He ̄rakle(i)odo ̄ros (370 – 320 BCE?)
L 10, heavily damaged, includes him, after A, T
M and A, and before H S, in a series of
accounts of the causes of diseases: the prior three blame the head, the latter diet. The rare
name is first attested in the 4th c. BCE (LGPN), and possibly our man is the Platonist of
( pseudo?) De ̄mosthene ̄s Letter 5, on whom see DPA 3 (2000) 552, T. Dorandi.
(*)
PTK
He ̄ra ̄s of Kappadokia (20 BCE – 20 CE)
Greek physician or pharmacologist practicing medicine in Rome as a peregrinus, perhaps
contemporary with A (although traditionally dated 100 BCE – 40 CE). Considered
an Empiricist by modern scholars (solely because he used recipes from H
T), he followed probably the current pragmatico-synthetist trend. His pharmaco-
logical treatise, known through a papyrus (ca 300 CE, and overlapping with G, CMLoc
1.2, 12.430 K., remedy against hair-loss), and about two dozen lengthy extracts in Gale ̄n
(Fabricius), was variously designated by Gale ̄n’s sources (Fabricius 183, n.8), cf. CMGen 1.14
(13.416 K.), esp. as Narthe ̄x (CMLoc 1.1, 1.2 [12.398, 430 K.]) or Pharmakitis (CMLoc
2.3 [12.593 K.], CMGen 7.6, 7.14 [13.969, 1042 K.]). The work was a compilation of
recipes for compound medicines listed according to two different principles: topographical
(affected parts of the body) arranged a capite ad calcem; and pharmaceutical (per genera).
Materia medica of animal, vegetable, and mineral kinds were used; and He ̄ra ̄s seems to use
the word antidotos in its earlier toxicological sense. The hair-loss remedy contained ladanon
(resin of some Cistus sp. Gale ̄n, Simples 7.10.28 (12.28–29 K.); cf. Durling 1993: 220–221)
and maidenhair, macerated in dry wine and myrtle oil to a honey-like consistency, and
applied after the bath. Gale ̄n in CMGen preserves numerous topical plasters some of which
seem collected from local usage (barbarian: 2.22 [13.557 K.]; Me ̄lian white: 2.10 [13.511
K.]; Kuzike ̄nian: 5.7 [13.814–818 K.]; Hellespontian: 6.11 [13.914–915 K.]). Other com-
pounds treat hudrophobia (CMGen 1.16, 13.431–432 K.), dysentery (an enema: CMLoc
9.5, 13.297 K.), sciatica, endorsed but perhaps not created by He ̄ra ̄s (CMGen 7.7, 13.986–
987 K.), and bruises (CMLoc 5.1, 12.819 K.). O Syn. 3.96 (CMG 6.3, p. 94) cites
“He ̄ra” (with feminine article, implying a woman, but perhaps an error for our pharma-
cologist) and preserves a treatment for herpes compounded from saffron, myrrh, and
oxymel.
RE 8.1 (1912) 529 (#4), H. Gossen; KP 2.1053, F. Kudlien; Fabricius (1972) 183–185, 242–246; I.
Andorlini, in Atti e Memorie dell’Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere “La Colombaria” 46 (1981) 41– 45
and nn.36–37; Marganne (1981) 134–135; Korpela (1987) 169, #81; Andorlini-Marcone (1993)
#10 ( p. 478); BNP 6 (2005) 183–184, Alain Touwaide.
Alain Touwaide
D H V ⇒ A,
De herbis/De viribus herbarum (ca 200 – 300 CE)
Anonymous 216–line Ionic Greek hexameter poem in highly mannered style treating cura-
tive properties of herbs. The text is preserved in a number of MSS of D, on
HE ̄RAKLE(I)ODO ̄RO S