Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson].

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943
Date:
[1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    his eyes rajpadi-plant1 on a bronze blade 2 [thou shalt anoint ?]. A thread sindu on it ’ (MA. ibid.) certainly indicates “ paint ” when it is considered alongside of the quantities “ four mana of sindu ” and “ sixteen mana cf sindu ” of the contracts (quoted Del., HWB. 674). Cf. Langdon, OLZ. 1909, 112, and Dougherty, Shirkiitu, 84. Sipu and liru, the equivalents of sindi hurasi, are considered as “ Goldleiste ”, “ Goldlehm ”, “ Gfoldpaste ” by Del., HWB. 645, and Jensen (KB. vi (1), 510), both reading sibu. (Cf. Neb. iii, 30, sibi saplanu ierini zululu.) But we can go a good deal further in the identification than “ Goldleiste ”. The word, on the analogy of “ smeared ”, pasta, Syr. > m “ liquid gum ”, must be sipu, not sibu : liru, its synonym, is doubtless Heb. TH, Arab. Jb “ slaver ”, etc. We have therefore to define a drug not remote from “gold paint ” or “gold leaf”, used in AM. as (1) sim.bi.* sig.* sig for eyes (1. 28 and 1. 31), and read, as I suggest, sindu arJcu “ green (yellow) paint ” ; (2) sim.bi guskin “ gold paint ”, also for eyes (with hilu of copper and <rt/‘AS.HAR, 12, 8, 6; 20, 2, 6); 15, 4, 2; for mouth (externally, with nigella, **ammi, eruca, alum, and *storax (36, 2, 3) ; and even drunk (for pain ?) with thyme, supalu, lolium, nigella, etc., in oil and kurunnu-beer (16, 4, 5). The eye-medicines and mouth-washes of SM. ii, £0, 94, and 176, 181, 187, 188, contain that drug which easily suggests itself here, i.e. arsenic ; it is even drunk in SM. ii, 412, 463, etc. As a paint it is the yellow trisulphide of arsenic, a natural product of Kurdistan (F. Butley, Elements of Mineralogy, 285), which provides the yellow dye or paint known as auri pigmentum or orpiment. This is so close to aavdapaicri (cf. Pliny, xxxiv, 18) that it is obvious that the Greeks borrowed the Assyrian words sindu arJcu “ green (yellow) paint ”. There is the slight objection that tTavSapduri in Diosc. and Pliny appears to be more the realgar or xed (and orange) sulphide than the yellow orpiment. Yet from Bostock (Pliny, xxxv, 22, note) it would appear that Pliny speaks of the pale or massicot, as well as the red, and it may well be that a confusion arose between the two kinds, especially as crdr8u£ — “ the red stone ” (sandu, cinnabar). WY may therefore consider that sim.bi.* sig.* sig and sim.bi.guskin are the yellow sulphide of arsenic, the “ yellow arsenic ” of SM., and as equal to sindu arJcu — aaudapaKr]. We can now turn to ^az.har. There is no doubt about the equivalence takAZ.har = <a*AS. har : the former occurs 10 times in AM., the latter 6 times. It is used externally, chiefly for eyes (here in curd, and 16, 1, 21) ; 9, 1, 24 ; 12, 4, 5 ; 12, 8, 6 ; 15, 4, 6 ; 19, 6, 12 (in powder) ; 20, 2, 6 ; 50, 1, 3 (eyes (?) ) ; for cheeks (or beard, 26, 8, 9) ; for ? 57, 10, 2. For some urinary trouble, brayed alone in curd, or with salt in curd, for [introduction by penis], 62, 1, ii, 6, 7. az.har, as we saw above, = sim.bi.zi.da *sig.*sig, evidently closely connected with sim.bi * sig.* sig. sim.bi.zi.da in SAI. 3546 = guhlu, i.e. kohl (Zimmern, see MA. 215). Wre have thus a “ green kohl ” used for eyes chiefly, but also for urinary trouble, called az.har, as.har, closely allied to yellow sulphide of arsenic, but not quite the same, as it is used side by side with it in the same prescription (12, 8, 6). But it is obviously some form of arsenic. It can hardly be the ghar in the Arabic “ realgar ”, since the latter (red sulphide of arsenic) does not comply with the “green” demanded. It is more probable that az.har, as.har (a foreign, borrowed word, since there is some doubt about the sibilant) is comparable to Arab, hadira “ be green ”, and even to apaevucov, appevLKov, both curious words. 1 For this plant see AH. § 10 r. Rapadu is the name of a disease. 2 gir ud.ka.bar. gir is properly a dagger, razor, or sickle (an edge or a point): e.g. in 11, 2, 7, “ . . . take out and gir ud .ka.bar himeti tapasas thou shalt anoint a bronze blade with curd ” ; 10, 3, 31, . . . ina dispi ud gir . ud . ka . bar ,, (= mar) “ . . .in white honey a bronze blade thou shalt apply ” ; 12, 8, 7, “ . . . thou shalt apply to his eyes : a bronze blade . . . once, twice, (or) thrice thou shalt apply to his eyes.” All the above are eye-texts j 70, 9, 4 is uncertain.