Demokedes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demokedes ( Greek  Δημοκήδης Dēmokḗdēs , also Demokedes from Croton ) was a Greek doctor of antiquity , supposedly the most capable of his time. He came from the then Greek colonized southern Italy and lived in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. His hometown was Croton in Calabria . He played an important role in the politics of his hometown.

The main source is the historical work of Herodotus , the credibility of which is highly disputed. According to one research hypothesis, Demokedes is a figure invented by Herodotus.

Origin and life according to tradition

The representation of the sources gives the following picture. Demokedes' father, Calliphon, was also a doctor and is also said to have been a priest of Asclepius , the god of healing. Kalliphon allegedly came from the port city of Knidos on the coast of Asia Minor and had moved his residence to Croton; According to another tradition, Croton was his birthplace. Anyway, Demokedes grew up in Croton. Because of a disagreement with his father, Demokedes left his homeland and went to Greece. For some time he worked in the city of Aigina on the Greek island of the same name and then in Athens as a publicly paid doctor. His salary was one talent in Aegina and a hundred mines in Athens . In the fourth year after his emigration from Italy he became the personal physician of the tyrant Polycrates of Samos , who paid an even higher salary (two talents).

After Oroites , the Persian satrap (governor) of Sardis ( Lydia ), Polycrates 522 BC. By a ruse, Demokedes came with Oroites - allegedly as his slave - to Susa , where the Persian king Dareios I resided. He managed to heal a dislocated ankle in the king's ankle that he had sustained while hunting; the ankle had jumped out of the joint. In doing so, Demokedes proceeded with gentle means according to the Greek art of healing, in contrast to the Egyptian doctors of the ruler, who had tried to forcibly correct the foot and thus only made the patient's situation worse. Thereupon Darius made the Greek his personal physician and made a large house available to him. Demokedes dined at the king's table and became very influential. All of his wishes were granted except for the one to leave the Persian Empire. The healing of Queen Atossa from a "growth" (φύμα) of the breast - perhaps mastitis or a benign tumor - further increased his reputation. The influence of the Egyptian doctors who had previously dominated the court was suppressed; According to Herodotus, only Demokedes' intercession saved them from the execution which the angry king had intended for them.

Despite his very honorable position at court, Demokedes wanted to return to his homeland. He managed to escape from the king's sphere of influence and to get to Italy. Alleged details are told by Herodotus, but his fairytale-like depiction, which combines the flight with a military reconnaissance mission by the Persians in the run-up to the Persian Wars, is implausible. In Kroton Demokedes married a daughter of the wrestler Milon , the most famous competitive athlete of his time. Allegedly Demokedes let King Dareios know that he was now Milon's son-in-law. This presupposes that - as Herodotus also expressly claims - Milon's fame had already reached the Persian court. Even if this story does not correspond to the facts, it can be seen from it that the marriage to the daughter of the athlete was seen as a social advancement of the doctor. Herodotus even calls this aspect a motive for marriage.

Demokedes was a contemporary of the philosopher Pythagoras of Samos , who lived for a long time in Croton and founded the Pythagorean community there . Demokedes belonged to this community; his father, Calliphon, is said to have been a Pythagorean. As a result, Demokedes was embroiled in a violent political dispute over the Pythagoreans that broke out after the victory over Sybaris (510 BC) in Croton, after Pythagoras had left the city. Iamblichos reports that Demokedes was one of the opponents of the "People's Party" (the populists or democrats called dēmotikoí ). Together with like-minded Pythagoreans, he opposed a change to the previous Croton constitution in vain. As a result of riots instigated by the agitators Kylon and Ninon, Demokedes had been forced to flee the city with a crowd of young men. Thereupon he was accused by his opponents of wanting to introduce a tyranny and incite the youth in this way, and a reward of three talents was placed on his head. There was a skirmish, and then the reward was paid to Theages, a leader of the dēmotikoí , as the danger posed by Demokedes had been removed. Accordingly, the supporters of Demokedes lost the fight against a force commanded by Theages, in which he was apparently killed. In any case, his trace disappears.

In the Suda , a Byzantine encyclopedia of the 10th century, Demokedes is referred to as the author of a book on healing arts.

reception

Antiquity

Herodotus called Demokedes the best doctor of his time. Even later in antiquity, the memory of him as an important doctor remained alive; still Cassius Dio named him next to Hippocrates . The image that people made of him was largely shaped by Herodotus' detailed, literarily embellished description of the vicissitudes of his life.

Classical Studies

The credibility of Herodotus' messages about the life and work of Demokedes is highly controversial. Some ancient scholars consider his statements to be at least partially correct, others deny the historicity of his presentation with regard to individual elements or as a whole. The ancient Oxford scholar Malcolm Davies takes a radical position . He thinks Demokedes is a figure invented by Herodotus. To justify this hypothesis, Davies points to inconsistencies in Herodotus' report and to numerous similarities with motifs of folk tales (folk-tale) .

Fiction

The writer Artur Swerr made the life of Demokedes the subject of a novel published in 1961.

Source edition

  • Maria Timpanaro Cardini : Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti . Vol. 1, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1958, pp. 106–113 (Greek source texts with Italian translation)

literature

  • Bruno Centrone: Democédès de Crotone. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , p. 643.
  • Malcolm Davies: From rags to riches: Democedes of Croton and the credibility of Herodotus. In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Vol. 53, No. 2, 2010, pp. 19-44, doi: 10.1111 / j.2041-5370.2010.00008.x .
  • Alan Griffiths: Democedes of Croton: A Greek Doctor at the Court of Darius. In: Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Amélie Kuhrt (ed.): Achaemenid History. Vol. 2: The Greek Sources. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-6258-402-0 , pp. 37-51 (very negative assessment of Herodotus' credibility).
  • Francesco Lopez: Democede di Crotone e Udjahorresnet di Sais. Medici primari alla corte achemenide di Dario il Grande. Pisa University Press, Pisa 2015, ISBN 978-88-6741-57-48 .
  • Markwart Michler : Demokedes from Kroton. In: Gesnerus . Vol. 23, 1966, pp. 213-229.
  • Michelangelo Petruzzella: Attività politica ed esercizio della techne medica in Democede di Crotone: i modelli culturali pitagorici in Erodoto III 129-137. In: Erodoto e l'Occidente (= Supplementi a "Kókalos". Studi 15). Bretschneider, Rome 1999, ISBN 88-7689-171-4 , pp. 343-372.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fridolf Kudlien comments critically on the news from Suda that he was a priest of Asclepius : Reflections on a social history of the early Greek doctor and his profession . In: Hermes 114, 1986, pp. 129-146, here: 135. Alan Griffiths judges differently: Democedes of Croton: A Greek Doctor at the Court of Darius . In: Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg u. a. (Ed.): Achaemenid History , Vol. 2: The Greek Sources , Leiden 1987, pp. 37-51, here: 48 f.
  2. ^ Leonid Zhmud : Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreism , Berlin 1997, pp. 229, 231.
  3. ↑ Herodotus 3,131.
  4. ↑ Herodotus 3,133.
  5. ↑ Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreanism , Berlin 1997, p. 231 f. and note 20; for the nature of Atossa's disease see Philip Huyse: The Persian Medicine on the basis of Herodotus Histories . In: Ancient Society 21, 1990, pp. 141–148, here: p. 143 and note 9; see. Markwart Michler: Demokedes from Kroton . In: Gesnerus 23, 1966, pp. 213–229, here: p. 226 and note 51.
  6. ↑ Herodotus 3: 132-138.
  7. ↑ Christian Mann : Athlete and Polis in Archaic and Early Classical Greece , Göttingen 2001, p. 175; Domenico Musti: Le rivolte antipitagoriche e la concezione pitagorica del tempo . In: Quaderni Urbinati di cultura classica NS 36, 1990, pp. 35-65, here: 44.
  8. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreism , Berlin 1997, p. 229.
  9. ^ Iamblichos, De vita Pythagorica 257-261.
  10. ↑ See Jochen Althoff : Forms of imparting knowledge in early Greek medicine . In: Wolfgang Kullmann , Jochen Althoff (Hrsg.): Mediation and transmission of knowledge in Greek culture , Tübingen 1993, p. 211 f. Markwart Michler: Demokedes von Kroton is skeptical about the credibility of the message . In: Gesnerus 23, 1966, pp. 213-229, here: 214 f.
  11. ↑ Herodotus 3.125.
  12. ↑ See Markwart Michler: Demokedes von Kroton . In: Gesnerus 23, 1966, pp. 213-229, here: 229.
  13. ↑ Malcolm Davies: From rags to riches: Democedes of Croton and the credibility of Herodotus . In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 53-2, 2010, pp. 19-44.
  14. ↑ Artur SWERR: doctor of tyrants , Munich 1961st
personal data
SURNAME Demokedes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Demokedes from Croton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient greek physician
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC Chr.