Hikesios of Smurna (120 – 80 BCE?)
In his terse summary of the medical instructors assembled at Me ̄n Karou (founded as a
school by Z), S (12.8.20) adds as an aside, “... the Erasistratean teaching
center was established by Hikesios in Smurna.” Athe ̄naios, Deipn. 3 (87b), notes that
Hikesios was a “follower of E,” and Strabo ̄n’s clipped notice (the text seems
badly corrupted in part [Syme 1995: 344–347]) indicates that the Smurnean school did not
last very long. D L 5.94 lists the eighth He ̄rakleide ̄s, iatros to ̄n apo Hikesiou,
probably “a student of Hikesios” (number nine being the famous Empiricist physician,
H T). Scattered in Athe ̄naios’ Deipnosophists are numerous fragments
of Hikesios’ Peri hule ̄s, rendered by Gourevitch as On Materials for Health (2000: 490–491), i.e.,
foods as remedies, especially fish; but many of these remnants as quoted are fused with
other bits, often difficult to separate from one another. P’s references are condensed
(Gourevitch 2000: 484), and the single notice of Hikesios as a surgeon occurs in Tertullian’s
well-known condemnation of pagan anatomists for their destructive practices with embryos
and fetuses (De anima 25.6 Waszink).
Though known for his medical dietetics, later physicians more highly respected Hikesios’
pharmaceutical compounds, evinced by Hikesios’ Melaina (“The Black One”: H in
G, CMGen 5.2 [13.780–781 K.]) and an all-inclusive, multiple-use plaster (K in
Gale ̄n, CMGen 5.3 [13.787–788 K.; cf. 13.809–810: “A’ Hikesian Melaina”]),
on which Gale ̄n offers his extended critical commentary, viz. on changes by He ̄ra ̄s and
Krito ̄n, and the properties of the ingredients (13.788–794 K.). Hikesios as a good Erasis-
tratean was a keen student of herbal, mineral, and entomological pharmacology, and
Gale ̄n’s sometimes acidic remarks about alterations in Hikesios’ recipes demonstrate the
long term respect for Erasistratean drug lore. P A 3.64 (CMG 9.1, p. 281)
recommends the “Hikesian Plaster” (without formula) in the treatment of external harden-
ing of the uterus; then among extracts from A (7.17.1, CMG 9.2, p. 347) he
combines the extant recipes, above, into the “Plaster of Hikesios: For Scrofulas, Abscesses,
the Spleen, Joints, and Ailments of the Hips/Sciaticas” (7.17.45, CMG 9.2, p. 359]). Paulos’
6th c. streamlining of the recipes still carrying Hikesios’ name reduced the 19 substances
debated in the 2nd c. to twelve: dropped from the He ̄ra ̄s-Andromakhos-Krito ̄n revisions are
bitumen, Ampelitidian earth, alum, powdered frankincense, and honey, whereas retained
are litharge, old olive oil, propolis (“bee glue”), beeswax, vinegar, and verdigris; Paulos
augments with pine bark, pseudo-mastic gum (Atractylis gummifera L.), horseheal (Inula helen-
ium L.), purethron, euphorbia, and the juice of the parasitic hupokistis (Cytinus hypocistis
L.). The bee glue, beeswax, and pseudo-mastic made this plaster sticky, while the horseheal,
verdigris, euphorbia and Cytinus provided properties that were bactericidal, and the
purethron was lightly anesthetic and insecticidal. Especially effective against micro-
organisms of many kinds was/is the propolis, one of the most hypertonic natural substances
known.
RE 8.2 (1913) 1593–1594 (#5), H. Gossen; R. Syme, Anatolica: Studies in Strabo (1995); Dueck (2000) 142;
D. Gourevitch, “Hicesius’ Fish and Chips,” in D. Braund and J. Wilkins, edd., Athenaeus and his World:
Reading Greek Culture in the Roman Empire (2000) 483–491.
John Scarborough
HIKESIOS OF SMURNA