‘Madness’ in Plato’s Attic dialect:

etymon and etymology

MARK MONTEBELLO

Humankind has been familiar with madness from time immemorial. Like us,
ancient civilisations observed that it had many faces, sometimes ugly, at other
times not much so. The Greeks called it   (i mania). But the term was
more ancient than they could remember. Like most other terms, this too had
gone through a long process of conceptual and semantic developments across
ages and peoples. By the time of Plato in the 4 th century BCE, the term had
acquired a good number of associations and overtones which he tried to
exploit to the best of his ability for philosophical ends. In what follows, we
shall attempt to trace briefly the gradual evolution of the term   in a
number of consecutive steps. The main reason for doing so is to begin to
appreciate Plato’s rich, erudite and artistic use of it.
For the sake of convenience and better understanding, a number of
variations from Plato’s original text will be adopted. First, the words ‘active’
and ‘passive’ are used. At least up to the time of Plato no active or passive
voice existed in the idioms of the Hellines. ‘To be mad’ and ‘to be maddened’
would be understood by the same verb indistinctly. Second, the very
distinction between noun and verb was still underdeveloped up to Plato’s time.
Here we will distinguish between them. Third, upper and lower case letters are
used, a practice, again, not in use during Plato’s time; all letters being written
in a sort of small caps. Finally, no accents or other diacritical signs are added
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to the Greek words, as was done by Plato. This is done to keep the text as
simple as possible. The transliteration of Plato’s ancient Greek (that is, his
Attic dialect) is effected in the Reuchlin-Henning tradition (1519 and 1684
respectively), that is, in ‘itacism’; ‘etacism’, proper to the Erasmus tradition
(1528), being disregarded throughout.

1. THE MOON-GOD – The most primitive root of   seems to be

  (o Min or Men, depending on how the eta is transliterated), the proper
name of an Anatolian divinity going back to the 9th or 8th century BCE

(Kirchner 1936, 1966). The Greek word itself comes directly from the mother
language of ancient Greek, namely the Anatolian branch of Indo-European
languages.
 was worshipped widely in the whole of Asia Minor throughout
the Anatolian territory (later also in Rome). Little is said to be known of his
origin but it seems that there must have been some connection with the Persian
moon god Mao, who is said to have had mystical powers to heal (by moon-
light and divination).  (who in Turkey is called Men) is not to be
confused with the Egyptian god with the same name (Min), the god of
reproduction, usually represented in male human form with erect penis and
flail in hand.
’s most frequent attributes were the pine cone, the ox skull
(‘bucranium’) and the chicken. He was represented as a male figure with a
crescent moon behind his shoulders. The ruins of a temple of his can still be
seen at Antioch (today’s Yalvaç, Turkey).  is in close association to 
(mis; nominative singular of  , o minos) which in Doric would be 
(mis), meaning ‘month’, especially ‘the end of the lunar month’ (when there
was no moon-light), or ‘monthly’, or even ‘the crescent moon’, that part of the
month corresponding to a phase of the moon, the visible part of the moon;
used also to signify an ornament in the form of the crescent moon (Roussel et
al. 1923). It is used in this way in Homer’s Iliad 19.117 and Hesiod’s Opere et
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Dies 557, where both references go back to the 8 th century BCE, and also in
Plato’s Cratylus 409c5 and Timæus 38c3.

2. THE MOON –  is thus closely associated to the proper name

given to the moon,   (i mini; the regular feminine noun of the 2 nd type),
in Homer’s Iliad 19.374 in the 8th century BCE, Empedocles’ Sphæra 42.3 in
the 5th century BCE, Æschylus’ Prometheus Vinctus 797 in the 6th/5th century
BCE, and Euripides’ Fragmenta 1009 in the 5th century BCE.
  was also used in Greek alchemy to denote the element silver
(Berthelot 1887: 41), the traditional element and colour associated to the
moon.

3. ROOT RENDERINGS – The noun is the root of other renderings used

in Greek, namely, the following eleven:

i. , -, - (mineos, -a, -on), which means ‘monthly’

(Diels 1879: 273); associated to the monthly phases of the moon;
ii.  , - (o miniarkis, -oo), meaning ‘monthly prefect’;
again associated to the moon phases;
iii. , - (Miniaste, -i), meaning ‘the worshippers of
’, the moon-god;
iv.   (i miniastia), meaning ‘monthly service’; again
associated to the moon phases;
v. , -, - (miniios, -a, -on), meaning ‘monthly rations’;
associated to the moon phases;
vi.   (o miniskos; the diminutive of , mis), meaning
‘lunar crescent’, or anything resembling the crescent shape in
geometry, as Aristotle uses it in Analytica Priora 69a33 and
Sophistici Elenchi 171b15 and 172a3;
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vii.  , - (to minima, -atos), used by Homer in Iliad

22.358 and Odyssea 11.73; meaning ‘the guilt that clings to a
family from the sins of their forefathers’; associated to the sun’s
light hanging on to the moon;
viii. in Doric and Æolic,  (minis), used by Plato in Republic
390e6, meaning ‘wrath’, usually (from Homer onwards, as in Iliad
5.34) that of the gods; associated to the suppression of normal
behaviour just as the moon’s face is concealed (as in Plato’s Laws
880e4 and 9);
ix.  , - (o minitis, -oo), meaning ‘wrathful man’;
associated to the concealment of the moon;
x.  (minio), meaning ‘cherish wrath’ or ‘be wrought against’,
as Homer uses it in Iliad 1.422 and 18.257; however rarely said of
common men, but only of gods and heroes; associated, again to
the moon’s concealment; and
xi.  , - (to minyma, -atos), meaning ‘information
laid’, ‘indication’, ‘significance’, ‘indicative’; - (-ytir)
informer, guide; - (-ytis) bringing to light, as Thucydides
uses it in Historia Belli Peloponnesiaci 6.61 in the 5th century
BCE; all associated to the (gradual) exposure of the moon’s light.

These eleven derivatives show four main concepts connected to the

moon, namely,

i. that of time, denoting something which, though constant and

regular, is not continuous or present every single day (hence,
uncommon, rare, irregular);
ii. that of form (‘C’ shape);
iii. that of temper, denoting a momentary flare of fury which
subsequently subsides and eventually dies out; and
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iv. that of demonstration, denoting the revelation of something

hidden; the bringing to the fore something apparently concealed.

All these meanings, somehow related to the moon, will subsequently

remain more or less attached to that of  .

4. PARTICIPLE – The most obvious Greek term―and maybe

continuing in a direct line from  ―is , man (or , men,
especially when the metre is prevented). This corresponds to the participle
 (min), which always immediately follows the word beginning the clause
(as in Homer’s Iliad 23.410).  is the exact equivalent for  in
Epicharmus’ comedies of the 5th century BCE in the Doric dialect, Homer’s
Iliad 5.895 and 765 in the old Epic dialect, and Sappho’s lyrics of the 7 th/6th
century BCE in the Æolic dialect. It means ‘verily’, ‘truly’, or ‘full surely’, as
Plato uses it in Theætetus 153b2 and 187a8, Gorgias 452c7, Republic 426c2 and
Politicus 297d5. Of the four former concepts associated to the moon, the
participle, used commonly in Greek, emphasises that of demonstration (no. iv
above).

5. MANIA – This brings us to the noun   derived from the

participle . As in the 5th/4th century BCE Fragmenta 816 of Aristophanes,
the noun is used in the form of   (i mani) or even   (i mana),
which, to note, is spelled exactly as the Greek word for the moon. The noun 
 (regular, feminine) is used to signify two things (hence, prima facie, it
is an equivocal term). The first, which is the least obvious and the more recent
rendering―as an equivalent of  , - (i manotis, -itos; Cramer
1835/37, 2.393), and the opposite of  (pyknotis)―means ‘looseness
of texture’ or ‘porousness’ (as Plato uses it in Timæus 72c9 and 86d5), but also
as ‘rarity’ or ‘separateness’ (as Plato, again, uses it in Laws 812d8).
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The other more obvious sense of   seems to go back to

Herodotus Historia 6.112 in the 5th century BCE. From the same period the
same use is also made in Hippocrates’ Aphorismi 7.5, Sophocles’ Antigone
958 and later Isocrates’ Orationes 4.133. Its Ionic version would be  
(i manii). In this sense it includes a number of variations, namely, the
following three:

i. meaning ‘madness’, as in Plato’s Philebus 45e2 (apart from the

above mentioned);
ii. meaning ‘enthusiasm’ or ‘inspired frenzy’, as used by Euripides
in Bacchæ 305 in the 5th century BCE; in this sense it is opposed to
  (sophrosyni anthropini), that is―as
Plato uses it in Phædrus 256b8, Protagoras 323b5 and Symposium
218b4―‘a man in the right state of mind’ or simply ‘a temperate,
equilibrate man’; and
iii. meaning ‘passion’ (associated to , erotiki; as in Plato’s
Phædrus 265b6), frequently in the plural; in this sense,   is
used also as a personification of folly and insanity, as in Homer’s
Iliad 22.460 and Plato’s Phædrus 265a9; it is half divine and half
simple attraction.

6. ROOT DERIVATIONS – The noun is the prime root of other

derivations, namely, the following five ones:

i.  , - (i manikos, -on; archaic feminine noun),

meaning:
 ‘of/for madness’,
 ‘mad’; associated with  (pragmata), as in
Aristophanes’ Vespæ 1496 in the 5th/4th century BCE, and also
in Plato’s Republic 403a8 and Phædrus 244c2,
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 ‘symptom of madness’; used by the medical doctor

Hippocrates in Prognostikon 3 in the 5th century BCE,
 ‘extravagant’, as in Plato’s Protagoras 343c10, Phædrus
249d10 and Sophist 216d3,
 ‘disposed to madness’, as in Plato’s Symposium 173d8,
 ‘unbalanced’, as in Plato’s Sophist 242a13,
 ‘frenzied’, ‘enthusiastic’ or ‘inspired’, and/or
 ‘causing madness’ (active sense);
ii. , - (maniokipos, -on; archaic feminine noun), said
of women in the sense of ‘madly lustful’, as in Anacreon’s lyrics
158 dating from the 4th century BCE;
iii.  (maniopieo; active indicative verb), meaning
‘madden’ or ‘infuriate’, as used in Philodemus Gadarensis’ Opera
and later from the 1st century BCE onwards;
iv. , - (maniopios, -on), meaning ‘maddening’ (an
archaic feminine noun), as used by Polyænus in Historia 8.43 and
later from the 1st century BCE onwards; and
v. , - (maniorgeo, -odis), meaning ‘like madness’
(as used by Hippocrates in Peri Æron 7 in the 5th century BCE),

‘like a madman’, ‘crazy’ (as in Thucydides’ Historia 4.39) or

‘causing madness’.

7. VERB – At this point, we seem to arrive at the roots of a verb

derived from the noun   and/or from the participle , namely ()-
(man[i]-) and - (min-), which would in English mean ‘to be mad’ (both in
the active and passive indicative sense). The conjugation of the verb seems to
suppose the knowledge of the noun  , since it is derived by the
grammatical functions of the metathesis and the vocalisation of the word. This
means that, starting off with the suffix joined to the  (jod; a letter which was
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part of the Ionic-Attic dialect at least up to Plato’s time but which then was
lost), then had the  transposed, and the end result vocalised, in this manner:
-Y- (man-Y-ome; present indicative passive affix) > Y-
(maYn-ome) > - (menome). In this final form the word is found in
Herodotus’ Historia 1.109 from the 5th century BCE onwards, and later also as
 (manoome). In the Attic dialect, the verb in this form was rarely
used. Homer himself uses only the present and imperfect tenses of the verb,
frequently in the context of marital rage between spouses. Its meaning would
have been: ‘rage’ or ‘be furious’, as can be seen in Iliad 5.717, 6.101, 8.111,
8.360, 8.413, 16.245, 16.75 and 24.114, and in Odyssea 9.350. In relation to
things, Homer uses it in the sense of ‘rage’ or ‘riot’, as in Iliad 15.606. Plato
uses it in the sense of ‘a hot strong wine’, as in Laws 773d2. In this form the
term was also used to refer to intoxicated feelings.

8. VERB DERIVATIONS – From this form of the verb other derivations

may be found, namely, the following three:

i.  , - (o menolis, -oo; masculine noun, first case),

meaning:
 ‘raving’ or ‘frenzied’, as used in the 3 rd/2nd century by Philo in
Belopœtica 1.351 as a proper name of Dionysus, who’s myth
is immensely varied; also called  (Bakchos; Bacchus)
and many other names; represented as a youthful deity of
vegitation, wine and ecstasy; called the ‘roaring one’, the
‘bull-horned’ god; closely associated to the crescent moon;
and
 in the active case, ‘maddening’ (especially of wine), as used
by Plutarch in Moralia 2.462b;
ii.  , - (i menas, -ados; archaic feminine noun),
meaning:
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 ‘raving’ or ‘frantic’, as used by Sophocles in Fragmenta 941.4;

 as substantive used in the sense of mad or exited women who
follow the above-mentioned god Dionysus; and
 in the active, ‘causing madness’ (especially of love); and
iii. , - (o menandros, -on; regular masculine noun),
meaning ‘mad after men’, as used by Herodianus in Epimeris 83.

9. PASSION – The terms  (memona) and  (menome)

are used in close relation to the Sanskrit मनस ् (manas), which may mean
(Monier-Williams & Cappeller 1898):
 ‘mind’ in its widest sense as applied to all the mental powers
(intellect, intelligence, understanding, perception, sense,
conscience, or will);
 ‘the spirit’ or ‘spiritual principle’, ‘the breath’ or ‘living soul which
escapes from the body at death’; and
 ‘thought’, ‘imagination’, ‘excogitation’, ‘invention’, ‘reflection’,
‘opinion’, ‘intention’, ‘inclination’, ‘affection’, ‘desire’, ‘mood’,
‘temper’, ‘spirit’, or ‘passion’.

This could well constitute a semantical extension of the term in

question. In Greek, the term  , - (to menos, -eos) can be found
meaning ‘might’ or ‘force’, as, for instance, in Homer’s Iliad 6.265, 5.506,
6.502 and 6.27. The term is used in reference:

 to animals, meaning ‘strength’ or ‘fierceness’;

 to things, meaning ‘force’ or ‘might’;
 as denoting life in general;
 in reference to the soul, as ‘passion’, used by Plato in Timæus 70b5;
and
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 ‘intent’ or ‘purpose’.

Plato quotes Homer’s Iliad 10.482 and 15.262 in Symposium 179b1

where reference is made to ‘ ’ (menos empnefse), meaning
‘fury inspired’.

10. DIVINATION – Remaining quite within the broad boundaries of this

semantic family, we find   also related to   (i mantia) and 
 (i mantefome), meaning ‘prophetic power’ or ‘power of
divination’. This use is already found in Homer’s Odyssea 12.272, and later in
Plato, Timæus 71d5 and Symposium 206b11.
Nevertheless, the term was used by Plato in a variety of ways and
meanings, namely as:

 ‘conjecture’, ‘oracle’ or ‘prophecy’, as in Apology 29a5 and

Philebus 66b4;
 ‘obscure’ or ‘oracular’, as in Cratylus 384a6;
 ‘divination’, as in Philebus 64a2;
 ‘oracles’, as in Epistle II 311d2;
 ‘response’, as in Apology 33c6;
 ‘the seat of an oracle’, ‘a method’, ‘a process’, ‘rewards’, or
‘consultations’, as in Apology 21a6; and
 in opposition to knowledge, meaning ‘presage’, ‘forebode’, or
‘surmise of presentiment’, as in Cratylus 411b4 and Republic
349a3.

Plato frequently uses the form  , - (i manikos, -on) as

signifying:
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 ‘prophetic’ or ‘oracular inspiration’, as in Phædrus 265b3;

 ‘a faculty’ (of divination), as in Apology 40a5, Symposium 197a9
and Phædrus 244b5; and
 ‘a prophet’, as in Phædo 85b2 and Symposium 198a7.

On the other hand, , - (mantipolos, -on; from

 [mantipoleo], prophesy) may carry the meaning of ‘frenzied’ or
‘inspired’; whereas   (o mantis) may mean ‘diviner’, ‘seer’, ‘prophet’,
‘presager’, or ‘foreboder’. The literal meaning would be that kind of
grasshopper called the Praying Mantis, or the green garden-frog. In Timæus
72ab the term is directly derived from  (menome), the line of thought
being not that of foreknowledge but rather that of fury and frenzy associated to
diviners, seers and prophets.

11. VERB FORMS – The forms of the verb having the roots ()-
(man[i]-) and - (min-) are nine in all, namely,

i.  (menome) – passive indicative present tense;

ii.  (meno) – archaic noun, feminine;
iii.  (manoome) – future tense;
iv.  (manisome) – future tense;
v.  (emina) – aorist tense;
vi.  (eminamin) – aorist tense;
vii.  (emanin) – aorist tense;
viii.  (memina) – perfect tense; and
ix.  (memanime) – perfect tense.

The forms of the noun   are similar to the declension of all
regular feminine nouns, i.e., , , [] ;  , etc.
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12. RENDERINGS – Plato explicitly uses some fifty different renderings

of the term   which can be grouped in six lemmata, according to
grammatical criteria, namely (in alphabetical order),

i.  (emmanis);
ii.  (menesthe);
iii.  (mania);
iv.  (mantikos);
v.  (manon); and
vi.  (manotis).

In the majority of cases, Plato uses the renderings in a rather proverbial

form, somewhat loosely. In a couple of cases he uses the terms to mean ‘the
simulation of madness’. Otherwise, the words are more pregnant with meaning
as when, in Phædrus 265a12–14, he says:

“There are two kinds of madness, one arising from human diseases,
and the other from a divine release from the customary habits”

(    ,     ,   
     ; Manias de ge idi dyo, tin
men ipo nosimaton anthropinon, tin de ipo thias exallgis ton iothoton nomimon
gignomenin).

Apart from the other cases where the identical significance is intended
implicitly, here Plato clearly uses   (and its derivatives) equivocally.
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13. ANALOGOUS WORDS – Some words in Greek are analogous to 

 and are sometimes interchanged. In Plato they are generally used in
cases where the more precise meaning would not be lost. Such are some cases:

i. , - (istrophoros, -on) together with its

corresponding , - (istrodis, -es), used by Epicurus,
as seen in Gnomologium Vaticanum 80, and the philosopher
Timæus Locrus 102e. Plato rarely uses the rendering; a few
instances are: Timæus 91b8, Theætetus 179e7 and Laws 734a5. The
former verb (in the passive) means ‘maddening’; the noun,
‘raging’ or ‘frantic’.
ii.   (i ania), as used by the elegiac writer Theognis, 453, in
the 6th century BCE. Indicates the character of an  (anoos),
the latter meaning ‘someone without understanding’ or ‘silly’.
The word is used in Herodotus’ Historia 6.69, and Æschylus’
Prometheus Vinctus 1079, apart from Plato’s own use of it in
Laws 716a7, Timæus 44b1 and 86b4, and Republic 382c8 and
492e3.
iii. Closely associated to this latter term is the noun , -
(anoitos, -on), used by Homer in Odyssea 2.270 and 17.273, and
by the 5th century BCE philosopher, Democritus in Fragmenta 197.
It indicates something which is not within the province of
thought, unheard of, unthinkable, as Plato uses it in Parmenides
132c12. Alternatively, it is equivalent to ‘being senseless’ or
‘silly’, as Plato indicates in Timæus 30b1, Phædo 80b5, and
Republic 336e10 and 605b9.
iv. , - (nympholiptos, -on), used in Plato’s Phædrus
238d2. The term is made up of two terms, namely, (a)   (o
nympho), meaning ‘nymphs’, and (b)  (liptos), from
 14

, -, - (lipteos, -a, -on), which means ‘to be taken’ or
‘accepted’. Plato uses the terms separated in Protagoras 356b passim.
The verb would mean ‘caught by nymphs’, ‘ruptured’, or
‘frenzied’. It is closely related to love and marriage.
v.  (parakineo) is a verb made up of (a)  (para),
meaning ‘aside’ or ‘beside’, and (b)  (kineo), meaning ‘to
be set in motion’, ‘moving’, ‘be beside oneself’; used by Plato in
Republic 591e3. It is used also in reference to someone who raises
trouble or enters into conspiracies but also in the sense of ‘violent
excitement’ and ‘maddening’ or, in a milder sense, simply ‘to
raise an objection’ or ‘to question’. However, all such
significations are proper to centuries posterior to Plato. In
Republic 540a1 and 591e3 Plato uses it in the sense of ‘shifting
one’s ground’ or ‘changing positions’. Anterior to Plato, the word
was used in reference to someone who was highly excited or
impassioned, as the historian Xenophon does in Memorabilia
4.2.35, the surgeon Hippocrates in Æron 32, or even the historian
Theopompus in Opus 111. In Phædrus 249d3–11 Plato uses the
word in a context which is very peculiar and striking. This is what
he says:

“... since he separates himself from human interests and

turns his attention toward the divine, he is rebuked by the
vulgar, who consider him mad and do not know that he is
inspired. All my discourse so far has been about the [...]
kind of madness which causes him to be regarded as mad,
who, when he sees the beauty on earth, remembering the
true beauty, feels his wings growing and longs to stretch
them for an upward flight, but cannot do so, and, like a bird,
gazes upward and neglects the things below.”
 15

vi.   (i parania). The adverb is derived from the verb

 (paranoeo), which means ‘to think amiss’,
‘misconceive’, ‘misunderstand’ (as used by Plato in Theætetus
195a passim), or even ‘to be deranged’, ‘senseless’, ‘lose one’s wits’.
Hence the adverb means ‘derangement’ or ‘madness’. It is used in
this sense by Æschylus in Septem contra Thebas 756, Euripides in
Orestes 824, Hippocrates in Prognostikon 23, the 5th/6th centuries
BCE orator Andocides, Opus 2.10, and by Aristophanes in Nubes
476 and 845. Plato makes some use of it also, as in Phædrus
266a3 and Laws 928e3.
vii.   (i melankolas). A very interesting possible
substitution of  . It is made up of two words: (a) 
(melan), meaning ‘black’, and (b)  (koligos), meaning
‘temperament’. Literally, than, it would mean ‘black-tempered’,
‘melancholic’, ‘acrimonious’, or ‘atrabilious’. The word
obviously suggests the black bile (also called in Greek
 [melankolos] or , - [melankolodis,
-es]). The term  (melankolia) was used in this
physical sense (and medical context) to imply the close
connection (very common in medicine up to some time ago)
between melancholy, atrabilness and madness. It was used in this
way by Hippocrates in Æron 10, Aphorismi 3.20 and 4.9 (both as
 [melankolikos]), and Peri Diaitis 61, and also by
Aristophanes in Aves 14, Plutus 12, 366 and 903 (all in the
derivative  [melankolao], as Plato does in Phædrus
268e2. The word can also be used metaphorically in the sense of
‘impulsive’, as Plato does in Republic 573c8.
 16

viii.   (i paraphrosyni). As in the cases (v) and (vi)

above, this noun has the prefix  (para) meaning ‘aside’ or
‘beside’. The part  (phrosyns) comes from  ,
- (i phronis, -eos), meaning ‘prudence’, ‘wisdom’ or (more
simply) ‘mind’. This latter meaning is generally used in the sense
‘to be in the right mind’ or ‘sane’, as Homer uses it in Odyssea
3.244. Thus  would mean ‘wandering of mind’ or
‘derangement’, as Plato uses it in Epistle VII 331c1 and Sophist
228d2. It can also mean ‘delirium’, as Hippocrates puts it in
medical terms in Aphorismi 2.2 and 6.53, and in Prognostikon 10,
where the verb corresponding to the noun is used. This verb
would be  (paraphroneo), and has the same
meaning, as can be seen in Herodotus 1.1.09, 3.34 and 3.35, in
Æschylus’ Septem contra Thebas 806, in Sophocles’ Philoctetes
815, in Aristophanes’ Nubes 8.44, and in the 5th century orator
Antipho, Fragmenta 2.2.9.

14. IMPLICATIONS – Taking full advantage of the richness of his

proper idiom, Plato consciously and artistically employs   in a
conspicuous manner. In developing his concept of charismatic or
‘sympathological’ (divine) madness he takes into consideration all of its
implications and, very often, uses the term in an exceptionally pregnant sense,
admirably avoiding an ever confusing univocity. The following depicts the
eight main co-related and intertwined implications (overlooking the close
synonyms), all explained consecutively beneath:
 17

I. The different (as indicated in parts 3[viii], 6[v] and 13[v] above) –
The concept of   is associated to uncommon people who somehow
behave in an out-of-normal way. They are the ones who break off the schemes
normally accepted for granted by the great majority of people. The
separateness has to be more noticeable and enduring in its nature than in the
normal cases. An exceptional rarity must be excluded here. The difference is
to be rather categorical and habitual. Pathological madness would be the
obvious case where the subject lives in a world of one’s own. However, in a
more positive sense, as Plato would sometimes have it, we would understand
here a sort of particular, distinguished way of thinking and behaving,
constituting a class of its own.

II. The silly (as indicated in parts 13[ii] and [iii] above) – When
rationality qualifies itself as a mark of singularity,   is associated to the
silly, enough to be considered as irrationality. Apart of the negative
connotation, the ridiculous treat may be understood here as finding oneself in
an odd-one-out situation, falling off from mainstream thinking and manner of
behaving; perhaps queer in the non-sexual sense of the word.
 18

III. The passionate (as indicated in parts 3[viii], 6[ii] and 13[iv]
above) – The term and concept of   is here considered in its affective
and emotive aspects. It denotes a kind of intensity in mental and physiological
functions such as in loving, thinking, acting (in general), introspection,
reflection and so forth. It appropriates the status of irrationality inasmuch as
acting and states of mind exist in a subject in a higher degree than is
commonly acceptable, frequently adopting violent and vehement qualities.

IV. The inspired (as indicated in parts 5[2nd meaning] and 10 above) –
The religious aspect of madness is understood here. For centuries, inspiration
and   have walked hand in hand up to modern times. We have here the
connotations of passive contact with the divinity or the inaffable, the
revelation of some exotic message (usually displeaseful to the addressees) and
divine possession. The person is thus understood to be torn away of his/her
context due to his/her affinity to the divinity. The divinity is always
understood as the other-than-human, the extra-temporal and extra-spacial, the
ultra-mondial. Divine enthusiasm, what we would rather call religious
fanaticism, is understood here; but also prophetism, a person in a position of
the spokesperson of the divine (the concept of seer may or may not be
included here).

V. The raptured (as indicated in parts 13[iv] above) – The association

to   is not very strong. By rapture we would mean here a mental
transportation to another state of reality, be it one more truer or less realistic
than that which is considered normal. It must be insisted upon that, at least in
Plato,   as rapture does not imply anything as ecstasy or enrapture.
Rather, it is applied to that person who is caught in a particular mode, sane or
insane―charismatic or ‘sympathological’ (divine) madness would be the
sane―of looking at reality, life and human beings.
 19

VI. The unbalanced (as indicated in parts 12, 13[vi] and [viii] above)
– This refers to the mental state of the subject. A mad person, in the
pathological sense, is said to be unable to weigh actions or opinions correctly
and realistically, giving each its proper worth and value. He/she is said to lack
mental equilibrium. He/she lives and believes in realities which are
disproportionate or do not correspond with the reality of facts. When the
person, however, sees reality too well, thus constituting a contra-position to
others, in all due effects and purposes he/she is considered to be mentally
unbalanced or, as we would say, twisted. Though in reality he/she is not, in
reality, of an unstable mind, he/she would seem to misconceive things due to
his/her wandering mind.

VII. The melancholic (as indicated in parts 13[vii] above) – In its

pathological and medical meaning, melancholy would import depression,
sadness and gloom to such an extent so as to mark an emotional and mental
disease. In this sense it is connected to the black bile. Melancholy than would
be madness itself in the literal sense of the word. Plato, however, uses it in its
rather positive sense, meaning someone seriously preoccupied by the state of
things around him. It obviously presupposes the sensitivity of the person
involved.

VIII. The true (as indicated in parts 3[xi] and 4 above) – The ‘mad’
person is strong enough to release himself from personal and social
restrictions and conditions to speak out his/her mind. A sane ‘mad’ person (in
the charismatic, sympathological sense of madness) always speaks verily and
truly. This is considered to be madness due to the inviability of the situations
in which he/she is involved. Mental sanity is fundamental for it denotes a
capability as well as the actual exertion of realism.
 20

To conclude, ancient Greek literature up till Plato attests to the long

process of conceptual and semantic developments of the term  . From
its very first inception, somewhere in the 9th or 8th century BCE, a persistent
and indelible association to the moon has been preserved throughout all
centuries. Drawing from the richness of such an association, not the least from
medicine and mathematics (which we have not examined here), Plato
thoroughly explores the concept of   in all its nuances. Furthermore,
by exploiting the linguistic and conceptual affinities which   had with
other terms, Plato went on to develop a true and proper ‘philosophy’, or
general theory, of it. His originality was uncontested. Nevertheless, it was not
readily picked up by other philosophers if not much later in the Renaissance.
That would be another interesting story to explore.

References (excluding editions of the ancient Greek writers)

Berthelot, M., ed. (1887) Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs, Ruelle.
Cramer, J.A., ed. (1835–37) Anecdota Oxoniensia, Parisiensia, 4 vols.,
Oxford.
Diels, H., ed. (1879) Placita Philosophorum, Doxographi Græci, Berlin.
Kirchner, J., ed (1936, 1966) Inscriptionis Græciæ, vol. II and III (ed. minor),
Berlin.
Liddell, H.G., and Scott, R. (1977) A Greek-English Lexicon, rev. and aug. by
H. Stuart Jones, ass. by R. McKenzie, The Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Monier-Williams, M. and Cappeller, C. (1898) A Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
Oxford University Press, England.
Roussel. P., Salac, A., Tod, M.N., Ziebarth, E., eds (1923) Supplementum
Epigraphicum Græcum, ed. by J.J.E. Honius, Leyden.
 21

CAPTIONS TO PHOTOGRAPHS SENT:

PICTURE 1 – The Anatolian moon-god  (Archeological Museum,

Yalvaç, Turkey) whose perceived personality and cult was closely associated
to madness

PICTURE 2 – Plato’s general theory of   is very closely related to the

perceptions and resulting concepts associated to the moon

PICTURE 3 – The moon, represented by the moon-god  (Archeological

Museum, Adana, Turkey), was linked to all nuances of madness

DESIGN 1 HAS NO CAPTION