Panaceʹa

A universal cure. Panacea was the daughter of Esculaʹpios (god of medicine). The name is evidently composed of two Greek words panakeomai (all I cure). Of course the medicine that cures is the daughter or child of the healing art.

Panaceʹa. An Orkney proverb says the well of Kildinguie and the dulse (sea-weed) of Guiodin will cure every malady save Black Death. (Sir Walter Scott: The Pirate, chap. xxix.) (See Azoth.)

Other famous panaceas.

Prince Ahmed’s apple, or apple of Samarcand, cured all disorders. (See under Apple.)

The balsam of Fierabras (q.v.).

The Promeʹthean unguent rendered the body invulnerable.

Aladdinʹsring (q.v.) was a preservative against all the ills which flesh is heir to.

Sir Gilbert’s sword. Sir T. Malory, in his History of Prince Arthur (i. 116), says:—

“Sir Launcelot touched the wounds of Sir Meliot with Sir Gilbert’s sword, and wiped them with the cerecloth, and anon a wholler man was he never in all his life.”

(See also Achillesʹ Spear, Medea’s Ketlle, Reynard’s Ring [see Ring], Panʹthera, etc.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.