NICANDER

Form: Gr. Nicandros.

A Greek poet born at Colophan in Asia, about 150 B.C. He was an hereditary priest of Apollo, as well as a physician, and lived a great deal in Aetolia as well as later in Pergamon. He wrote numerous works, such as those on agriculture, of which considerable fragments are still preserved, and on mythological metamorphoses (used by Ovid), etc. Two of his poems, written in a dull and bombastic manner, are still extant: the Theriaca, on remedies against the wounds inflicted by venomous animals; and the Alexipharmaca, on poisons taken in food and drink, with their antidotes.