Aristotle on Philoctetes’ Snake? Hom. Il. 2.721–725 and Ael. NA 4.57

Abstract

Abstract Ael. NA 4.57 describes what Aristotle is supposed to have said about the effects of the bite of a water-snake (ὕδρος) on a human being. This chapter has generally been considered a fragment from a lost work of Aristotle on animals, though the possibility that it came from a lost medical work is in the present essay also suggested. In any case, by considering the content of NA 4.57 in the context of discussion by ancient Homeric scholars of the snake that bit Philoctetes – concerning what kind of snake it is, and what were the effects of its bite – this essay attempts to show that NA 4.57 may provide evidence for commentary by Aristotle, in his lost Homeric Puzzles, on Hom. Il. 2.721–725, the passage on Philoctetes in the Catalogue of Ships.