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

(Ron) #1

Aineios (of Ko ̄s?) (10 BCE – 110 CE)


K, in Gale ̄n CMLoc 2.2 (12.589–590 K.) cites from Aineios a decongestant, contain-
ing beeswax, goat-fat, lye, natron, pitch, and soap, instilled nasally. The following three
recipes, possibly also his, involve euphorbia (cf. I), or pepper, or both (a sternutatory).
This form of the name is rare, cited only by S  B, s.v. Ko ̄s, for a
doctor (likely earlier), and LGPN 3B.18.


RE 1.1 (1893) 1022 (#3), M. Wellmann.
PTK


Aineside ̄mos of Kno ̄ssos (100 – 50 BCE)


Initiated the skeptical movement known as Pyrrhonism, claiming inspiration from Pyrrho
of E ̄lis (ca 360 – 270 BCE). We have an informative summary by Pho ̄tios, Bibl. §212, of his
Pyrrhonist Discourses (Purro ̄neioi Logoi: in eight books), and several other works are attested. It is
contestable whether the variety of Pyrrhonism espoused by Aineside ̄mos was identical with
that of S E. Whereas Sextus stresses the undecidability of the conflicts between
incompatible arguments or impressions, Aineside ̄mos seems rather to have stressed the rela-
tivity to circumstances, or to persons, of each of these arguments or impressions – the
consequence being that none of them can be taken to capture the way things are intrinsically.
Like Sextus, Aineside ̄mos appears to have applied his skeptical method to a great variety
of topics, including scientific topics. The subjects addressed in Pyrrhonist Discourses included
causes, effects, generation, destruction, motion and sense-perception. Aineside ̄mos also dis-
cussed “signs” – observable phenomena that, according to non-skeptical philosophers, con-
stituted evidence of non-observable states of affairs. Signs were an important aspect of the
scientific methodology of particularly the Hellenistic period; not surprisingly, Aineside ̄mos
is reported to have argued that there are no such things.


Long and Sedley (1987) §§ 71 – 72; ECP 6 – 8, J. Allen.
Richard Bett


Aisara of Lucania (100 BCE – 100 CE?)


P’ daughter according to Pho ̄tios, Bibl. 249. I  S (1.49.27)
transmits under her name On the Nature of Man (Peri Anthro ̄pou Phuseo ̄s), a spurious Dorian
fragment conjecturally attributed to Aresas, a Pythagorean scholarch. The text prob-
ably belongs to a group of treatises ascribed to Pythagorean women philosophers and
mainly treating the ethics of the household. Human nature is the criterion of law and
justice; justice consists in harmonizing the parts of the soul, which occurs, in Platonic
fashion, when the superior part (intelligence) rules the inferior (appetite), and the intermedi-
ate (spirit) rules the appetitive and follows the superior part. The best life results from a
commingling of virtue and pleasure.


Thesleff (1965) 48.20–50.23; DPA 1 (1989) 348–349, Bruno Centrone.
Bruno Centrone


Aiskhine ̄s of Athens (350 BCE – 77 CE)


Wrote on medicine and recommended burnt excrement (in a remedy called botruon) for
tonsil complaints, sore uvula, and carcinomata (P 1.ind.28, 28.44).


AISKHINE ̄S OF ATHENS
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