PHARMAKOS AND MEDICINE 259 



To go back to the actual Pharmakos, one may note that 

 Professor Murray is strongly of opinion that he was never 

 killed, but only beaten. This is certainly borne out by 

 my suggested etymology, although, of course, the very 

 word Pharmakos may only have come into use when the 

 ritual had been modified and humanized. It is interesting 

 to note that there are two small islands off the coast of 

 Attica, not far from Salamis and in the Bay of Eleusis, 

 which were known in classical times as Pharmacussae. 

 On one of them used to be shown the Temple of Circe. 

 There is another island on the coast of Asia Minor called 

 Pharmacusa, where, according to Plutarch, Caesar was 

 taken prisoner by pirates when he was a young man. I 

 cannot help thinking that in both cases these islands might 

 practically be translated into English as Outcast Island 

 or Islands. That is to say, they were originally refuges 

 for wandering scoundrels, pirates, and the like, those who 

 harried the settled mainland, and were looked upon as the 

 Britons looked upon the Danes, and as the mainlanders 

 looked upon some of the islanders at the time of the 

 Migrations of which Professor Murray gives such a fine 

 imaginative picture. There also is another island in the 

 Bay of Iassus which is, I believe, still called Farmako. 

 It is possible, of course, that such a name sprang from 

 the fact that these islands were inhabited by survivors 

 of the primitive tribes who were always apt to be looked 

 upon as magicians. 



Naturally enough, during the course of time there 

 have been many attempts to discover the root meaning 

 of Pharmakos, and I cannot help thinking that some 

 of the later attempts are little better than those of the 

 scholiast and grammarians. For instance, Eustathius 

 derives pharmakon from <pipav oo-^Oog when used in a 



