Androcydes (physician)

Androcydes (or Androkydes, fl. 4th century BCE) () was a Greek physician and writer at the time of Alexander the Great. According to Pliny,Historia naturalis 14.58. he advised Alexander to moderate his drinking:

Elsewhere, Androcydes is supposed to have recommended cabbage to counteract the effects of wine.Theophrastus, On Plants 4.16.6 (see Pliny, Historia naturalis 17.240 for similar advice), as cited by Waldemar Heckel, Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great (Blackwell, 2006), p. 289 online. Some attempts have been made to identify this Androcydes with the Androcydes who wrote on Pythagoreanism,Gillian Clark, Iamblichus: On the Pythagorean Life (Liverpool University Press, 1989), p. 64, note 145 online. as the advice regarding wine (bad) and cabbage (good)Discussed in the course of Cato the Elder’s effusions on the virtues of cabbage, On Agriculture 157, Bill Thayer’s edition at LacusCurtius online. 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 AthenaeusAthenaeus, Deipnosophistae 6.258b; in context, the speaker Clearchus sets out this etymology in order to contradict it. for an etymology of the Greek word kolax, "flatterer," which is taken by one prosopographer as evidence of his association with Alexander's court.Waldemar Heckel, Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great (Blackwel, 2006), p. 28 online.

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