A mad dog bites a man. Miniature (gouache, ink, and gold on paper) from an Arabic translation of Dioscorides' Materia Medica, with calligraphy by Abdallah ibn al-Fadl; written in 1224. Now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Love at First Rite

Anthologia Palatina 5.53 = Dioscorides (3rd cent. BCE) Aristonoe the winning pierced me through, O dear Adonis, after she had beaten Her breasts beside your funeral hut.  If she Will grant this favor to me too, when I Give up the ghost, then offer no excuses – When you set sail, bring me along as shipmate! Ἡ πιθανή μ’ ἔτρωσεν Ἀριστονόη, φίλ’ Ἄδωνι,     κοψαμένη τῇ σῇ στήθεα πὰρ καλύβῃ. εἰ δώσει ταύτην καὶ ἐμοὶ χάριν, ἢν ἀποπνεύσω,     μὴ προφάσεις, σύμπλουν σύμ με λαβὼν ἀπάγου.

Venus and Adonis, Hendrick de Clerck, ca. 1600

The preparation of medicine from honey.  Illustration from an Arabic translation of the De Materia Medica of Dioscorides; unknown Iraqi artist of the Baghdad School, 1224.  Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Terrible Power of the Nile Flood

Anthologia Palatina 9.568 = Dioscorides (perhaps late 3rd cent. BCE) O Nile, as you swelled so greatly, you carried off the homestead    And possessions of Aristagoras, along your random course. The old man himself, as if shipwrecked, floated atop a clod    Of his very own soil, all his hope lost, All the way to his neighbor’s half-wrecked farm, and said:    “O my great toil and superfluous works of my aged hands, You’ve completely turned to water!  This flood, so sweet     For farmers, has come most bitter indeed to Aristagoras.” Αὖλιν Ἀρισταγόρεω καὶ κτήματα μυρίος ἀρθείς,    Νεῖλε, μετ’ εἰκαίης ἐξεφόρησας ὁδοῦ. αὐτὸς δ’ οἰκείης ὁ γέρων ἐπενήξατο βώλου    ναυηγὸς πάσης ἐλπίδος ὀλλυμένης γείτονος ἡμίθραυστον ἐπ’ αὔλιον· „Ὦ πολύς,“ εἴπας,    „μόχθος ἐμὸς πολιῆς τ’ ἔργα περισσὰ χερός, ὕδωρ πᾶν ἐγένεσθε· τὸ δὲ γλυκὺ τοῦτο γεωργοῖς    κῦμ’ ἐπ’ Ἀρισταγόρην ἔδραμε πικρότατον.“

Philae on the Nile, Edward Lear, 1855