The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.55

c14.55

First of all a pessary similar to the preceding ones is prescribed where the "Indian medicine" is included as one of the elements, without being named this time, and for this indication there is no variation (II, 358, Littré, VIII, p. 337). The second passage (ibid., 205, p. 395) again gives a similar formula where the Indian substance re-appears; about this substance, here it is said that "the Persians call it *peperi*" and there is inside it something round called *murtidanon*. The variant Median for "Indian" can come in only after an unhappy effort at correction is made, under the impression that the drug belonged to the Persians from whom its name had been received, but the passage says specifically, without giving any variant, that the drug is Indian, although the name given to it may have been Persian. In fact the name is also Indian but it is true that in the form of *peperi*, it is Persian, as was earlier noted by Lassen, *r* in Iranian standing for *l* in Indian.² It follows therefore that this product along with indications concerning its medical usage passed through the Persian empire to reach the Greeks.