Easter foods to have avoided

“Lambs have flesh that is extremely moist and phlegmy, while the flesh of adult sheep is more productive of residues and bad humours. The flesh of she-goats produces bad humours accompanied by acridity; but the worst is the flesh of he-goats, both with respect to good humours and digestion, followed by that of rams, then that of bulls. In all these cases animals that have been castrated are better. Old animals are the worst relative to digestion and good humours and nourishment, so that even in the case of pigs, although they have a moist temperament, the old ones are sinewy and dry, and for this reason their flesh is difficult to digest. The flesh of hares meanwhile is productive of thicker blood and better for good humours than the flesh of cattle or sheep.”

ὑγροτάτην δ' ἔχουσι καὶ φλεγματώδη σάρκα καὶ οἱ ἄρνες. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν προβάτων ἡ σὰρξ περιττωματικωτέρα τέ ἐστι καὶ κακοχυμοτέρα. κακόχυμος δὲ καὶ ἡ τῶν αἰγῶν μετὰ δριμύτητος. ἡ δὲ τῶν τράγων χειρίστη καὶ πρὸς εὐχυμίαν καὶ πρὸς πέψιν, ἐφεξῆς δ' ἡ τῶν κριῶν, εἶθ' ἡ τῶν ταύρων. ἐν ἅπασι δὲ τούτοις τὰ τῶν εὐνουχισθέντων ἀμείνω. τὰ δὲ πρεσβυτικὰ χείριστα πρός τε πέψιν καὶ πρὸς εὐχυμίαν καὶ θρέψιν, ὥστε καὶ τῶν ὑῶν αὐτῶν, καίτοι γε ὑγρῶν ὄντων τὴν κρᾶσιν, οἱ γηράσαντες ἰνώδη καὶ ξηρὰν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο δύσπεπτον ἔχουσι τὴν σάρκα. καὶ τοῦ λαγωοῦ δ' ἡ σὰρξ αἵματος μέν ἐστι παχυτέρου γεννητική, βελτίων δ' εἰς εὐχυμίαν ἢ κατὰ βοῦς καὶ πρόβατα.

Galen, On the properties of foods 3.1, 6.663–664 K.

Eggs and Invisible Ink

How did Giambattista della Porta end up being associated with an ancient way of hiding secret messages inside of boiled eggs?

I recently stumbled across a trick for hiding secret messages inside of eggs. It’s in the 10th-century compendium known as the Geoponica or Farm Work:

“To make inscriptions on eggs. From Africanus. Grind up oak gall and alum with vinegar until it reaches the thickness of black ink. Use it to write whatever you want on the egg. Once the writing has dried in the sun, place the egg into a sharp brine. Once it has dried, boil it, and when you have peeled it, you will find the inscription.”

Ὠὰ κατάγραπτα ποιῆσαι. Ἀφρικανοῦ. Κικίδος καὶ στυπτηρίας μετὰ ὄξους τρίψας, ἕως γένηται πάχος μέλανος, ἐπίγραψον ἐξ αὐτοῦ ὃ θέλεις τῷ ὠῷ, καὶ ψυγείσης τῆς γραφῆς ἐν ἡλίῳ κατάθες τὸ ὠὸν εἰς ἅλμην δριμεῖαν, καὶ ψύξας ἕψησον, καὶ λεπίσας εὑρήσεις τὴν ἐπιγραφήν.

Geoponica 14.10 (roughly 10th century, originally 3rd century CE)

The compiler of the Geoponica attributes the recipe to someone named Africanus. Scholars typically identify him with Julius Africanus, a Libyan philosopher of the second and third century CE. Africanus was a Christian (before it was popular), spent time in and around Judaea and Rome, exchanged letters with Origen, and wrote a book called Kestoi—an encyclopedic mix of rhetoric, natural philosophy and what he called ‘forbidden investigations’ (ἱστορίαι ἀπόρρητοι).

From the Kestoi (if that’s where it originally was) the recipe would have found its way into a country-knowledge Compendium of Farming Practices (Συναγωγὴ γεωργικῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων) by Vindonius Anatolius sometime in the 4th century CE; and from there into a 6th-century work called Selections on Farming (περὶ γεωργίας ἐκλογαί) compiled by Cassianus Bassus, now lost, but which was a major source for the Geoponica. That’s the standard story anyway.

But if you try to find anything about Africanus’ recipe on the internet, you’ll notice three things: first, no one can get it to work; second; it’s nearly always missing one of its ingredients, namely oak gall; and third, it’s never attributed to Africanus, but to Giambattista della Porta, the 16th century Italian polymath and author of the Magia Naturalis or Natural Magic.

The story associating della Porta with the recipe usually goes something like this: Giambattista della Porta (or Giovanni Porta in some versions) and his friends were having trouble with the Church and they needed a way to get messages to those of them imprisoned by the Inquisition. To do this, della Porta invented a technique for writing messages where no one would ever expect: on the inside of hardboiled eggs. Here are a few re-tellings: 1, 2, 3, 4.

The story is popular enough that it even made it into della Porta’s Wikipedia page.

From the English Wikipedia entry for Giambattista della Porta, 27 March 2021.

Now, the story isn’t completely wrong. In chapter four of book sixteen of the Magia Naturalis, della Porta does write about secret messages in eggs. And at the beginning of the chapter, he writes:

“…eggs are not stopped by the Papal Inquisition and no fraud is suspected to be in them…”

…pontificalium suffragiorium comittiis ova non incipiuntur nec aliquid fraudis in eis suspicatur…

della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4 (Latin 1590, English 1658).

So, the inquisition thing is pretty much right, although whether he’s being serious is an open question.

A quick check of the chapter, however, reveals one big difference: della Porta does not take credit for the recipe. He attributes it to Africanus. Even more importantly he says he couldn’t get it to work:

“Africanus teaches thus: ‘grind oak galls and alum with vinegar, until they have the viscosity of ink. With it, inscribe whatever your want on the egg and once the writing has been dried by the sun, place the egg in sharp brine, and having dried it, cook it, peel, and you will find the inscription.’ I put it in vinegar and nothing happened, unless by ‘brine’, he meant sharp lye, what’s normally called capitellum*.”

Africanus ita docet. Gallas et alumen cum aceto terito, donec atramenti spissitudinem habeant, ex hoc quicquid libuerit ouo inscribito, et postquam scriptum Sole desiccatum fuerit, ouum in muriam acrem demittito, et resiccatum coquito, et decorticato, et reperies inscriptionem. Ego in acetum imposui, et nihil evenit, si per muriam non intelligat acre lixiviu, vulgo capitello dictum.**

della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4 (Latin 1590, English 1658)

*capitellum: a mixture of quicklime and oak ashes. See Magia Naturalis 9.3 where it is used in a black hair dye (English).

**Della Porta’s text is nearly a word for word translation of the Greek from the Geoponica, and it is also similar, but not identical, to Cornarius’ 1538 Latin translation.

Despite his failure in replicating it, della Porta found Africanus’ recipe tempting enough that he devised another method to try to get it to work. This one is almost never found online, so I’ll append it at the end. To summarize, he says one should first boil the egg, coat it in wax, and then inscribe the message in the wax through to the shell (like when doing etching); next, he says to put the egg in a solution of alum and gall (for how long is unclear), followed by a solution of sharp vinegar (again unclear), after which the egg is dried and the shell removed to find the message in saffron-coloured writing (and even this technique resembles another attributed to Africanus in the Geoponica).

I began to wonder how the mistaken attribution first came about, so I clicked on the footnote at the end of the story on Wikipedia, assuming I’d find something. And I did find something, just not what I expected.

Oak galls. Easter 2021.

The footnote pointed to page 227 of a 2015 book called Philalethe Reveal'd Vol. 2 B/W, the text of which was almost identical to the Wikipedia story and didn’t include any references. I checked other languages to see if I could find better sources. I checked French, Italian, Spanish and German versions of the article, but the story didn’t show up in any other languages at all.

This made me even more confused. Surely this story didn’t just appear in a 2015 book. And why was it only in English?

Wikipedia is great because it preserves the entire edit history for every article on the site. I wanted to find out when the story about the egg was added to see if it might give me some clues to other possible sources.

The story turns out to have been added on 23 December 2012—three years before the book in the footnote was published. But whoever it was who added the story (looks to have been someone interested in British art and museum collections in London) didn’t give a reference.

It was orphaned until 2015, when someone made a note that it needed a citation; the request remained unfulfilled until February 2017, when the reference to the 2015 book was added.

That meant the story was on Wikipedia for five years before the reference was added—long enough for this beautiful example of circular referencing to appear: the book, Philalethe Reveal’d (ironic) copied the story from the Wiki, was published, and was then cited as an authority for the Wikipedia story it nicked. It also meant this trail had come to an end.

I had to start from somewhere else; and since many of the websites I looked into besides Wikipedia mentioned a 2014 book on invisible inks by Kristie Macrakis, a professor at Georgia Tech, I started from there.

Macrakis’ version of the story resembles the Wikipedia version, but with a bit more flair. The book also came out two years after the story appeared in the Wiki, so Macrakis’ version could have been a descendent. I think, however, there’s reason to think that her version and the Wiki one are more distantly related. While both versions of the recipe leave ingredients out, they leave out different ingredients. The Wiki leaves out vinegar. Macrakis leaves out oak gall.

As some people on the internet have pointed out, it’s hard to understand how this recipe could work without a pigment (here’s a comment from a thread on reddit; and here’s a post by Craig Matsuoka in a magician’s forum, which was also published in the October 2002 volume of Genii magazine—Matsuoka and his interlocutor Stephen Minch correctly point out that della Porta is debunking Africanus, although they don’t follow it up). I think this insight is more likely to have been inspired by reading the Wiki (or its ancestor) than by reading della Porta, but it seems right. Alum on its own wouldn’t stain anything.

At any rate, it’s not much of a surprise that Macrakis and colour chemist Jason Lye report they couldn’t get the recipe to work. In an appendix (page 311), she appeals to anyone who’s gotten it to work to get in touch with them. On her website she also offers a $200 prize to anyone who can replicate it (Jason Lye also posted a video of one attempt).

I did find someone who mentioned a video on the internet purporting to do the trick with just alum and vinegar. I managed to find a creepy video from 2007—a pretty early date—which I think is the one. If it’s authentic, well, cool. But it’s likely a clever fake.

View fullsize

Old ways to play with your food. New York Times, 29 May 1965, page 14.

Macrakis however gives an even earlier source for the vinegar and alum recipe, well before Wikipedia: a New York Times article from 1965, in which it’s reported that the United States Department of Agriculture recommends parents encourage their kids to eat more eggs by teaching them to write secret messages on the inside using a ‘magic ink’ made of vinegar and alum. 

No doubt building on the popularity of ‘60s spy toys, they told kids to mix one ounce of alum with one cup of vinegar, then use the colorless magic ink to write a message on the shell of an uncooked egg. Once it was dry, one only had to boil the egg for 15 minutes, and—so the USDA promised—whatever secret was written on the shell would show up inside on the white of the boiled egg.

I have found a few leads that may be the USDA’s ultimate source, some dating back to the turn of the 20th century, and I’m sure there are others as well. All of these sources are missing the oak gall and none of them mention della Porta. How the one dropped out and the other dropped in is still a mystery…

For now, here are Africanus’ and della Porta’s recipes for writing messages in eggs. I also tried to reproduce Africanus’ version, with and without oak gall (well, a tannin anyway). It didn’t work.

Julius Africanus’ recipe for leaving a secret message in an egg

“To make inscriptions on eggs. From Africanus.

“Grind up oak gall and alum with vinegar until it reaches the thickness of black ink. Use it to write whatever you want on the egg. Once the writing has dried in the sun, place the egg into a sharp brine. Once it has dried, boil it, and when you have peeled it, you will find the inscription.

“If you coat the egg all over with wax and inscribe it until the shell appears through the letters, then leave it to soak in vinegar overnight, on the next day, after removing the wax, you will find that the vinegar has made the outline of the letters transparent.”

Ὠὰ κατάγραπτα ποιῆσαι. Ἀφρικανοῦ.

Κικίδος καὶ στυπτηρίας μετὰ ὄξους τρίψας, ἕως γένηται πάχος μέλανος, ἐπίγραψον ἐξ αὐτοῦ ὃ θέλεις τῷ ὠῷ, καὶ ψυγείσης τῆς γραφῆς ἐν ἡλίῳ κατάθες τὸ ὠὸν εἰς ἅλμην δριμεῖαν, καὶ ψύξας ἕψησον, καὶ λεπίσας εὑρήσεις τὴν ἐπιγραφήν. Εἰ δὲ κηρῷ περιπλάσας τὸ ὠὸν ἐπιγράψεις ἄχρις ἂν φανῇ τὸ ἔλυτρον τοῖς γράμμασιν, εἶτα ἐάσεις ὄξει βρέχεσθαι τὴν νύκτα, τῇ ἑξῆς περιελὼν τὸν κηρόν, εὑρήσεις τῶν γραμμάτων τὸν τύπον ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄξους γενόμενον διαφανῆ.

Geoponica 14.10 (roughly 10th century, recipe originally 3rd century CE, probably)

Giambattista della Porta’s recipe for leaving a secret message in an egg

“If you want to make yellow letters appear on an egg white (it will work better when the egg is cooked): Boil an egg hard, roll it in wax, and engrave the letters on the wax with an iron point so that the marks go through. Place it into a solution of powdered alum and oak galls. Then put it into sharp vinegar and they will penetrate. And taking off the shell, you will see them on the white of the egg. Africanus instructs as follows: ‘grind oak galls and alum with vinegar, until they have the viscosity of ink. With it, inscribe whatever your want on the egg and once the writing has been dried by the sun, place the egg in sharp brine, and having dried it, cook it, peel, and you will find the inscription.’ I put it in vinegar and nothing happened, unless by ‘brine’, he meant sharp lye, what’s normally called capitellum.”

 Si vis autem ut litera supra albumen videantur croceae et rectius, ubi ovum excoctum fuerit: Coque ovum donec durescat et cera obline et insculpe literas stylo, ut liturae dehiscent, imponatur in humore, id est, ex gallis cum alumine tritis. Inde acri aceto impones et eae fient pentrabiles, quas cortice, detecto videbis in albumine ovi. Africanus ita docet. Gallas et alumen cum aceto terito, donec atramenti spissitudinem habeant, ex hoc quicquid libuerit ouo inscribito, et postquam scriptum Sole desiccatum fuerit, ouum in muriam acrem demittito, et resiccatum coquito, et decorticato, et reperies inscriptionem. Ego in acetum imposui, et nihil evenit, si per muriam non intelligat acre lixiviu, vulgo capitello dictum.

Giambattista della Porta, Magia Naturalis 16.4, 1590 (English, 1658)

View fullsize

The Ingredients

View fullsize

Mixing the Ink and Inscribing

View fullsize

Control: Painting with Alum + Vinegar

View fullsize

Drying in the Sunshine

View fullsize

Placing the Eggs in Sharp Brine

View fullsize

Re-Drying

View fullsize

Boiling the Eggs

View fullsize

The First Disappointment

View fullsize

Inside of the Shell

View fullsize

Half Shell

View fullsize

Results Summary

View fullsize

Taking Control

View fullsize

Letting it Dry

View fullsize

Ink on Albumin

View fullsize

To be continued

Cat Bites

“For the bites of lions, leopards and bears.

“Their bites are terrible as are the ones of those like them. Because these animals, ferocious and hooked-clawed as they are, entwine their piercing claws when they attack, bodies end up ripped to pieces. With relentless gnawing, they not only tear the flesh apart, but sometimes even shatter the bones, which also sever the adjacent nerves. Clearly, then, the parts of the body that encounter such great misfortunes are susceptible to the dangers of gangrene—for even the parts that remain attached suffer sepsis and bring on wide-spread ulceration.

“Therefore, wash out these kinds of wounds with vinegar. Remove and extract the bits of body and bone that have come off while washing. Then one must use plasters. And following the suppuration of the parts of the body that have been torn apart, provide follow-up treatment with sterilizing gauze and promote scaring (as with ordinary wounds). The plasters suitable for this are those catalogued under Prepared with salt and the like, whichever ones are the same.”

Πρὸς τὰ τῶν Λεόντων δήγματα καὶ Παρδάλεων καὶ Ἄρκτων

Δεινὰ δὲ καὶ τούτων καὶ τῶν τούτοις παραπλησίων τὰ δήγματα· ὅτι ἄλκιμα ὄντα ταῦτα τὰ ζῶα καὶ γαμψώνυχα συμπλέκεται, ὅπου δ' ἂν ἅψηται, καταπείροντα τοὺς ὄνυχας, διασπαράττει τὰ σώματα· τῇ δὲ ἐπιμονῇ τῆς μασήσεως οὐ μόνον τὰς σάρκας διασπαράττει ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ ἐνίοτε κατάγνυσιν, ὑφ' ὧν καὶ τὰ παρακείμενα νύσσεται νεῦρα· εὔδηλον οὖν ὡς τὰ ταῖς τοιαύταις καὶ τοσαύταις συμφοραῖς περιπεσόντα σώματα οὐκ ἐκφεύγει τὸν τῆς ἀλλοτριώσεως κίνδυνον· καὶ γὰρ μένοντα σῆψιν ἀναδέχεται καὶ νομὰς ἐπιφέρει.

Ὄξει δ' οὖν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν τραυμάτων ἐκπλύνοντες καὶ περιελόντες καὶ κομισάμενοι τὰ ἀποπλυνόμενα σώματα καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ, ἐμπλάστροις χρὴ παραλαβεῖν· καὶ μετὰ τὴν διαπύησιν τῶν σπαραχθέντων σωμάτων, τοῖς ἀνακαθαίρουσιν ἐμμότοις ἀποθεραπεύειν καὶ εἰς οὐλὴν ἄγειν, ὡς τὰ κοινὰ ἕλκη. Ἔμπλαστροι δὲ καὶ τούτοις ἁρμόδιοι, αἱ δι' ἁλῶν ἐπιγεγραμμέναι καὶ αἱ παραπλήσιοι, οἵα ἐστὶν αὕτη.

Aetius of Amida, Medical Books 13.3, 265,23–266,11 Zervos

Herodian on the long peak of the Antonine Plague’s second wave

I’ve stayed away from posts about plague recently, but it’s been nearly a year since Berlin went into its first lockdown and I’ve found myself revisiting stories about the Antonine Plague—especially about how the city’s doctors, politicians and ordinary citizens responded to a crisis that seemed to go on for ages (it nearly led to civil war according to some sources). Here’s a little bit from the historian Herodian on doctor-recommended treatments for the rich (the emperor Commodus) and the rest (the ordinary inhabitants of the city). The narrative is familiar: lack of social distancing, travel, close quarters with animals, awareness of a need for face-protection; but also, while the treatments for both rich and poor were roughly the same (viz., aromatherapy), the outcomes were not.

“It so happened at this time that Italy was in the grip of the plague. The suffering was especially intense in the city of Rome, as it was naturally overcrowded and received people from all over the world. And there was great destruction of animals and people.

“At that point, on the advice of some doctors, Commodus retired to Laurentum. For the town, being cooler and shaded by large laurel groves (hence the town’s name), seemed to be a safe place; and he is said to have withstood the corrupting power of the air by means of the fragrant vapours from the laurels and the pleasant shade of the trees.

“Meanwhile, at their doctors’ urging, those in the city filled their nostrils and ears with the most fragrant perfumes and continually used incense and aromatics, since some of the doctors said the fragrance, entering first, filled the sensory passages and prevented the corrupting power of the air from getting in; and if any should get in, it would be overpowered by [the fragrance’s] stronger power.

“Only—it made no difference: the sickness continued to peak for a long time, with great destruction of people and of all sorts of domesticated animals.”

συνέβη δὲ κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ λοιμώδη νόσον κατασχεῖν τὴν Ἰταλίαν· μάλιστα δὲ τὸ πάθος <ἐν> τῇ Ῥωμαίων πόλει ἤκμασεν ἅτε πολυανθρώπῳ τε οὔσῃ φύσει καὶ τοὺς πανταχόθεν ὑποδεχομένῃ, πολλή τέ τις φθορὰ ἐγένετο ὑποζυγίων ἅμα καὶ ἀνθρώπων. τότε ὁ Κόμοδος συμβουλευσάντων αὐτῷ τινῶν ἰατρῶν ἐς τὴν Λαύρεντον ἀνεχώρησεν· εὐψυχέστερον γὰρ ὂν τὸ χωρίον καὶ μεγίστοις κατάσκιον δαφνηφόροις ἄλσεσιν (ὅθεν καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῷ χωρίῳ) σωτήριον εἶναι ἐδόκει, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀέρος φθορὰν ἀντέχειν ἐλέγετο εὐωδίᾳ τε τῆς τῶν δαφνῶν ἀποφορᾶς καὶ τῇ τῶν δένδρων ἡδείᾳ σκιᾷ. ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν κελευόντων τῶν ἰατρῶν μύρου εὐωδεστάτου τάς τε ὀσφρήσεις καὶ τὰ ὦτα ἐνεπίμπλασαν, θυμιάμασί τε καὶ ἀρώμασι συνεχῶς ἐχρῶντο, φασκόντων τινῶν τὴν εὐωδίαν φθάσασαν ἐμπιπλάναι τοὺς πόρους τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ κωλύειν δέχεσθαι τὸ φθορῶδες τοῦ ἀέρος, ἢ εἰ καί τι προεμπέσοι, κατεργάζεσθαι δυνάμει κρείττονι. πλὴν οὐδὲν ἧττον ἡ νόσος ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἤκμασε, πολλῆς ἀνθρώπων φθορᾶς γενομένης πάντων τε ζῴων <τῶν> τοῖς ἀνθρώπων συνοίκων.

Herodian, History Following the Death of the Divine Marcus Aurelius 1.12.1–2

A Prescription for Julius Caesar

“They say that Caesar had an epileptic fit brought on by an unending winter, but that he was later treated by drinking the juice of the Heraclean plant with the rennet from a seal. It’s not surprising if Caesar was able to get his hands on seal rennet. Aretas, however, the phylarch of Arab Scenitae, wrote a letter to Claudius Caesar about a treatment using birds. He says the liver of a vulture roasted along with the blood and taken with honey three times a week gives relief from epilepsy. Likewise, the heart of the vulture, when dried, taken with water in the same manner, is equally effective.”

Ὅτι τὸν Καίσαρά φασιν ἐξ ἀπείρου χειμῶνος ἐπιληψίᾳ περιπεσεῖν· θεραπευθῆναι δὲ ὕστερον ἡρακλείου βοτάνης χυλὸν σὺν πυτίᾳ φώκης ἑλκύσαντα. καὶ Καῖσαρ μὲν οὔπω θαυμαστὸν εἰ καὶ φώκης πυτίας ηὐπόρησεν· Ἀρέτας δὲ ὁ τῶν Σκηνιτῶν Ἀράβων φύλαρχος Κλαυδίῳ Καίσαρι γράφων ἐπιστολὴν περὶ τῆς δι' ὀρνέων θεραπείας φησίν, ἧπαρ γυπὸς σὺν τῷ αἵματι ὀπτὸν μετὰ μέλιτος διδόμενον ἐπὶ ἑβδομάδας τρεῖς ἀπαλλάττειν ἐπιληψίας, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν καρδίαν τοῦ γυπός, ὅτε ξηρανθῇ, ἐν ὕδατι διδομένην τῷ ἴσῳ τρόπῳ ἰσχύειν.

Johannes Lydus, On the months of the year, 4.104

“Most historians say that Caesar was a seven-month child, and that’s why he changed the name of the seventh month of the sacred year to his own.”

Ὅτι οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἱστορικῶν φασι τὸν Καίσαρα ἑπτάμηνον τεχθῆναι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸν ἕβδομον μῆνα τοῦ ἱερατικοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν μεταβαλεῖν προσηγορίαν.

Johannes Lydus, On the months of the year, 4.105

“An oracle was delivered to the Romans by the Mother, that they are not to engage in sexual activity at all during July, if their bodies are to stay healthy.”

Χρησμὸς ἐδόθη Ῥωμαίοις πρὸς τῆς Μητρός, μηδ' ὅλως ἀφροδισίοις χρῆσθαι ἀνὰ πάντα τὸν Ἰούλιον μῆνα, εἴπερ αὐτοῖς ὑγιαίνειν τὰ σώματα μέλλοι.

Johannes Lydus, On the months of the year, 4.106

“When some people were suspicious of Marc Antony and Dolabella and urged Caesar to keep an eye on them, he said he wasn’t worried about plodding and portly people, but thin and pale ones, indicating Brutus and Cassius.”

Ἀντώνιον δὲ καὶ Δολοβέλλαν ὑφορωμένων ἐνίων καὶ φυλάττεσθαι κελευόντων, οὐ τούτους ἔφη δεδιέναι τοὺς βαναύσους καὶ λιπῶντας, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἰσχνοὺς καὶ ὠχροὺς ἐκείνους, δείξας Βροῦτον καὶ Κάσσιον.

[Plutarch], Sayings of Gaius Caesar, c.14 (Moralia 206F)

“When the conversation at dinner turned to the best kind of death, Caesar said: ‘unexpected’.”

Λόγου δὲ παρὰ δεῖπνον ἐμπεσόντος περὶ θανάτου ποῖος ἄριστος ‘ὁ ἀπροσδόκητος’ εἶπε.

[Plutarch], Sayings of Gaius Caesar, c.15 (Moralia 206F)

Socrates’ Meteorology II

Xenophon, a source between Aristophanes and Plato, on Socrates’ meteorological reputation.

Weather Gods

“The conversations [at the party] were so good that the Syracusan [entertainer] noticed everyone was ignoring his dinner show and enjoying one another. Feeling a bit jealous, he said to Socrates:

‘Hey Socrates, aren’t you the one they call The Thinker?’

‘Isn’t that better,’ he said, ‘than being called thoughtless?’

‘Sure, if you weren’t supposed to be a thinker of ta meteora.’

‘Do you know,’ Socrates said, ‘anything more meteorological than the gods?’

‘For heaven’s sake, obviously not,’ he said, ‘but they’re not what people say you’re concerned with. They say you’re concerned with the most unbeneficial things.’

‘Well even if that were so,’ he said, ‘I’d still be concerned with gods. When it rains from above, they are beneficial, as when they give light from above. If it’s an awkward pun*,’ he said, ‘it’s your fault for giving me trouble.’”

τοιούτων δὲ λόγων ὄντων ὡς ἑώρα ὁ Συρακόσιος τῶν μὲν αὑτοῦ ἐπιδειγμάτων ἀμελοῦντας, ἀλλήλοις δὲ ἡδομένους, φθονῶν τῷ Σωκράτει εἶπεν:

ἆρα σύ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὁ φροντιστὴς ἐπικαλούμενος;

οὐκοῦν κάλλιον, ἔφη, ἢ εἰ ἀφρόντιστος ἐκαλούμην;

εἰ μή γε ἐδόκεις τῶν μετεώρων φροντιστὴς εἶναι.

οἶσθα οὖν, ἔφη ὁ Σωκράτης, μετεωρότερόν τι τῶν θεῶν;

ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μὰ Δί᾽, ἔφη, οὐ τούτων σε λέγουσιν ἐπιμελεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀνωφελεστάτων.

οὐκοῦν καὶ οὕτως ἄν, ἔφη, θεῶν ἐπιμελοίμην: ἄνωθεν μέν γε ὕοντες ὠφελοῦσιν, ἄνωθεν δὲ φῶς παρέχουσιν. εἰ δὲ ψυχρὰ λέγω, σὺ αἴτιος, ἔφη, πράγματά μοι παρέχων.

Xenophon, Symposium 6.6–7

*lit. “if I’m saying frigid things”, but he’s referring to a pun he’s making: anôphelestata (most unbeneficial) like anô ôphelestata (very beneficial things from above), so anôthen ôphelousin: “from above, when it rains, they are beneficial.”

Holding it in

“You can learn for yourself what I’m saying is true if you consider something that often happens to people. There are times when a biting humour builds up in the area around the anus and it makes us really need to go to the bathroom, but we are forced to hold it in because we are in the middle of some public business; once we’re done with it, we can’t go to the bathroom anymore and as a result we often we also get a headache and an upset stomach.”

ὅτι δὲ ἀληθές ἐστιν ὃ λέγω, πάρεστι μαθεῖν ἑκάστῳ τῶν πολλάκις ἡμῖν συμβαινόντων ἀναμνησθέντι. δακνώδης γοῦν ἐνίοτε χυμὸς εἰς τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἕδραν χωρία παραγενόμενος, ἐρεθίζει μὲν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὴν ἔκκρισιν αὐτοῦ· κατασχεῖν δὲ αὐτὸν ἀναγκασθέντες, ἐπειδὰν ἐν πολιτικαῖς ὦμεν πράξεσιν, ἀπαλλαγέντες αὐτῶν οὐκέτ' ἀποκρίνομεν, αἰσθανόμεθά τε κἀκ τούτου πολλάκις τῆς κεφαλῆς ὀδυνηρᾶς γινομένης ἀνατρεπομένης τε τῆς γαστρός.

Galen, Matters of Health 6.10, 6.433 K. = 190,1–7 Koch

“For when people really need to poo but because they are held up in the agora or some other unsuitable place they hold it in for a long time, they are either no longer able to poo or their poo is small and dry. Why does this happen? Clearly it’s because effluvia have come off from them inside of us as well, from which it is clear that what is present in our intestines is also nourishment.”

οἱ γ(ὰρ) προθυμίᾳ γ(ινόμενοι) πρὸς τὸ διαχωρῆσαι,
καταλαμβανόμενοι δὲ ἐν ἀγορᾶι ἢ
ἐν ἀνεπιτηδείοις, εἶτα συσχόν-
τες ἐπὶ πλεῖον, οὐκέτι διαχωρο(ῦσιν)
ἢ διαχωροῦσιν ἐλάχιστά τε καὶ ξηρ(ά).
τίνος αἰ(τίας) γι(νομένης); δῆλον ὅτι ἀποφορᾶς καὶ ἐ̣ν(τὸς)
ἀπ' αὐτ(ῶν) γεγενημέν(ης). ἐξ ὧν φανερόν,
ὡς τροφή (ἐστιν) καὶ ἡ ἐν ἐντέροις παρακειμένη.

Anonymus Londinensis, Fragment 1,1–9 Diels

Thanks to Peter, Ralph and David for pointing these out.

Aristotle on Art and Nature: Tools

“For just as sophisticated doctors and nearly everyone concerned with physical training agree that those who are to be good doctors or physical trainers need experience about nature, so too good legislators need experience of nature, perhaps even more than the former. For the former are craftsmen of only the body’s excellence; the latter who are craftsmen of the excellence of the soul and who profess to teach about the flourishing and failure of the state have in fact an even greater need of philosophy.

“For in all the other craftsmen’s arts the best tools have been discovered from nature, as in carpentry the level, straight-edge and compass (the ones, I take it, that are grasped through water and light and the rays of sunshine), relative to which when we are making a judgment we test what is adequately straight and smooth to our sensation; likewise the politician also needs to have some guidelines from nature and the truth itself relative to which he will distinguish what is just, what is noble and what is useful.”

ὥσπερ γὰρ τῶν ἰατρῶν ὅσοι κομψοὶ καὶ τῶν περὶ τὴν γυμναστικὴν οἱ πλεῖστοι σχεδὸν ὁμολογοῦσιν ὅτι δεῖ τοὺς μέλλοντας ἀγαθοὺς ἰατροὺς ἔσεσθαι καὶ γυμναστὰς περὶ φύσεως ἐμπείρους εἶναι, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς νομοθέτας ἐμπείρους εἶναι δεῖ τῆς φύσεως, καὶ πολύ γε μᾶλλον ἐκείνων. οἱ μὲν γὰρ τῆς τοῦ σώματος ἀρετῆς εἰσι δημιουργοὶ μόνον, οἱ δὲ περὶ τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετὰς ὄντες καὶ περὶ πόλεως εὐδαιμονίας καὶ κακοδαιμονίας διδάξειν προσποιούμενοι πολὺ δὴ μᾶλλον προσδέονται φιλοσοφίας.

καθάπερ γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις τέχναις ταῖς δημιουργικαῖς ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως εὕρηται τὰ βέλτιστα τῶν ὀργάνων, οἷον ἐν τεκτονικῇ στάθμη καὶ κανὼν καὶ τόρνος † * τὰ μὲν ὕδατι καὶ φωτὶ καὶ ταῖς αὐγαῖς τῶν ἀκτίνων ληφθέντων, πρὸς ἃ κρίνοντες τὸ κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν ἱκανῶς εὐθὺ καὶ λεῖον βασανίζομεν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὸν πολιτικὸν ἔχειν τινὰς ὅρους δεῖ ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως αὐτῆς καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας, πρὸς οὓς κρινεῖ τί δίκαιον καὶ τί καλόν καὶ τί συμφέρον.

*Pistelli marks this passage with a crux; other editors have tried various solutions, none very satisfying. I’ve looked at the mss. available online, but they all preserve the same text. In their reconstruction of the Protrepticus, Doug and Monte think a line is missing (p.52 of the pdf here). Ronja is working on some compelling solutions to explain what’s going on philosophically. I think it might be an interpolation, τὰ μὲν … ληφθέντων being originally a marginal note: maybe Aristotle (or Iamblichus) didn’t bother giving examples of the kinds of tools “discovered from nature” and so someone early in the tradition wrote in some examples of the kinds of things he might have had in mind and this was later brought into the text.

Aristotle ap. Iamblichus, Protrepticus 10, 54,12–55,3 Pistelli

A Mytilenean Peripatetic School? Galen on Primigenes of Mytilene

Here’s another text where Galen talks about a Peripatetic philosopher from Mytilene, Lesbos (Aristotle of Mytilene, possibly a teacher of Alexander of Aphrodisias, is here). This one’s name is Primigenes and Galen claims he gets a fever every time he misses his bath. He also tells us Primigenes is constantly reading and writing and doesn’t sweat very much. We’re left to infer he doesn’t get much exercise because he’s always at home doing philosophy. Seems to be a common trope that the kind of philosophy they do is rather solitary (compare with Apuleius when he describes his fish dissections following Aristotle at Apologia 25–28).

I haven’t found Primigenes mentioned anywhere else. Galen seems to have met with him when he was younger, so he would have lived in the mid-to-late second century. He also says Primigenes was second to none among the Peripatetics, which is pretty much the same thing he says about Aristotle of Mytilene. I wonder if this is just something Galen says about people he knows (you know, to make himself seem important) or if it implies the latter was dead by the time he met Primigenes. Could be both, I suppose.

“Experience certainly shows that in some cases people are harmed and benefited by the same things, in others by opposites. I know some people for example become sick right away when they don’t exercise for three days; others never exercise and always stay healthy; and of them some never bathe, while others immediately become feverish when they do not bathe, like Primigenes of Mytilene.

“Well then, it seems that this is how things are even to those who assemble the medical art by experience alone—except none of them has written down indications (like they do in the case of diseases) to which we might pay attention and discover the kind of daily routine each person needs. For it is possible in a few cases to discover what is referred to by the Empiricists as ‘precise syndromes’, as in peripneumonia and pleuritis; most diseases however involve a conjectural diagnosis, since they do not arise from an assemblage of defined symptoms, but require someone who knows the disposition of the body precisely and is competent enough to discover all the particulars that are in harmony with it. I discovered the following guided by reason itself when I was still a young man, from which it’s clear that long experience without reason is not able to discover such things.

“In the case of Primigenes, hearing that he always became feverish when he didn’t bathe, I reasoned that smoky residues were being generated in him which needed to be transpired but that because his skin was too thick to allow them to be evacuated and so caused them all to gather beneath the skin, they generated heat. That’s why baths are extremely useful for natures like his, not only for evacuating the smoky residue, but also for moisturizing with fresh water. I therefore thought it was a good idea to examine fully the quality of whatever kind of heat it was by placing my hand flat on Primigenes’ chest. As it was discovered to be acrid and biting (similar to eating a large quantity of onions), I was even more convinced that I had discovered the cause of what was happening. I asked whether he became sweaty when he didn’t bathe and when he said he did not, I was sure I had a firm grasp of his disposition. And yet I have also known others who likewise had a biting heat but did not become feverish because of a single missed bath since the residue in their case was evacuated by sweating. For Primigenes, in addition to his natural constitution, his typical daily routine was also responsible for him becoming feverish when he missed a single bath, as he spent most of the day at home where he was continually writing or reading because of his devotion to Peripatetic speculation—of those in his time he was second to none in the field.”

ἥ γε μὴν πεῖρα δείκνυσιν ὑπό τε τῶν αὐτῶν ἐνίους βλαπτομένους τε καὶ ὠφελουμένους, ὑπό τε τῶν ἐναντίων ὡσαύτως. οἶδα γοῦν τινας, οἳ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἀγύμναστοι μείναντες εὐθέως νοσοῦσιν, ἀγυμνάστους τε ἑτέρους ἀεὶ διατελοῦντας, ὑγιαίνοντας δέ, καὶ τούτων ἐνίους μὲν ἀλούτους, ἐνίους δέ, εἰ μὴ λούσαιντο, πυρέττοντας αὐτίκα, καθάπερ ὁ Μιτυληναῖος Πριμιγένης.

ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὕτω φαίνεται ταῦτα γινόμενα, καὶ οἱ τῇ πείρᾳ μόνῃ τὴν τέχνην ἀθροίζοντες ἴσασιν. οὐ μὴν ἔγραψέ γέ τις αὐτῶν γνωρίσματα, καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῶν νοσημάτων, οἷς προσέχοντες εὑρήσομεν, ὁποίας ἕκαστος δεῖται διαίτης. ἐπ' ὀλίγων γὰρ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν τὰς καλουμένας ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμπειρικῶν συνδρομὰς ἠκριβωμένας, ὡς ἐν περιπνευμονίᾳ καὶ πλευρίτιδι· τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα νοσήματα στοχαστικὴν ἔχει τὴν διάγνωσιν, ὡς οὐκ ἐξ ἀθροίσματος ὡρισμένων συμπτωμάτων γινομένην, ἀλλ' ἀνδρὸς δεομένην ἀκριβῶς μὲν ἐπισταμένου τὴν διάθεσιν τοῦ σώματος, εὑρίσκειν δ' ἱκανοῦ τὰ κατὰ μέρος ἅπαντα τὰ τῇ τοιαύτῃ συμφωνοῦντα. τὸ γοῦν προκείμενον αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ ποδηγηθέντες ἡμεῖς εὕρομεν ἔτι νέοι τὴν ἡλικίαν ὄντες. ᾧ καὶ δῆλον, ὡς ἡ μακρὰ πεῖρα χωρὶς λόγου τὰ τοιαῦθ' εὑρίσκειν ἀδυνατεῖ.

ἐπὶ γοῦν τοῦ Πριμιγένους ἀκούσας, ὅτι πάντως πυρέττοι μὴ λουσάμενος, ἐλογισάμην αὐτῷ καπνώδη περιττώματα γεννᾶσθαι διαπνεῖσθαι δεόμενα, πυκνοτέρου δὲ τοῦ δέρματος ὄντος ἢ ὡς ἐπιτρέπειν αὐτοῖς κενοῦσθαι πᾶσιν ἀθροιζομένοις ὑπὸ τῷ δέρματι θερμασίαν γεννᾶν. διὸ καὶ τὰ λουτρὰ χρησιμώτατα ταῖς τοιαύταις φύσεσιν, οὐ μόνον τῷ κενοῦν τὸ καπνῶδες, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ τέγγειν ὑγρότητι γλυκείᾳ. καταμαθεῖν οὖν ἔδοξέ μοι πλατεῖαν ἐπιβαλόντι τὴν χεῖρα τῷ θώρακι τοῦ Πριμιγένους, ὁποία τίς ἐστιν ἡ τῆς θερμασίας ποιότης. ὡς δὲ δριμεῖα καὶ δακνώδης εὑρέθη παραπλησίως τοῖς κρόμμυα προσενηνεγμένοις δαψιλῆ, πολὺ δὴ μᾶλλον ἔτι τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ γινομένου καλῶς εὑρῆσθαί μοι πεισθείς, ἐπυθόμην, εἴ τινες ἱδρῶτες αὐτῷ γίνοιντο χωρὶς τοῦ λουτροῦ, καὶ φάντος μὴ γίνεσθαι, βεβαιοτέραν γνῶσιν ἐπείσθην ἔχειν τῆς διαθέσεως αὐτοῦ. καὶ μὴν δὴ καὶ ἄλλους τινὰς εἶδον, ὁμοίως μὲν ἐκείνῳ δακνῶδες ἔχοντας τὸ θερμόν, οὐ μὴν ἐπ' ἀλουσίᾳ γε μιᾷ πυρέττοντας, ἐπειδὴ δι' ἱδρώτων αὐτοῖς ἐκενοῦτο τὸ περίττωμα. τῷ Πριμιγένει δὲ πρὸς τῇ φυσικῇ κατασκευῇ καὶ ὁ τρόπος τῆς διαίτης αἴτιος ἦν τοῦ πυρέττειν ἐπ' ἀλουσίᾳ μιᾷ, διατρίβοντι τὸ πλεῖστον τῆς ἡμέρας ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας, ἐν ᾗ γράφων ἢ ἀναγινώσκων διετέλει διὰ τὸ προσκεῖσθαι θεωρίᾳ Περιπατητικῇ, καθ' ἣν οὐδενὸς ἦν δεύτερος τῶν κατ' αὐτόν.

Galen, On Matters of Health 5.11.6–20 (6.364–367 K. = 160,24–163,4 Koch)

About Ashes

“Ash. That’s what the remnant of burnt wood is called, which is a composite of contrary substances and qualities. For it contains within itself something earthy on the one hand, and on the other what is as it were smoky or sooty or whatever you want to call. These latter parts of it are very fine and when the ash is soaked in water and strained they are carried off with it; whatever earthy stuff remains behind becomes weak and not biting since it imparted the hot power to the lye water.

“Not all ash has precisely the same mixture; rather, it varies somewhat according to differences in the materials burned. Dioscorides—I have no idea why—says ash has an astringent power, but in fact fig ashes are free from any such quality because unlike oak, holm oak, strawberry tree, Valonia oak, mastic, ivy and anything else like these the fig tree itself doesn’t exhibit an astringent quality in any of its parts, but is mostly full of a strong, hot and acrid sap. Indeed, ash from astringent wood is very astringent and I’ve been known to use it on occasion to stop bleeding when no other drug was available; but no one should ever use fig ash for this, for since it is mixed with something detergent it is extremely acrid and caustic and differs in both respects from ash made of oak wood: first because the smoky material in it is much more acrid; and second because the (as it were) earthy material in it, which in the others is fairly astringent, is in this case detergent like in the ash of spurge.

“Lime is also a species of ash, being composed of finer parts than the ash from wood, inasmuch as stones need to be roasted much more intensely to be turned into ash—but for all that it also has a great deal of fire within it. And for this reason, when it is washed it becomes a drug that dries without biting, even more so if it is washed two or three times. It becomes considerably dispersing when it is washed with sea water. We’ll talk about it when we come to the discussion about things extracted from mines.”

δʹ. Περὶ τέφρας.

Τέφρα. τῶν κεκαυμένων ξύλων τὸ λείψανον οὕτω προσαγορεύεται, σύνθετον ὑπάρχον ἐξ ἐναντίων οὐσιῶν τε καὶ ποιοτήτων. ἔχει γὰρ ἐν αὑτῷ τὸ μέν τι γεῶδες, τὸ δ' οἷον αἰθαλῶδες ἢ λιγνυῶδες ἢ ὅπως ἂν ἐθέλῃ τις καλεῖν. ταυτὶ μὲν οὖν τὰ μόρια λεπτομερῆ τ' ἐστὶ καὶ βρεχομένης ὕδατι τῆς τέφρας καὶ διηθουμένης συναποφέρεται. ὅσον δ' ὑπολείπεται γεῶδες, ἀσθενὲς καὶ ἄδηκτον γίγνεται ἐν τῇ κονίᾳ τὴν θερμὴν δύναμιν ἀποτιθέμενον.

οὐχ ἅπασα δὲ τέφρα τὴν αὐτὴν ἀκριβῶς ἔχει κρᾶσιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν τῆς καυθείσης ὕλης διαφορὰν ὑπαλλάττεται. Διοσκορίδης δὲ οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως στυπτικὴν αὐτὴν ἔχειν φησὶ τὴν δύναμιν. καίτοι γε ἡ συκίνη πάσης ἀπήλλακται τοιαύτης ποιότητος, ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ δένδρον οὐχ ὥσπερ δρῦς καὶ πρῖνος καὶ κόμαρος καὶ φηγὸς καὶ σχῖνος καὶ κισσὸς, ὅσα τ' ἄλλα τοιαῦτα, τὴν στρυφνὴν ἐπιφαίνει ποιότητα κατ' οὐδὲν ἑαυτοῦ μέρος, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ὀποῦ πλῆρες ὅλον ἰσχυροῦ καὶ θερμοῦ καὶ δριμέος. ἐκ μὲν δὴ τῶν στρυφνῶν ξύλων ἡ τέφρα στυπτικὸν οὐκ ὀλίγον ἔχει, καὶ ἔγωγέ ποτε δι' αὐτῆς ἐπισχὼν αἱμοῤῥαγίας οἶδα, μηδενὸς ἑτέρου παρόντος φαρμάκου. τῇ συκίνῃ δ' οὐκ ἄν τις εἰς τοῦτο χρήσαιτό ποτε, πολὺ γὰρ αὕτη γε τὸ δριμὺ καὶ τὸ καυστικὸν ἔχει τῷ ῥυπτικῷ μεμιγμένον καὶ κατ' ἄμφω διενήνοχε τῆς ἐκ τῶν δρυΐνων ξύλων, ὅτι τε τὸ αἰθαλῶδες ἐν αὐτῇ πολλῷ δριμύτερόν ἐστι καὶ ὅτι τὸ οἷον γεῶδες, ἐν ἐκείναις μὲν ὑποστῦφόν πώς ἐστιν, ἐν ταύτῃ δὲ ῥυπτικὸν, ὥσπερ ἐν τῇ τῶν τιθυμάλλων.

ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἡ τίτανος εἶδός τι τέφρας, λεπτομερεστέρα μὲν οὖσα τῆς ἐκ τῶν ξύλων, παρ' ὅσον ἀκριβέστερον οἱ λίθοι κατοπτᾶσθαι δέονται πρὸς τὸ γενέσθαι τέφραν, ὅμως μὴν ἔχουσα καὶ αὐτὴ τὸ οἷον ἐμπύρευμα πολύ. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πλυθεῖσα ξηραντικὸν ἀδήκτως γίνεται φάρμακον, καὶ μᾶλλον, εἰ δὶς ἢ καὶ τρὶς πλυθείη. διαφορητικὴ δ' ἱκανῶς γίνεται θαλάσσῃ πλυθεῖσα. λεχθήσεται δὲ ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς κᾀπειδὰν περὶ τῶν μεταλλευομένων ὁ λόγος ἡμῖν γίγνηται.

Galen, On Simple Drugs 8.19.2, 12.138–140 K.