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Miosos .g. buffo rana terrestris venenosa rubeta dicta.


Miosos AC e | Mioxos B f

dicta AC ef | dicta vel rubea B


Miosos is Greek for a terrestrial, poisonous toad frog, that is called rubeta {"ruby coloured"}.


The information provided in this entry is from a modern perspective inconclusive; the keyword miosos, or mioxos in some witnesses, is not associated with any type of frog. (The letters 's' and 'x' are often confused in medieval manuscripts.)

Miosos is as such not attested at all (with some creativity, it could be interpreted as a misspelt word for "mouse ear", but this is far fetched), and mioxos is a rare word used to describe other animals. It is attested twice in Ps. Cyril's dictionary.

The first entry reads: Μυοξος ομυσοεισταδενδρα glis guris (some witnesses have gliris instead of guris), which translates to: "Myoxos the mouse on the trees (ὁ μῦς ὁ εἰς τὰ δένδρα /ho mys ho eis ta déndra/), glis {'dormouse'} guris {?}";

the second entry reads: Μυοξοσουποκατωτησγησοτυφλος talpa, which translates to: "Myoxos the one under the earth, the blind one (ὁ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς ὁ τυφλὸς /ho hypokátō tēs gēs ho tyflós/), talpa {'mole'}".

It must be noted that the first entry contains a very interesting variant, gliris, which is the genitive of glis, has been transmitted in some manuscripts, whereas others read guris. The latter word is as such not attested in Latin. It could easily be seen as a misread gliris, with 'li' being mistaken for a 'u'. It could equally have derived in a distorted way from γυρῖνος /gyrinos/ the Greek word for "tadpole"; a Latinized form of this word is transmitted in Pliny 9, 159.

To find a word that could mean "tadpole" associated with a rarely attested word that is supposed to mean "toad" is striking, and we cannot exclude that this is indeed the intended meaning. However, the evidence is very thin.

Thus, we are left with a number of different options. This could be the only surviving mention of this word. This option could be supported by the fact that the clavis contains the description of another frog species, which is not attested elsewhere, Vatrachi kampite. Next, Simon could be quoting a corrupt source. Lastly, this entry could be the result of a scribal error somewhere early on in the history of the clavis. For instance, someone could have jumped a line of text, merging the keyword miosos or mioxos with the main text body of the following entry, or a scribe could have misspelt the keyword beyond recognition.

Rubeta is listed in du Cange (1883-7) as a word for "frog". [[1]]

See also: Batracos, Difdhah, Gecazum, Girinos, Vatrachi kampite, Vatrachos

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