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Notes (10)

1. 1Theopompus FGrH 115 F392 (not regarded by Jacoby as a verbatim quotation). The implication of the Suda's 'too' is obscure. ↩
2. 2The Battle of the River Sagras was fought between the forces of Locris and Croton in southern Italy. According to Strabo (6.1.10) the battle marked the beginning of Croton's decline, and so will have taken place after c.510 BCE when Croton destroyed Sybaris. Nothing more is known of this particular Crotonian. ↩
3. 3The scrapings are likely to have been verdigris i)o/s taken from the bronze tip of the spear. This method was used by Achilles in curing Telephus, as related in the epic poem Cypria. The evidence for this is the argument for the contents of the Cypria as given in Proclus' Chrestomathy in combination with Apollodorus' Library as quoted by M.L. West in his edition of Greek Epic Fragments (LCL), Harvard U.P.: 2003, p.74. The passage reads: [*th/lefos] qerapeu/etai a)pocu/santos *)axille/ws th=s phlia/dos meli/as to\n i)o/n. Note also the following extract from web address 1 below. The first recorded medical use of copper is found in the Smith Papyrus, one of the oldest books known. The Papyrus is an Egyptian medical text, written between 2600 and 2200 BC, which records the use of copper to sterilize chest wounds and to sterilize drinking water. Other early reports of copper's medicinal uses are found in the Ebers Papyrus, written around 1500 BC. The Ebers Papyrus documents medicine practiced in ancient Egypt and in other cultures that flourished many centuries earlier. Copper compounds were recommended for headaches, "trembling of the limbs" (perhaps referring to epilepsy or St. Vitus' Dance), burn wounds, itching and certain growths in the neck, some of which were probably boils. Forms of copper used for the treatment of disease ranged from metallic copper splinters and shavings to various naturally occurring copper salts and oxides. A 'green pigment' is spoken of which was probably the mineral malachite, a form of copper carbonate. It could also have been chrysocolla, a copper silicate, or even copper chloride, which forms on copper exposed to seawater. In the first century AD, Dioscorides, in his book De Materia Medica, described a method of making another green pigment known as verdigris by exposing metallic copper to the vapors of boiling vinegar. In this process, blue-green copper acetate forms on the copper surface. Verdigris and blue vitriol (copper sulfate) were used, among other things, in remedies for eye ailments such as bloodshot eyes, inflamed or "bleary" eyes, "fat in the eyes" (trachoma?), and cataracts. In the Hippocratic Collection (named for, although not entirely written by, the Greek physician Hippocrates, 460-380), copper is recommended for the treatment of leg ulcers associated with varicose veins. To prevent infection of fresh wounds, the Greeks sprinkled a dry powder composed of copper oxide and copper sulfate on the wound. ↩
4. 4The verb a)nalu/w means 'unloose' or 'set free' and can also mean 'release from a spell'. See LSJ s.v. and web address 2. ↩
5. 5The Theoxenia was a festival (whether private or public) in which a god or gods were considered to be present in person at a banquet given by their worshippers. In the present case the Dioscuri were the guest divinities. See OCD(4) 1463 'theoxenia'. ↩
6. 6Silphium, a plant related to fennel and celery, grew only in Cyrene in north Africa↗. Consequently, the stalk of silphium was tangible evidence that Phormion had astrally traveled to Cyrene. Concerning silphium see sigma 422, sigma 423; and A. Dalby, Siren Feasts. London: Routledge: 1996, 86-87. The Battiad dynasty (named after Battus the founder of Cyrene) ruled from c.630-c.440. ↩
7. 7cf. sigma 1097. This and what follows comes from the scholia to Aristophanes, Peace 347, where this different Phormion (on whom see note 9 below) is mentioned. ↩
8. 8A comic play by Eupolis (Kassel-Austin, PCG 5.452-466). ↩
9. 9The Athenian general (strategos) Phormion: see generally RE 20.1, cols.537-539, under 'Phormion(4)', by T. Lenschau; OCD4 1140, under 'Phormion(1)', by S. Hornblower; R. Develin, Athenian Officials 684-321 BC (Cambridge 1989) no.2504. He first comes to notice -- already in that high office -- during the revolt of Samos↗ in 440. The exploits referred to here took place in the Gulf of Corinth in 429. See Thucydides 2.83-92 with web address 2. ↩
10. 10Or perhaps (with Meineke) Dionysus in place of 'Dionysius'. Whatever the name, the character appears to be a slave who slept on a straw mat, the poorest of bedding. The nature of the food he would not wish to eat again has been lost. ↩