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

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his layout of the three principles of the Empiricist “tripod,” Me ̄nodotos separated the
different types of “experience” (Gale ̄n Subf. emp. 2 – 3), and he maintained that the third
element of the tripod, the “transition to the similar,” is not a true criterion but only a
criterion of what is possible (Subf. emp. 9). Probably Me ̄nodotos introduced the concept of
epilogismos, namely the possibility of rational inferences on the basis of the data coming
from the experience – distance from Dogmatic medicine remains assured by the fact that
the epilogismos is an inference directed toward visible things, whereas the analogismos is the
conclusion pointing to invisible things (Gale ̄n, Med. exp. 24).
For other fields of Me ̄nodotos’ production, we know that, according to Gale ̄n (who basic-
ally agreed with him: Nat. fac. 3.71 MMH; perhaps Caus. resp. 4.475 K.), he polemized
against A  B in an excessively violent manner (Subf. emp. 11; Gale ̄n
gives a similar opinion also about the criticisms Me ̄nodotos made against other Empiri-
cists); that he deemed it legitimate for the physician to seek fame and money (Gale ̄n PHP:
CMG 5.3.1.2, p. 764); that he used phlebotomy only in case of plethora, that is excessive
increase in the blood mass (Gale ̄n, Cur. rat. ven. rom. 11.277, 285 K.; Hipp. ac. mor. vic. 15.766
K.; Hipp. art. 18A.575 K.).


Ed.: Deichgräber (1930) 212–214 (fragments), 264–265.
A. Favier, Un médecin grec du deuxième siècle ap. J.C., précurseur du la méthode expérimentale moderne: Ménodote de
Nicomédie (1906); RE 15.1 (1931) 901–916 (#2), W. Capelle; 916 (#3), H. Raeder; KP 3.993–994,
F. Kudlien; L. Perilli, Menodoto di Nicomedia (2004); BNP 8 (2006) 695 (#2), V. Nutton; DPA 4 (2005)
476 – 482, V. Boudon-Millot.
Fabio Stok


Menoitas/Menoitios (250 BCE – 10 CE)


H, in G CMGen 2.10 (13.511–512 K.: Menoitios), and A, ibid. 2.8
(13.509 K.: Menoitas), cite two versions of his me ̄line ̄, containing beeswax, litharge, clear
terebinth, olive oil; Andromakhos adds frankincense, galbanum, and verdigris, provid-
ing a multi-step preparation. The epic name appears in both forms (e.g., the herdsman of
Hade ̄s and the father of Patroklos), as for historical figures, among whom Menoitas is
usually Doric and more widely used, being especially frequent in Aitolia: RE 15.1 (1931)
918 – 922, K. Keyßner; LGPN.


Fabricius (1726) 335.
PTK


Meno ̄n (350 – 300 BCE?)


A pupil of A, known to G (15.24 K.) as the author of a medical doxography,
Medical Collection, circulating under Aristotle’s name, probably the same work quoted by
P (Quaest. conv. 8.9.3) as Menoneia (i.e. “work by Meno ̄n”). Diels considered Meno ̄n
the source of the doxography about the causes of diseases preserved in the first part of the
L . It is impossible to determine his actual role, whether he wrote
the Medical Collection, or was a later editor of Peripatetic material, a reviser, or merely one
who “possessed” a copy of the work, used by early imperial Aristotelian scholars.


H. Diels, “Ueber die Excerpte von Menons Iatrika in dem Londoner Papyrus 137,” Hermes 28 (1893)
407 – 434; KP 3.1223, F. Kudlien; D. Manetti, CPF I.1 (1989) 345–351; OCD3 960, J.T. Vallance.
Daniela Manetti


MENOITAS/MENOITIOS
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