X
Xanite ̄s (?) (250 BCE – 80 CE)
A in G, CMLoc 9.6 (13.311 K.), records the “very useful” ΞΑΝΙΤΗΣ
hedrike ̄, composed of beeswax, butter, goose-fat, deer-marrow, a little rose-water, etc.
The name, otherwise unattested, may be a brand-name, a distortion of A,
P, or else emendable to Naxite ̄s (cf. N), a remedy from Naxos (cf.
N).
Fabricius (1726) 452; Parker (1997) 145 (#53).
PTK
Xanthos (of Sarde ̄s?) (480 – 440 BCE)
Son of Kandaule ̄s, a Ludian who wrote in Greek; E names him as an older con-
temporary of H, who used him as a source. He wrote a History of Ludia, retailing
myths, as well as the history of the Ludian royal family, enlivened with lurid details. He paid
special attention to the toponymy and topography of Ludia, and included as well some
herbal lore and ethnography of the Ludians and of the Persian Magi, to whom he may have
devoted a separate work, along with a biography of E. He also anticipated
He ̄rodotos in his observations of fossils found far inland as evidence for geological upheavals
in the past. His work, or an epitome by M, was used by D H-
, S, Athe ̄naios, and S B, although Athe ̄naios raises
doubts about its authenticity.
Ed.: FGrHist 765.
P. Kingsley, “Meetings with Magi: Iranian themes among the Greeks, from Xanthus of Lydia to Plato’s
Academy,” JAS 5 (1995) 173–192; OCD3 1627, K. Meister.
Philip Kaplan
Xenagoras son of Eume ̄los (ca 200 – 180 BCE?)
Measured the height of Mt. Olympus and recorded his precise results, ten stades and
96 feet, in an epigram addressed to the king (Philip V or Perseus) of Macedon, copied by
P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica in 168 BCE, and quoted by P, Aemil. 15.9–11.
NP 12/2.606 (#2), H.A. Gärtner.
PTK