Diasfongos chemon
Diasfongos chemon .i. de spongia, Cassius felix capitulo de fluxu sanguinis narium sfongos spongia.
Apparatus:
Diasfongos AC | Diasfũgos B | Diaffongos f | Dyasfongos jp | Dyasfungos ms. e
chemon (-mõ B jp) ABC fjp | chomõ ms. e
sfongos AC jp | sflũgos? B | fongos f | in fongos ms. e
Translation:
Diasfongos chemon means in Latin: De Spongia {“About sponges”}; the expression comes from Cassius Felix’s chapter De fluxu sanguinis narium {“On nose bleeds”}. Greek sfongos is spongia in Latin {i.e. “sponges”}.
Commentary:
sfongos:
Greek σπόγγος /spóngos/, variant σφόγγος /sphóngos/, means “sponge” or “any spongy substance”. Another variant is σπογγιά /spongiá/ which was adopted in Latin as spongia, spongea. Etymologically this is a wanderwort [[1]] related to Latin fungus and Armenian sunk, sung (Frisk).
Diasfongos chemon:
Diasfongos chemon represents Greek διὰ σφόγγων ἴσχαιμον /dià sphóngōn ískhaimon/, itacist /dià sfóngon ískhemon/, with the preposition διά /diá/ “concerning, about; with” and accusative plural σφόγγων itacist /sfóngon/ “sponges” and the neuter form of the adjective ἴσχαιμον itacist /ískhemon/ “restraining; staunching”.
διά /diá/ was a common word to begin the description of all kinds of remedies so that one speaks of “dia recipes”. διὰ σφόγγων ἴσχαιμον /dià sfóngon ískhemon/ is a recipe to staunch blood with sponges.
Simon is referring to Cassius Felix’s De medicina, [Fraisse]] chapter XXX.6, p. 70, chapter XXX. Ad fluxum sanguinis ex naribus {“For blood flow from the nostrils”}; the text is also available online in the Rose edition p.61 [[2]].
Cassius actually mentions the preparation of dia sfongon ischemon and its application: Spongiam novam liquida pice infusam cacabo novo in furno combures addito cooperculo ex argilla. Dehinc diligenter teres et naribus calamo insufflabis – “take a fresh sponge that is impregnated with liquid pitch and boil it in a new cauldron on which you put a clay lid. You then carefully crush it and instill it in the nostrils with a reed”.
WilfGunther (talk) 15:48, 8 February 2016 (GMT)
