Psellus on more Miscellanies paradoxes: fields, gorgonion, and hair
And from the dung of cows that have coupled, and from urine, he makes a man defecate and a woman urinate when he would, and laugh very greatly. He works a technical, or rather a magical, fertility for fields, and the opposite barrenness from antipathies. He collects aphroselenon from the dew of plants and the moon’s rays. He keeps those who spend the night in wine amethystous (not drunk).
He tells wonders of certain helps from a tortoise, from a bear’s genitals, from other animals and beasts. He has also made a thinning drug of excess flesh. He also makes disappear the little animals in vegetables, proposing certain new methods.
He also speaks about the gorgonion: this is a plant mostly underground. He says that if a girl should couple near it as Aphrodite’s custom, the plant comes up to the sight and watches the happening curiously. He also makes eyelash-beautifying drugs and scrying ones. It is also very easy for him to make a woman who has been rolled with many men a virgin again.
He also puts a parasite to sleep, and what happens is for him a source of cheer. He also checks the hold of dreams, and very easily brings down the afterbirth and blacks grey eyes. He also has a key of veins for slips, and something else night-shining. He both kindles loves and quenches them. And white hairs he blacks, and black he whites. And other such things this man in his Cesti tells as wonders and goes through.
Greek
Ἐκ δὲ ἀποπατημάτων τῶν συνελθούσων βοῶν καὶ τοῦ οὔρου ἀποπατεῖν ἄνδρα ποιεῖ καὶ γυναῖκα οὐρεῖν ὅτε βούλοιτο καὶ γελᾶν πάμμεγα. Εὐφορίαν δὲ τεχνικὴν ἢ μᾶλλον γοητικὴν χωρίοις ἐργάζεται καὶ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἀφορίαν ἐξ ἀντιπαθειῶν. Τὸ δὲ ἀφροσέληνον συλλέγει ἐκ τῆς δρόσου τῶν φυτῶν καὶ τῶν σεληναίων αὐγῶν. Ἀμεθύσους δὲ διατηρεῖ τοὺς ἐν οἴνῳ διανυκτερεύοντας. Τερατεύεται δέ τινας ὠφελείας ἀπὸ χελώνης, ἀπὸ ἀρκτείου αἰδοίου, ἐξ ἄλλων ζῴων τε καὶ θηρῶν. Πεποίηται δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ἰσχνοποιὸν φάρμακον ὑπερορίων σαρκῶν. Ἀφανίζει τε τὰ ἐν τοῖς λαχάνοις ζωύφια, καινούς τινας τρόπους ὑποτιθείς. Λέγει δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ γοργονίου· πόα δέ ἐστι τοῦτο ὑπόγειος τὰ πολλά· λέγει γοῦν ὡς εἴ τις κόρη πλησίον αὐτῆς ὡς Ἀφροδίτης νόμος συμπλακείη, ἄνεισιν ἐπὶ τὴν θέαν ἡ πόα καὶ τὸ γινόμενον περιέργως ὁρᾷ. Ποιεῖται δὲ καὶ καλλιβλέφαρα φάρμακα καὶ ἐποπτικά. Ῥᾷστον δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν πολλοῖς ἐγκυλισθεῖσαν ἀνδράσι γυναῖκα παρθένον αὖθις ἐργάσασθαι. Κοιμίζει δὲ καὶ παράσιτον, καί ἐστιν αὐτῷ τὸ γινόμενον εὐθυμίας πηγή. Ἐπέχει δὲ καὶ ὀνείρων ἕξιν, καὶ ῥᾷστα τὰ δευτέρια κατάγει καὶ γλαυκὰ μελαίνει ὄμματα. Ἔστι τε αὐτῷ καὶ κλεὶς φλεβῶν ὀλισθήμασι, καί τι ἄλλο νυκτιφαές. Ἔρωτας δὲ καὶ ἀνάπτει καὶ σβέννυσι. Καὶ τρίχας λευκὰς μὲν μελαίνει λευκαίνει δὲ μελαίνας. Καὶ ἄλλ' ἄττα τοιαῦτα ὁ ἀνὴρ οὗτος ἐν τοῖς Κεστοῖς αὐτοῦ τερατολογεῖ καὶ διέξεισι.