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Headword: *)akesi/as i)a/sato
Adler number: alpha,842
Translated headword: Akesias healed
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[sc. A proverbial phrase] in reference to those who heal for the worse. It seems that Akesias treated someone for the worse.[1]
Greek Original:
*)akesi/as i)a/sato: e)pi\ tw=n e)pi\ to\ xei=ron i)wme/nwn. e)/oike de\ o( *)akesi/as pro\s to\ xei=ro/n tina qerapeu=sai.
Notes:
This proverb (for which cf. Zenobius 1.52 and other paroemiographers) comes from the fourth book of the lost Prose Works of Aristophanes, the comic playwright (fr. 903 Kock, now 934 Kassel-Austin), "Akesias healed the anus," as a warning not to trust a witless doctor. Libanius uses it thus, "I fear that if I touch the matter I will become Akesias" (Epistulae 476.5). The proverb clearly implies that Akesias made things worse than they were before. It may be that the possible etymology of Akesias's name from a verb that means both to heal and to stitch provides the comedy (alpha 856, cf. alpha 841, alpha 851). "Dr.Stitcher" is the wrong person to trust when it comes to choosing a proctologist.
[1] i.e. in trying to heal someone made things worse.
Keywords: biography; comedy; daily life; medicine; proverbs
Translated by: Robert Dyer on 11 October 2001@17:48:51.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead on 15 October 2001@07:27:57.
Ross Scaife ✝ (changed form of internal cross-references) on 15 October 2001@08:38:13.
Elizabeth Vandiver (Cosmetics) on 28 September 2010@00:05:44.
David Whitehead (internal rearrangement; additions to primary note; more keywords; cosmetics; raised status) on 28 September 2010@07:42:35.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 27 January 2012@23:25:50.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 10 May 2015@09:08:35.
David Whitehead on 11 May 2015@02:51:11.

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