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LKA 84.35f (Akkadian incantation):
You fill a cow’s hoof with water, throw in bittercorn meal, strike it with a reed in face of the sun god, you pour it out: the dead will be kept away.”
Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae Philosophorum 1.114:
Demetriou mentions a story, according to which he (= Epimenides) got food from the nymphs and preserved it in cow’s hoof. He ate it a little for each time and held it all inside him, and he was never seen eating anything.
Alexander Romance (pseudo-Callisthenes) 3.31:
Antipater was frightened and decided to assassinate Alexander, fearing, after his treatment of Olympias, that he might be humilatingly punished. He had, indeed, heard that Alexander had become very haughty as a result of the successes he had achieved. With this in mind, he prepared a poison, which no vessel could contain without immediately breaking - not bronze, nor glass nor earthenware. So Antipatros put the poison in a lead casket, and, covering it up with another casket, or iron, he gave it to his son (variant: He put it into a mule’s hoof).
Pausanias 8.18.6:
The only thing that can resist the water of the Styx is a horse’s hoof. When poured into it the water is retained, and does not break up the hoof. Whether Alexander, the son of Philip, met his end by this poison I do not know for certain, but I do know that there is a story to this effect.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Alexander Romance (pseudo-Callisthenes) 3.31
Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae Philosophorum 1.114
LKA 84.35f (Akkadian incantation)
Pausanias 8.18.6
Bibliography
| Burkert 1992, 62-63 | Burkert, Walter. The Orientalizing Revolution. Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Period. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 1992. |
| Ebeling 1931, 150 no. 30 | Ebeling, Erich. Tod und Leben nach den Vorstellungen der Babylonier. Berlin: De Gruyter 1931. |
| Reardon 1989, 732 | Reardon, B. P. Collected Ancient Greek Novels. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press 1989. |
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001107.php
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