The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

(Ron) #1

Papyrus Oslo. 72 (100 – 130 CE)


Fragment on the treatment of epilepsy and paraplexy by diet; the etiology given is the brain
“and what comes from it” (cf. A 5.4–5).


Pack #2384.
PTK


Papyrus Osloensis 73 (ca 150 BCE – 50 CE?)


This papyrus of ca 100 CE contains one column describing the use of a dioptra to measure
the apparent solar diameter (cf. A, Sand-reckoner 1.10), and a water-clock to find
the rising time of the sun (from first to last contact with the horizon); the two measurements
both yield an angular measure of the apparent solar diameter as ½ ̊ (cf. K 2.1).


P. Osloenses 3 (1936) #73.
PTK


Papyrus Oxyrhynchos 3.467 (75 – 125 CE)


Two fragmentary alchemical recipes preserved in POxy 3, #467 (= Pack #1999), dated
to the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd c. CE. The first recipe is for coloring silver
to appear like gold, while the second is for purifying ase ̄mos by cupellation.


Ed.: Halleux (1981) 155–158.
Bink Hallum


Papyrus Oxyrhynchos 3.470 (300 BCE – 280 CE?)


This papyrus of the 3rd c. CE describes the construction of a pesseute ̄rion (marked with the
“House of Horus,” Phoror, and the “House of Beauty,” Phernouphis), i.e., a calendar-abacus
similar to the Egyptian “Senet” game, and secondly of a water-clock.


POxy 3 (1903) #470; W. Decker, Sports and Games of Ancient Egypt (1992).
PTK


Papyrus Oxyrhynchos 13.1609 (ca 300 BCE – 100 CE)


This papyrus of ca 125 CE contains part of a column rejecting the “efflux” theory of
vision held by D, E, and E, and referring to the author’s
commentary on P’s Timaios.


POxy 13 (1919) #1609.
PTK


Papyrus Oxyrhynchos 15.1796 (De plantis Aegyptiis) (100 BCE – 100 CE?)


A fragment in 22 wholly readable hexameters from a poem on Nilotic countryside pre-
served in the second column of POxy 1796. The fragments, treating cyclamen or, maybe,
sycamore (vv. 1–11), and persea (now called Mimusops by botanists: cf. P 13.60, 15.45)
and its flourishing (vv. 12–22), derive from the tradition of Alexandrian didactic poetry: for
example, we know that N had written a Georgics mentioning cyclamen (fr.74 G.),
and one of K’ fragments treats the Egyptian origin of persea (fr.655 Pf.). Our


PAPYRUS OXYRHYNCHOS 15.1796
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