Kommiade ̄s (325 BCE – 75 CE)
Greek author of a treatise on winemaking read by P (14.120). The name is otherwise
unattested, but cf. Komniade ̄s of Corinth (LGPN 3A.254), or more likely Kosmiade ̄s of
De ̄los (LGPN 1.270, 3rd/2nd c. BCE).
RE 11.1 (1921) 1194, W. Kroll.
Philip Thibodeau
Kono ̄n of Samos (ca 250 – 200 BCE)
Mathematician and astronomer, courtier to Ptolemy III Euergete ̄s, A’ friend
and correspondent. Ptolemy (Phaseis) reports that Kono ̄n made astrometeorological obser-
vations in Italy and Sicily, but he seems to have spent much of his time at Alexandria.
K (Aet., fr.110) and Catullus (66) celebrated Kono ̄n for identifying the constel-
lation Coma Berenices, an opportune bit of courtiership. According to the charming story,
Ptolemy’s new queen, Berenike ̄, dedicated a lock of her hair (Latin: coma) in a temple for her
husband’s safe return from war. To her distress, the hair disappeared, but Kono ̄n claimed to
have found it transposed into the sky, between Virgo, Leo, and Boötes. Kono ̄n worked
on spirals, and on the intersection of conic sections, criticized by A P,
and is also reported to have written seven books on Astrologia. We know from reports and
attributions that he contributed to the parape ̄gmata tradition.
RE 11.2 (1922) 1338–1340, A. Rehm.
Daryn Lehoux
Kore ̄ Kosmou (ca 100 BCE – ca 400 CE)
H text known under the Greek title Hermou trismegistou ek te ̄s hieras biblou epikaloumene ̄s
kore ̄s kosmou (From Herme ̄s Trismegistos’ Sacred Book called the Pupil of the World), one of the
40 Hermetic fragments and extracts collected, among others, by I S in his
Anthologium. In this text, the goddess Isis, instructed by Herme ̄s, describes to her son Horus
the cosmogony, the creation of souls and their order, zoogony, and finally how the human
body was created to punish and imprison souls after their revolution. It also explains
how Isis and Osiris, educated by Herme ̄s Trismegistos, came to rule the world and to create
harmony by teaching crafts and science. Small parts of the text are devoted to astrology,
zoology and alchemy.
The Kore ̄ Kosmou is a representative work of the philosophical Hermetica. Other import-
ant hermetic philosophical and religious works include the Corpus Hermeticum, a Byzantine
collection of 17 Hermetic texts and the Asclepius, an extensive Hermetic compendium made
by the collection and abbreviation of several hermetic treatises. The original Greek text of
this compendium has been lost except for a few fragments and its content is mainly known
from its rather free Latin translation.
Ed.: A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugière, edd., Corpus Hermeticum (1946–1954).
Festugière (1949–1953); B.P. Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica (1992); Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Eso-
tericism (2005) 487–499, R. Van den Broek.
Aurélie Gribomont
KOMMIADE ̄S