The presocratics and the supernatural: magic, philosophy and science in early Greece

290 Pages·2015·17.241 MB·English

by  T.;T. Clark.;Gregory, Andrew

The Presocratics and the Supernatural

The Presocratics and
the Supernatural
Magic, Philosophy and
Science in Early Greece
Andrew Gregory
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2013
© Andrew Gregory, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Andrew Gregory has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or
the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4725-0416-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
For Sheelagh, with love

Contents
Abbreviations viii
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Plato and Aristotle 23
3 The Milesian Philosophers 43
4 The Hippocratic On the Sacred Disease 69
5 The Hippocratic On Regimen 85
6 Xenophanes and Others: More Natural Explanation 101
7 Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans 127
8 The Early Pythagoreans and Numerology 149
9 Empedocles 167
10 Leucippus and Democritus 185
11 Conclusion 199
Notes 207
Bibliography 249
Index Locorum 267
Index of Names 272
General Index 275
Abbreviations
KRS G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd
edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LSJ H. G. Liddle, R. Scott and R. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 9th edn, 1996.
Preface
This book is about the supposed presocratic rejection of the supernatural. I say
supposed as the widespread view that a group of ancient Greek thinkers between the
sixth and fourth centuries bce rejected the supernatural has been subjected to consid-
erable recent criticism. This book is a contribution to that debate. As such it looks at
aspects of presocratic philosophy, religious belief and magical belief. It attempts to
treat the issues broadly, by going beyond the canon of presocratic philosophers to look
at some medical writers, historians and playwrights as well. This book makes no claim
to be comprehensive on these issues (such a work would be many volumes) but I do
hope to address the most important and interesting examples.
I have transliterated Greek terms, using circumflexes to mark long vowels (ê, ô)
to keep the book as accessible as possible for those with little or no Greek. All Greek
and Latin passages are translated and are my own translations except where otherwise
indicated.
I would like to thank everyone I have discussed aspects of this book with and to
audiences at the annual London Ancient Science Conference where I have presented
some of the material here. I would especially like to thank Simon Trepanier, Leonid
Zhmud and Phillip Horky who all sent me interesting material that they are working
on prior to publication.
I would also like to thank Deborah Blake who first commissioned the book for
Duckworth, as well as Charlotte Loveridge and Dhara Patel at Bloomsbury who have
been enormously helpful and efficient in getting this book to press. Finally I would like
to thank Bloomsbury’s anonymous referee who made many useful comments.
This book was written while I was on sabbatical leave from the Department of
Science and Technology Studies at University College London. I am grateful for
a small grant from the Department which paid for two postgraduates, Claudio
Ehrenfeld and Michael Coxhead, to compile the indices.