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Asclepiades Mendes

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Asclepiades (Ancient Greek: Ἀσκληπιάδης) was a writer of ancient Egypt who possessed, according to the Suda, a profound knowledge of Ancient Egyptian religion, and wrote hymns on his native gods.[1]

He also composed a work upon the agreement among the different religions, Synthesis of All Theologies (τῶν θεολογιῶν ἁπασῶν ἡ συμφωνία), a second on the history of Egypt, and a third on the mythological ruler Ogyges.[2] The sixtieth book of his history of Egypt is quoted by the grammarian Athenaeus.[3]

Many scholars believe that this Asclepiades is the same as the one whom the historian Suetonius calls the author of Theologizing (Θεολογούμενα) and of whom he quotes a fragment.[4][5] This work seems like it might be the same as Synthesis of All Theologies.

Suetonius calls him "Asclepiades Mendes" which seems to be a toponymic surname derived from the name of a town in Egypt.[6][7][8]

References

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  1. ^ Suda, s.v. Ἡράϊσκος
  2. ^ Mead, G.R.S. (1895). Besant, Annie; Mead, G.R.S. (eds.). "Orpheus". Lucifer. 16: 285. Retrieved 2024-06-29.
  3. ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae iii p. 83
  4. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 94
  5. ^ Gudeman, Alfred (1902). "The Sources of Plutarch's Life of Cicero". Publications of the University of Pennsylvania Series in Philology and Literature. 8 (2): 59. Retrieved 2024-06-29.
  6. ^ Scholiast on Homer's Iliad vii. p 147
  7. ^ Isaac Casaubon, Commentaries on Suetonius
  8. ^ Gerardus Vossius, De Historicis Graecis p 406

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSchmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Asclepiades (7)". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 381.