Alexander el, Ἀλέξανδρος) of Myndus in

Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joine ...

was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

writer who some believe lived during the 1st century AD but this date is uncertain. He wrote on diverse topics, including

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

and

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history ...

. His works, which are now lost, must have been considered very valuable by the ancients, since they refer to them very frequently; fragments of his work are preserved in various later authors. The titles of Alexander's works are: ''A History of Beasts'' (), a long fragment of which, belonging to the second book, is quoted by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of ...

. This work is probably the same as that which in other passages is called ''On Animals'' (), and of which

likewise quotes the second book. The treatise ''On Birds'' () was a separate work, and the second book of it is quoted by Athenaeus.

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

mentions one "Alexon of Myndus" as the author of a work on myths, of which he quotes the ninth book.

, i. 29 This author being otherwise unknown, the French scholar

Gilles Ménage Gilles Ménage (; 15 August 1613 – 23 July 1692) was a French scholar. Biography He was born at Angers, the son of Guillaume Ménage, king's advocate at Angers. A good memory and enthusiasm for learning carried him quickly through his lite ...

proposed to read "Alexander" instead of "Alexon". But everything is uncertain, and the conjecture is thought by other scholars to be improbable. It is possible that the illustrations of birds in the

Vienna Dioscurides The Vienna Dioscurides or Vienna Dioscorides is an early 6th-century Byzantine Greek illuminated manuscript of an even earlier 1st century AD work, '' De materia medica'' (Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς : Perì hylēs iatrikēs in the ori ...

, which appear to be based on illustrations from an older, different treatise, as they don't relate directly to the treatise they illustrate, are derived from illustrations from the lost treatise on birds of Alexander.

References

Sources

*Darius Del Corno, ''Graecorum de re Onirocritica Scriptorum Reliquiae'' (1969) no. 14. *Oder, "Das Traumbuch des Alexander von Myndos," ''RhM'' 45 (1890) pp. 637–639.
Alexander of Myndus
from Smith's ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1867).

fro

by T E Rihll.

References

Sources

Further reading