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Dioscorides on Paeonia

(Pedanii Dioscorides De Materia medica, edidit Max Wellmann 2:149-150; 1906).

Es giebt nur wenige Pflanzengaltungen, über die wir so sichere Kunde aus dem Altertume besitzen, als die unsere. Denn schon Dioscorides , der zur Zeit Nero's lebte, gebraucht nicht nur den Namen Paionia ganz in dem jetzigen Sinne, sondern unterscheidet: auch die beiden wichtigsten Repräsentanten der Mittelmeerregion, P. corallina. Retz und P. peregrina Miller, die er und nannte, und die auch seit dem Wiedererwachen der Botanik fast von allen Autoren bis auf Linné als P. mas und P. foemina unterschieden wurden.; Die Stelle bei Dioscoribes, welche sich im 157. Kapitel des III. Buches seiner »Materia medica» findet, ist so merkwürdig, dass ich sie hier in deutscher Übersetzung mit Benutzung der modernen Nomenklatur wiedergeben will: »P. corallina hat Blätter, die denen der Wallnuss ähnlich sind, P. peregrina dagegen solche, die wie beim Smyrniun (Olus atrum L.) geteilt sind. Die Balgfrüchte am Ende des Stengels gleichen den Mandelfrüchten und enthalten, sobald sie sich geöffnet haben, zahlreiche kleine rote, den Samen des Granatapfels ahnliche Samenkörner, unter denen sich auch 5—6 schwarze oder violette befinden. Die Wurzel von P. corallina ist etwa fingerdick und spannenlang, von adstringierendem Geschmack und weiß, denen der P. peregrina dagegen hängen 7—8 Knollen an wie bei Asphodelus (ramosus L.)«.

aus : Huth, Gattung Paeonia (1891)

Cap. 147 (157). Gichtrose.                     

Paeonia corallina (Ranunculaceae) - Korallengichtrose

Paeonia officinalis (Ranunculaceae) - Gichtrose

Die Paionia oder Glykyside - Einige nennen sie Pentoboron, Andere

Orobelion, Orobax, Haimagogon, Paisaide, Menogeneion, Menion,

Panthikeraton, idäische Daktylen, Aglaophotis, Theodonion, Selenion,

die Propheten Selenogonon, auch Phthisi, die Römer Casta. Der Stengel

wächst an zwei Spannen hoch und hat viele Nebenzweige; die männliche

hat Blätter ähnlich denen der Wallnuss, die weibliche eingeschnittene

Blätter wie beim kleinen Pferdseppich. Sie entwickelt an der Spitze der

Stengel eine Art mandelähnlicher Schoten, in denen nach der Oeffnung

sich viele kleine, rothe Granatkörner ähnliche Körner finden, in deren

Mitte fünf oder sechs schwarze, purpurfarbige. Die Wurzel der männlichen

ist etwa einen Finger dick, eine Spanne lang, hat zusammenziehenden Ge-

schmack und ist weiss, bei der weiblichen hat sie Nebenwurzeln wie Eicheln,

sieben bis acht, nach Art des Asphodelos. Die trockene Wurzel wird den

Weibern gegeben, wenn sie nach der Geburt nicht gereinigt sind. Sie be-

fördert, in der Grösse einer Mandel genommen, auch die Katamenien. In

Wein getrunken hilft sie bei Magenschmerzen, wirkt heilsam bei Gelbsucht,

Nieren- und Blasenleiden und hemmt, in Wein gekocht und getrunken, den

Durchfall. Zehn bis zwölf rothe Körner von der Frucht in dunklem herbem

Wein getrunken stellen den rothen Fluss, auch helfen sie gegessen denen,

die an Magenverletzungen leiden. Ferner, von den Kindern getrunken und

auch gegessen, beseitigen sie beginnendes Steinleiden. Die schwarzen sind

ein wirksames Mittel gegen Alpdrücken, Mutterkrämpfe und Mutterschmerzen,

wenn sie uz  fünfzehn Körnern in Honigmeth oder Wein getrunken werden].

Sie wächst an den höchsten Bergen und Vorgebirgen.

mit freundlicher Genehmigung aus : http://members.fortunecity.com/dioskurides/id6.htm

III. 140. Paeonia or glycyside which some name pentorobon, dactylos idaeos, the root paeonia, others aglaophotida. The stem grows two spans high and has many branches. The male has leaves like walnut, the female much divided leaves like smyrnium. At the top of the stem it produces pods like almonds, in which when opened are found many small red grains like the seeds of pomegranate and in the middle five or six purplish black ones. The root of the male is about the thickness of a finger and a span long, with an astringent taste, white, the root of the female has seven or eight swellings like acorns as in asphodel. The dried root is given to women who have not been cleansed (internally) after childbirth. It promotes menstruation (a dose containing root) the size of an almond being drunk; it lessens abdominal pains when drunk in wine. It helps those who have jaundice and kidney and bladder troubles. Soaked in wine and drunk it stops diarrhoea. Ten to twelve red grains from the fruit taken in dark rough (dry) wine slop menstrual flow and being eaten they ease stomach pains. Drunk and eaten by children they remove the beginnings of stone. The black seeds are good against nightmares, hysteria and pains of the womb when up to fifteen are drunk in mead or wine. It grows on high mountains and foothills.

140 RV. Male paeonia or glycyside, some name pentorobon, orobadion, orobax, haemagogon, pasidee, menogeneion, menion, paionion, Panos cerata, Idaeos dactylos, aglaophotida, theodoreton, selenion, selenogogon of the prophets, phthisis, the Romans casta. Female Paeonia also called aglaophotida. (New translation).

From the book: Peonies of Greece A taxonomic and historical Survey of the Genus Paeonia in Greece

William T. Stearn and Peter H. Davis

DIOSCORIDES' ACCOUNT OF PAEONIA

The earliest surviving account of peonies is to be found in the Greek herbal of Pedanios Dioscorides (1st cent. A.D.), ...called in Latin De Materia medica. Here (III, cap. 157) two kinds are distinguished by their foliage, the "male peony" (paionia arren) and the "female peony" (paionia theleia): the male peony had leaves like walnut, i.e. rather coarse, imparipinnate with distinct broad leaflets, and the female had leaves like smyrnium, i.e. much more divided. This use of the terms "male" and "female", perpetuated in such modern botanical plant-names as Dryopteris filix-mas, Paeonia mascula, Cornus mas and Anagallis foemina, was purely metaphoical without any implication of actual sexuality in plants (cf. Saint-Lager, 1884). It is of great antiquity. The most obvious example of two kinds resembling each other closely but nevertheless distinct is provided by the separation of the sexes in mankind and domestic animals. Hence to distinguish nomenclaturally the members of a pair of species of plants, the more robust or coarser kind or with hard wood was designated as "male", the more slender or delicate kind or with softwood as "female". Likewise, as in Anagallis, the red-flowered plant was designated "male" and the blue-flowered plant "female", or, as in Symphytum, the purple-flowered "male", the white "female".

The text of Dioscorides (see Appendix) was copied and copied throughout the Middle Ages down to the invention of printing in the 15th century in both Greek and Latin versions, inevitably differing here and there and diverging from the original by the occasional addition or omission or by the re-arrangement of material. Painstaking comparison of numerous manuscripts enabled Max Wellmann to establish what scholars now accept as the authentic Dioscoridean text. To this were added, at an early period, synonyms derived from another source, a now lost work attributed to Dioscorides' contemporary Pamphilos, and also illustrations derived from several sources, which are often valuable for indicating the traditional applications of Dioscoridean names. One illustrated manuscript of special importance is the Codex Aniciae Iulianae nunc Vindobonensis made in Constantinople in the 6th cent. A.D. Some of the illustrations in this Vienna Codex were lost during its eventful history (cf. Stearn, 1976), among them being those of Paionia. These illustrations have been preserved in some other Dioscoridean codices, notably the Codex Patavinus of 1350 in the Seminario Vescovile of Padua (cf. Stannard, 1971:178) and the 15th century Codex Chigianus in the Vatican Library, Rome. On the page (fol. 193 verso) relating to paionia arren and paionia theleia in the Padua codex 194 there are two illustrations (Frontisp.). The upper one has slender roots, as described by the herbalist for the "male peony", and the lower one has swollen roots, as described for the "female peony". Although the drawings of the leaves have been much simplified and conventionalized, the two or three spreading carpels definitely establish them as the earliest known recognizable portrayals of peonies. Regarding this codex, cf. Mioni (1959), Pächt (1975).

The distinction in leaf made by Dioscorides between the male peony (paionia arren) and the female peony (paionia theleia) corresponds essentially to that made in F.C. Stern's Study of the Genus Paeonia (1946) between subsect. Foliolatae (typified by P. mascula) and subsect. Dissectifoliae (typified by P. officinalis sensu stricto). Dioscorides as a practical herbalist contented himself with the medicinal use of peonies. An addition to his work stated that the peony should be dug up before the rising of the sun and is good against poisons, witchcraft, fevers and the assaults of devils. Its mythology became entangled with that of the mandrake and an elaborate ritual became associated with its uprooting. A Greek poem, quoted by Anna J. Papamichael (1975), even stated that "the peony is the queen of all herbs".

quoted after Stearn & Davis (1984)

Dioscorides in De materia medico, libri quinque describes " the Paeony or Glycyside which has many names " ; he then describes two species." the male has leaves like the Royal nut tree. The female has its leaves divided like the gum tree . . . the root of the male is about a finger's thickness and a span in length. It is astringent to the taste and white. The root of the female has seven or eight acorn-shaped offshoots like the Asphodel. It grows on very high mountains and cliffs." This is the first mention of the male and female paeonies. these might be Paeonia mascula and Paeonia officinalis.

quoted after Stern (1946)

links:

http://www.goldcanyon.com/Patten/html/112.html

faksimiles:

http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~pz/zahnpage/fakswien.htm