Heraklas

{{Short description|Greek physician}}

File:Heraklas Plinthios Brokhos Jaw Sling.jpg. This example is formed in a doubled cord for better visibility.]]

File:Bottle Sling ABOK 1142 Tying Complete.jpg]]

File:Tom-fool-knot-ABOK-1141.jpg]]

Heraklas ({{langx|grc|Ἡρακλᾶς}}) was a Greek physician of the 1st century AD whose descriptions of surgeons' knots and slings are preserved in book 48 of Oribasius' Medical Collections (Ἰατρικαὶ Συναγωγαί, Iatrikai Synagogai) under the title From Heraklas.{{citation|last=Hage|first=J. Joris|periodical=World Journal of Surgery|date=April 2008|volume=32|number=4|pages=648–655|title=Heraklas on Knots: Sixteen Surgical Nooses and Knots from the First Century A.D.|doi=10.1007/s00268-007-9359-x|pmid=18224483}}

Describing them in detail, Heraklas discussed 16 different knots and slings, including the earliest known written account of a string figure.{{Citation | last = Miller | first = Lawrence G. | title = The Earliest (?) Description of a String Figure | journal = American Anthropologist |series=New Series | volume = 47 | issue = 3 | pages = 461–462 | year = 1945 | doi = 10.1525/aa.1945.47.3.02a00190}} Accompanying illustrations of the knots were added later by Renaissance copyists, but modern analysis of the writings by knot experts has shown many of these early drawings to contain significant errors or misinterpretations.{{citation |last=Day |first=Cyrus L. |title=Quipus and Witches' Knots |year= 1967 |publisher=University of Kansas Press |location=Lawrence |pages= 86–89, 101–151}}