(1) τοῦτο δὲ καὶ περὶ Ἡρακλέους ἐγένετο. (2) λέγεται ὡς ἐφ’ ἑαυτῷ ἔσχε φύλλα ****** (3) ὁ οὖν Φιλοίτης ****** (4) εἴτε καὶ ἰδιώτης ὑπάρχων ἐπινοήσας ἔκαυσεν καὶ ὑγιᾶ ἐποίησεν. (5) ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐλέχθη οὕτως ἐντεῦθεν.
notes
The text of this story is badly damaged and is missing key sentences. It may be rationalizing the myth of Philoctetes burning Heracles on the pyre as an origin story for the cauterization of wounds as a medical technique.
See Dunstan Lowe, “Herakles and Philoktetes (Palaiphatos 36),” Hermes 141 (2103): 355–57.
2
ἔσχε φύλλα ******: some text is missing.
3
Φιλοίτης: possibly a corruption of the name Philoctetes.
4
ἰδιώτης ὑπάρχων: Stern takes ἰδιώτης here to mean that the person who invented cauterization did so without professional training, i.e., without being a doctor.
ὑγιᾶ ἐποίησεν: assume Heracles as the direct object, “he made [Heracles] healthy.”
ὑγιᾶ: acc. sing. (Attic –ιᾶ) of ὑγιής, predicate accusative with ποιέω (“make X healthy”).
5
ἐλέχθη: 3rd sing. aor. indic. pass. > λέγω.
vocabulary
1
Ἡρακλῆς –έους, ὁ Heracles, the Greek hero
2
φύλλον –ου, τό leaf
3
Φιλοίτης –ου, ὁ Philoetes (male name), possibly a corruption of Philoctetes
4
ἰδιώτης –ου, ὁ someone without professional knowledge, layman
ἐπινοέω, contr. to invent
καίω, καύσω, ἔκαυσα, κέκαυκα, κέκαυ(σ)μαι, ἐκαύθην to burn; here, cauterize
ὑγιής –ές healthy
5
ἐντεῦθεν, adv. from this, from here, hence