Fantastic Friday 3: Waters with Anaesthetic, Aphrodisiac, and Life-Changing Powers

Paradoxographus Vaticanus, 33-38

33 “Aristôn the Peripatetic says that on the island Kios there is a spring of water and when people drink from it they lose all perception.”

᾿Αρίστων ὁ περιπατητικὸς ἐν τῇ νήσῳ Κία πηγήν φησιν ὕδατος εἶναι, ἀφ’ ἧς τοὺς πιόντας ἀναισθήτους γίνεσθαι.

 

34 “Near India there is a lake which admits everything except for gold and silver”

Περὶ τὴν ᾿Ινδικὴν ἔστι λίμνη, ἥτις πάντα †δέχεται† πλὴν χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου.

 

35 “Hellanikos says that among the Indians there is a spring called Sila from which even the lightest things are hurled back” [?]

῾Ελλάνικος ἐν ᾿Ινδοῖς εἶναί φησι κρήνην Σίλαν καλουμένην, ἐφ’ ἧς καὶ τὰ ἐλαφρότατα καταποντίζεται.

 

36 “In Hierapolis there is a place called Kharônios in which no animal walks at all. For, they immediately fall [there]”

᾿Εν ῾Ιεραπόλει τόπος ἐστὶ Χαρώνιος λεγόμενος, ἐν ᾧ οὐδὲν ζῷον δῆτα βαίνει· πίπτει γὰρ παραυτίκα.

 

37 “The river Selemnos flows through Arkadia and its water is an aphrodisiac.”

Σέλεμνος ποταμὸς ῥέει διὰ τῆς ᾿Αρκαδίας, καὶ ἔστι τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ ἔρωτος φάρμακον.

 

38 “Theopompos says that there is a spring in Thrace and those who have bathed in it change their life.”

Θεόπομπος κρήνην ἐν Θρᾴκῃ λέγει εἶναι, ἐξ ἧς οἱ λουσάμενοι μεταλλάττουσι τὸν βίον.

Image result for medieval manuscript lake
“But I was a mouse when I went in the water…”

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