Heuresis

Heuresis gives Dioscurides a mandrake root. First author picture on fol. 4 verso

Heuresis (also Euresis ) is a nymph in Greek mythology who is known in literature as the guardian or goddess of invention . In the Anglo-American language area it is also mentioned under the name Discovery .

The only known illustration of Heuresis can be found in the late antique Vienna Dioscurides Codex. The Greek Pedanios Dioscurides was a military doctor in the service of the Roman emperors Claudius and Nero and is considered the most famous pharmacologist of antiquity. The illustration shows a bearded doctor (Dioscurides himself) on an elegant chair, who stretches his arm towards a plant that heuresis, personified as a child, presents to him. A dying black dog lies at the man's feet. The plant is the mandrake root ( mandragora ), a poisonous medicinal and ritual plant, which is said to have magical powers and whose properties Dioscurides described. The depiction of the dog fueled the legend that a completely black dog should be used when harvesting the mandrake, which is attached to the dug up plant with a cord in order to pull it out of the earth. The dog dies from the deadly screams of the mandrake, which tries to hold onto the ground with its roots, while the farmer is protected from suffering by beeswax in the ears.

Between 1652 and 1655 John Goodyer translated the Codex des Dioscurides into English . This translation is now in the possession of the library at Magdalen College , Oxford , England. Numerous companies or institutions are named after Heuresis, as well as a scientific journal.

Web links

• "The mandrake" on whitedragon.org.uk

Footnotes

1. ↑ cf. "The invention of the wheel" on matriarchat.info
2. ^ The Vienna Dioscurides. Codex medicus graecus 1 of the Austrian National Library Graz: Academic Printing and Publishing Institute 1998 Volume 1. Miniature on sheet 4 verso. Commentary by Otto Mazal on p. 22 ISBN 3-201-01699-3
3. ↑ cf. Cultural history of mandrake ( Memento from March 24, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 221 kB)
4. ↑ cf. "La principessa bizantina Giuliana Anicia e il suo erbario" on imperobizantino.it  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ cf. "The mandrake" on whitedragon.org.uk "The mandrake" on whitedragon.org.uk
6. ↑ cf. Journal database