Political Nosology in Aristophanes’s Wasps

In my paper, I explore how Aristophanes uses Hippocratic imagery in his Wasps for political critique. Rather than any politician, Philocleon’s affliction of jury-mania itself stars as the antagonist, setting the stage for other medical subject matter in the comedy. Wasps alludes in particular to the Hippocratic theory that internal disease results from a confluence of factors (such as bodily constitution and environment), rather than a single agent, and that its symptoms manifest gradually, but often in surprising ways. By thematizing these ideas from contemporary medicine, Aristophanes suggests that Athenian corruption is multifaceted, complex, and lacking a definitive aetiology.