The perdicium or parthenium2559—for2560 the sideritis is, in reality, a different plant—is known to the people of our country as the herb urceolaris,2561 and to some persons as the “astercum.” The leaf of it is similar to that of ocimum, but darker, and it is found growing on tiled roofs and walls. Beaten up with a sprinkling of salt, it has all the medicinal properties of the lamium,2562 and is used in a similar manner. The juice of it, taken warm, is good, too, for suppurated abscesses; but for the cure of convulsions, ruptures, bruises, and the effects of falls from a height, or of the overturning of vehicles, it is possessed of singular virtues.
A slave, who was held in high esteem by Pericles,2563 the ruler of the Athenians, being engaged upon the buildings of a temple in the citadel, while creeping along the top of the roof, happened to fall; from the effects of which he was relieved, it is said, by this plant, the virtues whereof had been disclosed to Pericles by Minerva in a dream. Hence it is that it was first called “parthenium,”2564 and was consecrated to that goddess. It is this slave of whom there is a famous statue in molten bronze, well known as the Splanchnoptes.2565