This is the third (and final) installment of the Paradoxographus Florentinus’ Mirabilia de Aquis. Go here for number 3,number 2 and number 1.
36 “Around Tarrakina in Italy, Isigonos says that there is a lake called Amuklaia and that there is a deserted city alongside it. The inhabitants there were deprived of the city because of the volume of the water.”
37 “In a lake in Italy which is called the Bakanos—and it is 500 stades in length—there is an island covered with mild plants. The Island swims and moves in the direction of the winds. This same phenomenon happens in another lake in Italy which is called Koutilia.”
39 “Near Sardis there is a lake which is called Koloê. It produces a multitude of every kind of delicacy, but it also has islands settled deceptively. For they float around and move position with a gust of wind. This supports so great a number of aquatic birds that they sometimes starve.”
40 “They say that it is the water around Sousiana which was processed for Medea’s poisonous medicines. It flows from some spring but is protected by the nearby inhabitants. The animals or equipment who are rubbed with it or moistened with it are kindled when fire comes near to them and they immediately are on fire. This is called naphtha. When it is separated from this land it loses its power, As Isigonos records.”
41 “In Italy there is a lake called Sabatos from which, whenever the water is clear, many foundations and temples and plenty of statues show through in the depth. The people who live nearby say that the city which once was there disappeared.
The same thing is said of lake Kiminos in Italy, that there was a city there and it disappeared suddenly.”
42 “There is a lake in Macedonia which is called Luxnîtis and people sail across it for the purpose of investigation. For as they look down into the deep they see enormous benches and endless masses of silver work wondrous for its size and golden tablets and chalices and all the accompaniments of a feast in a wealthy palace.”
43 “In Lydia there is a lake called Tala which is sacred to nymphs and bears a multitude of reeds and one in the middle which the locals call the king. They propitiate it by making sacrifices and holding annual feasts. While they do these things, then the sound of their voices is on the shore, all the reeds dance and the king appears to dance with them toward the shore. The locals ring the king with sand and send him off, praying that in the future he is present for them as a guardian in a true sign [?] as Isigonos records in his second book of Unbelievable Things.”
This is the third installment of the Paradoxagraphus Florentinus, a text which provides a list of miraculous waters from the ancient world. Here’s the first,and the second.
27 “In Alliphanos in Italy there is a deep reservoir from which water is seen but if someone lets a line down into it, he does not touch the water but is hindered by some divine force, as Isigonos records.”
28 There is a pond in Italy near Cumae and when the leaves or fruit from the trees that are nearby fall they immediately become invisible while they shrink.”
30 “Near Gela in Sicily there is a lake called Silla, extremely small, which hurls those who bathe in it onto dry land as if from an instrument, as Aristotle says.”
31 “Along the Eridanos river there is a pond around the Elektryan islands which has warm water but has a heavy smell and no animal will taste from it.”
33 “Hieronymos records that in the land of the Nabataians of Arabia there is a bitter lake in which there are no fish and no other of the animals who live under water. Bricks of asphalt are taken from it by the people who live nearby.”
14 “Similarly, near Kosê there is a spring which, if you place a container filled with wine in it until it covers the mouth then it is more bitter than vinegar right away according to the same author.”
17 “Ktêsias records that in Aithiopia there is a stream which is similar in color to cinnamon. When people drink from it they change their minds so much that they admit to things which were done secretly.”
18 “In Arabia there is the spring of Isis, which, once a cup of wine has been moistened with it, also makes the drink more tempered, as Amômêtos says.”
21 “Among the Sukaminai the city has a pond and when people either bathe in it or drink from it their hair falls off and hooves of senseless animals fall off, as Isigonos records.”
[Note: the Greek in the epigram below is a little strange. I am not sure I have it right.]
24 “Among the Kleitorians of Arkadia they say there is a spring and when people drink from it they hate wine. Next to this this kind of epigram is placed
Hick, with flocks, at midday thirst weighs down on you
As you come through the farthest part of Kleitoros;
Take a drink from this spring. And rest your whole flock
Among the water nymphs here.
But don’t put your skin to bathe, so that the smell
might not cause you pain when you are in drunken pleasure.
Avoid my vine-hating spring where Melampous*,
Once he washed of the madness of harsh Proitos**
Cut off every disgrace in secret, when they came from Argos
to the mountains of steep Arkadia.”
Textual variations: ἀρτεμέας for ἀργαλέης; for ἔβαψεν for ἔκοψεν
*Melampous was a seer who dealt with the king Proitos in either Argos or Pylos. The references to “vine-hating” and “washing” recall the story of Melampous cleansing the women of the city of madness inspired by Dionysus. Hence, the water makes people hate wine. This epigram appears in a supplement to the Greek Anthology and Vitruvius
25 “Aristôn the peripatetic philosopher says that there is a spring of water in Kios and when people drink from it they lose their senses in their mind. And he adds that there is this kind of an epigram for it.
“Sweet is the offering of the cool drink which this spring
Offers up. But whoever drinks of it is a stone in his mind.”
14 “Similarly, near Kosê there is a spring which, if you place a container filled with wine in it until it covers the mouth, then it becomes more bitter than vinegar right away according to the same author.”
7 “In Naxos Aglaosthenês says that wine bubbles up on its own for the earth and when it goes into rivers it does not mix with water. The person who tastes it goes crazy”
“Gaius Julius, Masinissa’s son, who controlled all the lands of the city, fought alongside the emperor. He was my guest from time to time. In our daily conversations we often were compelled to argue about philology.
Once we had a debate about the power of water and its finer qualities. He told me that there were springs which came from his own land along which whoever was born there developed exceptional singing voices. Because of this, people used to purchase fine looking lads and full-grown girls to mate with them, so that the children who were born from them would be exceptional in voice and form.”
Gaius Iulius Masinissae filius, cuius erant totius oppidi agrorum possessiones, cum patre Caesare militavit. Is hospitio meo est usus. Ita cotidiano convictu necesse fuerat de philologia disputare. Interim cum esset inter nos de aquae potestate et ius virtutibus sermo, exposuit esse in ea terra eiusmodi fontes, ut, qui ibi procrearentur, voces ad cantandum egregias haberent, ideoque semper transmarinos catlastros emere formonsos et puellas maturas eosque coniungere, ut, qui nascerentur ex his, non solum voce egregia sed etiam forma essent non invenusta.
Frescoes of Marine Life found on a wall along the via La Portuense in the river port of San Paolo Rome CE) – National Museum of Rome
Frescoes found, in the river port of San Paolo Rome – National Museum of Rome
Pindar, Ol. 1 1–7
“Water is best, yet gold shining as a fire
Clear in the night is beyond all noble wealth—
But if you desire,
Dear heart, to sing of contests,
Don’t look farther than the sun
For any bright star warmer by day, alone in the sky.
And let us sing no contest greater than Olympia.”
“Water is best, yet gold shining as a fire
Clear in the night is beyond all noble wealth—
But if you desire,
Dear heart, to sing of contests,
Don’t look farther than the sun
For any bright star warmer by day, alone in the sky.
And let us sing no contest greater than Olympia.”
As many current parents likely are, I am generally befuddled by obsession with child hydration. Our children take water bottles with them to school; we cannot take even a short trip without water in the car. Although I have no memory of every carrying a water bottle before 2005, I fret over how much water my children are not drinking. Where did this water-worry come from? Here are some water compounds as a tonic.
ὑδατόλουτος: “washed in water”
ὑδατοπλήξ: “water-beaten”
ὑδατοπότης: “water drinker”
ὑδατόχλοος: “pale as water”
ὑδραλέτης: “water-mill”
ὑδράλμη: “salt-water”
ὑδράρπαξ: “water clock”
ϋδραυλις: “hydraulic organ”
ὑδρέλαιον: “oil mixed with water”
ὑδρημερία: “water distribution”
ὑδρόγαστωρ: “water on the belly”
ὑδρόδρομος: “water-running”
ὑδροειδής: “like water”
ὑδρόεις: “fond of the water”
ὑδροθηρία: “hunting in water” (i.e. “fishing”)
ὑδροκέφαλον: “water in the head” (hydrocephalic)
ὑδροκήλη: “water in the scrotum”
ὑδροκιρσοκήλη: “an aneurysm of the vessels of the testicles” !
ὑδρομανία = ὑδροφοβία
ὑδρομέλαθρος: “living in water”
ὑδρόμελι: a type of mead (lit. “water-honey”)
ὑδρόμφαλος: “water in the umbilical region” (prefered translation: “water-button”)
ὑδροπαραστάται: those who serve water instead of wine during Holy Communion
“This world, which no god or man ever made, the same world to all, it always was, is and will be an ever-living fire with some measures kindled and others going out.”
“He declared first that the world was spherical and in the center [of everything]. And he said there were two principle elements, fire and earth, and that the first acted like a craftsman and the second like material.”
I will speak a two-fold tale. Once, first, the one alone grew
Out of many and then in turn it grew apart into many from one.
Fire, and Water, and Earth and the invincible peak of Air,
“The conflict between Aeschines and Demosthenes began in part because of the fact that the one acted on behalf of the King and the other acted for another—as it seems to me. But there was also a difference of character: and hatred always seems to develop from characters that are strongly opposed to one another without any other cause. And the two were opposed for these reasons. Aeschines was a man who liked to drink, but he was sweet and had kind manners and he had the general charm of Dionysus; indeed, when he was in his youth he played parts for the tragic actors. But Demosthenes had a downcast face, a heavy brow, and he drank water: and for this reason he was assumed a ill-tempered and bad-mannered man….”
