For others by this name, see Androcydes (disambiguation)

Androcydes (disambiguation)

Androcydes may refer to:* Androcydes , Greek painter, 4th century BC* Androcydes , Greek physician contemporary with Alexander the Great...

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Androcydes (also transliterated as Androkydes) was a Pythagorean

Pythagoreanism

Pythagoreanism was the system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics. Pythagoreanism originated in the 5th century BCE and greatly influenced Platonism...

 whose work On Pythagorean Symbols survives only in scattered fragments. The dating of his life is uncertain; he lived before the 1st century BC but possibly as early as the 4th. The frequency with which Androcydes is mentioned in other works indicates that he was a major source for the later Pythagorean tradition, and he is also of interest in studying the historical development of the literary and philosophical symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

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The Pythagorean symbols

Walter Burkert

Walter Burkert

Walter Burkert is a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult.An emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he also has taught in the United Kingdom and the United States...

 featured Androcydes in his stemma of Pythagorean symbola, the gnomic

Gnome (rhetoric)

A gnome is a type of saying, especially an aphorism or a maxim designed to provide instruction in a compact form....

 utterances or maxims that often struck the unsympathetic as baffling or ridiculous. Androcydes was regarded as one of the most important sources on the akousmata, or the quasi-monastic

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

 rule governing the Pythagorean way of life. His view that wine and meat harm the mind conforms to Pythagorean dietary practice.

Paraphrases of his work in later writers demonstrate his method of interpreting these behavioral strictures. For instance, “Do not step over a yoke” should be understood as meaning “Do not transgress justice.” These interpretations indicate that the prohibitions held arcane significance for those willing to ponder them and learn, that the symbola are also enigmata (αἰνίγματα).

The 1st-century BC grammarian Tryphon

Tryphon

Tryphon or Trypho was a Greek grammarian who lived and worked in Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Didymus Chalcenterus....

 refers to Androcydes’ work in a section on literary enigmata, which he defines as darkened or obscured allegories

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

. Tryphon implies that Androcydes made no strong distinction between poetic and philosophical modes of discourse, in that he cited passages from Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

 in interpreting the Pythagorean symbols.

The symbols and magic

Androcydes treated the Ephesia grammata

Ephesia Grammata

Ephesia Grammata are Ancient Greek magical formulas attested from the 5th or 4th century BC. According to Pausanias the Lexicographer , their name derives from their being inscribed on the cult image of Artemis in Ephesus...

, or ritualized “magic words” used for incantations or amulet

Amulet

An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...

ic inscriptions

Epigraphy

Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...

, as allegorical language containing theological

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 insights, a “cryptic form of natural theology

Natural theology

Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning.Marcus Terentius Varro ...

.” Androcydes interprets the words through perceived lexical

Lexeme

A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN...

 and phonic

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

 similarities to Greek. His commentary on perhaps the best-known string of such syllables — askion kataskion lix tetrax damnameneus aision — is paraphrased by Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

:

The physician?

Some attempts have been made to identify this Androcydes with the Androcydes who was physician

Androcydes (physician)

Androcydes was a Greek physician and writer at the time of Alexander the Great. According to Pliny, he advised Alexander to moderate his drinking:...

 to Alexander the Great. Pythagorean dietary discipline regarding wine (bad) and cabbage (good) may be reflected in the physician’s advice to the notoriously wine-drinking conqueror.