The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

(Ron) #1

aphronitron, saffron, poppy-juice, bitter almonds, galbanum, and vinegar. O
Coll. 7.22 reports Menemakhos’ instructions for applying and removing leeches (CMG 6.1.1,
pp. 220–221 = fr.226 Tecusan), and a depilatory method involving scratching the scalp and
carefully applying pitch plaster (dro ̄pax: Coll. 10.14: CMG 6.1.2, p. 58 = fr.227 Tecusan).
C A, Acut. 1.8 (CML 6.1.1, p. 134), conveys his definition of lethargy,
augmented by S, as a swift or acute pressure accompanied by acute (but not always
continuous) fever. Tecusan doubts our Methodist is as early as the Menemakhos attri-
buted by C with a multi-ingredient toothache remedy whose active component was
purethron (6.9.5 = fr.106 Tecusan; cf. p. 64).


RE 15.1 (1931) 838 (#6), H. Raeder; Tecusan (2004) 63–65.
GLIM


Menenius Rufus (30 BCE – 90 CE)


A P. in G, CMGen 7.12 (13.1010–1011 K.), records his complex
recipe for a potion against gout, calling for over two dozen ingredients concocted over three
days in three stages. Kühn reads MEΝI-, which PIR2 accepts, but Fischer points out that
Menenius is far more likely as a nomen (cf. RE 15.1 [1931] 838–844, Fr. Münzer, and Catullus
59 on Menenius husband of Rufa).


PIR2 M-256.
PTK


Menestheus of Stratonikeia (150 BCE? – 50 CE)


G Hipp. Gloss. cites his Names of Drugs twice (where Fabricius and Kühn print
ΜΕΝΗΘΕΥΣ, otherwise unattested): s.v. boukeras (19.89 K.) and Indikon (19.105–106 K.),
there agreeing with A and X  A that it is ginger.
E A-103 ( p. 23.12–13 Nachm.) supplies the ethnic, recording his opinion that in
the H C, J, 7 (4.88 Littré), ambe ̄ means “leverage.” A
P. in Gale ̄n, CMGen 5 (13.830 K.), records his trokhiskos for skin disorders (chap-
ping, callosities, etc.), of aloes, alum, and saffron, in wine. Perhaps cf. Gale ̄n, In Hipp. Epid.
VI 4.11 (CMG 5.10.2.2, p. 212), ad 4.8 Littré, where the Arabic records a MNSNUS among
other commentators.


Fabricius (1726) 335; RE 15.1 (1931) 852 (#6), K. Deichgräber.
PTK


Menesto ̄r of Subaris (460 – 440 BCE?)


A Pythagorean natural philosopher and the earliest Greek botanist. His botanical treatise
is lost, and our knowledge of his theories rests on several references to them, preserved in
T’ works on plants. Theophrastos reckons him among the ancient phusiologoi
(32 A7 DK) and says that he sided with (A5) an opinion of E. Menesto ̄r is
usually regarded as a contemporary of Empedokle ̄s, most probably slightly older than him.
His name occurs in the list of the Pythagoreans compiled by A (A1).
Following A, whose theory of health was based on the idea of qualitative oppos-
ite principles (cold/hot, wet/dry, etc.), Menesto ̄r transferred this explanatory pattern to the
realm of plants. He believed that the moisture, or the juice of plants (hugron, khumos, A2, 7),


MENESTO ̄R OF SUBARIS
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