PHARMACOLOGY, PHARMACY AND DRUG-LORE

'What drugs will not cure, the knife will; what the knife will not cure, the cautery will; what the cautery will not cure, must be considered incurable.' This final maxim of the Hippocratic Aphorisms gives a good impression of the general attitude towards drugs in ancient medicine. Drug lore holds a middle position within the tripartite system of ancient therapeutics: dietetics, pharmacology and surgery (including cautery). Dietetics is not mentioned in the aphorism, because it is regarded as a non-invasive method of preserving health rather than of curing disease, and is thus applied prophylactically, or only in mild cases of disease, while pharmacology and, especially, surgery are regarded as rather drastic 'intrusions' into the patient's organism – chosen in order to counteract the noxious impact of an illness or wound. Between the two of them, pharmacology has two advantages: it does not imply the additional risks of surgery, i.e. the possible complications by bleeding or infection of the surgical wound (a very real danger in times without asepsis and antisepsis!); and it is more apt to stimulate the body's self-healing processes to restore its original balance – a holistic view of the human organism to which Galen was especially disposed. Therefore, in Galen's view 'the best physician was the one most capable of treating surgical conditions by means other than the knife, and particularly by diet and drugs'.

WORKS OF GALEN CONCERNING LOGIC (LOST UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED)

Under the heading 'commentaries on Hippocrates' (On My Own Books [Lib.Prop.] XIX 33):

Under the heading 'books useful for demonstrations' (ibid. 39):

Under the heading 'works concerning the philosophy of Aristotle' (ibid. 47):

Under the heading ‘works common to grammarians and orators’ (ibid. 48):

Galen was born in September AD 129, in Pergamum on the Ionian seaboard of Asia Minor. He died sometime in the second decade of the third century, probably in Rome. He lived, and worked, until well into his eighties; and over the course of that long and productive life wrote (or rather dictated, sometimes more than one treatise at a time, to relays of slaves) a vast number of works on a wide variety of topics, ranging from medicine, through logic and philosophy, to philology and literary criticism. Many - indeed most - of these books are lost; but we are fortunate to possess two short texts from Galen's own hand that deal with his output: On My Own Books (Lib.Prop.) XIX 8-48, = SM 2, 91-14, and The Order of My Own Books (Ord.Lib.Prop.) XIX 49-61, = SM 2, 80-90; the latter deals with the order in which an aspirant doctor should read them, while the former was written in order, he says, to help people determine which of the many works circulating under his name was genuine. These lists are not exhaustive: several indisputably genuine texts fail to appear in them, either because they were written later, or because for whatever reason Galen chose to disown them; moreover the Greek text suffers from several lacunae (although some of these have been filled from Arabic sources and by way of a newly recovered Greek manuscript in Véronique Boudon's recent edition).

Plato's writings are typically in the form of dialogues in which Socrates (born 469 BC) discusses philosophical questions with other characters of his day. Most of these are based on known historical figures, but the dialogues are not factual accounts; they are fictional, and often richly dramatic, products of Plato's philosophical imagination. The Symposium is a particularly dramatic work. It is set at the house of Agathon, a tragic poet celebrating his recent victory in 416 BC at one of the great dramatic festivals. Those present are amongst the intellectual elite of the day. They include an exponent of heroic poetry (Phaedrus), an expert in the laws of various Greek states (Pausanias), a representative of medical expertise (Eryximachus), a comic poet (Aristophanes) and a philosopher (Socrates). The guests participate in a symposium, a drinking party for aristocratic circles, on this occasion designed to honour Agathon's victory. Each guest delivers a speech in praise of eros, ‘passionate love’, or ‘desire’. The final speech is delivered by Alcibiades, a notorious associate of Socrates, who talks openly about his love for Socrates, in particular.

apollodorus: I believe I am quite well prepared to relate the events you are asking me about, for just the other day I happened to be going into Athens from my home in Phalerum when an acquaintance of mine caught sight of me from behind and called after me, jokily,

‘Phalerian! You there, Apollodorus! Wait for me, will you?’

So I stopped and waited.

‘I have just been looking for you, Apollodorus. I wanted to get from you the story about that party of Agathon's with Socrates, Alcibiades and the rest, the time when they were all together at dinner, and to hear what they said in their speeches on the subject of love. Someone else was telling me, who had heard about it from Phoenix, son of Philippus, and he said that you knew about it too. Actually he could not give any clear account of it, so you must tell me. You are in the best position to report the words of your friend. But tell me this first’, he went on. ‘Were you at that party yourself or not?’

‘It certainly looks as if your informant was rather confused’, I replied, ‘if you think the party you are asking about occurred recently enough for me to be there’.