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

(Ron) #1

have been still too large, Mind dispersed surplus fire into the sky; consequently the stars
were born. A sentence seems to say that Mind put the Sun “in the center,” but it remains
unclear whether we should attribute to the author some version of heliocentrism. Alter-
natively, the sentence may mean that air keeps the Sun under control by encircling it. The
stars are kept in their places by “necessity” so that they do not join the Sun driven by
the force of like to like. The Moon derives from a different material, which is not hot. Its
function is also teleological, for without the Moon people could not calculate the seasons
and winds.


Ed.: R. Janko, “The Derveni Papyrus: an Interim Text,” ZPE 141 (2002) 11–62; Gábor Betegh, The
Derveni Papyrus (2004); Th. Kouremenos, G.M. Parássoglou, and K. Tsantsanoglou, The Derveni
Papyrus. Edited with Introduction and Commentary = Studi e testi per il “Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini”
13 (2006).
Gábor Betegh


Dexios (120 BCE – 25 CE)


Physician, recommended a salve of lime, psimuthion, pine-resin, peppercorns, beeswax
and wine, for hardening over the joints (C 5.18.36). The uncommon name is
known from the 5th c. BCE into the 2nd c. CE without geographical or chronological
concentration (LGPN).


RE 5.1 (1903) 287 (#3), M. Wellmann.
GLIM


Dexippos of Ko ̄s (400 – 360 BCE)


Greek physician, pupil of H (Souda Delta-238; G In Hipp. Acute Morb.
15.478 K.), invited by Hekatomnos, Karian king (ca 390 BCE), to treat his sons. He wrote a
treatise On medicine in one book and On prognosis in two books. He defended the theory that
drinks and liquefied food go to the lungs and was criticized by E (P,
Quaest. Conv. 7.1.3; Gellius, 17.11) for not understanding the function of the epiglottis,
which, according to Dexippos, simply directed the liquids in part to the stomach and in part
to the lungs. Erasistratos also criticized him for prescribing fasting and minimal liquids to
feverish patients (Gale ̄n Opt. Sect. Thras. 1.144 K.; On Venesection, Against Erasistratos 9 [11.182
K. = p. 35 Brain]). Dexippos attributes the cause of diseases to digestive residues (L-
  12.8–36), that is to bile and phlegm: for him they are a physiological
product that, in continuous change, is transformed into other substances, like sweat serum,
mucus, fat etc., but can be impaired by various circumstances, such as unsuitable or exces-
sive food or excessive heat or cold. From these alterations, particularly if blended with
blood, there derive a series of four pathological humors: cf. Hippokratic treatises, such as
Morb. I and Aff.


RE 5.1 (1903) 294–295, M. Wellmann; Grensemann (1975) 209–214; A. Thivel, Cnide et Cos? (1981)
111 – 114; BNP 4 (2004) 330, V. Nutton.
Daniela Manetti


Diade ̄s (330 – 310 BCE)


Wrote on mechanics and with K studied under P, traveled with Alexander
for whom he developed a massive “wall-borer” (truganon), moved by eight cylinders,


DIADE ̄S
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