plaster for breaking up, drawing in, and cleansing, in G CMGen 6.14 (13.927 K.).
A P. records, in Gale ̄n CMGen 6.16 (13.936–937 K.), Kte ̄sipho ̄n’s bees-
wax plaster – the most effective medicament against various types of tumors – compounded
of terebinth, beeswax, aged olive oil, and natron, dissolved in water, heated in a ceramic
pot over a fire until it stops rumbling, to which then liquids are added. The mixture, shaken
violently until it stops smearing, poured into a mortar, is then pounded before use. C,
reading CLESIPHON, recommends his treatment for joint pain (compounded from Cretan
beeswax, terebinth, olive oil, and the “reddest natron,” pounded for three days) also for
parotid swelling, diseased growths, scrofulous tumors, and for mollifying accrued humors
(5.18.31). Two botanical treatises, On Plants and On Trees, are attributed to the “historian”
Kte ̄sipho ̄n, perhaps conflated with our pharmacologist (FGrHist 294.3–4). Attestations of
Kte ̄sipho ̄n, known into the 3rd c. CE, are concentrated in the 4th/3rd cc. BCE (LGPN).
RE 11.2 (1922) 2079–2080 (#4), F.E. Kind.
GLIM
Kudias (of Kuthnos?) (370 – 340 BCE)
Painter, who developed a method of making ruddle (“red ochre”) from yellow ochre
(hydrated iron oxide) by roasting it, after observing the accidentally-caused effect: T-
, Stones 53. Theophrastos gives no ethnic, but the name is rare and especially
Athenian at this period (LGPN 2.276 and 1.277–278; contrast 3A.260, 3B.250, 4.204),
so probably identical to the mid-4th c. BCE painter from Kuthnos: P 35.130.
BNP 3 (2003) 1045 (#3), N. Hoesch.
PTK
Kudias of Mulasa (250 – 100 BCE)
He ̄rophilean physician, probably engaged in Hippokratic exegesis, censured by L-
K in three books (E Pr., p. 5 Nachm.); Ero ̄tianos himself censures
Kudias and I (I-20, p. 47.2 Nachm.).
von Staden (1989) 564–565; BNP 3 (2003) 1045 (#4), V. Nutton.
GLIM
Kuranides (50 – 200 CE?)
A Byzantine compilation of six books of Egyptian-Syrian origin. The work discusses
magical powers of stones, plants, and animals. Authorship is uncertain: Book 1 is attributed
to the Persian king Kuranos, augmented from a similar book by H
A (pr. 1.1.75, 1.1.128), while Books 2–6 are simply named Kuranides bibloi
(the compiler lamenting the loss of the corresponding books of Harpokratio ̄n). The work,
explicitly referring to Herme ̄s (pr.7, 1.4), relies on the broad H literary tradition
and is also related to the pseudo-Pythagorean and pseudo-De ̄mokritean occult and
popular tradition (see B, N,.. .).
The treatise’s extant title is “book on the natural faculties, sympathies and antipathies.”
Book 1 (also called Kuranis, possibly derived from the Egyptian word for “stele”) has 24
chapters, giving for each Greek letter the name of a plant, a bird, a stone, and a fish. Often
homonyms (for K the four items are called kinaidios; for A: vineyard, eagle, eagle-stone,
KURANIDES