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.  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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