Simeon Seth

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Simeon Seth(i) or Symeon Seth(i) (Greek: Συμεών Μάγιστρος Αντιοχείας του Σήθι, "Symeōn Magister of Antioch, son of Sēth", sometimes also "Simeo" and "Sethus") was an 11th-century Jewish Byzantine doctor, scholar, and grand Chamberlain (protovestiarius) under Emperor Michael VII Doukas, originally from Antioch. He was a contemporary of Michael Psellos.

He wrote the Σύνταγμα κατα στοιχείων περί τροφῶν δυνάμεων (in Latin: Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus or De cibarium facultate, "On the Properties of Foods"), which criticizes Galen and emphasizes eastern medical traditions: "Simeon Seth was the great Orientalist of Byzantine medicine... [he] selected the best, not only from the Greek materia medica but also from Persian, Arabic, and Indian sources". The Syntagma is an important source for Byzantine cuisine and dietetics.

Simeon's work Σύνοψις τῶν φυσικῶν (Conspectus rerum naturalium, "On natural things" )is a treatise on the natural sciences. It is divided into five books. The first concerns the earth; the second, the elements; the third, the sky and the stars; the fourth, matter, form, nature, and the soul (sense perception); the fifth, the final cause and divine providence. The work is heavily influenced by the philosophy of Aristotle.

He also learned astronomy from Arabic sources.

He translated the book of fables Kalilag and Damnag from Arabic to Greek in about 1080. The protagonists in the Greek version are named "Stephanites" and "Ichnelates."

Other

"Simeon Seth'Na" is also the name of a certain thoroughbred Arabian horse.

Bibliography

Marc Émile Prosper Louis Brunet, Siméon Seth, médecin de l’empereur Michel Doucas; sa vie, son oeuvre. Première traduction en français du traité "Recueil des propriétés des aliments par ordre alphabétique", Delmas, Bordeaux, 1939. (not seen)
David Deakle, "Simeon Seth on Cannabis (Cognoscenti of Cannabis II)", 2001 doi:10.1300/J175v01n02_03

Notes

^ The full text of the 1658 Paris edition is available online
^ Owsei Temkin, "Byzantine Medicine: Tradition and Empiricism", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16:95-115 (1962) at JSTOR
^ A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia et alia, Volume 2 (Paris, 1939), 1-89 (edition of text with historical introduction).
^ David Pingree, "Gregory Chioniades and Palaeologan Astronomy", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18:133-160 (1964)
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906 s.v. Kalilah wa-Dimnah; date from G.H. Gérould, "The Ballad of the Bitter Withy" (not seen), cited by Phillips Barry, "The Bridge of Sunbeams", The Journal of American Folklore 27:103. (Jan.-Mar., 1914), pp. 79-89 at JSTOR
^ L.-O. Sjöberg, Stephanites und Ichnelates: Überlieferungsgeschichte und Text (Uppsala, 1962).