On Theriac to Piso

• INTRODUCTION: WHY THERIAC TO PISO MATTERS FOR CULTIC PHARMAKON HISTORY
• THE OLDER BACKGROUND: ΘΑΝΑΣΙΜΟΝ (THANASIMON) AND ΓΑΛΗΝΗ (GALENE)
• THE EVOLUTION: FROM THANASIMON/GALENE TO THERIAKĒ
  • Phase 1 — Thanasimon + Galene
  • Phase 2 — Theriakē (ca. 1st c. BCE onward)
• Historical Sources
• THE PISO FAMILY: POISON, ANTIDOTES, AND POLITICAL SECRECY
  • Who was Piso?
• GALEN’S THERIAC TO PISO: SECRECY, POWER, AND THE GUILDS
• THE ECHIDNAIC FEMALE RITES
• THE MALE RITES - HERACLES and the MEDWA
  • Heracles Enters the Antrum of the Mixoparthenos (Herodotus 4.8–10)
  • Who Is the Mixoparthenos? Three Interpretive Possibilities
  • Heracles’ Violation and Corruption of the Rite
  • Male Acolytes: Hyllus, Iolaus, and the Birth of the Neaniskos Rite
  • Why Only Medea May Enter the Heraclean Mysteries
  • Heracles’ Boys / Young Male Acolytes (Iolaus, Hyllus)
  • Iolaus receives cult honors with Heracles (i.e., treated as ritual partner)
  • Hyllus: Heracles and the boy-heir
  • Chiron teaches Heracles music (lyre)
  • Chiron teaches pharmakon / healing arts
  • Chiron = pedagogue of heroes (paideia, pederastic structure)
  • Linus teaches Heracles music
  • Heracles kills Linus with the lyre
  • Asclepius is also taught by Chiron - but Heracles receives the same instructor
  • Heracles Uses Gorgon Blood to Heal People
  • Chiron as Centaur = Teacher, Prophet, and Healer (Pagan Magus)
  • Chiron instructs heroes in pharmaka and prophecy.
  • Chiron teaches medicine to Heracles and all heroes
  • Heracles and Hyllus — Father/Son Initiation Dynamic
  • Hyllus as heir, following the venom-death episode
• THE MALE RITES - THE MARKAN NEANISKOS: THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
  • 1. Neaniskos
  • 2. Wearing a sindon
  • 3. Ecstatic flight (φόβος καὶ ἔκστασις)
  • 4. Cultural background
• CONCLUSION: THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
• More Reading

INTRODUCTION: WHY THERIAC TO PISO MATTERS FOR CULTIC PHARMAKON HISTORY

The treatise known as On Theriac to Piso (Περὶ Θηριακῆς πρὸς Πίσωνα), transmitted in the Galenic corpus (ca. 2nd c. CE), is one of the central surviving documents demonstrating:

1. the Greek pharmacological science of venom-mixing (θηριακή)
2. the existence of drug guilds that guarded venom knowledge as esoteric
3. the entanglement of political households (the Piso family) with poison/antidote culture
4. the continuity between medical venom-conditioning and ritual initiation practices
5. the deep Greek history of thanasimon (deadly pharmaka) and galene (calming antidotes) that culminate in theriac as the “all-in-one” universal pharmakon

When read through the strict Greek ritual-mystery lens - without later Christian metaphor - the pharmacological acts in this literature look exactly like initiation technologies: controlled venom exposure, youth-training, vision-induction, and body-salving (christing) rites.

These form the cultural backdrop against which the Markan νεανίσκος (young pubescent male in the σίνδων in the Garden of Gethsemanie) and the Echidnaic female venomic oracles become fully intelligible.

This article lays out the chain of evidence.

THE OLDER BACKGROUND: ΘΑΝΑΣΙΜΟΝ (THANASIMON) AND ΓΑΛΗΝΗ (GALENE)

The older Greek pharmacological horizon already operated with a binary contrast between θανάσιμον (thanasimon) and γαλήνη (galene) — the death-bearing and the calming. Hippocratic writers define thanasima pharmaka as “the drugs of serpents” (De morbis 4.32), a classification elaborated by Nicander, who calls certain reptiles “creatures whose bites are death-bearing” (Ther. 22–25), and by Galen, who states plainly that “snake-venom is death-bearing” (Antid. 1.6).

Against these stood the agents of γαλήνη (galene), restoring bodily and psychic stillness: Dioscorides notes a root that “provides calm and quiet to the body” (Mat. med. 1.64), and Galen describes gentle, cooling antidotes that “lead the body toward calm” (Temp. 2.4).

Mystery-cult language mirrors this polarity. In the PGM one asks a deity to “grant calm” after incited frenzy (PGM IV.578), and Euripides’ Bacchae dramatizes the turning of the initiate’s ēthos “toward calm” (1000–1005). Thus already before the high era of theriac, the Greek pharmakon world was structured around venom and its counterforce—θανάσιμον (thanasimon) as ordeal, γαλήνη (galene) as the restoration of balance, precisely the ritual arc preserved in Echidnaic and Asclepian praxis.

So, Before theriac (θηριακή) emerges as the master panacea drug, Greek pharmacology operated with a binary pattern:

• Thanasimon (the storm: death inducer), and...
• Galene (the calm: antidote)

Sounds harsh to "induce death" on purpose, why?
Because near death experience (NDE) is broadly associated with causing a mystical experience , to heal the soul and psyche.
It was harsh by design: a technology to induce NDE for the purpose of molding a better person.

• Plutarch, Moralia 560E on the soul partially leaving the body under trance/drugs.
• Hippocratic On the Sacred Disease, which links altered states to the soul’s partial departure.
• Plato, Republic 621–622 (Er’s near-death vision).
• In modern times: old people, esp. hospice patients, often hallucinate, esp. before death; overwhelming anecdotal reports of accident victims brought back from the brink of death having seeing white light, floating above, talking to ancestors or angels, etc)

NDE is also very risky. So having a technology to control the experience while minimizing harm, is ideal.

Healing through education of the soul and psyche was thought to heal the body, for a time, at Asclepian medical centers. Which was basis of Asclepian medicine until Galen started pruning the Hippocratic corpus of its less science-based material.

• See Thanasimon for background on the Thanasimon and Galene binary drug pair and it's use within medicine and the cults.

THE EVOLUTION: FROM THANASIMON/GALENE TO THERIAKĒ

The Greek pharmacological tradition transitions through two broad phases:

Phase 1 — Thanasimon + Galene

The Storm - Deadly venoms, vipers (ἔχιδναι), dipsas snakes (δίψασες), and toxic herbs.
The Calm - Antidote to the venom, human produced serum. Soothing herbs, aromatics, gums, resins, opiates, cooling agents, and wine or Medicinal Vinegar (Pasca, Oxymel, Oxos).

History

• >1300 BCE — Scythian Steppe / Black Sea Venom Practices
  • Scythians are historically attested using arrow poisons, snake venoms, and toxic herbal/venom mixtures.
  • Ethnographic and classical sources associate Scythians with body-pharmaka used in midwifery (childbirth medicine), warrior initiation, and spiritual ordeal.
  • Represents a northern proto-venom tradition inherited by later Black Sea cultures.
• 1300-1200 BCE “Colchian” / Medean Medwa priesthood
  • Colchis lies precisely at the crossroads of Scythian, Anatolian, and early Iranian pharmacologies.
  • Greek memory (Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus) treats Medea as a pharmakis, a venom-literate priestess from Colchis
  • These stories clearly point to a real, pre-Hellenic pharmakon culture preserved in mythic form.
  • This Medwa/Medea pharmakis lineage is preserved mythically in Greek texts (Hesiod, Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus) but reflects a real Black Sea pharmakon culture.
• 900-700 BCE Median (Medes) priesthood (proto-Magian)
  • Iranian Magian traditions do have early venom / antidote lore (Avestan texts mention poisons/serpents).
  • Interaction between early Medes and eastern Greek colonies is well-attested in archaic trade networks.
  • Placing “Echidnaic” female venom-priesthood here is consistent with Greek mythic cycles (Gorgons, Scythians, Colchians).
• Pre 4th century BCE - Homeric, Hesiodic, Euripidean mythization of venom-women (Gorgons, Medea)
  • These mythic figures are literary crystallizations of priestess-pharmakis archetypes.
  • Homer and Hesiod place potent drugs in the hands of foreign women: Circe, Helen, Medea.
  • Euripides directly links Medea to pharmaka (Μήδεια φαρμακίς).

An initiate is given just enough from the venom components to produce the aionic effect, then enough galenic agents to recover.

While direct textual evidence is fragmentary at this early horizon, Greek mythic memory preserves these pharmakon traditions in recognizable form.

Phase 2 — Theriakē (ca. 1st c. BCE onward)

The universal antidote containing both thanasimon and galene elements:

• viper flesh or venom
• aromatic resins (mastic, frankincense)
• opium
• wine
• spices
• purgatives
• stabilizing aromatics
• agents that “open” the senses

History

• 2nd c. BCE - Nicander of Colophon, author of the poem Theriaca
  • Forms the technical foundation that theriac will later synthesize. Documents venom species, symptoms, antidotes.
• 2nd-1st c. BCE -> 1st c. CE - Universal Antidote / Mithridatic Experimentation
  • Mithridates VI (120–63 BCE) develops Mithridatium, the proto-universal antidote.
  • Venom microdosing, escalating dose tolerance (“mithridatism”).
  • His pharmakon archives become integrated in Roman medical tradition.
• 1st c. CE - Institutionalization, Diversification, and Panacea Expansion
  • Andromachus formalizes the theriac of Nero (Theriaca Andromachi).
  • Galen writes multiple treatises On Theriac, including To Piso.
  • Becomes institutionalized, tied to elite patronage and political scandals (e.g., Piso trials).
• 1st c. CE and onwards -> Late Antiquity — Institutional medicinal theriac
  • State-supervised manufacture (Rome, Byzantium).
  • Gradual expansion into panacea usage (plague, stomach ailments, prophylaxis).
  • Trade item across Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia.

Theriac is storm + calm in one body, an engineered balanced ecstatic pharmakon.
Theriac would be a universal rite-drug, all in one, providing it's own Galene.

Historical Sources

At TLG, we see ~287 hits for θανάσιμα and friends:

• θανάσιμα (284)
• θανάσιμαι (2)
• θανασιμαίαν (1)

THE PISO FAMILY: POISON, ANTIDOTES, AND POLITICAL SECRECY

We now reach the treatise itself: On Theriac to Piso.

Who was Piso?

The Piso family (esp. Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, d. 20 CE) was deeply entangled in political scandals involving:

• allegations of poisoning
• antidote-experiments
• household physicians
• court intrigue

GALEN’S THERIAC TO PISO: SECRECY, POWER, AND THE GUILDS

The treatise opens with statements about the esoteric control of venom-knowledge.

THE ECHIDNAIC FEMALE RITES

The female rite (Echidnaic, drakaina tradition) centers on:

• temple oracles
• venom knowledge transmitted matrilineally
• venom training from a young age
• theriac-like salves
• pharmakon-induced visions (PGM kollourion: “and you will see the gods walking”)
• the gorgonic / Pythian / Colchian lineage of vipers and prophetic frenzy

The Echidna, as temple priestess, is described in the Acts of Philip as:

δρακαίνη, “she-dragon,” “mother of serpents” — an obvious Greek cultic marker of venom-priestesses.

The Theriac tradition connects directly to this female pharmakon lineage: same venoms, same salves, same mixing.

• see Medea
• see Echidnaic Priesthood

THE MALE RITES - HERACLES and the MEDWA

If the Echidnaic rites represent the female line of venom and vision, the Heraclean cycle preserves the male initiation rite - a rite already corrupted in antiquity. Heracles is the first hero to appropriate the Echidnaic venom-rite for male use, establishing a pattern later echoed in the Markan νεανίσκος: a youth in a dangerous pharmakon drama with an older “master.”

But long before the Gospels, the template exists in the Bronze-Iron Age pharmakon culture of the Black Sea, preserved unambiguously in Herodotus.

Heracles Enters the Antrum of the Mixoparthenos (Herodotus 4.8–10)

Herodotus recounts that during Heracles’ wandering among the Scythians—those whom the Greeks call “Σκύθαι,” though they call themselves “Σκολότοι”—the hero strayed in winter into a dense forested region called the Hylaia. There, searching for his lost horses, he entered an ἄντρον, a sacred cave. Inside he met a mixoparthenos, a “two-formed” Echidnaic woman-serpent:

When Heracles asks about his horses, she replies with cultic authority:

Here the female venom-priestess asserts κράτος (kratos) - ritual power - over the intruding male.
This is the oldest surviving description of a male entering a forbidden female pharmakon space and being compelled to undergo the sexual-venom rite.

Who Is the Mixoparthenos? Three Interpretive Possibilities

Herodotus gives no name. But, there are three plausible identities:

1. She is Medea - Medea appears elsewhere in the Heraclean cycle as the only woman allowed to inspect, heal, or question Heracles (e.g. the Theban purification rites). Her attributes-Colchian, venom-literate, pharmakis of Hecate—exactly match the Scythian priestess.
2. She is a Medea archetype. Even if not literally Medea, the mixoparthenos embodies the Medea-type: serpent lineage, mastery of pharmaka, authority over mania and ecstasy, ritual sexual initiation, matrilineal transmission of venom knowledge
3. She is a Medwa priestess of Medea’s order. Under this reading, the Scythian mixoparthenos is a Medwa initiate, functioning under Medea’s lineage and goddess (Hecate / Artemis), enforcing the ritual boundaries. Medwa denotes the Echidnaic priestesshood that preserves venom-and-vision rites.

All three interpretations converge on a single truth:
Heracles walked into the chamber of a female serpent-priestess whose authority exceeded his own. She controlled the rite. He submitted.

This is the core of the male pharmakon initiation.

Heracles’ Violation and Corruption of the Rite

After the mixoparthenos compels Heracles into ritual intercourse, she bears him three sons

Heracles goes on to:

• kill dragons (temple guardians of pharmaka)
• steal Hydra venom for his arrows
• slay the Lion of Nemea (guardian-beast)
• violate the bounds of several oracular sites
• murder his teacher Linus (music/lyre = cultic training)
• wound his own pharmakon-pedagogue Chiron with Hydra venom

This constellation reveals a mythic pattern:
Heracles systematically seizes the tools, symbols, and pharmaka of the Echidnaic order.

He becomes, in Greek memory, the first male figure who forcibly appropriates the venom-mastery previously guarded by Echidnaic priestesses, by explicitly destroying or dominating the female and centauric custodians of the rite.

The first male “venom-master”

Male Acolytes: Hyllus, Iolaus, and the Birth of the Neaniskos Rite

Heracles surrounds himself with neaniskos pubescent young males:

• Iolaus, who helps him with the Hydra
• Hyllus, his son and ritual heir

Ancient sources (Diodorus, Pindar, scholia) preserve the pattern of:

• an older initiator
• a just-pubescent attendant
• engaged together in serpent-labours, pharmakon handling, and ordeal
• under female supervision only when necessary

Why Only Medea May Enter the Heraclean Mysteries

In the literary tradition, Medea is the only woman permitted to purify, inspect, or heal Heracles after pharmakon-related ordeals (e.g., Euripides Heracles; Apollodorus 2.4–2.5). This establishes her as the sole female figure with authority in his pharmacological cycle.

Even his madness cannot be cured by men - only by the Colchian pharmakis, the senior Medwa.

This pattern matches:

• the Echidnaic priestess’s role as regulator of male pharmakon use
• the limitation of female presence to inspection and recalibration
• the structure of ritual spaces where only a high priestess may enter the male chamber

Mixoparthenos -> Medwa -> Medea -> the only woman allowed into the Heraclean mysteries.

Heracles’ Boys / Young Male Acolytes (Iolaus, Hyllus)

Iolaus participates in Heracles’ pharmakon-rite (Hydra venom episode)

Iolaus is literally a neaniskos (νεανίσκος) assisting in venom-handling — preventing the Hydra’s toxic regeneration while Heracles harvests the serpent’s deadly blood.

Iolaus receives cult honors with Heracles (i.e., treated as ritual partner)

Iolaus is ritually linked to Heracles, showing the boy-companion as part of a male mystery lineage.

Hyllus: Heracles and the boy-heir

Hyllus later becomes Heracles’ successor, showing the male-line transfer of power.

Chiron teaches Heracles music (lyre)

This is the source for lyre/Kythera instruction.

Chiron teaches pharmakon / healing arts

This is the classical source showing Chiron as a pharmakon instructor.
Because Heracles is taught by the same Chiron, the implication is strong: Heracles inherits the same medical-pharmakon pedagogy.

Chiron = pedagogue of heroes (paideia, pederastic structure)

This is a direct link between Chiron and παιδαγωγός (child-guide).

Linus teaches Heracles music

Heracles kills Linus with the lyre

Heracles is full of thumbs, gets frustrated, and murders the music teacher - shows a violent break with the female-style (Echidnaic) pedagogy.

Asclepius is also taught by Chiron - but Heracles receives the same instructor

This does not name Heracles, but Chiron’s curriculum is identical across pupils (Heracles, Achilles, Asclepius).
Thus Heracles is implicitly taught:

• pharmaka
• healing arts
• musical discipline
• prophetic/ethical paideia

Heracles Uses Gorgon Blood to Heal People

This is directly attested - Heracles receives Gorgon blood from Athena.

Gorgon blood = Echidnaic / Medean venom healing = aionic/healing pharmakon

Chiron as Centaur = Teacher, Prophet, and Healer (Pagan Magus)

Chiron as medicus, “centaur = magus/prophet-healer”.

Chiron instructs heroes in pharmaka and prophecy.

Shows Chiron as teacher of:

• pharmaka (drugs/medicines)
• ιατρῶν τέχναι (medical arts)
• μαντοσύνη (prophetic insight)

Links Chiron with medical-pharmakon initiation AND prophetic rites.

Chiron teaches medicine to Heracles and all heroes

Heracles directly receives medical training from Chiron, not just Achilles or Asclepius.

Chiron teaches medicine to Heracles and all heroes.
These passages establish Chiron as the pagan magus archetype — the prototype of the “magi” in later traditions.

Heracles and Hyllus — Father/Son Initiation Dynamic

Hyllus receives Heracles’ power and agony — confirming ritual succession
Shows Hyllus as ritual heir, receiving in the rite:

• Heracles’ pain (venom-suffering)
• Heracles’ power
• Heracles’ role

Hyllus receives the mantle of Heracles’ power and suffering, confirming succession of the mystery.

Hyllus as heir, following the venom-death episode

This ties Hyllus to post-venom succession — Heracles dies by the Nessus venom-pharmakon, and Hyllus inherits the rite/lineage.
Heracles’ pharmakon death -> Hyllus becomes the male-line continuation of the Medwa-corrupted initiation.

THE MALE RITES - THE MARKAN NEANISKOS: THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE

We now reconstruct the Markan νεανίσκος from Mark 14:51 in light of all of this.

1. Neaniskos

νεανίσκος (neaniskos) = a very young male, classed by Hesychius (5th c. CE) not as an adult “youth” but as a νήπιος, e.g., a child or small boy not yet mature. Classed by Philo (45 BCE) as a just-pubescent boy.

• Biological immaturity and Small Size are the core attributes of the definition; this typically corresponds to the pre-pubescent or early-pubescent range, roughly the years leading into fertility.
• see Neaniskos for the full analysis

In the lexicon of Hesychius (5th c. CE), the term νεανίσκος is explicitly equated with νηπίος (“a small child, a very young one, one not yet mature”). Hesychius further defines νηπίον as νεόγυον, νεώτερον, μικρόν — “newborn, very young, small” as a range. Thus, by Hesychius, νεανίσκος cannot denote an adult or late teen, but belongs to the semantic field of childhood and early boyhood, extending at most to the liminal years approaching ἥβη.

Hesychius tells us that a neaniskos is, quite literally, a νήπιος — a child, a “small one,” not yet at the stage of full ἥβη.

Crucially, Hesychius glosses νεανίσκος (neaniskos) with νήπιος (nepios), demonstrating that the Markan νεανίσκος (neaniskos) cannot be a “late teen,” but is a small boy or early-pubescent youth (mikron (μικρόν) is small, typically 5-13 yrs is the growth stage for a boy), linguistically grouped with children who are not yet of ἥβη (puberty maturity). This perfectly fits the profile of early initiands in Greek pharmakon- and venom-based rites.

Accordingly, the Markan νεανίσκος is not a “youthful young man,” but a very young boy, one not yet fully mature, precisely the type used in certain Greek ritual and initiatory contexts.

This definition aligns with Greek usage where νεανίσκος is a diminutive form (-ίσκος) indicating smallness, youth, and immaturity, in contrast to νεανίας (an adolescent or young man).

And also aligns with Philo of Alexandria's 7 stages of life where neaniskos is aligned with biological maturity of "just fertile".

• see Neaniskos for the full analysis

2. Wearing a sindon

In medical Greek, σίνδων is a fine linen bandage, absorbing liquids.

This matches pharmacological practice: binding a pharmakon against the skin to induce slow absorption (Galen uses επιθέματα (epithemata) for similar function).

• νεανίσκος (neaniskos) - pubescent fertile male
• συνηκολούθει (sunekolouthei) - attendantly following
• περιβεβλημένος (peribeblemenos) - wrapped around
• ἐπὶ (epi) - upon
• γυμνοῦ (gumnou) - his nakedness (euphemism here)
• σινδόνα (sindona) - fine linen surgical grade bandage

The reading for each term here, is consistent with the later context from the punishment by crucifixion scene. Considering the Oxos on a Sponge, extreme thirst, and early coma well before any of the other Lestes criminals passed out on their cross, it would appear Jesus was under the influence of dipsas venom.

3. Ecstatic flight (φόβος καὶ ἔκστασις)

Matches the venom-induced altered state pattern described by Galen (“vivid visions”), Nicander, and the PGM.

This is the famous abrupt ending of Mark - the women flee in φόβος καὶ ἔκστασις, “fear and ecstasy / trance,” consistent with the mystery-cult and pharmakon-induced visionary framing.

The pairing φόβος + ἔκστασις is a characteristic mystery-language dyad.

• φόβος = the trembling onset of ritual awe, the somatic shock
• ἔκστασις = literally “standing outside oneself,” the technical term for trance, dissociation, or drug-induced displacement used in medical, magical, and initiatory Greek (PGM, Hippocratics, Plutarch).

Mark’s ending uniquely combines these two to signal that the women’s flight is not mundane panic but the onset of an altered state — precisely the lexicon used in initiatory Greek texts describing the liminal threshold between ordinary consciousness and the pharmakon-induced vision-space.

4. Cultural background

Greek toxicology recognized:

• boyhood training / habituation / acclimation in the venoms (Nicander, Galen, Aelian)
• vision-producing venoms (Galen)
• mixed venomic-salves (PGM, Galen)
• secrecy in venom guilds (Galen)
• elite patronage struggles (Piso)

Thus the Markan youth appears as a member of a male mystery cell using applied theriac-like pharmaka, possibly a survivor fleeing from an interrupted nocturnal rite.

CONCLUSION: THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE

We now have the full evidentiary chain, demonstrating that On Theriac to Piso is not an isolated medical curiosity but part of a long Greek tradition with ritual implications:

1. Nicander (2nd c. BCE): puberty venom-training
2. Aelian (2nd–3rd c. CE): boyhood exposure to pharmaka
3. Galen (2nd c. CE): clinical habituation, visions, salves, guild secrecy
4. Tacitus/Pliny (1st c. CE): Piso family scandals over poison/antidotes
5. Galen’s Piso treatise: explicit secrecy, elite access
6. Evolution of pharmaka: thanasimon -> galene -> theriac (unified storm/calm drug)
7. PGM vision rites: phármakon-applied anointings enabling visions
8. Mark’s νεανίσκος: perfectly matches the trained-youth, linen-bound pharmacological profile
9. Echidnaic priestess line: matches the female venom-oracle tradition
10. Heraclean male pharmakon rites (Herodotus, Pindar, Apollodorus, Sophocles): older Greek precedent for the Markan neaniskos pattern.

Therefore:
The Greek pharmacological record—literary, medical, ethnographic, and political—supports a coherent reconstruction of male initiation rites involving venom-conditioning (Markan νεανίσκος), and female oracle rites in the Echidnaic tradition, both grounded in the same pharmakon technologies codified in Theriac to Piso.

More Reading

• Thanasimon for background on the Thanasimon and Galene binary drug pair and it's use within medicine and the cults.
• Kollourion
• How God Formed Man - humans weren't created, but their Soul/Psyche certainly were formed/molded.
• Soul/Psyche - often the target for improvement in rites
• Theriac - compound poly pharmacy contained both the storm and the calm in one, a nice advancement used by Mithradates, Nero, Marcus Auralius (written about by Nicander, Andromachus, Galen)