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The Nurturing Male: Bravery and Bedside Manners in Isocrates' Aegineticus (19.24–9)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Rachel Hall Sternberg
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Extract

Scenes from Euripidean tragedy can lead us to imagine that sick-nursing was women's work in ancient Greece. In the Hippolytus, a matronly Nurse attends the fretfully ill Phaedra; in the Orestes, Electra cares for her brother. Several prose sources, moreover, seem to corroborate this view of gender roles. We learn in Xenophon's Oeconomicus (7. 37) that the mistress of the household was expected to nurse sick slaves. Demosthenes, in a letter (3. 30), mentions two courtesans who are caring for the consumptive Pytheas. And the speaker in Against Neairanotes explicitly ‘how much a woman is worth during illnesses, when she is there for a man who is suffering’ (Dem. 59. 56).

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , October 2000 , pp. 172 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

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References

Notes

1. I leave aside the issue of medical practice reflected in Hippocratic treatises, e. g. The Art, that refer to male medical attendants, οί θεραπεύοντες. It is unclear whether these were relatives, slaves, or medical apprentices. Strong men were called for in some of the more spectacular treatments described in On Joints. For a concise introduction to the question, see Levine, E. B. and Levine, M. E., ‘Hippocrates, Father of Nursing, Too?’, The American Journal of Nursing 65 (1965), 86–8Google ScholarPubMed.

2. Jaeger, W., Paideia(New York, 1944), iii. 10–15Google Scholar, presents evidence for the existence of socalled medical amateurs, especially Xen, . Mem. 4. 2. 8–10Google Scholar, in which Euthydemus possesses books not only on architecture, geometry, and astronomy, but also on medicine. Cf. Arist, . Politics 3.11.1282al–7Google Scholar. Edelstein, E. & Edelstein, L., Asclepius(Baltimore, 1945), ii. 164–5Google Scholar, observe that people living in districts that lacked a physician in residence will have done their own doctoring.

3. Anab. 7. 2. 6 Cyrop. 5. 4. 17–18, 8. 2. 25.

4. The orator disclaimed his early forensic career (Isoc. 4.11–12, 12. 11, 15. 3, 15. 48—51, 15. 227–8, 15. 276, all cited by Jebb, R. C. in The Attic Orators(London, 1876), ii. 7–8Google Scholar. Most modern scholarship addresses instead his voluminous educational, political, and philosophizing works. See, for example, Poulakos, T., Speaking for the Polis: Isocrates’ Rhetorical Education(Columbia, S. C., 1997)Google Scholar, and Too, Y. L., The Rhetoric of Identity in Isocrates: Text, Power, Pedagogy(Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar. For the Aegineticus, no full-length English commentary exists. Jebb, , Selections from the Attic Orators(London, 1888, 1973)Google Scholar, includes an excerpt (Isoc. 19.18–27). In addition to the Bud'e edition with notes by Mathieu, G. and Brémond, É. (Paris, 1928)Google Scholar, there are two Italian commentaries: Brindesi, F., Eginetico (Florence, 1963)Google Scholar and Buonocore, A., L'Eginetico con commentario (Naples, 1935)Google Scholar, which is unavailable in the United States. The speech has been mined for clues to Greek history. See Figueira, T. J., Excursions in Epichoric History: Aeginetan Essays(Lanham, Md., 1993), 339Google Scholar; Blass, F., Attische Beredsamkeit (Leipzig, 1874), ii. 214–15Google Scholar; Mueller, C., Aegineticorum Liber (Berolini, 1817), 1323Google Scholar.

5. A recent collection of essays, Magica Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, eds. Faraone, C. A. and Obbink, D. (New York, 1991), explores overlapping approaches to healingGoogle Scholar. Cf. Temkin, O., ‘Greek Medicine as Science and Craft’, Isis 44 (1953), 213–25CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. For an up-to-date discussion of the transmission of medical recipes in antiquity, see Hanson's, A. E. introduction to Youtie, L. C., P. Michigan XVII: The Michigan Medical Codex (Atlanta, 1996), xv–xxvGoogle Scholar.

6. See in general Majno, G., The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), 141–206Google Scholar. Cf. V. and Bullough, B., The Care of the Sick: The Emergence of Modern Nursing (New York, 1978), Ch. 1Google Scholar. For a summary of Hippocratic nursing care, see Manchester, H. H., ‘Nursing in Graeco-Roman Times’, The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review 88 (1932), 33–7Google Scholar.

7. Cf. Schneider, K., RE (1955), xv. 262Google Scholar, s. v. valetudinarium.

8. Foucault, M., The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, trans. Smith, A. M. Sheridan (New York, 1973), 17Google Scholar.

9. See Lawrence, A. W., Greek Architecture, revised by Tomlinson, R. A. (Middlesex, 1983), 315–31Google Scholar; Jameson, M., ‘Private Space and the Greek City’, in The Greek City: From Homer to Alexander, eds. Murray, O. and Price, S. (Oxford, 1990), 171–95Google Scholar; Robinson, D. M. and Graham, J. W., The Hellenic House, Part VIII of Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore, 1938)Google Scholar; and Jones, J. E., ‘Town and Country Houses of Attica in Classical Times’, in Thorikos and the Laurion in Archaic and Classical Times, eds. Mussche, H., Spitaels, P., and Poesck, F. Goemaere-De (Ghent, 1975), 63–136Google Scholar.

10. Lawrence, , Greek Architecture, 316Google Scholar; Jameson, , ‘Private Space’, 179Google Scholar.

11. Demosthenes denies that rich men of earlier generations possessed grand homes. For 5th-century simplicity, see Dem. 3. 25–6, 13. 29, and 23. 207; for 4th-century opulence, Dem. 3. 29 and 23. 208. Graham, J. W., ‘Houses of Classical Athens’, Phoenix 28 (1974), 53CrossRefGoogle Scholar, notes archaeological evidence that suggests some exaggeration on the part of the orator.

12. Jones describes, for example, a house roughly 12. 10 by 12. 60 metres that was excavated on the north-east slopes of the Areopagus. It had a courtyard of 7. 8 by 4. 8 metres with six rooms ranged around it, the largest of which was about 4. 4 metres square.

13. Hunter, V., Policing Athens (Princeton, 1994), 81Google Scholar, makes a similar point about the lack of privacy.

14. Morgan, G., ‘Euphiletos’ House: Lysias 1’, TAPA 112 (1982), 115–23Google Scholar, offers a detailed analysis of this house and its interesting correspondences with the excavated ruins of ‘House D’ in Athens.

15. Robinson, and Graham, , Hellenic House, 169Google Scholar, observe that ‘no trace of segregated apartments, or even of single rooms definitely set apart for the use of women, is to be found at Olynthus.… Town life in provincial Olynthus must have avoided many of the artificial restrictions on the female sex that existed in polite Athens’. In the half-century that has passed since Robinson was writing, scholars have come to believe that the segregation of the sexes even in ‘polite Athens’ has been much exaggerated. See especially Cohen, D., ‘Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens’, in Women in Antiquity, eds. McAuslan, I. and Walcot, P. (Oxford, 1996)Google Scholar, and Nevett, L. C., ‘Gender Relations in the Classical Greek Household: The Archaeological Evidence’, The Annual of the British School at Athens 90 (1995), 363–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Nevett, , 363, observes ‘a pattern of activity which seems to be rather more complex than a simple binary division of space into male and female’Google Scholar. Cf. Jameson, , ‘Private Space’, 185—91Google Scholar. Pomeroy, S. B., Xenophon, Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1994), 281Google Scholar, observes that Ischomachus’ wife must supervise male as well as female slaves.

16. According to Grmek, M. D., Diseases in the Ancient Greek World (Johns Hopkins, 1989), 185Google Scholar, Φθόη is mentioned twice in the Hippocratic corpus. The more common term for consumption is Φθíσς, mentioned 42 times. Grmek discusses both Φθόη and Φθíσς in his chapter on tuberculosis. Cf. Phillips, E. D., Aspects of Greek Medicine (New York, 1973), 73Google Scholar.

17. Carey, C. and Reid, R. A., Demosthenes: Selected Speeches (Cambridge, 1985), 85Google Scholar, also draw a comparison between the maladies describes in Dem. 54. 11–12 and Prog.17.

18. Grmek, Diseases, 404 n. 57, obliquely identifies the case as pulmonary tuberculosis.

19. Moiraoccurs 108 times in Homer and 106 times in the three tragedians. It occurs only eight times in the canon often orators: Aeschin. 1. 149; Dem. 18. 289, 23. 61, 43. 51; Isoc. 11. 8, 19. 29; Lye. 1. 64; Lys. 2. 78.

20. Sleep deprivation undermines health by leaving a person not only exhausted but also susceptible to sicknesses that he or she might normally resist. Medical researcher M. Irwin, for example, has correlated sleep loss with reduced activity in lymphocyte cells, which fight off viral infections. See ‘Fail to Snooze, Immune Cells Lose’, Science News 147 (7 01 1995)Google Scholar, 11. Another researcher, J. Krueger, has linked sleep deprivation with reduced counts of T-cells and B-cells. See Blakeslee, S., ‘Mystery of sleep yields as studies reveal immune tie’, New York Times 1993 08 3, B5, B8Google Scholar.

21. Hardships experienced by soldiers at And. 2. 17; Hdt. 4. 134. 3, 6. 11. 2, and 6. 12. 2; Thuc. 2. 70. 2. Hardships in athletic competition (Aeschin. 3. 180) travelling (Dem. 18. 218), war-time (Thuc. 4. 117. 1), plague (Thuc. 2. 49. 3 and 2. 49. 6).

22. Displeasing statements, Hdt. 7. 101. 3, Isaeus 3. 11, Dem. 24. 132 and 48. 8, Isoc. 12. 19, 12. 62, 12. 156; unpleasant interpersonal relations, Lysias 16. 2, Dem. 19. 225 and 37. 11, Isoc. 1. 31 and 5. 37; physical aversion toward food, Xen, . Cyrop. 1. 2. 11Google Scholar, Mem. 3. 11. 13 and 3. 13. 2.

23. Sternberg, R. H., Pity and Pragmatism: A Study of Athenian Attitudes toward Compassion in 5th- and 4th-Century Historiography and Oratory(Bryn Mawr dissertation, 1998), 154–6Google Scholar.

24. Xenophon uses it 92 times, Isocrates 58 times, Demosthenes 29 times, Lysias seven times, Thucydides five times, Herodotus three times, Isaeus twice, and Andocides, Aeschines, Lycurgus, and Dinarchus once each.

25. Isoc. 11. 23 and 15. 71.

26. e. g. Dem. 1. 15, 10. 7, 10. 29, 10. 47, 14. 6,21. 167,24. 110,24. 130,25. 66, 50. 63, 51. 2, 55. 11.

27. e. g. Xen. Cyrop. 1. 6. 11, 4. 2. 39, 5. 3. 33, 5. 5. 41, Mem. 2. 2. 14, 2. 3. 3, 2. 3. 18, 2. 5. 1, 3. 7. 9.

28. e. g. Isoc. 1. 48, 2. 10, 4. 76, 7. 24, 7. 66, 10. 50, 12. 164, 14. 24, 14. 51.

29. Scarry, E., The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York, 1985), 4Google Scholar.

30. In the Budé edition, Mathieu and Bremond note that Isocrates uses closely similar language to describe the feelings of the Plataeans (Isoc. 14. 47).