Typhoid Fever In The Peloponnesian War

In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians are struck with a horrible plague, which is most likely typhoid fever. The symptoms are terrible; people experience “...burning feelings in the head...[bleeding] inside their mouths...attacks of ineffectual retching...[and] small pustules and ulcers.” The disease is so contagious that whoever comes into contact with the sick dies soon after. Family members who try to help each other almost certainly end up dead alongside each other. They learn that being honorable and visiting the sick is pointless. People begin to dissolve their family bonds so as not to become attached to the sick. They burn their dead in funeral pyres with no respect for their bodies (HPW 2.49-53). The plague teaches them that their feelings towards others are dangerous; and so they, as a culture, become withdrawn from each other. …show more content…
The first example of this spiral is during the Mytilenian Debate, when Cleon, a demagogue, and Diodotus, an opposer of Cleon’s ideals, square off against each other. The debate is over whether or not the Athenians should kill the Mytileneans, who are revolting against Athens. Cleon wants to kill every man in Mytilene and enslave the women and children, whereas Diodotus wants to only kill the revolt’s leaders and allow the people to return to a normal life. Cleon insists that the Athenians should “Punish [the Mytileneans] as they deserve, and make an example of them to [other] allies, plainly showing that revolt will be punished by death” (HPW 3.40). He has rallied the Athenians around him with this opinion, yet they end up siding with Diodotus, who says Cleon’s idea can be likened to murder. Despite this, the fact that Cleon was able to sway them in the direction of killing thousands of men in the first place, some of which were innocent, shows the lack of a strong moral code amongst the