"Plague" in Thucydides and its Impact on Paideia

Abstract

The article deals with an epidemic that struck Athens during the Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC. The main outbreak of the epidemic that developed in two stages occurred in 430-426 BC. Most of the information about the disease in Athens is reported by the historian Thucydides. The article analyzes the names of the disease used by the Athenian historian: νόσος, νόσημα, λοιμός, κακός. A quantitative and contextual analysis of their use was also carried out. Thucydides uses the word λοιμός in a specific way that gives this word an additional meaning of pestilence, what can now be called an epidemic. This is evident from the phrase λοιμώδης νόσος (a pestilent/contagious disease) (Thuc. 1.23.3), which reveals its infectious nature. Another important characteristic of Thucydides' use of the word λοιμός is that three times out of four, Thucydides uses it in the context of an ancient saying. This word and other vocabulary used by Thucydides allow us to assume that the historian was well aware of modern medical terminology reflecting the cutting-edge medical education of that epoch. The author also draws a parallel with the use of this vocabulary by the philosopher Plato, Thucydides’ younger contemporary. The article also considers the tradition of studying this kind of disease as described by Thucydides, with the main trend being a gradual identification of this disease with a variation of typhoid. The latter became possible due to the archaeological material from the Kerameikos excavations, namely, to the study of bone remains found in several collective burials. In the final part of the article, the impact of the epidemic on the Athenian paideia is touched upon: it can probably be seen through the depreciation of the humanistic component of the educational space. The decline in the population, including teachers, and the likely even greater decline in the child population, could not but have a negative impact on the moral state of Attica’s people during the epidemic, which was mentioned by Thucydides. The long-term adverse economic effect further exacerbated the situation, which ultimately resulted in the inhuman destruction of the Boeotian city of Mycalessus in 413 BC. In our opinion, this event can also be viewed as the effects of the disease on the outer paideia as well, because the attackers destroyed the largest school in this Boeotian city.