(14.144 K.), torn between disapproval and necessity of comprehensiveness, mentions
Orpheus “Theologus,” with O ̄ M (emended to B by Kern) and H-
A, as compounders of poisons. A A 1.175 (CMG 8.1, p. 80),
in discussing calamint, records Orpheus’ burn ointment (grind calamint juice and rose oil
with psimuthion to gummy consistency), and 1.139 (p. 70) preserves Orpheus’ treatment
for consumption compounded from spikenard, ginger, elelisphakos seeds, long pepper, given
before breakfast and at bedtime, with pure water.
Ed.: O. Kern, Orphica Fragmenta (1922) #319–331.
RE 18.2 (1942) 1338–1341, 1341–1417 (esp. §23: 1400–1406), R. Keydell; 18.3 (1949) 1137–1166 (§4,
1142), K. Ziegler (s.v. Paradoxographoi); KP 4.358, Idem; West (1983) 32–33, 37; OCD3 1078 – 1079,
F. Graf (s.v. “Orphic literature”); DPA 4 (2005) 843–858, L. Brisson.
GLIM
Orthagoras (330 – 310 BCE)
A companion of N C, who apparently composed his own description
of the coastal voyage from the Indus to Mesopotamia, cited by S 16.3.5 and
A, NA 16.35 and 17.6 (very large whale).
FGrHist 713; BNP 10 (2007) 259 (#2), K. Karttunen.
PTK
Ortho ̄n of Sicily (120 BCE – 100 CE)
K, in G CMLoc 1.2 (12.403 K.), records Ortho ̄n’s recipe against alo ̄pekia (mange),
including white hellebore and white pepper, not to mention ashed frogs and mouse-dung.
The use of white pepper suggests a date after Indian trade made it more available. The
unusual name is common in Sicily and south Italy, 3rd–1st cc. BCE: LGPN 3A.345; but
attested only thrice elsewhere, 1.354. (Kühn, followed by LGPN 3A.338, prints “Otho” the
cognomen attested since the late Republic: cf. L. Roscius Otho, in C, Murena 40.)
Fabricius (1726) 354, s.v. Otho.
PTK
Ostane ̄s, pseudo (ca 50 BCE – 50 CE?)
Disputed legendary figure, first cited by H (D L, pr.2), placing
Ostane ̄s among the early Magi, priests of Zoroaster (dated to 5,000 years before the fall of
Troy). P (30.3–11) raised doubts about this tradition, but assumed that the first to write
about Zoroastrian “magic” was a certain Ostane ̄s who followed Xerxe ̄s into Greece. Pliny
30.9 assumed that these magical books would have been so intriguing that P,
E, D and P would have desired to learn this science. Such a
legend (and the writings attributed to Ostane ̄s) probably developed within the Alexandrian
intellectual framework some years before Pliny (Smith), who attributed to the Persian sages
necromancy and various forms of divination. In addition, Pliny (28.5–7; 30.14, 69, 256,
261) wrote that Ostane ̄s was an expert in the use of human and animal body parts for
medical purposes. Among the works falsely attributed to Ostane ̄s, P B
(FGrHist 790 F4.52 = E PE 1.10.52) cites the Oktateukhos, wherein the Persian
author seemingly teaches non-Iranian doctrines (e.g., a hawk-headed god). Sources from the
OSTANE ̄S, PSEUDO