Ed.: GGM 1.563–573.
Diller (1952) 151–164; F.J. González Ponce, “El Periplo Griego antiquo: Verdadera Guí a de viajes o
mero género literario? El ejemplo de Menipo de Pérgamo,” Habis 24 (1993) 69–76.
Daniela Dueck
M R ⇒ M R
Me ̄nodo ̄ros of Smurna (85 – 35 BCE)
Friend of the Erasistratean H S, and offered dietary advice including
remarks on squashes and their preparation: Ath., Deipn. 2 (59a). A, in G
CMLoc 7.3 (13.64 K.), preserves R’ preparation of a cough-syrup, for sufferers from
phthisis, named after Me ̄nodo ̄ros. O, Coll. 46.11 (CMG 6.2.1, p. 222), records
his work as a surgeon, and his procedure in cases of skull fracture (to excise all damaged
bone). P. C C 1 records his practice in eye-surgery. Michler (1968a) identifies
M with this man, but all the names Me ̄nodo ̄ros, Me ̄nodotos, and Me ̄nophilos
are sufficiently common (LGPN) to render such equation otiose.
RE S.9 (1962) 402, J. Kollesch; S.11 (1968) 934–935, M. Michler; Idem (1968) 71, 113–114.
PTK
Me ̄nodotos (Astr.) (250 BCE – 100 CE?)
Wrote a commentary on A (FGrHist 1026 T 19), entirely lost.
(*)
PTK
Me ̄nodotos of Nikome ̄deia (105 – 145 CE)
Empiricist physician, pupil (with T L) of the Skeptic philosopher
Antiokhos of Laodikeia, and teacher of the Skeptical He ̄rodotos of Tarsos (in the catalogue
of D L 9.115; it is doubtful whether the physician is the Me ̄nodotos to
whom Diogene ̄s Laërtios ascribes the catalogue itself; it is also controversial whether to
read the name of Me ̄nodotos in S E Pyrrh. hyp. 1.222 regarding P’s
skepticism). Of his works we only know that one of them, in several books, was dedicated
to a certain Seuerus ( perhaps the Cn. Claudius Seuerus, Peripatetic, interlocutor of
the emperor M. Aurelius: SHA, Marc. 3.3 and M. Aur. ad se ipsum 1.14), and that about it
G wrote a lost work in 11 books (On My Own Books 2.115 MMH; Subf. emp. 11); it is still
uncertain whether we should read the name of Me ̄nodotos in the title of Gale ̄n’s lost
Protreptikos (On My Own Books, ibid.).
The fact that Me ̄nodotos is frequently mentioned by Gale ̄n in The Outline of Empiricism
and in other works had suggested the idea that he was the main source of Gale ̄n for
Empirical doctrine, and more generally that he played the role of an innovator in the
development of Empirical doctrine (Favier went so far as to view him as a forerunner of
modern experimental science). It is unclear, however, the real extent of Me ̄nodotos’ innov-
ations in the elaboration of the Empiricist doctrine created by H T
(who was used by Gale ̄n as well): certainly Me ̄nodotos, as well as He ̄rakleide ̄s, has a ten-
dency to give more importance to the “rational” element in the doctrine of the “school.” In
ME ̄NODOTOS OF NIKOME ̄DEIA