Name: Testimonia
Author: Menestor

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These are ancient testimonies about Menestor of Sybaris, a Pythagorean natural philosopher of the fifth century BC. No writings of his survive, and what is known comes from later authors. Iamblichus lists him among the Pythagoreans of Sybaris, and Theophrastus, in his botanical works, reports his views on plant sap, the best woods for fire-sticks, the growth of the mulberry, hot and cold plants, soils and the number of flavours.

Menestor is one of the earliest Greek thinkers known to have written on plants, and Theophrastus' references show that he applied the opposition of hot and cold, familiar from Empedocles, to botany. These testimonies are a small but significant witness to Pythagorean natural science and to the origins of Greek botany before Aristotle and Theophrastus.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 32). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy

Testimonia

Menestor · every word parsed

1
IAMBL. V. P. 267 p. 190, 11 N. Συβαρῖται Μέτωπος, Ἵππασος, Πρόξενος, Εὐάνωρ, Λεάναξ, Μενέστωρ κτλ. 
THEOPHR. H. pl. I 2, 3 τὸ μὲν οὖν ὑγρὸν φανερόν, ὃ δὴ καλοῦσί τινες ἁπλῶς ἐν ἅπασιν ὀπό ν, ὥσπερ καὶ Μ., οἱ δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις μὲν ἀνωνύμως, ἐν δέ τισιν ὀπὸν καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις δάκρυον. 
— —V 9, 6 πυρεῖα δὲ γίνεται μὲν ἐκ πολλῶν, ἄριστα δέ, ὥς φησι Μ., ἐκ κιττοῦ · τάχιστα γὰρ καὶ πλεῖστον ἀναπνεῖ. 
3a
— —V 3, 4 θερμὸν δὲ καὶ κιττὸς καὶ δάφνη καὶ ὅλως ἐξ ὧν τὰ πυρεῖα γίνεται. Μ. δέ φησιν καὶ συκάμινο ν . 
de caus. pl. I 17, 3 ἡ μὲν οὖν τῆς συκαμίνου [αὔξησις] διὰ τοῦτο πρώϊος. ὡς δὲ Μ. φησίν, ἡ μὲν βλάστησις αὐτῆς ὀψία διὰ τὴν ψυχρότητα τοῦ τόπο υ , ἡ δὲ πέψις ταχεῖα διὰ τὴν ἀσθένεια ν . 
5
— —21, 5 μία μὲν οὖν αἰτία λέγεται τῶν θερμῶν καὶ ψυχρῶν ἡ εἰς τὸ κάρπιμον ἀνάγουσα καὶ ἄκαρπον, ὡς τῶν μὲν θερμῶν καρπίμων ὄντων 〈τῶν δὲ ψυχρῶν ἀκάρπων〉, καθάπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ζώιων τῶν γονίμων καὶ ἀγόνων καὶ τῶν ζωιοτόκων καὶ ὠιοτόκων. ἑτέρα δʼ ἡ κατὰ τὰς χώρας, οἷον 〈θερμὰς ἢ〉 ψυχράς· τὰ γὰρ ἐναντία ἐν ταῖς ἐναντίαις δύνασθαι διαμένειν, τὰ μὲν θερμὰ ἐν ταῖς ψυχραῖς, τὰ δὲ ψυχρὰ ἐν ταῖς θερμαῖς. οὕτω γὰρ εὐθὺς καὶ τὴν φύσιν γεννᾶν ὡς ὑπὸ μὲν τοῦ ὁμοίου φθειρομένων διὰ τὴν ὑπερβολήν, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἐναντίου σωιζομένων οἷον εὐκρασίας τινὸς γινομένης· ὥσπερ καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς [31 A 73] λέγει περὶ τῶν ζώιων· τὰ γὰρ ὑπέρπυρα τὴν φύσιν ἄγειν εἰς τὸ ὑγρόν. (6) συνηκολούθηκε δὲ ταύτηι τῆι δόξηι καὶ Μ. οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ τῶν ζώιων, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν φυτῶν. θερμότατα γὰρ εἶναί φησι τὰ μάλιστα ἔνυγρα οἷον σχοῖνον, κάλαμον, κύπειρον· διʼ ὃ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν χειμώνων, οὐκ ἐκπήγνυσθαι· καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα μάλιστα ἐν τοῖς ψυχροῖς δύνασθαι διαμένειν, οἷον ἐλάτην, πεύκην, κέδρον, ἄρκευθον, κιττόν. ἐπὶ τούτου γὰρ οὐδὲ τὴν χιόνα τῆι θερμότητι ἐπιμένειν. ἔτι δὲ σκολιὸν εἶναι διὰ τὴν ἐντεριώνην θερμὴν οὖσαν καὶ διαστρέφειν. (7) τρίτην δʼ αἰτίαν λέγει τοῦ πρωϊβλαστῆ καὶ πρωΐκαρπα εἶναι· φύσει γὰρ καὶ ὁ ὀπὸς αὐτοῖς ὢν θερμὸς καὶ βλαστάνειν πρωῒ ποιεῖ καὶ πέττειν τοὺς καρπούς. σημεῖον δὲ ποιεῖ καὶ τούτου τὸν κιττὸν καὶ ἕτερʼ ἄττα. τετάρτη δὲ ἡ τῶν ἀειφύλλων· διὰ γὰρ θερμότητα καὶ ταῦτα οἴεται διατηρεῖν, τὰ δὲ ἐνδείαι τούτου φυλλοβολεῖν. προσεπιλέγει δὲ τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σημειούμενος, ὅτι τὰ πυρεῖα ἄριστα καὶ κάλλιστα ἐκπυροῦται τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἐνύδρων ὡς τὰ ἔγγιστα τοῦ πυρὸς ὄντα τάχιστα ἐκπυρούμενα. 
THEOPHR. d. caus. pl. II 4, 3 ἡ δὲ πίειρα [γῆ] πάμπαν οὐδενὶ ξυμφέρει φυτῶι· ξηραίνει γὰρ μᾶλλον τοῦ δέοντος, ὥσπερ καὶ Μ. φησί. τοιαύτην δʼ εἶναι τὴν πλυντρίδα, χρῶμα δʼ ὑπόλευκον. 
— —VI 3, 5 καὶ ἔτι δὲ κατὰ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον αἱ διαφοραί [τῶν χυμῶν]. διὸ καὶ οἱ ὁμογενεῖς πλείους οἷον αὐστηροί, λιπαροί, πικροί, γλυκεῖς. ὅθεν καὶ οἱ παλαιοὶ τῶν φυσιολόγων ἀπείρους ἐτίθεντο τοὺς χυμούς, ὥσπερ καὶ Μενέστωρ· ὁποία γὰρ ἄν τις ἡ μίξις καὶ ἡ σῆψις γένηται τοῦ ὑγροῦ ἐμφύτου, τοιοῦτον εἶναι καὶ τὸν χυμόν. 

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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.