[Sca-cooks] magpie / Athenaeus
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Wed Mar 5 20:35:43 PST 2008
I think the answer may be a little more complex than a lazy translator.
Pica and cissa (kissa) refer to a class of nutrient deficency eating
disorders originally classified in Antiquity. In a footnote on page 49 of
Temkin's translation of Soranus's Gynecology is the following, "The Kissa is
the Jay, Garrulus glandarius L., but the name included the magpie (pica in
Lat.) as well (cf. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, A Glossary of Greek Birds, new
edition, Oxford University Press, 1936, pp. 146-48.) Soranus speaks of the
winged Kissa possibly distinguishing the bird from some fish, also named
Kissa (cf. Liddell & Scott s.v.2). Through the Latin literature, "pica" has
become the more customary for designating the condition Soranus names
kissa."
Bear
> Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (the definitive source...) gives
> the
> definition for "kitta" as "jay, Garrulus glandarius." Magpies are Pica
> pica. So I would say this is just a case of a lazy translator who assumed
> that jays and magpies are the same species.
>
>
> Vittoria
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