Plato and medical texts: Symposium 185c - 193d.

Abstract

The dramatic date of Smp.2 is 416 (Agathon’s first tragic victory); the date of narration is c. 400 (from 172c, many years since Agathon left Athens); the date of composition is perhaps c. 380 (from 193a2, allusion to events of 385).3 The only certainty in this supposed chain of construction is the final link: writing by Plato. A further certainty is that many medical works, including many treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus, were in circulation by the last decades of the fifth century.4 The language of medicine seen in the speeches of Eryximachos and Aristophanes,5 two of the first five speakers who discourse on eros, is here discussed. It has frequently been noted that Eryximachos uses medical terminology akin to that of particular Hippocratic works, notably Flat., Vict. 1, VM. It has been observed too that Aristophanes draws on general medical ideas such as those presented in Nat. Hom. and Vict. 1. More specific parallels, especially with the surgically technical Artic., are here outlined, and it is argued that Aristophanes’ play on medical ideas is more extensive, and his expression more technical, than hitherto realized; that certain techniques of anatomical exposition are favoured; that Hippocratic didactic expressions are present, and several idioms characteristic of Ionic prose can be isolated. This Platonic parody of an Aristophanic parody of Hippocratic discourse is seen to be important evidence for the dissemination of medical material in the late fifth and early fourth century, and a demonstration of the extent to which this pervaded intellectual discourse. Finally, the nature of Plato’s own extensive medical knowledge and the clever use he makes of it in these interlocking speeches is briefly discussed. Eryximachos, who presides over the debate, is a real person from a real medical family (Pl. Prt. 315c, Phdr. 268a; cf. X. Mem. 3.13.2). The name (lit. ‘combating retching), was probably an auspicious one in a medical family (retching and vomiting being a regular part of medical symptoms and treatment) but is treated with bathos, as here Eryximachos combats merely a fit of hiccups.6 His prescriptions at 185d–e are given in Classical Quarterly 51.1 109–114 (2001) Printed in Great Britain 109