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

(Ron) #1

Pseudo-Elias (Pseudo-David) (600 – 726 CE?)


Anonymous collection of 51 lectures, replete with medical learning, on P’
Isagoge (lectures 1–7 are lost), which the MS tradition connects to commentaries by Elias (on
the Isagoge and A’s Categories, CAG 18.1) and David (on the Isagoge, CAG 18.2). The
author seems Christian and probably taught at Constantinople. He cites G by name
(pp. 17.22, 24.12, 28.27–8, 35.3): e.g., ginger, pepper, and purethron exhibit similarity in
difference in degree, “as Gale ̄n writes” (p. 14.4–5; cf. Gale ̄n Simples 6.6.2 [11.880–882 K.],
8.16.11 [12.97 K.], 8.16.41 [12.110 K.]). The author distinguishes corporeal and incorpor-
eal bodies, simple and composite bodies, and composite bodies in equilibrium or dominated
by one property (e.g., wet, cold: pp. 35.2–4; cf. Gale ̄n, Bones for Beginners, pr. [2.733 K.];
contrast David, CAG 18.2 [1904] 151.18–28, who makes only the first distinction). The
author employs medical technical terminology (pp. 18.5: epidiaresis; 29.29: antembainein;
45.13: analo ̄sis), examples (p. 19.4: finger as a continuous quantity), and metaphors (p. 13.23:
suffering is to the soul as painful surgical cuts are to the ill). Westerink (p. ) surmises the
author may be “a professor of medicine giving an elementary course in logic.” Our author
considered himself a philosopher, but misunderstood P and basic Aristotelian logic.
Differences in presentation, style, emphasis, and approach to Porphurios’ text militate
strongly against identifying the author with either Elias or David.


Ed.: L.G. Westerink, Pseudo-Elias (Pseudo-David): Lectures on Porphyry’s Isagoge (1967).
GLIM


Emboularkhos (?) (30 BCE – 540 CE)


A  A 16.142 (Zervos 1901: 171) cites his fumigation recipe, containing bdel-
lium, cassia, cinnamon, saffron, malabathron, myrrh, spikenard, fresh and dried roses,
sturax, etc. The name is otherwise unattested and seems incorrectly formed; Boularkhos is
attested through the 1st c. BCE (LGPN), and perhaps Euboularkhos, though unattested, is
correct; alternatively, perhaps emend ΕΜΒΟYΛ- to ΠΟΛY- (cf. P, cited for
gynecological remedies).


Fabricius (1726) 148.
PTK


Emeritus (Hemeritos) (100 BCE – ca 400 CE?)


Author of remedies quoted in P, who calls Emeritus mulomedicus, “horse-doctor.”
The remedies are for cough (85, 99, 110); dysury (153); opisthotonos (272, 274); and colic
(290). Three, translated into Greek, figure in the Hippiatrika: on pneumonia (Pel. 72 =
Hippiatrica Berolinensia 7.5), cough (Pel. 85 = Hippiatrica Parisina 564), and a caustic ointment
for shoulders and hips known in Latin only from the Einsiedeln MS (XXXII.519, Corsetti,
53 – 54 = Hippiatrica Parisina 963 = Hippiatrica Berolinensia 96.23).


Fischer (1980); P.-P. Corsetti, “Un nouveau témoin de l’Ars veterinaria de Pelagonius,” Revue d’histoire des
textes 19 (1989) 31–56; CHG vv.1–2; McCabe (2007).
Anne McCabe


PSEUDO-ELIAS (PSEUDO-DAVID)
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