Kte ̄sias of Knidos (405 – 390 BCE)
Son of Kte ̄siarkhos, served as Artaxerxe ̄s II’s doctor for nearly two decades before returning
to Knidos where he wrote a multi-volume History of Persia; a one-volume Account of India; On
the Tributes of Asia; Voyages (or Periplous or Descriptions); and a Medical Treatise, preserved only
in fragments, including lengthy summaries in N D and in Pho ̄tios’
Bibliotheka, and extensive citations by D S. His Persian history was full of
historical and geographical error: e.g., he located Nineveh on the Euphrates. His description
of Babylo ̄n, although based on eye-witness with authentic details, also contained inaccur-
acies. He described Darius’ inscription at Bisitun, but credited it to Semiramis. He gave a
list (now lost) of places and distances in the Persian Empire. He was also interested in
bizarre and fantastic natural phenomena. The few extant fragments of his periplous sug-
gest that it covered Asia, Libya, and Italy; it was a mixture of geography and ethnography,
with fantasies such as the Skiapods (Shade-Foots). He claimed that his geographical and
ethnographical account of India was based on eye-witness; at best, it was based on Persians’
tales and riddled with fancies. He claimed that the Indus river is 200 stades wide and
contains only worms. His descriptions of animals range from exotic, to exaggerated, to
utterly fantastic: elephants, monkeys, the parrot, poisonous snakes with two different kinds
of venom, as well as the martikhora, the unicorn and the griffon. He described the Indians as
just and perfectly healthy; he reported on “Pygmies” and their diminutive livestock; and he
gave ethnographical detail about the “dog-headed people.” He also reported marvelous
physical phenomena, such as the “unquenchable fire” at Mount Khimaira. The marvels he
recorded became standard items in later accounts of eastern wonders.
Ed.: FGrHist 688; F.W. König, Die Persika des Ktesias von Knidos (1972); J. Auberger, trans., Ctésias, Histoires
de l’Orient (CUF 1991).
J.S. Romm, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (1992) 86–88.
Philip Kaplan
Kte ̄sibios of Alexandria (290 – 250 BCE)
Dated by an epigram of Hedulos, mentioning a pneumatic drinking horn with figurines
set up in a temple to honor Ptolemy II’s wife Arsinoe ̄ (Ath., Deipn. 11 [497d]). Kte ̄sibios
wrote on mechanical topics, but no treatise survives. P B refers to
two catapults driven by bronze springs and air pressure respectively (Artillery Construction 56,
67 – 73, 77–78) and A M. describes a seesaw tube for scaling walls (29). V-
probably had access to Kte ̄sibios’ work and presents him as the discoverer of the
principles of pneumatics (9.8.2, 10.7.4); he describes a number of Kte ̄sibios’ inventions:
water clocks with moving figurines, a water-organ, a water-pump and catapults, but leaves
out song-bird automata as frivolous. Kte ̄sibios begins the mechanical tradition continued by
Philo ̄n and H A, but it is impossible to judge the extent to which they
drew on his work.
Drachmann (1948); DSB 3.491–492, AG. Drachmann; BNP 3 (2003) 971–973, F. Krafft.
Karin Tybjerg
Kte ̄sipho ̄n (250 BCE – 25 CE)
P-G, I, discussing the medicinal efficacy as diaphore ̄tikai of
certain ingredients, cites Kte ̄sipho ̄n’s use of natron (14.764 K.). A records his
KTE ̄SIAS OF KNIDOS