496 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



adaptation of an ancieut fable about a so-called herb of Prometheus 

 (^cfidpixaKov II pofxrjOeLuv), wliicli is thus described in the Argonautica of 

 Apollonius Rhodius : 



3. 851 ff : This sprang first when in the glades of Caucasus tlie flesh- 

 devouring eagle sent dripping to the earth the gory ichor of wretched Pro- 

 metheus. And a cubit's height above appeared a flower, in color like to 

 the Corycian crocus, supported on twin stalks, and the root in the earth was 

 like to new-cut flesh. . . . The dark earth shook beneath as the Titanian 

 root was cut, and the son of lapetus groaned himself, for his heart was mad 

 with anguish.* 



This is plainly the source of our story. For Prometheus was con- 

 demned to his punishment for theft (and wrongly condemned, we should 

 say); the flower sprang from his gore as it dripped to the ground. | The 

 idea that the plant was alive under the ground appears to be a reminis- 

 cence of the line in Apollonius in which it is said that the root in the 

 earth resembled new-cut flesh; the groans of the plant when taken from 

 the earth go back to the latter part of the above passage. In the story 

 of the Promethean plant it is said to spring from the gore which drips 

 from the Titan's body. Since gore does not drip from the bodies of 

 hanged thieves, a change had to be made here in adapting the story to 

 the mandragora, and so the plant is said to spring from the thief's urine.% 

 And lastly, the sudden death of the digger plainly goes back to Josephus 

 and Aelian, who say, as we have seen, that the one who pulls haaras or 

 aglaophotis must surely die unless he takes the precautions indicated. 



The images made from the roots which it was alleged were obtained 

 in this way were kept as fetiches or talismans, and were thought to bring 

 the owner good fortune in various ways : they were considered useful in 

 divining secrets, § in increasing one's material prosperity,§ in gaining the 

 lover the object of his aflfectiou,|| in making sterile women fertile,1[ and 



* This passage is imitated by Valerius Flaccus, Argon., 7. 355-370. 



t AVitli this story compare wliat Galen says of the crocus, 13.269: fxupMiov 

 KaXovfiivov KpuKos, 'djxa to) 'Ep/nrj SicTKevooy, el9' eirrbj afji^Xecmpov, ffnreaSvros avrtp 

 SiffKov TTJ Ke<pa\rj, avvifir) /j.eu d.TroOavi'ii' ai/rlKa, tov S' alfxaTos fls tV JV" uvaxOfVTos, 

 i^ aiiToii (pvyai rhv Kp6Kov. On other similar stories see Peter's note on Ovid, Fasti, 

 5. 226. 



X Tiiis is probably to be regarded as a reminiscence of Josephus' stor}' about 

 haaras, which retreated from those who wished to pull it, uuless a woman's uriue 

 was sprinl<Ied upon it. Bell. lud., 7. G. 3. 



§ Beyer, p. 742. || Levinus Lcmnius, Herb. Bibl. Explic, cap. 2. 



1[ Matthiolus, Comm. in Diosc, lib. 4, cap. 76 [01]. 



