cites Kleophantos with A as the authors of a multi-ingredient Mithridateios anti-
dote compounded from myrrh, varieties of nard, saffron, opium, storax, castoreum, cin-
namon, ginger, kostos, wormwood, rock salt, cassia, frankincense, balsam, opopanax,
galbanum, terebinth, etc., administered with Attic honey, not wine. Two more of
Kleophantos’ recipes are likewise recorded: a treatment for dropsy compounded from
beeswax, resin, aphronitron, galbanum, propolis, ammo ̄niakon incense, henna oil,
and vinegar (CMLoc 9.3, 13.262 K.) and a hedrike ̄, used by Andromakhos himself, com-
pounded from myrtle oil, mastich, rose, psimuthion, litharge, wine, and beeswax
(CMLoc 9.6, 13.310 K.).
Watson (1966) 37–43; KP 3.251, F. Kudlien; BNP 3 (2003) 447 (#3), V. Nutton.
Alain Touwaide
Kleophantos of Keo ̄s (270 – 240 BCE)
The son of Kleombrotos, a physician (R E, Kidney and Bladder Diseases, 4.32
= CMG 3.1, p. 128), and the brother of E, both of whom were students of
K K (II) (Gossen and Kind; cf. pseudo-S in V. Rose, ed.,
Anecdota, 2.226–227). Kleophantos founded his own medical group, whose students included
M S and A (G, In Hipp. Epid. III 2.4, CMG 5.10.2.1, p. 77;
C A, Acute 2.56 [Drabkin, p. 158; CML 6.1.1, p. 164]; and Wellmann
1891: 814–815). It is likely that Kleophantos was in Alexandria while H and
Erasistratos were conducting dissections of human cadavers. Kleophantos composed a work
on the medical benefits of wine, prescribing it, chilled, after soaking the head in hot water,
for tertian fever (C 3.14.1; Caelius Aurelianus, Acute 2.230–231 [p. 284]; cf. P
26.14). Celsus (ibid.), identifying him as one of the antiqui medici, clearly distinguishes this
Kleophantos from the later homonym.
Pliny 20.30–31, in his typical manner of “.. .parallel sources piled one on another”
(Scarborough 1986: 75), has a multi-layered account of staphylinus, usually Latin’s pastinaca
(Grk. staphulinos = D 3.52), that includes Kleophantos (along with D
and P) as sources for the uses of this “wild carrot” (Daucus carota L.), which
Kleophantos recommends for chronic dysentery. He also wrote an 11-book Gynecology,
respectfully quoted by So ̄ranos, who nonetheless faults the earlier author for not detailing
“all the causes of difficult labor” (Gynecology, 4[1].53.3: CMG 4, pp. 129–130; v. 4, p. 3 CUF),
and appends similar observations from He ̄rophilos’ Midwifery, and from D
A. Kleophantos was a respected authority on drugstuffs and gynecology, but is not
firmly associated with either He ̄rophileans or Erasistrateans.
M. Wellmann, “Die Medicin bis in die zweite Hälfte des zweiten Jahrhunderts” in GGLA 1.777–828;
RE 11.1 (1921) 790, H. Gossen and F.E. Kind; J. André, Pline l’Ancien Histoire naturelle Livre
XX (CUF 1965) 138; John Scarborough, “Pharmacy in Pliny’s Natural History,” in R. French and
F. Greenaway, edd., Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence (1986)
59 – 85.
John Scarborough
Kleostratos of Tenedos (530 – 470 BCE)
After A (P 2.31). He may have been the first to introduce the okta-
ete ̄ris, an eight year cycle consisting of 99 lunar months, five years of 12 months and
KLEOSTRATOS OF TENEDOS