone (of fruit) Storax

69 70 71

σκάνδιξ / skandix θλάσπι / thlaspi μόσχος / moskhos or βλαστός / blastos or ἀσπάραγος / asparagos σίλφιον / silphion ὀπός / opos ὀπόφυλλον / opophullon σμιλίον / smīlion πταρμική / ptarmikē στρούθιον / strouthion ὀξαλ(λ)ίς / oxal(l)is σόγχος / songkhos στρουθία μῆλα / strouthia mēla λογχῖτις / lonkhītis χόνδρος / khondros μῆον / mēon νάρδου στάχυς / nardou stakhus τριχομανές / trikhomanes τιθύμαλλος / tithumallos χαρακίας / kharakias πέπλιον / peplion εὐφόρβιον / euphorbion ἄπιος / apios δαφνοειδές / daphnoeides κολοκύνθη / kolokunthē σκίλλα / skilla ὑάκινθος / huakinthos ἄμυλον / amulon σταφὶς ἀγρία / staphis agria λευκοῖον / leukoion ὀστοῦν / ostoun στύραξ / sturax

Modern botanical

Scandix pecten-veneris Capsella bursa-pastoris

uncertain69

Achillea ptarmica Saponaria officinalis Rumex acetosa Sonchus species Cydonia oblonga var. (fruit) various71 Triticum dicoccum (product) Meum athamanticum Nardostachys jatamansi Asplenium trichomanes Euphorbia species Euphorbia characias Euphorbia peplis Euphorbia resinifera Euphorbia apios Daphne laureola Prob. Cucurbita species Urginea maritima Scilla bifolia various sources Delphinium staphisagria Matthiola incana Gum of Styrax officinalis and Liquidamber orientalis

The many suggested identifications include Margotia gummifera (syn. Laserpitium gummiferum) and Ferula tingitana. Smilion means ‘little scalpel’, because the salve was equally sharp. Diosc. records three different plants with this name (1.100.4, 3.144, 3.145). Some of the applications of ‘spearhead’ in Simp. correspond to the plant of Diosc. 1.100.4 (probably a Berberis), others to the plant of Diosc 3.145 (probably Aspidium lonchitis).

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Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Strawberry tree, fruit Strukhnon, orangefruited = Strukhnon, sprawling Sulphurwort Sumach Sumach, culinary

μεμαίκυλον / memaikulon στρύχνον καρπὸν πυρρὸν ἔχον / strukhnon karpon purrhon ekhon στρύχνον χαμαίζηλον / strukhnon khamaizēlon πευκέδανον / peukedanon ῥοῦς / rhous ῥοῦς ὁ (ἡ) ἐπὶ τὰ ὄψα / rhous ho (hē) epi ta opsa ῥοῦς ἐρυθρός / rhous eruthros ῥοῦς βυρσοδεψικός (or –ή) / rhous bursodepsikos (or -ē) σύμφυτον (πετραῖον) / sumphuton (petraion) ἀσκληπιάς / asklēpias

Arbutus unedo (fruit) uncertain72

Sumach, red Sumach, tanner’s Sumphuton (rock)73 Swallow-wort Sweet flag, see Flag Sycamore fig, see under Fig Tamarisk Tapenade Teasel Telephion Terebinth Thistle, Arabian Thistle, distaff Thistle, golden Thistle, white Thorn Thornapple Thorn, Christ’s Thrift Thyme Thyme, creeping Toadflax Tordylium Tragacanth Tragion or Trageion Trefoil, (stinking) bean 72 73

μυρίκη / murikē μυττωτόν / muttōton δίψακος / dipsakos τηλέφιον / tēlephion τέρμινθος / terminthos or τερέβινθος / terebinthos ἄκανθα Ἀραβική / akantha Arabikē ἀτρακτυλίς / atraktulis σκόλυμος / skolumos ἄκανθα λευκή / akantha leukē ἄκανθα / akantha στρύχνον μανικόν / strukhnon manikon παλιούρος / paliouros στατικὴ πόα / statikē poa θύμος / thumos or θύμον / thumon ἕρπυλλος / herpullos ἐλατίνη / elatinē τόρδιλον / tordilon τραγάκανθα / tragakantha τράγιον (-ειον) / tragion (-eion) ἀνάγυρος / anaguros or ἄκοπον τὸ δυσῶδες / akopon to dusōdes

Peucedanum officinale Rhus coriaria Rhus coriaria (fruit) Rhus coriaria (fruit) Rhus coriaria Coris monspeliensis Vincetoxicum hirundaria

Tamarix species olives, garlic etc. Dipsacus fullonum uncertain Pistacia terebinthus Perhaps Notobasis syriaca Carthamus lanatus Scolymus hispanicus uncertain Prob. = white thistle Datura stramonium Paliurus spina-christi Armeria species Thymus capitatus Thymus sp., esp. T. serpyllum Linaria spuria Tordylium species Astragalus species Perhaps Pistacia species Anagyris foetida

Possibilities include Physalis alkekengi and Solanum villosum. To judge by its applications, sumphuton in Simp. means the same as rock sumphuton, i.e. the plant of Diosc. 4.9 not 4.10.

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Modern botanical

Trefoil, pitch

τρίφυλλον / triphullon or ὀξύφυλλον / oxuphullon κύπερις Ἰνδική / kuperis Indikē γογγύλη (or –ίς) / gongulē (or -is) γογγύλη ἀγρία / gongulē agria τερμινθίνη / terminthinē μύρον / muron φοῦ / phou ὄροβος / orobos

Psorolea bituminosa

Turmeric Turnip Turnip, wild Turpentine74 Unguent Valerian, ‘phou’ Vetch, bitter, seed Vine, grape, see Grapevine Vinegar honeyed Vinegar-and-brine Vinegar-and-oil dressing Vinegar-and-rose oil Violet Walnut Watercress Water-lily, white Water parsnip, lesser Water-plantain Wheat Wheat, spring Wheat, zea Wheat, zea, ground Wheatmeal, fine Willow Wine Wine, boiled-down new Wine, honeyed Wine, sour, diluted Wine, sweet new Wine, watered

74 75

ὄξος / oxos ὀξύμελι / oxumeli ὀξάλμη / oxalmē ὀξέλαιον / oxelaion ὀξυρόδινον / oxurhodinon ἴον / ion κάρυον (βασιλικόν) / karuon (basilikon) or Περσική / Persikē καρδαμίνη / kardaminē or σισύμβριον / sisumbrion νυμφαία / numphaia σίον / sion δαμασώνιον / damasōnion πυροί / puroi σητάνιος / sētanios ζέα / zea ἄλιξ / alix γῦρις / gūris ἰτέα / ītea οἶνος / oinos ἕψημα / hepsēma or σίραιον / siraion

Curcuma longa Brassica rapa subsp. rapa Brassica rapa subsp. rapa Pistacia terebinthus (product) various Valeriana phu Vicia ervilia (seed)

Vitis vinifera (product)

Viola odorata Juglans regia (fruit) Nasturtium officinale Nymphaea alba Berula erecta Alisma plantago-aquatica Triticum species Triticum species Triticum monococcum and T. dicoccum ditto (product)75 Triticum species (product) Salix species Vitis vinifera (product)

οἰνόμελι / oinomeli ὀξύκρατον / oxukrāton γλεῦκος / gleukos κρᾶμα / krāma or κραμάτιον / krāmation

This refers to the distilled resin from the Pistacia terebinthus tree, not to mineral turpentine. ἄλιξ is equivalent here to Latin alica, the grinding of which from zea wheat is described by Pliny 18.112.

168

concordance of medications 1

(cont.) English

Greek (Wellmann’s text)

Modern botanical

Woad Wood, decayed Wormwood Wormwood, sea

ἰσάτις / isatis σηπεδὼν ξύλου / sēpedōn xulou ἀψίνθιον / apsinthion σέριφον / seriphon or ἀψίνθιον θαλάσσιον / apsinthion thalassion στάχυς / stakhus σμῖλαξ / smīlax or τιθύμαλλος / tithumallos πολύκνημον / poluknēmōn

Isatis tinctoria

Woundwort Yew Ziziphora

Artemisia absinthium and A. pontica Artemisia maritima Stachys species Taxus baccata Ziziphora capitata

Animal and Human Products Ass Bear Beccafico Bed bug Blister beetle Blood Boar Boar, wild Brain Bull Butter Calf Camel Castor Cat Caterpillar ‘Caterpillar, pine’ Cattle Cerate Chestnut (equine)76 Cheese

76

ὄνος / onos ἄρκτος / arktos or ἄρκος / arkos συκαλλίς / sūkallis κόρις (ὁ ἐκ τῆς κλίνης) / koris (ho ek tēs klīnēs) κανθαρίς / kantharis αἷμα / haima κάπρος / kapros σύαγρος / suagros ἐγκέφαλος / enkephalos ταῦρος / tauros βούτυρον / boutūron μόσχος / moskhos κάμηλος / kamēlos καστόριον / kastorion αἴλουρος / ailouros κάμπη / kampē πιτυοκάμπη / pituokampē βοῦς / bous or κτῆνος / ktēnos κηρωτή / kērōtē or κηρωτάριον / kērōtarion λειχήν / leikhēn τυρός / tūros

Dioscorides describes this as a callosity near a horse’s knee or hoof (2.43).

english to greek

Chicken Clam Cockroach Coral Cricket Crocodile Cuttlefish Deer Deer, roe Dirt Dog Dormouse Dove, turtle Droppings Droppings of mice Duck Dung Dung, cows’ Earthworms Egg yolk Electric ray fish Elephant Excrement Excreta Fat Fawn Fish Fish, ‘fine-named’77 Fish, scorpion Fox Frog Gall Garum Gecko Glue, bull’s-hide 77

169 ὄρνις / ornis τελλίνη / tellīnē σίλφη / silphē κουράλ(λ)ιον / koural(l)ion ἀκρίς / akris κροκόδιλος / krokodīlos σηπία / sēpia ἔλαφος / elaphos δορκάς / dorkas ῥύπος / rhupos κύων / kuōn ἐλειός / eleios or γλῆρις / glēris τρυγών / trūgōn ἀπόπατος / apopatos or σπύραθοι / spurathoi μυόχοδον / muokhodon or μυσκέλεδρα / muskeledra νῆσσα / nēssa ἄφοδος / aphodos βόλβιτα (or -τον) / bolbita (or -ton) γῆς ἔντερα / gēs entera ᾠόν / ōion λέκιθος / lekithos νάρκη θαλασσία / narkē thalassia ἐλέφας / elephas κόπρος / kopros διαχώρημα / diakhōrēma στεάρ / stear νεβρός / nebros ἰχθῦς / ikhthūs ἰχθῦς ὁ καλλιώνυμος / ikhthūs ho kalliōnumos σκορπίος ἰχθῦς / skorpios ikhthūs ἀλώπηξ / alōpēx βάτραχος / batrakhos χολή / kholē γάρος / garos ἀσκαλαβώτης / askalabōtēs ταυρόκολλα / taurokolla

The traditional identification as Uranoscopus scaber is regarded as unsatisfactory by D’Arcy Thompson, A Glossary of Greek Fishes (London 1947) 98. Berendes on Simp. 1.40.4 suggests Acipensis ruthenus, the starlet.

170

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Goat Goat (male) Goose Grease Halkuonion Hare Hawk Hedgehog Hen Hippopotamus Honey Honeycomb Honeywater Hoof Horse Hyena Kid Lamb Lammergeier79 Lanolin Lard Leaven Leavings (excrement) Lion Liver Lizard Lizard, monitor Lobster Lung Lynx Mantis, praying Marrow (of bone) Meat, preserved Milk

78

79

αἴξ / aix τράγος / tragos χήν / khēn ὀξύγγιον / oxungion ἁλκυόνιον / halkuonion78 λαγωός / lagōos ἱέραξ / hierax ἐχῖνος (χερσαῖος) / ekhīnos (khersaios) ἀλεκτορίς / alektoris ἱπποπόταμος / hippopotamos μέλι / meli κηρίον / kērion or μελίκηρον / melikēron μελίκρατον / melikrāton or ὑδρόμελι / hudromeli ὁπλη / hoplē ἵππος / hippos ὕαινα / huaina ἔριφος / eriphos ἀρήν / arēn φήνη / phēnē οἴσυπος / oisupos ὀξύγγιον / oxungion ζύμη / zumē ἀφόδευμα / aphodeuma λέων / leōn ἧπαρ / hēpar σαύρα / saura or σαῦρος / sauros κροκόδιλος χερσαῖος / krokodīlos khersaios κηραφίς / kēraphis πνεύμων / pneumōn λύγξ / lunx μάντις / mantis μυελός / muelos τάριχος / tarīkhos γάλα / gala

This term refers to various zoophytes, i.e. plant-like animals. Simp. sometimes specifies Milesian halkuonion, which is one of the five types listed by Diosc. 5.118. Wellmann prints ἁλκ- (halk-) regularly in Simp., but ἀλκ- (alk-) at M.M. 5.118. It seems probable that the lammergeier was not distinguished from the black vulture in antiquity, and that the name φήνη covers both species.

english to greek

171

Mouse μῦς / mūs see also ‘droppings of mice’ Mule ἡμίονος / hēmionos Mullet, red τρίγλα / trigla Murex πορφύρα / porphura Mussel μύαξ / muax Nail ὄνυξ / onux Nestling νεοσσός / neossos Operculum πῶμα / pōma or ὄνυξ / onux Owl, little γλαύξ τὸ ὄρνεον / glaux to orneon Ox βοῦς / bous ‘Ox-sweller’80 βούπρηστις / bouprēstis Partridge πέρδιξ / perdix Penis αἰδοῖον / aidoion Picarel σμαρίς / smaris Picarel, blotched μαινίς / mainis Pig ὗς / hūs Pigeon περιστερά / peristera Propolis πρόπολις / propolis Puppy dog σκύλαξ κύων / skulax kuōn Rennet πυτία / pūtia Rooster ἀλεκτρυών / alektruōn Salamander σαλαμάνδρα / salamandra Scallop κτείς / kteis ‘Sea hare’ λαγωὸς θαλάσσιος / lagōos thalassios Seahorse ἱππόκαμπος / hippokampos Seal φώκη / phōkē ‘Sea scolopendra’ σκολόπενδρα θαλασσία / skolopendra thalassia Sea urchin ἐχῖνος θαλάσσιος / ekhīnos thalassios Sheatfish σίλουρος / silouros Sheep πρόβατον / probaton Sheepskin κώδιον / kōdion Shell ὄστρακον / ostrakon Shell, pen πίνη / pinē Shell, trumpet κῆρυξ / kērūx Skin δέρμα / derma

80

This is the literal meaning of the name βούπρηστις: a “poisonous beetle, which being eaten by cattle in the grass causes them to swell up and die” (LSJ).

172

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Skink Snail (land) Snakeskin Sole (of leather sandal) Sparrow Spider Spider’s web Spleen Sponge Stag Stag’s horn Sting-ray Stomach Stork Swallow Swine Testicle Toad Tooth Tortoise Tuna Turtle Urine Viper Wax Weasel Whey81 Woodlouse Woodpigeon Wool Wool-in-the-grease

σκίγκος / skinkos κοχλίας (χερσαῖος) / kokhlias (khersaios) ὄφεως γῆρας / opheōs gēras κάσσυμα (κάττ-) / kassuma (katt-) στρούθιον / strouthion ἀράχνη / arakhnē ἀράχνης ὕφος / arakhnēs huphos σπλήν / splēn σπόγγος / spongos ἔλαφος / elaphos κέρας ἐλάφου / keras elaphou τρυγὼν θαλασσία / trūgōn thalassia κοιλία / koilia πελαργός / pelargos χελιδών / khelidōn χοῖρος / khoiros ὄρχις / orkhis φρῦνος / phrūnos ὀδούς / odous χελώνη χερσαία / khelōnē khersaia θύννος / thunnos χελώνη θαλαττία (-σσία) / khelōnē thalattia (-ssia) οὖρον / ouron ἔχιδνη / ekhidnē κηρός / kēros γαλῆ / galē ὀρρός / orrhos or γάλα σχιστόν / gala skhiston ὄνος κατοικίδιος / onos katoikidios or ὄνος ὁ ὑπὸ ταῖς ὑδρίαις / onos ho hupo tais hudriais φάττα / phatta ἔριον / erion ἔριον οἰσυπηρόν / erion oisupēron

Minerals and Inorganic Products Alum στυπτηρία / stuptēria phorime (moist type) φορίμη / phorimē 81

The ‘whey’ of pitch is pitch oil, πισσέλαιον.

173

english to greek

rock split Antimony Asphalt Azurite Black pigment Brine Calamine Cinnabar Clay pipe Copper flakes82 flower of ore pyrite twice-roasted pyrite sulphate Dross Earth Earth, Chian Earth, Cimolian Earth, Egyptian Earth, Melian Earth, Samian aster (dense type)83 Earth, Selinuntian Galena Gypsum Haematite Iron Itch-salve84 Jasper Lapis lazuli

82 83 84

χαλκῖτις / khalkītis (στυπτηρία) σχιστή / stuptēria skhistē στίβι / stibi ἄσφαλτος / asphaltos Ἀρμένιον / Armenion μελαντηρία / melantēria ἅλμη / halmē καδμεία / kadmeia κιννάβαρι / kinnabari πηλός / pēlos λευκογραφίς / leukographis χαλκός / khalkos λεπίς / lepis χαλκοῦ ἄνθος / khalkou anthos μίσυ / misu λίθος πυρίτης / lithos purītēs διφρυγές / diphruges χάλκανθον or -ος / khalkanthon or -os σκωρία / skōria γῆ / gē γῆ Χία / gē Khia (γῆ) Κιμωλία / (gē) Kimōlia γῆ Αἰγυπτία / gē Aiguptia γῆ Μηλία / gē Mēlia γῆ Σαμία / gē Samia ἀστήρ / astēr γῆ Σελινουσία / gē Selinousia μολύβδαινα / molubdaina γύψος / gupsos (λίθος) αἱματίτης / (lithos) haimatītēs σίδηρος / sidēros ψωρικόν / psōrikon λίθος ἴασπις / lithos iaspis λίθος σάπφειρος / lithos sappheiros

“Flakes that fly from copper in hammering” (LSJ). At Simp. 1.190.3 we find λεπὶς σιδήρου, flakes of iron. Dioscorides distinguishes two types of Samian earth (5.153): kollourion, which is crumbly; and aster, which is dense. For its composition from rock alum and calamine see Diosc. 5.99.3.

174

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Lead Lead, white Lignite Lime, unslaked Litharge Malachite Melanterite Milkstone Moonstone85 Ochre, yellow Ochre, red, Lemnian Ochre, red, Sinopic86 Orpiment, yellow Oxide (various metals) Phorime (see alum) Pitch Pitch oil Potsherd Pumice Realgar Rust Salt Salt, flower of Sea-salt efflorescence87 Seawater Serpentine Soda ‘Soda foam’ Soot Stone Stone, Arabian88 Stone, Assian89

85 86 87 88 89

μόλυβδος / molubdos ψιμύθιον / psimuthion γαγάτης λίθος / gagatēs lithos ἄσβεστος / asbestos λιθάργυρος / litharguros χρυσοκόλλα / khrūsokolla σῶρι / sōri λίθος γαλακτίτης / lithos galaktītēs λίθος σεληνίτης / lithos selēnītēs ὤχρα / ōkhra μίλτος Λημνία / miltos Lēmnia Σινωπίς / Sinōpis or μίλτος Σινωπική / miltos Sinōpikē ἀρσενικόν / arsenikon (or ἀρρεν- / arrhen-) σπόδιον / spodion πίσσα / pissa or πίττα / pitta πισσέλαιον / pisselaion or πίσσης ὀρρός / pissēs orros ὄστρακον / ostrakon κίσηρις / kisēris σανδαράκη / sandarakē ἰός / īos ἅλς / hals ἁλὸς ἄνθος / halos anthos ἀδάρκης / adarkēs θάλασσα / thalassa λίθος ὀφίτης / lithos ophītēs νίτρον / nitron ἀφρόνιτρον / aphronitron αἰθάλη / aithalē or ἀσβόλη / asbolē λίθος / lithos λίθος Ἀραβικός / lithos Arabikos λίθος Ἄσσιος / lithos Assios

It is unclear whether the Greek term refers to what is now called moonstone, i.e. an alkali feldspar, or to selenite, i.e. crystal structures of gypsum. Sourced in certain caves in Cappadocia, refined, and brought to Sinope to be traded (Diosc. 5.96). Specifically on marsh reeds (Diosc. 5.119). Described by Dioscorides as resembling flawless ivory (5.131). Assos lies on the south coast of the Troad. The nature of the stone is uncertain.

175

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Stone, clay Stone, earth-like Stone from Comana90 Stone, Judean Stone, translucent91 Sulphur Thuites Verdigris Zinc oxide 90 91

λίθος ὀστρακίτης / lithos ostrakītēs λίθος γεώδης / lithos geōdēs λίθος Κομανικός / lithos Komanikos λίθος Ἰουδαικός / lithos Ioudaikos διαφανές / diaphanes θεῖον / theion θυίτης / thuītēs ἰὸς χαλκοῦ / ios khalkou πομφόλυξ / pompholux

It is not known whether this is the Comana in Cappadocia or in Pontus. Probably magnesium silicate, the source of talc.

concordance of medications 2

Greek To English The forms of Greek names listed here are those printed in Wellmann’s text of Simp. Occasionally they differ slightly from the forms found in Dioscorides or in other authors: e.g. ἀλκέα in Simp. is usually ἀλκαία elsewhere, and κλεονίκιον in Simp. is κλεονίκον at Diosc. 3.95. The reference to Dioscorides’ M.M. is for purposes of comparison only, and does not necessarily mean that Dioscorides uses the item for the same purpose or in the same way.

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ἁβρότονον ἀγάλοχον ἀγαρικόν ἀγήρατον ἄγνος ἀγριελαία ἄγρωστις ἄγρωστις ἡ ἐν Παρνασσῷ ἄγχουσα ἀδάρκης ἀδίαντον ἀείζωον ἀείζωον μείζον αἴγειρος αἰγίλωψ αἰδοῖον αἰθάλη Αἰθιοπίς αἴλουρος αἷμα αἱματίτης αἴξ αἶρα ἀκακία

habrotonon eagle-wood agarikon ageraton chaste tree wild olive tree dog’s tooth grass Parnassian agrostis dyer’s alkanet sea-salt efflorescence maidenhair fern ‘everliving’ larger ‘everliving’ black poplar ovate goatgrass penis soot silver sage cat blood haematite goat darnel Egyptian acacia

3.24, 1.50 1.22 3.1 4.58 1.103 1.105 4.29 4.31 4.23 5.119 4.134 4.88–89 4.88 1.83 4.137 2.41

© John G. Fitch, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004513723_007

4.104 2.79 5.126 2.70, 72, 76–79, 81 2.100 1.101

177

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

ἄκανθα ἄκανθα Ἀραβική ἄκανθα λευκή ἄκανθος ἄκανθος ὁ παιδέρως ἄκινος ἀκόνιτον ἄκοπον τὸ δυσῶδες ἄκορον ἀκρίς ἀκτῆ ἀλεκτορίς ἀλεκτρυών ἄλευρον ἀλθαία ἁλικάκκαβον or -ος ἁλικάκκαβον ἄγριον ἅλιμον ἄλιξ ἀλκέα ἀλκιβιάδειον ἁλκυόνιον ἅλμη ἀλόη ἁλὸς ἄνθος ἅλς ἄλυσσον ἄλφιτον

thorn Syrian thistle white thistle acanthus smooth acanthus basil thyme leopard’s bane stinking bean trefoil yellow iris cricket elder hen rooster meal marsh mallow halikakkabon Indian ginseng shrubby orache ground zea wheat malope alkibiadeion halkuonion brine aloe flower of salt salt biscutella barley groats (or generally ‘meal’) fox marjoram ajwain gum ammoniac olive-lees wild leek

ἀλώπηξ ἀμάρακος ἄμι ἀμμωνιακόν ἀμόργη ἀμπελόπρασον

Dioscorides M.M.

3.13 3.12 3.17 3.17 3.43 4.76 3.150 1.2 2.52 4.173 2.49, 80.4 2.49 frequent 3.146 4.71 4.72 1.91 3.147 4.24, 4.27 5.118 5.111 3.22 5.112 5.109 3.91 2.86 2.39 3.39, 1.58 3.62 3.84 1.102 2.150

178

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ἄμπελος ἄμπελος ἄγρια ἄμπελος λευκή ἀμυγδαλῆ ἄμυλον ἄμωμον ἀναγαλλίς ἀναγαλλὶς κυανή ἀναγαλλὶς φοινική ἀνάγυρος ἀνδράφαξυς ἀνδράχνη ἀνδρόσαιμον ἀνδρόσακες ἀνεμώνη ἄνηθον ἄνησσον ἀνθεμίς ἀνθεμὶς ἡ πορφυρανθής ἀνθήλη ἀνθύλλιον ἀπαρίνη ἄπιον ἄπιος ἀπόπατος ἀράχνη ἀράχνης ὕφος ἀρήν ἀρίσαρον ἀριστολοχεία ἀριστολοχεία μακρά or ἀ. δακτυλῖτις ἀρκευθίς ἄρκευθος ἄρκιον

grapevine wild grapevine white bryony almond starch Nepal cardamom pimpernel blue pimpernel scarlet pimpernel bean trefoil orache purslane ‘man’s-blood’ ‘man-heal’ anemone dill anise chamomile red-flowered chamomile inflorescence of reed anthullion cleavers ‘pear’ (of caper) tuberous spurge droppings spider spider’s web lamb friar’s cowl birthwort long birthwort

5.1 4.181, 5.2 4.182 1.33, 1.123 2.101 1.15 2.178 2.178 2.178 3.150 2.119 2.124 3.154–156 3.133 2.176 3.58, 1.51 3.56 3.137 3.137 1.85 3.136 3.90 (2.173) 4.175 2.80 2.63 2.63 2.38, 75 2.168 3.4 3.4.2

arkeuthos berry arkeuthos burdock

1.75 1.75 4.106

179

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ἀρκτιον ἄρκτος or ἄρκος Ἀρμένιον ἀρνόγλωσσον ἄρον ἀρσενικόν (or ἀρρεν-) Ἀρτεμισία ⟨Ἀρτεμισία⟩ ἡ θαλασσία ἄρτος ἄσαρον ἄσβεστος ἀσβόλη ἀσκαλαβώτης ἀσκληπιάς ἀσπάλαθος ἀσπάραγος

arktion bear azurite plantain cuckoo-pint yellow orpiment Artemisia sea ⟨Artemisia⟩ bread asarabacca unslaked lime soot gecko swallow-wort camelthorn (1) asparagus (2) shoot (of certain plants) rustyback fern (‘no-spleen’) raisins aster type of Samian earth ‘Attic’ aster milk vetch asphalt asphodel distaff thistle leavings (excrement) dung ‘soda foam’ Achillea wild pear chaff wormwood

4.105 2.76, 78 5.90 2.126 2.167 5.104 3.113 ?3.1131 2.85 1.10 5.115 5.161

ἄσπληνος ἀσταφίδες ἀστήρ ἀστὴρ Ἀττικός ἀστράγαλος ἄσφαλτος ἀσφόδελος ἀτρακτυλίς ἀφόδευμα ἄφοδος ἀφρόνιτρον Ἀχίλλειος (πόα) ἀχράς ἄχυρα ἀψίνθιον

1 See footnote on Simp. 1.220.

3.92 1.20 2.125 3.134 5.3.3 5.153 4.119 4.61 1.73 2.169 3.93 2.80 5.113 4.36 1.116 frequent 3.23

180

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ἀψίνθιον θαλάσσιον βάκχαρις βάλανος δρυίνη βάλανος (μυρεψική) βαλαύστιον βαλλωτή βάλσαμον βάτος βατράχιον (or -ειον) βάτραχος βδέλλιον βεττονική βήχιον βλαστός βόλβιτα (or –τον) βολβός βότρυς βούβαλος βούγλωσσον βουνιάς βούνιον βούπρηστις βοῦς βούτυρον βούφθαλμον βράθυ βρύον βρύον θαλάσσιον βρύον τὸ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων λίθων βρυωνία βρυωνία λευκή βρυωνία μέλαινα γαγάτης λίθος γάλα γάλα σχιστόν γαλῆ

sea wormwood bakkharis acorn moringa wild pomegranate flower black horehound balsam tree bramble buttercup frog bdellium bettonike coltsfoot shoot (of plant) cow dung tassel hyacinth sticky goosefoot antelope alkanet rape bounion ‘ox-sweller’ ox, cattle butter ‘ox-eye’ savin tree lichen sea lettuce liverwort bryony white bryony black bryony lignite milk whey weasel

3.23 3.44 1.106 1.34, 4.157 1.111 3.103 1.19 4.37 2.175 2.26 1.67 ?4.2 3.112 2.80 2.170 3.115 2.75 4.127 2.111 4.123 4.61 2.70, 76, 80 2.72 3.139 1.76 1.21 4.98 4.53 4.182–183 4.182 4.183 5.128 2.70 2.70.3–4 2.25

181

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

γαλήοψις γάλιον γάρος γεντιανή γεράνιον γῆ γῆ Αἰγυπτία (γῆ) Κιμωλία γῆ Μηλία γῆ Σαμία γῆ Σελινουσία γῆ Χία γῆς ἔντερα γίγαρτον γιγγίδιον γλαύκιον γλαὺξ ἡ βοτάνη γλαὺξ τὸ ὄρνεον γλεῦκος γλῆρις γλήχων γλοιός γλυκύρριζα γλυκύς γλυκυσίδη γναφάλλιον γογγύλη or γογγυλίς γογγύλη ἀγρία γῦρις γύψος δᾳδίον δαμασώνιον δαῦκος δάφνη δάφνη Ἀλεξάνδρεια δαφνίς

nettle-leaved figwort lady’s bedstraw garum gentian tuberous-rooted cranesbill earth Egyptian earth Cimolian earth Melian earth Samian earth Selinuntian earth Chian earth earthworms grape pip sekakul juice of red horned poppy the plant glaux little owl sweet new wine dormouse pennyroyal gymnasium scrapings licorice grape syrup peony cottonweed turnip wild turnip fine wheatmeal gypsum piece of pinewood water-plantain daukos bay spineless butcher’s broom bay berry

4.94 4.95 2.32 3.3 3.116 5.151 5.156 5.159 5.153 5.155.2 5.155.1 2.67 5.3.2 2.137 3.86 4.138 1.57 3.31 3.5 3.140 3.117 2.110.1 2.110.2 2.85.2 5.116 1.69.2 3.152 3.72 1.78 4.145 1.78.2

182

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

δαφνοειδές δέρμα διαφανές διαχώρημα δίκταμνον διφρυγές δίψακος δορκάς δρακόντιον δρυοπτερίς δρῦς ἔβενος ἐγκέφαλος ἐλαία ἐλαία Αἰθιοπική ἔλαιον ἔλαιον Σικυώνιον ἐλάτη (μυρεψική) ἐλατίνη ἐλατήριον ἐλαφοβόσκον ἔλαφος ἐλειός ἐλελίσφακος ἑλένιον ἐλέφας ἑλίχρυσος ἐλλεβορίνη ἐλλέβορος λευκός ἐλλέβορος μέλας ἐλλύχνιον ἑλξίνη ἔλυμος or ἔλυμον ἐντεριώνη ἐξώνυχον ἐπιμήδιον

spurge-laurel skin translucent stone excreta dittany twice-roasted copper pyrite teasel roe deer dragon arum ‘oak fern’ oak ebony brain olive (tree or fruit) African olive olive oil Sikyonian olive oil date palm spathe toadflax extract of squirting cucumber parsnip deer dormouse sage elecampane elephant immortelle rupturewort white hellebore black hellebore lamp wick pellitory-of-the-wall foxtail millet inner part (of plant) common gromwell epimedion

4.146

3.32 5.103 3.11 2.75 2.166 4.187 1.106 1.98 2.19, 49 1.105 1.105 1.30 1.30.5 1.109.4, 1.44 4.40 4.150.3–6 3.69 2.59, 75–77, 79 3.33 1.28 2.57 4.57 4.108 4.148 4.162 4.103.2 4.85 2.98 3.141 4.19

183

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ἐπιπακτίς ἐρέβινθος ἐρεγμός ἐρείκη ἐρινεός ἔριον ἔριον οἰσυπηρόν ἔριφος ἕρπυλλος ἐρυθρόδανον ἐρύσιμον εὔζωμον εὐπατόριον εὐφόρβιον ἔχιδνη ἐχῖνος θαλάσσιος ἐχῖνος (χερσαῖος) ἔχιον ἕψημα ζέα ζιγγίβερι ζύμη ἡδύοσμον ἡλιοτρόπιον τὸ μέγα or ἡλιοτρόπιον τὸ σκορπίουρον ἡλιοτρόπιον τὸ μικρόν ἡμεροκαλλές ἡμιόνιον (or ἡμιόνειος πόα) ἡμίονος ἧπαρ ἡρακλεία ἠριγέρων ἠρύγγιον (or ἠρύγγη) θάλασσα θαλλία

rupturewort chickpea bruised beans tree heath caprifig wool wool-in-the-grease kid creeping thyme madder hedge mustard rocket agrimony resin spurge viper sea urchin hedgehog purple viper’s bugloss boiled-down new wine zea wheat ginger leaven mint heliotrope

4.108 2.104

‘small heliotrope’ daylily rustyback fern (‘mule’s plant’) mule liver Herakleia groundsel eryngo seawater olive tree foliage

1.88 1.128.3–7 2.73–74 2.75 3.38 3.143 2.158 2.140 4.41 3.82 2.16 2.1 2.2 4.27 5.6.4 2.89 2.160 3.34 4.190 4.191 3.122 3.134 2.45–47, 55 4.33 4.96 3.21 5.11 1.105, 5.75.15

184

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

θαψία θεῖον θέρμος θηλυπτερίς θλάσπι θρίδαξ θρίδαξ ἀγρία θυίτης θυλάκιον θύμβρα θύμος or θύμον θύννος Ἰδαία or Ἰδαία ῥίζα ἱερὰ βοτάνη ἱέραξ ἰξίας ἰξός ἴον ἰός ἰὸς χαλκοῦ ἱππόκαμπος ἱππολάπαθον ἱππομάραθον ἱπποπόταμος ἵππος

deadly carrot sulphur lupin bracken shepherd’s purse lettuce wild lettuce thuites seed-capsule savory thyme tuna ‘Idaian plant’ or ‘Idaian root’ ‘holy plant’ hawk cardopatium mistletoe pulp violet rust verdigris seahorse ‘horse dock’ horse fennel hippopotamus horse

4.153 5.107 2.109 4.185 2.156 2.136 2.136.2–3 5.136

ἱπποσέλινον ἵππουρις ἶρις ἰσάτις ἰσόπυρον ἰσχάς ἰτέα ἰχθῦς ἰχθῦς ὁ καλλιώνυμος

alexanders horsetail iris woad isopuron dried fig willow fish ‘fine-named’ fish

3.37 3.36 2.31 4.44 4.60 3.9 3.89 4.121 5.79–80 5.79 2.3 2.115 3.71 2.23 2.43, 70–71, 75–76, 79 3.67 4.46 1.1, 1.56 2.184 4.120 1.128 1.104 2.22, 27–33, 3.88 2.78.2

185

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

καδμεία κακκαλία καλαμίνθη κάλαμος κάλαμος ἀρωματικός (or –ίτης) κάλαμος Κύπριος κάλαμος φραγμίτης καλλίτριχον κάλυξ κάμηλος κάμπη κανθαρίς κάνναβις κάνναβις ἀγρία καπνὸς ὁ ἐν ταῖς κριθαῖς φυόμενος κάππαρις κάπρος καρδαμίνη καρδάμον καρδάμωμον κάρυον (βασιλικόν) κάρυον Ποντικόν καρυώτιδες or καρυωτοί κασσία κάσσυμα (κάττ-) καστανίαι καστόριον κάχρυ κεγχρίς κέγχρος κεδρία κεδρίς κεδρόμηλον κέδρος κέλυφος

calamine Indian ginseng calamint reed sweet flag giant reed phragmites reed ‘bonnyhair’ dyer’s alkanet camel caterpillar blister beetle hemp palm-leaf marsh mallow fumitory caper boar watercress garden cress cardamom walnut hazelnut Syrian dates cassia sole (of leather sandal) chestnuts castor libanotis fruit kestrel millet kedros resin kedros berry citron kedros shell

5.74 4.72 3.35 1.85 1.18 1.85 1.85 4.23 2.60–61 2.61 3.148 3.149 4.109 2.173 2.46 2.128 2.155 1.6 1.125 1.125.3 1.109.2 1.13 2.48 1.106 (2.24) 3.74 2.97 1.77 1.77.4 1.115.5 1.77

186

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

κενταύριον τὸ λεπτόν (or κ. τὸ μικρόν) κενταύριον (τὸ μέγα) κέρας ἐλάφου κεράσιον κεράτιον κέστρον κηκίς κηκὶς ὀμφακίνη κηραφίς κηρίον κηρός κηρωτή or κηρωτάριον κῆρυξ κίκινον Κιμωλία κινάμωμον κιννάβαρι κιρκαία κίσηρις κισσάνθεμον κισσός κισσὸς λευκός κιχόριον κλεονίκιον κλῆμα κληματίς κλινόποδιον κλύμενον κνέωρος or -ον κνῆκος κνίδη κοιλία κόκκος βαφική κόκκος Κνίδιος

‘small centaury’

3.7

(large) centaury stag’s horn cherry pod (of carob etc.) betony oak gall Aleppo oak gall lobster honeycomb wax cerate trumpet shell castor oil Cimolian earth cinnamon cinnabar kirkaia pumice Etruscan honeysuckle ivy yellow-berried ivy wild chicory wild basil vine twig clematis wild basil evergreen honeysuckle flax-leaved daphne safflower nettle stomach kermes oak gall Cnidian berry

3.6 2.59 1.113 4.1 1.107 1.107

2.83 frequent 2.4 1.32 5.156 1.14, 1,61 5.94 3.119 5.108 2.165 2.179 2.179 2.132 3.95 5.117 4.180 3.95 4.14 4.172 4.188 4.93 4.48 1.36, 4.172

187

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

κοκκυμηλέα or κοκκύμηλος κολοκύνθη κολοκύνθη ἀγρία κολοκυνθίς κολυμβάς κόμμι κονία κονία στακτή κόνυζα κόνυζα λεπτόφυλλος κόπρος κόριον κόρις (ὁ ἐκ τῆς κλίνης) κόρις (2) κόρυμβος κορωνόπους κόστος κοτυληδών κουράλ(λ)ιον κοχλίας χερσαῖος κρᾶμα or κραμάτιον κράμβη κρανία κραταιόγονον κρῆθμον κριθή κρίνον κροκοδίλειον κροκόδιλος κροκόδιλος χερσαῖος κροκόμαγμα κρόκος κρόμυον κροτών κτείς κτῆνος

plum tree squash colocynth colocynth pickled olive gum (esp. of Egyptian acacia) pearl ash lye fleabane small fleabane excrement coriander bed bug koris (a type of St. John’s-wort) ivy berry cluster buck’s-horn plantain costus-thistle root navelwort coral land snail watered wine cabbage Cornelian cherry redshank samphire barley Madonna lily krokodileion crocodile monitor lizard saffron residuum saffron onion castor-oil tree scallop beast (usually cattle)

1.121 2.134 4.176 4.176 1.105.4 (1.101) 1.128.6–7, 5.117 3.121 3.121 3.63 2.34 3.157 2.179 2.130 1.16 4.91 5.121–122 2.9 2.120 1.119 3.124 2.129 2.86 3.102 3.10 2.80.6 1.27 1.26, 54 2.151 4.161

188

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

κύαμος (Ἑλληνικός) κύαμος Αἰγύπτιος κυδωνία κυδώνιον κυκλάμινος κυκλάμινος ἡ κισσάνθεμος κύμινον κύμινον ἄγριον κυπάρισσος κύπερις Ἰνδική κύπερος or -ις κύπρος κύτινος κύων κώδιον κωδύα κώνειον κῶνος λαγωός λαγωὸς θαλάσσιος λάδανον λάπαθον λάπαθον ἄγριον λειμώνιον λείριον λειχήν λειχὴν ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν πετρῶν λέκιθος λελίσφακος λεοντοπόδιον or λεοντοπέταλον λεπίδιον λεπίς λέπος λέπυρον

(Greek) bean Egyptian bean quince (tree or fruit) quince (fruit) cyclamen Etruscan honeysuckle cumin wild cumin cypress, Italian turmeric kuperos henna tree pomegranate flower dog sheepskin poppy capsule hemlock pine cone nut hare ‘sea hare’ labdanum gum patience dock wild dock sea beet Madonna lily chestnut (on a horse’s legs) rock lichen yolk sage ‘lion’s-foot’ pepperwort copper flakes pod, peel, rind pod (of beans etc.), shell (of nuts)

2.105 2.106 1.115 1.115 2.164 2.165 3.59 3.60 1.74 1.5 1.4 1.95, 1.55 1.110

4.64 4.78 1.69.3–4 2.19, 75 2.18 1.97 2.114 2.114 4.16 3.102, 1.52 2.43 4.53 2.50 3.33 3.96 2.174 5.78

189

greek to english (cont.)

Greek λεπύχανον λευκάκανθα λευκάνθεμον

English

peel leukakantha (1) white chamomile (2) feverfew λεύκη white poplar λευκογραφίς pipe clay λευκοῖον hoary stock λέων lion λίβανος frankincense λιβανωτίς libanotis λιβανωτίς = ῥωσμαρῖνον rosemary λιβανωτός frankincense λιγυστικόν lovage λιθάργυρος litharge λίθος stone λίθος αἱματίτης haematite λίθος Ἀραβικός Arabian stone λίθος Ἄσσιος Assian stone λίθος γαλακτίτης milkstone λίθος γεώδης earth-like stone λίθος ἴασπις jasper λίθος Ἰουδαικός Judean stone λίθος Κομανικός stone from Comana λίθος ὁ ἐν τῇ Σαμίᾳ γῇ εὑρισκόμε- stone found in Samian earth νος λίθος ὀστρακίτης clay stone λίθος ὀφίτης serpentine λιθόσπερμον common gromwell λίθος πυρίτης copper pyrite λίθος σάπφειρος lapis lazuli λίθος σεληνίτης moonstone λινόζωστις annual mercury λινόσπερμον linseed λογχῖτις ‘spearhead’ λύγξ lynx

Dioscorides M.M.

3.19 3.137 3.138 1.81 5.134 3.123 2.76.8 1.68 3.74 3.75 1.68 3.51 5.87 frequent 5.126 5.131 5.124 5.132 5.150 5.142 5.137 5.155 5.146 5.143 3.141 5.125 5.139 5.141 4.189 2.103 1.100.4, 3.144–145 2.81.3

190

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

λύγος λύκαψος λύκιον λύκιον Ἰνδικόν λυσιμάχειος λυχνίς λυχνὶς ἀγρία λωτὸς (ἡ πόα) λωτὸς τὸ δένδρον μάδος μαινίς μαλάβαθρον μανδραγόρας μάννα μάντις μάραθον μᾶρον μαστίχη μελάμφυλλον μέλαν γραφικόν μελάνθιον μελάνσπερμον μελαντηρία μέλι μελία μελίκηρον μελίκρατον μελίλωτος μελισσόφυλλον μεμαίκυλον μέσπιλον μετώπιον μήκων μήκων κερατῖτις μήκων μέλαινα

chaste tree pale bugloss buckthorn (or extract of it) Indian lukion loosestrife rose campion corncockle (herb) lotos nettle tree bryony blotched picarel malabathron mandrake (frankincense) powder praying mantis fennel Sipylean origanum mastic ‘dark-leaf’ (= acanthus) writing ink black cumin black cumin black pigment honey manna ash honeycomb honeywater melilot lemon balm strawberry tree medlar metopion unguent opium poppy yellow horned poppy dark poppy

1.103.3 4.26 1.100 1.100.4 4.3 3.100 3.101 4.110–111 1.117 4.182 2.29 1.12, 63 4.75 1.68.6 3.70 3.42 1.70 3.17 5.162 3.79 (3.79) 5.101 2.82 1.80 5.9 3.40 3.104 1.122 1.118 1.59 4.64 4.65 4.64.3

191

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

μήκων ῥοιάς μηκώνιον μήλινον μῆλον μῆλον Κυδώνιον μῆλον Περσικόν μῆον μίλτος μίσυ μολόχη μολύβδαινα μόλυβδος μόρον or μορέα μόσχος (1) μόσχος (2) μότα μυάκανθος μύαξ μυελός μύξα μυὸς ὠτίς or μυόσωτον μυόχοδον μυρίκη μυριόφυλλον μυροβάλανος μύρον μυρρίς μυρσίνη (μυρρ-) μυρσίνινον μύρτον μύρτος μῦς μυσκέλεδρα μυττωτόν μῶλυ μώριον

common poppy opium poppy extract quince oil or unguent apple (fruit) quince (fruit) peach (fruit) spignel red ochre copper ore mallow galena lead mulberry tree shoot, twig calf sweet chestnuts asparagus mussel marrow sebesten ‘mouse-ear’ droppings of mice tamarisk spiked water milfoil moringa unguent sweet cicely myrtle myrtle oil myrtle berry myrtle mouse mouse droppings tapenade molu ‘male’ mandrake

4.63 4.64.7 1.45 1.115 1.115 1.115 1.3 5.96 5.100 2.118 5.85 5.81 1.126 2.75–77 1.106 2.125 2.5 2.77 2.183, 4.86 2.80.5 1.87 4.114 4.157 1.42 ff. 4.115 1.112 1.39 1.112 1.112 2.69 2.80.5 2.152.3 3.47 4.75

192

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Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

νᾶπυ νάρδος νάρδος ἀγρία νάρδος Κελτική νάρδου στάχυς νάρδος Συριακή νάρθηξ νάρκη θαλασσία ναρκίσσος νεβρός νεοσσός νευράς (aka ποτίρριον) νήριον νῆσσα νίτρον νυμφαία ξάνθιον ξίφιον or ξιφίδιον ξυλοβάλσαμον ξυρίς ὀδούς οἰνάνθη οἰνόμελι οἶνος οἴσυπος ὁλόσχοινος ὄλυνθος ὀμφάκιον ὄμφαξ ὀνίς ὀνοβρυχίς ὀνοκλεία ὄνος ὄνος κατοικίδιος or ὄνος ὁ ὑπὸ ταῖς ὑδρίαις

mustard nard wild nard Celtic nard spikenard Syrian nard giant fennel electric ray fish narcissus fawn nestling neuras oleander duck soda white water-lily rough cocklebur field gladiolus balsam-wood ‘razor-plant’ tooth wild grapevine, plant or flowers honeyed wine wine lanolin club-rush fruit of wild fig juice of unripe grapes unripe grapes ass’s dung cock’s head sainfoin dyer’s alkanet ass woodlouse

2.154 1.7, 62 1.10–11 1.8 1.7 1.7 3.77 2.15 4.158, 1.53 2.75 2.56 3.15 4.81 2.79 5.113 3.132 4.136 4.20 1.19.3,5 4.22 5.4, 1.46 5.8 5.6 2.74 4.52 1.128.5 5.5 5.5 2.80.3 3.153 2.23 2.40, 42 2.35

193

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ὄνοσμα ὀνοχειλές ὄνυξ ὀνωνίς ὀξαλ(λ)ίς ὀξάλμη ὀξέλαιον ὄξος ὀξυάκανθα ὀξυάκανθος ὀξύγγιον ὀξύκρατον ὀξύμελι ὀξυμυρσίνη ὀξυρόδινον ὀξύσχοινος ὀξύφυλλον ὄπιον ὁπλή ὀποβάλσαμον ὀποπάναξ ὀπός ὀπόφυλλον ὀρεοσέλινον ὀρίγανος (Ἡρακλεωτική) or ὀρίγανον ὀρίγανος ὀνῖτις ὅρμινον ὄρνις ὄροβος ὀρρός ὄρυζα ὄρχις

onosma ‘ass-lip’ nail (or operculum) restharrow sorrel vinegar-and-brine vinegar-and-oil dressing vinegar evergreen rose firethorn grease or lard diluted sour wine honeyed vinegar butcher’s broom vinegar-and-rose oil sharp rush pitch trefoil opium hoof balsam-tree sap opopanax gum sap (esp. of silphium) silphium seed mountain parsley origanum

3.131 4.24

ὄσιρις

pot marjoram annual clary chicken bitter vetch seed whey rice (1) orchid (2) testicle osyris

3.18 2.114 5.15 5.13 1.94 1.93

5.14 4.144 4.52 3.109 4.64 1.19 3.48 (3.80) 3.80.6 3.65 3.27 3.28 3.129 2.76, 80 2.108 2.70.3–4 2.95 3.126–127 2.24 4.140

194

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(cont.)

Greek

English

ὀστοῦν ὄστρακον οὖον οὖρον ὄφεως γῆρας παιδέρως πάλη παλιούρος πάναξ πάναξ Ἀσκληπιάδειος πάναξ Χειρώνιος παρθένιον

stone (of fruit) potsherd; shell service berry urine snakeskin paideros finest meal Christ’s thorn allheal Asklepios’ allheal Chiron’s allheal (1) feverfew (2) pellitory-of-the-wall stork ‘axe-weed’ cinquefoil pepper purple spurge melon pellitory-of-the-wall partridge evergreen honeysuckle pigeon ‘pigeon-plant’ ‘holy plant’ persea walnut parsley sulphurwort pine rue wild rue clay pen shell pitch

πελαργός πελεκῖνος πεντάφυλλον πέπερι πέπλιον πέπων περδίκιον πέρδιξ περικλύμενον περιστερά περιστέριον περιστερεών περσέα Περσική πετροσέλινον πευκέδανον πεύκη πήγανον πήγανον ἄγριον πηλός πίνη πίσσα or πίττα

Dioscorides M.M.

5.158 1.120 2.81 2.17 3.17 1.92 ?3.48 3.49 3.50 3.138 4.85 2.80.4 3.130 4.42 2.159 4.168 2.135 4.85 2.79 4.14 2.79–80 4.59 4.60 1.129 1.125 3.66 3.78 1.69 3.45 3.45–46

1.72

195

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

πισσέλαιον πιστάκιον πιτυοκάμπη πίτυρα πίτυς πλάτανος πνεύμων πνεύμων θαλάσσιος πολεμώνιον πόλιον πολύγαλον πολύγονον πολύκνημον πολυπόδιον πολύτριχον πομφόλυξ πορφύρα ποταμογείτων ποτίρριον (aka νευράς) πράσιον πράσον (κεφαλωτόν) πρῖνος πρῖσμα πρόβατον πρόπολις πταρμική πταρμικόν πτελέα πτερίς πτισάνη πυκνόκομον πυράκανθος πύρεθρον πυρῖτις πυροί

pitch oil pistachio ‘pine caterpillar’ bran Aleppo pine plane tree lung jellyfish polemonion felty germander milkwort knotgrass ziziphora polypody maidenhair fern zinc oxide murex ‘riverside’ potirrhion horehound leek (headed) holm oak sawdust sheep propolis sneezewort sternutatory elm male fern barley gruel puknokomon firethorn pellitory puritis wheat

1.72.3 1.124 2.61 2.85 1.69 1.79 2.38 2.37 4.8 3.110 4.139 4.4 3.94 4.186 4.134 5.75 2.4, 7 4.100 3.15 3.105 2.149 1.106.2 2.70–80 2.84 2.162 1.84 4.184 2.86 4.174 1.93 3.73 1.9 2.85

196

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

πυρὸς ἄγριος πυτία πῶμα ῥᾶ ῥάμνος ῥαφανίς ῥάφανος ῥητίνη ῥόα ῥόδινον ῥοδίς ῥοδόδενδρον ῥόδον ῥοῦς ῥοῦς βυρσοδεψικός / –ή ῥοῦς ἐρυθρος ῥοῦς ὁ (ἡ) ἐπὶ τὰ ὄψα ῥόφημα ῥύπος σαγάπηνον σάκχαρον or -ις σαλαμάνδρα σάμψουχον or -ος σανδαράκη Σαντονικόν σαραπιάς σατύριον Ἐρυθραικόν σαύρα or σαῦρος σέλινον σέρις σέριφον σέσελι σεῦτλον or σευτλίον σηπεδὼν ξύλου σηπία

lesser celandine rennet operculum rhubarb rhamnos radish rhaphanos resin pomegranate rose oil rose pastille oleander rose sumach tanner’s sumach red sumach culinary sumach gruel dirt sagapenon gum sakkharon or -is salamander marjoram realgar Santonikon sarapias orchid saturion of Erythrae lizard celery endive sea wormwood hartwort beet decayed wood cuttlefish

2.181 2.75 2.7 3.2 1.90 2.112 1.71 1.110 1.43 1.99.3 4.81 1.99, 1.43 1.108 1.108 1.108 1.108 frequent 3.81 2.82.5 2.62 3.39, 1.48 5.105 3.23.6 3.127 3.128.2 2.64 3.64 2.132 3.23 3.53 2.123 1.84 2.21

197

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

σησαμοειδές σήσαμον σητάνιος σιδηρῖτις σίδηρος σίδιον σίκυος σίκυος ἄγριος σίκυος πέπων σίλουρος σίλφη σίλφιον σίνηπυ σίνων Σινωπίς σίον σίραιον σισύμβριον

aubretia sesame spring wheat ironwort iron pomegranate peel cucumber squirting cucumber melon sheatfish cockroach silphium mustard stone parsley Sinopic red ochre lesser water parsnip boiled-down new wine (1) watercress (2) lesser calamint scammony shepherd’s needle skink squill ‘sea scolopendra’ rustyback fern golden thistle water germander garlic ‘scorpion-wort’ scorpion fish ‘scorpion-tail’ (heliotrope) puppy dross picarel yew

4.163 2.99 2.85 4.33 5.80 1.110 2.135 4.150 2.135 2.27 2.36 3.80 2.154 3.55 5.96 2.127 5.6.4 2.128 3.41 4.170 2.138 2.66 2.171 2.14 3.134 3.14 3.111 2.152 4.192 2.12 4.190

σκαμμωνία σκάνδιξ σκίγκος σκίλλα σκολόπενδρα θαλασσία σκολοπένδριον σκόλυμος σκόρδιον σκόροδον σκορπιοειδές σκορπίος ἰχθῦς σκορπίουρον σκύλαξ σκωρία σμαρίς σμῖλαξ

5.80.2 2.28 4.79

198

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(cont.)

Greek

English

σμιλίον σμύρνα σμύρνιον σόγχος σούσινον σπαργάνιον σπάρτον σπλάγχνον σπλήν σπόγγος σποδιά or σποδός σπόδιον σπύραθοι στακτή στατικὴ πόα σταφίδες σταφὶς ἀγρία σταφυλή σταφυλῖνος στάχυς στεάρ στέμφυλα στίβι στοιβή στοιχάς στρατιώτης ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὑδάτων στρόβιλος or στροβίλιον στρουθία μῆλα στρούθιον

smilion salve myrrh perfoliate alexanders sow-thistle lily unguent bur-reed Spanish broom tree lichen spleen sponge ash metal oxide droppings myrrh oil thrift raisins stavesacre grapes carrot woundwort fat marc antimony thorny burnet lavender water lettuce stone pine cone or nut ‘sparrow-apples’ (1) soapwort (2) sparrow nightshade orange-fruited strukhnon black nightshade thornapple Indian ginseng

στρύχνον στρύχνον καρπὸν πυρρὸν ἔχον στρύχνον κηπαῖον στρύχνον μανικόν στρύχνον ὑπνωτικόν

Dioscorides M.M.

1.64 3.68 2.131 1.52 4.21 4.154 1.21 5.120 frequent 5.75 2.80 1.60 5.3 4.152 5.3 3.52 3.106 2.76 5.3.2 5.84 4.12 3.26 4.101 1.69.4 1.115.3 2.163 4.70–73 4.71 4.70 4.73 4.72

199

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

στρύχνον χαμαίζηλον στῦμμα στυπτηρία στύραξ σύαγρος συκαλλίς συκάμινον συκῆ συκόμορος σῦκον σύμφυτον σύμφυτον πετραῖον σφονδύλιον σχῖνος σχιστή σχοῖνος σῶρι τάριχος ταυρόκολλα ταῦρος τελλίνη τερμινθίνη τέρμινθος or τερέβινθος τεύκριον τεῦτλον or τευτλίον τέφρα τηλέφιον τῆλις τιθύμαλλος τόρδιλον τραγάκανθα τράγειον or τράγιον

sprawling strukhnon astringent alum storax wild boar beccafico mulberry fig tree sycamore fig fig sumphuton rock sumphuton hogweed mastic tree split alum camel grass2 melanterite preserved meat bull’s-hide glue bull clam turpentine terebinth yellow germander beet ash telephion fenugreek spurge tordylium tragacanth trageion or tragion

4.71 5.106 1.66 2.46, 2.80 2.56 1.126 1.128 1.127 1.128 4.9 4.9 3.76 1.70 5.106 1.17 5.102 3.87 2.76–81 2.6 1.71 1.71 3.97 2.123 frequent 2.186, 4.90 2.102, 1.47 4.164 3.54 3.20 4.49

2 At Simp. 2.87 and 2.89, however, σχοῖνος probably means ‘rush’: see footnote there.

200

concordance of medications 2

(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

τραγορίγανος τράγος

goat’s marjoram (1) he-goat (2) ‘goat’ (wheat) small caltrops red mullet pitch trefoil maidenhair spleenwort turtle dove sting-ray lees cheese hyena alpine squill honeywater membrane henbane St. John’s-wort cytinus pig hyssop lentil soup lentil duckweed phaleris woodpigeon cork Valonia oak lammergeier Philetairos’ plant bark (or skin of fruit) mullein ‘lampwick’ mullein Jerusalem sage dates tree-ripened dates

3.30 2.76, 79 2.93 4.15 2.22 3.109 4.135 2.79 2.20 5.114 2.71 2.78 4.62 5.9

τρίβολος τρίγλα τρίφυλλον τριχομανές τρυγών τρυγὼν θαλασσία τρύξ τυρός ὕαινα ὑάκινθος ὑδρόμελι ὑμένιον or ὑμήν ὑοσκύαμος ὑπερικόν ὑποκιστίς ὗς ὕσσωπος or -ον φακῆ φακός φακὸς ὁ ἀπὸ τῶν τελμάτων φαληρίς φάττα φελλός φηγός φήνη φιλεταίριον φλοιός φλόμος φλόμος ὁ εἰς τὰ ἐλλύχνια φλόμος ὁ χρυσάνθεμος φοίνικες φοινικοβάλανοι

4.68 3.154–157 1.97.2 2.76, 78, 79 3.25 2.107 4.87 3.142 2.79 1.106.2 2.53 4.8 frequent 4.103 4.103.2 4.103.2 1.109 1.109.1

201

greek to english (cont.)

Greek

English

φορίμη φοῦ φρῦνος φῦκος φύλλον φώκη χαλβάνη χάλκανθον or -ος χαλκῖτις χαλκός χαλκοῦ ἄνθος χαμαιάκτη χαμαιδάφνη Ἀλεξανδρίνη χαμαίδρυς or χαμαίδρωψ χαμαίκισσος χαμαιλέων λευκός χαμαιλέων μέλας χαμαιπεύκη χαμαίπιτυς χαμαισύκη χαρακίας χάρτης χελιδόνιον χελιδόνιον τὸ μικρόν χελιδών χελώνη χερσαία χελώνη θαλαττία/-σσία χήν χοῖρος χολή χονδρίλ(λ)η χόνδρος χρυσοκόλλα χρυσοκόμη χύλισμα or χυλός ψευδοβούνιον

phorime alum ‘phou’ valerian toad seaweed dog’s mercury seal galbanum copper sulphate rock alum copper flower of copper dwarf elder Alexandrian ‘ground-laurel’ wall germander ground ivy atractylis cardopatium khamaipeuke ground-pine ‘ground-fig’ kharakias spurge papyrus sheets greater celandine lesser celandine swallow tortoise turtle goose swine gall gum succory groats of spelt malachite goldilocks aster juice (extracted) pseudobounion

Dioscorides M.M.

1.11 4.99 3.125 2.75 3.83 5.98 5.99 5.76 5.77 4.173.2 4.147 3.98 4.125 3.8 3.9 4.126 3.158 4.169 4.164 1.86 2.180 2.181 2.56 2.79.2 2.78, 4, 2.79.2 2.76, 79 2.38, 76, 78, 81 2.78 2.133 2.96 5.89 4.55 4.124

202

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(cont.)

Greek

English

Dioscorides M.M.

ψιμύθιον ψύλλιον ψωρικόν ὤκιμον ὠμὴ λύσις ᾠόν ὤχρα

white lead fleawort itch-salve basil meal of bruised raw grain egg yellow ochre

5.88 4.69 5.99.3 2.141 2.50 5.93

appendix 1

Divergences from Wellmann’s Greek Text Emendations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

1.12 1.34 1.35.1 1.44.1 1.54.2 1.56 1.60.3 1.66.2 1.107 1.115.2 1.115.2 1.140.3 1.161.3 1.168 1.172 1.180 1.182 1.204.2 1.204.2 1.210 1.233.1 2 praef. 2.13 2.24 2.36.1 2.36.3 2.37.5 2.37.5 2.40.2

Wellmann

Fitch

ἀντιλαμβάνων πυέλῳ στέλλοντα ἢ ἅλες σὺν ὄξει μετ’ ὄξους ἢ σούσινον σίλφιον, ὀπόφυλλον ⟨ποιεῖ καὶ⟩ μετὰ μέλιτος τὰ κνυσθέντα εἰς μέλι ζέον ἄνωθεν πνεύμονος πρεσβυτικά καὶ ὡς ἔμπλαστρος ἐπιτιθεμένων ἀναξηπαίνει … θαυμαστῶς προεσχηματισμένῳ ⟨γὰρ⟩ ἐλατήριον ἀναμισγόμενος καὶ ἀρτηρίαν μήλων δὲ κόπους [Κενταυρείου … ὁμοίως] Κενταυρείου ⟨τοῦ μεγάλου⟩ μάλιστα δὲ … ὀλίγου ἀσβέστου ἢ ἑψητοὶ

[ἀντιλαμβάνων] πτυελῷ (MSS) αἴροντα [ἢ] ἅλες σὺν μέλιτι (MSS) μετ’ ὄξους [ἢ] [σέλγικον] (Moebanus) σιλφίου ὀπός (Saracenus, cf. M.M.3.80.4) No supplement μέλιτος ⟨μέρος α’⟩ (Diggle) τὰ κλυσθέντα [εἰς] μέλι ζεσθέν καὶ ἐαθὲν πνεύμονος ⟨προβατείου⟩ (exempli gratia) πρόσφατα [καὶ] ὡς ἔμπλαστρος ἐπιτιθέμενα Transposed to end of 1.180 (Moibanus) προεσχηματισμένῃ No supplement μελαντηρία (Moibanus) ἀνατριβόμενος (from Diosc. 4.176.2) καὶ ἄρθρα μήλων ⟨Κυδωνίων⟩ (Wellmann) δὲ ⟨σὺν ἐλαίῳ⟩ κόπους Not deleted Κενταυρείου Section transposed to end of 2.38 ἄσβεστος (MSS) [ἢ ἑψητοὶ] (Gesner)

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appendix 1

(cont.)

2.59 2.63.2 2.63.3 2.89 2.97 2.97 2.106 2.118.1 2.119.3 2.121 2.136 2.138.1 2.156

Wellmann

Fitch

ὀξάλμης ἐπὶ ἡμέρας λ’· τήκει κούφως πρίνου ⟨φλοιῷ⟩ ἢ βαλάνων σπέρματος τυποῦν δὲ … σαρκί ἢ ἄγνου, πηγάνου ⟨ὀξαλίδος⟩ χαμαιδάφνη ⟨καὶ δάφνη⟩ Ἀλεξανδρίνη πυρῖτις ⟨ἢ⟩ πύρεθρον ⟨καλουμένου⟩ λεάναντες συγκαθεψήσας

ὀξάλμην ἐπὶ ἡμέρας λ’ τήκει· δι’ οὔρων (Gesner) πρίνου [ἢ] βαλάνῳ [σπέρματος] Transposed to end of 2.96 (Gesner) ἢ ἄγνου ἢ πηγάνου ⟨λαπάθου⟩ χαμαιδάφνης Ἀλεξανδρίνης ⟨χυλός⟩ πυρῖτις, πύρεθρον (MSS) Not inserted λεανθέντος συγκαθεψηθέν

appendix 2

Textual Notes These notes are addenda to those published in Fitch 2021. 1.44.1 κίσηρις ὀπτὴ λεία, σηπίας ὄστρακον λεῖον, ἢ ἅλες καὶ καδμεία λεία, ἅπαντα ἴσα Applications to dissolve pterygia on the eyes: “pumice baked and ground up, cuttlefish shell ground up, or salt and calamine ground up, all in equal quantities.” How many of these items are to be mixed together? In Simp. “in equal quantities” is usually just ἴσα, and the author would hardly add ἅπαντα “all” in reference to just two items, salt and calamine. Ground cuttlefish shell mixed with salt is prescribed for pterygia by Dioscorides (M.M. 2.21), Archigenes (at Aëtius 7.61) and Oribasius (Eun. 4.24, p. 448.4– 5 Raeder). Clearly, then, we should delete ἢ before ἅλες. Apparently Simp. is adding calamine (a common ingredient of eye medications) sua sponte. What of the pumice? It is used separately by Archigenes (loc. cit.); but the emphatic phrase “all in equal quantities”, not used elsewhere in Simp., suggests that here it is being added to the mixture. 1.60.3 In a list of unguents used to treat ringing in the ears, the MSS give κύπρινον, ἴρινον, σέλγικον. For the puzzling last word Wellmann printed Moibanus’ conjecture σούσινον, lily unguent. But M.M. does not use either lily unguent (1.52) or lilies themselves (3.102) for ear ailments. A better conjecture would be σησάμινον, sesame unguent, which M.M. 1.34 does use specifically for ringing in the ears. Nevertheless the corruption to σέλγικον is strange. The preferable solution, proposed as an alternative by Moibanus, is simply to delete σέλγικον: this leaves the vinegar, rue and bitter almonds attached to iris unguent, as they are in M.M. 1.56.3 when used for ringing in the ears. 1.161.3 μέλαν γραφικὸν σὺν ὄξει ἐπιτιθέμενον ἄνωθεν A liniment to cleanse the skin for sufferers from shingles: “writing ink with vinegar applied above”. The traditional interpretation of ἄνωθεν as “on the upper body” yields doubtful Greek; and none of the other liniments here is limited to one area of the body. Light is shed by Dioscorides’ use of writing ink as a liniment for sores and burns, καταχριόμενον μεθ’ ὕδατος παχὺ καὶ ἐώμενον ἄχρις ἀπουλώσεως, “smeared on thickly with water and left until scars form” (M.M. 5.162.2). So ἄνωθεν should be corrected to καὶ ἐαθέν; for the form cf. Simp. 1.60.1 (ground-up fig) ἐντεθὲν καὶ ἐαθέν, “inserted and left”; for arbitrary changes of tense in passive participles cf. e.g. 1.88 σμύρνα ἀποχυλιζομένη, ᾠὸν … ῥοφηθέν, 1.98 κυάμινον ἄλευρον καταπλασσόμενον, ὑακίνθου ῥίζα … καταπλασθεῖσα, 2.60 χυλὸς … πινόμενος καὶ ἔξωθεν ἐπιτεθείς.

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appendix 2

1.172–173 Cicatrisation of ἕλκη (wounds and ulcers). A repeated theme of Simp., from the preface on, is the distinction in treatment between fresh and chronic complaints (πρόσφατα / παλαιά). But here the text offers an untenable distinction, between ‘aged’ (πρεσβυτικά, 1.172) and ‘old’ ἕλκη (παλαιά, 1.173). The second category is protected by the fact that several of the medications listed in 1.173 are similarly used by Dioscorides for ἕλκη that are old (mistletoe with frankincense 3.89, small centaury 3.7.2, Madonna lily 3.102) or hard to cicatrise (agrimony 4.41, bracken 4.185) or malignant (calamine 5.74.2). Probably, then, we should correct πρεσβυτικά in 1.172 to πρόσφατα, though the corruption is hard to explain. The corruption, if it is such, had already occurred by the time of Oribasius, since he distinguishes between πρόσφατα ἕλκη and πρεσβυτικά, and for the latter he uses some of the same medications as Simp. 1.172 (pimpernel, burnt barley: Syn. 7.1 = 5.211–212 Raeder). 2.118.1 ⟨ὀξαλίδος⟩ ῥίζα ἑφθὴ ἐν οἴνῳ, ἐξωνύχου καρπὸς λεῖος Gesner noted that the name of a plant is missing before ῥίζα in this list of drugs that purportedly cure both bladder stones in children and itching around the bladder; he inserted ⟨ὀξαλίδος⟩. The only root claimed by Diosc. to treat both stones and bladder itching is that of λάπαθον (patience dock, 2.114).1 Diosc. says there are four types of λάπαθον (ὀξαλίς being one), and three of them treat the conditions in question. So we should restore the name of the group, not just of one type. Restoration of ⟨λαπάθου⟩ also restores alphabetical order in this list.2 2.121. The transmitted text lists πυρῖτις and πύρεθρον as antidotes to snakebite. Wellmann 1914.54 regarded them as synonyms for the same plant, and therefore inserted ἢ between them, in the sense ‘also known as’. It is true that πυρῖτις is said to be a synonym for πύρεθρον at ps-Diosc. 3.73 and schol. Nic. Ther. 683. But the latter adds that there is another πυρῖτις, said by Crateuas to be effective against all wild animal bites. Clearly this is the πυρῖτις (aka ὀρεινὴ νάρδος) which Dioscorides recommends as an antidote to venomous bites at M.M. 1.8–9; he treats πυρῖτις as distinct from πύρεθρον, and Simp. appears to do the same. Consequently no change is needed to the text.

1 For bladder stones in children, however, Diosc. 3.140.3 recommends eating or drinking the red seeds of peony, which Simp. lists in the previous chapter (2.117). 2 The following item was no doubt λιθοσπέρμου in Simp.’s alphabetical source, but the compiler has replaced that name with its synonym ἐξωνύχου. Cf. 2.113.4, where λιθοσπέρμου καρπὸς would have been in alphabetical order, but the compiler has written ἐξωνύχου τοῦ καὶ λιθοσπέρμου καρπὸς.

textual notes

207

Substantival Adjectives In reference to oil or unguent, Dioscorides normally indicates the type by a substantival adjective (M.M. 1.34–63), e.g. ῥόδινον = rose oil or unguent. Simp. follows the same practice according to the transmitted text. For example, it has ἀμυγδάλινον ‘almond oil’ seven times, and ἀμυγδάλινον ἔλαιον only once. Wellmann, however, inserts ἔλαιον in four of the seven places. Similarly the MSS have ἴρινον ‘iris unguent’ 11 times, and ἴρινον μύρον just once, but Wellmann inserts μύρον at one of the eleven places, and ἔλαιον at another. Since these insertions seem unnecessary, I have not marked them by ⟨⟩ in the translation. On similarly unnecessary insertions by Wellmann of στυπτηρία and ἄλευρον, where the text has substantival adjectives, see Fitch 2021.290.

appendix 3

Alphabetical Sequences See the section on ‘Sources and Compilation’ in the Introduction. The following is a list of sequences containing five or more alphabetically ordered items. It should be noted that items are not always alphabetised precisely within each initial letter: e.g. ἀμόργη may precede ἀλθαία. Items starting with beta are moved into the alphas so often that I have ignored this slight deviation from alphabetical order. Where an item is tacked onto other items of closely similar character, e.g. δρακοντίου onto ἄρου (2.37.2) or βάτραχοι onto καρκίνοι (2.40.2), it is not included either in column four or column five below. The word χαλβάνη is alphabetised in Simp. with words starting in kappa, and this occasionally happens to other words starting χα-. The first column of the list gives the chapter reference; the second column gives the first word in an alphabetical sequence, and the third column gives the last word. The fourth column gives the number of alphabetical items; items inserted non-alphabetically in the sequence are not counted. In the fifth column the following symbols are used: > ^ < c

number of items tacked on at the start of the sequence number of items inserted non-alphabetically in the sequence number of items tacked onto the end of the sequence a compound of several ingredients

1.5 1.26.1 1.30.1 1.34 1.38 1.40.2–3 1.53.1–2 1.54.1–2 1.54.2–3 1.55 1.57 1.60.3 1.73 1.75.1

δαφνοειδοῦς ἄγνου ἀνδράχνης γλαύκιον κυάμινον ἐλαίας θάλασσα δρακοντίου ἀλώπεκος ἄνησσον ἀγριελαίας δαφνίδων ἅλες ἀνδράχνης

σταφίδος ὄροβος κρότωνος ῥόδων πήγανον πηγάνου ὕσσωπον σφονδυλίου πισσέλαιον ὠκίμου χολὴ πράσου σηπίας ὄξος

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