Deciphering a short text in mid-10th century Greek bookhand - βοήθεια?
March 4, 2021 6:36 AM Subscribe
On the basis of two online images of a meticulously lettered paragraph in two early copies of Dioscorides' De Materia Medica - one smaller, colour one from the Morgan manuscript, and one larger, more distinct, black&white one from the Vienna manuscript - would anyone be able to help transcribe and possibly translate the text? (My previous appeal for a classical Japanese page found great help from the hive mind!)
The text pertains to the first illustration on the page, of a stag's head - the inscription next to it (in the Morgan, above it in the Vienna) reads: "elaphou kephale" - and I am lead to believe (by a third, knowledgable source) the text actually deals with a kind of aphrodisiac tuber/fungus. It's part of a section absent from most other copies of Dioscorides seminal work, so I haven't been able to locate a version either transcribed or translated. And, full disclosure, I have no level of Greek, least of all its medieval majuscule bookhand version, so I'm kind of stuck... TIA for any pointers or assistance!
The text pertains to the first illustration on the page, of a stag's head - the inscription next to it (in the Morgan, above it in the Vienna) reads: "elaphou kephale" - and I am lead to believe (by a third, knowledgable source) the text actually deals with a kind of aphrodisiac tuber/fungus. It's part of a section absent from most other copies of Dioscorides seminal work, so I haven't been able to locate a version either transcribed or translated. And, full disclosure, I have no level of Greek, least of all its medieval majuscule bookhand version, so I'm kind of stuck... TIA for any pointers or assistance!
The part under the stag's head is labeled ΛΙΘΟϹ ΓΑΓΑΤΗϹ, jet stone.
posted by jedicus at 7:22 AM on March 4, 2021
posted by jedicus at 7:22 AM on March 4, 2021
Response by poster: This text comes from Eutecnius's Paraphrase on Nicander's TheriacaYes, and many later copies of Dioscorides don't contain that section.
It's the first two paragraphs on the page that I thought would be the ones relevant to the stag's head...
The part under the stag's head is labeled ΛΙΘΟϹ ΓΑΓΑΤΗϹ
Yes, it's from a paper on this very first depiction of lithos gagates that I gleaned the Vienna image ;-)
posted by progosk at 8:22 AM on March 4, 2021
It's the first two paragraphs on the page that I thought would be the ones relevant to the stag's head...
The part under the stag's head is labeled ΛΙΘΟϹ ΓΑΓΑΤΗϹ
Yes, it's from a paper on this very first depiction of lithos gagates that I gleaned the Vienna image ;-)
posted by progosk at 8:22 AM on March 4, 2021
Response by poster: The knowledgeable source writes: "The identification of the fungus is facilitated by the accompanying text which refers to the belief that this species (identifiable as Elaphomyces granulatus Fr.) had aphrodisiac powers, originating from the story of a love-sick stag's semen dropped on the ground. In fact, the illustration of the fungus [I'm guessing it must be on a previous page in the Vienna manuscript..] is accompanied by a figure of a stag's head in the codex (folio 395)."
(Annoyingly, the available pdf of this paper does not contain the figure that apparently shows the fungus' image, and maybe some of the text...)
posted by progosk at 8:32 AM on March 4, 2021
(Annoyingly, the available pdf of this paper does not contain the figure that apparently shows the fungus' image, and maybe some of the text...)
posted by progosk at 8:32 AM on March 4, 2021
Best answer: The first two paragraphs read (copied and pasted from the digitized version of this text in the TLG):
...ἐν ᾧ δὴ συμβαίνει καιρῷ τοὺς ὄφεις ἔαρι
τοῦ γήρως ἄλλως ἀποτιθεμένους τὴν φροντίδα νέους μὲν
γίγνεσθαι καὶ ἁπαλούς, τοῦ δὲ ὀξέως μὲν ὁρᾶν κινεῖσθαι
τε θᾶττον ἐνδεῶς ἔχοντας, ποιησαμένους δὴ κατὰ σχολήν
σφᾶς τὸν μάραθον τροφὴν τοῦ τε ὀξὺ βλέπειν καὶ τοῦ
κινεῖσθαι μὴ βράδιον τὴν ἰσχὺν δέχεσθαι.
35 – 56. Ὄφεις δὴ οὖν οἶμαι καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν
θηρίων γιγνομένην ἀπελάσαι κῆρα περιέσεσθαί σοι, ἢν
βουληθῇς, ἐπιθεὶς πυρὶ θυμία τοῦτο μὲν κέρας ἐλάφου
τοῦ τὰς πλείστας ἀκμάς τε καὶ φυὰς ἔχοντος...
Quick rough, probably partly wrong translation:
...when it happens on time that snakes at spring, in particular setting aside their care for their old age, become young and tender, and being in want of seeing sharply they are stirred more quickly, making for themselves in their leisure fennel as food they receive the power of seeing sharply and moving not slowly.
So I think it will be possible for you to drive away snakes and the death arising from these beasts, if you wish, setting around the fumigations this horn of a deer that has very many points and growths...
I don't see anything about fungi, tubers, or aphrodisiacs.
posted by dd42 at 1:33 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
...ἐν ᾧ δὴ συμβαίνει καιρῷ τοὺς ὄφεις ἔαρι
τοῦ γήρως ἄλλως ἀποτιθεμένους τὴν φροντίδα νέους μὲν
γίγνεσθαι καὶ ἁπαλούς, τοῦ δὲ ὀξέως μὲν ὁρᾶν κινεῖσθαι
τε θᾶττον ἐνδεῶς ἔχοντας, ποιησαμένους δὴ κατὰ σχολήν
σφᾶς τὸν μάραθον τροφὴν τοῦ τε ὀξὺ βλέπειν καὶ τοῦ
κινεῖσθαι μὴ βράδιον τὴν ἰσχὺν δέχεσθαι.
35 – 56. Ὄφεις δὴ οὖν οἶμαι καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν
θηρίων γιγνομένην ἀπελάσαι κῆρα περιέσεσθαί σοι, ἢν
βουληθῇς, ἐπιθεὶς πυρὶ θυμία τοῦτο μὲν κέρας ἐλάφου
τοῦ τὰς πλείστας ἀκμάς τε καὶ φυὰς ἔχοντος...
Quick rough, probably partly wrong translation:
...when it happens on time that snakes at spring, in particular setting aside their care for their old age, become young and tender, and being in want of seeing sharply they are stirred more quickly, making for themselves in their leisure fennel as food they receive the power of seeing sharply and moving not slowly.
So I think it will be possible for you to drive away snakes and the death arising from these beasts, if you wish, setting around the fumigations this horn of a deer that has very many points and growths...
I don't see anything about fungi, tubers, or aphrodisiacs.
posted by dd42 at 1:33 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I don't see anything about fungi, tubers, or aphrodisiacs.
Indeed. Definitely not what I expected, based on the quoted commentary that refers explicitly to that folio of that codex...
Did Ubrizsy just... make stuff up? I’m not sure what to say now. Except of course: thanks so much for the help (TLG is the kind of insider resource I would never have located)!
posted by progosk at 3:12 PM on March 4, 2021
Indeed. Definitely not what I expected, based on the quoted commentary that refers explicitly to that folio of that codex...
Did Ubrizsy just... make stuff up? I’m not sure what to say now. Except of course: thanks so much for the help (TLG is the kind of insider resource I would never have located)!
posted by progosk at 3:12 PM on March 4, 2021
Yeah no idea. I think your best bet is to find that fig. 1 somewhere and figure out what exact illustration Ubrizsy is talking about.
posted by dd42 at 1:50 PM on March 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by dd42 at 1:50 PM on March 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Just for closure: I've now been able to check a physical copy of the volume containing the study that I was basing this deciphering of the Vienna "De Materia Medica" passage on (since the crucial "fig. 1" is missing from the public pdf copy of it) and... it's the very one I linked in the b&w image above. So, since thanks to dd42 we now know that the text isn't about tubers, this makes that interpretation a misreading, and my endeavour moot.
I wouldn't have been able to figure this out without the help here so: chalk up another win for AskMe ;-) !
posted by progosk at 3:44 AM on March 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't have been able to figure this out without the help here so: chalk up another win for AskMe ;-) !
posted by progosk at 3:44 AM on March 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
This text comes from Eutecnius's Paraphrase on Nicander's Theriaca, often found in manuscripts with Dioscorides (i.e. this is not Dioscorides). I haven't looked very carefully but I don't see anything here about tubers or fungi.
posted by dd42 at 7:12 AM on March 4, 2021 [2 favorites]