R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

ὁ μεταβάλλειν ποιῶν κτλ. Cp. Hippocr. de morbo sacro, p. 396 L. ὅστις δὲ ἐπίσταται ἐν ἀνθρώποισι τὴν τοιαύτην μεταβολὴν καὶ δύναται ὑγρὸν καὶ ξηρὸν ποιέειν καὶ θερμὸν καὶ ψυχρὸν ὑπὸ διαίτης τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὗτος καὶ ταύτην τὴν νοῦσον ἰῷτο ἄν: id. de nat. hom. 9 τὴν θεραπείην χρὴ ποιέεσθαι...τῇ τῶν διαιτημάτων μεταβολῇ κτλ. In later Greek δημιουργός becomes the vox propria for a medical “practitioner,” as δημοσιεύειν for “to practise”: similarly χειροτέχνης, Hippocr. περὶ παθῶν 1.

ὥστε...κτᾶσθαι. Supply as subject τὰ σώματα.

καὶ ἐνόντα ἐξελεῖν. Schanz would excise these words; but though they present a rather awkward case of brachylogy, they are otherwise unobjectionable. Herwerden's proposal (see crit. n.), though supplying the right sense, is needless; while Lehrs is obviously blundering when he construes ἐνόντα as neut. plural, “und wieder auch das Vorhandene fortzubringen.” Hommel gives the meaning rightly, “und die einwohnende (Neigung), die nicht einwohnen darf, heraus zu treiben.”

δεῖ γὰρ δὴ. “For he must, as a matter of fact”—an appeal to recognized axioms of “the Art.” Hippocrates based his medical theory on the assumption of two pairs of opposite and primary qualities, ψυχρόν)(θερμόν, and ξηρόν)(ὑγρόν. By the permutations and combinations of these he sought to account for all varieties of physical health and disease: see e.g. Hippocr. de morb. I. 2; de affect. 1. Cp. Lysis 215 E: Theo. Smyrn. Math. p. 15 Bull. καὶ τοῦτο τὸ μέγιστον ἔργον θεοῦ κατὰ μουσικήν τε καὶ ἰατρικὴν, τὰ ἐχθρὰ φίλα ποιεῖν: also Tim. 82 A for the “hot” and “cold” in health and disease.

πικρὸν γλυκεῖ. Ast's excision of these words (approved by Stallb., Hug, and others) is, at first sight, plausible, inasmuch as these opposites of taste seem hardly on a par with the other two pairs of primary opposites. But in Lysis 215 E the same three pairs are mentioned, with ὀξύ)(ἀμβλύ as a fourth, as exx. of the law of ἐπιθυμία τῶν ἐναντίων. Moreover, it is obvious that the question of savours is of special importance in medical science: cp. Theaet. 166 E τῷ...ἀσθενοῦντι πικρὰ φαίνεται ἃ ἐσθίει καὶ ἔστι: Hippocr. περὶ διαίτης II. 56 τὰ γλυκέα...καὶ τὰ πικρὰ...θερμαίνειν πέφυκε, καὶ ὅσα ξηρά ἐστι καὶ ὅσα ὑγρά: id. de nat. hom. 2, 6: and the connexion between πικρότης and χολή brought out in Tim. 83 A ff. Further, as Hommel observed, πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα after only two exx. is unusual.