Locust as materia medica (1)

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A possible Akkadian etymology for materia medica in the Babylonian Talmud occurs in Ned. 8b, where the scholar Abaye reports that a “’mote’ of the day(time) heals” (ḥrgˀ dywmˀ msy), likely referring to the name of a drug, and the same citation was repeated in Yoma 20b, hˀy ḥyrgˀ dywmˀ lˀ šmyh, meaning that the letters lˀ are part of the name, i.e. the real name is ḥyrglˀ. Since a ‘mote’ or particle of dust is an unlikely ingredient of materia medica, the term ḥyrglˀ is likely to correspond to Akkadian irgilu (cognate to Syriac ḥargālā and Hebrew ḥrgl), a type of locust used in materia medica. Two other types of locust are used in Akkadian medicine, one of which is the erib tamti, ‘sea locust’ or shrimp, which might actually provide another clue to hyrg(l)ˀ dymˀ (sic), i.e. a type of ‘sea locust’.

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 8b
Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 20b

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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