The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends, and Myths by William Hansen

Author:William Hansen [Hansen, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781400884674
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017-02-13T22:00:00+00:00

138. THE ASTUTE PHYSICIAN

It seems to me that this is the Stratonike whose own stepson fell in love with her. He was found out through the astuteness of his physician.

When the unfortunate condition took hold of the youth, he was at a loss how to deal with a malady that seemed to him disgraceful, and quietly took sick. He lay in bed with no pain, but his skin color changed and his body wasted away day by day.

The doctor, seeing that the youth’s illness had no obvious cause, recognized the sickness as love. The signs of covert love are many: sickly eyes, voice, skin color, and tears. Perceiving these, he did as follows. He placed his right hand on the young man’s heart and sent for each member of the household. As each person entered, the youth was wholly at ease, until his stepmother arrived, whereupon he changed hue, began sweating and trembling, and his heart pounded. These symptoms made his love apparent to the physician, who healed the youth in the following way.

He summoned the youth’s father, who was in a state of dread, and said, “This illness that the boy is suffering from is not an illness but a wrongful action. He feels no pain but rather is in the grips of love and madness. What he desires is impossible to obtain: he loves my wife, whom I will not give up.” This was the physician’s clever lie.

The father immediately started beseeching him, “In the name of wisdom and the medical arts, don’t let my son perish. He finds himself in this plight not of his own volition, since his illness is involuntary. Don’t make the whole kingdom grieve because you are a jealous man, and as a physician don’t bring murder to the medical arts.” In his ignorance the father entreated him in this manner.

The physician responded, “What you are seeking so eagerly is unholy—using your power against a medical man and depriving me of my marriage. Since you ask this of me, what would you do if the boy were in love with your wife?” To this question the king said he would not make an exception even of his own wife or begrudge his son his life, even if what the young man desired were his own stepmother. For the misfortune of losing a spouse was not the same as losing a son. When the physician heard this, he said, “Why beg me, then? For the fact is that the young man is yearning for your wife. Everything I’ve been telling you was false.”

The father, following the physician’s advice, handed over his wife and his kingdom to his son. He himself went to Babylonia, where he founded a city on the Euphrates that he named after himself. There he met his end.

That is how the physician recognized and healed love.

Lucian

The scandalous love of Antiochos for his stepmother Stratonike, wife of King Seleukos I, is based upon historical fact. King Seleukos did yield his wife Stratonike

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