metria) of the members: of finger to finger, of all the fingers to the palm and wrist, of these
to forearm, of forearm to upper arm, and of all to all.” Hippocratic medicine can be
regarded as an inspiration for the way in which Polukleitos conceptualized and organized
the body, in the tract as well as in sculpture. In a conjectural reconstruction of the outline
of the Kano ̄n from all known and attributed sources (Stewart 1998: 273–275), it emerges
that Polukleitos obsessively insists on exactitude at all levels in order to achieve perfection
and beauty.
Ed.: DK 40.
J.J. Pollitt, “The Canon of Polykleitos and Other Canons,” in: W.G. Moon, ed., Polykleitos, the Doryphoros,
and Tradition (1995) 19–24; OCD3 1211 – 1212, A.F. Stewart; BNP 11 (2007) 511–513 (#1),
R. Neudecker.
Sabine Vogt
Polukleitos of Larissa (ca 360 – 300 BCE?)
Father of Olumpias (mother of Antigonos), captured in Alexander’s campaigns in Kure ̄ne ̄
(FGrHist 128T1), among S’s geographical sources, and cited as a foreign authority
on trees (P 1.ind.12–13). His Historiae described Persia, Mesopotamia, and India, and
treated Alexander the Great’s luxurious lifestyle (Ath., Deipn. 12 [539a]; P, Alex.
46). Polukleitos claimed that the Euphrate ̄s did not overflow, due in part to the mountains’
low altitudes and shallow snow cover, and its drainage into the Tigris and flooding of the
plains; dismissed as absurd by Strabo ̄n (16.1.13). Polukleitos described the mountainous
terrain between Susa and Persis and the river Choaspe ̄s, which flowed through Susis, meet-
ing the Tigris and Eulaeos in a lake subsequently emptying into the sea (Str. 15.3.4). He
proffered the opinion that the serpent-producing Caspian with its sweet water was in fact
Lake Maeotis, into which the Tanais poured (Str. 11.7.4). He reported large, polychrome,
dappled Indian lizards, soft to the touch (A, NA 16.41) and tortoises from the
Ganges whose shells could hold 5 medimnoi (P V 10). It is likely
that “Polukleitos of Liparis,” Pliny’s authority on the river Liparis in Soloi near Kilikia
(31.17), is identifiable with our geographer.
FGrHist 128.
RE 21.2 (1952) 1700–1707 (#7–8), Fr. Gisinger; Pearson (1960) 70–77; KP 4.999 (#3), H. Gärtner;
OCD3 1211, A.B. Bosworth; BNP 11 (2007) 514 (#4), E. Badian.
GLIM
Polukritos of Mende ̄ (400 – 350 BCE)
Historiographer whose treatise on water-mirabilia survives in two fragments. He wrote a
Sikelika in verse with an obvious leaning towards natural sciences and paradoxography.
Ed.: FGrHist 559.
RE 21.2 (1952) 1760–1761 (#7, 8), K. Ziegler.
Jan Bollansée, Karen Haegemans, and Guido Schepens
Polustomos (250 BCE – 80 CE)
A, in G CMGen 6.14 (13.931 K.), records his recipe for gout (podagra):
aphronitron and psimuthion in beeswax, aged olive oil, and terebinth. The name
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