Myth, history and science in Kos

Myth, history and science in Kos Maria Botsivali 35th Annual Meeting of the European Environmental Mutagen Society Kos, 3 – 7 July 2005

EEMS2005

Heraclitus ~500 B.C. Pythagoras 550 – 480 B.C. Thales ? – 547 B.C. “I will send you to school in Ionia…” Elytis (poet, Nobel laurate, 1911-1996) Ionia

Macars´ island (“island of blessed”) André Thevet (16th cent.): “Kos with its gardens and the fine fragrance of its flowers is heaven on earth” Eustathios (12th cent.): “The food that one cannot find in Kos, cannot find even in Egypt” EEMS2005

…Nowadays famous for its bicycles… Short history of Kos Prehistoric to classical era Inhabited since 2900 B.C. Mycenaean era (1600-1150 B.C.) Participation in Trojan war with thirty ships Hellenistic period – its brightest period Roman period Byzantine period Occupied by the order of Ioannite Knights (Knights of St. John) (1314-1523) Turkish domination (1523-1912) Italian domination (1912-1943) EEMS2005

Coronis Apollon Asclepios Chiron (Centaur, plant healer, surgeon) Epione (“mild cure”) Asclepiade physicians Hygeia (“health”) Iaso (“cure”) Aegle (“radiant”) Panacea (“heal-all”) Acesso (“healing”) Machaon Podaleirios Kos Hippocrates 18th descendant of Asclepios Troy God of medicine EEMS2005

Machaon (“machaera” lance / knife) surgeon Podaleirios (“poda”=foot, “leirion”=lily; “the one walking among the lilies”) physician Pancratium maritimum, sea lilly from Kos coast EEMS2005

Asclepios His emblem is the caduceus: a staff (tree of life) with a snake (wisdom and earth) coiled round it – not poisonous, but curing. Punished by Zeus who changed him into the constellation of the Ophiuchos (“snake holder”) EEMS2005

Hippocrates (Kos, 460 – 357 B.C.) Books: DIET (nutrition, all foods, all herbs) AIRS, WATERS and PLACES (environment) EEMS2005

“Each disease has its nature and cause” “The changes of nature are extremely important” “Nature is the healer of disease” “All fresh foods are more dynamic because are nearer to life” Scientific scepticism… “This, or something very like this, is the truth.” EEMS2005

Other famous men of ancient Kos Epicharmos (540-450 B.C.): dramatist, the first comic writer, philosopher Plato used to sleep with his words under his pillow “The mind sees and the mind hears, the rest are blind and deaf” Philetas (330- 285 B.C.): Poet and scholar, founder of the Alexandrian school of Literature and Poetry. Tutor of Ptolemy II the Philadelphos, who was also born in Kos. He died because he could not solve the sophists’ riddle known as the Liar EEMS2005

Theocritus (310-245 B.C.): Bucolic poet, born in Syracuse of a Koan father, lived some years in Kos. He wrote the Idylls Herondas(3rd century BC): Poet, inventor of mime iambic poetry. His IV mime describes a scene of two women sacrificing a rooster in the Asclepeion of Kos and admiring the paintings of Apelles (Antigonos and Aphrodite Anadyomeni – rising from the sea) Aphrodite Anadyomeni in Pompei

Apelles (352-308 B.C.): Greatest painter of ancient Greece. Painter of Alexander the Great Boticcelli, inspired by the descriptions of Apelles‘ Aphrodite, created his own Aphrodite emerging from the water EEMS2005

“Life is short, art is long, occasion sudden and dangerous, experience deceitful, judgment difficult” “Ars longa, vita brevis” (Hippocrates) “Eat progress with its peel and with its seeds” (Elytis) EEMS2005

Kos Kosmos (“κόσμος” – ornament) Knowledge Of Self, Magnificence Of Science EEMS2005

Myth, history and science in Kos