Pliny the Elder, Natural History

LCL 393: 168-169

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Pliny: Natural History

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XIX. Invenit1 et Achilles discipulus Chironis qua volneribus mederetur. quae ob id achilleos vocatur. hac sanasse Telephum dicitur. alii primum aeruginem invenisse utilissimam emplastris, ideoque pingitur ex cuspide decutiens eam gladio in volnus Telephi, alii utroque usum medicamento volunt. aliqui et hanc panacem Heracliam, alii sideriten et apud nos millefoliam vocant, cubitali scapo, ramosam, minutioribus quam feniculi foliis vestitam ab imo. 43alii fatentur quidem illam vulneribus utilem, sed veram achilleon esse scapo caeruleo pedali, sine ramis, ex omni parte singulis foliis rotundis eleganter vestitam; alii quadrato caule, capitulis marrubii, foliis quercus, hac etiam praecisos nervos glutinari.2 faciunt alii et3 sideritim in maceriis nascentem, cum 44teratur, foedi odoris, etiamnum aliam similem huic sed candidioribus foliis et pinguioribus, teneriorem cauliculis, in vineis nascentem; aliam4 vero binum cubitorum, ramulis exilibus, triangulis, folio filicis, pediculo longo, betae semine; omnes volneribus praecipuas. nostri eam quae est latissimo folio scopas regias vocant. medetur anginis suum.

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XX. Invenit et Teucer eadem aetate teucrion, quam quidam hemionion vocant, spargentem iuncos

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Book XXV

XIX. Achilles too, the pupil of Chiron, discoveredaAchilleos. a plant to heal wounds, which is therefore called achilleos, and by it he is said to have cured Telephus. Some have it that he was the first to find out that copper-rust is a most useful ingredient of plasters, for which reason he is represented in paintings as scraping it with his sword from his spear on to the wound of Telephus, while others hold that he used both remedies. This plant is also called by some Heraclean panaces, by others siderites, and by us millefolia; the stalk is a cubit high, and the plant branchy, covered from the bottom with leaves smaller than those of fennel. Others admit that this plant is good for wounds, but say that the real achilleos has a blue stalk a foot long and without branches, gracefully covered all over with separate, rounded leaves. Others describe achilleos as having a square stem, heads like those of horehound, and leaves like those of the oak; they claim that it even unites severed sinews. Some give the name sideritis to another plant, which grows on boundary walls and has a foul smell when crushed, and also to yet another, like this but with paler and more fleshy leaves, and with more tender stalks, growing in vineyards; finally to a third, two cubits high, with thin, triangular twigs, leaves like those of the fern, a long foot-stalk and seed like that of beet. All are said to be excellent for wounds. Roman authorities call the one with the broadest leaf royal broom; it cures quinsy in pigs.

XX. Teucer too in the same age discoveredTeucrion. teucrion, called by some hemionion; it spreads out

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DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.pliny_elder-natural_history.1938