READING A WOMAN (REPUBLIC 454D)
READING A WOMAN (REPUBLIC 454D)

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes a passage from Plato’s Republic that has long since caused confusion and debate amongst editors and translators: οἷον ἰατρικὸν μὲν καὶ ἰατρικὴν τὴν ψυχὴν [ὄντα] τὴν αὐτὴν φύσιν ἔχειν ἐλέγομεν· ἢ οὐκ οἴει; (Rep. 454d1–3). Can ἰατρικὴ τὴν ψυχὴν translate as ‘capable of healing psychically’ and refer to a female doctor, or is this passage “hopelessly corrupt” (Slings), the feminine flexion in ἰατρική only putting the reader off the track? The authors give a brief summary of the readings and emendations proposed by various editors and commentators, and offer their own interpretation of the passage guided by its philosophical context, relying on Plato’s redefinition of physis and his sustained attention to the eidos of the different and the identical, τῆς ἑτέρας and τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως (Rep. 453b5–456a4). The phrase about “doctor and doctor in soul” fits into this context only if we consider these “doctors” opposites in the physical sense and correlatives socially. From this perspective, it makes sense to read ἰατρικὸν μὲν καὶ ἰατρικὴν τὴν ψυχὴν as the correlation of the different (male and female) within the identical (aptitude for healing).

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