Skip to content
1882

oa Thucydides and the Politics of Plague

image of Thucydides and the Politics of Plague
file format pdf download PDF
Preview this chapter:

Abstract

The paper analyses Thucydides’ description of the plague which ravaged Athens for two years, in 430–429 . In the first part of the paper, a detailed comparison with the medical, Hippocratic, is provided, proving that the historian was familiar with that tradition and its methods. The second part of the paper, however, argues that the relationship with the medical tradition does not play a prominent role in the Thucydidean account. What matters most for him is the exploration of the social consequences of the pandemic. The plague uncovers a more violent and greedy dimension, an unsocial and anti-political aspect of human nature which remains hidden in peaceful times. By insisting on this point, Thucydides can thus oppose the common belief that human society had progressed from an unsecure and violent past which was dominant in fifth-century Athens.

Hardbound ISBN: 978-2-503-59892-5
E-book ISBN: 978-2-503-59893-2
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.127756/M.STPH-EB.5.136405.html?itemId=/content/books/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah
Thucydides and the Politics of Plague
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405
/content/books/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405
/content/books/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405

References

  1. Bibliography
    Galenus, De difficultate respirationis, ed. Karl Gottlob Kühn, vol. 7 (Leipzig: 1824, repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1965).
  2. Herodotus, Historiarum libri IX, ed. Heinrich Rudolf Dietsch (Leipzig: Teubner, 1926–).
  3. Hippocrates, Ancient Medicine, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  4. Hippocrates, Airs, waters, places, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  5. Hippocrates, Epidemics 1 and 3, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  6. Hippocrates, Breaths, in Hippocrates. Volume 2, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  7. Hippocrates, The Sacred Disease, in Hippocrates. Volume 2, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  8. Hippocrates, Nature of Man, in Hippocrates. Volume 4, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931).
  9. Plato, Symposium, in Platonis Opera, ed. J. Burnet, vol. ii (Oxford: Clarendon, 1899).
  10. Strabo, Geographica, ed. August Meineke (Leipzig: Teubner: 1895–1899).
  11. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, with an English Translation by Charles F. Smith (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959).
  12. ***
    Bonazzi, Mauro, ‘Il Movimento reale. Tucidide sulla guerra e l’uomo’, in Guerra e pace. Storia e teoria di un’esperienza filosofica e politica, ed. by Carlo Altini (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015), pp. 35–49.
  13. Bonazzi, Mauro, Atene la città inquieta (Torino: Einaudi, 2017).
  14. Bonazzi, Mauro, The Sophists (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2020).
  15. Bonazzi, Mauro, ‘Political, all too Political: Again on Protagoras Myth in its Intellectual Context’, Polis. The Journal for Ancient Political Thought, 39 (2022), 425-445.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Cochrane, Charles Norris, Thucydides and the Science of History (Oxford University Press: London, 1929).
  17. Connor, W. Robert, Thucydides (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
  18. Craik, Elizabeth M., ‘Thucydides on the Plague: Physiology of Flux and Fixation’, Classical Quarterly, 51 (2001), pp. 102–8.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Demont, Paul, ‘Notes sur le récit de la pestilence athénienne chez Thucydide et sur ses rapports avec la médecine grecque de l’époque classique’, in Formes de la pensée dans la Collecion Hippocratique ed. by François Lasserre and Philippe Mudry (Drosz: Genève, 1983), pp. 341–53.
  20. Demont, Paul, ‘The Causes of the Athenian Plague and Thucydides’, in Thucydides between History and Literature, ed. by Antonis Tsakmakis and Melina Tamiolaki (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 73–87.
  21. Fleming, Rebecca, ‘Galen and the Plague’, in Galens’ peri alypias and the History of the Roman Empire, ed. by Caroline Petit (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 219–44.
  22. Furley, William D., ‘Thucydides and Religion’, in Brill’s Companion to Thucydides, ed. by Antonios Rengakos and Antonis Tsamakis (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 415–38.
  23. Gomme, Arnold Wycombe, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945).
  24. Guthrie, William Keith Chambers, The Sophists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971).
  25. Holladay, A. J., and Poole, J. F. C., ‘Thucydides and the Plague of Athens’, Classical Quarterly 29 (1979), pp. 282–300.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hornblower, Simon, A Commentary on Thucydides, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
  27. Jouanna, Jacques, ‘Air, Miasma, Contagion in the Time of Hippocrates and the Survival of Miasmas in Post-Hippocratic Medicine (Rufus of Ephesus, Galen and Palladius)’, in Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen. Selected Papers, ed. by Jacques Jouanna (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 121–37.
  28. Lichtenthaeler, Charles, Thucydide et Hippocrate vus par un historien-medecin (Droz: Geneve, 1965)
  29. Lloyd, Geoffrey Ernest Richard, In the Grip of Disease. Studies in Greek Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
  30. Loraux, Nicole, ‘Thucydide et la sédition dans les mots’, in Ead., La tragédie d’Athènes. La politique entre l’ombre et l’utopie (Paris: Seuil, 2005), pp. 84–87.
  31. MacLeod, Colin, ‘Thucydides on Faction’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 205 (1979), pp. 52–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Mittelstadt, Michael, ‘The Thucydidean Tragic View: The Moral Implications’, Ramus, 14 (1985), pp. 59–73.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Morgan, Thomas E., ‘Plague or Poetry? Thucydides on the Epidemic at Athens’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 124 (1994), pp. 197–209.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Orwin, Clifford, ‘Stasis and Plague: Thucydides on the Dissolution of Society’, Journal of Politics, 50 (1988), pp. 831–47.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Paci, Enzo, Storia del pensiero presocratico (Rome: ERI, 1957).
  36. Page, Denys Lionel, ‘Thucydides’ Description of the Great Plague at Athens’, Classical Quarterly, 47 (1953), pp. 97–119.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Parry, Adam, ‘The Language of Thucydides’ Description of the Plague’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 16 (1969), pp. 106–18.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Ponchon, Pierre, La rationalité tragique. Essai sur la constitution d’une forme de pensée d’Héraclite à Thucidyde et sur sa critique platonicienne, Ph.D. thesis, Clermont-Ferrand.
  39. Price, Jonathan J., Thucydides and Internal War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
  40. Rawlings, Hunter R., A Semantic Study of prophasis to 400 B.C. (Wiesbaden: Hermes, 1975).
  41. Rechenhauer, Georg, Thukydides und die hippokratische Medizin (Hildesheim: Olms, 1991)
  42. Thomas, Rosalind, ‘Thucydides Intellectual Milieu and the Plague’, in Brill’s Companion to Thucydides, ed. by Antonios Rengakos and Antonis Tsamakis (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 87–108.
  43. Visvardi, Eirene, Emotion in Action. Thucydides and the Tragic Chorus (Leiden: Brill, 2015).

References

  1. Bibliography
    Galenus, De difficultate respirationis, ed. Karl Gottlob Kühn, vol. 7 (Leipzig: 1824, repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1965).
  2. Herodotus, Historiarum libri IX, ed. Heinrich Rudolf Dietsch (Leipzig: Teubner, 1926–).
  3. Hippocrates, Ancient Medicine, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  4. Hippocrates, Airs, waters, places, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  5. Hippocrates, Epidemics 1 and 3, in Hippocrates. Volume 1, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  6. Hippocrates, Breaths, in Hippocrates. Volume 2, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  7. Hippocrates, The Sacred Disease, in Hippocrates. Volume 2, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1923).
  8. Hippocrates, Nature of Man, in Hippocrates. Volume 4, trans. by W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931).
  9. Plato, Symposium, in Platonis Opera, ed. J. Burnet, vol. ii (Oxford: Clarendon, 1899).
  10. Strabo, Geographica, ed. August Meineke (Leipzig: Teubner: 1895–1899).
  11. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, with an English Translation by Charles F. Smith (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959).
  12. ***
    Bonazzi, Mauro, ‘Il Movimento reale. Tucidide sulla guerra e l’uomo’, in Guerra e pace. Storia e teoria di un’esperienza filosofica e politica, ed. by Carlo Altini (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015), pp. 35–49.
  13. Bonazzi, Mauro, Atene la città inquieta (Torino: Einaudi, 2017).
  14. Bonazzi, Mauro, The Sophists (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2020).
  15. Bonazzi, Mauro, ‘Political, all too Political: Again on Protagoras Myth in its Intellectual Context’, Polis. The Journal for Ancient Political Thought, 39 (2022), 425-445.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Cochrane, Charles Norris, Thucydides and the Science of History (Oxford University Press: London, 1929).
  17. Connor, W. Robert, Thucydides (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
  18. Craik, Elizabeth M., ‘Thucydides on the Plague: Physiology of Flux and Fixation’, Classical Quarterly, 51 (2001), pp. 102–8.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Demont, Paul, ‘Notes sur le récit de la pestilence athénienne chez Thucydide et sur ses rapports avec la médecine grecque de l’époque classique’, in Formes de la pensée dans la Collecion Hippocratique ed. by François Lasserre and Philippe Mudry (Drosz: Genève, 1983), pp. 341–53.
  20. Demont, Paul, ‘The Causes of the Athenian Plague and Thucydides’, in Thucydides between History and Literature, ed. by Antonis Tsakmakis and Melina Tamiolaki (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 73–87.
  21. Fleming, Rebecca, ‘Galen and the Plague’, in Galens’ peri alypias and the History of the Roman Empire, ed. by Caroline Petit (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 219–44.
  22. Furley, William D., ‘Thucydides and Religion’, in Brill’s Companion to Thucydides, ed. by Antonios Rengakos and Antonis Tsamakis (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 415–38.
  23. Gomme, Arnold Wycombe, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945).
  24. Guthrie, William Keith Chambers, The Sophists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971).
  25. Holladay, A. J., and Poole, J. F. C., ‘Thucydides and the Plague of Athens’, Classical Quarterly 29 (1979), pp. 282–300.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hornblower, Simon, A Commentary on Thucydides, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
  27. Jouanna, Jacques, ‘Air, Miasma, Contagion in the Time of Hippocrates and the Survival of Miasmas in Post-Hippocratic Medicine (Rufus of Ephesus, Galen and Palladius)’, in Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen. Selected Papers, ed. by Jacques Jouanna (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 121–37.
  28. Lichtenthaeler, Charles, Thucydide et Hippocrate vus par un historien-medecin (Droz: Geneve, 1965)
  29. Lloyd, Geoffrey Ernest Richard, In the Grip of Disease. Studies in Greek Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
  30. Loraux, Nicole, ‘Thucydide et la sédition dans les mots’, in Ead., La tragédie d’Athènes. La politique entre l’ombre et l’utopie (Paris: Seuil, 2005), pp. 84–87.
  31. MacLeod, Colin, ‘Thucydides on Faction’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 205 (1979), pp. 52–68.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Mittelstadt, Michael, ‘The Thucydidean Tragic View: The Moral Implications’, Ramus, 14 (1985), pp. 59–73.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Morgan, Thomas E., ‘Plague or Poetry? Thucydides on the Epidemic at Athens’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 124 (1994), pp. 197–209.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Orwin, Clifford, ‘Stasis and Plague: Thucydides on the Dissolution of Society’, Journal of Politics, 50 (1988), pp. 831–47.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Paci, Enzo, Storia del pensiero presocratico (Rome: ERI, 1957).
  36. Page, Denys Lionel, ‘Thucydides’ Description of the Great Plague at Athens’, Classical Quarterly, 47 (1953), pp. 97–119.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Parry, Adam, ‘The Language of Thucydides’ Description of the Plague’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 16 (1969), pp. 106–18.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Ponchon, Pierre, La rationalité tragique. Essai sur la constitution d’une forme de pensée d’Héraclite à Thucidyde et sur sa critique platonicienne, Ph.D. thesis, Clermont-Ferrand.
  39. Price, Jonathan J., Thucydides and Internal War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
  40. Rawlings, Hunter R., A Semantic Study of prophasis to 400 B.C. (Wiesbaden: Hermes, 1975).
  41. Rechenhauer, Georg, Thukydides und die hippokratische Medizin (Hildesheim: Olms, 1991)
  42. Thomas, Rosalind, ‘Thucydides Intellectual Milieu and the Plague’, in Brill’s Companion to Thucydides, ed. by Antonios Rengakos and Antonis Tsamakis (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 87–108.
  43. Visvardi, Eirene, Emotion in Action. Thucydides and the Tragic Chorus (Leiden: Brill, 2015).

  • From This Site

    /content/books/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_serialIdent,pub_author,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
/content/books/10.1484/M.STPH-EB.5.136405
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_serialIdent,pub_author,pub_keyword
-contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv