Nazewnictwo narzędzi medycznych w czwartej księdze Onomastikonu Polydeukesa

Abstract

Nomenclature of Medical Tools in Book Four of Onomasticon by Julius Pollux This article aims to discuss the nomenclature of medical tools in Book Four of Onomasticon by Julius Pollux and to assess the usefulness of this work as a source of knowledge in research on the history of medicine. The article contains an original translation that allows for a detailed analysis of the given passage. Onomasticon is an ancient lexicon and the only surviving work by Pollux who lived in the 2nd century CE and represented the Second Sophistic. In Onomasticon, he compiled ancient Greek vocabulary on various topics, including terminology relating to medical tools. The layout of the chapter is not accidental. The author divides the terms into several groups: cutting and mechanical tools, dressings, bloodletting devices and physician’s office equipment. Sometimes he indicates the authors – mainly comedy playwrights – from whom he resourced the chosen vocabulary. The terminology was also drawn from lexicons. The vast majority of phrases mentioned by Pollux was used in a medical context in other literary sources and medical treatises, for example by Hippocrates and Galen. Words that appear in a medical context only in Onomasticon may result from the author’s error or can be new evidence for the studies on ancient medicine.