Tharseas/Thraseas/Tharrias (170? – 100 BCE)
Physician whose name is spelled in three different ways. (1) Tharseas is used by
A P. in G CMGen. 4.13 [13.741.13 K.] to name the “surgeon”
who invented “Indian plaster” and who appears in a list of physicians compiled in a manu-
script of C (see N); this spelling is the most likely. (2) The plaster which
Askle ̄piade ̄s describes in the cited passage (741.14–18 K.) is identical with S
L’s emplastrum nigrum Thraseae chirurgi (208); he also gives the formula of “the sur-
geon Thraseas’ green plaster” (204). (3) Lastly, there are good reasons to recognize as his
the medical prescriptions concerning lethargus and dropsy which C 3.20.2, 21.14 has
attributed to Tharrias, because they imply surgical knowledge which characterizes the
Erasistratean sphere of influence.
Michler (1968) 84, 125–128.
Jean-Marie Jacques
Theagene ̄s of Rhe ̄gion (530 – 500 BCE)
Reported to have written in Rhe ̄gion about the life, text, and interpretation of H: no
fragments and few testimonia survive (DK has just four entries describing Theagene ̄s’
thought only generically). Antiquity considered Theagene ̄s the founder of philology and
allegorical interpretation. P, in discussing Iliad 20.67 (descent of the gods to
fight on the plain at Troy), explains that, in response to criticism (perhaps X’)
that Homer said inappropriately unseemly things about gods, Theagene ̄s originated allegor-
ical interpretations of the following type (DK fr.2): Apollo, He ̄lios, and Hephaistos = fire,
Poseido ̄n and Skamander = water, Artemis = the Moon, He ̄ra = air, Athena = wisdom,
Are ̄s = folly, Aphrodite ̄ = lust, Herme ̄s = reason. Hence, conflict of gods = conflict of
elements, divine immortality = continued existence of elements in spite of occasional
destruction. Details of Theagene ̄s’ particular interpretations are not recoverable, and the
nature of his innovation is unclear. Allegorical interpretation lies very near the surface of
H’s Theogony and is very nearly present in P as well (cf. also S);
Homer and He ̄siod both personify natural forces and elements, and offer etymologizing
narrative (e.g. air/He ̄ra). Perhaps Theagene ̄s’ allegorical thoughts were merely better, more
extensive, or the first to be explicitly recorded.
A.L. Ford, The Origins of Criticism (2002) 68–72.
Jacques Bailly
Theaite ̄tos of Athens (d. 369 BCE)
P’ dialogue Theaite ̄tos is set shortly after Theaite ̄tos was wounded, apparently fatally, in
a war between Athens and Corinth, assumed to be that of 369. The body of the dialogue is the
reading of the record of a conversation involving So ̄crate ̄s, Theaite ̄tos, and T
K occurring shortly before So ̄crate ̄s’ death (399), when Theaite ̄tos was a meirakion, that
is, what we might call a male of college-age. Theaite ̄tos describes how he and a friend were
being shown by Theodo ̄ros something about dunameis (powers), apparently what we would call
the irrationality of the square roots of integers starting with 3 and ending at 17, where
Theodo ̄ros stopped. Theaite ̄tos and his friend thought that, since these powers appeared to
be infinite, they would introduce a general characterization; they did this by distinguishing
THARSEAS/THRASEAS/THARRIAS