Notes

Agaricus

Agaricus (text)

Partial text.

agaric

Les agarics se reproduisent ay moyen de spores exogènes, développées à la surface de certaines cellules des lames de l’hyménium, nommées basides. Il n’y a point chez eux de reproduction sexuée. (Paul Delaunay)

Agaric

Galliarum glandiferae maxime arbores agaricum ferunt; est autem fungus candidus, odoratus, antidotis efficax, in summis arboribus nascens, nocte relucens: signum hoc eius quo in tenebris decerpitur.

In the Gallic provinces chiefly the acorn-bearing trees produce agaric [A species of non-edible Fomes], which is a white fungus with a strong odour, and which makes a powerful antidote; it grows on the tops of trees, and is phosphorescent at night; this is its distinguishing mark, by which it can be gathered in the dark.

agaric

Agaricum ut fungus nascitur arboribus circa Bosporum colore candido. dantur oboli quattuor contriti cum binis cyathis aceti mulsi. id quod in Gallia nascitur infirmius habetur, praeterea mas spissior amariorque —hic et capitis dolores facit — femina solutior, initio gustus dulcis mox in amaritudinem transit.

An agaric grows as a white fungus on trees around the Bosporus. A dose is four oboli crushed and two cyathi of oxymel. The kind that grows in Gaul [Dioscorides has Galatia, the Greek for Gaul] is considered of inferior strength; further, the male is firmer and more bitter—this kind causes headaches—but the female is softer, and at first its taste is sweet, but afterwards turns bitter. [Dioscorides says this of both “sexes”: γεύσει δὲ ἀμφότερα ὅμοια, κατ᾿ ἀρχὰς μὲν γλυκάζοντα, εἶτα ἐξ ἀναδόσεως ἔμπικρα (III. 1). The two authorities might be made to agree by putting a full stop at solutior, but then amarior conflicts with dulcis. This difficulty might be avoided by reading maiorque spissiorque with E, but these words seem a scribe’s correction of spissiora maiorque (V.), which however is surely a wrong division of spissior amariorque, the reading in the text.]

agaric

agaric [adaptation of Latin agaricum the tree fungus used for tinder, touchwood, adaptation of Greek agarik-o´n (said by Dioscorides to be named from Agaria a place in Sarmatia). Hence modern Latin Agaricus given by Dillenius, and adopted by Linnæus, for a genus of Fungi.]

A name given to various corky species of Polyporus, a genus of fungi growing upon trees; of which P. officinalis, chiefly found on the Larch, the `Female Agarick’ of old writers, was renowned as a cathartic, and with P. fomentarius, and igniarius, `Male Agarick’ used as a styptic, as tinder, and in dyeing. Obsolete or archaic.

A mushroom; properly one of the Linnæan genus Agaricus.

Notes

Behem

Behem (text)

Moringa oleifera Lam.

Moringa oleifera Lam.
vernacular name: horseradish tree

been

Le Duchat notes, “Voiez Avicenne, Canon 2. chap. 85.”

been

Voyez Avicenne, canon II, chap. LXXXV. (L.) — C’est-à-dire gland. Ce qui nous fait croire que béen, en arabe, pourroit bien venir du grec βαλανοζ, qui a la même signification.

been

Been ou ben, mot arabe tiré du Canon d’Avicenne, et encore usité en botanique moderne: le behen blanc est notre Lychnis dioïca, D.C.
D’après Devic (Suppl. du Dict. de Littré) il faut distinguer dans le Ben des Anciens: 1° Le fruit du Morgina oleifera, ou bān des Arabes, dont la semence, ben album des officines, fournit une huile à la parfumerie, 2° les behen blanc et rouge (du persan behem), cités par Rhazi, et qui sont les racines de la Centaurea behen. (Paul Delaunay).

myrobolan

thus myrobalan (a sort of prune, called ben by the Arabs), formed upon the Greek words meaning sweet juice and an acorn. In point of fact, the fruit is oily as the former, and it looks like the latter.

béen

Mot arabe tiré du Canon d’Avicenne. Voir Pantagruel, xiv, p. 266 et n. 3 pour les myrobolans.

ben

ben. Also benn, behen. [adopted from Arabic ban, `the ben-tree’ (Lane). The form behen is due to confusion with another word.]

The winged seed of the Horse-radish tree (Moringa pterygosperma); also called ben-nut.

oil of ben: oil obtained from the ben-nut.

Notes

Sabines

Sequitur regio quarta gentium vel fortissimarum Italiae.… Sabini, ut quidam existimavere, a religione et deum cultu Sebini appellati, Velinos accolunt lacus roscidis

There follows the fourth region, which includes the very bravest races in Italy.… The Sabines (according to some opinions called Sebini from their religious beliefs and ritual [ ‘Sabini’ was originally ‘Sebini’ from σέβας]) live on the lush dewy hills by the Lakes of Velino.

Sabaei

a meridie insulae multae, maxima Camari, flumen Musecros, portus Laupas; Scenitae Sabaei, insulae multae, emporium eorum Acila, ex quo in Indiam navigatur;

Many islands to the southward, the largest of which is Camari, the river Musecros, Port Laupas; the Sabaei, a tribe of Scenitae,a owning many islands and a trading-station at Kalhat which is a port of embarkation for India;

Sabiens

Voiez Pline, l. 6. chap. 28 & l. 12 chap 14 15 & 16.

Sabiens

Sabéens, peuple d’Arabie. Cf. Pline, VI, 28: «Sabaei Arabum propter thura clarissimi.»

Sabine

Sabine. [adaptation of Latin Sabinus]

Of or pertaining to the Sabines:

One of a race of ancient Italy who inhabited the central region of the Apennines.

Transferred sense in allusion to the proverb Sabini quod volunt somniant, `the Sabines dream what they will’ (Festus).

The Rape of the Sabines

This film deals with the legend of the rape of the Sabine women, which also inspired the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Mylene Demongeot is, as ever, a most lovely heroine. The best film to incorporate the battle of the sexes into the peplum genre remains, according to Gauci, Amazons of Rome (1961).

Sabines

Sabéens, peuple d’Arabie; dans ce défie, on a pu voir un pastiche de Champier, Hortus gallicus, Lyon, 1533, qui prône les médecines «bénédictes» contre les drogues arabes (R. Antonioli, Rabelais et la médecine, p. 299.

Notes

piedmont

Piemont, after Italian Piemonte, lit. ‘mountain foot,’ name of a region of northern Italy, formed on piede foot (:-Latin ped-, pe¯s) + monte mountain:-Latin mont-, mons.

Piémont

«…son herbe pantagruelion,» dont ce chapitre et les trois suivants contiennent une description aussi élégante que circonstanciée. Par cette description on voit que cette herbe est le chanvre dont on fait la corde qui tient à la gorge les pendus, et qui servit à étrangler, sous François Ier, tant de prétendus hérétiques qui avoient le malheur de s’en tenir à l’Évangile, et de suivre le culte de la primitive église.
Outre la nécessité dont on sait qu’est le chanvre dans la marine pour les cordages et les voiles, l’histoire nous apprend que jamais en France l’useage de la corde et du gibet n’a été plus fréquent que sous François Ier, contre les luthériens et les calvinistes: ce que fait dire à l’auteur, chapite LI, fort plaisamment, du pantagruélion de Pantagruel, que c’est une plant dont il est l’inventeur. C’est en effet sous François Ier que l’on commença à servir de la corde de chanvre, au lieu de la hart, pour pendre les criminels, ou au moins les condamnés. Rabelais a même la hardiesse (livre V, chapitre xvi ou xviii) de faire à ce prince le reproche de se complaire au milieu des potences et des gibets, en disant: «Voyant Gaigne-beaucoup, que Pantagruel s’amusoyt a cela…» Aussi ce dernier livre n’a-t-il été publié qu’après sa mort. François Ier venoit de s’amuser à ces passe-temps d’une manière bien cruelle.
«Pendant que l’on s’abbembloit à Trente, dit fra Paoloi, historien contemporain, page 110, pour extirper l’hérésie par la voie du concile, en France, l’on emplotoit les armes contre un reste de Vaudois qui vivoient retirés dans les montagnes de Provence, séparees de l’obéissance de l’église romaine…. Il y avoit quelques années que le parlement d’Aix avoit prononcé un arrêt contre eux; [note: Lequel portoit que les pères de famille seroient brùlés vifs, leurs biens, femmes et enfants, confisqueés, leurs maisons rasées, les arbres de leurs jardins arrachés, avec de prendre à ferme les terres de ceux qui seroient de la race ou du nom des accusés] mais comme il ne s’étoit point encore exécuté, le loi commanda en ce temps-là (en 1545) de le faire [note: Sue ce que d’Oppède lui fit accroire que seize mille de ces Vaudois se saisir de Marseille]. Le président ayant ramassé tout ce qu’il put de soldats des lieux circonvoisins, et de l’état d’Avignon, marcha, les armes à la main, contre ces misérables qui, n’en ayant point, ne songeoient qu’à s’enfuir (ou à souffrir le martyre comme les premiers chrétiens). On ne parla point ne de les enseigner, ni de les exhorter à quitter leurs opinions; mais l’on mit tout à feu et à sang, sans nulle distinction d’âge, de sexe, ni de qualité; on rasa les villes de Cabrières et de Mérindol, avec tout les lieux d’alentour; il y eut plus de quatre mille personnes massacrées. Cruauté d’autant plus horrible que ces pauvres gens ne se défendoient que par les prières, les larmes, et les gémissements.»
[Note: Francois Ier, touché de repentir, ordonna, en mourant, à Henri II de faire la recherche de cette affaire. La cause fut portée au parlement de Paris. Guérin, avocat-général de Provence, fut condamné à mort, faute d’amis à la cour…]
«Le Languedoc, la Provence, et les provinces adjacentes, dit Anquetil, à l’année 1545, virent s’élever des temples rivaux des églises catholiques. Alors François Ier donna permission d’employerr contre eux le secours des armes. Elle fut accordée à la sollicitation du baron d’Oppède, premier président du parlement d’Aix, homme violent et sanguinaire, qui fit revivre un arrêt de ce parlement, rendu cinq ans auparavant, contre un population de plusieurs milliers de Vaudois qui étoient établis sur les confins de la Provence et du Comtat, et réfugiés depuis trois cents ans dans les gorges des montagnes qui séparent le Daphiné du Piémont, et entrés depuis peu en communion avec les calvinistes.» «Tout étoit horrible et cruel dans la sentence qui fut prononcée contre eux, dit l’historien de Thou, et tout fut plus horrible et plus cruel encore dans l’exécution. Vingt-deux bourgs ou villages furent brûlés ou saccagés avec une inhumanité dont l’histoire des peuples le plus barbares présente à peine des examples. Les malheureux habitants, surpris pendant la nuit, et poursuivis des rochers en rochers à la lueur des feux qui consumoient leurs maisons, n’évitoient souvent une embûche que pour tomber dans une autre: les cris pitoyables des vieillards, des femmes, et des enfants, loin d’amoillir le coeur des soldats forcenés de rage comme leurs chefs, ne faisoient que les mettre sur la trace des fugitifs, et marquer les endroits où ils devoient porter leur fureur.»
«La reddition volontaire n’exemptoit ni les hommes du supplice, ni les femmes des plus affreuses violences; il étoit défendu, sous peine de mort, de leur accorder aucune retraite. A Cabrières, une des villes principales de ce canton, on égorgea plus de sept cents hommes de sang-froid, et toutes les femmes restées dans les maisons furent enfermées dans un grenier plein de paille auquelle on mit le feu: celles qui tentoient de s’échapper par les fenêtres étoient repoussées à coups de crocs et de piques. Ainsi se préparèrent les fureurs qui ont couvert la France d’échafauds, de bûchers, de gibets, et de ruines ensanglantées. On n’étoit point encore accoutumé à ces horribles proscriptions, devenues si communes sous les règnes suivantes. Les cris des malheureux, si cruellement traités, parvinrent aux oreilles du roi, mais y parvinrent trop tard. Il se repentit d’avoit donné son consentement à l’exécution de cet arrêt sanguinaire, qu’il suspendit quelque temps. Mais n’avoit-il pas lui-même encouragé ces barbaries, en autorisant les supplices par sa présence? Il est rare que les subalternes n’excèdent pas, quand les chefs donnent eux-mêmes l’example.»

Notes

Quarta Africa tabula

Quarta Africa tabula (Troglidi)

Detail showing “Troglodi”

Syene

At Syene, at Berenice on the Arabian Gulf, and in the country of the Troglodytes, the sun stands in the zenith at the time of the summer solstice, and the longest day has thirteen and one half equinoctial hours; and almost the whole of the Great Bear is also visible in the arctic circle, with the exception of the legs, the tip of the tail, and one of the stars in the square. And the parallel through Syene passes, on the one side, through the country of the Fish-Eaters in Gedrosia, and through India, and, on the other side, through the regions that are almost five thousand stadia south of Cyrene.

mons Riphées

Ch. ix Comment Pantagruel equitablement iugea d’une controverse merveilleusement obscure et difficile si iustement que son iugement fut dit plus admirable que celluy de Salomon.

[Monsieur de Baisecul demandeur d’une part, l’aultre monsieur de Humevesne defendeur de l’autre .]

Et lors Pantagruel leur dist Estes vous qui avez ce grand different entre vous deux? Ouy, dirent ilz, monsieur. Lequel de vous est demandeur? C’est moy, dit le seigneur de Baisecul.

Donc commença en la maniere que s’ensuyt. Monsieur il est vray que une bonne femme de ma maison portoit vendre des oeufz au marché. Couvrez vous Baisecul, dist Pantagruel. Grand mercy monsieur, dist le seigneur de Baisecul. Mais a propos passoit entre les tropicques vers le zenith diametralement opposé es Troglodytes, par autant que les mons Rhiphées avoient eu celle année grande sterilité de happelourdes, moyennant une sedition meue entre les Barragouyns & les Accoursiers pour la rebellion des Souisses, qui s’estoient assemblez iusques au nombre de troys, six, neuf, dix, pour aller à l’aguillanneuf, le premier trou de l’an, que l’on donne la souppe aux boeufz, & la clef du charbon aux filles, pour donner l’avoine aux chiens.

Troglodytes

Moscovites, Indiens, Perses, & Troglodytes souvent auront la cacquesangue, par ce qu’ilz ne vouldront estre par les Romanistes belinez, attendu le bal de Sagittarius ascendant.

Rhiphaean Mountains – Smith translation

CHAPTER XI How the Lords of Kissbreech and Suckfizzle did plead before Pantagruel without Advocates
But to the purpose, there passed between the two Tropics six white Pieces towards the Zenith and a Halfpenny, forasmuch as the Rhiphaean Mountains had this year had a great Sterility of Happelourdes by means of a Sedition of Babblers stirred up between the Jabberers and the Accursians, for the Rebellion of the Switzers, who had assembled together to the Number of the Bumbees, to go to the Handsel-getting on the first Hole of the Year, when men give Brewis to the Oxen and the Key of the Coals to the Maids, to give Oats to the Dogs.

troglodyte

troglodyte [adaptation of Latin troglodyta, adaptation of Greek trwgloduthj, formed on trwglh hole + duein to get or go into.]

One of various races or tribes of men (chiefly ancient or prehistoric) inhabiting caves or dens (natural or artificial); a cave-dweller, cave-man.

synecdochique

Le synecdoque est une figure de rhétorique par laquelle on prend la partie pour le sum, ou un nom propre pour un nom commun. Cf. Quintilien, Inst. Or., VIII, 6, 19-21.

Synecdochique

La synecdoque, figure de rhétorique, fait prendre la partie pour le tout ou le nom propre pour le nom commun.

synecdoche

synecdoche. Also syn-, sinodoches, synadochie, sinecdochine, senec(h)doche, synechdoche, sinecdoche, synegdoche, synechdochie. Also anglicized sinecdoch. [adopted from late Latin synecdoche (in medieval Latin sinodoche, whence obssolete French synodoche), adopted from Greek sunekdox, formed on sunekdexesqai lit. to take with something else.]

A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versâ; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. Formerly sometimes used loosely or vaguely, and not infrequently misexplained.

solecism

solecism. Forms: soloecisme, soloecism, solocism, solæcism(e, solaecism, solecisme, solecism, soll-). [adaptation of Latin soloecismus, adaptation of Greek soloikismoj, formed on soloikoj speaking incorrectly, stated by ancient writers to refer to `the corruption of the Attic dialect among the Athenian colonists at Soloi in Cilicia’. So French solécisme, Spanish and Italalian solecismo. The transferred uses of the word also occur in Greek and Latin.]

An impropriety or irregularity in speech or diction; a violation of the rules of grammar or syntax; properly, a faulty concord.

Mortelle Squinance

Ce que Rabelais appelle angine & squinance, c’est l’esquinancie, ainsi appelée par corruption, au lieu de synanchie, de la particule συν, & du verbe ἂγχω, duquel vient aussi angine. Voiez Ménage, au mot Esquinancie. Quelques uns, après Jule Scaliger, dérivent συάνγχη de χυων αγχη, & de ceux-là est Laurent Joubert, qui veut que cynanche signifie proprement un lacet à étrangler un chien. Voiez son Explication des Phrases & mots vulgaires, au mot squinance.

squinance

[Addendum to Le Duchat] On lit squinanche dans l’édition de 1552.

Esquinance

Esquinance, inflammation violente à la gorge.

Squinance est une inflammation de la gorge, or du larnyx, qui empesche souvent l’air d’entere et sortir par la trachee artere, et la viande d’estre avallee en l’estomach (Paré, VI, 8.)

Esquinance

Esquinance. The Squincie, or Squinancie; (a disease.)

squinance

squinance. Obsolete Also squynance. [So older French (e)squinance (16th c.). Cf. squince.]

= squinsy

squinancy

squinancy. Now rare. Forms: squyn-, squinansy, squynancy sqyn-, sqwyn-, -anci, -ancie, squinancy, squinantie, -tye. [adaptation of medieval Latin squinancia, -antia, apparently formed by confusion of Greek sunagxh and kunagxh cynanche, both denoting diseases of the throat. Hence also French esquinancie, †squinancie]

Quinsy; = squinsy

A form or attack of quinsy; = squinsy 2.

quinsy

quinsy. Inflammation of the throat or parts of the throat; suppuration of the tonsils; tonsillitis. Also, a form or attack of this.
 

Notes

Phyllis and Demophon

Early 16th century woodcut of Phyllis and Demophon
Date: 1552 (but actually from an earlier 16th century edition)
Source:Heroides, published by Bartolomeo Caesano, Venice, Italy

Phyllis

Begin first, Mopsus, if you have any love songs for Phyllis, or aught in praise of Alcon, or any gibes at Codrus. Begin. Tityrus will tend the grazing kids.

Phyllis

2.105. Ah me! if you ask who I, Phyllis, am, and whence—I am she, Demophoon, who, when you had been driven far in wanderings on the sea, threw open to you the havens of Thrace and welcomed you as guest, you, whose estate my own raised up, to whom in your need I in my plenty gave many gifts, and would have given many still; I am she who rendered to you the broad, broad realms of Lycurgus, scarce meet to be ruled in a woman’s name, where stretches icy Rhodope to Haemus with its shades, and sacred Hebrus drives his headlong waters forth—to you, on whom mid omens all sinister my maiden innocence was first bestowed, and whose guileful hand ungirdled my chaste zone! Tisiphone was minister at that bridal, with shrieks, and the bird that shuns the light chanted her mournful note; Allecto was there, with little serpents coiled about her neck, and the lights that waved were torches of the tomb!…

There is a bay, whose bow-like lines are gently curved to sickle shape; its outmost horns rise rigid and in rock-bound mass. To throw myself hence into the waves beneath has been my mind; and, since you [Demophoon] still pursue your faithless course, so shall it be. Let the waves bear me away, and cast me up on your shores, and let me meet your eyes untombed! Though in hardness you be more than steel, than adamant, than your very self, you shall say: “Not so, Phyllis, should I have been followed by thee! “Oft do I long for poison; oft with the sword would I gladly pierce my heart and pour forth my blood in death. My neck, too, because once offered to the embrace of your false arms, I could gladly ensnare in the noose.…”

[Heroides, fictitious love letters by legendary women to absent husbands.]

Phyllis

Demophon with a few ships put in to the land of the Thracian Bisaltians,² and there Phyllis, the king’s daughter, falling in love with him, was given him in marriage by her father with the kingdom for her dower. But he wished to depart to his own country, and after many entreaties and swearing to return, he did depart. And Phyllis accompanied him as far as what are called the Nine Roads, and she gave him a casket, telling him that it contained a sacrament of Mother Rhea, and that he was not to open it until he should have abandoned all hope of returning to her. And Demophon went to Cyprus and dwelt there. And when the appointed time was past, Phyllis called down curses on Demophon and killed herself; and Demophon opened the casket, and, being struck with fear, he mounted his horse and galloping wildly met his end; for, the horse stumbling, he was thrown and fell on his sword. But his people settled in Cyprus.

Note 2 Demophon and his brother Acamas, the sons of Theseus, had gone to Troy to rescue their grandmother Aethra from captivity. See above, Epitome, v. 22. The following story of the loves and sad fate of Demophon and Phyllis is told in almost the same words by Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron, 495, except that for the name of Demophon he substitutes the name of his brother Acamas. Lucian also couples the names of Acamas and Phyllis (De saltatione, 40). A pretty story is told of the sad lovers by Servius. He says that Phyllis, despairing of the return of Demophon, hanged herself and was turned into a leafless almond tree; but that when Demophon came and embraced the trunk of the tree, it responded to his endearments by bursting into leaf; hence leaves, which had been called petala before, were ever after called phylla in Greek. See Servius, on Virgil, Ecl. v. 10. Compare Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. G. H. Bode, vol. i. pp. 51 and 146 sq. (First Vatican Mythographer, 159; Second Vatican Mythographer, 214). The story is told in a less romantic form by Hyginus (Fab. 59, compare 243). He says that when Phyllis died for love, trees grew on her grave and mourned her death at the season when their leaves withered and fell.

Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)

The Bibliotheca (Ancient Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη Bibliothēkē, “Library”), also known as the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD.

The author was traditionally thought to be Apollodorus of Athens, but that attribution is now regarded as false, and so “Pseudo-” was added to Apollodorus.

The Bibliotheca has been called “the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times”.

The first mention of the work is by Photius in the 9th century. It was almost lost in the 13th century, surviving in one now-incomplete manuscript,[8] which was copied for Cardinal Bessarion in the 15th century; the other surviving manuscripts derive from Bessarion’s copy.

The first printed edition of the Bibliotheca was published in Rome in 1555, edited by Benedetto Egio (Benedictus Aegius) of Spoleto, who divided the text in three books

Phyllis

[10] phyllidis ignes Phyllis, Sithonis filia, regina Thracum fuit. haec Demophoontem, Thesei filium, regem Atheniensium, re- deuntem de Troiano proelio, dilexit et in coniugium suum rogavit. ille ait, ante se ordinaturum rem suam et sic ad eius nuptias re- versurum. profectus itaque cum tardaret, Phyllis et amoris impa- tientia et doloris impulsu, quod se spretam esse credebat, laqueo vitam finivit et conversa est in arborem amygdalum sine foliis. postea reversus Demophoon, cognita re, eius amplexus est truncum, qui velut sponsi sentiret adventum, folia emisit: unde etiam φύλλα sunt dicta a Phyllide, quae antea πέταλα dicebantur. sic Ovidius in metamorphoseon libris.

10] Phyllis, Phyllis Sithonian daughter The Queen of Thrace. This Demophoont, the son of Theseus, king of the Athenians, as he returned from the Trojan battle was over, he loved, and, in his marriage should be in, and desired. he said, in to order what belongs to him and in this way to his wedding in front of him coming back. So when I set out late, and she will love, caused shock and pain that had been rejected because he believed his life by hanging and turns almond tree without leaves. then returned and DEMOPHOÖN, investigate the facts, her embraces, is the trunk, should be aware of the coming of the bridegroom, who is, as it were, the leaves come forth, from whence also we φύλλα have been uttered by Phyllis left, which was previously an πέταλα that were said. So in book metamorphoses books.

Phyllis

Au retour du siège de Troie, Démophon ou Démophoon, fis de Thésée, ayant abordé chez les Dauliens, peuple de la Thrace, Phyllis, fille de Sithon, roi de ce pays, en devint éprise. Mais Démophon partitr bientôt pour aller prendre possession du royaume d’Athènes, en promettant à Phyllis de revenir. Le jour qu’elle l’attendoit étant arrivé, elle courut neuf fois au rivage où il devoit aborder, et n’en apprenant aucune nouvelle, elle se pendit de désespoir.

Phyllis

Voy. Ovide, Epist. ii.

Phyllis

Ov. Her. ii 141

Phyllis

D’après Ovide, Héroïdes, II, 141.

Phyllis royne des Thraces

D’après Ovide, Heroïdes, II, v. 141.

Thracian

Thracian. [formed on Latin Thra¯cius, Thra¯cus, adopted from Greek qra´kioj, formed on qra´kh Thrace.]

A native or inhabitant of Thrace, in antiquity a region to the N.E. of Macedonia, and now comprising European Turkey, southern Bulgaria, and the region of Thrace in N.E. Greece.

Of or pertaining to Thrace.

phyllis

Phyllis (Greek: Φυλλίς) is a character in Greek mythology, daughter of a Thracian king (according to some, of Sithon;[1][2] most other accounts do not give her father’s name at all, but one informs that he was named either Philander, Ciasus, or Thelus[3]). She married Demophon, King of Athens and son of Theseus, while he stopped in Thrace on his journey home from the Trojan War.[4]
Demophon, duty bound to Greece, returns home to help his father, leaving Phyllis behind. She sends him away with a coffin with the sacrament of Rhea, asking him to open it only when he has given up hope of returning to her. From here, the story diverges. In one version, Phyllis realizes that he will not return and commits suicide by hanging herself from a tree. Where she is buried, an almond tree grows, which blossoms when Demophon returns to her.[1] In a second version of the story, Demophon opens the caskets and, horrified by what he saw in there, rides off like wild, but his horse stumbles and he accidentally falls on his own sword.[5]
There is also some confusion regarding which nut tree she became, as hazelnuts were long called nux Phyllidos, and are still sometimes called “filberts” today.[6] In English, this version goes back at least to Gower, who writes in Confessio Amantis (ca. 1390):
That Phyllis in the same throwe
Was schape into a notetre,
That alle men it mihte se,
And after Phyllis philliberd
This tre was cleped in the yerd,
And yit for Demephon to schame
Into this dai it berth the name.
— Book 4, Lines 866–72
This story most notably appears in the second poem of Ovid’s Heroides,[7] a book of epistolary poems from mythological women to their respective men, and it also appears in the Aitia of Callimachus.
1 Servius on Virgil’s Eclogue 5. 10
2 Ovid in Remedia Amoris, 605 addresses her by the patronymic Sithonis – if indeed it is a patronymic and not an indication of her belonging to the tribe Sithones
3 Scholia on Aeschines, On the False Embassy, 31
4 Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Epitome of Book 4, 6. 16
5 Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Epitome of Book 4, 6. 17
6 Friedlander, Barbara (1976). The Vegetable, Fruit & Nut Book: secrets of the seed. Grosset & Dunlap. p. 159.
7 Ovid, Heroides 2.59–60.

Notes

petasites

Petasites
Pestilentzwurtzel
Taxon: Petasites hybridus L.
Ancient Greek: petasites
English: butterbur

Petasites

Petasites

Petasites (Coltsfoot)

Dioscor. iv. 108.

petasites

De πέτασοζ, chapeau, parasol, allusion à l’aspect des feuilles. C’est le πετασίτηζ de Dioscoride (IV, 108), et quelque espèce de notre g. Petasites. (Composées.) (Paul Delaunay)

petasite

this petasite (butterbur) after the Greek meaning hat or parasol, its leaves resembling a cover for the head.

Les aultres de leurs formes

Encore une fois, tout cela se retrouve dans le petit livre de Charles Estienne, De latinis nominibus.

Petasites

De πέτασοζ, «chapeau».

petasites

petasite. Obsolete [adopted from botanical Latin Petasi¯te¯s, Greek petasi´thj, f. pe´tasoj petasus.]
The Butterbur or Pestilence-wort, Petasites vulgaris.