Symposium - AIC

Laura Candiotto
26b1-3 Socrates applies this concept to seasons.
The harmony of opposites is connected by Eryximachus, however briefly, to divination and religious
practice. Again in the Timaeus 42 we find a reference consistent with this topic, concerning the mixture
of opposites within the liver that enables the operation of divination during sleep 43 . This passage
enables us to grasp how the law of harmony acts not only between congener elements but, like in this
case, also between images and physical elements – sweet and bitter – that constitute the liver.
These passages – it would be possible to mention and analyze many others – are in my opinion the
sign of a general 44 thematic concordance between Plato and Hippocrates in relation to a “cosmological
medicine” and, more specifically, the sign of a conformity between Eryximachus discourse and
platonic philosophy 45 . In the meanwhile, however, Plato’s effort in detecting and incrementing the
philosophical meaning of Hippocratic medicine testifies his will to guarantee the epistemic primacy of
philosophy and therefore to create a certain dependency of medicine on philosophy 46 . The predilection
for the theory of the similar over the theory of contraries is a clue to Plato’s predilection for
Empedocles rather than Heraclitus and for the theory of contraries presented by the Corpus
Hippocraticum 47 .
Harmonic education and cosmological medicine
Corporeal illness, unhappiness, folly and the ignorance of the soul 48 , disorder at a meteorological
level, religious impiety, hybris from an ethical and political perspective are expression of an infraction
of the harmonic law which regulates the universe.
These aspects emphasize the necessity of a technique which is able to re-create harmony
taking celestial harmony as a model. The musical image of harmony is considered in this article
mainly from the perspective of cosmological medicine, in other words, as a medical-demiurgical
technique inserted in a cosmological contest 49 . The ethical and educative role of harmony (the
references to the Laws 50 and the Republic 51 are central in relation to this theme) becomes thus
meaningful in a holistic vision, where the praxis oriented towards the construction of the right
harmony of the physical universe – but also of institutions and laws – takes celestial harmony as a
model.
In Plato, cosmological medicine – typical of an important part of the Hippocratic Corpus –
takes up a philosophical meaning which pervades all fields of human activity, including ethics and
politics. Arguably, Eryximachus’ discourse is thus expression of the platonic tendency to translate on
the philosophical plane the implications of a model peri physeos.
However, the harmonic technique cannot order everything once and for all. In the same way
in which the demiurge’s act is a continuous series of exhortations to the chora 52 , so in the narrative
framework the doctor Eryximachus advises against excessive drinking (in other words, he gives the
prescription and provides the motivations), but he needs to obtain the consent of the patient, who will
subsequently decide freely. The text in fact emphasizes that everyone will drink as he pleases 53
without getting drunk. Eryximachus presents himself thus as a free doctor, using the terminology of
the well-known passage of the Laws 54 in relation to the difference between doctors who are free and
doctors who are slaves.
Harmonic praxis is thus always linked to the theme of moral responsibility: the philosopher is
also doctor, musician and demiurges in his harmonizing activity. Accordingly, there is no primacy of
the physical plane over the ethical one, or of the ethical over the physical, but – we could say inspired
by our theme – a reciprocal and harmonic relation.
42
Tim. 71 c3-d4.
43
Barker 2000.
44
This perspective is in contrast with that of Levin (2009), who maintains that in the Symposium Plato firmly criticizes the
medical technique and seeks to limit the philosophical pretenses of medicine.
45
Accordingly, he does not represent the model of doctor which Plato seeks to oppose. Leven (2009) and others does not
agree with this perspective.
46
According to Cambiano this was precisely what Hippocrates sought to avoid. Cf. Cambiano 1991, p. 41.
47
Cf. Thivel 2004, p. 42.
48
Cf. Tim. 86b1-4.
49
Brès 1973, pp. 287-319.
50
Leg. VII 790.
51
Third book.
52
For an ethical and political significance cf. Casertano 2003.
53
Symp. 176 e1-3.
54
Leg. IV 720 c-e.
198