§7Τυχιάδης
οἱ μὲν δὴ ἐτύγχανον οἶμαι περὶ τοῦ νοσήματος τὰ μὲν ἤδη πολλὰ προειρηκότες, τὰ δὲ καὶ τότε διεξιόντες, ἔτι δὲ καὶ θεραπείας τινὰς ἕκαστος ὑποβάλλοντες.
Tychiades: They happened, I think, to have already said many things about the disease, and were discussing them in detail even then, and each was suggesting some remedies.
ὁ γοῦν Κλεόδημος,
εἰ τοίνυν,
φησίν,
τῇ ἀριστερᾷ τις ἀνελόμενος χαμᾶθεν τὸν ὀδόντα τῆς μυγαλῆς οὕτω φονευθείσης, ὡς προεῖπον, ἐνδήσειεν εἰς δέρμα λέοντος ἄρτι ἀποδαρέν, εἶτα περιάψειε περὶ τὰ σκέλη, αὐτίκα παύεται τὸ ἄλγημα. οὐκ εἰς λέοντος,
ἔφη ὁ Δεινόμαχος,
ἐγὼ ἤκουσα, ἐλάφου δὲ θηλείας ἔτι παρθένου καὶ ἀβάτου· καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα οὕτω πιθανώτερον· ὠκὺ γὰρ ἡ ἔλαφος καὶ ἔρρωται μάλιστα ἐκ τῶν ποδῶν.
Cleodemus, at any rate, said: "If then," he says, "someone, taking up with his left hand from the ground the tooth of a shrew-mouse killed in the manner I described, should wrap it in a freshly flayed lion's skin, and then tie it around his legs, the pain ceases immediately." "Not in a lion's," said Deinomachus, "did I hear, but in that of a female deer, still virgin and untouched; and the matter is more plausible in this way, for the deer is swift and is especially strong in its feet.
ὁ δὲ λέων ἄλκιμος μέν, καὶ τὸ λίπος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡ χεὶρ ἡ δεξιὰ καὶ αἱ τρίχες ἐκ τοῦ πώγωνος αἱ ὀρθαὶ μεγάλα δύνανται, εἴ τις ἐπίσταιτο αὐτοῖς χρῆσθαι μετὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἐπῳδῆς ἑκάστῳ· ποδῶν δὲ ἴασιν ἥκιστα ἐπαγγέλλεται. καὶ αὐτός,
ἦ δʼ ὃς ὁ Κλεόδημος,
οὕτω πάλαι ἐγίγνωσκον, ἐλάφου χρῆναι τὸ δέρμα εἶναι, διότι ὠκὺ ἔλαφος· ἔναγχος δὲ Λίβυς ἀνὴρ σοφὸς τὰ τοιαῦτα μετεδίδαξέ με εἰπὼν ὠκυτέρους εἶναι τῶν ἐλάφων τοὺς λέοντας.
The lion, indeed, is brave, and his fat, his right paw, and the straight hairs from his beard are of great power, if one should know how to use them with the proper incantation for each; but he least of all promises a cure for the feet." "And I myself," said Cleodemus, "used to think so formerly, that the skin ought to be of a deer, because the deer is swift; but recently a wise Libyan man, in such matters, corrected my opinion, saying that lions are swifter than deer.
ἀμέλει, ἔφη, καὶ αἱροῦσιν αὐτὰς διώκοντες. §8Τυχιάδης
ἐπῄνεσαν οἱ παρόντες ὡς εὖ εἰπόντος τοῦ Λίβυος.
Of course, he said, they even catch them by chasing them." Tychiades: Those present praised the Libyan as having spoken well.
ἐγὼ δέ,
οἴεσθε γάρ,
ἔφην,
ἐπῳδαῖς τισιν τὰ τοιαῦτα παύεσθαι ἢ τοῖς ἔξωθεν παραρτήμασιν τοῦ κακοῦ ἔνδον διατρίβοντος; ἐγέλασαν ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ καὶ δῆλοι ἦσαν κατεγνωκότες μου πολλὴν τὴν ἄνοιαν, εἰ μὴ ἐπισταίμην τὰ προδηλότατα καὶ περὶ ὧν οὐδεὶς ἂν εὖ φρονῶν ἀντείποι μὴ οὐχὶ οὕτως ἔχειν.
But I said: "For do you think that such things are stopped by certain incantations, or by external attachments, while the disease remains within?" They laughed at my speech and were clearly convicting me of great folly, for not knowing the most obvious things, about which no one in his right mind would argue that it is not so.
ὁ μέντοι ἰατρὸς Ἀντίγονος ἐδόκει μοι ἡσθῆναι τῇ ἐρωτήσει μου· πάλαι γὰρ ἠμελεῖτο, οἶμαι, βοηθεῖν ἀξιῶν τῷ Εὐκράτει μετὰ τῆς τέχνης οἴνου τε παραγγέλλων ἀπέχεσθαι καὶ λάχανα σιτεῖσθαι καὶ ὅλως ὑφαιρεῖν τοῦ τόνου.
However, the physician Antigonus seemed to me to be pleased with my question; for he had long been ignored, I think, though he thought it right to help Eucrates with his art, ordering him to abstain from wine, to eat vegetables, and in general to reduce his tension.
ὁ δʼ οὖν Κλεόδημος ὑπομειδιῶν ἅμα,
τί λέγεις,
ἔφη,
ὦ Τυχιάδη;
Then Cleodemus, smiling at the same time, said: "What are you saying, Tychiades?
ἄπιστον εἶναί σοι δοκεῖ τὸ ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων γίγνεσθαί τινας ὠφελείας εἰς τὰ νοσήματα; ἔμοιγε,
ἦν δʼ ἐγώ,
εἰ μὴ πάνυ κορύζης τὴν ῥῖνα μεστὸς εἴην, ὡς πιστεύειν τὰ ἔξω καὶ μηδὲν κοινωνοῦντα τοῖς ἔνδοθεν ἐπεγείρουσι τὰ νοσήματα μετὰ ῥηματίων, ὥς φατε, καὶ γοητείας τινὸς ἐνεργεῖν καὶ τὴν ἴασιν ἐπιπέμπειν προσαρτώμενα.
Does it seem incredible to you that some benefits for diseases come from such things?" "To me indeed," I said, "unless I were completely stuffed in my nose with mucus, so as to believe that things attached externally, and having nothing in common with what excites the diseases within, could operate by means of little words, as you say, and some sorcery, and send the cure.
τὸ δʼ οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο, οὐδʼ ἢν εἰς τοῦ Νεμείου λέοντος τὸ δέρμα ἐνδήσῃ τις ἑκκαίδεκα ὅλας μυγαλᾶς· ἐγὼ γοῦν αὐτὸν τὸν λέοντα εἶδον πολλάκις χωλεύοντα ὑπʼ ἀλγηδόνων ἐν ὁλοκλήρῳ τῷ αὑτοῦ δέρματι. §9Τυχιάδης
πάνυ γὰρ ἰδιώτης,
ἔφη ὁ Δεινόμαχος,
εἶ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐκ ἐμέλησέ σοι ἐκμαθεῖν ὅντινα τρόπον ὁμιλεῖ τοῖς νοσήμασι προσφερόμενα, κἀμοὶ δοκεῖς οὐδὲ τὰ προφανέστατα ἂν παραδέξασθαι ταῦτα, τῶν ἐκ περιόδου πυρετῶν τὰς ἀποπομπὰς καὶ τῶν ἑρπετῶν τὰς καταθέλξεις καὶ βουβώνων ἰάσεις καὶ τἄλλα ὁπόσα καὶ αἱ γρᾶες ἤδη ποιοῦσιν.
That could not happen, not even if one should wrap sixteen whole shrew-mice in the skin of the Nemean lion; for I indeed have often seen the lion himself limping from pains while in his own whole skin." Tychiades: "You are an absolute layman," said Deinomachus, "and you have not cared to learn in what manner such things act when applied to diseases; and you seem to me not even to accept the most manifest things, such as the banishments of periodic fevers, the charming of reptiles, the cures of buboes, and all the other things which even old women do nowadays.
εἰ δὲ ἐκεῖνα γίγνεται ἅπαντα, τί δή ποτε οὐχὶ ταῦτα οἰήσῃ γίγνεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ὁμοίων; ἀπέραντα,
ἦν δʼ ἐγώ,
σὺ περαίνεις, ὦ Δεινόμαχε, καὶ ἥλῳ, φασίν, ἐκκρούεις τὸν ἧλον· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἃ φὴς ταῦτα δῆλα μετὰ τοιαύτης δυνάμεως γιγνόμενα.
If all those things happen, why on earth will you not think that these happen by similar means?" "You are proving," I said, "endless things, Deinomachus, and, as they say, you are knocking out a nail with a nail; for it is not even clear that those things you speak of happen by such power.
ἢν γοῦν μὴ πείσῃς πρότερον ἐπάγων τῷ λόγῳ διότι φύσιν ἔχει οὕτω γίγνεσθαι, τοῦ τε πυρετοῦ καὶ τοῦ οἰδήματος δεδιότος ἢ ὄνομα θεσπέσιον ἢ ῥῆσιν βαρβαρικὴν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκ τοῦ βουβῶνος δραπετεύοντος, ἔτι σοι γραῶν μῦθοι τὰ λεγόμενά ἐστι.
Unless, at least, you first persuade me by bringing an argument to show that it is natural for it to happen so—with the fever and the swelling fearing either a divine name or a foreign phrase, and because of this fleeing from the groin—your words are still old women's myths to me."