Bolus of Mendes

Bolus of Mendes (Greek: Βῶλος ὁ Μενδήσιος, Bōlos ho Mendēsios; fl. 3rd century BC) was a philosopher, a neopythagorean writer of works of esoterica and medicine, in Ptolemaic Egypt.[1] Both the Suda,[2] and a later work mistakenly attributed to Eudokia Makrembolitissa—Ἰωνιά; Bed of Violets,[3] probably a 16th-century forgery[4] by Constantine Paleocappa—write of a Pythagorean philosopher of Mendes in Egypt. He is described as one who wrote on marvels, potent remedies, and astronomical phenomena.[5] The Suda, however, also describes a separate Bolus who was a philosopher of the school of Democritus,[6] who wrote Inquiry, and Medical Art, containing "natural medical remedies from some resources of nature." However, from a passage of Columella,[7] it appears that Bolos of Mendes and this other Bolus, follower of Democritus, were one and the same person.[5] He seems to have lived following the time of Theophrastus, whose work Historia Plantarum ('On Plants'), Bolus appears to have known.[8]

For another name identifying a pseudographical work Bolos of Mendes, see Pseudo-Democritus.

Bolus was either an ancient Greek[9][10] or a Hellenized Egyptian.[11][12]

Notes
  1. Paul Kroh, ed. Lexikon der Antiken Autoren, (Stuttgart) 1972:111; Max Wellmann in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 3.1, (Stuttgart) 1897:676–677, s.v. "Bolos 3".
  2. Suda, Bolus, β482; cf. Eudocia
  3. Public Domain Smith, William, ed. (1870), "Eudocia Augusta Macrembolis", Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 2, pp. 80–81 via Tufts
  4. Dorandi, Tiziano (2013). "Introduction". Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Cambridge University Press. pp. 7–9. ISBN 978-0521886819.
  5. Smith 1870.
  6. Suda, Bolus, β481
  7. Columella, vii. 5; cf. Stobaeus, Serm. 51
  8. Stephanus of Byzantium Apsynthus; Scholium ad Nicand. Theriac. 764
  9. Costantini, Leonardo (2019). Magic in Apuleius' 'Apologia': Understanding the charges and the forensic strategies in Apuleius' speech. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 28. ISBN 978-3-11-061667-5.
  10. Green, Tamara M. (2020). The Greek & Latin Roots of English. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-5381-2864-0.
  11. Ogden, Daniel; Ogden, Professor of Ancient History Daniel (2002). Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-515123-7.
  12. Campbell, Gordon Lindsay (2014-08-28). The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-103515-9.
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