James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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φύσας τε καὶ κατάρρους. The order is chiastic, φύσας referring to πνευμάτων, and κατάρρους to ῥευμάτων. Plato clearly indicates that the medical use of these words was only beginning in his day, and it is the application of these words to diseases which he derides, not the words themselves when used of bellows, blasts, and torrents (see the Lexica). The experiment in language is better preserved by rendering ‘blasts and torrents’ than ‘flatulence and catarrh.’ For φῦσα cf. (with Poschenrieder l. c. p. 47) [Hippocr.] de flatibus VI p. 94 c. 3 Littré πνεύματα δὲ τὰ μὲν ἐν τοῖσι σώμασι φῦσαι καλέονται, τὰ δὲ ἔξω τῶν σωμάτων ἀήρ, and ib. c. 7 ὅταν οὖν τὸ σῶμα σιτίων πλησθῇ, καὶ πνεύματος πλησμονὴ ἐπὶ πλέον γίγνεται τῶν σιτίων χρονιζομένων: χρονίζεται δὲ τὰ σιτία διὰ τὸ πλῆθος οὐ δυνάμενα διελθεῖν: ἐμφραχθείσης δὲ τῆς κάτω κοιλίης, ἐς ὅλον τὸ σῶμα διέδραμον αἱ φῦσαι. Other examples of the use of the term in the Hippocratean corpus are cited by Stephanus-Hase Thes. s.v. With κατάρρους cf. Crat. 440 C ἀτεχνῶς ὥσπερ οἱ κατάρρῳ νοσοῦντες ἄνθρωποι. The word is found in the Hippocratean writings, and denotes “defluxionem aut omnem humoris ex capite ad os et asperam arteriam, atque per eam ad pulmonem, delationem ac descensum” (StephanusHase s. v., where examples are quoted).

τοὺς κομψοὺς Ἀσκληπιάδας. The epithets κομψοί and χαρίεντες were often applied to the more advanced and scientific sort of physicians (Blümner Privatalt. p. 358 note 2). The Ἀσκληπιάδαι were a well-recognised sect or college of physicians, with schools in Cyrene, Rhodes, Cos and Cnidos. See Günther in Iwan Müller's Handbuch V 1 p. 103, and Hug on Symp. 186 E.

καὶ μάλ̓ -- ὀνόματα: ‘Yes, indeed, these are truly’ etc. Glauco does not reply to οὐκ αἰσχρὸν δοκεῖ, but simply corroborates what Socrates has said about the new medical terminology. This is simpler than to place (with Schneider) a colon after ἔφη, and take καὶ μάλα with αἰσχρόν. The asyndeton on Schneider's view is too harsh, and would almost require the insertion of καί before ὡς, or (if ὡς ἀληθῶς were taken as ὡς ἀληθῶς αἰσχρόν) before καινά; neither of which alternatives is satisfying. For similar inexactness in replies see V 465 E note

E 27 οἱ ὑεῖς -- ἐπετίμησαν. In themselves these words can only mean that Machaon and Podalirius (the two chief army doctors to the Greek host, Il. XI 833) found no fault with the damsel who gave the wounded Eurypylus an inflammatory potion, or with Patroclus, who was curing him, for directing or permitting her to do so. In our Homer, however, the potion is given, not to Eurypylus but to the wounded Machaon, by Hecamede, Nestor's slave (Il. XI 624); and this is correctly related in Ion 538 B. The inconsistency led Ast to suspect the genuineness both of Εὐρυπύλῳ—see however 408 A—and of οὐδὲ Πατρόκλῳ τῷ ἰωμένῳ; but there can be little doubt that the text is sound. We must suppose either that Plato is confused, or else that in his text of Homer such a potion was administered, not only to the wounded Machaon (as in the Ion l.c.), but also to the wounded Eurupylus, with Patroclus' sanction. The first alternative is possible, and approved by Howes (Harvard Studies etc. VI p. 198): but as it is clear from the Ion— if the Ion is genuine—that Plato was familiar with the story of Machaon's treatment, I think it more likely that Plato's Homer related a similar incident in connexion with the treatment of Eurypylus also. For the healing of Eurypylus see Il. XI 844 ff., XV 394.