Talasa mellis
Talasa mellis grece apud Dyascoridem est aqua mellis salsa cuius confectionem docet et est compositum nomen a talasa quod est mare et melle nam aqua maris in ea confectione ingreditur. Plinius etiam eadem docet et sic vocat et cetera.
Apparatus:
Talasa mellis (-is j) AC jp | Talesamelis B | Talasam͞͞e͞l͞͞͞l f | Talaxamellis ms. e
apud dyascoridem est | a. e. d. ms. f
et est | etcetera j
compositum nomen | n. c. ms. e
melle | me͞l͞l f | mele B
{ea} confectione | conf͞conẽ ms. e
etiam | e͡͡c fj
eadem AC f | eandẽ (eã- B p) B ejp
{sic} e͡c add. f
et cetera om. B efp
Translation:
Talasa mellis is a Greek word and it occurs in Dyascorides; it involves water, honey and salt-water, for the preparation of which instructions are given. The noun itself is a compound of Greek talasa, which means "the sea" and meli "honey", for it is sea-water that is used in this preparation.
Pliny also gives the same instructions how to prepare it and calls it by the same name, etc.
Commentary:
Simon alludes to Dyascorides alphabeticus [Bodmer] [f 72v] [[1]] Thalasmum melle, which is itself taken from Dioscorides Longobardus, 5, 34, ed. Stadler (1902: 180) [[2]] De thalassomelli. In this entry Simon only mentions briefly the three main ingredients, either equal parts of sea-water, honey and fresh water or 2 parts of sea-water and 1 part of honey.
The original Greek text can be found in 5, ed. Wellmann (1906-14: III.14.12),[[3]]: θαλασσόμελι•
Talasa mellis:
Simon correctly analysis the etymology of the word, i.e.
θαλασσόμελι /thalassómeli/ < θάλασσα /thálassa/ “sea” + μέλι /méli/ “honey”.
Pliny’s account is in, 31, 35, 68, ed. W.H.S. Jones (1938-63: VIII.420), where he describes the same mixture. Obviously both ancient authors were using the same (unknown) source.
WilfGunther (talk) 11:28, 3 February 2016 (GMT)
