Krisamis

vol. XI p.1892-1893

Krisamis

(a name from Asia Minor, Kretschmer Einleit. 322. In Zenob. it’s written Kissamis; though the other form of the name became correct: a Krisamis on Thera IG XII 3, 513; cf. nr. 2).

1) Hesych. Suid. and the collector of sayings Zenobios IV 64 tell of Krisamis of Kos who owned large herds. However, every year an eel (? a water snake according to Tümpel) came and stole the prettiest animal from the herd, <50> and so Krisamis finally became angry and killed the animal. Then it appeared to him in a dream and asked for a burial: Krisamis didn’t fulfil this request, and perished along with his entire family. This is all about a local tale which was probably brought about by a poet from Kos. The similarity of the material in the Vergilian Culex, where the mosquito killed by a shepherd appears to him in a dream, <60> is certainly not a coincidence: the Alexandrian poet, whom Vergil followed, was thinking about this poem from Kos and parodied it. Birt De Halieuticis 52. Leo Ausg. des Culex 17. The daring conjectures by Tümpel (most recently in Roscher II 1446) should be rejected; cf. E. H. Meyer in Roscher III 2815.

2) A mythical king of Kos, whom the family of Hippokrates is traced back to, epist. 2 p. 289 Herch.

[Kroll.]

This article is referenced by: Eels