Kyranids
The Kyraniden (also Koiraniden ) are a late antique collection of medical-magical writings in four books.
They are named after a supposed author Kyranos. In the prologue, however, the work is ascribed to the mythical figure of Hermes Trismegistus , who is said to have received the text from angels in order to pass it on to people who are worthy of his secrets. The text in its traditional form is probably the work of a Byzantine compiler .
The therapies and recipes contained are based on the concepts of sympathetic medicine and magic . The operating principle is the relationship between corresponding parts of the macro or microcosm, for example in the associations between signs of the zodiac, body organs and animals, which then recommends the use of secretions from the respective animals for the treatment of diseases of the corresponding organ, now known as organotherapy .
The therotherapeutic (from the Greek thēr : animal) compilation of the Kyranids contains, among other things, instructions on the medical use of the vulture (already traceable in the Ebers papyrus and later described by Pliny the Elder and in medieval treatises).
In addition to purely medical content, there are also topics of hermetic philosophy, in particular the relationship between body and soul (imprisonment of the soul in the body, liberation and return of the soul to the Creator).
Books II to IV were originally titled Hieratic Book on the Symptoms of Three Times Largest Hermes .
literature
Overview display
- David M. Bain: Koiranids. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Volume 21, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-7772-0620-2 , Sp. 224-232
Investigations
- Dimitris Kaimakis: The Kyranids (= contributions to classical philology 76). Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1976, ISBN 3-445-01334-9
- Klaus Alpers: Studies on the Greek Physiologus and the Kyranids. Wittig, Hamburg 1984
reception
- Isabel Toral-Niehoff: Kitab Giranis. The Arabic translation of Hermes Trismegistus' first Kyranis and the Greek parallels . Herbert Utz, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-8316-0413-4
Remarks
- ↑ Max Höfler: The folk medical organotherapy and its relationship to the cult victim. Stuttgart 1908.
- ↑ Gundolf Keil : Vulture treatise '. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 466 f.
- ^ Joachim Stürmer, Gundolf Keil: Geiertraktat . In: Burghart Wachinger et al. (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd edition, Volume 2. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1980, ISBN 3-11-022248-5 , Sp. 1137-1140; Rainer Möhler: ›Epistula de vulture‹ Investigations into an organotherapeutic drug monograph of the early Middle Ages. (= Medieval wonder drug tracts. Volume 4). Horst Wellm, Pattensen / Han. 1990, now at Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 45), ISBN 3-921-456-85-1 , pp. 48–68.
- ↑ Florian Ebeling: The secret of Hermes Trismegistos. History of Hermetism , Munich 2005, p. 45.