Notes

Demeter, Triptolemus, Persephone

Relief votif en marbre pentélique trouvé à Éleusis, dédié au sanctuaire de Déméter et de Korè. Il représente les deux déesses éleusiniennes dans une scène du rituel des mystères. À gauche, Déméter, vêtue du péplos et tenant un sceptre dans la main gauche, offre des épis de blé à Triptolème, fils du roi éleusinien Keloos, pour qu’il les donne à l’humanité. À droite, Perséphone, vêtue d’un chiton et d’un manteau, tient une torche, et bénit Triptolème de la main droite. La magnificence de l’image et son échelle monumentale indiquent qu’il ne s’agissait peut-être pas d’un simple relief votif mais plutôt d’un relief cultuel. Circa 440 BC.

Minerva, Athena

favens, oleaeque Minerva
inventrix, uncique puer monstrator aratri,
et teneram ab radice ferens, Silvane, cupressum;
dique deaeque omnes, studium quibus arva tueri,
quique novas alitis non ullo semine fruges,
quique satis largum caelo demittitis imbrem.

Come, Minerva, inventress of the olive; you, too, youth [Triptolemus, son of Celeus, king of Eleusis, and favourite of Demeter], who showed to man the crooked plough, and you, Silvanus, with a young uprooted cypress in your hand; and gods and goddesses all, whose love guards our fields—both you who nurse the young fruits, springing up unsown, and you who on the seedlings send down from heaven plenteous rain!
—–

Notes

Minerva, Athena

favens, oleaeque Minerva
inventrix, uncique puer monstrator aratri,
et teneram ab radice ferens, Silvane, cupressum;
dique deaeque omnes, studium quibus arva tueri,
quique novas alitis non ullo semine fruges,
quique satis largum caelo demittitis imbrem.

Come, Minerva, inventress of the olive; you, too, youth [Triptolemus, son of Celeus, king of Eleusis, and favourite of Demeter], who showed to man the crooked plough, and you, Silvanus, with a young uprooted cypress in your hand; and gods and goddesses all, whose love guards our fields—both you who nurse the young fruits, springing up unsown, and you who on the seedlings send down from heaven plenteous rain!
—–

Athena, Minerva

75. stare deum pelagi longoque ferire tridente
aspera saxa facit, medioque e vulnere saxi
exsiluisse fretum, quo pignore vindicet urbem;
at sibi dat clipeum, dat acutae cuspidis hastam,
dat galeam capiti, defenditur aegide pectus,
percussamque sua simulat de cuspide terram
edere cum bacis fetum canentis olivae;
mirarique deos: operis Victoria finis.

There stands the god of ocean, and with his long trident smites the rugged cliff, and from the cleft rock sea-water leaps forth; a token to claim the city for his own. To herself the goddess gives a shield and a sharp-pointed spear, and a helmet for her head; the aegis guards her breast; and from the earth smitten by her spear’s point upsprings a pale-green olive-tree hanging thick with fruit; and the gods look on in wonder. Victory crowns her work.

Minerva

Ovid, Met. vi. 75-82; Virgil Georg. i. 12-19 et ibi Serv.

Athena, c’est à dire Minerve

Cf. Virgile, Géorgiques, I, c. 12-19 (et le commentaire de Servius sur ce vers), et Ovide, Métamorphoses, VI, v. 75-82.

Athena

Ovide, Métam., VI, 75-86 (EC).

Minerve

Ovide, Métamorphoses, VI, v. 75–82.

Et tant a esté jadis estimée ceste prærogative…

Elle l’est encore par les botanistes et zoologistes.

Notes

Alcibiadion

A kind of Bugloss mentioned under the name of Alcibion by Nicander, Ther. 541, and Pliny xxvii 5, § 22; called Alcibiadion by Galen, vol. xiii. 149, and Dioscorides, iv. 23, 24.

Alcibion

Alcibium qualis esset herba non repperi apud auctores, sed radicem eius et folia trita ad serpentis morsum inponi et bibi, folia quantum manus capiat trita cum vini meri cyathis tribus aut radicem drachmarum trium pondere cum vini eadem mensura.

In my authorities I have found no description of alcibium, but only that its pounded root and leaves are applied locally, and taken in drink, for snake bite; a handful of the pounded leaves with three cyathi of neat wine, or three drachmae by weight of the root with the same measure of wine

alcibiadion

Pline nomme, sans le décrire, l’Alcibion (XXVII, 22); ailleurs, il le nomme anchusa ou arcebion (XXII, 25). Ce serait, pour Fée, l’ὰλχίστον de Nicander (Thér., 637) : Alcibii radicem echii pariter lege…, notre Echium creticum, L. — Mais Nicandre parle encore d’une autre Alcibie :

Est alia Alcibii cognomine planta…

(trad. de J. de Gorris); Anchusa altera, que certains, dit Dioscoride, appellent Ὰλχισιάσειον ou Όνοχειλέζ de Pena et Lobel, et qui est aussi une borraginée, l’Alkanna tinctoria, Tausch.
Ce nom vient-il d’Alcibiade? ou, comme dit J. Grévin, de ce qu’ « un homme nommé Alcibie la trouva et expérimenta le premier quelle force elle avait contre la morsure des serpens ? » D’autres étymologistes ont proprosé : ἀλχῄ force, et βίοζ, vie. (Paul Delaunay)

alcibiadion

alcibiadion, a boraginaceous plant named after Alcibiades — unless, perhaps, it derives its title from Alcibias, the first to employ it against snake-bites, or, thus belonging to another group, from [gk], meaning strength, and [gk], meaning life

alcibiadon

Voir Léonicérus, De Plini erroribus, Bâle, 1529, 22.

Niccolò Leoniceno

Niccolò Leoniceno (1428–1524), also known as Nicolo Leoniceno, Nicolaus Leoninus, Nicolaus Leonicenus of Vicenza, Nicolaus Leonicenus Vicentinus, Nicolo Lonigo, Nicolò da Lonigo da Vincenza, was an Italian physician and humanist. He was a pioneer in the translation of ancient Greek and Arabic medical texts by such authors as Galen and Hippocrates into Latin.

In 1492, Leoniceno published an article entitled De Plinii et plurium alorium medicorum in medicina erroribus. In this treatise, he “pointed out errors in the medical portions of Pliny as well as in the works of ‘barbarian’ (that is, medieval Arab) physicians.” A physician by training, Leoniceno was concerned that inaccuracies in Pliny’s translations would result in inaccurate medicinal preparations based on Pliny’s work. If Pliny’s translations were indeed flawed, then Leoniceno felt they should be replaced by the original Greek texts.

Alcibiades

Décrit dans Pline, XXVII, xxii.

Notes

clymenos

Periclymenus Geyssblatt
Lonicera caprifolium L.
Ancient Greek: periklumenon

Lonicera

Lonicera

Clymenos

Honeysuckle. Pliny xxv. 7 (?), § 33.

clymenos

Climène, roi d’Arcadie. « Clymenyus a rege herba appellata est ». Pline, XXV, 33. C’est d’après Fée, περιχλνμενον de Dioscoride, (IV, 14), notre Lonicera periclymenum, L., ou chèvrefeuille. Quant au χλιμενον de Dioscoride (IV, 13), c’est, pour Sibthorp, Convolvulus sepium, L. ; pour Sprengel, Lathyrus clymenus, L.

clymenus

Clymenus a rege herba appellata est, hederae foliis,ramosa,caule inani articulis praecincto, odore gravi et semine hederae, silvestribus et montuosis nascens. quibus morbis pota medeatur dicemus, sed hic indicandum est, dum medeatur, sterilitatem pota etiam viris fieri. Graeci plantagini similem esse dixerunt, caule quadrato, folliculis cum semine inter se inplexis veluti polyporum cirris. et sucus autem in usu, vi summa in refrigerando.

Clymenus is a plant called after the king of that name. It has leaves like those of ivy, many branches, a hollow stem girded with joints, a strong smell, and seed like that of ivy; it grows in wooded, hilly districts. I shall say later what diseases it cures if taken in drink; but at the moment I must point out that, while it cures, even men are made sterile by the draught. The Greeks have said that it is like the plantain, with a square stem and seed-bags intertwined like the tentacles of the polypus. The juice too is used in medicine, as it has very great powers of cooling.

clymene

Thus clymene or honeysuckle, named for Clymenus, King of Arcady…

Clymenus

Roi d’Arcadie (Pline, XXV, xxxiii).