A Cock to Asclepius

Author(s): Pamela M. Clark

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 3/4 (Dec., 1952), p. 146
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/701879 .
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146 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW
TcEpdovhas lost its association with the mean- the potion to spare, says ' dAA' E'XEaOaL' yd
ing of birds' wings and means merely 'omen', 7Tov 70L OEOLtSEEc-rL 1E Kat XP7), 7)V JLETOLKTYJtLV
'indication'. Above, however, birds are ex- T77V EVOEVE fKELfE EVTVX7 yEV ea S KatI
pressly mentioned and it is inconceivable )y& TE Kat yEVOLTOTaVT-f'. We would
that 7rT1epotscan be divorced from the mean- /(.EXO/IL•
expect the connexion between the cock-
ing 'wings'; n oov6iv 7TTIEpoL would be sacrifice and this to be pointed out, if it
reasonable, if not exciting, Greek (cf. Callim. existed. Plato is not usually so enigmatic.
Hymn5. 123 f. yvoadEa~.. . rroolwv('pvlxowv) Hence it is permissible to look for a further
oVKdyaOa17rripvye), but' St'olwvcZv 7TrepOLS, explanation of Socrates' dying words, taking
justly pronounced untranslatable by Bad- the sacrifice as a normal one for the recovery
ham, is impossibly artificial. Emendations of a sick person. We may deduce from the
proposed do not carry conviction, e.g. q Kat Phaedothat it is one that has been promised
oviwv (Reiske), 7TrEPOL-V (Heath), rTEpd already, and that this is known to Crito. It
(Wecklein). may even be a joint sacrifice, though the
Now St' olwovjv is the obvious Greek for plural oEl'AoLEVshould not be pressed. Is
'by means of augury' and 7TTEpo-9 indicates, there any further hint about the occasion of
but less obviously, much the same thing. the promise? There is indeed one definite
Does it not seem highly probable that the reference in the Phaedo to a normal illness,
former represents a gloss which has sup- and that is the illness of Plato himself:
planted some attribute of 7r1epoF ? An expres- IAmroTvSe oltat )alOEVEL(59 b). If this is more
sion meaning 'in the air' to balance rrpoflw- than a device to show that the dialogue is not
,totS is what one might look for,2 and the a literal account of Socrates' last hours, it
phrase ousted by St' otlwovovis, I suggest, WS' indicates that Plato was severely enough ill
alO0posor adpos. The explanatory gloss St' to be kept away from a gathering that he
oluvcov written above the text would readily would not willingly have missed. He was
be regarded as a correction and substituted present at the trial (Apology34 a), and the
for the true reading. Compare Luc. i. 587 f. disease must therefore have come on during
'fulminis edoctus motus uenasque calentis I the time that Socrates was in prison. Hearing
fibrarum et monitus errantis in aerepinnae', of the illness of his young friend, Socrates
Val. Fl. i. 231 ff. 'praenoscere diuum may well have promised a cock to speed his
omina, seu flammas seu lubrica comminus recovery.
exta seu plenum certis interroget aera If this is so, and if Socrates did indeed
pinnis'. remember it in his last words, Plato would
A. HUDSON-WILLIAMS have treasured the fact and wished to record
UniversityCollegeof Wales, it, but with his usual reticence about himself
Aberystwyth and fine artistry would not have marred the
end by dragging in his own name in explana-
tion. And so the absence of comment is
A COCK TO ASCLEPIUS satisfactorily explained.
PAMELA
M. CLARK
c Kpwov, g i,- AaKA 7TL4W obEL'AOLEVO
;
Universityof Liverpool
(Phaedoi18 a). The most gene-
dAcEKOpv`va
rally accepted explanation of Socrates'last
wordsis that the cockwas an offeringto the
god of healing for his approachingrecovery STOICA
from 'the long sicknessof health and living'.
So Geddes, Archer-Hind,and Burnet. But THIS is Bernardakis's text of De Sollertia
the allegoricalinterpretationhas been ques- Animalium 961 c-d, while we continue to
tionedby Wilamowitz(Platon,ii, pp. 57-58). await Hubert's: Kat 7avi'- yE KKKELVOL
As far as we know (which is not indeed AE•OVrTE d'7TOKValOvaUL, E• 7aLi
ELaaywya•,
very far), sacrificesto Asclepiuswere appro- eKaUTOTE T7 V 7rpdoE 0LV OPLSLEVOL
'
0 ' 7tLEW-

priate only to recovery from disease in s r', v

LpO•X' dp'CpijV
E7TLEAELUaEo• Sp ••
pLVOp/71' , '7rapaTKEv77V
the literal sense, and the transferenceto the 7pO SI 'TTPLV 7rp
diseaseof life needs some explanationif the 7rpdEW9s', (lCvtrL)V'
' SE ' KaTaAr'qJv d w-
point is to be made. Further,as recentlyas LaTros rapEAqAvOOd?os, o0 Tr rapov E' ataO"-
117 b-c Socrateshas askedif he may pour a ewag KaTEA700- q). TOV7TWV yap O)SeV 0 7TL L7%
libation,and on findingthat thereis none of AoyLKOvEUTL. Kat 7Trdvr7aTOF 9WOLs V7raPXEL
7rtaLV, c a7rep cLzftEL KLt Ta 7rEpl Tag VOm7)aEt,
x Compare Verrall's translation of the as EVa7TOKELIEVag IzeV 'Evvolas' KaAovctL,
manuscripts' reading, viz. 'by the priestly S
KtVOVLEvagS 8'tavoracS'. 'And yet those
skill I Of sacrifices slain or birds in air'. very authors din our ears by repeatedly defin-

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