Nicandros made of colophon

Nikandros (Greek Νίκανδρος Níkandros , Latin Nicander , German Nikander ), also called Nikandros von Kolophon (* around 197 BC in Kolophon , Ionia ; † around 133 BC possibly in Pergamon ) was a Greek doctor, grammarian and poet . Nikandros is considered to be the author of the oldest known poison science works. He lived under King Attalus II and at the court of Attalus III .

Nicandros was the son of a Damaios and, according to Dionysius of Phaselis, is said to have also exercised a hereditary priesthood of the clear Apollo.

Of his numerous works, only two complete poems and fragments of writings on vegetable agriculture ( Georgika , Virgil serving as a template for his Georgica ), beekeeping ( Melissurgika ) and snake science ( Ophiaka ) have survived . The didactic poems have been handed down in full :

• Theriaka (958, a Hermesianax dedicated, verses in hexameters about bites and stings of poisonous animals, e.g. snakes and scorpions and their treatment with remedies or antidotes (antidotes) - cf. “ Theriak ” as thēriakón antídoton ), and
• Alexipharmaka (630, a hexameter, dedicated to a Protagoras, about poisons of vegetable, animal and mineral origin taken in with the mouth as well as clinical picture and antidotes).

The two poems are based on the writings of the poison researcher Apollodoros of Alexandria (so Peri therion , around 300 BC) and are in the poetic tradition of Hesiod . For their part, they apparently influenced Aemilius Macer and Lukan and Quintus of Smyrna . In both poems the intention to teach takes a back seat to formalistic aesthetics and rhetorical language skills. Rich in contrast, Nikander alternates between exciting and more scientific-sober passages, coining new words to assure the audience of their own language skills and, above all, abundantly decorating the animal descriptions.

Metamorphoses ( heteroioumena ), which Ovid incorporated into his work, were among his poems that have not survived . There are also some in Antoninus Liberalis' collection of sagas of metamorphosis .

There are at least two, maybe three poets with the name Nikandros who lived between 270 and 135 BC. Lived to distinguish. The older one might have been the younger’s grandfather or uncle.

Text output

• Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow , Alwyn Faber Scholfield (Eds.): Nicander. The poems and poetical fragments. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1953 (critical edition)

literature

• Bernd Effe : The structure of Nikander's Theriaka and Alexipharmaka . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie , Neue Reihe 117, 1974, pp. 53–66
• Evina Sistakou: Nikander. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Volume 2: The Literature of the Classical and Hellenistic Period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 133-139
• Peter Toohey: Epic Lessons. An Introduction to Ancient Didactic Poetry . Routledge, London 1996, pp. 62-77.
• Heather White : Studies in the poetry of Nicander (= Classical and Byzantine Monographs , Vol. 12). Hakkert, Amsterdam 1987.
• Wolfgang Wegner: Nikandros von Kolophon. 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. 1051.

Web links

• Literature by and about Nikandros aus Kolophon in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Wegner: Nikandros von Kolophon. 2005, p. 1051.
2. ↑ Otto Mazal : Plants, Roots, Juices, Seeds. Ancient healing art in miniatures by the Viennese Dioscurides. Akademische Druck- und Verlags-Anstalt, Graz 1981, ISBN 3-201-01169-X , p. 20 f. ( The paraphrase of Euteknios to the Theriacs of Nikandros von Kolophon ) and 21 ( The paraphrase of Euteknios to the Alexipharmaka de Nikandros von Kolophon ).
3. ↑ Wolfgang Wegner: Nikandros von Kolophon. 2005, p. 1051.