Eudaimonia and the corruption of excess

"Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments." - Plato

In the case of drinking to excess, this change could result in the loss of virtue and well-being or, as the Greek philosophers termed it, Eudaimonia. Plato believed that individuals naturally feel unhappiness when they do something they know and acknowledge to be wrong.

Plato's student, Aristotle, agreed that although the pursuit of virtue, excellence, and the best within us was necessary to achieve eudaimonia, virtue in itself was not sufficient alone.  

"Aristotle believes that happiness and well-being come from how we live our lives,"   explains psychologist Catherine Moore, "And that's not in pursuit of material wealth, power, or honor."

Aristotle expounds upon ways to achieve the happy life in his work "Nichomacean Ethics."

"To be honest, a lot of Nichomacean Ethics is about what happiness isn’t," Moore points out, "Satisfying appetites is akin to a “life suitable to beasts." The pursuit of political power, material wealth, even fun and leisure, he (Aristotle) saw as “laughable things”, inferior to “serious things."

"Instead, happiness is an ‘intermediate’, or a ‘golden mean’ between deficiency and excess. One example of virtue as a mean between two extremes is courage – as a virtue, it’s halfway between recklessness and cowardice."

“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.” – Aristotle, Nichomacean Ethics, Book I, Chapter 10

So, although Aristotle acknowledged  fate or luck does play a role in happiness, he believed an individual's disposition and talent could still be used to achieve it.

Which virtues does Plato value?  In his work "Republic" Plato describes a discussion among friends as to what a just republic would look like and four virtues are revealed:

Temperance (moderation) – or self-regulation, to avoid the vices and corruption caused by excess.

Courage (or fortitude) – to stand up for what we believe is right and good.

Justice – a social consciousness that plays a key part in maintaining societal order, and

Wisdom (practical wisdom, or prudence) – the pursuit of knowledge.

Again we see a reference to excess. These ideas were being exchanged at symposia of the 4th century BCE both in Greece and in the Greek colony of Magna Graecia in southern Italy. Plato, in his work "Gorgias", written about 380 BCE describes Magna Graecia as a place where discussion of the human soul abounded amid religious and philosophic speculation. Its proximity to and trade relations with Etruria would have also been a strong influence on Etruscan potters and may have served to inspire moralistic themes in art of the period. One possible example is a red-figured terracotta rhyton found in a tomb at Tarquinia.

"This unusual 4th century BCE vessel is composed of two mold-made faces set back to back: the upper one a bearded Greek warrior with curly hair and wearing a Corinthian helmet pushed up on top of his head, the lower one a caricature of a bearded man, perhaps a Syrian or Phoenician, with a broad nose, almond eyes, and thick, smiling lips." - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

As is characteristic of many Janiform representations, it may portray two contrasting aspects of a single individual - the friendly face of the Greek warrior rendered realistically that is transformed into a caricature of a belligerent barbarian once the guest overindulges - a subtle caution about the corruption of excess. I think the fact that the barbarian visage is rendered as a caricature points to the artist's metaphorical intent.

Read more about Eudaimonic Well-Being here: 

https://positivepsychology.com/eudaimonia/

Images:  Etruscan rhyton attributed to the Bruschi Group, Late 4th century BCE - Late Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, now in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, images courtesy of the museum.

Images:  Etruscan rhyton attributed to the Bruschi Group, Late 4th century BCE - Late Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, now in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, images courtesy of the museum.

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Aristophanes: Comedian or Social Agitator?

 Aristophanes, known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy was a comic playwright of ancient Athens and a poet of what has been called Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete.  Born in 446 BC, his works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively define the genre today. Aristophanes lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen, for example, in his buffoonish portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata.  His plays consistently espouse opposition to radical new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts (notably Euripides, whose influence on his own work however he once grudgingly acknowledged), in politics (especially the populist Cleon), and in philosophy/religion (where Socrates was the most obvious target). Such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him has led to contradictions.

 Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries. Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates.  

Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights.

Image: Terracotta amphoriskos (flask) in the form of a bird-man, late 5th century B.C.E., Greek Attic, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This extraordinary vase of a bird-man, of high technical quality, is unique among the examples of Attic black-glazed pottery known today. It almost certainly relates to Aristophanes' well-known comedy The Birds (first produced in 415/414 B.C.E.) and may represent the costume that would have been worn by members of the chorus in the fifth century B.C.E.

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Mythical origins of the game of knucklebones in the Mediterranean World

Beginning in 5000 BCE, the talus bones of hooved animals (also known as astragali) have been found in higher numbers than other bones and in contexts unrelated to food preparation in archaeological excavations.  Although the astragalus is not entirely symmetric, it is thought these bones were used like dice in games of chance.

Sophocles, in a written fragment of one of his works, ascribed the invention of knucklebones to the mythical figure Palamedes, who taught it to his Greek countrymen during the Trojan War. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones. 

Palamedes was the warrior Agamemnon sent to Ithaca to retrieve Odysseus, who had promised to defend the marriage of Helen and Menelaus. Odysseus did not want to honor his oath, so he plowed his fields with an ass and an ox both hitched to the same plow, so the beasts of different sizes caused the plow to pull chaotically. Palamedes guessed what was happening and put Odysseus' son, Telemachus, in front of the plow. Odysseus stopped working and revealed his sanity.

Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for ruining his attempt to stay out of the Trojan War. When Palamedes advised the Greeks to return home, Odysseus hid gold in his tent and wrote a fake letter purportedly from Priam. The letter was found and the Greeks accused him of being a traitor. Palamedes was stoned to death by Odysseus and Diomedes. According to other accounts, the two warriors drowned him during a fishing expedition. Still, another version relates that he was lured into a well in search of treasure, and then was crushed by stones. 

Although he is a major character in some accounts of the Trojan War, Palamedes is not mentioned in Homer's Iliad but Euripedes and other dramatists wrote plays about his fate. The Greek sophist, Gorgias, penned the "Defense of Palamedes", an oration dealing with issues of morality and political commitment in which he demonstrates how plausible arguments can cause doubt in the acceptance of conventional truths.  Later, the Roman poet Ovid discusses Palamedes' role in the Trojan War in his Metamorphoses and Palamedes' fate is also described in Virgil's Aeneid. 

However, both  Herodotus and Plato ascribe a foreign origin to the game. Plato, in Phaedrus, names the Egyptian god Thoth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, originated this game.

Two young women playing knucklebones Greek 330-300 BCE said to be from Capua, Italy that I photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Closeup of one of Two young women playing knucklebones Greek 330-300 BCE said to be from Capua, Italy that I photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Maidens Playing "Knucklebones" Greek Late 4th or early 3rd century BCE Terracotta that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The maidens are playing an ancient form of jacks, known as astragalus (knucklebones), a game in which five small animal bones were tossed into the air and caught on the back of the hand. The grouping of separate statuettes is almost unknown before Hellenistic times, when artists became fascinated both by the interaction of figures and by the challenge of representing complex poses, such as this crouching stance.

One of Two Boys Fighting Over a Game of Knucklebones 1st century CE Roman copy of 2nd century BCE original from Rome that I photographed photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Game piece of bone in the shape of a baboon, 332–30 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Animal ankle joints, anatomically termed astragals, were used as gaming pieces. The knucklebone itself might be carved, or astragal-shaped gaming pieces might be carved from other sources or materials. All were termed astragals, which were used like dice or jacks. 

Terracotta vase in the form of an astragal (knucklebone), ca. 460 B.C.E., Attributed to an artist recalling the Painter of London D 12, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Astragals were popular toys in antiquity. As each side of an astragal is distinctive, what mattered in a game was how the pieces fell. Such games of chance also acquired prophetic or erotic aspects. The poet Anacreon wrote about the astragals of Eros—the dice of Love. It is entirely appropriate that this large example is decorated with a lyre-playing Eros.

Carchemish orthostat at the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dick Osseman. This is one of a set of orthostats, that adorned the Royal Buttress in Carchemish in Gaziantep province. They are from the 8th century BC. The hieropglyphs at this scene bear the names of children of the Country-lord: Malitispa, Astitarhunza, Tarnitispa, Issikaritispa, Sikara, Halpawaki, Yahilatispa. These are two of three people holding knucklebones.

 

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Plato's neighbors

You will not easily discover more trustworthy characters than these your neighbors, and I counsel you to hold fast to these men by every righteous means, and regard this as a duty of no secondary importance. Plato.  Letter 6.323a

Image: Orestes and Pylades (San Ildefonso Group - sometimes referred to as Castor and Pollux), detail, 10 CE, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. 

"The San Ildefonso Group was discovered in Rome in 1623 and arrived at the palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso one hundred years later. This work shows Orestes and Pylades, legendary models of friendship, offering a sacrifice after having returned to Tauris. This act purified Orestes, freeing him from his divine punishment. Other authors identified these statues as the brothers Castor and Pollux. In modern times, the Roman portrait of Antinuous was added to the left torso. A creation of Augustan classicism, this group of sculptures is a superb reflection of that period’s eclecticism. The earliest reference to this group dates from 1623 at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome, where it belonged to Cardinal Massimi. Following the Cardinal’s death, the piece became a part of the collections of Christine of Sweden. It then entered the collection of the first Bourbon king of Spain, Felipe V (1683-1746)." - Museo Del Prado.

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Ancient Eugenics: Much more than just selective infanticide

A history resource article by Mary Harrsch © 2017

Recently, I received a review copy of a new release from Oxford University Press entitled "A Cabinet of Ancient Medical Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the Healing Arts of Greece and Rome by J. C. McKewon.  I had just enrolled in a new course on FutureLearn, "Health and Well-being in the Ancient World" so I thought the arrival of the Oxford text was quite well-timed.

As I began to read it, I came across a quote from Plato's Republic:

"Asclepius displayed his medical skill only for the benefit of those who were suffering from a specific disease but were otherwise healthy both in their constitution and in their manner of living.  Such people he cured with drugs and surgery, instructing them to carry on with their customary lifestyle....But when it came to people whose bodies were permeated with disease, he did not attempt to extend their useless lives...and have them producing children who would probably be just like them. Asclepius did not think that he should treat people whose habits rendered them incapable of living, since treating them did no good either for the patients themselves or for the state." - Plato, The Republic, 407.

I was astounded by this statement from such a revered Greek philosopher.  I am, of course, well aware of the practice of infanticide in the ancient world and have even written about it in my post "Widespread Roman infanticide not substantiated by Hambleden studies" back in 2011.

But I had no idea that ancient Greek philosophers like Plato had also advocated withholding medical care from those "permeated with disease" or who practiced unsavory habits!

So, I decided to research this phenomenon that I would describe as ancient eugenics further.  On JSTOR I found an essay written by Allen G. Roper, who would eventually become a faculty member of Oxford University, on this very topic.  In fact, Roper's essay was winner of the coveted Arnold Prize in 1913.

In his award-winning paper "Ancient Eugenics", Roper pointed out that eugenics in some form has been around since humans spread out across the earth.  He points out that early groups of humans probably disposed of deformed or weak newborns and, in times of famine, may have disposed of the injured, aged, and feeble minded to ensure food was provided to those most likely to survive.  He states that in extreme circumstances, even non-combatants (i.e. females and healthy children) may have been abandoned.  This may not have always been the case, however, as we have since recovered skeletons of prehistoric men indicating long-term care of individuals with fractured limbs.  But forensic archaeology was not yet widely used in 1913 when Roper's paper was published.

Roper says infanticide was used by many ancient civilizations to solve problems of societies dependent upon limited food and other resources.  The Minoans of Crete forbade celibacy to encourage population growth but were known to practice female infanticide. The Spartans' physical regimen for their youth coupled with laws regulating disposal of infirm offspring is one of the most documented.

Spartan King Menelaus supporting the slain Patroclus.
Roman copy of a Greek origiinal.  Photographed in Florence,
Italy by Mary Harrsch © 2005

"The Spartans were a small immigrant band, face to face with an extensive and powerful autochthonous population - a camp in the centre of a hostile country.  'We are few in the midst of many enemies' was the warning spoken by Brasidas (Thucidydes Iv. 126.) and this position of constant danger affected the problem in two ways.  There must be no falling birth-rate among the Spartans, no unchecked fertility among their subjects.

Three measures were employed to maintain the number of the Spartans: prevention of emigration, penalties for celibacy, and rewards for fertility.  The man with three children was to be excused the night watch, the man with four was to be immune from taxation.  A third measure known to the ancient world, the enfranchisement of aliens, though adopted at times under the ancient kings, was rendered impossible by the later exclusion of every foreigner from the land.  Avoidance of moral or physical corruption was set before preservation of numbers.  The alien is a disturbing element in any Eugenic scheme." - Allen G. Roper, Ancient Eugenics,

The problem of productivity of the lower classes (Helots) was apparently checked by the occasional indiscriminate and covert massacre of large numbers on the vague pretext of fear or suspicion.

"On one occasion more than 2,000 were slaughtered 'on account of their youth and great numbers.'" - Lycurgus XXXi. 25.

Sparta was proclaimed the only state in which the physical improvement of the race was undoubted, while chastity and refinement of both sexes remained unimpaired.

"It is easy to see," declared Xenophon, "that these measures with regard to child-bearing, opposed as they were to the customs of the rest of Greece, produced a race excelling in size and strength.  Not easily would one find people healthier or more physically useful than the Spartans." - Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians i.10; v.9.

The Spartans, however, were not the only culture focused on raising tall, strong warriors. The warrior society in Germania Transrhenane took a far different approach, though. Infanticide was repugnant to them.  Instead, they chose positive reinforcement to accomplish their goals of a more formidable warrior society.  They placed emphasis on stature and strength as traits for a suitable mate.  Early marriage was forbidden to ensure only properly mature females were child bearers and celibacy was encouraged to limit the number of children.  Polygamy was only allowed on a limited scale for the few of noble birth.

This strategy was apparently so effective that during the Year of the Four Emperors it was assumed that anyone of exceptional stature was a Vitellianist and a German.

Tacitus claims, though, that the Germans lacked moral strength because the children grew to manhood naked and uncared for with no distinction between master and slave.

Tacitus says they were incapable of enduring hardships.  "Their frames were huge but vigorous only for attack; their strength was great for sudden effort, but they could not endure wounds.  Their courage was the frenzy of the Berserk, not the disciplined valour of the Spartan hoplite." - Tacitus, Annals, ii. 14

So even the Romans still admired the warrior ethos of Sparta six centuries later!

Surprisingly, though, eugenics movements of the late 19th and early 20th century point to the philosophers of 5th century Athens as their founding fathers.

A fresco depicting Dido embracing Aeneas from the House
of the Citharist in Pompeii, Italy.  Image courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons.

The great Greek philosophers as far back as Socrates pondered strategies to ensure the human race would develop the most desirable traits.  They thought arranging matches between healthy, well-made, and attractive individuals were the first step.  But, Socrates pointed out that good stock is not everything and that both parents must be equally in their prime.  This maxim, however, proved at odds with the prevailing practice of marrying girls at the earliest possible age to older wealthy men to advance a family politically and socially.

"We seek well-bred rams and sheep and horses and one wishes to breed from these.  Yet a good man is willing to marry an evil wife, if she bring him wealth; nor does a woman refuse to marry an evil husband who is rich.  For men reverence money, and the good marry the evil, and the evil the good.  Wealth has confounded the race." - Stobaeus, Anthology, lxxxviii. 14

"The apparent anomalies which children present in not reproducing the qualities of their parents only serve to reveal the presence of particular conditions," warned Socrates, "and among those conditions must be included the changes which organism undergoes by reason of advancing age." - Socrates, Memorabilia, ii. 4.

The evils of age disparity were also themes addressed by Hesiod, Pythagoras, and Sappho.  Solon attempted to legislate it. Even famous physicians weighed in on the subject. Soranus said girls weren't ready for conception until their 15th year.  Rufus, who had at one time stated there was a threat of illness to girls who stayed virgins too long, later approved a maxim of Hesiod advising girls to marry at 18, admitting it was too late for girls of his own generation, though.

But, were these graybeards' admonitions enough to overcome aristocratic greed for wealth and power? Apparently not entirely neither in classical Greece nor later in the Roman world.

Once again I turned to JSTOR and found ancient marriage age has been studied using both literary sources and inscriptions on funerary monuments, predominantly Roman.

Ancient sources record that Octavia, the daughter of Claudius was married at the tender age of 11. Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero, married at 12, and Agricola's daughter married Tacitus at 13.

Were such marriages consummated?

Suetonius commented that for political reasons Augustus married a young girl who was "hardly nubile", and later, because of a quarrel, sent her back "still a virgin"...

The emperor Honorius successively married the two very young daughters of Stilicho for political reasons, and again the sources remark on the girls' preserved "virginity."

"Consummation was not required for legitimacy.  Roman law confirmed the legitimacy of a marriage with cohabitation without intercourse.  The prominent Roman jurist Ulpian (170-223 CE) opined "It is not intercourse but agreement (consensus) which makes a marriage." - M. K. Hopkins, The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage

But Hopkins points out that failure to consummate a marriage seemed to be unusual and thus commented upon in the ancient sources. So he explains scholars think most marriages were consummated immediately.

The pressure to marry young was also so great, the Romans had to introduce legislation to stipulate a legal marriage age of at least 12 for girls (14 for boys) as early as the reign of Augustus.  This legislation remained in force until 530 CE.

"The law relating to age of marriage was similar then to that category of Roman laws called leges imperfectae, that is, laws which neither threatened their violators with penalties nor invalidated their transgression.  The sole limitations placed on illegally early marriages was that none of the legal consequences of marriage followed until the girl was 12.  Nevertheless, even before then, these marriages could form the basis of inter-family alliances, since gifts from the husband to the girl were valid, while the dowry could be secured by a stipulation to pay. "  - M. K. Hopkins, The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage

During the second century CE, these laws were further reinforced by laws stipulating alimentary provisions by the state.  Hadrian said girls should receive state assistance until they were 14 and boys until 18.  During the reign of Marcus Aurelius girls were to be given assistance until they were 13 and boys until they were 15. Scholars assume these laws are based on the prevailing marriage ages.

Equestrian Statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius photographed at the Capitoline
Museum in Rome by Mary Harrsch © 2009

But what does archaeology tell us?  I took a FutureLearn course "Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier" last year and used a database of Roman inscriptions, many of them funerary monuments.  I wondered if funerary inscriptions could provide insight into actual recorded marriage ages of people other than the aristocracy.

I found there have been several studies of funerary inscriptions with this type of goal in mind.  As far back as 1896, A.G. Harkness researched what was known as the Corpus of Latin Inscriptions then available and discovered 171 funerary inscriptions provided either age at marriage or age at marriage could be calculated from age at death and length of marriage (Two additional inscriptions were rejected as outliers because they indicated a marriage age of 6 and 7).  Harkness concluded the average age at marriage of this sample of Roman females was 18.  But Hopkins points out that, in his opinion, this figure is too high.  Hopkins says there is no way to know if some of the later ages given were actually first marriages and not subsequent marriages.

Funerary Portrait of Balya Daughter of Yarkhai from Palmyra in Roman Syria 150-200 CE Limestone
Photographed at the Portland Art Museum by Mary Harrsch © 2012

"The average is only representative when there is an evenly distributed curve. Setting aside the great probability that the odd marriages at 56, 38, etc., are not first marriages, their inclusion in Harkness's calculation of the average, since they are isolated cases, leads to distortion. The figures are surely better summarized in the statement that over half of all the girls recorded in these inscriptions were married by the age of I5 (inclusive) or that the modal marriage age lay between 12 and 15." -  M. K. Hopkins, The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage

Hopkins also points out that the inscription sample may not be representative of the general population either. Harkness thought the inscriptions represented lower to middle-class individuals since the majority were commissioned by ex-slaves (freedman) but Hopkins disagrees.

"The minimum cost of a stone inscription was about IOO sesterces, which might have equaled three months' wages for an artisan. Even allowing for the existence of guilds which would defray funeral costs, the cost precludes adequate representation of the lower classes." -  M. K. Hopkins, The Age of Roman Girls at Marriage

Another bias that may have affected study results is the possibility that very young wives who died very young (probably in childbirth) may not have been commemorated at all.  This issue is raised in a similar study of Roman funerary monuments evaluated by Walter Scheidel in his paper "Roman Funerary Commemoration and the Age at First Marriage" published in October 2007 in the journal Classical Phiology.

Scheidel's paper deals mostly with a theory put forth in 1987 known as the Saller-Shaw Hypothesis in which age-specific shifts in the identity of funerary commemorators serve as proxy evidence for changes in marital status.  In other words, epitaphs erected by parents rather than spouses served to indicate the unmarried status of the deceased.  Using this hypothesis, Saller and Shaw came up with a marriage age of 20 for Roman women and 30 for Roman men (which would have been much more amenable to physicians and philosophers!).  However, as I read that paper, I became convinced that making an assumption like that was fraught with too many variables to prove the theory convincingly despite all of the computer models produced in the effort.  Perhaps a woman was widowed and had not remarried so her pater familias paid for her funerary monument.  Perhaps the couple had suffered a financial setback right before the death so the woman's parents paid for the monument or perhaps both husband and wife died due to pestilence and one of the deceased's parents paid for their monument  I did notice, though, that way back in 1965 even Hopkins had pointed out, as collaborating evidence to Harkness' study, that there was a sharp drop in the parents' memorials to daughters aged 15 to 19 and an even more precipitous drop after the age of 19.

So far most of our discussion has focused on Roman wives.  Remember, Socrates said both parents needed to be in their prime.  What about the men?

Hopkins records one study in which a collection of 86 pagan and 90 Christian funerary inscriptions revealed the modal age at marriage was 17 to 20 (36 percent) for pagan men  The modal age at marriage was  20 to 23 (26 percent) for Christian men. Hopkins points out that the mode is misleading, though, since men's marriages were much more evenly distributed and cover a wider age-span than girls' ages at marriage. Hopkins says the overall average age was 26 for pagan men and 27 for Christian men.  The median was 24 for pagans and 26 for Christians.

From my viewpoint, this marriage age for men was much younger than I expected (thinking of such aristocratic marriages as Julius Caesar's daughter marrying Pompey the Great who was even older than her father). However, these memorials were not those of aristocrats so that may be the mitigating element.

Moving on from marriage age, there were other considerations Greek philosophers thought important in the improvement of the human race as well.

Roper points out that the 5th-century thinkers were also obsessed with the relative influence of nature and nurture.  A number of philosophers from Zopyrus to Aristotle ascribed to the tenants of physiognomy, the assessment of a person's character or personality from his or her outer appearance, especially the face.

"It is possible to infer character from features, if it is granted that the body and the soul are changed together by the natural affections: I say "natural", for though perhaps by learning music a man has made some change in his soul, this is not one of those affections natural to us; rather I refer to passions and desires when I speak of natural emotions. If then this were granted and also that for each change there is a corresponding sign, and we could state the affection and sign proper to each kind of animal, we shall be able to infer character from features." - Aristotle, Prior Analytics 2.27 (Trans. A.J. Jenkinson)

In fact, the first systematic physiognomic treatise to survive to the present day is Physiognomonica, attributed to Aristotle but now thought to be a product of his school rather than the philosopher himself.

These theorists sought to influence potential mates to prioritize physical comeliness as well as such attributes as stature, physical proportion, and strength.  Fifth-century Greek scholar, Stobaeus, encapsulates this idea in a simple quote, "If thou art unpleasing to look upon, thy character is like to thy form."

Diogenes by John William Waterhouse, 1882.

Even the often recalcitrant Diogenes admonished his fellow Greeks, "The wise man will marry for the sake of children, associating with the most comely."  (Hmmm... I wonder if he was able to find a comely woman to live in that barrel with him?)

Both Socrates and Plato, though, cautioned parents that looks weren't everything and both moral and physical training was essential to building an outstanding character.

"Leave him untrained, and he will become, not merely evil, but degenerate beyond hope of reclaim." - Plato, The Republic

However, Roper says the Greeks, except in the dramatic conception of an ancestral curse, or in the inherited pollution of ancient sacrilege, never traced causes back beyond the immediate progenitors. If the Romans adopted their ideas about eugenics from the Greeks, however, I would take issue with this conclusion.  The Romans placed much value on ancestry that included many consuls.  This would indicate to me that the qualities of offspring are viewed as the product of multiple superior generations.

Aesclepius (Aesculapius) with the head of Homer.
Photographed at the Palazzo Altemps venue of the
National Museum of Rome in Rome, Italy by
Mary Harrsch © 2009

So far we have examined ancient eugenics from the viewpoint of controlling marriage and, if all else fails, resorting to infanticide to eliminate weak or deformed offspring.  However, Plato extended this purification of society to aged and infirm adults as well.  In his treatise, The Republic, Plato said the chronically ill should be left to die because "he is incapacitated from fulfilling his appointed task and will beget children in all probability as diseased as himself if his miserable existence is protracted by the physician's skill."  Plato extends this advice to even wealthy individuals saying "It is no part of the physician's task to pamper a luxurious valetudinarianism (someone who is obsessed with their poor health) claiming the art of Asclepius is only for those who are suffering from a specific complaint.

In addition to those suffering from constitutional ill-health, Plato would also condemn the victims of self-indulgence.  Plato points out that there is no place in his Republic for the "unkempt" man glorying in a pedigree of congenital ailment. Plato said a moral degenerate is not only an encumbrance to society but an active force for evil; "therefore, like the lower desires of the soul which cannot be tamed to service under the higher self, his growth must be stopped."

A mosaic depicting Plato and his students at his Academy from the House of
T. Siminius Stephanus Pompeii 1st century CE.  Photographed at the National
Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy by Mary Harrsch © 2007

Plato also proposed segregation of the mentally ill and expulsion of the pauper.

"The madman is not to be seen in the city, but the responsibility rests upon the relatives, not upon the state.  If they fail in their duty, the law will punish them." - Plato, "Laws"

Plato felt that mental or physical defects should bar the individual's right to marry and beggars should be driven away.

"In a properly constituted state the righteous man will not be allowed to starve; there is no excuse for the beggar. If such a one be found, he shall be driven out of the marketplace, out of the city, out of the land, that the state may be purged of such a creature," - Plato, "Laws".

I'm sure modern advocates for the homeless would be appalled.

So, it appears the ancient philosophers were not as benign as I had always imagined.

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