“Thessalian woman”: refers to medicine women, since the Thessalians are accused of being sorcerers. Even to the present day, Thessalian women are called medicine women (pharmakides). They say it's because when Medea fled, she tossed her basket of medicines (pharmaka) and there they sprouted. Attic speakers read it with a barytone accent [Thes–SA–ly instead of Thes–sa–LY]. Aristophanes: “if I bought a Thessalian woman, I could draw down the moon at night, then hide it like a mirror.” For the orb of the moon has a round shape like a mirror, and they say that people who are skilled in these kinds of things draw down the moon with it (sc. a mirror). There’s also Pythagoras’ trick with a mirror that goes like this: when the moon is full, if someone writes in blood on a mirror whatever he wishes and, while standing behind another person, proclaims against him and shows the words to the moon, if he then looks closely at the orb of the moon, then he can read all that is written on the mirror as if it were written on the moon.

Θετταλὴ γυνή: ἐπὶ τῶν φαρμακίδων. διαβάλλονται γὰρ οἱ Θετταλοὶ ὡς γόητες· καὶ μέχρι καὶ νῦν φαρμακίδες αἱ Θετταλαὶ καλοῦνται. φασὶ δὲ ὅτι ἡ Μήδεια φεύγουσα κίστην ἐξέβαλε φαρμάκων ἐκεῖ, καὶ ἀνέφυσαν. βαρυτόνως δὲ οἱ Ἀττικοὶ ἀναγινώσκουσιν. Ἀριστοφάνης· γυναῖκα πριάμενος Θετταλὴν καθέλκοιμι νύκτωρ τὴν σελήνην· εἶτα καθείρξαιμ' ὥσπερ κάτοπτρον. ὁ γὰρ τῆς σελήνης κύκλος στρογγυλοειδὴς ὡς ἔσοπτρον. καί φασι τοὺς περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα δεινοὺς τούτῳ κατάγειν τὴν σελήνην. ἔστι δὲ καὶ Πυθαγόρου παίγνιον διὰ κατόπτρου τοιοῦτον. πληροσελήνου τῆς σελήνης οὔσης, εἴ τις ἔσοπτρον ἐπιγράψειεν αἵματι, ὅσα βούλεται, καὶ προειπὼν ἑτέρῳ σταίη κατόπιν αὐτοῦ, δείκνυσι πρὸς τὴν σελήνην τὰ γράμματα, κἀκεῖνον ἀτενίσαι πλησίον εἰς τὸν τῆς σελήνης κύκλον, ἀναγνοίη πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ κατόπτρῳ γεγραμμένα, ὡς τῇ σελήνῃ γεγραμμένα.

Suda, theta entry 289

“You're drawing the moon down to yourself”: the Thessalian women who draw down the moon are said to lose their eyes and feet.

Ἐπὶ σαυτῷ τὴν σελήνην καθέλκεις: αἱ τὴν σελήνην καθέλκουσαι Θετταλίδες λέγονται τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ τῶν ποδῶν στερίσκεσθαι.

Suda, epsilon entry 2559

Socrates: First, tell me what it is you want for yourself.

Strepsiades (lying naked in bed): You’ve heard a thousand times what I want: I don't want to have to pay back any interest on my debts.

Socrates: Come now, cover yourself up. Loosen up your mind a little bit. Think about your affairs, analyze and investigate them properly.

Strepsiades: This sucks.

Socrates: Stay calm. If you get caught up in some of your thoughts, put them to the side and move on. Later on, turn your mind to them again and examine them.

Strepsiades (after thinking): ... oh, little Socrates! You’re the best!

Socrates: What is it, old man?

Strepsiades: I have a plan to get out of paying any interest!

Socrates: Show me.

Strepsiades: Alright now, tell me...

Socrates: Tell you what?

Strepsiades: ...if I bought a medicine woman, a Thessalian one, I could bring down the moon at night, then hide it in a round case like the ones we use for mirrors and keep it there.

Socrates: Ok, but how would this help you?

Strepsiades: Because if the moon didn’t rise, I wouldn't have to pay back any interest.

Socrates: Yeah, but why not?

Strepsiades: Because interest is charged by the month.

{Σω.} αὐτὸς ὅτι βούλει πρῶτος ἐξευρὼν λέγε. 

{Στ.} ἀκήκοας μυριάκις ἁγὼ βούλομαι, περὶ τῶν τόκων, ὅπως ἂν ἀποδῶ μηδενί.

{Σω.} ἴθι νυν καλύπτου, καὶ σχάσας τὴν φροντίδα λεπτὴν κατὰ μικρὸν περιφρόνει τὰ πράγματα ὀρθῶς διαιρῶν καὶ σκοπῶν.

{Στ.} οἴμοι τάλας.

{Σω.} ἔχ' ἀτρέμα· κἂν ἀπορῇς τι τῶν νοημάτων, ἀφεὶς ἄπελθε, κᾆτα τῇ γνώμῃ πάλιν κίνησον αὖθις αὐτὸ καὶ ζυγώθρισον.

{Στ.} ὦ Σωκρατίδιον φίλτατον.

{Σω.} τί, ὦ γέρον;

{Στ.} ἔχω τόκου γνώμην ἀποστερητικήν.

{Σω.} ἐπίδειξον αὐτήν.

{Στ.} εἰπὲ δή νυν μοι – 

{Σω.} τὸ τί;

{Στ.} γυναῖκα φαρμακίδ' εἰ πριάμενος Θετταλὴν καθέλοιμι νύκτωρ τὴν σελήνην, εἶτα δὴ αὐτὴν καθείρξαιμ' εἰς λοφεῖον στρογγύλον ὥσπερ κάτροπτον, κᾆτα τηροίην ἔχων.

{Σω.} τί δῆτα τοῦτ' ἂν ὠφελήσειέν σ'; 

{Στ.} ὅτι εἰ μηκέτ' ἀνατέλλοι σελήνη μηδαμοῦ, οὐκ ἂν ἀποδοίην τοὺς τόκους.

{Σω.} ὁτιὴ τί δή;

{Στ.} ὁτιὴ κατὰ μῆνα τἀργύριον δανείζεται.

Aristophanes, Clouds, ll. 737-756

 

“I'm amazed that this rumour has stuck so firmly to Achilles’ people (sc. the Thessalians) that even Menander, who wrote works with unrivaled subtlety, called a play “The Woman from Thessaly”, which describes these women’s tricks for bringing down the moon. I would have thought that Orpheus was the first to introduce the art from his region to his neighbours’ and that the superstition developed from medicine, if it weren’t the case that Thrace—Orpheus’ homeland—was completely free of the art of magic.”

miror equidem Achillis populis famam eius in tantum adhaesisse, ut Menander quoque, litterarum subtilitati sine aemulo genitus, Thessalam cognominaret fabulam complexam ambages feminarum detrahentium lunam. Orphea putarem e propinquo artem primum intulisse ad vicina usque superstitionis ac medicinae provectum, si non expers sedes eius tota Thrace magices fuisset.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 30.2.7