Why was Plato doubted?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
January 21, 2003
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In Pliny's twenty-fifth volume, The Nature of Wild Plants, he wrote, "Hemlock is poisonous and has a bad reputation because the Athenian state employed it for inflicting capital punishment. Persons who have drunk hemlock begin to grow cold at their extremities." (John F. Healy translation, 1991) The most famous case happened almost five hundred years before Pliny wrote Natural History (first century CE). It was the death of
Socrates.
Socrates' execution has been a source of debate. The symptoms described by Plato in the Phaedo, do not fit typical poisoning by toxic members of the Apiaceae. After drinking the draught of hemlock, Socrates walked about until "his legs began to fail". The attendant "pressed his foot hard", Socrates' feet, legs, and groin had lost sensation. When the cold feeling reached his heart, Socrates died. (Phaedo, The Jowett Translations, 1977)
Through the experience, Socrates never lost consciousness or cognitive abilities. According to Finley Ellingwood, water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata, a close relative) causes "disturbance of intellect...nausea, vertigo, violent convulsions, furious delirium, loss of sight, hearing and speech, rolling of the eye-balls...universal chills, rose-colored spots..." (The American Materia Medica, Finley Ellingwood, M.D., 1919)
Philosophers have debated that Plato lied about how Socrates died and even that Socrates never existed--based on the conflicting descriptions of Apiaceae poisoning symptoms. Most modern medical experience with 'hemlock' poisoning has been accidental poisonings with species related to Conium maculatum. The medical assumption is that all toxic members of the Apiaceae (many are called hemlocks) share the same toxins. But Conium maculatum contains a piperidine alkaloid, coniine.
Enid Bloch reports that during the 1800s, John Harley poisoned himself with hemlock. Conium maculatum produced the symptoms Plato described. ("Hemlock Poisoning and the Death of Socrates")
Two of Socrates' students, Xenophon (historian) and Plato (philosopher), have provided much of our knowledge of the ancient world. Plato wrote of his teacher, "...of all the men of his time I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best."
Enid Bloch (SUNY, Buffalo) has done an in-depth study of Conium maculatum and the philosophic debate of Socrates' death. To read this fascinating work, "Hemlock Poisoning and the Death of Socrates: Did Plato Tell the Truth?", click on the link:
http://www.ex.ac.uk/plato/bloch.htm
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Who were the lotus-eaters? What's in a Name? - August 30, 2002
What did the beautiful opium poppy give and take away? Herbal Folklore - August 20, 2001
What jessamine caused many deaths? Herbal Folklore - February 23, 2004
Why was hemlock used on children? Herbal Folklore - January 20, 2003
What was urtication? Herbal Folklore - June 16, 2003
What was a pain-killer of last resort? Herbal Folklore - October 14, 2002
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