This could even be true for Ophiaka, Iaseo ̄n sunago ̄ge ̄, and the epic transposition of H-
C P.
We are only concerned here with The ̄riaka and Alexipharmaka, the oldest monuments of a
science that flourished during the Hellenistic period. The study of scientific and literary
parallels (Jacques [2002] 2.–, –; cf. [2007] 3.–) shows that they
may be the work of a poet-physician belonging to Attalos III’s entourage. These poems,
between a proem to a relative/friend ( possibly a physician) and a sphragis (cf. the acrostic, The ̄r.
345 – 353/Alex. 266 – 274), deal with venoms/poisons and their antidotes, beginning with the
most dangerous (cobra/aconite). However similar they are in presentation, language and
style, there are differences. In Alexipharmaka, 22 vegetable, animal and mineral poisons are
the subject of tripartite articles (description, symptomatology and therapy) following each
other without any general preamble or any other rule but a sense of variety. The ̄riaka divides
poisonous creatures into two groups (1/snakes 2/arachnids and miscellaneous [description
and symptomatology only]), each followed by a collective therapy including hapla and sun-
theta pharmaka. The whole is both preceded and followed by general precepts, first on
prophylaxis and, at the end, on other methods of treatment (among which leeches are
quoted for the first time for medical use), and then crowned by an antidotos polumigmatos, a
panacea anticipating the great antidotes to come (Mithridateion, Gale ̄ne ̄). Some of the des-
criptions or symptomatologies are remarkable, i.e. proteroglyph fangs (The ̄r. 182 – 185),
side-winding progression (The ̄r. 264 – 270, cf. Jacques 2004: 120–121), viper and hemlock
poisoning (The ̄r. 235 – 257, Alex. 195 – 206).
Nikandros’ medical competence was not questioned in antiquity. His name appears in
a list of physicians in an MS of C (Wellmann, Hermes 35 [1900] 370). He is among
the medical auctores mentioned in P’s index of 17 books (e.g. those on medicinal
plants, 1.ind. 20 – 27); there are more parallels between Nikandros and Pliny/D
than the latter’s explicit references. In Dioskouride ̄s’ Vindob. med. gr. 1 and some other
MSS, E’ paraphraseis of Nikandros replace pseudo-Dioskouride ̄s’ iological books
(his portrait, f.3V). Far from being A’ versifier, Nikandros treats him freely,
as a professional pharmacologist, as he does his other predecessors (see N); and
the iologists that followed Nikandros (see P) sometimes used him tacitly
( Jacques [2002] 2.–). The concept of Nikandros, versifier of a subject alien to
him (Schneider), does not take medical poetry (of which he is a representative) into account.
All known iologists were physicians including those who expressed themselves in verse
such as Noume ̄nios and P. Polypharmacy manifests Nikandros’ Empiricist
tendency.
Ed.: O. Schneider (1856); Gow and Scholfield (1953); Jean-Marie Jacques v. 2 (2002): Les Thériaques,
Fragments iologiques antérieurs; 3 (2007): Les Alexipharmaques, Lieux parallèles du livre XIII des Iatrika d’Aétius.
Scholia: Theriaka: Crugnola (1971); Alexipharmaka: Geymonat (1974).
G. Pasquali, “I due Nicandri,” SIFC 20 (1913) 55–111; A. Cameron, Callimachus and his Critics (1995)
194 – 207; G. Massimilla, “Nuovi elementi per la cronologia di Nicandro,” in: R. Pretagostini, ed.,
La Letteratura ellenistica (2000) 127–137; Jean-Marie Jacques, “Médecine et poésie: Nicandre de
Colophon et ses poèmes iologiques,” in J. Jouanna and J. Leclant, edd., La médecine grecque antique =
Cahiers Kérylos 15 (2004) 109–124; Jean-Marie Jacques, “Situation de Nicandre de Colophon,” REA
109 (2007) 99–121.
Jean-Marie Jacques
NIKANDROS (NICANDER) OF KOLOPHO ̄N