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)