sources Apollonius of Rhodes This is the title of a long poem,
very popular in classical days, by the third-century poet
Apollonius of Rhodes. Jason and Peliasfrom Pindar He tells the
whole story of the Quest except the part about Jason and Pelias
which I have taken from Pindar. It is the subject of one of his
most famous odes, written in the first half of the fifth century.
Euripides Apollonius ends his poem with the return of the heroes to
Greece. I have added the account of what Jason and Medea did there,
taking it from the fifth-century tragic poet Euripides, who made it
the subject of one of his best plays.
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Journey by water The first hero in Europe who undertook a great
journey was the leader of the Quest of the Golden Fleece. He was
supposed to have lived a generation earlier than the most famous
Greek traveler, the hero of the Odyssey. It was of course a journey
by water. Ships did not sail by night, and any place where sailors
put in might harbor a monster or a magician who could work more
deadly harm than storm and shipwreck. High courage was necessary to
travel, especially outside of Greece.
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the ship Argo No story proved this fact better than the account
of what the heroes suffered who sailed in the ship Argo to find the
Golden Fleece. It may be doubted, indeed, if there ever was a
voyage on which sailors had to face so many and such varied
dangers. However, they were all heroes of renown, some of them the
greatest in Greece, and they were quite equal to their
adventures.
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The Argonautic expedition
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Jason and Argonauts the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the
gold-haired winged ram. It figures in the tale of Jason and his
band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order
to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly.
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Lemnos The isle of Lemnos is situated off the Western coast of
Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). The island was inhabited by a race
of women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected
their worship of Aphrodite, and as a punishment the goddess made
the women so foul in stench that their husbands couldn't bear to be
near them.
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King Phineus & the Harpies, Athenian red-figure hydria C5th
B.C., The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
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The Amazons Ares Harmony Amazons
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The Amazons a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and
Greek mythology Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia
in Sarmatia (modern territory of Ukraine). Other historiographers
place them in Asia Minor or Libya or India.
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Mounted Amazon in Scythian costume,
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Colchis ancient region at the eastern end of the Black Sea
south of the Caucasus, in the western part of modern Georgia In
Greek mythology Colchis was the home of Medea and the destination
of the Argonauts, a land of fabulous wealth and the domain of
sorcery.
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Medea avenges herself on Jason by slaying her own children upon
the altar, and destroying Kreon and Glauke by fire in the palace
(not shown). Triptolemos arrives on the scene with a flying,
serpent-drawn chariot to assist Medea in her escape.
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Medea
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the daughter of King Aetes of Colchis, niece of Circe,
granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero
Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres. In
Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of
Corinth, offers him his daughter, Creusa or Glauce. The play tells
of how Medea gets her revenge on her husband for this
betrayal.
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Meda--an enchantress Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the
Argonauts Medea is known in most stories as an enchantress and is
often depicted as being a priestess of the goddess Hecate or a
witch. The myth of Jason and Medea is very old, originally written
around the time Hesiod wrote the Theogony.
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Medea kills her son, Campanian red-figure amphora, ca. 330 BC,
Louvre (K 300)
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Jason & the Dragon
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Chimaera noun, plural -ras. 1.(often initial capital letter ) a
mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a
lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. 2.any similarly
grotesque monster having disparate parts, esp. as depicted in
decorative art.3.a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination;
a vain or idle fancy: He is far different from the chimera your
fears have made of him. 4.Genetics. an organism composed of two or
more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly
male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual
having tissues of several species.
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Centaur indulgent drinkers and carousers centaurs were
notorious for being overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given
to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents,
each Centaur was also wild and lusty.
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A Great Teacher in Greek Mythology Chiron
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Chirona great teacher! In Greek mythology, Chiron or Cheiron or
Kheiron ("hand") was held as the superlative centaur among his
brethren. Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind.
He was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine.
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An Excellent teacher A great healer, astrologer, and respected
oracle, Chiron was said to be the last centaur and highly revered
as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many culture heroes:
Asclepius, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Heracles,
Phoenix
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Chiron and Achilles in a fresco from Herculaneum
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GREEK EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY
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Medicine was very important to the Ancient Greek. Ancient Greek
Culture was such that a high priority was placed upon healthy
lifestyles, this despite Ancient Greece being much different to the
Greece of the modern World.
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Medical practice in Ancient Greece, like Egypt, was based
largely upon religious beliefs. The Cult of Asclepios grew in
popularity and was a major provider of medical care. This cult
developed old theories and introduced several treatments not too
dissimilar from modern 'alternative medicines'.
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The Ancient Greeks though made major strides in medical
knowledge. The works of Hippocrates and his followers led to
several scientific facts being recorded for the first time: and
perhaps more significantly the work of these philosophers began a
tradition of studying the cause of disease rather than looking
solely at the symptoms when prescribing a cure.
Slide 39
So the Greeks were very interested in using scientific
observation and logic to figure out what caused diseases and what
you could do about them. In the 300's BC and afterward, in the
Hellenistic period, Greek doctors worked out a logical system for
understanding disease. Their writings about this have been
collected in the Hippocratic Writings, named after the first and
most famous of these doctors, Hippocrates
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The legacy of the Ancient Greek world on medical practice has
been great. Hippocrates theory of the Four Humors was, for a long
time, the basis upon which to develop medical reasoning. Likewise
the methodology employed by the Greeks has, to a large extent, been
retained and modified to form what we now consider to be
conventional medicine.
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1792. Oil on canvas. Paris, Facult de Mdecine, Muse dHistoire
de la Mdecine
Slide 44
an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles was an
ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered
one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He
is referred to as the father of medicine in recognition of his
lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the
Hippocratic School of medicine. This intellectual school
revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a
discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally
been associated with, thus making medicine a profession.
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However, the achievements of the writers of the Corpus, the
practitioners of Hippocratic medicine, and the actions of
Hippocrates himself are often commingled; thus very little is known
about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote, and did.
Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient
physician Nevertheless, Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the
paragon of the ancient physician. the systematic study of clinical
medicine Hippocratic Oath In particular, he is credited with
greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine,
summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and
prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Oath
and other works.
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Literature and medicine words are described as the doctors of a
diseased temperament Medical images abound in Aeschylus play: the
Titan is said to be administering a drug (pharmakon) for humankinds
sickness; words are described as the doctors of a diseased
temperament; the wandering Io, pregnant with Zeuss child and half
transformed into a cow by the jealous Hera, appeals to him for a
remedy for her sufferings.
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Prometheus: a bad doctor Prometheus is compared to a bad doctor
On the other hand, Prometheus is compared to a bad doctor who
cannot cure his own disease: despite rescuing humans from their
brutish circumstances, he is unable to help himself.
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Pythian Ode In his third Pythian Ode (written between 476 and
467 BC), Pindar narrates the story of another figure half-way
between human and divine: the miraculous healer Asclepius. His
mother Koronis got pregnant by the god Apollo but unwisely went on
to betray him with a mere mortal, thus chasing the impossible with
hopes unfulfilled (23, is hope a form of hubris?).
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techne does not match modern equivalents Tracing the
ramifications of these discussions is not an easy task. For a
start, it does not help that the semantic range of techne does not
match modern equivalents. Essentially the same thing appears to
have been variously called techne, sophia (knowledge/wisdom),
episteme (rigorous/stable knowledge), or dynamis (power).
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The Hippocratic On Techne Also, there was debate as to whether
some disciplines, for instance rhetoric, were technai at all. The
Hippocratic On Techne, for instance, is a defense against the
contention that the techne of medicine does not exist. Moreover,
there was debate about what role technicians should play in the
community, and about the ethical repercussions of what they
did.
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Techne and erga Most definitions of technical knowledge
highlight the fact that it has to do with making, knowing-how
rather than simply knowing-that. Techne is often linked with erga,
a wide-ranging word variously translated as acts, works, results,
and sometimes seen as the correlate of logoi-mere talk, as opposed
to facts.
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A productive (poetic) habit productive habit (exis poietike);
In Aristotle techne is equivalent to a productive habit (exis
poietike); maker (the technician). productive in the sense that it
brings into being something which could equally well not have
existed (i.e. is not necessary) and would not exist by nature
something whose existence depends on the maker (the
technician).
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maker or technician This includes production of the non-
tangible: health for the doctor, persuasion for the rhetorician, a
proof for the mathematician. Production is a process and the
realization of a potentiality, and thus techne is often described
as a dynamis (power or potentiality).
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Aristotles ethics realizing This allows Aristotle a parallel
with ethics, because in his view we acquire virtues by realizing
them, just as, for instance, we become builders by building.
medicine is acquired through experience, and not (only) textbooks
Thus, medicine is acquired through experience, and not (only)
textbooks.
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Medicien and techne Several Hippocratic authors insist on two
features that do not get much of an airing in the philosophical
texts surveyed above: the fact that medicine, and techne in
general, are about taking decisions, and the ability of the doctor
to account for his decisions what some texts equate with a
knowledge of causes.
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The ability of judement For the author of On Techne, the
existence of correct and incorrect courses of action constitutes
almost a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of
techne itself. The doctor can distinguish bad from good cures, and
praise or blame various components of a regimen: mistakes, no less
than benefits, are witnesses to the existence of the techne [...]
how, where the right and the not-right each have a boundary, could
there not be a techne?
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Ancient Medicine In Ancient Medicine, it is a hallmark of
medicine that the truth or falsity of its statements can be
ascertained, in contrast to what is unclear and insoluble, and is
thus formulated in terms of postulates and hypotheses. Precisely
because expert decisions must be based on knowledge not only of the
correct, but also of the incorrect, On Joints reports procedures
that went wrong, and strives to explain why they went wrong.
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the polis and of the technai In charting the development of the
polis and of the technai associated with its various stages, it is
interesting that medicine, described by the Hippocratics, but also
by the playwrights, as one of the most seminal forms of knowledge,
is not classified by Socrates as necessary.
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civic malaise Instead, it is paired with attendance of law
courts as evidence of a sort of civic malaise: if men knew how to
manage themselves both in mind and body, neither physicians nor
juries would be necessary. Serious conditions, such as wounds and
seasonal illnesses, rightly require medical assistance, but the
ingenious children of Asclepius deal with trifles, for which they
even have to invent new names, and try to prolong life at any cost,
even if the sole result is a painful old age or a drawn-out
struggle with death.
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Socrates Socrates pits this unnecessary medicine against the
older medical tradition, embodies by Asclepius himself, who chose
to use only necessary medicine because he knew that for all
well-governed peoples there is a work assigned to each man in the
city which he must perform, and no one has leisure to be sick and
be doctored through his life.
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a socially defined health The example given is that of a sick
builder, who wants a quick cure so he can go back to work, but
would prefer death to any long treatments that would prevent him
from living his normal life, i.e. working. Asclepius, Socrates
comments, was politikos. His techne, we may add, aims not just at
health but at a socially defined health at the maintenance of a
certain order.
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Nature and education (culture) While education is necessary to
develop ones nature, it is therefore nature and not education that
decides where a person stands in the city. Conversely, a techne is
essentially not something one learns, but something one is born
for, if not born with. Socrates couches this in a myth according to
which people sprang form the earth with ready-formed metallic
constitutions: gold for guardians, silver for soldiers and iron and
bronze/copper (chalkon) for farmers and the other technicians.
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Pharmakon is a drug but also a poison The myth is described as
a mechane, a ruse, and also as a lie, albeit a therapeutic one a
kind of useful drug administered by the guardians of the city.
Pharmakon is a drug but also a poison, and Socrates is keen to
highlight the potential danger of disguising the truth. The analogy
is inevitable: the rulers of the city, just like doctors, are the
only people allowed to lie for a good purpose.
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Platos Republi c how the Athenian youth should be educated The
question of nature and education in Platos Republic is linked to
the concrete problem of how the Athenian youth should be educated,
which is tackled in several of his other dialogues. Can virtue be
taught? Is it acquired by practice, or does it come with nature?
virtue an episteme In the Meno (which, famously, contains a
demonstration that knowledge does not come exclusively from having
learnt), the issue is rephrased as, is virtue an episteme?
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Virtue and knowledge Because if virtue is a knowledge, there
must be teachers of it. Because if virtue is a knowledge, there
must be teachers of it. Anytus, the tannery owner, is chosen as
mouthpiece for the opinion that virtue is transmitted through ones
family; he had been introduced (ironically) as the best qualified
for the task.
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virtue is not teachable Socrates then gets Anytus to admit that
virtue is not teachable, because if it could be taught by the best
teachers (i.e. older virtuous men), then all the sons of famous
Athenians like Themistocles would have been virtuous, when in fact
all their fathers could make them learn was various technai. that
virtue is neither natural nor taught, but comes from divine fate
The conclusion of the Meno is that virtue is neither natural nor
taught, but comes from divine fate.
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moral neutrality Platos sustained engagement with the problem
of how to control technicians shows that, for many, techne spelt
trouble. techne produces, but does not necessarily provide,
knowledge about how to use the product. One of the most frequently
highlighted danger zones was its moral neutrality: techne produces,
but does not necessarily provide, knowledge about how to use the
product.
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techne could be used for both good and bad ends Sophocles
Antigone Already according to the chorus in Sophocles Antigone,
techne could be used for both good and bad ends; like human beings,
it could be both terrible and wondrous. A similar ambiguity is
detectable in Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus: the protagonist
attributes to himself wealth, kingship and techne surpassing
techne; he then characterizes Tiresias, the seer who has darkly
alluded to the true story of Oedipus family, as blind in his techne
remember that divination was a techne. Finally, he describes his
own achievement in solving the sphinx's riddle as intelligence
(gnome), not something he had learnt.
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Tiresias seated holding sacrificial knife as Odysseus (left)
stands by him.
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Knowledge Knowledge no techne Oedipus distinctive form of
knowledge Oedipus distinctive form of knowledge is therefore,
despite his claims, no techne after all, and the technical
incapacity he attributes to Tiresias (who is, of course, literally
blind, just as Oedipus will be at the end of the play) ends up
providing an accurate account of the facts, and a solution to the
plague at Thebes.
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Political knowledge Concretely, Athens in the late fifth to
fourth century BCE saw the rise of a new breed of political men,
who did not belong to the small group of families, often
interrelated through marriage arrangements, which appear to have
been more prominent until then. Aristophanes often depicts these
people as technicians: Cleon the tanner is perhaps the most (in)
famous of all.
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technicians In Platos Apology Socrates examines the claims to
knowledge of various groups, and finds that the technicians (called
both cheirotechnai and demiourgoi), unlike poets and rhetors, knew
things that he did not.
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Better knowledge their knowledge was better substantiated
liable to getting ideas above their counterparts In other words,
technicians were the group Socrates chose to monitor more closely,
because their knowledge was better substantiated than that of their
counterparts, and that made them more liable to getting ideas above
their counterparts, and that made them more liable to getting ideas
above their station.