Androcydes (physician)

Androcydes (or Androkydes, fl. 4th century BCE) (Ancient Greek: Ἀνδροκύδης) was a Greek physician and writer at the time of Alexander the Great. According to Pliny,[1] he advised Alexander to moderate his drinking:

Androcydes, a man famous for his wisdom, wrote to Alexander the Great, with the view of putting a check on his intemperance: 'When you are about to take a drink of wine, O king!' said he, 'remember that you are about to drink the blood of the earth: hemlock is a poison to man, wine a poison to hemlock.'[2] And if Alexander had only followed this advice, he certainly would not have had to answer for slaying his friends in his drunken fits.[3]

Elsewhere, Androcydes is supposed to have recommended cabbage to counteract the effects of wine.[4] Some attempts have been made to identify this Androcydes with the Androcydes who wrote on Pythagoreanism,[5] as the advice regarding wine (bad) and cabbage (good)[6] may reflect Pythagorean dietary discipline.

Androcydes, if the same authority is meant, may not have confined himself to writing on medical topics. He is cited by Athenaeus[7] for an etymology of the Greek word kolax, "flatterer," which is taken by one prosopographer as evidence of his association with Alexander's court.[8]