CERIMON'S PUPIL

In stories of the Apollonius Cycle, there is a student of medicine who lives in a solitary house in the seashore of the region of Ionia with his classmates and their professor Cerimon, a worthy physician.
Despite being a supporting character, our young student is rather well-portrayed. The Latin original calls him "aspectu adolescens, sed, quantum ingenio, senex." An English translation conveys the meaning of this little portrait word for word: "a young man, but possessing the wisdom of old age." Another version goes: "a young man in appearance, but an old man in wisdom."

According to Kortekaas, this commonplace started in higher literature.

There are two German versions. Both describe the student as "vor allen seinem Schülern in der Arznei erfahren": "more experienced (at least, theoretically) in the healing art than all of his classmates". These versions are also the first to christen the character: the Viennese version calls him Machaon, while he is known as Pandecta in Leipzig.

In the 14th-century Heinrich of Neustadt version, he is called Philemon ("Filomein"), and described as:

"Kam der junge Filomein; 

Dan an der Kunst was er alt: 

Er hett synne manig valt.

Er was des Meisters Jünger ee."

In modern German: "Der junge Filomein, 

der an der Kunst alt war, 

und dessen Sinne viel Wert hatte". 

Young Filomein, 

who was old in the (healing) art 

and whose mind was worth a lot". 

Filomi der kunst reich

Zu manigem synne richtet er sich.

In modern German: "Filomein der kunstreiche 

zu vielem Sinne richtet er sich": 

"Filomein the skilful one 

resorts to his great mind".

A much earlier German translation, written by Richard Peters in 1904 Leipzig, describes this character as: "ein Schüler, dem Aussehen nach ein Jüngling, aber was den Verstand anging, ein Greis.": "a pupil, with the appearance of a youth, but, when it came to wit, an elder". 

The Leipzig version was arguably the one to reach Sweden in chapbook form, as the young man is named Pandecta in the Swedish-language tale compiled by Bäckström. However, he is described in Bellman's language as "en klok man, som i sin konst vida övergick sin mästare": "a clever man, who far surpassed his teacher in their (the healing) art" (Note the word "klok": "clever", i.e. learned, cognate of German "klug". It is used of the wealthy princess and her fiancé in Andersen's "Snow Queen" to describe their cultural level!).

In a German summary, he is only "ein Schüler des Arztes": No mention of him being learned.

On the other hand, the pupil is christened Machaon in the Elizabethan Anglophone novel The Pattern of Painful Adventures, by Laurence Twine, and he is referred to as "of yeres but yong, but antient in wit and experience". Or, in present-day English, "of years but young but ancient in wit and experience".

While searching the Web for Christ myth theory, I found another translation of Apollonius legend, in which the student, "the young man" I have compared with Nietzsche, Leibniz, Napoleon, Queen Christina, and me... was referred to as: "of youthful appeareance, but mature judgment". 

In the Gesta Romanorum:
[···] a pupil of the physician, a young man, but possessing the wisdom of old age [···]
What's more, Cerimon approves of him (called merely "the youth" and "the young man") like this:
"I approve your skill", returned he, "I magnify your art, and wonder at your prudence. 
Mark the results of learning, and be not ungrateful to science. Receive now thy reward [···]"
A footnote calls him: [···] this same wise youth [···]

In Gower's Confession, he is merely a "disciple", and his knowledge is sadly given to Cerimon himself (perchance Gower thought of a wise old man rather than a child/young prodigy as possessor of such knowledge).

The anonymous Spanish-language version, written in quatrains, uses different constructions to describe our prodigy: he is introduced to us as "un discípulo sabio y bien letrado": "a wise and well-educated student". Then he is called "el buen discípulo de gran entendimiento": "the good student, possessing great knowledge". A final remark on his mind: "El escolar fue bueno, un maestro valía": "The student was good (i.e. skilful), he was worth a master". The Spanish version retains the namelessness of the original's discipulus, not giving him any Christian name.

In the nineteenth century, Anglophone critic Smyth calls him Cerimon's "precociously smart pupil".

In William Shakespeare's seventeenth-century stage version Pericles, our supporting character is simply the First Gentleman.

A recent essay (published last year!) explains that "prodigious wisdom in ancient literature is often described by means of the puer-senex character".

This is the first post of the series about prodigies and early misconceptions about savants and aspies that I have now started. As an aspie, I feel both alarmed and surprised by all prejudices, both for and against my kin, that have historically existed.