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The Oδυνήφατα Φάρμακα of Iliad V. 900, and their Bearing on the Prehistoric Culture of Old Servia
Grace Harriet Macurdy
The Classical Quarterly / Volume 9 / Issue 02 / April 1915, pp 65 - 71 DOI: 10.1017/S000983880000625X, Published online: 11 February 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S000983880000625X
How to cite this article: Grace Harriet Macurdy (1915). The Oδυνήφατα Φάρμακα of Iliad V. 900, and their Bearing on the Prehistoric Culture of Old Servia. The Classical Quarterly, 9, pp 65-71 doi:10.1017/ S000983880000625X
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APRIL, 1915.
THE QATNH4>ATA 4>APMAKA OF ILIAD V. 900, AND THEIR BEARING ON THE PREHISTORIC CULTURE OF OLD SERVIA. THE passage about Paeon's treatment of the wound of Ares in Iliad V. 899-904 has been neglected or misunderstood by the majority of com- mentators, and no one, so far as I know, has pointed out its significance for pre-Homeric culture in that part of the Balkan area in which archaeolo- gical research has shown a connection with and influence on the culture of North Greece. I refer to that part known as Old Servia, extending from Naissus, the modern Nish, at present the temporary capital of Servia, and below Skopi, modern Uskub, into northern Macedonia. I will first take up the generally misunderstood Homeric passage. The verses are as follows: 1 fis
This is the only passage in Homer in which such magical procedure occurs. In the Iliad the work of the physician is scientific. Cf. Iliad XI. 514 sq': irjTpb1; yap dvrjp 7ro\\£>v dvrdfyos aXXtov lov<{ T' eKTdfiveiv, em T' rpna atfi eK/iv^rjaaf etr dp' ijiria (f>up/MKa elhw •ndaae, ra o'i irore narpl » See Book of Simples, Sampson Low, 1914. 3 Pickering, Chronological Hist, of Plants. 2 See Nauck, Frag. * Dioscor. II. 68 G. H. MACURDY (irfviov, TravOiKeparov, 'ISaioc BdKTvXoi, dy\ao The best commentary on the name dyXaocpcorif is found in Aelian 1.14. 27, where an interesting account of sympathetic magic in connection with the peony—here called ayXao^wri? and Kwocr-rracrTo^—is given. Aelian says that the plant in the day-time escapes notice amid its surroundings, and by no means catches the eye ; but at night it shines out and gleams like a star, for it is like a flame of fire. So the PI£OT6/J.CH, mark it at the root at night, as they would not be able to recognize its colour or its aspect by day. They do not dare dig the plant themselves, as the first to do this perished speedily. They bring to the spot a young hound who is starving after days of going without food, and fasten him to the peony stalk by a stout rope. Then they place savoury food just out of his reach. He, then, rushing for the food, drags the peony up by the roots. When the sun beholds the roots, the dog dies. He is buried in that self-same spot by the root-diggers, who perform a secret ritual over him, and honour him as having died in their stead. After this they dare to touch the mysterious plant, take it home and use it for many purposes, chief among which is the healing of the diseases of the moon (epilepsy) and the hardening of the aqueous part of the eyes. In this account the important points for magico-religious study are the sympathetic magic of the dragging (cruato) by the dog to get the plant which cures a-Trda/Mara; the name icvv6 1 Gilbert Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, * Ibid. p. 44. 3 A.B. Cook,TheEuropeanSky-God (C.R., 1904). 70 G. H. MACURDY Paeonians under the name of Dryalus (Gerhard for AuaXo? of Hesych.). By night the moon protects her flower. We find Hecate wearing the oak in Sophocles' play The Root-diggers. His invocation is— "H\te Be Here the Sun and Hecate the moon-goddess are the deities worshipped by the root-diggers. They are the Sun and Artemis fiao-tXeia of Paeonia, the land of healing. Dardania is the neighbour of Paeonia. Strabo and Pliny give its site in several places. In Athenaeus, in a citation from Heraclides, they are mentioned casually as contiguous. ' It rained frogs in Dardania and Paeonia.' It is of significance that from the Dardanian language only two words have been preserved, and these are given by Dioscorides in his book on healing herbs as Dardanian names for plants which he mentions. The Dardans are thus cited as herbalists. In a previous paper I have given the evidence for the Paeonian herbs, salves, and potions. The Dacian names of herbs are frequently given by Dioscorides. This whole region was the land of the pi^orofwc. The archaeological connections between North Greece and the Balkans have been emphasized by recent excavations. The trade-route between Servia and Troy is well established by geography and by actual remains. Homer knows of the Paeonians and of a settlement of Dardanians under Aeneas in Troy itself. The metal-work which is amply attested by Pliny, by ancient mines in Servia, and by Roman inscriptions and coins dealing with the Dardani have a reminiscence in Homer in the beautiful Thracian sword taken from the Paeonian Asteropaeus. Paeonia gave Greece the paean and the physician god. The Thessalian Asklepios and his sons are an off-shoot of the Balkan culture.1 Messrs. Wace and Thompson in Prehistoric Thessaly show from the evidence of pottery that above Thessaly there is ' a line of cultures extending from Servia eastward and connecting with Troy, which are characterized by the use of incised pottery, weapons of Central European type, and probably also by an early knowledge of metal. ... At present, the distribution of the early remains seems to confirm Homer in various ways. The most northern part of the Greek confederacy at Oloosron and the position of Priam's most western ally on the Axios mark the extreme limits of the early Thessalian and Thracian culture. The gap between seems common both to Homer and to prehistoric archaeology; at least, in the intervening region, only one early site has been found.' From the Balkans came the Hyperborean Sun and Moon worship, which 1 See also J. Svonoros, as on p. 66, n. 2. THE OATNH3>ATA 3>APMAKA OF ILIAD V. 900 71 coalesced with the Greek worship of Apollo and Artemis; there came the physician-god Paeon with his iiraoiBi], which became the famous paean, fraught with all high emotion; there came the Central European metallurgy and the cultivation and knowledge of healing herbs and fragrant roses; there came, too, the darker superstitions that clustered about Hecate, the moon-goddess, and the witch women who brought her down from heaven to help them in their black art. But Homer knows nothing of this baser sort. His Cheiron and his Circe are great conceptions, and the 6&wrj VASSAR COLLEGE, POCGHKEEPSIB, N.Y., U.S.A. CORRIGENDA. I. XPH AND AEI. IN my paper on Xprj and Aei in this journal for April, 1914 (VIII. 91-102), some errors call for correction, though they do not affect the argument at all. Page 99, line 13 from foot: Thuk. v. 26, 4 has Sioi in the sense denied for Thukydides. But he is here quoting a prediction, irpofapop-evov wro irokk&v. Page 99, line 3 from foot: For ' should we accept' read ' should you accept us as.' Page 101, table: A recount changes figures a little, as the footnote suggests that it might; under Theaet. read Set 34, xp-q 13. Page 102, line 10: For ' 10 :16' read ' 10 : 18.' T. D. GOODELL. II. In C.R. viii., p. 144, 1. 7 from foot, the comment within square brackets should be deleted.