(Strabo ̄n 13.3.22–23). He also explained the name “Musian” as the Ludian word for the
beech tree, common in Musia (idem 12.8.3).
RE 15.1 (1931) 801 (#25), P.E. Göbel; DPA 4 (2005) 442–443, R. Goulet.
PTK
Menekrate ̄s of Ephesos (330 – 270 BCE)
A philologist perhaps best known as the teacher of the astronomical poet A. He was
also the author of a poem in the He ̄siodic style called Wo r k s, in which the discussion of bee
varieties was apparently based on A’s Historia Animalium (cf. V, RR 3.16.18,
with HA 5.21 [553a25], 9.40 [624b21]). He seems thus to have been a pioneer in the early-
Hellenistic revival of scientifically-informed didactic poetry. He may also be identical to the
statesman who led a rebellion at Ephesos after the death of the diadoch L in 281
BCE (Polyain. 8.57).
Ed.: SH 542 – 550.
RE 15.1 (1931) 798 (#6), 800 (#16), P.E. Göbel; OCD3 958, J.S. Rusten; DPA 4 (2005) 443, R.
Goulet.
Philip Thibodeau
Menekrate ̄s of Surakousai (ca 350 BCE)
Greek physician who carried out a detailed study of the qualities (poio ̄te ̄tes) of bodies in his
work On medicine (L 19.18–20.1): bodies are formed of four elem-
ents, two of which are hot and two cold (blood and bile, phlegm and air). Good or bad
mixtures (krasis) result in health or disease; alterations produce flows or other secondary
substances such as red or black bile. Menekrate ̄s had enormous success in curing epilepsy
and demanded his patients obey him like slaves: contemporary comic poets mocked him
for calling himself Zeus and giving his patients names of other gods (Ath., Deipn. 7
[289a–b]). Philip II (359– 336 BCE) and Agesilaos (445– 359 BCE), to whom he wrote letters,
also ridiculed him.
RE 15.1 (1931) 802 (#29), H. Raeder; O. Weinreich, Menekrates Zeus und Salmoneus = Tübinger Beiträge zur
Altertumswissenschaft 18 (1933); RE S.9 (1962) 401, K. Deichgräber; D. Gourevitch, “Médecins fous,”
Evolution psychiatrique 47 (1982) 1113–1118; Gourevitch (1989) 246–248; G. Squillace, “Le lettere di
Menecrate/Zeus ad Agesilao di Sparta e Filippo II di Macedonia,” Kokalos 46 (2000) 175–191; AML
604, G. Marasco; BNP 8 (2006) 672–673 (#3), V. Nutton.
Daniela Manetti
Menekritos (350 BCE – 80 CE)
H A, in O, Coll. 48.53 (CMG 6.2.1, p. 286),
describes the winding of his exakros hand-bandage. H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, and H.S. Jones,
A Greek-Emglish Lexicon (1968), s.v., identify as M, but the name Menekritos is
attested, LGPN 3B.279, 4.229.
Fabricius (1726) 334.
PTK
MENEKRITOS