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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.

“But I was a mouse when I went in the water…”
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