Response to The Role of Love in Ancient Greek Medicine
As a greater scientific understanding of the human body was achieved in Greek society, it remained clouded by previous beliefs of a divine nature. Laura Efron does a very nice job of illustrating the integration of Greek scientific observations and their religious beliefs of the same phenomena. In the medical texts examined by Laura love is used to heal the ailments of women. However, in many plays of the time and in day-to-day life, love is portrayed as a sickness. This idea of love as a force that brings on illness can also be seen in Roman society, through Cleopatra’s actions in the "Makers of Rome: Nine Lives By Plutarch."
In the tragedy Hippolytus by Euripides we see that love can be a destroying force, taking on the qualities of an illness. In this play the character Phaedra falls in love with Hippolytus; leaving Phaedra victim to the degenerative qualities of love. Because of this affliction Phaedra withers away as if dying from some horrible disease, "But see how ill she is, and how her body is wracked and wasted!" (L.272-273) Love in this case does not take on healing powers described in the medical texts; in fact it is the illness.
Cleopatra demonstrates the Roman belief of love’s destructive powers through her actions in "Makers of Rome" by Plutarch. In one passage describing her seduction of Mark Antony she adopts the symptoms of love.
So she pretended to be consumed with the most passionate love for Antony, adopted a rigorous diet, and succeeded in making her body waste away. Whenever Antony came near her she would fix her eyes on him with a look of rapture, and whenever he left she would appear to languish and be on the verge of collapse.
Makers of Rome p.320
While she was only feigning love in this passage, we can assume that the effects of love described were an occurrence that Romans would receive without question. In Roman society love was also seen as a force capable of bringing on physical illness, with serious negative affects on the body.
This is side of love is very different from the "healing" powers seen in the medical texts. In both Greek and Roman society love was seen as a powerful force with very destructive tendencies. Love wasn’t viewed by the public as a healing power as the authors of the Greek medical texts believed it to be. Rather it was commonly portrayed as a dangerous force with serious physical repercussions.